Unfortunately, being fans of Hokie football mean we are all too accustomed to embarrassing loses. However, we have a sort of bounce back after these games. As case studies, lets look at the other two worst loses in program history:
- 1998 Temple
- 2010 JMU
In 1998 we were 5-0 with wins @ Clemson, Miami and BC. We had climbed to a ranking of #14. All was well. With the next two games against Temple and UAB we were looking ahead to WVU. Then, all hell broke loose and we lost our homecoming game against dreadful Temple. We were embarrassed. Corey Moore said it best:
"I've never been so embarrassed in my life, I'm shellshocked. We're the laughingstock of college football right now and deservedly so."
However that year was a building block. We steadied the ship against UAB and beat WVU. Lost insanely close games to Syracuse and UVA but then had a Music City bowl matchup with Alabama and won 38-7. Also we had a freshman redshirting on the bench, you may have heard of him: Michael Vick. The momentum from that year and the lessons it taught allowed us to dominate next year.
2010 is a lot more recent in our minds. I was in school for it. We had huge preseason hype. Senior Tyrod, RMFW, Darren Evans. Boise at Fed-Ex needs no explanation. We lost a close, tough game to a solid team after having the worst first quarter imaginable and not being able to put the game away after fighting back to take the lead. 5 days later we had to play again in shitty weather against an FCS contender JMU team that thinks we are their super bowl. We lost, we all remember it. It was sloppy, dumb and most of all, embarrassing.
However, the theme here is that after the embarrassing loss our team stuck together and fought on. We didn't lose again until the Orange bowl and number one overall pick Andrew Luck. That next year? We were a BCS at-large team and beat Michigan. Pretty solid turnaround for a team that lost to a 2A team. BTW the year after Michigan lost to Appy State? They went 3-9.
So. We lost to ODU. A team that is in our hotbed for recruiting and thinks we are their standard bearer. It sucks. It's embarrassing. It should never happen. However, if the past is any indictor, if the team holds together the year will still be successful, the sky will not fall, and the next year could be special.
Comments
Unfortunately, i dont think we have the leaders on this team that we had on those other teams. The names you mentioned are all all-time Hokie greats. Who is that on this team?
That's what we are going to find out. I'm excited to see who steps up.
Im scared that we will find out no one will...
well for all accounts its QP. the post speaks of how MV7 was a redshirt that year and next year was when things really got better. i could see a repeat performance from that year much more than the JMU year. we will win some games the rest of the year. and lose some close ones. hopefully beat a #name school in the bowl game to give us mo going into next year when QP burst on the scene like a cam newton action figure much like MV7 did the year following the temple loss.
The difference is MV7 could have played as a true freshman. I don't think we are hiding QP3 from the world like Vick.
The next all-time Hokie great.
Ricky Walker and Reggie Floyd should be leaders on defense. Offense will be tough. Hoping JJ can offer some leadership from the sidelines.
JJ didn't show leadership while he was playing.
I would classify 2014 ECU in this category as well, coming off huge win at the horseshoe and come home to a sellout and crap the bed.
Fair, unfortunately we've had our share of bad losses. But 2014 ECU was a 8-4 bowl team. It was a shitty loss, no doubt but not to FCS level or Temple level either.
This is the kind of perspective I've been trying to take. Let's try not to write anything off until we let this loss beat us again.
Nope, we lose again this weekend to Duke, its not because we let ODU beat us twice, its because we just aren't that good. We need to get away from trying to make excuses for every bad thing that happens here and just accept that we need to get better, and strive for that.
Not taking issue with you at all, please know that, but I don't want to see ourselves going down the path where its never our fault we lost. "We're so young", "ODU beat us twice", etc just says the results were anything other than the fact we weren't good enough.
I mean, it's whatever kind of phraseology you'd like to use. 'Beat us twice', 'not show up' again, 'pull a Loeffler', etc. What I really mean is let's wait and see if that was the same team that we'll be seeing for the rest of the season, or if it was one big awful anomaly.
I think I agree with both Alum and VT_Fencer. After Saturday, that scare is real but at the same time with athletes, you get the on days and the off days whether you want them there or not. It's unfortunately the wait-and-see game which I know many feel shouldn't be a thing now but that's where we seem to be at anyway. Everyone has hit on the unknown factors we expected to see this season and here we are. I am staying optimistic but Alum sums up the internal fear.
But we are young...
So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter
Than the sun
-Fun
It pains me to leg those, but I have to
Refreshing read ACowne. I think we all knew that we would drop a game or two we shouldn't this year (if we were honest with ourselves.) Let's just hope to build some momentum, keep the bowl streak alive, and keep the LOLUVA streak alive.
I'm ready to see how we respond... we were outplayed and outcoached. Time to push the reset button and see who is ready to step up.
