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Virginia Tech Football Finale - Year End Vibes as the Hokies Lay an Egg in Charlottesville

Rich Luttenberger·December 2, 2025

With Virginia Tech’s 27–7 beating at the hands of in-state rival Virginia, the 2025 football season has finally – and thankfully– come to a conclusion.

After yet another uninspiring performance by an offense that has been less than pedestrian all year, Hokie Nation can finally bury what was the worst season in over three decades, and the media can throw away the same post-game script that has been written game after game.

In all honesty, this campaign was over after the third week of the schedule, when Old Dominion thoroughly whipped Virginia Tech at Lane Stadium, leaving Tech with an 0–3 start and a newly fired head coach.

From that point forward, Hokie Nation was more concerned with how to climb out of this mess, and we were easily distracted by BOV budget presentations, football coach search committees, and then the actual hiring of James Franklin as our next head coach.

With that latest news, the fan base felt a complete 180 turnaround from the depression of the lost season. Virginia Tech locked up Franklin early, beating out several SEC schools in the process. For a week, Virginia Tech dominated national headlines, but this time it was for good reason.

We stood on top of the world. And it felt even better knowing that our decade and a half struggle with mediocrity should be overcome relatively quickly with Franklin.

Armed with the enthusiasm of a home run hire, sudden recruiting momentum, and an opportunity to knock our in-state rivals out of both the conference championship game and the playoff conversation, we turned our sights to Charlottesville and the chance to hold on to the Commonwealth Cup.

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Finale Flop

Given the way this season has gone for both Virginia Tech and UVa, I went into the weekend hoping for the best (an upset win) yet fearing the worst (a blowout loss). And since I thought the odds were stacked against the Hokies, I prepared myself for only the third Tech loss in this series since 2003.

However, I was completely caught off guard by the total ineptitude, and frustration and irritation overtook me by the fourth quarter.

In what would be a foreboding sign of things to come, Cam Seldon inexplicably returned the opening kick from nine-yards deep in the end zone, only making it to the six-yard line. However, the Hokies were not fazed by the long field in front of them and were able to move the ball somewhat effectively (mostly on the ground), churning up yards to midfield.

Unfortunately, quarterback Kyron Drones, who struggled in the passing game all night, threw his first of two interceptions, book-ending this drive with abysmal plays, the latter of which resulted in a touchdown for the Cavaliers.

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On the ensuing drive, Tech again moved the ball fairly well, but in what has been the case all too often this year, the Hokies stalled out and had to settle for a field goal. The usually sure-footed John Love missed his fifth field goal of the year and you could just see the life get sucked out of this offense.

The rest of the game was brutal to watch, some of the worst offensive football I have seen in my 35-plus years of watching the Hokies.

The first two drives consisted of 19 plays, 92 yards, and almost ten minutes of possession. The rest of the game saw Tech run 29 plays for 105 yards over 13 minutes of possession. Half of those yards came on Tech’s final offensive play - a 57 yard pass and catch from Drones to Snook Peterkin.

After the missed field goal in the first quarter, eight straight three-and-outs ensued. Read that again. Eight. Straight. Three. And. Outs. Eight in a row. The first seven resulted in punts and the last ended with an interception.

Meanwhile, Drones connected on only 4 of 16 passes for 78 yards. Take away the final touchdown pass and he went 3 of 15 for 21 yards. He threw almost as many interceptions as completions.

I understand that there were injuries to starters and the line has been struggling all year, but it was beyond frustrating to see a lack of a pulse from this offense. There wasn’t any sort of variety or creativity after the first quarter. In the final game of the year, the final game for this coaching staff, there was nary a wrinkle to be shown.

No trick plays. No quarterback changes, if even for just one series, one play. Give me something, anything, to provide a spark.

It was a horrible offensive effort from a team that was essentially playing its bowl game and had the opportunity to knock its rival out of the conference championship game.

The only bright side is that the suffering is finally over and we can move on to the future.

The James Franklin Era Begins Now

With the 2025 regular seasons now behind us it is time to turn our undivided attention to James Franklin and the dreams of what could be next for Virginia Tech.

Signing day is this week (Wednesday, December 3), and Franklin hit the ground running when he arrived in Blacksburg, already securing nine verbal commitments (as of this printing), including four offensive lineman and a tight end.

Franklin has made it clear that he wants to dominate the trenches, so this is a great start to his tenure. There is still a lot of work to do to flip a 3–9 team into one who plays for a bowl next year, but this is a good start. Wednesday will provide even more insight to the trajectory of the program as the James Franklin Era begins.

When Franklin arrived at Vanderbilt and Penn State, both programs were struggling, and in his first year he led each to bowl games. By year three in both stops he won at least nine games. Tech fans want that same success in Blacksburg.

The Penn State faithful will quickly point out that Franklin could not get that program over the hump and win a championship (even though he did win one Big Ten title). Virginia Tech fans have not even seen the hump in a decade and a half. Our hopes and expectations are far different than those in Happy Valley, so we are absolutely ecstatic about the possibility of winning 8-10 games per year.

Also, James Franklin has a chip on his shoulder. He is motivated to prove Penn state wrong for dismissing him. Meanwhile, Virginia Tech is starving for the kind of success that Franklin has had. It feels like a great combination.

So while Virginia and Duke square off in what will likely be the least-watched ACC title game ever, Hokie Nation can find comfort in the recent recruiting success and the hopes of getting back to that game in a few years.

As country music singer Jelly Roll said in his Best New Artist acceptance speech at the CMA awards in 2023, "The windshield is bigger than the rear view mirror for a reason, because what's in front of you is so much more important than what's behind you."

2025 is done, and 2026 has just begun. Let’s party, Blacksburg!

Rich Luttenberger

Columnist

Born in the Bronx but otherwise raised in northern New Jersey, my Hokie life began in the fall of 1989. I walked on to the baseball team and spent a year and a half as a redshirt catcher.