Meaningful Win, Meaningless Game

Football fans have short memories, and members of Hokie Nation are no exception to the rule. This is a prudent practice. There's an ebb and flow to a football season. The same team that starts 0-2 and drops a home game to a I-AA program winds up ripping off 11-straight wins including the ACC Championship. Conversely, the team that knocks off eventual national champion Ohio State in the 'Shoe struggles to becomes bowl eligible and squeaks out just seven wins. From week to week teams progress and regress, and Virginia Tech has done both this season.

Virginia Tech's turnover-laden, 20-30 home loss to average-at-best Georgia Tech was clearly a step back. Games can be evaluated both in a vacuum and as a fraction of the whole season. It was easy to focus on how badly the Hokies bungled a chance to clinch the Coastal Division against the Yellow Jackets. Not only because it was botched so spectacularly well, but because it was a freshly prepared blunder, hot and ready to consume. It's harder to recall how Virginia Tech put itself within arm's reach of an ACC Championship berth and place the loss in the context of the season.

Virginia Tech's non-conference tilt against Notre Dame — a prestigious four-win opponent — had no bearing on the Hokies' ACC Championship aspirations, but presented Tech an opportunity to get the bad taste out of its mouth and remind media and fans alike how it earned its recently stripped No. 14 rank.

However, after the first half against the Fighting Irish, it seemed apparent the sloppy, inept play that characterized the Hokies' losses to Tennessee, Syracuse, and Georgia Tech constituted more of the team's makeup than anyone might have admitted to a few weeks ago. Flubbed snaps. Fumbles on quarterback-running back meshes. A Chuck Clark interception negated by a silly offsides penalty. A litany of errors on both sides of the ball exacerbated a poor opening act that saw the Hokies gain a paltry 135 yards and score 14 points to Notre Dame's 299 and 24, respectively (according to Tech's "quickie statistics").

The Hokies flipped the script that had them written off in the second half. Execution, while not flawless, was much crisper and more productive. Outside of a 67-yard run by ND RB Josh Adams, Bud Foster's defense kept the Irish out of the end zone and held Notre Dame to 150 second-half yards. Five of Notre Dame's seven second-half possessions ended in punts. (The other two: one was the aforementioned touchdown run, the other was ND's final drive that ended in 0:00.) Chalk that up to timely adjustments.

"We made several adjustments to what they were trying to do, and like I said, they had shown a lot of different things that they hadn't shown," Foster said. "And a run play early, they run a little trap and split zone look. They did a couple things in the passing game that stressed us a little bit early that we busted a couple things.

"But the kids settled down and played. Like I said, you're going to play good people and they're going to make plays and in the end we made more plays, and that's the bottom line. It's a mark on the left side of the column, which is all that matters."

Meanwhile, Jerod Evans guided Tech to 20 points on the back nine.

Virginia Tech trailed by 17; comeback was VT's biggest since 2012 vs Duke. Notre Dame had been 34-1 under Brian Kelly after leading by 17.— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 20, 2016

It's LIT pic.twitter.com/L3wyZJZbCk— VT Football (@VT_Football) November 20, 2016

All in all, Virginia Tech's upset and comeback bid from 17 down on the road was a great character builder for a program whose mantra is "Hard, Smart, Tough". It should also restore some of the luster to the Hokies' previous seven wins. Big picture though, a feel great non-conference win against a foreign foe does nothing on paper to get Virginia Tech to Orlando — a top priority.

"I think it's understood though, if you coach at Virginia Tech you're expected to compete for the Coastal Division championship," Justin Fuente said. "I think those kids know that too."

Some games matter more than others. And sometimes the outcome of one game has both macro and micro implications. A win over Virginia would punch the Hokies' tickets to Orlando and extend their winning streak over the Hoos to 13 years. A loss would lead to an offseason full of second-guessing. Success is a relative and dynamic concept, and the net result of Tech's previous 11 games add up to this: Eight wins aside, the success or failure of Fuente's inaugural season hinges on the result of Hokies vs. Hoos.