CyberHokie

I can't remember the year. but the most miserable overall was BC on October 25, 2007. It poured rain then got colder then we lost in one of the most heart breaking losses in Tech history.

Arguing with that type of fan is kind of the same thing.

I'm addicted to the rush of commitments!

a) Hoo Fans b) Arkansas Fans c) Penn State Fans d) Other

Who else is out there that we could get that has this much experience, a 0.681 (including winning 9 games twice in 3 seasons at Vanderbilt) and all those Tier I Bowl appearances, INCLUDING the CFP. Show me a better resume.

Millions on coaching staff, general managers & analyst. They spend millions more on roster management and millions more on facilities. They practice for months, develop game plans & lift weights religiously. Then the ACC gets their refs from Temu. 😐

Breaking: A Hokie player has been called for targeting post game while scratching his butt.

better. I don't know much about Garret Rangel. I know Pop can scoot. I'm not sure there's a perfect answer to that this season.

Pry has done a lot of things that make you scratch your head. He wasn't the right guy. It DOES seem Whit sees what needs to be done & it remains to be seen if President Sands lets him see that vision through. A lot of people don't seem to think he will. And the Hokie Club needs serious updating. But even if he stays there really needs to be some house cleaning in the AD & Hokie Club. There is SOME reason coaches aren't interested in coming here. There is SOME reason players aren't transferring here. I just really hope they make the right moves this time. It's such a crapshoot.

Vandy built that program with transfers & I don't think they came for free.

We've heard the stories about potential coaches when Pry was hired that weren't interested in coming here. College sports have changed drastically from when Whit was hired here in 2014. NIL, the transfer portal, TV contracts, schools paying players. As Chris Coleman has said this needs to be a deep clean. This all begins with a renewed financial commitment to football. The Hokies’ $122 million dollar budget ranks 14th in the ACC. From HokieSports.com - "Board of Visitors members J. Pearson and Ryan McCarthy have been charged by the rector, John Rocovich, to work with university leadership and AD Whit Babcock to develop a financial, organizational and leadership plan that will rapidly position the Virginia Tech football program to be competitive with the best in the ACC. That plan will be presented to the Board of Visitors later this month. The new framework for college sports will be fully established for next season, so this is the time to make a major move." This plan needs to be finalized in order to show perspective coaches our commitment to football success. We also need an AD who grasps the importance of football in the ever changing conference environment.... where the existence of the ACC in a decade isn't guaranteed. We also need an AD who understands paying players & the transfer portal & out of the box financial sources. Then with a new AD & coach we need to clean house with the Hokie Club & modernize it. I watched Coach Elko at Duke make the right coordinator hires, hit the transfer portal strategically & become competitive right out of the box. I watched Vandy build a program from scratch to look like world beaters in year 2. Obviously we can rebuild & do so quickly with the right plan, the right finances & fundraising, the right AD & the right coaching staff & players. ALL the pieces have to come together to get back to being relevant again.

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Columbine, Waco, Oklahoma City & the Boston Marathon bombing. 😕

Given all the predictions of almost certain defeat given all of our opt outs (13) I am going to wear the most unlucky piece of Hokie apparel I own. Maybe the most unlucky piece of Hokie apparel that's ever existed. It's a nice #22 Lee Suggs Hokie jersey with stitched on letters & numbers. The first time I EVER wore it was to Lane Stadium on September 1, 2001 to the UConn vs VT game. If you recall, Lee Suggs hurt his knee that game & missed the season. It's been taboo for me to ever wear that jersey again on game day. I'm pulling out all the stops. Go Hokies!!

...the pressure was on to score & score quickly, which usually means more passing.

When you lose 5 one score games (two OT games) & the other by 10 that's not good. You expect to go around 50?50 on those. Heck even if we won two of those the fan base is a lot happier today.

Virginia found something with Muskett running & we didn't adjust until the UVa made it interesting.

In the first half this year we've given up 100 points. In the 2nd half we've given up 173. We've lost out 6 games by 7 OT, 3, 4, 7 OT, 10 Clemson & 3. Really looking at the numbers the Tech offense has been better (if only marginally 172 first half / 184 second) but the defense has been disappointing.

