Virginia Tech fires Justin Fuente after six seasons

Virginia Tech has fired head football coach Justin Fuente, the school announced Tuesday.

“We sincerely appreciate the contributions that Coach Fuente made to our football program and the positive impact he made on our student-athletes during his time at Virginia Tech,” athletic director Whit Babcock said in a statement Tuesday morning. “While it is never easy to make a change, I believe in order for our football program to attain the type of sustained success that is expected at Virginia Tech, the time was right for new leadership of our football program.”

Additionally, Fuente released a statement on Tuesday following his firing. Defensive line coach and defensive recruiting coordinator J.C. Price will serve as the interim head coach to close out the season.

The head coach went 43-31 in Blacksburg, and the Hokies are 5-5 this season. They must beat either Miami or rival Virginia to close out the season to become bowl eligible.

Virginia Tech suffered their third three-game losing streak at Lane Stadium in the past four years this season, falling to Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Syracuse in consecutive weeks. The man that Fuente replaced, Virginia Tech legend Frank Beamer, only had two such streaks in 29 seasons.

Why was he still Virginia Tech’s coach coming into 2021?

The head coach narrowly avoided being fired last season in large part thanks to a 33-15 beatdown he dished out to his hated in-state rival, Virginia, in November 2020.

Former Hokie running back Khalil “Juice” Herbert gashed the Cavaliers for 162 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown on the ground on 20 carries. The Hokies didn’t go to a bowl game in 2020, but a dominant win over his in-state rivalry helped to ease the pain of the Virginia Tech fan base.

The stats tell the story and they aren’t pretty

The stats tell the story of Virginia Tech football and they’re not a pretty one. The Hokies are averaging a measly 5.57 yards per play on offense, ranking them 98th in the country.

The Hokies also currently have the nation’s 96th ranked scoring offense in America. That simply won’t get it done, especially not in Blacksburg, Virginia, where the fans had enjoyed remarkably consistent success under Beamer.

Internal strife within the Virginia Tech program

There have been reports of internal strife and conflict within the Virginia Tech football program for the past few years. The 2018 season saw a number of Virginia Tech players reportedly cheer against their own team due to being at odds with the coaching staff. There was an alarmingly high level of attrition in the Virginia Tech program following the 2018 season, with 14 players entering the transfer portal, including five of them within a 48-hour period.

Simply put, it’s going to be hard for any major college football coach to field a successful team with that kind of internal conflict and roster attrition.

This past offseason, it didn’t get any better for Fuente in the transfer portal, as he lost star quarterback Hendon Hooker. Hooker has shined in the 2021 season for the Tennessee Volunteers and losing him was a major blow to not only Virginia Tech’s future, but Fuente’s future in Blacksburg as well.