An Early Virginia Tech Christmas List

With Thanksgiving coming up this weekend, it is almost time to turn our attention to the December holidays. Typically, though, I will fight tooth and nail to avoid anything Christmas until that turkey dinner is consumed and cleaned up.

And so, this should be an article about my thanks for all things Hokie, right?  Those things do indeed exist.  However, given the current state of the program, I am going to skip that shrinking list.  Instead, I will share my Christmas wish list in advance of the holiday where we cannibalize our own mascot. 

Here’s hoping Buddy the Elf makes his way to my neighborhood so he can bring my list back to Santa before the weekend!

This is a priority. Not because I want to finish 6–6, nor because I want to go to some third-tier bowl where half the starters will opt out. This is just because of my pure disdain for the University of Virginia football team   There does not exist a world where a loss to the Wahoos does not bother me.  Doctor Strange himself could look me in the eye and hold up his index finger, and I would still say, "No, I want to win this game."  Virginia is terrible this year. Our defense needs to be locked in and pressure the heck out of their quarterback (regardless of which one it is).  And offensively, we have to commit to the ground attack. The line needs to play like their futures depend on this game and open up holes so Bhayshul Tuten can run wild. If I were Doctor Strange, that is the one path to victory that I see as a certainty.

Against Duke, the big plays killed us. The Blue Devils quarterback was not that good. When he wasn’t throwing interceptions and flipping double birds to the crowd, he was mostly throwing bad passes. Except three, that is. And those three passes went for over 200 yards and two touchdowns (with the third setting up another touchdown). Without those plays, Tech wins 27-10 (or something close to that).  Offensively, sure we had a redshirt-freshman at quarterback, but we still gained 400 yards on offense and scored 27 points.  We just could not offset their pass rush when we needed to or find any consistency moving the ball. This has been a recurring theme all year - non-complementary football.  It would be nice to close out the season with a complete game. 

For the better part of thirteen seasons, the Hokies have struggled to be anything other than mediocre. Over that span, Tech is only 88-76, with just two winning campaigns since 2017.  The Hokies have only finished a season in the rankings twice since 2012.  Let's be frank - Virginia Tech has lost a lot of games recently that they could have won.  This was an issue at the end of Beamer’s years, it continued throughout much of Fuente’s years, and recently it has been a particular struggle under Brent Pry.  His teams are 1–12 in one-score games.  Part of that is decision making, and part is planning and execution.  Penalties that negate big plays certainly contribute to the losses.  So do the big plays that the defense gives up.  It makes me think of that psychologist in The Natural who tells the Knights that "losing is a disease."  I’m waiting for our version of Roy Hobbs to step up and change the tone in Blacksburg and start winning games over mid-level teams (and better).

I realize this is like asking for world peace, but still, I wish it were true. Every time Virginia Tech struggles, I can’t open Facebook or Twitter. It’s awful.  Everything I see is reminiscent of a good UVA tailgate - whine, whine, and more whine. Of course, this year has been filled with great disappointment, but openly airing our grievances - and attacking people - on social media does nothing to solve the problems. Speaking of:

I’m not on the field nor in the locker room, so obviously I do not know what is behind the ills that made this season of hope morph into such a draining season of disappointment. But I do know that the staff and administration need to identify why Tech was not successful and then make the necessary changes for improvement. That’s called growth. And leadership.   And that’s what I and every other member of Hokie Nation wants to see: growth and good leadership in this program.  A lot of fans are on the ledge right now, and some have already jumped; addressing the issues decisively in the offseason is vital, otherwise this fan base could be lost in 2025.

Part of the struggle of Hokie Nation is that Virginia Tech was in the national conversation this past summer. That was exciting. However, as we know, it is more important to finish the season in the national conversation, and Virginia Tech is far from that right now. In fact, the only conversation about the Hokies is the one about greatest underachievement. And that smarts. Hokie Nation has been hurting for far too long and wants desperately to return to national relevance. Given the current climate of college athletics, I know it is difficult for a program like ours to do this overnight, but this season was supposed to be another step in the right direction. I hope we can overcome this bump in the road and right the ship.  And I’m not even talking playoffs right now – I want to first be relevant in the ACC and finish in the top 4-5 of the league regularly. 

Of course, my wish list can easily be made longer, but much like a Christmas list, I am going to move some of the items from the “main presents” side to the “stocking stuffers” column:

Win a one-score game.  Preferably not this week, though.  I want this game to be a Hokie blowout, so the one-score win can be an I.O.U.  Since Pry is 1-12 in one-score contests, though, this might need to go under the tree and not in the stocking, and I think I'm going to need a few of these!

Throw an effective screen pass. I don’t know the statistics, but I do know the optics. And it seems that every time we throw a screen pass it goes anywhere from gaining a yard to losing three. Why can’t Virginia Tech execute an effective screen pass?  Oh how I hope that changes this week.

Play in full stadiums.  Duke’s crowd was a joke.  It sounded like a high school stadium on TV.  Stanford was empty.  Syracuse was half-empty. UVa is always empty.  I watch these SEC games and I’m blown away at the crowds and the noise, at the marching bands playing non-stop throughout the game.  It makes me envious.  The environment at Lane is great, but it would be nice to see something comparable on the road as well.

Virginia Tech is right where they were last year heading into this game: 5-6 and facing the Wahoos for a bowl bid.  But it all seems so underwhelming now, and with injuries and inconsistencies, this matchup doesn’t have nearly the juice of the lead-up to last year’s game. 

I think I’m supposed to be mad.  We just lost to Duke, who is having the season that Tech was supposed to have, and once again we need to beat our in-state rival just to become bowl eligible.  However, after a decade of mediocrity and a lifetime of Hokie heartaches, I’m just a little numb to the big picture right now.

There’s nothing I can do that will influence the outcome of this weekend’s game.  And the offseason is still at least a week away, so I am not going to worry about that now.  Instead, I am going to do what I do every weekend in the fall: put on my maroon, cozy up to the TV, and watch the game. 

And you know what?  Despite the recent struggles, I’m still going to root for a win.  Because I’m a Hokie and my team is playing.  Nothing about this season will be forgotten nor salvaged in this one game, but this is the rivalry that we have owned for half of my lifetime, and I sure hope we keep that upper hand on Saturday.

66,000 Hokies will be in Lane to watch the Hokies and ‘Hoos, something the past two graduating classes were not able to experience in person.  This will be the last game in Lane for a handful of senior players as well as a few thousand senior students. So let’s just get the win.

It is always better to end a season with a victory.  Always.

Santa, between bites of our mascot, please put another Commonwealth Clash Win under my tree.

Go Hokies!