YouTube just recommended this …
I had spent 23 years of my life in Texas and could not stomach the UT fans.
This was the most memorable game of my life.
I stayed at my sister’s house in New Orleans and my niece was on the UT swim team and had a huge buffet laid out for the New Years Eve victory party for the Texas players.
No one showed up and my brother and brother-in-law and I pigged out the rest of the night.
I still have the VT flag I bought at half time in my living room.
Never forget all the VT gear in the French Quarter … got chills just being there.
That game put us on the football map for the next 15-20 years.
I’m so thankful to have had those years to experience.
Frank Beamer and Bud Foster led us out of the football wilderness and into national prominence.
What an abysmal mess Whit has brought us to. SMH. 😵💫
39 Replies
G
GOML
3y
Tech would have a chance to be in a major bowl game again. Tech was going to the Sugar Bowl - unbelievable.
Started networking, somehow got ahold of a spare ticket (older fraternity brothers), then a spare bed in hotel room (friends of friends, French Quarter), then a flight to NO. Everything fell into place.
Checked in, then immediately headed to Bourbon Street and ran into friend after friend - Hokies were everywhere. My most vivid memories of the game were: 1) the energy, 2) the bomb to Still, and 3) the look of pure joy on the older grads faces (still a young guy). The post-game all-nighter on Bourbon Street is story for another time when the liquor & lies are flowing freely.
Years later was working with some folks from TX and this way out of my league hottie and I started to hit-it-off. Found out she went to UT, so I sent her a page: "28-10". She loved it - great sense of humor - and turns out she was at the game, because she was a UT cheerleader! More Sugar Bowl magic.
(In response to this post by VPI63)
2
2hhoop3
3y
on Bourbon Street is complete without noting the few somber and silent Longhorn fans out after the game. A decided contrast to the large, vocal and arrogant crew present pregame. Good times, especially postgame.
(In response to this post by GOML)
S
Stech
3y
(In response to this post by VPI63)
3y
We capitalized on the late 90s success by jumping to the ACC, here’s a list of things we didn’t do.
- We didn’t increase coaching pay, we went from the highest paid assistants to the lowest
- We didn’t push for increasing alumni donations or opening up revenue streams, instead we cut the budgets to other sports to stay in the black
- When the SEC came calling we said no, despite the clear direction CFB was headed
- On the field we rested on our laurels from 2002 onward, there was never a push to innovate and get to the next level
- When we were the preeminent football power, we never threw our weight around in the ACC to push for better media deals.
The only thing questionable that Whit did was Fuente’s extension and not canning him after covid. Other than that he’s done an admirable job trying to make up for 15 years of lost development and stagnation.
** Edited by soflahokie at 5/22/2023, 11:15:51 AM
(In response to this post by VPI63)
3y
The Beamer era was really extraordinary. On paper, it was a program much greater than the sum of its parts. We were punching above our weight class for a really long time. On paper, there was really no quantifiable reason for VT to be ahead of all it's peer regional programs like UVA, NCSU, UNC, and Maryland. Whether it was Bud Foster's "lunchpail defense", or Beamer's "pride and joy" special teams, those things can't be preserved simply by preserving the nickname.
I always sensed that it would be very, very difficult to sustain it post Frank. Let's be honest, Frank kind of lost the magic formula himself the last 4 years. When you consider that storied programs like Miami, FSU, Texas, and Nebraska can't get it together with all the recruting advantages they have at their disposal, it was probably naive of anyone to to think we would not revert to the mean.
(In response to this post by VPI63)
3y
the bad times...
(In response to this post by Techsupport)
H
Hokies74
3y
I was there too! Great trip! We were sitting with some friends and in the second quarter I told them we were going to win the game. They looked at me and said how do you know? I told them to watch the line play, after a couple of series one of them looked at me and said I was right! We were starting to dominate it and sure enough we did.
(In response to this post by VPI63)
3y
on the athletic department not capitalizing on what Frank did in the late 90s and early 2000s. They were complacent and just kept the ship going as normal which put us in the hole we are in today. They should of hammered down and laid the groundwork for a national power while Tech was still seen as a top 15 program. Now we are seen as a struggling has been that's trying to claw their way out of mediocrity.
(In response to this post by VPI63)
See Jim Weaver-he hurt us a lot more than he helped-more interested in cost
cutting and balancing the AD department than having the right "vision" going forward..we had a chance to go to the next lvel in football and we blew it...and he cant get entirely blamed for this but his bosses were non aggressive here in terms of new facilities and the arms race etc
(In response to this post by Hokie_Forester)
V
VTCALS72
3y
We were in a better spot that before or since but what you laid out IMHO is asking for a sterling performance when there just aren't that many of those in college football. Many of your suggestions are like going for in on 4th and 5 from your 20. Easy to say what should have been done different in hindsight. That said, I appreciate Jim Weaver for a lot of number crunching good management things. But I do believe is would have been just as happy had Frank left in 2000 and he hired someone at half the salary.
