After a disappointing 0-2 start to the season and a hot seat inferno surrounding Brent Pry and Virginia Tech, the Hokies return to the field looking for some relief as they welcome an Old Dominion team that is hungry for an upset after providing a solid test for ranked Indiana during week 1.
With kickoff just hours away, let’s get you ready for this showdown between Virginia Tech and Old Dominion with our preview followed by our predictions.
Keys to the Game: Colton Joseph currently leads all quarterbacks across college football in rushing yards through the first two weeks of the season. What’s more notable is that most of those yards came week 1 against ranked Indiana as he ran for 179 yards and two touchdowns on only 10 carries in ODU’s 27-14 defeat to the Hoosiers. For his career, ODU is only 2-2 when Joseph runs for 95+ yards but those two losses came last season to Sun Belt champs Marshall and this year to ranked Indiana, with those games being closer than expected both times. Joseph needs his run game to maximize what ODU can do as when teams force him to be more of a passer, the Monarchs usually come up short. ODU is 0-3 in games where Joseph has thrown it 30+ times, another clear indicator that if you want to beat Joseph, you need to force him to lean on his arm rather than his legs.
As I discussed in my ‘What to Watch’ piece, Virginia Tech needs to find a way to get Kyron Drones in rhythm and playing consistent football for four quarters. That’s been lacking the first two weeks of the season with Drones being defined by inconsistency for a multitude of reasons. Part of fixing that will certainly have to be leaning on his rushing abilities more often, something that is an integral part of his game.
Hokies to Watch: You can check out Josh Poslusny’s Hokies to Watch feature here. Marcellous Hawkins’ numbers aren’t great at first glance but when you dive into the deeper stats, you see that Hawkins has done more with less so far this season. He has seven missed tackles through two games while also averaging over 4.8 yards after contact per carry last week against Vanderbilt, better than his actual yards per carry average for the game. That should tell you all you need to know about the challenge Hawkins has been facing. If VT’s offensive line can give him some space, he could have a breakout game as Tech’s outright starting running back.
Virginia Tech X-Factor: It’s been a quiet start to the season for redshirt junior Benji Gosnell, who only has three catches for 12 yards through the first two games. Gosnell is a matchup mismatch for opponents as one of the ACC’s best receiving tight ends and someone who the Hokies should be finding more ways to get him opportunities to make plays. If Tech can get Gosnell opportunities to make plays, it could help the Hokies find a more sustained offensive rhythm.
Matchups to Watch: The battle in the trenches should be fascinating as Old Dominion has four redshirt seniors and a redshirt junior starting on their offensive line. That has been beneficial so far with the Monarchs averaging 9.1 yards per carry, with most of those yards coming on traditional runs as shown by how only 44 of Joseph’s 243 non-sack rushing yards are via scrambles per PFF. While ODU’s scheme isn’t as complicated as Vanderbilt, VT needs to be better in the trenches this week to shut down an ODU team that will want to run the ball early and often with Joseph and potential new starting RB Trequan Jones who had five carries for 163 yards and three touchdowns last week. If VT can contain ODU’s rushing attack, they should
Injury Watch: Virginia Tech’s offensive line has tons of questions with the status of starters Johnny Garrett and Montavious Cunningham plus top backups Jaden Muskrat and Brody Meadows all being unknown. If none of those four are able to go, redshirt freshmen Aidan Lynch and Tommy Ricard will slide in at tackle and guard respectively with Tomas Rimac likely moving from right tackle to left tackle with Lynch at RT.
Predictions
Tim Thomas
This has all the makings of a low-scoring football game this evening. Virginia Tech's offense is struggling a lot and while I think Tech's offense will perform better in this game, I think there are some deeper issues with offensive line depth and an offensive coordinator-quarterback mismatch that could riddle the Hokies on that front.
Tech's defense is going to need to be the strength of this team and will have to be better against the run than they were last week. ODU doesn't present the same scheme challenge that Jerry Kill and Vanderbilt did last week, but Colton Joseph is a dangerous runner who the Hokies have to effectively account for or will get punished for as Indiana did during week 1.
Personally, I think Tech's defense looks much more like the unit that we saw week 1 against South Carolina and will contain Joseph often in this game, forcing the ODU starting quarterback to try to beat Tech with his arm rather than his legs. That'll boost the Hokies and help give them some breathing room on their way to a two-score victory.
Prediction: Virginia Tech 20, Old Dominion 6
Josh Poslusny
The Hokies are the favorite at -5.5 for a reason. Vegas, along with the money thinks that this game is going to be a close migraine win for Virginia Tech, and I have to agree.
I see no reason to trust the Virginia Tech offense that had 21 total yards in the second half last week, especially against a defense that has looked somewhat strong so far this season. Defensively, I do like Sam Siefkes and the things that he brings to the table schematically. I do think that the complex structure of defense that he runs will be able to confuse Old Dominion.
