Ultimate College Football Preview, 130 Teams In A 130 Days: Virginia Tech

Welcome to the Ultimate College Football Preview for 2023. Every team in FBS Football will be covered in this daily blog release. All of your favorite teams from the ACC, AAC, Big 12, Big 10, C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, PAC 12, SEC, Sun Belt & even every Independent. Think of these daily college football previews as a cheat sheet going into next year.

2022 Recap:

Just like we did with Virginia yesterday there will be no punches pulled, Va Tech was a terrible team last year. The went 1-6 in ACC play and 3-8 overall. Maybe there was something in the water in Virginia to make the teams in the ACC that played in Virginia 3-8. I guess a positive for Va Tech is they started to become more competitive later in the season. The games were closer at the end of the year and they even beat a good Liberty team on the last game of the year. I do try to look for positives while doing these college football previews but this one is hard.

Head Coach:

Coach Bret Pry went 3-8 his first year in Blacksburg, not what Hokie fan wanted at all. Before landing the Head job at Va Tech, Pry was a former Defensive Coordinator at Vanderbilt (2011-2013) and at Penn State ( 2013-2021). He is a James Franklin prodigy, that means defense and grit. While the offense at Va Tech was one of the worst in all the FBS, his defense was 54th out of a 131. I think he is the right person to take a once proud team into the future. Pry reminds me of Frank Beamer, with a defense first mentality. If he gets his guys in and to buy in to what he is preaching Va Tech will be right back at the top of the ACC.

Key Players:

Grant Wells will be the starting QB again in Blacksburg after a pretty mediocre at best season last year. Wells had a 59% completion percentage for 2,171 yards. He had 9 touchdowns and 9 interceptions, but also had 6 more rushing and 205 yards. Not exactly. a dynamic year out of that position. None of the projected starting weapons contributed last year except TE Nick Gallo. All three starting WR are transfers and hopefully bring some new life to the offense. The biggest producer that is back is Nasir Peoples a Red Shirt Senior Safety that had 61 tackles, 30 solos and 4.5 TFL’s. I think scheme will be a big part of the success on the defensive side of the ball.

2023 Prediction:

I think this team will have a better record than last year. There is a face a path for them to even be bowl eligible if they can pull some upset wins in the conference. The non-conference has games of equal talent vs. Rutgers, Marshall, Old Dominion & Purdue. If they can pull a 2-2 or 3-1 record vs. these teams they can win 3 or 4 games in conference to go bowling. Va Tech is a team on the rise in the ACC, in 2 years competing for a Championship.