I like your style.
Trivia - I was the reporter that asked the question to Corey Moore to get his response about being embarrassed. I was 19, covering the game for the CT. I'm pretty sure his eyes burned a hole in my soul.
Awesome, that dude was a scary mofo. Ran into him in the dining halls a few times, he just had that aura of menace about him lol
Haha that's amazing. Your reporting is still alive and quoted in a LA times article I googled to get that quote.
It's not the whole quote. He first looked at me and SCREAMED "Of course it's F@#$@#ing embarrasing!"
I'm impressed you didn't turn to stone and shatter right then and there. Respect.
That sounds terrifying. Thank god you made it out alive.
Were you also the one to get the quote from him later that year against WVU? Corey was asked a question about Marc Bulger (WVU QB) leaving the game early with a finger injury and said something to the effect of he could lose one of his nuts and he wasn't coming out of a game like that.
I didn't ask him that question (I think Randy King did) but I covered that game and was standing there listening.
He was such a great interview, even if he did scare me (again, I was 19 and about 150 lbs at the time).
I was at the CT 3 years, and he was my second favorite interview behind Chuck Hartman. Chuck Hartman once said to me "(Starting pitcher I can't remember) was just dicking around out there, and he paid for it. You can print that!"
Trivia guy: Who was the guy who asked Corey Moore the question about the Temple loss that produced the infamous answer?
HorseOnATreadmill: It was VTMikeO
Trivia guy: You win all the points.
I don't know that I'd call that JMU team a contender. I believe they went 3-8 in other non-VT games that year.
Good perspective otherwise though.
They were 6-5 that year, but you are correct they really didn't start contending until the next year, good point.
They were less than 2 years removed from an appearance in the FCS semis. They have been a consistently decent FCS program for a while now.
And I'm sick of it. It's two fucking thousand & eighteen & this program STILL has not moved past it. As great as the whole "minor setback major comeback" WAS, like the "underdog mentality" & the "we make/made a statement wins" stuff, they're played out & have NEVER WON US A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP or taken us into the playoffs. Those are the facts. I ain't saying we should give up & fold up, but the mentality & the premise of the fuck-ups are absolutely NOT staples & hallmarks of National Championship teams.
I mean, we just aren't that program. We don't have a tradition of elite teams nationally. I think some of yall hold VT too high relative to the rest of the college football landscape. It is gonna take a lot of things to go our way for us to even get to the playoffs imo.
With the attitudes I just mentioned, Tech will never even sniff the total goal & mission.
A lot of things are holding VT back in that regard.
That was Beamer, this is Fuente...and I was there in 1995 when we started the Season 0-2 (BC and Cincy), we won the rest of our games. Now if someone like Hill was kicked off the team for being disruptive, maybe thats the message Fuente wanted to send so that the rest of the team can rally without disruption.
This is something I haven't really considered since the transition was so smooth I've mentally grouped them together. Fuente is 6-1 after losses I think? So he clearly can get a team to bounce back, however this is definitely the most adversity a Fuente VT team has ever faced. I think he'll lead us out of it because I think he is a quality coach. But the rest of the year will be interesting, that's for sure.
The point is, we are three games into the season and there is a lot of football left. Despite what we saw this past weekend:
- We still have a bowl streak to continue
- We still have to beat UVA
- We still have a shot at the Coastal (whether you still believe that or not)
Also, we are not the only power 5 team struggling. We got lucky with two successful building years with a new coach. UCLA and Nebraska are falling apart after the seams with their new head coaches. If this is our down year in year three, and that is a byproduct of getting the program in a new direction, then I can live with it.
There is still a lot left to look forward too. Just have to reevaluate how high the expectations are now
Agreed. And most of what I saw was people writing this year up to "jesus, we might only win 7 games this year". There is a ton of football left. I really dont think this team is truly represented by what they put on the field on Saturday. 90% of us saw this is a rough year to begin with.. 2020 is going to be our year. It's only 2018 boys.
And then 1999 happened...
Can this ODU loss be the preluding narrative for a national title run on the 20th anniversary in 2019?
🤔
1998 was a painful season. Painful. But.......entertaining? Hopeful? It was weird.
We didn't expect much when the season started. '95/'96 Druck fueled success gave way to a completely forgettable 1997 season. We beat SU early in 1997 then crapped the bed the rest of the year. We lost to a mediocre UVA team in Charlottesville in a completely non-competitive game.
So the taste of 1997 did not leave you wanting more in 1998. Al Clark was back, but he was bad in 1997. But....we beat a pretty good ECU team (just after Jeff Blake, IIRC) 38-3. Then we went to Clemson, a team that was regrouping, and destroyed them 37-0. Then we went to Miami on a Saturday night and beat a pretty good team in OT. Clark was pretty good. We beat a bad Pitt team at home and Clark got hurt I think. Maybe Dave Meyer was his backup? The next game was in a monsoon in Chestnut Hill on a Thursday night and we shutout BC (who had a great RB). I'm pretty sure Sorensen had to play some QB in the BC game.
