[Mark Umansky]
Who: Virginia Tech Hokies (0-3, 0-0 ACC) vs Old Dominion Monarchs (0-3, 0-0 Southern)
When: Saturday, September 20, 2025 at noon ET
Where: Blacksburg, VA | Lane Stadium (65,632)
Watch/Listen: ACCN | Virginia Tech Sports Network
Spread: VT opened -35.5, now -34.5
Weather: 79°F Partly cloudy
Series: Virginia Tech leads the all-time series against the Terriers 1-0.
Reppin' TKP: TKP is hanging on their couches.
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Let's Go...
Hokies
Can the offense even score enough to make the spread IF the defense pitches a shutout?
I doubt our defense pitches a shutout; remember they're playing 4 on 11.
Yeah just not sure offense can even score 36 points regardless
Well they answered this at least
The game of the century! Season defining, some say.
Win - we're fucked
Lose - We're extra fucked
Womp womp
That was humiliating
Lol stopped by Wofford for a loss on 4th and 1
Why do you call a delay handoff up the middle with a OL that cannot block? Off tackle/OZ is working for 10 ypc. Drones run?
Man, how is this team this bad?
Is it bad that I'm kind of pulling for the bottom to completely fall out so our board and administration can't hide behind any of the excuses anymore
I'm just ambivalent, which is sad on its own
The talent at VT is the worse its been in like 50 years. And our coaching is pretty bad.
Should still be better than Wofford. But sadly "should" is doing a lot of work in that statement.
Very inspiring 4th Down call there
KD not reading the play well...again.
So many things wrong with that 4th and 1.
1. We can't even bully Wofford. Ooof.
2. We had 1 on 1 coverage up top with no safeties deep. Freaking easy throw and catch.
3. Either PM is horrible (which is likely) or Drones is so bad that the staff doesn't trust him to even make that play.
Counterpoint: there is no such thing as an easy throw and catch with Drones.
If Drones keeps, he walks in around the right end
It looks like wofford's offensive line is about as good as ours.
Have them pinned at their 2.
Lose 25+ yards in penalties on the Punt and 1st Down....
Just so bad....
We don't need Wofford to beat us, we can do it ourselves with all of the penalties.
Let's turn a possession in + territory into ball at 18 yard line because of bonehead plays
How can that be a face mask, when they literally tackled PJ by his prior series?
What's the overunder for flags this game 320?
Man that is a tough targeting call. I get it's by rule but oof that was not much
Yeah. But the ref immediately called for the review. He must have seen it develop where he was intent on targeting the whole way.
The booth called for it. Otherwise ref would have flagged it.
Hey a RZ touchdown...neato
First quarter points .... holy smoke
Since we're bad bad, wofford must be BAD bad bad. Thats my technical analysis.
The tackling is just impressively bad.
At least we can do something impressive
This broadcast on ESPN+ is a special level of terrible. Keeps freezing or doing herky jerky frame by frame.
I'm not seeing that on my end tbh
Seems to be fine for me. Might be a local issue for you
No issues for my feed
Just let them bully a first down. So weak. Should have been 4th and 2
Do we have ANY key defenders? Announcers talking about all the injuries but with how bad our D has been are they really missed?
This team is lifeless, great run by Hawkins and no one goes over to hype him up. Body language is terrible, zero energy. Safe to say Montgomery has not rallied the team
Was that the fastest first quarter ever?
No one can tackle
Kyron Drones is what people think Jalen Hurts is.
Wish I could give this 1000 legs
Can we give Prioleau all of Drones NIL
I feel like I'm watching a HS football game
Is that the best throw of Drones's career?
Tbf against a P4 team that probably gets the WR killed
Drones has these little hints that he can do it. They are just never strung together
So, they announced Woodson and Reddish are not out there. Guess we have couple more potential portal entries.
Said they were injured. Along with three others in defensive backs.
Maybe they are injured, but the timing is suspect.
Reddish definitely qualifies to redshirt.
7-0 after 1? Oof
Should have at least been 10-0, but we Drones up a 4th and 1
Well, klumpson's run defense looks like our pass defense
Drones is incapable of holding on to a football
I like that they are getting the ball to Prileau in space.
Yep, Drones absolutely fumbled that one
Yes. I believe that's a fumble.
Pop?? Please..
