{"id":3175,"date":"2015-12-14T06:29:13","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T11:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gridironstuds.com\/blog\/?p=3175"},"modified":"2015-12-14T06:29:13","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T11:29:13","slug":"why-virginia-tech-can-quickly-bounce-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/why-virginia-tech-can-quickly-bounce-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Virginia Tech Can Quickly Bounce Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"GridironStuds Blog – Guest Post<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the past 23 seasons, Virginia Tech has made a bowl game\u2014the second longest streak in the nation (behind Florida State\u2019s 33), but also one that is in constant jeopardy.<\/p>\n

While the Hokies remain a prominent program, the reality is that the past four years the team has not been very good, or at least as good as it once was. While Frank Beamer was beloved in Blacksburg for all he did to build the program, the modern college football game passed him by. And this year, Virginia Tech will play Tulsa, not exactly a member of college football’s elite, in the Independence Bowl. Even worse than that, perhaps, is the fact that the linemakers at Betfair<\/a> have Virginia Tech as even money to just win the game. That’s definitely not good news for Hokie fans.<\/p>\n

As more college teams adopted spread offenses, or at least advanced pro styles, Virginia kept an outdated playbook focused on straightforward power runs with little creativity or imagination. That hurt the Hokies in recruiting as the state\u2019s top skill position players left the area for programs that provided them a better opportunity to shine for pro scouts.<\/p>\n

Beamer, of course, announced his retirement at the end of this, which comes at a perfect time. He leaves with his bowl streak intact and maintains a level of dignity that a number of other aging college coaches were not afforded. Virginia Tech got to hire Memphis head coach Justin Fuente, one of college football\u2019s top offensive minds as reported by Roanoke.com<\/a>. He could return the school to powerhouse status, especially in a mediocre ACC.<\/p>\n

Here are some reasons Virginia Tech can quickly bounce back:<\/p>\n

It starts with offense.<\/strong> Virginia Tech faired poorly in conference play with the ball, finishing 11th out of 14 teams in total offense (ahead of just Syracuse, Wake Forest and Boston College). While the Hokies did score 25.4 points per game, they scored only 22 touchdowns in eight league games and many drives ended with a field goal. In the high-scoring world of college football, that will not cut it. Compare that to Memphis, which led the American Athletic Conference with 42.7 points per game. Yes, the AAC is not quite as good as the ACC top to bottom, but it\u2019s still a solid league with quality teams. Plus, Memphis did beat Ole Miss earlier this year while scoring 37 points in the process. That alone legitimizes the Tigers’ system.<\/p>\n

Help in recruiting.<\/strong> Virginia is not Florida or Texas when it comes to high school talent, but the state is solidly in the next tier. With large programs in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, Richmond and Norfolk, the state has turned out a number of high-profile players like Russell Wilson, Chris Long, Jerod Mayo and Percy Harvin. Even some recent major recruits, like Da\u2019Shawn Hand, who was the nation\u2019s top-rated recruit in 2014, left the state (Hand is from Woodbridge, Va., but went to Alabama to play in college). As you may notice, none of these players went to Virginia Tech. The Hokies, of course, had their best success when Michael Vick was at quarterback and Vick grew up in Newport News, Va. Getting the state\u2019s top players to commit to the Hokies will be huge (and you can read more about it on SportsWar<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The ACC.<\/strong> The Atlantic Coast Conference is home to two of the top programs in college football right now: Florida State and Clemson. Luckily for Virginia Tech, though, the two are in the conference\u2019s Atlantic Division while the Hokies play in the Coastal Division. What that means is that the Hokies do not play Florida State or Clemson every year and must only beat out North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Miami, Duke, Virginia and Georgia Tech for a spot in the conference\u2019s championship game. While some of those schools are occasionally good (like North Carolina this year), it\u2019s not exactly Murderers’ Row.<\/p>\n

With a fun offense luring new recruits to a weak division, fans in Blacksburg may be cheering for one of college football\u2019s best teams sooner than you think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GridironStuds Blog – Guest Post For the past 23 seasons, Virginia Tech has made a bowl game\u2014the second<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[829,1],"tags":[152,851,850],"class_list":["post-3175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college-football","category-general","tag-college-football","tag-justin-fuentes","tag-virginia-tech-hokies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}