Will the Real Virginia Tech Hokies Please Stand Up?
Will the Real Virginia Tech Hokies Please Stand Up?
Virginia Tech has had stretches of amazing and terrible play this season. How will they fare for the rest of the season?
I’m out of answers.
Virginia Tech got spanked by Louisville on Saturday. There’s nothing redeemable from Saturday’s loss — the Hokies were outplayed and outcoached from the first snap and showcased their worst performance of the season in their biggest opportunity of the season.
The inconsistency is driving me nuts. How does a team fresh off a 28-point win over Syracuse lose by an even larger margin to Louisville?
Before diving into Virginia Tech’s maddening performance, let’s give Louisville their flowers. The No. 13 Cardinals dominated the Hokies in every facet of the game. Louisville bottled up Tech to the tune of 140 total yards on 51 plays. Virginia Tech converted just two of their 11 third down attempts and went three-and-out five different times.
On the other side, Louisville rushed for a cool 231 yards and four touchdowns. Jawhar Jordan wasn’t even the issue — backup Cardinals running back Isaac Guerendo ran for 146 yards and three touchdowns on his own.
Louisville eviscerated Virginia Tech. At no point during Saturday’s contest did the Hokies look like they had a shot to win. Just days after routing Syracuse inside Lane Stadium, the Hokies looked completely unprepared and outmatched.
How does that happen?
How does Virginia Tech, a team that had rushed for 184 yards or more in four of their last five games, rush for 68 yards against Louisville?
How does the defense, a unit that had held three of their last four opponents to 21 or fewer points, give up 34 against a banged-up offense?
On a related note, how does the defense register just one sack on a relatively immobile quarterback after totaling 15 sacks in their last two games?
As highly ranked as Louisville is, they aren’t Georgia. Just three weeks ago, Louisville lost by three scores to Pittsburgh. But the same Louisville team that got beat by Pittsburgh by 17 points just ran roughshod over Virginia Tech, who happened to beat Pittsburgh by that same margin just a few short weeks ago.
It’s now November, and I honestly don’t know how good Virginia Tech is. I thought I had a read on this team after their recent stretch of good play, but that was wiped away on Saturday.
Brent Pry, Tyler Bowen and Chris Marve have received significant praise for Tech’s winning ways in October and much of it is deserved. But just as they received that praise, they need to answer for what happened on Saturday.
I refuse to believe that Louisville is 31 points better than Virginia Tech is. Pry and his staff did not get the most out of their players on Saturday, something we saw during Tech’s disastrous September stretch.
As unprepared and as poorly as the Hokies looked on Saturday, their bowl game aspirations live on. Virginia Tech now enters a critical three-game stretch where the Hokies could feasibly win each of these games, but also lose each of these games.
The Hokies need two wins. To do that, they’ll need to do something they haven’t done this season — win on the road. We know Virginia Tech can play good football. We’ve seen it multiple times this year. But we also know how bad Virginia Tech can play, and Saturday was a shocking reminder.
I’m out of answers. Instead, I’m left with one elephant-sized question.
Will the real Virginia Tech Hokies please stand up?