VT Win = Defense + Special Teams + Opportunistic Offense
VT Win = Defense + Special Teams + Opportunistic Offense
Against Boston College, the Hokies proved that the Frank Beamer postulate still holds
Note: Data is sourced from CFDB and ESPN, except where noted. All PFF grades are preliminary, and current as of 5:00 a.m. Monday morning (September 12). These grades can, and likely will, shift a bit, but the broader takeaways should hold true.
Postulate - a thing suggested or assumed as true as the basis for reasoning, discussion, or belief
On Saturday night in a raucous Lane Stadium, Brent Pry got his first head coaching win by demonstrating that the old Frank Beamer postulate still hold true. Virginia Tech wins with defense, special teams, and an opportunistic offense. Let’s dissect each of these three facets in detail.
Defense
Boston College’s offensive line is not good, and Virginia Tech took full advantage. First, let’s set the baseline through two games.
The VT pass rush, in particular, was unrelenting. Their performance, watching the game live, appeared to be the main determinant in the outcome. However, when I went back and reviewed the time to throw numbers from the game, I found this:
Phil Jurkovec had plenty of time to throw! The 3.32 seconds of time to throw on sacks is the giveaway - Virginia Tech was excellent in coverage and Boston College did not move away from their focus on the downfield passing game. Virginia Tech’s secondary turned in the third highest average preliminary PFF coverage grade in the ACC (minimum 10 coverage snaps per player). Surprisingly, despite Tech’s inability to consistently complete passes for chunk yardage, BC graded out 11th among the 13 conference teams that played in week 2. Only one secondary player for BC earned a coverage grade higher than VT’s low grader, Jalen Stroman (63.9).
Through two games, Virginia Tech’s defensive tackles have graded out second in the conference, while the edge rushers are 8th. The grades for both positions match the eye test. Boston College is 12th in pass rush at both positions, which was also consistent with their play against the Hokies (just one sack).
The takeaway is that the front four and the secondary worked in concert to limit the BC passing game. Coverage sacks led to forced throws, and on the plays in which Jurkovec tried to hang in the pocket, the rush often arrived in time to at least hurry his throw.
Special Teams
Outside of a muffed punt that the Hokies fell on (DJ Harvey is clearly overthinking the fair catch thing - just trust your gut, DJ!), the Hokies were outstanding in special teams against Boston College. Will Ross hit field goals of 38 and 49 yards, demonstrating both accuracy and leg strength (the 49-yard kick would have been good from 55+). Peter Moore continued to show off increased hang time, averaging 45.3 yards on seven punts, with three pinning the Eagles inside their own 20-yard line.
Most importantly, the coverage teams continue to excel. Boston College’s average starting field position was its own 23, while the Hokies average start was their own 38. Virginia Tech started four drives in BC territory, and two-thirds of Hokie drives began outside of Tech’s 30-yard line. In contrast, Boston College did not start a single drive in VT territory, and began outside its own 30-yard line only three times in 14 drives.
Combine BC’s poor starting field position with their inability to sustain drives, and the Eagles usually ended up punting shy of where Tech was starting drives. The Hokies kept the pressure on, driving, on average, to the BC 44-yard line, which helped maintain the virtuous field position cycle. In fact, Tech’s average drive length of 18 yards was double that of Boston College.
Opportunistic Offense
As I forecasted in my preview article, the Hokies ran a pretty vanilla offense. However, two things stood out: play selection and the emergence of two wide receivers. We’ll take these in order.
Play Selection
Despite all the injuries to Virginia Tech running backs - remember, through two games, the top three RBs on the depth chart have all missed time due to injury - the Hokies remained committed to the run on Saturday night. Virginia Tech ran the ball on 79% of first down plays, 60% of second down plays, and 42% of third down plays. The overall run/pass ratio for downs one to three was 64:36.
It was a workmanlike effort, though, as the Tech offensive line again struggled to open holes for the backs. But with the Hokies sitting on a comfortable lead for most of the game, there was no reason to take chances. The Hokies needed to eat up clock and not turn the ball over. Gaining yards was a secondary concern.
Virginia Tech gained at least 20 yards on just two plays - the long TD run by Keyshawn King and the one-handed catch by Kaleb Smith on the deep throw down the sideline.
Emergent Wide Receivers
The Virginia Tech wide receiver room is beginning to come into focus. Once again, Kaleb Smith was the high grader among VT receivers, and Connor Blumrick caught five passes out of six targets. During training camp, Blumrick made a comment about quarterbacks, now that they take nearly all snaps out of the shotgun, having good hands. My immediate response was, let’s see. Well, we saw it on Saturday. Blumrick made multiple nice snags, and finished with the highest hands grade on the team (minimum 10 passing plays). Overall, Tech WRs graded out well in comparison to other ACC receivers in week 2.
Blumrick was in the top quartile in both hands and pass route. Smith was in the top quartile for pass route and in the upper quartile in hands. Stephen Gosnell and Da’Wain Lofton were in the lower quartile for both hands and pass route.
In overall offensive grades, Virginia Tech wide receivers, as a team, finished 6th out of the 13 ACC teams that played in week 2. If the Tech WRs finish the season mid-pack in the conference, the Hokies will win a lot of games.
Moving forward, in the short-term, I would expect Connor Blumrick to start in the slot, and then split time if and when Jaden Blue returns to full health. Kaleb Smith will continue to start and receive a lot of targets out wide, and Lofton will start at the other wide spot, with Gosnell working in on 35-40% of snaps. Blumrick, Gosnell, and Smith are all 6’2” or taller, and as they get more comfortable in their roles, look for receivers coach Fontel Mines to stress physical play. We will know this group is coming into its own when Grant Wells demonstrates comfort just throwing the ball up to these three and counting on them to go make a play.