Virginia Tech Football: 5 things we learned from win over Syracuse

The coaching staff was very busy during the off-week

It was clear from the start of the game that the coaching staff was very busy during the bye week. Defensively they were all over Syracuse and stopped nearly everything they tried to do. Offensively, Bowen appeared to put in a lot of long hours coming up with new looks for his unit, and boy did it pay off.

In the first quarter, the Hokies tried a halfback option and it didn’t work. If at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again and Bowen did. On their second drive, Thomas took a handoff from Drones sprinted to the right stopped, and threw a perfect pass over the defense to Da’Quan Felton for a 16-yard touchdown pass.

There were some news plays that the Hokies had yet to run this year and had a lot of misdirection and kept the Orange defense off-balance all night long. Drones, who didn’t look comfortable throwing the ball downfield early, was able to rebound and connected with Felton for a 62-yard touchdown in the second quarter. There was a lot of like in the play-calling all night long.

Now the Hokies must take the domination from the home games on the road to have success. These next two road games are going to be interesting to see how the defense plays on the road and how the offense reacts to being on the road in loud stadiums. It’s going to be a fun final four weeks in the 2023 season.