Another year, another win over UVA. The Hokies made it 12 straight against their in-state rivals on Saturday. The game was similar to last year's game, except it was played on the road in Charlottesville.
I'm not so sure that didn't play into Tech's hands, though. The Hokies are 1-3 in home ACC games this season, while they are 3-1 on the road. Last year, the Hokies were 1-3 at home and 2-2 on the road. In 2013, they were 2-2 at home and 3-1 on the road. That's a total ACC record of 4-8 at home and 8-4 on the road over the last three seasons. If you feel better about road games than home games these days, that's why.
Beamer's Biggest Accomplishment?
Frank Beamer took Virginia Tech to the brink of a National Championship in 1999. He routinely had the Hokies in the top 10, and even the top 5. His teams won multiple conference championships, and Tech's program was one of the best in the country.
Despite all that, to me his biggest accomplishment is the stranglehold he put on UVA. Beamer took over a program that was on probation and not in a conference. Tech began Big East play in 1993, and finally had a full complement of scholarship players that year as well. Once those things happened, things began to take off.
Beamer vs. the Hoos can be broken down into three eras.
1987-92: The Losing Era. The Hokies went 1-5 against UVA in these seasons, though most of the losses were very close.
1993-98: The Even Era. The Hokies and Hoos each won three times in this era.
1999-Present: The Dominant Era. The Hokies have beaten UVA 16 out of the last 17 times, including 12 times in a row. Let that sink in for a moment.
Virginia used to be better than Virginia Tech. Things evened out in the mid-90s. It's hard to forget those games in 1995 and 1996 when there was so much talent on the field, for both sides. It was the Barber brothers, Percy Ellsworth, Patrick Kerney, James Farrior, etc. matched up against Cornell Brown, Jim Druckenmiller, Torrian Gray, Ken Oxendine, Marcus Parker, Bryan Still, etc. Both of those teams were loaded. That's when I first really started getting into college football, and I have fond memories of those battles.
After 1998 though, things turned decidely in Virginia Tech's favor. The Tech staff outrecruited the UVA staff, and George Welsh retired. He was replaced by Al Groh, who got off to a hot start, but faded. Then the Hoos doubled up on bad coaches by replacing Groh with Mike London. Through it all, Frank Beamer remained a constant at Virginia Tech and kept beating the Hoos. I'm not sure college football has seen a rivalry that's been this dominant over the past couple of decades.
Personally, I hate losing to UVA. I had a great time in Charlottesville this weekend, but I'll be the first to admit that I did not have a good time at the actual game until Chuck Clark's interception sealed the deal. I was on edge the whole time, and the pessimist in me was picturing a bunch of UVA fans celebrating their first win against us since 2003 in Frank Beamer's last game. It's been so long since we lost to them, but I still remember the feeling. I don't ever want to feel that way again, though it's bound to happen at some point.
Frank Beamer is the biggest reason why we haven't felt that terrible feeling in such a long time. To me, his dominance over Tech's in-state rival is the biggest accomplishment of his career. This tweet sums it up...
Frank Beamer has 20 wins over UVA since 1990. UVA has 20 wins over VT since 1950.
— Thomas Guerry (@thomasguerry) November 29, 2015
That's Frank's lasting legacy. He completely changed the landscape of college football in the Commonwealth of Virginia. In fact, I'd say that he did more for sports as a whole in Virginia than any other man. That's a big time accomplishment.
The New Era
Frank Beamer is retiring at the end of the season, and the Hokies have hired Memphis coach Justin Fuente. A new era is coming to Blacksburg very soon.
A new era is also coming to Charlottesville very soon. Mike London "resigned" from UVA this morning, which we all knew was coming. Now the Hoos are in the market for a new head coach, and most likely they've been putting feelers out behind the scenes for awhile now.
On paper, the Hoos aren't as well-positioned to make a good hire as Virginia Tech. Craig Littlepage is 64 and approaching retirement. If you are a football coach considering taking a job at a program that needs to be rebuilt, why would you do so when you might have a new boss in a couple of years? Combine that with the fact that their associate AD in charge of football, Jon Oliver, does not have a reputation of being a good guy for a football coach to work for, and I don't think their pool of qualified candidates is particularly long.
Personally I feel like the UVA job is a good job in general, but because of their AD situation, it's not a good job at this moment in time. Some believe that Mark Richt's firing this morning could shake things up, but I disagree. If they could somehow get Richt, they should hire him, but I don't think they can. Assuming they can't, it would seem the correct decision would be to go with a high risk/high reward up and comer. They probably can't get an established head coach, so a younger coordinator who has an impressive resume working for good coaches seems like the way to go.
Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Sanford, Jr. was mentioned as a possibility several days ago, and his hiring would make complete sense for the Hoos. He's only 33 years old. He could relate to recruits. He was born in Lexington, VA when his father (Illinois State head coach Mike Sanford) was coaching at VMI.
Not only is he Notre Dame's offensive coordinator under Brian Kelly, but he's also worked at Stanford under Jim Harbaugh and David Shaw, as well as Boise State under Bryan Harsin. He turned down Urban Meyer and Ohio State to go to Notre Dame. His father was offensive coordinator at Utah under Meyer. It's an impressive resume for such a young guy. However, he's only been a coordinator for two seasons, and at such a young age is he ready to take the reigns at a Power 5 conference school? It would be risky, but that might be UVA's best play right now.
Meanwhile, Justin Fuente is coming to Blacksburg. He has been one of Whit Babcock's top targets from the very beginning. Babcock managed to secure a guy at or near the top of his list while also retaining Bud Foster. I want to see how the rest of the staff shakes out before I make any final judgement on the hire, but in the end Babcock did exactly what most of us wanted him to do. He hired a guy who has had great offenses, and he paired him with Bud Foster. On paper, it's a win-win.
