BLACKSBURG, Va. — Bhayshul Tuten rushed for a school record 266 yards and accounted for four touchdowns to lead Virginia Tech a 42-21 victory over Boston College on Thursday night.
Kyron Drones added two rushing touchdowns and a touchdown pass for the Hokies (4-3, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), who scored touchdowns on their first three possessions and never trailed en route to a second consecutive win.
Tuten carried the ball 18 times and also scored on touchdown runs of 83 and 61 yards, the latter coming with 8:28 left to seal the game. In addition, he hauled in a 20-yard touchdown pass from Drones.
“Every game is a special game,” Tuten said. “That’s how I look at it. I just felt a little better today. We had a bye week. I felt great throughout practice. I took the knee brace off (for a sore knee). I felt fast, I felt good, I felt fluid. I just came out and balled today, and that’s what we needed.”
Boston College (4-3, 1-2 ACC), which trailed 28-0 at halftime, cut the lead to 28-21 on Kye Robichaux‘s 5-yard run with 2:55 left in the third quarter and were driving early in the fourth. But Robichaux was stopped on fourth-and-1 at midfield, and Virginia Tech capitalized on the ensuing possession, with Tuten scoring on a 6-yard run with 11:02 left for a 35-21 lead.
“That’s a good team that we beat tonight,” Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry said. “And we beat them soundly.”
Tuten’s 266 rushing yards broke the pervious school record of 253 held by Darren Evans, who set the mark against Maryland in 2008. Virginia Tech’s coaching staff had taken Tuten out of the game but found out how close he was to the record and inserted him back in to break it. Tuten set the mark with a 17-yard run on the Hokies’ final drive.
“I normally don’t like that, but a school record at a place like Tech with so many great running backs, and he was deserving with his performance,” Pry said.
Tuten is the third Hokies player over the past 25 seasons with 200 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns, joining Kevin Jones (2003) and Michael Vick (2000), according to ESPN Research.
Drones, who scored on runs 11 yards and 1 yard on the Hokies’ first two possessions, completed 14 of 18 for 164 yards and rushed for 40 yards. Behind Tuten and Drones, the Hokies finished with a season-high 533 yards.
Thomas Castellanos threw for 205 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Eagles, who finished with 372 yards.
“I felt really good about the preparation for the game,” Boston College coach Bill O’Brien said. “Obviously, I was wrong. We’ve got to prepare differently, better, whatever it might be. We’ve got to figure it out. … We’ve got to coach better. We’ve got a good coaching staff. We do. We have a lot of experience. But we didn’t play well tonight, so that’s on the coaching. We’ve got to coach better and hopefully we’ll get it turned around.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.