Inspired by this question and it's about to be 2020, what's your favorite Hokie memory of the last decade (2010-19)?
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Inspired by this question and it's about to be 2020, what's your favorite Hokie memory of the last decade (2010-19)?
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Tyrod performance in 2010 ACCCG.
Ohio State 2014
38-0 Bro
Beating UVA in Frank's last regular season game.
Definitely the year we won the MNC by upsetting * at the shoe, especially since I work with several obnoxious alumni of said university
Football:
Basketball:
Ooooh forgot about Miami 2011, that should have definitely made my list. That was all time.
Now Miami wants to talk about it....
Crazy game. Still cannot figure out how the replay review confirmed a first down that was out of bound and magically appeared to be in-bound. Swung the momentum completely to Miami favor heading into halftime.
The Final Drive is the stuff of Hokies' Legends...Logan Thomas faking Miami out of their collective jockstraps...Al Golden with a panicking look on his face...Lane Stadium hopping to Enter Sandman...and then the defense in prevent mode with me screaming at the TV, "STOP HIM! STOP HIM!"
Crazy game.
Tyrod to Coale vs Nebraska
Frank swining the Black Diamond Trophy
Sadly Tyrod to Coale vs Nebraska wasn't this decade. We're all old now.
Football - 2010 ACC title game, 2014 Ohio State, 2016 Arkansas comeback, and beating Michigan in the 2012 Sugar Bowl on Coale's diving TD catch.
Basketball making the sweet 16.
Miami 2011, beating OSU at the Horseshoe
Unfortunately, someone on that twitter comment thread posted this:
That Wake Forest game...UGH.
But, for me personally, nothing will ever top Virginia Tech losing to Maryland at home...on Senior Day...in Maryland's final ACC tour. Worst game I have ever seen.
I know there were much bigger games to mention here, but Perkins fumbling in OT in the 2018 game will always make me happy.
Beating the buckeyes at the shoe.
So unlikely.
So beautiful
Football: 2014 OSU, Frank's last game , 2011 Miami
B-ball: any win vs UVA and Duke
Since you didn't specify sports specifically then I have to say getting my acceptance letter for graduate school.
Assuming sports was the intent though - being in the Sweet 16 last year.
Edited because I'm getting old and mixing up my years.
So as a fun little thought experiment I decided to list my favorite ten Hokie moments of the last ten years, and holy hell, there's a lot of hoops in the top half.
10-Football victory against WVU 2017. That game shut up most of the WVU fans that I encounter and they're still quiet to this day.
9- Football victory against Miami 2016. It's not remarkable in the history of VT athletics, but man what a fun day that was.
8-Football 2010 ACC championship. For a team that started the season with a loss to Boise and JMU, this would be one of the better turnarounds in VT history. Running off 11 victories to win the conference was incredible to watch.
7-Football victory against OSU 2014. I watched this with a bunch of friends and family and I honestly dont remember much of the game itself because there was Bud Light Platinum involved. I was told I had a great time
6-Hoops victory against UNC in 2017. We beat the Heels so badly that they didn't even attempt to foul to force 2s for 3s.
5-Football OT victory against UVA last year. Was there in person and it's one of my favorite memories in Lane.
4-Hoops double OT victory against UVA in 2017. Crazy, crazy game to witness firsthand.
3-Hoops upset against Dook on New Year's Eve 2016. Dook came in easily favored and left in defeat. Me and a friend woke up ass early to go to this noon game expecting to lose because this young VT squad hadn't won a signature game yet under Buzz. Then we watched this undermanned team outplay and out hustle their counterpart. Until that victory, all I had was hope that one day VT would put a competitive team together. After that game my friend and I knew that we had a special team and the future was now.
2-Hoops victory against Liberty this last NCAA. First off, because fuck Liberty with a cactus. Second it sent our basketball team to a Sweet Sixteen against a very beatable Dook team. It was the payoff for #3.
