HUGHES: Virginia Tech's Loss Wasn't Unexpected. The Manner In Which It Lost Was.
In this story:
DALLAS — It'd be hard to find anyone who expected a shellacking of the sort that happened between Virginia Tech and SMU Friday at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas, Texas. Expecting the Mustangs to win, though? That wasn't out of the blue.
Virginia Tech (6-3, 3-3 ACC) entered intermission against SMU (7-2, 5-2 ACC) in a nine-point hole but with a fighter's chance. That disappeared quickly in the third quarter. Behind another dismal tertiary frame, the Hokies were routed 51-28 by the Mustangs in the Lone Star State. Virginia Tech has been outscored 65-42 in the third quarter of all of its games — and in ACC play, the Hokies have been outscored by a whopping 58-10 margin.
The margin of defeat looks a smidge surprising for a Virginia Tech team whose two prior losses had come by seven total points. Or perhaps, it wasn't. SMU was the strongest opponent on paper the Hokies were facing off against all season, and the Hokies' best opponent were a now-banged-up Pitt without its stalwart quarterback (Mason Heintschel). Its best win came against a Georgia Tech team that's last in the ACC standings.
Virginia Tech stll has chances to pivot course from the 23-point rout it was subjected to. It has a more facile test at home against Stanford Nov. 14 before traveling to Coral Gables to play No. 1 Miami — though it's against a Hurricanes squad that will be without Malachi Toney for several weeks and just lost to No. 11 Notre Dame 31-24. Then, the Hokies will take on a 4-4 Virginia squad that was handed a 51-7 loss by Wake Forest.
That is to say, despite Virginia Tech's 51-28 loss to SMU, the Hokies still have an opportunity to end the season on a strong note. The ACC has become an exercise in cannibalization, and now, not even its top contender, Miami, is immune to the conference's appetite for devouring its own.
The Hokies can finish the season 7-5. They can finish it 8-4 and there's a slim chance that they can go 9-3. Its hopes of making the ACC Championship game on Dec. 5 — and by extension, any dim hopes of a College Football Playoff (CFP) appearance — are gone, however. Then again, was that reasonable expectations in the first place? In the preseason, I projected Virginia Tech to finish with a 8-4 record, a projection that looks to be right on the money if the Hokies can go 2-1 over their last three games.
An ACC Championship game appearance — certainly plausible, given that Virginia Tech's first two losses in league play were the byproduct of self-inflicted errors and came by a combined seven points — was likely swimming too deep in the expectations pool.
The last three games, as such, should offer a reasonable measuring stick for whether Virginia Tech's defense can make progress and how heavily the Hokies should attack the transfer portal to shore up its weaknesses in the offensive line and secondary.
That isn't to say Virginia Tech's loss to SMU wasn't humbling. It was. The players and Franklin alluded to as much. But to put it in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't a game Virginia Tech was expected to win in the preseason. And in the end, it didn't. It's just hard to comprehend that it'd happen to that degree. You'd expect that the Hokies' offensive line would struggle against an SMU defense that had forced 23 sacks entering Virginia Tech's contest — but not that Tech's left guards would finish with pass-blocking grades on PFF of 21.2 (Brody Meadows) and 0.9 (Michael Troutman III) against the Mustangs.
SMU scored on its first eight drives and garnered points on nine of its 11 possessions. In the third quarter, it reached paydirt on each of its possessions, including a 15-play, 82-yard drive that zapped just over eight minutes off the clock. The Mustangs occupied the ball for six possessions in the second half, four of which ended in touchdowns. The others were a fourth-quarter Virginia Tech interception when the Hokies were already down 44-14 and an SMU punt with 24 seconds left.
It paves the way for a laundry list of "first since" statistics that harken back to drearier days: The last time Virginia Tech allowed more than 500 yards was Sept. 13, 2025, against Old Dominion, the day before then-head coach — and current defensive coordinator — Brent Pry was fired. The last time an opponent put up as many yards as SMU did (569) on the Hokies was Oct. 10, 2020, against North Carolina (656).
And the 51 points SMU logged were the most on a Virginia Tech team since the disastrous 2021 Pinstripe Bowl against Maryland (54-10), the final game before Pry took the wheel for the next three-plus seasons.
This year, the Hokies have largely been solid. Virginia Tech accomplished its first 4-0 start since the 2017 season, clinched bowl eligibility with four games remaining and if it finishes 8-4, it'll be the most regular-season wins for the Hokies since 2017. But it is not a finished project in year one under Franklin. Far from it, and Friday's loss may serve as a helpful reminder of that.
The loss itself isn't grounds for a reality check. The manner in which happened, however, is.
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Hughes serves as Virginia Tech On SI's lead editor, a position that he has held since July 2025. Hughes is a junior at Virginia Tech majoring in sports media and analytics. He also serves as the open-wheel correspondent for the motorsports outlet Steering Wheel Nation, where he has written on Formula 1, the NTT IndyCar Series, the NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. Hughes has previously authored bylines in 3304 Sports, Virginia Tech's multimedia student journalism outlet.
Follow thomashughes_05