Whew was that a close one! I’ll even throw a bit of confetti around about my personal prediction on the outcome of the game but note that it almost came true so there’s not as much crow to munch on. The
story of the game was a bit of redemption, and a rescue of the 2nd four game set of the season. Someone on the broadcast before the game as we were listening to it in the media room, mentioned that the Hokies might be the best 2-5 team in Division 1 football. That’s probably not a far-off conclusion, and with the huge pile of one-score games from 2024 it might be a very accurate assessment.
Regardless of the outcomes, for most games, excluding the ODU fiasco and possibly the first half of the Wake Forest game, the Hokies seemed to have been consistent in putting forth a fierce effort to win games. The problems have been pretty daunting, though. Penalties, mistakes, and head scratching execution during critical exchanges on the field have really plagued the Hokies. There are few excuses to render, here. Sloppy play, inattention to fundamental details, and a lack of general discipline have been problems for this program since the first day of the Pry era.
What we are seeing now, though, is a consistent tightening of standards that allow a team to come from behind and win close games instead of falling short as a flag on a critical play is thrown, or a blown coverage gives up a critical first down. There are other examples, and the point, here is not to belabor each individual mistake. What is to be recognized, here, is a noticeable reduction in those events for this particular team. That’s not trivial. It would have been nice if that had happened last season around game 3 or 4, and certainly this season before the first game, but we are seeing a definite improvement in the fundamental discipline and attitude of the remaining players.
That gradual change has borne a bit of fruit for this past contest. Yes, Tech was favored, and after the OT touchdown and 2-point conversion in 2nd OT, we saw a team that rallied up, evened the score, and then shut down their opponent to deny them the critical TD in the end. That happened for both the offense and the defense. Which leads us to the first topic of the summary.
What Worked in the Cal Game
Run Game – The offensive line and their run blocking finally worked. Whether it was more drive-block oriented techniques on the typical passive zone blocking schemes, or more effective runs with backs actually seeing the holes and making adjustments, Matt Moore’s formerly inexperienced offensive line has finally started to click. It has been very obvious that Kyron Drones’s passing game has suffered since 2023 and really hasn’t come back to that level. What that means is that to win games, the 2025 Hokies had to run the ball effectively. That means the offensive line absolutely has to establish dominance and effectively control the line of scrimmage 2-3 yards into the mid-field. Coach Moore has reached down into the roster and pulled in a major transfer to finally glue together a line that can run block in both techniques and at least give a mobile quarterback 3-4 seconds to make that critical first read. It’s not perfect, but it’s on the way to being a substantial improvement over the last four seasons’ O-Lines.
Run Game – The Running Backs and game plan that matches the team’s capabilities. We won’t belabor the stats but if Terion Stewart (#8) and Marcellous Hawkins (#27) want to form a one-two punch that knocks out most college defenses, we’re all for it. Yes, the run game is really inefficient in modern football, and it would be greatly preferrable to have a more pass oriented balanced attack that puts up more points per minute of possession, and chews up more field faster, but when you have two running backs who are pushing far past “schedule” yardage for routine running plays, a team can work with that.
Head Coaching – The big question is begged. Was Philip Montgomery the answer back in 2022? It’s not completely certain as to where he was on the search pattern back when the AD hired Brent Pry, but a dynamic changed very quickly after the ODU disaster. It wasn’t a miracle. It was more like a really good mechanic, who finally got to work on the engine instead of other guys, got it started, and then tuned up to run effectively.
The Fuente era crash and burn created a really bad coaching search situation that obviously ended up with a few good assistants over several tries, but nothing ever stood out as an organization run by a “head coach”. The fear that Pry was out of his depth was immediately in play as his contract was announced. It was a noble attempt but just never turned into an on-field and locker room success.
Philip Montgomery flipped a switch and changed the dynamic that makes you wonder if he had started as the HC in the beginning of 2025, would we be looking at a different Hokie standing for the season. We have fire, not notepads and muttering. We have emotion on the field and in the locker room. We have a coach willing to reach down and pull up players who are suddenly challenged to step up but were ill-prepared in the past. Sure, the mistakes happen, and the execution can be spotty, but the team energy level of the post ODU Hokies is completely different. The team is now well led. It is finishing games where once it was putting it in neutral to coast.
The Defense is Still Showing Up – How do you evaluate a squad and a coaching staff that is patched together with spit, bailing wire, and chewing gum? The defensive line has always been relatively good, but for the last several seasons across both the Fuente and Pry periods, the mid-field and secondary never could get the really good, matched up with the solid consistent performances necessary to sustain games and seasons. They never quit, but it was obvious that the coaching just wasn’t there to get the entire thing working all at the same time. Somehow, the players just seemed to keep coming back, stepping up, being the next man up.
They shut down the run, not that the Golden Bears were too good at it, but Cal gained only 85 yards on the ground and lost 46 of them to TFLs and sacks. The defensive line was nearly impossible to get by, and their 3 sacks accounted for 34 of the 36 TFL yards. Of course, there’d have been a 4th sack for even more negative yards and a Cal fumble if it wasn’t for something we’ll bring up later.
This defense is far from perfect, but it’s solidifying around a solid defensive line. The increasingly capable linebackers are finding footing as personnel change alters the dynamic and provides better coverage. The patchwork secondary of relative “babies” four games ago has stepped up, and the label can be pitched. They aren’t “babies” anymore. It’s still a learning exercise, but they are definitely making improvements.
Tech Won in a one score come from behind victory. ‘Nuff said.
What Didn’t Work So Well?
