I admit to not following football as closely in the past as I have these last 3-5 years (thanks TKP writers for the awesome content and to Joe, et. al. for the great community). As such, I don't really remember our "close calls" for making it back up the mountain.
Just thought it would be fun and enlightening (at least for me) to have a discussion regarding our near misses. So, please educate me. When did VT football come closest to making it back to the title game, and what caused us to miss out on that opportunity. The causality can simply be another team(s) that beat us, our specific shortcomings that season, or whatever else you think is to blame.
Go Hokies!!
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2007, dont blow the last 2 minutes against matty ice were in the natty against a pretty bad OSU squad and probably winning it
This is the only correct answer
Absolutely 2007. That year like 8 different teams were ranked 2nd and all ended up losing multiple games. If we beat BC or had randomly scheduled someone other than LSU, then we are in.
Also, if we did not lose to LSU by 40 points, we still may have been in it. I think they jumped us the last week.
We went into the BC game ranked 8th with BC ranked 2nd. We go into the Orange Bowl ranked 5. I think we're in the Natty even with the loss to LSU. Without the loss to LSU and BC we're probably ranked 1.
Yeah, maybe in some polls.
People would've flipped out if we got in over LSU after that beat down they put on us. Although the BCS computers had us ranked #1 at the end of this regular season.
Maybe but 11-1 vs 11-2 speaks for itself.
If the college football world didn't burn down over the LSU vs Alabama REMATCH for the natty, they wouldn't have when a one loss team gets picked over a two loss team. Also voters tend to weight the early games less as the season wears on, teams develop and digress throughout the season. Who you are the week before says more about the team than who they were 8 weeks ago.
We were ranked 3rd going into the Orange Bowl. Only to get beaten by Kansas.
It's this. I can remember being wasted at Sharkey's when WVU lost to Pitt and myself along with a few others just started going apeshit thinking it meant we were going to the Natty. And that was even with the two losses. The computers had us in but the voters said no because of the LSU loss and picked LSU over us. Had we not lost to BC, that reason to pick a 2 loss LSU over a 2 loss VT would not have been there for the voters to use. That BC loss still hurts, from the impact to the fact that it was just a shitty game in general and the fact that the weather was shit. Just an all around nightmare
I think that's the closest we've been other then 99. I know that I'm probably in a significant minority, but I don't think that beating matty ice would have put us in. We talked about this somewhere else on here, but the LSU loss was FUCKING BAD and I think would have kept us out even if it was the only loss. Maybe it wouldn't have, I'm certainly not saying that it definitely would have, but I think we may have been a little further away then 'don't bounce the onside kick off your chest or let callender get behind the safety and we're definitely in'.
Keep in mind there were a ton of weird circumstances surrounding our school that year and ESPN wanted the storybook ending for us, I guarantee you a ton of pollsters would've over looked that given some of the shit that went down on campus and we were playing off as a result of that. Plus it was early in the season people overlook that stuff. I am pretty sure we would've gotten in due to the LSU meltdown at Arkansas
Even IF (and that's a gigantic you-know-what IF) they had chosen to do that, we would've STILL been slaughtered. I mean, we still loss to freakin Mangino and KU in the Orange Bowl.
Ohio State was awful that year and would've been our opponent their QB was a pocket passer guy from Strasburg VA and was super meh, he was replaced by a freshman terrelle pryor the next year and they relied on their running game. Bud would've been licking his chops going into that with the 9-11 defense. They didn't have any gamebreakers at WR either. Basically the only studs on that team were a sophmore beanie wells, Vernon Gholston, and malcolm jenkins
We run the ball against mangino we win that game by 3 scores. I dont think Beamer would've laid an egg on his 2nd natty attempt
OSU was talented enough to get in. Though I think it would've been a closer game, they would've won. You can't win a MNC with Stinespring as OC.
