I saw this question on Twitter and thought it would be really interesting on here given how we have our old rivals from the Big East days and current rivals from the ACC.
Mine would have to be Pat White from WVU. He didn't light the world on fire against us in 2005 like he did the entire Big East and Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, so have no spite towards him. He started all 4 years in Morgantown and, in my opinion, was the most electrifying quarterback in college football since Michael Vick. The trio of him, Steve Slaton, and Owen Schmidt should have gone to the National Championship in the 2007-08 season, but Rich Rod already knew he was going to Michigan and didn't exactly put a lot of effort into coaching that final Pitt game (I'm glad he didn't).
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Maybe not a real rival, but I loved James Conner. Kid was a baller.
James Conner and Mark Herzlich both, because I have no capacity to imagine myself going through the rigors of playing P5 football, and even less so to imagine myself going the rigors of playing P5 football after having gone through the rigors of beating cancer
Quin Blanding lol
The OP doesn't specify that you had to enjoy them for their high quality of play after all. I too enjoyed watching Quin Blanding get owned tremendously.
I wonder how Blanding likes hanging out with all Stroman, Settle and Alexander (maybe now that they are teammates, they can give him some pointers)
You enjoyed watching WVU play?
I'm judging you right now.
It's not that I enjoyed watching them play. It was just what was on and what everyone talked about where I'm from.
Loved watching Moss. Straight Cash Homie.
The fact that Moss, the greatest player in the state's history, spurned WVU and ended up at Marshall is amazing. Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich were also better than any player WVU has ever had, even Pat White.
Somebody appears to be backpedaling awfully fast.
"I said the word 'wouldn't instead of 'would,'" Jwillhokiealum told reporters, reading from a prepared statement. "The sentence should have been 'I don't see any reason why I would enjoy watching WVU play,' sort of a double negative."
Correct usage of pop culture reference.
BBBBBut, politics!!!!!
Miami's running backs in the early 2000s
And then more recently, the Georgia running back corps.
Matt Ryan
/s
Sorry, had to do it.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching Grayson Lambert.
FTFY
I was under the impression that Wahoos had no souls. More like...
Larry Fitzgerald
Calvin Johnson, Antonio Bryant and Larry Fitzgerald. They did some damage to us and went on to have great careers.
Donovan McNabb. He was awesome.
agreed. he is the only player that I felt could score on us at whim. He was electrifying and terrifying at the same time.
This is a very revisionist history statement:
We knocked their starting QB out (Name escapes me), and White started the second half.
I remember specifically after our first defensive series, Bud had the defense on the bench, and goes
LOL!
Anyways, if we don't knock their QB out, who knows if Pat White sees the field that year.
Adam Bednarik...related to the great Chuck Bednarik.
Has to be Calvin Johnson for me. Straight Baller.
Willis McGahee was the most complete RB I remember seeing in person. We had no answer for him, and if he hadn't destroyed his knee vs OSU I think he sets the NFL on fire too.
I posted in another thread about McGahee...one of the most dynamic backs I have ever seen
McGahee or Saquon Barkley?
I choose McGahee. Barkley got shut down in a couple of games.
Not an all-ACC player, but I thought that TaQuon Marshall actually made the triple option fun to watch. Which is saying something...
Aaron Donald- the best player I have watched on film since I started writing stuff around here.
Zack Allen- BC
Joe Gilles Harris-Duke
Easily Pat White. Especially since VT beat his team in 2005, and nobody else did. Electric to watch, plus a good guy from everything I heard.
EWwwwwwww. Who willing watches WVU games and enjoys them.
The last backyard brawl was the only non-tech WVU game I have watched, and I enjoyed them being shut out by a pretty bad Pitt team in the snow. Good times!
I was a fan of Will Grier before he was a Neer, and he's still fun to watch.
Jamie Silva - he was a badass safety on that 2007 Boston College team.
Luke Kuechly - I don't have to remind you all of how good he was/is...
Lamar Miller - He was awesome in that 2011 game
Co-Sign White, Slaton, and Schmidt (this may or may not be for other reasons). Also if Schmidt's post game interview after the Fiesta bowl doesn't make you love college football you may not have a pulse.
Gotta be megatron. I remember watching him and just being awestruck at his ability. That GT game he played in was the first year I really started following cfb and I have never seen a receiver as dominant as him since.
Only other players who come close were Aaron donald and donkey Kong suh. Which Tbf our interior lines were nothing special
We played Reggie Bush so this counts. I will never forget staying up to watch them play Fresno State in 2004 on Thanksgiving break. He lit up that night.
I will admit I like watching GT play their option offense.
It's a guilty pleasure of mine too, especially when GT is playing someone out of conference.
Ok, NOW I'm judging
Matt Leinhart and Reggie Bush. I grew up watching these guys and I don't think you can really seperate the experience of watching one without the other. I wasn't a college football fan and a bit too young during the Mike Vick era. Even their loss to Texas to me wasn't a negative, greatest game I've ever seen. Starting my HS football career during their final couple years at USC, i would've turned down every scholarship offer from Tech, PSU or any SEC program had I gotten an offer from USC. No question.
