On Monday, Virginia Tech’s complete 2023 football schedule was released on the ACC Network. Head coach Brent Pry enters his second year at the helm, and the Hokies open their season vs. Old Dominion on Saturday, Sept. 2 in Blacksburg.
In the first year of the league’s 3-5-5 scheduling model, Virginia Tech’s slate is much different from its first 19 years in the ACC. Gone are the Atlantic and Coastal Divisions. Instead, the Hokies face just two former Coastal foes – Pitt, Virginia – while they see six teams previously in the Atlantic.
Highlights include a Thursday night game vs. Syracuse, hosting reigning Big Ten West champion Purdue, road trips to Tallahassee and Louisville, along with the Battle for the Commonwealth Cup at Virginia to wrap up the regular season.
Tech opens its season at home against ODU. In the 2022 meeting in Norfolk, the Monarchs were victorious, 20-17. The ties between the coaching staffs run deep, too. The series is currently split 2-2 and the home team is 4-0. In the first game of year two under Pry, the Hokies have an opportunity to right their first wrong from year one.
For just the second time, Virginia Tech meets Purdue on Sept. 9. It’s the second leg of a home-and-home series that first took place in 2015 in West Lafayette, Ind. The Hokies were victorious against the Boilermakers, winning 51-24. Now, Purdue travels to Blacksburg. Former head coach Jeff Brohm accepted the Louisville job, so the program has new faces in 2023.
A former Big East foe, Rutgers is the second Big Ten team on Tech’s schedule. The Hokies hold a 12-3 all-time record over the Scarlet Knights, though the last meeting was one to forget – the 2012 Russell Athletic Bowl, a 13-10 finish. Rutgers finished 4-8 in 2022, losing five in a row to end the season. Tech’s road trip to Piscataway is the program’s first of the year. The Scarlet Knights venture to Blacksburg in 2024 for the second leg of the home-and-home.
Virginia Tech is very familiar with Marshall, too. The Thundering Herd host the Hokies for just the fourth time ever on Sept. 23. Tech is 1-2 all-time in Huntington and won the last meeting there in 2011, 30-10. Led by Charles Huff, Marshall finished 9-4 (5-3 Sun Belt) in 2022, capping off the season with a bowl win over UConn. The Herd upset then-No. 8 Notre Dame 26-21 in South Bend in the second game of the season, so they don’t shy away from the big stage.
One of Tech’s three “rivals” in the new 3-5-5 model, the Panthers rolled past the Hokies in Pittsburgh in October, 45-29. Israel Abanikanda broke multiple records with 320 rushing yards and six touchdowns, and he helped his team finish 9-4 (5-3 ACC). In 2023, Tech opens its ACC campaign against Pitt in Lane Stadium. Though the Hokies have a poor record in the Steel City, they’re 7-3 all-time in Blacksburg, including a 28-0 shutout in Bud Foster’s last game in 2019.
For just the third time since joining the ACC, Virginia Tech travels to Tallahassee to face Florida State. The first road ACC game of the year falls on Oct. 7, and the Seminoles are coming off a 10-3 (5-3) campaign. They lead the all-time series 23-13-1. In the last meeting at FSU, the Hokies were fantastic in a 24-3 victory in 2018.
The Hokies host the Demon Deacons, who finished 2022 with an 8-5 record, on Oct. 14. Sam Hartman is gone in Winston-Salem, but Dave Clawson still has the program in good shape. WF is the second of VT’s three “rivals” in the 3-5-5 model, and it’s the one that created the most frustration when the format was announced. Tech fans wanted Miami, and rightfully so. Tech and Wake have played 39 times previously, a record VT owns 25-13-1. Tech’s won six of the last eight but lost the last meeting in 2020.
After an open week, the Hokies host Syracuse on a Thursday night. The 20th meeting between the two schools will be the first not played on a Saturday. It’ll be just the third matchup since Syracuse joined the ACC. The Orange has won four of the last five, including a 41-36 shootout in 2021. After a hot start, Syracuse finished 7-6, and Dino Babers remains on the hot seat.
For the second time (and first not during COVID), Virginia Tech travels to Louisville. The second ACC road game of the year falls on Nov. 4, and the Cardinals have a new coach in the aforementioned Jeff Brohm. Tech beat the Cardinals by a touchdown, 42-35, in 2020. The Hokies hold the all-time series 6-2, too. But Louisville had a successful 2022 under Scott Satterfield, finishing 8-5 before he dipped for Cincinnati.
A road trip to Boston College follows Louisville, the only time in ACC play Tech plays two away games back-to-back. Tech is 20-11 all-time vs. BC but has only won two of the last five. Both of those game at home. The last time the Hokies were in Chestnut Hill, it was an ugly 17-3 loss after Braxton Burmeister was injured. Phil Jurkovec officially moved on after BC finished 3-9 (2-6 ACC) in 2022, and this is a winnable game, though road games in an empty stadium are tough.