I mean fair point on stiney but I dont think you realize how terrible the big 10 was for 2 years there. OSU got in because their noncon schedule consisted of an 18 point win against akron (whom they were losing to right before half) a decent win against youngstown state (FCS opponent), a 21 point win over a 2 win washington squad, and then some close wins against unrated big 10 squads a close win against a michigan team that lost to appy state and a near loss to a 6 win michigan state. Ohio state laid an egg to an 8 win illinois squad whose entire roster basically consisted of mendenhall. That Ohio State team was not very good they just limped through one of the worst power 5 conferences in recent memory. Their offense was nothing spectacular that game and Bud would've shut it down. Our talent was better across the board and Bud > anything on that team.
There's also the whole MENTALITY that the teams struggled with when it came to Big Important Games. Even having Foster as DC is/was NOT enough to overcome the shortfalls of Stiney as well as the poor mentality prep (see: Thurs night Lane '05). Success is typically a mindset BEFORE a skillset.
I mean you think OSUs mentality was in a good place? They had just gotten CLOBBERED in the natty the year before, graduated basically their entire offense and half of their defensive stars, and the entire year were scraping by mediocre teams. Everyone knew that whoever played them was winning the natty that year
Yeah, and they scored MORE on that LSU team in (what was basically) a HOME GAME for LSU than WE did. Face it, whom else in the ACC (or really on our entire schedule) did we face/defeat that was just as talented or good as the teams OSU faced in the B1G (excluding LSU, BC, Miami & FSU)?
you literally just named half of the teams on our schedule, yeah we got shellacked by LSU but OSUs performance was not much better, especially considering LSU got worse as the season went on and I honestly think we got better. For starters BC would beat any team on OSUs schedule that year not named LSU we played them twice, and probably should've swept them. Honestly Clemson with #lolthunderandlightning and even #loluva lead by chris long could've hung with anybody on OSUs schedule and probably beaten them, we murdered both of those teams. Sidenote Miami was awful that year
But back to my original point LSU went on a 31-0 run in a quarter and a half in the natty that year and then just turned on cruise control. We were playing with the the biggest tragedy in school history on our minds the first few weeks and it really showed. Sidenote we actually played in death valley not in a neutral game. Say what you want man but we stacked up pretty good with OSU that year
First off, at the most, at the VERY MOST, BC would've been mid pack (maybe slightly above) B1G, but there's zero to little way that BC would have won the ENTIRE B1G outright (see, now you're REALLY getting into hypotheticals, such as "how would Virginia Tech do if they were in the $EC"). BC BARELY held on to defeat MSU in their bowl.
Secondly, Clemson & LOLUVA, mid pack of B1G at the highest. Ok, so LOLUVA got one of their very first invites to a NY's Day bowl in forever, and hung around with Texas Tech. STILL could and did not seal the deal. You keep saying Chris Long is gonna "lead them to victory"?? He played on freakin defense! What, is he gonna score ALL those points for them? Or is he and the defense gonna shut out Texas Tech or OSU??
Say what you want, but the Nat'l Championship that season was at the Super Dome which is basically a home away from home game for LSU. Period. They were better than us and they deserved it.
Okay, I'm not really sure which point you're trying to go with here, because you go from OSU would have slaughtered VT to LSU deserved to be in that game.
In the real world where both teams were 11-2, and LSU had beaten the snot out of us in week 2, then yes, they deserved it more.
However, seeing how the season unfolded, a one loss VT team would have been in the title game. OSU backed into the #1 spot by only having one loss, and then not playing the last two weeks.
