After rising to No. 13 in the polls, Virginia Tech was brought back down to reality last night against the unranked Old Dominion Monarchs out of Conference USA.

Despite being a multiple touchdown favorite, Virginia Tech lost to the Monarchs 49-35.

“We didn’t play very well. That’s the truth,” Head Coach Justin Fuente said. “I don’t want to say that and take away from what they accomplished. We had plenty of things that we need to work on, and those are all my responsibility – and I understand that. But they played better.

“They absolutely deserved to win the football game,” he added. “They played harder. They played better in all three areas of the game: offense, defense and special teams. I am disappointed in how me played. I am most disappointed in our discipline level. Our discipline level was unacceptable and I’m sorry for that. We have a lot of learning to do, in terms of how good of a football team we are, but we are non-negotiable on having a disciplined football team.”

Old Dominion recorded 632-yards of total offense, repeatedly beating Virginia Tech’s cornerbacks for big plays in the passing game. Quarterback Blake LaRussa was 30-of-49 for 495-yards passing and four touchdowns on the night.

“We tried several different coverages. We tried zero blitz, we played two high, we threw the kitchen sink at them. We didn’t always handle the adjustments very well. That’s part of the deal, and that’s part of the thing we talked about. We didn’t adjust on the fly very well, and we didn’t execute.”