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Virginia Tech Athletics in 2024 – A Look Back at the Emotional Rollercoaster Ride

Rich Luttenberger·December 31, 2024

As the calendar year comes to a close, it’s time for the bombardment of articles and reflections on the past twelve months. Every time I sign out of my email the past week, there has been at least one “year in review” kind of article, and the same is true for watching entertainment shows on television.

It got me thinking…Yes it’s cliche, but why not do the same with Virginia Tech athletics?

For most Hokie fans, we absolutely bleed maroon and orange. And we especially live and die (hyperbolically, of course) each autumn weekend with the football team.

We know how that went. But what was fandom like for the other team sports in Blacksburg?

Unfortunately, not much different. This was a rough year to root for Virginia Tech, possibly the toughest in my 54 trips around the sun. While there were some amazing highs, there were more than our fair share of lows, and a lot were pushing depths I’ve never felt before as a fan. So if you don’t want to relive those painful moments, maybe this article isn’t for you.

However, knowing the very fabric of Hokie Nation so well, I think you will appreciate this review of the 2024 year in Hokie sports – from a fan’s point of view.

Photo from this post on X — October 19, 2020 · View on X

New Year, New Hope

The 2024 year started with so much hope and excitement, the likes we have not felt as Hokies for most of the past decade. The football team was coming off of a resounding Military Bowl win and had the potential to return more than a significant portion of its roster.

The women’s basketball team, with a trio of adored leaders that included Liz Kitley, the greatest basketball player in its program history, was on a quest to defend its ACC tournament championship and make another run at the Final Four.

The men’s basketball team was 9-4 at the start of the new year, with hopes to make a push for the NCAA tournament.

There was joy in Mudville!

However, as the months passed, the winter doldrums set in for the men. They went 9-9 the rest of the regular season. After a first round ACC tournament bounce and a second round NIT loss, the men concluded a disappointing 19-15 campaign.

But we still had a historic women’s team to root for, right? Unfortunately, true to the script of much of my life as a Hokie, disappointment was on the way as the dreams for the women’s team to repeat their greatness came crashing down on one single night.

After the ladies secured the regular season ACC title, Kitley suffered a devastating knee injury in the finale. Against UVa no less. We did not know at the time the extent of her injury, but anyone watching that day knew it was grim. It was easy to read the look on Liz‘s face and the reactions of her coaches and teammates. This was not good.

Unsettling days went on with no word, and without her, the women’s basketball team fell in the second round of both the ACC and NCAA tournaments. The details were eventually released – torn ACL. This was not the end that the Queen of Cassell deserved. As fans, we felt her heartbreak.

Photo credit: Ivan Morozov/Techsideline.com

Still dealing with the pain of watching Kitley end her career so unfortunately, as well as the team suffering early exits from both tournaments, the fan base was completely unprepared for the dagger to the heart that came next.

We were shocked when, without warning, head coach Kenny, Brooks left to accept a job offer at the University of Kentucky. Losing the coach who built this championship team was a tough pill to swallow, but what made it so difficult for Hokie Nation was the fact that he bolted without a word.

There was no goodbye. No thank you. No recognition for the thousands of fans who sold out his arena, including the student section – the Cassell Guard – that made home games feel like 32 minutes of hell for the opponents.

Now I know how the Baltimore Colts fans felt after waking up on March 29, 1984 to learn that team owner Robert Irsay had moved the team to Indianapolis. There was an emptiness and hurt that lingered for months.

Rosters Turned Upside Down

After the basketball seasons ended, the drama only continued as both teams suffered significant attrition. The men’s team was left with four players, three of whom lacked any significant playing time, as starters left for greener pastures. Or rather, greenback pastures, particularly in the SEC.

The women’s team roster also suffered loss, and pain was compounded when fan-favorite and fellow Queen of Cassell Georgia Amoore followed Coach Brookes to Kentucky. So did rising star Clara Strack.

This is a new age of college sports, and I certainly do not begrudge players who transfer – it is a personal decision that usually involves a lot of money, and in this case, a strong relationship with the coach. But – and I will address this again later – it hurts to see the Hokies lose talent, especially to SEC schools. Hate the game, not the player.

The hire of Megan Duffy to lead the women’s team alleviated some of the despair as she is a promising hire. And Duffy did a nice job with roster retention and portal acquisitions given the situation, but overall, what could have been a storybook finale turned into the worst-case scenario.