The head-to-head against LSU only mattered when LSU and VT had the same record.
did you look at the big that year? who would they lose to? wisconsin? michigan? penn state? the bigs record in bowl games that year was atrocious. as far as leading them to victory our defense sets the tone all of the time, chris long was a really good college player. Was that uva team fluky? sure but they were not a bad team by any stretch of the imagination. They were better than us that year but if we had won against BC id say we have the better resume. You cant look at an entire seasons work in a 1 game vacuum, otherwise you could say we deserved to be national champs 3 years ago when we beat OSU thats obviously not the case. teams have off days
Your arguements at this point are not gelling together anymore I think we should just drop this
Uva was a mediocre to ok AT BEST. Plus it was you that started with the hypothetical that BC, Uva & Clemson would essentially run the gamut "if they were in the B1G INSTEAD of the ACC. But I agree about dropping it. See my post further down the page about agreeing to disagree.
A 30-10 win over BC?
Sorry, mixed up the night and game vs Miami.
This is the popular answer. However, I maintain we were closer to getting back to the BCS championship game in 2000. We we're 8-0 and ranked #2 heading into our matchup with Miami. But Vick was trying to come back from a bad ankle injury, wearing a modified boot in the game that hobbled his mobility, and we lost the game badly, 41-21. With a fully healthy Michael Vick, I think we win that game and get back to the BCS championship game.
I've always thought our dismantling at the hands of LSU in 2007 would have been too big a blemish to overcome. Had we beaten BC, we might have still been left out due to some late season human poll shenanigans. Losing to BC just made it easy on the pollsters.
Dave Myer actually started that game and Vick didn't play in most of it.
According to the ESPN 30 for 30 on Its all about the U part II, Miami slayed Vick in that game. Dave Meyer never existed! Vick was never hurt! It has to be true, documentaries created about Miami by Miami fans would never lie!
Here's the other "what if" of 2007.
Even if our outcome staying the same, and we lost to both LSU and BC...What if Tennessee hadn't blown it in the fourth quarter of the SEC Championship Game, and they win? LSU drops to 10-3, and there's no way a 3 loss team is going to get into the natty that year.
I concur. 2007. Fuck Matt Ryan.
Maybe not as close, but the 2010 season needs considering as well. If the Hokies had taken care of Boise State, the second week that I can't recall probably doesn't happen, and if you add that up with running the table in the conference that year the Hokies would have to be in the really serious conversation.
We would have been in serious contention, but two other teams went undefeated as well, and I think they were better than us.
So... you agree with me.
I agree with you about 2010. I would put that even with 2007, BEHIND 2000 & 2005.
So I guess the thought is we'd have been 12-1 conference champions with our only loss against #2 LSU in week 2?
Meant this as reply to Eshiben...
yup, and LSU was a 2 loss team with both coming from unranked opponents and we had the whole "WERE A DIFFERENT TEAM THAN THE START OF THE SEASON" going for us. there would have been a ton of SEC hand wringing but it wouldve been the correct call. That OSU team was predicated on ground and pound which plays right into Foster's hands and I guarantee you Frank would've pulled out all of the stops for that game. There's no way in hell we lose that one
We came close in 2000 as well. We started the season 8-0, ranked #2 in the nation. But Vick got hurt in the 8th game against Pitt, so he was unable to start the following week against #3 Miami. Dave Meyer started at QB and we lost 41-21. Vick came into the game for a little bit, but he was clearly playing hurt. Miami was loaded that season; but with a healthy Vick, who knows what would've happened? We finished the season 11-1.
I think this is the actual closest. Still had Vick, just off a previou natty appearance. Every other year VT was a pretender, but 2000, VT was still a contender.
2000 for sure.
Muck Fiami
but mostly Fuck Pittsburgh.
I'm STILL bitter about how ND bumped us out of a BCS at large bid in 2000. That was some next level BS. Plus Oregon State crushed ND in the Fiesta Bowl, and I think we would have won soundly.
Everyone keeps saying 2007, but I disagree. That LSU loss, and the way in which we got obliterated down there, would have held us out even with the win over BC. We were the #1 team in the computer polls anyway, and the human voters had a legitimate agenda to knock us out because of that loss, and they made it happen. That wouldn't have changed with a win over BC that night.
Realistically, our closest was probably the 2005 Miami game. Win that one and we're at least #2 going into the ACC Championship, where the coaches would have put together a more serious gameplan to win.
