![\"\"](\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/accchampionship-e1595950710355.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In 2011, Virginia Tech was really good.\u00a0 They started the season 4-0 and climbed all the way up to #11 in the AP national rankings.\u00a0 Then in week 5, Clemson came into Blacksburg and basically <\/span>demoralized Virginia Tech<\/a> on their home field with a suffocating defense.\u00a0 Tech shook off the loss and then rang off seven straight wins and pretty much cruised to the Coastal title, earning a date with the winners of the Atlantic: Clemson.<\/span><\/p>\n And in the ACC Championship Game, it was pretty much <\/span>the same thing all over again<\/a>, with Clemson\u2019s defense smothering Virginia Tech, with Tajh Boyd throwing fifty touchdowns, running in ten more and making Al Bundy\u2019s legendary high school game seem like Pop Warner.\u00a0 The two losses to Clemson would be Virginia Tech\u2019s only losses* on the season.<\/span><\/p>\n *<\/span>Excluding the bullshit loss to Michigan in the Sugar Bowl that wasn\u2019t really a loss<\/a> because Danny Coale\u2019s touchdown was good but the crooked fucking refs overturned it, gifting the game to Michigan<\/em><\/p>\n In 2012, Virginia Tech wasn\u2019t really that good.\u00a0 But they still played Clemson, and much like the year before, Clemson <\/span>hung a ton of points on them again<\/a> in a blowout victory.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Needless to say, I can\u2019t speak for all Virginia Tech fans, but I\u2019ve developed a little bit of a complex and a very much dislike for Clemson.\u00a0 Seriously, I have to comb a little hard to find out that the last time Virginia Tech beat Clemson was back in 2007, when Tyrod Taylor as a <\/span>freshman <\/em>was the starting QB for the team; Taylor is now six years into his NFL career, after playing all four years in college, so it\u2019s been nearly a decade since Virginia Tech has defeated Clemson.<\/span><\/p>\n So I\u2019ve been fortunate and glad to not have seen Clemson on the schedule throughout the last four seasons, because it\u2019s no secret that Virginia Tech has been on something of a transitional phase since the Logan Thomas era and the eventual retirement of Frank Beamer.\u00a0 The team has been running out of Fuller brothers to provide them stalwart defense, and hasn\u2019t really had a good stable quarterback since the aforementioned Tyrod Taylor, or a decent running back since like David Wilson.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Games against Clemson are pretty much foregone conclusions and guaranteed losses, of the blowout variety, and no Virginia Tech fans want to see that happen, even if we all know that the team\u2019s going through a little bit of a transitional period.<\/span><\/p>\n But then the Hokies <\/span>just had <\/em>to be a little inspired and plucky and somewhat competent in an admittedly weak field of competition in 2016.\u00a0 Perhaps the coaching of new coach Justin Fuente and his offensive style complimented the team a little bit better than the notorious special teams-focused Frank Beamer, but for whatever the reason, Virginia Tech emerged as the cream of the crop, went 9-3 overall and won the Coastal with a 6-2 record in the conference.**<\/span><\/p>\n **Not to go ignored was the WCW-like way that NC State defeated UNC to effectively clinch the Coastal for Virginia Tech, a day before Virginia Tech had to even play their last game of the regular season.\u00a0 I compared it to when the nWo Wolfpac beat up Goldberg to basically clinch the WCW title for Bret Hart.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t stop Virginia Tech from blowing out UVA, but the game was effectively pointless in the standings.<\/em><\/p>\n The reward for winning the division?\u00a0 A date with the winners of the Atlantic division, at the ACC Championship.\u00a0 Which would be, Clemson.<\/span><\/p>\n So, despite my relief in believing that Virginia Tech would be spared the indignity of getting trounced by Clemson in 2016, they had to go out and win the division and suddenly, they\u2019ve got a date with their tormentors and in all likelihood get slaughtered again.<\/span><\/p>\n I mean, at the time I\u2019m writing this, Clemson <\/span>is already favored<\/a> to win by 9 points.\u00a0 I\u2019m surprised it\u2019s not like 17 points, which seems to be closer to the average margin of victory Clemson has enjoyed against Virginia Tech over the last few encounters, and I would say that Clemson is stronger and Virginia Tech is weaker since their last matchup in 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n But am I going to watch the game?\u00a0 Of course I am.\u00a0 That\u2019s what fans do, no matter how depressing or insurmountable things might seem.\u00a0 It\u2019s the ACC Championship, which is always a prestige to those of us who root for a team within the conference.\u00a0 And despite the unfavorable odds, very little would make me happier than seeing lowly Virginia Tech defeat Clemson.\u00a0 Not only would Clemson lose the ACC Championship, they would undoubtedly get knocked out of the Top-4 for the National Championship playoff, and potentially even from a New Years Six Bowl Game.\u00a0 <\/span>At the hands of Virginia Tech.<\/em><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Virginia Tech gets to raise another ACC Championship, and a win against Clemson is what separates them going to the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit to something a little more prestigious, like the Orange Bowl in Miami.\u00a0 But honestly, a win against Clemson would all I\u2019d really be happy about, and given Virginia Tech\u2019s performances in actual prestigious bowl games, getting into one of them creates this downward spiral of an insurmountable challenge all over again.<\/span><\/p>\n So despite the likely reality of another Clemson blowout win, here\u2019s to hoping that Deshaun Watson starts thinking about his braced knee, and gets thoughts about jeopardizing his future NFL draft stock if he gets injured, and that he turns into the mediocre pocket passer he was when he lost to lowly Pitt.\u00a0 And because it wouldn\u2019t be college football talk without some warped dannyhong logic, if there is absolutely one thing to be completely irrationally optimistic about it it\u2019s the following:<\/span><\/p>\n Virginia Tech > Pitt<\/span> Seems legit.\u00a0 Go Hokies.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 2011, Virginia Tech was really good.\u00a0 They started the season 4-0 and climbed all the way up to #11 in the AP national rankings.\u00a0 Then in week 5, Clemson came into Blacksburg and basically demoralized Virginia Tech on their home field with a suffocating defense.\u00a0 Tech shook off the loss and then rang off … Continue reading The unexpected slaughter, 2016<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[106,155,52],"class_list":["post-44266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-football","tag-hokies","tag-owned"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44266"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47217,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44266\/revisions\/47217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPitt > Clemson<\/span>
\nVirginia Tech > Clemson?<\/span><\/p>\n