Give @MattZemek a twitter follow and check out his musings on college sports at https://www.patreon.com/Zemek.
QUESTION: Which fan base should be more upset — Virginia Tech or Florida State?
Answer: Yes.
To be more clear: HELL, YES.
Virginia Tech and Florida State fans should be very upset about their Week 1 losses.
We all said it, we all knew it, and we can’t pretend to view these situations differently after the fact: Virginia Tech HAD to beat Boston College. Florida State HAD to beat Boise State.
Programs which carry high standards simply have to win certain kinds of games in certain kinds of situations. In order for the Hokies and Seminoles to entertain realistic visions of producing respectable 2019 seasons, they needed to win these games on August 31.
Not only did they fail to get those wins, suggesting that their ceilings are unacceptably low for the current season; what was even worse was the manner in which they lost.
Justin Fuente is a quarterback guru… or at least, that is his brand. He molded Andy Dalton into an NFL-level quarterback at TCU and then helped Paxton Lynch thrive at Memphis. He earned a reputation as a quarterback whisperer and as an astute play-caller whose early scripts undressed defenses. His game against West Virginia and Will Grier a few seasons ago showed why Fuente had rock-star potential (and still does) as a coach.
Why, then, did Ryan Willis — who was understandably inconsistent in his 2018 debut season — so noticeably erratic once again in 2019? Fuente didn’t know he would work with Willis last year. He knew he would this year. He had a long offseason to work with Willis and instill good habits and healthy tendencies.
Fuente clearly struck out.
Whenever a coach has a specific forte, he has to hire assistants who can take care of the other aspects of coaching a team… but the coach himself has to be able to deliver the goods in his own area of expertise.
Justin Fuente has to nail QB development. If he can’t do that, why is he on the job?
Then turn to Tallahassee, where Florida State — playing at home in very familiar Florida humidity — simply got dominated and overpowered by visitors from the state of Idaho in the second half.
Forget for a moment the importance of Kendal Briles as offensive coordinator. Maybe the strength and conditioning coach needs to be fired at Florida State. How else to explain the puzzling and paralyzing no-show in the second half, getting SHUT OUT by a Mountain West Conference opponent after scoring 31 first-half points?
Being physically overwhelmed by Clemson or Alabama, or even (as much as it might hurt) Florida? Okay. That will happen. It is not enjoyable, and the Seminoles need to work hard enough so that they won’t be in that position on a consistent basis, but one can accept that programs with superpower-level resources might have more fuel in the tank.
But BOISE STATE? AT HOME? IN LATE AUGUST?
No way.
And yet: Way. It did happen.
Should Hokie or Seminole fans be more upset about Saturday?
The answer, again, is YES.
Make you follow the All Sports Discussion Twitter account at @AllSportsDACC and please like our Facebook Page
Leave a Reply