The Virginia Tech Hokies are making their final preparations for the Belk Bowl while also taking part in many of the unique festivities that come with playing in a bowl game including getting to go around Charlotte Motor Speedway in a NASCAR stock car. However, today's stop at Charlotte Motor Speedway did lead to some important news being broke.
https://twitter.com/AndyBitterVT/status/813407887183777793
Starting DE Vinny Mihota and reserve RB Shai McKenzie will both be unable to play in the Belk Bowl. Both of the injury issues are slightly out of the blue since there had been no formal report on how seriously Mihota was hurt during the ACC Championship while McKenzie disputed that he was hurt. Mihota's injury isn't that surprising though given how he had to go out of the ACC Championship game twice due to what looked to be shoulder injuries.
Mihota is a big loss for Virginia Tech as their DE depth had been a concern and now is a bigger concern with Trevon Hill now being pushed into a starter role across from Ken Ekanem with Bud Foster also telling the media previously that Hill will have offseason surgery. The Hokies will also need guys like Seth Dooley and Houshun Gaines to step up in this game as they both will receive some limited reps in this game.
McKenzie having an arm in a sling and being out for the Belk Bowl due to an injury is another weird twist in the story that we mentioned above with him claiming to the media via Twitter that he wasn't injured, which clearly doesn't look to be the case. Either way, it also seems like McKenzie's future may be away from Blacksburg after tweeting what he tweeted out while also being someone that will likely have to go elsewhere if he wants to touch the field again at the collegiate level.
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