Saturday was an emotional day for the Hokie Nation, and fortunately, the
Virginia Tech football team, coaches and fans got through it with a victory. ECU
is a good, well-coached team that will make some noise in Conference USA -- they
might even win it -- and they threw the Hokies a couple of curves that slowed
Tech down. In the end, VT got a win, and though there are reasons for concern,
getting the W was the end result.
I did close to a dozen radio interviews leading up to the game, and in almost
every one, I was asked how the emotion of the April 16th buildup would affect
this team. Would it inspire them to achieve greater heights, or would it be a
distraction that weakened them? My answer was always the same: "We don't
know. Until they get out there and actually kick off and start playing, we won't
be able to tell. In the end, though, emotion only takes you so far, and you have
to execute the game plan to win."