I was reading on ESPN about how Pitt needs a new rival since the PITT WVU match up is over. What is some of your guys opinions on Pitt becoming a new rival perhaps?
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Yeah, I think I kinda like the matchup. I think its a good fit, as we are very similar in the styles of play. We have had some very memorable games.......going back to the BE days, and even though it never gets old beating the boohoos, a little bit of a challenge would be nice.....lol.
pitt as our new rival?
meh
I would prefer to be rivals with a team that at least fills up their stadium. Pitt has only done it twice in the last 4 years and both were against Notre Dame. The only time they came close last year was against us with 48k.
When was the last time Pitt was considered to be elite? I can't remember. I want to have a rival that is capable of producing a matchup that garners national attention/excitement. I don't see that happening with Pitt vs VT. There will be some great games between us in the future, I'm sure, but I think it will be tough to create a nationally anticipated matchup with them.
I would rather continue to develop a rivalry with Clemson, hopefully seeing them in the ACC Championship game again.
I feel like the last time they were considered elite was when Larry Fitzgerald was there doin his thing
I would prefer that we begin a win streak against them, starting this year! Seriously, we gotta beat them this time around!
Definitely. Too many bad losses to Pitt - they need to be avenged!
If you mean Pitt replace UVA, then no. If you mean Pitt replace BC as our cross-division rival, then yes. If you mean just another "rivalry" (like Miami or GT), then sure.
Right you are
When I saw the ESPN article, I thought to myself that really all they're doing is trying to define new "rivalries" that are fabricated so they can advertise the games they air in a new light. We have a true rivalry with UVa, as well as WVU (at least, we did). Beyond that, it's all created in the minds of the media. The GT "rivalry" makes a bit of sense based on on-field competitiveness and the history of winning the ACC Coastal. We've had some intense games with Miami dating back to the Big East, so I can sort of see that, but really are Miami and GT rivalries? It's just good competition within the division and has made the Coastal a lot more entertaining than the Atlantic recently.
I consider Miami a rival. I hate those guys, and want to beat them more than any team that isn't UVA. Maybe that's just me, but I thought it was the consensus.
I can see that. Miami makes my blood boil, and the fans that have been near me in Lane have made me hate them even more. I get pumped every year for the Miami game, so in that sense, I'm totally with you. I just wonder what really defines a rivalry. If it's on-field performance and competition for conference or national prestige, Miami and GT definitely qualify, but it rules out UVa (generally). If a rivalry is defined by cultural, historic, or geographic reasons, then UVa (and WVU in past years) qualify, but Miami and GT don't. If it's a combination of those things, you can probably define anyone in the ACC as a rival, except maybe Duke.
I'm probably over-analyzing, but I just found it amusing that ESPN is writing about "who should the rival be?" for the new teams. It's like they're just concocting something that is going to be out of place. I say VT should approach all games like they're rivalries, with intensity and desire to stomp the crap out of the opponent.
I think that for me, a rivalry would be defined as the games that take on a special importance regardless of the standings or season. UVA might be a bottom feeder sometimes, but beating them is still far more important to me than beating someone like Duke or Wake Forest. From an objective position, the games count exactly the same, but the UVA game is far more important to me. The same holds true for Miami.
Results on the field can LEAD to rivalries, but I don't think they define them. That's why I don't consider Clemson a rival, or GT. If they sucked and we beat them, we wouldn't care. If we sucked and they beat us, they wouldn't care.
To me, a rival is the last team you ever want to lose to. We could lose to every team on the schedule, but as long as we beat UVA, it's okay. There's no other team that I can say that about. I hate Miami, GT, and Clemson as well as FSU and JMU all for different reasons. But losing to them is not near as bad as losing to UVA would be. I'm happy to not be familiar with that feeling.
Pitt, our rival? It'd kind of help if we beat Pitt every once in a while.
/Ducks
Miami will always be our rival. But that's just my own opinion and hatred
I agree. Our best games year in and year out are against Miami. The 38-35 Sandman game is the best football game I've seen in the past few years. I can't argue with the UVA rivalry, as it is the best rival we have, but it will take them winning a game before I really buy back into it.
I guess I also consider Miami our rival because of the ol' Big East days. Back when I was an undergrad my friends at other schools would always say, "Yeah, you guys are ok, but who have you played?"
"Miami," I'd respond.
"Oh yeah." Silence.
