I was rolling through twitter this morning on Kirk Herbstreit's walk through the tunnel before the game, and I came across this comment from a ND Fan that was at the game.
The best away game I have ever been to! Great town, beautiful campus, nicest people you could ever meet. Stadium atmosphere was off the charts. Enter Sandman... A-mazing!— Ryan Smith (@SmittyNDIrish_1) October 7, 2018
In the end, hearing things like this from opposing fans is what we can all take a lot of pride in, regardless of the game outcome.
For those of you who went to the game, how were their fans? How were our fans? Do you all have any examples of you/us showcasing our Hokie Spirit? Trying to put a little feel-good into this Monday morning.
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There fans were/are classy. Probably right up there with LSU.
Interesting take. I found the LSU fans to be nice on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday...yes, many were there all week, taking over a parking lot. Friday night, they tried to start a riot downtown, and when they got beaten on Saturday, they were as obnoxious in defeat as any fan group I've experienced in my 50 years of Hokie football attendance. Two recurring themes from them, on the near riot- Blacksburg just isn't used to "big time college football" coming to town, and on their loss- You didn't beat us, we beat ourselves. From my times going to the games, I found the Clemson fans back in the early days of Beamer to be gracious, albeit in victory, and the Nebraska fans in their defeat to be the gold standard of class for me.
It's a whole lot easier to win gracefully than to lose gracefully, but you should always be a good fan.
There are always going to be some bad apples, but I hope that overall, we're overall good people living up to our "Ut Prosim" motto.
Your experience with LSU fans is completely out-of-phase with my experience with them in Lane in 2002. They were pretty unbearable before, during and after the game IMO.
For a second I thought the gave us an "A-". Like what the fuck do we gotta do to get that plus? Carry you into the stadium? Give you free beer? Name our firstborn after you? What's that? I'm an idiot and didn't read the tweet all the way through. Never mind, move along
Spoke with a gentleman who is also a Penn State fan and was at the white out game vs Ohio State a couple weeks ago.
He said our stadium was louder.
See We're Just an Intro thread for further discussion. /s
Always a good thing to hear. I'd rather be recognized for how well we treat opposing teams fans as opposed to...you know...our cousins from the West. That stadium was insane. People came in heavy and made noise. We had a couple ND fans sitting in front of us. On our first D series they both looked at each other which an exited smile and mouthed "wow".
Tailgated right beside some fans from South Bend. They were phenomenal folks and helped make it an awesome gameday experience. Hats off to those guys.
Good job, Hokie fans!
This supports my view of Hokie fans.
The ND fans I encountered were good people. One sat next to me in the 2nd half and I shook hands with him post game, told him his team was the real deal. He was very complimentary of both the team and the atmosphere.
you are a better man than I. I would have shook hands with him, told him his team was the real deal, and finished with, "no matter what he says, never let Brian Kelly send you up in a scissor lift."
I would have if I'd thought of it. Next time
For the most part, the ND fans I saw were pretty good. The ones at our tailgate were cool and appreciative of our hospitality (HokieEnginerd made sure that they got some ribs when they came off the smoker). There was one chick a couple of rows behind us in the stadium who was a bit obnoxious--- to the point that the ND fan 2 people over from me was commenting on how bad this girl was.... The one beside me was with a Hokie fan and she was cool.
Ehh, I had a decent experience with most of the ND fans. Majority were nice, but one guy was acting like a douche while wearing a fitted jersey to the game which was telling.
The D-Bag of the Day award went to the ND fan who brought what I believe was his 80 year old father and 30 year old son over to our tailgate while we were playing stump. We were happy to explain the game to them, show them a few tosses, and then toss some nails on to give them a shot. The guy takes one try (and catches the head of the hammer in his palms) and says "we're too smart at ND to play stupid games like this." Wanted to smack him right in his UNC-tshirt-wearing (yuuup) face. The 80 year old was cool, and the son said his dad probably didn't like the game because he couldn't figure out how to flip the hammer properly haha
Kind of agree with the guy, I thought Tech fans were too smart to play stump as well.
I went back as an alumni about 6 years ago and played some extremely drunk stump after downtown around 330AM with the boys. I was being cocky and doing double flips before catching and rekting the nail. This cockiness also ended with me catching the back of the hammer squarely on my EAR LOBE (no idea how) and splitting it. I somehow managed to force it shut in my drunken stupor and not have to get stitches, even though it really needed them. Went to the game the next day, dont remember which one.
I guess the moral of the story is....yeah im an idiot.
Nah
Stump is a fantastic game. Even better when it's flaming stump. (Make a littler depression in the middle, pour lighter fluid in and light with match). Makes it much more dangerous/fun
Well I know what I'm doing this weekend. How have I not heard of this game before.
Saw this on another thread.. "the noise intimates our boys and not the opposing team". At first I thought they were an idiot, but I really thought about it and I think that man is a genius. What if it really does hurt us and intimates our guys and doesn't effect these big programs that are used to big games.... just my opinion though.
Let's say it does.
That'll last 1/2 game, at most.
Especially since the noise is during the opposing offenses downs.
Intimidate?
Affect?
so I guess it was quiet at FSU? /s
I have no interest in getting intimate with our players.
Something something, West Virginia
My mother-in-law (not a football fan by any means, she usually brings a book to sporting events) attended this game with some friends from work and has had nothing but praise for the entire experience.
edit: an anecdote. 1310 AM (the Score) used to be the go to station in Hampton Roads for sports broadcast and their slogan used to be "the score is 13-10". During one station break in the car she looks up suddenly and asks, "well who is playing?" My wife and father-in-law burst out laughing and she still hasn't forgiven them.
