The offense and defense made big plays in the final two minutes for Virginia Tech in Saturday’s win at Clemson. (Ivan Morozov)
CLEMSON, S.C. — Virginia Tech scored a game-winning touchdown with 1:44 remaining to beat Clemson 20-16 on Saturday night in Death Valley.
“We talk about trying to work really hard to make Mike Vick and Bruce Smith and Coach [Frank] Beamer and Bud Foster proud,” Hokies head coach James Franklin said. “Nights like tonight give us the chance to do that.”
The Hokies (6-2, 3-2 ACC) led early against the Tigers (4-3, 2-2) before the home side stormed back in front of 80,510, but Franklin’s crew got the last word.
They got the ball back with 6:29 remaining, trailing 16-13, but swiftly moved down the field, aided by three 15-yard penalties from Clemson.
After moving down to the Tigers’ 5-yard line, the Hokies were forced to make a decision on fourth-and-1. Franklin opted to go for it, and quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer hit tight end Luke Reynolds on a mesh route in the corner of the end zone for the winner.
View tweet“Just felt like fourth-and-1 was as good of a situation as we were going to get,” Franklin said, “and then we called a play that we’ve had a lot of success with, had success with it earlier tonight, have had success with it this year, and have had success in the past as well. Good scheme and throwing to a good player.”
Trailing 20-16, Clemson got the ball back with 1:41 remaining. Two chunk plays of 12 and 14 yards set up first-and-10 from the 48, but Tech brought cornerback Jaquez White on a blitz and sacked Tigers quarterback Tait Reynolds for a loss of seven.
“It was a right-hash call, great call from Coach [Brent] Pry,” cornerback Kenny Woseley said.
On third-and-9, Reynolds appeared to hit wideout Bryant Wesco Jr. down the sideline for a 26-yard gain to the Tech 25. It was called a catch on the field, but the officials overturned it after review, citing he did not maintain possession to the ground.
“The kid made a heck of a catch, but the ball came out when he hit the ground,” Franklin said.
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On fourth down, the Hokies brought the heat again, and defensive end Mylachi Williams sacked Reynolds to seal their first win over Clemson since 2007.
View tweet“That confidence, it just happens,” Woseley said. “When you go out there and make a play, and you’ve been making plays with these guys all season, you just trust each other, and that’s something we’ve talked about a lot.
Malachi Williams (37) and Jaquez White (2) stopped Tait Reynolds on the Tigers’ final offensive play. (Ivan Morozov)
It was Tech’s first game-clinching touchdown in the final two minutes since Deshawn McClease’s go-ahead score at Miami in 2019.
A year after winning just three games, the program is bowl eligible. It’s the earliest it’s clinched bowl eligibility since 2017, too, when it picked up its sixth win on Oct. 21 vs. North Carolina.
“It’s amazing,” said linebacker Noah Chambers, explaining performances like this are what drew him to Blacksburg. “It makes you really want to play here. Like, it’s a family. The culture’s real strong. I’m just blessed and thankful to be in this position.”
The Hokies struck first against the Tigers through John Love’s 37-yard field goal after taking over on their own 35 — their best starting field position of the first half — and casually moved down the field in 13 plays (and 6:23).
Que’Sean Brown had a 12-yard rush on a sweep, and quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer pulled it down for a 7-yard gain on third-and-4 to keep the drive alive. He also had a 12-yard scamper to scoot the offense up to the 7, though it stalled after back-to-back negative plays and had to settle for three points.
Clemson answered with its own 10-play series — sparked by a 20-yard run by Reynolds — and Nolan Hauser knocked through a 34-yard field goal to level things.
Things got dicey for Tech when, on fourth-and-12 from its own 23, it whipped out a fake punt. Tight end Luke Reynolds threw it to punter Nathan Totten, who caught it and ran for eight yards — four short of the sticks.
The defense was clutch, however. The Tigers took over at the Hokies’ 31 but went backwards immediately, with a tackle for loss from Tech linebacker Noah Chambers (his second of the game) and back-to-back sacks from defensive tackle Eric Mensah (the first of his career) and defensive end Jason Abbey.
In a flash, what appeared to be at least three points for Clemson turned into a punt from the 39.
“We knew what we had to do,” Chambers said. “We didn’t come out here to BS. We came all the way down here; we were going to leave with something. That’s just been the mindset the whole time throughout this week. Our preparation was critical, and it showed tonight.”
