Virginia Tech finally has its bowl game monkey off its back!

At one point, the Hokies were one of the most consistent programs in the country. From 1993 to 2019, the program never missed a bowl game under Frank Beamer and Justin Fuente. Unfortunately, the team had missed a bowl twice in 3 seasons from 2020-22, and the Hokies had not won a bowl game since 2016.

That ended this season with Virginia Tech making some big strides in Brent Pry’s second season with the program. It led to a 6-6 regular season and a 5-3 record in ACC play.

Virginia Tech ultimately drew Tulane — an 11-win team — in the Military Bowl, and that game provided plenty of fireworks. Tulane tied the game at 17-all early in the third quarter, but the rest of the game was all about the Hokies.

Virginia Tech went on a 24-3 run in the game to pull away and put things well out of reach in a rain-soaked evening in Annapolis. In the end, Pry’s team went on to cap a 41-20 win to get their 7th win of the season.

Here are the key takeaways from the game:

First postseason win since 2016

For a program that has the type of historical success of VT, suffering through a 4-game bowl losing streak has been a tough pill to swallow. The last postseason win for the Hokies came in Justin Fuente’s first season with a Belk Bowl win over Arkansas.

Since that win, the Hokies were without a bowl victory and had just 2 winning seasons overall. In fact, Virginia Tech’s last winning season came in 2019, but Pry squashed that streak Wednesday evening.

With the win, Virginia Tech improves to 7-6 overall and gives Pry his first winning season and bowl victory all in one. That’s a huge building point for VT heading into 2024.

Kyron Drones delivers career-high performance

Kyron Drones has been fantastic in his first season with the Hokies, and he elevated things to another level against Tulane. He ultimately finished with less than 100 yards passing, but that’s because Drones did enough with his legs to terrorize Tulane.

When it was all said and done, Drones set a new career-high mark with 176 rushing yards to go with a 13-for-21 effort passing the ball with 91 passing yards. His touchdown pass with 12 minutes left in the game gave Drones 3 total touchdowns and solidified the bowl victory for the Hokies.

Bhayshul Tuten caps dynamic performance with season-high outing

Bhayshul Tuten made the jump to VT this season after beginning his career at North Carolina A&T. He quickly carved out a key role with the offense, going on to rush for 100+ yards 3 times in the regular season to lead the Hokies with 727 rushing yards and 8 rushing touchdowns.

Remarkably, Tuten even saved his best for last and the bowl game performance against Tulane. He dialed up 136 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns, all while averaging 7.6 yards per carry in the win. If not for Drones’ impressive work on the ground, Tuten would have likely been the player of the game for the win.