Often we focus too much on the things we don't have. It happens when the circle in life's Venn diagram of what makes you happy crosses too far into the circle of things you're missing. It's usually the easy thing to do.
Those thoughts can do scary things and make you reach previous unknown dark corners of your mind. It's easy to avoid these cold, dim places if you're a human and life is going well or if you're a college football team and you're rolling through double-digit wins.
You can paint yourself into them if life becomes bereft of that sense of fulfillment. Your story didn't have the fairy tale ending you thought it would. Your season did not end with a trip to the Sugar Bowl. So you long for those feelings until you obsess over how you can feel that way again. That's the easy thing to do and the process either depresses you or motivates you depending on what day or even what hour it is.
The hard thing is to just enjoy the journey.
Remember when things were good? The end of that 10-win streak, when Tyrod was beating Florida State and Logan was bulldozing linebackers couldn't have been possible without Druck to Holmes or the Miracle in Morgantown. It also wouldn't have been possible without the '98 Temple game or the second half of the '03 season. Part of the fun in those early ACC days was what it took to get there.
The same is true now. Whatever happens this season or the next three won't be the same experience without what Tech's recent history has been.
The Hokies last won an ACC title in December 2010. How long ago was that? I've been engaged, married and divorced since.
It's been enough time to see things I never thought I'd see taken seriously get taken seriously. Fire Frank Beamer? Coming from more than just the lunatic fringe? This would have been a pretty deplorable offseason if Michael Brewer hadn't made Mike London tear up on Black Friday.
These are the dark corners we find when things aren't going according to plan. We need to feel like we did as recently as last season against Ohio State. If you could take what I felt that night in Columbus and put it in a needle, Pusha T would make an entire album about you. He would somehow rhyme "Malleck" with "Pyrex."
Last season was bookended with success that marked the ceiling, but the offseason narrative is the program is on the decline and it will never be as good as it was in the Aughts.
To me, that's a bogus way of thinking. I'm choosing to believe the best days are in front of us.
The last three seasons of mostly lousy football were punctuated by the indelible image of Frank Beamer's Double Donuts Double Fist. But since then we've had reasons to harbor some optimism: We beat UVa, we won the bowl, the spring game wasn't a disaster for once and we have a bunch of guys back and healthy (Including Frank!).
I have needed this football season to start more than I care to admit. And I'm not going to go into it assuming it will be more of the same subpar football and negativity we've seen the last three seasons. Instead, I'm going to force myself to enjoy the journey.
During the preseason you'll see a lot of "best case/worst case" breakdowns for the Hokies. They're easy to write and good fodder for getting through July and August.
For me, the best case scenario is I spend 12 Saturdays watching Hokie football with all of you either in person or virtually. The worst case scenario is I spend 12 Saturdays watching Hokie football with all of you either in person or virtually. Not bad.
This team could be really good and have a magical season. Or any combination of injuries, poor execution, poor coaching or just plain bad luck could derail it. This would certainly continue the trend for the Hokies.
But even in the face of how things have gone lately I believe better days are closer than we think. And the journey to get there will make it that much more worthwhile.
See you on Labor Day.
Comments
Good post. Too many fans get too emotionally invested in the games and forget to enjoy the experience (tailgating with friends, cooking good food, the atmosphere at Lane). I used to be that guy who was in a bad mood for 2 days after a bad loss. Miami 2005 cured me of that. I walked out of that game in a horrible mood. I made a spiteful comment to my wife when we were walking out after she said something about the game. That is when she stopped me, looked at me and asked me if I played in that game? She asked me, "How do you think the guys who were on the field feel? They practiced for days for it and played hard. Why are you even upset? Does the outcome of this game have any effect on your real life?" At that point the light bulb finally went on.
Whether we win or lose, it doesn't change my life. Don't get me wrong, when I'm at a game I still yell until I have no voice and clap and stomp until my hands and feet hurt. But when the game is over if we lost I hang my head for a min and then quickly move on. I too can't wait for this season to start! I'm as hopeful as I've ever been. Win or lose, I'll still be cheering GO HOKIES!
Ive gotten better, but I wish I could shake that feeling all together. Possibly none as bad as Miami '05 however. No better time to get past that.