The Hokies took advantage, stringing together a methodical 17-play, 87-yard possession in seven minutes. (The last time they had a 17-play scoring drive: 2020 vs. Virginia.)
Luke Reynolds waltzed into the end zone to put Virginia Tech up 10-3 late in the second quarter. (Ivan Morozov)
It featured a big third-down pass interference call on Clemson, an 11-yard catch from Brown, a tush push with Grunkemeyer on fourth-and-1, an eight-yard pass to Ayden Greene on third-and-1 and an 11-yard scramble from Grunkemeyer on third-and-10.
To cap it off: A 6-yard passing touchdown from Grunkemeyer to Reynolds with 1:29 remaining in the first half. Tech smartly motioned him from right to left and confused the Tigers, who failed to cover him, allowing the tight end to waltz into the end zone and make it 10-3 at intermission.
“It was either like three-and-out or 15-play drive. We’ve got to be more consistent there,” Franklin said.
Clemson stormed back to start the third quarter, though. After converting a massive fourth-and-1 on its own 34, it piggybacked off a 26-yard run from Gideon Davidson to march into Hokies territory, where Hauser converted a 49-yard field goal to make it 10-6.
After the Tigers notched back-to-back sacks to force Virginia Tech to punt from its own end zone, they took the lead at 13-10 via a 16-yard keeper from Tait Reynolds. He had long passes of 22 yards (T.J. Moore) and 16 yards (Tyler Brown) on that possession
The Hokies’ offense stalled out again, punting on fourth-and-10 after two consecutive negative plays to start the drive. Clemson turned that into a 36-yard Hauser field goal to extend the lead to 16-10, courtesy of a 27-yard pass from Reynolds to Brown — the team’s longest play from scrimmage to that point.
With three ticks remaining in the third quarter, Tech had minus-14 yards to the Tigers’ 146, but Brown took a screen 27 yards — the Hokies’ longest offensive play of the night — into opposing territory on the 48.
Grunkemeyer & Co. inched their way up to the Clemson 29-yard line, where Love made a 47-yard field goal on fourth-and-2. That pulled Tech within 16-13.
After his 0-for-3 stretch, John Love has made his last four field goals, including two on Saturday at Clemson. (Ivan Morozov)
“We just stayed in it,” Woseley said.
The sides traded possessions before the Hokies got the ball back with 6:29 and ran off their go-ahead scoring drive. It featured an early third-and-5 conversion to Davion Brown to move the sticks.
The Tigers had two pass interference penalties and were flagged for a late hit on that possession, which bailed Tech out. The personal foul came on the same play where Tech tight end Benji Gosnell was called for holding. What would’ve been first-and-20 was actually a 5-yard gain for the Hokies and a fresh set of downs.
The second of two pass interference calls was down by the goal line, when Greene was grabbed by Clemson defensive back Elliott Washington. And, even after a false start on first-and-10 from the 14, the Hokies picked up 10 yards on a sweep to Que’Sean Brown and later gambled — and got it — on the fourth-and-1 pass to Luke Reynolds. That capped another long scoring drive of 4:45.
“Just trusting Coach [Ty] Howle,” Brown said of keeping the chains moving. “He’s going to put us in the best position possible. As long as we go out there and do our part and execute, then I feel like we’ll be fine.”
Tech finished with just 234 yards of total offense and 3.3 yards per play — the fewest in a win since 2016 at North Carolina in a hurricane. Since joining the ACC in 2004, it’s the team’s sixth victory when averaging 3.3 or fewer yards per game.
On the other side, the Hokies’ defense — which entered the game leading the FBS in tackles for loss — racked up 13 TFLs and four sacks. Chambers and Kaleb Spencer had two TFLs apiece, and White was the leading tackler with 11.
“I thought our defense took a significant step this week,” Franklin said. “We kind of cut some things back and made sure our guys could play the things we’re asking them to call, and play with a ton of confidence against every formation — motion, shift, empty, unbalanced, whatever adjustment it was — and I thought that helped us tonight. Played with confidence. …
“I thought our defense played really, really well tonight, and in critical moments. … Our depth is really starting to show on the defensive line. We continue to get people off schedule with tackles for loss and some sacks.”
For the first time all season, Tech is off next week. Its next game is at SMU on Friday, Nov. 6, which is another 7 p.m. ET kickoff on ESPN.
“There’s nothing better than a bye week after a win,” Franklin said.
Box Score: Virginia Tech 20, Clemson 16
