What looked like a marquee matchup on paper was far from it after the ball was kicked off on Friday night in Dallas, Texas. SMU and Virginia Tech entered the game with two ACC losses, and the winner would keep their slim ACC Championship Game hopes alive. SMU's is alive and well and Virginia Tech's was dashed.
SMU was off and running on the game's first drive and never looked back, and rolled to a 51-28 rout of the Hokies at home to improve to 7-2 overall and dropped Virginia Tech and James Franklin to 6-3. Here are two winners and four losers.
Winner: Rhett Lashlee
Normally, when a team wins the coin toss, they will defer to the second half. Rhett Lashlee's decision to receive the opening kickoff opened some eyes, but set the tone. His team marched down the field on the opening drive, putting the Hokies behind the eight ball for the rest of the game. It was a great decision, and the pressure was on Virginia Tech, and they couldn't handle it. Big statement.
Loser: Virginia Tech's defense
Where do we start? SMU scored on their first eight possessions, and there really wasn't much resistance. Late in the first half, Tyson Flowers was ejected for targeting on a dropped pass by the Mustangs, which would have led to a 3rd-and-15. Instead of getting a stop going into halftime down 20-14 and getting the ball to begin the second half, SMU moved into field goal range for a 23-14 lead at the break.
SMU racked up 569 total yards, with quarterback Kevin Jennings going 24-for-32 through the air for 350 yards and four touchdowns, while the running backs rushed for 200 yards. They lacked communication in the secondary, which you would think would be fixed by the ninth game of the season.
Winner: Jeffrey Overton Jr.
The lone bright spot on offense was running back Jeffrey Overton Jr. The sophomore running back rushed for 123 yards on 13 carries and two touchdowns while averaging 9.5 yards per carry. He also had four receptions for 33 yards. There needed to be more Jeffrey Overton Jr. earlier in the game. He is too good to not have more carries earlier in the game.
Loser: Virginia Tech's offensive line
Where do we start here? Montavious Cunningham returned, but it didn't really make a difference. Grunkemeyer was under more pressure than he would have liked. SMU had four sacks and seven tackles for a loss while forcing a key fumble in the first half that the Mustangs' offense turned into a touchdown pass on the next play. Not much more to say here.
Loser: Halftime adjustments
This is something else that won't surprise you, but it was another disappointing game with not many adjustments coming out of the locker room. The Hokies were outscored 14-0 in the third quarter and have now been outscored 58-10 this year in the third quarter. Virginia Tech got the ball to begin the second half and went three-and-out.
Franklin acknowledged the issues his club has had this season post-halftime and tried to address them, but he hasn't been able to. We'll see what happens next week against Stanford at home.
Loser: James Franklin
Coming out of a bye week and after a huge 20-16 road win at Clemson, you would have thought that the Hokeis would have come out ready to go, but no. They were flat, punched in the mouth by a team coming off a tough loss at Syracuse last weekend. You had to expect an upset team at home on a Friday night in front of a lot of Hokies fans in Texas, but no. Virginia Tech looked unprepared and unprepared for it on offense, defense and special teams.
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