Going off of another thread about best 1st experience for a tech game.
I've only been to few away games and I'm referencing @ teams home stadium not neutral site. Sometimes those are shitty but not a complete reflection of the town, Gameday experience and fans.
My worst was a couple years ago @ Syracuse, $150 round trip flight from JFK so I decided why not. We lost that game and from what I remember got dominated abit. That part wasn't great, but I was supremely disappointed on the Gameday experience. They only have 2 bars off campus, everything else is in dt Syracuse which isn't really walkable from the campus. Also the campus was pretty dead and no tailgating really. Lastly the fans are boring old farts, I literally was the only person standing for any portion of the 1st quarter and almost got into a fight a couple times because cuse fans kept telling me to sit down, even though I was on the tech side. Just an overall boring and lame time, the outcome wasn't great but everything else was what will make me never visit Syracuse again.
Comments
@Clemson 2012.
I was at this game too...there's NOTHING outside of that campus! I remember booking a hotel in Anderson, but once I got there and saw how crappy the town was I just left when the game got out of hand and drove home.
I grew up in Anderson! Yeah the actual city of Clemson is very limited. Their entire downtown is like a third of a street.
Damn, I was at that game but had a blast. The losing sucked, but I absolutely loved the atmosphere at Death Valley. The crowd was engaged. The stadium was beautiful. The entrance was meh though, well I did like the balloons at least.
Clemson definitely has a great tailgating scene and atmosphere around game days. Sadly, great game day environments are not very common in the ACC.
I still get pissed thinking about that early whistle on the "sack" on Logan. He escaped damn it! Literally was a game changing call.
That's good to hear, I'm thinking about tagging along with a Clemson fan to one of their games this year, straight trade for her tagging along to watch ND in Blacksburg.
They are getting rid of the balloons starting this year. I think too many complaints about the environment.
Ill be honest, that did cross my mind when i saw them released. Probably for the better i guess.
The Miami fans last year were the worst people I've ever encountered.
I was at that game with a group of friends...We were flicked off by little children. Some huge guy took his shirt off and kept turning around the entire game in front of us and wouldn't stop flexing/punching his fist into his other hand to intimidate us. The Hard Rock Stadium was great, the city of Miami was a blast but the fans at the game were trash. I've never been to an away game where this many fans at the game had zero affiliation with the school. we walked out of the game in the 4th quarter with our heads down and everyone was cheering/laughing at us. The big tough guy patted me on the back tho for "being a good sport".
ECU 2011 hands down worst experience. My cousin went there, I was a Freshman at Tech. Walked into the student tailgate lot, someone threw a beer at me which missed and busted open (obviously I proceeded to pick it up and drink it) and then instantly had someone swing at me. Turns out that someone was the guys tailgate we were going to so that made for an awkward tailgating experience.
We won a very boring game.
Counterpoint Best away game experience Duke in the late 2000's it was basically a home game so that was nice.
We won a very boring game.
We did, indeed. Also, it was hot as fuck that day. Horrible, horrible game.
@Pitt in 2012. Not fun.
I'm 1-3 when I travel. We beat Wake. Lost to Tennessee (Bristol) Georgia (Peach Bowl) and ECU (Charlotte). Both of those losses sucked, but the Georgia loss was accompanied with a great trip.
ECU sucked because it was shitty hot, crowded car, and we lost to ECU in a bad way.
Bristol was hot, dusty, and the organization for getting into the game was abysmal.
So, three neutral sites sucked.
Wake was good.
I don't travel because we lose.
I'm a pretty mixed bag for away/neutral games.
W -- 2007 @Clemson
W -- 2009 Peach Bowl Tennessee
W -- 2011 @GT
L -- 2011 ACCCG Clemson
L -- 2012 @Clemson
W -- 2016 Belk Bowl Arkansas
W -- 2009 Peach Bowl Tennessee
W -- 2010 ACCCG FSU
W -- 2012 Russell Athletic Bowl Rutgers
W -- 2013 @Miami
L -- 2016 BaB Tennessee
W -- 2016 @UNC (In a "hurricane", it wasn't raining that hard at game time)
W -- 2016 Belk Bowl Arkansas
This exercise made me remember how I told people in 2016 that I was going to 3 Tech games that year and none were in Lane Stadium.
Mine is skewed because we sucked while I was there:
@Clemson - L
@Fedex vs Cinny - L
@Georgia Dome vs Bama - L
@The HorseShoe vs OSU - W
@UVA - W
But the OSU win made up for the earlier losses.
UNC is the only place I've gone where the fans were openly hostile to the visiting band, at least that I personally witnessed. It's REALLY special when they boo the visiting band as they're coming onto/off the field. With their own band. To play a joint military appreciation show.
Stole the words out of my mouth. I remember walking to the stadium with the band freshman year in '08 and we were getting all kinds of heckled, down to an 8 year old standing right next to his dad flipping us off. Luckily the game was very satisfying.
Junior year going there was not any better, but again, scoreboard.
I saw a dude try to trip one of our tuba players during that walk. Said dude is probably pretty lucky he didn't succeed.
Two things:
1) Surprised this tripping incident did not happen at Duke
2) The guy probably earned 3 credit hours for his attempt
There's a clear effort involved with trying to trip someone. Sounds like a PhD thesis rather than a few measly credit hours that are easily earned for less effort.
What kind of wool are you trying to pull over our eyes? We all know it had to be a tutor!
Luckily, the students and most of the "fans" in Chapel Hill leave about two minutes before half time most games so the 2nd half is usually pretty relaxing as a Tech fan.
Especially if it's raining...
"Games don't count if it rains!"
I'd agree... I believe it was @UNC in 2007 where we were getting beat pretty good (got a lot of shit all game sitting low in their student section), Tyrod lead a come back, so I talked shit back, felt like I was the target of a lot of physical violence, then we got kicked out of a bar that night for having VT gear on.
That was 2008
When you're drunk that often, the years just blend together...
At one of the games I went to at UNC, there was one of their fans sitting right behind us in the middle of the VT section. He said he flew in from Colorado for the game and had specifically bought a ticket in our section just to make our lives miserable. We heard his mouth for four quarters straight, but after UNC missed a field goal at the end of the game that would have tied it, I turned around to say something to him and he had vanished.
