Virginia Tech had faced some decent offenses entering tonight's game but nothing like what SMU has to offer. Unfortunately for the Hokies, their pass defense issues not only remain coming off the bye week but were exacerbated as SMU did what they want both through the air and on the ground to cruise to victory and end the Hokies' faint ACC Championship Game hopes.
Virginia Tech was routed by SMU 51-28 in a game that wasn't even as close as the final score suggested due largely to a roller coaster fourth quarter. The Hokies fall to 6-3 on the season including 3-3 in ACC play while the Mustangs stay alive in the ACC Championship race and improve to 7-2 overall including 5-2 in ACC play.
The disappointment about the loss was clear from James Franklin after the game.
"We did not play well at all, we did not play up to the standard. Ultimately, I’m responsible for that. So give SMU a ton of credit. Give Coach Lashlee a ton of credit. They played really well. And we did not play well, really in all three phases — offense, defense and special teams. So we got out-coached, we got out-executed and did not play well," Franklin said.
This was the worst defensive performance of James Franklin's first season by far and the worst defensive performance overall for the Hokies arguably in years as SMU scored points on their first seven drives of this game and had 445 yards of offense through the first three quarters, more than any amount that the Hokies had allowed all season in a full game prior to tonight. SMU scored on nine of its eleven drives overall in this game in what was a dominant night for SMU's offense.
The Mustangs finished with 569 yards of offense, the most allowed by Virginia Tech since North Carolina had 656 in a 56-45 loss for the Hokies on October 10th, 2020. SMU's 8.4 yards per play were the most since VT allowed 8.5 yards per play in a 45-26 loss to Old Dominion last season.
The 51 points Tech allowed is the most since VT allowed 54 to Maryland in the 54-10 2021 Pinstripe Bowl loss. It's also the most points that a James Franklin team has allowed since Penn State's 2016 Rose Bowl loss to USC 52-49.
It was bad from the get-go he Hokies allowed ten points in the first quarter, matching the total number of first quarter points they allowed all season. SMU also had a dominant 14-0 third quarter in what was the latest third quarter struggle for the Hokies.
Kevin Jennings finished the night 24-32 for 350 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception plus 17 rushing yards in a game that showed why SMU has already named a building after him. Yamir Knight had six catches for 103 yards and three touchdowns while Yannick Smith added six catches for 84 yards and Jalen Cooper had five catches for 98 yards including a 50-yard pop pass touchdown.
The RPOs were one area in particular that the Hokies struggled with defensively throughout the game, with James Franklin having this to say about those struggles after the loss.
"They got a veteran quarterback who’s accurate and athletic, and they’ve got weapons on the outside and at the running back position. They were able to get the running game going. They did a really good job with coming in and cracking our safeties, and we’ve got to do a better job with crack replace. So, they crack the safety, and the safety is the fitter — the corner needs to replace. We did that, but we did not do it fast enough; we didn’t executive it enough at a high enough level, and we weren’t able to get it fixed. It kept showing up, and we weren’t able to get it fixed," Franklin said.
SMU was also the first team to do serious damage on the ground against the Hokies as the Mustangs ran for 219 yards and averaged 6.1 yards per carry. This was headlined by 92 yards on seven carries for Christian Rhodes plus 63 yards on 15 carries for Kendrick Raphael.
Virginia Tech's offense wasn't too bad with a pair of long touchdown drives in the first half. However, in a game where it became clear that the only way VT was going to win was by staying up in a shootout, the Hokies weren't able to do that.
Two moments in particular proved crucial in preventing the Hokies from being able to stay up. First, Ethan Grunkemeyer had a first half fumble near midfield on a play where Michael Troutman got blown up and had a holding penalty. SMU quickly took advantage with a 46-yard touchdown from Kevin Jennings to Yamir Knight on the next play.
The second key moment where the game truly opened up was on the second drive of the second half where VT drove far into SMU territory. However, the Hokies tried to get cute with the FB dive on 4th and 1 to Marcellous Hawkins that was blown up by SMU rather than going back to the tush push that had worked well all night. SMU responded with a touchdown after that to blow the game wide open to a three-score margin instead of VT being able to trim the deficit possibly down to as few as eight points.
Tech did take advantage of SMU playing a little softer coverage with a large margin in the fourth quarter, putting together a pair of very good touchdown drives led by the aerial attack. That had Tech cutting the lead down to 44-28, but SMU was able to add another touchdown while Ethan Grunkemeyer threw a late interception to finish the game off.
Tech finished the night with 417 yards of offense and 6.3 yards per play and even though some of that may have been boosted by softer coverage, this was a group that put together a more respectable showing.
Grunkemeyer had a solid night overall as he went 28-38 for 291 yards, one touchdown, and one interception plus a rushing touchdown and a fumble that SMU's Marques White forced and recovered. Grunkemeyer was a little gimpy at times in the second half with Tech even trying to send Bryce Baker in to replace him. The emphasis should be on try though as Grunkemeyer waved off Baker and the Hokie sideline, and stayed in the game the rest of the way.
Franklin had plenty of praise for Grunkemeyer's toughness and intangibles after the loss.
"He’s tough. He’s resilient. He makes plays with both his legs and his arm. I don’t think anybody questions that from Grunk," Franklin said. "No one's going to question this guy's toughness, his competitive drive or his leadership. He does a phenomenal job in those areas."
Tech's offensive line struggled to give Grunkemeyer time, allowing four sacks in this game. However, Grunkemeyer did make up for those issues with some impressive down-field throws on the run at times in this game.
Jeff Overton Jr was the brightest star of the night for Virginia Tech as he had 13 carries for 123 yards and two touchdowns plus four catches for 33 yards. This is the third time that Overton has gone over 100 rushing yards in a game this season and the second time he's had over 150 total yards of offense. His average of 9.5 yards per carry was his best against a Power 4 opponent this season.
Tech averaged 6.7 yards per carry on 24 non-sack carries in this game, another encouraging sign for a rushing attack that has had some struggles this season.
Que'Sean Brown got the ball a lot but never had much space to make plays with nine catches for 37 yards and a touchdown plus a -2 yard carry. However, Brown remains very much on track to break Isaiah Ford's single-season reception record.
Luke Reynolds continues to make a strong case for being the Mackey Award winner after having six catches for 67 yards tonight while Ayden Greene added two catches for 49 yards.
Defensively, it was a busy night for Tech's linebackers as Noah Chambers had 11 tackles including 0.5 for loss while Kaleb Spencer had 10 tackles including 0.5 for loss. Curtis Jones Jr added four tackles with 1.5 for loss while Cortez Harris had four tackles including 1.5 for loss with 0.5 sacks, a sack he shared with Aycen Stevens. Brennan Johnson had his first career interception off a deflected pass later in the game as part of a defense that had a mix of backups and third-stringers.
While Tech's offense had some challenges in this game, they did enough to at least have the Hokies being more competitive in this game. However, the defense was simply nonexistent in this game with Kevin Jennings picking apart the Hokies through the air and SMU being the first team to do serious damage on the ground this season.
Overall, it was a night that brought the Hokies back down to earth and has James Franklin looking to get his team back on track and back to his expectations ASAP.
"I don’t know if we were drinking the Kool-Aid, or some people say the rat poison, but we got humbled. We got to come back in and get to work. That’s the coaches. That’s the players. We’ve got a lot of work to do."