1- Spring game 2018. I drove up to day drink with my TKP friends and family and ended up meeting my current girlfriend. Thanks TKP!
You're just saying that because I made you a cheesecake this weekend 🥰🥰
I think you meant 2019 or 2016? We didn't beat Miami in 2018.
You're right. Had my years wrong. It was 37-16 win in 2016. I'll fix the post. I blame mixing my years up on getting old.
1. Miami game in 2011
2. Graduating with my Ph.D. in 2012
3. Watching us beat anOSU in 2014
4. Pregame festivities at the ND game in 2018 - the game sucked but damn did we put on a good show
1.) Classes of 2010-2018 Wahoos being completely skunked in victories against the Hokies.
2.) Bud's Banner at Lane
3.) Going undefeated in-ACC in 2010
4.) Back-to-back shutouts in 2019
5.) Slow-cooking and then smoking the pigs in Fuente's first year
Personal Goal for the 2020s: Make it to a Lot 18 tailgate.
Mekhi mother fucking Lewis.
The biggest cradle in Hokie wrestling history
Yes to Miami 2011, yes to beating tOSU in Columbus, yes to nutmegging Arkansas in 2016.
But we almost beat Clemson in the ACCCG in 2016. We were two minutes from creating absolute playoff chaos and a program-elevating momentum boost. I remember pondering all the possibilities as I watched our boys scrap back to within a score. If we win that game, I wonder if Jerod (and maybe a couple more guys) stays and we make a serious playoff run in 2017.
Kind of sad how lack luster this decade has been for football. 2010 ACC Championship. 2011 game against Miami. 2014 win at OSU... and then 6 years of moral victories and the occasional emotional high?
I do think/hope that we have already reached rock bottom, and I think that we're trending up (relative to the previous half decade), but I don't see us repeating the 2000-2010 decade ever (unless something drastic changes) for a variety of reasons, both internal and external. I think in the next 5 years we're looking at maybe two 8-win seasons, two 9-win seasons, one 10-win season, 1-2 Coastal Championships, maybe an NY6 bid, and no ACC Championships.
This was, without a doubt, a decade to forget for VT football.
I think it would be unrealistic to expect any more than what you've stated without drastically increasing our recruiting profile.
Greater consolidation of talent to top teams puts a thicker glass ceiling between us and any higher goals than the Coastal at the moment. There are also fewer "gems" to be found with drastic increases in recruiting coverage, camp circuits, and simply way, way more eyes in the industry watching tape.
I hope we manage to knock off Clemson in an amazing ACCCG in the coming decade, but it would take a lot of stuff going our way. If we want to legitimately compete with Clemson moving forward we have to recruit substantially better, and I'm not sure what our ceiling is in that regard.
The one other thing that I've theorized (perhaps I'll have time to research and confirm this off season) is that there's less nearby talent. It feels like (I say 'feels like', because this is, for now, an unsubstantiated claim) the concentration of in-state talent has shifted from the 757 to the DMV. Given that UMD, PSU, Pitt, etc are all geographically closer to the DMV than VT is, I think it gives our recruiting competition an advantage.
I believe talent is/will be shifting to the triangle as well.
That time we disemboweled Kentucky 62-0. Remember? Hooker had seven TD throws at the half to seven different receivers. Ashby had 26 tackles. Farley played, but only three snaps and had two picks and a fumble recovery. Bud flew out of the stadium in a camo helicopter, hoisting the game ball in one hand and Lynn Bowden's chin strap in the other. Everyone went to Belk after the game and got some khakis. Don't live in the past, man.
But where will he put the blaze orange Busch Light cans?
Sadly these are being phased out for the shitty looking blue cans. I've squirreled some away for tomorrows game, so I guess I could let Bud have a few as they're getting hard to find.
I picture him going "Stone Cold" on them and crushing them on his forehead after chugging them...
So going "Sandman" on them
Though there have been many, the most elated I've been in a single moment was QP taking it in for the win in OT.
