VT = The Tampa Rays of College Football

I was thinking about the recent changes in the coaching staff, the constantly evolving landscape of college football, and the media's perception of who VT is. I came to this conclusion: Tech is the TB Rays of college football. Rewind time with me, if you will, 15 years. VT was playing in the Big East, our biggest victory to date was over Texas in the Sugar Bowl, and, from a national perspective, were an up and coming program. Fast forward to today. We have a highly revered coaching staff, we've been to the big dance once, have flirted in top-tier bowls, have had a couple home-run hitting alums, but are always trumped by our big brothers whom sport, historically, older traditions and deeper pockets.
TB Rays: respected coaches, relatively new to the baseball scene within past 15 years, a few great players historically(Longoria, Price, Upton, Crawford), one of the lowest paid salaries in baseball, have played once in the WS, but play second fiddle to division rivals Boston and NY...teams with richer tradition and...deeper pockets.
The recent news regarding Grimes has been a shot of reality for us Hokies. We are a great program, and have been for almost 2 decades. But until we can win on the biggest stage, with less horsepower under the hood, the bigger, more expensive sports cars will continue to control the pole position. Hopefully Beamer can get just the right mix of talent, skill, coaching...and a little luck to prove to the talking heads-and a nation, that sometimes you can win with less shiny tools in the toolbox. Go Hokies.