ANNAPOLIS, Md. — On a day when short-handed Tulane needed to be perfect to give itself a good chance to win, that type of execution was virtually impossible at rain-soaked Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
The Green Wave scored two touchdowns as a result of Virginia Tech miscues, but it handed those points right back to the Hokies in its 41-20 Military Bowl defeat as the two teams combined for eight fumbles and five turnovers in a nearly constant downpour.
Kai Horton, subbing for opt-out quarterback Michael Pratt, fumbled on first and goal from the Virginia Tech 1. Dontae Fleming, replacing opt-out wide receiver Jha’Quan Jackson, muffed a punt that the Hokies recovered at the Wave 11. Running back Shedro Louis lost a ball that squirted away from a diving teammate, giving the ball to the Hokies at the Tulane 44.
The game got out of hand late in large part because Tulane recovered zero of its three fumbles, and Virginia Tech retained possession three of the five times it coughed up the ball.
“It got a little worse, obviously, in the second half, and we put the ball on the ground a couple of times,” Tulane interim coach Slade Nagle said. “I don’t know that necessarily the rain is what caused it. We just made a couple of mistakes you can’t do to beat a quality team.”
Virginia Tech’s first miscue resulted in linebacker Tyler Grubbs’ 21-yard touchdown return, and its second allowed Tulane to tie the score at 17-17 in the third quarter. But two other fumbles squirted out of bounds, and the Hokies managed to recover another one.
“Obviously, I need to do a better job of wet-ball work,” Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry said. “It wasn’t a lack of effort. It was tough conditions. You really can’t simulate it.”
The weather was an immense factor both ways, limiting Virginia Tech quarterback Kyron Drones to 91 yards passing on 21 passes, and Horton to 119 yards passing on 20 throws. Add in Justin Ibieta’s one pass attempt for Tulane, and both teams went 13 of 21 in the air while having to rely on their ground game for success.
The Hokies won that battle overwhelmingly, rushing for 362 yards to the Wave’s 133. As a direct effect, Virginia Tech converted 7 of 14 third downs and both of its fourth downs while limiting Tulane to two conversions in 10 third-down attempts.
Only one of the Hokies’ conversions was from more than 5 yards — a critical 12-yard completion on third and 11 that extended their go-ahead touchdown drive right before halftime.
“We were able to be in manageable situations,” Pry said. “We had positive plays on first down and second down, and we didn’t have many third and longs as we have had in some of our games. In that type of weather, converting on third down and fourth down is tricky, and we needed to do that to score those points.”
Tulane’s Makhi Hughes rushed for 88 yards on 15 carries, and Yulkeith Brown had five receptions for 63 yards plus two carries for 18 yards for Tulane. But missing its top three wideouts and Pratt, the American Athletic Conference offensive player of the year, Tulane had no one else with more than 21 yards receiving or rushing.
Still, the Wave wondered what might have been without the turnovers.
“There were just a lot of mistakes,” Hughes said. “In the second half, we talked about keeping our heads up and to keep moving. We didn’t give up. I was just blessed to be here and play with the seniors.”