WOW! Tech actually won a bowl game!!!
That's what my father texted me shortly after the Hokies wrapped up their 33-17 Military Bowl victory over the Cincinnati Bearcats on Saturday. My initial reaction was, "*Bleep* yeah!" But then I laughed to myself thinking about how we had gotten to a point that would prompt such a text.
This is the same program that has been to 22-straight bowl games, but managed a pedestrian 10-12 record.
The Hokies are 5-5 in bowls over the last decade, and a .500 record becomes a bit frustrating when you consider the Hokies reached 5 BCS bowls over that span and managed only one win (Cincinnati, 2009).
So here we are, coming off another 7-6 season and a bowl victory over a Big East American Athletic Conference opponent (albeit a significantly more convincing victory than the 2012 punt fest against Rutgers). Fans are discussing and analyzing the bowl performance in hopes of identifying positives to buoy hopes for a successful 2015 campaign and a return to national relevance.
I love the hope and excitement that surrounds these types of discussions. I love the projections and subjective analyses of complete unknowns. We have absolutely no idea what may happen between now and Labor Day — heck, we have no idea what may happen between now and Signing Day — yet we all love to speculate on what could be. It's human nature...isn't it?
After enduring that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Sugar Bowl loss to what was believed to be a resurgent Michigan program (oops) three years ago, we have collectively spent far too much energy searching for answers. We spent close to a decade near the top as the scrappy little brother, only to fall back down to earth after a gut-wrenching loss to a traditional power.
Maybe we're the college football equivalent of Icarus, victims of hubris. Michigan was the god that thumped us down to earth after we flew too high; Alabama did the same following a 2013 offseason filled with so much hope. Will this team suffer a similar fate in 2015 against a perennially talented Ohio State team?
Or have the last three seasons been a more accurate reflection of the realistic expectations for a program situated in Southwest Virginia? For the last twenty years, we have tried to escape the labyrinth that rivals and detractors love to paint us into; our proverbial wings made out of wax and feathers, binding us to a fate of flying neither too low nor too high. What 18-year old wants to spend the next four years of their life in a remote mountain town, playing for a soon-to-retire coach in a weak conference? This is the adversity Tech is destined to face, arguably the greatest inhibitor in this program's reemergence.
As fans, there is nothing wrong with expecting excellence from a program that displayed so much of it for over a decade. Sure, the Hokies never won a national title; but when you're near the top of the mountain for so long, you begin to feel like you belong with the big boys. What Frank Beamer has been able to do in Blacksburg during his tenure has been nothing short of miraculous. Just because this program has fallen backwards in recent years doesn't mean it has regressed to where some believe it belongs.
Sport is capricious. It's part of what makes it so great. That's why college football, with its growing television audience and invasive recruiting coverage, may be the most fickle of them all. It's how you can quickly go from consistent Top-15 team and conference power to also-ran overnight. Big money boosters, who are used to getting what they want when they want it, open up their coffers in hopes of buying a return to glory (I'm looking at you, Big Blue). Big time recruits that spent their childhood watching teams like Virginia Tech consistently play for conference titles have spent much of their high school careers watching the Hokies struggle to become bowl eligible.
Your fate can change overnight. And that's why I think this team is ready to get over the hump and return to its former perch.
Saturday's victory wasn't perfect, but there were a lot of positives to latch onto heading into an important offseason. The offensive line play was solid despite the injury to David Wang. Previously-maligned tailback J.C. Coleman continued to stake his claim to a key role in this offense, posting 157 yards on the ground. True freshman Greg Stroman made plays on offense, defense and special teams, joining a list of highly successful Swiss Army Knife Hokies that includes DeAngelo Hall and Macho Harris. Isaiah Ford and Bucky Hodges continued to show that they are superstars in the making. And #DBU looks to be in safe hands despite the graduation of safeties Kyshoen Jarrett and Detrick Bonner.
Despite the strengths of this team and the multitude of players expected to return from injury, there are a number of well-documented issues that need to be addressed: Offensive game planning, the quarterback position and defensive end depth, to name a few. But for the first time in a long while, we are beginning to see young game-changing playmakers all over the field. The defense continues to excel as college offenses evolve, and we can all sleep better knowing Bud Foster remains at the helm. The missing piece is a potent, dangerous offense.
