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Leaving the pass-happy Big 12 in the rear view in January 2017 when he departed Kansas, quarterback Ryan Willis’ opportunities to spend his college career as a yardage-greedy gunslinger seemed slim when he transferred to Virginia Tech.
He proved otherwise Saturday night in his first start for Tech. Willis completed 17 of 27 for 332 yards and three touchdowns to lead Tech to a 31-14 win at No. 22 Duke, helping the Hokies (3-1, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) bounce back from a crushing loss last weekend at Old Dominion.
“Man, it’s been a long journey,” Willis said. “I’ve gone through a lot throughout my career. More than people will ever know. It just feels good being out on the field again, playing the game I love, having fun, bouncing around. I never really doubted myself.”
It was Willis’ first 300-plus yardage passing game since Oct. 8, 2016, when he threw for a career-high 348 yards in Kansas’ 45-31 loss at Texas Christian. He’s passed for more than 300 yards three times in 11 career starts.
“It certainly wasn’t perfect, but I thought he played pretty well,” Tech coach Justin Fuente said. “Off the cuff, without grading it and evaluating it, I felt comfortable with him in there. We’ve been watching him practice for going on two years now, so we see him every day and know he has some talent. He’s a competitor.”
While eclipsing 300 yards through the air wasn’t anything new for Willis, he did get to enjoy something he’d never experienced prior to Saturday night.
Stepping in for Tech’s Josh Jackson, who suffered a potentially season-ending left fibula fracture early in the fourth quarter at ODU, Willis picked up his first win as a starter after going 0-10 in that role with Kansas.
“Honestly, it hasn’t sunk in,” Willis said.
After surrendering 632 yards in a 49-35 loss at ODU — the most in Bud Foster’s 24 seasons as Tech’s defensive coordinator — the Hokies needed to make a defensive statement against Duke. Blue Devils quarterback Daniel Jones’ surprising starting role just three weeks after breaking his clavicle made the chore of trying to regain momentum especially challenging for Tech’s defense.
Tech, which hosts Notre Dame at 8 p.m. Saturday, was up to the task.
Duke (4-1, 0-1) amassed 327 yards and went just 4 of 16 on third-down conversions. Jones was 23-of-35 passing for 226 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
Routinely rushing just three players and dropping eight defenders into coverage, Tech surrendered just three plays of 20-plus yards. That’s a marked improvement from its effort against ODU, which had 13 such plays.
“I think we all knew as a team and a staff, and even the fans, we weren’t really ourselves out there (at ODU),” said Tech defensive end Houshun Gaines, who had 2.5 of Tech’s three sacks. “We all know that we’ve got to have passion. You’ve got to have passion out there to have a good team. … We just didn’t really display who we were last week.”
Both teams entered the game with rushing offenses ranked among the top 35 in the Football Bowl Subdivision, but neither ground attack played a factor. Tech ran 41 times for just 81 yards, while Duke had 36 carries for 71 yards.
Tech fell behind 7-3 with 3:25 left in the first quarter after Jones found tight end Noah Gray running behind safety Reggie Floyd, who was a split-second too late recognizing Gray was running a wheel route. Willis got Tech’s passing game in gear in the second quarter.
Willis, who rotated on a few possessions with redshirt freshman Hendon Hooker, lofted a perfect pass to Damon Hazelton on a fade route behind cornerback Josh Blackwell for a 27-yard touchdown pass with 14:55 remaining in the second quarter to put Tech ahead 10-7. Hazelton was Willis’ favorite target, catching four passes for 65 yards and a touchdown.
Tech struck again quickly on its next drive. H-back Dalton Keene took a short screen pass from Willis, headed for Tech’s sideline, got an enormous block from receiver Eric Kumah and ran 67 yards for the first touchdown of his career, extending Tech’s lead to 17-7 with 11:34 left before halftime.
Defense took center stage for Tech in the third quarter when middle linebacker Rashard Ashby, who led all players with 15 tackles, and defensive end Tyjuan Garbutt stonewalled running back Deon Jackson for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the 50-yard line. Tech took over with 10:49 left in third quarter.
Tech took advantage of the turnover on downs, going 50 yards in five plays and capping the drive on running back Steven Peoples’ 6-yard touchdown run with 9:35 remaining in the third quarter to push its lead to 24-7.
Duke showed some life early in the fourth quarter. Jones helped the Blue Devils convert a fourth-and-3 from Tech’s 31 by completing a 29-yard pass to Jackson, who scored two plays later on a 1-yard touchdown run to trim the Hokies’ lead to 24-14 with 13:47 left.
Though Duke threatened to make a game of it, Tech answered on the next possession. Willis squeezed out just enough space to gain a yard on fourth-and-1 from Duke’s 11, then hit receiver Phil Patterson on the next play with a 10-yard touchdown pass with 9:08 remaining to cap the scoring.
“I don’t want to make too much of it, but it was pretty tough,” Fuente said of the practice week after the loss to ODU. “They responded in the right way and beat a very, very good Duke football team. …Certainly, the game wasn’t perfect. I think we learned a lot about ourselves.”