Game 27 - VT v. Cincinnati
this special game may show up as game number 27 in this year’s bowl lineup, but it’s number 1 in my heart. and it’s not because FOX immediately shows us how inept they are when trying to merely cover a non NFL broadcast, but because VT is my adopted FBS squadron. the sports donkey twin, as well as many of the sports donkey friends attended ole Virginia Polytechnic & State University in blacksburg, right down the road from my college home in harrisonburg, va. regardless of what you think of a guy named michael vick and his off field struggles, there’s no denying how sick it was to watch him defy all odds of physics at the qb position.
big winner hokie dinner, vt fans will always cherish this meal
acquiring free tickets to almost all home games, and watching him lead an unsuspecting team to the national championship game was quite a feast for this donkey back in the day and immediately brought me into the brotherhood of hokie nation. i didn’t have to drink blood or jump from chairs blindfolded. but it would be cool for people to drive around in white vans snagging, bagging, and beating the hell out of potential new fans to test their dedication. i’d pass with flying colors. gobble gobble.
i think we’d all agree that tim tebow is a great player and person, and most importantly has helped lead his florida team to a possible 2nd BCS title in 3 years. why am i bringing this up now may you ask? because apparently FOX thought it was a great idea to do the same - by accidentally placing his picture in lieu of a cincinnati player’s photo during the scrolling introduction of the bear cat offense at the onset of this game. and like FOX, i too want to show my fans that i can be random and completely retarded as well. maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on FOX and their uselessness for presenting the college game.
let’s back up - let’s think this one through for a second. perhaps tebow is that good. as a former heisman winner, he’s known for stellar play making and has a slight knack for pulling off the occasional trickery. and maybe he is pissed about not winning a consecutive heisman that he wanted to plug himself into an unsuspecting location - to begin campaigning a bit early for next year’s trophy by swaying a few swing votes. who knows. it’s either sneaky and great work by tebow, or sloppy and typical work by FOX.
i’ve figured it out, FOX sucks.
what a blacksburg orange looks like
if i ever had to handpick a college team to root for, it couldn’t have been a greater university than VT so i’m blessed that this fell into my lap. and here’s why: if you put together a list of “Top 10 college football things you need to do before you kill yourself someday from being too involved in sports” is to catch a Thursday night game in blacksburg. there’s no secret as to why 60,000 strong sound like 150,000 gobbling turkeys pissed off that thanksgiving is approaching - and there’s no secret why no one wants to play there. the hokies nation is proud as all hell, and they make sure everyone knows it. they make sure everyone knows that you can’t compete with their heart and character. i didn’t have to acquire a piece of paper from VT and hang it on the wall to understand this.
now gobbling up that first BCS game in quite an interesting season is one of the more gratifying wins a sports fan could endure.
this post game follow up is almost too tough for words - as a big time hokie fan, typing about the convincing 20-7 win over Big East champ Cincinnati should seem easy. i suppose being engulfed with so much positive emotion is one of those few good times you can be at a loss for words and truly welcome it. most times i’m at a loss of words is due to frustration, pain, agony, or complete anger - and usually if i open my mouth to talk, flames from hell have actually been known to set my house on fire. not this time, i’m completely at peace and ecstatic.
forcing 4 turnovers, keeping steady and uncomfortable pressure on cincy’s qb pike, and wreaking overall havoc with disguising coverage schemes aren’t something us hokie fans should be surprised about. i’m pretty sure it’s safe to say that the hokie nation has always hung its hat on bud foster’s lunch pail power defense. and although the offense hasn’t put up power numbers offensively this year in the scoring column, they have shown signs of moving the ball more than what a 112th ranked offense should be capable of providing. moving the ball with some regularity hasn’t been the issue, but the important part (some of us call them ‘points’) that has eluded the hokies is scoring. inside the 20 they seemed to bottle up as a team and coaching staff which caused the the same scoring frustrations week to week. they were masters of winning the close game, and leaning on the defense to win games. they are probably the only team in history that could win by a field goal but it be a barnyard butt whooping. in last night’s game the offense did what it needed to, playing pretty clean football - which allowed the defense to steal the usual show.
hey kid, this ain't your frail grade school scooby-doo lunch pail. this is how a man does work at the lunch table.
i’m not going to pound deep into the true meaning of this game or complete specifics, or why it means so much in so many different areas, as there are so many good things about this gigantor win in this year’s hokie season.
i will have a special guest writing a guest column, a reflection on the big win. it may be beamer, perhaps a bud foster, maybe even michael vick from the state pen or even his lil bro marcus, if anyone knows where the hell he is - and although there are 4 losses on the hokie record this season, many complainers about the current system, pouring tears about allowing teams outside of the top 10 into the BCS and how it was so unfair blah blah blah - whooooooooo cares! the system rewards power conference teams, from playing a tough division year in and year out. and even though the ACC didn’t really have that “elite” team to win the big one, 10 bowl teams is a great sign of parity and great weekly competition.
