Three things Virginia Tech Must Fix Ahead of Its Week Two Matchup With Marshall
The Hokies put up a fight in the 4th quarter and overtime in the game against Vanderbilt, outscoring them in the second half by 14. The Hokies, who were heavily favored to win this game against what some would consider a "fairly easy win" didn't necessarily go that way and today we will be diving into three changes needed for a win next week.
1. The Defense Will Need To Perform Better
34 points.
That's the total points Vanderbilt finished the game with after 4 quarters and overtime. The Commodores are coming in with a new offense, new coordinators, new coaching, new quarterback, and still scored 34 points.
Vanderbilt's transfer quarterback Diego Pavia finished the game with 190 passing yards, and 2 touchdowns. Diego Pavia even managed to rush for 104 yards, scoring a rushing touchdown against the Hokie defense who couldn't stop Vanderbilt's heavy run option game plan to start with Diego Pavia and Sedrick Alexander. Alexander finished Saturday's game with 69 yards rushing, and 2 touchdowns, one received, and one rushed.
2. The Offensive Line Needs Better Protection
The Hokies' offensive line gave up 4 sacks today, which put quarterback Kyron Drones under a lot of pressure, leading to him making wild throws, or scrambling for not much yardage, which he didn't deal with last season. When Drones did not have pressure on him, he was very efficient at throwing the football and had a game-long 62 yards to Ali Jennings. The offensive line also struggled with rush blocking as running back Bhayshul Tuten, had only 34 rushing yards on the day and had to exit the game late due to injury. This is the first game of the season so let's try not to overreact as this could be fixed this week.
3. The Play-Calling Has To Be Better
Similar to the first two parts of this article, the play calling for offense and defense needs to be better next week. The team struggled with every look that Vanderbilt threw at them, whether it was run-pass options, passes, or run plays, it didn't matter, everything worked against Virginia Tech's defense and this is similar to previous Virginia Tech teams. The offense could have attacked Vanderbilt's secondary a little more rather than doing a lot of short pass plays and runs that were not working early on.
Virgina Tech will host Marshall on Saturday with kickoff being at 4:30.
KAHLIL MCCULLER
Kahlil McCuller joined the Sports Illustrated team in summer 2024 and is a Sports Media major at Virginia Tech. Covering College Baseball, College Basketball, and College Football for the Virginia Tech Hokies. Prior to this Kahlil worked pregame radio shows for Virginia Tech Basketball teams on 105.3 The Bear and started his own basketball podcast on Spotify called "Fleeky Hoops Podcast" and covered March Madness for the Hokies Women's Basketball team back in March 2024. My favorite sports teams are: Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Chargers, Virginia Tech Hokies and PSG for Soccer