This is not a bad season, historically speaking..

This is by no means a bad season in comparison to the past. As a freshman kid in 2000, my roommate and I went to several games. That was when your athletic card only needed to be marked and you could essentially sit anywhere you wanted. There was no lottery, no line, not many fans showed up. We won 8 games that year. 8! I remember losing to William & Mary that season. I went to that game to see a couple of local kids from near my hometown play for W&M. I left shocked that a group including some Single A kids from the Middle Peninsula could beat a team from the Big East. As the season moved on, losing brought about less and less shock. We were bad. And I liked Rickey Stokes. His mom was my elementary school librarian and, to this day, I still have a Wake Forest practice jersey he gave me as a kid when he was an assistant for the Demon Deacons. I wanted him to succeed but he was far from doing so. When he was fired, I hated the hiring of Seth Greenberg. I wanted a big name. Many Hokies did. Boy was I wrong and Seth was easily a great hire. He has brought excitement to a school extremely needing it from its basketball program.

I didn’t miss snaps during football season, much less games. I was able to sit through homes games against LSU, a hurricane against Texas A&M and the greatest live football game of my life versus Miami in 2003. I never rushed the field for any football game. January 21, 2003. We played UVA, at home. My roommates and I made the trip from Foxridge and were forced to seats a couple of rows from the top of Cassell. We played well and Bryant Matthews had a monster night. We won and I rushed the court with many of the other students. I felt the urge to do something football had never pulled from me. Mostly, it was just a new feeling to finally break through after all those games going home miserable. I was so excited. Many of you probably don’t remember him, but I hugged Terry Taylor. All 300lbs of the sweaty, soon-to-be All-Big East honorable mention player. I then moved on to the bench and grabbed a chair. I thought about smuggling it out but realized there was no way I could climb over the wall with it before a security guard rushed me. It was a memorable night.

A couple of months ago I went through some old boxes. I found 4-5 old Collegiate Times newspapers from my days as a student. They were all of big events. There was the September 12, 2001 issue reflecting on the attacks the previous day. I kept the paper after Beamer chose to stay at Tech over leaving for UNC. In the mix was the paper the day after beating UVA. The back was a full page celebrating the fans rushing the court. That was a huge day when basketball really was bad in Blacksburg.

I had one of those moments over my course as a college student. And, I took a little longer to get out than most. Fans since those days have had a game like that on a yearly basis. Maybe that’s why they are calling for Seth’s head or not showing up to conference games. I don’t want to see the program head backwards and I don’t think this slow start to the ACC schedule is an indicator of that. Most expected a down year to develop some of the best recruits to ever step on campus. This is a rebuilding year for future promise. This is not a bad year.