The Frank Beamer days at Virginia Tech seem so long ago now. Even longer than that was the last time the Hokies lost at home as badly as they did to Duke on Friday night. The Blue Devils scored 21 second-quarter points on their way to a whopping 45-10 win against Virginia Tech at Lane Stadium.
If that sounds like a historically bad defeat, you're right. That marks the worst home loss for Tech since 1974 -- 45 years ago -- when Houston won at Lane Stadium 49-12. That's 13 years before Beamer took over the team and made it a routine top-25 program. Moreover, it's also the third win for the Blue Devils against the Hokies in the past seven years. Prior to 2013, Due had not beaten Virginia Tech since 1981 -- though they had not played routinely as members of the ACC until 2004.
The point being, this is closing in on a rock-bottom loss for Virginia Tech coach Justin Fuente. As Paul Myerberg of USA Today notes, such blowout losses have become more commonplace for the Hokies under Fuente over the past year:
Since last October, the Hokies have lost to BC (twice!), to Notre Dame by 22, Georgia Tech by 21, Pitt by 30, Miami by 24 and now Duke by 35. This has basically been a bottom-tier P5 team since this point last year.
— Paul Myerberg (@PaulMyerberg) September 28, 2019
Virginia Tech is 6-8 over the past calendar year and the average point differential in those losses has been about 19 points. If you take away the name of the program, that looks like a bottom-half Power Five team. That's what Virginia Tech has become. While the possibility exists that Fuente could get things turned around, so too does the possibility of another losing season -- which would be the first back to back losing campaigns in Blacksburg since 1991 and '92.
