Good morning Hokies on a post-bye week Monday! Virginia Tech Football got a needed bye week to get healthy before looking for back-to-back wins for their best regular season of the Brent Pry era, even if this season is guaranteed to be an underperformance. Meanwhile, Men’s Basketball got a reality check on Friday night against Penn State while Wrestling may have their best team in years after dominating No. 8 Missouri and Women’s Soccer is on to the second round of the NCAA Tournament following a 2-1 victory over Tennessee. Plus, Women’s Basketball bounces back from a loss to Iowa with victories over UNC Asheville and Coppin State.

Playing For Pride and Brotherhood

This year’s Virginia Tech Football program has missed the high expectations of being an ACC contender and winning 9+ games this season. This has come despite the fact that the Hokies had top 5 returning production from a team that won six of its final nine games last season.

Now, the schedule has proven to be a little stronger than expected and injuries left a dent at Syracuse, but the way they lost that game was not due to the absences. Meanwhile, this season as a whole has been defined by a team that’s been more talented than all but two of their opponents in my opinion, yet is 5-5 with two games to play. It’s fair to call this season a disappointing miss of expectations, especially with all the excitement and buzz that surrounded the Hokies in the offseason. It would be one thing if they chose to take a low profile, but they played into the buzz and even brought in national college football media figures like Josh Pate to brighten the spotlight on the program.

Now, all that is left for the Hokies in the final two weeks is to play for pride and try to achieve at least a minimal improvement by one win over last season’s 6-6 regular season. And in this moment, we get a little bit of a test to see how good the culture really is in Blacksburg.

While these are the moments you would rather avoid in the first place, we get a test to see how much this team is motivated to play for the pride of each other, and for the pride of the school and the region they represent. This is where we find out if this is a culture that simply loves the game of football and wants to win regardless of the adversity and disappointments faced prior, or if maybe they start to check out and dwell on the disappointments and what ifs of this season.

They may not win out despite the fact that they will rightly be favored against Duke and UVA, but it’ll be fascinating to watch the effort, hustle, and mentality of this team especially when they face adversity in these games. How they play and how they handle adversity in a season where expectations have already been missed will tell us a lot about the culture of this program.

It’s time to see if this team can play for the pride they have in their program and their brotherhood, and finish out this season on a high note with a couple wins before the chaos of the transfer portal arrives in December.

Postgame Highlights

Injury Updates: Kyron Drones and Stephen Gosnell both weren’t practicing during some practices last week, and likely were far from the only banged up Hokies given some extra rest. With this being a true 14-day gap between games, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Hokies are getting their veterans some rest time knowing they need this team as healthy as possible before they head to Duke on Saturday.

Hokies of the Week: With no football game this week, let’s spotlight a few stars from other sports this past week. Let’s start with Anna Weir and Natalie Mitchell as Weir had the fastest goal in Virginia Tech Women’s Soccer’s NCAA Tournament history while Mitchell had the game-winning goal early on in the second half in the Hokies’ 2-1 victory over Tennessee.

Caleb Henson delivered a major decision victory over a ranked opponent in his season debut against Missouri on a night where he was honored for his national championship at 149. Meanwhile, Rafael Hipolito also delivered a major decision victory against a ranked opponent, with the redshirt freshman being the Hokies’ breakout star early on this season.

Stat of the Week: Virginia Tech had an official attendance of 4,157 for their win over Winthrop this past Monday. That is the lowest regular season men’s basketball attendance in Cassell Coliseum since a late December victory over Presbyterian in 2014. A combination of season ticket changes that separated out the non-conference games from the ACC package with increased prices if you wanted the whole schedule, plus a lack of buzz around a team projected to be among the bottom dwellers in the ACC has led to light crowds for men’s basketball so far. It seems a lot of fans had read the tea leaves regarding the roster churn and the all-in football push that left the men’s basketball program without proper NIL funding compared to their peers this offseason.

By the way, both wrestling and women’s basketball outdrew men’s basketball this week. With non-conference tickets not appearing to sell very well at the moment, it might be time for some discounts to just get more fans to games and sell tickets that aren’t getting sold otherwise.

Best Postgame Quote: When you’re up late in a soccer game in a single-elimination tournament, you would think that you would become very conservative and defense-oriented. Instead, the Hokies kept their foot on the gas and decided that offense was truly their best form of defense against a Tennessee team that they had been dominating anyway.

