Is 2009 another 2003?

Virginia Tech’s football team has now lost two contests in a row against Georgia Tech University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. These two losses have eliminated Virginia Tech not only from the national championship but also from the championship race in the Atlantic Coast Conference as well. From being ranked as high as fourth in the polls to being ranked twenty-second in the polls today after their most recent loss to North Carolina. This makes three losses on the season for Virginia Tech to go along with the five victories that they accumulated, the first loss was against the University of Alabama in early September. That makes them one loss short of last year’s record when they suffered four losses. One has to wonder where the Hokies go from here. More importantly, are they doomed to suffer the same fate as that of the 2003 Virginia Tech team where they were flying high but then suddenly came down to earth with a thud?
In the 2003 College Football Season, the Hokies had a fairly talented team and were ranked in the top ten in all of the pre-season polls. In their first six games of the season, the Hokies appeared to be one of the elite teams in the country. They demolished all their competition and were never considerably challenged throughout that said span; one of those victories included a fifty-one to seven rout of Syracuse University, a team that had defeated them in the two previous years. Their next opponent after that six game span was West Virginia University, a bitter inter-conference rival of Virginia Tech at the time (Virginia Tech was in the Big East Conference along with West Virginia until they [VT] moved into the ACC a year later). West Virginia’s record at the time was a dismal one with two wins and four losses; they did, however, push the University of Miami (ranked second in the country at the time) to its limits in one of their previous games, thus showing that they could be a nuisance for any team. Tech did not view West Virginia as a threat, they believed it was going to be an easy win. The game between Tech and West Virginia took place on Mountaineer Field in the city of Morgantown, West Virginia. Throughout the duration of the game, tech played sloppily and gave West Virginia ample opportunities to do whatever they pleased whether it was on offense, defense, or special teams; in the end, West Virginia defeated Virginia Tech soundly by a decisive score of twenty-eight to 7. The Hokies would rebound a little over a week later with a rout of the second ranked Miami Hurricanes by a score of 31 to 7 and would rise in the rankings all the way up to number five and back in the chase for the national title. This reprieve would be short-lived, however, as the Hokies played and lost to a fairly talented team from the University of Pittsburgh in the game’s final minute. That loss would officially end both Tech’s national title and Big East title hopes as that was their second conference loss of the season. The miseries would not stop there, the struggles for Virginia Tech would continue for the rest of the season. The following week against Temple University, a team with a record of one loss and eight defeats, went down to the wire in what should have been a relatively easy game for Tech. In that game, the two teams could not settle the decision in the original sixty second duration, the game would have to go into overtime. Even then, Tech would be lucky to get out alive as they won on a missed field goal attempt on Temple’s behalf in a final score of twenty-four to twenty-three; that would be the last victory that Tech would enjoy, it would all be downhill from there. The Hokies, ranked twelfth, faced Boston College in their final home game of the season. After going back and forth throughout the game, Boston College scored the winning touchdown late in the fourth quarter, setting Tech back yet another loss in the season. Tech capped their overly disappointing season with a loss at the hands of their heated in-state rival, the University of Virginia. Tech was ahead in this game and had an opportunity to put the game away early in the third quarter with a blocked kick that was returned for a touchdown. That touchdown was called back for a penalty and Virginia ended up getting a first down and would score on that drive. They would score a couple more times to take a twenty-eight to fourteen lead. The Hokies would score another touchdown in the fourth quarter and attempted to stop Virginia on their next possession. That, however, proved to be unsuccessful as Virginia ended up faking their field goal attempt in order to get a first down (which they did); they would score and go up again by two touchdowns, winning by a final decision of thirty-five to twenty-one. Tech’s four losses greatly reduced the quality of their bowl game. Instead of going to an important January bowl, they instead played in the Insight Bowl in late December against the University of California-Berkley. The contest was one that went back and forth with both teams going up by as many as three touchdowns at some point in the game. Tech would return a punt for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, tying the game up at forty-nine points each. Any hopes of victory would be dashed, however, when Cal got the ball back. They would get into field goal range with just a few seconds left in the game. They would kick the field goal and ultimately win the game by a score of fifty-two to forty-nine. The loss dropped Tech to a disappointing record of eight wins and five losses.
The question that I am trying to ask is this: is this Tech’s fate for 2009? Will they get their act together and finish off their now-watered-down season and win the rest of their games and finish strong or will they continue to fall apart at the seam and lose another one or two games? As for me, I would choose the former over the latter for sure. I do not want to see them collapse like I saw them do so in ’03, that’s too painful to watch a second time. If they can go the path of the former and in the rest of their games, then that’s a good thing. If they go the path of the latter, however, then Tech has some things to work out. Honestly, I have noidea of what is going to come of all of this, the future is quite murky.