Catching punts during pre-grame warm-ups at WVU in 2005. I can't catch a punt to save my life, especially ones from Nick Schmidt that are about 50 feet in the air.
So, I am out there struggling to catch punts, and the WVU admission only student section comes in and they start screaming "Ball Bitch" at my and laughing when I missed a punt.
I did that job at many other places (UNC, DUKE, MIAMI), but no one every gave a shit about me, an equipment guy, missing a punt.
It really got under my skin at first.
Is it bad that I think that's kinda funny
No offense taken. Look I was a lineman growing up and undersized. Catching punts just isn't in my cards.
No one ever gave a shit about what I was doing when we were doing warm ups. This was literally the only time it ever happened.
PS - That crowd deserved to get the Marcus Vick one finger salute. They were absolutely nasty to everyone, especially MV5. They were chanting CONVICK at him the entire game.
I used to workout with Brian Saunders when he was training for the NFL Draft; can confirm, catching punts is not easy, the suckers come almost straight down in a weird, squirrelly fashion.
Didn't read the original post sorry, Miami last year was grade A shit. I somehow got tickets in about a 95/5 Miami section and was religiously insulted after every single first down, TD, whatever it may have been.
Kansas game, Orange Bowl. I thought Miami was warm during January, but I was in a sweater the entire time. We played like ass. The weather sucked, Miami sucks.
Ditto
Been to a ton of away games, but this one stuck out to me too. It was cold, we played like ass, and lost to effing Kansas.
2 come to mind in particular. GT 2017 - for some reason all GT fans seemed pissed off and let me know it. Clemson in the ACC Championship game 2016. Granted i sat near younger Clemson fans (probably students) and they almost earned a free whoopin. Spilling beer everywhere including on some poor kid beside me and cussing out people around them. Absolute embarrassment to their school.
The equipment guys from Clemson were always top notch. Before every game the equipment guys trade gear (Hats, shirts, shorts, etc.).
Clemson always gave us the best gear. Wind breakers, footballs, etc.
The worst was by far WVU and we stopped trading gear with them. We didn't help the matter, as the last thing we traded with them were Bright Pink Lady's Clinic shirts (Some event they used to throw, where they would teach women in the local area the ins and outs of football, how to watch, and what a first down is, etc.)
Only away game I've made it to was Marshall in 2011, so I guess that's technically the worst. Marshall fans were awesome to us, though. Only bad part was getting lost trying to get home and ending up following the Ohio River into SE Ohio. GPS had me taking backroads from there, and I forgot how uncomfortable it is to drive in dark, unfamiliar mountain backroads.
On the positive side, I ended up tailgating before the game with Josh Oglesby's sister, who I recall looked a lot like Karyn Parsons (Hilary from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air).
In my 2 years of attending games here, I've never seen a Marshall fan acting poorly towards an opposing team's fans. WVU fans like to tell stories of the two times they traveled here, but I'm like 99.9999999% sure whatever happened was warranted. I'm glad you had a positive experience.
I attended Marshall from 2010-2015 and I had fans of multiple teams tell me how well they were treated in Huntington. The only experience I've had with WVU fans was when they came to Marshall in 2010 and that was enough to never make me want to go to another game with them involved.
That 2010 Marshall-WVU game is one of the biggest what-ifs in Marshall history. Up 21-6 inside the 20 in the 4th quarter, a field goal essentially puts the game away, and Marshall fumbles it away. My mom talked to a WVU fan who said he was shocked at how obnoxious the Marshall fans were, and she just laughed at him.
WVU fans were so quiet the whole game and then seemed like they were everywhere after.
Looks like Marshall might have a solid team this year. Trying to come up for the nc state game this year.
Yep, the campus is buzzing. Most complete team since 2014 when they went 13-1. I'm making the trip with a couple friends to the South Carolina game.
I was at this game and inadvertently had tickets in the Marshall alumni section. They were not pleased with my drunk ass standing and yelling and I had food/ice thrown at me the whole game. Obviously college me used that as fuel to be louder.
that was my senior year where my roommate and i decided to visit every away game.
Marshall fans were cool to us but we did get the one finger salute several times when we drove through off-campus student housing with our VT flags flying on our way to the stadium! we paid our respects at their memorial and proceeded to tailgate afterwards.
2011 ACC Championship game
Ya, that one wasn't fun either.
It did cement my hatred for Clemson FANS!!!
"I was there the day the strength of Men failed"
I didn't know we were counting neutral site games, this is my answer if we are.
That game was soul crushing. It felt like maybe a 45-55 fan split at half but by the end it felt like 80-20. That C-L-E-M-S-OOOOOOOO-N was all I could hear for days.
I remember when we beat them in the Gator Bowl, they were still doing that damn chant on the way out of the stadium.
I was there too
is this panda trying to suck his own dick?
It does look like he sort of stumbles into it there
GT 2017 was just kinda boring. Most everyone was old and we lost one of the dumbest games I have ever watched. Alabama 2009 was a different kind of animal. Their fans are insane. I was unprepared for the amount of fights I witnessed and then spent a miserable MARTA ride home with Roll Tide! being shouted the entire time.
Worst Away Game Experience: 1st Half 2016 Belk Bowl
Best Away Game Experience: 2nd Half 2016 Belk Bowl
Morgantown. All the stories are true, flaming couches, flying bottles of piss, that place is a shithole!
This. It's been almost 13 years and too many fans have either forgotten or never experienced it.
Poor @SWVA Hokie ... RIP
Hey, WVU fans!
"Now that looks poopy."
Miami 2000 season, old Orange Bowl. Place was a dump. Made the Vet in it's later years look like pristine conditions. Fans were nasty, rude, arrogant. Well, you know, just like you'd expect.
2001 @ WVU, hands down. If you've never been, don't. They are just as terrible as the stories you've heard.
I'm not allowed back in Morgantown because I will wind up in jail. I don't respond well to being threatened.
