Recent Comments
Norrell Pollard released by the commanders. Wouldn't be surprised to see him picked up pretty quickly as a depth piece.
Hendon Hooker was just released as well.
Combo #4 with a Coke.
Seems like we should prioritize membership engagement over membership growth, given that the Hokie Club is the 2nd largest in the ACC, yet middle of the pack in dollars.
Overhaul the Hokie Club, and get people engaged!
Hokie Club at least initially put too many advantages to the ambassadors or whatever they were called. It was like a pyramid scheme.
These days too many of the Hokie Club events are campus focused which is unrealistic for the majority of the alumni base. They rarely offer ways to connect from a distance and they do a piss poor job communicating. I end up doing most of my "donations" when they offer swag but most of those dont appear to be strong returns funding wise.
I receive emails from the Loudoun Chapter sporadically but again its infrequent and the message is usually a cut and paste job from the school. Very little local interaction or opportunities to grow the membership.
Yeah. I highly doubt that. You think Auburn is going to agree to Bama getting more money than them? lol. no.
My daughter uses the volleyball courts and runs the trails mostly.
Tried to get her to use the gym in the winter but, it's not her thing.
Fucking fungus at this point.
Battlestar Galactica
I mean the Ballein family has a lot of incentive to keep things at the Status Quo in Merryman. Just today I learned his wife has a very similar role in basketball that he does in football
HBD to our Chief of Staff, Stephanie Ballein 🎉🎂❤️ pic.twitter.com/kWQqHHeLhk— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) August 24, 2025
Seems like a bad idea to let one family be that ingrained into the workings of what should be our 2 biggest revenue drivers.
I've never seen this, but this is hilarious given that 3000 released a flute album with no words lmao
Wouldn't surprise me to see them debut a new orange helmet later this week like they did when they hit us with the script helmet last year.
Streets sayin those ain't the helmets 🤫 https://t.co/uqThxveny1— Grayson Wimbish (@G_Wimb) August 25, 2025
Also, it's game week y'all!
¹Texas at ³anOhio State (Ohi. -2.5)
⁸Alabama at Florida State (Ala. -13.5)
⁹LSU at ⁴Clemson (Cle. -4.5)
Utah at UCLA (Uta. -6.5)
Virginia Tech at ¹³USCe (SCe. -7.5)
⁶Notre Dame at ¹⁰Miami (Dam. -2.5)
Beer: I'll probably finish off the 4-pack of Human Robot's 10° Pivo Czech Pale lager. Flavorful, crisp, and only 4.2 %.
Waffle House hashbrowns: I'm very basic. Double order, nothing on them but salt and pepper. I'll put over easy eggs from my All-Star Special on top and mix in the runny yolk.
Thanks for putting this together again!
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Yup – last Hokie club event I can remember in Atlanta (and "in" Atlanta is generous – it was OTP in the suburbs) was when Fuente came down to talk to us in the off-season between 2017 and 2018.
I remember asking one of the higher-ups at Hokie Club who was there (I forgot his name) how young alumni like myself could help the cause, and he told me to give money and to tell my friends to give money lol. While meeting Fuente was cool, this interaction really stood out to me and left a bad taste in my mouth. He just made it seem so transactional. I kinda assumed there would be some community to piece to it. Or "let me introduce you to so and so" or 'we have event X here in 6 months, they're always looking for volunteers'... was not the case lol.
¹Texas at ³anOhio State (Ohi. -2.5) - Hard to win in the Shoe. Only legends can do that.
⁸Alabama at Florida State (Ala. -13.5) - I'm not entirely sure FSU isn't still broken. I suspect Bama is going to want to pound them to make a point and I think FSU is too soft to do anything about it.
⁹LSU at ⁴Clemson (Cle. -4.5) - I really have no idea here - I'm realizing that my SEC>>ACC bias is impacting me here - I think Clemson is a good team but I think LSU is better. Even if they don't win outright, I have a hard time believing Clemson can win by more than a FG
Utah at UCLA (Uta. -6.5) - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Virginia Tech at ¹³USCe (SCe. -7.5) - as is customary, I always pick against the Hokies.
⁶Notre Dame at ¹⁰Miami (Dam. -2.5) - as sick as it makes me to my stomach, I like Marcus Freeman and I think he's a good coach.
Interesting! I'm guaranteed to give up a touchdown anytime I call mostly man coverage.
In my experience playing zone and mixing between Quarters, Cover 4 Palms. Cover 3 Sky and Buzz Mable, and Cover 6 has worked really well. Cover 4 is a great 1st and 10 call. Great against run plays and can handle most passing plays so that at worst they get a short completion. Cover 3 variants are mostly for clearly passing situations. Cover 6 is good for medium/shorter passing situations. Occasionally I sprinkle in cover 2 variants as a changeup and cover 2 man is frequently my 3rd and very long call.
I do blitz in maybe 20 % of zone plays? I think this helps mitigate the run game. And I'm probably calling a man blitz about 10 % of the time mostly for clear running situations, as a changeup, or because it's clear the CPU team's QB and pass blocking are atrocious.
I typically end up with QBs getting a high completion percentage (70 % - 80 %), but not a lot of useful yardage.
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Agreed. Fuente wasn't THE problem, but he was A problem, and certainly wasn't a part of the solution. Net negative for the program.
The Hokie Club is also completely disjointed. If there are any events down here in Raleigh for the Hokie Club, I haven't seen or heard about them in a long while. Last one I attended was maybe 10 years ago, but its like the Raleigh branch of the Hokie Club went belly-up. Which, as an aside, how the hell is that allowed to happen for what is either the largest or 2nd largest alumni base outside of the Commonwealth? You'd think the school would make it a point to keep their large bases engaged, but its like the school completely abandoned everyone who is out of state.
Hell, when I search Google to see if there is a Hokie Club around here, it gives me information for the Triangle Hokies Alumni Chapter, which explicitly is not the Hokie Club. Any fundraising that chapter does has the money go straight to the Alumni Association, which funnels money to Academics, and not Athletics.
In my years (back in the ancient 1980s),I used the intramural fields a lot for football, and softball, and War Memorial Gym(only one existing then besides Cassell itself) for basketball(multiple times a day) and racquetball periodically. So definitely got moneys worth for me (plus back then all sporting events were free for student tickets-just had to wait in the line on ticket distribution day; never had any issues -the only difficult time-consuming waits were UVA and WVU games for football and Memphis State and Louisville for basketball) (plus at that time the student section at Cassell was 4500 of the ten thousand-basically the entire east stands-had multiple games at first row )