When we hired Fuente I was optimistic but there were little (and sometimes big) red flags that I ignored. He was NOT a good culture fit for Blacksburg. He didn't get it. From him alienating himself & the program from former players, losing relationships with Virginia HS coaches, and losing the locker room it was bound to fail. I like Pry. He gets Blacksburg. He gets the traditions of Virginia Tech. He's reestablished relationships with Virginia coaches & former players. A coach from the Beamer tree he has a LOT to bring to the table. The problem isn't that he was inexperienced when he got here but that he hired two inexperienced assistants as well. Mike Elko was inexperienced but he brought is very experienced assistants & turned Duke around on a dime. Duke! And that gamble hasn't paid off. I think that inexperience is most glaring when you look at this programs struggles making adjustments. It has been a repeating problem all year that if we have a good game plan in the first half we struggle in the second because the other team adjusts & we have no counter adjustments. And that almost bit us again Saturday as we let a 24 point lead dwindle down to 11 before we opened it back up again. Thank goodness we were playing Virginia!

The OL wasn't picking up the system. The original offensive scheme changed during the season. New school. New coaches. Two new schemes. The WR room wasn't very good. Then again he has quite a few passes last year where I threw my hat. Over throws on wide open receivers & ill advised throws for interceptions. With this being his fourth year starting at QB & second at Tech I look for him to take a step forward. He looked calm & in control in the Spring game (FWIW) & made me feel encouraged about him going into the season. Then again they brought Drones in because of what he brought to the table as far as athletic ability & running. Maybe because they expect the OL to struggle? He doesn't have the potential to be a Top 8 QB for sure. But it's hard to tell until we see him play.

The usual "I've heard from two sources" stuff.

Who are the no teams in your opinion? I wonder how the M7 voted? ** Edited by CyberHokie at 8/10/2023, 11:55:08 AM

the conference?

& the Magnificant 7 find a way out, what's next? There are rumors of a 60 team breakaway from the NCAA. Do the SEC & Big 10 take all 60 teams? Does the Big 12 absorb most of the leftover ACC & Pac 12 to get into the Super Conference discussion?

We played: ETSU William & Mary JMU Rhode Island Richmond & VMI

is on par with UVa's even though UVa is more expensive. Then I ask them how many Medal of Honor winners they have. I haven't ever gotten a response to that.