Fuente will take over a program that is going to a 23rd consecutive bowl game, and has defeated its in-state rival 16 out of the last 17 times. There's obviously a lot of pressure on him. You can bet that the posse will be chasing him with a hangman's rope the first time he loses to UVA. That's just the nature of college football these days, especially at a school like Virginia Tech, where Frank Beamer has had so much success against the Hoos. It's a high-pressure situation.
Will and I sit around the office all the time and speculate about Tech, UVA, the ACC and college football in general. For the last year we've thought that there was a very good chance the Hokies and Hoos would be making a hire in the same offseason. Lo and behold, here we are.
Frank Beamer's success ended the career of George Welsh, and it also had a lot to do with the subsequent firings of Al Groh and Mike London. We can only sit back and hope that Justin Fuente sends the next UVA coach packing 4-5 years from now.
A Banged Up Offense Gets it Done in the Fourth Quarter
I don't have a lot to say about the game on Saturday, but you've got to give credit to the Tech offense for finally showing up and getting it done in the fourth quarter. After scoring just six points over the first 45 minutes, they blew up with 17 points in the final 15. They answered every UVA touchdown with seven points of their own, and finally administered the coup de grâce on their final field goal drive.
That drive began with 6:38 left on the clock. It ended with 1:38 remaining in the game. The Hokies ran 11 plays for 56 yards and took exactly five minutes off the clock. 20% of their entire time of possession for the game came on that last drive. That's pretty clutch.
Tech went into yesterday's game with a bunch of walking wounded. Travon McMillian is banged up because of how much he's been touching the ball recently. I saw Cam Phillips in a walking boot last Tuesday, as well.
Then there's Michael Brewer. He was a in a walking boot as well. He suffered an ankle injury against UNC. I never thought it was serious until I heard the night before the UVA game that it was much worse than a sprain. Apparently he has a stress fracture. In other words, he's played the last two games with a crack in his ankle bone. He also overcame a bone-jarring spear from a UVA defender early in Saturday's game, but he was still in there completing critical passes in the fourth quarter.
It was very similar to his game last year against UVA, when his throwing arm was ripped out of socket, yet he stayed in the game to complete two huge passes to Bucky Hodges to win.
Brewer will never be in the conversation for Tech's most talented quarterback, but he is their toughest. In fact, he's one of the toughest players we've ever had, regardless of position. That's why he's probably the most popular player in the lockerroom. I'll always have respect for anyone who sacrifices their body for my alma mater like he's done. If Brewer has a legacy at Virginia Tech, it's beating UVA in the fourth quarter despite some pretty bad injuries. I'd share a foxhole with that guy.
"Why Don't Our Defensive Backs Turn Around and Look For the Ball?!?"
We hear that question every year, and I understand why people ask it. However, UVA's long touchdown pass that gave them a 20-13 lead was the perfect example of why our defensive backs are taught to keep running with the receiver and put their hands up, rather than turning around and looking for the football in the air.
Greg Stroman had perfect coverage all the way down the field. He was locked up tightly against the body of Canaan Severin, and was in a great position to break up the pass. Unfortunately, he then made a mistake. He turned his head around to look for the ball.
When he turned his head around, he lost some of his forward momentum because it's hard to continue running fast and maintain your balance and leverage when you are looking behind you. As a result, Severin was able to get about one yard of separation at the goal line, and that gave him enough room to make the catch and get a foot inbounds.
Check out this pic (click on it for a larger image)...
You'll notice that Stroman has perfect position. However, you'll also notice that he's just starting to turn his head to look for the football, which is still high in the air.
Now, look at the next pic, which came less than a second later. Severin has gotten separation from Stroman, after Stroman turned his head to look for the ball. Once he realized the ball wasn't anywhere near him, he turned his head back towards Severin, but it was too late. There was too much space between them, and the result was a touchdown.
Click on it for a larger image...
When you turn your head to look for the ball, you have to be completely sure the ball is there. Otherwise you risk that receiver getting separation and scoring a touchdown. The proper thing for Stroman to do right there was to keep running with Severin and put his hands straight up in the air.
Sure, that technique leads to pass interference calls at times. But a pass interference call would certainly have been preferable in that situation.
I'm not happy that Stroman gave up the touchdown, but I've been waiting for a moment like this to happen in a game so I could show you why Torrian Gray teaches that specific technique.
Up Next: The Bowl Game
We know for a fact that Frank Beamer's last football game at Virginia Tech is coming up. We won't know for sure where the Hokies are headed next week's games have been played, but as of right now it looks like the Belk Bowl in Charlotte is the likely destination.
I consider that good and bad. Virginia Tech should take a ton of fans to Charlotte, because it will be Beamer's last game, the geographic location is great, and Charlotte is a fun city. From that standpoint, the Belk Bowl is a perfect fit.
Unfortunately, the opponent is an SEC team, and that would be a tough out for this Tech team. Here are some of the bowl projections from various sites around the internet...
SB Nation: Belk Bowl vs. Mississippi State
CBS Sports: Belk Bowl vs. LSU
Campus Insider: Military Bowl vs. Navy
Orlando Sentinel: Belk Bowl vs. Georgia
Fox Sports: Belk Bowl vs. Ole Miss
A few other sites were projecting Tech to the Independence Bowl, or even the Armed Forces Bowl, but they haven't been updated to reflect this past weekend's games.
While one part of me would love to meet an SEC team in Charlotte, the other part of me wants Frank Beamer to win his last football game as Tech's head coach. It just wouldn't be right if he went out with a loss, and I don't think we match up well with the LSUs, Georgias and Mississippi States of the world this year. Therefore, I'm hoping for something other than the Belk Bowl, though I doubt I'll get my wish.