Virginia Tech was knocked out of the Coastal Division lead by Florida State Saturday -- replaced by streaking Virginia, incredibly, which we'll be addressing in this week's edition of "As the ACC Standings Turn" -- but might have much bigger troubles down the road: Quarterback of the Present/Future Tyrod Taylor went down on the first snap of the game with a sprained ankle, the same ankle that cost him three-and-a-half games last year as a freshman, and after the Ghost of Quarterbacking Past, Sean Glennon, emerged from the bench to lead the Hokies to a 13-10 lead at the half, he went down, too, in even more painful fashion with a sprained knee. Quarterback-turned-receiver-turned-emergency-quarterback Cory Holt finished the game, FSU expanded a 17-13 lead to a 30-20 win.

Before the last two weeks, Tech had only lost two in a row once since joining the ACC four years ago, in 2006, when it rebounded from back-to-back losses to Georgia Tech and Boston College to take its last six and finish with the third in its string of four consecutive 10-win seasons. To get there now, at 5-3 and just 2-2 in the conference, the Hokies would have to take four straight over Maryland, Miami, Duke and Virginia, then win the ACC Championship or a bowl game. All four won Saturday, three of them (all but Maryland, which survived NC State) over winning teams, which in this conference counts as a serious hot streak. Tech is going the other way, with both its mediocre quarterbacks in limbo, a middle of the pack defense and uncharacteristically poor special teams, including a roughing the punter penalty with FSU down 13-10 and facing a 4th-and-20 that Frank Beamer said changed the game.

Now: the Hokies are also 13-1 in November since joining the ACC, and won the division after the lone loss (to Miami in 2005). Tech still controls its destiny in the conference; if there's anything to its consistency down the stretch, it has to regroup over its bye week, forge some kind of identity behind whoever's left at quarterback and engineer some sort of autumn miracle.