Watching games today with Kansas state leading Oklahoma and seeing Wisconsin keep it close with OSU, it had me wondering when Virginia Tech has their last "big" win.
Since Fuente has become head coach, what is his biggest win? WVU 2017? Miami 2016?
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Notre Dame 2019
Actually since they just got killed by the Khaki pants last night not sure this victory will help us much with the computers...
I swear, if we get left out of the CFP because of this...
... it would be hilarious. I mean, it would suck being left out, but the amount of chaos that would have to happen for us to even be in the conversation means we're in for a treat over the next month or so.
WVU 2017. There were other wins that seemed big at the time (FSU 18, UNC 16, etc) and those teams ended up unranked and mediocre by the end of the year.
WVU in 17 was different. They may have finished the year unranked but that's only because Grier got hurt. With Grier at QB, they were a legitimate top 20 or possibly top 15 team. That was easily the biggest win.
Other options might be Arkansas bowl game because of the comeback, or UVA 18 for keeping both streaks alive. But in terms of the best team we've beaten - definitely WVU.
Absolutely.
This is the first one that popped in my head. Hated rival we hadn't played in forever. Packed nfl stadium on national tv. Both teams ranked. Plus it was a super exciting game.
Ranked wins:
2016: UNC
2017: WV
2018: FSU, Duke
2019: TBD
I wouldn't pick any of these. That come back in the Belk Bowl at Arkansas really stood out in the thick of bowl season.
Probably an unpopular opinion but I don't think he has one. The biggest "wins" have been of the moral sorts
100% Agree. I thought the 2016 ACCCG vs. Clemson games was arguably his best performance. In retrospect, it gave a lot of false hope moving forward.
Came here to say the lost to Clemson in the ACCCG.
2018 against marshall and our own locker room. anytime you can beat yourselves and win. that is the biggest win. (plus it kept the bowl streak alive)
2nd biggest win; benching ryan willis.
Brutal, but kinda true, take
That was unnecessary
I'm going with a different take.
Arkansas bowl game.
Showed he knew how to make adjustments
Fuente's biggest win to date was actually the loss to Clemson in the ACCCG. We may not have won the game, but the momentum of the program in the Fu era has never been higher. The way we fought and nearly beat the eventual national champs had a lot of people saying watch out for VT, this program is about to take off. The way Evans was willing us to scores and the passion the team showed that night was IMO our best performance on the national stage under Fu.
Surprised Notre Dame 2016 isn't up on the list. That was an amazing comeback win at Notre Dame, not sure what they were ranked, but that was a huge step for the program at that time.
A lot of folks dismiss that one since ND finished 4-8.
Never dismiss winning in South Bend, regardless of their win total. It always impressive when you beat a team with seven extra players on the field.
Awesome point.
Maybe not what you intended by the seven extra men comment, but their brass section, at field level will literally blast the players on defensive snaps until well after the ball is snapped.
I know that's not allowed, but I wonder if they parlayed their esteemed history into some kind of rule exception (like the cowbells at Mississippi State). Considering their stands go all the way to the field, having a home-field advantage like that is substantial.
I forgot how bad that team was. The comeback in that game was amazing, and getting a win over Notre Dame in South Bend is always a big win for any program in my book, just because of how overrated they are every year.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it, but Notre Dame was playing better football the few weeks prior to playing us including beating a ranked Miami. We knocked them out of bowl eligibility with that win.
Know a couple ND alums. They were dismissing it as us just beating their "worst team in 30 years". They were sure excited about beating our historic team last year, though.
Doesn't matter. We beat their storied program in our first meeting ever, and we came back from being behind by 17 points. Was worth the price of admission.
Will be surprised if we can repeat this year, but we'll certainly give it a shot as 18 point underdogs.
If it comes up again, remind them of 2007, when Navy broke that 40+ year streak. ND finished 3-9 with wins against UCLA, Stanford and powerhouse Duke
I'm thinking either 2018 UVA or 2019 Miami. Both times, we got a win we absolutely needed. Against UVA we extended the Commonwealth Cup streak and kept bowl hopes alive, which at this point are the biggest two things our program can hang their hats on. Against Miami we shocked the ACC and may have stemmed 1.5 years of bleeding.
I was going to say Miami this year as well.
Pretty soon UVA 2019 will...
Beating ND is, hands down, biggest CJF win, regardless of what ND was ranked.
It might prove to be the 2019 UNC game. We might look back and recognize that as being the moment things turned for coach Fuente.
This was my biggest criticism of Fuente's before we just completely hit rock bottom last year and early this year. I'd like to get back to a point where I can complain about his teams never coming through in marquee games instead of just never coming through period. Luckily it's looking like we might be on that track.