Battle at Bristol wasn't a true "away game", but sitting in the Red Barn Lot for three hours after the game because they weren't letting any cars out was really the worst. Also all the fumbles.
Here is my list of away games I have been to: Loss 38-7 to Pitt about 15 years ago, when our only touchdown was a blocked punt. Loss at WV by about the same score when Marcus was playing (We beat Miami the next week when MFRW went crazy). Loss at Sugar bowl against Auburn. Loss at chick fila bowl against Georgia. Loss against USC at Fed Ex Field. Loss against Cininnati at Fed Ex Field. My only win on the road was at WVU in 1999 when Micheal Vick won at the end. I am 1-6 on the road. I guess I should go to a game at Lane Stadium North sometime.
Forgot the quasi ACC championship against Miami, that we did win, en route to the sugar bowl against Auburn. We did win that one so I am 2-6 in road games
So basically you go to all the big games...is it you or is Tech not great in recent memory in big games?
Based on your track record, can I ask that you don't go to Lane North? At least while the streak's alive.
I'll play along again. Morgantown in 1997. We pull into the church lot on the other side of the hospital near the stadium and the little old lady waving the orange "park here" flag tells us, "you boys came an awful long way to get your ass kicked!" It was a long long day. We literally had to fight our way in and after we lost it was hell getting out of there, I ended up with a broken knuckle by the time we got back to the parking lot, but the 'eer got the worst of it. 2011 ACC championship sucked too, my brother threw a great tailgate at his house near the stadium but the game....they beat us fair and square I guess...but I hate that damn T-I-G-E-RRRR chant
FEDEX motherfucking Field. For WVU, it took me 3 hours to get out of that shitshow. It was so bad you had Andy B and others writing articles on how fucking horrible it was. Sunday night? No Metro? I will never go there again. At least last time I went, Boise, it ended around 7ish so we could all go home
As soon as the ref called both penalties on the offense at the end of that game my wife and I ran straight to the car and peeled out. Got away in 15 minutes from seat to the parking lot exit.
It took us well over an hour to get from the interstate exit to a parking space on the way in though, so it all balances out.
I'm pretty sure that Boise game was primetime. I remember having to hustle to catch the last Metro around 11. I also remember almost falling asleep driving down 95 at like 2 AM.
"It's official, Boise State University's football game next season against Virginia Tech at Fed Ex Field in Washington, D.C., has been moved to Labor Day (Sept. 6). Kickoff for the game, scheduled to be televised to a national audience on ESPN, is 8:00 p.m. (ET) on the home field of the Washington Redskins."
Crap you're right. Why was that game so orderly, yet WVU such a show? Were the metros not open?
Boise was definitely primetime. I had to listen to the first half radio broadcast over the speakers in the UCB Kroger while I closed the deli.
did you work with Stuart while there? he was my roomie my last two years at VT.
I was at both of these games. I don't remember being so miserable at the end of Boise, outside of losing.
I remember being miserable the entire time I waited in traffic to get in for WVU, which took hours of standstill. That place is not set up to handle big time college football, the lots open far too late in the day.
Ubers out of there were like $150 when the game ended, couldn't find a cab, so me and my buddies stayed in the parking lot for another hour and a half and drank whatever we could find until the surcharge disappeared. My family wound up walking towards 495 and hitchhiking with WVU fans back towards south of DC.
Go to hell Dan Snyder!
This is what I did after WVU last year. Ubers were expensive and Metro wasn't running so we just drank more in the parking lot as people cleared out. Ran out of beer. Then this minivan drove by making a weird noise. Guy (a Hokie)stops, gets out, and pulls a half full case of natural light out from under the front axle that they'd been dragging through the parking lot. Walked over and handed it to us.
The cans were somewhat cold and scratched up but it worked out until our ride got there.
Man, I forgot about what a disaster parking was.
The lot we had a pass for was just a free for all, nobody directing cars, nobody telling you where to park exactly, as I am used to at all other stadiums.
I remember having to herd people, move the corn hole sets and coolers out of the driving lanes within the lot, as folks arrived closer to game time. The fans had to make room for additional people to park. Some folks were using 1 spot, others 4, the empty spots were almost assuredly at the back of the lot were a nightmare, if not impossible to get to. It was a disaster, so much so that I am not at all surprised someone picked up case of Natty's under their car and dragged it along long enough for you to become the benefactor.
Any chance your username is a trailer park boys refrence?
God damn right it is
via GIPHY
it's a fuckin' samsquanch boys! decent!
Boise wasn't fun. Saw plenty of BSU fans going nuts and acting like they were the 2nd coming. Granted, they had a few good years, but I am quite pleased that they are well on their way back to obscurity and nobody giving a shit about them other than their own fans.
Also saw an inebriated BSU fan almost go backwards over the lower edge upper deck railing while spewing how great BSU was. He was prompted detained...
I think I seen the same person
We were trying to get to the stadium and it was backed up for 2 hours. barely got in for kickoff but we were planning on tailgating before heading in but that traffic was horrendous so we tailgated in the road with all the other Hokie fans.
ANY AND ALL GAMES HERE NO MATTER AWAY OR NEUTRAL FIELD OR TECHNICALLY EVEN HOME GAMES.......despise Fedex with a passion.
Hurricane Isabel during the Texas A&M game was pretty horrific too
FTFY.
every single time ive been to MIA for a game. the old orange bowl. the marlins field. it doesn't matter.
If the 1999 Natty counts... FSU fans took over Nola and turned it into a war chanting hell hole. It was the one and only time I did not enjoy being in Nola.
I will agree that this was the worst game experience I have had. There were roaming bands of FSU "fans" looking for hokie "stragglers" in the seats. They would surround said stragglers and verbally abuse them. At one point there was a fight on the jumbotron, at least 20 FSU on 3 or 4 hokies. On the same screen you could see a rent-a-cop who was facing the other direction. I was told that the rent-a-cops for big events mostly come from Florida.
Interesting, I was there (I was an undergrad at the time) and had a great time.
Easy for me. It was in 2003. I was 13 and the drunk students near us weren't the friendliest bunch.
where?
I didn't want to say, but think back to the worst loss of 2003. Or maybe just the worst loss since 2003...
