All of the bowl projections throughout the week that had the Hokies heading to El Paso to play UCLA held true. According to the AP, Virginia Tech will play UCLA in the Sun Bowl. The game will be played Tuesday, December 31st at 2:00 PM ET and will be broadcast on CBS. UCLA is a 9-3 team that went 2-3 against the Top 25 and spent most (if not all of, it's too early on a Sunday to confirm) its season ranked.
Earlier in the week Sun Bowl Executive Director Bernie Olivas said this about the Hokies then potential bid, "A lot of scenarios point to Virginia Tech towards us and we would be extremely happy with that".
The Sun Bowl was host for Virginia Tech's first bowl appearance in 1947. That game was a 6-18 loss to Cincinnati. This is Tech's first trip back to El Paso. The Hokies will have an opportunity to cap the 2013 on a high note with a win over a ranked opponent.
Comments
According to the AP story, Virginia Tech is led by Thomas Logan.
#journalism
There's Good Logan, Bad Logan, and now Thomas Logan?!?!? Will the real Logan please stand up?
That's color commentator-level bad
Tim McCarver would be proud.
This is almost as bad as getting Pam Ward'ed.
I've figured it out. Good Logan = Logan Thomas. Bad Logan = Thomas Logan.
There was #5 Tyrod Taylor. Now there is letter E Thomas Logan!
he's wearing a Duke Jersey!!! that explains everything!!!
It's the age-old problem of having a first name that can be a last name and a last name that can be a first name. I know, I have the same problem. Add in the fact that my middle name can be either a first or last name as well, I have heard my name called in many different arrangements.
Bring it!
Buying a ticket tonight!
I'm really excited yet really nervous for this matchup, they're ranked #17 for a reason and were a top 10 team at one point. Brett Hundley will probably be the best QB we face all year and is incredibly talented with his legs too. Jonathan McLaughlin will have his hands full with Anthony Barr, who may be the 2nd best pass rusher in the draft next to Clowney. Looks like we have our work cut out for us.
As someone who's followed the Pac-12 quite a bit this year, I agree with all of this.
Well yeah, Barr-ing any injuries this game should be a fun one to watch. I'm pretty Jack-ed up about it.
Should be a good game. Can't wait to see our D vs their O.
What Bowl are our Wahoo friends going to?
The wooden bowl
The clay spittoon.
Salad bowl
there once was a bowl name the salad bowl look it up
Whichever one is closest to the couch while watching all the games on TV.
Bowl of dicks
Couldn't find the image...
UVA would have to actually have a football program in order to even qualify. What type of question is this?
Turd in the punch bowl...
Toilet Bowl.
presented by Lysol
The Cop Bowl presented by Zima
The Dumplestiltskin bowl.
I kind of wish Duke was going to the Orange Bowl, instead of Clemson.
Out in the West Texas town of El Paso as in pasar el futbol a legend will be made. They will speak of him as far as Los Angeles and his name (se llama) will be Tomas Logan, or something like that.
Go Hokies.
Early reactions from our opponent:
http://www.bruinsnation.com/ucla_bruin_football/2013/12/8/5189768/ucla-b...
Oh really?
They seem to have gotten a little over cocky after the past 2 years. Time to send them back to reality! Go Hokies!
Nice to see most of them showing a bit of respect for the Hokies and Beamer. Most of their fans don't want to take us too lightly so I can respect that. Of course there is always one clown who has to rag on the ACC but for the most part they seem pretty happy with the match up.
"Logan Thomas will be the wild card. He is about the same size as Brett, not as sneaky fast, but a load to bring down. He is fairly accurate, but most of Techs receivers have hands of stone, and that will work to our favor." <- Great analysis from a UCLA fan... LOL Brett Hundley is 6'2" 215, Logan is 6'6" 250, I hope they think they are the same size until game time.
This commenter must have only watched the 'Bama game. Most of our receivers now are sure-handed. Stanford, Byrn and Knowles have all improved by miles and miles. Coles, it seems, has unfortunately regressed the past few games.
IDK, Knowles has been up and down too. I would say that Stanford and Byrn have been trending up while Coles and Knowles have not.
