Good morning Hokies on a busy Monday! It was another disappointing weekend as Virginia Tech had their worst offensive performance of the season on their way to a 24-14 loss to No. 23 Clemson that wasn’t as close as the scoreline suggests. Meanwhile, Virginia Tech Men’s Basketball is off to a 2-0 start after wins over Delaware State and USC Upstate, but Winthrop and Penn State should both provide intriguing early tests. Meanwhile, VT Women’s Basketball opened the Megan Duffy era with a victory before a cold shooting night led to their defeat against Iowa to fall to 1-1 yesterday evening.

An Offensive Disaster

One week after one of Virginia Tech’s finest offensive performances under Brent Pry and Tyler Bowen without Bhayshul Tuten and Kyron Drones, Virginia Tech delivered one of their worst offensive performances of the 21st Century.

Virginia Tech had their second fewest total yards (228) and fourth lowest yards per play (3.9) of the Brent Pry era in their 24-14 loss to No. 23 Clemson. They didn’t reach the red zone till their final offensive drive, with the game well out of hand and Lane Stadium mostly empty minus the Clemson fan contingent.

Injuries undoubtedly factored in with Kyron Drones not 100% and Bhayshul Tuten extremely limited as shown by how minimally VT used him. However, that still doesn’t explain how the Hokies didn’t use Jeremiah Coney more after he had almost 100 yards on nine carries at Syracuse last week against a Clemson defense that was without two starting defensive linemen. This was also a Clemson run defense that was allowing 4.6 yards per carry, yet VT chose to only run the ball on 17 of their 58 offensive plays per PFF, in a game where VT wasn’t really forced to chase the game till the fourth quarter.

Tech’s passing attack also didn’t do much to help out Drones and Collin Schlee, even if both weren’t 100% in the first place. VT only ran play action on three of their 41 dropbacks according to PFF, a simply insane split that makes no sense given how the Clemson defense is stronger in the secondary than up front. That was likely a product of a lack of even trying to establish a rushing attack, taking Tech’s play action looks out of the game by their own decisions.

Tyler Bowen seemed to hit the wrong notes often in this game, throwing in a trick play on Tech’s most successful first half drive that led to a nine-yard loss and pushed VT to the edge of field goal range. That ended up costing VT three points that could have been quite valuable for confidence and would have given VT a two-score lead going into halftime. Given VT’s struggles offensively, it wasn’t the moment for a trick play nor was that trick play a very good choice with Clemson DE TJ Parker reading it effectively. Personally, I think the WR pass to a QB screen on the opposite side is generally one of the least effective trick plays out there based on what I’ve seen from various teams over the years trying to execute it and failing.

This was a classic ‘penthouse to the outhouse’ moment for Pry, Bowen, and the Hokies’ offense that should rightly lead for some deep introspection. That should especially be the case for Bowen, who had done a better job with the Hokies’ offense during ACC play prior to this, but has been inconsistent overall this season.

Simply put, this can’t happen again for the Hokies. The good news is that at least Tech won’t have to face a team as talented as Clemson the rest of the way. However, the self-inflicted wounds in this game regarding Tech’s approach will likely raise some fair concerns going into two games where VT is the more talented team, but could be vulnerable to being upset if they are careless, especially at Duke.

Postgame Highlights

Injury Updates: Bhayshul Tuten and Kyron Drones both played this week but neither were 100%, especially Tuten. Brent Pry had this to say about the health of the Hokies’ running back and the rushing approach that the Hokies took with Tuten limited and backup Malachi Thomas out.

“Obviously Bhayshul was limited. I’m proud of him for giving his best effort. We had a game plan that made sense for the situation we were in. I give them credit up front. They’ve got a salty front, but obviously Bhayshul goes down, and Malachi wasn’t able to play. So the game plan is what it was.”

Pry also added this on both Drones and Collin Schlee when discussing their health and performance in this game.

“Neither one of those quarterbacks are healthy right now, but I thought he managed the game pretty well. Made some runs, made some throws. We dropped too many, for Schlee and for Kyron. But Kyron’s tough, was able to practice a bunch of this week, not in its entirety, but I thought for the most part, at least you look at the Georgia Tech game and what he was able to do there, he was at least to that point. Maybe a little better.”

