I grew up in Pennsylvania in avid PSU country. In January of 1987 I was 12 years old when the Lions somehow held on at the end and knocked off Vinny and the convicts. In the subsequent years, it seemed like the Canes were everywhere and I almost always rooted against them (not sure who I hated more in the Irish-Canes '88 game . . . probably took turns rooting against whichever team was winning).
I had never heard of Virginia Tech until an alumni of the school handed me an application over winter break of my senior year of high school. 9 months later I'm finding out that Tech is in the same conference as one of my personal Top 2 rivals. I mean, I can't stand Miami. Then I learn Tech has gone 0-fer whatever in their series history and I'm getting more riled up. I show up in '93 surprised that Tech is actually pretty good at football (didn't know about the previous few years) and have to endure 2 more losses to the Canes.
Then . . . '95 . . . it seemed like we dominated that game, but couldn't separate on the scoreboard cause we were only getting field goals. Miami marches on their final drive, my gut wrenching, memories of rooting against them hoping for losses every week, but rarely satisfied . . . the fade throw into the corner of the end zone . . . tightly defended . . . refs are going to call pass interference . . . what?! No flag! Hokies win! Rush the field . . . .
Finally, we can hang with the big dogs. Each year Miami was my benchmark. And we kept winning. Even as the U was rebuilding. I was in Blacksburg in '99 as an alumni, knowing we had potential that year if we could just win our 5th in a row against them. Down 10, Tech scores 43 unanswered! I could taste the National Championship game after that win.
I could go on and on about every game against the Canes, the thrilling wins and the heartbreaking losses. I used to hype the Hokies to my non-Hokie friends by declaring our record versus the Canes over the last "x" amount of years . . . "7 out of the last 10!" or "8 out of the last 12!".
All that to say, it makes me sad to think that this week - the U week - I've barely thought of the game . . . and when I do, I just shake my head and wonder by how much we'll get beat. I told my idiot non-Hokie friends that we're about to make the Canes look like a reincarnation of their glory days (and the U ain't even very good). Ugh! The best part of the week will be writing this post and remembering how an upstart program came out of nowhere to dominate a big dog more often than not over nearly 2 decades! Can we get another win? It's gonna take a miracle! Here's to hoping the U's dysfunction is greater than ours! Go Hokies!
Comments
Your conclusion reminds me of this classic movie scene.
Her: "Think it'll work?"
Him: "It'll take a miracle."
Nevertheless, Go Hokies!
Exactly what I had in mind when I wrote it!
Thanks to Seth McFarland, this is all I see
I just hope VT goes out this week and plays some football. It would be a nice departure from what we've been seeing the last 2 years if only that happens.
I've always marked the Miami game on the calendar. I remember the '95 win - I was there too and rushed the field as a 10 year old. One of the biggest wins in Tech history.
2003 was my freshman year. My roommate had the task of going to Cassell Coliseum first thing in the morning to get a number. Back then, the numbers (tickets) went into a hat, someone pulled them out, read the number aloud, and that was your place in line for your student tickets. I remember looking at the clock right when they were supposed to start pulling tickets. The dorm room phone rang. It was my roommate. He said he was 3rd in line. I said, "Pete, I don't know how much money you have on your Debit Card, but you buy every single motherfucking ticket you can." We had 10 athletic cards which meant we could get 10 more single game tickets for "guests."
That game was pinpointed on the calendar and we had people waiting to see if we could get them tickets. Our seats were the first two rows in the North End Zone behind the band. We made a huge ass sign on a bed sheet for the game, drank way too much Bacardi O and Sprites, and showed up 90 minutes before kickoff to scream our faces off.
2003 was the loudest that Lane Stadium has ever been for an entire 60 minute ball game and I will die on that hill.
Miami week is just special; it's always pinpointed on the calendar. However, I'm with you man - this year, I just want to get it over with, though not without a glimmer of hope that we can win this week. Go Hokies.
Fact. That was the loudest game I have ever been to at Lane. That place erupted when D Hall stripped the ball and took it to the house for 6. To add to that, those AME uniforms were lit FAM!!! 🔥🔥🔥
When we were on defense during that game, I had to yell in my dad's ear, and he still couldn't what I was telling him. It was absolutely insane the entire game.
The Walk for that game was something special. You could literally feel the energy (and smell it too).
The only counter I can make to the loudness levels occurred 2 years before that, against Miami, when we blocked the punt and returned it for a TD to pull within 2. THAT was the loudest I ever remember hearing in Lane.
Yes, that was the first time I really felt the stands shake. A lot. It was deafening in there by the time he crossed the goal line.
Yuuuuuuuuup
Somebody needs to show this to the team. Let them see what Hokie Nation can be like.