Everything looks bigger on the west coast. Ever seen Tom Cruise? That guy is like 5'4", but he always looks taller in movies.
That's because of strategically placed boxes and platforms as well as creative camera angles. But point taken.
For some reason I pictured Tom Cruise doing something similar to this:
Probably because the movie takes several shots at Scientology.
reading these comments are annoying. Have they ever seen a VT game? It is so weird that they think they are going to destroy us? Very weird... Our D can hang with and make life tough for any O in the country.
Wish we were going to bowl on east cost so more fans could go. Most of us can't afford this.
Some of us even have to...gasp...work on new year's eve. Guess I'll have to DVR the game and hope I don't hear updates.
yup gotta work and already know i cant get off ill be dvring it too
Can anyone explain how the city of El Paso and the sun bowl have the 3rd pick of non BCS teams in ACC? While much better cities and areas to visit are far down the list, Nashville, San Fran or Charlotte. Also why the ACC can not get overall some better bowl affiliations, I know they get slightly better in 2014, but why does it take the non "power" conferences to get a bowl game in the Bahamas?
They pay the 3rd most of the ACC bowls, I would imagine.
A game in the Bahamas would actually be bad because it would be tough to sell a lot of tickets to that game on short notice. It's why the Hawaii Bowl is usually half empty unless Hawaii is there.
Flights are not that different around 50-100 dollars more to Nassau. But a much better family/fan place. Same with Nashville, San Fran and Charlotte. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I like going with family and friends to enjoy a multi day experiance in a city where the game is.
As a recently graduated student/young single person without a family, bowl destinations requiring plane tickets and hotels are the toughest to finance.
We'd usually spend a day driving to a destination, that night exploring the local bar scene, the next day tailgating/watching football, then drive home the following day.
I'm from Northern Nevada. I used to drive from Blacksburg to my home non-stop in 36 hours only spending money on gas and food. Did the cross-country trip 13 times in total with 6 being non-stop. You could just make El Paso within 24 hours. Get on I-40 to Little Rock and then follow the interstates down in increments of 10. I-40 to I-30, I-30 to I-20, I-20 to I-10. I used to leave around 3pm drive all night and hit somewhere around Albuquerque in 24 hours, so your plan is still doable.
The first time I had to get back to my brother's wedding and I had no money for plane ticket. I priced out gas and figured I would sleep in my car but I just kept driving. It was A LOT cheaper than the plane ticket. Other times I had friends along as well.
ahh to be young and on a hardcore roadtrip. . .
And I thought that I was pretty gung-ho about driving everywhere I go... in my experience, anything over about 20 hours tends to be a tradeoff cost-wise between flying and driving, unless the destination isn't terribly near an airport or you are travelling with someone else. And that's with a relatively new fuel efficient sedan.
And that doesn't even account for any of the added stress of having to stay awake the whole time as well as dealing with traffic (which admittedly is pretty sparse once you get past the Appalachians). At least when you fly, the stress is all grouped into small clumps (getting through security, finding your connection gate, etc.)
Yeah, if I'm traveling alone and I would have to sleep somewhere I just fly. Two nights of hotels, especially around the holidays, are going to be $100 at least if I want to stay away from roaches and bed bugs. Throw gas and food in there and it's up there. I'd rather just get someone to drop me off at the airport and pay $300-$400 to fly someplace. Not to mention you spend 4-5 hours traveling instead of 20+ so you get all that time back and unless I'm going to be there for two weeks it's not worth it.
I was doing those trips from 95 - 99, so gas was significantly cheaper. I couldn't say it would be worth it monetarily now.
however, I loved those trips. even the non-stop trips. Driving across country is amazing. Like I said the 6 non-stop trips were a lot easier than I thought they would be but I also did trips in a few days and a few weeks. Just driving in different directions. All were worth it. I actually dictated most of my final paper on one road trip into a recorder.
I would definitely say the drives were oddly quite relaxing. 2 worst stretches thought were Nebraska and Tenn. Tenn because it is so long and it feels good to just get through a state fast, like through Amarillo and northern Texas. Your through it in no time. Tenn is like driving in slow motion. Takes forever.
Nebraska is challenging because on the entire stretch of I-80 there is exactly 1 turn in the road. Not even a turn. More like a bend and it's also quite a long stretch. It's hell. Pure hell.
