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As he walked down the long corridor within
the cold bowels of Bank of America Stadium
to meet with the media for one final time, his
face relayed a million different emotions all
seemingly at once.
Ken Ekanem looked elated, sad, exhausted
and shocked roughly 45 minutes after Virginia
Tech’s historic rally in the 2016 Belk Bowl held
in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“It’s just very crazy,” he said. “Part ofmewill
remember this for a lifetime, just the way we
recovered from being down 24-0 at halftime
to the way we captured the momentum at the
start of the second half. The defense played
lights out. I think we jumpstarted the offense
into playing really well, and everything was
clicking on all cylinders.
“It was a really wild game. It was a tale of
two halves, really.”
On a blustery evening in the Queen City,
Ekanem and the Hokies were crowned
champions of the Belk Bowl after doing
the unimaginable, scoring 35 unanswered
points in the second half to record a 35-24
exhilarating victory over Arkansas.
When Virginia Tech’s quarterback, Jerod
Evans, took a knee to wind off the final
seconds of the clock, those dressed in orange
and maroon in the stands starting chanting,
“ACC, ACC.” Moments later, head coach
Justin Fuente accepted the champion’s crystal
trophy, and even he, too, seemed a little
surprised at what had transpired.
With the win, the Hokies finished the
season with a 10-4 record, recording at least
10 wins for the first time since 2011 and for
the 14th time in program history. The Hokies
also won their third straight bowl game for the
first time in school history, and the 24-point
comeback is believed to be the biggest in
school history.
“I’m awfully proud to coach this group of
kids,” Fuente said. “Our senior leadership, I’ve
talked about since day 1. I can’t say enough good
things about those kids. I think it’s fitting that,
at least it’s my understanding, it’s the biggest
comeback in Virginia Tech history. I think that
senior class, being able to pull that off, is awfully
fitting because of the character they have and
the discipline and the work ethic.”
Tech appeared shell-shocked after fumbling
on the first play of the game and played that
way for much of the first 30 minutes. Two
turnovers led to 10 Arkansas points, the
Hokies’ offense failed to sustain drives when
not turning the ball over, and Tech’s defense
struggled to stop the Razorbacks. Joey Slye’s
48-yard field-goal attempt drifted right on
the half’s final play, capping an ugly first 30
minutes in which Tech trailed 24-0.
“I didn’t say anything revolutionary—I
don’t think,” Fuente said. “But I do believe
that our guys were upset with how they played.
I don’t want to take away anything from how
Arkansas played. They played really well. The
only way to do anything about it is to go out
there and take one step at a time—and they
did that.”
The first step started with a big play from
backup whip linebacker Anthony Shegog,
who entered the game with just 16 tackles
all season. The redshirt junior jarred the
ball loose from Arkansas’ Drew Morgan, and
the Hokies’ Woody Baron recovered at the
Arkansas 30. Three plays later, Evans got the
Hokies on the board, scoring on a 4-yard run
to cut the Razorback lead to 24-7.
Tech forced three other turnovers in
the second half—and all led to Hokie
touchdowns. Shegog played a role in three
of the four turnovers. He forced the first one,
and then toward the end of the third quarter,
he intercepted a pass that led to a 3-yard
touchdown pass from Evans to Sam Rogers
that cut the Arkansas lead to 24-14.
A Tremaine Edmunds interception led to
a 5-yard touchdown pass from Evans to tight
end Chris Cunningham, slicing the lead to
24-21 with 4 minutes left in the third quarter.
The Hokies’ longest drive of the game, a 76-
yard march, ended with a Travon McMillian
touchdown run that gave the Hokies their first
lead, 28-24, with 12:03 remaining.
Then Shegog got involved again. He
recovered a Terrell Edmunds fumble at the
Arkansas 8 after Edmunds had intercepted
Arkansas quarterback Brandon Allen. That led
to a 1-yard run by Evans with 6:41 left to give
the Hokies a 35-24 lead.
“I think it changed the game completely,”
Shegog said of the turnovers. “Just like in the
first half, when we had that first turnover on
offense, that gave all the momentum to them.
In the second half, we had like, what, three
straight turnovers? That helped significantly.”
Shegog finished with six tackles, including
one for a loss, a sack, an interception, a forced
fumble and a fumble recovery. He easily could
Behind a defense that forced four second-half turnovers
and an opportunistic offense, the Hokies rallied from a
24-0 halftime deficit to beat Arkansas 35-24 and win the
Belk Bowl—the program’s third straight bowl win
by
Jimmy Robertson
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