I 100% think that 2005 was our most talented team ever, but unfortunately we were never going to play for the natty that year. Texas and USC started 1 and 2, won every game and were super hyped. It ended up being one of the best games ever. So even if we did happen to not lay an egg that game it wouldn't have mattered in the end. Now what winning 2005 Miami would have done is keep us in the conversation longer. We were never the same after that one.
That VT Miami game was #3 vs #5. Had we pulled off the win, it was widely assumed we were going to jump up to #2 because we would have had a win the others could not match.
LSU ended up being a 2 loss team and I think at one point in 2007 BC was ranked #2 in the country as well, so we would have had multiple wins over ranked teams and our only loss being to a top 5 team on the road way early in the season . I think we we would have jumped the 2 loss LSU team.
LSU - 48
VT - 7
That's all the voters considered when putting VT vs LSU in the polls at the end of the season. Even if it was 1-loss VT vs 2-loss LSU, they still would have lept us because our loss was simply that bad. In fact, from what I remember at that time, that loss was why we weren't legitimately in the national discussion after that final week, despite the computers having us #1. There were many voters who dropped us down to 5th or 6th, just to drive that point home.
THIS^^^ times a BILLION!!! THANK YOU!!!
I wholeheartedly endorse this message. That was about 14789109436 beers ago, but my memory is that it wasn't even 48-7 close. We got fucking whupped.
yeah, the "7" just looks like a sympathy touchdown.
I was there. That TD was earned. LSU was trying to murder Tyrod near the goal line on that drive.
Tyrod's first touchdown....ahhhh memories
I am only slightly ashamed to admit my first thought after the field goal last week was "at least the scoring streak is intact".
Yeah, even though there are some valid arguments for us being in if we beat BC, I think the perception of that LSU loss sunk any real chances of that happening. We got absolutely embarrassed in that game. And then you have Stinespring attempting to line up in the I and run right into the teeth of that LSU defense. No running game established at all, and we try play action passing. It's a damn shame all that receiver talent was completely squandered and we could barely achieve a positive yard until Tyrod entered the game.
The 2005 Miami game may be viewed as the game where our momentum as a program and nationally with ESPN started to fade, but I view that 2007 LSU game as the beginning of me thinking we probably won't get back to a national title game under Beamer.
Yet the voters and computers combined to put VT at #3 in the BCS. LSU lost to an unranked team that is also pretty unforgivable. I think without the BC loss VT is #2 in the final BCS Rankings.
I'm looking at where we were in the polls, and how we would have moved up just based on the teams ahead of us losing.
We were #8 in the BCS standings when we lost to #2 BC. Had we won, we would have moved up to at least #7. A couple of weeks later, we would have moved up to #6 when OSU lost. The following week saw Oregon and Oklahoma lose, so we would have gone up to #4. Then we hit Thanksgiving weekend, when #1 LSU and #2 Kansas both lose.
Now, at that point, Missouri jumped from #4 to #1 by beating Kansas. So, we likely would have been #3 or 4 going into the ACCCG, depending on what the polls did with OSU. Either way, we would have been sitting pretty when Missouri and WVU lost in the final weekend.
After the regular season and championship games were over, the only 1-loss teams left would have been OSU (11-1, no Big Ten championship game), Kansas (11-1, missing the Big 12 championship game), and VT (12-1, ACC champs).
There's a decent chance that VT could have been #1 going into the BCS title game in that scenario, since the only reason OSU got that spot was by process of elimination. After all, in reality, they moved up four spots while sitting on their ass waiting for the rest of college football to finish their season.
Also, in the real life rankings, LSU dropped to #7 when they got their second loss. We were #6 in that poll. So, I think the chances would have been good for a 1-loss VT to stay ahead of a 2-loss LSU.
Exactly. After the loss to LSU, there was zero chance for us to play in the championship game...the voters wouldn't have allowed it. Nor should they have. A team that gets absolutely destroyed should not play for the title.
Well, from a numerical standpoint it would be incorrect to assert that there was a ZERO chance percentage/possibility for us to make it there, but certainly after that game the probability took a drastic statistical dive/drop.
But, computers.
Look, I'm not saying that we should have played in the championship or that we would have won, based on how that season went. But when the BCS has us ranked at #3 going into bowl season, I have to believe that either one more win on our part or one more loss on LSU's part would have pushed us into the top two.
I remember that season very well. Late in the year when all the pundits were speculating about who would make it into the final two, we were NEVER in the conversation, despite our poll ranking and status in the computer polls. After the beatdown by LSU, it was like VT football didn't exist to national media when it came to the MNC. We weren't included on any article about contenders, nor were we mentioned by the ESPN pundits. I firmly believe that had upsets occurred ahead of us that would have normally pushed a team into the top two, we would have been leapfrogged by someone behind us in the human polls because the "vibe" from the national media was that we had already been eliminated from any consideration.
For me, that was the season that convinced me that we would never be in the running for the title without either a transcendent talent like MV7 or some drastic change to the program.
We're dealing with two possible scenarios here.
#1 - 2-loss VT with a 3-loss LSU -- much more likely to get jumped. Oklahoma and Georgia were above us in the human polls. UGA probably wouldn't gain any ground since they didn't even win their division. I'm pretty sure Oklahoma had the excuse of Sam Bradford being hurt in their losses, so there's a good chance it would have come down to us or them. And maybe our computer rankings would have been affected by LSU's third loss.
#2 - 1-loss VT with a 2-loss LSU -- I don't know if any team could have jumped us. In this scenario, there are no undefeated teams and three 1-loss teams in the BCS conferences, but a buttload of 2-loss teams. The biggest question mark is not knowing the exact computer breakdown -- in other words, how solid was our ranking and how far away were we of the teams around us?
I do agree, any scenario where VT and LSU have the same number of losses, we're definitely out.
Our computer average was #1 overall, even with the 2 losses, with only 4 total positions away from the highest possible score (meaning that our middle 4 averaged #2 exactly, as they dropped the highest and lowest computer rankings when making the composite). Take away the loss to BC and we probably end up #1 in at least 5 of them, giving us an extra .04 points in the computer rankings while bumping LSU back a spot in a couple of them in the process.
Looking at the human polls, there's no way we would have been behind 10-2 Georgia and USC if we'd finished 12-1, putting us at worst at #4 in each, and likely would have been ahead of 11-2 Oklahoma as well, putting us at #3. It would have been close, but I feel like we probably would have made it.
I tend to disagree as well with those saying '07. And even IF we had, we would've been slaughtered and shredded because of Stinespring and Mr. 4 INTs in the Chic-Fil-A bowl himself, Glennon.
Wait... if you have solid info that Beamer didn't want to seriously win the 2005 ACC championship and play in the Orange Bowl, then he should have been fired.
I don't think that's what he was inferring.
2005. Even after the buses never got to Lane from Roanoke against Miami we still had a shot with the ACCCG against FSU. Then that debacle happened. But with the way Texas and USC played that season, it wasn't much of a shot anyways. Maybe sans Bush-push we could've snuck in with the title game victory, but that's in an alternate universe, soooo yeah.
We would've needed to be 13-0 just to be in the conversation. With a win over Miami, it might have been close, but I still don't see any way that they put VT in over an unbeaten Texas or USCw.
I hate to say it (and I will take the flak and anger for this), but 2000 and 2005 (imop). 2000 we still had MV7. Had he not been injured in the game against Pitt (home game), there's more than a good chance we would've held off da U for a rematch with FSU.
