Paul Johnson may no longer be the head coach at Georgia Tech and the triple-option may no longer be the primary offense for the Yellow Jackets, but Georgia Tech dominated the ground game like Johnson did and ran the Hokies out of Atlanta with ease Saturday afternoon, albeit not without some light late drama due a VT surge in the closing minutes.
Virginia Tech lost to No. 13 Georgia Tech 35-20 to fall to 2-5 on the season including 1-2 in ACC play while the Yellow Jackets improved to 6-0 overall including 3-0 in the ACC. The Hokies will mercifully get their first bye of the season before facing California on a Friday night next while Georgia Tech heads to Durham for what is their toughest remaining ACC game against Duke.
Georgia Tech set the tone early in this game, jumping out to a 15-0 lead and then never looking back, only briefly allowing VT to make it a one-score game early in the second half before quickly responding with a touchdown drive of their own. The Hokies didn't give up at any point and even a run at it after going down 35-14 with a touchdown, quick stop, and then a long drive into the red zone that got stopped on a fourth down with less than three minutes to go.
Georgia Tech's offensive dominance especially on the ground defined this game as the Yellow Jackets ran for 268 yards on 42 carries, an average of 6.4 yards per carry. Georgia Tech's three-monster rushing attack each ran for over four yards per carry with Malachi Hosley being the star having 129 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries.
Georgia Tech's offense largely did what they want with Buster Faulkner calling an impressive game while Haynes King shined going 20-24 for 213 yards and one touchdown while running for 60 yards and two touchdowns. The Hokies allowed 7.3 yards per play in this game and never really had much of an answer for the Yellow Jackets.
VT's offense was the better of the two units in this game, though 157 of their 367 yards came during the fourth quarter as VT was down three scores at one point in it. One area of issue was third down as the Hokies were 0-8 in third down, though they were 3-4 on fourth down. Tech’s failure to build long drives in the first half put the Hokies on the eight ball and they were never able to fully recover.
Penalties were also an issue as the Hokies had 10 penalties for 82 yards in this game, seeing multiple solid starts to drives crumble due to those penalties while also helping Georgia Tech keep things rolling too. The Yellow Jackets did return the favor some too with six penalties of their own for 70 yards, but VT's penalties proved to be more detrimental in the end.
Kyron Drones was just a little too inconsistent in this game given the thin margin for error that the Hokies had against a good Georgia Tech. He made some great throws and plays with his legs but also some bad mistakes including a bad overthrow on a simple slant for his interception and a bad decision to keep a read option rather than give it to Marcellous Hawkins on 4th and 1 when Hawkins would have had the touchdown.
Drones finished the game 13-21 for 181 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception plus 83 rushing yards and a touchdown on 16 carries. Drones had a solid game overall and looked pretty good at times in the passing game along with a strong rushing attack. However, there were just a few too many errors from Drones to be closer in this game, albeit even a perfect Drones game likely wouldn’t have been enough today.
Marcellous Hawkins had a season-high 82 yards on nine carries, making multiple guys miss and generating multiple chunk plays on what was a strong day for him. Tayke Heath was a bright spot with four catches for 58 yards in the best game of his career to date while Ayden Greene had four catches for 72 yards and Ja'Ricous Hairston had two catches for 36 yards and two touchdowns.
Caleb Woodson made his return for Virginia Tech today after not playing since the dismissal of Brent Pry after the ODU loss. Woodson had six tackles on the afternoon with Philip Montgomery saying that an unspecified injury was the reason why Woodson hasn't played the past few weeks. If Woodson plays in another game, he will officially burn his redshirt.
Joseph Reddish was an unexpected starter and bright spot at nickel with six tackles including two for loss while George Ballance led the Hokies with eight tackles. Freshman Noah Chambers continues to play well with five tackles including 0.5 for loss today while Kemari Copeland had 1.5 tackles for loss.
Jojo Crim had four tackles and became the first Hokie to burn his redshirt this season. Freshman safeties Sheldon Robinson (two tackles) and Brennan Johnson (one tackle) also played today and will burn their redshirts if they play any more this season while Chambers still has one more game before being at risk of burning his redshirt.
Special teams were a strength for the Hokies for most of this game after Tech got fooled on an early punt return by Georgia Tech where VT focused in on the wrong guy, leading to a 42-yard return by Eric Rivers.
Nick Velsistsas had four punts for 191 yards including three inside the 20 with two inside the 5. What was notable were the two punts downed inside the 5 were primarily through the air and not due to some fortunate bounces. While VT gave up a field goal on one of the two punts downed inside the 5, they turned the other into great field position in Georgia Tech territory and a quick touchdown.
Isaiah Spencer also showed promise as a punt returner with two punt returns for 28 yards.
One thing that can't be doubted is the fact that the team that Virginia Tech currently has fought to the end. Despite the litany of injuries and absences especially in the secondary (which grew to include Thomas Williams after he suffered an injury during this game), the Hokies fought all the way to the end and kept the game slightly in tension during much of the second half.
Unfortunately for the Hokies, the chasm between the quality of Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech is significant, and the Yellow Jackets were generally on their game today to make sure they took care of business.
