What's Gone Wrong for Virginia Tech in the Last Two Weeks -- and How It Can Be Fixed

Virginia Tech took back the lead at Cal for 57 seconds. Then Jackson Brousseau, a backup in his first start for the Bears, marched Cal down the field, and the Hokies lost a game they led at halftime for the second straight week.

Teams that get pushed around for four quarters have a talent problem. Teams that lead at halftime and lose anyway have a mistakes problem, and that’s the kind a coaching staff can coach. Coach James Franklin’s Hokies (4–2, 1–2 ACC) get their next shot Saturday at 3:30 p.m., when Georgia Tech visits Lane Stadium.

Two losses, one shape

On Oct. 2, the Hokies jumped to a 14–0 lead on Pitt and were up 24–14 late in the second quarter. Then Pitt scored 21 straight points, and the comeback ended when John Love’s 36-yard field goal sailed wide left as time expired in a 35–33 loss. Virginia Tech outgained Pitt 499–295 and turned it over four times. Pitt didn’t turn it over once.

Eight days later in Berkeley, Calif., Virginia Tech carried a 14–13 lead into the fourth quarter and went back ahead 20–19 on Ethan Grunkemeyer’s 1-yard sneak with 1:15 left. Cal’s Ashten Emory answered with a 2-yard touchdown run with 18 seconds left, and the Golden Bears won 25–20.

Neither opponent finished with its starting quarterback. Pitt lost Mason Heintschel to an injury during the game. Cal ruled out Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele after pregame warmups, and Jackson Brousseau threw for 321 yards in his first start for the Bears.

Across both games:

Before halftime: Virginia Tech outscored its opponents 38–31
After halftime: Virginia Tech was outscored 29–15, with no points in either third quarter
Turnover margin: minus 4
Field goals: 1-for-4
Penalties: 15 for 170 yards

Franklin put his finger on the season-long piece of it after Pitt. “We’ve been flirting with this turnover thing really all year long,” he said. “We haven’t been getting turnovers on defense, and because we didn’t get it fixed, it came back to bite us.”

He’s right about the “all year” part. The Hokies have lost seven fumbles in six games, and their defense hasn’t forced a turnover since Sept. 12 against Old Dominion, a four-game drought.

Fix No. 1: Give Grunkemeyer a consistent running game through four quarters

Through four games, Virginia Tech averaged 177.8 rushing yards. Over the last two, it ran for 178 yards total, at 2.8 yards per carry.

Cal shows where it went. Jeffrey Overton Jr. ran 10 times for 67 yards in the first half. He got two carries after halftime, on the first two snaps of the third quarter, and none over the final 29 minutes. He was still on the field, too. He caught a 27-yard pass on the go-ahead drive. The Hokies just stopped handing him the ball.

That put everything on Grunkemeyer, and the redshirt sophomore has mostly held up his end. He threw for a career-high 434 yards against Pitt. But after going his first four games without an interception, he had a hand in all four Pitt turnovers: two interceptions, a strip-sack fumble and a botched handoff.

A back averaging 6.1 yards per carry is also how a team protects a fourth-quarter lead. Virginia Tech led twice in the fourth quarter at Cal and couldn’t hold either lead.

Offensive coordinator Ty Howle and run game coordinator Norval McKenzie have already seen the other version. At Boston College on Sept. 26, the Hokies ran for 223 yards, and Overton’s 76-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run won the game. That version has to show up for all four quarters, not just the first two.

Fix No. 2: Stop handing out free yards

Franklin has talked about penalties since the opener, when he called out “the pre-snap penalties and the post-whistle penalties” after an 11-flag night against VMI. He used nearly the same words after Pitt.

Six games in, Virginia Tech has 45 penalties for 416 yards. The recent ones came at the worst times: four penalties for 41 yards on a single Pitt drive and back-to-back 15-yard flags on Cal’s game-winning march.

When the same warning hasn’t landed in six weeks, the fix stops being a talking point and starts being a playing-time decision. Same goes for ball security. Seven lost fumbles aren't bad luck.

Fix No. 3: Make the quarterback uncomfortable

Defensive coordinator Brent Pry’s run defense has held up. Pitt ran for 104 yards and Cal for 82. The issue is the pocket. Virginia Tech had one sack in each loss.

The season total of 19 sacks looks healthier than it is. Twelve came against VMI and Old Dominion. Against its four Power 4 opponents, Virginia Tech has seven.

Limited pressure and no takeaways are how a backup in his first start throws for 321 yards. A defense that hasn’t taken the ball away in a month isn’t protecting anything by playing it safe. It’s time for Pry to send more and accept the risk that comes with it.

What Saturday tells us

Georgia Tech (2–3, 1–1 ACC) arrives off a 28–25 win over previously unbeaten Duke. After that comes a trip to Clemson on Oct. 24, then the open date.

Franklin is 1–2 in one-score games at Virginia Tech. For a program coming off a 3–9 season, 4–2 isn’t a crisis. But both losses were games the Hokies led late, and fans have every right to be frustrated by that.

The Hokies don’t need a new identity this week. They need to stop giving away the one they have after halftime.

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