Balanced, Complementary Virginia Tech Dominates Stanford, 31-7

Raza Umerani

Editor-in-Chief

October 5, 2024

STANFORD, Calif. — The ethos of Virginia Tech football under Brent Pry is playing a complementary style of ball.

With that in mind, the Hokies’ (3-3, 1-1 ACC) 31-7 drubbing of Stanford on Saturday in the program’s first ever regular season game in California might just have been the best performance the team has had in his tenure in Blacksburg. 

“Complementary ball, that's what we need to be,” Pry said after the game. “Offense, defense, special teams. Well-rounded effort against a good team at their place after a tough loss. I asked the guys, we need to prove the team we are, who we can be as a team. I thought we took a big step that way today.”

Tech racked up 337 yards of offense on a whopping 6.1 yards per play while forcing a pair of turnovers and limiting the Cardinal (2-3, 1-2) to just 258 yards on 3.9 yards per play themselves, with their only points coming on a trick play touchdown late in the third quarter. 

The Hokies lived in the backfield with five sacks and 11 tackles for loss while making things plenty difficult for Stanford quarterback Justin Lamson, who threw for just 103 yards and an interception on 54% completion in his first career start.

“I feel like it was just a complete game from every position group,” defensive tackle Aeneas Peebles said. “I feel like at times, we had games where the secondary’s playing well and we need to do more up front. There were times where we’re doing good in the front seven and the back end has to pick it up. I feel like this was a good, complete game from the whole defense. That’s what we expect to see for the rest of the season.”

The first of the Hokies’ turnovers came in a timely manner to emphasize their fast start. After Stanford missed a 53-yard field goal on the game’s opening possession, Tech marched the ball 65 yards in seven plays, resulting in a quick and easy RPO touchdown pass from Kyron Drones to Stephen Gosnell on a shifty slant route. 

12 plays later, with the Cardinal threatening in the redzone, safety Mose Phillips III laid the boom on Lamson, jarring the ball free at the 3-yard line, where it was recovered by Antwaun Powell-Ryland. 

“That was a key moment,” Tech mike linebacker Sam Brumfield said. “We talk about it all the time — getting two takeaways on defense. Whenever we can get the ball taken away, our chances of winning the game go up. We harp on that each and every week. Getting a turnover was a big thing for us.”

With two interceptions inside the 20-yard line last week against Miami and a similar-looking fumble recovery the previous week against Rutgers, the Hokies defense has racked up four key redzone turnovers in the team’s last three ballgames.

“We don’t want to bend, but we certainly don’t want to break,” Pry said. “But that’s a situation we practice every week. When they’re inside the red zone, you’ve got to kind of dial it up and you’ve got to be aggressive when your back’s to the wall. Turnovers are the absolute best thing that can happen down there. We’ve been able to do that a little bit.”

Though Tech’s offense wasn’t able to do much with its next possession, its defense forced the first Stanford punt of the game early in the second quarter. It was then that the Hokies imposed their will, embarking on a 13-play, 88-yard scoring drive elapsing six minutes and 45 minutes of gametime, capped off by a seven-yard pinballing touchdown run from Bhayshul Tuten on fourth-and-one.

The scoring scamper gave Tuten a touchdown in his eighth straight game and punctuated a drive where Tech made a clear statement: they were going to run it, run it again and run it some more down the heart of the best statistical run defense in the ACC. On the afternoon, the Hokies accumulated 136 yards on 36 carries, a workmanlike and tone-setting 3.8 yards per carry.

“I think that's who we need to be,” Pry said. “Whether it's Bhayshul or it's Kyron, we've got to be able to run. … We didn't have very many runs that weren't efficient today, but we were able to stay on schedule again for the most part.”

After forcing another punt to send the game to halftime, the Hokies offense flipped the script on the first drive of the second half as the passing game opened up with Drones connecting with Da’Quan Felton. After a 17-yard pitch and catch on the first play of the third quarter, Tech’s offensive line gave Drones enough time for him to launch a seed into a tight window, where Felton made a tough grab and turned on the jets for a 55-yard scoring sprint down the sideline to blow the game wide open. 

“I was happy for Quan, just knowing that me and him missed a couple of times,” Drones said. “Getting our connection back in past games — we had a connection last year, and we've been wondering, where has it been these past couple games? So I'm glad he was able to catch that and go get in the endzone. Hopefully that just grows and we keep going.”

Saturday was another solid day for Drones as a passer, with the junior signal caller throwing for 201 yards and a pair of scores on 74% completion. After a shaky start to the season, the second-year Tech starter is seemingly finding his stride as ACC play continues to ramp up.

“I've really been focused on being me,” Drones said. “In the beginning, I felt like I was trying to be somebody I wasn't. Just trying to go out there and force plays. Now I'm just letting the game come to me. That's what I've been doing the last two weeks, just letting the ball rip, seeing what I see, and then not overthinking it. Just going out there and just playing.

“I'm back to being myself now. I've just got to keep growing and keep being more confident, keep leading this team.”

Drones did his thing as a runner, too, bringing Tech’s afternoon home with a two-yard waltz into the endzone midway through the fourth quarter after a Keonta Jenkins interception to punctuate the Hokies’ performance under a scorching California sun.

It was the type of outing that Tech needed for a couple of reasons. For one, Stanford isn’t necessarily the most formidable opponent on the schedule, so it needed to dominate the way it was expected to, even with the lengthy and historic road trip. 

But, perhaps more importantly, the Hokies needed to shake off the heartbreak that befell them a week ago in Miami. In the week leading up to this game, the team insisted that they had turned the page. Their play on the field on Saturday backed that up in a big, big way. 

“I think the faster you forget about it, the less you harp on it,” Tuten said. “You can move forward faster if you just put it behind you faster. So I think as a team, we did that. Just took every day after that as a work day, and I think it definitely helped us today.”

The page has turned, and the first chapter of the season is now over, with Tech facing its first of two open weeks next week before hosting Boston College (4-2, 1-1) on Thursday, Oct. 17 (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN). If the Hokies’ next chapter continues the momentum of its predecessor, then they just might become the team that they were expected to be heading into the season.

“Just keep being focused, knowing that we got a couple days off,” Drones said. “People gotta get healthy. Just keep being focused on the opportunity ahead. Don't look too forward on what can happen in the rest of the season. Just go focus on Boston College getting ready for them. A Thursday night game is big in Blacksburg, and we just got to go out there and go 1-0.”