Week 3: Wofford Game Preview

Game number 2 is in the books and the Hokies came out with a crucial victory over Boston College. This was an important victory for Virginia Tech to jumpstart this program and to re-galvanize this fanbase after an ugly week 1 loss. For the time being, it looks as though Coach Pry has righted the ship. Virginia Tech now enters an important 2 week stretch before starting conference play. The Hokies will play Wofford at home this Saturday at 11 am and then play host to bitter rival, West Virginia, the following Thursday night. Winning both of these home games heading into conference play will help boost the confidence of this Hokie squad. It starts with taking care of business against a very lackluster Wofford football program on Saturday. Here is a rundown on what to expect in this Saturday's matchup.

This Wofford program under Head Coach, Josh Conklin, has struggled mightily the last 2 seasons and in the first 2 games of this one. Through 2 games against Chattanooga and Elon, this Wofford offense has not scored a single point. Last week against Elon, they generated a whopping 128 yards of offense. If those stats don't scare you, then the 230 yards and 3 turnovers they put up against Chattanooga will. You get the point. Through 2 games, they have turned the ball over 4 times both via fumble and interception. Their offense likes to line up in 3 wide receiver sets to spread the defense out and then run the ball. The only problem is their offensive line struggles in run blocking. So far, they have rushed 96 times with an average of 2.4 yards per rush. In addition, their starting quarterback, Jimmy Weirick, was taken out of the game against Elon after throwing for 54 yards, a lower than 50% completion percentage, and an interception. Backup, Cade Rice, did no better. It is pretty safe to say that the Virginia Tech defense should absolutely feast on this offense. It is reasonable to expect a shutout this week.

I suppose you could say that the strength of this Wofford team is their defense. But even that is a bit of a stretch. They have given up point totals of 31 and 26 to their 2 FCS opponents. They almost always have only 3 down lineman and 4 linebackers. To run a 3-4 defense effectively, you need to have stud defensive linemen that clog up the line of scrimmage. They do not have linemen that can do that. Wofford has given up over 100 rushing yards in both of their games so far. They also gave up over 300 passing yards to Elon. As most Hokie fans know, The biggest question mark of the season for this team was the offense. We saw the offense clean up their mistakes last week against a talented Boston College defense. This game should be a confidence boosting tune up game for the Virginia Tech offense. It should be a good opportunity for the coaching staff to see what touted freshman running back, Chance Black, can do among many other young players.

The only note on special teams for Wofford is that their punter, Atkins Roberts, has downed 4 out of 9 punts inside the 20 yard line. They have to have to cover a kick off as they don't kick the ball off often because they have not scored any points this season. The 2 kick offs they have had were touchbacks. Their kicker also has not attempted a field goal yet this year.

Wofford is woefully bad. Since 2019, Wofford has won 2 games at the FCS level. Their coach is likely on his way out this season or next. If the starters are not all resting by the 4th quarter, then something has gone terribly wrong. I fully expect Tech's defense to dominate and shut down Wofford's offense. Expect to see a balanced offense from Tech as they look to polish everything off before playing in Thursday night's grudge match against West Virginia.

Virginia Tech 45

Wofford 0

All stats via espn.com