Darrisaw played hurt and then had surgery after the season

The very closed nature of the program is a little ridiculous when it comes to important injuries to important players -- stuff like BB missing several games because of a broken foot (that we found out about well after the fact), Farley having back surgery after the 2019 season, Darrisaw playing through injury and then having surgery after the season.

I know people use the "injuries" reasoning to defend still-otherwise-underperforming teams all the time, but at least being upfront about some things will lead to better communication and foster some good will towards the program/this staff....



Transparency and trust are important to building a program with long term success. If you want fans to donate, they need to know the big picture. I wouldn't invest in a company before knowing the facts.

Or you could win multiple natty's, be secretive like Bellichick and nobody bats an eye. When you are a .500 coach AND secretive, it's met with criticism

Darrishaw is one of the best lineman at tech all time. Long time starter, and was a rock for many years. Good luck in the future, and please fall to 19 so Washington can draft you. Awesome player

I would never wish the Snyderskins upon any of the Hokies.

Sincerely, a recovering Redskins / WFT fan.



WFT has been good to our former Hokies. I'm also hoping for 1 of Deablo/Herbert to go along with Darrisaw

Watch out, the snyderskins are getting ready to field a real football team. Rivera is building the WFT into a tough, competitive team. It has been a long time coming. They won this year with a QB with one leg. One receiver/TE, one LB, one OL and fill a few back up gaps through the draft, and this team will roll.

I see the takes that this is another data point on our staff closing the team off to the fans, etc. (which I agree with for the most part) but this seems more an indication that Darrisaw WANTED it that way and the team/staff obliged him. It helped his draft stock to just work though it and get it fixed quietly without fanfare and drama.
I don't see an issue here, just a hard working, no complaining type of guy going about his business and maneuvering through the PR aspects of it the way he wanted it. The team and coaches helped him accomplish that - I bet he appreciated that a lot, and the rest of the team sees how that relationship went as well.

I see this as a kudos to our staff.

Pain is Temporary, Chicks Dig Scars
Glory is Forever, Let's Go Hokies!!

I agree with this. It should be at the players discretion if possible


I'm not so worried about the lack of transparency regarding injury as I am the *number* of serious injuries to our top line players.

Seems that VT has an inordinate number of guys who go off to the NFL and can't make it because of medical issues, like every RB we've ever produced?

Hokies United l Ut Prosim

Except Tony Page.....he had a 9 year NFL career. That's an eternity for a running back.


Tough to say if VT is really an outlier here, or if we just have spotlight syndrome. Without seeing data to suggest otherwise, I'd assume it's the latter.

Twitter me

I seem to remember talk of him playing through an injury late in the season, but I don't have a source. If he is playing, I don't know what else you want. Every bruise or sore muscle isn't going to show up on the injury report. I agree with most frustrations about closing off the program, but I do not criticize staff for keeping injuries quiet.


I assume before every game that Tre Turner, whomever the starting QB is and our best corner are "hurt"

Sadly, you ain't wrong. To add though, late in the season half of every roster is "hurt". Gotta overcome the wear and tear and that starts with having bodies that are more likely to withstand the rigor. Obviously nothing against Darrisaw specifically.


Sad, but true

I don't think this is a team transparency issue - this stuff probably happens all the time with every team. Guys get hurt. Different people are capable of playing through different injuries. Some people need surgery ASAP. Not everyone is going to be Greg Nosal losing part of his finger and not missing snaps (or tell everyone about it.)

I agree. This alone would not be an issue, but when you combine it with all the other secrecy Fuente insists on, it makes it a program issue IMO.

remember when damon hazelton evidently only had one functioning shoulder and we ran him out there to return punts? or when Josh Jackson was in a boot after one game (Miami) and then couldn't step into any throws the whole rest of the year? just a big time slow trickle of "oh yeah he was pretty hurt" after the fact year after year


Shows you how poor the depth has been. If a player is injured, he shouldn't play. But at VT, they are still better than the backups when injured. That's the bigger issue. Darrisaw was still better than his backup playing hurt.

