Virginia Tech has every reason to feel good heading into VMI, and that starts with the way Thursday night played out in Piscataway, New Jersey. William “Pop” Watson III, who was Virginia Tech’s second-string quarterback last fall, stepped in for UMass and lit up Rutgers in a 37-21 win as a 28.5-point underdog. Watson finished 19-of-22 for 197 yards and three touchdowns, and he added 40 rushing yards on six carries.
That result doesn’t make this matchup a lock, but it does explain why confidence around the Hokies is running high. VMI is coming off consecutive 1-11 seasons and finished 0-8 in the Southern Conference last year.
The Keydets already opened this season, and the start was rough: a 38-10 loss to Idaho State in which they managed just 11 passing yards. That kind of output would be hard to imagine against Virginia Tech, too.
The betting market reflects the mismatch. Virginia Tech is a 55.5-point favorite, with the over/under set at 62.5.
A big reason for the optimism is the quarterback situation. Ethan Grunkemeyer, the Penn State transfer who followed James Franklin to Blacksburg, was named the starter and a team captain on Aug.
- Last season, he threw for 1,339 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions, while completing 69.1 percent of his passes.
He also won his final four starts for the Nittany Lions. That completion rate would top Hendon Hooker’s Virginia Tech single-season mark of 65.3 percent.
Still, the warning signs are easy to remember. Virginia Tech already lived through one of college football’s biggest stunners on Sept. 11, 2010, when James Madison went into Lane Stadium and beat the No.
13 Hokies 21-16 as a 32.5-point underdog. Upsets like that don’t happen often, but they do happen, especially when a favorite hands an FCS team a chance.
VMI is bringing a very different offensive look up Interstate 81, too. First-year head coach Ashley Ingram spent 16 seasons at Navy and two more at Division II Carson-Newman, and he brought the triple option with him.
The Keydets used it 52 times for 229 yards against Idaho State. No other opponent on Virginia Tech’s schedule runs anything close to that, which means the Hokies’ preparation for this one is useful in a very narrow way.
On the sideline for Virginia Tech is Brent Pry, who was fired as the Hokies’ head coach last September the morning after a home loss to Old Dominion dropped the team to 0-3. Now he’s back in Blacksburg as Franklin’s defensive coordinator, helping oversee the game plan for a familiar opponent.
So the 1 percent is less about a real prediction and more about memory. Thursday night was a reminder that strange things can happen, even to a Big Ten team at home, even against a program that had not won in 16 tries, even with a quarterback who was on Virginia Tech’s roster nine months ago.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on the ACC Network.
In Other News...
Virginia Tech Is Putting On The Kind Of Show Fans Craved
By halftime at Lane Stadium, Virginia Tech had already delivered the sort of complete performance fans have been waiting to see. The Hokies were up 45-0 on VMI after a first half that featured touchdowns on the ground from Jeffrey Overton Jr. and Marcellous Hawkins, a long scoring strike from Ethan Grunkemeyer to QueSean Brown, and a defensive touchdown off a blocked punt.
The bigger story was how thoroughly Virginia Tech controlled every phase. VMI managed just 32 yards on 28 plays before the break, and the Hokies piled up four sacks while keeping the Keydets from finding any kind of rhythm. It was the kind of lopsided, energized start that can change the feel of a night at Lane Stadium in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Virginia Tech Is Chasing A Recruiting Win Mike Young Needs
Virginia Tech is spending real time on the road and on campus with some of the nations youngest rising basketball prospects, a sign of how Mike Young wants to shape the roster moving forward. The Hokies have hosted official visits from Joshua Tyson and Tyran Frazier, while Micah Gunter also made an unofficial stop, all part of a broader push into the 2027 and 2028 classes as the staff leans into development as a selling point.
Tyson, a 6-foot-1 point guard ranked No. 42 in the 2027 class, and Frazier, a 6-foot-10 center ranked in the 52nd-to-59th range, give Virginia Tech a look at two very different building blocks. Gunter, a highly regarded 6-foot-3 combo guard in the 2028 class, adds another layer to the effort, and the Hokies willingness to get in early suggests this is more than just background scouting. It is a deliberate shift from how they have approached recruiting before, and one that could tell you a lot about where the program wants to go next. [Read more 🡒]
Virginia Tech Just Sent A Loud Message In James Franklins Debut
Virginia Tech did not spend much time easing into the James Franklin era. In Franklins debut as head coach, the Hokies rolled past VMI 73-3 in their season opener, a performance that was as lopsided on the scoreboard as it was everywhere else. Ethan Grunkemeyer handled the passing game efficiently, throwing for 224 yards and two touchdowns, while the Hokies piled up the kind of total dominance that can make an opener feel more like a statement than a tune-up.
The defense matched that tone from the start, collapsing VMIs offense with relentless backfield pressure and the kind of disruption that usually changes a game before halftime. Virginia Tech also got a boost from its quarterback depth, with Bryce Baker adding a touchdown pass in relief as the scoring kept coming. For Franklin, the first game on the sideline offered a clear glimpse of the identity hell want in Blacksburg, even if the larger question is how much of this opening burst can carry once the schedule turns serious. [Read more 🡒]