Good morning Hokies on a Thanksgiving Monday! It was a rough week for the revenue sports as Virginia Tech Football came up short at Duke 31-28 with Brent Pry falling to 1-12 in one-score games and VT’s QB depth getting tested with Pop Watson playing most of the game after Kyron Drones was out and Collin Schlee suffered an injury in-game. It was even worse for Men’s Basketball as they were stunned by Jacksonville 74-64, their first-double digit home loss to a mid-major opponent since losing to FIU 57-44 in February 8th, 1993.

There were positives for the non-revenues starting with Rose Micheaux making history as she became the second Hokie to record a triple-double, joining former All-American Georgia Amoore. In the process, she led the Hokies to an 87-69 victory against Elon. No. 7 Wrestling defeated No. 17 Rutgers 26-11 at the Moss Arts Center while Women’s Soccer stunned 2 seed UCLA in Los Angeles to advance to the Sweet 16 and then beat 3 seed Iowa 1-0 to reach the Elite 8.

So yeah, Virginia Tech isn’t having success in the two revenue sports, but the other sports are delivering lots of success.

UVA Still to Go But Staff Changes Feel Inevitable

Once again, Virginia Tech is needing to beat Virginia to reach a bowl game. This is the SEVENTH TIME in the past 13 seasons that the Hokies have entered the Commonwealth Cup needing a win to extend their season to a bowl game and gain some valuable practice time.

Regardless of that situation, the Commonwealth Cup rightly still means a ton to Virginia Tech and could provide a slightly bigger boost than most games. That’s how it should be to in a sport built in part on regional rivalries.

However, no win on Saturday should change things from the reality that it’s time for Brent Pry to make some changes if he wants to get VT past mediocrity.

The fact is that the Brent Pry Era 1.0 has achieved some of its goals including the improvement of roster talent, the fixing and mending of recruiting within the footprint and especially in Virginia, and the restoration of some important cultural elements that were important to VT’s past success. However, the on-field success, or lack thereof, has seemed to plateau as the Hokies have turned top 5 returning production into another .500 season where VT is certain to have no improvement on last season’s record.

When that happens, it’s clearly time for the head coach to shake things up because the standard in Blacksburg is much higher and mediocrity can’t be allowed to continue fester as it has for well over a decade. Plenty of great coaches have ran into plateaus, retooled, and then climbed to greater heights.

Look at the Dabo Swinney era where he eventually overcame the ‘Clemsoning’ moniker in part because of great coordinator moves bringing in Chad Morris and Brent Venables, neither of whom were part of his staff at the beginning. Look at Miami and their high-powered offense led by offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson who joined Mario Cristobal from Houston after one year of Josh Gattis at the helm of Miami’s offense.

On the other side, we’ve seen failures to make moves when a team starts to plateau lead to lack of upward movement or backsliding. Look at Lincoln Riley’s USC that backslid in the first two years as Riley had the wrong DC in Alex Grinch. His D’Anton Lynn hire was a strong hire and should give USC fans some hope even if this season has been a frustrating one as those fixes are being made.

Pry has laid a solid foundation in fixing some important issues around the program, but Tech has seemed to find a plateau for Pry Era 1.0 at a level that is unacceptable long-term. That makes changes not only feel like a need but also a necessity. Now what those changes will be, I’m not sure, but they do feel inevitable given the plateauing at .500 this season.

While I’m not sure what those moves will be, I do feel that the decisions Pry makes this offseason with his program will be the ones that define whether it succeeds or fails long-term.

Postgame Highlights

Hokies of the Week: Football returned this week with some standout performances that deserve the spotlight including Ali Jennings having the best game of his VT career with six catches for 158 yards and a touchdown plus Dorian Strong having two interceptions, and Keonta Jenkins having 2.5 tackles for loss and a forced fumble.

The biggest performances came on the women’s side on two different fronts. Let’s start with Rose Micheaux who made history becoming the second female Hokie to ever have a triple-double joining Georgia Amoore. In the Hokies’ victory over Elon, Micheaux had 19 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 assists in what continues to be an impressive start to her 2024-25 season.

The other person who deserves this honor is VT defender Allie George who had a goal for the ages from about as sharp of an angle as you can imagine in the 80th minute of the Sweet 16 against 3 seed Iowa. That was the lone goal of the night, sending the Hokies to the Elite 8 next weekend for the second time ever in program history, the other of which came in 2013 when they made it all the way to the College Cup.