2016 Notre Dame and Clemson games, regardless of outcome or opposing team record. Showed that Fuente can coach a talented VT team against another talented team through all phases and at the time showed a little of what's to come for this program. For those who didn't jump on the '$15 mil buyout' GoFundMe sentiment earlier this year, that's probably what's kept a lot of us off of it
I'll say Belk Bowl vs Arkansas because that comeback was fun to watch. But we really don't have a marquee win in the Fuente era.
I agree with others about ND and Arkansas. ND is a blue blood like it or not. They don't always play like it but they have have probably the greatest name recognition and such a storied program. Beating them in South Bend is always an achievement regardless of how good they are that year. They may have tanked the year we played them but they were at least decent when we went to play there.
Arkansas, mainly for the comeback. I don't know what kept me watching that game at the half but I did and glad I did. Arkansas as well was having a decent year that year and they are an SEC team. I say any time you can notch a win against the SEC it's a good thing unless it's perhaps Vandy but any other SEC win is usually considered a good win in my opinion.
Idk how anybody can say our biggest win is against any non-ranked opponent. Says a lot about Fuente if that's the case.
I don't understand how the opinion of random fans on our biggest win says anything about Fuente. In fact I'm curious as to what you think it says.
I'm curious also. Sure, there are a limited few losses that might have been signature wins, but that wasn't the question. Further, saying "none" wasn't an option either. This thread is fan opinions on which of our wins thus far are the best/signature wins. I just don't see a need in dumping on Fuente at every turn.
That said, I do agree that few of the wins under Fuente are program defining or anything. But I remain hopeful that they are coming.
You're right our opinions don't mean anything. But if random fans do in fact claim a loss or a win against a team with a losing record was a big win then sounds like to me they're really saying a lot about Fuente with that opinion.
Seems more like it says a lot about the value that college football fans put on the name across the front of the jersey. If the question was phrased as "what was the best team we've beaten under Fuente?" it wouldn't look like a fundamentally different question and yet you wouldn't be getting those answers.
Part of the issue is that we've only beaten 4 ranked teams, and all of them have ended the season unranked.
2016 UNC (#17), 2017: WVU (#22), 2018: FSU (#19) and Duke (#22).
Of those, only WVU could be seen as not over-rated, and their end of season drop was due to an injured QB.
The only team I can find that was unranked when we beat them but ended the season ranked is 2016 Pitt, but even they lost their #23 ranking after losing their bowl game.
Can you name a loss besides against Clemson that if instead was a win would be considered "great or "historical". The team hasn't played that many really good teams.
Perhaps they weren't great teams historically, but I think relative to where we were as a program and where the opponents were ranked, I'd have considered 2016 Tennessee, 2017 Miami, 2017 Oklahoma State, and 2018 Notre Dame as teams good enough to say they were quality wins for us. So those four plus the two Clemson games. Definitely agree that the ACC has been bad as has our OOC schedule, but I do think fans would have hung their hat on these games had they been victories.
Yeah I wouldn't even put a loss in this discussion it seems kinda dumb
lol ok yeah our biggest win was a loss I'm so proud of our team
I don't think you comprehended the comment correctly.
I think I did, I'm still confused as to why the discussion continued on the topic of losses as wins
The point being made is that even if we won some of those games we lost, there's still not a large pool of signature/marquee/big wins to choose from.
Uh, didnt Wisconsin get spanked by OSU?
Obviously Fuente's biggest win was getting Hooker to back out of the transfer portal and stay at VT.
Oh.... Game? Ummmmm, yea, I don't think he has one outside of the 2016 ND game. I don't care what Notre Dame's final record was that year, when you walk out of South Bend with a win over ND that's a huge win.
Pretty sure the score was 3-0 late in the first half when this post was created.
TBD because I don't feel like he's had one yet.
Kind of in parallel with how the ACC has been over recent years. There really hasn't been another really good ACC team in the College Football Playoff era.
It really depends on who's perspective your looking from when you define "biggest win". I say 2019 Miami because from the fan perspective, all signs were pointing to absolute nosedive by the time the season ended and that game slowed those rumblings a bit for the time being. Gave most of us at least a little bit of hope for the rest of the season from that point.
From Fuente's eyes, it should be WVU, because that was probably the best team we've played under him (yeah, 2016 Miami was pretty good too).
The biggest win was WVU. But there hasn't been a marquee win, the ACC has been so bad, our OOC schedule has been bad that Fuente has had 1 chance (Clemson) to have a marquee win.