I appreciate Miami simply because of that. We even played them tough when they were good. Really good. But I also think Miami's big rival will always be FSU. So it looks to me like VT/Miami will always be both schools' close second.
"We even played them tough when they were good. Really good."
2001. Ernest Wilford. 'Nuff said.
I was far enough away in the stands that I couldn't see that he dropped it (north end of the East stands). My whole section exploded. It was the greatest feeling I'd ever had. Followed immediately by the worst feeling I'd ever had.
I was sitting on the goal line in the East stands, with a decent view of it. We all exploded too, since it looked like such a catchable ball there wasn't any way he dropped it... and then we saw it bounce away.
And also, I can tell you that it is a relatively one-sided rivalry, as in we consider them our rivals but they couldn't care less about us, or at least the current students don't. My girlfriend just graduated from there a year ago.
Let's be honest, much like Alabama, Texas, USC, OSU, FSU, and Michigan, most of the fans of Miami were not ever students there. They hopped on the bandwagon when the swag was at the U. The feelings of their student body towards other teams is not indicative of the feelings of the fanbase that give them their reputation.
True enough... but the students still completely hate FSU. And everyone else is just the opponent.
But yeah, I'd buy the argument that they are definitely far from indicative of the general fan base, especially since they haven't had much of one these last few seasons.
I think true rivalries are not contrived or created, but are naturally occurring, historically rooted, pain-induced and pain-inducing back-and-forth contests over time. We all inherently know the examples....VT vs. UVA, Ohio St. vs. Mich., USC vs UCLA, USC vs. ND, Alabama vs. Auburn....etc, etc. True rivalries are strengthened when one team that shouldn't stand a chance rises up and denies a better team a chance at a bowl, or a championship. They are the original reality TV. I don't think you can define or initiate a true rivalry. This being said, I think that there are two or three possible rivalries that could develop for us within the ACC (beyond the game with UVA), but only time will tell. I think our contests with Miami has the possibility of developing into a rivalry. I think Pitt holds that possibility because of our past history together. But I think our only true rivalry at this point is LOLUVA. This has been diminished somewhat, with the level of play from the hoos. I miss our suspended rivalry with the cousins. There were some real knock-down-drag-outs with the boys from Morgantown.
The part about "one team that shouldn't stand a chance rises up and denies a better team a chance at a bowl, or a championship" reminded me of Wake beating Florida St. 4 out of the past 7 years.
I don't think rivalries can necessarily be appointed. Rivalries are developed over time through competition, geography, recruiting, culture and - well - stereotypes (looking at you, brie-eating, Zima-drinking, bowtie-wearing pansies to the north).
Could Pitt be a rival? Sure. Will they be? We won't know the answer to that question until some time down the road. As of right now, I'd personally consider our rivals to be LOLUVA and Miami, with GT potentially in the running.
Like many, I think that we already have a standing rivalry with UVA, but our connection with Miami from the Big East, and the rivalry that was there, has come to the ACC with us.
I don't think there is any team out there that I hate more than Miami. They are opposites of what we are. They have that showy swagger, while we have the lunchpail mentality. We are humble, while they are braggarts. The list could go on and on.
With the UVA game starting to fall to the wayside, the game I think of is Miami. I know many people here hate UVA, but to me, they are still our Virginian brothers, and though they are a rival, I don't dispise their existance. I absolutely hate Miami.
I also agree that you can't just assign a rival. I thought both of those articles of assigning a rival to Syracuse and Pitt were dumb, and as if the ACC bloggers had nothing else better to do. In fact, I think they mentioned VT as options for both. I feel that Miami has definitely become something, and it continues to fester.
Agreed about Miami. The programs are opposite ends of the spectrum as far as image is concerned. Look at the footage of games going back to the Big East days, even the players don't like each other. Sometimes those games felt one cheap shot away from a brawl. UVA is annoying and easy to make fun of, but Miami gets my blood boiling like no other.
Pitt annoys me for the simple fact we haven't beaten them since Michael Vick was here. I'd love to see rivalries develop more with Clemson, GT and FSU as well
The Virginia Tech-Georgia Tech rivalry is a great one, IMO, because the winner of the two have gone on to represent the Coastal division in the ACCCG. Last season was an aberration and I keep pointing this out to this GT troll on Bitter's blog, but he's as stubborn as that crybaby, Paul Johnson, but I digress. If UNC or even Miami were not on a postseason ban, they would have been facing FSU in Charlotte, and that would have been heckuva rating bonanza for ESPN instead of a #goacc laughingstock.
