Good news! Our very own Brian Marcolini and TKP got some link love from Grantland's Matt Hinton:
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2014-college-football-demerits-notre-d...
Bad news: it was in a section discussing, what else, the Wake Forest loss.
You take the small victories where you can get them.
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I'm still debating if the Wake Forest loss is worse than that time I dreamed that we lost to Temple in 98.... I guess the Wake loss, since it really happened.
My recollection of the Temple loss was that we as a team didn't take Temple seriously in the least, we came out unprepared, and we lost to the team that wanted it more that day. These types of upsets happen all the time for all the same reasons.
Our WF loss isn't definable that way. There is no way we didn't take WF seriously, given how poorly we'd been playing, and what was at stake for us (maintaining the bowl streak). I don't know that we were unprepared, but we seemed to be prepared for a completely different defensive scheme.
As much as I hated that Temple loss, we knew that VT was better than them. The WF loss, you really had no objective way to state we were the better team and just had a bad day. That was the one that made me feel like VT was in a real tailspin.
I feel like the best I can say about it is that judging from 30000 feet, it seems like we lost to the team that didn't want to lose as badly as we did
UVA was a nice bounce back for us.
If we can just look like we are improving in the bowl game, I'll feel a lot better that WF was our low point, and there is reason for optimism.
The worst part about the Wake loss is that a bowl game was literally on the line. We knew we didn't want to get in a spot where we had to beat UVa for a bowl bid, because that was a legitimate tossup game this year, and Wake should have been a walk in the park. Even worse, the defense absolutely did their job pitching a shutout while defending a short field for essentially the entirety of the game. Offensively, its almost like we didn't even have a gameplan. We only passed the Wake 35 yard line twice and never even attempted a Field Goal. Just awful
I agree, the UVa win was a nice bounce back, and they started to come together when we absolutely needed it most. If we can continue that momentum against Cinci, there will be some reason for optimism going forward, and with the potential of the recruits coming in, maybe that optimism and momentum can develop into something good in the future. However, if we come out like we did against Wake, or how we played against Rutgers.... Man... things could get ugly next year.
This may just be about the most appropriate way of looking at the Wake loss.
As for Temple, we were playing a guy at QB who had been moved to defense so that hurt. It was Homecoming, if I recall correctly and that means the usual lame Homecoming crowd. Plus, Temple had legit running backs and a QB that played the game of his life that day (as a freshman). Once they started running the ball effectively late in the first half, the VT D couldn't stop them. And I sat there in the East stands watching Michael Vick standing beside Frank. That was brutal.
It was painful to watch. VT should have lost that game 13-0 in regulation, easily.
I think it was made worse by Frank celebrating the 0-0 tie due to another missed field goal. That was a bad look all around.
I know it gets harped on, but I'd be celebrating still being in it, too, after a missed field goal. Do you think if the roles were reversed and it was our kicker that missed the potentially game winning field goal, their head coach wouldn't be doing the same thing?
Do you think ANY head coach, after a game like that WOULDN'T be celebrating still potentially being able to win on a botched field goal from the opposing team? I understand it looks ridiculous, but seriously, what standards are we talking about here?
And if they made the kick, Frank would have hung his head and would have then been ridiculed. In the end, it's a lose-lose situation and any ammo people can find against the man, they will use.
I think most coaches would feel relief, not celebration. I also think most coaches would immediately switch into prep mode for the OT, considering how absolutely horribly their team had played the entire game thus far.
Sure. Frank can be happy. He is in the middle of coaching a game, and I'm just a guy sitting on his couch watching kids play a game. Frank didn't know they were going to run a graphic of the score over top of it.
But can you admit that the combination, looked silly? Considering that Wake was one of the worst teams in the country by statistical measure and we are involved in a pillow fight with them?
If it was 0-0 vs FSU, that could be considered a battle, but we got outplayed and dodged a bullet to take a TERRIBLE Wake team to OT.
The graphic was unfortunate.
Not as unfortunate as the game.
Touche
Exactly... what was he supposed to do, act angry that he wasn't winning 40-0? They still had a chance to win the ball game. That is all that mattered.
I don't even have the excuse of losing the remote or something.
Otherwise, that's a pretty good Grantland column. I hadn't seen several of those highlights. And I never get tired of watching that wonderful play by the Penn State offensive line.
For as bad as that game was, this was a great recap of what may have been the worst football game I ever watched.
Go back and watch the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl from a few years back between Illinois and UCLA. I'll wait...
Or the VT/Rutgers bowl game from two years ago
Or, hell, yeah, the Wake game.
Just posted in another thread that the Rutgers bowl game is the worst game I have ever seen. And I am a die-hard college football watcher and have been for many years.
Rutgers game was bad, no doubt. But actually attending the Wake game made it much worse for me than the Rutgers game. The 0-0 thing, combined with the library effect of about 250 people in the stands added to the overall blood-sucking morbidity of the whole affair.
I've been spouting off about the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl for a few years now. I don't remember much other about it other than it was the third quarter in an already horrific display of sporting ineptitude where I think in five consecutive plays I saw something like an interception on a terrible throw, a fumble, a QB trip over a lineman, a dropped screen pass and an intentional grounding...or something. I recall very clearly just having to laugh and starting to hate-watch it for the rest of the game. Two bad teams playing poorly.
That was the New Year's Eve Air Force game, right? I literally remember nothing about that. I assume i missed it completely.
Yup... The San Francisco Bowl / Diamond Walnut Bowl / Emerald Bowl / Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl / Foster Farms Bowl in 2002.
Interesting location (both teams were on the same sideline). Awful game.
So, I don't need to go out of my way to find a copy?
Yeah, but in that Rutgers game the offense that actually scored points won that game. Something that resembled actual football occurred in regulation. The Wake game this year though.... We turned it off for a few minutes because it was just so inexcusably bad on all fronts.
The Russell Athletic Bowl was a snoozer for sure, but at least that game started with a bang when Logan fumbled on what I believe was our first offensive play of the game. Antone's INT was pretty sick as well, but all I will end up remembering from the Wake game years down the road from now were the 3 missed FGs by 1 guy and Frank's reaction to 0-0. It almost felt like the two teams wanted to lose at every chance they had.
I went to the Oregon alumni bar in DC for to watch this game (my GF is from Eugene and her family was in town). Thankfully, their game was after ours, so none of the Oregon fans saw this debacle.
Let me tell you, watching the Oregon offense execute after watching our offense fall over themselves blew my mind. Seriously - they just marched up and down the field with such ease.