Of all the states in the South, the Old Dominion has been the most resistant to the lure of big-time college football. Here, more than anywhere else below the Mason-Dixon Line, educators and elites drew a line in the sand to resist the trappings of major college sports. I have never fully understood why this was so. Maybe it's the fox hunting. Maybe it's respect for higher education. Maybe it's the notion that "gentlemen" shouldn't engage in physical competition with rabble. But, for whatever reason, Virginia has generally been a dead zone on the cell phone map of college football.
So in 1953, when eight schools broke away from the old Southern Conference to form a new Atlantic Coast Conference, the new league included four schools from North Carolina, two from South Carolina, and only one -- Mr. Jefferson's University -- from the Old Dominion. Over the next two decades, three other Virginia schools -- William and Mary, VMI, and Washington and Lee -- all downgraded their programs and stopped playing big-time football. UVA was in a major conference, but the Cavaliers have generally been content to bump along at the bottom of the league.
That left Virginia Tech. Now Tech was founded during Reconstruction, which means it lacks the historical cachet of the other Virginia schools. Also, Tech is in Blacksburg -- which is far off the beaten trail by Virginia standards. And finally, Tech is, after all, a technical school -- "Virginia Polytechnic Institute" -- and engineering is not usually thought of as a profession for gentlemen. These facts have all acted as a drag on Tech's academic rating -- although U.S. News still ranks it well above most schools in the SEC -- but they also freed Tech to develop its football program. Tech is very much the People's College in a state where traditionally the People didn't get a whole lot of attention. Going to Charlottesville and pounding the Cavaliers in football has always been a great way for Tech fans to get their revenge.
But for most of its history, Tech was a vagabond in the world of college football. The Hokies (the nickname derives from a 19th-century cheer developed by Tech students) belonged to no major conference, making it harder for them to obtain big-time recruits. On December 22, 1986, however, Tech hired Frank Beamer (a Tech grad from Fancy Gap, Virginia) away from Murray State (where he went 42-23-2), and Beamer made Tech into a major power. Much of the credit goes to Beamer's coaching; his teams always play hard, rarely beat themselves, and feature solid defense and outstanding special teams. But Beamer should also get credit for his recruiting. He has dominated the Hampton Roads region -- a sort of miniature Alabama that produces excellent football talent (just ask Bruce Smith (Norfolk) and Michael Vick (Newport News), both of whom went from the Hampton Roads area to star at Tech.
Nevertheless, while Tech has won and won and won over the last 25 years, and has leveraged those victories into a position in the snooty ACC. But for all their success, Tech has not been able to break through to the highest level of the game. While Hampton Roads produces a lot of talent on a per-capita basis, it doesn't have the population to allow Tech to consistently beat schools from places like Florida, Alabama, Ohio, and Texas.
In fact, Tech has never won the UCFC. Prior to 1988, the Hokies only played in five UCFC games -- all against East Coast powers -- and they lost every time. Since 1988, Tech has lost two UCFC games to Florida State (one of which was the 1999 National Championship game), three UCFC games to Miami of Florida (in 2000, 2001, and 2002), and they lost to Reggie Bush's USC team in 2004. None of those defeats are shameful. Tech also lost to UVA in a 1989 UCFC game, but that was an unusually strong Cavs team. So while it is true that Tech is 0-13 in UCFC competition, it is also true that today's game represents the Hokies' best chance to take the title.