The Temple game was just like this. Nobody paid any attention to it. I think Meyer got hurt early and Sorensen came in at QB. IIRC, we had a pass to the endzone on the last play of the game that was dropped that would have won it.
We beat a pretty good WVU team on Halloween in Blacksburg then followed it up with one of the most fun/entertaining/painful loses of my life at Syracuse. Jarrett Ferguson had an 80 yard TD with no shoe on. McNabb, on the throwback. That cost us the Big East.
The UVA game was similarly as frustrating, we were up big in the first half (19 points?) but pissed it away in the 2nd. I think Clark got hurt again and Sorensen had to finish the game at QB.
But the Bama game! Wow, what a blast. Nobody was there. It was sleeting sideways. You could sense that nobody was watching the game. Mike DuBose was their coach. And we destroyed them.
Looking back at it, 1998 was the birth of Bud's modern defense. We were salty that year. We didn't have any good skill players and our QB was changing every quarter. But it was fun, certainly memorable. And painful.
If we have another one of those, and I could see that, we will be better for it in the long run. But the experience may make you question some life choices.
Nick Sorensen was QB for that BC game.
Thanks for the salt-in-the-wound reminder about the Syracuse game. Temple was already in the forefront of my mind. But you're right, it was a roller-coaster of a year. I think the Temple loss was worse than the ODU loss, but it's close. I'd rank this second worst, just behind Temple with JMU third. (heavy sigh).
The1998 loss to Syracuse sealed my dislike for the Orangemen and that awful curse of a Carrier dome!!! 😡
That SU game was a walk-off loss. I was thinking about it, I guess that's pretty rare. We've had a few walk-off wins since then (UVA, GT?) on FG's. But a walk-off loss on a TD? I don't think it happens very often.
That was the last walk-off TD against us that didn't come in OT.
By my count, here are all of the game-winning walk-off scores since 1998. This list doesn't include any game where the game-winning play was a non-score (e.g. the Pitt 4th down stop, or a stop in the second team's possession during OT). It also does not include any games where there was a late score to win/lose it, if the clock wasn't showing 0:00 after the play (e.g. BC 2007 or Nebraska 2008 don't count)
Walk-off losses on TDs:
Syracuse 1998
UMD 2013 (OT)
UNC 2015 (OT)
Walk-off losses on FGs:
Cal 2003
UNC 2009
Michigan 2011 (OT)
GT 2014
Wake 2014 (2OT)
Walk-off losses on 2pt conversions:
Duke 2015 (4OT)
Walk-off wins on TDs:
None
Walk-off wins on FGs:
WVU 1999
GT 2012 (OT)
UVA 2012
I'm seeing a trend here, and I'm not sure how I feel about it....
I am tired of being a major program and still being mediocre. Every time we start to get national attention and get into the top 10-15 we crap the bed. This is a major setback for the program and if Duke blows us out... we struggle to make a bowl. Hopefully Willis steps up and we make the play necessary in Durham. Also with all the money being piled into this program and losses like this still happening, it is completely unacceptable for this to continue to happen.
I am tired of not being a major program. Yes, we had 2 very good seasons with Vick at the helm. Yes, we took advantage of a weak ACC to win 4 championships in 7 seasons, and 4 of the first 6 Coastal titles. No, those two runs of success absolutely did not put us on equal footing with programs such as OSU, Bama, USC, or even Texas.
We are decidedly in the second tier of programs, alongside such teams as TCU, Washington, and Wisconsin. Not a bad group of programs to be a part of, but also not teams that are regularly contending for national championships.
The great thing about being an alumni is you get busy with the rest of life and say "there's always next year". My grandfather (auburn fan) waited his whole life and got cheated out of some nattys in the early 2000s and auburn finally kind of came out of nowhere and got one... and thats freaking auburn. No natty during bo Jackson years etc. The reality is unless your a major program like an Alabama with more "assistants" than players and major backing and a lot of luck your not going to put up those types of programs every year. It's part of the beauty and bane of college football. (Edit: I remember a long run growing up making fun of how crappy Alabama was even storied programs like that have multiple bad years)
I still believe we are on an upward trajectory overall and hoPe fu/bud pick it up and keep going. Pray for QP to be low key the next Vick or on to the next one for the hokie faithful through the years.
We just need to treat our remaining opponents like they were responsible for our loss to ODU. Then punish them all dearly on the gridiron. For those of you who watched Malcom in the Middle, think of the episode when Hal coached Dewey's soccer team.
Meanwhile, the Noles must really be pissed right now...