As Dino Babers began his press conference on Monday, he described Virginia Tech football. Bud Foster’s defense. Twenty-three straight bowl appearances. The only thing absent from Babers’s statement that could have enhanced the description is former head coach Frank Beamer, who retired after the 2015 season. He coached the Hokies since 1987.

Instead, new head coach Justin Fuente has taken over. And little has really changed about VT on the surface. The transition has been seamless as the Hokies have improved.

When Babers talked about Virginia Tech, it sounded much more like where he wants his program to go. The reality is that Fuente and Babers took over at two different places in two different situations.

“Coach Beamer did not leave the cupboard empty,” Babers said during on the Atlantic Coast Conference coaches’ teleconference Wednesday.

Since Syracuse last played Virginia Tech in 2003, VT hasn’t changed, save for its new head coach. SU (2-4, 0-2 Atlantic Coast) has declined. Babers took over a program that went into neutral as it sped down a decline and rolled between the hills of a valley before settling at its bottom. Fuente picked up a banged up sports car that needed repolishing to look fresh again. On Saturday, the two coaches will hit a crossroads in the Carrier Dome at 3:45 p.m. headed two different directions.

The two coaches, who faced each other as the leaders of Bowling Green (Babers) and Memphis (Fuente) last season, have taken over two programs with drastically different needs. Although SU returned a higher percent of its production this season than VT, it replaced seniors with true freshmen in addition to returning starters from a 4-8 team. Virginia Tech (4-1, 2-0) has had more of a reload.

“I like our mentality as much as anything in terms of the kids getting a little bit of confidence in themselves,” Fuente said on the ACC teleconference, “a little bit of toughness and grit. That’s been fun to see as the season’s gone along.

“I like our progress there.”

Syracuse has struggled to get to that point all season. Players may say they use “faith,” but SU has lost four of its first six games in the easiest stretch of its schedule. And that doesn’t inspire much faith that SU will improve from the Orange’s performances against the Hokies in past years.

In 2003, the last season Virginia Tech and Syracuse played each other, the Hokies grabbed a 21-0 lead in the first quarter, extended it to 27-0 at half and finished SU off, 51-7. Current Washington Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall returned punts of 58 yards and 60 yards against SU and then ran another touchdown in from 24 yards out. The latter was the shortest VT touchdown play of the game.

Since that season, the Hokies have dug out a 117-48 record while the Orange has recorded a 57-95 record. The worst defensive showing by VT in those same years was a 66th-place finish in the nation in yards per play allowed, per teamrankings.com which excludes FCS opponents. Foster’s defenses have finished top five in that category four times since then and routinely closed the season in the top 30.

Courtesy of Dave Knachel (Virginia Tech Athletics)

Though it’s obvious with the Hokies at 4-1 and SU at 2-4 these seasons and coaches appear to be headed opposite ways for now, it highlights just how much pressure is going to be heaped on Babers. SU is waiting on its Frank Beamer: someone who can lay a foundation for the program and then exceed it. That’s who Babers is expected to be. He has to create the traditions that programs like Virginia Tech already have.

Foster, for example, took over 21 years ago as VT’s defensive coordinator and started the tradition of carrying a lunch pail on the field. SU doesn’t have any established traditions. Former SU head coach Scott Shafer had his team burn a shoe before training camp started, a symbolic way of moving on from the prior season. Every game day, the team would walk through the Quad and rub the Ernie Davis statue’s shoe.

That doesn’t happen at SU anymore.

And that’s also a result of so much coaching turnover. In the time since Beamer took over at Virginia Tech, Syracuse has had five different coaches. No. 44 is one of the few traditions the program has and even that has been retired and unretired at various times.

As Fuente wrapped up his time on the ACC teleconference, he talked about Syracuse’s defensive end group.

“I think they’ve got a good group of young kids out there playing really hard is kind of the first thing I notice,” Fuente said. “They do have some younger guys out there playing, but they’re certainly playing with great effort.”

Young. Much of this year has been new for Babers and his players. The reality is that Fuente is in a position Babers would like to be someday. Their resumes may read “first-year head coach,” but Babers has to drag Syracuse much further than Fuente ever will.

Published on October 13, 2016 at 10:24 pm

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati