At 0-3 and with an Interim Head Coach, Virginia Tech desperately needed a 'get right' chance, and they had it lined up against Wofford. "It's been an emotional week," Phillip Montgomery said during the postgame presser. "[I'm] very proud of our players and coaching staff." The Hokies dominated in all phases of the game in their 38-6 win. Let's dive in.
For starters, Quarterback Kyron Drones had arguably his best career game, going 27/32 with 307 yards on 9.6 yards per attempt. He also had four touchdowns, two of which came on the ground.
"I thought he worked the game plan really well," Montgomery said. "They do so much to keep the roof on, whether it was in some form of [cover] two, three, three cloud... We had a couple double move things that we tried to hit, we had a couple shots down the field that we tried to hit that just weren't there. They were [defending] just too deep. He did a good job."
Pop Watson also got some burn on the field, having three carries for 25 yards while being 0/1 through the air.
On the ground game, the Hokies saw five different running backs get carries. Marcellous Hawkins and P.J. Proileau led the charge. Hawkins had the most rushing yards with 79 on 13 carries. Proileau had just three carries for 17 yards, but had seven catches for 65 total yards.
Braydon Bennett got his first carries in a Hokies uniform, having four total with eight yards and a touchdown. Jeremiah Coney also got a few carries, rushing for a total of six yards on two. Tyler Mason was the other ball carrying running back, having a yard on one carry.
On the receiving side of things, the Hokies did a great job facilitating and spreading wealth around, with 11 different players combining for Kyron Drones' 27 total completions. Ayden Greene was the standout receiver, who had four catches for 52 yards and a touchdown on an 18 yard deep slant.
Tucker Holloway had another strong game, catching two passes for 34 yards. Both of those came in the same drive. He also drew a pass interference call in the end zone that gave Virginia Tech a first down on the two yard line. That set up for a Kyron Drones touchdown run.
Devin Alves had his first career catch and touchdown. He had a strong performance with two catches for 32 yards and a touchdown. Cam Seldon had a strong day aswell, with three catches and a career high 31 yards. Donavon Greene also had a catch for ten yards.
The Hokies got good play from the tight ends as well. Ja'Ricious Hairston had a career long catch with a 23 yarder on a scramble drill from Drones. Benji Gosnell had a single catch for 18 yards as well.
On the offensive line front, the Hokies were forced to play a very young offensive line due to a plethora of injuries, but the team thought they played well. "They played great, they play great every week," said running back Marcellous Hawkins. "They go out there and give it their all every week. I love them boys."
Montgomery had his own thoughts about the offensive line as well. "It was good to get [Montavious Cunningham] back, you know? But we've still got quite a few young guys up front," Said Coach Montgomery. "Those guys are getting better. They're working hard each and every week. You know, a week ago they got thrown into the fire. They're gonna have to continue to keep growing, continue to keep developing. With that being said, they had a good week of practice. Obviously, I think it payed dividends for them this week. We'll continue to keep developing them and growing them because we're going to need them throughout the year. You never know when another guy's gonna get banged up. Hopefully that doesn't happen, but it could. The experience that they're getting right now is gonna pay dividends for us later.
On the defensive front, front seven had a fantastic game with four sacks while generating 12 total negative plays. Kelvin Gilliam led the charge with 1.5 sacks and two TFL's.
Kemari Copeland had a strong game, with half a sack and a TFL. He also had the Hokies' only interception, with an acrobatic diving play to force the turnover.
INT FOR KEMARI COPELAND #ThisIsHome | @hokiesports pic.twitter.com/VTvjxTPLVy
— Virginia Tech Football (@HokiesFB) September 20, 2025
"I was just working to the boundary and I see the ball in the air," Copeland said about his first collegiate interception. "It happened in two seconds, it was crazy.
Michael Short had a strong game from the linebacker position with four tackles, a sack and 1.5 TFL.
Gabe Williams played his first snaps since the Clemson game last year where he had a season ending injury. "Gabe has been through a lot this year," said Running Backs Coach Elijah Brooks, who recruiting Williams. "The injury, losing his dad... for him to have his opportunity to get out there and make that play, I was really excited for him. I've known Gabe [for] a very long time and recruited him here. I was very excited to see him do that."
The front seven held Wofford to -1 total rush yards. The last time Virginia Tech held an opponent to negative rush yards was in 2012, when they held a top 10 FSU team to -15 rushing yards in a 28-22 loss.
In the secondary, a bunch of young guys got to play, including JoJo Crim, Jahmari DeLoatch, Knahlij Harrell, Sheldon Robinson, and Brennan Johnson. For some of those guys, it was their first career snaps.
The secondary, even with a lot of young guys playing, they held the Terriers to just 142 passing yards.
For those counting at home, that is 141 total yards for Wofford. The least that Virginia Tech has given up since they beat Duke 45-0 in 2005. In that game, they gave up 35 total yards.
Overall, this was a big 'get right' win for Montgomery and Co. After an 0-3 start and a very emotional week following the dismissal of Brent Pry, they needed that.