For my answer, I would like to include the clause "when they were not playing VT" to the end of the question.
Also I'm going basketball.
London Perrantes. He was the quintessential floor general that college basketball programs yearn for. He was an effort man on both ends of the floor. He made shots and did not shy away from the spotlight. Yes, he had terrible hair. But he also had the grit and determination that I admire in athletes.
A UVA friend of mine (only God can judge me) once said that a person could only root for Deron Washington if he were on your team. I feel the same about Perrantes.
...except the infamous miss
I used to hate playing Calvin Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald. Sitting in the 4th row once, I remember Adibi trying to chase Calvin Johnson down the sideline right in front of me, and realizing they were at completely different levels. Johnson was an NFL player still in college. Both are stand-up guys, they were easy to root for in the NFL.
On defense...Luke Kuechly. It seemed like he made 75% of BC's tackles. He was always fun to watch.
I appreciated the running style of Elijah Hood, the pinpoint accuracy of Kellen Moore (however that game was brutal), and Shayne Skov (Stanford) who played incredible at backer against us in the Orange Bowl.
Wasn't he the two-way guy with the gnarly hair?
Future: KJ Henry, Cam Akers
Past: Sammy Watkins, CJ Spiller
Current: Kelly Bryant
Which part? The National Championship part? Because that team was pretty damn good and might have won that game given how they would have played Ohio State in that game...
Which part? ALL of it. That entire last paragraph of your's I quoted.
Nope. anOSU would've had to severly underprepare for that hypothetical nonextistent game in order to lose to them. Also, the delightful chokejob against Pitt completely nullifies your statement & argument.
Not really. Ohio State played horrible in that national championship. Meanwhile WVU smacked Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. I don't hold that Pitt game against that team either. It was an epic choke job, but Rich Rod totally set them up for that. That'd be like defining our entire 2010 team off the JMU game.
While anOSU got obliterated by LSU in the Natty, that's not an indicator of how they would have done vs wvu. Sure they defeated the Sooners in Fiesta, but like my previous statement, that's not an indicator of how they would've done against the Buckeyes.
Once again, incorrect. That game DID define their season because IF they win, then they woulda shoulda coulda. The comparison you make is very incorrect because we lost to JMfU @ the beginning of the season. Meaning there was still time make changes & a difference. Also, exactly HOW did RichRod "set them up to fail"? That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
The National Championship game is purely speculation. I truly believe that WVU would have won that game though. Doesn't mean they would, just what I believe.
The thing about that Pitt team was that they weren't as bad as their 4-7 record indicated. They beat 2 ranked teams and lost 4 games by one possession. They had Shady McCoy. The next season they went 9-4. The season after that they entered the top ten. Rich Rod knew he was going to Michigan and put little effort into coaching that game. I don't blame those players at all. Plus Pat White was hurt for about half of it. We lost to an FCS school that didn't even make the playoffs. I guess it could be different in that regard. I still stand by my point that it's unfair to define that WVU team by that game.
I hate WVU as much as anyone. I didn't feel bad for the fans and I'm damn sure didn't feel bad for Rich Rod. Those players didn't deserve that though.
Unfortunately, your OP, as well as some of your subsequent comments suggest, & indicate otherwise. For somebody that "hates wvu [just] as much as anyone", you appear to be paying an enormous amount of undeserved lip-service, as well as attempting to rationalize an indefensible defense of them.
Something I will clarify, it's not you that's on trial, it's your respect of them. If a player chooses or has chosen to play @ wvu, they get what they deserve (RIchRod included). I have zero respect because of their association & whom they play for. Cause & effect.
Nothing about wvu (other than a DBs coach) deserves ANY respect from Hokies.
Under the hood your argument is really that they were bad because you hate them and they lost one important game. That WVU team was still very good in the grand scheme of things.
Yup. And I haven't seen anything that the OP feels bad for them...
You can (and should have a little bit, even teeny tiny bit) have respect for your true rival. I would say in football Marshall-WVU is a better rivalry than loluva-VT. At least Marshall has a chance to win!
They were ok/serviceable that season. We could've smashed & exposed them better than Pitt. They were a good team in a weak conference. I mean, aside from Okie, whom else did they play that season that were even remotely respectable?
They beat 10-3 Cincinnati, 9-4 U Conn, and 8-4 Rutgers while each were ranked as well as 8-4 Mississippi State.
I know what you're thinking; "But it was only Cincinnati, U Conn, and Rutgers!". It was 11 years ago and the Big East wasn't terrible that season.
Not to mention Oklahoma.
Absolutely, he just wanted to know who else they beat that year. The Oklahoma win goes without saying.
Alright. And whom all did they beat?
I'm not going to dignify your nuh-uh arguments by Googling stuff you can find yourself.
Not every team you dislike is bad.
Ah, didn't say they were bad. In fact, I threw in a "good/serviceable" acknowledgement (which is more than they deserve). I just simply pointed out that they were NOT as good as advertised or as made out to be by the OP.
