Inside the ACC · recap

Virginia Tech led homecoming from the opening drive

Georgia Tech gained 428 yards at Lane Stadium on Saturday. Virginia Tech gained 409.

Georgia Tech did that through the air. They threw for 335 and ran for 93, and they played without Justice Haynes. Their leading rusher was listed as a game-time decision, dressed and took part in warmups, and does not appear anywhere in the box score. Trelain Maddox took the carries instead and finished with 96 yards and a touchdown on 12, plus three catches for 16.

Virginia Tech 34, Georgia Tech 24. We were in the press box for it.

Homecoming, and a birthday for Frank Beamer

The Hokies led from the opening drive to the final kneel-down, and they did it on their homecoming, on the eve of former coach and Hall of Famer Frank Beamer's 80th birthday.

Their first play of the game was a 13-yard completion to Luke Reynolds. Two plays later Ethan Grunkemeyer threw 60 yards to Que'Sean Brown, and it was 7-0 with 13:37 still on the clock in the first quarter. Three plays, 75 yards, one minute and 23 seconds. Georgia Tech never led or even tied the game after that, and the closest they came was seven points, once, in the third quarter.

At the end of the first quarter, with Virginia Tech up 14-0, Coach Beamer walked out of the tunnel onto the field and the stadium sang happy birthday to him.

Two minutes and eleven seconds

Virginia Tech led 24-3 at halftime and had not allowed a touchdown.

Then Trelain Maddox ran 42 yards, three plays and 48 seconds into the quarter. Virginia Tech went three-and-out in between. Alberto Mendoza found Dalen Penson from 33 yards on the second play of the next drive, 28 seconds after it started.

Two touchdowns in two minutes and eleven seconds of game clock, on five offensive plays. A 21-point lead was a 7-point lead with most of the third quarter still to play.

Five sacks, and what the line looked like

The thing that stopped Virginia Tech in that stretch was not play calling. It was protection.

Georgia Tech had two sacks in the entire first half and three more on Virginia Tech's first two drives after the break, both of which were three-and-outs.

Asked afterward what had changed up front, James Franklin did not talk about Georgia Tech.

"We had a lot of moving parts on the line which is not a recipe for success," he said. "You'd like to keep your starting five, maybe one rotation. Being able to play a true freshman at guard, I thought he did some good things. Troutman with his second start as a redshirt freshman, I think he did some nice things for us. I think in the long run this is going to pay us dividends."

A true freshman at guard and a redshirt freshman making his second start is the context for five sacks, and it is also the reason he was willing to call the afternoon a long-term gain rather than a problem.

What we asked on Thursday

Thursday's preview said the number that explained Virginia Tech's season was not the Pittsburgh field goal. It was that they had given the ball away ten times and taken it back four.

"Two most beautiful things I saw, John Love two for two on field goals, and then Quentin Reddish getting the diving interception," Franklin said afterward. "Being able to create turnovers, which we had not done a lot up until that point. It was great to see it."

The first name he reached for was the kicker. Sixteen days earlier, at this same stadium, John Love lined up a 36-yard field goal with two seconds left and it was ruled no good, and Pittsburgh won by two. We wrote the entire piece about that kick, because nobody could review it. On Saturday he went two for two, from 39 and from 24, and kicked four extra points.

Reddish's interception came on first and ten from the Georgia Tech 19, with the Hokies up 21-3. Virginia Tech took over on the Georgia Tech 34 and kicked a field goal six plays later to make it 24-3, which is the lead Georgia Tech spent the third quarter cutting to seven.

Georgia Tech also fumbled the ball out of the back of the end zone on its opening drive, after Maddox broke a ten-yard run to the goal line. No points, touchback, Virginia Tech ball on the 20.

Que'Sean Brown did everything

Brown caught six passes for 182 yards, 125 of them after the catch through three quarters, and scored the first touchdown of the game three plays in.

He also returned two punts for 57 yards, including one of 63 that set up a field goal, and carried once for 12.

He muffed one, too. Georgia Tech recovered it in the second quarter and turned it into their only points of the first half.

The finish

Virginia Tech had lost two games in a row inside the final two minutes. This one they ended with the ball.

Leading 34-24 with 2:06 left and Georgia Tech out of timeouts, they faced fourth and one and kept the offense on the field. Marcellous Hawkins ran for the first down. Grunkemeyer knelt on it after the two minute warning.

Grunkemeyer finished 15 of 22 for 250 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, and ran in a fourth from 20 yards out. Virginia Tech went two for two on fourth down. Georgia Tech never attempted one.

Where it leaves them

Virginia Tech is 5-2. Georgia Tech falls to 2-4. The announced crowd was 65,632.

Clemson is next, on Saturday night.