UVa have the feel of beating up the little brother than a true rivalry to me. Nothing gets me more amped up for a game than the GT/VT rivalry. It's Paul Johnson's fault for starting it in the first place by whining to the media how the ref unfairly called two unneccessary roughness on that DE that is now in the NFL (I think), and the media immediately jumped on it. I think the GT/VT was more of a media creation than anything.
Miami, well, is a team that everybody either love or hate with a passion, and that dates way back when than just between VT/Miami. It's kinda like Duke in basketball, only with football. I just can't stand any team from the state of Florida because fans down there seem to be downright arrogant and smug.
Boston College is no longer a rival to Virginia Tech since Matt Ryan and coach Jag were gone from the program. Beating BC is like beating your cousin.
Now, Pitt, that is a program that is almost a mirror of Virginia Tech in the blue-collar, ground-n-pound mentality. Heck, they made VT look bad on the national stage last September. I have already tabbed Pitt as a dark horse contender for next fall if they can get things together.
I think one rivalry that needs to be fanned is Clemson, alas, we don't play them enough.
i hate gt, ever since the 2009 game. the 2010 game was one of the most memorable lane stadium games ive ever witnessed....plus you gotta hate paul johnson and his man boobs
Can someone explain to me why we never play WVU anymore? I think we should play them every couple of years because of history/geography/etc
I'm pretty sure that Tech won't be playing WVU in football again as long as Beamer's coach. Some serious issues with the safety of coach's and player's families while attending games.
I've never been to Morgantown but that is what I've heard, too. I do miss playing them, though. They won the Sugar Bowl in 2005, finishing 11-1 during the 1st year of Pat White/Steve Slaton, who both entered the game, if I recall correctly, because we injured their QB and RB. Unfortunately, we didn't stop them from winning the national championship that year, because Texas and USC would have played regardless.
That 1 loss courtesy of Marcus 'Middle Finger' Vick
Ha. Beautiful screen name. I also think the bowl we played in that year was the Louisville Stomp, which sounds like a new dance a la Harlem Shake.
When we jetted to ACC, WVU got pissed and decided to not play us anymore. Best part is we kept the black diamond trophy.
No, we said we wouldn't play them again. We played them while we were in the ACC but after enough fans throwing batteries at our fans, players, and band, Weaver and Beamer said enough is enough.
Remove batteries, insert ziploc bag of urine. Yeah, that bad.
WOOOOOOOOOOW! Doesn't surprise me from them inbred fuckers out west.
Not cool dude. Us WV Hokies don't like wvu either but still, not kosher
Im referring to the fuckers who burn couches, throw batterys and apparently bags full of piss.
I would say that is the WVU way of saying they don't want to play us, haha.
Ever see the video of the WVU fan taking a dump in the GT band seat?
there's that and then there's the "hokie at the moutaineer tailgate" video. they're both pretty entertaining
it's extremely satisfying listening to eers try to rationalize why no major conference within a thousand miles of morgantown wanted anything to do with them.
I tried to search for wvu fan craps in band, and a video of nicki minaj video came up.
Both my older brother and my best friends older brother went to WVU. They love to hate on us, and I honestly have no real need to hate on them. I do, however, like to remind them that the last time we faced eachother (2005 in Morgantown) we walked away winners. I was present at the game and I remember hearing over the loudspeaker after it had ended that the series would be renewed in 2010. Obviously that hasn't happened. I believe the reasoning is something along the lines of what previous posters stated, WVU fans being class-less and dirty. The story that I heard was from an old Hokie sitting at the bar in B Dubs, who told me that apparently the WVU fans attempted to tip over the buses the coaches and players were in as they were leaving the game.
Sidenote: I randomly ran into Oliver Luck (WVU's AD) at a WVU-GTown game in the Verizon Center, and when I mentioned that I went to VT he jokingly asked me to tell our AD to stop being scared of the Mountaineers and renew our rivalry. Since this was right after Andrew Luck had decided to stay at Stanford, he also made a crack about how the biggest story in college sports at the moment was: "College student decides to stay in school and get his degree!"
I thought back then, it was understood 2015 was the earliest the series could resume?
Maybe the next time we go to Morgantown, the VTCC could provide escort to the team? It would be an excellent way to prep for convoy ops!