God which one? Was it the shit show in Morgantown when Frank Beamer smacked Earnest Wilford, the Pitt game when Larry Fitzgerald once again destroyed the entire secondary, the UVA game which is the last time any of us ever knew what it was like losing to them, or the Cal bowl game when Aaron Rodgers was laughing at our incompetent defense?
What a season... My first away game was in Charlottesville that year. Nothing can compete with that.
I was there as watching from the hill that day. Not great especially since we new it would take Heath Miller to beat us and he lit Whitaker up.
Neutral field games - Gator Bowl 1994 vs. Tennessee. We didn't stand a chance that day. BSU & USC @ FedEx mostly because of BS calls and FedEx is the worst possible place to watch a football game that I have ever been. Kansas @ Orange Bowl because of play calling, rain, and it was Kansas.
Everytime I go to Duke I complain about how shitty the game day experience is there but after reading this thread I feel like their shitty bars not having TVs is a minor offense.
Headed there this year. Any notable complaints, places to avoid, advice?
So I may have been looking in the wrong spots, but every bar we went to only had 1 TV at best (and some didnt have any). We had more fun just drinking beer and throwing a football around in the parking garage where we left the car.
Getting an uber after the game was also interesting, probably because I didnt know my way around Durham well enough.
All in all, its just not a great tailgating/pregame bar atmosphere.
I went to the Duke game in 2016. There was no tailgating going on that I could see, at least from Duke fans. Hokie fans were having a good time though. Then we had to take a shuttle to the stadium, which doesn't actually get you that close to the stadium at all. It was definitely not what I am used to.
@Duke has been frustrating as hell since they have implemented security that would make the TSA blush. I remember the security lady at the metal detector searching my tri-fold wallet for contraband. Really?? We also waited in line forever because the general public seems flummoxed by the concept of removing all metallic items before entering a metal detector.
Kinda like when you're standing in line for security at the airport and you know they are going to ask you to take your shoes off, and yet no one does anything to be prepared for that, and so the line gets backed up by everyone scrambling to put their shit in the bins AND take their shoes off 🙄
Heh, then you're really going to hate hearing that I somehow got a metal flask into Wallace Wade in 2016. Apparently, even though they had metal detectors, they were all show and didn't actually work.
'03 Pitt, coming off the high of the Miami game. Rode there in a bus full of fellow students, were harassed the whole way into the stadium. The girls in our group were harassed worse. It was f-ing cold. KJ goes off but we lose late. The bus broke down forcing us to take a crappier bus home. I still regret the money spent on that.
Hah, I have similar memories of that game. It was absolutely frigid all day, some asshole pitt fans tried to rip the satellite dish off my truck, and oh yeah, we lost. Also, schools/stadiums in the middle of a city suck. Oh and did I mention that it was freeze-your-nuts c-o-l-d?!
This is the correct answer. It was so F%$#ing cold that night, and we lost a game that we had SO MANY CHANCES to win, and it was Pitt.
I can confirm. I was there with VTEOrr. It was so cold that you could put your hands directly on the tailgate grill and it barely warmed them up.
Plus tailgating in a shady parking lot under a highway isn't my kind of party.
Triple overtime loss at Syracuse in 2002. I hate the Terrordome.
I wouldn't call it the Terrordome anymore, it's more like the RetirementHome now. Barely anyone that looked at students at the game I went to.
Clemson might still think of it as the Terrordome, though.
Corey Moore don't think so.
Boston College sucks. Getting there sucks, the stadium kinda blows and the gameday experience is just weak.
My biggest gripe is that there is no parking for opposing fans, the available parking for BC fans costs a fortune as you need to donate shitloads to the school to qualify. The only lot available to opposing fans is in east cuddy, and doesn't allow grills, so there winds up being literally no place to tailgate.
Their fans suck, only the old timers are worth talking to. The students are a bunch of bums who leave before halftime.
They'll have a decent team this year, and they just don't deserve it.
As a venue, BC is awful. Tailgating is prohibited at satellite parking lots! The stadium feels like an overgrown high school stadium.
Their fans are ruthless. They would pick one or 2 players on our sideline and abuse them the whole game. While most of us laughed at the guys taking the heat, you were glad it wasn't you for sure.
Without a doubt, the BC game experience sucks.
GT 2004. They stuck a bunch of VT fans in those little metal bleachers in the south east corner, right next to the student section. GT was ahead for most of the game and those students just started giving all of us VT fans pure hell starting the second half. I remember a group of 15-20 students just coming over and standing in front of the bleachers to intentionally get in the way of VT fans who were sitting in the first few rows. One older VT fan said something and a few students just verbally abused him and threatened a fight. It was terrible.
Of course, Randall to Royal happened with five minutes to go and Randall to Morgan happened with three minutes to go and Roland Minor happened with a minute to go and all of that noise coming from the student section went completely quiet. It was glorious watching those pricks just stream out of the stands right next to where we were still cheering.
I love Raleigh, but I detest NCSU fans... That 2005 NCSU game wasn't the most pleasant experience.
The NCSU fans next to the Lot 18 tailgate at the "ESPN Opens to an Empty Lane Stadium" game a few years back were some of the nicest fans I've met.
This was the Friday night game I believe. The torrential downpour then everyone was late to the stadium? When we got there, my friend and I pounded SOCO in his car in the rain because we got to Blacksburg right after work. We could see some NCSU fans drinking beers in their car next to ours and we air-cheersed. It was a moment. Seemed like good people. I've never had a problem with State fans.
Kinda had the same experience. Me and my dad went up and grilled at the airport then went down to the lot behind the SEZ and tailgated with a friend from home who has NCSU family. Literally the moment we got to the lot the storm hit and it was all hands on deck to hold the canopy down lol so, we bonded that way. That storm is still one of the craziest things I've ever seen. Beautiful all damn day then BAM MONSOON.
2005 - Freshman year @ UVA: Lackluster and almost nonexistent tailgating scene. I sat with friends in their student section and had multiple full limes thrown at me with my back turned to the rest of the crowd. Yelled to sit down during crucial 3rd/4th down plays. Had a kid on crutches try to argue with me that his SAT scores were better than mine. Finally found the person throwing said limes at me in the 3rd quarter and confronted him. Got kicked out.
