Amidst a season of frustration and disappointment for Virginia Tech, the Hokies delivered one of their best performances of the season to end it. Outside of Virginia showing signs of life in the latter half of the third quarter and opening third of the fourth quarter, Virginia Tech was the dominant team on their way to a comfortable victory in the 105th edition of the Commonwealth Cup.
Virginia Tech beat Virginia 37-17 to improve to 6-6 on the season and clinch bowl eligibility for the second-straight season. This is also the Hokies' 19th win in the past 20 matchups against Cavaliers, with the only loss during that time coming in 2019.
Virginia Tech was dominant in the opening 30 minutes of this game, outgaining Virginia 254-84 while scoring on four of their six first half drives. This was an efficient offensive performance overall as the Hokies scored on seven of their 10 drives before bringing in depth guys to run out the clock following Mansoor Delane's late fourth quarter interception.
Meanwhile, VT's defense was sharp in the first half holding UVA to only 84 first half yards. While they had a couple rough drives, giving up back-to-back touchdowns in the late third and early fourth quarters, they held UVA to only one field goal on their other nine possessions. The Cavaliers also were held to only 4.0 yards per play while the Hokies averaged an impressive 7.5 yards per play.
A big reason for the Hokies' success was the play of redshirt freshman QB Pop Watson.
He shined in his first career start as he was 14-21 for 254 yards and a touchdown plus 48 rushing yards on 11 carries and a rushing touchdown. This included Watson bringing a downfield passing element that had been missing for most of the season, with Watson completing three passes of 35+ yards in this game, all of which were primarily via air yards rather long catch-and-runs.
Now this was against the 125th ranked pass defense in the country, but Watson showed some legitimate arm talent and elusive running that shows why many rightly see him as a high ceiling guy. There's plenty of reason to believe that Watson can be a star in the future at Virginia Tech, possibly as soon as next season depending on what Kyron Drones decides to do and then what VT does out of that.
Bhayshul Tuten and Jaylin Lane both shined in their home games at Virginia Tech as Tuten ran for 124 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries while Lane had four catches for 91 yards and a touchdown plus 17 rushing yards. Those two have been Tech's best offensive playmakers and delivered in this big game.
Ali Jennings continued his strong finish to the season with two catches for 51 yards while Da'Quan Felton had two catches for 50 yards and Ayden Greene had three catches for 36 yards.
Antwaun Powell-Ryland was impressive once again with three sacks and a forced fumble in this game, being a force from the first defensive snap. With his three sacks, Powell-Ryland is now 0.5 sacks off the national lead of Donovan Ezeiruaku at 16.5 with Marshall's Mike Green also at 16 after entering this game with the national lead at 15.
Aeneas Peebles had another strong game with three tackles including 1.5 for loss while Caleb Woodson was all over the field, leading the Hokies with nine tackles. Jaylen Jones added five tackles, an interception, and a pass breakup while Mansoor Delane had four tackles and an interception.
While this victory doesn't change the fact that this was a massive miss of expectations by Virginia Tech, this is still a solid victory in dominant fashion over a rival. The Hokies were in control of this game for most of the proceedings, with UVA only briefly showing signs of life for a roughly 10-minute stretch in the third and fourth quarters.
The Hokies can now look ahead to a bowl game and a chance for a second-straight winning season. However, that shouldn't change the fact that Brent Pry era 1.0 has plateaued and changes are needed if Pry wants to meet the standard of being a consistent ACC contender at Virginia Tech, something that Tech missed by a wide margin this season. Those changes may take a few days though, as I would be surprised if VT made any changes public prior to Wednesday's Signing Day. If anything, changes likely come around next Friday but that's just speculation.
For now though, if you're a Hokie fan, enjoy the 19th victory in the past 20 matchups over UVA, with the Hokies now awaiting their bowl destination.
