Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast (A Story Of Hokie Football In My Life)

I, along with a group of friends, have been going to Virginia Tech football games since the early 2000's. Some of those guys are VT grads while others, like me, didn't actually attend VT but have deep family ties to the University.

Naturally I was excited when I got the opportunity to take my 6 year old son along with us on October 26th, 2006. It was his first game in Lane Stadium, and I cannot even begin to articulate how excited that little guy was! He made a sign, got on ESPN, met Erin Andrews and Todd Blackledge (Craig James was a tool), and he wouldn't be denied the opportunity to go into Lane Stadium 2 hours before kickoff. As we walked in, It was like that "Rudy" moment when he walked onto the Notre Dame field for the first time. All he wanted that night was for the Hokies to score the major upset so he could have the opportunity to walk on that field that he had seen on TV so many times. If I could have bottled up the excitement my son had that night it would last me a lifetime.

For my 6 year old son, that experience was something you only read about in a fairy tale. He met Carlton Weatherford (Carlton called him on Christmas Day to wish him a merry Christmas - what an awesome dude he is!), he got a couple of kisses on the cheek from some of the cheerleaders who thought he was so adorable, and most important of all he got to experience Virginia Tech football on a Thursday night!

The cold Blacksburg night, the smell of turkey legs cooking, the "Lets Go... Hokies" in every parking lot, and the allurement of whatever it was that used to settle in on the Lane Stadium atmosphere in those days all served to create something in the mind and heart of my son that only dreams are made of. Somehow he remembers almost every detail of that evening, all the way down to me asking the drunk guy behind us to stop hitting him in the head every time he got excited (what that one of you guys?).

But more than all of those things, he remembers that football team. Just a couple of weeks prior, this same team had lost to Boston College and Georgia Tech in ugly fashion. And if that weren't enough, Frank Beamer and Bud Foster seemed to have lost their team as we all witness players yelling at and pushing each other on the sideline (my 6 year old was so confused as to why teammates would 'fight' each other). It was one of those low points in the Beamer years for sure.

But on October 26 none of that mattered anymore; #10 Clemson was coming to town on a Thursday night! Frank Beamer owned Thursday nights in those days, and everyone knew it, including my 6 year old.

I suspect that even with all the questions surrounding the program in those weeks, Beamer knew exactly who his team was, or at least who/what he wanted it to be. Somehow he always had a way of regrouping throughout the years, no matter the adversity. Remember the 2004 season? That was a "regroup" sort of season after a disappointing 2005 and offseason.

Clemson rolled onto Blacksburg with the #1 scoring offense in the country and boasted the best RB duo in all of college football in James Davis and CJ Spillar. Tech was a double digit underdog in one of the biggest games of the 2006 college football season. Somehow Beamer and Co. would need to figure this out. Somehow, and for some reason a sold out, lit (even if none of us knew what "lit" was back in those days) Lane Stadium crowd knew he could. We've all always (for the last 25+ years anyway) gathered together in Southwest Va. because we knew something would or could happen no matter the opponent, no matter the season. We always knew anything was possible, especially on a Thursday night.

The play of the game for me was when Beamer, as conservative as they come, went for it on 4th &1 deep in our own territory early in the game. And if you remember, there was no hesitation in his decision. Sean Glennon proceeded to pushed forward for the first down, a play that play would serve as a microcosm of the entire evening. Clemson had nothing for this complete Virginia Tech football team. The Defense was lights out. And the offense, while not flashy, put up a whopping 210 rushing yards (203 of those on the back of Brandon Ore). Virginia Tech owned the trenches that nigh. It was an old school physical brand of VT football where Beamer utilized his special teams to steal field position all night long. Beamer had done what he was so good at all those years, getting his guys back on track, and never drifting too far from the identity he established all those years ago. The culture of Virginia Tech football was always there to support even the most difficult of times. And honestly, not just Virginia Tech football, but an entire fanbase who took pride in its blue collar roots.

That night my son got to live his dream; he got to walk on the grass at Lane Stadium after a Thursday night victory! He laid down on that field and pretended to make a snow angel. Then he said, "Dad, pretend to throw me a TD pass!"as he ran to the North End Zone. It was a special night.

Sure, we all have those head scratching losses in our minds and sure, we all hate that we couldn't win too many of the big games. But on that cold October night in 2006 my son fell in love with something. What exactly? Virginia Tech football. What he didn't know at the time, but would learn is that what he experienced that night was Virginia Tech football - nothing less, nothing more.

