Virginia Tech Football: 3 major concerns following Louisville loss

Just when you thought the Virginia Tech football team was turning a corner, Saturday’s performance at Louisville was a harsh reminder of where they still are. In a rebuild.

Playing for control of second place in the ACC and controlling their path to the ACC title game in December against  Florida State with a win, the Hokies reverted to the September Hokies and suffered a demoralizing 34-3 loss to Louisville.

Several concerning trends showed up again against the Cardinals and now the Hokies have some damage control to do to get ready for their final three games of the season, needing two wins to become bowl-eligible. Here are three major concerns following the loss to Louisville.

Virginia Tech looked flat on both sides of the ball

After losing to Florida State on Oct. 7, head coach Brent Pry spoke about his team not being ready to play and how that was on him. Well, then it should be on him after his team looked flat and not prepared for the Cardinals.

The same thing happened at Rutgers and Florida State. The Seminoles scored 22 unanswered points in the first quarter and Tech was never able to recover and Louisville put up 14 early points and Virginia Tech was never able to recover.

Pry’s team is not built to come from behind and good starts are an almost must. There are still two games remaining to right the ship, but a good start is necessary to have an opportunity to win a game.

Offensive play calling and execution were not good

Offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen had a good month of October calling plays and getting his offense to execute. That was not the case against Louisville and a troubling trend on the road continued against the Cardinals.

Virginia Tech was playing behind the sticks from the get-go, their protection broke down several times and quarterback Kyron Drones was sacked and presnap penalties limited the playbook for Bowen.

The Hokies racked up just 140 yards of total offense against the Cardinals, nine days after rushing for 318 against Syracuse. First and foremost, let’s make one thing clear, there is a gap in talent between Virginia Tech’s three conference wins over Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, and Syracuse to their two conference losses to the Seminoles and Cardinals. That is likely going to be the matchup in the ACC title game, but the fact that the Hokies couldn’t get much done offensively against either team is a bit of a concern.

The players need to execute better, not commit presnap penalties, and allow Bowen to have a lot of the playbook to use. Crowd noise next weekend at Boston College should not be an issue as the Eagles routinely don’t sell out Alumni Stadium.

Virginia Tech’s defense allows too many big plays

If there has been on common theme this season on the road for the Hokies’ defense, it’s been allowing the big plays. That continued at Louisville.

Getting off the field has been a problem for Chris Marve’s defense, but that was not much of an issue against the Cardinals because of the big plays they got. Running back Isaac Guerendo had three touchdown runs of 39,12 and 36 yards, while wide receiver Jadon Thompson had a 37-yard touchdown reception. Louisville was just 2-for-8 on third downs in the game.

Big plays have been an issue and I’ll say it again, Virginia Tech is not a team built to come from behind, especially big deficits. Getting off the field on third down has been getting better as the season has gone along, limiting the big plays needs to get better as well.

Winning two out of three games remaining to become bowl-eligible is doable for the Hokies, however, if they are going to do it, then fixing these major concerns is a must. That begins this weekend in Chestnut Hill, Mass. against Boston College.