Hokies Heading West To Take On The Thundering Herd (9-20-23)
By: Joey Raymond
Headline Photo Credit: Virginia Tech Athletics
Week Three in West Virginia:
Virginia Tech heads down to Huntington, West Virginia to face off against another Sun Belt foe in the Marshall Thundering Herd. This will be the Hokies’ second straight road test, this time kicking off at noon. This will be the thirteenth all-time meeting between the Hokies and the Herd. They last met in December of 2018, where the Hokies took a 41 to 20 win. The Hokies currently hold a nine-game winning streak in the matchup.
What Happened Last Week?
The Hokies are coming into this game off of a gut-wrenching loss to Rutgers. The Hokies had some signs of promise in Kyron Drones, but the injury bug proved to just be too much to overcome. The Hokies would lose this game 35-16. As all teams should, the Hokies didn’t make any excuses, but they did have a ton of injuries. For this game alone, the Hokies lost Grant Wells, Ali Jennings, Nasir Peoples, Keyshawn Burgos, Allen Tisdale, and a few others as well. Jaylin Lane did play, but was not full strength either, dealing with a hamstring injury. Bringing all of that in perspective and knowing that even though this turned into a blowout, it wasn’t that way until the fourth quarter. The score was 21-16 at the start of the fourth, which makes me wonder if they aren’t banged up that much if they turn this one into a win. Alas, we can’t make theories reality in this case and the Hokies pull their second loss, giving them a 1-2 record on the season.
The Thundering Herd come into this game having played only two games so far this season. Their first game was against an Albany squad at home, which they scraped out a win 21-17. They then traveled down to Greenville, North Carolina to take on East Carolina and played well. They came out with a 31-13 win. This will be a big game for the Marshall Thundering Herd as they haven’t hosted the Hokies since 2011. To have a big-name program come into your house is a big deal for these types of programs, regardless of the success of the big-name program in recent years.
Things to Watch For:
Obviously, in my eyes, Kyron Drones won the starting job. The Hokies quarterback played well. Yes, he did throw an interception, however, looking back at that play, the Hokies receivers are out of position and the defense made a great read and great play. That wasn’t entirely Kyron’s fault, although he should’ve just thrown the ball away. Drones appeared in control as he navigated Virginia Tech’s offense, throwing for 190 yards and one touchdown to one interception as mentioned, and running another 74 yards on the ground. He also completed 60% of all of his passes, and it would’ve been higher, had the Hokies not had some big drops. Look for Kyron Drones to take a big step next week against Marshall.
Marshall comes into this game with a 67.3% favorite according to ESPN. As well as at the time of my writing this article, is sitting at a -7.5 favorite according to Vegas. In my opinion, it’s rightfully deserved. I wrote in my year preview that this is where I had the Hokies taking their first loss. The Thundering Herd went 9-4 last year, and with the fact that they bring back a ton of returning starters. Marshall returns the leading touchdown scorer on the ground in Rasheen Ali, as well as bringing back key starters on defense in Steven Gilmore and Micah Abraham in the backfield. They have a high-powered offense that likes to run, something the Hokies have struggled with this year.
The amount of young talent that has had to play for the Hokies is concerning. A lot of that comes from the injury bug that has plagued the Hokies, but at the end of the day, it shouldn’t matter. Good teams get injuries and still find ways to win. Following the Rutgers loss, the Hokies have had sixteen players who are either true or redshirt freshmen have found the field in some capacity. The Hokies need someone to step up and become a leader on this struggling football team.
Our Prediction:
There is a ton to be concerned about if you’re a Hokies fan. Marshall is a sound football team. They have a ton of returning players, a ton of talent, and a ton of players with a lot of football under their belt. That could lead to major problems for the Hokies. Now, the Hokies did fair well against another Sun Belt foe in Old Dominion earlier this year, and if the Hokies can show flashes of what they did in that game, that’ll bode well for them. Ultimately though, this Virginia Tech squad has not shown me that they can do that regularly. The defense looks flat against the run game and the offense can’t run to save their lives. They got a slight boost with Kyron at the helm, but only a slight boost. I’ve got Marshall kind of running away with this one at home, winning by two scores. I don’t have faith that the Hokies offense makes that much of a turnaround in only a week.
