In three out of four games to begin the 2024 season, the Virginia Tech Hokies (2-2) have struggled offensively in the first half, while surging late in the game.
That trend continued on Saturday, as the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (3-0) remained undefeated, defeating Tech 26-23 in Lane Stadium, where the crowd fled as the game went on.
“Obviously there’s signs [of positivity] out there each of these four games,” said third year coach Brent Pry on the 2-2 start. “We just haven’t put it all together…as proud as I am of the way we battled back [against Rutgers], we gotta coach better and play better.”
The victory was Rutgers second-straight against the Hokies, who still lead the all-time series 12-5 despite back-to-back losses.
A year ago in Piscataway, Rutgers dominated the ground game via a 143-yard, three-score day from running back Kyle Monangai, winning 35-16.
This time around, the story of the day was missed opportunities by Virginia Tech, which lost the turnover battle 3-1, and still came within a few plays of winning the game in the fourth quarter.
Kyron Drones, who has struggled throughout the passing game amid offensive line issues early in the year, missed two deep balls to Da'Quan Felton that would have likely resulted in two touchdowns.
The redshirt junior also took part in an embarrassing safety late in the first half, in which Parker Clements stepped on both his ankles, taking down the Texas native for a safety after throwing the ball out of the endzone while going down due to the incident with Clements.
The Hokies QB finished the day 13-of-27 on passing attempts for 137 yards, and the game sealing interception on a batted pass with under two minutes remaining in regulation.
Drones also ran for 60 yards on five carries, in comparison to Scarlet Knights quarterback Arthan Kaliakmanis, who carried the ball 11 times for 34 yards, threw for 269 yards, and had zero turnovers.
Kaliakmanis only found three receivers throughout the day, with TE Kenny Fletcher (seven receptions), WR Dymere Miller (five catches), and WR Ian Strong (four grabs) - hauling in all 16 of Kaliakmanis' completions.
Strong, who had 110 yards in Saturday’s contest, had the biggest play of the day for Rutgers, hauling in a 63-yard reception, ending the Hokies' momentum from 16 straight fourth quarter points to set up what would end up being the game winning field goal for Rutgers kicker Jai Patel (one-for-three on field goals in this game).
For Tech, the offensive player of the game was once again Bhayshul Tuten. The Hokies outstanding senior running back carried the ball 15 times for 122 yards and all three of Virginia Tech’s touchdowns in week four.
Tuten is now up to 391 rushing yards through four games, with eight total touchdowns. His rushing total has him on pace to possibly become Virginia Tech's first 1,200+ yard rusher since David Wilson ran for 1,709 yards in 2011.
Unfortunately for Tuten, Tyler Bowen’s offense once again took too long to get going, scoring just seven points in the first half - on a 23-yard rush from the main man.
“We just gotta get back to the drawing board, and let it be the past,” said Tuten on Saturday’s results given the pre-season hype the squad received. “I think we just started playing our brand of ball (in the second half), [offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen] started calling the game the way we wanted to play.”
The Hokies defense - outside of a poor second quarter in which they had no answer for the Scarlet Knights' RPO that prioritized the tight end in the flat from his alignment on the opposite side of the field, had nothing to hang their hats on.
Aeneas Peebles & Antwuan Powell-Ryland came up with a sack apiece (with APR now the national leader with six after being credited with a half-sack on what was originally a full sack for Peebles). Meanwhile, Mansoor Delane was strong in man coverage while also forcing a fumble in this game. Since his rough opener at Vanderbilt, opponents
Monangai (89 yards) was held to 3.2 yards per carry, while his mate in the backfield Samuel Brown V had two touchdowns on 14 carries, but the Hokies held Rutgers to only 3.7 yards per carry on non-sack runs. That's a strong accomplishment for Chris Marve's defense that they can build on given the talent of Monangai and Rutgers' offensive line.
On special teams, Jaylin Lane muffed the first punt he saw, resulting in a turnover that led to seven for Rutgers. He did have a 34-yard punt return later on and led the Hokies in receiving yards (38).
With so much returning production, many are starting to consider Virginia Tech one of the most disappointing teams in the nation this season compared to what seemed like reasonable predictions. Plenty of reasons have been thrown around including the fact that this team simply may not have developed as much as expected and that teams have more film especially on the Hokies' offense now that is allowing them to be better prepared.
Regardless, the pressure will begin to mount as the team enter ACC play. They have two tough road tests ahead of them starting with a road trip to No. 7 Miami (4-0) Friday before their first in-conference trip to Stanford (2-1, 1-0 ACC) in two weeks.
For Pry, his focus is now on figuring out why his team has started out this poorly and how they can fix that with the pressure ramping up.
“We have to look at it,” said Pry on the poor non-conference play. “We made some changes - the way we start practices, our mindset…we have to look at it some more, I can’t answer it right now, we have to dive into it.”
When the hype train was rolling, things were easy for the Hokies with some feeling a return to prominence might be an easy stroll. Instead, the road to glory is proving to be tough for the Hokies after all even with as talented of a roster as they've had in years.
