Virginia Tech beat writer explains Hokies’ depleted roster entering Gophers clash

It’s been nearly five weeks since Virginia Tech’s football team ended its regular season with a 37-17 victory over archrival Virginia. When the Hokies return to action Friday night against the Gophers in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, Damien Sordelett will see an entirely new version of the team he covers for the Roanoke (Va.) Times.

When asked by a Minnesota reporter about a list of those missing, Sordelett quipped, “Do you want all of them, or just the scholarship players?”

It’s a substantial list.

Since the season ended, the Hokies have had 21 players enter the transfer portal and five leave early to prepare for the NFL draft or accept Senior Bowl invitations. On offense, Sordelett expects them to be missing leading rusher Bhayshul Tuten (1,159 yards, 15 TDs), two starting linemen and a key reserve, and their second-leading wide receiver. On defense, Virginia Tech will be without two third-team All-American performers in edge rusher Antwaun Powell-Ryland and tackle Aeneas Pebbles, three starters in the secondary and a depth player along the line and at linebacker.

Not surprisingly, the Hokies are 7½-point underdogs to the Gophers after opening as 4½-point dogs.

Sordelett covered a handful of subjects regarding the Hokies:

Kyron Drones started nine games, passing for 1,562 yards and 10 TDs and rushing for 336 yards and six TDs, but the redshirt junior missed time late in the season because of knee, ankle and turf toe injuries. Coach Brent Pry hasn’t ruled him out, but Sordelett expects either redshirt freshman William “Pop” Watson III or senior Collin Schlee to start. “He’s tried to gut it out,” Sordelett said of Drones, “but he just couldn’t go.”

Watson started the 31-28 loss to Duke and the finale against Virginia, going a combined 26-for-46 for 254 yards and a touchdown with an interception. He also rushed for 48 yards and a TD against Virginia.

Schlee, a transfer from UCLA, went 16-for-24 for 206 yards and one TD and rushed for 54 yards and a score in the loss to Syracuse.

The Hokies played in five games decided by eight points or fewer this season and lost all five. In Pry’s three seasons in Blacksburg, they are 1-12 in one-score games, leading to seasons of 3-8, 7-6 and 6-6. The issue this year has been holding leads. The Hokies blew late leads of seven points at Vanderbilt, 10 points to Miami and 18 points in the second half to Syracuse.

“They should be at nine wins, maybe 10 wins this year,” Sordelett said. “The only game Tech wasn’t really in this year was the Clemson game [a 24-14 loss].”

Pry, the former defensive coordinator under James Franklin at Penn State and Vanderbilt, responded to the 6-6 regular season by firing defensive coordinator Chris Marve, offensive line coach Ron Crook and senior director of strength and conditioning Dwight Galt IV.

“There was frustration and disappointment over the way the season went, and there needed to be some impactful changes,” Pry said. “… We didn’t play good enough defense, especially at the end of games. To me, you win championships with defense. … I don’t think we were a team that was conditioned well enough to start the year and finish games."

To help with the defense, Pry brought in former Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster in an advisory role.

Sordelett sees the coaching changes as a way for Pry to keep a hold on his job.

“The fact that he made those type of changes probably bought him a good bit more time,” he said. “I don’t know how much time that is — a year or two years — but I think that helped out quite a bit.”