Arkansas releases statement after accidentally snubbing Virginia Tech from coaches poll
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Virginia Tech (9-4, 6-2) wrapped up a rather successful regular season under first-year coach Justin Fuente, beating quality teams such as North Carolina and Pittsburgh on its way to appearing in the ACC Championship Game against Clemson this past weekend.
The Hokies lost a tough one there, 42-35 in a strong effort against the College Football Playoff’s No. 2 seed, ultimately sending them to the Belk Bowl for a fun matchup against Arkansas on Dec. 29.
Arkansas coach Bret Bielema, who likely respects the heck out of a program like VT, by coincidence mistakenly left his next opponent off the weekly coaches poll. Arkansas said neither its communications director nor Bielema knew about the mistake until the coach was asked about it Sunday in a news conference.
In response, the Hogs PR department quickly made sure to clear up the error with a statement:
“When submitting Head Football Coach Bret Bielema’s top 25 poll this morning, our Communications Director inadvertently omitted Virginia Tech from Coach Bielema’s ballot. After watching last night’s ACC Championship Game, Coach Bielema indicated he wanted to move Virginia Tech up from its No. 17 position in the poll he submitted last week into the top 15 this week. Neither our Communications Director or Coach Bielema were aware of the oversight until tonight’s press conference. Coach Bielema takes great pride in being part of the coaches’ poll and thoroughly goes over the national results every week before developing his vote. The Arkansas Razorbacks sincerely apologize to the Virginia Tech football program and the coaches’ poll for the mistake in submitting that vote this week.”
Arkansas (7-5, 3-5) will look to obtain back-to-back eight-win seasons for the first time since 2010-11.
Tyler Waddell is a member of the Saturday Down South news team. He brings over five years of professional journalism experience and is closing in on a Bachelor's in sports management. Follow him on Twitter (@Tyler_Waddell).