Not really a knock against Fuente as we didnt get a good bowl for a 10 win season and he doesnt control the regular season schedule. Even if he had inputs those games would still be years away.
Pretty sure Notre Dame last year was an opportunity for a marquee win.
Also, this year.
Yes, the odds are low, particularly since they'll be hopping mad after having lost to Michigan. But if you can punch them in the nose, hard, and don't let up, there's a chance.
Unarguably 2017 against UNCheat 59-7.
These are the games that felt like key games at the time, but maybe turned out to be red herrings. Each is stated then explained.
2016 Pitt - Heinz field curse beaten
2016 Notre Dame - Bad team, but pulling off that comeback in South Bend felt like a huge meaningful win for the program. Hard to explain, but based on other responses in here it seems most people understand where I'm coming from with this win.
2016 - Clemson ACCCG loss felt meaningful, and was one of our most impressive performances, but there was something inherently misleading about this game in hindsight. We've pretty much only gone backwards as Clemson has substantially furthered the gap.
Belk Bowl - Biggest comeback in our history right? Certainly left a promising taste in our mouths moving forward. Felt like this team had the juice to overcome adversity and make comebacks. In 2017 and 18 we lost this ability completely.
2017 Pitt - goal line stand caused a huge change in how we viewed that season. 9-3 feels so much better than 8-4 somehow.
2017 WVU - Another misleading win. Our offense got progressively worse after this.
2019 Miami&UNC - Jury is still out on these, but perhaps this is the turning point for Fuente. I think if Fuente comes good with the whole fan base and turns this program around, these two wins will be viewed as rounding that corner.
Nice summary of some good games and good wins! Thank you!
I'd add Miami 2016 to this list. They were ranked when we played them, and they had just hired Mark Richt; most people thought either us or them were going to start owning the coastal, and these coaching hires would renew the rivalry (man, how times have changed). Anyways, other than that one, I think you listed just about every game I'd consider.
I'm curious what other first time P5 coaches have 'big wins'
It's kind of hard to get 'big wins' - you need to (1) have the opportunity to do so (aka play good teams) and (2) be good enough to knock off that team, but also not good enough to be favored. It's a pretty weird and unusual combination.
Oops. 2016 Miami was actually one of the first games I thought of when I started the list but I ended up omitting them on accident.
I agree completely, I think 2016 Miami is actually the BEST team we beat under Fuente. 2017 Miami had a better record, but had insane and unreliable turnover luck that season to win a bunch of close games. 2016 Miami beats 2017 Miami comfortably IMO. Mostly similar rosters, but the ACC in 2016 was much stronger and Kaaya is 100x the QB that Rozier was. 2017 Miami was closer to being 6-6 than being a legit CFP team.
Matt Rhule is undefeated in year 3 and doesnt have any big wins.
In 8.5 seasons Mike Leach only has 7 wins over top 25 opponents. He is 1-7 against his in state rival (losing 7 straight). He does have a couple of big time wins but most were 2016-2018. So judging some one 3-4 years in is tough because some times you just dont get the chance.
Beating Notre Dame in 2016.
It was a comeback win from a 17 point deficit. Beating storied program Notre Dame the first time we played them, and on their home field, is unquestionably Fuente's biggest win at VT.
I'd say the comeback win over Arkansas would be #2.
The win over WVU would be #3.
Last year's win over UVa to preserve bowl eligibility was #4.
And this year's over UNC would be #5.
The fact nobody says a single UVA game shows how much they have sucked but also how much we have taken beating our rival for granted.
I said last year's UVA game upthread.
The 2017 win was fun, though not particularly pleasant to watch. VT was banged up all over the place and still choked the life out of UVA. Unfortunately the VT offense was a mess by that point in the year.
Seems to me like if this is something you have to debate then he doesn't have a true signature win.
Having Dalton Keene blocking against Trevon Hill.
Yeah, I'm a little petty.
His biggest win will be when he starts winning the recruiting battle and he lands his first of many blue chips.
For Fuente- ODU 2019- because if he drops that one, he is gone at the end of the year. He would not survive losing twice in a row to a state team not named UVA. Espeically a bottom feeder CUSA team.
I dunno, breaking a 15 year streak to LOLUVa and then losing to them again the following year? Not sure he'd survive that either.
Probably that WVU game. Fuente is still searching for objectively-impressive win #1, in my opinion.
2019 @ Notre Dame
First ranked opponent win in 10 years at Lane?
I'd say this one is it folks .
If we are ever going to recapture the Terror Dome then this had to happen.
Wake Forest 2019
it's looking more and more like his biggest win was losing to Duke this year!