I get that he may not be a huge Improvement maybe not an improvement at all. But let's at least see what he has.
I think it's pretty clear what Drones is at this point.
Didn't he get demoted to third string?
Drones is the best option we got by a wide margin. I get no one wants to admit it, but that's the reality we live in.
He's limping around and avoiding contact
And he's gone next year. At this point we need to figure out how many quarterbacks we need in the portal this year.
See if Pop is even an option as a backup.
If he's not, then you need two QBs.
I agree Drones is probably the best QB on the team, but still think sending in the backup (possibly only for a series or 2) when your starter is playing uninspired could and should be used as a motivational tool for Drones and an example to the rest of the team that if they want to play they need to play better. And if he's playing hurt you definitely don't want him to get injured worse.
I get sticking with Drones if we reasonably thought we were playing for anything this season.
We are not.
Look what's going on on the field. We are a marginally better team than Wofford.
See what you have for the future...who you need go try to pay more ransom money (ooops..NIL) to stick around and who to let walk.
And even if you do for some bizarre reason think we have a chance to compete in the conference this year, why continue to trot an obviously limping Drones out?? If you think he is our best, get him healthy.
First of all - I disagree. We know this team won't win the ACC, but coaches are coaching for their next job, players are playing for their next team (be it the NFL, VT, or elsewhere).
Also, we can still fuck up someone's season. Miami, FSU, Louisville, GT, and UVA are all having great seasons (relative to each respective program's goals). That's 5 chances to be the 2007 Pitt that fucked WVU out of a national title. That could be us.
We're up 21-3, dominating in almost every statistical metric.
What are you looking for here?
This is a fair argument.
Drones is 14/18, 149 yds, 2 TD, 0 INT, 1 Sack. 13.68 EPA. He's targeted 7 receivers and 6 of them have had catches (source)
In what world is this uninspired QB play? Am I missing something?
The competition they are playing against today?
Looking at the season, 56% completion, 4 TDs, 3 INT through 3.5 games puts his stats today in a different context.
You said above:
Drones is 14/18 with 2TDs. You want better? What's good enough to avoid the bench? 15/18? 16/18? Perfect? With 4 of our top 7 linemen out with injury?
I don't know what you're looking for against Wofford. Drones is doing more than enough to make this an easy win. This is great for him to build his confidence and build the confidence of those around him. And you want to bench him?
Am I taking crazy pills???
So you think the new coach should come in and punish him? You think that's going to be good for a team with fragile culture?
Three of four incomplete were technically drops too
Last response from me because I'm not going to argue about this. I'm thinking of it as motivation rather than punishment. I do think that would be a reasonable thing for a new coach to do to communicate there is a new standard with him as head coach. I'm anticipating that later in the season the stats will continue to look more similar to what we've seen from Drones over the last 2 years.
That said it is great to see bright spots on the team putting effort into this game, it certainly could look a lot worse today. Go Hokies.
Drones being incapable of not turning the ball over against Wofford...
Man, it's sad this is the best we have
Copeland earning that Freak title
Copeland is now a receiver
Now we just need to find a QB.
My feed must be like 3 minutes behind...I just understood this
The read progression... woof
When Drone came to the sidelines, after the TD to A. Green, it looked like he was limping.
I saw that.
Looked to me like it's a cut or turf burn under the bandage on his kneecap.
Definitely limping, it happened on the one yard run to the sideline a few plays ago.
Showed it on the replay. A little incidental contact had him kick his own Achilles.
Saw that too, he was limping after the run out of bounds though. The other contact looked like it made it worse.
Agreed. Gets offense quasi going, goes out for three games with an injury
On that note, after watching Oklahoma State game last night, if Rangel couldn't beat their starter out then he is definitely not better than Drones unfortunately
Drones one yard gain again...he had 5 yards straight up field...gets one slanting out of bounds
Yes we are winning by three TDs but we really don't look very good doing it, especially considering it is against a 0-3 FCS team.
The have 30 total yards. We are on pace for 500+ (but feels like we're going through the motions). can we run a couple series with Pop or another QB just to see what we have? Playing Drones hurt cost us the season last year...no need to push him right now.
Time of possession not that much more.
Broadcast needs to turn the volume up on the second announcer.
