Maybe even cupcakes (i.e. FAMU, UConn, Arkansas St, Akron, UL-Lafayette, DI-FCS, etc). Then when VT would face opponents that was on par with them, it wasn't uncommon to see VT come up short (i.e. VT losing to NC State 17-16 at home in 2004) or laying a big phat egg on national TV (i.e. #3 VT losing to #5 Miami 27-7 at home in 2005). I think that is significant because perceptually VT's OOC schedule during the Big East days was relatively soft. So the only time the national audience got to see how VT stacked up against teams from other conferences is when VT played UVA and the bowl game which Beamer treated as a reward instead of a business trip prior to the jet ski incident. Given that VT was one of the flagbearers for the Big East Football Conference, those games mattered because it influenced how people perceived the Big East as a football conference. After the buzz VT generated in 1999 ESPN had set the stage for them multiple times for VT to do its part to get that signature win so that way the postgame shows could push the narrative that "VT had taken that next step" or "the program had finally arrived on the national scene." Instead, VT found ways to come up short (i.e. the offense didn't score enough points because it was too conservative that day or the defense didn't prevent the opposing offense from scoring on the last drive of the game). Heck there may have been multiple games where VT left points on the table at the end of the first half because the coaching staff lacked the confidence the offense could run the 2-minute drill from anywhere on the field or the 2-minute drill wasn't in their coaching DNA.