What went wrong?

What exactly made our football team go south so fast? I feel like that question has been asked rhetorically a lot in the last year, but it truly is perplexing how fast this has become so bad.

In 2016, we went 10-4 with one loss by a touchdown to the future national champions. I remember the playcalls working, the playcalls making sense (e.g. running it down UNC's throat in the hurricane rather than passing like they tried), and a team that genuinely seemed to enjoy themselves.

2017 got off to a solid start. We beat WVU and only had a loss to Clemson entering the Miami game. It seems that's when shit hit the fan: that Miami game. Miami had been struggling, and we looked good. We went into the Orange Bowl expecting to pick up a major win and move into the top ten. Then, Cornelsen calls what I believed to be his most conservative game up to that point. I'm not sure if that was by design from the gameplan or he could never get into a routine, but it was baffling nonetheless. Then of course we shit up our backs against Georgia Tech, barely beat Pitt, score 10 points on UVA but of course we won because it's UVA (god I'm going to miss saying that after this season), and then lose to Oklahoma State in the bowl game. The playcalling basically took a nose dive beginning with that Miami game.

Then, enter 2018. Week in and week out, the playcalling continues to be horrible, the offense goes scoreless for long periods of time, and the team looks generally lifeless. That has carried over to this season.

So seriously, what went wrong? What happened to the playcalling that worked so well and seemed so smart back in 2016 and for half of 2017? Was there enough film out there to figure out a way to stifle our offense and we haven't found a way to counter it? This is one of our better receiving corps, and the line wasn't supposed to change that much personnel-wise from last season when we were running the ball pretty well. Does anyone have any knowledge that the rest of us don't that can tell us what went wrong with this team beginning with the Miami game back in 2017?

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Marshall University graduate.
Virginia Tech fanatic.
Formerly known as JWillHokieAlum.

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I have no idea why my username is VT_Warthog.

Arkansas blew a 24-0 lead in the Belk Bowl.

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I have no idea why my username is VT_Warthog.

Arkansas blew a 24-0 lead in the Belk Bowl.

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"I play real sports, not trying to be the best at exercising..." - KP

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Hokies, Local Soccer, AFC Ajax, Ravens

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"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K

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If you play it, they will win.

"How the ass pocket will be used, I do not know. Alls I know is, the ass pocket will be used." -The BoD

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"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K

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Listen to the Chowder and Grits Podcast for ACC and Hokies football talk.

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"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K

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"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K

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'Its easy to grin, when your ship comes in, and you've got the stock market beat,
but the man worthwhile, is the man who can smile, when his shorts are too tight in the seat'

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I just sit on my couch and b*tch. - HokieChemE2016

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I just sit on my couch and b*tch. - HokieChemE2016

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"I play real sports, not trying to be the best at exercising..." - KP

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Virginia Tech School of Architecture Class of 2014
Fan of Hokies, Ravens, NY Giants, Orioles

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'Its easy to grin, when your ship comes in, and you've got the stock market beat,
but the man worthwhile, is the man who can smile, when his shorts are too tight in the seat'

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To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
@VTnerf on insta, @BuryHokie on twitter, #ThanksFrank

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Listen to the Chowder and Grits Podcast for ACC and Hokies football talk.

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Listen to the Chowder and Grits Podcast for ACC and Hokies football talk.

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"Why gobble gobble chumps asks such good questions, I will never know." - TheFifthFuller

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I just sit on my couch and b*tch. - HokieChemE2016

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"Why gobble gobble chumps asks such good questions, I will never know." - TheFifthFuller