After beating then ranked No. 10 North Carolina on Friday, Virginia Tech jumped into the top 25 of the AP and Coaches Polls.
#Hokies come in at #19 in the AP Poll in football while VT Men's Soccer is now #6 in the country https://t.co/97FKA4h0f4
— Tim Thomas (@TimThomasTLP) September 7, 2021
In what was the first edition of the regular-season polls, the Hokies made their debut in both major poll for the first time in 2021.
For the AP Poll, Virginia Tech was ranked No. 19 this week. This a major improvement for the Hokies in this poll after not receiving a single vote in the preseason edition of the AP Poll.
For the Coaches Poll, the Hokies moved up to the No. 21 spot of the rankings. Similar to the AP Poll, Virginia Tech was unranked in the Preseason edition of the rankings; but did happen to receive nine voting points prior to the start of the season.
Virginia Tech is the second-highest program to debut in the rankings for the AP Poll and third-highest in the Coaches Poll after being unranked in the following week; No. 16 UCLA takes home that honor after taking down then ranked No. 16 LSU on Saturday.
With the Hokies placement in these weeks’ rankings, it means that Virginia Tech has appeared in the top 25 at least once during each of Justin Fuente's six seasons.
Around the ACC, it was not a great week for the ranked teams in the conference as Clemson, North Carolina and Miami all dropped their season opening matchups.
In the AP Poll, the Tigers dropped three spots from No. 3 to No. 6 following their loss to the now No. 2 ranked Georgia Bulldogs. The Hurricanes dropped eight spots from No. 14 to No. 22 after their blowout loss to the No. 1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game. Meanwhile, the Tar Heels were the biggest drop of any ranked ACC team from the preseason edition to the Week 2 edition, falling 14 spots from No. 10 to No. 24.
The Coaches Poll also saw the top teams in the ACC drop down in the rankings. Clemson fell down three spots from the No. 3 spot to the No. 6 rank. The Tar Heels, who were ranked at the No. 9 spot, dropped thirteen spots to the No. 22 position; while the Hurricanes, who were No. 16 in the Preseason Poll, dropped eight spots to the No. 24 spot.
Outside of the Top 25, there were some rises for some of the unranked programs across the ACC. In the AP Poll, the N.C. State received the second-highest number of voting points for unranked teams at 69. Meanwhile, Boston College tallied in eight voting points, an increase of three voting points from the five they received in the Preseason edition. For the Coaches Poll, the Wolfpack brought in 81 voting points in the first regular season edition of the poll. The Eagles tallied up 19 voting points in the latest edition of the poll, while Virginia brought in their first voting points of the 2021 season in the Coaches Poll with five.
