LYNCHBURG, Va. — The big, bad, ugly losing streak is over following Virginia Tech’s 23-22 win at Liberty on Saturday, and while there’s no bowl game for the Hokies this year, there was at least a ray of sunshine near the end of what’s been an otherwise gloomy season.
Here are five thoughts the day after the Hokies’ win at Liberty:
1. That’s not a win to overlook.
While the reaction on social media was mostly jubilant following the win, there seems to be at least an undercurrent that because it was against just Liberty, it shouldn’t be something to celebrate all that much. The Hokies should beat the Flames, the argument goes. It’s a Power 5 vs. Group of 5 matchup and doesn’t say much about Tech’s current state of affairs that this should be considered a big deal.
But while that’s true when both programs are humming, you must consider the current circumstances. Virginia Tech closed that game as a 10.5-point road underdog, a 2-8 team taking on an 8-2 one, and the Hokies won a game by scratching, clawing and defying the odds. (Bill Connelly’s SP+ rankings gave Tech just a 31 percent postgame win expectancy, in large part because of turnover luck — four fumbles hit the ground and the Hokies recovered three of them.)
Advertisement
That is precisely the kind of win to celebrate, especially in a season like this, when there have been so few moments of joy.
The Hokies had every reason to pack it in this season, to play out the string and not care too much about whether they won or lost. There was no bowl game at the end of this run, no reward for finishing the season on a high note other than the mild satisfaction of doing it. Yet Tech played one of its more inspired and energetic games of the season, finally closing out a win down the stretch.
“I looked for signs all week of guys coming off the gas and not pouring it into practice,” head coach Brent Pry said. “They just weren’t there. We weren’t going to beat this bunch unless we had a good week, and I thought the coaches brought a ton of energy this week. The players stayed focused, worked on improvement. They did the things necessary to have a chance to go play well.”
If that ends up being the last game of the season, there’s at least a feeling of positivity and forward momentum heading into the offseason.
Momentum can often be overblown. It really doesn’t carry over on the field season to the next season. (Beware thinking the impressive bowl winner will shoot out of the gates next year.) But for a program in a rebuild mode, it needed something positive to point to for the necessary work to turn this thing around to feel worth it. The Hokies got just that Saturday in Lynchburg. We’ll see if it’s the start of something better.
2. Pry giving up play calling shows he’s growing as a head coach.
Pry surprised almost everybody after the game by saying he handed over defensive play-calling duties to coordinator Chris Marve for the first time. It was a necessary and overdue move.
Head coaches need to be head coaches. And every single one that I’ve talked to over the years who got there by being a great play caller in the past has said to fully concentrate on all the things you need to be as a head coach, you have to give it up. Somebody else has to worry about what you’re calling on third-and-3. You have bigger-picture things to consider.
Advertisement
And while I don’t want to attribute everything that went right in the Hokies’ win against Liberty to the fact that Pry wasn’t holding his playsheet and wondering what call he’d make next, you can’t help but wonder if some of the little things that went Tech’s way were a result of the head coach being the head coach.
The Hokies called the perfect fake field goal play at the perfect time, getting a first down that led to a touchdown. And they finally closed out a game, playing the clock perfectly after TyJuan Garbutt forced a fumble that gave the Hokies the ball back with 2:49 left, up one. They needed a first down but not to score, and Jalen Holston and the offense executed that game plan to a T. (Not to mention the fact that Marve looked pretty dialed in calling defensive plays.)
It’s possible Tech could have done those things even if Pry was calling plays. Special teams coach Stu Holt puts the fake field goal play in during the week and reps it. The Hokies practice their “surrender formation” at the end just for scenarios like that.
But in a season when Virginia Tech hasn’t been executing those little things to win games, blowing big leads against Georgia Tech and NC State in the last month and not looking like they necessarily had a great plan on their fourth-down calls at Duke, this felt like a departure, and you can’t help but wonder if Pry having his full attention on game situations and management played a part.
3. Grant Wells is a tough quarterback. I don’t know if that necessarily means he’s the answer next year.
Wells’ stats were fairly pedestrian Saturday. He didn’t turn the ball over, but he was probably more effective as a runner, gaining some tough ground with 68 yards before accounting for sack yardage, than as a passer (10-for-14, 148 yards).
The five sacks were concerning, though. And while that’s not all on him — protection wasn’t great and receivers weren’t always open — he didn’t help himself in some of those situations.
Advertisement
He took an intentional grounding sack that lost 14 yards late in the first quarter, spiking the ball straight into the defender’s feet in front of him. He took two sacks on a second-quarter drive when he tried to spin out of pressure to his blind side, only to run straight into Liberty defenders both times.
He didn’t have a sense of urgency holding the ball in the end zone when the Flames engulfed him for a safety early in the third. He didn’t see a wide-open Kaleb Smith for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, opting for a checkdown on the sideline to Jaylen Jones, who was out of bounds.
