Well, that was fun. Virginia Tech hadn’t won a bowl game since 2016, so that one was long past due. The Hokies’ 41-20 dismantling of a solid but short-handed Tulane team gave them a winning record (7-6), and they’ll now go into the offseason with momentum and confidence. It wouldn’t have been the end of the world if they had lost the game, but 7-6 looks and sounds a lot better than 6-7.

Officially, that was a 6-6 Virginia Tech team taking on an 11-2 Tulane squad, but that wasn’t the reality. Start the season over again with everything we know now about Kyron Drones and the post-Marshall scheme tweak and I think the Hokies would have beaten the Thundering Herd and Purdue to go 8-4. Likewise, Tulane without starting quarterback Michael Pratt is probably also around 8-4. In the end, it was a couple of teams whose overall records didn’t tell the entire story, and it was the team with positive momentum, a full coaching staff, more overall talent and the better quarterback who won.

Things didn’t go too well for the ACC in bowl games yesterday, with UNC and Louisville being handled with relative ease by West Virginia and USC, respectively. The Hokies did their part, though, and now they are set up to receive some deserved hype as we head into the offseason. The transfer portal isn’t done yet and we don’t know what everyone’s 2024 rosters will look like, but Virginia Tech is going to be one of those teams that people view as a possibility to challenge Florida State next season. The schedule sets up pretty well and the Hokies have done some very nice work in the transfer portal. It’s been awhile since I’ve been this excited for a season, maybe since 2017 or 2018. But that’s another article for another day.

Wednesday’s game was close, but it really wasn’t. Yes, it was 17-17 early in the third quarter. Sure, it was only a 27-20 lead early in the fourth quarter. But it never felt that close. It felt like Virginia Tech was the better team the whole time and things fell into place over the last 10 minutes or so. There’s really only one main topic that I want to talk about today.

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