"Broadcast"
Funny how this is the white out game, after surrendering the past two games.
lol...the vision of Drones is something
He locked in on the one guy that could sack him and just let it happen.
Well that's one way to run yourself into a sack
Is Flowers related to a previous player?
If you're going to play Drones, then let him f*cking play! Dink and dunk, slow, reads are not his game. He's a running QB, option and then pass off it. If he's not 100% sit him (cause this is not his game). If he's can't run the offense and you refuse to change the plays to his strengths, use a different QB.
This is coaching 101. Not a qb talent issue
I disagree with that flag.
Wow. That wasn't a foul at all. Hit him with the ball stil in his hand.
Thrown by official behind the play while head ref just watched it with no flag.
Do we get to see Timeout management here from Montgomery?
He did call a timeout on the play before the penalty.
Just called his second.
My feed is still on the 2 minute timeout....thats how behind it is
Clemson coming off the rails apparently
OMg I did not see that score.
24-7 Syracuse with 7 minutes left in Q2.
Yeah. It's not like they got boat raced by ODU. Oh, crap
Maybe Dabo will be available to be the new HC. /s
Is Bell the team leader in personal foul penalties?
Not what we would call "disciplined"
I'm just so baffled by this team. Something happened after halftime of Vandy. They just flat out quit on Pry. Look like we are just going through the motions out there (although glad we are winning), and several people already sitting out awaiting the portal. Something was just way off with the chemistry and leadership on this team. After that being a major focus this offseason too. Would love to know what happened after the South Carolina game that caused this team to check out.
Is Prioleau the only one that knows how to play football?
Tipped it to himself. Nice. But dangerous.
Prioleau catching and running has been fun to watch today.
So we're just going to bench Stewart after having his best game of the season last week? Wouldn't be surprised to see him announce transfer Monday.
I think we are holding out multiple guys to let them heal. He's not needed today and I would rather have him playing fully healthy next week
Pretty sure he is out of eligibility assuming that is a thing any more. This would be his "Covid" year. He was at Bowling Green as part of 2019 class.
I know there's been a lot of talk about being like Clemson, but each 1-3 is not what everyone was talking about. 🤣
Slow developing run up the middle. No gain.
Ahh shit that hit the ground
No idea how that was upheld
No idea how that was upheld. You could clearly see it hit the ground on the replay from behind
But I'll take it
Still cannot understand why Drones is in the game. He was hurt. Perfect chance to mix it up and try something else.
If we score a TD here, he should absolutely sit the rest of the game.
There is no universe in which that pass was complete
Up 21-3 in RZ. And you finally let Drones run outside. No idea what these coaches are seeing.
Must be Hawkins was getting tired.
I like what Hawkins is showing us today.
Him and Prioleau have been really solid. Especially receiving out of the back field
He stepped on the line there.
Drones is hitting receivers in stride today.
Get the limping Drones TF out of there.
Edit: great throw there by the limping Drones.
Was the band playing the NBC Olympics theme before that last play?
Aaaaand he might have stepped out on that route
The ref was watching his foot and didn't make the call. Somehow a blurry relay will show definitely that he stepped out?
I mean blurry camera or not, that's pretty obvious
It was obvious in the stands.
And there reason was incorrect. His foot was not out of bounds when he touched the ball.
How can that be overturned because doesn't that have to be flagged and you can't assess a penalty after the fact?
You can rule him as ineligible on replay for stepping out.
The penalty in this case would be loss of down from the previous spot, the same as an incompletion
That's why they used the "touched the ball with his foot out of bounds". But that wasn't the case. He "may" have stepped out and then caught the ball...which isn't overturnable.
Up three scores, please get the second team players in for the game experience
Based on what I've seen from our starters, that may be considered running up the score.
When you see a former classmate throwing a pretty ball back on the field you at least get a moment of joy from this game.
Cliff Anders, former cadet/Hokies Long Snapper was the one congratulated on his arm for throwing the FG ball back on the field.
That's funny.
Drones still in. Mind boggling.
And they have 62 yds of offense.
Have any of the coaches told Drones that it's ok to move up in the pocket?
Not a forward pass.
Clear as day. Threw it 1-yard back.
This is the best VT performance we've seen since... the back half of the 2023 season? Probably since the 2023 UVA game?
Drones is a pretty good FCS level QB.
