For all the pomp and circumstance that surrounded James Franklin's hiring as Virginia Tech's new head coach, the Hokies still have two games to finish out what has been a rough season. Unfortunately, that season got rougher today as No. 13 Miami showed why they are a top 15 team in the country with a dominant performance against the Hokies and their struggling defense.
Virginia Tech lost to No. 13 Miami 34-17 to fall to 3-8 on the season including 2-5 in ACC play while the Hurricanes kept their CFB Playoff and faint ACC Championship game hopes alive, improving to 9-2 overall including 5-2 in ACC play.
Tech's defense continues to be a major issue as the Hokies allowed Miami to score on their first five drives, all of which got inside the 25 just one week after Florida State reached the redzone on every possessions they had. These five possessions made it 20-straight drives that Virginia Tech had allowed their opponent to reach VT territory, a streak that went back to the first half of the Louisville game. That streak ended on Miami's sixth drive due primarily to a bad snap that cost the Canes 17 yards and made it 2nd and 27 at their own 2.
Virginia Tech's pass defense in particular has been a major issue as Carson Beck carved it up going 27-32 for 320 yards and four touchdowns while Malachi Toney had a 15-yard completion too. Now some of those completions were via pop passes and VT's secondary has definitely been depleted due primarily to injuries.
However, the Hokies' pass defense is a mess in general with the best example being a first half play where Ben Bell got caught in coverage against Toney with Toney easily being able to use his speed to get around Bell and cut back to the ball for the reception. Tech's zone coverage has been very porous as well while their man coverage shows that the secondary has a lot of work to do this offseason that may include some transfer portal overhauling.
After being fortunate last week that Thomas Castellanos wasn't a consistent passer, the Hokies ran into one today in Beck and paid the price. It didn't help that Miami rarely allowed Beck to be put under pressure.
This came despite how Tech's run defense was pretty solid holding Miami under four yards per carry, even after you exclude the 17-yard loss from the bad snap that went past Carson Beck.
Offensively, the Hokies' passing attack was once again largely nonexistent a couple nice throws from Kyron Drones and a couple nice plays from Pop Watson including a beautiful deep ball to Ayden Greene for 39 yards that set up VT's fourth quarter touchdown. A main reason for that was a lack of time in the pocket as Miami had five sacks and five more official QB hurries. Both Drones and Watson appeared to be under duress on most of their snaps with Drones often having to roll out and escape the pocket.
Tech's rushing attack was the brightest spot of this game as the Hokies averaged 5.2 yards per carry despite the five sacks for Miami, a stat that improves to 7.3 yards per carry if you exclude the five sacks that the Canes had.
Kyron Drones largely struggled in this game going 12-21 for 124 yards while running for 31 yards though sacks obviously impacted that number. While a porous offensive line was a major problem, it's also clear that VT doesn't trust Drones to push the ball down the field often.
Pop Watson came in during the fourth quarter and made a couple nice throws including a deep ball to Ayden Greene, finishing the game 2-3 for 77 yards with a 3-yard rushing touchdown. He also didn't feel the pressure great at times including a late fumble that ended Tech's brief, desperate rally effort.
Tech's running backs continue to be a strength of this team as Marcellous Hawkins led the way with eight carries for 72 yards plus a 7-yard reception. Jeff Overton Jr had a breakout performance with seven carries for 69 yards including a 38-yard touchdown run where he showed why Tech is rightly so excited about his potential.
Ayden Greene led VT with five catches for 95 yards while Isaiah Spencer had two catches for 49 yards and Takye Heath had three catches for 24 yards.
Kaleb Spencer made some big plays in this game as he had six tackles including 2.5 for loss, the second-straight time where Spencer has made big plays against his former team Miami. Noah Chambers and Tyson Flowers led the team in tackles with eight each while Flowers also had a pass breakup.
Beck was a star in this game with his aforementioned 320 passing yards and four touchdowns on 28 completions out of 33 pass attempts. Malachi Toney showed why he's one of the best true freshman in the country with 12 catches for 146 yards and a touchdown plus 16 rushing yards and a 15-yard completion while Keelan Marion added six catches for 79 yards and Girard Pringle Jr had 49 rushing yards plus two catches for 21 yards and a touchdown.
Zechariah Poyser had 10 tackles including a sack plus a fumble recovery, a QB hurry, and a pass breakup. Ahmad Moten led the highly-regarded Miami defensive line with five tackles including three for loss with two sacks while Akheem Mesidor had five tackles including 1.5 for loss with one sack plus two forced fumbles and Justin Scott added four tackles including 2.5 for loss with one sack.
There's still a season for the Hokies to play out and while there are plenty of intriguing young players like Jeff Overton Jr and Noah Chambers plus more proven veteran like Marcellous Hawkins and Ayden Greene, it's clear that James Franklin will have a lot of work to do in the transfer portal this offseason to retool this roster.
