I was sitting in Lane Stadium watching the fourth quarter of the Virginia Tech game against Richmond, and I was still nervous that we were only up by 11 points and the starting QB was still in the game.
And then I realized, I've been through this before. Too many times.
There's been a lot of sturm und drang among the VT fanbase the last few years. As fans, we have not been delivered that which we were promised when Justin Fuente was hired. I'm not going to go into a full treatise about what's right and wrong with the program at the moment, but I do want to focus on one aspect.
The FCS game. Designed to be a tune-up game or a breather where the starters can knock some rust off, run up the score, and then let the backups get some game reps.
In the six years of the Fuente era, VT has played six FCS teams.
2016 - Liberty
VT won 36-13. Jerod Evans played most of the first three quarters. Motley came in with the drive that started at 0:22 in the third when VT was up 33-13.
2017 - Delaware
VT won 27-0. Josh Jackson played the entire game.
2018 - William and Mary
VT won 62-17. All three QBs played. One interesting note is that Willis came in with 2:51 left in the 2nd when VT up 31-7. Jackson started the 2nd half with one drive, then Willis took over again.
2019 - Furman
VT won 24-17. Willis started the game, and Hooker only came in during the 4th quarter due to an injury to Willis. Also important to note that Furman took a 14-3 lead into halftime.
2019 - Rhode Island
VT won 34-17. Hooker played the entire game except for the final clock killing drive led by QP.
2021 - Richmond
VT won 21-10. Burmeister played the whole game except for a drive by Kadum and then a few plays by Blumrick for the run package.
The average margin of victory in those games is 21.6 points. If we take out the outlier that is the William and Mary game (which should be the FCS standard), the margin drops to 17 points. Four of the six games featured the starting quarterback basically playing the entire game.
Now, I'm looking for a few comparisons. Naturally, it's hard to make any significant comparisons over a six year stretch. But let's keep the comparisons relatively local.
Comparison #1, the final six FCS games under Frank Beamer:
2015 - Furman 42-3
Motley pulled after 3rd Q.
2014 - W&M 34-9
Brewer pulled for last 6 minutes
2013 - West Carolina 45-3
Logan Thomas pulled for last 10 minutes
2012 - Austin Peay 42-7
Thomas pulled with 2:20 left in the 3rd
2011 - App State 66-13
Thomas pulled for last 20 minutes
2010 - JMU 16-21
Tyrod Taylor played the entire game, which is understandable considering VT lost.
Even with a loss, the average margin of victory was 31.5 points. Taking the loss out of the equation, and the margin jumps up to 38.8.
Comparison #2, uva in the same time frame.
I really hate to take a look at my most hated rival, but they did select their current coach at the same time as VT, and it's probably the most average team I can find. I didn't take a look at how long their starters played, but I did pay attention to the margin of victory.
2016 - lost to Richmond by 17
2017 - beat W&M by 18
2018 - beat Richmond by 29
2019 - beat W&M by 35
2020 - beat Abilene Christian by 40
2021 - beat W&M by 43
Even with a loss, that's still an average margin of victory of 24.6 points. Take out the loss and the average is 33. uva had a lower floor than VT, but they have progressively shown improvement.
No matter how you slice the numbers, the last six years at VT have the worst showings against FCS teams.
I know this is just one small data point among Fuente's resume at Tech. But I can't help thinking that it's a problem, and it feeds into others.
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