Virginia Tech doesn’t need a perfect game to leave Death Valley with a win. It needs a few players who can tilt the afternoon in a hurry.
That’s the thread running through Saturday night’s matchup with Clemson, where the Hokies can lock up bowl eligibility with a victory. It would also come in a place where Virginia Tech hasn’t won since 2007. Clemson enters at 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the ACC, while Virginia Tech sits at 5-2 and 2-2 in league play.
The Tigers’ offense has been one of the bigger questions in the conference. Clemson ranks last in ACC passing efficiency with true freshman Tait Reynolds at quarterback, though its defense has still been sturdy enough to hold three of six opponents to 10 points or fewer. That’s the backdrop for a Virginia Tech team looking for a handful of swing moments, the kind that show up in tight conference games.
One of the clearest candidates is edge rusher Harris. After redshirting at Penn State last season, where he appeared in two games, he followed James Franklin to Blacksburg and wasted little time making noise.
He had five sacks in his first four games, including two at Boston College. Clemson has already allowed 17 sacks, nearly three per game, and Dabo Swinney said Tuesday that Charleston Southern was his freshman quarterback’s best game at handling protections and avoiding sacks.
That detail matters because it hints at what came before it. If Clemson slides protection toward Aycen Stevens, Harris gets a one-on-one chance.
Virginia Tech can also steal points with the kind of low-volume role player Clemson might overlook. Hairston, a former Bassett High School quarterback who walked on at Virginia Tech in 2023, doesn’t see many targets, but he’s been productive when called on.
He has five catches for 75 yards and two touchdowns, with the latest a five-yard score against Georgia Tech. Clemson’s secondary has to account for Luke Reynolds and Que’Sean Brown, who has 46 catches for 616 yards, while the Tigers’ front just racked up 13 tackles for loss against Charleston Southern.
That makes red-zone possessions precious for the Hokies. When they get inside the 20, a 6'2" former quarterback running routes against linebackers is exactly the kind of wrinkle that can cash in.
The ground game has its own pressure point in Hawkins, who led Virginia Tech with 749 rushing yards last season but has settled into a different kind of job this year behind Jeffrey Overton Jr. Hawkins has 325 yards on 79 carries and five rushing touchdowns, one more than Overton.
Three of those scores came against VMI, so the numbers need some context, but the value in his game shows up in the ugly moments. Virginia Tech used him on a fourth-and-1 at the Yellow Jackets’ 22 while trying to bleed the final 5:20 against Georgia Tech, and he finished the conversion to help the Hokies keep the ball.
Clemson’s Sammy Brown and Jeremiah Alexander have combined for 79 tackles, but in a third-and-short game, the fifth-year senior is still the back Virginia Tech can trust.
Special teams could decide it too, and Love has already lived through both sides of that equation this month. He moved into fourth on Virginia Tech’s career scoring list in September, but October has brought some turbulence.
His 36-yard attempt at the end of regulation against Pitt was ruled wide left in a 35-33 loss. Eight days later at Cal, he missed from 55 and 39 yards, prompting Franklin to talk afterward about a kicking competition.
Then Love responded by going 2-for-2 against Georgia Tech. Both of Virginia Tech’s losses came on the final play, which leaves open the possibility that Saturday becomes another game that comes down to one kick in Death Valley.
The other big swing piece is on defense, where Reddish already owns a memory against Clemson. As a true freshman on Nov. 9, 2024, he caught a blocked 46-yard field goal at Virginia Tech’s 23-yard line and returned it 77 yards for a touchdown. Clemson answered with the next 24 points and won 24-14 in Blacksburg.
Reddish’s 2025 season ended after three games because of a shoulder injury, but he’s back now and picked off Georgia Tech on Saturday. That was Virginia Tech’s first interception since the opener and its first takeaway since Week 2.
Reynolds, meanwhile, has been careful with the football. He has completed 65% of 154 passes for 943 yards, with one touchdown and three interceptions, which works out to one pick every 51 attempts and 6.1 yards per throw.
Swinney said Christopher Vizzina, who has been out since fracturing his elbow in Week 2, had his best practice Monday since the injury, but Reynolds remains the starter.
Virginia Tech hasn’t been getting takeaways lately, and it needs one here. The safety who has already scored on Clemson looks like the likeliest man to deliver it.
If the Hokies pull it off, they’ll head into their Halloween open week bowl eligible.
In Other News...
Virginia Tech Still Has Two Big Questions Before Clemson
James Franklin spent part of Virginia Techs prep for Clemson talking through the pieces that still matter most this week, and a freshman on the offensive line has quickly become part of that conversation. Eziuka drew Franklins attention after working his way into the rotation at right guard, a promising sign for a unit trying to steady itself before a difficult conference test. Franklin also touched on Tait Reynolds handling of the quarterback situation after the starters injury, while offering the usual practice updates as the Hokies tried to sort out who would be available and where the depth chart might settle.
The bigger picture, though, is how Virginia Tech is trying to clean up the middle of games, not just the opening script. Practice this week has been geared toward improving third-quarter performance, with red-zone work moved into the middle of practice to recreate the kind of reset the Hokies have struggled to manage. Against Clemson, the margin for slow starts or flat stretches will be thin, and Virginia Techs ability to carry its practice emphasis into the game may tell as much as any injury update. [Read more 🡒]
Virginia Tech's Bowl Hopes May Hinge On 3 Defensive Playmakers
Virginia Tech heads into Saturday nights matchup with Clemson still trying to steady a defense that has recently given up plenty through the air against Cal and Georgia Tech. The stakes are obvious enough: the Hokies need a win to lock up bowl eligibility, and the road to getting there runs through a Clemson offense that will test every level of the field at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
Three defensive playmakers loom especially large in that effort, starting with the group tasked with pressuring the quarterback and cleaning up against the run. Virginia Tech also gets a boost from the back end with a defensive back coming off injury, adding some experience and flexibility to a unit that has to be sharper than it was in its last two outings if the Hokies are going to finish the job. [Read more 🡒]