Virginia Tech football is the most disrespected team in the ACC

We have a bad habit of forgetting about Virginia Tech football in the ACC.

Virginia Tech football was supposed to be a cornerstone for ACC football growth, right?

Adding the Virginia Tech Hokies to the conference in 2004 after a decade in the old Big East was supposed to take ACC football over the top. Frankly, the Hokies have done more than their fair share of the work in helping make the ACC a respectable football conference in the last 16 years. They have won four ACC Championships and won six division titles since coming over in 2004.

Yet for some reason, we never, ever seem to give the respect to Virginia Tech football it deserves. Even though the legendary Frank Beamer retired after the 2015 college football season, it’s not like his successor Justin Fuente has done a deplorable job replacing a coaching icon. Fuente is 33-20 overall, 20-12 in ACC play and won the ACC Coastal in his first year on the job in 2016.

While Virginia Tech is not one of roughly 20 teams in the nation that have a semi-realistic shot of reaching the College Football Playoff, this graphic by FOX College Football must make every Hokie’s blood boil. It’s blatant disrespect to a program that has simply earned better than this. Since when do the Louisville Cardinals and the North Carolina Tar Heels get to skip ahead in line?

Virginia Tech football keeps getting hated on and it needs to stop now.

FOX’s graphic shows the number of returning starters on both sides of the ball for all 14 ACC teams. The idea behind this graphic is the Clemson Tigers only have 12 return starters in 2020 (six offense, six defense). Clemson should still cake walk through the ACC, but the thought is teams like Louisville and North Carolina, who have more returning starters, could take advantage.

Though Louisville returns 16 starters (eight offense, eight defense) for strong, up-and-coming second-year coach Scott Satterfield, and North Carolina returns 16 as well for the living legend that is Mack Brown (10 offense, six defense), Virginia Tech returns more starters than both of them at 18 (eight offense, 10 defense). Once again, absolutely no respect for the Hokies.

The only other team with more returning starters is the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Under second-year head coach Geoff Collins, the Jackets aren’t ready to compete because of the gimmicky triple-option offense they ran into irrelevancy for a decade-plus under former head coach Paul Johnson. Collins will make it work, but he’s going to need plenty of time to do it.

As for Fuente, his Hokies should be one of three teams with very serious aspirations about playing Clemson in Charlotte in December. The other two are Brown’s Tar Heels and Manny Diaz’s Miami Hurricanes. While North Carolina will be a real threat in the ACC Coastal as long as Brown coaches in Chapel Hill, it smells a lot like a hype train for Diaz and The U. Will the Canes live up to it, though?

The point is Virginia Tech isn’t shiny, brand-new or sexy in the ACC. Clemson is at the top of the food chain, while teams like Louisville, Miami and North Carolina seem like they’re on the rise. However, sometimes you gotta dance with the one who brung ya. Virginia Tech has been great for ACC football. It’s time to treat the Hokies like the first-class ACC football program they are.

Virginia Tech should use this graphic as bulletin board material to fuel them to ACC Coastal victory.

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