Slept On It: The Hokies Lost to Old Dominion and I Still Can't Believe This is Real Life

I woke up Sunday morning and stared at the ceiling, trying to recall the strangest dream. Virginia Tech lost to Old Dominion. In football. Weird, right?

Believe it or not, I slept pretty well up until I inadvertently woke up sometime around 5 AM. It was that moment in the night where you suddenly become alert and your mind begins racing through a litany of mental hang-ups and daily tasks to complete. I used to be able to shrug these types of moments off and fall back asleep. But as I've gotten older, I've had a harder and harder time shutting off the thought faucet, allowing the drip-drip-drip to progress into a full on monologue. So while I didn't sit down in front of my computer until early Sunday afternoon, I've essentially been hate writing this column in my head since the early morning hours.

Saturday's performance by the Hokies was abysmal. From the coaching staff to the players, it was one of the most embarrassing games I've ever watched from a Virginia Tech side. When Tech lost to JMU in 2010, you could at least point to the sloppy conditions and the five days of preparation coming off a gut wrenching loss to Boise State. There are no excuses for the loss to ODU.

The "road" game was in name only; half the stadium appeared to be clad in orange and maroon, meaning the home team had roughly 10,000 supporters. Wallace Wade is a more hostile environment than that. I'm not buying that the unexpected bye week affected the team's rhythm. Nor do I support the notion that this team was caught looking ahead to Duke and/or Notre Dame. Too many guys were playing in front of their friends and families to look past Saturday.

You only lose games like this if everything goes wrong. Catastrophically wrong. Losses like Tech's don't occur because of one error or one area of poor play. There has to be a comprehensive breakdown, from the players on the field to the coaches on the sideline. The staff was quick to take the blame in the post game press conference, and understandably so. At the end of the day, they're responsible for preparing the team and putting them in positions to succeed. With that being said, the players are ultimately the ones responsible executing on the field.

As the since-dismissed Trevon Hill reminded everyone on Twitter Sunday afternoon, ODU's 632 yards of total offense were the most surrendered by a Bud Foster defense.

Trevon Hill's new profile picture is interesting to say the least in light of this news. pic.twitter.com/iIGtJfNkb7— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) September 23, 2018

The four unsportsmanlike penalties were infuriating, especially against a team you're clearly more talented than. And the near constant lack of execution was so startling, I began to openly wonder if the team had gone on an all-night bender at the local strip joint — where they discovered that their Sex Ed teacher works at said establishment — to cheer up their injured and depressed friend. (You've got to admit, the Varsity Blues parallels are interesting). So while I appreciate the seppuku performed by Justin Fuente and Bud Foster after the loss, it was a team effort.

Losses like these make you question everything you thought you knew about a team. Looking back at past performances, it's hard to rationalize a loss like this. The same Hokies team that dominated Florida State on Labor Day night in front of a national audience was humiliated by Old Dominion on a TV network many people don't even get. We've since learned that the Seminoles of 2018 are not their colleagues from 1999. But as fans, people tend to rationalize performances in their team's favor. In other words: Sure, Florida State is bad this season, but it was the Hokies' Week One beat down that sent them on their middling path. After Saturday's dud in Norfolk, one has to wonder how bad Florida State really is.

Lest we forget, it was only a few weeks ago, in the waning days of preseason camp, that many feared the trip to ODU. Tech fans were unsure what to expect from an inexperienced defense and an offense that struggled down the stretch in 2017. Two wins against sub-par teams seems to have caused many to forget about the myriad challenges facing the Hokies. Justin Fuente seems to think that his players bought in to their (surprisingly high) #13 ranking, noting:

"I told them, 'I liked you guys a lot better when everybody told you that you were terrible. Everybody told you that you didn't have a chance to win the first game, and all you did was work your tails off. And then now, we get to feeling all good about ourselves and we get brought back down to earth.' We got what we deserved."

To review from a slightly different perspective: If we anticipated that the 2018 season would be filled with some ups and downs and remained cognizant of Tech shortcomings even after the Florida State win, then why was this loss particularly frustrating? The simple answer is because a program like Virginia Tech shouldn't be losing to one like Old Dominion. But I think there's more to it than that. I can only speak for myself, but the waning moments of the fourth quarter were filled with feelings of embarrassment, dejection and enmity. Let's keep in mind, the season is not lost — Tech is still 1-0 in the ACC, and the conference, sans Clemson, isn't exactly lighting the college football world on fire.

Maybe this particular bout of frustration stems from the fact that Tech has now managed to lose to both JMU and ODU during a stretch of 14 consecutive wins over the Hoos. Or maybe, deep down, it feels like the Karma Police arrested us for our relentless mockery of UVa's loss to a #16 seed in the NCAA tournament.

To be honest, I really don't have an answer. I'm sure it's a combination of factors, including youth, arrogance and an unexpected loss of momentum. Looking at it a bit deeper, the current frustration is the prime consequence of fandom. The Hokies won a game in Tallahassee many believed they were destined to lose. The new faces were playing at a remarkably high level. There was suddenly an abundance of size, speed, athleticism and talent. The Coastal looked winnable. Whether we were aware of it or not — no matter how many times we reminded ourselves of this team's flaws — deep down, there was a growing sense of hope.

After a long offseason filled with tempered expectations and little talk of a realistic division title challenge, the Hokies looked legit. To quote Shawshank, "Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane."

One of the best pieces of parenting advice I have received is to "aim low." It's human nature to build up expectations for outings, birthday parties and vacations. Over time, you learn that nothing ever goes as planned: kids blow out of their diapers at the worst possible times; the old man dressed as Santa Claus is terrifying; and there's a 15% chance that they'll actually enjoy the lovies, bottles and glider that you spent a small fortune on. Much like sports, kids are fickle and wildly unpredictable. But if you temper your expectations, always mindful of Murphy's Law, then you'll regularly find yourself pleasantly surprised and rarely disappointed.

Maybe #AimLow should be the new motivational hashtag for the Tech fanbase. It could be an interesting coping mechanism.

Let's not confuse this for a slight. There's a lot of football left to play, and this team can still challenge for the Coastal. This was always going to be a trying season for Hokies fans, one filled with a lot of bumps in the road. Now that Tech managed to lose to a team it should have easily dispatched, are should the rest of the season be phoned in? Of course not. Take it as a learning experience, much like the coaches and players will. You might be pleasantly surprised with how things work out.