Or this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crhWP__g-_c
That'll work too. In fact, skip a practice one day this week and just show old clips from VT v Miami games. Get them riled up. Get them hungry for a smackdown.
One of my all-time favorite YouTube videos. Used to watch this on repeat.
Definitely! Mine too - just wish the quality was better. I watch this one before the first game of every season to get a little hyped.
Seeing him in that video reminded me - whatever happened to Hokie Man?
Link to article here Hokie Man via VT Magazine
EDIT: Nevermind, according to my LinkedIn stalking, he moved and is now teaching at Cal State University San Marcos
Ha! Love the write-up. Thanks for the link. When did he move to Cal State? Any relation to the 2018 season?
LinkedIn suggests he went to Towson for 7 years after VT from 2004 - 2011, and then Cal State since 2011.
Cannot remember when he stopped being a thing at home games, but if it was 2011 when he moved to the other coast, that explains the slowing of Beamer's career.
Bringing back Stick It In is one thing; but brining back Hokie Man should be the true goal.
Great video. Eric Green was a Hurricane killer!
Eric Green tore his ACL on this play. I can only imagine blowing out your knee and writhing in pain while 50-some thousand people are all screaming around you. A lot of people say that's the loudest they've ever heard Lane Stadium. Who knows what happens if Ernest Wilford comes down with the two-point conversion
I think I can actually still smell the energy from the 2003 Walk. I was wondering for a while where to put this observation/story, so I suppose this is as good of a spot as any:
Anyway, once a year my dad's company throws a HUGE tailgate party in Lot 2. We've had season tickets for 30 years, and we've had these tailgates at the big night game every year since at least the Matt Ryan debacle.
This year, we bought such ungodly amounts of beer that it took 4 of us to lift each cooler into the truck. After all, it was a Friday, nobody had to work the next day, and it was going to be rowdy as hell, right? Wrong.
Amidst all of the commotion of preparing for the day, my dad left the tickets he purchased for my sister and her friends at the house. Boy was he pissed.
So I'm standing outside Will Call with my little sis while dad waits on re-prints. All of a sudden, the team bus arrives. Not only could you NOT feel the energy, but you could hear a pin drop. It was so bad that even folks in the players' friends/family line didn't bother to greet the team. And THAT is the exact moment I realized how much things have changed. I looked at my sister and told her "we just lost."
I remember estimates of the 2003 Miami Walk being around 10,000. It was insane. I would put the over/under for people greeting the team last Saturday at 10. Period. Single digits. 10. It was truly sad.
Here's to hoping we can turn this thing around before the memories of our other great teams disappear faster than the "ceremony" honoring the '99 team last week.
Holy shit that's bad and sad...
Go Hokies!
I get what you're saying, but I can't wait for my Hokies to surprise us and embarrass the canes one more time, especially with Hill putting his crap on Twitter. Also, I harbor a particular grudge against Tate Martel because he got a transfer waiver and Brock did not.
#HopeSpringsEternal
Anything can happen. No one in the Coastal can beat themselves quite like Miami.
Also O/U 2.5 quarters before Hill picks up his first personal.
Under. He gets it out of the way early.
It doesn't even feel like football season to me.
Came here to say this. Forget Miami week. The whole season feels unfamiliar.
YES!
When people ask me about rivals, Miami is always #1. When they try to interject about that school north east of us...well, it's a rivalry, but just not like Miami. I hate Miami.
My profile pic is from the '95 game and that's my scranny ass right above the scoreboard!
Here's to hoping the U's dysfunction is greater than ours!
This is the most depressingly accurate statement I have read about this team.
Line opened at MIami favored by 8.
Within a couple hours it moved to Miami favored by 13.5, where it has remained. Given the 47 point O/U, that means they are predicted to win 30-17 or so.
ESPN gives Miami a 89.1% chance to win this game,
Somehow, these numbers still seem too low.
Probably because we just got beat by 35.
at home.
in a night game.
by Duke...
I will be in Dover Thursday morning. Might have to slide over to the betting counter for a minute at lunch...
People need to stop thinking it is a decade ago. Duke and Wake Forest both hired good coaches and were patient while their programs got turned around. Duke has been decent to good in Football for close to the last 6 years. Wake Forest goes to a bowl game just about every year lately.
The only automatic wins on our schedule this year are Furman and URI. We can't even say ODU was an automatic win after last year.
Is that where you want the bar to be? Wake Forest? 3 of the last 6 years attending a bowl game, and not even ranked in that time period?
I'd sure as hell take Wake Forest right now. They're 5-0 and ranked.
At this moment, sure, but for the past 26 years they've been looking up at us. (Except maybe one season out of those 26.) But overall, that's definitely not the bar I want to have set for longevity.
