The Goat Pen

Virginia Tech was very fortunate to have a chance to win this one in overtime, as a superior North Carolina team played sloppily enough to keep VT in it. I thought UNC was strangely passive in the first half after their first drive, and missed a chance or two to take VT out of the game early. The final play kind of summed up VT's season-- it was close, VT got beat, and it came down to VT having to cover Quinshad Davis with a redshirt freshman who wasn't supposed to play this year.

Beamer's final home game ends with a hard-fought loss, and a well-deserved ride off the field even in defeat.

Indeed...

Frank Beamer finishes his final regular season in what has become typical fashion-- with an ugly, hard-fought win over Virginia. Mike London continued his string of questionable decisions in this game with an idiotic fake punt just before halftime that handed a struggling VT offense good field position they'd likely have never gained on their own, and VT got three points. UVa dominated the third quarter, but couldn't get far enough out in front, and VT was able to rally to save the bowl streak.

http://espn.go.com/ncf/story/_/id/14242 ... kies-coach

Virginia Tech has not confirmed this, and with the craziness of 2015 hiring/firing season now fully upon us, it's still possible Fuente makes other plans.

http://virginiatech.sportswar.com/free- ... ordinator/

This may be a brilliant hire, and it may just not work out at all. I'm excited to find out. Fuente, to me, was the best realistic option for VT. Kudos to Whit Babcock for landing his preferred candidate right away in such a competitive market.

Marcus Vick tries to run from the cops, quits, gets arrested for resisting arrest....

http://wavy.com/2016/07/27/body-cam-vid ... -released/

The Vick family, the gift that keeps on giving...

I like Whit

This is noteworthy pretty much only for being Justin Fuente's first win at VT. The defense probably deserved a shutout, but the offense handed Liberty a fumble-return touchdown and a drive starting at the VT 10. VT's offense was very erratic-- Jerod Evans looks capable as a passer, but he committed two bad turnovers, and the running game was underwhelming. Liberty had a chance in this one-- midway through the second quarter, LU led 13-10, and visions of the 2010 loss to JMU were going through VT fans' minds. However, that JMU team was well-coached. It looks increasingly likely that Turner Gill's success at Buffalo must have been an aberration, because he did very poorly at Kansas, and hasn't done much better with Liberty. His team committed pre-snap penalties as if they were getting commission on them, gave up a safety after fielding a punt inside their own five, and just generally looked like a bunch of fairly talented athletes with little grasp of what they were supposed to be doing.

Who are you?

VT -10.5

Tennessee -7.

I just hope there is excellent cell coverage in Bristol because there are going to be about 100,000 people there on the Watch ESPN app because they can't see shit on the field from their seats.

Tennessee was clearly the better team from the start of the second quarter on, and if the Vols had bothered to show up when the game started, they might have put this one away earlier than they did. But this game exposed VT, and not just with respect to the talent level that has been declining in Blacksburg for five years now. VT played as well as they reasonably could have for about a quarter, made critical mistakes on consecutive plays to end the first quarter and to start the second, and then just came completely unglued. They played stupid and undisciplined football, committing cheap shots and unforced errors all over the field. You never want to see your team deserve to get blown out, but VT deserved a beating in this one, and Tennessee didn't have to play all that well to give them one.

Justin Fuente's task has been defined for him. He's not just installing an offensive system while keeping what worked from VT's defensive staff. He's got to fix the competitive culture within the program, because there are clearly guys on his team right now that just don't get it.

Sounds like Jimbo's mission a few years ago. We had talent, having consistently been a recruiting powerhouse, but he had to turn around the attitude (as well as bringing in Grown Ass Men).

VT doesn't have the kind of talent that FSU had at the end of Bowden's tenure, and it'll take a while before VT is even recruiting as well as they did ten or twelve years ago. What was most disturbing about the loss to Tennessee were the cheap shots-- there was no excuse for Mook Reynolds' idiocy on Tennessee's sideline, and Fuente is having to bench his best offensive lineman, Wyatt Teller, because he keeps committing terrible personal fouls. His backup, Colt Pettit, spent his first two seasons at VT injured, so he doesn't have the functional strength needed to play guard at this level. Tennessee's defensive tackles just took turns running over him. That was a big reason why Tech's offense couldn't even keep the game close.

A week after repeatedly self-destructing against Tennessee, VT played about as well as could have been hoped for against Boston College. BC's offense was a major help, as it looked to be even worse than it was last year, if that's possible. But BC's defense had looked legitimate in their first two games, and VT shredded them. This was a pleasant surprise, especially coming right after such a dispiriting loss.

For those of us who only care a bit. Score?

Virginia Tech has responded to the Tennessee loss better than anyone could have expected, and in these last two games, the Hokies have looked better than they have at any point since 2010. This one was over before halftime, and VT fans especially loved blowing out ECU with help from a punt return TD, a blocked field goal, and a blocked punt. East Carolina has upset VT the last two years by hitting a lot of big plays, and they hit a few today, too, but by the time they did, the game was too far gone for it to matter.

Life with a new head coach-- the Hokies blow out North Carolina in Chapel Hill, then go to Syracuse and get whipped, then come home on a short week and beat Miami by three touchdowns. I dunno, man.

Next up, a trip to Pittsburgh. VT has lost four straight at Pittsburgh.

I hope they make it 5...