Monday night wrapped up the first new 12-team College Football Playoff between Ohio State and Notre Dame. If there is one thing that the last month showed us, we were long overdue for an expanded field with the No. 7 and 8 seeds making the final.
Notre Dame moved the ball down the field on the game’s opening drive with an almost 10-minute drive that ended with a touchdown. Ohio State responded with a lengthy drive down the field to tie the game in a little less time, but both drives proved one thing, Virginia Tech football is far away from competing with “Big Boy’’ football in the trenches along the offensive line.
Both the Irish and Buckeyes’ offensive lines used a physical front that opened up holes for ther running game and allowed their quarterbacks time to scan the field. If you have paid attention to the Hokies during the last two seasons, that has been a major issue for Brent Pry’s team. It got so bad that Virginia Tech’s coach had to let go of offensive line coach Ron Crook.
Pry hired West Virginia offensive line coach Matt Moore to replace Crook and he has a rebuild in front of him. Between players running out of eligibility and the transfer portal, the veteran coach will be starting from scratch. The two biggest losses were in the portal with Braelin Moore going to LSU and Xavier Chaplin heading to Auburn. That left the Hokies with an offensive line for the Duke’s Mayo Bowl with a thin line.
Moore has already made an impact in Blacksburg through the portal, bringing in some of his former players from West Virginia. There is still more work that needs to be done both through the portal and in spring practices and camp over the summer before the Hokies kick off the 2025 campaign against South Carolina in Atlanta. Talk about a brutal way for a brand-new offensive line to begin in front of quarterbacks Kyron Drones and Pop Watson. Offensive line play is huge in college football and that was never more evident Monday night in Atlanta.