For the last several years, the Virginia Tech Hokies have played the East Carolina Pirates every single season with games rotating between Blacksburg and Greenville plus the occasional neutral site game in Charlotte. While Virginia Tech is clearly the bigger program, the Hokies have had struggles with the Pirates that they haven't had with most ACC teams.
After winning four-straight games against the Pirates since their loss in Charlotte, the Hokies have loss back-to-back games to ECU. The loss two years ago was the most painful with it coming the week after the Hokies upset future national champions Ohio State in Columbus on top of the fact that the game was played at Lane Stadium.
Last year, the Hokies dropped their second-straight to East Carolina on a wet day in Greenville one week after the Hokies had blown out Purdue in West Lafayette.
For the past two years, the Virginia Tech-East Carolina game has come a week after a big Virginia Tech victory and both times, the Hokies slipped up the following week.
This year, the Hokies enter the week 4 showdown with East Carolina looking to get to 3-1 after making a statement with a 49-0 victory over Boston College at Lane Stadium. Throughout the week, the Hokies have stated to the media how they respect this East Carolina team and will not overlook them again.
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The Hokies recognize the fact that they have been tripped up by a pesky East Carolina team the past 2 years that showed a tremendous offense and could be 3-0 if it wasn't for a couple of turnovers against South Carolina. Now, the Pirates have their sights on a third straight upset victory over Virginia Tech but the Hokies seem ready to avoid overlooking a better-than-expected ECU team.
The fact that the Hokies have lost back-to-back games against ECU shows how the Hokies have struggled more against the Pirates than a lot of other ACC schools recently. Here's a breakdown of the last two wins that programs that regularly play VT have gotten against the Hokies.
- ECU: 2014, 2015
- Miami: 2014, 2015
- Pittsburgh: 2014, 2015
- Duke: 2013, 2015
- Boston College: 2013, 2014
- UNC: 2012, 2015
- Georgia Tech: 2009, 2014
- Virginia: 1998, 2003
As you can see, ECU has been as much of an issue as two of the ACC Coastal's top programs, Miami and Pittsburgh, over the past two years. Of course, the Hokies have proven plenty of times before that they can beat the Pirates but it's time for this team to step up and prove it.
Time and time again recently, the Hokies have had tough losses after big wins with ECU handing the Hokies arguably their two toughest losses over the past two seasons. On Saturday, Justin Fuente and Virginia Tech has a chance to get back on a winning foot with ECU and avoid extending what would be an embarrassing three-game losing streak to a program that is respectable but also a Group of 5 program.