Out with the Frank Beamer era and in with the Justin Fuente era. Fuente will bring a more wide-open offensive attack to Blacksburg and I imagine most all Hokies are very pleased with that. New A.D. Whit Babcock's best job perhaps though was keeping D-Coord. Bud Foster on board to go along with Fuente's new offense. And, let's give Fuente the credit as well to keep Foster. I mean, why wouldn't he? Foster is one of the best in the business year after year. This has the potential to be very big for them. I imagine it may take a couple of seasons before Fuente has them scoring 40+ like he did at Memphis. Then again, the Hokies can't be much worse offensively than they've been the last few years. In the shoes of a Hokie fan, they've pissed away some good-to-great defenses with lackluster offenses down the last few years of the Beamer era. Think the entire Chan Gailey era at Tech (read: great defense screwed in the W-L column by putrid offenses).
Game Info: Nov. 12, Time and TV TBA...this will be the first and only time Tech will travel on back-to-back weekends this season...the Hokies will be coming off a road game at Duke the previous weekend and have a trip to Notre Dame coming up after hosting the Jackets...other ACC games this date include Pitt at Clemson (a potential preview of the ACCCG?), Miami at Virginia, NC State at Syracuse, and Wake at Louisville. Along with the Pitt-Clemson game, this battle of the Techs should be one of the best conference games of the day. On Thursday this week the Cheaters travel to Duke on Thursday night while FSU hosts BC on Friday night.
Last Meeting: The Hokies won on Grant Field on a Thursday night, 23-21. This spoiled a great 1990 National Championship Team celebration evening. Tech led 21-17 heading into the 4Q only to see the Hokies score a go-ahead TD with just under 7 minutes left (and miss the XP) for the final margin. Tech's offense scored 2 1Q TD's to take a 14-0 lead, but then never scored anything the rest of the game (Tech's other TD was a Brant Mitchell INT early in the 2nd half to give Tech a 21-14 lead). The Jackets could only muster 258 yards of total offense against Foster's D (only 161 on the ground). Tech fumbled 4 times, losing 3. Tech won at Lane Stadium in our last trip in '14 on a last second FG by Harrison Butker, 27-24. So, the visiting team has now won the last 3 games.
All-time Series: The Hokies lead 9-4. The Jackets have NEVER beaten the Hokies in consecutive seasons. VPI&SU had a slight edge in the series, 4-3, after the Jackets' home win in 2009. Since then, the Hokies have reeled off wins in 5 of the last 6. CPJ is 2-6 against VPI&SU.
Hokies Offense: There are question marks at QB. There will be some growing pains and learning curves involved in Year 1 getting Fuente's offense fully implemented. Getting the Hokies in Game 10 is no favor to Tech though because they very well likely have worked out any kinks by mid-November. The one thing they do have is a VERY GOOD WR in Isaiah Ford. 2 of Fuente's best QB's were Andy Dalton now with Cincy and the Broncs' future now with Paxton Lynch. Trinity Valley Community College (TX) transfer, Jerod Evans, may win the starting QB job over the more mobile returnee, Brendan Motley. To also help, they return 4 starters on the OL and a 1,000-yd rusher in Travon McMillian. The tools are there for this offense to explode if they can get good QB play. Scary.
Hokies Defense: The Hokies do lose some big timers on the DL in Luther Maddy and Dadi Nicholas, but shed no tears for Bud Foster as he just reloads. He's had seasons in the past with only 3 or so returning starters and they still finished in the top 10 in the nation in total defense. For the most part, Foster has trumped CPJ in their head-to-head matchups over the years. Chuck Clark is a good safety. They'd like to get Atlanta-native Brandon Facyson back healthy. While perhaps their D-backfield could be their very small weakest link (remains to be seen), I doubt Hokie fans worry too much about their defense. Kind of like how I once felt when Jon Tenuta was running Tech's defense. Foster will have them ready. And he knows how to defend CPJ's attack. Under CPJ, the most pts the Jackets have ever scored in a game against Foster's bunch is 28 pts (2009). The last 3 seasons, Tech has averaged scoring 19.3 ppg. In all 8 of CPJ's seasons against the Hokies, Tech has averaged scoring 20.9 ppg. So, like normal, scoring points will likely be at a premium for the Jackets.