I mean, most non-blue bloods are lucky to have depth. And if non-blue bloods have a first round player then its really surprising that a back up is even close.

Well when Hooker supposedly can't lift his arm past his shoulder and is still playing, that is poor depth. Blue blood or not. We hear this after the fact of course as an excuse to why we can't beat bad teams.

Or poor....
...strength and conditioning
...talent development

Or just plain stupidity.

TKPhi Damn Proud
BSME 2009

Hilgart is our worst coach, by a lot. He is a total clown out of his league.

Curious as to why you think this or know it to be true? I remember thinking Gentry was too old and his old ways and techniques were getting the kids hurt too much. Then when he left Hilgart comes in and it's pretty much the same story. That tells me something else must be going on with injuries. I remember thinking we had too many injuries way back into the Beamer days.

We get pushed around by 6-6 BC and Pitt. Every year. We can't get off blocks against UNC. We fight for yards against Bronco's 2 star players. He sucks. I use the eye test. We aren't physical, we constantly have guys injured and the way we pick up short yardage is to try to outnumber people. Duke comes into Lane stadium an whips us physically. Watch the games

Thanks for moving the goalposts. I'm talking about injuries and Gentry vs. Hilgart. Read the words!

Darrisaw was still better than most of his NCAA peers playing hurt....

Beast mode to play the way he does with a torn groin muscle. Best of luck when you don the Silver and Black tomorrow night!

“I served in the United States Navy"

I don't see any problem whatsoever in VT not publicly sharing information regarding injuries. So, you want to let the opposition know that our best lineman is battling a core injury so they can attack and run stunts on him all game long? Perhaps do something deliberately to hurt him further and take him out of the game? That makes absolutely no sense. Sports teams are deliberately vague on player injuries all the time, particularly with contact sports (hockey, football, etc.), and they do so primarily to protect the player and improve their chances of winning the game.

Plus, the injury obviously did not keep Darrisaw from playing at an All-ACC caliber level and all the way into the first round of the draft. Being the warrior he is, he wanted to play, and I would guess the medical staff checked him out and determined he was fit to play. Perhaps he injured it further in post-season workouts, we don't know.

But, to start jumping to conclusions and assessing blame on the coaches over this, a freaking tweet that sounds like it was meant to be a positive for Darrisaw? C'mon, the negativity on this site is getting beyond ridiculous.


This. And, HIPAA is a thing...

Pain is Temporary, Chicks Dig Scars
Glory is Forever, Let's Go Hokies!!

In this case I believe the law that applies is FERPA and not HIPAA. Either way IMO your argument doesn't carry much weight because we hear about some injuries and not all. Are they selectively choosing when and when not to break the law?

I don't know the law

I also barely know the anecdotal evidence we have

But I would think that if a player is playing with an injury it's to everyone's benefit if that player's injury is concealed. If a player has such a major injury that ends their season, there's no harm in sharing that information. It seems the only injuries we hear about which aren't "after the fact" are the season ending variety. Injuries that only cause a player to miss a portion (or none) of the season seem to be the ones that we don't hear about until way later.

I think that Fuente is getting piled on here for something relatively trivial because his PR track record is questionable, at best. I do believe the man has a knack for making his job much more difficult for himself than it already is but I think whether or not to share injury info is largely out of his hands.

It's no secret that I'm not Fuente's biggest fan. I don't think he has done his job adequately and I don't like how un-fun the program has become under his direction. He's going to catch a lot of flack for stuff that really isn't his fault. But that comes with the territory. If he's winning 10 games a year we're not having this discussion. Simple as that.

It's always darkest before the dawn ~ Thomas Fuller

Yeah I get fans want more transparency from Fuente but I personally can't get worked up about his secrecy on this particular thing. The only thing I can say as a fan is it's frustrating seeing a player randomly regress and not really understand why, but I like the fact that opposing teams are confused too.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Jet Sweep

If Fuente would have let it slip that Darrisaw was injured lots of fans would say he is making excuses.

You're probably right. But because he's screwed up most (if not all) PR related things during his tenure, he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. That's on him.

Just give him the damn shot. - Coach Kilmer

Previously LowBrau.