For the second straight season, the Virginia Tech football team will open the season with an SEC opponent. Last Labor Day weekend, the Hokies went to Nashville and opened with a 34-27 overtime loss to Vanderbilt. It set the tone for what was another 6-6 season for Brent Pry in Blacksburg.
This season, the assignment will be a lot more difficult as Virginia Tech will head to Atlanta on Aug. 31, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium against South Carolina in what is a stand-alone game on Sunday afternoon of Labor Day weekend. Six days later, the Hokies get a rematch with Vanderbilt, this time inside Lane Stadium.
Before Tech can even think about the rematch with the Commodores, they get the Gamecocks in the state of Georgia, and one of Shane Beamer's top returning defensive players put all quarterbacks on their schedule this season on blast, and that includes Kyron Drones, who will get to play Dylan Stewart first.
Dylan Stewart puts all QB's on South Carolina on notice ahead of 2025 season
When he was being recruited, he had some of the top programs after him, including Tennessee and Ohio State, before he committed to South Carolina. In his freshman season in Columbia, he racked up 6.5 sacks, 1.5 short of Jadevon Clowney's freshman record of eight. That's some impressive company he joined.
Speaking with Pete Nakos of On3, Stewart was asked which quarterback on the Gamecocks' schedule he was looking forward to sacking the most in the fall, and he didn't have one.
“Everybody,'' said Stewart. “I like to play football. I like to hit people.”
Let's just say that first-year offensive line coach Matt Moore will have his work cut out for him getting his brand-new offensive line ready to face a stout South Carolina defensive line, led by Stewart from the edge. Health is going to be key this season for Drones and Virginia Tech, and it will be tested right out of the gate against one of the top edge rushers in the country on a team hungry to get into the College Football Playoff.