One of the toughest things in sports is when an athlete still has a passion for the game yet is forced into retirement due to an injury or medical issue that is outside of that player's control. Unfortunately, one Virginia Tech football player's career is over due to medical reasons.
https://twitter.com/AndyBitterVT/status/879339122250444801
According to Andy Bitter of the Roanoke Times, Virginia Tech guard Billy Ray Mitchell has taken a medical disqualification, ending his football career in Blacksburg. Mitchell will be able to continue his studies on scholarship at VT, but that scholarship will not count against the NCAA limit of 85.
Mitchell played in 3 games over the past 2 seasons against Furman in 2015, and against Boston College and East Carolina in 2016; all 3 of which came at Lane Stadium. Mitchell hadn't broken into the Hokies' two-deep yet though any time you lose an offensive lineman is tough given how coaches like to tons of depth along the line.
Mitchell's departure does open up a scholarship that VT may not have been expecting to become available until recently. There is a possibility that the Hokies could look to the JUCO ranks to add an offensive lineman that can come in and immediately break into the two-deep as Mitchell could have possibly done either this fall or in 2018.
Stay up with The Tech Lunch Pail for the latest on the Hokies via Facebook and Twitter plus subscribe to our email updates.
You must login in order to comment on this post.