Sun Bowl Thoughts

Well, that was humbling.

I was thinking about how to address this beatdown, and trying to put in perspective what yet another humbling bowl game performance means to the Virginia Tech program. I was lining up all sorts of themes. UCLA was more physical, nastier, and had more talent, more hunger, more attitude. The dressing down of the Virginia Tech program against good teams continues. How close is Frank Beamer to the end of his career? Can he fix this? Should he stay and try to? Blah, blah, blah, all heavy-duty stuff.

Then I thought: wait a minute. This is exactly what I expected to happen. I predicted 30-13 in our game preview, and that was actually being kind. I was really expecting something more along the lines of what Stanford did to the Hokies in the 2010 Orange Bowl, a 40-12 style beating. It was eerie how close UCLA came to replicating that, trashing the Hokies 42-12, almost an identical score.

Given that I thought it was going to unfold that way, a grand, emotional, sweeping tome about the state of Virginia Tech football isn’t required. The Hokies performed to my expectations. So a calm evaluation of what went on, and what it means, is more in line.

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