Here’s a sobering thought: in Virginia Tech’s last 12 games, the length of a full regular season, the Hokies are 4-8.

Among the Big Five conferences in 2011, the last full regular season on record, here are some of the teams that had a record of 4-8 or worse: Boston College, Duke, Maryland, Ole Miss, Minnesota, Indiana, Kansas, Oregon State, Washington State, Arizona, and Colorado.

Sorry, that’s not some of the teams that were 4-8 or worse last season; that’s all of them. All 11 of them. That’s who the Hokies are keeping company with these days.

It’s a little disingenuous to play that game. Virginia Tech still has two regular-season 2012 games left, and they could win as many as six games. If the Hokies go 6-6, that will increase the pool of, for lack of a better word, “peer” football programs with similar records.

...