College football analyst labels Virginia Tech a mystery team in 2024

After coming off a 7-6 2023 season that was capped off with a Military Bowl win over Tulane, expectations are back to being high in Blacksburg for the Virginia Tech football team in 2024. Not only did the Hokies finish strong winning five of their last eight games to become bowl-eligible, but they also got several key contributors to return for next season, as well as some key additions in the transfer portal.

For the first time in a while, Virginia Tech will enter a season with a lot of answers and fewer questions than in seasons past. Josh Pate was discussing the Hokies on his recent show and labeled them as a mystery team in 2024.

"Virginia Tech feels like they're in ascension mode,'' said Pate. "Normally I don't talk about ascension mode until post-spring. Ascension mode is just that when you take off from an airport and you're climbing, maybe some turbulence, maybe smooth, but you're climbing and programs do that too. It feels like Virginia Tech is doing that. They have an over/under win total of seven and a half.

"They are number one in the country of returning production. The catch-22 in college football has always been, do you really want to have a lot of players coming back if they are coming back from a bad team? In Virginia Tech's case, yes because they were not a bad team last year. They got better as the year went on. Love the energy around the program. They are a mystery because you still have games against rosters that are better than you. You can also question could they end up being like Texas Tech? Everyone was high on Texas Tech last season, and they stumbled out of the gate and they're off everyone's radar.''

People were high on Texas Tech entering the 2023 season and they lost some games early on, but it feels like it's different right now in Blacksburg. One of the reasons why the Hokies over/under number is 7.5 is because the schedule is favorable. Now that does not always mean success, but there just feels like a different vibe right now around the program. I get why Pate calls Virginia Tech a mystery team, but they can take any doubt that people might have of them with a fast start to the season.