Monday Musings: Dancing on the Big Stage

As every college football fan knows, attending weddings in the fall can be tricky.

Obviously, supporting friends and family takes priority over what happens on the gridiron, but that's easier said than done. After all, we're all junkies who are hopelessly addicted to the performances of groups of 18-to-22-year-olds who happen to play for our schools.

So, naturally, as I attended the wedding of a childhood friend this past Saturday, I occasionally checked the score of Virginia Tech's road matchup at Clemson on my phone to get my fix, only partially following the action.

In between sessions on the dance floor spent grooving to all the classic wedding hits, I'd head over to the back of the pavilion, where my father was sitting, his phone propped up on the table's centerpiece, showing the game.

It was during one of these intermissions in boogeying that I returned to the table, sweating profusely, as Luke Reynolds caught Ethan Grunkemeyer's game-winning touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter. It was then that we realized that we hadn't been alone in our spectatorship, as a big cheer went up around the pavilion from other tables where groups of Hokie alums were high-fiving in celebration of Tech's 20-16 win.

Perusing the box score on Sunday morning with a cup of coffee in hand and Pedialyte working its magic, I had my suspicions about the nature of the Hokies' victory confirmed.

Judging by the score alone, I knew that the offensive record book was safely intact; neither team eclipsed 300 yards. I also knew Virginia Tech had the lead going into halftime, but as has been the case all season long, that lead quickly disappeared in the third quarter, as the Tigers scored 13 unanswered and held Virginia Tech to as many yards in the frame.

But I wasn't really interested in finding an angle about which to proselytize. Nobody was grading the Hokies on style points during a night game in Death Valley, especially not in Year 1 of a rebuild. The bottom line was James Franklin's group found a way to win in a hostile environment.

It wasn't perfect. This team is far from it. But, as Tech Sideline's Andy Bitter wrote after the game, they're "perfectly imperfect," as apt a description of this team as any.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the feeling surrounding this program being akin to swagger. At the time, the Hokies were 3-0 after a convincing road win over Maryland. Since then, newly crafted expectations from some fans have been held in check. Still, Saturday's win feels important in a multitude of ways.

Virginia Tech is bowl-eligible for the first time since 2024, a feat that was once so mundane for this program but has been elusive as of late. Bigger than that, though, Saturday marked the first time the Hokies have beaten Clemson since 2007, when Tech won a similarly offensively-challenged matchup.

While nobody will confuse this season's version of Clemson with its national championship squads of the last decade or so, knocking off one of the sport's blue bloods on its home turf is significant. It was the most hostile environment the Hokies have played in yet, and they dashed the hopes of the 81,510 in attendance at Memorial Stadium. To top it off, Clemson was coming off an open week, whereas the Hokies were playing their eighth consecutive game. Simply put, it was James Franklin's signature win to this point in his brief tenure, a big-time win in a big-time atmosphere.

I don't know if this team has found an identity just yet. We've seen flashes from all three phases, but there are still moments that make your scratch your head (or bang it against the nearest wall.) Perhaps the closest thing to an identity that we can deduce about this group is its grit. No, not the slogan of the Justin Fuente era, but actual toughness, an innate refusal to bow out when adversity strikes.

This quality was on display Saturday night. After enduring the Tigers' third-quarter storm, the Hokies got off the turf and punched back. In Grunkemeyer's case, he got off the ground all night long after being sacked six times, picking grass out of his facemask after throwing the game-winner to Reynolds on fourth-and-one with 1:44 left to play.

After the game, Franklin acknowledged the beating his quarterback took.

"And you can say whatever you want about Grunk, but you can't question his toughness," Franklin said. "He kept getting hit, kept getting up, kept making, finding ways to make plays, protected the football. That was a gutsy, gritty win across the board, but you got to give Grunk a ton of credit to him."

We've seen this mentality throughout the season. During both of their losses, the Hokies put themselves back into a position to win the game. While it's true that they probably didn't deserve to win those games, it seemed like the team itself never got that message.

During the Pitt game, Grunkemeyer led a masterclass of a 10-play, 60-yard drive to give John Love a chance to secure Virginia Tech's first 5-0 start since 2005. This team was less than two feet away from achieving that feat.

After allowing Cal to march down the field and take the lead with under a minute left to play, the Tech offense moved the ball 53 yards in three plays to give themselves a chance to win and nearly had it if it weren't for a questionable no-call in the back of the endzone.

You can question a lot of things about this group, but its ability to regroup and respond when its back is against the wall is impressive. It's a characteristic that's been sorely missing from Tech teams of recent years, when the Hokies would often pack it in after getting punched in the mouth.

With an open week coming up for the first time all season, it'll be a chance to rest and get healthy.

"There's nothing better than a bye week after a win," Franklin said.

After showing what they're made of on the big stage, maybe they'll work on their dance moves some, too.

I know I will.