With the current state of college football, unless you're in the 12-team College Football Playoff, there are not a lot of things to take away from bowl games with the transfer portal being such a factor. That was the case for Virginia Tech against Minnesota in the Duke's Mayo Bowl on Friday night at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
The Hokies were missing 14 of their 22 starters and among those was their secondary which saw four players enter the portal and one declare for the NFL Draft. Virginia Tech's younger players put up a fight but in the end, the Gophers were able to find the end zone three straight times in the first half on their way to a 24-10 victory. Here are three overreactions after the Tech finishes the season at 6-7.
This loss hurts going into 2025
Again, I can't get too wrapped up in a game where the Hokies were missing a number of players because of the portal and draft, but it felt like Minnesota was playing this like Virginia Tech did last year against Tulane. They had more retainment than their opponent and they played like it. That's nothing against the young players for Virginia Tech who have some key experience.
Would we have liked to have seen Virginia Tech's roster at full strength? Yes, of course. However, this is where Tech and many other teams stand with the portal: a depleted roster for their bowl game. I can't get worked up about a loss like this with the roster Brent Pry was forced to trot out there. Like P.J. Fleck said leading into the game, this was a pre-spring ball game. He's not wrong.
Tyler Bowen didn't stregthen his case to keep his job
Last month, Pry made the decision ( or Whit Babcock did) to fire three assistant coaches including defensive coordinator Chris Marve and offensive line coach Ron Crook. Moves had to be made and it wasn't surprising to see both of them let go. You hate to see someone lose their job, but college football is a results job and the results for their units were not good enough.
On the flip side, offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen was safe, for now, but he didn't do anything to make the case that he should be back calling plays in 2025. Early in the game I get being conservative as it took four drives for the Hokies to pick up their 1st first down, but what transpired in the fourth quarter was just head-scratching, to say the least.
Facing a first-and-goal inside the Minnesota 5-yard line, the Hokies quickly went backward and faced a third-and-goal from outside the 10-yard line. What does Bowen call for? A reverse that had no chance whatsoever of being remotely successful. That set up a fourth down near the 20-yard line and Pop Watson ended up throwing an interception in a situation he never should have been in. Again, there was more confidence in Bowen as the year went along than in Marve in terms of calling a game and making adjustments, but that confidence was much more than in Marve, which says a lot.
Virginia Tech's defense is going to struggle in 2025
Whether this was a decision that Pry made by himself or by someone else in the athletic department above him that forced it on him, having Bud Foster as an adviser going forward is a huge addition. With all the talent lost on the defensive side and with a handful of transfer portal players coming in and the younger guys needing to develop, this is only going to help.
Pry needs to hire a new defensive coordinator and that will likely be done sooner rather than later, although he officially ruled out Foster earlier this week. Whoever is hired is tasked with turning around units that failed to get stops late in games and that turned out to be the difference from being a team that won nine or 10 games instead of six.
Dante Lovett is going to be a nice player and he recorded his first interception off a tipped ball and the linebacking core is in good hands with Caleb Woodson and Jaden Keller. It might be a less talented group going into the season, but with Foster on board and a new DC, the opportunity is there for the group as a whole to be better next season.