Que'Sean Brown fielded a punt at his own 20 in the second quarter, found the left sideline, and ran 79 yards before a Monarch dragged him down at the 1.Four plays later, John Love trotted out for a 22-yard field goal.That sequence is the whole afternoon in miniature. Virginia Tech beat Old Dominion 44-21 on Saturday at Lane Stadium to reach 2-0 for the first time since 2021, and the Hokies were better than the 23-point margin suggests. They were also sloppy enough in stretches that head coach James Franklin spent a good chunk of his postgame availability talking about composure instead of the win.The good: a defense that lived in the backfieldSeven sacks. Fourteen tackles for loss. Four forced fumbles, three of them recovered, and 14 points off those turnovers.Defensive end Mylachi Williams had two sacks and two forced fumbles. Cortez Harris added two more sacks. Quinn Henicle's rushing line reads 16 carries for 83 yards, but 44 of those yards were lost on sacks, and Franklin said the Monarchs gained 38 on the ground outside the quarterback's 76-yard fourth-quarter run. Old Dominion converted 4 of 13 third downs.The man calling it is Brent Pry, who was fired a day after Old Dominion walked into this building last September and won 45-26. Franklin hired him back as defensive coordinator in February. Saturday was his answer."Our whole thing with [defensive coordinator Brent Pry and defensive line coach Sean Spencer] and our time together has been about being disruptive and getting people off schedule," Franklin said.The good, part two: Ethan Grunkemeyer and Luke Reynolds were excellentGrunkemeyer threw for 327 yards and two touchdowns without an interception, the first 300-yard game of his career and the most by a Virginia Tech quarterback since Ryan Willis went for 344 at Boston College in 2019.Both touchdowns went to Reynolds, who finished with eight catches for 108 yards. No Hokies tight end had cleared 100 receiving yards since James Mitchell at North Carolina in 2020. The second one mattered more than the box score shows. Facing 4th-and-2 at the Old Dominion 10 with a 17-point lead, Franklin kept the offense on the field. Grunkemeyer hit Reynolds in the flat and the tight end beat a defender to the pylon. It was Tech's second fourth-down conversion on that drive.The bad: Nobody could run the ballVirginia Tech rushed the ball 42 times against Old Dominion, gaining just 89 yards.Marcellous Hawkins Jr. and Jeffrey Overton Jr. combined for 25 carries and 90 yards. Strip out Hawkins' 20-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, and it's 24 carries for 70. Overton, who went for 104 on nine carries against VMI a week earlier, took it 14 times Saturday for 47 and never broke one longer than eight yards.This was against a defense that gave up 126 rushing yards to Norfolk State in Week 1.The red zone told the same story. First-and-goal at the 1 after Brown's return produced a loss of one by Overton, a loss of two by Reynolds out of the Wildcat, an incompletion, and the Hokies left the field with just three points.The ugly: Montavious Cunningham got himself thrown outRight guard Montavious Cunningham was ejected in the fourth quarter after appearing to throw a punch in a scrum, a punishment that could carry over into next week at Maryland. Franklin said he'd already warned him once."He lost his composure at that moment, and we call them selfish penalties," Franklin said. "The thing that bothers me the most is we had addressed it earlier in the game, and then it happened again."Franklin said Cunningham stood up in front of the team afterward and apologized. It doesn't change that a line already struggling to move anybody might be down its starting right guard on the road against a Big Ten team.The Hokies will hit the road for the first time next week, traveling to College Park to take on Malik Washington and the Maryland Terrapins at 7:30 p.m. If Virginia Tech can come away with a victory, it will match its win total from last season and secure its first nonconference Power Four win since 2017.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow