Recap in Haiku: Wake Forest Offense Stalls Again, Virginia Tech Wins 30-13

Defense tried their best

Kern should have started way back

LEARN TO FREAKING BLOCK

The offensive totals for Virginia Tech were pretty darn good. Kyron Drones absolutely had himself a day, going 20/29 for 321 yards and 2 TDs, and running for 59 yards on 15 carries. But honestly, that belies how good the defense was for most of the day. The Hokies were held to 2-11 on third down, forced an absolutely great effort fumble, and the usually explosive Bhayshul Tuten was honestly absolutely bottled up, ending up with 30 carries for 13 yards. The defense was on their heels the entire day, but only started to really break down in the fourth quarter. The offense, on the other hand...was utterly busted. 232 yards of TOTAL offense for Wake Forest, including 39 rush yards on 26 attempts for an absolutely terrible 1.5 YPC until the fifth sack of the game knocked Michael Kern out of the game, pouring salt into the wound of an already infuriating day.

The offense was just...I’m running out of words. Playcalling at key points? Bad. Blocking? Atrocious. Ability to capitalize on good field position? Absolutely non-existent. Michael Kern was the lone bright spot of the day on offense, going 14-22 for 166 yards after Mitch Griffis was benched in the first half (seemingly a healthy scratch). There were three turnovers by the Wake Forest offense, a pick by Griffis and two fumble sacks that led to possession for Virginia Tech. And those are just the ones that Wake Forest lost. There were, I believe, three forced fumbles recovered by Wake Forest.

Between the absolutely terrible running numbers and the turnovers, I feel pretty confident in saying that the biggest disconnect this season in the offense is an absolute inability to effectively execute blocking schemes. It looked significantly better with Kern in the game largely because he seems to be more decisive with the ball, but it still wasn’t GOOD, and both Kern and Griffis continued to get absolutely obliterated and bull-rushed on a pretty regular basis.

This season is pretty definitively a lost cause in my estimation, but bad seasons happen. Seven years in a row getting to a bowl game is pretty darn spectacular for any program, unless you’re one of the top of the top sort of programs in college football. The disturbing part to me is that I can’t parse exactly what the SOLUTION moving forward is. Ruggiero as Offensive Coordinator has put up video game numbers for over half a decade, so my gut tells me it’s mostly a personnel problem, but there are questions to possibly be asked about the coaches’ inability or outright refusal, not sure which, to divert from their regular gameplan when it’s painfully obvious that, wherever the disconnect may be, said plan is not remotely working.

I’m tired, y’all. I still think Michael Kern earned the starting spot, not like I think it particularly matters. On to the next, I guess. Go Deacs.