Hafley Provides Injury Updates Ahead of Virginia Tech Game
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)Publisher
At one point Saturday versus Syracuse, Boston College was without its starting left tackle, middle linebacker—the team’s leading tackler—fourth-year starting corner, top tight end and, of course, its star quarterback.
Phil Jurkovec has been out practically the whole season, but the injury bug has continued to bite the Eagles. Second-year BC head coach Jeff Hafley provided some updates Tuesday.
He said he’s “hopeful” Isaiah Graham-Mobley will be able to play Friday night against Virginia Tech. Graham-Mobley started the first seven games and piled up 46 total tackles in the process, including 30 solos. He missed this past weekend’s game with an upper-body injury.
The sixth-year Temple transfer is the leader of the Eagles’ defense. Vinny DePalma stepped up in his absence at Syracuse and registered a career-high 11 total tackles, in addition to scooping up a Marcus Valdez strip sack fumble and returning it 21 yards.
Hafley noted that both Trae Barry and Brandon Sebastian are day-to-day. They had the same status last week after suffering lower-body injuries at Louisville, yet neither played in the Carrier Dome. Hafley said last week that Barry’s injury—which prevented him from putting any weight on his left leg as he was helped off the field—wasn’t as severe as he and the staff expected.
Barry is BC’s second-leading receiver this season. The 6-foot-6 tight end has hauled in 18 passes for 288 yards and three touchdowns. Sebastian, meanwhile, is the Eagles’ most experienced cornerback. He has three picks on the year, the last of which sidelined him in Cardinal Stadium.
Hafley said that wide receiver Kobay White, who has missed the last four games, is out with what “could possibly be” a season-ending injury to the same knee he had surgically repaired last year after he tore his ACL. Safety Deon Jones, who missed the first two outings of the season with a knee injury, but then came back for the Temple and Missouri games only to miss the last four contests is likely out for the year, Hafley said.
“We miss him,” Hafley said of Jones, a grad student who was fourth on the team in tackles last year after transferring from Maryland. “We miss him as a player, we miss him as a leader. I miss him as a person out there. Because he’s one of my favorite guys. He has not been able to go.
“And I’m not sure if he'll be able to return, unfortunately, for the season.”
There was no update on left tackle Tyler Vrabel Tuesday. The redshirt junior left last Saturday’s game with an upper-body injury. He also sustained a knee injury at Clemson that kept him out of BC’s primetime showdown with North Carolina State in mid-October.
Since the Missouri game, an injury-riddled Vrabel has yet to post a Pro Football Focus offensive grade above 63.9 while allowing two sacks and six pressures.
