Not bad at all -and I found this article a very interesting read. Hard to argue with the methodology-though I suppose you could quibble with whatever weight they gave to different factors. They didn't list the factors specifically but you can tell from reading that they did try their best to account for the changes in the game over the years. Let's hope that we move up over the next fifty years!
38. Virginia Tech
52.20 | 0 national titles
The Hokies, nÊe the Gobblers, might be known for the roasted turkey legs that they sell at Lane Stadium, but the food that best describes their history is a doughnut. Virginia Tech played 18 seasons before it had a losing record (1920), then played 10 more seasons before it had another. The less said about the next 60 years, the better. But the arrival of former Hokies defensive back Frank Beamer as head coach meant the arrival of Virginia Tech as a national force. Beamer led the Hokies to seven conference titles (four ACC, three Big East) and unleashed the electrifying Michael Vick on an unsuspecting nation. That alone is some kind of legacy.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/27379180/the-50-best-co...
Comments
That we make the list when the majority of our history is forgettable at best is pretty impressive. If it wasn't for our being pretty good in the early 1900s we might not even make it at all.
The third highest ranked school without a NCAA recognized national title (25. Grambling; 37. Dartmouth).
Highest FBS school without a title.
And the only team from Virginia on the list.
Stop it, we're already dead inside.
If you take out the schools not currently relevant (Yale, Penn, Harvard, etc...) in the college football landscape we are 25th.
And when related to recruiting, if you take out non FBS schools plus take out Minnesota, Boise, Pitt, and GT for non-recruiting powers, we are right at that 21 mark on the list. I think when going well that's around where we should average for recruiting with a good year or two approaching top 15. We are squarely in that second tier with the likes of Wisc., Washington, Mich. St.,etc.
Makes sense. At worst, we're at the tail end of being a consistent Top 25 team, and that's the worst case.
Formula is at the bottom of the list.
Seems fair.
Also seems that if Fuente can right the ship, we'll continue our upside trajectory.
I'd be curious how we'd rank if we took only the "modern" VT era, meaning starting once we were in a real conference (1994 I think was the first year we were full Big East members).
I imagine that we're at least top 15 the past 25 years, maybe close to top 10.
Well we are tied for 4th in wins over that time period so I would think a top 15 program overall and top 5 program for consistenty.
Wow! I would never have guessed we'd be THAT high in wins. I would have said top 10-ish, but not 4th.
Without looking it up, I'd guess that the other teams ahead or right around us in wins would be Ohio State, Michigan, Oklahoma and Miami. I would also imagine USC and Georgia are hanging around there somewhere, maybe LSU and Oregon also.
As of May 2018:
anOSU-261
F$U-247
Alabama-238
Florida-234
Virginia Tech-233
Boise technically has more, but a few of those seasons were 1-AA.
Oklahoma-234
I don't know how I forgot about FSU and Florida. And I thought Alabama's down years in the late 90s and early 2000s would have kept them from being near the top, but it just goes to show what a bunch of 14 win seasons in a row will do for you!
Consistency has certainly been our calling card. I was born in late 1992 and this was the first full season of Virginia Tech football in my life that we had a losing record.
For the much of the 2000's I think we led the country in staff continuity. I think you could argue this was, in some ways *COUGH* THE OFFENSE *COUGH*, not the greatest thing, but it definitely contributed to our consistency.
We had the same head coach during my lifetime until after I graduated college.
Teams with much more history and much more talent have had losing seasons in that time span, many of them more than one, and many of them a carousel of head coaches as well. I will say that some of those years avoiding a losing record is likely due to our conference, but even so, consistency is consistency.
So there are 37 ahead of us....in a row?