By Jimmy Robertson
BLACKSBURG – Hendon Hooker wasn't perfect in his first start as a college quarterback, but he excelled in two areas to help Virginia Tech knock off Miami on Saturday night.
He kept his composure, and he took care of the ball. And those two traits often lead to victories.
Tech head coach Justin Fuente echoed those same thoughts when talking about Hooker's performance at a news conference Monday morning. Hooker, who had played in just nine games during the previous two seasons and had attempted just two passes prior to Saturday, played like an experienced signal caller, completing 10 of 20 for 184 yards and three touchdowns and also rushing for 76 yards and a score.
The redshirt sophomore from Greensboro, North Carolina opened some eyes Saturday evening. But more importantly, he earned a lot of respect in the Hokies' locker room and among the coaching staff.
"The thing I appreciate about Hendon, one of the many things I should say, is just his continued dedication to getting better," Fuente said. "He had a great summer. I know we talk about that, 'So and so had a good summer,' [and] all that sort of stuff, but I'm talking about extra work. Hendon put in a tremendous amount of work in his own free time to try and improve. I think it's really important to him. I've just seen him take huge strides, and we've still got a lot of work to do – he's played in one game. He was able to have success in the game last week not because of how he practiced last week, but because of how he's worked over the last several years.
"Again, I've kind of referenced this before with some of the other players, but it's really nice for us because we're behind the scenes with these guys all the time, and we see the effort and the work that they put in. It's nice to see them get to reap the benefits of that. Has he improved in terms of overall understanding and what's going on, on the other side? Yes, and he's put a lot of work into making those strides."
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Hooker displayed a veteran's poise on the Hokies' final drive. Miami had tied the game at 35, rallying from a 28 point deficit, but the Hokies went on a 63-yard march. On the first play of the drive, Hooker made his best throw of the day – a 29-yard pass to Damon Hazelton that got the Hokies going. Then he converted on a third-and-5, tossing a 26-yard pass to Dalton Keene for a first-and-goal at the 3. Deshawn McClease scored what would be the winning touchdown.
Hooker never looked rattled on the drive. His teammates said he was pretty much the same way on that drive as he was throughout the game.
"I think the first thing is just his overall demeanor," Fuente said of Hooker's intangibles. "His ability to stay focused on the next play, to continue to try and execute whatever we're asking him to do regardless of circumstance. There was a time in there where [Miami] had a whole bunch of momentum, and the game was tight or tied. There was plenty of opportunity for a young guy to panic or press, and he did not take those opportunities. He stayed focused and continued to try and execute, and I think it's pretty hard to try and teach somebody how to do that."
Fuente wants Hooker to improve his accuracy going forward – no quarterback wants a 50 percent completion percentage. But Fuente quickly pointed out that Hooker threw the ball away on a screen, two passes were simply dropped, and a pass interference could have been called on another.
"I know he missed a couple of throws, but he didn't miss 15 and he certainly didn't miss 10," Fuente said. "The challenge for him now is can we make those plays as he gets more comfortable and starts to handle the different looks from week-to-week and the third down pressures and that sort of stuff?
"One of the biggest plays of the game I thought was third-and-long – [Deshawn] McClease's run for a first down early – kind of got [Miami] out of their pressure looks because that stuff is a pain now, which gave Hendon a little bit easier looks as the game went on. I know I'm giving you a really long answer, but he certainly had some things he could do better, but also was pretty judicious in his decision making. I thought he was going the right place with the ball. He never seemed rattled, and all in all, played pretty efficiently."
Here are some other notes from Monday's news conference:
REPLICATING LAST WEEK'S INTENSITY
Following the loss to Duke, Tech ratcheted up the intensity in practices, starting with a Sunday practice that featured more contact and full-speed drills than normal. The strategy certainly looked to have paid off Saturday, as the Hokies appeared to be the tougher team on both sides of the ball in the final few minutes, and Fuente plans to continue the same approach with his practice schedule.
"We're not going back," he said. "Our team is not going back to practicing laid back or any of that. I'm going to go coach – and I've told our team this – we've got to get mentally, physically, and emotionally tougher. We've got to learn how to practice. Tuesday, we're going to roll out there, and it better look the same as last Tuesday. It's my job to get it done."
BIG DAY FROM OSCAR
Tech punter Oscar Bradburn averaged 50.4 yards per punt on seven punts Saturday, and he currently leads the ACC in punting with a 48.4 yards per punt average. He also shares the league lead with 13 punts of 50 yards or more.
"First of all, the two things that I think of with Oscar, one is he is a competitive individual," Fuente said. "You don't often think of it maybe when you think of punters that way – probably not fair. But he is into the game, he's into competition, [and] he's into improvement.
"The other thing is he's made large gains in the weight room. I think his leg has strengthened over the last year and a half or so, and he's becoming a weapon for us. He's taken a lot of pride in that. We're going to face good returners – we faced a really good returner last week. We'll continue to face good returners as we go through the season. Not getting caught up in the numbers, but getting the ball up in the air is going to be important, and that's hard sometimes for players to think about. But giving us a chance to cover the kick without a return because of the hang time is going to be important."
ARTIS TO REDSHIRT – HOPEFULLY
The news came out last week that Tech planned to have mike linebacker Keshon Artis take a redshirt season. Artis played in 11 games as a true freshman in 2018 and had played in all four games this fall leading into the Miami game, so he still possesses the ability to take a redshirt season. The move makes sense, too, because the Hokies feature a talented group right now at two linebacker spots – starters Rayshard Ashby and Dax Hollifield and rapidly emerging Alan Tisdale.
But Monday, Fuente tapped the brakes a little on the Artis redshirting discussion.
"That's what we would like to do, but to be quite honest, I don't know if we'll be able to do that with Keshon," he said. "There's a lot of football left to be played, and we'd like to try to do that if we can, but that's not taking into account a lot of things that could happen down the road.
"We have a number of guys that I don't know if they're exactly in Keshon's place – most are younger guys. We're trying to manage that number for them and save them for the last four games when we may be thinner, or find ways to alternate those guys through. Keshon is the one we've had the most conversation with to try to do that. You don't have to have a very big imagination to foresee a scenario where we may not be able to do that."