I don't want their program but right now I want their season.
Touché
No, I want us to be the VT program that wins at least 10 wins for 8 years in a row again.
But I hate hearing about people saying there are automatic wins just because it is Duke or Wake. The fact is just as we aspire to be a great team so do other programs. They have been working on fixing that in the correct way. They had patience and worked through things. Clawson's first couple years there were ugly but things got better.
47 seems low, period. We hit 55 against Duke. I doubt our offense is as anemic against Miami to only put up 3 points in non-garbage time (yes, 3rd quarter of that game felt like garbage time). This may be irrational optimism, but I think we can get to 3 TDs this game. That's only 27 points for miami to make the over. If they can't put up 27 points on us, I say we win and I'm happily losing my bet on the over.
EDIT: sitting at 28-14, tech at the beginning of the 4th. We're winning this game or hitting the over...fucking called it.
Before this game I told my friends if I was a betting man I would have put all my monies on Miami covering
I'm glad I'm not a betting man
Unfortunately I put most of my betting account on some variation of auburn (-3) so it'll be a rough Monday taking stock. However, I did put a small bet on the VT ML and that paid at 5:1 so moral victory
Apathy... it's the worst. That's what buries a program the fastest. If VT fan's aren't excited about Miami week, that's apathy. The team needs to start playing better and generating some excitement. We've been getting blown out in ACC games recently. That has turned the fans off a bit going into this week.
A bit? (only a tiny bit of /s)
I'll be flipping and watching Florida Auburn. And as the VT game progresses my prediction is I'll be watching more the the Florida Auburn game. And who knows in the second half it may be 100% Florida Auburn. The VT games have been lessons in ugly football and I derive no pleasure in watching guys on the field get humiliated
It's sad that all I really want out of this game is for Hill to be completely shut down and not allowed to do absolutely anything.
He's been getting about 10-12 snaps a game. this week he will play 40 snaps and look like Reggie White of course.
A couple of months ago I was low key mad at my niece for scheduling a fall wedding this weekend.
Today I'm completely grateful and now I want all the Fall weddings.
This year's game means a little more to me than I think it does for a lot of people. When we traveled to Miami in 2017, we were 7-1 and ranked 13th. They were 7-0 and ranked 9th. At that point, no one could predict the downturn that this program was going to experience. Miami took something from our program that night, and it stayed in Coral Gables ever since. Beginning with that game, we are 10-12. We have suffered some of the most embarrassing losses in school history. All of this on the heels of the incredible 2016 season and great start to the 2017 season. We need to go into the Orange Bowl this weekend and take back whatever the 2017 team left there. This is the most important game of Fuente's career at Virginia Tech. If he loses this one, it's over. If he wins and wins convincingly, he still has hope. Do what you have to do to win. Start Tisdale, start Jaylen Griffin, start Patterson or Hooker, put the best product on the offensive line and don't fucking shuffle for god's sake. Everything is up for grabs on Saturday.
I like the cut of your jib, cowpoke.
Good job of painting the picture of an epic reckoning on the last battlefield. Karma could be swirling.
I doubt this is going to turn out well, but I will saddle up and ride with you until at least 3:30-4pm on Saturday.
Tre Turner liked some tweet talking about how good Tisdale is playing and how he should be starting so he's not going unnoticed.
Edit: Was also liked by Caleb Steward, TyJuan Garbutt, Elijah Bowick, Dylan Rivers, Joe Kane, and Tisdale himself.
Or we could be a fan base that still gets excited and supports the players even during down times because thats when they need it most and because football is the best?
I know a lot of people on here are Redskins and Giants fans. Yall should be used to supporting really bad teams.
I'm finding it pretty hard to get excited to support watching a funeral for something you love on Saturday then waking up Sunday to do it again. I've given up on watching the Redskins though. I hardly ever expect them not to suck so it's not a huge loss for me. Tech on the other hand is disappointing week in and week out but it's an addiction I can't kick.
I will be right there on the edge of my seat as if we were deciding the Coastal. My expectations aren't high but my hopes are. There is still a chance things could start clicking.
Daniel Jones is undefeated in the NFL tho
The Redskins are not very comparable because they are owned by a complete assclown that has a lot of money but absolutely no sense established in reality. He has the resources to mask a whole slew of problems (for as long as he wants to spend money on it).
Whit, and VT, however, are more community-owned. We can very easily and more quickly affect change by bitching and not spending money on the program. We can get Fuente or Whit fired, if the response is great enough. With the NFL, it'd be very difficult to affect that kind of change.
In any case, being a former Redskins fan, I feel as if football is rejecting me as a fan. It doesn't want me, apparently!