Virginia Tech hosts NC State on Nov. 18 in the only home contest in November. It falls in the middle of three road games, too. Brennan Armstrong transferred in from Virginia after former offensive coordinator Robert Anae took the same job in Raleigh. The Hokies had the Wolfpack in a great spot on a Thursday night in October but blew a large lead. It’ll mark the fifth VT-NC State meeting since 2004; Tech won four of them.
The Hokies and Cavaliers didn’t play in 2022 due to the tragedy in Charlottesville that involved the football program. As a result, Tony Elliott and Brent Pry still have not met as head coaches. Virginia Tech won the last game at UVa under J.C. Price in 2021, which got the team to a bowl game. Armstrong transferred out, meaning UVa has a QB controversy on its hands.
Here are links to complete information on all ACC football schedules, via TheACC.com:
Chris Coleman will have a column with his thoughts on Virginia Tech’s schedule on Tuesday morning.
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Why would anybody except this year’s team to be improved, when the principal problem…the woeful offensive support staff…hasn’t changed at all?
Coaching can be the biggest difference (look at the turn-around Duke pulled off last year…and they were 0-8 in the ACC the year before).
But since we have the same pathetic offensive coaches as the year before, who are facing a tougher schedule, why would you expect a improved result? I hope I’m wrong, but…
Whereas I understand the 3 in the 3-5-5- scheduling model, I don’t the 5-5. Can someone explain? As for Dino Babers being on, “The Hot Seat,” every ‘cuse coach since 2004 (Paul Paqualoni) has been fired except Doug Marrone, an SU alum who left for the NFL, Bill where he quit after 2 seasons. Babers is 36-48 since he was hired in 2016. He’s a good coach but who really wants to play for Syracuse. The novelty of the Jiffypopdome wore off decades ago. A freind who played fopr the Hokies tell sme it’s a horrible place to play: not air-conditioned, like playing in a sauna. As for NCSU, we’ve played them 5 times since 2004 (loss) and w/thje loss in 2022, are 3-2 vs. the ‘pacl since joining the ACC. .
We should all celebrate if we finish 6-6.
Ya’ll need to stop whining. This is a decent schedule for our rebuilding. I’m hoping we can continue the glimpses of positivity seen late last year. Go Hokies!
If we lose to ODU again, the fan base/support will fall apart a lot further than already it has. Hope we are ready at the start of season….
My guess is lose to ODU again and Pry’s seat will get warm, even if only year two.
IF we lose to ODU again. The entire staff should be fired. If I suck at my job I expect to get fired. So should a P5 college football coach.
There are zero certain wins on the schedule until someone steps up to fix that dreadful Hokie offense! Will the offense get fixed this year or will it be more of the same ol same ol? That’s the multimillion dollar question at VT every year I’ve been alive unless a Vick or Taylor steps out of the shadows 🙂
+100!
How does the VT wahoo whipping not get moved to Blacksburg for ‘23? Our seniors are getting screwed!
Because the ACC schedule is locked in way to the future with each getting four home and four away ACC games. If they flipped the location, vt and UVa would end up with five and three homes games in alternating years. The ACC won’t do that
They can give us two in a row for the ones we lost and we are back on schedule. I know it’s all about the money and not the kids.
I’d argue in this case it’s all about the kids. In the big picture the only one who “got screwed” were the Chandler Family, Davis Family, and Perry Family.
Agree. Stop whining about something so trivial that was caused by a such a huge tragedy.
Yawn. Does the schedule really matter as bad as the product we are putting on field?
That’s a tough schedule. We may improve, but not have a better win-loss record to show for it.
If we don’t win more than 3 games, we are not improved. Not .500, we seriously need to move on…college football is not a, “Suffer for multiple years to rebuild,” sport anymore. The trabsfer portal has changed that. If we win 3 or 4 games, then this just isn’t the staff to move this program forward.
Yes, seemed to work for Duke of all places.
The article appears to need some editing. The records stated against some of the opposition is wrong. I know VT has defeated FSU more than once. Just saying.🤷♂️
Looks like the typical W-L-T is listed as W-T-L. VT all-time is 13-21-1 vs. FSU and 25-13-1 vs. Wake.
Good call. I knew we won in Tallahassee in 2018 but I also remember us winning in Blacksburg in 2007.
Challenging for us. Is there certain win here?
Hope so.
In any other year for the past 30 yrs, one would say absolutely, and then you could name off reasons why 8 or 9 wins was easily attainable. After watching last year’s product, unfortunately the in-game product and coaching have fallen to a time where there is zero hope of 8 or 9 wins, tiny hope of a .500 season, little hope of simply winning 3 or 4 and possibilities of 0-1 wins. We are now the Big East equivalant of Rutgers and Temple back in the day. Let’s hope that hope can be renewed this yr and we win 6+…less than .500 is just not ok.