Monday Musings: Back Down to Earth

As the clock showed three seconds remaining, James Franklin made a gesture.

Approaching his team during a timeout, the Hokies' big whistle was calm, urging his players, and the capacity crowd teetering on the edge of its seats inside Lane Stadium, stomachs twisted into knots, to take a breath.

Nothing about this game could have foreshadowed its ending. Virginia Tech had practically been begging Pitt to steal a win for most of the night, handing the Panthers four turnovers and 82 penalty yards. And despite out-gaining the Panthers and backup quarterback Holden Geriner 499-295, the Hokies were down two scores late in the second half.

Nonetheless, here were James Franklin and company, a 36-yard field goal away from the program's first 5-0 start since 2005.

Then, all at once, in one agonizing instant, the calm Franklin urged turned to disbelief as Pitt's players streamed onto Worsham Field, celebrating kicker John Love's improbable miss. Despite Love's protestations and the eye tests conducted by thousands, both in person and online, the game was over. Pitt 35, Virginia Tech 33.

The rocket that had been Virginia Tech's season thus far had suddenly fallen out of orbit, careening back to a familiar stratosphere: On the wrong end of a one-score game. In a cruel twist of irony, the most damning feature of his predecessor's tenure reared its ugly head, handing Franklin his first loss in Blacksburg.

The fabricated controversy surrounding Love's missed field goal will ultimately cloud the overriding truth of this game, that the more deserving team won Friday night.

But despite turning the ball over four times, a disastrous third quarter, and ill-timed gaffes at almost every turn, Virginia Tech was inches away from breaking into long-forgotten territory.

It's precisely because the Hokies were so imperfect, yet so close to winning, that fans should take heart in this experience, as painful as it might be.

It's not a participation trophy, nor is it a loser's silver lining. But maybe it's something even simpler.

A hearty serving of humble pie.

The Hokies' 4-0 start to the season was the stuff of dreams. The offense under Ty Howle had palpable juice, a rarity in Blacksburg, thanks to Ethan Grunkemeyer's efficiency getting the ball to a stable of playmakers. The defense looked vintage, wreaking havoc in opponents' backfields.

Until they didn't, and it was about time. We saw glimpses of what this team was at Boston College, but Friday's performance was on home turf in prime time.

Heading into this season, many, myself included, predicted this team would finish in the 7-5 to 8-4 range. While not exactly the stuff of legend that many fans envisioned when James Franklin was hired last fall, either record is a marked improvement from the miserable stretches of the last few years.

And for most of Friday's game, Virginia Tech looked as though those predictions would hold, like a team running up against its first serious opponent of the season. Sloppy penalties, missed tackles all over the field (all 16 of them), and poor communication sunk the Hokies' chances more than a missed field goal did.

It wasn't until Tech forced a safety and Jeff Overton returned the ensuing kick 62 yards into Pitt territory, setting up a Davion Brown touchdown, that those visions of mediocrity suddenly vanished as soon as they appeared.

That turnaround is a feature of a program that's rebuilding. Rollercoaster performances like this one should be expected for a team less than halfway through its first season together, less than a year removed from going 3-9.

Fans who are upset over this loss have every right to be. Anyone wearing maroon and orange with a pulse and who watched this game was, and likely will remain for some time, utterly devastated. For a minute there, as the Hokies drove 62 yards on 16 plays to give Love–a sure-footed veteran who was 42-for-44 from inside 40 yards–a chance to win the game, the result felt almost inevitable, like it was all part of Franklin's plan.

That fleeting confidence made Love's miss all the more gut-wrenching. Still, perspective matters here.

The way this loss took place should be what hurts most, not the loss itself. Dismiss it as an optimist's warped worldview, but take a step back and see the forest through the trees first.

The percentage of fans who earnestly believed during the preseason that James Franklin would lead the Hokies to a 5-0 start certainly is in the small minority. No amount of self-assurance, optimism, or blind faith could have been that persuasive. But when Virginia Tech proved it wasn't the same program that withered on the vine under Justin Fuente and Brent Pry, suddenly the season held greater promise.

But losses were bound to happen somewhere along the line. It's unbelievably unfortunate that a fanbase as tortured as this one had to endure a loss like that. After all, it's been on the wrong end of late-game theatrics before–the 2012 Sugar Bowl (he caught it!) and Miami in 2024 (so did he!), to name a few.

But the goals of this program remain the same. Build the foundation for sustained success. That work continues with how fans view this loss.

When looking back at the moment Franklin reassured his team with outstretched hands ahead of the most tense moment of the season, his gesture holds more weight, sending a message to all those who made more of this loss than it deserved.

Take a deep breath. There's plenty of season left.