TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – In a cramped room following Virginia Tech's win over Florida State, Justin Fuente and Bud Foster took turns sitting behind a table in a cramped room and answering questions from media members, all the while sweating – a byproduct of a humid and rather emotional evening in Tallahassee.
Both coaches tried to keep what transpired on Bobby Bowden's field Monday in perspective. The kids played hard, they said, following Tech's 24-3 dusting of the Seminoles. They were proud of them, they said. Time to get ready for William & Mary, they said. This was just another game, they said.
All that certainly rings true from a macro point of view. But let's not let that diminish what took place Monday night. After all, coaches and players deserve to celebrate wins, particularly one that arguably serves as the signature win to date for Fuente.
Tech's history against the Seminoles runs long, and in Tallahassee, futile. The last time the Hokies won in Florida's capital, none of the current roster had been born. In fact, Fuente wasn't even 2 yet, and Foster didn't even have his driver's license.
Yet to start this 2018 season, Virginia Tech took its lunch pail and its work ethic to the Florida panhandle and played harder, smarter and tougher than the Seminoles. They overlooked the history of Deion Sanders, Warrick Dunn, Derrick Brooks and Peter Warrick, who had his jersey retired at halftime. They only gave a cursory glance at the spear. They shrugged off Osceola and his horse. They tuned out the war chant.
On this night, Tech's collection of talent held a bunch of five-stars out of the end zone for 60 minutes. Foster called his bunch a "group of no-names" afterward, and he's right – not a single Tech player made the preseason All-ACC team.
"It's gratifying tonight," Foster said. "To come down here with a group of no-names, so to speak, and we stepped up. We told our kids, 'I don't care who they are. They don't know who you are.' Of the however many millions of people that watched the game tonight and the people that sat in the stadium and Hokie Nation, they're going to expect our kids to play a certain way – and that's our tradition. That's really what we wanted to focus on.
"To come down here and win in this environment with the group of kids we have is very, very special."
MOVING ON 🆙
— Virginia Tech Football (@VT_Football) September 4, 2018
Tech vaults to No. 12 in @AP_Top25
Moves to No. 14 in @usatodaysports Coaches Poll. #Hokies 🦃 pic.twitter.com/FidwnUFJHA
Tech did not play flawlessly, as to be expected in an opener. Yet the offense executed nicely on its first two drives to give the Hokies a lead that they would not relinquish, and then after squandering some scoring opportunities throughout the second half, made the big play at the end on Josh Jackson's touchdown pass to Eric Kumah – and remember, big plays were lacking last fall. Also worth noting, Tech did not turn the ball over.
Tech also got a large play on special teams when tight end Chris Cunningham blocked a punt that Kumah returned for a score. A 17-3 bulge at halftime was more than enough for Foster, who only added to his legendary status.
Foster's defense – breaking out seven new starters – played outstanding, and the Hokies' experienced defensive line lived up to its billing. The Hokies lived in Florida State's backfield, finishing with 14 tackles for a loss and five sacks, and more importantly, five turnovers.
Trevon Hill is an established star, and he finished with two sacks. Ricky Walker lived up to his billing, too, and Vinny Mihota had a game-clinching interception. But the newcomers joined the fray as well.
Rayshard Asbhy forced a fumble and finished with seven tackles. Dylan Rivers added seven tackles, and Khalil Ladler made several plays, and talk about a debut for Caleb Farley, who picked off two passes and had a sack. There has been so much hype about this young man since he enrolled in January of 2017. Monday night, Hokie Nation finally got to see it.
"I don't want to say it was a surprise, but I was working hard, and I'm confident in my ability," Farley said. "Absolutely, this is a very humbling experience for that to happen the way it did, and I thank God for it."
Not all went perfectly for Farley, who made a critical error when he missed a tackle that led to Cam Akers' 85-yard run. But Bryce Watts made a helluva play to track down Akers at the Tech 5, and then the rest of the Hokies picked up Farley by forcing a fumble a few plays later.
"We told the kids there were going to be momentum swings during the course of the game," Foster said. "Who can handle that? Who can go to the next play and play the next play and forget about the previous one? I thought we did a nice job with that, all in all tonight, when it's all said and done … Just to go to that next play and fight and play that next play, I thought we did a good job of that."
Florida State, for sure, is not the Florida State of old. The game marked the first for new head coach Willie Taggart, and quarterback Deondre Francois was playing in his first game in more than a year. The Seminoles, too, lost a lot off last year's defense. It takes time to implement new systems. Yet here's guessing that the Seminole faithful expected more.
On this evening, Virginia Tech's football program entered this game as 7.5-point underdogs and yet left as three-touchdown victors. The Hokies outworked, outcoached, and most importantly, outplayed Florida State. There were pockets of flashy plays, but for the most part, they simply played with a certain toughness, a certain grit.
The coaches talked about going 1-0 this week, and the Hokies convincingly accomplished that. But this one just feels a little bit bigger.
Tech prides itself on being a challenger brand. Maybe on Monday night, the Hokies took the first step toward being a champion.