Virginia Tech Football: ECU giving Hokies tough test early

The Virginia Tech football program found themselves in a much tighter contest than expected against the ECU Pirates in Week 3.

The No. 16 ranked Virginia Tech Hokies entered their matchup with the East Carolina Pirates with big expectations of a dominant victory. In fact, the West Virginia Mountaineers took care of business against ECU last week behind a huge effort from transfer quarterback Will Grier on their way to a 56-20 win.

Virginia Tech defeated West Virginia in their season opener in Landover, MD. However, Virginia Tech has had problems facing ECU at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in the past. It has never really been a friendly place for the Hokies.

Yet, an ECU program that lost their only game against an FBS opponent by 36-points and to the James Madison Dukes by 20-points should not be a huge issue. Virginia Tech entered the second quarter down by 10-points. Redshirt freshman quarterback Josh Jackson did lead them down the field to seven points to start the second quarter.

The ECU offense is looking much better than they did in previous weeks with former Duke transfer quarterback Thomas Sirk now on the bench. Junior Gardner Minshew threw for nearly 200 yards and two touchdowns on seven completions in the first quarter alone.

Pirate receiver Trevon Brown caught three passes for 109 yards and one touchdown and could end up going over 200 yards if the Virginia Tech secondary doesn’t play him tighter. Star receiver Davon Grayson caught the second touchdown pass thrown by Minshew.

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Jackson did help the Hokies even up the game in the second quarter with a field goal in the red zone that tied the game at 17-17. This will be an interesting one to watch moving forward.