The Virginia Tech football team went through practice this week with a severely depleted roster again in preparation for its final nonconference game of the regular season against Marshall on Saturday afternoon in Huntington, W.Va.
Among the starters certain to be out is ailing strong safety Nasir Peoples, who has already missed the past two games. The absence of the redshirt senior captain and 2021 honorable mention all-ACC selection places a significant strain on the Hokies’ secondary given it might be missing its starting free safety as well, with Jalen Stroman also nursing an unspecified injury and listed as questionable.
Hokies Coach Brent Pry did disclose during his weekly news conference Tuesday that strongside linebacker Keonta Jenkins is moving closer to full health and may be able to play an entire game after being limited to three snaps in this past Saturday’s 35-16 loss on the road to Rutgers, which pulled away with 14 points in the fourth quarter.
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Jenkins, a senior two-year starter, is listed as probable.
The front seven is expected to have back linebacker Alan Tisdale, a redshirt senior who missed the Rutgers game with an undisclosed injury.
“With each one of these guys that are injured, you have to get enough work to feel like you can go play and play well, but you don’t want to have a setback,” Pry said. “You want to continue the recovery and feeling better and better each day, so there’s a lot of planning that goes into that. It’s a lot of discussions in what that practice needs to look like, how many reps, how much full-speed work, all those things.”
The offense isn’t in much better shape on the health front, beginning at quarterback.
Starter Grant Wells missed this past weekend’s game but might have been available as the emergency backup, Pry said. The redshirt senior has been on the mend with a sore ankle, pressing Kyron Drones into the starting job against Rutgers. Drones went 19 for 32 for 190 yards and threw for one touchdown and one interception. He also carried 22 times for 74 yards.
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Drones has played in every game this season, per the plan Pry has in place for the redshirt sophomore transfer from Baylor to develop a comfort level with the playbook. Both he and Wells are listed first on the depth chart, but Pry did not specify which player would start Saturday.
Wells does have a bit of extra incentive to play this weekend. The native of Charleston, W.Va., transferred to Virginia Tech (1-2) before last season following three years as the starter at Marshall (2-1), where Wells was named Conference USA freshman of the year in 2020 and to the all-conference first team. Wells is the only freshman quarterback in Conference USA history to be selected to the first team.
“I think his progress was slow last week,” Pry said of Wells. “I was hoping he’d be an emergency guy for the game. I don’t know that he really was. That was going to be a tough one but, you know, we’re going to continue to work and treat him and rehab him. He’s definitely feeling better, but until we get out there and see what you can do moving around, you just don’t know.”
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The Hokies’ wide receiver corps is facing injuries, too. Starter Ali Jennings, a transfer from Old Dominion, is set to miss a second straight game with a sore ankle, and slot receiver Jaylin Lane continues to nurse a lower-body ailment. The transfer from Middle Tennessee State was hurt early in the second half against Purdue two weeks ago and did not play this past weekend.
Lane is listed first on the three-deep depth chart, and Pry indicated he has a “much better shot” at playing against the Thundering Herd than he did against Rutgers. The senior leads Virginia Tech in receiving yards (123) this season and is tied for first in receptions (nine) and touchdowns (two).
“It’s challenging, you know,” Pry said. “That’s all of us. That’s myself, the position coach, the trainers. That’s Jaylin. You kind of go Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and you know, Fridays, we’re fast Fridays, so our guys are running around on Friday. It’s another good day for us to evaluate.”
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