Virginia Tech had to rally in the final three minutes the night after Thanksgiving to beat rival Virginia and become bowl-eligible. No one would have thought any of that would be necessary – that the Hokies would have to rally to beat UVA, and that the rally would be essential to getting into a bottom-rung bowl – after Ohio State.
Remember Ohio State? The big road win for Virginia Tech in September seemed to set the program back on its usual course as a player on the national-title scene. Tech didn’t just win at Ohio State: the Hokies won by two touchdowns.
The two teams left the Horseshoe that night and headed in vastly different directions. Ohio State went on to win the national championship with a 14-1 record. Virginia Tech limped past Virginia to finish the regular season at 6-6 for the second time in three years, then blew out Cincinnati in the Military Bowl to avoid the program’s first losing season in more than two decades.
Which brings us back to Ohio State. The defending national champs open the 2015 season in Blacksburg looking for redemption.
But the Buckeyes won’t be the only ones in Lane Stadium looking for redemption. Virginia Tech is 22-17 overall, and 12-12 in the ACC, over the past three seasons, after dominating league play for a long stretch (six appearances in the ACC title game in Tech’s first eight seasons in the league).
If this is the year that the Hokies climb back up the mountain, it’s going to come down to the efforts of senior quarterback Michael Brewer, who had moments of brilliance in his first season as the starter in 2014 (2,692 yards, 18 touchdowns) and moments that made fans scratch their heads (15 interceptions, 11 in his final six games).
Offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler is in his third year of trying to turn the Virginia Tech offense around, with his first two years of work representing a regression from Hokies offenses past. The run-first, pass-when-necessary that worked well for Frank Beamer-led teams for more than a quarter-century are a thing of the past, with the focus being on the passing game under Loeffler.
The offensive line has been a question mark for several years going, and that will continue into the opener, as will uncertainty over who among the several talented running backs on the roster (J.C. Coleman, Marshawn Williams, Shai McKenzie, Trey Edmunds) will be asked to carry the load.
The strength of the Hokies forever and ever amen has been on the defensive side of the ball, with defensive coordinator Bud Foster bringing back four D-linemen who have earned All-ACC honors (Luther Maddy, Corey Marshall, Dadi Nicholas, Ken Ekanem) and a stocked secondary (led by All-America corner Kendall Fuller).
The only questions for Foster and his lunch-pail guys come at linebacker, but the schemes employed by Foster, which emphasize pressure on the passer and tight coverage behind the line, should cover for the guys in the middle as they gain experience and confidence early on.
At least the hope is that Virginia Tech can gain some confidence early on. A win over the defending national champs in the opener – on the national game of the week on Labor Day night, no less – would be a good place to start.
Tech opens with four non-conference games (Ohio State, Furman, at Purdue, at East Carolina) before finishing with its eight-game ACC slate. The schedule is kind, with the cross-division foes this year being Atlantic Division weaklings N.C. State (at home) and Boston College in Chestnut Hill.
As usual, the Hokies finish with Virginia, in a virtual home game up the road in Charlottesville, which every other year becomes Lane Stadium-North.
The Coastal Division race seems to be wide open, with preseason favorite Georgia Tech having lost seven of its top 10 rushers from last year, and Duke, coming off a two-year run that had the Blue Devils go a combined 19-8, coming back to earth in what will be a rebuilding year for David Cutcliffe and Crew.
The Hokies could certainly be in the mix for the division title. The talent is there to contend, anyway. A lot will depend on how things go on Labor Day with Ohio State in town. Play well in that one, even pull off another upset, and build out from there, and this could be the year Virginia Tech returns to the top shelf in the ACC.
– Story by Chris Graham
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