Virginia Tech wasn’t the only ACC program to open its season on Saturday with a layup drill – Syracuse beat New Hampshire, 66-3; Pitt beat Miami, 59-14.
Virginia, after opening with a conference game, a 34-8 win over NC State in Week 0, gets Norfolk State, an FCS school that won one game last season, in Week 2, this coming Friday night.
That was what Tech opened with Saturday night in Lane Stadium – a VMI squad that won one game in 2025.
The best news for first-year Hokies coach James Franklin: nobody on his side got hurt in the 73-3 win.
“Not everybody believes this, but my belief, when you get a game like this, and the points get the way they got, my job is to get the starters out and get the backups in,” Franklin told reporters after the game, played in front of a full-house crowd of 65,632.
The ones did their job – QB1 Ethan Grunkemeyer was 17-of-20 for 224 yards and two TDs through the air, and lead tailback Marcellous Hawkins had 69 yards and three TDs on the ground.
VMI (0-2), which lost 38-10 in its season opener last week at Idaho State, didn’t get on the scoreboard until the fourth quarter, on a 50-yard field goal by Jack Joyce after the special teams recovered a fumbled punt.
Keep tabs on this Jack Joyce kid – FCS guys who can make 50-yard field goals are soon to be FBS guys who can make 50-yard field goals.
The Keydets, shifting to a triple-option attack under first-year head coach Ashley Ingram, had just 83 yards of total offense and six first downs for its efforts on the evening.
The challenge for Franklin was getting meaningful reps for his twos, threes and fours with the game’s outcome having been decided early – Tech led 21-0 after one quarter, and 45-0 at the half.
“They should have the opportunity to play football, like getting the threes and fours in there and still call the defense and call the offense,” Franklin said, stressing that he wanted to get a good look at his QB2, Bryce Baker, a sophomore who transferred in from North Carolina after redshirting in 2025.
Baker was 10-of-12 through the air for 127 yards and a TD after relieving Grunkemeyer on the second offensive series of the third quarter.
“We need to see what Bryce Baker is able to do. To put Bryce Baker in and just hand the ball off the whole second half, that’s not fair to Bryce Baker, and that’s not the right thing for us to do for developing Bryce and other players on our roster,” Franklin said.
That’s for those who would have issue with “running up the score.”
It’s not “running up the score”; games like this are basically full-contact scrimmages.
That’s the reason coaches schedule these games.
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Chris Graham
