Duke's Mayo Bowl: A Commentary

Author's Note: I will use the bowl film to write a detailed assessment of the new players potentially entering the two-deep prior to spring practice. This is a high-level commentary instead of a traditional film review.

Virginia Tech limped into the Duke's Mayo Bowl with a depleted roster to face a team that presented all kinds of match up problems. The play on the field told the story of Virginia Tech's strength and conditioning struggles, as the Gophers were much bigger and more physical in all facets of the game. To complicate matters, Minnesota's use of a wide variety of blitzes with complex zone structure behind them provided substantial challenges to a very limited offensive line and a young quarterback.

The game played out much as expected. Minnesota showed a pressure from one area, causing the Hokies to set the protection to that side, and then brought pressure from the opposite side, wrecking havoc on Pop Watson. Even when the Gophers didn't blitz, Parker Clements, Brody Meadows, and Johnny Garrett in particular were physically overwhelmed and looked lost most of the evening. It is a damning indictment of Tech's offensive line recruiting and development that in a game that meant nothing, Pry-era recruits Layth Ghannam, Hannes Hammer, Aidan Lynch, and Web Davidson couldn't provide more resistance than the group that was trotted out there.