Last week was a debacle for Virginia Tech against Old Dominion. It was a stunning loss as a 29 point favorite. There is no sugar coating it. It was a bad embarrassing defeat at the hands of Old Dominion. As the old saying goes you are never as bad as your worst loss or as good as your best win. Virginia Tech was being written off by many.
The mark of a good coach is not how you coach when things are going well, but how you coach when things are down. It doesn’t get much lower than last week for Virginia Tech, but credit Hokie head coach Justin Fuente for not letting Virginia Tech have a Old Dominion hangover.
Duke had been arguably the ACC’s most consistent team. At 4-0 with wins at Baylor and Northwestern, they looked like a real threat in the Coastal. I certainly thought they were in pretty good shape going into Saturday night. QB Daniel Jones was returning to start as well, but the Hokies were having none of it.
I don’t know what was said in the Virginia Tech locker room this past week, but I can imagine they were severly challenged by Fuente, and DC Bud Foster. Foster’s defense was a no-show last week, but came up huge against Duke. They pressured Jones all night long, and got him rattled. Jones never looked comfortable, and the Duke offense looked as bad as it had all year.
You don’t have to let ugly losses define your season. Clemson made the playoffs after losing to Syracuse. Ohio State took a shocking loss to Virginia Tech at home and won the national title a few years back.
Virginia Tech can do a reset on the whole season now. There’s a bad loss, but dominanting wins at Florida State and Duke. There’s also new QB Ryan Willis. He’s been a real lift to the Hokies. He reminds you a little of Syracuse’s Eric Dungey. He’s probably not as mobile, but he’s just as poised in the pocket. Willis can sling through the air too.
With the mess the ACC Coastal is, the Hokies can certainly still be factor. They’ve already beat Duke, and the rest of the division is pretty much a dumpster fire outside of Miami. Virginia is not awful, but they’ve haven’t beat Virginia Tech in some 15 years.
Let’s not forget there’s a little game in Blacksburg with Notre Dame next weekend, and it would not shock me if the Hokies pull the upset. Fuente might have a few more tricks up his sleeve.
