Offensive Takeaways From Virginia Tech's 24-14 Loss to No. 23 Clemson

Virginia Tech had their second-lowest yards of offense and their lowest offensive success rate of the Brent Pry era on their way to a 24-14 defeat to No. 23 Clemson where they only scored one offensive touchdown on their lone red zone appearance late in the fourth quarter. It was a horrific offensive performance defined by an approach that made no sense, star players that were not 100%, and mistake after mistake that brought them to ruin.

So with that said, here are my takeaways from the Hokies' nightmarish offensive performance.

Passing Game Hasn't Substantially Improved, Why?

Despite having a focus on becoming more productive through the air and returning Kyron Drones plus every notable WR and TE except Dae'Quan Wright, Virginia Tech's passing attack simply has not made substantial strides this season.

Drones was not 100% in this game, but he still struggled with his accuracy down the field along with finding open receivers at times.

Part of the latter part likely could be blamed on wide receivers just not getting another separation or consistently finding soft spots in the zone. A lot of those issues can be blamed on a pass blocking group that has struggled, though they actually had a decent night against Clemson, allowing only four pressures per PFF and giving Drones more time than I would have expected even against a banged up Clemson defensive line.

Overall, I think most people would agree that Drones has not made the substantial strides in the passing game and as a quarterback that just about everybody hoped for including Drones and the VT program. Sure, some of that likely does fall on Drones himself, but there is plenty of blame to go around including with a pass blocking group that has struggled to protect him this season and give him time to throw, leading to him taking more hits and taking more wear and tear that has caught up.

There's also a QB development structure in Blacksburg that honestly seems set up to fail. Prior to taking over as QBs coach in 2023, Tyler Bowen had never been a QBs coach or a passing game coordinator in his career, two roles that would portend greater understanding of what it takes to develop quarterbacks rather than focus on simply their development within a certain offense. Even when Bowen was an offensive coordinator at Fordham in 2016, his position group was the offensive line.

Now there are plenty who say an offensive coordinator should be the QBs coach but there are also a good amount of offensive coordinators who aren't QBs coaches who have great success. And of the Power 4 offensive coordinators who are also QBs coaches, almost all of them were QBs coaches or pass game coordinators at a prior stop, or were an OC with QBs coach titles at a lower level.

You know who the only other offensive coordinator at the Power 5 level at the time Bowen took on that QBs coach who didn't fit that mold was? Iowa's now infamous former OC Brian Ferentz.

Meanwhile, Virginia Tech's co-QBs coach Brian Crist has also primarily been a WRs coach, even when he held offensive coordinator responsibilities at Youngstown State. The only time he has been a QBs coach was during a portion of his first tenure at Massachusetts (1996-2001) while he did hold pass game coordinator responsibilities at Louisiana in the mid 2000s.

To not have someone whose background is quarterbacks on this staff, when there's not a more valuable position in football than quarterback is simply absurd, whether that's as a player or as a coach. Unfortunately, the illogical structure for QB development seems to be showing its flaws with a passing attack that hasn't made substantial strides and a quarterback in Drones who has not made the All-ACC jump most expected.

The QB development structure is broken at Virginia Tech and has to be fixed this offseason if Brent Pry wants his program to be more than a middling one in the ACC. How Virginia Tech goes about attempting to fix that remains to be seen, but it was insanity to build this QB development structure this way, and it would be absurd to maintain it after it has failed.