Hokie ClubVirginia Tech football played its final home game of the regular season against the Cavaliers during primetime. Multiple Hokies recorded impactful personal milestones and finished the game with some notable stats.
Read below to dive deeper into Tech's conference matchup against Virginia, presented by Carter Bank.
Stats with Salas
Hot N Cold
This season saw the hottest game on record for Virginia Tech football and one of the coldest games in Lane Stadium. Tech’s Oct. 5 game at Stanford was 89° F at kickoff, making it the hottest game on record. Last night’s game was officially 31° at kickoff with a 27° wind chill. This marks the seventh coldest game on record. The coldest game in Lane was against VMI in 1981. At kickoff the temperature was 23° with a wind chill of 13°. Looking at the series against Virginia, last night was the third coldest on record behind the 2014 (27°) and 2012 (28°) games.
Start Me Up
William “Pop” Watson got his first career start yesterday. He finished the game with 11 rushes for 48 yards and a touchdown. In the air, he had 254 yards passing and was 14-of-21 with one touchdown pass. Watson is the sixth Virginia Tech quarterback to get his first career start in a conference game since the Hokies joined The BIG EAST in 1992. The Hokies are 5-1 in those games. Below is a chart of each quarterback’s passing and rushing numbers.
| Passing | Rushing | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Game | Score | Comp-Att-Int | Yds | TD | Long | Att | Yds | TD | Long |
| Jim Druckenmiller | 1995 vs. Boston College | L, 14-20 | 21-42-0 | 296 | 1 | 80 | 2 | -5 | 0 | 6 |
| Al Clark | 1997 at Rutgers | W, 59-19 | 7-10-1 | 149 | 2 | 80 | 7 | 119 | 1 | 81 |
| Dave Meyer | 1998 vs. Pitt | W, 27-7 | 7-9-1 | 98 | 0 | 24 | 7 | -7 | 0 | 8 |
| Marcus Vick | 2005 at NC State | W, 20-16 | 10-21-0 | 108 | 1 | 27 | 13 | 31 | 0 | 24 |
| Hendon Hooker | 2019 at Miami | W, 42-35 | 10-20-0 | 184 | 3 | 67 | 16 | 76 | 1 | 15 |
| Pop Watson | 2024 vs. Virginia | W, 37-17 | 14-21-0 | 254 | 1 | 66 | 11 | 48 | 1 | 15 |
Series History
Saturday’s game marked the 105th meeting of the Hokies and ‘Hoos. Tech has now won 23 of the last 25 meetings. The Hokies earned a bowl berth with the win. It’s the sixth time since 2000 that a win over the Cavaliers on the last scheduled game of the season sent the Hokies bowling. When Virginia is looking for bowl eligibility with a win over the Hokies, they are now 0-4.
The Streak Continues
Saturday's game marked the 342nd consecutive game during which Virginia Tech has scored. The Hokies are in fourth place in both the all-time and active streak lists. In that span, Tech has shutout their opponent 34 times.
