....VT finished off a year of spotty defense with a great-looking bowl victory (Music City) over Bama. In 2018, VT just slid and slid and slid.

In those 1998 losses, VT was at least competitive and lost to very good teams. In VT's 2018 season, they had a pattern of eeeking out some skin of the teeth victories, then getting BLOWN OUT and run over (badly) in many of the losses. The 1998 team had waayyyyyyyyyy more top-quality personnel available than the 2018 team did.

The addition of one man (Michael Vick!) made a great deal of difference between 1998 and 1999. The 2019 Hokies won't have a Vick (though it's possible they could have an Andre Davis). And this year's Hokies certainly won't have the 1999 (or even 1998) defense, regardless of anything Bud does.

This is a year for VT to try and clean up its act on the field and capitalize on the schedule to post a decent record and give the players/coaches/program more confidence to build on for the future. There is NO way VT will even sniff the ACC title (i.e. beating Clemson), which is what it takes for the CFP.

Your little bit of luck, a conducive schedule, and some coaching sleight of hand might lead to a Coastal Division title -- and that's as far as it will go even under the most O&M of glasses.