TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — If you’d told a Hokies fan the final score Saturday would be Florida State 39, Virginia Tech 17, it wouldn’t have raised many eyebrows. 

Tech was on the road against a top-five team coming off an idle week, a rebuilding program going up against what’s so far been the class of the ACC. The 22-point final margin wasn’t even what Vegas thought it’d be. 

But how the Hokies got there, digging themselves a nearly insurmountable hole with a listless first 15 minutes, clawing back but sabotaging any comeback hopes the moment they surfaced by giving up long touchdown runs, is the maddening part.

“We’ve got to stop saying the same stuff and just do it at this point,” cornerback Dorian Strong said. “It’s really no more talking that needs to be done. Every game that has happened up to this point, it’s been self-inflicted wounds. 

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