And that said, I do think that the VT athletic admin really did not do much to start a lot of what you say.They certainly should have done something aggressive in attempting to bring in exponentially more former players into the Hokie Clubs as donors.
(In response to this post by Hokie_Forester)
3y
(In response to this post by Hokie_Forester)
3y
(In response to this post by marcbvtgm)
3y
No doubt outreach was subpar, but the fact of the matter is - even when there was high visibility outreach - success was measured relatively by VT standards, not by the standards of VTs aspirational peers.
** Edited by marcbvtgm at 5/23/2023, 11:15:51 AM
(In response to this post by NokieHokie)
3y
(In response to this post by marcbvtgm)
R
RJHokie
3y
And you now have an organizational mess with no Hokie Club director (Wurthman doesn’t count - he’s the director of external operations with a boatload of other things to oversee).
There are other issues as well.
(In response to this post by NokieHokie)
3y
(In response to this post by Atlee Hokie)
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RJHokie
3y
He did change the fundraising business model with the minimum seat donation, which was a great move but his handling of it by Lansden was bad.
The current state of affairs is on Whit though. No executive director of the Hokie Club is only a part of the issues.
(In response to this post by NokieHokie)
3y
both recent and a long time ago.
(In response to this post by RJHokie)
3y
Tell me what the HC did to leverage all those good years. Those people were coasting also.
(In response to this post by marcbvtgm)
3y
(In response to this post by Techsupport)
3y
cr@pped on for saying it... :)
(In response to this post by Hokie_Forester)
Correct. When Whit got to Tech, VT didn't even have a recruiting staff.
We were miles behind and had been stagnating for the better part of a decade.
(In response to this post by Hokie_Forester)
2
2hhoop3
3y
by not providing resources to the guy following the legend. Hopefully, if VT can hang around long enough to climb out of the current hole there will be enough institutional memory around to avoid the same mistakes ever again.
(In response to this post by Chris Coleman)
Everything with VT Football has been "10 years behind" the curve.
(In response to this post by Chris Coleman)
3y
what was needed the past 7 years, but this mess started long before his tenure.
(In response to this post by Hokie_Forester)
3y
(In response to this post by VPI63)
R
RJHokie
3y
Or do you not read the message boards regularly?
Each to their own.
And I personally do not blame all of it (football issues) on Whit. There’s enough blame to go around.
(In response to this post by NativeBurger)
M
Mercury
3y
Vt was ahead in strategy and defense and development than most programs, and guess what other programs have moved on we stayed to what we had.
Pry was on that staff, If you see what he is doing, he is rebuilding that culture that slipped away in the waning of Frank tenure and collapsed under Fuente. (the only thing with the VT administration, was they didnt realize at the end of Beamer's tenure that the foundation ws eroding, and thought just a more innovative offense guy and the rest is automatic WRONG. The lesson is never live in the bubble and allow life to evolve and expand and never think things stay the same.
If you look at the video, look at the scheme, that is what Tyler is working on VT to run again. You need a good line, good running game to open stuff up and a tough nasty defense. the VT program does not work on 1 year boom 9-3, will not work here, its a rebuild job.
(In response to this post by VPI63)
3y
and has a better record than Pry.
After the national championship game there was enormous expansion of our facilities.. SEZ, West side, practice facilities. Maybe we didn’t do enough, but I got 6 figures sunk in the deal and that was enough for me after the 1st ODU loss.
Finally, i’m not living in a bubble … just reliving a totally emotional experience I had when we beat Texas.
You most likely wouldn’t understand.. I seen VT football from the 50s and I know what we had gone through to beat a team like Texas that night … it was magical for me and I think a lot of other people my age.
As for this present mess, the fish rots from the top and that’s about all I’m going to say, except Whit has no vision except to build our Olympic sports with football being the cash cow.
Guess what … with no vision … our cash cow is so far behind everyone else’s cash cow we will never catch up.
You know why UVA sucks in football ?
Their AD puts it on the same level as Lax.
(In response to this post by Mercury)
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VTCALS72
3y
what they were asked to play. Maybe the best talent TV gets is the talent to be that team that runs a lot of power I along with spread or whatever.
The other thing that really stood out to me was Druck. For those 2 years, he may have seen the field and made the right pass on time and delivered it to the right spot more than any QB we have had.
(In response to this post by Mercury)
M
Mercury
3y
titled reinvent the program..... he was on that team, and talked about the make up, guys were not 4-5 star players. but out hit, tough as nails and out played their opponents and very tight.
(In response to this post by VTCALS72)
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VTCALS72
3y
He definitely had good pieces around him and even at his best could not have done the same with say the players from the 2022 team.
(In response to this post by Mercury)
3y
With real shoulder pads and high team energy.
(In response to this post by VPI63)