I don't know why I made this. I needed an outlet for the feelings I have around the program right now, as I, like many of you, feel that Virginia Tech Football is in the midst of a dark night of the soul right now.
This is a collection of footage from over the years, telling the tale of Hokie football from the time I was old enough to love it, up until today.
Sharing it here, because I know you guys will "get it".
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Thank you. I think we can all use a little help now.
I too appreciate the sentiment, but I stopped midway. I have been a fan since 1989. Thus, witnessing the entire VT Football "Circle of Life" that started in 1993.
Unfortunately, for me, watching this video actually depressed me. Before the Vandy loss, videos like these brought me joy and pumped me up. Why, I still had a shred of hope. That hope is now gone.
I'm not watching the game this weekend. Not one bit. No interest what so ever. It saddens me, but IIWII for me at this point.
I wish the players the best and hope they win for their sake. As a fan, either result has no bearing on my outlook anymore.
WTF?
samesies - I don't even know what time the game is on Saturday but I'll be spending the day NOT in front of a screen of any sort. Looking forward to watching Liverpool on Sunday. That's pretty much all I care about these days
I'll be Mr. Mom as my wife is going back to Edmonton to visit her family. Unfortunately, someone has gotten a bad diagnosis. We'll all be going over US Thanksgiving. But I do plan on watching or listening at least a little bit. Not caring that much, but I do have a curiosity for how the team will respond. If they just totally fold up again, that will be a disappointment. But it has been a long time (the Kentucky bowl game) since I've gotten worked up over anything VT football did.
Sorry to hear that. Enjoy the time with the fam.
When I was probably 13 my mom was going home frequently to visit her dad who was sick. One weekend my dad randomly took my brother and I downtown because the Smithsonian was doing a display where they brought in all these poisonous Amazonian frogs. We checked out the frogs and walked around all the monuments; it was a really nice day. Sorry for the random brain dump, but I hope you have some quality time with the kids doing whatever you've got going on.
Making it depressed me too, it took me days. I suppose that was kind of the point though - to let myself feel the sadness of what we used to have versus what we have now.
I think feeling that pain and allowing ourselves to feel that pain as fans, is better than feeling nothing and allowing the apathy to set in. The video is supposed to be a reminder that what we have, and have had at this place, is special. We need to grieve what is gone, but not roll over and die.
And I know there's not much we can do as fans to change a program from the top to the bottom like it needs to be, but we can demand better of the Tech admin and AD. This video is kind of meant to be a "look what they took from us".
I just don't think we should go out with a whimper.
You did a good job on the video. Thank you for taking the time to create it.
Stopped it after the Miracle in Mo Town...was there in the stands with buddies just to the left of the uprights for the game. Couldn't make myself follow the slide from there.
Thanks for sharing. This feels like a tribute you would play at a funeral. It's a sad and depressing week in America and this just adds to those feelings but thankfully it's just entertainment at the end of the day. I will always love VT football but I'm reluctantly accepting the fact that the joy of VT football is gone.
They said it at the end there, I am just glad I was there from 2008-2012 to witness and truly experience what it was like in the good days.
I was there from 2004-2009!
First VT football game I remember was my rat year in the Highty Tighties. While we marched at every home game halftime, I don't recall them specifically until that year's Thanksgiving game against VMI when we rode the train from Christiansburg to Victory Stadium. Don't remember who won, just remember hazily the day. I was a fan through Sharpe, Dooley and for Frank's whole tenure. I remember the 2-8-1 season, I was there. I went to games by myself because my crowd didn't go to the games often. Then came the good years, season tickets, tailgates and lots of friends, started the bowl streak and scored Michael Vick and on 'till whatever we have now. I'm bummed. Normally, I'd be doing about everything I could to be able to watch even the Wofford game. I'm not going to bother. I will watch games I don't have to convolute to watch, but I've never been at this point in my fandom before and I don't care for it one damn bit.
The empty trophy case was really a symbol of the idea that we were right there, and if we kept doing the same things, things would break our way and we'd get our shot again.
Turns out, everything was changing, and we kept doing the same things, and we fell behind.
You just see it here as well. We are Blockbuster, Clemson is Netflix.
Thought this was good context for my non-college football fans so I shared it with them.
me:
them:
me:
The 95 and 96 Druckenmiller led squads put us on the map. The 95 Sugar Bowl win against Texas was a marquis win. Those were tough, physical, gritty teams with 0 quit. It really started there before the Vick era....
Those were my years ...95 to 99...was really a great time to be a Hokie
Mine as well. Finished grad school in Dec. 96. 96 Orange Bowl loss to Nebraska was tough. I'll never forget those Texas fans in 95 Sugar Bowl who had never heard of us being shocked at how we punched them in the mouth. They couldn't believe how physical we were. Shyrone Stith was a beast. Distant memories now...