there are so many teams that underachieve, and we’ve all been there pulling for one of those teams. but rarely are there many teams that overachieve and provide an ultimate gift by season’s end. in this case, a big bowl of oranges in a well earned orange bowl trophy. that thing can hold a ton of orange julius servings (in case anyone was curious).
let’s quickly tally up why this win is so sweet with out breaking down the nitty gritty. with key injuries prior to the season, tailback brandon ore getting the boot, losing most of the defensive starters to the draft and graduation, pulling tyrod taylor out of his red shirt status after losing the opening game while relying on a batch of underclassmen starters with little to no college experience through out the season, this is a sweet and delicious character win - when florida or oklahoma hoists a BCS championship trophy, of course that’ll be the sweetest drink. but when you get an entire team to keep at it, while being thrown into the fire there is a greater sense of being proud. this greatness transcends the field, builds boys into men, multiplies the confidence, and shows us what extra hard work can do - and i personally have never been more proud to be a hokie fan than i am now. great job guys.
Tags: bear cats, bud foster, cincinnati, frank beamer, hokies, michael vick, organe bowl, the sports donkey, vt
Will have to comment more on the game later and a more in depth analysis of what it means to me, but for now, I will touch on what the future might hold, as I am one of many who is salivating over a top 10 ranking while rolling into Atlanta to play a re- birthed Alabama team. This victory clearly leaves the most satisfying feeling I’ve ever had while being a Hokie fan. Frank Beamer called this team “our best team ever”, emphasizing “team”. I would not argue that at all.
Sure, me and about 7 other Americans apparently watched the game, but being an underdog with an underdog type of season, winning convincingly the past few weeks with youth instead of losing with veterans is quite remarkable, still has me wondering if it really happened. This leaves the next few months enjoyable when I stumble upon articles, and when the practices start up, we can actually say we were champions of a bcs bowl game. This experience for our youthful players will go a long way, as there really isn’t anything they haven’t seen. Can you imagine your confidence going into your sophomore season after fighting through every contest, winning an ACC Championship and BCS bowl game in convincing fashion? Wow.
This type of momentum is nothing we have ever seen before, so expectations are quite high.
Unfortunately, the talent in the ACC is only getting stronger also. UNC will be the Miami of old within 1-2 years, and they will actually be more Miami than Miami will. Miami, Clemson, UNC, and FSU seem to be reeling in top 10ish recruiting classes without even blinking, although that is not new to Miami or FSU. The goal is to get the best talent for your system. VT’s recruiting efforts last year, this year, with 2010 shaping out to possibly be a top 10(way too early to predict, but tons of top 150 players have us high, and you can only imagine our offense actually looking good next year = better for recruiting).
Considering what VT has done without these top classes, imagine the next few years with those classes? As mentioned above, our location and history hurts in comparisons to your warmer climate schools, but what VT has is a very fertile level 3 recruiting state in VA, coaching stability/legends, an image, a sense of community, and great fans. We are also ahead of schedule by establishing “tradition”. Schools need to be on a map for about 15 years to really have what you call “tradition”. Teams like UNC don’t have any football tradition, but they have quite a lot of other stuff to offer while being in a talent rich state as well. Compared to our opponents, our recruiting rankings aren’t quite as strong, but we pluck out athletic types and coach them up at the positions best suited for them, basically making our classes stronger as they stay in the program longer. Our coaches are good at finding what you call “diamonds in the rough”.
Other teams get top guys but may not get the potential they expected, partially because of the player, but maybe because of the coaching, etc. This is how VT is VT, and VT has had years figuring this out, so now with VT seeing more talent, the sky is the limit, even if Miami needs to bring back a Clinton Portis or Ken Dorsey, VT will always be right there in the mix. VT has a great sell on the recruiting trails going into January. A young and battered team winning an ACC Championship and a BCS bowl game shows that they can always compete at a high level. Your teams like USC don’t rebuild, they reload. I would use “Reload” going forward, and the evidence supports it.
nice comments - looks like you should go on the recruiting hustle with bud foster and keep us in the loop with the most recent happenings. comments like yours deserve a future “guest post” of your own. it’s crazy how important a win can really be. in the NFL, you just move on to next year and snag draft picks in your predetermined sequential order, then hope to build on the previous year. in college, each year and each lasting impression can ultimately bring in more top recruits and build more confidence. pretty sweet to go out strong with such a young team. of course, next year will carry extra high expectations. and this year expectations were still high even though it was a challenged and young team. but i’d imagine that the ACC should be a very consistent conference again, but most teams being better than the previous year so creating the potential for a couple elite teams and an overall very strong conference.
VT just needs to hang on to foster for a while and they have the potential to be right there in the thick of things.