But if your young and have friends, my point is the El Paso road trip is very doable.
You ever driven through Indiana? It's not long, but once you pass Cleveland in Ohio there is nothing until Chicago. And then once you pass Chicago there is nothing until California.
I lived in Chicago for a year after I graduated, came back to Blacksburg on 2 weekend trips for football games, an 11 hour drive each way. Ohio was always the worst, going from Charleston WV to Dayton on US35. Most boring stretch of road I ever took, including I59 through the entire state of Illinois once.
yeah I've gone all the way from Reno to Salt Lake through phucking Nebraska, with side trip to Mt Rushmore, through Iowa up to Chicago and then around the lakes up to Niagara Falls, then to NYC and back down to VT. Loved every minute except for Nebraska.
Drove non-stop once from San Diego to Minneapolis then back a few weeks later for Christmas. SD to Ft Worth then up 35 to MN. Cold as a Bud Foster ass chewing.
Next time cross country was Los Angeles to Virginia Beach. Stopped in Az, Amarillo, Shiloh and Bristol. You are correct TN was looooong. 40 goes in and out of TN at the points.
Yep, this is how I did the non-stop trip as well. Down to Vegas and then 40. then all the way through to end of Tenn and up to Blacksburg. Best part of the drive going east Arkansas because its night when I reach there and that means its Waffle House time. Going west I would say dropping into New Mexico east of Albuquerque is fantastic. Beautiful countryside there. West of 'Querque though is fairly boring. I always stopped at both sides of the state. Tucumcari for gas and Mexican food, and then Gallup for dinner at a truck stop diner I forget the name of. Great road trip food in both places when you do the non-stop trip.
The Sun is a storied Bowl game. Read up about it, this game has traditionally been a very nice second tier bowl.
A storied bowl as in historical, still not a great place for the family/ fan experiance.
Think of it as an arid Jacksonville.
UCLA will likely be favored by around 6-8 points. Should be a very interesting game given they have played 6 top 30 teams (Sagarin) and split and we only played 1 and lost (Bama). I for whatever reason feel (whiskey?) good about this match up. Defense will need to be beast and special teams better be at least an even match up. Went to the ACC championship game last night and FSU is for real. They should beat Auburn by at least 10.
Go Hokies!
We drink bourbon. UVA fans drink Zima. What do UCLA fans drink?
Cosmos. They're in hollywood, Dude.
Kale smoothies
I like seeing some new teams in bowl games. Hopefully it goes better than the game against Cal. My guess is Foster is Bruin up some defensive schemes.
Turkey leg for the Doctor Who reference
Am I the only one that's agitated that after dealing with the Amy and Rory tandem for almost 3 years and we get her as the companion the show practically goes off the air for over a year except for two specials?
am i the only one who (braces for downvotes) isnt all that in to dr who?
seconded. don't mind the references but also never seen the appeal.
Eh, I loath FireFly, which is basically internet Blasphemy. As for Doctor Who, I like it mostly because they travel to the far future or past outside of Earth like to alien worlds. It's fun, but I can really understand why people wouldn't like it. It does get pretty bad at times, especially their huge fetish for London.
It's a BBC production...it's not a "fetish" for London...it's HOME. I mean, it's England, there's not much else besides London. They had a trip or two to America a couple seasons ago.
My gf is really into Doctor Who, so I went with her for the whole "Day of the Doctor" special never having watched any of it. You should've seen the looks I got after I said they time travel in a phone booth (it's a Police Box!) and that it "sounds like 'Bill & Ted' without Bill and Ted."
Also, it's "Doctor" and not "Dr." because it's his name???
I mean...the companion was the highlight for me.
Ok, I am not a Doctor Who fan but even I know it's called a Tardis
Haha, I knew that much. The question was "Do you know what the tardis is?"
Phoneboothy thing was not the correct answer...
haha, I actually prefer phoneboothy thing. It makes it sound more believable.
I've seen UCLA a lot recently. Obviously, Hundley is a very good player. He's basically "Good Logan" every game. Barr is a tremendous LBer who changes the game. Jack was P12 offensive and defensive Freshman of the year. He plays LB and TB.
