BLACKSBURG, Va. — Near the end of Frank Beamer’s run at Virginia Tech, the Hokies had their share of struggles, but rarely, if ever, did they get blown out at home. The exception was a Thursday night 30-6 drubbing by Miami in 2014 when Tech trailed 24-0 at halftime and at no point looked competitive.
Afterward, Beamer spoke confidently about the future of the program, to the chagrin of disappointed fans, though that night felt like a turning point in the latter stage of the Hall of Fame coach’s career. Things weren’t going to get fixed without major change.
That was the only home loss by more than 20 points in the last decade of Beamer’s storied career at Tech.
The Hokies’ 28-7 loss to Pitt on Saturday was the sixth time that’s happened in the six years of the Justin Fuente era, home blowouts that include games in 2020 against Clemson (45-10), 2019 against Duke (45-10) and 2018 against Miami (38-14), Georgia Tech (49-28) and Notre Dame (45-23).
Two of those teams were great — Clemson was No. 3 last year and Notre Dame No. 6 in 2018 — but three were decidedly not, with this year’s Pitt team squarely in the middle.
Hokies fans have suffered a lot in the last decade, though until recently, they were rarely embarrassed in their home stadium. Fuente’s teams seem to have made a habit of that, adding to the heat emanating from his seat as a year that started so promising with a big win against North Carolina has sunk to .500 at the season’s midway point, with little hope from fans that things will get much better.
