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Accuracy might be an issue, not sure. But regarding the game against UT, after UT's first TD, their DL definitely got the juices flowing and played better. At that point and for the rest of the game, we never went deep, because the OL couldn't give Evans enough time to let a play like that develop. Nonetheless, when we weren't fumbling the ball away, we were able to move it down field fairly well.

Quick disclaimer, my seats were so bad I could barely see the jumbotron so maybe my takeaways are flawed (quick sidebar, whoever was working the cameras used on the screens must have been drunker than me. It seems like it was all over the place).

Some general thoughts first: The 1st quarter showed what we can have when the team is firing on all cylinders, we came out on fire. The next 3 showed what happens if we lose focus, we're not good enough to overcome a few key mistakes and we're screwed when we make lots of them (like almost everyone else). I'd also like to say that this spectacle actually lived up to the hype. The crowd was fantastic and I had some great experiences tailgating. They screwed up the enter sandman routine with the entrance but the national anthem was insane. There was a moment where the anthem was being sung, there was a flyover, there were fireworks, there were flags in the stands, flags on the football field, which was in a NASCAR stadium, with race cars on the track, and a cannon being fired. It was the most over-the-top 'Merican thing I've ever seen. And it was awesome. I heard about a few scary moments at gates 8/9 getting into the stadium but other than that BMS seemed to pull this thing off smoothly.

Pros: Noting new to add here. Our offense seems to have a legit identity that will work with commitment from the team and I think the Bud/Fuente marriage has proven it can work.

Cons: I'm worried about the lack of leadership on the team. We kept making dumb penalties and it appeared we straight up quit in the 4th quarter. The fumbles hurt, but that is a lack of concentration. The penalties seemed more of a lack of discipline, which I think is worse. It also doesn't seem like we have any kind of downfield passing game that makes a defense think twice about stacking the box. If that doesn't' change I'm concerned about our ability to keep moving the football over the course of the season.

I did too. Got really excited for a minute.

So I will probably hit alot of point that already have been, but I don't have the time or energy to go through them all. This is going to come from somebody with alot of experience at both Football and NASCAR venues:

- We got there on Wednesday afternoon to try and get the full experience out of this event. It may never happen again, so we figured what the hell. We camped in the Earheart West First Tier RV lot. Of course as you may imagine, the lot was quite empty on Wednesday. When we arrived I think we were probably 1 of 10. Somehow in a nearly empty lot, our spot was near a tight group of everyone else camping. We had two spots next to each other. The second RV was not arriving until Thursday Afternoon. We had a great group of guys (and one lady) from all over the Country, basically. Our normal group is spread across VA, the second RV came up from Florida with 5 guys, and my brother flew out from San Diego to be there for the week.
- The scenery and the people around town were amazing. If you have never been to a Food City, it is worth going to. Their Hospitality is nearly overwhelming. They also own the town of Bristol it seems like. The locals seemed to welcome everyone with open arms, and I am sure they are used to all the commotion with the race being in town twice a year. This just probably was another boost to their local economy.
- The weather was quite amazing. I miss living on that end of the state. Although warm outside, humidity did not really seem to exist. It was comfortable without having to duck into the AC inside the RV every hour or so. There was just a light breeze all weekend, but overall the majority of my time was outside in the parking lot.
- Earheart was definitely a majority of Hokies. I know this was done by design, but it was amazing seeing everyone arrive and greet each other. And of course everyone trying to outdo the other with their spectacular tailgate setups. We had a great time just walking around meeting people and looking at what each other had wasted their time and money one just to draw attention (we were of course guilty of this on many levels ourselves).
- #BUTTS. I will just leave it at that.
- The concert was fun. I am no huge Kenny Chesney fan and honestly think The Band Perry stole that show. I mainly used it as an excuse to get a peak inside before the Chaos of the following day.
- Saturday morning came and so did the tidal wave of people. I don't think you could have got out of town that day if you wanted to.
- Gameday. I have been to many in Blacksburg so I didn't bother walking down to it, but it was fun watching it know it was taking place just down the hill. My brother and his friends went down as there was never one on campus during their time at Tech. The sky divers literally jumped out of the blimp right above us. We got a kick out of seeing the VT flag deployed. As a NASCAR fan I enjoyed seeing Petty and JR, it was also nice having somebody pick us, despite the outcome.
- The Game. I won't get into actual gameplay, plenty of other people have done it already and most will be more qualified than me to analyze it. What I will comment on is the Venue. There is no denying this was spectacular. We ended up with some of the best seats in the house. If i have time later I will try and upload some pictures. But all I can say is WOW. It was amazing seeing this place packed to the gills. And that first quarter lead to lots of sweaty VOLs fans. Made the entire thing worth it for me. I know it turned around quickly, but it was still something that I was happy I got to see in person.
- Preparedness of the venue. This is where they didn't impress. Although they place looked amazing, they were not ready for the onslaught of people to their concession stands. This is a NASCAR venue. They are used to people hiking in coolers of beer and tons of snacks. Their concessions stands honestly don't get hit that hard normally. We got our only two beers right as we got in. There were maybe 10 people in front of us at our window and it took nearly half an hour to get served. They were just SLOW. The guy helping us stared at ID's longer than it takes most people to do an entire transaction at most venues. I have no idea what he was looking for on them, as someone who has checked alot of ID's in my life. Their credit card machines were a joke too, the kind of thing you would have at low resource restaurant, just too slow in themselves. Everyone has already heard they ran out of water at most places. I do not think they were out, I think they were unable to get cases of it to everywhere it needed to go fast enough. The logistics either didn't exist or were not calculated correctly.
- Security. Yeah it was slow. It was also a mix of people having no clue where to go and hopping in the first line they found. And then you had to deal with the people who have no idea what to do while in line for a metal detector slowing things down either. We just kept walking around and eventually found a gate with nearly nobody in line and were inside in just a few minutes.
- Traffic. Since we were staying we didn't really have to deal with it. But it sure didn't look fun. Once again I am not sure there is much they can do about it. That is alot of people trying to go somewhere at the same time.

OVERALL: Can't say I regret any of it. We had some great times with some great people, and going back into work today was more difficult than I could have imagined. Of course I wish the game had gone differently, but at least we had that one quarter to put the fear into the VOLS. I personally do not see this happening again any time soon, so I was happy to be a part of it.

Boston College next week, back to the reality of a home game again.

I'm positive we need to cut down on fumbles and negative yardage from penalties.

Words that should never be used together: "I envy my NoVA brethren"

Yeah, Cam had the fumbling problem too last year... The Georgia Tech game come to mind

so... our best run blocker gets DQ'd on questionable personal foul calls? Their star linebacker spears our player in the back after the play is blown dead and his personal foul flag is picked up? I smell a conspiracy...

what do we have 9 through 2 games? 36 would be an improvement with our current average per game.

and tremaine has been no where to be found.

Colt Petit doesn't get disqualified from the game after picking up 2 personal fouls in the first half (NCAA rule, by the way)...

Teller may have the most talent but it's completely wasted when he pulls stuff like that. There is a reason he's been down the depth chart since camp opened and is becoming very clear on why that is so far this season. Don't care how much talent you have, if you can't consistently channel it to the betterment of the team, it's of no use to the team.

Positive - Evans has yet to throw an interception

Negative - Evans has contributed to 1/3 of the fumbles lost this year.