Where does Virginia Tech football quarterback situation rank among FBS schools?

Shortly after the Virginia Tech football team became bowl-eligible with a 55-17 victory over Virginia on Thanksgiving Weekend, the Hokies began a huge month on the right foot. Not only did that win give them extra practice as a team, but it also gave them another game against Tulane in the Military Bowl. Between the win over the Cavaliers and Green Wave at the end of December, head coach Brent Pry and his staff got a lot of retainment for the 2024 season from some of their key players.

One of those players was quarterback Kyron Drones and the Baylor transfer took off after filling in for the injured Grant Wells after he was injured in Week 2 against Purdue. In fact, after getting his feet wet against Marshall and Rutgers in a pair of non-conference games, he led the Hokies to five wins in eight ACC games to become bowl-eligible. He announced that he’s returning for the upcoming season, but which tier did he fall on by ESPN in The Transfer Market II Endgame with new teammate and UCLA transfer Collin Schlee?

Kyron Drones & Colin Schlee land on Tier 5a ahead of the 2024 season

ESPN ranked all 134 FBS QB situations into tiers ahead of the 2024 campaign and Drones and Schleewas ranked in the 5a tier with three other schools' transfer signal callers. Joining them were Florida’s Graham Mertz and D.J. Lagway, Georgia Tech’s Haynes King and Zach Pyron, and Oklahoma State’s duo of Alan Bowman and Garrett Rangel.

"Virginia Tech's Drones looks like an emerging star after the way the Hokies finished the 2023 season, but it's worth noting his emergence also came with a pretty light schedule. And when things got tougher, he struggled. In three games vs. top-40 (by efficiency), he posted a 46.4 Total QBR, 55.1% completions, 5.1 yards-per-pass, 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Virginia Tech lost all three games."

- David Hale

"No Power 5 QB had a higher percentage of his pass attempts come from outside the pocket in 2023 than Drones. He actually completed a higher percentage of his throws (60.2%) outside the pocket than inside (57.4%)."

- David Hale

Drones is certainly an emerging star and Schlee is one of the best backups that would be able to slide in and fill in Drones should something happen. Did Drones struggle against the top three teams in the ACC last season, Florida State, Louisville, and North Carolina State? Yes, he did, but that was a valuable experience for this season when he goes up against Miami and Clemson’s defense this fall. Was the Hokies ACC schedule “light” last season? You can make the case, but you can also make the case that it is light in 2024 with road games at Miami, Stanford, Syracuse, and Duke and home games with Boston College, Georgia Tech, Clemson, and Virginia. 

This year has no Louisville, FSU, or NC State on it, such is the life with conference realignment, but still, with a full off-season under his belt in Blacksburg and retaining a ton of talent around him, he could easily pick up where he left off in 2023.