Stat of the Week: Virginia Tech gave up eight sacks, the first time they’ve allowed eight or more sacks in a game since the 2011 Orange Bowl loss to Stanford. Those eight sacks were among 14 tackles for loss for Duke, the most TFLs allowed by the Hokies since allowing 18 in a September 2004 loss to NC State. That high volume of negative plays thwarted the Hokies’ hopes of victory.

Notable Postgame Quote: This was a roller coaster of a game where both Duke and Virginia Tech controlled two of the four quarters. However, it’s better to be the one in control than the one chasing as Brent Pry admitted postgame.

“Especially in the first half, it was feast or famine. We were giving them big plays or making big plays. When you spot a good team 14 points like that, it’s tough.”

Having to play from behind has been a problem though the Hokies overcame it in this one. However, the lack of consistency that led to a feast or famine game has been true of the Hokies throughout the year, with stretches of dominant brilliance and stretches that are complete disaster. That’s a big reason why the Hokies are 5-6 needing to beat UVA to reach a bowl game.

Monday Notes

ACC Championship Game Race Update: SMU clinched their spot in the ACC Championship after defeating Virginia 33-7. Meanwhile, Miami will clinch their spot as well if they beat Syracuse. If the Orange take down the Hurricanes, Clemson will take on the Mustangs in Charlotte instead.

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

• ESPN's Mark Schlabach: Sun Bowl vs Washington
• ESPN's Kyle Bonagura: Gasparilla Bowl vs Oklahoma
• CBS Sports: Fenway Bowl vs East Carolina
• 247 Sports: Gasparilla Bowl vs Florida

Women’s Soccer Faces Duke Next: Following their successful weekend in Los Angeles, 7 seed Virginia Tech will take on 1 seed Duke next on Saturday in Durham for a spot in the College Cup. Kickoff is preliminarily at 6pm which makes for a crazy Saturday evening of VT sports with this game plus the Commonwealth Cup at 8 and Women’s Basketball playing either Michigan or Belmont in Fort Myers at either 5pm or 7:30pm depending on whether they beat Davidson on Friday or not.

Bo Bassett Top 12: No. 7 Virginia Tech Wrestling isn’t just shining on the mat, but they’re also making waves off of it. That includes on the recruiting trail as the #1 overall recruit in the 2026 class Bo Bassett including the Hokies in his top 12 and has had high praise about his recent VT visit in multiple places.

Bhayshul Tuten Looks More Like Himself: After missing Syracuse and being extremely limited against Clemson, Bhayshul Tuten looked the most like himself for the first time since the Georgia Tech game injury, breaking tackles and showing off explosiveness. That led to Tuten having 19 carries for 84 yards and a touchdown, playing a big role on a night where redshirt freshman QB Pop Watson led the offense for three of four quarters. With injury questions circling the QB room, Tuten will be critical to Tech’s success against UVA and this game should be an encouraging sign that he’ll be ready to shine as he did last year. He also became the Hokies’ first 1,000 yard rusher this past weekend since Khalil Herbert back in 2020.

Three-Straight Double-Doubles For Rose Micheaux: With her triple-double on Saturday, Rose Micheaux now has three-straight double-doubles for only the second time in her career, with the chance to make it four-straight for the first time in her career on Friday against Davidson. On the season, Micheaux is averaging 15.2 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 2.7 assists in only 25.0 minutes per game in what has been an impressive start to her second season in Blacksburg.

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

Monday (11/25)

• Men’s Basketball vs Michigan (6pm in Fort Myers, FL)

Wednesday (11/27)

• Volleyball at Notre Dame (2pm in South Bend, IN)
• Men’s Basketball vs Xavier or South Carolina (6/8:30pm in Fort Myers, FL)

Friday (11/29)

• Volleyball vs Syracuse (1:30pm in Blacksburg)
• Women’s Basketball vs Davidson (4:30pm in Fort Myers, FL)

Saturday (11/30)

• Women’s Basketball vs Michigan or Belmont (5/7:30pm in Fort Myers, FL)
• Women’s Soccer at Duke (6pm in Durham, NC; NCAAs Elite 8)
• Football vs Virginia (8pm in Blacksburg)