Hope Falls Eternal

Often we focus too much on the things we don't have. It happens when the circle in life's Venn diagram of what makes you happy crosses too far into the circle of things you're missing. It's usually the easy thing to do.

Those thoughts can do scary things and make you reach previous unknown dark corners of your mind. It's easy to avoid these cold, dim places if you're a human and life is going well or if you're a college football team and you're rolling through double-digit wins.

You can paint yourself into them if life becomes bereft of that sense of fulfillment. Your story didn't have the fairy tale ending you thought it would. Your season did not end with a trip to the Sugar Bowl. So you long for those feelings until you obsess over how you can feel that way again. That's the easy thing to do and the process either depresses you or motivates you depending on what day or even what hour it is.

The hard thing is to just enjoy the journey.

Remember when things were good? The end of that 10-win streak, when Tyrod was beating Florida State and Logan was bulldozing linebackers couldn't have been possible without Druck to Holmes or the Miracle in Morgantown. It also wouldn't have been possible without the '98 Temple game or the second half of the '03 season. Part of the fun in those early ACC days was what it took to get there.

The same is true now. Whatever happens this season or the next three won't be the same experience without what Tech's recent history has been.

The Hokies last won an ACC title in December 2010. How long ago was that? I've been engaged, married and divorced since.

It's been enough time to see things I never thought I'd see taken seriously get taken seriously. Fire Frank Beamer? Coming from more than just the lunatic fringe? This would have been a pretty deplorable offseason if Michael Brewer hadn't made Mike London tear up on Black Friday.

These are the dark corners we find when things aren't going according to plan. We need to feel like we did as recently as last season against Ohio State. If you could take what I felt that night in Columbus and put it in a needle, Pusha T would make an entire album about you. He would somehow rhyme "Malleck" with "Pyrex."

Last season was bookended with success that marked the ceiling, but the offseason narrative is the program is on the decline and it will never be as good as it was in the Aughts.

To me, that's a bogus way of thinking. I'm choosing to believe the best days are in front of us.

The last three seasons of mostly lousy football were punctuated by the indelible image of Frank Beamer's Double Donuts Double Fist. But since then we've had reasons to harbor some optimism: We beat UVa, we won the bowl, the spring game wasn't a disaster for once and we have a bunch of guys back and healthy (Including Frank!).

I have needed this football season to start more than I care to admit. And I'm not going to go into it assuming it will be more of the same subpar football and negativity we've seen the last three seasons. Instead, I'm going to force myself to enjoy the journey.

During the preseason you'll see a lot of "best case/worst case" breakdowns for the Hokies. They're easy to write and good fodder for getting through July and August.

For me, the best case scenario is I spend 12 Saturdays watching Hokie football with all of you either in person or virtually. The worst case scenario is I spend 12 Saturdays watching Hokie football with all of you either in person or virtually. Not bad.

This team could be really good and have a magical season. Or any combination of injuries, poor execution, poor coaching or just plain bad luck could derail it. This would certainly continue the trend for the Hokies.

But even in the face of how things have gone lately I believe better days are closer than we think. And the journey to get there will make it that much more worthwhile.

See you on Labor Day.