Virginia Tech Shows No Progress in 35-16 Loss to Rutgers
The Hokies are struggling on both sides of the ball, and Saturday's loss to Rutgers raises questions about the progress of Brent Pry's rebuild.
I’m not sure I recognize this Virginia Tech football program.
Take 2005 for example, when Virginia Tech defeated Duke, Ohio and Georgia Tech in a three-week span by a combined score of 141-7. The Hokies lost some games to decent teams every now and then (see their Nov. 5, 2005 loss to No. 5 Miami) but Virginia Tech held such a talent advantage over most teams that many couldn’t keep up.
Fast forward to the current era of Tech football and wins like that are hard to find. Instead, you see losses like these…
52-22 vs. Pittsburgh in 2018
45-10 vs. Duke in 2019
47-14 vs. Pittsburgh in 2020
17-3 vs. Boston College in 2021
54-10 vs. Maryland in 2021
41-10 vs. North Carolina in 2022
45-29 vs. Pittsburgh in 2022
The Hokies 35-16 loss to perennial Big Ten cellar-dweller Rutgers can get added to that list.
Nineteen points may seem like a small margin compared to many of the losses listed above but consider that Rutgers needed to complete just seven passes for 46 yards to get to that margin of victory. Rutgers consistently moved the ball against Virginia Tech’s defense, notching two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to evaporate any hope the Hokies’ had of leaving Piscataway with a win.
Call Rutgers what you will, but you cannot call them a powerhouse. The Scarlet Knights are 3-0 and hey, congrats to them, but everyone knows that when they hit the thick of their conference schedule, they’ll get eaten alive by the Big Ten like they always do.
And it’s that what concerns me most about this loss to Rutgers — if the Scarlet Knights aren’t that good, does that mean Virginia Tech is that bad?
Is the talent gap, created by Justin Fuente, and to a somewhat lesser extent Frank Beamer, so large that Brent Pry can be excused for a loss like this? Surely Pry and his coaching staff, the most expensive in school history, can coach their guys up to punch above their weight class.
I’d be doing Pry a disservice if I didn’t mention the injuries to his roster. Injuries to Ali Jennings, Jaylin Lane and Nasir Peoples have unquestionably had big impacts. There’s no denying that.
But where’s the progress? Through 14 games of the Pry-Bowen-Marve triumvirate, where have things gotten better?
It surely isn’t on the offensive side, where the Hokies are “rebounding” from a historically bad offense in 2022 and sporting the 108th-best total offense and 99th-best scoring offense in FBS.
There’s no evidence that the defense has improved, at least as a whole. While the secondary has held their own, it doesn’t matter when you allow 212 rush yards per game (127th in FBS).
Through the adversity, you would hope that Pry and his team could rally the troops and overachieve at least a little bit. Thus far, we just haven’t seen it.
I’ve never seen anything like this before in Blacksburg. This era feels unprecedented, and for the younger crowd it is.
I don’t recognize this football program. I don’t know where the Virginia Tech that I grew up with is, but I hope I find it soon.
Jimmy Sharpe was only given four years and two of his years coaching he had winning seasons. We can all agree the current coach is headed into his second losing year. Currently this team has played three games and looked horrible each time they have played. You mentioned this is the highest paid staff in the history of Virginia Tech Football. What do they do? I am always taken back when they announce the addition of another staff member, usually a young man or women that have no background in football. Do you realize how much these people are paid and for what real purpose? At least at the Liberty game last year we looked like we may have turned the tide, this year the tide has regressed. Stop the cheer leading and win games. In the real world if you don't perform you are shown the door!