It’s tough to recollect the final nice second that Virginia Tech soccer had, the place the Hokies entered the nationwide dialog in a optimistic method, the place they introduced Lane Stadium to a roar, the place we had been reminded of what this system was beneath Frank Beamer.
Was it a win over Tulane within the 2023 Navy Bowl? That was an excellent day, however not an exceptionally nice one. It in all probability was, nonetheless, the final time the parents in Blacksburg felt all heat and fuzzy for head coach Brent Pry, as he capped off his second season on the helm of the Hokies with a beat down of rival Virginia and a bowl win over a ranked workforce.
Maybe it was when Virginia Tech, unranked, upset No. 10 North Carolina to open the 2021 season. That recreation although was extra about how overrated the Tar Heels had been, not about how good the Hokies is likely to be. It turned out to be Justin Fuente’s remaining season as he limped to a 5-5 document earlier than resigning.
Perhaps it was in 2017, when the Hokies opened the season with a win over rival West Virginia in a ranked-on-ranked matchup at FedEx Area with Josh Jackson and the Edmunds brothers main the way in which.
We’d need to go all the way in which again to the final superior season of the Beamer period, in 2011, the place Logan Thomas powered the Hokies to a victory over a ranked Georgia Tech workforce in Atlanta. That Virginia Tech squad would go on to play within the ACC title recreation and Sugar Bowl — albeit dropping each — to complete the season 11-3. It marked the sixth (and remaining) time that the Hokies reached the 11-win mark.
That is all to say that the final decade of Virginia Tech soccer has been largely forgettable and stuffed with mediocrity. Whereas pinpointing greatness within the post-Beamer period of Hokies’ soccer generally is a burdensome problem, it’s fairly simple to recall all of the blunders and disappointments. Saturday’s end result was the newest in a protracted line of letdowns for Virginia Tech followers, as they watched Pry’s workforce squander a 10-point halftime lead and get outscored 34-0 within the second half — at residence on a Saturday evening in Lane Stadium — to Vanderbilt. It was a must-win recreation and the Hokies flopped.
The week earlier than that, Virginia Tech followers needed to watch the Hokies trudge by way of a 24-11 loss in Atlanta to South Carolina, a workforce coached by Beamer’s son Shane. Virginia Tech is now 0-2 to begin a season for the primary time since 2010.
Need some extra discouraging stats? There’s loads of them.
Within the post-Beamer period, Virginia Tech is 7-18 in opposition to ranked opponents and simply 1-6 in opposition to ranked groups beneath Pry’s watch.
Right here’s one other: Since that win over West Virginia in 2017 in Landover, Maryland, the Hokies are 0-15 in non-conference matchups in opposition to Energy 4 opponents and Notre Dame. The Hokies haven’t gained a non-conference residence recreation in opposition to Notre Dame or a Energy 4 opponent since 2009.
Virginia Tech hasn’t had a double-digit win season since Fuente’s first marketing campaign in 2016, a feat that was achieved with a workforce made up of gamers principally recruited by Beamer.
Yet one more: Virginia Tech hasn’t performed in a New Yr’s Six bowl recreation — a lot much less contended for a spot within the Faculty Soccer Playoff — since 2011. Between 1994 and 2011, the Hokies performed in 13 NY6 video games, together with the 1999 nationwide championship.
That recreation the place Michael Vick practically guided the Hokies to immortality, looks like a century in the past. A lot of faculty sports activities has modified within the final 5 years with NIL, the switch portal, income sharing and convention realignment. Now take into consideration how a lot it’s modified in 26 years.
What’s apparent for Virginia Tech after that wildly unhealthy second half efficiency in opposition to Vandy — which featured an extremely cowardly give up punt on fourth-and-inches with a 3-point lead — is that Pry’s time as head coach wants to come back to an finish. For a lot of Virginia Tech followers, it reminded them of the 45-10 residence loss to Duke in 2019, a end result that sealed the courtroom of public opinion on Fuente, regardless that he lasted for 2 extra forgetful seasons.
Whereas Pry inherited a program that wanted to restore its recruiting relationships throughout the area after Fuente fumbled these away, his tenure has largely been stricken by dropping massive video games on massive levels and failing to fulfill expectations. He hasn’t crushed Miami or Clemson. He’s misplaced video games to Rutgers, Marshall, Outdated Dominion and West Virginia.
Pry appeared like a greater match for the job than Fuente. He was a former grad assistant beneath Beamer and Bud Foster within the Nineteen Nineties, after which established himself as a pointy defensive thoughts and dogged recruiter beneath James Franklin at Vandy after which Penn State. However the outcomes are the outcomes. Pry has gained simply 41 % of his video games, whereas Fuente gained 58 %.
Much less clear is what Virginia Tech does after it strikes on from Pry.
The Hokies, whether or not they wish to settle for it or not, are firmly within the center class of faculty soccer. That a lot was made apparent by athletic director Whit Babcock final month in a presentation he gave to the college’s Board of Guests. Babcock mentioned that to compete on the high of the ACC, Virginia Tech wants an annual athletic division finances of $200 million — a determine that the Hokies are about $58 million in need of.
“Our assets don’t match our expectations,” Babcock mentioned in August. “If we don’t radically leap ahead now, we’re doubtless sealing our personal destiny for years and generations to come back… I really feel like I’ve been crying wolf and the wolf is admittedly coming.”
This was Babcock not simply signaling, however firing off flares and fireworks in regards to the kind of existential disaster that Virginia Tech is in relating to cash for sports activities.
That is the brand new period of faculty soccer. Funding is probably the most important think about constructing a championship program. Gone are the times the place a workforce might Beamer Ball its method 25 consecutive profitable seasons. Gone are the times the place you possibly can construct a fence round one potent recruiting space — like Virginia’s Tidewater, aka the 757 — and pipeline all of its greatest gamers to your college, abilities that included maybe the best defensive finish of all time in Bruce Smith, a game-changing quarterback in Vick, and an All-Professional and Tremendous Bowl-winning security in Kam Chancellor (that is the place it’s value declaring that Virginia Tech has produced simply 4 first-round NFL Draft picks within the post-Beamer period, with zero of them coming from offensive ability positions).
Merely put, Virginia Tech hasn’t had the cash to get nice gamers on this new period and doesn’t have a coach who is supplied to do-more-with-less.
Regardless of all of the heartbreak, unmet expectations and losses, Virginia Tech followers hold displaying as much as Lane Stadium. They hold screaming “Enter Sandman.” They usually hold upholding top-of-the-line atmospheres in all of faculty soccer.
However because the fanbase grows extra disenchanted with Pry, how lengthy does that final?
Furthermore, can Virginia Tech afford to swing-and-miss on one other soccer rent? If the Hokies miss within the upcoming coach carousel season, will we start to solely keep in mind them for what they was? Will they journey down the trail of former nationwide champions and contenders turned in has-beens and what-ifs?
When Virginia Tech entered the ACC in 2004, it was seen as one of many convention’s signature soccer manufacturers. Now, 20 years later, it’s getting ready to changing into simply one other middle-of-the-pack workforce.
