Ali Jennings had five catches for 72 yards and two touchdowns against his former Old Dominion teammates. (Ivan Morozov)
Wide receivers, by nature, are always going to lobby their quarterback to throw them the ball more. But when the Hokies’ wideouts kept coming back to the huddle urging Grant Wells to look their way again and again in Virginia Tech’s 36-17 win over Old Dominion on Saturday, it didn’t feel self-serving — it felt like the best course of action.
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Bob Ross (RIP) said one should never be satisfied and the next painting will be a masterpiece. Work, work, work, in the words of Gov. LePetamaine(sp.?) (Mel Brooks).
nordstrom72
Give Tech's run defense a break. ODU stacked the box. Wells missed on a bunch of wide open opportunities. Wells was good; but he's got to be better and make that kind of defense pay. Everyone says you have to run to open up the pass; well, it also works the other way. If Wells would have been more accurate, ODU would've had to drop more guys back.
Good first game for Tech. Marve and Pry will clean up the run defense. Excited for next Saturday.
nordstrom72
Sorry, meant run game. Looks like I need to clean my room too.
daddio
O line will be our Achilles heel, running was tough last night, but effort was certainly there.
mrbutler52
The Hokies OC could learn a thing or two from ODU’s OC.
OutaStateHokie
What I saw with the OL was the inability to get to the 2nd level to block ODU's linebackers. Dont know why that is so difficult. Watch the replay and see if you agree with me. Must improve in that regard. Maybe its a lack of athletic OL players with good feet. Maybe?
Mapmaker
Obviously we played like it was 1st game of season. I had been drinking the koolaid predicting 8-4. Uhm, well it does appear Andy and Chris are much wiser than I. That OL better develop some run block skills PDQ (run blocking grades might be scary). Afraid we are indeed more of a 6-6 team. Improvement was noted but we have to have more. Go Hokies!
HokiesE96
I was talking to family last night before the game and said we could go anywhere from 4-8 to 8-4 depending on lots of little things.
BGHokie13
1st Down: Run up the middle for 2 yards…
1st Down: Run up the middle for 2 yards…
1st Down: Run up the middle for 2 yards…
1st Down: Run up the middle for 2 yards…
Everyone in the crowd would groan. Highly laid professional coaches come up with that game plan. Not a play action in sight.
We will never be good until we do something about play calling.
I can forgive mistakes and over thrown TD passes in the end one (TWO!). But this coaching is terrible. So far…
frankyfrankerson
we should be happy with 6-6; that would be substantive growth
marymoss
Our starting center is who needs the work. Snaps at the ankle of the quarterback all night is not going to work.
HokiesE96
Let’s give some grace as this is Moore’s first game as center when he was a top OL Guard last year for us.
MD Hokie
Exactly. Too many "experts" are throwing him under the bus. As center for the first time in his career, his head had to have been on a swivel last night. There's a LOT more to think about pre-snap at center than at the guard position he played at last year. I'm sure he will have a lot more reps at practicing snaps this week, and as the season goes on I expect to see significant improvement from him in that regard.
DW Hokie
Seems to me that Wells needs to play FT to keep his rhythm with these talented receivers. A two-QB system rarely works.
134022Hokie
Even Bud couldn't seem to contain a running quarterback over the years of his successes. Having said that it was a good win, few penalties, great energy, better team discipline, and much more aggressive play calling. Overall much improved. The young O-line needs to grow up quick!! ODU's offensive scheme was really different and will give a lot of teams difficulty. One step at a time.....GO HOKIES!!
Spartacusjones
Priority fixes needed in run fills and containment on defense. Offense needs to work on run blocking and play calling. This could have been a dominant win if they had performed better in those areas.
Also, get the ball in Holloway's hands!
moneal
The receivers looked better for sure and bailed out Wells
The Drones thing was confusing
The run game was disconcerting but pass protection seemed good
The defense can't seem to consistently stop a run up the middle
Certainly falls into a Wins a Win category.
Feels like a 6 win season
moneal
Oh yea and no penalties, turnovers, muffed punts or any mental problems. So that's great
Al Czervik
Lots to like in this game. Lots to clean up too. Solid, workman like effort with some wow factor and a side of WTFO. We are better than last year, no doubt but, with some work to do...a work in progress. Next week will be a crap shoot unless they fix the more obvious things like run blocking and containment out of the backfield. An enjoyable game, the atmosphere looked on par for a Lane stadium experience. Great fan support as usual. Feeling good this week.
Hokeedokee
Opponens will be licking their chops to face a team that cannot run the ball at all. if no change
happens starting NEXT week, we have a long season ahead of us.
AlfHokie
This article is under review for targeting. Lol
MDHokie79
Right! ;-)
133998Hokie
that’s hilarious!!
No_Limit_Hokie
Zing!
MaroonMark
if called for targeting, are they prevented from writing articles about this week's game? And if called in the second half of the ODU game, maybe they can only write about the second half of the Purdue game?
DRFOOT
Where were the linebackers on ODU quarterback runs?
HokieKanger
Marve better fix that because opponents watching film for this game are gonna attack us there.
ColWilliamFleming
Can't wait til we get Chris' analysis or any other good football mind. I'm not one of those but what I saw was that their offense with the stacks forced the LBs out to cover the crossing routes leaving the normal LB area behind the D-line to be emptied out some. I think they would have been competent if that weren't the case.
wwhokie1
They were chasing the fake hand off.
Rwtcharhokie
There is plenty of room for improvement. That said it was nice to see a good Va Tech team. The running game has to improve to keep from being one sided on offense and the linebackers need to be better at run support. While I was watching the game I was concerned I would be called for targeting.
Doublehaul Hokie
Great to see a passing game and Grant obviously feeling better as the game progressed. Run game still looked very plain. Our run D amazingly poor, but secondary was great. Lots to improve on, but I’ll take the W and be happy.
Chasesfish
Very happy with the win and the amount of talent added.
Hopefully they can do some self scouting on the running game. They tried to run it up the middle or do counter plays right at Old Dominion's middle linebacker. That guy is #2 all time in tackles in a season, it's not a secret that he's a ball player, yet they tried to run the ball up the middle 25+ times.
HokieJB
Looked a lot like 2022.
atlhokie1
I saw a lot of Ryan Willis in the running game. No reason to run read option plays when your QB is going to give up the ball 99%of the time. The defense knows to just go after the RB.
gaholder81
Encouraging signs with penalties being absent and receivers doing well. Wells looked good. Tackling needs to be improved. Easiest part of the schedule is over.
bluetickhound
We were a solid team the second half. With that said ODU was better than I expected them to be which made the win even more satisfying.
The crowd was loud and proud. Go Hokies 2023.
No_Limit_Hokie
Good to get past the opener, unlike last year. Better, but it remains to be seen how much. I like the mostly absent false start penalties.
Go, Hokies!
TomTurkey
Bob Ross (RIP) said one should never be satisfied and the next painting will be a masterpiece. Work, work, work, in the words of Gov. LePetamaine(sp.?) (Mel Brooks).
38 Comments