Who brings limes to a football game?
Banged one of their cheerleaders though so it wasn't all bad.
Banged one of their cheerleaders? Damn that's pretty savage
Wonder what SaladHokie has to say...
SaladHokie's worst memory was being tossed at the top of East Stands...
Carruthers?
Chadwick Carruthers
Story Time!
I was a cheerleader at Tech for six football seasons, and I've been to a most of the ACC stadiums. The only bad experience I had was at the GT Thursday night game in 2007, the stolen-jersey game.
Traditionally, during half-time, the home-team's cheerleaders will feed the away-team's cheerleaders. During this game, Big Boi performed at half-time, which was awesome, but threw off us meeting up with the GT cheerleaders. For whatever reason, we thought it would be a good idea to cut through the concourse to get over to where they were. This required us to leave the field and walk up through the stands and then down a set of stairs to the concourse area. This led us through a bunch of GT fans, one of which was completely hammered and convinced we were not allowed to be in their area. He got very worked-up and actually punched the Hokie Bird in the face (helmet). Luckily for him, I was able to grab the Bird, who was actually a power-lifter IIRC, while other people got between us.
He ended up getting arrested, while we ended up getting our picture taken with Big Boi and winning the damn game, so it worked out alright.
So more a referendum on one guy, but yeah. That was the worst one.
Do you know Timmy and Andreas?
Sure do. Timmy and I joined at the same time. I assume you mean Andrea, and yes.
Andrea was my RA freshman year in Prtichard. Timmy I just kind of know. I was really good friends with a bunch of High Techs (Meghan & Morgan)
I'm thinking the three of us shared some moonshine at one point or another...
Pitt, 2012. Ranked Hokies playing a bad Pitt team. Pregnant wife and I drive from Dayton to Pitt. I got club seats for 50 bucks a pop. Then the game was awful. Pitt fans yelling shit at my wife and me. Tech playing like shit on the field. This the ga where the "Pitt happens" guys on a bench is from.
I don't think I've had a bad away game experience. 2 Bowl games, Bristol, 1 ACC championship, etc. Even the true away games I've been to (Miami and UNC) were fine experiences, despite rain at both. Bristol was hell trying to get to and from the game, but that city and racetrack property aren't built to handle that kind of simultaneous ingress/egress.
Come to think of it, I've been to a handful of VT games not at Lane Stadium and never had a bad time. But I've also stayed away from FedEx.
ECU 2015. Greenville is a trash bag.
The worst I have been to was Purdue and not for bad treatment but for a complete lack of gameday experience. Even with a 3:30 kickoff, their downtown had one bar busy and there may have been one parking lot tailgaiting. I was able to slide on down to the second row behind the Tech bench for the second half, but they play in what amounts to a large high school stadium, so all the seats are close. Even their big-ass drum entrance was blah in person. Most of the crowd chanted anti-Indiana stuff during the game as if they should be proud to have a neck-and-neck football rivalry with powerhouse Indiana. I would say it was more like a game against a MAC school than a Big10 school.
Visited a friend at Purdue, hopefully you either went to Harry's or Neon Cactus, but Purdue really just doesn't give a shit about football, it's all bball and hating on IU
1. 2008 BC - 7 year old kids in the parking lot flicking us off for no reason, rude obnoxious fans the whole game
2. 2010 UNC - horrible fans talking crap all game and taunting my 75 year old mother-in-law who was just sitting there not saying a word
3. Every single ECU away game. Their fans are obnoxious, obviously have inferiority complex's, can't handle their booze for a drinking college, the constant Argggg for every first down is reminiscent of the tomahawk chop, Greenville is a dump, I could go on and on and on
I've never been to a non-neutral site away game. (hangs head)
I have been to a number of neutral site games and never really had a bad experience, save for the outcomes of the games. We are 0-4 in neutral site games that I have attended ('04 USC, '05 Auburn, '06 UGA, '10 Boise). Now I stay away.
NC State fans are bad. They get downright antagonistic and violent when things don't go their way, which it really rarely does against any team with a pulse. UNC and Duke fans are bad in basketball, but in football, they literally couldn't care less.
For those worried about the Duke game, the only thing to worry about there is whether or not the stadium is too sleepy for you. It has no atmosphere, no character, and we routinely take it over. But their fans are generally in it for the fun of it, and they have a decent Duke tailgate near the stadium. For visitors, just either park in one of the Public lots and tailgate (it'll be all Hokie) or buy tickets to the VT Alumni Tailgate (generally in one of their intramural gyms next to the stadium for 3+ hours before the game... food and beer included). Never had a bad time there.
i second the VT alumni tailgate. went there my senior year and ate/drink my fill of that cost of entry.
i always encourage visiting Hokies to do that instead of lugging their tailgate gear because it's right next to the stadium and under a massive tent where you can socialize with area Hokies. plus, i believe the funds go to VT scholarships...
I may or may not be bringing a group this year. Still undecided so far. But it sounds like a tailgate oasis in the desert that is Duke.
I should be at the Duke game this year for those that want me to find them.
The only true away game I've been to was actually the VT-Kentucky basketball game last year. My sister attends Kentucky, so she got my a student ticket for the low. I couldn't get through the gates because I couldn't prove I was a student despite some pretty decent lying on the spot, so I had to come up with a plan B. They had this fenced off area for smokers right outside the arena. I saw someone just walk right back in after smoking a cigarette. I looked around and didn't see anyone looking, so I jumped the fence, walked in, and no one questioned it. The Kentucky fans were fine. They only cheered for their team, and it was a great atmosphere. No complaints there.
I've been to 3 neutral site games. I went to the ECU game in Charlotte in 2008 as a 5th grader. I vividly remember two ECU fans, probably students, absolutely wasted walking up to our tailgate talking a bunch of shit. After the game we told them they better beat WVU the next week (which they did) and all was well. That game was miserable because our offense was a joke, it was like 90°, and we lost.