Georgia Tech in 2006....It was my first season as an alum, and the stars aligned for me getting tickets, other friends getting tickets. One of the guys got a decent parking pass next to the stadium. After 4 years in the HTs, it was the first time I really got to tailgate.
Yeah, GT won that game, but I hardly remember that part.
2010 Boise State game. Still. Not. Over. It.
Me either, that was a rough one. '05 Miami was bad at the time, but it doesnt hurt anymore. But Boise State and the Michigan Sugar Bowl are tough pills.
Those Pitt and WVa losses in '02 and '03 were pretty brutal.
I've always been pretty emotional about the games. '05 was my freshman year and I just remember that's when I learned how to whistle really loudly because I had no voice left, but mostly, being over it afterwards. Not sure why I wasn't more upset about that one.
The Clemson game in 2011 got the best of me. I acted like an ass to some of the people in our section, and ever since then, I've vowed to not be that guy.
I got over the Sugar Bowl victory, and subsequent theft of the trophy, as soon as I read that several Michigan players and coaches acknowledged that Danny caught that ball. I would rather have the victory than the trophy.
The Boise game hit me hardest because it was so in our grasp. I hate Boise State (especially at the time) because they only played one real game a season and the rest of their season was garbage but they still were at the top of the polls (and their surf turf which is such a joke). We were their ONE actual game that year and we couldn't get it done. Not to mention if we hadn't lost that game, we probably wouldn't have lost to JMU and then had a perfect regular season...or the fact that the coolest uniforms we have ever worn will always remind me of this game and make me sick to my stomach. I hated to "lose" to Michigan but we were lucky to be in that bowl in the first place and I felt like we did win it in reality. Michigan just didn't hit as hard.
Love it! That's why I always quote my favorite line from our fight song: "With winning hopes we fear defeat no longer". Not afraid to cheer hard even in the face of defeat. Labor Day is gonna be fun. It will be a barometer of sorts for this team. We have nothing to lose.... Which is probably when the Hokies are at their best! GO HOKIES!
I can relate to this very well...right after the Michigan game. And for days after. Then weeks. I STILL sometimes fume about that loss. But I finally did come to the realization too that it really doesn't effect my life at all, unless I allow it to. I don't want my mood to be altered by one single football game that didn't turn out the way I want...however easy it might be to let that happen.
I too am SUPER excited for the upcoming season!!! No matter what happens Hokie Nation, let's stay loyal and keep cheering on our beloved team no matter the outlook or situation!!!
I miss furrer4heisman's writing...
via GIPHY
In honor of Sean Connery's recent 85th birthday.
Extremely well written. Great post :D
A great read and good reminder to ENJOY THE RIDE and keep things in perspective when it doesn't go the way we hoped.
I personally am firmly on board the Hype Train for this season. I realize I may get disappointed at times but I am still going to enjoy all he good moments regardless and I think there will be lots of Good Moments this year!!!
I guess my method of trying to keep myself in check during the season is to temper my expectations beforehand (for instance, I find it extremely difficult to expect more than 8 wins out of this team) and then if I'm right (and we go 8-4) I'm okay with that. If I'm wrong and we go 6-6 then at least I wasn't expecting to win the ACC. If I'm wrong and we go 10-2 then I'll be pretty darn happy. That keeps me from getting over-hyped and thus overly distraught at our downfall but I don't lose the ability to show up and cheer my lungs to death until the clock reads 00:00. If we win, Great! If we lose, well, on to the next one.
Technically, worst case scenario is 9 Saturdays, 1 Monday, 1 Thursday, and 1 Friday. Best case scenario would be 10 Saturdays, 2 Mondays, 2 Thursdays, and 1 Friday.
MAN
WITH DEMEANOR!
*Full disclosure: When I was watching the video for the first time I thought he was yelling at a player named DeMeer. I was thinking, "We don't have a DeMeer on the team....?"
Very well written. I agree and when (if) we lose, I will leave my disappointment in my seat at lane...
There is not much better than a fall day in Lot 5 with family and friends.
Where is the slow clap gif? (I have no gif skilz)
FTFY
The feels man. The feels. Hang in there!
Indeed. Congratulations and my condolences.
