Now, This is Rock Bottom

Saturday night, Virginia Tech football sank into its nadir. The last bastion of the once great legacy established by Frank Beamer and Bud Foster crumbled as a mediocre Old Dominion team ran the Hokies out of Lane Stadium. Brent Pry, who came to Blacksburg promising to dominate the Commonwealth of Virginia with a revitalized focus on in-state recruiting, coached his final game over-relying on a cupboard full of mediocre transfers, most of whom were not from the Commonwealth. The team looked disinterested, undisciplined, and frankly screamed through their actions that they didn't want to play for Pry anymore. A coach whose reputation was built on stellar defense fielded a team that couldn't stop basic read options, couldn't shed blocks, and couldn't play coverage. The years of poor maintenance by Whit Babcock, who has never reformed the fundraising mechanisms desperately needed to compete today in Power Four football, and Pry's inability to develop his high school recruits doomed his head coaching career.

To summarize Pry's legacy, of all of the highest high school recruits he secured during his time at Virginia Tech, only Mansoor Delane sniffed All-ACC consideration, and he didn't stick around. Saturday night showed, either he picked players who won't play hard, or players who are incapable of playing at a Power Four level, either of which are his own shortcoming. Weaknesses on offensive line, linebacker, and safety have never been properly addressed. And ultimately, the head whistle, who said all the right things and made you as a fan really want to believe he could be the guy, never put a product on the field that matched his message to the maroon and orange faithful.

No Will at the Skill

In a game where the offense again looked inept and Kyron Drones was pressured countless times, I want to take a second to defend the young offensive linemen. I expect they are going to take a beating from the fan base because of the protection issues, but despite Aidan Lynch and Tommy Ricard making their second starts and Gavin Crawford coming in to get a lot of repetitions at left guard, the Hokies run blocked very well.

Take this second quarter 1st-and-10 run for example. Up front, the Monarchs slanted to the boundary, while linebackers Jed Olotu-Judah (No. 13) and Jackson Forrest (No. 18) blitzed to the field-side. Despite the confusing stunt, the right side of the offensive line did a nice job of picking up the blitz. Center Kyle Altuner drove the nose tackle to the sideline, creating an easy cutback read for running back Marcellous Hawkins. Ricard (No. 58), playing right guard, got his hips inside of Forrest blitzing into the A-gap, while Lynch (No. 76) helped. Then Lynch peeled off to get square to Olotu-Judah. This was a smooth pick up in the zone blocking scheme and popped a nice run.

Yes, there were struggles in pass protections, particularly against standard-fare twist stunts by the defensive line that have plagued the Hokies for years. But there were a lot of pass attempts where the route structures were not completely conducive to getting open against the defensive coverages Old Dominion featured. Much like early in Justin Fuente's tenure when defenses started playing cover four deep shell, taking away fade patterns, only for Brad Cornelsen not to utilize crossing routes or quick hitches underneath vertical routes to take the space given, offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery continued to run verticals into seven- and eight-man shell zones.