Virginia Tech was beaten by Kentucky 37-30 in a Belk Bowl game that was a little bit hard to swallow, though the loss is not too surprising if you read Brandon Patterson’s pregame film reviews of the Wildcats.  There is plenty to nitpick, and a whole offseason to do it.

However, if you want nitpicking, this probably isn’t the article for you.  Instead, I’ll use the numbers to show that Tech’s offensive performance was one of the best against Kentucky all season, and I’ll also give my views on Tech’s defensive issues.  Here’s an early hint: Tuesday’s game was the perfect example of why Justin Fuente decided to make a change with his defensive line coach.

Yards per Play and Yards per Carry

Total yards is hardly ever the right metric to judge an offense or defense, because sometimes there are things out of their control, such as the number of plays run in the game.  The Hokies only had 329 yards of offense against Kentucky, but they only ran 55 plays, which is 15 plays shy of their season average.  Tech averaged six yards per play against the Wildcats, and assuming they would have continued to put up six yards per play over those extra 15 plays, that would have equaled a 419-yard performance.

Here’s what Kentucky’s Power 5 opponents did to the Wildcats this year in terms of total offense and yards per play…

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