Virginia Tech's offense struggles mightily for 3 quarters before hitting their stride in the fourth quarter to cause a rally that came up just short 20-14 to Miami. Here's my 3 offensive takeaways from Tech's loss to the Hurricanes.
1. A Promising Fourth Quarter For Grant Wells
Virginia Tech's offense struggles prior to the fourth quarter and though Grant Wells was far from being the biggest issue, he wasn't the answer during the first 45 minutes with an unspectacular.
However, he was largely the answer in a final 15-minute stretch that included some of his best play as a Hokie to date.
Wells' fourth quarter numbers were quite good as he was 10-17 for 102 yards and a touchdown which included incompletions for a clear drop and a pass interference call plus on non-sacks, 5 carries for 43 yards and a touchdown. Those are the type of numbers that extended out will help you win football games especially with how he had 3 of his 5 runs go for double-digit gains.
Now it is important to note that Miami did seem to maybe slightly take their foot off the gas and try to avoid giving up the home run. But Wells took what the defense gave him and made smart decisions getting it into the flats for guys like Malachi Thomas and Nick Gallo with Tyler Bowen putting together some good pass plays into the flats for Thomas.
Wells showed what this offense could become when he's in rhythm and do so with a quiet day from Kaleb Smith and a WR corps that didn't provide much outside of Smith and Da'Wain Lofton. Wells didn't try to go for broke but made smart plays and then ad-libed with rollouts and QB scrambles when need be doing so effectively.
Yes, Wells hasn't had the best season and wasn't great prior to the fourth quarter but to see him string together a fourth quarter like this is a very promising sign of his development for the future including this season and the weaker November stretch that looms after N.C. State.
2. WR Issues Remain
Wide receiver has been a position of concern throughout the season with those concerns coming to the forefront on Saturday with the offense's struggles.
Tech only had 6 catches from 2 wide receivers in this game with running backs having 8 and tight ends having 7.
What may be more concerning is the fact that only VT WRs only had 10 targets with 9 of those going to Kaleb Smith and Da'Wain Lofton plus 1 to Jadan Blue. Blue, Christian Moss, and Jaylen Jones each played over 20 snaps but the fact that they combined for only 1 target is extremely concerning to say the least.
For further comparison, Tech running backs had 10 targets themselves while the TE duo of Dae'Quan Wright and Nick Gallo combined for 11 targets from Grant Wells.
Yes, some of that was by design given the talent at RB and Wright was used plenty in the slot, but plenty of that came on checkdowns with Miami focusing in on Kaleb Smith and other WRs struggling to step up.
When you have only 2 wide receivers fairly consistently getting in positions to be targeted, your passing game is going to suffer especially with Miami being able to key in on Kaleb Smith and focus on taking away some of those deep balls that Tech was quite effective with against Pittsburgh.
Tech's WR corps is a great example of the apparent talent deficiency on the roster with this unit needing someone not named Kaleb Smith to step up. Da'Wain Lofton has started to find his rhythm a little outside of his drop on would have been another long TD but they need a Moss or Jones or Blue or Stephen Gosnell when he gets healthy to step up.
If not, it may be time to give true freshmen Tucker Holloway and Xayvion Turner-Bradshaw a chance once November arrives and their redshirts are protected.
Regardless, you can probably go ahead and circle WR as a position that the Hokies are going to prioritize in the transfer portal this offseason.
3. Personnel Shifts May Be Rightly Coming
If you listened to Brent Pry's postgame presser, you may have been surprised by the candor that he shared postgame on the offense's struggles mentioning a specific need for some different personnel groupings to play more to their strengths. One of the things he mentioned that he would like to see is some 2-back sets
The fact is that Malachi Thomas and Keshawn King are 2 of Virginia Tech's top 3 offensive playmakers along with Kaleb Smith. Given the versatility of King and how much time he's spent practicing with the wide receivers during fall camp, it makes too much sense for them not to add in more of that.
Now King may have some limitations in terms of his receiver skill set but some screen plays and whatnot could work along with some 2-back formation as Pry mentions that could give multiple run looks, some varying read and speed option combinations to make the defense defend run plays on the edge, and some play action/RPO plays with the other back running angle or swing pass routes to compliment.
Of course, all of this is easier said than done but the bye does allow some time to add in some fresh wrinkles that can be developed in the bye, tested at N.C. State, and then refined for the November stretch run.
One thing Tech may have to do to expand on that approach is go with some 2-back, 21 personnel to get their best 5 on the field at the skill spots in Thomas, King (maybe in the slot some), Kaleb Smith, Dae'Quan Wright (who could stretch out as a WR), and Nick Gallo. You could also go 12 personnel with Da'Wain Lofton in for Gallo or Wright if you wanted a more traditional TE in the game. Those type of lineups feature Tech's top playmaking personnel with the offense finding its stride in the fourth quarter just as Wright got more playing time again after not playing much outside of the first 2 drives.
What's clear is Brent Pry isn't content with what he's seen on offense including the personnel decisions that have been made with that being a clear priority of his to address with his offensive staff going into the bye week.