I grew up a VT fan in southern WV. Southern WV Mountaineers hate VT more than any other team in college football to this day, even Pitt. I almost got into actual fights over the rivalry. When it came down to deciding which school I wanted to attend, I knew I wanted to go to a division 1 school but the only two in the whole state were Marshall and WVU. I chose Marshall in a heartbeat and now deal with the WVU fans constantly trashing Marshall whenever they feel inadequate. I can almost assure you I hate WVU as much as anyone on this website. My weekends revolve around 3 games: the VT game, the Marshall game, and the WVU game. I have never rooted for WVU one time in all my years of watching college football. With that being said, I can respect a damn good team when I see it. That 2007 WVU team was damn good with a scumbag for a head coach. I still root against them every weekend and did back then as well, but respect is respect.
I feel ya. My dad is a Marshall alum, so I grew up hating West-by-god (our neighbor was a WVU'er with season tix) for way longer than I even knew VT existed. I still will peek at WVU games to see how they are doing. Similarly with loluva games...just to watch them loluva.
That's cool about your farher! I've got 2 more years before I'm officially a Marshall alum. I actually don't obsess over UVA the same way I do WVU. I just never interacted with any of their fans growing up. I still love beating them every season.
Most of these guys I enjoyed watching when they failed. One guy I did respect was Ed Reed.
Larry Fitzgerald
thad lewis was one of my favorite guys to watch he wasn't anything spectacular but he played his A off and helped turned UVA into the laughing stock of the ACC instead of DUKE in football.
other than that id have to say duke Johnson for past players
and present player is greg dortch if you don't know the name check him out. hes going to do BIG things in the ACC in the next couple of years. hes from our back yard. he was only a 2 star and we didn't recruit him. He only played in 8 games last year starting 6 had 53 catches for 722 yards 9 TDs and avgd 13.6 a catch. kid is explosive. Had to 258 all purpose yards against GT last year. he was only a freshman last year. check out his highlights in the link below.
freshman highlights
Brock Berlin LOL
I am fairly new here.... but my first thought was why was this thread in the OT forum?
I did it because it's not directly related to VT sports. Just a fun discussion to get through the offseason.
I am not sure I agree with your rationale concerning a non-direct relation to VT sports but it would be up to the maudes to move it. Many of whom have other things to do today.
As for a response, I was going to say "Marcus Davis" but that would be mean spirited. So I shall go non-football and say Keith Lee. He straight-out dominated some of our better basketball teams.
Welcome.
Everybody is leaning toward football here... but when I was in High School, I just loved watching the UVa men's B ball teams with Ralph Sampson, Othell Wilson, Ricky Stokes, Jeff Lamp and Rick Carlisle.
Ah yes Ricky Stokes. What a great coach he was.
Gonna cheat and say Heath Miller, after he left UVA.
I'll go w/ McNabb, because even though he did well against us in the Dome, Foster's unit kicked his arse all over the field whenever they came down. Plus, he kind of won me over in the pros.
When I was younger I loved watching Warrick Dunn. More recent players I have enjoyed watching are Deshaun Watson and Calvin Johnson. I'm curious to see Trevor Lawrence at Clemson after watching the elite 11.
I couldn't decide on one so here is a team. Using UVA, WVU, Miami, Pitt, GT as main rivals.
QB: Pat White
RB: Quincy Wilson - I could watch him bowl over and hurdle Meriweather over and over again
RB: Famous Amos - needed a better oline
RB: Owen Schmit - recorded broken face masks as a stat
WR: Megatron - think how bad Reggie Ball's stats would have been without him
WR: Andre Johnson - made Ken Dorsey look really good
WR: Fitz
TE: Probably one of the Miami TEs, or Anthony Becht, or Heath Miller
OL: 2001 Miami, McKinnie obviously, but the center was really really good
DL: Freeney
DL: Aaron Donald
DL: Vince Wilfork
LB: Kueckly
LB: Grant Wiley - still pissed about the end of the 2002 game
DB: Ed Reed
DB: Sean Taylor
DB: Meriweather - I love watching him getting owned by Q. It brings a smile to my face typing this.
P/K: Pat McAfee - Idiot Drunk Kicker 2.0 (yes vanderjagt went to wvu too)
Ret: Devin Hester
Lots of other great defenders, but I never enjoyed them like the ones I listed (revis, hb blades, chris long, wvu's pair dingle and berry, lots of clemson DEs, dan morgan, jonathan vilma)
I commend you for creating an entire list. Another cool thing in that WVU game was Pac-Man Jones punching Kellen Winslow. I'm not a big Winslow fan.
I do like lists. I am with you on Winslow. Shockley, Olsen, Graham, Everett were more who I meant for TEs from Miami. I do thank Everett for dropping that pass on the fake FG, since the refs didn't notice he was inelligible.
I love the picture of him laying on the ground and every Tech fan in the background is pointing and laughing at Everett after that drop. I don't have the picture, but I'm sure someone on this website does.
Lots of football names here, but I'll throw out a basketball name: Mark Price, GT. Dude had a sweet stroke, and could shoot the long ball as easily as a fifteen footer. Is a shame the three point line wasn't in play during his later years.
Gio Bernard and Duke Johnson. Both were able to absolutely gash Buds defenses. I still have nightmares of that 250 yard Duke Johnson day in 2014.