My second neutral site experience was Alabama the following season. We didn't really interact with their fans a whole lot other than at the Hard Rock Café the night before which was fine. We had one Alabama fan in our section, and he was pretty cool too despite all the trash talk he was getting up to the 4th quarter. That game still hurts because I felt like we had that one until the defense finally fell apart in the 4th.
My third and final neutral game experience was against WVU last season. Driving to the game on 66 I believe it was, we had some WVU fans pass us and start flipping us off. They were all drinking too (the driver wasn't). I'm sure the FedEx Field gameday experience is still fresh in everyone's mind, so I'm not going to relive that shit show, but the game itself was amazing. Aside from the WVU fans on the interstate, I actually did not have any negative experiences with them at the game itself even though I was even wearing a Marshall hat to accompany my VT Jersey in hope of really riling up some WVU fans. It was also one of the greatest games I've ever witnessed that ended in a win for the good guys, so all the bullshit that we had to go through before the game was forgotten. That was a good experience.
I am attending the Marshall-South Carolina game in Columbia September 15th, and I've heard USCe fans aren't the most pleasant to be around. That will be my second true road game experience.
Hands down 2003 WVU - what a terrible experience.
Honorable mention: surprisingly NC State 2010 - I was not expecting awful fans but that's what we got where I was sitting.
Been to a really bad one at UVA in the 90's but last year I drove to the awful town of South Bend to see historic Notre Dame. These were the most entitled fans I have ever been around and I have been to LSU, PSU etc.. These Notre Douche fans seemed uninterested (I was sitting in a ND section with my wife's uncle who is an alum) and the fans were discussing, politics, picnics and joking our players last names (People's etc). They were happier about Bon Jovi's son and David Robinson's son being on the field/team than the actual game. When we started coming back, 3/4 of my section left bitching that they should not have had to play scrubs like us. I am hoping for a demolishment in Blacksburg and it's the game I can't wait for this season!!!
That was 2 years ago right, not last year?
Correct..........FTFM
Most of the ND fans I talked to were very polite to our group. But they also admitted they expected to lose to us.
Those older fans were AWFUL! Yelling at us to stop cheering, to sit down etc.
My gf went to Notre Dame so she took me up for that game and I'll say I had a vastly different experience than you. We spent time at her college buddy's tailgate (late 20s aged alumni) as well as her dad's tailgate and everyone I met was very friendly and welcoming. It was a tamer tailgate scene than Blacksburg but that could have been due to the fact it was legitimately snowing. She has told me that their fans don't really stand or get loud outside of the students (more sit, watch, and applaud) but they also aren't rude or malicious to visiting fans. Additionally, a number of her college buddies have asked me about the atmosphere in Lane and have stated they would love to visit and see firsthand.
2003 at UVA. The last time they won. That fake field goal was a back breaker.
Multiple games at Fedex. That stadium sucks in every aspect and it sucks there at Redskins games too. I refuse to return. Also, it's in Landover, Maryland, and Maryland fucking sucks.
The Battle at Bristol, couldn't see which was fine, but the Tennessee fans sucked. I had a great time otherwise.
6 or 7 years ago at Maryland. Had a great time tailgating and we kicked their ass. It sucked because it was at Maryland, what a shit campus. Maryland sucks.
I suppose I didn't say the "worst" one and used "sucks" a lot, but all of them were worst for one reason or another.
Wanna take a trip to Maryland?
I was actually there earlier this summer at Meriweather for the Foo Fighters concert. We rented a party bus so we didn't have to deal with the drivers, which was smart. To be fair, Meriweather is a pretty awesome pavilion. Much better than Jiffy Lube.
I'm going to do something a little different for this site but...
F*CK DAN SNYDER.
Dan Snyder is AWFUL
I'd guess I'd have to say Bristol just because the Tennessee fans were pretty bad. I enjoyed camping and tailgating all day. Obviously wish we didn't fumble the game away.
Not a true road game. But 2008 vs ECU in Charlotte. Not enough time to tailgate. Atmosphere was lackluster at best and then of course we lost. No idea why that game was in Charlotte to begin with.
That and Bristol were the two worst 'neutral site' games I've been to, because neither hid the fact the venue set up all the in-game promos to cater toward our opponent. Both might as well have been a true away game for us.
Bank of America stadium is nice though. FedEx is a trash heap and I hope we never play there again.
I was going to say every game in Charlottesville, but that wouldn't be true. Taking over the Fontaine Lot ever other year and partying with your best friends in Lane North is awesome.
Whenever I go there I always tailgate with my brother-in-laws friends and family in the corner of Fontaine. They're all massive UVA fans and can get pretty obnoxious (no doubt they say the same thing about me/us) but damnit they throw one hell of a party.
Last year, there was a group of Tech fans (probably some TKP'ers in there) that had a MASSIVE tailgate in Fontaine. They were set up in the corner right by the porter potty's. Their tailgate was complete with sofas, big screen TV, an inflatable Hokie Bird, etc. It was really impressive. Anyway, as the game got closer, they were blaring the Colin Cowherd UVA Rant Parts I and II over the loud speaker for all the UVA fans waiting in the bathroom line and throughout the lot to hear. It made me so happy.
Tough to say they were bad experiences, considering we won both...but two come to mind.
WVU in 1999. Their fans really gave it to us when they took the lead with a couple minutes left. We definitely returned the favor as Shane's FG sailed thorough the uprights. I remember beer bottles flying by my head on the way back to the car.
The other doesn't match the purpose of this thread, because it was neutral site, and the fans were fine...but the Music City Bowl against Alabama...just because of the weather...it was freezing cold rain, and we sat in the top row of the stadium, with the sleet coming at us, then hitting the wall behind us and then hitting us in the back. I can't recall a time in my life being colder than that.
