Miami football: Manny Diaz expects wounded Virginia Tech Saturday

After Virginia Tech was blown out 45-10 at home on Friday night by Duke Miami football head coach Manny Diaz said he expects a wounded Hokies team at Hard Rock Stadium against the Hurricanes on Saturday.

The Miami football team has won the last two meetings and three of the last four against Virginia Tech. The Hurricanes ended a four-game losing streak with an impressive 38-14 victory in Blacksburg in 2018. Miami enters this year’s game with the Hokies after a sluggish 17-12 win over Central Michigan followed by a bye.

Like the Miami football program, the once-powerful Hokies have struggled for the last two seasons. Since the ACC went to two divisions for football in 2005, Virginia Tech leads the Coastal Divison with six titles. The Hokies three ACC Championships are second only to Clemson’s five and Florida State’s four in the same time span.

Since starting last season 4-2, Virginia Tech has gone 4-7 and lost six of their last seven ACC games. Miami has a similar streak since beginning the 2017 season 10-0, the Miami football team has won seven and lost nine. In the same time span, the Hurricanes have are 4-11 against Power five teams since their 10-0 start to 2017.

Starting with a loss to Pittsburgh to end the 2017 regular season and a 38-3 defeat to Clemson in the ACC Championship game that season Miami has lost four of their last 11 ACC games. This is not the Virginia Tech Miami football rivalry that dominated the Big East in the 1990s and first half of the 2000s.

From 1991-2003, the first 13 years of the conference, either Miami, Virginia Tech or both won the Big East outright or had a share of the title. Miami played in five games with National Championship implications during that time and Virginia Tech one. Diaz spoke about what he expects from Virginia Tech on Saturday.

"“In college football you’re probably not going to see the same team every week, right? Clemson is seeing North Carolina losing back-to-back games to Wake [Forest] and App [State] and they’re saying, ‘OK, we’ve got this.’We have told our football team in this sport anytime you think something is about to be easy you better duck because you’re going to get whacked in the head.Obviously we would expect a wounded team, a very hungry team coming out of that locker room but I can’t worry about what’s coming out of that tunnel, I’ve really got to worry about what’s coming out of our tunnel and make sure we’ve got the right edge to succeed regardless of what Virginia Tech’s mentality is.”"

Virginia Tech’s 2-2 record seems more shallow than Miami’s 2-2. The Hokies losses are in both in the ACC (to Boston College and Duke) and Virginia Tech’s loss to Duke was their worst in Blacksburg since a 49-12 loss to Houston in 1974.

There have been rumblings that Hokies head coach Justin Fuente is on the hot seat in his fourth season. Virginia Tech won the ACC Coastal in Fuente’s first season in 2016. The Hokies went 9-4 in 2017 with a 28-10 loss to Miami at Hard Rock Stadium and 6-7 last season.

Virginia Tech needed to win their final two games of 2018 against Virginia and an extra scheduled game against Marshall to extend their bowl streak to 26 games. The Virginia Tech Miami football game on Saturday is critical for both programs.

The heat will be on the coaching staff for the losing team. Miami needs to come out with more sense of purpose on Saturday than they did against Central Michigan. Diaz mentioned last week following the flat performance against the Chippewas he expects his team to compete harder.

The crowd should be more into the game against Virginia Tech than they were against Central Michigan. Miami still has a chance to win the ACC Coastal. The Hurricanes have to defeat Virginia Tech, Virginia and Georgia Tech at home the next three weeks to continue to have a chance to play in Charlotte the first week in December.