Most Important College Football Game for Each Top 25 Team During 2016 Season
By Zach Bigalke
22. Virginia Tech Beats North Carolina 34-3 in ACC Coastal Play (Oct. 8)
Sometimes the game that decided a division title game occurs in the final weeks of the season. And sometimes the pivotal contest occurs much earlier in the season and becomes the fulcrum that swings one team into a conference championship game and the other to the sidelines to wait for a bowl invitation. The October showdown between Virginia Tech and North Carolina, played in a deluge as Hurricane Matthew swept up the Atlantic seaboard, was one such game that ultimately made the difference in the ACC Coastal.
This might just be the ugliest game of the season that featured two Power Five conference contenders. The Hokies held North Carolina to just 131 yards on 62 snaps of the ball, as the Tar Heels insisted on letting Mitch Trubisky throw the ball 33 times. Sticking to the ground game, Virginia Tech gutted out 189 tough rushing yards and two touchdowns. Jerod Evans attempted half as many passes with better overall results, finishing 7-of-17 for 75 yards and two scores. Justin Fuente’s team enjoyed a 2-to-1 advantage in possession, finished +2 in turnover margin on, and thwarted all four UNC attempts to go for it on fourth down.
That win in Chapel Hill spelled the difference between staying home on the first weekend of December or heading to Orlando to play Clemson in the ACC championship game. In Fuente’s first season as the head coach in Blacksburg, this game pushed the Hokies all the way from 25th to 17th in the AP Top 25 and they entered the Coaches poll for the first time of the year at 19th.