Pass Defense – Cal couldn’t move the ball well on the ground, but their athletic mobile quarterback could and did sling the ball around. Yes, the defensive line and a few blitzes here and there, tried to get the play stopped before the ball came out, but once it came out Cal put up 286 yards in the air, and cut up consistent chunks of turf on their drives. Their average pass attempt was 7.2 yards and add 4.5 to that for the average after catch completion total. If their QB had been a bit less harassed and had done better than 24/40 attempts/completion rate, it’d have been a different ball game. Tech’s mid-range pass defense is still very shaky, and that probably goes with its lack of mid-range passing offense to practice against. Tech did manage to stop the passes from connecting in the 2nd OT so that event kept this out of “Dun Busted” but it still really needs work. It’s a bit better than it used to be, but it needs to be greatly better to close out the season with a bowl possibility (and no kidding, that’s an actual possibility, here, folks)
The Pass Blocking – Still needs work. Drones does not have the fastest release in college sports. Okay, it’s probably the slowest that I have seen in a very long time. So, the line needs to give him 4+ seconds to get the ball out or choose to run. They still have trouble doing that in a fixed pocket. Drones gets a bit more time by rolling the pocket one way or the other, but without an intermediate passing game, those 3 and 4 second patterns are just not there for the first and possibly second read.
The Passing Game – is still pretty depressing. With 4 really good receivers and two good tight ends plus a running back who can catch and run, the numbers should be much better than the 119 on 18 attempts at a 50% clip. Drones did get the ball to a couple of those receivers in for 3 touchdowns, but the ability to run a two-minute hurry up offense just isn’t there without a consistent intermediate passing game. That has just not developed over the past several seasons… well pretty much most of the last decade, really. Some of it is the pass blocking deficit, but you can’t put all of the blame on a line that is at least giving the QB 3 to 4 seconds on most plays.
Special Teams – just keeps making kickoff return judgement errors. This almost got to the “Dun Busted” level and if it continues, will. The rule is that if you fair catch a kickoff inside of the 25-yard line, the team gets the ball at the 25. It is inexcusable for any returner to touch the ball in any other way than to either let it bounce into the endzone for a touchback, or field it and put the ball at the 25. Yes, one in a bunch of returns breaks, but frankly Tech’s special teams haven’t been the greatest at returning kickoffs for a while, and running the ball out to the 20-yard line means that the receiver lost 5 yards on a potentially more negative play. That reality should be drilled into the kickoff receivers so that it’s automatic. Superheroes are for bad movies and comic books, not football on the field. Time for the coaches to fix this and do it fast.
Special Teams – The blocking for punts has been pretty scary this season, and poor Nick Veltsistas was victimized by someone fast enough to get around the oddball blocking scheme. His punt wasn’t completely blocked, but it was tipped. Also, if Cal (or any team, really) wanted to put heavy pressure on the punter they could with this odd ball narrow double stack formation. Maybe a traditional setup would be a bit more effective, especially deep in Tech’s own end when you know “they” are coming.
Now We Get to the Busted Stuff
Officiating – Is there any doubt about what was busted about this game? Yes, the team made some mistakes, and has some systemic flaws that need work, but because of the non-transparent and untouchable nature of officiating this game was nearly lost, by Tech, due to the absolutely abysmal nature of the penalties called.
The prime example is the critical sack of Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele which would have set the Golden Bears at their 13 with a 4th down and 13 to get a 1st down. Somehow, a clean tackle strip sack magically becomes a roughing the passer penalty which handed Cal a first down and goal. It was an inexcusable call that had absolutely no on-field recourse, no review booth recourse, no ACC officiating recourse… nothing. No one has admitted anything, and nothing transparent has been offered in explanation for the horrific call.
Virginia Tech isn’t the only team that has noticed the poor level of officiating from the ACC crews, and the arrogant closed door and abusive response to well documented complaints that are filed. This is a very old problem that stretches back decades, and with the immense amounts of money involved in these games, the specter of corruption. One need only look at the recent FBI arrests and indictments of various parties in the latest pro basketball related gambling scandals to see the potential problems with the way the process (or non-process) currently runs.
There has to be a way to review bad calls and offer transparency. As things finally settled out, Tech won the game, but it could have easily gone the other way. Two missed field goals pushed it to overtime and the Hokies prevailed.
It’s time to come up with a rational process, public review board, and immediate reversal of bad calls. We saw that, annoying as it was, with the two really bad targeting calls levied against the Hokies for hard hits that ended up not being targeting.
Rules – The most abusive and stupid rule in college football is the targeting rule. Yes, there are the safety freaks who are forever trying to end injuries in a game that has been described as a “collision not a contact sport”. First, the rule is abusive to a player who is just trying to make a tackle and keep his team in the game. It always assumes that the offending player is the defender, not the ball carrier. There has always been a “spearing” call that could have been modified to account for such contact. Under no circumstances other than flagrant unsportsmanlike conduct should a player be ejected for “targeting”. That is abusive and destructive. The 15-yard penalty is quite enough to turn a series or a game for that matter without negatively impacting a player’s game availability situation. (Which could also impact his NIL ratings, or payments, depending on the contract conditions.)
The rule needs to be objectively revisited without the emotional overhead. Often the offensive player is more responsible for the helmet-to-helmet contact than the defender. Many times, the conditions of the tackle have dynamically changed as two or more players body positions and velocities change. Penalizing a player for an unavoidable situation is nonsense and abusive. It’s just a really bad rule that no amount of tinkering will ever fix.
As it stands now, the risk aversion level is rising to the point where we will soon be seeing lightweight externally padded helmets with tear away facemasks and increased padding on all parts of the body. Frankly, it’s time to return to thigh, knee, hip, and tailbone pads for the lower body. A total safety rethink based on real science, physics, and engineering is called for.
Virginia Tech could be leading the way with actual designs, not just testing standards. Time for those bioengineers to do something for the sports programs and maybe make some real hard currency for the university in the process.
