Hokies Snap Losing Streak With Much-Needed 26-17 Victory Over Georgia Tech

Carter Hill

Staff Writer

October 30, 2021

ATLANTA, Ga. — Virginia Tech (4-4, 2-2 ACC) is arguably just three plays away from being 7-1, three plays away from being tied up top in the ACC Coastal Division, and three plays away from Justin Fuente potentially saving his job.

Unfortunately for the Hokies, those plays simply hadn’t been made. Until Saturday that is.

A day in which Virginia Tech made that one play it so desperately needed that vaulted Fuente’s team over the hump enroute to a 26-17 victory over Georgia Tech (3-5, 2-4 ACC), snapping a three-game losing streak in the process.

“The difference between winning and losing, particularly this year, is paper thin,” said Fuente standing in the middle of the Georgia Tech team weight room for his postgame press conference in the south end zone at Bobby Dodd Stadium in midtown Atlanta. “You play 200 plays and it really comes down to one or two. We made those today.”

It’s those fifty-fifty plays Fuente is talking about. The do-or-die plays, the must-haves. Or in Saturday’s case, a crucial defensive stop on 4th and 2 with the Yellow Jackets driving and threatening to take the lead midway through the fourth quarter.

What has been a problem for Virginia Tech all season long suddenly catapulted the Hokies to victory, as the Jackets were stuffed on an inside run that gave Fuente’s team a chance to milk some clock and eventually put the game away.

Power Five opponents were 11-for-13 on fourth down, including a 26-yard touchdown on a 4th and 4 earlier in the contest. And it was 127th in the FBS in fourth down defense, that’s what Virginia Tech had going for them heading into that crucial play.

So can you blame Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins for rolling the dice? Not with those numbers you can’t.

Backup running back Jordan Mason took the handoff from quarterback Jeff Sims and got….nothing, nada, zero, zip. The Hokies had the ball poised to go up two scores. The play the maroon and orange had been waiting for weeks had finally come to fruition.

“It was a huge momentum play, we had it read pretty well, we didn’t give up any leaky yardage,” Fuente continued. “I told the team the difference in this game was going to be two yards, the difference for our offense is going to be between rushing the ball between 2nd and 8, and 2nd and 6. The same was going to be true for them.”

Rome, Ga. native Jaylen Griffin had similar thoughts.

“Mentally, we all just kept fighting (to get the stop). There was no doubt in my mind that we were going to win the game after that 4th down stop. It was huge.”

The “Battle of the Techs” certainly means a little extra to Griffin. The redshirt junior defensive lineman has two younger brothers that suit up for the Yellow Jackets. With the elder Griffin showing his presence by getting to Sims, and generating a key Georgia Tech fumble in which the Hokies recovered and would later cash in for three points.

Speaking of three points, splitting the uprights was a common occurrence on Saturday afternoon in Atlanta. All that credit goes to another Georgia native in John Parker Romo.

The Tulsa transfer booted through four field goals in five attempts in the afternoon, with just a 53-yarder being the outlier to Romo’s overall impressive performance. The missed attempt snapped a run of eight-straight field goals made, dating back to the missed 24-yard chip shot back at West Virginia in mid-September.

“He just seems to be playing with a lot of confidence,” Fuente said of Romo. “I feel great about throwing him out there. He’s really turned it on as the season’s gone on, he’s shown some good maturity.”

The 5-foot-11, 175-pounder’s 21-yard field goal with just over three minutes remaining eventually sealed the deal for the Hokies. The perfect cherry on top to an already flavorful ice cream sundae.

“He was huge,” Fuente said of his kicker.

Virginia Tech raced out to 7-0, 14-7, 17-7, and 20-7 leads in this one. And if it not have been for star receiver Tre Turner, the Hokies might not have been leaving Atlanta feeling the way they felt on the tarmac on Saturday evening.

Turner had already recorded a career-high in receiving yards with 168 by the time halftime had hit. And when the clock hit triple zeroes in midtown, the junior receiver finished with seven catches, 187 yards, and a season-long 69-yard touchdown.

A solid day at the office for No. 11 in white. But maybe for an odd reason, at least according to Turner.

“It was maybe Wednesday, and I looked at the forecast and it was (going to) rain. I like rainy games, so I knew I was going to have a good game personally,” he chuckled when talking about the drizzly Atlanta afternoon. “I packed like four pairs of cleats, I prepared for it.”

Regardless of the rain though, Turner wasn’t going to be denied. He knew how much his team needed him after these past few weeks.

“I looked at (quarterback) Braxton (Burmeister) on the bus and said ‘we have to win, we have to,’” he said. “We needed that, we were on a three-game losing streak. We needed that for our team morale, our mindsets, our attitudes, we needed it.”

So now that the Hokies have been added to their win column, can they flip the script on the season before it’s too late?

The 6-foot-2, 187-pounder sure thinks so.

“My confidence is through the roof...I feel like now is the time where we’re about to take off. We’ve got heart.”

To no one’s surprise, so does his quarterback.

“It’s been a tough little run with all those games coming down to the last minute. We’ve had three losses that have really happened on the last play of the game,” Burmeister said. “We feel like we’re a lot better than our record shows, we just had to go out there and prove it...we know that we’re a damn good football team...now we have to prove it next week again. Just keep the momentum going.”