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Thanks for sharing the link! Sorry I didn't get to in time. I saw the bracelet on him last night when they were showing how large Logan's hands were and then I saw that Logan had retweeted several posts about him wearing it. Logan's got a great heart.

Must...not...downvote...OK, I resisted. The Zima drinkers are too self-important to cheer for the Skins on Sundays, there's too many cocktail parties to attend on their days off.

I have no special story. My mom grew up in Bristol and my dad grew up in a small town in Eastern Kentucky. He grew up a Kentucky fan but after marrying my mom and moving to Bristol, an amazing thing happened. He was offered a ticket to go see Virginia Tech play Boston College in 1997. He decided to go, but for no special reason. Who wouldn't deny a free ticket to a college football game if you hadn't really ever been to one, right? He left that game a different man and a Hokie. He then started tuning into every game, going to as many in lane as he could. I being, 4 or 5 at the time couldn't help but to tune into the conversation. One of few memories memories I have was going to my first Virginia Tech game in 1st grade in 1999. I truly loved it, but I didn't know anything about football. By this point, my dad was obsessed with the Hokies. He had radio shows on constantly and of course, living in Bristol, there was the Tennessee rivalry. I remember as a six year old, it made me so angry that Tennessee fans thought they were better than us. I can remember fighting with a boy every single day of elementary school over whether or not the Hokies were better not really being able to argue. I started listening to the radio shows and watching ESPN with dad so I could go back to school and argue with the boy even more. I started getting to go to a lot more Virginia Tech games with my mom and dad and I decided that's where I wanted to go to school. I had even picked out the house I was going to live in while I attended (hah!)

One of my clearest memories was getting grounded in 6th grade because I was sent to the principal's office for threatening to hit someone for saying Tennessee was better. But I was mainly grounded because I made an actual bet with someone that VT wouldn't "croak" in the ACC. This song came out that year as well http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gt_moJOMcM and we had it on a CD. My Christmas present in 8th grade was getting to go watch VT play Georgia in Atlanta (although that didn't turn out well. We were winning in the first half, ugh!) And I remember finding out about the tragedy in 2007 in the middle of the day in 8th grade. I cried along with several of my classmates. I remember going to Blacksburg with my parents the next day.

I stayed the same in my love for Virginia Tech until high school when I really started to keep up. I spent my Saturdays watching football, attending games when I could. I watched Nebraska with my dad and screamed the entire game. My favorite memory of Virginia Tech would have to be getting to see Virginia Tech FINALLY get to play Tennessee! And win! We bought tickets for the game the day it was announced we were playing them. Bristol was humming with excitement. Watching College Football by then was my past time. I went to the welcome back picnic in Lane and my dad and I snuck on the field just to go touch the Hokie Stone. It was worth getting yelled at by a security guard.

It then came time for me to graduate high school and I needed to decide what to do with my life. I had attended nursing camps and, at the time, that's what I wanted to do. I felt my best choice was to attend a school that I could earn my bachelor's degree in nursing. It was the worst mistake I've ever made as I realized in the fall of my freshman year. I hated nursing (just now changed my major to Occupational Therapy). I was so mad at myself for not attending Tech that I took comfort in football. I went to three home games that year out of my busy college schedule (including Miami which was my favorite). I followed the ACC blog on ESPN's website (now realizing what a mistake that was) everyday and kept up with football more than my dad was able to. I rushed out of class every day just to be able to watch the TV shows on ESPN. And I cried when we lost to Michigan. Actual tears. I think that was the moment I become obsessed with the Hokies and that I didn't have to be a student to be able to love them as much as anyone else. I

I joined Thekeyplay early this year and the rest is history. :) I fill in my dad every day on the newest Hokie news and put several men to shame on how much a girl can know about football. This year is no different so far! I loved being able to make the trip to see Virginia Tech play Alabama in Atlanta. I love being different than most other girls and I LOVE the Hokies!

UVa has the best defense? Everybody join in...

Turkey leg for you for doing what I was too lazy to do myself. Still not a bad place to be considering within these first 5 weeks, most teams have played all of their creampuffs that pad their stats while we've played Bama as well as the team who led the nation in passing last year (Marshall).

That would put us at 11.6 ppg allowed by the defense, good for 12th in the nation. Instead, we stand at 24th.

When I saw this thread I was expecting this:

Instead it was more like this:

5th (2541.2 yards/game) GO HOKIES!

I was born in 1951 at the C&O Hospital in the beautiful little train town of Clifton Forge, VA. Three generations of my family are buried in the town's cemeteries. As the son of a high school football coach who liked to coach where he believed the football was best, I grew up in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Florida, and finally, back to Virginia for my high school years.

I had a great-uncle who graduated from Tech in 1909. As a member of the Old Guard, he was the biggest influence toward my becoming a bona-fide fan of Tech in 1967 while still in high school playing football. It's hard to believe that was forty-six years ago. Tech was the only college to which I applied and I was overjoyed when I was accepted. I first stepped foot on campus as a freshman in 1969, which seems like just the other day. The town of Blacksburg contained about 2500 people, and Tech had about 9000 students (8000 male-1000 female), 1000 of whom were members of the Cadet Corps. To complete the picture, there was only one stop light in town on Main Street near the old bus stop. The stop light turned to a blinking red and yellow light at 5:00 pm every Friday afternoon as the buses departed to various locations. Radford was an all-girls college at that time and hosted mixers nearly every weekend.

Jerry Claiborne, who played halfback for Bear Bryant at the University of Kentucky and coached for him at Kentucky, Texas A&M, and Alabama, was Tech's head football coach in 1969. He famous for conservative offenses and hard-nosed defenses (sound familiar?) where Coach Beamer starred as a CB until 1968. Coach Beamer learned everything he knows about football from Claiborne, which explains why Alabama was so interested in CFB several years ago.

John Malkovich for the win.

It worked once, Tyler got an offsides, rushing in on the B-back movement. Other than that, impressive of the D to play disciplined football.

The Only In-state School I Applied To

Born and raised on a farm in tidewater Virginia but never gave much thought to Virginia Tech until my older cousins attended to study Ag/Econ. In fact, I grew up traveling to Charlottesville to watch the Hoos play on Saturdays with my best friend and his dad (a UVA alum). I've never admitted this to my friends from college but during my first game at Lane Stadium I was wearing the other orange and rooting for the other team from Virginia. So here's the short of the long: I went away to Fork Union (right outside of Charlottesville) for high school, fell in love with the military lifestyle, and decided to visit Virginia Tech because of the Corps of Cadets. I immediately fell in love with the school, the people, and the area. As soon as I got back from that trip I submitted my application to Tech and never looked back.

Being a former UVA fan does have a few minor benefits. Being able to one-up UVA fans about their own football team's history is great when we travel to Charlottesville every other year to beat up on the Hoos. Another benefit is knowing where to go to steal prime tailgating spots from their less-than-avid fans.

I graduated from Tech in December 2011 and commissioned into the Army Medical Service Corps. These days I'm in Baltimore finishing my Masters in Health Administration and Finance at Johns Hopkins.

Interests: running, fishing, camping, golf (I stink), investing, rooting for the Nationals and Redskins while living a block away from Camden Yards and M&T Stadium