We're seven weeks through the 2025 college football season and its around this point of the year where we begin to find out who teams truly are. For example, Penn State, South Carolina, and Florida State are, what I would call, fool’s gold; they shimmered early in the year but have fallen flat as of late.
Unfortunately, we've known what the Hokies are since week two or three - a team that has some talent but was poorly coached under previous head coach Brent Pry. Enter offensive coordinator and interim head coach Philip Montgomery. Though the team hasn't made a complete 180 and several issues are still prevalent under Montgomery, he does have the team playing tough, scrappy football and they do fight until the final whistle.
During this bye week, we will take a look at each position group on both sides of the ball and will attempt to give an honest, fair assessment of how they've done to this point in the season. With the defensive report card coming later this week, let's take a look at the offense.
Quarterback: D
I want to be completely fair to Kyron Drones by stating up front that his struggles this season do not solely rest upon him. I have seen a lot of criticism of him on social media- some warranted and some unwarranted- and just want to say here that when the entire team is playing as bad as they are, it never just rests upon one person. It is also clear to me that this staff has struggled to develop talent over the years, an issue that you can see all over the field; Drones is no exception.
That being said, it has been a rough first half and some change of the year for Kyron Drones.
He has continued to struggle reading defenses and seeing the field, he struggles to make the correct read on option plays, and he misses wide open receivers- all things you would expect a fifth-year senior in his third season as a starter to be able to do with ease.
However, he has also stepped up in big moments such as against NC State. If I had to summarize his season, I would call it Jekyll and Hyde.
Drones has also been pressured more than just about any quarterback in the country, as almost every play he is having to face blitzes, stunts, and pesky pass rushes. As a result, he's been sacked 17 times for a loss of 126 yards.
Although this isn't entirely his fault, there have been several instances where he's held on to the ball too long and taken the sack despite there being an open receiver he could've thrown to or a window to simply throw the ball away without risk of intentional grounding.
His stats honestly aren't too bad considering the circumstances. He has 1,397 yards on a 132/218 (60.5%) completion rate, 11 touchdowns, five interceptions, and 6.4 yards per completion. On the ground, he's contributed 277 yards on 92 carries, five touchdowns, and around three yards per rush. The offense that Montgomery runs does not allow Drones to utilize his legs as much as he has in years past (which often opened up the offense to run more efficiently), though that has started to change in the last few weeks. Bottom line, as Drones goes so does the offense and if the Hokies want to steal a few more games this season, he must step up.
