It’s the day after a Virginia Tech football game. That usually means we hammer out anywhere between 1,500-2,000 words about the game from the day before. Not today.
What else is left to say after VT’s 24-17 loss to the Marshall Thundering Herd? It was Marshall’s first win over Virginia Tech since 1940. Let’s start with this: Marshall is a good program. There is no denying that, but they shouldn’t be winning games against Virginia Tech. Both things can be, and are, true.
Just when we think the Virginia Tech football program has hit rock bottom, we are smacked in the face with another new low. Saturday was that new low. If the last two weeks weren’t bad enough, at least we could say those losses were against Big Ten teams, even if they are Big 10 bottom feeders.
Here’s a dose of reality: Virginia Tech is a bottom feeder—an ACC bottom feeder. Heck, the Hokies are a Power 5 bottom feeder.
We aren’t going to get into what’s going on in the athletic department with Whit Babcock or John Ballein. In case you wonder why we are referencing Ballein here, do yourself a favor and read this ESPN article from August. We aren’t going to talk incessantly about former coach Justin Fuente — again. Instead, we will focus on the current product and what the current coaching staff can control.
But before we do that, let’s start by saying Fuente gets no pass for how bad things are in Blacksburg currently. His final recruiting classes — or lack thereof — are impacting the on-field product currently. Tech has a severe talent shortage in the trenches on both sides of the ball. While there are promising young players on both lines, there just aren’t enough of them.
Remember last year, when we talked about some of VT’s disappointing losses, we kept referencing the Duke Blue Devils. You know, the basketball school in Durham which hired a defensive-minded coach at the same time the Hokies hired Brent Pry. Mike Elko was reportedly a finalist for the Virginia Tech job but apparently didn’t meet the standards of the current athletic administration. In two years at Duke — AT DUKE — Elko has a record of 12-4.
Was the team Elko inherited that much worse than the one Pry inherited? Talentwise, the two programs were similar, although the Blue Devils did have a talented quarterback in Riley Leonard. Yet, Elko’s impact was immediate. Did you see the Blue Devils committing pre-snap penalties every week, sometimes as many as 10 per game? No, you did not.
Back to Leonard. It’s nice the Devils inherited a talented passer, but he was far from a sure thing when Elko and his staff arrived. Elko, being a coach with a defensive background, made sure he hired an offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach who had plenty of experience.