In 2005, we had MV5 (Vick's evil alter-ego) and were ranked #3 (#2 in some polls) for a majority of the season. Had we taken care of business against Miami on Thur night and obliterated FSU (like we were, talent-wise, MORE than capable of doing) in the inaugural ACCCG, we may have either matched up with USCw or Texas for the Natty (I feel like we had the capability of at least taking down USCw for real this time).
In '05, that was the closest (again, MOP) we had to an actual, factual NFL team.
I think 2nd place is 2010 or 2011. 2010 because we were 2 minutes from beating Boise and going undefeated. 2011 because had Tyrod redshirted (like we tried twice) he would've been the QB on an absolutely loaded offense, that team with Tyrod beats Clemson and then they wouldn't have even been in the ACC title game to play us again.
If we didn't get killed by LSU in 2007, that could've changed everything.
That '07 game in death valley was a program altering experience. almost the opposite of the Texas sugar bowl. Maybe not as great in magnitude, but just absolutely crushing in short and medium term consequences.
Yeah the last two minutes vs BC might have cost us an appearance in '07, but in my opinion the final 2 minutes vs Boise State in 2010 were more costly. We win that game, I don't think we lose to JMU, and if we won out like we ended up doing then we're undefeated. I doubt we were talented enough to win the title, especially vs Cam and Auburn, but I think we had a great chance that year.
I'm not sure we run the table if we're not embarrassed by JMU. The team really reacted to that and rallied.
2004: we are one dropped pass in the endzone or made FG away from beating Auburn in the Sugar Bowl and claiming the championship because USC had to vacate their actual BCSNCG win. That's how it works, right?
But seriously. We were one crappy PI call from having a chance against #1 USC to open the season. Then we miss a field goal two weeks later to lose by one point to NC State. Those were our two regular season losses.
And in 2004 bowl game VT was the better team and lost to an undefeated Auburn team. 3 red-zone trips for a total of 3pts in a 16-13 loss (I believe.)
Usually an undefeated SEC team would be in the NCG, but Auburn was serving out sanctions from previous years. Edit: Assumed it was sanctions, as Auburn always seems to be in trouble. Auburn did go undefeated that season, as VT bungled their best scoring chances in the bowl game and lost.
Dunno. The SEC love affair hadn't started yet.
Also, Auburn's last documented year for NCAA sanctions was 1993, and they went undefeated but didn't go bowling at all.
yeah, we were painfully inept on offense that game (zero points through 3 quarters), but still getting just close enough to scoring to have regrets after. Our defense slowed Auburn up just enough to keep us in range for a failed 4th quarter push.
Sanctions would keep a team out of any bowl, not just the natty.
Auburn got unlucky by being the third undefeated team that year. The SEC IS GOD movement didn't start until 2008, after they had won 2-3 straight nattys.
Since the Orange Bowl was the BCS title game, VT got the misfortune of having to go up against a pissed off undefeated Auburn. Although, if the five game BCS system had been in place, we probably would have ended up playing #4 Texas in the Orange Bowl, so I don't know if we would have fared much better.
All this thread is doing is reminding me that being a Tech fan is suffering. If we ever make the playoff I'm going to be an absolute mess win or lose.
Here's to hoping I can change my avatar sooner rather than never
watching buzz in the tournament last year reminded how stress and anxiety can suck a lot of the fun out of those kinds of huge games. I can't imagine what a playoff game would do to me.
Pretty sure Buddha was a Hokie fan.
that case was cursed...
No, our offense was.
2017
We can agree to disagree about '07, but the point is, as long as Stinespring was OC and Newsome was OL coach, we weren't really gonna cut the mustard (looking back now).
I think we would've been selected had we not blown it against BSU in 2010. We win that game, I guarantee we beat JMU the following week *dies a little* and still run through the ACC and the ACCCG.
If we look at how things worked out each season, it's easy to see that VT was pretty much a pretender for all of it's years dominating the ACC. VT pretty much exclusively lost it's most important matchup each year and when VT had a chance to play another top OOC opponent, we lost when we were supposed to win, or we just got straight up crushed.
