Tech Shows Too Little Too Late in 20-14 Loss To Miami

By Carter Hill

Staff Writer

October 15, 2022

BLACKSBURG — With the lackluster offense that Virginia Tech has possessed early on in the 2022 campaign, the Hokies were in need of a fast start against a mediocre Miami defense, one that would’ve swung the momentum in Tech’s favor after failing to score first in the previous three losing contests.

A 16-yard, chain-moving dash by Malachi Thomas on the opening drive was a promising start. And with it looking like the maroon and orange would be able to move the ball early on, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope for a staggering unit that had made some strides up in Pittsburgh a week ago.

Alas, quickly the tide turned.

Tech quarterback Grant Wells hit tight end Dae’Quan Wright on a slant route that went for 27 yards. But a fumble by the true freshman at the end of the play immediately seemed to set the tone for the afternoon. Four plays after taking over at their 39 yard line, the Hurricanes found the end zone, captivating a sequence of events that the Hokies (2-5, 1-3 ACC) never fully recovered from in the 20-14 loss.

The offense was stuck in park after that —at least until the fourth quarter, that is. Tech mustered just a mere 118 yards of total offense in the first three periods of play, flirting with being shutout for the first time since 1995.

“We’ve got to maximize our strengths,” Tech head coach Brent Pry said of the offense. “We’ve got some weaknesses that are showing up.

“We’ve done some things well at times. We have to make sure that we’re maximizing all of that and minimizing what we don’t do well. I’m not sure we’re doing a great job of that right now.”

So what does Pry want to maximize as an offense?

“Number one, we have to make sure we’re playing the right personnel that can make the plays that are necessary. Number two, we have to be difficult enough. We can’t just line up and be vanilla. We’ve proven we’re not that offense.

“There’s some things that we’ve done well over seven games. We need to go back and take a look at those and make sure they’re a big part of what we do.”

The Hokies crossed midfield just twice in the first 45 minutes of play, and showed very little signs of life on that side of the ball.

As of late, Pry’s preached playing complementary football, but Tech bolted to the halftime locker room down 17-0.

“We can’t come out there and play like we did for a half of football,” Pry said. “The defense [wasn’t] contesting catches, we didn’t get after the quarterback enough…We hung in there, but we couldn’t score any points. If we put a few points on the board in the first half, the whole outcome’s different.”

Tech seemed overmatched in the early stages on the defensive side of things, giving up 302 total yards of offense before even entering the halftime locker room.

“I thought we started slow,” Pry, who calls defensive plays, said. “I thought we were allowing them to catch the ball and tackle. We have to go compete for balls, that’s a big emphasis. We have to do better there.”

The Hokies held Miami (3-3, 1-1 ACC) to just three points in the second half, giving up just 156 yards in the final two quarters to keep the maroon and orange in the game despite no help from the offense whatsoever.

“We got after the quarterback [Tyler Van Dyke] better in the second half. I think that made a difference,” Pry continued. “Obviously, he’s a talented guy. They’ve got a great looking group of wide receivers that can run, [and] a couple of nice tight ends. That’s a good looking football team.

“But we can’t come out and continue to start slow. We just can’t.”

The fourth quarter is where things finally started to pick up for Tech. Searching for a spark in a do-or-die situation, Wells hit Thomas for a 14-yard score on a must-have third and goal that pulled the Hokies within 20-7 with 10:19 remaining.

And just moments laters, the maroon and orange found the end zone once again. This time on a Wells three-yard keeper that capped off a methodical 10-play, 80-yard drive that burned just 2:42 off the clock. All of a sudden, the lead was shrunk down to six with 3:20 left to play.

Facing a third-and-eight from its own 27 on the ensuing Miami drive, Tech had its chance to get the ball back one final time to mount a game-winning drive. But Van Dyke rifled a completion to Frank Ladson Jr. for 15 yards and a first down, essentially sealing it for the ‘Canes to secure fellow first-year head coach Mario Cristobal’s first conference victory since taking over the helm.

Sure, maybe the Tech offense showed some flashes in the waning moments of Saturday’s matchup. But in the end, it was simply too late, with the margin for error remaining paper thin for a Hokies team that continues to be outplayed week in and week out.

Wells finished the day going 21-for-33 with 179 yards and a touchdown in the air. His counterpart, Van Dyke, went 29-for-46 with an impressive 351 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Hurricanes in the win.

It wasn’t exactly the cleanest of games played on the other end for Miami, either. The ‘Canes committed an absurd 17 penalties for 159 yards, gift-wrapping opportunity after opportunity for Tech to get back in the game. Ultimately, though, the Hokies just couldn’t take advantage.

A couple of big drops, an inability to move the football and a crucial turnover that immediately led to a Miami score doomed the maroon and orange in this one, sinking Pry’s team to their fourth consecutive loss, the third team in five years that’s taken place for this once-proud program.

“There’s just so much evidence of who we can be as a team, and that’s what I told them,” Pry pointed out.

“We have to be accountable as coaches and players in every little area so that we can improve and be the coach and the player that we can be, because it’s there. ...We just got to be more consistent. We’ve got to make plays when we have a chance to make them, too.

“...Even though we didn’t do a lot of things well in the first half, [we’ve] got a chance to be right there. [We’re] one-possession away, and it just took until the fourth quarter to cash one in.”