Pepper On Sports

           

Not only will he not play against No. 13 Michigan in Tuesday’s BCS Sugar Bowl, but Virginia Tech spared little expense when sending its senior kicker Tyler Weiss home to Roanoke on a bus.  Yes, 833 miles on a bus.  OUCH.

What did the young fellow do to deserve a one-way ticket out of Crescent City? He was nowhere to be found when a coach came to his hotel room for 1:00 a.m. bed check Thursday morning. 

What exactly was Weiss doing in lieu of being tucked in on time?  We don’t know, but whatever it was clearly didn’t qualify as appropriate, otherwise I’m sure the coaches would’ve cut him some slack had he a legitimate excuse for missing curfew. 

Perhaps he wasn’t living it up on Bourbon Street, but I kind of hope he was, because whatever he was doing better have been worth missing the final game of his collegiate career.

As for the Hokies kicking game, this Weiss kid was the backup until being promoted last week when Cody Journell, the starting kicker was suspended following an arrest.  Why was Journell arrested you ask?  Only for a felony stemming from an alleged home invasion of a Hokie basketball player!

From roanoke.com, Journell and two others are, “accused of entering the house of Dorenzo Hudson and Sean Allen with a weapon [gun], with the intent to commit larceny, assault and battery, or another felony, according to warrants… the three showed up at Hudson and Allen’s residence last night because they said Allen [the resident] stole marijuana from Dunton [one of the three suspects],” according to the website’s reporting based on court testimony.

Clearly, the backup kicker Weiss, who missed the only field goal he attempted this season (a 29-yarder)  has nothing on Journell, either on the field or on a rap sheet.

Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer told the Associated Press, “My kickers are not bad guys. They just made bad decisions. And young people do that.”

Not sure if you qualify as a good guy after attempting an armed robbery inside someone’s home over drugs, but perhaps I’m just being judgmental. 

Anyway, the 11th-ranked (BCS) Hokies are now left with kickoff specialist Justin Myer to be responsible for putting points on the board.  Myer missed his only two attempts of the season, but they weren’t gimmes at 57 and 53 yards.  Coach Beamer told the AP that his punter Michael Branthover and a redshirt freshman Conor Goulding could earn a shot at the kicking gig during practices leading up to the big game.