This thread made me think of all the away games I've been to:
1994 at ECU
1995 at WVU
1995 at UVA
1997 at WVU
1997 at UVA
1997 Gator Bowl
1998 at Clemson
1998 at UAB
1999 should have been at the Sugar Bowl,but Y2K concerns at work kept me away
2000 at ECU
2000 at UCF
2000 Gator Bowl
2001 at WVU
2001 Gator Bowl
2004 at GT
2004 at UNC
2005 at NC State
2005 at Duke
2005 ACC Championship
2006 at UNC
2006 at Wake
2006 Chick-Fil-A Bowl
2007 at Clemson
2007 at GT
2009 vs Alabama in Atlanta
2009 at GT
2009 Chick-Fil-A Bowl
2011 at GT
2013 vs Alabama in Atlanta
2013 at GT
Yeah, I've slacked off recently, but once kids hit their teenage years, it's hard to go out of town on the weekends.
Nice.
2017 @ WVU/FedEx (doesn't count)
2016 @ Notre Dame
2015 @ Purdue
2014@ Ohio State
2013 @ Sun Bowl
2011 @ ACC Champ Game
2009 @ Chic-fil-A Bama Game
2008 @ Nebraska
Once kids are teenagers its really easy to got out of town, you just have to be willing to have your house become the teenage party center of the city.
Can confirm. I've thrown some wicked parties while my parents were out of town.
West Virginia 2003
Anything West Virginia, but I must admit, GT fans are trash bags, too. My friends certainly didn't take well to the massacre jokes in 2007. Or the cheerleaders getting in a fight at halftime. Fuck them. I want to beat them so badly.
The Tennessee fans we camped around at Bristol were all pretty nice and we drank and talked with them for awhile on Friday night. The shit talking was all in good fun. Walking to the track for Gameday and the game itself around 100,000+ of them was a different story.
Been to a handful of games at UNC. Other than the hurricane game (shoutout to the RV people and Alum&co for bringing positive attitudes for that tailgate), that place is rather sleepy. In stadium atmosphere is lackluster. Pumping music and videos of players dancing on third downs doesn't count as atmosphere.
Been to one game at Duke in the mid-late 2000s...Pretty sleepy as well, but that was before Cutcliffe came and turned them into a respectable program.
Been to a handful of games at Louisville. Tailgating scene is actually pretty decent. They have a bunch of old cabooses that people rent out and they look like a lot of fun. If it's not a big game though, don't expect a lot from the crowd. At the BC game last year I felt like I had to teach them how to yell near the end of the game when they were on D.
I hope FSU is a good time...I haven't seen anyone post anything on the Doak yet, but not playing there but once a fucking decade I'm sure makes it hard to have any experiences of note.
We'll be at it again this year! (Well, not me personally, I have a wedding in NY that weekend, but pretty much everyone else). At UNC, that's pretty much the only lot you're going to be able to tailgate in, because they've effectively told our alumni chapter to piss off, so there won't be an official tailgate, and they are a dry campus, but only really enforce that on opposing tailgaters. Luckily, that lot is technically off campus.
I've only been to 3 true away games:
2007 LSU: Played like shit, but it was a fun environment.
2012 Pitt: People have mentioned this one above, but I had a good time despite the game. I was in the Pitt student section, and had no issues. Worst part was how they talked after the game. It wasn't the usual enthusiastic throwing it in your face, but everyone around me kept talking about how bad their team was, but not in a way that was meant to rub it in.
2013 UVA was probably the worst. It's a shit stadium, a boring gameday environment, and the 10 inbred Wahoos behind us wouldn't shut the hell up about us standing and yelling on defense, and when we didn't get removed, they left.
We'll see how Tally stacks up on Monday.
@ECU in the rain in 2015
@Wake losing 6-3
@Clemson 2012
@Georgia Tech 09 losing when the Hokies were 4th
A friend of a friend was the Hokie Bird some time ago, a West Virginia fan threw a knife at her
2005 NC State game. Those folks are embarrassing.
For me, it was the 2011 Orange Bowl against Stanford. For the first half of the game the score was close but it felt like we were getting out played. Then the second half happened and we were definitely outplayed.
I was not that impressed with Andrew Luck in that game, but their offensive line was very good. Stanford had gotten pinned deep in their end of the field (I think it was inside of their 5 yard line). A running play was called and the line opened hole in the line that looked to be nearly five yards wide. I think the back ran for about 50 yards and completely flipped the field.
I was sitting in the end zone and saw that play. What disappointed me were the Tech fans around me. We had a chance to make some real noise and disrupt the Stanford team. Instead, everyone around me seemed distracted, indifferent. That is not what I expect from Tech fans.
The second half of bowl games tend to be a bit quieter than just about any other time of the season. I'm not sure if it's the fact that bowl games generally mean less than regular season ones (even when it's a NY6 game), or something else.
I beg to differ... Belk Bowl
This one time, when SWVA Hokie moved to Morgantown....
2009
Bama L
Duke W
GT L
ECU W
UMd W
UVA W
Tenn - didnt go, wasnt about to watch a 3rd loss in Atlanta in a year. Thus we won.
the 2011 Duke game was cold rainy and they miss 3 FGs so we won by 4.
The 2012 Pitt game sucked.
but 2001 at WVU was great, if you find the tape of the national anthem you can hear the student section chanting "fuck VT" during it, as that is when I entered the section. A state trooper told me that he would move me because the section was so rowdy, but the worst offenders were people I grew up with and were harmless.
LSU 2007 they were handing us dog bone biscuits for Mike Vick. Absolutely terrible.
Yeah I forgot that. They did.
#1. 2007 @ LSU. Druuuuunk Louisiana rednecks yelling "Tiger Bait" incessantly. Yah. Got it. Oh, and there's a real tiger on campus. Humid. Rainy. Went to the VT sponsored INSIDE!!? tailgate and wow... lame. Saw shaq. Lame. Sat in the end zone T-Mobile scored in... by 2nd quarter the LSU fans around me were genuinely telling me how disappointed they were they kicked our asses this bad. They seemed to actually want to watch a game, and not a curb-stomping.
#2 - Sun Bowl. You know why.
#3 1996 Orange Bowl. Drove straight through the night. Miami. Got killed. Drove straight back.
