Monday Thoughts: Bowl Games and Such

Virginia Tech Pinstripe Bowl
Maryland’s Tarheeb Still gets things underway at the Pinstripe Bowl with a 92-yard put return. Maryland went on to win 54-10. (Ivan Morozov)

While everyone rightfully celebrates the Joe Rudolph hire and looks ahead to the future, I want to talk about bowl games before moving on.

No, I don’t want to talk about the bowl game, the Pinstripe Bowl. That was a forgettable affair, so forgettable that I’ve actually forgotten what happened in it. I remember VT as being somewhat competitive early, despite Maryland’s punt return, but eventually things collapsed and the Terps ground the Hokies into the turf, 54-10.

It was Virginia Tech’s worst bowl loss ever in terms of point margin, surpassing the 42-3 destruction of the Hokies in the 1997 Gator Bowl vs. UNC. And it was Virginia Tech’s worst loss since losing 45-0 to … Vanderbilt … in 1982. What the … ? Worse than 2007 LSU (48-7)? Worse than 2018 Pitt (52-22)? Worse than 2019 Duke (45-10)? Yep, yep, and yep, all the way down the line.

Man, that’s one hell of an ending to the Justin Fuente era. The Hokies are scraping rock bottom. We hope.

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