WVU’s Week 4 Opponent Virginia Tech Upset by Old Dominion

Old Dominion has only had a football program since 2009. They’ve only been in FBS football since 2014. And yet, they now split the all-time series with in-state rival Virginia Tech 2-2 after a shocking 20-17 win on Friday night.

West Virginia (0-1) is set to travel to Blacksburg, Virginia to take on Virginia Tech (0-1) for the Black Diamond Trophy in just three weeks time. That rivalry has been played a few more times, 49 more times to be exact, and West Virginia leads it 29-23-1. They won at home last year 27-21 when Virginia Tech was ranked No. 15 in the country, although they finished with an average 6-7 (4-4 ACC) record.

Now though, West Virginia could be favored to win after the abysmal showing Virginia Tech put up on the road against Old Dominion. It’s “could” be favored and not “will” because West Virginia will still have to travel to Virginia Tech for a Thursday night game, an extremely tough environment for a road opponent.

Regardless, West Virginia now knows a lot more about their week four opponents after seeing them crumble against Old Dominion. Nothing went right last night for Virginia Tech as even assistant coach’s got stuck in an elevator at halftime delaying the start of the second half by 15 minutes.

Outside of the elevator quarterback Grant Wells threw four interceptions including one with 2:58 remaining in the game that set-up the winning Old Dominion touchdown. The offense had five turnovers total and Virginia Tech committed a whopping 15 penalties for 121 yards. The best hit of the night for Virginia Tech came when a player lowered his shoulder into a fan that was storming the field.

Why this Virginia Tech player take out the fan like that 😭 pic.twitter.com/nF6wiZb9XQ

— Sportsville (@Sportsville_) September 3, 2022

Saying that was the best hit might not be entirely fair because their defense did play well. Constantly put into tough situations due to the five turnovers, they only gave up 20 points. They held Old Dominion to just 80 yards rushing on 33 carries, a 2.4 yards per attempt average. Old Dominion only threw for 165 yards against Virginia Tech and completed less than 50% of their passes (14-for-35). They also recovered two fumbles themselves.

Offensively though is a different story. In addition to the passing woes their offense accounted for 14 of the team’s 15 penalties, they were five-for-16 on third down chances and averaged only 3.8 yards per carry themselves.

West Virginia is coming off a loss themselves, but losing to No. 17 Pitt as underdogs in a back-and-forth heated rivalry game is a lot better looking than falling to a group-of-five school.

Although Old Dominion is certainly a rival of Virginia Tech now. They’re 2-0 at home against Virginia Tech are scheduled to alternate home games with them each year through 2031. As previously stated, the all-time series is split evenly 2-2.

West Virginia will play at Virginia Tech on Thursday, September 22nd at 7:30 p.m. As of now, West Virginia is being given a 58.4% chance to beat Virginia Tech in Blacksburg by ESPN’s Football Power Index.