Amidst Offensive Struggle, Virginia Tech Outlasts Georgia Tech With Shining Defensive Display

Raza Umerani

Editor-in-Chief

October 26, 2024

BLACKSBURG — There can be plenty of beauty in an ugly win.

For Virginia Tech, that came in the form of an outstanding defensive performance in a 21-6 victory over Georgia Tech inside Lane Stadium on Saturday that was anything but an offensive spectacle. 

Despite accumulating just 233 total yards, the Hokies (5-3, 3-1 ACC) didn’t allow a touchdown for the first time since 2019. Though they often bent, they almost never broke as the Yellow Jackets (5-4, 3-3) never crossed the opposing 18-yard line. 

“We talk about playing complimentary ball for our team,” Virginia Tech head coach Brent Pry said to reporters after the game. “We found a way to score some points. We punted the ball well and flipped the field. And we made plays defensively when we needed to stop drives and minimize points.”

After being blanked in the first quarter, VT took a second-quarter lead and never looked back, getting stops on GT’s last 10 possessions, including a pair of interceptions and four consecutive turnovers on downs to end the game.

The Yellow Jackets offense struggled for the better part of the afternoon. Though they racked up 356 total yards, star running back Jamal Haynes was bottled up for just 47 yards on 18 carries, and both quarterbacks that saw the field — first Zach Pyron, then Aaron Philo — completed less than 50% of their passes while tossing an interception each.

On the day, the Hokies defense restricted Georgia Tech to a mere 5-for-19 on third down and 1-for-5 on fourth.

“[The defense] plays hard as heck,” Pry said. “They really do, which is half the battle. I thought our fits were better, our key reads were better. We made them earn it, which is important.”

At one point, VT’s defense forced four consecutive three-and-outs, then nabbed an interception. After another punt, it forced a key fourth-and-one stop inside the redzone to all but seal the game early in the fourth quarter as Keonta Jenkins snuffed out a short run in the backfield.

“I think as the game went on, they gained confidence,” Pry said. “Every time Georgia Tech punched today, the defense punched right back. It was a fist fight, and it was a heck of a football game.”

Virginia Tech’s offense didn’t exactly have a banner day either, which kept the Yellow Jackets in the game for longer than it felt like it should’ve been. The Hokies only picked up 3.8 yards per play en route to their lowest yardage total of the season and were a drab 2-for-15 on third down conversions. 

Coming off a program-record 266 yards on the ground, star back Bhayshul Tuten had just 79 yards on 17 carries while quarterback Kyron Drones racked up 128 yards and a score through the air. 

“On offense, we've definitely got to do better,” Drones said. “There’s plays everyone wants back. There’s plays I want back. We know we’ve just got to block better, execute better.”

Drones had a day to remember himself, though, becoming the first Hokie since at least 1959 to account for a passing, rushing and receiving touchdown in a single game. 

After finding a wide open Benji Gosnell for a 20-yard scoring strike in the second quarter, the junior signal caller caught the first touchdown of his career just before halftime on a trick play nearly identical to the Philadelphia Eagles’ “Philly Special.”

The throw left the hand of wide receiver Jaylin Lane — first Drones handed it to a sweeping Tuten, who reversed it to Lane, who finally tossed it to the open quarterback in the endzone — giving him an incredible accomplishment of his own. After his punt return touchdown against Marshall, receiving touchdown against Old Dominion and rushing touchdown against Miami, Lane became just the third Virginia Tech player to score in four different ways in a single season, joining Tony Kennedy in 1992 and DeAngelo Hall in 2003.

Drones’ one-yard scoring scamper on a zone read came with just under five minutes left in the third quarter to cap a quick and easy scoring drive for VT. What followed was anything but quick or easy.

The Hokies went three-and-out on three of their final four possessions before kneeling out the clock to seal the win. On those drives, they gained a mere 24 yards. In the process, Tuten had to leave the game with an apparent lower-body injury, though he walked off under his own power. 

But, it almost didn’t matter as long as the defense did its thing. It was quite the showing from a unit that has had its moments of weakness at times this season. And, perhaps more importantly, Virginia Tech showed that it can win ballgames in several different shapes and forms.

“They're not always going to be pretty,” Hokies STARs coach Shawn Quinn said. “But that's the thing: you've got to go and find ways to win. And any good football team I've been a part of, they're not all blowouts. There's some tough ones in there. And the guys in the locker room did a great job fighting, sticking together. It was a team effort to win the game.”

The Hokies have won three games in a row for the first time under Pry — and first time since 2019 — with all three wins coming by 15 points or more, and sit a hair away from being 4-0 in conference. Despite a rocky start to the 2024 campaign, they’re still floating around near the top of the ACC standings with many preseason goals still within reach. 

“I feel like this team is clicking,” Drones said. “Since the Miami game, we've just locked in and settled in and realized that everything that we set for ourselves in the beginning of the season — we can still achieve that as long as we go 1-0, focus on us and keep going out there and dominating each week.”

Virginia Tech will look to continue its winning ways when it hits the road for the first time in nearly a month for a date with old Big East rival Syracuse (5-2, 2-2) on Nov. 2 inside the JMA Wireless Dome.

“We're doing a lot of things the right way, and it's taken maybe more time than what any of us would like, but I see us moving in the right direction,” Pry said. “We’ve got to capitalize on this momentum. We’ve got a big challenge ahead, going to Syracuse. That’s a tough environment. We’ve got to get healthy. We’ve got to have a great week. 

“But I feel good about the direction of things.”