Biggest Winners and Losers from Virginia Tech's 20-16 Win Against Clemson

The Hokies got their first victory in Death Valley since 2007 with a 20-16 win.

Virginia Tech Athletics

Virginia Tech picked up its first win at Death Valley since 2007 with a 20-16 win over Clemson on Saturday. Quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer found tight end Luke Reynolds open in the end zone to score the go-ahead touchdown with 1:44 remaining in the game. The defense held off the Tigers' offense on their final drive to secure the win, moving to 6-2 and 3-2 in the ACC.

Here is who I consider the winners and losers of Saturday's win:

Winners

John Love

Love is back in the air. Kicker John Love nailed both of his field goal attempts against Clemson — the first from 37 yards out and the second from 47. He was also perfect on extra points in the win. Love had missed three consecutive kicks going into last week's game against Georgia Tech, including a 36-yard potential game-winner against Pitt on Oct. 2.

Love has served as the Hokies starting kicker for four straight seasons, and had a career 75% field goal percentage coming into today's game against the Tigers.

Secondary

The secondary came into Saturday's game as arguably the defense's weakest position group, and they had a rather impressive outing, holding Clemson's freshman quarterback Tait Reynolds to just 153 yards through the air and no touchdowns. Cornerback Jaquez White had 11 tackles in the win, including a key sack on the Tigers' final drive.

Although Reynolds came in to today's game with a 29.7 QBR (128th in the country), a strong outing from the secondary gives optimism with quarterbacks Darian Mensah (Miami) and Kevin Jennings (SMU) still left on the schedule.

Losers

Offensive Line

The offensive line, although experiencing several injuries, allowed six sacks of Grunkemeyer against the Tigers. That is now the third straight game with three or more sacks allowed — five vs. Georgia Tech and three vs. Cal.

The starting line (left-to-right) was made up of Layth Ghannam, Michael Troutman III, Kyle Altuner, Benjamin Eziuka (freshman), and Aidan Lynch. On top of that, Brody Meadows got time at left guard, Gavin Crawford got reps at right guard, and Logan Howland spent time at tackle.

"We had a hard time protecting [Grunkemeyer] not only with their defensive line, but also the environment," head coach James Franklin said. "That's one of the things when you have a home field advantage like that, usually sacks go hand in hand because it limits what you can do with cadence."

Rushing Attack

The Virginia Tech rushing attack was muted significantly in the win, as the team combined to only rush for 1.9 yards per carry. Both running backs — Jeffrey Overton Jr. and Marcellous Hawkins — had season lows in yards and only managed to combine for 38 yards on 16 carries (2.4 ypc).

The team also was only to muster a longest rush of 12 yards — done by both Que'Sean Brown and Ethan Grunkemeyer — also marked a season low.

"We weren't able to run the ball," Franklin said. "We really struggled with their front in the run game, and to me that's why [the win] was so impressive, because we had to manufacture yards."