The talk in the preseason had Virginia Tech as a darkhorse to win the ACC title and fringe College Football Playoff contender.
Saturday’s 26-23 loss to Rutgers has the Hokies facing a different reality.
The updated ESPN Football Power Index gives Tech just a 53.6 percent chance of getting to six wins, and a miniscule 1.0 percent chance of winning the ACC and 0.6 percent chance of getting an invite to the CFP.
That’s a mighty big difference four weeks in, but we’re factoring in losses to Rutgers and Vanderbilt.
“Yeah, obviously there’s signs out there in each of these four games, the wins and the losses, of the team that we can be. We just haven’t put it all together,” head coach Brent Pry said after Saturday’s loss, which followed an all-too-familiar pattern.
As in the Vandy game, Tech got behind big early, to its credit, got back into it in the fourth quarter, but just didn’t have enough in the tank to finish things out.
Rutgers led 14-0 at the end of the first quarter, and it was 23-7 going into the fourth quarter, and honestly, it should have been long over by then – the Scarlet Knights fumbled inside the Virginia Tech 5, failed to score on a fourth-and-goal at the 1, and missed two field-goal tries.
A pair of Bhaysul Tuten TD runs, and back-to-back two-point conversions, tied the game at 23-23 with 4:35 to go.
The first Rutgers offensive play on its next series was a 63-yard pitch, catch and run for a while from Athan Kaliakmanis to Ian Strong that set up the Scarlet Knights at the Tech 12.
Four plays later, Jai Patel was good from 24 yards to give Rutgers the lead with 1:56 left.
On a third-and-5 from the Tech 30, Kyron Drones was picked off by Robert Longerbeam, and Rutgers was able to run out the clock with a pair of first downs.
Kaliakmanis was 16-of-25 for 269 yards, and the Scarlet Knights gained 153 yards on the ground.
Drones, who had a big season in 2023, passing for 2,084 yards, 17 TDs and three INTs after taking over the starter in Week 3, was 13-of-27 for 137 yards and the INT.
Through four games in 2024, Drones has passed for 765 yards, four TDs and three INTs, and the Tech offense ranks just 12th in the ACC, averaging 380.0 yards per game.
There’s issues, is the point here.
“Another slow start today. You can’t dig yourself in a hole,” Pry said. “As proud as I am in the way we battled back, you can’t dig yourself in a hole. We got to coach better and play better early in the game. But it’s a four-quarter game. Games like today prove that. You got a chance to win it at the end. And they made two good plays, and we didn’t make enough of them.”
Share
Chris Graham
