Coming off two home blowouts in a row against Boston College and East Carolina , the Virginia Tech Hokies aren't having any problems keeping their egos in check during their bye week. The upcoming five-week stretch that includes four road games, back-to-back Thursday games, a game against a ranked opponent and a game against the defending Coastal Division champion is sobering enough, so Virginia Tech is taking its off week for what it is: a chance for rest, self-evaluation and improvement.
“Our coaches do a good job of finding things that we’ve done wrong in games like this and focusing on those rather than things we’ve done well,” wide receiver Isaiah Ford said after the Hokies’ 54-17 win over East Carolina on Saturday. “And it keeps us grounded and keeps us working hard, because we still haven’t done anything yet. Our goal is to go 1-0 each week, and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
The Hokies didn’t practice Sunday or Monday, and they have the day off Friday and Saturday as well. Between were what Coach Justin Fuente called “get-better” practices, the last of that kind the team will be able to have this season.
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Those days were for revisiting fundamental skill development and giving younger players — backups who will be called on when starters succumb to injury as the season goes on — reps they hadn’t been able to squeeze in over the first month of the season. Those practices were also for making sure the team maintains a competitive mind-set as it looks ahead, first to North Carolina in Chapel Hill on Oct. 8.
While Virginia Tech (3-1, 1-0 ACC) is off, the Tar Heels (3-1, 1-0) will visit No. 12 Florida State on Saturday.
One of the things Fuente’s staff wanted to firm up this week was the Hokies’ run game, which ranks eighth in the conference with an average of 195.5 yards per game despite having the third-most rushing attempts. Quarterback Jerod Evans said offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen wants to try out different formations for the Hokies’ running backs.
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Virginia Tech's run game is designed to spread carries to a larger group of players including Sam Rogers, Bucky Hodges and Travon McMillian rather than depend on one star, so explosive, 100-yard games are rare. McMillian owns the team's only individual 100-yard game, 130 yards in a 45-24 loss to Tennessee, their only game so far against a ranked team.
But the Hokies’ passing game has been far more impactful. Virginia Tech is second in the conference, trailing third-ranked Louisville and current Heisman favorite Lamar Jackson, with 13 passing touchdowns so far compared to seven rushing touchdowns.
The players have their own goals as well; Evans, who owns the 15th-best completion percentage in the nation with 67 percent, wants to work on accuracy and “completing the freaking ball down the field,” he said after Saturday’s win.
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Fuente said he would test his quarterback on that this week, and put him through situational work including hypothetical third-downs that haven’t come up yet.
“Some plays you just want back. ... That’s just something that you work on in practice,” Evans said. “You got practice and you work on those little mistakes that you make in the game and adjust to your wide receivers better.”
Evans also appeared to tweak his ankle in Saturday’s game against East Carolina but said he has been practicing on it without issue.
If the Hokies’ to-do list seems a bit nit-picky in the wake of two wins by a total of 86 points, Fuente found a healthy amount of progress over Virginia Tech’s first four games, too.
After losing nine fumbles in their first two games of the season — most in the country at that time — the Hokies haven’t fumbled the ball at all in the past two weeks. Special teams, historically a priority in Blacksburg, have improved, and provided a highlight last week when Greg Stroman streaked 87 yards for a touchdown on a punt return.
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Bud Foster’s defense, too, has been superlative. Virginia Tech has the third-best pass defense in the ACC and the ninth-best total defense in the nation, allowing an average of 264.3 yards per game.
Still, at this point in the season Fuente prefers to stay focused on what his team needs to improve rather than dole out praise. The looming, formidable conference slate — after the trip to North Carolina is a visit to Syracuse, a home game on a short week vs. No. 14 Miami, another Thursday game at Pittsburgh, and a trip to Duke — everyone’s minds in Blacksburg.
“I think we know that we’ve got a heck of a gantlet here of eight straight weeks of football with a couple Thursday games mixed in there with some very competitive and challenging opponents both home and on the road,” Fuente said. “Definitely, we have a good feel of how difficult the road ahead’s gonna be.”
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