James Franklin's debut as Virginia Tech's head coach went about as well as anyone could have imagined as the Hokies did exactly what you would expect them to do against an opponent ranked 406th in ESPN's SP+ rankings, run them out of the stadium.
Virginia Tech beat VMI 73-3 in a game that was uncompetitive from the start to finish. This is the largest margin of victory for the Hokies since a 73-0 victory over Catholic on October 28th, 1922. James Franklin also now has the largest margin of victory for a Virginia Tech head coach in his debut since Sally Miles made his debut on September 30th, 1905 with an 86-0 victory over Roanoke College.
This was a complete team performance for the Hokies as they dominated all aspects of the game and create some extreme stats in this game.
VMI needed to run five pass plays to successfully get a pass attempt off, with that first completion coming after over 25 minutes of football had been played. Virginia Tech blocked two punts in a single half for the first time since November 2, 1996 when VT blocked two punts in the first half of a 47-16 victory against Louisiana-Lafayette.
Virginia Tech outgained VMI 348-32 in the first half while averaging 10.2 yards per play. The Hokies had 12 tackles for loss on 28 offensive plays for VMI and held VMI to only two first downs, one of which came via penalty during that first half. The Hokies also had the aforementioned two blocked punts with one of them being returned for a touchdown. The Hokies finished the game with a 619-83 total yards advantage, an average of 8.6 yards per play, and 18 tackles for loss including five sacks.
If you are looking for points of critique tonight, one of those could be the fact that the Hokies have three offsides penalty from its backup defensive linemen during the first half. VT finished the night with 11 penalties for 90 yards though most of those were not by starters in the flow of the game other than LG Layth Ghannam having two penalties.
Ethan Grunkemeyer also had a couple misses on deep pass attempts to Que'Sean Brown during the first half, but was quite strong overall.
The other critique is James Franklin complaining about the lack of an extra second at the end of the first half after a Luke Reynolds catch, which was accurate but also in a 45-0 lead against an overpowered VMI, and then running a hook-and-lateral for some bizarre reason. I get being competitive but those actions appear completely unnecessary when playing a FCS opponent that is ranked 406th in SP+ and a program from which you poached its head coach for an analyst role this offseason. The only reasoning that I could see is if they wanted to put the hook-and-lateral on tape for future opponents to potentially monitor as a decoy.
Otherwise, it was a complete and dominant performance from the Hokies, especially during the first half when their starters and top backups played with regularity before a second half where VT started getting other players into the game, albeit after VT gave each group of starters one possession, which they dominated.
Ethan Grunkemeyer was quite smooth as he went 17-20 for 224 yards and two touchdowns while running for six yards on two QB sneaks. Outside of missing a couple open deep balls, he was as advertised against an overmatched VMI team.
Jeff Overton Jr set new career highs in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns as he ran for 104 yards and two rushing touchdowns on only nine carries. Meanwhile, Marcellous Hawkins had 2+ rushing touchdowns in a game for the first time as a Hokie, running for 69 yards and three touchdowns on 12 carries.
Que'Sean Brown had a standout debut with six catches for 109 yards and a touchdown plus two punt returns for 38 yards. Luke Reynolds also did well with five catches for 50 yards. Davion Brown earned the starting WR3 spot on the depth chart and had a solid debut with three catches for 31 yards. It wasn't a perfect night for Brown as he had a punt bounce off his feet in the fourth quarter and be recovered by VMI. Ayden Greene had three catches for 23 yards.
Among the backups on offense, Bryce Baker was quite good going 10-12 for 127 yards and a touchdown. The arm talent was impressive as he had a beautiful 40-yard touchdown pass on the run to Chanz Wiggins that was the ultimate highlight for Baker. Wiggins had that 40-yard touchdown while Tyseer Denmark had two catches for 36 yards and Messiah Mickens had five carries for 23 yards in his collegiate debut.
After earning his way into the starting lineup at DE during fall camp, Cortez Harris shined in his Hokie debut with three tackles including 1.5 TFLs with one sack plus a blocked punt that Knahlij Harrell recovered for a touchdown. Keon Wylie had four tackles including two for loss with 0.5 for loss while Noah Chambers had four tackles including one for loss, and Kaleb Spencer had three tackles including 1.5 for loss with one sack.
Aycen Stevens had four tackles including 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble while Quentin Reddish had three tackles with one for loss and Tyson Flowers had two tackles plus a blocked punt to round out the standout defensive starters.
Mylachi Williams led the Hokies with 2.5 tackles for loss among his three tackles including one sack. George Ballance led VT with six tackles including one for loss plus a QB hurry. Samuel Okunlola had 1.5 tackles for loss while Thomas Williams had an interception.
We will have more as this story develops.
