Ghost of Pry: A Haunting Loss to Louisville

In a week where the Great Pumpkin named James Franklin loomed around the Virginia Tech coaching rumor mill, it was his former defensive coordinator whose failings haunted the Hokies against Louisville. Virginia Tech's effort at times probably warranted a better result than a 28-16 loss. The skill position blocking, with Donavon Greene setting the tone with some vicious option stalk blocks to spring Cameron Seldon for a couple of catches in the second quarter, was purposeful and physical. His block on cornerback Justin Agu (No. 13) in live speed was one of the nastiest option stalk blocks I have seen.

But the execution and effort still wasn't universal. While the offensive line issues that afflicted the Brent Pry era are seemingly getting better under the tutelage of offensive line coach Matt Moore, the linebacking room's no-show appearance and horrific special teams under original Pry hire Stu Holt continue to plague the Hokies. I will credit Philip Montgomery- when the Hokies could easily quit, their physicality and compete level has improved in a lot of areas, but whoever inherits this program will find significant rot that will need to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Linebackers Frozen in Fear

The linebacker corps is the top position group that has to be reconstructed when the new Hokie head whistle is put into place. The starting pair of freshman Noah Chambers and junior Caleb Woodson are regularly more physical at the point of attack than Virginia Tech has flashed since 2023, but they are woefully inconsistent with reading the play and are still prone to play too far behind the line of scrimmage when challenging blockers. To make matters worse, in terms of physicality and playmaking in tight spaces there is a substantial drop off from the first pair of linebackers to the second group of Kaleb Spencer and Jaden Keller. This forces Chambers to probably play more than he should at this stage in his development.

The Hokies dominated the second quarter defensively, largely thanks to the defensive line controlling the line of scrimmage. But warning signs of poor linebacker play were stalking the Hokies like a Scooby Doo villain. Louisville did a good job of mixing up their zone blocking, sometimes doubling the defensive tackle at the point of attack and then releasing a blocker late to climb to the linebacker, and at other times blocking one-on-one against the defensive line and getting a blocker to the linebacker quickly.