Virginia Tech Football: 5 things we learned from Virginia win

Needing a win to take the next step in the rebuild going into 2024, the Virginia Tech football team took a giant step in that direction with a 55-17 blowout of Virginia Saturday in the annual Commonwealth Cup in Charlottesville.

After starting the season 0-4 on the road, the Hokies completed their second road-dominating victory in two weeks after blasting Boston College, 48-22, on Nov. 11. This just wasn’t a win, it was a total domination of the Cavaliers to continue their dominance in the rivalry.

With Virginia Tech becoming bowl-eligible, here are five things we learned in the latest edition of the Commonwealth Cup to close out the 2023 regular season.

1. Virginia Tech’s defense is relentless

In their five ACC wins this season, the Virginia Tech defense has been relentless and made life miserable for opposing quarterbacks. Phil Jurkovec was pulled as Pittsburgh’s starter after losing to the Hokies, Wake Forest went through two QBs against Tech, Syracuse lost Garrett Schrader to an injury and he finally returned this past weekend against Wake Forest. Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos was pressured all day by the Hokies and Saturday, Virginia’s Anthony Colandrea was running trying to avoid the Hokies rush.

Colandrea was sacked five times and threw for 243 yards, but most of them came in the second half with the score out of hand. Virginia had 286 yards of total offense, again most of that came in the second half. The Cavaliers had 18 first downs, but four of those came by penalty. It was a total domination from the unit as a whole and set the tone for the game.

2. Da’Quan Felton was GREAT

When the season began, Old Dominion transfer Ali Jennings was a player who was looked at as a major upgrade at wide receiver. In his first game of the season against his former team, he hauled in two touchdown catches and looked like a nice addition to the wide receiver room for the Hokies.

Unfortunately, he was injured in the first quarter in Week 2 at home against Purdue and has not played since. In his absence, the wide receiver, running backs, and tight ends have all worked together to fill the void after losing a top receiver, but as the season has gone along, Da’Quan Felton has stepped up, and boy, did he against Virginia.

His stat line isn’t going to blow you away with just three receptions, but he caught two for touchdowns and 133 yards, and he made two of those catches count. He caught a pass from quarterback Kyron Drones and went 84 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter for a 31-0 lead. Later in the quarter and with just 18 seconds left, he hauled in a 34-yard touchdown pass from Drones.

Again, it may not seem like a lot, but his contribution was huge and he sealed the victory in the third quarter with his two touchdowns. What was impressive was his speed on the first touchdown where he outran the Cavaliers secondary to the end zone.

3. Kyron Drones has a very bright future as QB1 in Blacksburg

Ok, so this not be any breaking news, however, you could make the case that one of the reasons why the Hokies are bowl-eligible is because of the play of Drones.

The Baylor transfer stepped into the starting spot in Week 3 at Rutgers and he has taken advantage of his opportunity. It was not the best start for him, but after road losses to the Scarlet Knights and Marshall, he has been very impressive in the ACC games.

Offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen figured out in the first two games how to best use Drones and since then, the Virginia Tech offense has taken off. As the season went along, the passing game with Drones has evolved into a strength of the Hokies. He had a strong second half against North Carolina State last weekend and he carried that confidence into this weekend against Virginia.

Drones is a dual threat and tough to bring down when he’s running the ball and the Cavaliers’ defense found that out Saturday. You can’t tackle him high and if you try, he’ll run you over. Even more impressive is his decision-making lately and how well he throws the ball, both short and long. The future is bright under center in Blacksburg.

4. Teams haven’t figured out not to kick to Bhayshul Tuten

Like Drones, Bhayshul Tuten has become a key part of the Hokies running game on offense. Brent Pry also has the North Carolina A&T transfer returning kickoffs and you would think by now teams have learned not to kick to him.

They haven’t.

The first sign should have been against Florida State on Oct. 7 in Tallahassee. Trailing 22-10 at halftime, the Seminoles kicked off to begin the second half and Tuten returned it 99 yards for a touchdown. Not many players are going to outrun the FSU kick team, but Tuten did and blew by them.

Against Virginia, the Cavaliers booted to him after a field goal in the third quarter, which was a strange decision down 31-0 to begin with, but they compounded matters by kicking to Tuten who did a nice job of letting his blockers set up, do their job and went 94 yards and was barely touched, if even at all, on his way to the end zone.

Maybe the Hokies Bowl opponent will pay attention to Tuten in the kicking game, but then again, maybe they won’t.

5. Virginia is all bark and no bite

After beating Duke last weekend, Colandrea spoke about the matchup with the Hokies and went on the record that they were going to win. Message sent in Charlottesville and message received in Blacksburg.

Colandrea wasn’t alone in giving Pry, his staff, and team bulletin board material after the Cavaliers beat the Blue Devils, and so did safety Jonas Sanker.

You would think that after speaking as strongly as Colandrea and Sanker did that Virginia would come out ready to go and give Virginia Tech everything they could handle. Well, guess again.

As it turned out, the Cavaliers came out and laid an egg. Defensively they offered little resistance against the Hokies’ offense, offensively they we shut down by the Virginia Tech defense, and in the end, Tech put up 55 points, the most ever by one team in a game in the rivalry and heading into the offseason at 3-9 with a lot more questions than answers.

Virginia was hoping to take another step in their rebuild, instead for one afternoon, they took a giant step backward. I get it, kids are young and they should think before they speak, but facing a Virginia Tech team hungry and looking to become bowl-eligible, there was no need to speak what they were thinking at the time.

In the end, the Hokies won and are bowl-eligible with another month of practice before a bowl game in December before they start planning for 2024.