Tech outscored opponents during the 1995 regular season in the 4th quarter, 107 to 21 points. Tech was not outscored in the 4th quarter by any opponent, including Texas in the 1995 Sugar Bowl.
I remember watching the 1995 Sugar Bowl on TV, with 3 or 4 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, and Tech trailing 10-7. My wife walked by and asked me the score. She replied "Oh, Tech is losing". I replied confidently, "Just wait till the 4th quarter". And the rest is history, with Tech defeating Texas, 28-10.
93-97 here. Until the streak was broken, we had been to a bowl every year since I moved to Blacksburg (and stayed with a job after school).
89-97 here. I've seen the best of times, and the worst of times. Now I think I'm seeing the latter again. Here's to a bounce-back to the former.
'83 - '88 for me so I got the Bruce Smith years including the glorious '83 Squeaker win at Lane North(48-0 and tore down their goalposts)(and we got snubbed by the Peach Bowl for UNC despite being 9-2 to their 8-3- but they got crushed 28-3 by FSU in the bowl)
the '86 Peach Bowl- VT's first ever bowl win(back when bowls were far fewer in # at 18 and more meaningful);
being an 'independent' in football(used to be very common at the time)
And Beamer's first year after the Bill Dooley sanctions took effect(side note- though much derided as "three yards and a cloud of dust" offense, I think I and many would see that as an improvement over recent offenses.
Oh I completely agree, this was just kind of a retrospective I put together from my own perspective - I was only 9 when the '99 season happened, and it was when I was first old enough to really care about Tech football, so I started there.
It set me up for a lifetime of disappointment lol
I was at Tech from 94-98 and was at the Sugar Bowl vs Texas. What a great time to be a Hokie.
Watched this yesterday and it hurt so much.
A lot of y'all older and younger folks don't understand. For people our age, you grow up right alongside the maturation of VT football and you kind of don't think it's ever going to end. You think it's always going to be like this. The Hokies went to the title game when I was in 2nd grade. They were relevant when I was in 6th grade, 9th grade, 12th grade, on into college. As you grow older, you gain perspective, and you realize that that really isn't a lot of time. But when you're a kid becoming a teen becoming an adult, it feels like you've been through about 85 different seasons of life. And while some years were better than others, we were still relevant every year. Beams had us right there. Static, unchanging, consistent, a given. Whereas now, we are keeping the first two parts of that and wondering why it isn't translating into the third.
We might be good again in some far off future. But we're going to be bad for a long, long time. And it just hurts to watch something you loved so much die.
Amen, brother.
It hurts. It hurts a lot. I've come to realize that I was spoiled as a VT fan. I remember watching Vick dazzling tv audiences when I was a kid. I remember watching the aTm hurricane game from my couch. I started at VT in 2006. Graduated in 2010. Witnessed the last of the great teams in Blacksburg. For as long as I knew that college football existed, VT was near the top of the sport pretty consistently. It just feels so foreign for that not to be the case. But I've resigned myself to the reality that all good things come to an end. And, in this case, a very painful, bitter end. It sucks a lot and it sucks even more knowing that VT is not going to be in that top echelon of the sport again for many many years, if ever. It's not quite the same, but on some level I can sort of understand the agony of my MIL's parents who grew up in Buffalo and were big Bills fans. They watched the Bills go to and lose four consecutive Superbowls. They're both dead now. They left this planet with their team in the dumps, having never witnessed them reach the summit. That sort of sports-fandom-pain is unparalleled. VT was so close to the pinnacle and now it seems so far out of reach that I'm not sure I'll ever see VT bring home a championship in my lifetime. VT's moment has passed and I don't ever expect it to return. At least the Bills are good now. Hopefully they too reach the summit. For my MIL's sake, I'm hoping desperately for them to win a SB before she dies. At least she'll get to experience something her parents didn't. That's my hope.
One could argue that it has translated into the third. We've been consistently bad to mediocre for at least 10 years. Certainly, consistently frustrating to watch!
I'd probably watch the game on Saturday anyway, but they put it on a streaming channel that I don't get, and no way am I paying to watch VT play Wofford online.
We play ODU at 7pm on ACC Network this Saturday
So you may be able to tune in if you dare!
Yes, I got the weeks confused.
I did tune in. Not sure I even regret it, as I now understand exactly where the team is, and am free to chase other pursuits.
I see no reason at all to tune in next week, and can't, since I don't have any access that I know of to ACCN extra.
You know where the teams is!? Great because no one showed up last night, you should go get them so we can play football this season
Wrong thread