Quickening the Pace

Saturday's game against Stanford had all the makings of a trap game. The Hokies, coming off a devastating last second loss decided by a replay ruling, had to fly across the country to play their first west coast game. The travel is hard enough, but going to play an unfamiliar team, playing their backup quarterback, in a nearly empty stadium, screamed for an emotional let down. While their performance was far from perfect, Virginia Tech's offense found success against a physical Stanford defense utilizing a no-huddle with a quicker tempo and more RPO action. Defensively, the Hokies amped up the physicality against a bruising Stanford run game committed to limiting possessions and keeping the Virginia Tech offense off the field. It wasn't a masterpiece, but outside of some egregious special teams penalties, this performance was a big positive step coming off the heels of a what-could-have-been deflating loss.

Hokies break out a fast tempo offense.

Stanford had demonstrated a stout run defense, and with a backup quarterback, it was easy to anticipate that the Cardinal would look to limit possessions in the game. To address both challenges, offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen opened the game with a no huddle look that featured calls at the line of scrimmage and quick reads on packaged plays for quarterback Kyron Drones. The quick tempo paired with the play design created space for the Hokies playmakers.

Most of the game, Bowen called zone runs paired with the H-Back blocking out in front of the play, but on this outside zone RPO, tight end Benji Gosnell (No. 82) lined up on the line of scrimmage (from which he couldn't motion) while Jaylin Lane (No. 83) motioned across the formation, as if he was going to wham on the backside edge.