I would think 2000 was the closest. Still had our best players and one of the best players in CFB. Every other year we benefitted from a weak ACC that inflated our rankings. I don't think we have had a squad capable of running with the big boys since those teams.
If MV5 doesn't stomp on Dumervil's leg in the Gator Bowl in 2005, 2006 would have beem our best opportunity IMO. Great defense. The offense had weapons but was built around a Mobil qb. Glennon wasn't ready to be the starter and another year as a backup and 4th qtr starter could have changed the 2007 season as well.
We'll get there again.
Glennon was NEVER going to be the guy to push us over the top. O'Cainspring.
Agreed, the '06 squad had the #1 defense in the nation, an All-ACC tailback (Branden Ore) and four future NFL wide receivers. Throw MV5 in there at quarterback and I don't think we lose a regular season game (although Calvin Johnson still scares me). Hell, Wake Forest won the ACC that year and we smoked them in Winston Salem 27-6.
I was at that game....it has infamously gone down our college folklore as "the wake and bake forest game"
The stomp wasn't was did Marcus in, it was his legal issues.
I mean, the stomp didn't help his case...
The stomp was the final straw. It's likely it still would have come unraveled during the offseason, but without the stomp his dismissal would have been pushed down the road to his next major offense.
I think no matter what, Marcus wasn't going to be playing all 12 games of 2006, because he was still going to find some combination of incidents that would have gotten him at least suspended at some point.
MV5, worst EVER waste of talent in the history of Hokiedom. Ever.
Brandon Ore makes a pretty good argument for this as well. That kid dominated games before he was dismissed, and him being gone put us in a spot where we were playing catch up at RB from then until it all collapsed towards the end of the Beamer regime.
In this case, I strongly believe he come AFTER MV5. Remember, even MV7 (as well as numerous others) said Marcus was supposed to be BETTER than him. Talent-wise that is.
We have had so many "close but no cigar" seasons in the past 20 years. It's gonna make it all the sweeter when Fuente fills that trophy case.
This thread makes me sad
Buncha masochists, the lot of 'em
Tin foil hat theory incoming.
If Marcus doesn't screw up and get thrown out, he stays in 2006, and we possibly win that year behind the #1 defense.
Then, with an extra year of development, maybe Glennon can get us through 2007 without burning Tyrod's redshirt.
Tyrod's extra year of development puts us over the top in 2010 and 2011.
Throw in the increased recruiting momentum from the national championships in 2006, 2010, and 2011, and Tahj Boyd leads us to championships in 2012 & 2013, with Logan Thomas setting all the receiving tight-end records.
So basically exactly what's about to happen with JJ, HH, and QP3, only with a little less time in between
I dont know why but this response made my day.
Leg.
I don't think it's a conspiracy theory to think that the abrupt departure of Marcus set the program back, probably to the point that Beamer never recovered.
However, I'm not sure how 2007-2008 would have played out. I mean, Glennon ended up with actual playing time in 2006, and we still needed to burn Tyrod's shirt in 2007.
Although, maybe we don't get sucked into the two QB system for two years.
I'll gladly have some of that Kool Aid.
1909
We are beating Princeton 6-5 until the last four minutes of the game. They launch a desperation drive that of course results in a last second field goal. VPI goes on to complete a 6-1 season and are declared Champions of the South. I guarantee you that we could pull an Alabama and get some pollster to name us National Champions that year if we had held on against Princeton.
1st year, 25 year old head coach Branch Bocock really rallied the squad that year.
It's too bad he couldn't have done the same as the HC of our Basketball and Baseball teams
That 1909 squad was well coached. They'd really get after ya.
Bocock Ball was killin' it in '09...1909, that is.
Man Bocock really Branched out and sowed a lot of seeds. Seems like he was up for anything.
