— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, West Virginia — The 34-27 overtime loss at Vanderbilt last Saturday caused plenty of concern among Virginia Tech’s avid football fans.
The Hokies, who welcome Marshall to Lane Stadium for their first home game on Saturday at 4:30 p.m., hope to avoid a repeat of last season when they started 1-3. One of those three early losses was a 24-17 loss at Marshall.
This week’s game will be the 14th meeting between Marshall and Virginia Tech, with the Hokies winning 10 of the previous 13 meetings.
Virginia Tech’s successful football teams of the past have been largely based on a solid running game, a stifling defense and the strength of their special teams, not to mention several successful dual-threat quarterbacks.
This recipe for success did not quite work last Saturday in Nashville, when the Hokies fell behind 17-0 and their comeback was unsuccessful.
Although Virginia Tech had a 397-371 lead over the Commodores and had two field goal attempts, the negative aspects included a net punting number that was 14 yards lower than the overall punting average, while the offense managed just 75 rushing yards on 30 carries.
The Hokies’ normally productive running back, Bhayshul Tuten, was held to 34 yards.
On a positive note, quarterback Kyron Drones had the best passing day of his career with 322 yards and two touchdowns.
“We need to be more physical in the running game,” Hokies coach Brent Pry said. “They were throwing gaps and doing things we didn’t expect and that slowed us down. We need to get off the ball, be more aggressive and more physical. There were moments where we looked pretty good in the running game — we were in a good mood and moving people around. And then we got beat a little too often in the throwing game and they had a little too much success putting pressure on the quarterback.”
Pry said the VT defense has a special challenge preparing for Marshall this week, as the Thundering Herd have not yet settled on a clear starting quarterback. He expects transfers Stone Earle and Braylon Braxton to both play Saturday, as the duo did in the season opener against Stony Brook last week.
“We analyzed both quarterbacks,” Pry said. “We looked at their tape. They both played a few games at their previous institution. We looked at those. We looked at what they did against Stony Brook. It was a little different for each one, but there were a lot of similarities. You have to study them independently and that’s what we did. They’re both pretty talented guys.”
Pry says he is not panicking after the season-opening loss and that Tech’s players need to maintain a humble attitude and avoid outside distractions.
“You can never feel better than you are,” Pry said. “I always say it: humble and hungry. They seemed to be in a good mood in the locker room. I think the way the game started dampened the mood a little bit. I think there was respect for Vanderbilt. I know we had that as a coaching staff and we certainly instilled that in our team. It’s my job as head coach to make sure we come out full steam and play really hard and really tough — and I don’t think we did that. After a short time, I felt like we lost that. It took too long to get it back.”
The Marshall game has special meaning for Pry. His father, Jim, was quarterback on the 1971 MU Young Thundering Herd team that played after the 1970 Marshall plane crash.
This 1971 team won games against Xavier and Bowling Green despite having many walk-ons and players with little football experience.
Pry still has memories of his youth in Huntington.
“The parents got married at 18 and had me, and that’s how it all started,” Pry said. “Marshall is very close and dear to my dad. Just his experience there and why he chose Marshall for this Young Thundering Herd. Taking him to that game last year was special. He walked around campus and around town, and it was very emotional for him. A lot of the emotional aspects of Marshall are important to me and my family, to this team, to this school. I have a lot of respect for Marshall.”