Spring is a time for hope and rebirth, but unfortunately, Hokie Nation was reeling only four months into the year.

Wrestling Provides a Spark

Fortunately, it was not all doom and gloom in March. Wrestler Caleb Henson won an individual national championship, the program’s second ever. If you watched the tournament like I did, you were treated to exciting bouts round after round for the Hitman.

Overall, the team placed four finishers in the top eight, which earned them All-American status. For the fifth time in coach Tony Robie’s seven years of NCAA tournaments, the Hokie wrestling team placed in the top ten. The program continues to trend upward, and that was a feel-good story for Hokie Nation in 2024.

More Pain on the Diamond

By the end of March, the Virginia Tech baseball team was 21-5 and reached the national rankings, allowing fans to dream of hosting another NCAA regional.

Unfortunately, the schedule was backloaded, and the Hammering Hokies dropped the final six ACC series. Tech lost six of its last seven regular season games, then they were swept out of the ACC tournament in two games. A disappointing end for sure.

The softball team gave fans a little more joy, winning 40 games on the year and finishing third in the ACC regular season. However, after earning a first-round bye, the Hokies were upset by sixth-seeded Georgia Tech.

They followed that with a 1-2 record in the NCAA Regionals, losing a chance for a game two upset when UCLA overcame a deficit to walk off the win in the bottom of the seventh. The Hokies lost the next one to Grand Canyon University, closing with a 40-13-1 record.

It was certainly a solid year for the softball team, but for a fanbase that is starving for championships, and one who has suffered more than its fair share of heartbreaks and missed upset opportunities, the emptiness presided again.

Video from this post on X — May 18, 2024 · View on X

Summer Sizzle – Olympians and Kool Aid

On to summer. Time to enjoy the Hokies competing in the Olympics and start drinking the football Kool-Aid.

Virginia Tech sent ten athletes and one coach to Paris for the 33rd Olympiad. None of the athletes brought home a medal, but it was fun to see so many Hokies in the Games.

In an exciting upset, American Cole Hocker won gold in the 1500-meter run. After his surprising win, social media was abuzz about “Virginia Tech’s gold medalist.” This was inaccurate, as Hocker is actually an Oregon graduate. But he did follow his college coach, Ben Thomas, to Blacksburg and was training locally. Thomas is a Virginia Tech alum, so even though Hocker is not from Tech, it was cool to have an Olympic gold medalist who lived in town and trained under a Hokie!

After enjoying the Olympics, it was time to go all-in on football. And when I say all-in, I mean ALL-IN.

With 20 of 22 starters returning, the expectations were high. National media jumped on the hype train, with several prominent personalities naming Virginia Tech as a dark horse candidate for the ACC title and a bid in the first ever 12-team playoff.

With the returning talent and numbers, it was realistic to predict nine or even ten wins. I myself though eight wins was the floor.

And with a season opener in Nashville, an adult playground, excitement was through the roof.

Yet Another Epic Disappointment – and an Underwhelming Season

Summer ended and Labor Day weekend was upon us. The Vanderbilt trip was going to be epic (unbeknownst to me, for the wrong reasons). It had been on my calendar for five years, and I left for Nashville on Wednesday night to make a long weekend of it.

True to reputation, the Music City was a blast. There was a bowl game vibe and a ton of Hokies were in town. Too bad a football game had to put a damper on the weekend.

Sadly, I’m used to that by now. I have had many a trip tainted by an unexpected or heartbreaking loss. It goes all the way back to New Orleans on January 2, 2000, when I was there with the Hokies as they were 15 minutes from a national title.

The Vanderbilt loss was yet another example of Virginia Tech making national headlines that fans don’t want to make. But it was only game one, there was still an entire season to play, right?

Well, we know what followed. Inconsistent play throughout September. An overturned replay despite questionable evidence. A non-conference P4 losing streak continued. Comebacks falling short. Large leads lost.

Virginia Tech beat UVa yet again, proving that there is some normalcy to the universe. However, needing to win that game just to get to a bowl was not what any Hokie fans had on their bingo cards earlier in the year.

