At halftime Saturday, Ethan Grunkemeyer had 215 passing yards. Que'Sean Brown was most of the way to a spot in the Virginia Tec h record book, and a sold-out Homecoming crowd at Lane Stadium was sitting on a 24-3 lead.
Less than three minutes into the third quarter, it was a one-score game.
Virginia Tech held on to beat Georgia Tech 34-24, ending a two-game losing streak and moving to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the ACC. The Hokies needed this one. They also spent a third straight week looking like two different teams on either side of halftime.
Here's the good, the bad and the ugly.
Brown didn't wait long. Less than 90 seconds in, he caught a pass up the seam, made two defenders miss and went 60 yards for a touchdown. In the second quarter, he beat the same coverage for a 66-yard catch that set up another score.
He finished with six catches for 182 yards, a career high and the sixth-most receiving yards in a game in program history. That topped the 178 he had at Duke in 2025, and it was 73% of Virginia Tech's receiving output. Add a 12-yard jet sweep and 57 punt return yards, and his 251 all-purpose yards rank eighth by a Hokie since at least1987.
Grunkemeyer said Brown's ability after the catch "is his superpower."
Grunkemeyer went 15-of-22 for 250 yards and three touchdowns without an interception, then escaped the pocket for a 20-yard touchdown run of his own. The Hokies scored on four of their first five possessions.
The best call of the day came on fourth-and-3 from the Georgia Tech 5. The staff kept the offense on the field, and Grunkemeyer found tight end Ja'Ricous Hairston on a mesh concept for the touchdown and a 21-3 lead.
Virginia Tech hadn't forced a turnover since its Week 2 win over Old Dominion. It got two Saturday, and both changed the game.
Georgia Tech's opening drive was about to tie it at 7 until cornerback Thomas Williams knocked the ball loose from running back Trelain Maddox, who fumbled it out of the end zone for a touchback. In the second quarter, safety Quentin Reddish picked off quarterback Alberto Mendoza to set up a 39-yard John Love field goal.
That kick meant more than three points. Love had missed a 36-yarder at the gun against Pitt and both of his attempts at Cal. He made both tries Saturday, from 39 and 24 yards.
Defensive end Aycen Stevens added 1.5 sacks, one a strip sack, and leads the team with seven this season.
Georgia Tech arrived averaging 1.20 sacks per game, 117th nationally. That's six sacks in five games. It got five Saturday, and three came on three of Virginia Tech's first six snaps of the second half.
There's context. Injuries forced the Hokies to start two redshirt freshmen at guard, Michael Troutman III and Gavin Crawford, who had three career starts between them. The run game didn't offer too much relief, either, averaging 4 yards per carry on 40 rushes.
Context doesn't move the chains, though. This is a big reason the offense disappeared after halftime.
Brown's day had one blemish. He muffed a punt in the second quarter, and Georgia Tech recovered at the 19 and turned it into its only first-half points.
The bigger issue is what happens after his good returns. His 63-yard punt return put the Hokies at the Georgia Tech 17, and they settled for a 24-yard field goal, the third time this season a 50-plus-yard Brown return has set them up in the red zone and produced only three points.
Maddox went 42 yards for a touchdown on the third snap of the second half. Virginia Tech answered with two sacks and a false start, then punted on fourth-and-31. Mendoza found a wide-open Dalen Penson in the corner for a 33-yard score.
With 12:01 left in the third quarter, 24-3 was 24-17.
Jeffrey Overton Jr.'s 26-yard screen touchdown restored a two-score cushion, but Georgia Tech owned the rest of the half. Mendoza went 18-of-20 for 217 yards after halftime and completed his first 14 passes of the half. He finished with a career-high 335 yards, and his 6-yard touchdown pass to Jaiven Plummer with about five minutes left made it 34-24 before the Hokies ran out the clock.
Virginia Tech outgained Georgia Tech 307-189 in the first half. Georgia Tech outgained Virginia Tech 239-102 in the second. Brown caught one pass for 2 yards after halftime.
"They got us a few times on double moves," coach James Franklin said, though he thought his defensive backs did a better job finding the ball in the air.
This is the part that should worry Hokies fans.
Against Pitt, Virginia Tech led 24-21 at halftime and lost 35-33. At Cal, it led 14-10 at the break and lost 25-20. Saturday it led 24-3 and won by 10.
Add it up and the Hokies have outscored their last three opponents 62-34 in the first half and been outscored 50-25 in the second. Protection, halftime adjustments, a secondary that leaks late. Pick your culprit. The result keeps repeating.
Virginia Tech fans should feel better tonight than they did a week ago. The Hokies are 5-2, and their two losses came by a combined seven points.
But the schedule is about to turn. Virginia Tech plays at Clemson (4-2, 2-1 ACC) on Oct. 24, its first trip to Death Valley since 2012, and three of its next four games are on the road, at Clemson, SMU and Miami.
A big first half and just enough after it beat Georgia Tech. The Hokies have shown they can build a lead. In Death Valley, they'll have to show they can keep one.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/virginiatech as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly From Virginia Tech's 34-24 Win Over Georgia Tech .