And he was late to deliver the throw to Smith on the two-point conversion after the Hokies took a 23-22 lead, allowing the Liberty defender to get there and break it up with a last-second hit.
I won’t pretend to know everything about quarterback evaluation or even the progressions he has to go through on all those plays, though some of the sites that do didn’t rate Wells’ performance very well.
Pro Football Focus gave him a 55.3 passing grade this week, his third-lowest of the season. Wells finished with just a 39.8 QBR on ESPN.com, a step up from the past two weeks (26.1 at Duke and 25.0 at NC State, which were bad). It’s the sixth time this year he’s been sub-40 when 50 is average.
That wasn’t a bad defense he was going up against Saturday. Liberty can bring the heat like anyone in the country. But at this stage of the season, it’s hard not to wonder if Wells can be the guy next year or if the Hokies have to do some serious transfer portal shopping this offseason.
The hope is that he can grow into the guy, especially if he gets more help around him, but his stats this year — nine touchdowns, nine interceptions, a passer rating that’s 10th in the ACC — and his performance lately suggest the Hokies can’t stand pat at the position.
Advertisement
4. The showing by young players is encouraging.
When you’re building for next year, you’re always looking for who can carry the torch going forward. And while it was rewarding to see vets who’ve stuck it out for years like Holston and Garbutt lead the charge in what could have been their last college game, the fact that some youngsters showed out has to make Hokies fans feel pretty good.
Keli Lawson played 53 snaps at linebacker and had five tackles — two for a loss, including a sack — and jumped on a critical fumble early in the fourth quarter.
“As a whole, my biggest takeaway from the season is that there’s just a whole lot to learn, a whole lot of areas we can fix both on and off the field, in terms of our preparation, our mentality going into games and finishing out games,” Lawson said, sounding like a vet.
Cornerback Mansoor Delane again impressed. He had five tackles, two for a loss, two pass breakups and the forced fumble that Lawson recovered. Per PFF, Liberty targeted him six times Saturday and he gave up one catch for negative-1 yard. A starting cornerback duo of him and Dorian Strong next year is very solid.
Tight end Dae’Quan Wright had a big catch and run, turning a quick hitch into a 32-yard gain on one of his two receptions. All he does is seem to make big plays.
Left tackle Xavier Chaplin got his first action this year, playing 27 snaps. He needs work against the pass — he whiffed on the outside rusher on the Wells safety — but looked pretty good in the run game, a promising debut for a player who very well could be the Hokies’ starting left tackle next season.
While I would have chosen to redshirt receiver Tucker Holloway, he wanted to play. And though he didn’t have any receptions, he made a heads-up play by jumping on a Keshawn King fumble to prevent the Hokies’ go-ahead drive from ending before it started.
Advertisement
Tech will need more young players to step into larger roles next season, especially if a lot of the seniors choose not to use their extra COVID-19 year, but that bunch listed above seems like it’s a pretty good start.
5. If this is it for the season, the Hokies should roll with it.
As of writing this Sunday morning, it’s unclear what’s going to happen with next Saturday’s Virginia Tech-Virginia game. The call will be up to the Cavaliers in the wake of last week’s shooting tragedy, and I’m sure, rightfully, UVa’s players will have a huge say in this. I don’t want to offer an opinion either way of whether the game should be played, because people grieve in different ways, and there’s no right answer.
If this is it, though, I think the Hokies can be happy with the way the season ended Saturday. Sure, there wouldn’t be a Senior Day, which stinks for guys like Dax Hollifield and Garbutt and Chamarri Conner, who have been here so long and given so much to the program. If the game does take place, though, it won’t have that same festive atmosphere. I can’t imagine an “Enter Sandman” entrance given the circumstances. It would just be hard to feel celebratory in this situation.
But while UVa and its community were on everyone’s minds this weekend, the Liberty game and aftermath still felt celebratory for the Hokies. That was a rare moment of joy in the locker room afterward in what’s been a long season. If this is how they go out, would it be the worst thing?
Music was indeed 𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙪𝙥!!!!!!!#ThisIsHome | #GroundUp pic.twitter.com/zkyoF7st2w
— Virginia Tech Football (@HokiesFB) November 19, 2022
It felt like most Tech players were treating the Liberty game as a possible finale anyway, with their heads and hearts in the right place, considering what UVa is going through.
“We’re praying for those guys,” Holston said. “We know it’s bigger than football. … If that’s it, I’m happy with it.”
“They’ve been in my mind all week,” Garbutt said. “I just knew that if this would be my last game to go out there and be in this uniform, that I wanted to make an impact. And I did a pretty good job of doing that.”
Advertisement
Many teams don’t get a happy ending to a season. If this is how the Hokies’ season ends, winning on the road as a big underdog to get their first-year coach a win he can build on, that’d be a pretty good way to go out for the seniors.
(Top photo of Grant Wells: Lee Coleman / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)