E'Lane, Joan, Mohan, and Boilerfan,
Thanks for the good wishes. I wish I could take credit for our team's success this year, but the players and the coaches are the ones who make it happen. Saturday was the most memorable game I have ever been to so I'm going to tell everyone all about it. Hit the "next" button if you don't want to hear me wax cheesily about my most exciting day. Warning - this post is really long and cheesy.
It all started out at about 5:30 AM when I had to get up and go to work. Yes, on a Saturday. My hope was to make it to the College Gameday show that starts at 11:00 AM and help break the record of the number of fans that attend the show (previously set by VT for the Syracuse game this year at 13,000). I also wanted to get a picture with Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, and Chris Fowler, because ESPN (especially Corso) has been on the VT bandwagon this year. Yes, Mohan, Corso picked VT vs. FSU in the Sugar Bowl before the season began. Fowler did not convert to the good side till we beat Syracuse, and Herbstreit has only recently seen the light. So there I was at about 8:00 AM trying to finagle a way out of the 2 conferences I had yet to attend. If I skipped the conferences I could make it to gameday (VT is about 3 hrs away from me), but it would look bad to my superiors. So I stayed for the conferences and didn't leave till about 9:30 and didn't get into Blacksburg till about 12:20. I thought I could still get the pictures with Corso et al if I was nimble. No such luck. I found out later that 15,000 fans showed up for gameday.
So I met up with my friends and participated in a 7 hour tailgate (the game was at 7:30 PM). The guys parked next to us had a DSS satellite and during the day I witnessed destiny unfold right before my eyes. (Do you like the cheesy melodrama?) First, Tennesse loses, then Miss State loses, and then K-State loses. I knew at that point that we controlled our own destiny and that in the end it will, after all, be decided on the field. So as the sun started to set, the mammoth implications of the game finally began to sink in. The fact that "Virginia Tech" and "national championship" were being realistically mentioned in the same sentence made my heart pound - and the game had not even started yet.
The game itself did start, 14 hours after I had woke up. The atmosphere was electric. Lane Stadium was the loudest I had ever heard it. A fireworks display early on set the mood. However, when the Canes jumped out to a 10-0 lead, the pessimist in me feared the worst. I knew before the game that if VT brought their A-game, it would be a rout. If they brought their A-game. They hadn't bring it against WVa or Pitt in the two previous games. If they played medicore football again, then I expected a close football game. What I didn't expect - Miami winning handily - was what was about to happen when Miami went up by 10. But then Miami started to self-destruct with costly turnovers and stupid personal fouls.
Poor Butch Davis - he just isn't a gameday coach, and he can't control his own players. There was one play when Miami LB Nate Webster punched Michael Vick in the stomach after a play ended, right in front of the ref and Davis. The ref threw the flag, and Davis brought him over to the sideline and yelled at him and ... sent him back into the game! Later Webster clearly eye-gouged VT RB Shyrone Stith at the bottom of a pileup. At the end of the game, Webster was seen yelling at his own QB Kenny Kelly (who had had a decent game until being sidelined with an injury) on the sidelines and Davis had to separate the two of them. The Canes are back alright - or at least their criminal nature.
The first half ended with VT up 14-10. IMO, we should have been up by at least 9 more points but we squandered away opportunities. However, we were starting to win the battle of the trenches and I knew that if we didn't make stupid mistakes, we would win the game with our superior depth.
At halftime, I left the stadium for a last-ditch attempt to find Lee Corso. I arrived at a gate where my friend had told me Corso would be and waited patiently. And waited somemore. Finally, as the halftime clock was under 2 minutes, I saw Herbstreit hastily walk out the tunnel towards a van. I yelled at him "Kirk - picture?" He said okay and posed and I had a picture. Next thing I know, Corso walks out and I get his picture too. As I posed with him, I said "Lee - you're the man!!!" and he smiled and said "thanks!" So I wait for Fowler but he doesn't show up so I return to my seat as the 2nd half starts. I'll post the pictures on my website when I get them developed. I know you guys really want to see them . -g-
The 3rd quarter ended with VT up 20-10. As I performed the traditional end-of-3rd-quarter ritual "hokey pokey" dance, I was still frustrated at the missed opportunities, but I could feel the momentum was largely in our favor. Miami was like a twig about to snap. If we kept the kept the pressure up, the game could be over real soon.
Next thing I know, we score 23 points in 6 minutes and the rout is on. One of my favorite moments of the game was when Miami was stopped on 3rd down and as the special teams were making their way onto the field, VT DE Corey Moore stared down the entire Miami sideline right in front of their faces. Ordinarily I would not condone such actions, but with the unruly behavior of Miami players that I had witnessed earlier in the game, this was awesome. Moore didn't make any gestures and say anything - he simply looked them in the eye as if to say "You want more?"
The atmosphere went from anxious to euphoric as the clocked ticked away. After the Tech touchdowns, fireworks would light up the night sky. After the last Tech touchdown, the Marching Virginians (our band) started chanting "Hey Miami, we're running out of fireworks!" With about a minute left, the band started playing "na-na-na-na hey-hey-hey goodbye." The crowd had started chanting it earlier, but when the band started playing it, chills went up my spine. It was over. We had done it. We had won the biggest game in VT history. And the Sugar Bowl awaited. I finally arrived back home at around 3:00 AM - almost 24 hours after waking up.
You may be wondering why this is such a big deal to me. The reason is that VT had been a nobody in football up until about 1993. The 1995 Sugar Bowl victory had done nothing as far as getting respect for our program. Neither had the 1996 Orange Bowl trip. But the program continued to rise while nobody noticed. This year has basically been a search for respect, more than anything else. Being a national championship contender is all the more sweet. I think about all of the programs that were once great - Oklahoma, Miami, ND, etc - and think how lucky we are to be a top 5 team. Even a program like Michigan with their 100,000 seat stadium and gazillion alumni only recently got their first national championship in 40 years. Bobby Bowden, as good as his teams are year in and year out, has only won 1 title. The programs mentioned in the title of this thread will always be good. Even 40 years from now, the Nits and Vols will be top 10 teams. Can't say the same about VT. This is our chance, and I am going to enjoy every second of it. |