The ND fan next to me was trying to be a douche.
His ticket was for 2 seats away from me but he spread himself out across 2 seats and was encroaching on me, trying to get a rise and started making snarky remarks.
I was nice and make nice comments when ND guys made good plays in the 1st Q.
He chilled somewhat but was still a little overly obnoxious.
Bought a ND fan some beers at TOTs and chatted up about what we wanted to see from our teams! Super nice and blown away that we were being so nice to him. Had a ND fan sitting next to me during the game and the guy was extremely complementary saying everyone's been nice and that lane stadium is the best venue he's watched a game in...much louder than anywhere he's been! Always nice to encounter good people instaead of the small group that ruins the perception of the fan base!
The only obnoxious fans I saw were, unfortunately, ours. There was a gaggle of drunk students (or student-aged folks) shouting F*** Notre Dame at a couple Domers heading toward the stadium. I chatted with the visitors for a few minutes on the walk and pointed them in the general direction of the stadium since they didn't know where they were going. Seemed like good folks. As were the other Domer fans I encountered in the stadium. As much as I want to hate Notre Dame, their fans, from my experience, made that a more challenging task. Classy folks, in general.
This is accurate, and I was pissed. Couple of VT student bolted past and almost knocked over a couple of ND folks, and then chirped get out of the way. I apologized to the ND fans on our behalf.
Embarrassing shitheads.
My friend and I walked to the stadium from lot 20-ran across 6 Notre Dame fans in front of Burruss-they were cracking open their second full bottle of Fireball which they proceeded to share with my friend for the walk over(I can't stand Cinnamon myself)-suffice to say the bottle was empty by the time we passed D-2. All the fans we encountered were awesome folks.
The only thing that annoyed me was that on many of the crowd shots, ND fans tended to stick their hats in front of the camera and block out kids/students/etc. that were just having a good time being on the camera. Other than that, nothing but positive interactions with ND fans (as expected).
I had a great time and no problems with the ND fans I encountered. The fans sitting next to me said they had a great time tailgating and the atmosphere in the stadium was awesome.
One kid I met had driven from Memphis, he and I spoke for a few minutes about both programs. He was very complimentary, but noted the youth on our team.
I did have one Hokie fan near me mouth off to a ND fan exiting the stadium, but we all know every fan base has that guy or gal. Nothing came or it and for a moment I wanted to tell him to shut up, but I let it go.
I was a bit bummed when our fans started leaving wiht 9 minutes to go, I realize most saw it as a lost cause by that point. Crazy things happen in college football and you just never know. Alas, no craziness was to be that night!
To be fair, it was 11:30 at night and people had to drive yet.
No doubt, I get it for sure.
Yeah we left with ~2 min left, with an hour drive ahead of us, not including just getting out of the parking area.
I find, like a lot of schools, the ND graduates are generally decent fans. The parasites that latch on (like the Walmart West Vriginians) to teams that never went there are some of the worst people you'll ever met.
I was at the game and for the most part had a good experience with ND fans. I was in the upper east stands with a decent amount of ND fans around me. The few next to me were really great, but there was an elderly gentleman about 2 rows behind me. After the first drive he asked me how long I planned to stand up. When I told him we stand the whole game he replied "I'm going to kindly ask you to sit down". I offered to switch seats with him so I would be standing behind him but he just kept repeating the same line. I felt bad and ended up sitting during timeouts and breaks, but stood during the game.
Sitting is the new smoking, you know!
I sat during timeouts and breaks later in the game, but that's because my legs and back were starting to ache!
I fist pumped the 2 Notre Dame chicks in our section and told them good game.
PS they absolutely LOVED our pregame and entrance, said they've never witnessed anything close.
Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
I wasn't there but from everything I've heard Notre Dames fans were some of the best we've hosted.
I find it odd that the teams I despise the most end up having the best fans. I absolutely loathe Ohio State but their fans that came to Blacksburg were great. Even ate breakfast the next morning with Billy Prices dad and he couldn't stop talking about how great the atmosphere and campus was. He had a lot of positive things to say about our football team as well.
I also agree with whoever said that Nebraska fans are the gold standard.
I can't echo this loud enough. Two Ohio State fans bought breakfast for my wife and I that morning. They would not take no for an answer, and it felt really weird because we were hosting. Hard to dislike them after that.
I echo your echo as the 2 Ohio state fans sitting next to us in the 2015 game (my 1st game in Lane) gave us their 2 VT tickets to the next home game. Good guys to talk to during the game.
Agreed on OSU. Plus having BuckeyeVet occasionally stop by makes it more apparent.
BuckeyeVet makes me wish we had resident TKPers from other teams. NOT ALL OF THEM. But some.
Because it had been mentioned earlier on TKP how well VT fans had been treated in South Bend, I went out of my way to welcome as many ND fans as I could. As I walked up Beamer Way to a Lot 1 tailgate with some friends, I called out "Welcome to Blacksburg" to every green shirt I encountered. On my way back down to our Chicken Hill tailgate, one ND fan seemed deeply touched by the welcome. When I explained that TKP had encouraged us to return the courtesy that had been shown to our fans, he almost got teary eyed. He also went on and on about how beautiful the campus is. On the other hand, I didn't worry so much when a woman wearing a green shirt near us in the stands spent the majority of the game while we were on defense with her fingers stuck in her ears...
I say the same thing when I come out of an away stadium with a win.
I certainly don't. If your fans are crap, I'm not going to say they were awesome. Eff WVU fans, Eff Miami fans, and Eff UNC/Duke Basketball fans. They can take their fandom and shove it where the sun don't shine.