Virginia Tech struggled mightily on their way to a 27-7 loss to No. 18 Virginia to end a miserable 3-9 season. During tonight's loss to the Cavaliers, many called for a quarterback change to be made from Kyron Drones to Pop Watson amidst the Hokies' offensive struggles.
It didn't help that Drones was 3-12 for only 21 yards and an interception through the first three quarters of this game, having many wondering if VT would actually make a QB change after Pop Watson made a couple nice throws last week against Miami.
After the game, I asked interim head coach Philip Montgomery whether he considered making a quarterback change and he had this to say.
"I don't think it's about the quarterback change. There's a lot of reasons. The one thing I will tell you is Kyron has been a great leader for this football team. And he's had a great career around here. Sometimes I think, quarterbacks are always going to get too much praise when you win and they're going to get way too much criticism when they lose. But that guy battles and he fights. And he was in it for the right reasons and doing the right things. So I don't think that was the reason tonight. Pop came in last week, did a couple of good things, and Pop's going to be a good quarterback, and so are the other guys in that room. But tonight wasn't about trying to make a quarterback change," Montgomery said.
While Montgomery didn't directly answer the question, it seems pretty clear that there wasn't much consideration given to making a change from Drones to Watson or anyone else.
To be fair, Drones wasn't the biggest offensive issues as Tech's offensive line was once again well below par with Drones constantly being under pressure. Additionally, Tech was without their top two receivers from the start of the season, with the receivers they did have dropping at least three passes in this game. Add in Pop Watson's inconsistency with pocket feel that showed up with his fumble against Miami last week and there was a case for sticking with Drones and not making a change.
However, it's fair to critique Montgomery not consistently letting Drones prove whether he could push the ball down the field when Tech was down big or if he didn't trust Drones to do that, give Watson a chance to show that he could deliver. At some point when you're losing big as an underdog and having 3 & out after 3 & out, you have to at least try something.
Regardless, Virginia Tech's miserable season ends at 3-9 with a quarterback room that most likely does not include the 2026 starter at the moment.