Or, as it turned out, maybe condolences and congratulations?
Thanks for the insight. And yes, just a game. But damn....
A special bacon-wrapped leg for you @furrer4heisman
I feel like a bacon wrapped turkey leg could make me forget about a whole host of depressing subjects
"Their performance on the field is NOT reflective of your degree."
#ThingsMyWifeSaysAfterEveryLossToConsoleMe
Me: "Yes, dear."
Can this be a thing? And by thing, I don't mean adult film title. Very well written, and my thoughts exactly. Ready for the journey!
It took me many years to just enjoy the ride. A CFB team is a constant work in progress or regress. You can lose a game, but get better or you can win a game, and not improve or get worse.
FWIW here's what I think the elements are that make a good team great:
1) Starts with talent. Gotta have the guys. Elite recruiting helps, but there are only a dozen or so schools who can do it. If you are not a top 5-10 school, you have to find those elite athletes that are under-rated, and you have to develop what you do have (coach 'em up).
2) An elite coach in terms of ability to instill program philosophy and values into the roster, and motivate that team to perform according to what is being instilled.
3) The team collectively has to be legitimately angry about something that allows them to play with a chip on their shoulder every week. Every coach in the country is trying to play the disrespect card, but you can't manufacture genuine anger without a credible basis. Players have to be truly pissed about something that is real.
4) Most football teams are not that close. There are friendships between various players, and often units are close, or sides of the ball, or classes of guys. It's rare that the substantial part of a football team, seniors to frosh, offense to defense, black to white, etc. are a genuine brotherhood. It usually takes something awful or tragic to make this happen or some kind of extreme collective suffering. So, this isn't something that you can orchestrate as a coach, and you surely wouldn't wish for it to come, but when guys on a team really love one another, special things happen.
As much as coaches are control freaks and try to cover every contingency, there are forces at work on their team and the teams they play that they have absolutely no control over. I have always called these forces "the football gods". These gods are fickle. Sometimes they smile generously on you (Ohio State late last year), sometimes the frown on you (lots of teams), and sometimes they smile and then frown (Va Tech last year). To me, that element is what makes CFB so awesome because it is why you never know for sure what is going to happen. There is a science to college football in terms of schematics and tactics, and there is a psychology to it, but there is also a metaphysical aspect that allows it to be spiritual and almost magical.
Did you just refer to Luke Fickle as "gods" plural?
Kidding...
No, but OSU fans can be very fickle. Watch what happens if the Buckeyes lose to VT 2 years in a row. Hopefully, you will be spared that. :)
Hopefully I will get to see that! Living in Ohio I am well exposed to this fanbase of whom you speak. I wasn't even allowed to mention that game after we won ONE year in a row.
Still over a week away...
You make good points. The most magical of seasons for me was '95. To start off with two miserable losses and end up whipping Texass in the Sugar Bowl, finishing up ranked 10th in the nation was an incredible ride. Yeah, '99 was special, and Michael Vick and all, but even twenty years later, '95 is still with me and provided me with sublimity not matched since. I begin each year hoping for a repeat of the emotion, but grateful that I had at least that one magical season. Believe you me, a lot of CFB fans would give a lot for that feeling.
Sometimes you have to settle for magical moments.
I have been trying to remember the first time I began to look at VT as a legit football program. There was a high profile game against a #1ish team in the late 80's/early 90's, and the Hokies pulled that off in Blacksburg. Can anyone help me with the year and the opponent? For some reason I am thinking it was FSU, but VT wasn't in the ACC at the time. Maybe it was an OOC game or maybe I'm just confused.
Miami in '95, we capped off the season beating Texas in the Sugar Bowl. That was the year for most VT fans.
In 1986 there was a win against NCST in the Peach Bowl.
86 peach game was during my first year and I have been addicted ever since. I'm finally handling the losses much better (after about an hour) and love each and every win. Just stay in the moment and enjoy each game. The experience at Lane is awesome and worth a trip across the country to at least one game a year.
That Peach Bowl was my third year at VT. My GF and I made the trip, and that last-minute FG to win it was one of the great football moments of my life. Didn't plan ahead, though, and had a hard time finding a restaurant anywhere in Atlanta that had a free table on New Year's Eve. Ended up at Benihana, seated at one of those big hibachi tables with six strangers. They turned to us, said hello, and asked if we were there for the game. That's when we noticed they were all dressed in red and white, and were a little gloomy.
