After yet another loss at Lane, I came out with a really weird feeling. I was disappointed, no doubt, and mentally exhausted after 4OT worth of stress, but there was an underlying feeling I never really felt before yesterday... a sense that I expected us to lose the game going into overtime. I knew the crowd, probably the best it has been since the OSU game (if not better), would do nothing to rattle Duke. I knew our players would be as confused as if they were playing away, and I knew Duke would be able to torch our defense which is probably the worst unit in 20+ years.
Lane stadium has lost whatever home field advantage it used to have. Completely destroyed. Here are our victories since 2012 at home:
Georgia Tech
Austin Peay (FCS)
Bowling Green (G5)
Duke
Virginia
Western Carolina (FCS)
Marshall (G5)
North Carolina
Pittsburgh
William and Mary (FCS)
Western Michigan (FCS)
Virginia
Furman (FCS)
NC State
So, of the 14 victories since 2012, 5 were against FCS teams and 2 were against G5 teams.
Here are our home losses:
Florida State
Duke
Maryland
East Carolina (G5)
Georgia Tech
Miami
Boston College
Ohio State
Pittsburgh
Duke
10 losses, all but one against P5 opponents. That gives us a record of 14-10 at home. 9-10 against non-FCS opponents. Granted we faced #1 OSU, but still, a loss is a loss. FSU were ranked as well but were beatable.
If we narrow our search parameters even more and take out 2012, our home record would be 9-9 since 2013.
We are 9-11 away/neutral, 8-6 since 2013. Yup, we have a better away record than home the past 2 years.
We have beaten 3 P5 opponents in 2 YEARS at lane. Pitt (10/12/13), UVa (11/28/14) and NC State (10/09/15).
I don't get what has happened to Lane, but our players and coaches are no longer comfortable playing here. It's sad, the fanbase is still decent and yesterday's game had the best atmosphere I've seen since the FSU game in 2012. Yes, even better than OSU. The 'defense' chant in the fourth overtime was one of the greatest things I've ever seen at Lane right before our defense shit the bed again.
I don't know what it will take to get Lane back to having even a decent home field advantage, but whatever magic we used to have at home is no longer there.
Comments
Not saying your wrong with saying Lane's atmosphere is not what it once was, but saying "the coaches and players are no longer comfortable playing here" has more to do with our talent level AND coaching level being far below at least the last 15 and probably closer to 25 years.
I've thought for a few years now that the crowd has been the biggest problem with Hokie football. Yesterday I feel like the fans very much answered the call at Lane and I was proud at how rowdy it was at the end of the game. But now you have the team not able to return the favor and pull out a W. It'll be tough recapturing that atmosphere when you can't give the more casual fans something to get up for.
Crowd looked alive and rowdy on TV. Stands look pretty filled (at least east/west/north side did - I didn't notice them pan up to the south endzone).
If the crowd is what you have noticed being the biggest problem, we haven't been going to the same home games. All of those false starts, illegal substitution problems, and turnovers were not on the crowd. We used to actually have an immaculate record on the road as well since joining the ACC (don't have the figures but it seemed like we only had a couple losses through 2011 or so). Our road record being so great and then plummeting is just another indicator that the quality of play in general has decreased and it has nothing to do with the atmosphere in Lane.
We were 27-5 in ACC road games headed into the 2012 season. Lane had nothing to do with those games. Its obvious our program just isn't as good anymore.
Yesterday's game was a pretty good one. OK, it's Duke, but it's a ranked Duke that's undefeated in the ACC Coastal.
Games don't get any closer than the required 2 pt conversion in the 4th overtime.
If VT starts winning some games vs good FBS competition, VT is back to Terrordome in short order. That will likely take years, however.
I think this is a coincidence. The issue is the on the field product. You can argue whether it's coaching, player talent level, effort, execution, or some combination, but this is a problem with the team (staff/players), not with Lane Stadium or the fans.
Agreed. The average fan wants a good team to rally behind. If we were a one loss team or better right now, Lane would be as pumped up as it has ever been. When(if) the Hokies start to put it together on the field, whether it be next year or any subsequent years, Lane will probably return to its former glory.
For the longest time I always thought Cuse stadium (Carrier Dome) was the terror dome.
western michigan is FBS btdubs
Winning would certainly help atmosphere, needless to say, we have looked great on tv the last 2 seasons, halftime of osu this year, singing enter sandman against ncsu, hell overtime last night, and when we tied the game against ecu last year. Wins would take that atmosphere back to the good ole days
FWIW, I had a number of anOSU fans tell me the 'shoe has nothing on Lane when it comes to noise. But you're right, folks get more excited when they're not pulling for a loser and winning will put asses back in the seats.
Crowd was lit yesterday.
This has not been an issue with the fans of Lane Stadium. At least the fans can see the game clock is still running...
I never insinuated that it was a fan issue like a few commentators have said. In fact I think the fans are great and have been great for the past few years. The football team and coaches have not been able to leverage the support of the fans and play better at home, for whatever reason.
