Hokies Disappointing in Loss to Georgia Tech

It was a disappointing day at the office for the Hokies. (Photo by Ivan Morozov)

In hindsight, Virginia Tech had no business beating Clemson or Miami.  Tech fans were pumped for those two games, and rightly so.  Many fans felt good about the Clemson game, and just about the entire fanbase, myself included, felt great about the Miami game.  But in hindsight, the Hokies got beat by two better teams.  That’s nothing to be embarrassed about, because there’s no shame in losing to a team with more good players.

But yesterday’s loss was different.  Georgia Tech doesn’t outclasss Virginia Tech in terms of talent.  They don’t have a great homefield advantage.  There seemed to be almost as many Hokie fans as GT fans in Bobby Dodd stadium yesterday, and I feel bad for those of you who sat through that game.  Yesterday’s loss had me feeling depressed, while losses to Clemson and Miami did not.

It was easy to see why Tech lost to Clemson and Miami.  The Tigers and Canes have more talent.  Period.  End of story.  But the Georgia Tech loss was a complete team effort, and that includes the coaching staff, namely head coach Justin Fuente and offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen.  I don’t criticize either guy very often, if ever, because I think both guys are good at their jobs.  But I think both guys made key mistakes in the Georgia Tech loss.

We’ve talked about Tech’s lack of talent on offense all year, so I’m not going to focus on that this week.  Instead, I’m going to talk about play calling (why the heck does Tech keep throwing fades to a group of receivers who can’t catch jump balls?), Fuente’s decisions to not take points early in the game, and how that affected decision making later in the game, and big plays allowed by the defense yet again.

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