Bhayshul Tuten rushed for a Virginia Tech record 266 yards and scored four touchdowns, leading the team to a 42-21 win over Boston College on Thursday night.
Kyron Drones contributed with two rushing touchdowns and one touchdown pass for the Hokies (4-3, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), who scored touchdowns on their first three drives and never fell behind, marking their second win in a row.
“That’s a good team that we beat tonight,” said Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry. “And we beat them soundly.”
Boston College (4-3, 1-2 ACC) was down 28-0 at halftime but managed to close the gap to 28-21 with Kye Robichaux’s 5-yard run at 2:55 in the third quarter. They were making progress early in the fourth quarter, but Robichaux was stopped on fourth-and-1 at midfield. Virginia Tech took advantage of this and Tuten scored on a 6-yard run with 11:02 left, extending the lead to 35-21.
Tuten had 18 carries and scored on runs of 83 and 61 yards, the latter coming with 8:28 left to put the game out of reach. He also caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from Drones.
“Every game is a special game,” Tuten said. “That’s how I look at it. I just felt a little better today. We had a bye week. I felt great throughout practice. I took the knee brace off (for a sore knee). I felt fast, I felt good, I felt fluid. I just came out and balled today, and that’s what we needed.”
Drones scored on runs of 11 yards and 1 yard during the Hokies’ first two possessions, completing 14 of 18 passes for 164 yards and rushing for 40 yards. Thanks to Tuten and Drones, the Hokies totaled a season-high 533 yards.
Thomas Castellanos threw for 205 yards and two touchdowns for the Eagles, who ended with 372 yards.
“I felt really good about the preparation for the game,” said Boston College coach Bill O’Brien. “Obviously, I was wrong. We’ve got to prepare differently, better, whatever it might be. We’ve got to figure it out.
We’ve got to coach better. We’ve got a good coaching staff. We do. We have a lot of experience. But we didn’t play well tonight, so that’s on the coaching. We’ve got to coach better and hopefully we’ll get it turned around.”