We've Seen This Before

The game was awful. We all know that. It became hard to watch by the second quarter, and the blame has numerous people upon whom it could be placed. There's no sugarcoating any of it.

But instead of dissecting the players' and coaches' performance (or lack thereof), I'm going to give you a history lesson.

We'll start almost a decade ago, way back to the season of the first Hokie victory in the potentially pending Decade of Dominance. The 2004-2005 season began with much hope in spite of a loss. The opener against preseason #1 Southern Cal ended with a 23-14 defeat. However, Hokies everywhere took heart that their unranked team lost to the then-best team in college football by just nine points. The next two games were easy wins for the Hokies, and a matchup with rival West Virginia loomed two weeks ahead. But before the game even happened, the N.C. State Wolfpack came into Blacksburg and beat VT 17-16, putting a severe dent in the team's spirit. Take a minute and imagine how Hokie Nation felt: a 2-2 team, just lost at home to an unranked opponent, with a game vs #6 WVU in seven days. Bryan Randall had gone 11-25 against the Wolfpack, and the Hokies had managed just 38 rushing yards. They may not have been calling for Beamer's job, but clearly it was a dire situation. Would you believe that same team beat the sixth-ranked Mountaineers the next week, then proceeded to win their next SEVEN games after that win? That was the team to make it to the 2005 Sugar Bowl and lose by just three to an undefeated Auburn team. Resilience prevailed, and it was resilience that saved the season.

Two seasons following the Sugar Bowl year, the Hokies opened the season ranked #17 and quickly rose to the 11th spot after four victories. Hopes were high and expectations were lofty, until things came crashing down not once, but TWICE in back to back weeks. Losses to Boston College and Georgia Tech sent the team out of the top 25, and the upcoming game against #10 Clemson looked much more formidable than before. But yet again, the Hokies rose from the ashes, defeated Southern Mississippi before putting a 24-7 beatdown on the Tigers of Clemson en route to winning the last six games of the regular season. Those wins included Clemson as well as #14 Wake Forest on the road and Miami in South Florida. Resilience prevailed, and it was resilience that saved the season.

Again, just one season later in 2007, the team came into Death Valley ranked #9 in the country to play the LSU Tigers. Expectations were high once more, but reality hit like Macho Harris on Jacoby Ford when the Hokies fell 48-7. It was time to temper expectations, rethink goals for the season, and call for changes everywhere. Tech rallied to win their next five, including another over a ranked Clemson team (speaking of Macho Harris on Jacoby Ford). The team rose back up to a #8 ranking, before the most disheartening of disheartening losses that shall not be named happened. We all know. And how could a team respond after the most disheartening of disheartening losses? They won their next five games, on their way to an ACC Championship. Resilience prevailed not once, but twice, and this resilience once again saved the season.

The list goes on, as in 2008 what was supposed to be a 'rebuilding' season started with a 27-22 loss to lowly East Carolina of the C-USA. Unranked but undeterred, the Hokies said f*ck rebuilding and proceeded to win the ACC yet again, and eventually, the Orange Bowl.

Last but not least, as there are still many more examples, the 2010 Hokie football season began with more hype than usual, as the #10-ranked Tech team opened against #3 Boise State. After the second-most disheartening of disheartening losses, the Hokies turned around and fell flat on their faces to an FCS team which shall not be named. 0-2, spirits trampled upon, fans cursing all the while, Virginia Tech football was at a crossroads. Instead of dwelling on the losses, the team turned around and became the first team since the ACC merger to go undefeated in the conference, and won their final 10 games of the regular season, and then the ACC title. It was pure resilience that held the team together and, again, saved the season.

The point of all of this is not to remind you of all of the team's devastating losses of the past. It is rather to remind you that although this team has had it's fair share of losses, many of them gut-wrenching, they have continuously shown that they come back stronger than before. They are a better team because of the loss, and they can still win a conference championship in spite of the stumble.

The loss to Duke yesterday was not planned or accounted for, and it was far from expected. The reality of it is that Duke is a 6-2 football team, and we have room to improve, but there are also four games left in the regular season, and if we win all of them, we will win the division. Hope is far from lost, and the situation is far from dire. We are still a 6-2 team that can still win the ACC.

Oh, and if you're left saying "But RealDiehl, those teams that beat us were better than this Duke scumsquad," let me enlighten you. The 2004-2005 NC State team finished a meager 5-6. Two of the teams that beat the Hokies between 2006 and 2008 ended up in the Continental Tire Bowl. And for what it's worth, JMU didn't even make the FCS playoffs in 2010. Sorry for the reminder.

Go Hokies.