CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Virginia Tech quarterback Kyron Drones enjoys a good relationship with offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tyler Bowen, who values feedback from his most trusted players. Bowen wants the offense to be tailored to fit the strengths and weaknesses of his key assets.
“I feel like I have a lot of input on what I do like and what I don’t like,” Drones said at this year's ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte. “[Bowen] wants me to tell him what I like and what I don’t like. Sometimes when they are having an offensive meeting putting in plays, I’ll hop in and see what’s going on and I’ll give my input, and he’ll just take it and run with it. I feel like it’s a good thing that he wants to hear what players want.”
By Drones’ third game as a starter last season, Bowen seemed to figure things out. Games against Rutgers and Marshall were a struggle, but things finally came together for the Hokies in their Saturday night home game against Pitt, and they were a different team for the remainder of the season.
Drones went on to throw for 2,085 yards with 17 touchdowns and just three interceptions while adding a further 818 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. Those were good numbers, especially considering his first two starts were somewhat pedestrian. He threw for 190 yards and completed 59.4% of his passes in his first start against Rutgers, with a touchdown, an interception and a fumble. Tech arguably took a step back the next week against Marshall when Drones had 160 passing yards and completed just 54.3% of his passes against the Thundering Herd.
However, things came together the next week at home against Pitt when he was 12-of-19 (63.2%) for 228 yards and three touchdowns while adding two touchdowns on the ground.
“That was my favorite game,” Drones said. “That was my confidence booster. That’s when I got locked in and settled on being a starter, and having multiple games [as a starter], and that was really when it clicked.”
It hasn’t always come naturally for Virginia Tech’s returning starter. His father taught him how to throw, but he didn’t start playing quarterback until the seventh grade, and he admits that he didn’t focus on his technique or mechanics very much until he started getting advanced work with a quarterback specialist later in his high school career.
“Kudos to the trainer I’ve been working with since junior year of high school. He’s really helped me a lot. I look back at old videos before I got with him, and I used to throw the ball ugly. I didn’t try to have any mechanics.”
Drones believes the next step of his development is improving his accuracy. He completed only 58.2% of his passes last season, which was tied for No. 85 nationally amongst qualified signal callers. He’d like to get that number up to around 70% this season, but he also knows that could be difficult because of his style of play. Recognizing the value of protecting the ball, Drones threw it out-of-bounds a lot last season, which limited his turnovers but also drove down his completion percentage.
“I mean, you want to be 70%... but I throw the ball out of bounds way more than [most quarterbacks] do,” he said with a laugh.
Confidence isn’t lacking for Drones, who said that being in a situation where he knows he’s the starter helps him because he’s not worried about making a mistake or looking over his shoulder. With that type of confidence, and with the number of key players the Hokies return, he’s looking for big things this season. Drones remembers one team he played for at Baylor that won a lot of games, and this 2024 Virginia Tech roster seems similar.
“This reminds me of after my freshman year at Baylor, everybody came back and we had a good season. Baylor went 12-2 that season, No. 5 in the country, and this feels like it could be a repeat, if not better, with everybody deciding to come back, everybody’s got one goal going in.”
The Hokies return nearly all of their offensive production from 2023, with only tight end Dae’Quan Wright departing (for Ole Miss). Tailbacks Bhayshul Tuten and Malachi Thomas are back, with their combined 1,244 combined rushing yards. Virginia Tech also boasts one of the deepest wide receiver rooms in the country, and it will get even stronger in 2024 with the return of Ali Jennings from injury. Not to mention that all five offensive line starters are back, and the depth has improved up front.
It’s important to stay grounded, though. It’s not like the Hokies were ACC champions last year. As Drones said, “We only went 7-6.” As the starting quarterback, he’ll play an important role in keeping the team’s mind in the right place, and he feels as if he has the necessary leadership skills to do so.
“It was really my dad [who taught me my leadership skills], and my senior year of high school, all the older guys had left, and it was my team senior year so I knew I had to be more vocal,” Drones said. “And then when I got to Baylor, I really learned everything from the old quarterback there, Gerry Bohanon, how to watch film, and I saw how he commanded a whole team and how everybody leaned towards him.”
If Drones and his teammates have the kind of season that they expect of themselves, he’ll cement his legacy as one of Virginia Tech’s all-time great quarterbacks. Not bad for someone who took a leap of faith committing to a team that was coming off a 3-8 season and had put a historically bad offense on the field. But then again, Drones was used to taking leaps of faith.
“I wasn’t really second-guessing [my decision] because I did the same thing when I chose Baylor. They had just won two games [when I committed]. It was another leap of faith. I knew they were going through a rebuild. I wanted to be a part of a rebuild.”
The Hokies aren’t rebuilding anymore. With nearly their entire team coming back, it’s more about slightly retooling and improving upon last season. Everyone knows that expectations are higher in 2024. For example, as of Wednesday morning, 41% of ACC futures betting on BetMGM has been on Virginia Tech to win the league. That’s a very high number for a team coming off a 7-6 season, but the Hokies avoid Florida State, Louisville and NC State during the regular season, and they get Clemson at home.
To achieve their goals, the Hokies have to embrace the expectations and not shy away from them. Drones believes that his team has what it takes.
“I believe we can go to the playoffs and go to the national championship and try to go win. That’s what anybody would say, but I really believe that with the roster we have coming back and with how our schedule lines up, we can go win the ACC, go to the playoffs and shock some people.”