The reseating that occurred has really impacted the the sound in the stadium. Back in the day the lower East Stands were the home of the students.
Less distance for the paper airplanes to travel too.
You could also sell more tickets/pack more fans into the stadium by moving students from South back to East. If you go to games, South is usually empty at the top. Students who get lottery tickets in South sneak into East leaving empty seats in the South student section. That means there are already more people in East then there are actual seats. You could expand the student section in East, but not equivalent to the amount of student seating given in South, then sell South tickets to the general public where the students used to sit, which would increase capacity.
As someone who sits in the SEZ in the public section, there are already plenty of public seats left unsold. :(
...ouch
Its not that there isn't a home field advantage because there obviously is, the team just isn't as good.
This. It has zero to do with the atmosphere at Lane and everything to do with the quality of play on the field.
Step 1: Stop the opposing QBs
Step 2: Score more points than your opponent
That is the recipe for a return to a rowdy Lane. Watching opposing QB's turn into Tyrod Taylor against our defense take the fans out of it quick.
Yea, and thats another knock on what Coach Beamer wants in an offense. He wants ball control for the entire game. The landscape of college football has changed. We need to score points so we can keep the F*$# up.
That 95 yard drive we had was beautiful. Chew the heck out of the clock, and rested up our defense. But how many times have we tried that same stuff, and then screwed it up? Held on to the ball for too long, lost it somehow, and then got behind.
too many for my comfort. Especially since we don't exactly run a hurry-up offense to begin with. Jet-sweep, inside stretch play, incomplete curl route and we are punting.
We probably will never be Baylor, TCU, or Oregon, but I am not 100% sold on what Loeffler is trying to do, just my humble opinion. But not sure there is a fiery forward thinking OC who can change the culture of VT in short order either, very disheartening.
Lol, yep. That kinda sums it up for me. "Disheartening."
The Terrordome is alive and well. It's the play on the field that's killing the ability to constantly drive the fanbase into a frenzy. Evidence this by looking at the environment when we tied the game with Duke.
Maybe we need more support from past players.
You mean to come back and play?
this guy is not amused by that statistic:
Even better would be his likely response to this thread: "Fuck you guys, you guys aren't gonna win for us. Next question!"
"You're just going to write your little story..."
The Duke game was the best atmosphere since OSU.
I agree. The fans where there and were screaming their heads off. Most had lost their voices by 3rd quarter.
Mine is still recovering. Really, from a crowd standpoint, that was as good as I have seen in a long time.
I say it was better. Brewer's injury in the 2nd half sucked the life out of the crowd. The Duke game just got better and better as the game went on.
Until the last 2 plays
If we're strictly talking about crowd noise (which I know OP isn't doing, but since we're on the topic), there are 2 ways to get a Hokie crowd really pumped up.
1)Be great.
2)Play great teams.
We haven't been a good football team in the last few years so #1 is out of the question. Part of the reason why the crowd isn't going to be the same is because we don't play marquee games at home. Since 2005, how many big time nonconference home games have we had? I'd say 2, 2009 vs Nebraska and 2015 vs Ohio State. And our ACC schedule is never sexy either. There isn't a fanbase in the nation that's going to bring the same energy to a game between two 4-5 teams fighting for 5th in the Coastal as it is going to bring for a night game when at least one of the teams is looking to play Jan. 1 and beyond, You can't replicate the atmosphere for a big time college football game.
Like OP said, when we were 4-5 in 2012, when Florida State came to town Lane Stadium was jumping. Even tho our basketball team has been in the toilet for 4 years, when Duke came to town the Cassell was rocking. If we want the Terrordome to come back, we have two options.
(Well 3 options, we can play exciting games vs teams we would have historically blown out, like that 3OT Marshall game).
It would also help for the ACC to switch our home and home rotation back to the way it was a few years ago when GT and Miami alternated years. Now we have both of those and UVA all hitting in the same year, meaning that in the odd years, we don't have our "big" ACC games anchoring the home schedule.
Not to mention alternate home and away with Duke and UNC again.
I feel like it's boon or bust as far as how many games I get to see within a couple hours of Greensboro. Last year I got two extra games on top of the home schedule. This year? None.
Virginia: 0-2 at lane stadium since 2012.
Virginia: 0-8 at Lane Stadium since 2000.
They haven't won at Lane in this millennium.
good stat! How many times have they won in Lane North in that same time span?
A: 1
UVa has won only 3 times since 1995 (20 years)
UVa's last win in Blacksburg came in 1998.
UVa has won 9 games against Frank Beamer, the most recent of which happened in Charlottesburg in 2003 under Al Groh.
Mike London has never beaten VT. If we can manage to beat them this year...big IF at this point IMO, Mike London will become the 7th UVA coach to have a completely winless career against the Hokies.
Only one more year until the incoming UVa freshman have lived in a world where that's never happened.