I think a large amount of his issues are tied to lack of protection (not all of them). He is getting a little time today (not a lot) but he looks much improved
Amazing how accurate Drones can be when he's not running for his life, lol
I want to see a backup QB. Drones should not be playing in the 4th
Pop must have already told them he's leaving. Drones playing this late up 4 scores makes 0 sense.
I'm wondering if this is more of a need for more game reps for Drones, but your take might also be true
They may just be trying to build his confidence back up
That's what the first half was for.
So play whoever is next.
I mean...we still have out starting OL in. Why not let Pop get some playing time with the starters? Instead they're going to put him in with the walkons and get him killed and then state "see how bad he looked"
Do we have a backup OL?
We have some names with jersey numbers.
You're about to see how bad they are with Pop handing off 3 times.
Not a healthy one at least
We put in the backup kicker before we put in the backup QB
Lol I was about to say the same
You have to protect you only all conference player.
We put in a backup kicker before backup QB. I guess we still do invent the future.
To be fair, for our scoring purposes this year, it's probably better to get the kicker experience rather than QB
Wofford is overmatched, but it also seems real clear that this team decided it was D-U-N done with Pry at some point no later than that positive-territory 3Q punt against Vandy and went into Operation Shutdown.
They couldn't have done this to Radford High School last week.
Pop sighting-everyone breath
Assume Drones will be back out.
Another DUMB special teams penalty. How is Skippy still employed? Its every week multiple times a game.
Did they say that Wofford backup punter made it to the field before our backup QB?
It's infuriating to see how many of our OLs just are standing around when the play is still going.
Drones had 5 incompletions. 2 were drops, 2 were WR ruled out of bounds. Hard to criticize him much today.
D held them to 129 yards. Hard to complain about that as well.
This D is looking as good as the first team
Someone will need to look at the tape but I'm certain that half of those completions were to the check down, and the other half were <10 yards
He had loads of passes to RBs.
Our backup offense is setting records for penalties per play.
When our backup defenders show the most excited energy of anyone all game...
Was just about to say that. Love their spark/fire.
The 2's need to play
I agree. I think Monty should have open audition for every starting position. Whether you're a starter or a fourth string backup if you practice the best and show energy you'll play. No use playing favorites at this point if some starters have checked out.
Backup freshman LB's making plays...
Seen Clatterbaugh and Gabe in there. Surprised Micah Matthews hasn't gotten any looks (unless i've missed it)
Deloatch keeps showing up
A win is a win. I wish I felt better about the season.
Maybe we should move to FCS for the rest of the season
We won a game!
I'm not sure I've ever seen a more underwhelming blowout.
I know it wasn't a blowout but it was similar to GT last year. Backup QB starting and their offense never felt threatening. We just had to wait for the offense to slowly gain yards and score some points. No big explosive plays for TD's.
.
it was a win, we didnt play with our food. good to see the checkdowns and negative rushing yards is a plus.
i liked more that montgomery told the guys who want to leave to sit on the sideline in their sweats. if they dont want to be here.
Lot of successful reps for Drones, which he needs. My guess is that Montgomery is trying to make up for all that lost development time when a TE/OL coach was coaching our QB's.
He's been our starter now for 2 1/3 seasons; if he hasn't adapted to the game by now, there's nothing that playing an extra quarter or so against a terrible FCS Wofford is gonna help. He is what he is and a P4 quarterback is not one of them.
I think most of the problem is...what system is KD supposed to learn and adjust? Bowen started with that "multiple" (whatever that was) system with slow/read and refuse to run the QB...then two games after he named KD the starter, switched to the "smoke and mirrors" (CC's term)...with great success. Last year Bowen comes out with a pro-set, drop back system...KD suffers...then switches back to the S&M :) system with some success (but KD is already hurt and should have been rested or out for the season). This year Monty comes out with something like mixing Bowen's first two systems (still cannot figure out what we are trying to do)...struggles...then runs (what I think should be our system) 1H of Vandy...then abandons it again. ODU was doomed from the start...it was like we were trying to not let KD use his best skills (RPO, OZ, run!, rollout quick passes).
Don Shula was perhaps the best coach of all time. He was a run downhill/power team. Then drafted Marino and became a pass-happy WR focused system. Good coaches adjust to their talent. Bad coaches refuse to change and cannot recruit the skill set for the system they want to run.