There are plenty of teams heading into the 2024 season with visions of a newly expanded, 12-team College Football Playoff. One of those teams is Virginia Tech, and there’s a reason they’re so hyped heading into the season.
After starting the season 1-3, the Hokies went 5-3 in the ACC, earned bowl eligibility, and finished with a 7-6 record after defeating Tulane in the Military Bowl. Between their regular season win over Virginia and their bowl victory over the Green Wave, head coach Brent Pry retained a number of players while also adding some key players in the transfer portal. All of this provided a major boost to a program that had been missing for some time.
Besides the Virginia Tech fanbase, people all over the country seem to be following the Hokies this season, including ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Rece Davis.
Pete Thamel and Rece Davis of the College GameDay Podcast named several sleeper teams in both the ACC and SEC for the 2024 season. They first named Syracuse and Boston College as teams to watch in the ACC, followed by Virginia Tech and Potential Embers Reconstruction has begun in Blacksburg under Pry’s leadership.
“I think the great thing about college sports is when that excitement comes back after a first time or a drought. You could feel that at the end of last season when Virginia Tech was rejuvenated. How much fun would it be if GameDay this year was ‘Enter the Sandman’ coming to Virginia Tech? I think people forget, but that place was rocking for decades. Really rocking. That place was one of the best environments in sports. It feels like those embers are coming back and I feel like the team is trying to bring it back even more this year.”
– Pete Thamel
Tamel is right, Blacksburg has been good for 20 years and I get the impression they are getting back to that state under Pry and the current staff. They can take the next step this season. To be honest, I wish the season would come soon.