ACC Coastal clarity? Virginia Tech climbs into driver's seat
While it's not exactly on the way to Orlando, the rest of the Coastal Division now knows the roadmap to the ACC Championship Game.
It goes through Blacksburg.
No. 25 Virginia Tech dominated North Carolina 34-3 and coupled with No. 10 Miami falling to No. 23 Florida State 20-19, the Hokies ended a Saturday that promised some separation in the division in its driver's seat.
The Hokies are the Coastal's only team that's 2-0 in ACC play, with expected contenders North Carolina, Miami and Pitt all having a league loss.
Justin Fuente's arrival at was the heralding of a much-needed offensive revolution for the Hokies, and his fast-paced scheme is doing its part, have no doubt there. But the revelation lies on the other side of the ball, where Frank Beamer's old right-hand man has the defense looking very impressive.
Bud Foster's crew has allowed a combined 20 points over the last three games, and against the Tar Heels' budding Heisman Trophy contender Mitch Trubisky, Virginia Tech not only snapped the quarterback's school record of passes without an interception at 243 -- the Hokies picked him off twice. That part of a shutdown performance in which Trubisky threw for just 58 yards (that after three straight 400-yard games) and North Carolina managed just 131 yards while failing to reach the end zone for the first time in coach Larry Fedora's five years.
"We defended the pass in the secondary, we rushed the passer, eliminated the run game," Fuente said. "Pretty darn fantastic performance."
Yes, so stout was the Virginia Tech defense that with Trubisky's picks and a pair of fumbles, the Tar Heels had more turnovers than points.
We may be seeing the emergence of the division's best defense, a point driven home when you consider what Florida State did to Mark Richt's defense in the day's ACC nightcap.
Dalvin Cook ran for 150 yards as the Seminoles burned the Hurricanes -- who came in seventh in FBS in total defense in allowing 252.3 yards per game -- for 407. To be fair, those stats were aided by Miami having played just one Power 5 team (Georgia Tech) before breaking into the Top 10.
Frankly, the Hokies offense -- which the last three years was 53rd, 99th and 93rd in points per game -- was going to be more effective with Fuente's influence. It took some time, and a rash of fumbles, as through two games (a win over Liberty and a loss to Tennessee), Virginia Tech had nine after totaling seven in Beamer's final season.
The Hokies took off, though, beating Boston College 49-0, East Carolina 54-17 and, with the punctuation mark of the program's second-largest road win over a ranked team, the Hokies have now outscored their last three opponents by a combined 137-20.
Those miscues resurfaced on a rain-soaked day in Chapel Hill, as Virginia Tech led 13-3 at halftime despite fumbling the ball six times -- and seven overall -- with a pair of turnovers. But the defensive effort simply set the tone, and QB Jerrod Evans and Co. would turn the Tar Heels' four turnovers into 20 points.
Chaos has a way of creeping into the Coastal Division, which in three of the past four years has put a team with two or three losses into the conference title game. With the Hurricanes heading to Blacksburg on Thursday, Oct. 20, and a trip to Pitt the following Thursday for Virginia Tech, chaos could still reign.
It's the Hokies in the lead, and in control of their own destiny in a division where their coach opened the season sharing the ACC rookie label with Richt and Virginia's Bronco Mendenhall.
The Fuente hire, though, is looking like the deftest of those moves. But as Virginia Tech has been showing, don't downplay the Foster Factor, because it's these Hokies balance that is making them look like a force in the Coastal.
Follow Cory McCartney on Twitter @coryjmccartney and Facebook. His book, 'Tales from the Atlanta Braves Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Braves Stories Ever Told,' is out now, and 'The Heisman Trophy: The Story of an American Icon and Its Winners' will be released Nov. 22, 2016.