GREAT PULL
2010 Is a big 'what if' year for me even though it isn't the closest we've ever been.
If we beat Boise like we should have, then we avoid the
most miserable experience I've ever had in lanelose to JMU. If you look at our scores after that, we only had one game within a possession for the rest of the season.We probably weren't good enough to beat bama that season, but one defensive stop in week 1 might have given us the chance to try.
Alabama didn't play in the NC in 2010. Auburn won the SEC with Cam Newton and beat a pretty good Oregon squad in the natty.
You're right, I couldn't remember who won that year and when I checked for 2010 National Champion I got the game from the previous season
See, I think by the time 2007/2008 rolled around, it was fairly evident that the ACC was incredibly down overall as a conference. We were good enough to dominate the league for the most part, but came up short on the national stage. I think our offensive issues were so well ingrained by that point, and recruiting in the trenches had tailed off so much that we didn't really have a shot against the elite. We had a 5* QB, top end talent at RB, and two of the most productive receivers in VT history to mask some of the deficiencies, but we saw what happened when they left.
The late 2000s in retrospect really bother me. It was obvious to anyone not wearing maroon and orange shades that there were major problems on offense, yet we had enough talent to win at least 10 games and a pretty down ACC all those years, giving Beamer the ammo he needed against the criticism to keep his friends on staff. When the talent ran dry, he couldn't silence the critics any longer and was forced to make changes. Very frustrating looking back that he couldn't make the moves to fix the problem before it was too late.
Realistically 2007 was our closest.... but personally I just feel like that 2005 team was so loaded they could've got the job done. I don't think I was ever so disappointed in a season as I was that year the way they underperformed against Miami and FSU that year.
I've been watching VT football for 30 years and I'm cautiously optimistic about the next 2-5 years. If recruiting improves and we continue to see Fuente's brand grow, a national championship in the near future is possible.
The pessimist in me wonders though, have we set the bar at 10 win seasons and an occasional ACCCG appearance?
2017, we lost to Clemson early in the season but then we won out after that loss and won the CFP.
2000, easy. If MV7 is healthy we almost certainly beat the 'canes, end the season ranked #2, and play Oklahoma for the MNC.
2007 we had a bad loss to LOLSU and then the Matty Ice debacle. I'd argue that 2005 was closer, since we were a loss against Miami from finishing the regular season undefeated. Hard to say whether that affects the ACCCG outcome, however.
your username reminds me of Tom Petty
Tech is Running down a dream for that National Championship
Yeah but after we lost to LSU we were Free Fallin' down the polls. It didn't help that we Won't Back Down against later competition, even though we had a Breakdown in the last minutes against BC. I'd tell Matt Ryan that You Got Lucky if I ever saw him, I'd ask him Don't Do Me Like That, but in the end I'd have to say You Wreck Me. I guess it's Time To Move On.
i have to say the 2000 regular season right after the National Championship year. If Vick is not hurt against MIAMI, we win that game and go onto the national championship. We won the rest of our games and destroyed clemson in the gator bowl
Agree with most of the ones mentioned so far, but one that always hits the woulda-coulda-shoulda button for me is 2001. MV7 did what he had to do in going to the NFL after 2000, but imagine him on that 01 team with that running attack (which still did pretty well sans Suggs for most of the year), senior Andre Davis, and a defense with Ben Taylor/Jake Houseright/David Pugh/Chad Beasley/freshman D Hall. We don't beat ourselves against Syracuse, outshoot Pitt and have a damn good shot at victory against the 01 Hurricanes if Vick had come back. If we'd beaten Miami that year I have no doubt we'd have handled Nebraska with that team as well.
Remember those 4-0 start graphics from the Clemson discussion. 01-03 was 8-0, 6-0, 8-0, or maybe the other way around. With the associated Top 10 rankings. We were positioned for many years after MV7 to be on the inside of the Top Two discussion.
Wow, I didn't expect this much of a response. Great discussion about stuff 10-20 years old. This information should feed my Wikipedia tangents for at least two or three work days. Thanks all!