Virginia Tech Football: ESPN Analyst Gives Thoughts On Hokies Quarterback Situation Heading Into 2025
Coming into last season, Virginia Tech looked to have one of the more talented quarterbacks in the ACC and one of the emerging dual-threat QBs in the country with Kyron Drones. After a strong finish to the 2023 season, Drones was looking to build off of that and get the Hokies back in ACC championship contention. That did not happen however and Drones had to battle injuries for some of this season as Virginia Tech finished 6-7, which was very disappointing considering the expectations. This past season did give Hokies fans a glimpse of the future with Pop Watson getting his first game action in games against Duke, Virginia, and the bowl loss vs Minnesota and playing well, especially in the win over Virginia. Both quarterbacks announced their return for the 2025 season, a big boost for the offensive outlook.
Looking ahead to the 2025 season, ESPN analysts gave thoughts on the Hokies quarterback situation:
2025 starter: Kyron Drones, redshirt senior
Why he'll start: "Drones didn't have the 2024 season that he or Virginia Tech expected. His passing and rushing numbers dropped, his interceptions doubled and he missed all but one game in November because of injury. But Virginia Tech made it clear in bringing him back that Drones will open as QB1 for his final season. The potential he displayed late in 2023 is still there, and he once again will be working under offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen.
Competition: In announcing Drones' return for 2025, Virginia Tech also revealed that backup William Watson III will be back. Watson started two games in 2024 and helped the Hokies to a win against Virginia in the Commonwealth Cup with 254 passing yards and a touchdown, and 48 rushing yards and a touchdown."
Our own RJ Schafer broke down the disappointing year it was for the QB room in Blacksburg and the outlook for next season:
"Whether it was the lack of help around him, a tough schedule, or both, Drones was not as efficient in 2024. In a year where he battled injuries, the quarterback threw three more interceptions on seven less touchdowns and a quarterback rating that was 8.5 points lower.
Is this all his fault? I’m going to confidently say no. He was too inconsistent to be viewed as a great quarterback for his play in 2024, but it’s not fair to not consider outside factors. We’ll get into offensive line report cards at some point, but to say that the blame relies on Drones would be silly. Kyron is sometimes too afraid to make mistakes, but there were plenty of recallable times this season where Kyron did not get much help from the boys up front, and he was forced to make decisions that he regretted. Brent Pry spoke on this to a certain extent early in the season when asked about Kyron Drones, “He is pretty hard on himself, I don’t know that it’s to a fault. He doesn’t want to make a mistake. He doesn’t want to hurt the team.”
Kyron has all of the talent in the world at quarterback. Even with the injuries he was battling this year, he is still a viable dual-threat quarterback, he has pro-level arm talent and accuracy, but the mental game was a separater for him this season. Granted, the team around him needs to get better, and with the additions of Kyle Altuner, Tomas Rimac, Lucas Austin, and others, Kyron has to put it all together in 2025. Like Brent Pry has said on plenty occasions, Drones always wants to get better, and always wants to fix his mistakes, and now that it is announced that he’ll return for the 2025 season, he has to fix some mental errors.
As the talent was there for Kyron Drones, the talent is there for Pop Watson as well. He won’t have the keys to the team just yet, but he showed flashes of his potential and ability to be the primary play caller in 2024. Watson played briefly against Duke but absolutely balled out against Virginia. Pop had an 87.3 PFF grade likely due to his patience all throughout that game.
The young signal-caller did not turn the ball over once and showed all of the physical talent and traits that he had flashed beforehand. He finished that game with 254 passing yards and added 48 yards on the ground. He had three plays of 40+ yards in that game, and even though his stat sheet for the 2024 season doesn’t look too pretty, Watson definitely passes the eye test. Similarly to Kyron Drones, he needs a little bit more time to put all of it together, but Watson has plenty more time to work with and his talent already stands up with some of the top quarterbacks in the conference."
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Jackson Caudell has been covering Georgia Tech Athletics For On SI since March 2022 and the Atlanta Hawks for On SI since October 2023. Jackson is also the co-host of the Bleav in Georgia Tech podcast and he loves to bring thoughtful analysis and comprehensive coverage to everything that he does. Find him on X @jacksoncaudell