“We were looking at how we close the game out,” Virginia Tech head coach Adair said. “Typically, you may go more defensive, but we were playing so well going forward that we were creating chances and keeping (UT) on their heels and not allowing them to continue their attack. That attack helped us defend and close the game out.”

That’s the type of confidence that could carry the Hokies on a deep run, even if they face a massive challenge all the way across the country against UCLA on Friday.

Looking Elsewhere

ACC Championship Game Race Update: Clemson is officially done in ACC play with a 7-1 conference record, clearing up the title game picture. If SMU wins one of their final two, they’ll be in Charlotte. Meanwhile, Miami has to beat both Wake Forest and Syracuse to clinch a bid to the ACC title game. If Miami slips up in one of those, Clemson will secure their ticket to the ACC title game.

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

• ESPN's Mark Schlabach: Birmingham Bowl vs Arkansas
• ESPN's Kyle Bonagura: First Responder Bowl vs Cincinnati
• CBS Sports: Gasparilla Bowl vs Eastern Michigan
• 247 Sports: Fenway Bowl vs Tulane

Wrestling Shines: 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 Faces UCLA Next: Following their 2-1 victory over Tennessee, Virginia Tech heads to Los Angeles to take on the 2 seed UCLA late Friday night. The Hokies may be the underdogs but this team pulled a road upset over a Notre Dame team that was in the top 10 at the time. The Bruins needed more than the 90 minutes to get past Cal Baptist in their opener so the Hokies should not be counted out at all.

Carleigh Wenzel Breakout: We may only be four games into the season, but Carleigh Wenzel is emerging as the star of this Virginia Tech Women’s Basketball team. The redshirt sophomore has stepped up to lead the way with an aggressive style of basketball that is delivering as she’s averaging 16.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.0 steals in 24.5 minutes per game. What may be most impressive is how Wenzel is getting easy buckets and free throws, shooting 51.2% from the field including 59.4% from inside the arc while averaging 6.3 free-throw attempts per game. Her 25 free-throw attempts through four games is tied for 28th in the country. Don’t be surprised if Wenzel earns All-ACC honors this year and for years to come.

Recent Crystal Ball Predictions for VT: There have been a trio of recruits who have been receiving Crystal Ball predictions in Virginia Tech’s favor from those over at 247 Sports: Michigan State DB commit Aydan West, 2025 three-star CB Jordan Crim, and 2026 four-star WR/TE Carnell Warren. I don’t have information to give a good opinion on Crim but here’s some quick thoughts on the other.

I do think VT made a move for West on his official visit during the Clemson game weekend. However, he is scheduled to visit Michigan State on the weekend after Thanksgiving which falls days before Signing Day, so I think Tech still has lots of work to pull off the flip. We’ll have a clearer picture as to whether West flips or not once that visit either happens or doesn’t.

Meanwhile, Warren has visited Blacksburg a couple times this fall and the Hokies appear to have some serious traction, especially with Warren being from South Carolina rather than being within a couple hours of VT. He is one of the 2026 recruits I feel could be an early commit for the Hokies, especially with Warren previously posting on X that he is planning to make a decision in December. Tech has been the constant and while Florida may be entering the picture after his visit to Gainesville last weekend, I have felt confident in VT for a little bit.

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

Tuesday (11/19)

• Women’s Basketball vs Rutgers (6pm in Blacksburg)
• Men’s and Women’s Tennis at NCAAs (Waco, TX)

Wednesday (11/20)

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

Thursday (11/21)

• Swimming & Diving at NC State Invite (Greensboro, NC)

Friday (11/22)

• Swimming & Diving at NC State Invite (Greensboro, NC)
• Volleyball vs Notre Dame (6pm in Blacksburg)
• Wrestling vs No.17 Rutgers (7pm in Blacksburg at Moss Arts Center)
• Women’s Soccer at UCLA (10pm in Los Angeles, CA; NCAAs 2nd Round)

Saturday (11/23)

• Men’s Cross Country at NCAA Championships (Madison, WI)
• Swimming & Diving at NC State Invite (Greensboro, NC)
• Women’s Basketball vs Elon (2pm in Blacksburg)
• Football at Duke (8pm in Durham, NC)

Sunday (11/24)

• Wrestling at Keystone Classic (Philadelphia, PA)