Hurricanes, Hokies need wins for bowl eligibility
For the fourth time in the last five years, neither Miami nor Virginia Tech will be ranked when they meet Saturday afternoon in an Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal matchup in Blacksburg.
But they do have something in common. Both the Hurricanes (5-5, 2-4 ACC) and the Hokies (4-5, 3-3 ACC), who have met 13 times with both ranked and 14 other times with at least one in the Top 25 in thei35 meetings, have yet to reach the six-win level needed for postseason eligibility approaching the final two weeks of the regular season.
If they lose to the Hokies, the Hurricanes will get another shot at bowl eligibility in the final weekend of the season when they host current division leader Pittsburgh. But the Hokies need to win both of their remaining games to assure themselves of a 26th consecutive bowl appearance.
Their game with East Carolina on Sept.15 was cancelled because of the threat of Hurricane Florence and no makeup game has been scheduled. East Carolina now has scheduled a makeup game with North Carolina State on Dec. 1.
Neither team could have expected to be in this position when the season began. Miami was ranked No. 8 in the preseason media poll, Virginia Tech 20th.
Their game in the next-to-last weekend of the regular season was viewed more as a matchup for the division title, not a bowl qualifier.
Unsteady quarterback play is seen as the No. 1 cause for Miami’s downfall, though the Hurricanes may finally have come up with an answer based on redshirt freshman N’Kosi Perry’s play in last week’s 27-21 loss to Georgia Tech.
In his first start since Oct. 13 at Virginia, Perry was 14-of-23 passing for 165 yards and didn’t have an interception against the Yellow Jackets. He didn’t throw a touchdown pass but did take the Hurricanes 95 yards on 15 plays to pull them to within six points with 6:43 remaining in the game.
But the defense never got the ball back as the Yellow Jackets converted three first downs to run out the clock. Coach Mark Richt said he saw a different Perry from the one he yanked from the game after two series at Virginia.
Perry did not play at Boston College the next week after the loss to Cavaliers and relieved starter Malik Rosier in the loss to Duke before regaining the starting role against Georgia Tech.
“He did a lot of good things,” Richt said. “And the thing I liked the best, truthfully — well, there were a lot of things I liked — I just liked now he threw the ball with confidence. There were some really fine, big-league kind of throws that he made.
“He made the right decisions for the most part in going to the right guy with the ball. I can think of only one time that he missed a situation that he had that he missed. But I liked his demeanor during the game.”
Perry is still learning, Richt said.
“I think he is turning the corner,” Richt said. “I don’t think he has turned the corner, but he’s turning it.”
