Virginia Tech was a preseason sleeper pick to contend for the ACC title game. The title run didn’t start out all that well. The Hokies lost at Vanderbilt, the perennial SEC doormat, 34-27 in OT on Saturday down in Nashville.
Not only is Vandy the perennial doormat in the conference where it just matters more, the media who cover the SEC picked the Commodores dead-last in the preseason rankings for the 2024 season.
They didn’t play to expectations; neither did the Hokies, who trailed 17-0 after a Sedrick Alexander 7-yard TD run with 5:18 to go in the second quarter.
John Love was good from 40 yards on a field-goal try with 52 seconds left in the half to get Tech to 17-3 at the break.
Credit, then, to Virginia Tech, for not only getting back into it, but actually taking a lead in the fourth quarter, on a 62-yard Kyron Drones-to-Ali Jennings TD pass that made it 27-20 Hokies.
Vanderbilt, to its credit, didn’t wilt, scoring on its next possession, driving 70 yards on six plays, with Alexander getting into the end zone on an 8-yard TD pass from Drones.
Vandy had a chance to win the game in regulation, but a 43-yard field-goal try from Brock Taylor missed to the right.
In the OT, Vanderbilt got the ball first, and scored, on a 4-yard TD run by Pavia.
Tech, on its drive, alternated quarterbacks between Drone, who passed for 322 yards and two TDs, and backup QB Collin Schlee, who gained 14 yards on a designed run on the first play of the Hokies’ possession, but was sacked for a five-yard loss on third-and-6 at the Vandy 7, and threw incomplete to Da’Quan Felton on the fourth-down play.
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Chris Graham