What I Expect to Happen: This is a very tough venue and by Week 11 & mid-Nov. I expect Fuente to have any kinks offensively worked out. I doubt they'll be as good offensively as they will be in say 2018, but they'll still be good enough to put up 24+ pts on Tech's defense. The question is will Tech's offense be good enough to put up 24+ ourselves. I doubt it. I'll go with the Hokies to win and extend their series lead to a nauseating 10-4 (and continuing their dominance of CPJ)... Tech loses 28-17...Tech moves to 5-5/2-5.
Game Info: Nov. 12, Time and TV TBA...this will be the first and only time Tech will travel on back-to-back weekends this season...the Hokies will be coming off a road game at Duke the previous weekend and have a trip to Notre Dame coming up after hosting the Jackets...other ACC games this date include Pitt at Clemson (a potential preview of the ACCCG?), Miami at Virginia, NC State at Syracuse, and Wake at Louisville. Along with the Pitt-Clemson game, this battle of the Techs should be one of the best conference games of the day. On Thursday this week the Cheaters travel to Duke on Thursday night while FSU hosts BC on Friday night.
Last Meeting: The Hokies won on Grant Field on a Thursday night, 23-21. This spoiled a great 1990 National Championship Team celebration evening. Tech led 21-17 heading into the 4Q only to see the Hokies score a go-ahead TD with just under 7 minutes left (and miss the XP) for the final margin. Tech's offense scored 2 1Q TD's to take a 14-0 lead, but then never scored anything the rest of the game (Tech's other TD was a Brant Mitchell INT early in the 2nd half to give Tech a 21-14 lead). The Jackets could only muster 258 yards of total offense against Foster's D (only 161 on the ground). Tech fumbled 4 times, losing 3. Tech won at Lane Stadium in our last trip in '14 on a last second FG by Harrison Butker, 27-24. So, the visiting team has now won the last 3 games.
All-time Series: The Hokies lead 9-4. The Jackets have NEVER beaten the Hokies in consecutive seasons. VPI&SU had a slight edge in the series, 4-3, after the Jackets' home win in 2009. Since then, the Hokies have reeled off wins in 5 of the last 6. CPJ is 2-6 against VPI&SU.
Hokies Offense: There are question marks at QB. There will be some growing pains and learning curves involved in Year 1 getting Fuente's offense fully implemented. Getting the Hokies in Game 10 is no favor to Tech though because they very well likely have worked out any kinks by mid-November. The one thing they do have is a VERY GOOD WR in Isaiah Ford. 2 of Fuente's best QB's were Andy Dalton now with Cincy and the Broncs' future now with Paxton Lynch. Trinity Valley Community College (TX) transfer, Jerod Evans, may win the starting QB job over the more mobile returnee, Brendan Motley. To also help, they return 4 starters on the OL and a 1,000-yd rusher in Travon McMillian. The tools are there for this offense to explode if they can get good QB play. Scary.
Hokies Defense: The Hokies do lose some big timers on the DL in Luther Maddy and Dadi Nicholas, but shed no tears for Bud Foster as he just reloads. He's had seasons in the past with only 3 or so returning starters and they still finished in the top 10 in the nation in total defense. For the most part, Foster has trumped CPJ in their head-to-head matchups over the years. Chuck Clark is a good safety. They'd like to get Atlanta-native Brandon Facyson back healthy. While perhaps their D-backfield could be their very small weakest link (remains to be seen), I doubt Hokie fans worry too much about their defense. Kind of like how I once felt when Jon Tenuta was running Tech's defense. Foster will have them ready. And he knows how to defend CPJ's attack. Under CPJ, the most pts the Jackets have ever scored in a game against Foster's bunch is 28 pts (2009). The last 3 seasons, Tech has averaged scoring 19.3 ppg. In all 8 of CPJ's seasons against the Hokies, Tech has averaged scoring 20.9 ppg. So, like normal, scoring points will likely be at a premium for the Jackets.
What I Expect to Happen: This is a very tough venue and by Week 11 & mid-Nov. I expect Fuente to have any kinks offensively worked out. I doubt they'll be as good offensively as they will be in say 2018, but they'll still be good enough to put up 24+ pts on Tech's defense. The question is will Tech's offense be good enough to put up 24+ ourselves. I doubt it. I'll go with the Hokies to win and extend their series lead to a nauseating 10-4 (and continuing their dominance of CPJ)... Tech loses 28-17...Tech moves to 5-5/2-5.
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