Through the many head scratching moments of the Beamer era one thing never left, hope. I don't remember navigating through too many portions of the Beamer years where hope ever totally faded. Even in the lean years Beamer had his teams competing and always working to re-center/re-orient/re-calibrate to "Beamer Ball". And because of that we all watched games with a sense of hope, no matter the circumstances.

We've all heard the saying that "culture eats strategy for breakfast", I happen to think it rings true in most situations. Beamer didn't always have the most talented teams, and he certainly didn't always have the best strategy (particularly on the offensive side of the ball), but every single player who ever played for him, every single donor who ever gave, and every single fan who ever cheered knew what the Virginia Tech football culture was all about. And every time you went to Lane Stadium, turned on the TV, or tuned in the radio, for just a few moments in an otherwise chaotic world, you found something in this world that gave you a bit of hope.

Now don't get me wrong. Virginia Tech football has never been the hope of my life. But it has certainly created moments where hope was given life, and that has been a gift!

I tend to be the kind of person who can be a bit sentimental and nostalgic, sometimes to a fault. But in most cases I'm OK letting go of what was in order to embrace what is to come. And honestly this was my posture when Beamer retired and Fuente was named the new Head Coach. An era of Virginia Tech football was coming to a close, and I was OK with that. I had great memories, and I was able to pass those along to my son. On top of that, many in the College Football world though that Whit Babcock made a home run hire to replace the GOAT of Blacksburg.

Virginia Tech football might not be what it was, but the grass ahead was still green... At leas that is what I believed.

Fast forward four years and things just haven't panned out in quite the way any of us expected. Of course we all were hoping (even if it was blind hope) to be competing with Clemson this year or next. But for any realistic fan, that expectation was far fetched. A more reasonable expectation is that we would be competing for the ACC Coastal division crown with the other middling P-5 competition. Yet here we are... in a nebulous moment of Virginia Tech football. One where none of us are quite sure where we are exactly or even where we are going. Fuuente himself seems to share this sentiment (from his post game):

Well, I would say that like any good offense, you have to have an identity," Fuente said. "And we're struggling to find that identity. And we're inconsistent in the run game, we're inconsistent in the pass game. It's a culmination of all those things that we have got to find a way to handle it.

I happen to think the offense is only a microcosm of the entire program itself. Friday night Virginia Tech suffered its worse home loss in over 40 years, against Duke... Virginia Tech is now 3-7 in its last 10 games against FBS opponents. And to add insult to injury look at this list of ACC teams and the number of 4* recruits each has:

Clemson:40
FSU: 39
Miami: 33
Virginia Tech: 19
UNC: 14
NCSU: 12
L'ville: 11
GT: 8
Duke: 7
Pitt: 6
Syracuse: 3
WF: 2
BC: 2
UVA:1

Our team is young for sure, but its been perpetually young. Part of Fuente's job is to manage his roster, and he hasn't done that particularly well. I could point at issues with the team for days, but we've all done that ad nauseam. The root of it all in my opinion is that Fuente has had four years to establish some sort of "new" identity with VT football and here we are not knowing what that identity is. And whats more is that I'm not entirely convinced the players know either.

I don't need for Beamer Ball to be back, and I'm OK if everything I fell in love with changes. But I'm not OK for it to be replaced with nothing.

My son, who is 19 now, still loves VT football (even though he attends JMU), but he watches it the same way he watches our beloved Redskins, with a glimmer of hope and disappointingly realistic expectations.

We know Justin Fuente can develop QB's, and we know he can call plays and run a productive offense. What I'm afraid that we are all finding out is that is his sweet spot, and he shouldn't have left it. I'm afraid we got Dan Hawkins while Memphis kept Chris Petersen.

Where do we/I go from here? Well for one, I'll probably begin to watch the Hokies like I watch the Redskins. I grew up in the old Joe Gibbs era, so every week, no matter how bad things have been and for how long, I turn on the game expecting things to magically turn around for the good. Yes, even after all these years there's still hope for us old school Skins fans.

Also, I will always be excited to watch and cheer for any student athlete who chooses to suit up for the Virginia Tech football program! I'll forever be in love with the Ag - Engineering school in SWVa as so many of my family members have been and are a part of those things. And I will always try my best to see the positives in whatever hand we've been dealt.

But in the end, the current reality of what Virginia Tech football has become is no something I'm terribly excited about. I can deal with that for a while. But what I'd love is to be able to embrace some sort of identifying culture, one that will allow my son to pass on his experience to his children.

Lets Go Hokies!