Normally jovial during interviews, Virginia Tech running backs coach Billy Hite spoke in hushed tones tonight about Darren Evans’ season-ending knee injury. Evans had just torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee—a big blow to a Tech offense that many figured would make great strides from last season.

This is the second major injury in Hite’s group since midway through last season, when Kenny Lewis Jr. tore his Achilles tendon, and Hite struggled to make sense of it all—as did Evans’ girlfriend and the mother of his son, Taneesha Lange, whom Hite said was “a basket case” last night.

“It’s a damn shame,” Hite said. “It really is. Two great kids. You can’t find two better kids than those two kids. You really can’t. This game’s crazy sometimes. It really is. I’ll never be able to figure it out. I can tell you that right now.”

Now, there are questions that have to figure themselves out ...

1. I’m going to stay away from one that many of you have been asking: Should Tech’s training staff have waited longer to bring Evans back to practice? My medical knowledge is on par with that of Dr. Who. (For those of you about to judge my television-viewing habits, know that I have never actually seen this show but happened to catch parts of it a few times when I was younger because my dad enjoyed it for some reason.)

2. How will Hite divide the backfield’s carries? Before Evans’ injury, this was pertinent because many of us wondered how the Hokies would use the three talented guys behind Evans—Josh Oglesby, Ryan Williams and David Wilson—when Evans was good enough to carry the load all by himself last season. Why take away carries from a player who has looked so impressive?

One reason: Hite wanted to give Evans more breaks than he got last year, when he carried 287 times. Dating back to 1952, no Tech tailback had carried that many times in a season except Cyrus Lawrence, who carried 325 times in 1981. He carried 271 times the year before and 177 in ‘79.

Lawrence’s senior season, 1982, was cut short by a knee injury. Whatever professional career Lawrence might have had was essentially over. Hite still blames himself for overworking Lawrence and has said many times over the years that he never wanted to do that to a back again.

Hite spoke excitedly on Saturday, Tech’s media day, about the prospects for his multi-back rotation. But he knew it would be hard to split carries among four players. “Somebody’s gonna get slighted,” he said. “There’s no question about it.”

Now that Hite’s three backs are unproven, at least in terms of playing regularly in a college game, the discussion about splitting carries revolves around this question: How can Hite use those carries to determine which of the three can be most effective? And how will Hite mix them in? Will the carries split be more even between the top two or three backs than they would have been if Evans was in there? You’d think so, but we’ll have to see.

As I wrote a story off media day on David Wilson—who was fourth on the depth chart at the time but has moved up to third after Evans’ injury—I found myself wondering, This kid seems awfully talented, but are there enough carries for him in that backfield? He still must battle for time, but there is little doubt that he is going to play this season.

3. What does the future hold for Evans? This much we know: He redshirted as a freshman, so he’ll be a junior when he returns next season. But what about his pro future? Evans has said he eventually wants to use his NFL paycheck to help support his family, which includes Lange and their son, James, who turns 3 in November.

Fortunately for Evans, he has more time than Lawrence did to recover from his injury before auditioning for the NFL. (Evans is eligible for the draft after this season, his third in college, so who knows what would have happened if he had another great year?)

Plus, knee surgeries are more advanced than they were 27 years ago. “With surgeries today, that knee will be stronger and better than it was before he hurt it,” Hite said. “I really believe that. And I believe he’s that kind of competitor, he’ll make sure it gets that way.”

Examining where it leaves Virginia Tech and Evans.