Signs of Hope...

I remember as if it were yesterday. A boring Saturday night in May of 2012, I was sitting in my room on my laptop on ESPN. Suddenly I direct my attention to a video of Mel Kiper's top 5 draft prospects for 2013. At number 4 was Logan Thomas. For some odd reason, this got me pumped up and it made me buy into the hype. So from May-September 3rd, 2012 I just thought that the 2012 team may end up being the best Tech team yet. Let's see, great QB, good running game, and a dominant defense. How could you possibly not predict a great season? Well, boy was I wrong. As it turned out our QB went from 1st round pick to the most overrated player in the country by many, our running game turned out to be a dud, and our defense wasn't dominant until the second half of the season, way too late to hope for any good bowl or season. It never really hit me until the bowl game against Rutgers, how far we had dropped off from the season before. I thought to myself, "Wow, how bad are we?" A normal Tech team wouldn't have no problem against Rutgers, probably win by 2 TDs minimum. Of course as a fan I started freaking out, asking myself if Virginia Tech will ever be good at football again. It was a terrible, awful feeling.

So somehow Tech finds a way to beat Rutgers and much needed coaching changes are made in the next month. I finally had some optimism, but it wasn't much. I thought, "Well, these coaching changes are great, but what if they don't pan out and we never see Virginia Tech compete on a national stage again?" So a few months go by, I enjoy watching Erick Green ball out in the meantime and then the spring game approaches. All I thought was, "How will the offense look? Will Logan look great, good, average, or below average?" Well as it turns out he was below average and the offense wasn't too good either. I just let out a deep sigh and then moved on.

The offseason goes by relatively fast, and I really had no expectations for this season. I thought anything between 7-9 wins would be a success. I feared for the opener though, against the one and only Alabama. I thought it could be a good testament on where we stand with the big boys, but then again how could we compete after the train wreck that was last season. So the Alabama game comes and yes Alabama wins but I wasn't really disappointed. I noticed something, something tremendously different from the 2012 team. That thing was toughness, physically and mentally. I mean, what defense can say they held the 2 time defending champ and 3 of the last 4 to 206 total yards? Not many. Yes the offense still looked like bad at this point, but overall they looked like a much better team then last year.

So after the Alabama game I looked at the rest of our schedule and thought that we could win around 10 games. And then the Georgia Tech game happens. The game that showed the whole country that Beamerball wasn't gone yet and Virginia Tech still had it. I tried not to get too cocky, but man did that win taste good. We win the next two games and here we are at 6-1 and 3-0 in ACC play with a dominant defense and a quarterback as tough as nails and a great leader as well.

I have no idea what the rest of the season holds, but I will say this. Stop comparing this team to past teams of Tech (2004 mostly.) This team will write it's own chapter, leave it's own legacy. This team is unlike any other team we have ever had, mostly because of last season. They may not win pretty, but they win with sending a message to the other team. That message is basically saying, "We are tougher than you, we are more physical than you, and we are better than you, and we just proved that on the field." So let there be hope, hope of redemption, hope of payback, and hope of winning. All I know is whoever has to face this team the rest of the year better bring it, because if they don't these boys will make them pay, and make them pay big time. I will leave you with one simple quote, one quote that I live my life motto by and I think most of these players do as well, "For those who have passed, and for those who have yet to come, reach for excellence." Let's Go....Hokies.

Sidenote: Joe, could you put this in the football forum as it will only allow me to tag it and not put it in any of the forums. Thanks.