I've said it before and I will say it again: The pieces are there and they are only going to get better; the Hokies just need to put it all together on a consistent basis and stay healthy.
There is no doubt Frank Beamer will eventually leave the Hokie football program in a better place than when he took over. Even so, this may prove to be the most pivotal offseason in his storied career. He has an opportunity to not only prove his critics wrong and finish his career on an upswing, but a chance to set this program up for sustained success well after he is gone.
To those who think the Hokies' time flying near the top of the sport has come-and-gone, I say, "Just wait." After all, at Virginia Tech, designing high-performance aerodynamic systems is one of the many things we do best.
Comments
Good article. Thanks for the write up. I think this bowl game helped us a lot. It ended the season on a high note, bringing momentum into the off-season. I think next year can be great. Here's to returning to the top!
Well, that's not how I remember it.
Great article! I know a lot of people, myself included, were concerned about Frank openly trying to sell the fans and the media on the future of the program after the Miami game, but I think it's hard for him, or anyone that follows the program, to look at next years team and not be just a little optimistic.
That pic deserves a caption.
Also, I really liked this article, thank you Pierson. A little sobering and a little hopeful, but even handed.
Very well said.
To comment on the SW VA thing, are there or have there been any programs similar to ours with regard to our challenges, geographic or otherwise, which have sustained long-term success? If so, how did they achieve that success? What were the keys to overcoming these perceived obstacles? What will the next staff(s) have to do in order to not only sustain the momentum that CFB has created, but expand on it in order to take the program even higher?
My go to comparison is Tennessee, but I don't know if it's fair to say that they've ever had sustained success outside of the 90s. More like a couple of good seasons followed by down periods. Their 90s are our 00s.
What about Nebraska? Obviously they've had more success, but as far as geographic challenges...
I only say Tennessee because of the geographic similarities to VT. Nebraska is definitely the case study for anyone looking at sustained national relevance at a school in the middle of nowhere.
I'm really interested to see how Nebraska does the next few years. We were on similar plateaus (9-11 wins) in the 2000s. We stuck with Beamer (for good reason), but fell off the plateau and are trying to get back up. Nebraska fired their plateau coach, and now we get to see whether they climb higher or stumble
Nebraska is located in Lincoln, which is the state capital and second most populous city in the state. The population is close to 275,000, which is nearly 6x that of Blacksburg. I think a comparison of Midwest universities and Mid-Atlantic universities is a bit unbalanced (an inherently sparsely populated or spread out region versus one of the most densely populated regions in the country). A more accurate comparison would likely have to occur somewhere in our own region, so schools like Clemson and Tennessee would better fit that bill. I think the Tennessee comparison is probably the best with regard to sustained success (90's UT vs 00's VT).
I should have specified, the middle of nowhere relative to fertile recruiting grounds.
Corn doesn't count as a recruit?
That's a really good point about regional differences in perspective.
Can Penn State get back to where they were? Lots of money, but they'll be going up against Urban Meyer and Jim Harbaugh for recruits in the foreseeable future. Do talented kids still care enough to go there?
Don't sleep on Franklin at PSU. They have the resources, the coach, and the name brand in a state big on football to be back soon. Sure, Harbaugh and Meyer will get theirs. But Franklin is a formidable opponent on the recruiting trail, and PSU is a place where lots of kids in the state have dreamed of going forever.
You would be the one to ask. I always underestimate how much brands translate over generations
For some schools, I think it's harder to tell. Notre Dame has always been Notre Dame, but the luster has worn off a little since the Lou Holtz era. Penn State's brand wasn't ever really defined by the legends of the Four Horsemen or the Gipper or things that happened oh so long ago, it's always been defined by Paterno, and he's only been gone, what, three years? Kids graduating high school right now were freshmen when Paterno was still the coach. The brand will have to transform now, and after the B O'B era, they're still in a transitional phase, but if Franklin can be successful it'll be a whole new world for PSU. The Paterno brand, however, is still relevant.
And it's not like the people of PA think State College is actually in the boonies populated with toothless hillbillies or something.
It's at the confluence of 2 major freeways and 1.5 hours from the state capitol. Incredibly easy to get to from the major cities in PA. Even NYC is a direct shot on a freeway not filled with 18 wheelers.
Up here in central PA we call it Pennsyltucky
I was going to post the same thing, so instead I'll post a counter argument. The Lincoln and Roanoke metro areas are about the same size, so Lincoln isn't really all that big, and Roanoke isn't all that far from Blacksburg.
