There have been plenty of memorable moments on Thursday nights from Virginia Tech. Tonight, Bhayshul Tuten wrote himself into that history with the greatest performance we've ever seen from a Hokie running back, breaking a Darren Evans record that was going to take a Herculean effort to achieve.
Virginia Tech beat Boston College 42-21 led by Bhayshul Tuten's school record 266 rushing yards to improve to 4-3 on the season including 2-1 in ACC play while the Eagles fall to 4-3 on the season including 1-2 in ACC play.
This game felt over before it even started in a way as the Hokies scored touchdowns on their first three drives for the first time since a 49-28 Thursday night loss to Georgia Tech on October 25th, 2018. Tech's defense also made some big plays with Kelvin Gilliam forcing a fumble that set the Hokies up for a short 19-yard TD drive for their second score while Antwaun Powell-Ryland recovered a botched handoff on Boston College's lone red zone appearance of the opening half.
The first 30 minutes was arguably the best half of football that Virginia Tech played in the Brent Pry era as they outgained BC 332-134 while averaging 11.1 yards per play compared to only 3.7 per play for BC.
The offensive success wasn't just Bhayshul Tuten putting on a rushing clinic, which he did with 128 yards on eight carries including an 83-yard touchdown run. This was also a highly effective passing attack with Kyron Drones going 12-13 for 144 yards and a touchdown, with his only incompletion coming via an Ali Jennings drop.
Tech's run defense did show some holes at time, but they did a great job containing the run threat of Thomas Castellanos while consistently getting pressure on the BC QB to throw BC off schedule often. When BC did complete passes, it was almost exclusively quick passes on underneath routes well away from the sticks, with the Hokies doing a great job of open-field tackling to minimize gains after the catch.
The Hokies were in total control of this game at halftime, but allowed Boston College to kick the door back open a little with BC having a pair of touchdowns to open the second half. In between those was a terrible decision by Kyron Drones to not throw it away, sailing it over Benji Gosnell instead right to Cameron Martinez for an easy interception that set up a four-play, 29-yard touchdown drive.
The spiraling kept building as Bhayshul Tuten had a fumble forced by star BC Donovan Ezeiruaku right after that short touchdown drive for Boston College, followed by a Mansoor Delane defensive holding that gifted BC a fresh set of downs after VT had BC stopped on a third and long. From there, BC took three plays to get the final 12 yards and make this a one-score game.
This wasn't the first time we've seen a Brent Pry team fail to handle adversity well, but rather spiral instead including this season as we saw a "shellshocked" Tech struggled in the first half at Vanderbilt, and Tech let ODU back into the game after things started to go awry during the second quarter of that game. The Hokies have to be better at responding to adversity quicker, with Tech being fortunate that they had a four-score buffer to rely on in this instance.
However, the Hokies finally quelled the BC momentum early in the fourth quarter when they got a big 4th and 1 stop at midfield thanks to Jaden Keller. That set up a crucial drive for the Hokies to take advantage of great field position which Tech delivering via a pair of Bhayshul Tuten runs including his third touchdown of the game in between a big 25-yard gain via Ayden Greene on another well-executed reverse.
Then Tech got a red zone stop after that with a BC fumbled field goal setting VT up at their 39, good field position that Bhayshul Tuten only needed one play to take advantage of via a 61-yard rushing touchdown.
Like the Vanderbilt and ODU game, the Hokies were once again able to use the end of a quarter to reset and stop the spiral. That part of the response is a positive though it has to come sooner if they want to beat the toughest teams left on their schedule including Clemson.
It also makes it easier to overcome adversity when you have Bhayshul Tuten in your backfield.
This was Tuten's best performance of his college career by far as he had 18 carries for a school record 266 rushing yards and three touchdowns, including two touchdowns runs of 60+ yards, plus a 20-yard receiving touchdown. Even if you take out the 83 and 61 yard rushing touchdowns, Tuten still ran for 122 yards on 16 carries. That's a simply incredible performance that likely has to be the greatest rushing performance in Virginia Tech history and is greatness worth celebrating.
Overall, the Hokies averaged an impressive 9.2 yards per play compared to 5.0 for BC, while outgaining the Eagles 5.0. The explosive plays were central to Tech's success and helped cover up the issues the Hokies had on third down, converting only 2 of 9 third downs in this game, though they were 1-2 on fourth down.
Kyron Drones had a Jekyll and Hyde night with a great first half going 12-13 for 144 yards and a touchdown plus 45 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns followed by a rough second half as he was 1-5 for 20 yards and a bad interception. The first half was encouraging to see from Drones, but a terrible decision not to throw the ball away on the interception and some inaccuracy hurt him.
Benji Gosnell continues to play well, leading the Hokies with four catches for 49 yards including 28 yards after the catch and an impressive mossing of a BC defender in the first half. Stephen Gosnell added three catches for 40 yards while Jaylin Lane had three catches for 22 yards.
Antwaun Powell-Ryland also made history tonight, becoming the first Hokie to have three four-sack games in his career with four sacks among his seven tackles plus a fumble recovery and a QB hurry. His three four-sack games now surpasses the previous record of two held by Bruce Smith while this individual four-sack performance matches the school record.
Jaden Keller led the Hokies with 10 tackles including 0.5 for loss while also having a big fourth down stuff early in the fourth quarter near midfield that started to quell the BC momentum. Caleb Woodson continues to play well with nine tackles including 1.5 for loss while Mansoor Delane also had nine tackles including 0.5 for loss.
Thomas Castellanos struggled to get much of a passing game going early, but was solid in the second half going 17-26 for 205 yards and two touchdowns plus 58 rushing yards. Turbo Richard led BC with 64 rushing yards while BC's tight ends gave VT issues as Kamari Morales had a team-high five catches for 36 yards while Jeremiah Franklin had three catches for a team-high 49 yards and a touchdown. Cameron Martinez had a huge game with seven tackles including two for loss with one sack plus an interception and a fumble recovery while Donovan Ezeiruaku had six tackles including 0.5 for loss with a forced fumble and a QB hurry.
While this was a roller coaster of a night, this game will be remembered for the greatness of Bhayshul Tuten, cementing himself among the best running backs who have ever taken the field for the Hokies. His performance also should put him right in the All-American hunt and rightly so on a night that he owned.
We also got to see the Tech that everyone expected this year for three quarters of this game but if they want to win out to reach the ACC Championship, they're going to have to provide four consistent quarters or else Clemson (and maybe a Syracuse or Georgia Tech) will take advantage.