In no particular order:
- the 2010 ACC championship year,
- the 2011 win over miami with the famous quote "these people are losing their minds"
- beating uva for Beamer's last regular win (I was there) as well as the Camping Bowl win to send him out the right way,
- beating the buckeyes in Columbus, OH,
- beating unc this year ((I was there for my 50th reunion) in 10000000000000000000000000000 overtime game.
By tomorrow I hope to add - beating uk in the Belk Bowl to send Bud out with a win.
I want to add the 2017 win over wva at FedEx Field on national prime-time TV.
4th and Logan. Wow that was fun to be there. The stadium panaroma is hanging on my living room wall and somehow I'm standing right in the middle of the picture frame with my friends.
My first thought was "These people are losing their minds!" against Miami in 2011.
But the more I think about it I believe my favorite Virginia Tech football moment of the decade will be at midnight Tuesday, when it ends. Let's get back to winning Hokies football in 2020, and turn the page on the forgettable 2010s.
Bristol tailgate
That shit was legendary.
It was like college football Woodstock out there. I read (mainly here) how awful Tennessee fans were but everyone I met was super friendly. Talked and drank with fans of probably a dozen different schools, great day all around. Plus we were surrounded on 3 different sides in the campground by VT students so it was fun interacting with young ins.
That defense was stacked. Playmakers everywhere.
One thing I think some fans have forgotten is the season Loeffler was hired as OC and Beamer sending a message to the team that he wanted this team to be the toughest team they ever had.
Nothing would make that exclamation point more than when Virginia Tech, with only 5 days of rest, turned around and beat Georgia Tech on the road on a Thursday night. This was September 27, only days after surviving three overtime against Marshall in the rain. I was at the Marshall game (Military Appreciation Day with that gawd awful orange camo scheme) and left the game in middle of third quarter. It was utterly a miserable game.
Then for VT to turn around after playing in the rain and beat Georgia Tech was unreal.
That 2013 defense was special. Just a team that was legitimately built different. That defense had ZERO players who weren't absolute dogs. Physical, mean, savvy, and played smart within the scheme.
...Unfortunately for us, we paired our #1 SP+ defense with the 77th SP+ offense. That yea we lost a game against Duke where we forced four turnovers, held them under 200 yards of offense, and they didn't convert a single third down. Defense took a hit when we lost Kyle Fuller, obviously, but still finished the year #1.
If I recall, that was where Kendall Fuller singlehandedly kept VT in the game by forcing 3 interceptions. I remember Logan making mental mistakes like throwing a sure-fire touchdown pass to the wrong team in the end zone, ending all hope for a victory, and spelled the end of the Terror Dome. VT wasn't the same at home since then.
I feel obligated to say this every time someone talks about the 2013 season... I'm convinced that, no matter how irrational this belief might be, that the 2013 team goes 11-1 in the regular season if Kyle Fuller stays healthy. If Fuller is healthy, Duke doesn't score a TD, BC doesn't hang 34 on us, and UMD's magically mobile QB is brought down to earth.
I agree with this completely, but it may have ultimately made that season even more heartbreaking. That was one the least talented offensive skill groups we have ever had. Poor Logan was working with the worst WR group I think we have ever fielded. 11-1 may have just made the pain of wasting that championship caliber defense hurt even more.
2016 @ notre lame. I don't care what their final record was. Down 17 in the 4th and Hokies ball out in the frigid cold (I was there) to beat the MOST entitled fan base of the last century in our first ever matchup. Yeah, and if I weren't a pastor I'd have colorful language to express my disdain for all things notre shame - and it's a LONG list.
I was there too. Emerging from the cold with a win was worth it.
Most of my picks were already mentioned.
I'll add: that four-down goal-line stand against Pitt, the hurricane game @ UNC, Isaiah Ford against Tulsa, and Cam Phillips against Arkansas.