I understand the feelings that the rivalry with UVA has somewhat lost its luster due to the looming decade of dominance, but I would argue that this has added its own pressure to the matchup. Sure the little brother up the road talks smack all year then loses interest when they go down 3-0, but the thought of that streak ending and knowing that they will gloat on it for an entire year scares the hell out of me. That's some kind of rivalry right??
And by that definition, I would consider Miami a rival and GT becoming more of one over the years. Losing to Miami sucks (more than just losing in general), and beating them is always satisfying, especially after those late Big East / early ACC battles. Pitt could potentially become one as we start playing each other again. That loss to Fitzgerald and Co in 2002 that sent us on a path to the San Francisco bowl still stings.
I was in the SEZ for that game and it will always be engrained in my mind. I believe we were #3 in the country at that time and ND had just lost that day ahead of us. After the loss one of the Pitt players ran over in front of us and just cheesed and posed at us with all of his gold teeth showing. This stems my first memory of hating PITT.
I was in the South Endzone as well! I wanted to jump the stands...
Also, the pitt band playing the damn Superman theme every 30 seconds. At least I think it was the Superman theme...
I do remember being right by their band, but don't remember what they played. I was 13...
Yeah...I think it was their "First Down" song or maybe it had something to do with Fitzgerald.
Pitt was a big rival back in the Big East days, and they have four straight victories over us. What more do you guys need?
Pitts gonna get good with that coach of theirs. I see this as a great matchup
As had been said above, you can't define a rivalry, it has to develop naturally. Historically, previous games have to have meant something or the relation of the fan bases has to have some deep seated distinctions. I mean, Kansas-Missouri is a big deal, but not really for many on-field reasons, those people used to fucking shoot each other back in the day.
UVA will always be our cultural rival, because they are infested with douchery and it's an in state thing. That's why even after 9 straight wins, it's still sweet. And it's why I regularly remind my UVA coworkers that there are 4th graders ALL OVER THE WORLD that have never seen UVA beat us IN THEIR LIVES. To the guy above who said they are our in-state brethren; my dad says the same thing and I respectfully say that you are as wrong as can be. The only reason I would root for UVA to be good is to boost our strength of schedule and the hopes that we can take a conference/division crown away from them (ahem, 38-0).
I consider WVU a rival as well, but it's fading because of the lack of games. They were also a cultural/proximity rival, although in this case it's their complete lack of class that distinguishes them from us (and also caused the games to end). So I support Beamer in suspending the series; if we can play a neutral site game, I think that's safest. I think they should also ban fans that do dumb shit like throw batteries and urine like they do in England for soccer, but that requires the cousins to self-police. I will never set foot in Morgantown again, NOT EVEN FOR THE MONORAIL.
Miami is a rival because the game has had national implications over the years (well, many years ago) and there have been some absolute CLASSICS. The two best games I've ever been to are the Nebraska (Tyrod did it, Mikey!) and the Sandman game, the latter of which meant more because of the opponent. Someone said it earlier; winning those Miami games means more than winning other games, it almost feels like a validation, even if Miami is terrible.
I can't consider GT a rival, at least not yet. Yeah, the games frequently decide the Coastal, but I only hate Paul Johnson's douchiness. I feel like Robert the Bruce in Braveheart "My hate...will die...with you." If he leaves and I can find another reason to hate GT, then ok, now we're in business. Until then, they are just a gimmick offense with a prick of a head coach.
As for Pitt (oh yeah, that was the whole point of this), they aren't our rivals. They have been waxing us for a while now...just looked it up and we haven't beaten them since MICHAEL Vick was still around, and that was a close win followed next year by an absolute drubbing even worse than last year. We need to beat them (for a change) and have some pretty big stakes dependent on the outcomes. Or, I guess just a lot of Mark May homerism could drive me to hate them, I guess...
I drove through Morgantown once. My gas light came on. I kept going to the next town.
I find it ironic that people talk about us having a "rivalry" with Pitt when you look at WVU and Pitt's rivalry. The whole thing about "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" doesn't really apply in football. But the Pitt fanbase is hated by the WVU fanbase. I think it says something when WVU fans talk about how terrible Pitt fans are. To them, they are "Eat Shit Pitt" and after being their last year for the game, I see why. Between the lame-ass people telling our fans to sit down so they can watch the game and the assholes who mock anyone and everyone wearing the opposing team's colors, including children, there's nothing good about going to a game there. I'll pass on Pitt as our "rival."