Man, I woke up in such a good mood Saturday. College football was back, and the Hokies were going to beat Boston College on the road to get the 2019 season off to a good start and begin erasing the feelings of 2018.

Instead, later that night I was slogging through editing yet another recap of yet another loss, and feeling like, nine months after that 2018 season came to an end, that nothing much had changed.

I drank the Kool-Aid. I bought into the idea that improved team chemistry and dedication would exorcise the demons of 2018, starting with this road trip to Chestnut Hill. The reality is that Virginia Tech has a long way to go, and though a lot of young players showed promise against the Eagles, there were a lot of things to be concerned about as well, and some things that needed to change didn’t change. At all.

That’s not to say that improved team chemistry is worthless. It’s actually going to come into play, and arguably already came into play Saturday evening. While this year’s team isn’t markedly improved over last year’s, perhaps their response to adversity will be. We’ll find out.

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