Hokies of the Game: While there isn’t an Offensive Hokie of the Game due to the immense struggles on that side, Keonta Jenkins and Antwaun Powell-Ryland both deserve Hokie of the game honors for their defensive performances. Jenkins had seven tackles including three for loss with a strip sack plus one QB hurry and two pass breakups. Meanwhile, APR had three tackles including two for loss with one sack plus two QB hurries and five total pressures per PFF.

Stat of the Game: Virginia Tech averaged 1.9 yards per carry while only handing the ball off to a running back four times total, all of which went to an injured Bhayshul Tuten. This came against a Clemson defense that was allowing 4.6 yards per carry and a week after Jeremiah Coney nearly ran for 100 yards on only nine carries at Syracuse. While I do think it would have been different if regular backup Malachi Thomas was available, I still don’t understand why the Hokies didn’t at least give Coney a chance given what we saw last week and the clear weakness the Tigers have stopping the run.

Best Postgame Quote: With Virginia Tech being 5-5 with two games to go, the Hokies have officially missed even the most reasonable expectations for the regular season. After the game, I asked Brent Pry about how much frustration there is given that VT has missed expectations and how the team refocuses to finish the season well.

“The goal here at Virginia Tech is always going to be to get to the championship game. We've clearly fallen short, but there's a lot of things our group can be proud of. We talk about finishing. We need to be better there and we have a great opportunity to do that. We have an open date to clean things up and get healthy. We have two good opponents left. Let's get to postseason play and continue to try to be the team we know we can be.”

A big offseason looms for Brent Pry where he has decisions to make as to whether he feels changes within his program need to be made for VT to take the next steps they failed to do so this year despite having the roster or not. Personally, I would be surprised if we didn’t see Pry make at least some changes but that’s purely speculative based in part on how his good friend, Penn State head coach James Franklin, hasn’t been afraid to shake things up with his staff when something isn’t working.

Looking Elsewhere

ACC Championship Game Race Update: SMU is in the outright lead after Miami’s stunning upset loss at Georgia Tech. Pittsburgh has put themselves most likely out of the race with their second ACC loss in an upset defeat at home to UVA, though they could play spoiler to Clemson this week. Miami and Clemson are tied for second but Miami is in control of their own destiny since Louisville, who Clemson lost to, is a common opponent for both teams while Georgia Tech is not. That would remain true for at least Miami, even if SMU lost a game since the Mustangs also have a win over Louisville.

Bowl Projections: Here’s the latest rundown on VT’s bowl projections.

• ESPN's Mark Schlabach: Birmingham Bowl vs Memphis
• ESPN's Kyle Bonagura: Gasparilla Bowl vs West Virginia
• CBS Sports: Gasparilla Bowl vs Cincinnati
• 247 Sports: Sun Bowl vs USC

Wrestling Showdown Looms: No. 8 Virginia Tech Wrestling has one of their biggest showdowns of the season this Friday when they host No. 9 Missouri at Cassell Coliseum. This will be a great early season test for the Hokies as they look to build towards beating out NC State for the ACC Dual Meet title after coming up short last season. Keep an eye on the website this week as well as the Wrestling program will have a historic recruiting opportunity that no other major VT sports program has ever had to my recollection.

Women’s Soccer Waits for NCAAs: Virginia Tech will find out their NCAA Tournament seeding and first round matchup Monday afternoon. It is very likely that the Hokies will host their first round matchup, which will happen on Thompson Field either during a window of Friday, November 15th to Sunday, November 17th.

The Week Ahead: Here’s a look at the Virginia Tech Athletics schedule from now through Sunday.

Monday (11/11)

• Men’s Basketball vs Winthrop (7pm in Blacksburg)

Wednesday (11/13)

• Women’s Basketball vs UNC Asheville (6pm in Blacksburg)

Thursday (11/14)

• Volleyball at California (10pm in Berkeley, CA)

Friday (11/15)

• Cross Country at NCAA Southeast Regionals (Rock Hill, SC)
• Wrestling vs No. 9 Missouri (7pm in Blacksburg)
• Men’s Basketball vs Penn State (7:30pm in Baltimore, MD on Peacock)
• Volleyball at No. 6 Stanford (10pm in Stanford, CA)

Saturday (11/16)

• Women’s Basketball vs Coppin State (2pm in Blacksburg)

TBD

• Women’s Soccer NCAA Tournament First Round (November 15th-17th)