Dinner was very quiet.
Great writeup and great timing as we get closer to the start of the season. I wholeheartedly agree with your best/worse case sentiment. I've only made it to one game a year in Lane the past few seasons, but getting to introduce some new friends, my girlfriend, and my mom to VT football tailgates and games has been phenomenal. I've definitely seen a shift in how VT football affects my emotions from when I was a student immersed in it to being an alumnus for a few years. The passion doesn't fade, but the heart-wrenching losses don't sting for quite as long these days.
Not gonna lie, I was was/am a bit worried about this whole fining thing. I thought that headline was going to precede an article about how Frank Beamer got fired, and my heart fell. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised that it was instead an play on words... Whew!
Thank you. I actually had to take a month off after the Boise game at Fed Ex (perfect timing, since I then missed the JMU epilogue).
I was taking this shit too seriously. Losses would genuinely affect how the rest of my weekend and the next week would go.
Now, as every year, I genuinely believe this is the year we go 12- (ahem) 15-0. Fuck your facts. I will remain convinced of this until the whistle blows on our first loss, IF it happens. Then I will believe we will go 14-1. But appreciating that it's just fun to go to the game, or to hang out with you all on Twitter, is what I finally came around to. Yes, it is more fun when we win, but it's still better than almost anything else I could be doing even if we lose. Unless we lose to LOLUVA.
And yes, I will still yell at my tv and pep talk the players and give them an atta boy when they do something Fullerific. Because that's how I have fun. But I can't control what happens, other than making sure I wear my lucky shirt and hat and drink out of my lucky coffee mug that morning and always have a lucky beer in my hand.
..." I don't need this or this. Just this ashtray. And this paddle game, the ashtray and the paddle game and that's all I need.
And this remote control. The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and that's all I need.
And these matches..."
Boom! Besides the games wouldn't be as fun if you knew the outcome every time. The sport loses its luster and becomes less fun. Winning becomes a lot sweeter when there's a chance to lose (IE Ohio state) so when you do lose just call it a day. At least you still had a good day with your friends
Gotta have a rally cap plan, too! One year after a particularly galling loss, several of us burned our hats in Cassell parking lot where we were parked. A couple of folks were aghast. Don't give up on the Hokies, they yelled at us. We calmly explained we loved the Hokies and would never give up on them. It was these damn hats, that's why we lost.
During basketball season, we happened to walk past the place we burned those hats. We had a laugh and found two of the "buttons" from the top of the hats. We promptly disposed of them (probably improperly) to make sure the bad juju was truly excised.
Clearly I am the old fart here, but how do you guys find, create post these meme and gif's so freaking fast?
Great post. I'm a 1990 graduate. I remember talking my parents into letting me go to the 1986 Peach Bowl as a freshman and my argument was: "I go to Virginia Tech...When will I ever get a chance to go to a bowl game?!"
Like others have said my low point as a fanatic was Miami '05. I got so belligerent and angry(i.e. drunk) in that loss it almost cost me a couple of very close friends. I had chugged the Kool-Aid and never contemplated we could actually lose.
I am so glad that CFB and staff are in a position to put themselves back into prominence for a second time. I would be so happy for them, the players and their hard work(not mine). This team represents every student, faculty, staff, and alumnus better than any university in the nation. If they can win on Labor Day and go UP from there, enjoy the ride. I have taught my kids that if your team is doing well, do everything you can to enjoy the moment and the ride. You NEVER know if and when it will happen again.
Barring what we can't predict, I have not been this excited for a season since '07!
Enjoy the Ride Hokies...
I pretty much thought I was the resident old fart. Started VT in '68, turn 65 in two weeks. As for the gifs, there have been several posts that direct you as to how to put them up, but finding them? Haven't a clue. The last time they explained the imgur thing that I remember was on the topic of VT license plates from several weeks back. Look it up and it should explain that part of it. I am sure that sometime today one of the many whizzes on the site will clue you in.
Greetings from a fellow resident of Oldfartland.
Back atcha.