But their OL is awful. They also traditionally don't play well in cold weather, and the Sun has frequently been played in snow/sleet. We can win this game, but we should be 7-9 point underdogs.
El Paso is an interesting city. Been there may times. Right across the border is Jaurez, Mexico, full of drug trafficking, murders and lawlessness. But El Paso is remarkably safe and crime free. Still I would not call El Paso a hot-spot. It is in the mountain desert west. Highs usually in the upper 40s, lows in the mid 20s at night. An arid climate, low humidity. So expect it to be fairly cold at game time.
Bowl places like Orlando, Miami, Atlanta, and Pasadena have of course many other things to do. You can go there and make a mini-vacation out of it with the game as one venue. El Paso? Not in my view. Not a whole lot going on there. I suspect the turnout from both UCLA and VT will be not as good as bowls in the past.
As for us, we are staying home at watching it on TV.
Actually, at that point in the year, El Paso is typically anywhere from 30-70 F. The weather here is highly variable... When Miami came through a couple years ago, it was a pretty chilly game, but the other two I've been in town for haven't been as cold.
And about the only thing to do in the area is take a trip out to Carlsbad Caverns. Which I would recommend, it's amazing.
This is true. It could be freezing cold or it could be T-shirt weather. Possibly both in the same day.
I've been to the caverns many times, and they are pretty cool, but in my opinion the most important thing to do in the area is eat as much Mexican food and as much green chili as you can.
Oh man, we're in danger of starting another Mexican food rant... speaking of it though the only place in El Paso I remember the name of is Avila's (Spelling could be wrong). I had a great time there and food was very good. But I would say vendors and family food is still the best. Anyway a good recommendation for anyone that will be making it out there.
Yup, Avila's. I've never actually been... I like El Taco Tote for fast food and Barrigas for slow food. There's also (and this will sound strange, but it's awesome) Japanese Crepe House, which is fab. And The Hoppy Monk is a good bar down near campus. Of course, there's the whole Cincinnati district for bar hopping.
Oh! Oh! And for BBQ, try Stateline or Rudy's. Stateline is a little bit more of a sit-down place, but Rudy's is fun. You literally buy by the pound. Awesome.
I went to Carlsbad once on a trip.
Hiking in the Franklins is pretty cool as well if you have the time.
VT apparently has opened up as a 10.5 point underdog. UCLA will be the best team VT has faced all year besides Alabama. UCLA's weakness is their OL so hopefully Gayle and Hopkins can cause a lot of disruption and boost their draft stock.
I'm wondering if Kyle Fuller will be back in time for this game.
That's a bigger number than I anticipated. They haven't faced a whole lot of defenses this year.....but we haven't seen many above average offenses either.
With the exception of the respect for CFB, there is a lot of shit talk about our offense, although warranted from this seasons output. Hope good Logan and Offense shows up and the Bud D shuts them down. Like to see us get win number 9 and keep them from number 10. From most of the comments they expect to throttle us.
Hundley's dual-threat is what worries me. Guy has wheels. And we all know how suspect our defense can suddenly become against elusive QBs. It's our kryptonite. Luckily we have a few weeks to prepare.
Just stick a freaking spy on him like they do against MV7, RGIII and all the others in the NFL. There, problem solved.
It looks like Bud learned from Maryland. He had a spy on Watford in the UVA game.
I was about to post this as a response to someone above. We could handle Vad Lee and the GT offense, but it was the break-down-and-run scenarios that have caused us the most problems. I can see Hundley running wild.
I think the main issues we have in breakdowns against mobile QBs are basically tackling fundamentals. If anyone notices, the tackling fundamentals of the D (regardless of how superior the unit is ranked) is, actually quite spotty throughout the season. Fix the tackling fundamentals=fix the breakdown run issues.
Tackling issues are especially troublesome when Kyle and Tone are on the bench. The freshman corners are great cover guys, but they're still learning to be great run-stoppers.
True. But Detrick Bonner is good in run support.
Against Boston College he wasn't.
Alotta people aren't so hot against Andre Williams
That's news to Mugatu.
Great to see our Hokies headed to a Texas bowl game!
