The season of disappointment continues with… a win? The Jackets finally got an ugly win over the Duke Blue Devils, marking our first Power Four victory since November 15th, 2025. I honestly did not think we had much of a chance with how powerful Duke’s run game and offensive line have been, but we somehow pulled it out. We have no time to celebrate this win because we need to keep our bowl hopes alive as we Enter Sandman this weekend to take on Virginia Tech. The Hokies have improved since last season,
but this is still a winnable game for us. Here is what I think I know as we head North to introduce the Techmo Bowl to James Franklin.
The run game is waking up…and Trelain Maddox is an incredible football player
For the first time this season, I felt satisfied with what we were able to produce in the run game, even without Malachi Hosley. The Jackets racked up 27 carries for 165 yards, which is good for 6.1 yards per carry. This is definitely an improvement from where we began the season, with only 51 yards against Colorado. Justice Haynes played well with 14 carries for 69 yards, but the star of the show was Trelain Maddox. Maddox had 10 carries for 81 yards and three touchdowns. I would also like to give credit to the offensive line here, as they seemed much improved against a Duke run defense that is top 15 in the country. Mendoza was not sacked, either, and the Duke defense recorded only four tackles for loss. I was worried about their performance, but I saw flashes of the physicality we were missing in them. The penalties still need work, but we’ll take what we can get.
Our third-down defense is broken
Duke went 10/17 on third down last Saturday, and most of those were with over seven yards to gain. I should have been excited that my team held our opponent to third-and-eight, but instead I was just dreading the next play. We looked fantastic on first and second down, but could not stop a brick wall on third downs. It almost cost us the game, and it is the biggest problem we need to address moving forward. I am not sure if it was Duke’s offensive line or our lack of pressure and blitzes, but we could not put pressure on the QB and could not tackle Nate Sheppard on-the-run to save our lives. We will be facing several high-powered offenses this season, so we need to learn how to get off the field.
We need to start producing turnovers
Of our last nine FBS games, we have forced a total of two turnovers. Zero of those turnovers have been during this season. I was under the impression that we hired Jason Semore to force more turnovers, and absolutely none of that has happened for us. We are sitting at 136th in the country in turnovers gained, which would put us near the bottom nationally. Our defense has not been impressive this year, so we need turnovers to start shifting momentum in games and giving our offense more chances as they improve on that side of the ball.
We have still not gotten over the hump and cannot finish games
If football lasted three quarters, we would be 4-1 right now! Unfortunately, it does not, and our team seems to have forgotten that. It appears as though we just wear down at the end of every game, which is very concerning, especially if we’re in some close games in the back half of the year. In both the Colorado and Stanford games, we led at halftime but gave up those leads. Duke scored 15 unanswered points after the half last weekend, and a few weeks ago, Stanford scored 24 unanswered points in the second half. We cannot keep giving up these leads and expect to win games.
If we couldn’t stop Duke, we are going to have a very hard time stopping Virginia Tech’s offense
Virginia Tech brought in former Penn State quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer, who has had a good year with the Hokies thus far, throwing for 1,734 yards and 12 touchdowns. They have a strong running back duo of Marcellous Hawkins and Jeffrey Overton Jr., who will pose another challenge for our rush defense. James Franklin also brought over tight end Luke Reynolds from Penn State, who has 41 receptions for 431 yards and four touchdowns this season. He is a great blocker and arguably one of the best tight ends in the country. The Hokies are averaging 458.3 yards per game, which is easily the best offense we have faced so far this year. This will be a big challenge for us, and it will be interesting to see if our defense can keep up.
Thank you Kyle Efford!
Starting linebacker Kyle Efford announced his retirement from football due to an accumulation of injuries over his career. He has led the Jackets in tackles for three consecutive seasons, and will now transition into a player-coach role. Thank you for everything Kyle, you are the true definition of a Tech man.
The little bit of hope left in the fanbase has been reignited with a big win against Duke. While it was not a satisfactory win and we still have a lot to address, a win is a win, and we do not take those for granted these days. We look ahead now to Virginia Tech, which had a strong start to the year and has since lost two straight. Let’s see if we can make it three.
Go Jackets.
