Coming off a pair of gut-wrenching losses to Pittsburgh and California, the Virginia Tech football team was looking to break a losing streak at Lane Stadium against Georgia Tech before playing at Clemson next week, a bye on Halloween Weekend, and then a trip to SMU in early November.
After taking a 21-point lead into halftime, the Hokies had to withstand a furious second-half rally by the Yellow Jackets to escape with a win to improve to 5-2 on the season while Georgia Tech fell to 2-4. Here are three observations from Virginia Tech's win on Homecoming Weekend.
Virginia Tech responds to early second-half haymaker from Georgia Tech
If there is one thing that has been true through the first half of the season, it's that Hokies never make things easy for themselves. Leading 24-3 at halftime, you would think they would have at least a semi-stress-free second half. No way.
Georgia Tech marched 75 yards on three plays in just 48 seconds to cut the deficit to 24-10. Then, after going three-and-out, Virginia Tech's defense was torched for another touchdown drive just 2:59 into the second half, and all of a sudden it was 24-17. However, the Hokies did something that they haven't done much over the last couple of years, and then punched back.
Jeffrey Overton Jr. had a beautiful catch-and-run for a touchdown in the third quarter, then a John Love field goal early in the fourth quarter got the lead back to three scores at 34-17. It was to think, oh no, here we go again, but they survived the early haymakers.
Virginia Tech finally forces multiple turnovers
One storyline that has been quietly on the back burner during the Hokies' two-game losing streak is their inability to create turnovers on defense. They entered the game with just one interception, and that came in the season opener six weeks ago against VMI. They finally got one against Georgia Tech.
Before we talk about that, the Hokies' defense forced a turnover on Georgia Tech's first drive of the game when Thomas Williams forced a fumble just outside of the end zone, and the ball went out the back of the end zone for a touchback. Then in the second quarter, Quentin Reddish picked off Yellow Jackets quarterback Alberto Mendoza, which set up a John Love field goal for a 24-3 lead.
Virginia Tech's pass defense is still not good
A win is a win, but man, the secondary still has some major issues on multiple levels and is something that likely won't get fixed in 2026. Mendoza is a good quarterback, not a great one, but he still carved up the secondary at times. Reddish was flagged for two pass interference penalties despite his interception; there was no communication on a third-quarter touchdown pass between him and Jaquez White.
Georgia Tech's best offensive possessions were when they went quick, and that is something that a lot of future opponents this season are likely going to try against Pry's defense. Mendoza finished with 335 passing yards and two touchdowns, but it doesn't feel like those issues are going to be fixed this season.
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