I have always hated Miami more than UVA. The Miami players, fans, even their crappy stadium all bug me as everything that has been wrong with college football.
I'm the opposite. I love Miami. I love that they exist. I love that they are the way they are. I love that they are the villain and it makes it so much sweeter when we beat them. They've always been the antithesis of VT - flashy vs blue collar, big city vs country, individual vs team mentality, bling vs lunch pail. I wish I had hope for this game, but I'll be watching and cheering for every first down. Can't be worse than losing to Duke at home by 35, even if we lose by 50.
This was one of my favorite Virginia Tech drives of all time. But I'd love to see it knocked out of the top 10 by a great crunch time drive this weekend.
how many plays was that drive!? The play with Willis deep in the end zone for that long, the back shoulder to Peoples and the 4th and 9 run. Rarely do that many things go right for that many plays. Forgot how crazy that was! A good #10 for this list I think.
It does feel like Miami week to me....unfortunately it feels like Miami week 1992. That year, we knew we were going to get pounded, but at least Miami was the #1 team in the country at the time.
Seriously though, if you look at my profile you'll see that you just described my Virginia Tech Most Memorable Moment. Beating Miami 5 straight times from 1995-1999, and 12 out of 17 from 1995-2011, was wonderful. When people would make excuses and say "But Miami is down," I would say, "Yeah, because we knocked them down."
#1 Miami didn't pound the Hokies as bad as 2019 Duke did.
And this is where I struggle with the Fuente/Beamer comparisons. Yes, those first few years of Beamer were rough, but there were glimpses here and there that it could work. With Fuente, outside of a year with guys he didn't recruit, I just haven't seen anything out of this staff that leads me to believe they have what it takes to succeed here. At least, for the most part, Beamer teams competed in every game. These Fuente teams are just getting annihilated week in and week out.
Yeah, that 1992 team was frustrating because we kept losing games late. But we were young and we were competitive, and thankfully the school administration had the patience to resist making a coaching change after that year.
I REALLY want to believe that Fuente can turn this around with enough time, but there's a lot wrong with this program right now, and I can't say I truly believe that.
I found one of the other Fuente believers...
Feel like Miami week?
It doesn't even feel like football season. It's 90° in October and, personally, my mind has been in 5 bazillion different places this season, the least of which has been football.
Great post! As an 04 Hokie, Miami was the biggest game every year and second most hated next to the Cousins. You have inspired me to dig out my ""FUCK MIAMI" shirt and wear it proudly on Saturday!! LET'S GO!!
HOKIES!!!!!
I love Miami week. I got to see the one in 1982!! We lost that one too, but at least it was competitive and this was a VT team that had little talent comparatively and this was the team loaded at QB and the beginning of the dynasty.
Saturday is my birthday and I'm not even excited about it.
I'm even contemplating doing something outside (hiking or driving the Parkway) instead of watching the game live. I'm just numb to VT football right now, can't explain it but I missed the Furman game and glad I did. We had excellent seats to sit through 4 Quarters of Friday nights ass reaming and I wasn't even mad, just shocked at what we've become.
You know what. Let's fucking go. I'm tired of this shit:
Fuck Miami. Fuck Trevon Hill. Fuck Luther Campbell. Fuck Ray Lewis. Fuck Michael Irvin. Fuck Pitbull. Fuck anyone who thinks we can't win this game. 14 point underdogs? Let's knock those fuckers on their ass.
Sure. But hate to pop your bubble. But this game feels like a 12 year old girl picking a fight with a ufc champion. And VT the 12 year old girl is gonna get its face smashed in. I just don't see any fight left in this team.
May the winners be wearing orange and the losers be green with envy.
my favorite Miami moment has to be my senior year in 2011 when Ocainspring called the best play of their careers on that 4th and 1 qb draw, and then Miami had to call a timeout to "talk about it" while Lane went batshit crazy.
How far we have fallen...........................
Tech seems to play better away from home. I hope for our players to show that they can compete and improve. The team needs to play hard and show they belong. Not looking for a win, but I am looking for a competitive game where our players play to the end.
My kids were watching a video. The cartoon is Winnie the Pooh. I walked by the TV and stopped. I looked at the donkey named Eeyore. And it dawned on me. Eeyore is the VT identity now. The mindset seems to be we will lose and if and when we do lose, we will actually take comfort in that knowing we were correct!
That sounds like your attitude toward VT right now. Some of us actually enjoy pulling for these guys regardless.
Winning over Miami feels so good!
It does now.
Yeah, it feels like Rhode Island week! 🤔
I am super impressed the players and coaches were able to block out the noise and disappointment and overcome some in-game adversity to win on the road. Wow! It does feel good . . . 2 out of the last 4 and 15 out of the last 25!