Yeah but the Roanoke metro area is huge compared to Lincoln, the density is much different. Also, Licoln can be gotten to on a direct route from somewhere. You can't get the Blacksburg/ Roanoke on a direct route. You cannot get here from there, is a commen comment.
Agreed- great article (and Happy New Year to ALL of The HOKIE Nation)!
I wonder the same thing (geographic challenges). Although I hate to admit it (b/c YaboDabo is a tool), but Klemsun is an example of a team that seems to have figured it out. They have had their share of down years but now appear to have taken it up to the next notch. How do we take that step.
Clemson is another program that has the advantage of good pedigree from a ime when college football was smaller.
Boise State is the only program I can think of in the era of modern college football to overcome geography and they've been a bit down lately.
I'd go with Kansas State as a good comparison.
I think there are plenty of other examples of successful football colleges in smaller towns across America. here are some I think of (I'm sure there will be plenty of debate on this list):
Ole Miss
Mississippi State
Penn State
Kansas State
Oklahoma State
Blacksburg would be fine if it wasn't so far from the majority of the fan base. The majority of alumni and fans is at least 3 hrs away. Some other similar successful college towns are in areas where college is the only available football outlet. The passion that would normally be reserved for nfl is put into the college program. Then the entire population has a vested interest.
I don't think Nebraska is a good example. I hated college football as a little boy because it was nothing but Nebraska/OU, option left/option right.
That kind of describes half of our playcalling in '99
Awesome article. I'm not afraid to admit it. I had to define a couple words. But that's what I love about TKP! Football AND intelligence!!
I was thinking this but wasn't going to say it haha. Legs for the honesty!
I mean I was a business major, not an English major ha
Isn't Tamu in the middle of nowhere? Military corps. One marvelously talented QB that rocketed them to national championship caliber play? Some parallels can be found there, I think.
While we're in the vicinity of the subject, how weird, historically, is the situation in Texas? My whole childhood you had the Longhorns in the top 5 or top 10 while my father's Aggies struggled to get into the top 25. There were also schools in the state called Baylor, TCU, and Texas Tech, but if they had football teams no one ever talked about them.
Back in Gra Teaff's time, Baylor had some good teams, but that was when Darrel Royal was coach at UT, so even then, they didn't stand much of a chance vs UT.
Yes this is what I'm talking about!
strong take
We've been here before. Strong finishes to disappointing seasons leave the fanbase energized and dreaming of things to come, and more often than not it has been followed up with a customary slow start and familiar struggles the following season. I'm very high on how the Hokies finished out the last two games of a rollercoaster season. But to believe that this late season surge will translate into continued success in 2015, we must find a reason to believe that things are different now than they have been under similar circumstances in the past.
I find that reason in the words of Scot Loeffler. When Lefty speaks enthusiastically about how we're about to have the most get-after-it off season in college football, to me it rings with a quality of a man who senses progress. When he says we're close, it tells me he has a vision. My biggest gripe with Stiney as OC was a lack of cohesion. He wanted us to be everything, and consequently we were nothing. But with Lefty, I get the feeling that he has a clear vision of what he wants this offense to be, and he seems us nearing it. Whether or not he can do what he wants to do here is yet to be determined. But I'm more hopeful after a strong finish than I've been in quite a while.
I find it in the presence of Scot Loeffler, combined with Moorehead and Searles. This will be the first off-sesaon they have worked together, right? And only the second off-season that Loeffler and Moorehead have worked together. There really is logical, rational justification for thinking this spring is going to be different, and the summer and fall as well.
To me it rings with a quality of a man whose job is on the line. Which can be a good thing.
Lefty could care less about what people say about his job security. He probably could care less about his job security. When he says he wants a get-after-it offseason, it's because he actually wants this team to be great and he wholeheartedly believes it can be.
This a bunch. I think Lefty is sporting a significant pair of blinders. He just wants to actually field his dream offense.
I think he actually smells impending success.
Lefty believes in himself.
Stinespring believed in himself.
The difference is Lefty has a plan for success, while Stiney had a bunch of darts he threw at the "play wall".
Don't get me wrong -- Stiney is a helluva TE coach & recruiter. Just a horrible OC.
I 100% agree with you here and I hope Lefty's plan works.