By Jimmy Robertson
After a difficult 47-14 loss to Pittsburgh on Saturday, a tired, beat-up Virginia Tech football team is ready for a much-needed week off that happens to coincide with the Thanksgiving holiday.
Tech coach Justin Fuente said at his weekly video news conference Monday that the Hokies will take off Monday, practice Tuesday and Wednesday, and then take the next two days off before reporting back Saturday and beginning game-week preparations on Sunday. Fuente and his staff plan on spending the two days working with younger players and those who participate mostly on the scout teams.
"We need to get those guys some reps and our guys that have played a bunch of reps healthy and feeling better," Fuente said. "And we need to hit recharge a little bit. It's been a long process here from the middle of July when we started really practicing all the way to now, playing games every single week and finally getting ready to take a little breath here. It's been as long a stretch as I can ever remember and obviously it's been a revolving door of personnel – coaches and players and all that sort of stuff."
The Hokies have lost three consecutive games and four of their past five heading into the season's final three weeks. The loss at Pittsburgh left them at 4-5 overall on the season, with games against Clemson and Virginia remaining.
On Monday, Fuente and his staff planned on spending the entire day looking at every single play from the past nine games. He wanted his staff to submit a report at the end of the day that discussed what the Hokies had been doing well, areas that needed improving, things that had giving them problems, and so forth. The staff was slated to meet Monday evening to discuss goals for the Tuesday and Wednesday practices.
"I think the biggest thing I see is this is the hardest year ever to improve," Fuente said. "It's been the hardest year to have a team improve. You have no foundation – and this is for everybody; we're no different than anybody else – non-traditional offseason, no spring ball, fall camp was less than ideal to say the least in terms of what we were dealing with, particularly after the students came back, guys in and out, the season, there has been no bye week, [and] our bye week is not till now. It's just been very difficult for us to take time to try and improve and now you're to the point where the older players have played too much to go out there and really get after it, in my opinion. The younger guys need those opportunities.
"So we'll take a good, thorough look at everything that's going on and report back and have a good meeting about it tonight and set some clear goals that we're trying to accomplish on Tuesday and Wednesday. We don't go out to practice if we don't have things that we're aspiring to accomplish and go about it on Tuesday and Wednesday."
Here are some other takeaways from Monday's news conference:
• Some coaches might have kept their players on campus or in town if the team's bye week fell over a holiday, but Fuente refused to do that. Tech's players incur some risk of contracting COVID-19 during their travels home for Thanksgiving, but Fuente wasn't about to keep the players from their families.
"We all understand what we're dealing with," Fuente said. "These kids have already sacrificed a tremendous amount. I'm not sure anybody knows, unless you're on the inside, what these kids have been through. I'm going to encourage them to understand the importance of what they do, how they act, and what they're around, but I'm not going to force them to stay here or to go home. They understand what we're dealing with. In my mind, they've sacrificed plenty. They deserve an opportunity, if they're within the region and can do it safety, to go home."
• Fuente did not sound overly optimistic about a return to action for standout cornerback Jermaine Waller, who missed his second consecutive game with an injury and has played in just two games this season. Waller's absence probably has hurt the Hokies more than any other player simply because of his talent level. When he plays, he stabilizes a secondary that has been in disarray nearly all season, and he gives defensive coordinator Justin Hamilton flexibility within his schemes.
"I don't know if he'll be able to come back or not," Fuente said. "He's working hard and diligently to get his body feeling better. I just don't know. The door is still open. I don't know if he'll be able to go or not."
• Speaking of injuries, Fuente hopes that left tackle Christian Darrisaw returns to action for the Clemson game. Darrisaw made the trip to Pittsburgh, but wasn't able to play.
"He wanted to go on the trip and warm up and see how he felt, and that's what he did," Fuente said. "He just wasn't able to go, and he hadn't practiced all week either. We'll see how all that goes with a little bit of rest and heading into next week. He'll obviously be a guy that won't do much this week."
Luke Tenuta switched over to left tackle against Pittsburgh, while Silas Dzansi received the start at right tackle. The start marked the third of the season for Dzansi, who also started the North Carolina and Boston College games.
"Silas had one play that stood out to me that I didn't much like that he knows that he kind of messed up," Fuente said. "It was early in the game, but he was effective and did a good job. Luke's in there battling. I'm proud of those guys. It'll be nice to get Doug [Nester] back because, if we are short a guy at tackle, he's a guy that's played out there some."