Bryan Randall was MVP of the Lone Star Football League for the Laredo Rattlesnakes this year who scored 69 pts in the championship game.
Hopefully Logan Thomas can put up similar numbers in El Paso.
Turkey leg for props to Bryan MF Randall.
And BR3 just signed with the Philadelphia Soul of the Arena League.
Link To Article Here
i wonder how focused ucla will be and how seriously they take us. i think it's a cool matchup. now to go talk to the boss about leaving early that day. . .
Hope to see Kyle Fuller and Tone Exum back for this game, we'll need them.
Hyundai Sun Bowl? Ugh. I'm Sonata fan.
I can Handel that.
We've got a Major D here.
Hey - at least it is a New Year's Eve matchup!
Feel bad for Duke playing against Johnny Football...
He will have a field day with them. I might watch some it for fun. GOHOKIES
I wanted to go to the Bowl game but after seeing that it is 1800 miles from where i live...I'm like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQFBz3tp8YU
Journell must be pissed right now. Playing in a bowl game that's minutes from Mexico (all the drugs you could want) and he's not on the team.
Probablyyyy not in the best taste, but I can appreciate the humor.
let's not pretend like there's not plenty of drugs in blacksburg.
yes, that's true but all the drugs in Blacksburg would still be less than one house in Juarez
And you can get them straight from the source! Like a Costco for drugs.
On the plus side, Beamer and Bud will be close enough to deal with the Juarez Cartel.
That's a good point. I think we got sent to this bowl for border security. The illegals will hear that Bud is right over the border and start running for Guatemala.
That's a good point. I think we got sent to this bowl for border security. The illegals will hear that
BudSam Rogers is right over the border and start running for Guatemala.FIFY
I am super nervous that there will not be many Hokies there. It is cold, difficult to get to. But the opponent is good and that will add some drama.
Welp. Time to re-arrange my Christmas vacation so I can watch this game. Good match as far as teams go
but really far away from both schools....very unfortunate. Go Hokies!!! #ALLMAROONEVERYTHING
Unfortunately, we are the designated visiting team, so the hopes of #AME are probably nil. We'll likely be in white to match the snow that will inevitably fall.
Damn it! Well...I will be in all MAROON regardless. :)
... because that happens SO MUCH in El Paso.
Seriously, confused by all these people who think it's inevitable it's going to be cold for the game.
My reference for it being cold in El Paso is the 2010 game where Miami was frozen in the snow while playing Notre Dame.
Otherwise I wouldn't think that at all.
That was pretty amusing. Also several standard deviations from "normal"
Ugh, Statistics....
Ha, this is precisely what I was thinking of - the only Sun Bowl I ever watched. Thought to myself, "that looks miserable. All these other teams get to play in warm climates." Couple that with the fact that I read yesterday something about El Paso possibly being cold at that time, and my opinion was formed.
We do have a cold front running through here this week. The highs are in the 50s/60s.... brr! *sarcastica*
So basically what I hear you saying is that 'ol El Paso is a shit-dumpster in the middle of nowhere???
Then burn it. I've never seen a shit dumpster fire.
I'll light it with my cigar and alkyhol.
It's the asshole of Texas.
I just realized something.
The game kicks off at 2:00pm ET. El Paso is exactly two hours behind the east coast. That's right, folks. Virginia Tech is ending the season with another noon game.
Which is why I just mentioned to my boss I can't do a half day either. LOL I had almost forgotten this
as well.
holy crap I'm glad you said that. I was going to leave work at noon that day to give me a a couple hours to pregame...
welp, guess im taking the whole day off.
and yes...I am on the east coast and yes I am totally just using it as an excuse to take a day off from work and yes I know it's actually at 2pm ET.
Well, that being said, I am taking the day after the game off as well - and the day before it too.
Word is we were actually given a special exemption and invitation to play in the Orange Bowl this year, however Weaver turned it down so that he could go out with a noon game.
Be careful, someone is going to believe that.
So I was reading a UCLA message board today and they seem to think that USC's defense is "miles" better than Tech's. They are in for a rude awakening if they really believe this.
They must have missed the Bama game ...and the GT game ...and the... and the ... ... but they should catch the UCLA game!
GO HOKIES