Slept On It: After Battering the Canes, Are the Hokies Back?

When I was a six or seven years old I used to go to bed every night wearing an oversized teal t-shirt with an orange "Miami" emblazoned across the chest. It was one of those generic shirts your parent picks up in the airport on their way home from a business trip.

The shirt deteriorated over time. The neck got stretched out and holes began to dot the fabric, gradually increasing in size. By the time my parents retired the shirt for me, it was a shell of its former self.

Thursday's progressive destruction of the Miami Hurricanes was none too different than the job I did on that t-shirt. The Hokies combined a methodical offensive approach with a punishing defensive effort to reduce Miami to tatters.

Offensively, the Hokies attacked the edges of the Canes defense early to stretch them out. They followed that up by pounding them down the middle with inside runs and passes to guys like Bucky Hodges and Cam Phillips. The coaching staff identified weaknesses in the Canes and attacked them relentlessly. The successful execution of Tech's gameplan paid dividends late, allowing the Hokies to keep Miami at arm's length before running away with the win.

On the defensive side, the Hokies front four played an inspiring game without starters Ken Ekanem and Nigel Williams. Mourning the loss of his grandmother who passed away earlier in the week, redshirt freshman Trevon Hill started in Ekanem's place and was a force all night. Hill and his teammates dominated a suspect Miami offensive line, combining for 12 tackles for a loss and 8 sacks.

After a demoralizing loss five days earlier, Thursday night's win was another total team effort from Justin Fuente's Hokies. It was the fourth such outing in five games, making the Syracuse loss all the more frustrating.

Against Miami, we saw a commanding performance from the Tech defensive line and linebackers. Woody Baron continues to look like an All-ACC defensive tackle. Tremaine Edmunds was dogged in pursuit, helping shut down the Canes running attack and harassing Brad Kaaya. And Andrew Motuapuaka was solid once again, this time showing off some impressive coverage skills.

Sure, there were some coverage breakdowns and one or two lucky breaks. But schematically, the Hokies succeeded in limiting the Miami run game and making Kaaya beat them. "I felt like obviously the key to the game for us is that we needed to stop the run and make Miami one-dimensional, and we were able to do that," Bud Foster noted after the game. "We did a really great job attacking the line of scrimmage, keeping the lanes and the gaps tight and keeping those backs in the phone booth, so to speak."

It was exactly the type of performance that fans used to expect from the Hokies defense. It's what carried Virginia Tech through games when the offense sputtered, which seemed like a common occurrence throughout their streak of ten-win seasons.

In recent years, periods of dominance would be negated by crippling breakdowns. Missed tackles, poor gap fits and busted coverages undid talented Tech defenses in the twilight of Frank Beamer's tenure. I wish I could put my finger on the causative factor for what we've seen this season. Lacking depth at some positions and experience at others, this defensive unit theoretically shouldn't be as superior as they've been.

Maybe it simply comes down to attitude. As the weeks have passed, the tangible impact of a capable and consistent offense has become more and more apparent. There is understandable relief within the defense that they're no longer required to keep games close while the offense finds their footing.

The ubiquitous threat of the Evans-led offense has forced opposing teams to keep pace, playing right into the hands of Foster and his defense. For the first time since Tyrod Taylor's senior season, the Hokies feel like a complete team rather than an arranged marriage.

And where Thursday's win ensured once again that "The U" still wasn't "back," it raised an interesting question for Virginia Tech fans: Are the Hokies back?

Prior to Tech's stumble in upstate New York, Hokies fans openly wondered whether an ACC Championship and College Football Playoff berth were out of the question. The hype train had been fired up and idled in the station. Then Syracuse happened. It was a humbling loss; the type that brought both the team and fanbase crashing back to earth and a glaring reminder of how abruptly a season can unravel.

This program has been in a similar position many times before. Tech fans have become skeptical of resounding victories on the heels of deflating losses, forever guarded against allowing overwhelming feelings of hope to cloud their judgement.

And while the fanbase is eager for a return to ten-win seasons and conference titles, the Syracuse loss suggests that it may not be in the offing. What we witnessed against Miami was yet another glimpse of this team's promise. The oft-asked question is how consistently can they realize their potential?

Justin Fuente's "1-0" mentality feels like a step in the right direction. It surely helped this team focus on a talented Miami team on a short week. East Mississippi Community College head coach Buddy Stephens, whose team was the subject of the Netflix series "Last Chance U," promotes the same strategy as a foundational component of his program.

"Our goal is to be 1-0 each week," summarized Stephens in an August 2015 interview. "We don't look ahead to the next week. We have just got to concentrate on getting better. We focus on the next game, the next play, [and] the next rep in practice. That's how you become good. Everything you do is important. There is no time to take a play or a rep off."

Whereas a macro view of the season can be overwhelming to even the most disciplined program, approaching a season or game on an individual basis can help eliminate the noise. I, for one, am interested in how effective this message turns out to be when we look back on the 2016 football season.

So are the Hokies back? Not yet.

To declare anything of the sort would be diametrically opposed to Fuente's world view. All that matters is what's in front of them. This week, it's the Pitt Panthers. Today, it's practice. We can discuss Tech's return to national prominence in January.