There was a lot of debate on Twitter after our loss in the baseball Super Regionals to Oklahoma. People distressed that we, once again, didn't win a team National Championship. One poor guy was all distressed that our rivals continue to beat us over the head with this fact. I tried to make the argument that after years of wondering through the desert as nomads of college sports, that we really didn't have any conference continuity from 1953 (when we got left out of the ACC when Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Virginia and Wake Forest left the SoCon to form the ACC or you could argue in 1965 Tech withdrew from the SoCon. From HokieSports.com: July, 1965-May, 1978 - Tech competed as an independent in virtually every varsity sport. May 3, 1978 - Tech ends its 13-year status as a major independent by accepting a bid to join the Metropolitan Collegiate Athletic Conference (a.k.a. the Metro) for all sports except football. The Hokies join Cincinnati, Florida State, Louisville, Memphis State, St. Louis and Tulane in the Metro, which was founded in 1975. Feb. 5, 1991 - After 26 years as a football independent, Tech officially accepts a bid to join the newly-created BIG EAST Football Conference. Tech joined Miami, Syracuse, Boston College, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Temple and Rutgers as charter members of the conference. July, 1991 - The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) adds wrestling as a conference sport. Virginia Tech joins the league in wrestling only. Tech joined American, George Mason, James Madison, Liberty, Old18678 Dominion, and William & Mary January, 1995 - Five Metro members - UNC Charlotte, Tulane, Louisville, Southern Miss and South Florida - voted Tech and Virginia Commonwealth out of the league. At the time, those schools were planning a merger with other Midwestern schools (hence, the birth of Conference USA) and the Hokies and Rams were not interested in such a merger. As a result, those five league members decided to vote them out of the league. Feb. 3, 1995 - Tech, VCU and the Metro agree to a $2.27 million settlement which the Hokies and Rams split. A portion of conference revenue was going to be withheld from the two schools, but this settlement put an end to the issue. Two weeks later, 1995 - Tech joins the Atlantic 10 Conference for all sports except football, which is in the BIG EAST, and wrestling, which is in the Colonial. July, 1998 - After seven seasons in the CAA, Virginia Tech's wrestling team joins the Eastern Wrestling League (EWL). Other members of the EWL are: Bloomsburg, Clarion, Cleveland State, Edinboro, Lock Haven, Pittsburgh and West Virginia. Aug. 24, 1999 - Tech and the BIG EAST announce that the Hokies will join the conference for all sports beginning in 2001-02. (But ask @Chris Coleman how well this went) June 27, 2003 - Virginia Tech President Charles Steger announces that the Hokies have officially accepted the ACC's invitation to join the conference. July 1, 2004 - Virginia Tech and Miami officially join the ACC. So from 1965 to 2000 Virginia Tech had no full sports affiliation, but even in those few years as full members of the Big East it was somewhat inequitable. Tech played Syracuse 4 times from the 2000-2001 season to the 2003-2004 season and played ALL 4 AWAY! And the Big East waited almost 5 years to admit Tech after if admitted Rutgers & WVU in 1994. And as @Will Stewart wrote in his 2004 Series Conference Wars "In 1994, Rutgers and WVU paid $500,000 each and got to participate in revenue-sharing immediately, but the Hokies weren’t so fortunate. Virginia Tech would pay $2.5 million in entry fees over ten years and wouldn’t get to share TV revenue for the first five years of conference membership, a loss of about $1.3 million in conference revenue-sharing per year." So I'll stand by my contention that there was no real big time conference continuity from 1953 until 2004 when Tech joined the ACC as full & EQUAL members. The first ten years of our membership in the ACC was under the stewardship of AD Jim Weaver. While Weaver had his strong points - I also believe that the hiring of Whit Babcock has taken our program to another level. So yes. Some of our biggest rivals have way more National Championships as compared to our none. But I would contend that our conference history has made it exceedingly difficult for us to be in the position to win National Championships in team sports due to the lack of continuity of the athletic program as a whole. 20 of UVa's 37 National titles are in Tennis & Lacrosse (one is in boxing which doesn't exist anymore). Virginia Tech doesn't even have a Men's Lacrosse program or even a Rowing program that UVa has won several more titles in. And without a continuity in a program it's hard to give the money & get the hires/recruits to win at that level. In fact Tech's ONLY National Championship appearance was on NCAA sports largest stage, football in 1999-2000. I'm not diminishing UVa's accomplishments in any way. I'd love to have any of those titles in Blacksburg. But my thought is how realistic has that wish been when you consider our program's history. One a positive note, I think if you consider fan excitement as an indicator of a teams success then Tech's athletic program is definitely heading in the right direction. In a year that saw us fire a football coach for the first time since 1986, our once football only school found me following basketball with a passion, then wrestling & softball & track/field & baseball. I know that having these sports at your fingertips adds to that as I can log into the ACCN or ESPN+ & watch things that weren't available just a few years back. But even with events available like never before, there has to be a reason to watch. I was thinking back a few years ago before VT Basketball's climb to relevance & @Will Stewart getting frustrated at me (on a Twitter message I think, but maybe on here) about fans (like me at the time) not following Tech Basketball. He was right of course, although I was probably 100% absorbed with Tech football at the time. But then again, Men's basketball wasn't interesting either. Success breeds interest I guess. With an improbable run by Tech's basketball & baseball teams this season, an ACC Tournament Title (maybe the crown jewel of ACC Conference achievements) & post season runs by softball & baseball. As well as runs by our wrestling team in the NCAAs.... it's been a VERY entertaining year. And I think 18 years of ACC full (and equal) membership is starting to pay off! Please read (or reread) Will's article from 2004 (link below) for a more in depth look at Virginia Tech's crooked road conference history. And may I suggest this topic & revisiting this article could make an excellent podcast for the Summer or even a series!