Virginia Tech's Jerod Evans making waves in country's deepest QB conference
Lamar Jackson's veritable stranglehold on the Heisman Trophy race has given the ACC a poster boy, but while he's the conference's most prolific QB, the Louisville passer isn't its steadiest hand.
That would be Virginia Tech's Jerod Evans.
In a 37-16 win over Miami on Thursday night, the junior college transfer continued to show why he's the leader in a league that boasts a nation's best eight of FBS' top 50 in pass efficiency -- and in the process helped the Hokies stay very much in the mix in the ACC Coastal Division.
Evans threw for 259 yards and two touchdowns on 21 of 33 passing against the Hurricanes' 14th-ranked defense, and ran for 98 yards, capped by a keeper on a read option he took 34 yards for a score.
It was a must-win for Virginia Tech's division hopes as it entered the Miami game trailing North Carolina by a half game. The Hokies hold the tiebreaker, having beaten the Tar Heels 34-3 on Oct. 8.
The victory, which pushed the Hokies to 5-2 and 3-1 in the ACC, was the fifth time this season that Evans has posted a rating of 149.6 or higher. He's at 167.2 on the season, sitting seventh in FBS and topping a group that includes North Carolina's Mitch Trubisky (12th), Jackson (13th), Miami's Brad Kaaya (24th), Pitt's Nathan Peterman (26th), Clemson's Deshaun Watson (37th), Florida State's Deondre Francois (41st) and NC State's Ryan Finley (46th).
Add in Notre Dame's Deshaun Kizer (35th), and the ACC has two more than the second-best Power 5 conference, the Big 12, which has seven such players.
Evans, who joined the Hokies via Trinity Valley Community College in Texas and beat out fifth-year senior Brenden Motley and true freshman Josh Jackson for the job under new coach Justin Fuente, has 22 touchdowns on the season -- 19 throwing and three rushing. In throwing for 1,611 yards in the up-tempo scheme he's also underscoring that efficiency by being tied for 15th in FBS in yards per attempt at 8.8, 0.4 behind Jackson, the league's leader.
To be fair, the Hurricanes have struggled to contain any of the ACC's passers amid a three-game losing streak, and Mark Richt's crew looks like its running out of gas after breaking into the Top 10.
Francois threw for 234 yards and two scores and added 21 more yards on the ground in the Seminoles' 20-19 win over the Hurricanes on Oct. 8, and Trubisky got to Miami for 299 yards and two scores, along with 47 rushing yards in a 20-13 victory a week later. But behind Evans, the Hokies racked up 523 yards of offense, 116 more than Francois and Florida State, and 62 more than what Trubisky's Tar Heels go to this Miami defense for.
For a Hurricanes unit that entered October ranked second in FBS, allowing a paltry 217.3 yards per game, Evans and Co. got to them like no one else has.
The Hokies are under pressure as they navigate a schedule that still includes Pitt and Duke on the road, Georgia Tech and the finale vs. rival Virginia. That's due to that 31-17 upset at the hands of Syracuse last weekend.
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In that loss, Evans threw for a career-high 307 yards, but he threw 13 incompletions on 33 attempts and had two turnovers, including a late fumble and a red-zone interceptions.
That setback left questions as to who these Hokies really are: the team that dominated North Carolina 34-3 amid three straight victories in which it outscored opponents 137-20, or the turnover-plagued group from the first two weeks that seemingly resurfaced in the Carrier Dome?
The Hokies and their QB answered that query, with a resounding performance in prime time to control their destiny yet again in the Coastal.
Follow Cory McCartney on Twitter @coryjmccartney and Facebook. His book, 'Tales from the Atlanta Braves Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Braves Stories Ever Told,' is out now, and 'The Heisman Trophy: The Story of an American Icon and Its Winners' will be released Nov. 22, 2016.
