It’s that time of week again. Two more games left in this disaster of a season, and with the head coach news out of the way, there are still two games left in the season, and the first is a home game against
high-flying Miami.
Senior Afternoon Night
The game is at noon, so why they’d call it Senior Night, I am not too sure. What we do know is that someone found the trunk that contained all the cool gray-and-white Hokie Stone uniforms from almost a decade ago. They have always been cooler than any alternative uniform worn by the team.
Of course, the big news is something that won’t have any effect (positive or negative) until next year, but the hype is sure pervasive and continuous… James Franklin replaces his former Penn State defensive coordinator as Virginia Tech’s new head coach.
Does Franklin Keep This Tradition?
The Franklin hire was a major get by search committee members Bud Foster and BoV Rector John Rocovich. The surprise major player in all of this was former head coach Brent Pry, and Frank Beamer himself blessed the move.
Does he keep the #25 position honor for special teams intact? This week, kickoff specialist Kyle Lowe gets the #25 for his last game at Lane.
If there was any other major football, or Hokie Sports news for that matter, it was all lost in the ground clutter of the Franklin hype.
Staff Predictions
Bryan Manning
This is a big game, and it has nothing to do with what happens on the field. The Hurricanes are the better team. It’s not close. Sure, the Hokies have been feisty lately, but the talent disparity is huge. So, why is this game huge? New head coach James Franklin will be there. He will be hosting several recruits, some of his former Penn State commitments and other uncommitted players, in the hope of landing some last-minute additions to the 2026 recruiting class. Can the Hokies win? Sure. Miami is not as good as many believe. However, the ‘Canes are better than the Hokies. Tech will put up a fight, but it won’t be enough. Miami 31, Virginia Tech 20
John Schneider
This one becomes an “oh please” just don’t let anyone get hurt event. The team will be completely rebuilt starting almost immediately, behind the scenes for now, but next season the Hokies are likely to look very different. But that will be then, won’t it. This is now, and this team just doesn’t look very good. There have been flashes of good things but then always tempered with mistakes, penalties, and a total lack of a passing game. No matter how good the defense is, with little or no offense you just aren’t going to win anything much.
Tech effective has little or no offense. It’s a good ground game matched with a near negative passing game and it all spelled loss after loss.
The Miami game isn’t expected to be any different. The gambling crowd sets the spread at a near ridiculous 18.5 in favor of the Hurricanes. The Over/Under is actually a relatively low 48.5 which means the wiseguys are showing action that favors Virginia Tech scoring not much of much. That’s probably a very realistic estimate.
I’m not even going to guess at the score. The Hokies take a big “L” on this one and prepare for UVA week with the probability that they aren’t going to be anywhere good enough to come close to keeping the Commonwealth Cup this season.
That’s it.
My knees have given out so I won’t be covering the game live this season. It’ll have to wait until 2026 and new knees to go with the new everything else.