Delph 🦃
@Delfleppard2

If you had said VT would have a worse record this season than last, I would’ve laughed and called you a casual. It truly is in every sense of the word, mind-boggling, that we end up at .500 or below by the end of the season. I’m basically out of words to describe my feelings

November 24, 2024 · View on X

New Landscape Deals Oppressive Blows

And once again, because injury is not enough, insult was added to the mix after the season when the transfer portal opened. I think I speak for many when I say that I was shocked at the number of players who entered the portal (24 according to On3). With two dozen guys in the portal and a handful of bowl opt-outs, it is tough for me to get excited about the Duke's Mayo Bowl, let alone feel confident about breaking that losing streak to non-conference P4 teams.

What really grinds my gears is how many starters were lost to SEC teams. The obvious culprit is money. We just cannot afford to pay players the same amount that SEC schools are offering. Thus, four starters and two backups are already on their way south

Like I said earlier, I don’t blame kids for taking advantage of the lucrative opportunities that come their way. Think about it – if a well-esteemed employer offered you two, three, or even four times your current salary to work the same job for them, wouldn’t you take the job, especially if it amounted to a life changing sum? We all would make the move, or at least consider it seriously.

But it burns me up to know that our beloved football team seems to be part of what is becoming a farm system for SEC schools. And what hurts even more is that I do not believe changes will happen any time soon – if at all.

I’m sorry to be so cynical, but with a governing body – if that’s what we can even call the NCAA – that seems to have zero interest in regulating NIL or the transfer portal, it is hard to foresee any future outcome different than what we are experiencing right now.

Think about it…there is no way that tampering was not part of this process. The portal players announced their new destinations fairly quickly. Other schools were definitely in contact with them prior to the portal window opening. Tampering happens everywhere (just ask Jim Mora), but is the NCAA doing anything about it?

In past years, there was always hope. Hope that the next season might be better. Hope that the program was on the rise. Hope that we were building something.

But in today’s environment, it is hard for me to cling too tightly to those kinds of hope. Especially when the SEC can just open their wallets and lure away our best talent. Across all of our teams and programs.

It feels like Hokie Nation is cursed like Sisyphus. Every time we think our boulder is making progress up the mountain, the SEC - or some other reason for heartache - is there to knock it back down.

Some days I wish that the SEC and Big Ten would just break off and form their own football league, leaving Tech to play in a league of like-minded programs. But would that really change anything? What would stop the SEC from pillaging our roster?

Final Thoughts

So as we head into January, it is unfortunate that I enter 2025 with a salty tone as a fan. It is a shame that a year that started with such hope ended with such disappointment.

The basketball team is struggling, and the football team is rebuilding again. The ACC is getting trashed in the bowl games and the conference feels like a dead man walking. Even the vaunted ACC basketball reputation is taking a hit right now.

This isn't my father's ACC...The league was ambushed last night in the "Challenge".SEC wins 9 of the 10 contests...the average margin of victory was 15.3 points. The ONLY bright spot for the ACC was Clemson knocking off #4 Kentucky. SEC is 21-2 vs ACC this year in MBB.

Mark Packer (@MarkPacker) · View on X

I know that tomorrow will be a new day. And I know that I will still wake up a Hokie fan. I will always be a Virginia Tech alumnus. And even though it feels like it is our lot in life to suffer, I will always be a Hokie fan.

I will hope that the recent portal additions will make our football team competitive next year. I will root for Coach Duffy and Coach Young as they lead their teams this winter. I will watch wrestling when I can and even try to attend the NCAA’s, fully expecting a large slate of grapplers to be on the mats in Philly.

I will continue to put out my VT lawn sign on game days and wear the logo after victories. The magnets will stay on my car, and my VT coffee mug will be used when we win. And I will always go back to the beautiful town of Blacksburg…to see games, to see friends, to partake in events. Because it is home.

I will always celebrate what it is to be a Hokie. Pride. Passion. Resilience. Relationships. Treating people the right way. Doing things the right way. It is the very fabric of our existence and it ties us together.

While more success on the field or court would be nice, being a Hokie is a greater reward in and of itself. I wouldn’t change that for the world.

Sure the losses hurt, especially the most recent, the loss of our beloved professor Nickki Giovanni. But her words will always ring true for Hokie Nation.

We will prevail.

Go Hokies!

Rich Luttenberger

Columnist

Born in the Bronx but otherwise raised in northern New Jersey, my Hokie life began in the fall of 1989. I walked on to the baseball team and spent a year and a half as a redshirt catcher.