Virginia Tech Football: Curious coaching decision turns into disaster again

Through the first three weeks of the 2023 season, the Virginia Tech football team has been looking for any sign of a running game. To compound matters, it’s not like they were playing the iron of college football against non-conference foes Old Dominion, Purdue, and Rutgers. Those defenses are not going to keep many offensive coordinators up at night trying to figure out how they are going to move the ball on the ground.

For the Hokies, running the ball has been nothing short of a disaster. The offensive line struggled opening holes for the backs, quarterback Kyron Drones rushed for 74 yards against Rutgers in Week 3 and a lot of that was because the protection was breaking down and he was forced to run to avoid being sacked. It wasn’t always successful as he was still sacked four times by the Scarlet Knights.

Saturday against Marshall, Virginia Tech appeared to find its running game on the game’s opening drive, marching 75 yards, with 62 of it coming on the ground and was capped by a Drones 31-yard touchdown run. It was the most promising drive of the season for the Hokies.

Signs of life. Until there wasn’t.

For some reason, Virginia Tech and Pry went away from the running game

A statement was sent on the opening drive for a team that was in need of anything positive in the running game. Sixty-two yards on the ground. It was the perfect drive for a team that was in desperate need of finding a running game. However, for some reason, not really known, the Hokies and coach Brent Pry decided to go away from the running game and turn Drones into a drop-back thrower.

Bhayshul Tuten had a 27-yard run on the game’s first drive before Drones’ touchdown run. Through the first quarter-plus, the Hokies had runs of 27, 31, and 49 yards, their three longest runs of the season to date. After that, for some strange reason, one not really known, Virginia Tech went away from the running game and it turned the game around. Struggling to get his receivers open, Drones was 19-for-35 for 160 yards through the air, but when they decided to throw more, the Thundering Hurd got more pressure and their defense slowly took over and allowed their offense to rally from a 10-7 deficit to a 24-10 lead in the fourth quarter.

Following the game, Pry said that they got away from the running game too much in the first half and wanted to get it going in the second half, however, they were not able to.

Now I’m no expert, however, if something is not broken, don’t fix it. Virginia Tech finished with their best day on the ground, rushing for 184 yards and averaging 6.1 yards per carry. Tuten had 90 yards rushing on nine carries and averaged 9.8 yards a carry.

Pry and the Hokies have been looking for a running game for three weeks, and they found it early against Marshall before abandoning it, which you can make the case, turned the game in the Thundering Hurd’s favor. You can blame Pry or the offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen, but whoever made the decision, it’s just the latest one in a long line of curious decisions through the first four weeks of the season.