Week 14 Reasons to Believe
The upside of parity
Increased parity across the college football landscape - owing to the invent of NIL and the transfer portal - has been a major factor behind Virginia Tech’s disappointing 2024 campaign.
Games that fans could once take for granted assuming Tech would win - hello Vanderbilt and Rutgers - are now toss-ups.
Frustrating as that may be, the opposite is also true.
Tech lost to #6 Miami on a questionable replay review that overturned a touchdown pass on the last play of the game.
The Hokies also played Clemson closer than they have in a decade, falling by 10 points at home.
At other schools, some very similar to Virginia Tech, the results have been surprising.
Not content to just play the blue bloods close, these schools have been winning at rates that put them in the playoff conversation.
Although it may not feel like it now, Virginia Tech is not that far from seeing results such as these.
Game 1: #15 South Carolina at #12 Clemson
Hiring Shane Beamer to succeed his father in 2016 would have been very tricky. It was unpalatable at the time, perhaps even politically impossible - if it didn’t work out, how could Virginia Tech fire an alum whose father was the greatest coach in school history? Still, in retrospect, Frank doesn’t look so crazy for mentioning his son as a possible successor. Even if Shane’s success at South Carolina is a sore spot for some Hokie fans, the fact that he is succeeding in the loaded SEC is reason to believe. Even more important, he is going head-to-head with Clemson on the recruiting trail and winning more than his fair share of top high school commits.
Game 2: #6 Miami at Syracuse
As the advanced stats show, Syracuse is not that good of a team. The Orange are, at best, ok. And yet, they are 8-3 and have a legitimate chance to beat Miami at home to end the regular season. Aggressive portal acquisitions and some in-season luck have combined to turn the program from a perennial six-game (or less) winner into one that is pushing for 10 this season.
Game 3: #24 Kansas St. at #18 Iowa St.
In terms of team talent and recent NFL draft picks, Kansas St. and Iowa St. are basically carbon copies of Virginia Tech. And yet, they have won eight and nine games, respectively, so far this year. The Big 12 is not as tough a conference as the ACC, but the ACC is a step down from the Big Ten and probably two steps down from the SEC. At the end of the day, the goal is to win as many games as possible and secure a playoff berth. After that, it’s all gravy. If these two teams can be in this position entering their last game of the regular season, then so too can the Hokies.