Fullback to fullback pass to beat Miami
Lots of great moments but what about the 2016 destruction of the Hoos, 52-10? That was a fun day.
That was a very fun one. That game was never in doubt and complete demolition.
Great responses all, but getting my TKP bottle opener in the mail is the obvious answer.
Sitting in the Shoe watching VT beat OSU. Before that game Beamer was 0-6,497 against AP top 3 teams on the road east of the Mississippi before November. It will be sweet now to have that "1" on the ESPN scroll every hour on the hour before VT plays Penn State next year. Huge win.
OSU was #8 when we beat them.
Thank you. I was totally serious and accurate with the 6,457 number too. My post was meant to be dead serious. Thanks for the correction.
It's hard to tell when you're pretending to be wrong or just wrong.
If you took that post as serious fact, that's a you problem
I also cringe a little when i see people put a win from a 7-6 season over the 2010 ACC champhionship.... Actually i cringe a lot.
As you can see above, 2010 ACC championship is my favorite moment of the decade, particularly Tyrod's performance in that game. However, I can understand how many people don't immediately think of that as part of this decade (though it absolutely is, technically speaking) because 2010 and 2011 were the end of an era for VT football. I think most people think of 2012-today as the "current" era which takes up the majority of the decade, and 2010 and 2011 are attributed to the "peak VT era" so even though it overlaps into the decade, It's disproportionately separated in the minds of fans by the two different era's of VT football we associate them with. Also, generally speaking, I think "best of decade" lists are notoriously plagued by recency bias.
I mean i get it. Also at that point in Tech football, ACC championships were expected, however in 2014, beating OSU definitely wasn't so maybe people enjoyed it more. If i honestly think about it, the happiest i've been watching Tech football in the past decade has been the second half of this years Wake game and the whole Pitt game. Those being Bud's last games in Lane was just poetic.
Bud turning last year's group into a defense that could have that ND-Pitt stretch this season was quite a fitting end to his career as DC. One last herculean example of his coaching prowess to take the least gap sound, most physically and mentally overmatched VT defense I've ever watched in 2018, and turn them into the team that could post back to back shutouts and completely shutdown the Wake offense in the second half with basically the same personnel was special.
I have a funny feeling we're gonna miss that guy a little bit
You can't just point to the one exaggeration in your post and then say the whole post was facetious.
I know the ESPN ticker with our record against top ranked teams irks you, because you always post about it before a big game, so what's to stop me from thinking you weren't being serious about everything but your obviously made up loss total?
Because saying we've played 6,457 games against top 3 teams is like a little kid saying his parents are quardruple trillion bagillionaires. It's a comical number.
I get that. I'm saying he was being serious about everything else in the post.
Yeah, the east of the mississippi thing was totally real too. Sorry to confuse you there.
Yep, took that seriously. Y'got me.
Great job dragging the narrative away from you being corrected on OSU's ranking after not being assed to do a 5 second google search.
LOL- you are 100% moving the goalposts. You got righteous on a clearly hyperbolic post that you couldn't decipher and throw logic like, well I though the rest of the post was totally serious. lol. carry on
I am 100% not. My intent was to correct you on OSU's ranking and you strawmanned that into me believing the obviously exaggerated parts of your post.
And BTW. How many times did you see UVA's record... 0 fer... against Top 10 teams on the road before last nights game? a top 10 Florida team? I did not see it on the ESPN scroll once all day. UVA has never beaten a top 10 team on the road before, yet that is not shoved down our throats.
Don't know, because I don't stress over every minutia of how ESPN covers teams. Sorry you take it so personally.
W at the shoe in front of the largest crowd ever assembled there (at the time).
Runner up is second half of the Belk Bowl.
It's gotta be Logan on 4th down against Miami. Before he even got to the end zone I knew that would be a moment that would live on in Hokie lore for decades.
This game and it isn't even close for me.
Easily, beating OSU in The Shoe
Not today