Slept On It: Hokies Get Rocked by the Hurricanes in 38-14 Loss

I didn't watch Saturday's game live. I spend a lot of time away from my family during the work week. With another game scheduled to kickoff right when my son wakes up from his nap, I realized I would rather enjoy my Saturday afternoon with my family than subject the three of us to another 3 hours of potentially-disappointing Virginia Tech football. To be brutally honest, the Hokies aren't appointment television right now.

Narragansett Brewing Company recently converted a bunch of underutilized warehouses into a cooperative brewing operation in Pawtucket. They were holding their annual holiday flea market this weekend, so we figured we'd head up the road and check it out. The Hokies could wait until after our son went to bed.

Amidst a sea of flannel, we perused the vintage clothing, artisan beeswax products and handmade leather goods. A guy was taking black-and-white portraits out of the back of a van. "Jaws" was projected on one of the end walls. I had a coffee milk stout. We shared a cup of "craft" french vanilla ice cream. We overpaid for a mediocre pulled pork sandwich. We were basic AF. And, honestly, we had a good time.

A few hours and a couple of beers later, my wife and I sat down to watch the game. As the announcers previewed the matchup, my wife and I discussed how we both thought Tech was going to win the game. Boy were we wrong.

The Hokies started out strong. Similar to the season opener at Florida State, the offense quickly carved up a talented Canes defense and scored a touchdown on their first possession. After surrendering their lead early in the second quarter, Tech answered back with a 10-play, 75-yard drive to move back in front, 14-10. From thereon, it was all Hurricanes.

Two consecutive three-and-outs for the Hokies offense set the stage for a 10-play, 71-yard Miami drive that put them back in front seconds before the half. Down 17-14, the Hokies struggled to find their rhythm after coming out of the locker room. They missed a field goal. They gave up a 42-yard touchdown run to Cam'Ron Davis. And then they coughed up the football. It turned out to be a brutal third quarter, filled with mental errors, poor execution and a little bit of bad luck. Sound familiar?

One week after poo-pooing questions surrounding his program's inability to adjust in-game, the third quarter proved to be decisive against the Canes. When asked again on Saturday evening about personnel and play calling adjustments, Fuente said the following:

"There is no more personnel to put in. We dressed out eight receivers today and there is no one else to put in. All our tight ends played and we had Deshawn McClease, but he was for emergency purposes because he has been out for a couple weeks. The guys out there are the guys that are playing. Our job is to put them in a position to have success. We have to take advantage of our opportunities. We can't reinvent the wheel on four days of preparation."

He later went on to note:

"You are a little limited with the adjustments you can make when there is inexperience. It's easier to make an adjustment with a guy like Isaiah Ford who has played a whole lot of games. I don't think that's been a huge issue for us."

I think that many of Fuente's points are valid, especially with regard to the rash of injuries this team has been forced to endure. Paired with the widespread and well-document lack of seasoning on the Hokies sideline, it creates an incredibly challenging situation for all. The one argument I will make (once again) is that the coaches seem to be struggling to put the players in the best position to succeed over the course of 60 minutes.

Saturday's first offensive drive proved that the staff can draft and the players can execute one heck of an opening script. However, both units have tended to whither as the game wears on, particularly the more experienced offense. Without a doubt, depth is a factor. But why have so many games been decided after the halftime break? In their last four home games, the Hokies have been outscored 63-0 in the third quarter. That's not solely an offensive or defensive issue — it's team-wide.

The Hokies rank #109 nationally in second half scoring offense and #117 in second half scoring defense. Their third quarter stats are even more troubling, with the offense ranking #118 in scoring (averaging 4 points per game) and the defense ranking #113 (9.3 ppg). That 5.3 ppg delta may seem small, but it has come at a critical juncture in the game.

The Hokies essentially play their opponents evenly through two quarters, scoring an average of 14.1 first half points against 14.8. Second halves have been an entirely different story, with the Hokies averaging only 10.3 points while surrendering 18.6.

Feel like the last few weeks have been particularly tough to watch? Over the last three games, the Hokies averaged 2.7 third quarter points and 7.3 second half points while giving up 14 and 22 points, respectively.

A healthier Virginia Tech defense played well for most of the afternoon. Remove the punt return touchdown and Miami's first touchdown "drive" — which came courtesy of a Shaq Quarterman interception return to the Virginia Tech 3 yard line — and you see a better defensive box score than in recent weeks. But as the offense continued to stumble, the defense eventually followed suit.

Just to show how scarred my brain is from this season, I've spent my Sunday questioning the overall quality of the defensive performance. Were the numbers better than in previous weeks because the Tech defense played a better game, or did they benefit from a similarly inconsistent Miami offense? It was likely a little bit of both.

Tech faced a Hurricane offense that has spent much of the season playing their own version of quarterback musical chairs. The quarterback they settled on against the Hokies, highly-regarded freshman N'Kosi Perry, was two weeks removed from a 5-16, 35-yard performance against Duke — the same Duke defense that Ryan Willis threw for 332 yards and 3 TDs against in his first Hokies start. He ended up playing mistake-free football, completing 62% of his passes and accounting for three touchdowns.

There were certainly signs of improvement from the defense. Tech recorded 11 TFLs, including 3 from Dax Hollifield and 2.5 from Ricky Walker. And prior to the long Davis touchdown run, they largely held the Miami rushing attack in check. Miami's 168 rushing yards is the least the Hokies have given up since the Notre Dame game, and the Canes' 339 yards of total offense are the fewest Tech has surrendered since their win at Duke in late September. Surely some of that has to do with Miami's own struggles, but the Hokies defense certainly looked more capable than what fans have grown accustomed to of late.

I feel as though I should be concerned about my attitude towards Tech football in this moment. Traditionally, our weekends are planned around when the Hokies play. We start discussing what our gameday spread will consist of five days prior. I spend my time at the gym or in the car listening to Hokie football podcasts. Recently, much of that has fallen by the wayside. Watching the Hokies has begun to feel like a chore.

Since my first day in the north endzone my freshman year at Tech, I've obsessed over Hokies football. I never latched onto a football team the way I did with the Hokies. In the immortal words of Lloyd Christmas, "Sparks flew. Emotions ran high. Tractor beam...sucked me right in." I live almost 700 miles from Blacksburg and make sure I see the Hokies play live at least once per season. I spend my free time writing about the Hokies for a Virginia Tech sports website. To experience the feelings I currently have about this football team is unsettling.

I'm hoping that a few years from now we can all look back on the 2018 football season and pretend it didn't happen; like the second season of Friday Night Lights, when Landry and Tyra kill a guy and the storyline is never discussed again. I'm hoping that history will prove that this season was an anomaly, a minor hiccup within an era of prolonged success. Maybe.