Virginia Tech football’s run defense has been the hot topic this week. Let’s look at some interesting numbers for many veteran Hokie defenders, which seem to be trending down. We’ll also take a look at the positive impact of Brody Meadows on the offensive line against Rutgers and compare Tech’s team grades to the rest of the ACC.

Run Defense Issues At All Positions

In my column on Sunday, I said that while safety is clearly an issue with the Virginia Tech run defense, I also thought the linebacker play was subpar and that the experienced Hokie defensive tackles got mauled by the Rutgers offensive line. I said all of that without the PFF grades to back it up. Now that the PFF grades have been finalized, let’s go back and see if my Sunday musings were correct.

First, let’s look at some of the overall defensive grades for some of the players in question…

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