After facing an almost seven-month suspension, Virginia Tech kicker Cody Journell found a little redemption Monday night in the Hokies' 20-17 overtime win over Georgia Tech. Journell made a 41-yard field goal as time expired to tie the game and made a 17-yard field goal in overtime for the win.

Journell was charged with felony breaking and entering in December when he and two others allegedly forced their way into the home of former Virginia Tech basketball player Dorenzo Hudson and his roommate. Virginia Tech’s policy requires any athlete facing a felony charge to be indefinitely suspended.

Journell, who has since said he would not talk about the incident, spent a week in jail and did not travel with the team to the Sugar Bowl. The Hokies lost 23-20 in overtime to Michigan, and his replacement, Justin Myer, missed a 37-yard field goal in overtime.

In May, Journell pled to a lesser charge, misdemeanor trespassing. Virginia Tech then reinstated him to the football team in July.

“I think he knows this is his family," coach Frank Beamer said. "And we’re all pulling for him and we don’t want him to mess up again. He’s not going to. He got a game ball in there, and he was very appreciative of this football team and coaches for hanging with him.”

Journell faced adversity on a smaller scale Monday night, missing a 38-yard field goal that would have tied the game with 11:27 to play. Journell said he didn’t follow through straight and pulled the kick to the left. He just blocked that out as he lined up for the game-tying field goal with six seconds left.

“I really just try and clear my head of everything whenever I’m on the field,” Journell said. “But when I missed the first one, having the support of my teammates and all the coaches let me know, ‘Hey, you’re probably going to get another kick. We need you out there. If it comes down to it, we need your head in the game.’ So, I just tried to let everything go and do what I needed to do.”

The Virginia Tech players were uniform in their feelings about their embattled kicker.

“I’m extremely proud of him,” quarterback Logan Thomas said. “We’ve always had his back. We never said a bad thing about him. He came in with me, is one of my good friends. I went and gave him a big hug right before he actually kicked it to tie it up. I said, ‘Hey, man, you got this. We all got your back. We all got the belief in you.’ He knocked it through, and then, the next one, I didn’t even have to say anything. I knew he had it.”

Whip linebacker Jeron Gouveia-Winslow echoed that sentiment.

“I never doubted him for a second,” he said. “I knew we were going into overtime. I was telling the D, ‘Let’s get ready. We’ve got overtime. Let’s do this.’ He put it through and then won the game for us.”

Now, thanks in large part to Journell, the Hokies have an early leg up on Georgia Tech in the Coastal Division, and after spring practice when the kicking situation was up in the air, the team can have confidence whenever Beamer sends the field goal unit onto the field.

“You can’t really have doubt in [Journell],” right tackle Vinston Painter said. “For him to bounce back from what he went through, that’s a tough kid, man. You can’t doubt him at all.”

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