Donaldven Manning still with the team, won’t travel to BC
Freshman cornerback Donaldven Manning remains a member of the Virginia Tech football team after meeting with head coach Frank Beamer on Wednesday afternoon, but he will not travel with the team to the Boston College game Saturday, the school said in a release.
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Rumors swirled Tuesday that the Miami native was no longer with the team. He was not at practice yesterday afternoon and had a meeting with Beamer to talk about his future with the program.
A second meeting took place Wednesday, before Virginia Tech released a vague statement about Manning’s status.
“I expect Donaldven to learn from this and to have success at Virginia Tech,” Beamer said in the release, although there was no mention of what “this” was in reference to.
Virginia Tech director of football operations John Ballein confirmed in an e-mail that it was not a suspension situation for Manning, who was expected to return to practice Wednesday evening. He simply is not on the travel roster this week.
A true freshman from Miami who enrolled last January, Manning played in seven games and registered four tackles this year, with one interception.
Manning was arrested in May and charged, among other things, with possession of marijuana, although it was later dropped. The case was finalized in July, when he was found guilty of misidentifying himself to a police officer, a misdemeanor. He was given a 60-day suspended sentence and received one year of probation, although the timing of that ruling suggests it is not directly related to today’s news.
Without Manning, the Hokies’ secondary is extremely thin going to Boston College. Sophomore walk-on Carl Jackson has worked with the second team in Manning’s absence behind Antone Exum. With starter Kyle Fuller sitting out of practice early this week because of various injuries, true freshman Donovan Riley has seen an increase in practice reps with the first team.
November 14, 2012 - 3:33 PM
Glad to see he stuck with the team. I hope he was able to resolve his problems and continues to grow as a player. He will be a very good corner in a few years.
“Donaldven Manning, you are grounded!”
That’s pretty much the punishment that Beamer is meting out. Whatever he did to get himself in the doghouse, it must not had been that serious, but just enough for Beamer to give him a “swat” on the backside.
Seriously, though, I just hope it serves as a wake-up call for him. He gave fans some glimpse in his skills, and I hope that he learns to respect the rules.
Playing football at Virginia Tech is a privilege, not a right, and I hope he take that to heart.
Just realized, or was reminded, that Brett Bielema at Wisconsin fired his O line coach a couple games into the season and they have been on a roll ever since. Hmmmm…….take note Frank, change is not alway (or even usually) bad. You are either getting better or worse nobody stays the same!