Virginia Tech Football: What we’ve learned through the first four weeks
By Scott Roche
Virginia Tech failed to take advantage of favorable non-conference schedule
It is easy to sit back one month into the season and look back at their four non-conference games and you can make the case that despite their injuries, they have seemed to have missed a chance of being 2-2 or 3-1. Seriously.
They beat Old Dominion, 36-17, in their season opener and rode a strong second half, which included forcing three takeaways to pull away from the Monarchs. ODU played into the hands of the Hokies with some questionable play-calling, but they hung around until the second half. Last week, ODU improved to 2-2 after a home win over Texas A&M Commerce, 10-9, last weekend.
The most disappointing loss happened in Week 2 when Purdue came to Lane Stadium and won, 24-17, in a game that went through a pair of weather delays. Starting QB Grant Wells was injured in that game and wide receiver Ali Jennings also left with an injury. The Hokies were shut out in the second half by a team that has lost home games to Fresno State, Syracuse, and Wisconsin. The Syracuse and Wisconsin games were not all that competitive.
Back-to-back road losses at Rutgers and Marshall were losses where if a few things had gone differently then the result could have been different. That is true in the loss to Marshall where things started out well for the Hokies and they had a chance to build on it but failed.