After Saturday’s loss, I resigned myself to going outside to do some yard work and take my pent-up frustrations out on the leaves in my yard. As I mulled over the pasty, foul taste in my mouth, I came to a conclusion. Virginia Tech football has angered the football gods. I reflected back on the season thus far, thinking about how we just can’t seem to catch a break. Biero’s non-holding “holding” penalty against Cincinnati. The referee’s sudden change to flag football rules, and the lack of the replay official to see what was so clear on all of our TV screens against Clemson. Then I found myself thinking back beyond this miserable season. Weather forces cancellation of the spring game. Last year’s Sugar Bowl and what has to be one of the most egregious missed call in history, with Danny Coale’s (yes, it was a) catch. A flood of bad breaks and shoulda, woulda, coulda’s crossed my mind. The inexplicable pass interference call against USC. Ernest Wilford’s drop against Miami. The string of images flickering through my mind was like a depressing mental slide show. It made me realize that Virginia Tech is becoming the Chicago Cubs of college football. Forever on the outside, looking in at the national championship party. I struggled to think of a reason for this. Do we have a “curse of the Bambino” kind of thing going on? I don’t know of anything in our football history that would warrant one. Has the empty trophy case brought doom upon us? I can’t imagine that Jerry Claiborne or Bill Dooley have pulled out voodoo dolls or anything. Could a past player have put a hex on us? (I know what you’re thinking, but some of this started WAY before Sean Glennon).
I have no idea why, but I feel that we have transgressed somewhere, somehow. Maybe Frank sold his soul somewhere in the past. I’m not sure, but something has really PO’d the great mystical football powers-that-be.
All this brought me to one conclusion. No matter what has caused our malaise, deep down inside, most of us innately know the solution. We know what must be done to appease the football gods. A sacrifice must be made. And I venture a guess that we all have a really firm idea as to the sacrificial lambs. All that is left is for Beamer to make the long climb up the volcano.
Comments
That was great
The buildup was truly fantastic
You nailed it in the funniest way possible.
that's good stuff right there!
'The Walking Dead' - aka 3 heads featured above
MT via @MoreVT82
Lol terrific post. I've thought that there was a Hokie curse for a while. Even the hoops team. How many buzzer beaters have they been beat by in the last few years? Not to mention the annual NCAA snubs. It's ridiculous.
*goosebumps*
Well done!
Well played, good sir
I agree, we can't catch a break at all. But well coached teams create their own luck, and calls like that double-pass aren't going to help us create our own luck.
Agreed
Throw em in...I love it.
killed it
+1
It's called the Curse of the Orange. Trademark pending. It came about from us wearing too much orange.
Don't think color has too much to do with it.
I go way back. Pre-orange, pre-allmarooneverything. I remember going 9-2 one year and getting NO bowl game.
Love this
As I've grown up (now junior in college) I've realized rooting for the Hokies has to be a little similar to rooting for the Cubs. Well done sir
I'm a Cubs fan too.....
Spot on
I couldn't have put it any better myself. Nicely done. On a side note, I still want to blame Sean Glennon.
i am going to tell
this story to my grandkids one day.
After the sacrifices,
do we all have to eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs for a week or can we all just start celebrating right away?
By far and away the funniest thing I have read this season, except possibly seeing the BooHoos lose to Dook and Wake in successive weeks.
5 Things that would piss off the football gods
In no particular order.
1. Thinking the ACC is a good football conference.
2. Blaming the refs for ruining "momentum".
3. The Vick brothers.
4. UVA as a rival.
5. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
I might catch some heat for this, don't get me wrong I love VT, but oh well. Explanations:
1. The ACC can and should be a great conference! I would blame this on VT slightly on losing certain out of conference games, but really I would blame some of the other schools in the conference *looking at you FSU and Miami. There are people out there that think the ACC is better than they are, I just don't see how people see it that way.
2. Complain all you want about the Danny Coale catch, or calls like the Seahawks/Packers ending, but when the drive in the 3rd quarter gets temporarily halted by a bad call (which happens to every team), you can't use that as an excuse for losing by 2 scores. Out of all the fan bases, VT fans seem to stand out on this one, not sure where this comes from, I think the better the team, the better they are able to generate their own momentum, I think a ref making a bad call is much easier to overcome than a turnover or a loss of downs.
3. Great athletes, but a tarnished legacy and perhaps just bad karma. Michael, would it have been so hard to donate some money so Blacksburg has the nicest dog park and animal shelter in the country? Marcus, stomping on legs and flipping off Mountaineer fans in a game, really?
4. UVA sucks, and you want your antagonist to be a badass. UVA is holding VT back, is there anyway to just disown them? Ohio St Michigan, USC Notre Dame, Alabama Auburn, Texas Oklahoma... at least all those teams are on the same level, this one is the easiest to solve by scheduling West VA every year.
5. This one is open for interpretation.
I agree with most of your points, but #2 needs work
Do good teams tend to overcome bad calls? Yeah, sometimes they do. But Refs can impact games. If you want an example of a call affecting a good team, look at the Miami vs Ohio State NC game a few years back. Phantom Pass intereference gave Ohio State another shot and they went onto win the game.
"I think a ref making a bad call is much easier to overcome than a turnover or a loss of downs. "
The two calls that most folks have issues with this past week did just those things. The Down by Contact call on Logan lost us our third down, forcing us to punt, and the poor review by the replay official caused a turnover to be taken away. I understand that Refing tends to even out over time, but to say it has no effect on game's outcomes is completely bogus. Paying Refs in the Italian Soccer league was a huge scandal a few years ago because Refs do have the ability to change the outcomes.
#3
I dunno, flipping off the Cousins is pretty funny. I mean, even Tyrod threw daU at Miami fans...
Don't forget Jeff Allen
And what he did at Maryland. Players put up with a lot of BS from us fans. I'm pretty sure during the Miami game last year, Travis Benjamin wanted to come punch me in the face before a kickoff because I was in his ear from the North Endzone. Regardless, there are classless fans out there and the players are still human. Comments get to them at times. They hit a sore spot or they reach their breaking point. Those actions are not professional, but as a fan, I like when a player shuts a fan up. Granted, I'd rather him do it by making a play on the field, but sometimes it takes more than that.
Funny, yes, I was there in person for that one too, appropriate no... thats how it always is I guess
Isn't #5 the definition of insanity, by Ben Franklin.
I think so
I thought #5 was
O'Cain's justification for calling WR screens.
#3. It's funny you mention that, a "U" fan I work with just told me this morning there's a Vick curse. I asked him who cursed Miami and he said Shapiro.