In the early part of the 2000s, things were rolling for the Virginia Tech football program under legendary coach Frank Beamer. When he decided to step aside and call it a career, Justin Fuente was handed the keys to the program and things began to slowly change. Then after Fuetne was fired, Brent Pry was hired to turn the program around and he has yet to break through in doing that.
It's been a decade since Beamer stepped away and the program is nowhere near what it used to be, but despite the struggles, it didn't stop The Athletic from naming Virginia Tech on of the Top 25 programs of the 2000s. However, there is a major flaw with the No. 18 ranking.
Virginia Tech's lack of recent success has brought up questions about the program
The Fuente era in Blacksburg is one that fans want to forget and left Brent Pry with a mess to clean up. After a rough 3-8 first season at Virginia Tech, Pry went 6-6 the last two seasons with 2024 being a huge swing and miss with a talented roster. The talk about the 12-team College Football Playoff was probably a little over the top, but there is no reason that an eight, nine ot even 10 season should have happened.
In 2025, the Hokies are looking at a more difficult schedule with a new-look roster and two new coordinators and a new offensive line coach. Not only is the non-conference schedule tougher, so is the ACC schedule for Virginia Tech. It's safe to say that Pry will begin the season on the hot seat and there needs to be improvement of some kind to get some of the heat off of him.
Two programs in the ACC ranked ahead of Virginia Tech, Florida State at No. 12, and Miami at No. 14, are on this season's schedule. The ranking is from the Beamer era, and bt the recent success of the program has done nothing to help improve the ranking.