@LOLUVA 2003. My brother was a freshman there and I had just started my junior year of high school. My parents let me drive up to Charlottesville for the weekend to stay with him in his dorm (they are great parents, I swear) and needles to say I was a little hungover at kickoff. As the final clock was wearing down, I left my brother and his friends and started walking up the grass hill behind the endzone in my #25 KJ jersey while countless fans heckled and mocked me. Later that evening, I came down with the stomach flu.
wvu.. any year... only close second is Miami and those unbearable guidos... anything else is relative and anecdotal.
2017 vs Clemson if you were sitting in the right (wrong) section. That sucked.
I sat beside two Clemson fans the whole night and was angrier at our fans on the opposite side of them. They were pleasant, nice, and just wanted to cheer on their former hs RB (wasn't Etienne, it was the one who caught the 50yarder in the flats), the Tech fan was just being an asshole by the end.
I don't see the point of being an angry/mean drunk and trying to get shit started...just sucks the fun out of the whole thing, for me anyways.
You might've been near me because I had a similar experience. The Clemson fans behind me were super cool. But they had one friend who was lubed up who was then egged on by some lubed up Hokie fans. They had to pull people off each other. The folks behind me were very complimentary and friendly. They said they enjoyed Sandman and said it was as good as advertised. Wished us good luck and safe travels and we did the same.
I've only been to a couple of away games. WF and UNC. Both were fine in terms of fan behavior. The atmosphere sucked at both places. I remember UNC having videos on their screen with players telling the fans to stand up and get loud.
Those videos earned the players 3 credit hours.
This isn't a true "away game" experience but the Alabama opening game in 2009 in Atlanta. I was walking out of the stadium with some friends after VT just lost a competitive game when a child - maybe 7 or 8 years old - who was right next to his dad turn around and yelled "YOU SUCK" over and over while pointing at me. His dad did nothing. I also had a few bad experiences with the fans during the game but that was the icing on the cake.
I've heard worst about WVU games but I haven't been to any of those games to experience it myself.
I got to a lot of away games ... 35 so far (plus another 24 neutral site games) - FSU will be #36
I think there are two ways to look at worst (or best) games. One is: gameday atmosphere, stadium, how you're treated by the home fans, what there is to do there before/after the game (esp if you're there for a weekend), etc. The other is the outcome. I'd argue these are mutually exclusive - case in point: LSU 2007 was a fun weekend (NOLA on Friday, all day tailgate with welcoming LSU fans, impressive stadium/crowd, etc.) but the game wasn't fun- we got our a$$ handed to us.
Setting aside game results... there are some schools that I find have meh experiences - many of which you guys have covered - the places that feel like the stadium is asleep. There are a lot of ACC schools that fit that description.
On the other hand, there aren't many schools where I'd say I had a negative experience from opposing fans (I don't let a couple people making comments to me bother me-- you'll run into those at just about any college football event-- you'd run into this in Blacksburg if we are honest with ourselves. But there were only a few games that I left feeling like the majority of the home fans were a-holes. That would be WVU (2001) and UMD (2005). Maybee Miami (2004). I went to the UMD game in 2009 and had a much better experience than 2005 (maybe they were less bold in 2009 because they knew they were going to lose). Pitt fans can be pretty borderline too - although personally I found that more to be the case for night games (2014, 2016) than day (2012). Generally though my experiences at Pitt haven't been that bad-- for me, it just feels like there aren't actually enough Pitt fans there to move the needle that much.
So, by virtue of the fact my worst fan experiences were at games that we won, I think that smoothed things out a bit. If I had to pick worst away game experience, I'd probably pick Wake (2014) because the gameday atmosphere is so meh and that game....... I'd also put ECU 2015 up there because the rain made it pretty miserable and it was a really frustrating loss on several levels.
A couple people have mentioned BC. I'll admit BC has little to no tailgate scene and the stadium is pretty sleepy but would still recommend it as a road game to go to because Boston is a fun town. It's big but not overwhelming. Plenty of bars and things to do. Just take the train out/back for the game and spend the rest of the weekend in the city. Last year it timed out perfectly with the ALDS so was able to get last min cheap seats to the Sox game on Sunday and catch a playoff game in Fenway. Def a fun weekend.
If anyone cares or is curious, here are my away games, with Tech's record in those games:
Temple (1-0), WVU (1-0), Miami (1-0), Maryland (2-0), UVA (6-0), LSU (0-1), Nebraska (1-0), UNC (3-0)
Duke (3-0), Pitt (1-2), Clemson (0-1), ECU (2-1), BC (1-1), Ohio State (1-0), Wake Forest (0-1), Purdue (1-0), GT (1-1), Syracuse (0-1), Notre Dame (1-0),
And neutral site games ...
FedExField (1-2), Charlotte [reg season] (0-1), Atlanta [reg season] (0-2), Bristol (0-1), ACCCG-Jax (1-1), ACCCG-Charlotte (1-1), ACCCG -Orlando (0-1), Sugar Bowl (0-2), Orange Bowl (1-2), CFA Bowl (1-1), Gator Bowl (1-0), RAB/CWB (1-1), Belk Bowl (1-0), Military Bowl (1-0)
I've also been to non-Tech games at Illinois twice (meh), Auburn (recommend), NC State (solid experience), and two Army-Navy games (recommend).
'nuff said.
To be fair, the gameday experience (excluding the game itself) was pleasant enough, but this and @ Clemson are the only true road games I've attended.
Been to 4 games away from Lane:
2010 @Miami
2013 v. Bama in ATL
2016 v. Tenn in Bristol
2016 @Syracuse
Between the two road games there is no choice. I was in the middle of the Miami student section in 2010. My favorite moment was watching our backup QB trot out to the field for 3rd and 16 in the first quarter, and everyone around me was expecting us to concede the drive with a handoff before Logan fired a 24-yard pass to Danny Coale to keep the drive alive. The Syracuse game just sucked.
If you open it to all 4 games, then the Battle at Bristol definitely takes it. That was a miserable experience from the time we got in line at the gate an hour before kickoff until getting back to Blacksburg at 4am.
In 2010 I made it to every game but the Miami game. That was a bit of a slog traveling every weekend. Made me understand a little more what the athletes have to do.
Is this even a question... WVU by miles. Terrible place. Even worse fans.
2002 Gator Bowl vs halFaSsU.