Preview 2023: Virginia Tech vs Boston College Football

The boys are headed back home for the second to last home game of the season. The Hookies finished dead last in the conference in 2022, only logging one conference win to go with two others. That one win happened to be against BC in September, but that’s neither here nor there. Head coach Brent Pry is entering only his second year, meaning for some natural growing pains, but the program has experienced three straight losing seasons for the first time since the late 70s.

When: Saturday, November 11th TBD

Where: Chestnut Hill

Last Time Out

As referenced above, Tech got the better of BC last season 27-10 in Blacksburg. The Eagles offense couldn’t generate anything and it was the slow knife that killed. VT owns a 20-11 overall series record, but it has been rather even in the past decade.

Offensive Outlook

The Hokies’ offense was one of the biggest culprits for last season’s struggles, ranking 120th in total offense and averaging under 20 points a game. Quarterback Grant Wells is big and somewhat mobile, but lacked making explosive plays. He has had turnover problems over his career as well. The other option now is Kyron Drones, a sophomore QB from Baylor who brings in a much more potent dual threat option. Each has rotated in with the first team offense of late so the jury’s out.

The revamped receiving corps features three new transfers, after their top target moved on to Notre Dame. That includes Ali Jennings with an Adam Banks-style switch, after torching the Hokies in an historic win for Old Dominion to start the 2022 season.

The rushing attack was poor as well. Even against the Eagles it was just fine (despite the inevitable one long touchdown run). But now Malachi Thomas returns to steady the ship after missing majority of the season, and in comes Bhayshul Tuten who was named to the Doak Walker Award watch list. With a young and thin offensive line that has had a revolving door of coaches lately, they’ll have to show some improvement after allowing 30 sacks.

Return of the Lunch Pail

Defense is Pry’s calling card after showing his mettle at Penn State prior, and he brought the Lunch pail back to the program upon arrival. They were about average last season, but poised to make progress.

Their front line has a whole lot of size, but struggled to generate much of a pass rush. No one currently on the team had more than two sacks in 2022.

They may have picked off Jurkovec to start off last year’s contest, but the secondary only had four total for the season. Quality starters do return and they add in transfer Derrick Canteen from Georgia Southern. Canteen has seven picks to his name across 26 games, and is seen as a true difference maker. You can expect some positive regression on the takeaways front, especially as Pry continues to imprint his identity.

Preseason Prediction

Neither of these teams are looked at kindly in the broader ACC*. This will be the second of back-to-back road games for the Hokies. Eagles get back on top this time with a stronger offense: 24-13.

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