Drunk on Kool-Aid: Hokie Nation Left to Deal with all too Familiar Heartbreak

What a difference a week makes.  Less than seven days ago, Hokie Nation was hyped about the season, talking about nine or ten wins, and maybe even a shot at the ACC title game. Some fans – and media member, such as Pat McAfee – were predicting Virginia Tech to make the twelve-team playoff.

Because of all this great expectation, the most in almost a decade for Hokie Nation, I was excited about my own writing plan for the season:  A weekly “Kool-Aid ‘Cup-Date’” that would measure how much of the hype we should believe after each game.  I had even started a week zero article. 

Not so unfortunately, life kind of got in the way of that article, and I did not finish it before boarding my admittedly early flight to Nashville on Wednesday.

Thank goodness, because my belief in a full Kool-Aid cup for Virginia Tech would have been shattered like those walls that the Kool-Aid man used to smash through.

Just like Robert Burns wrote, my best laid plans went awry. So now what?

Well, since my articles usually follow a theme of writing as a fan for the fans, I guess I’ll have to go down that road of how Hokie Nation feels after such an excruciating and embarrassing loss.

But why beat that drum?  Can I really say anything that has not already been said?  Tech was outcoached.  The line was outmuscled.  Tackling was poor.  The execution was inconsistent.  And Virginia Tech could not hold the lead down the stretch, allowing defeat to be snatched from the jaws of victory.

It is a way too familiar script for Hokie Nation.  I have been a Virginia Tech fan since my freshman year, 1989.  Painful and embarrassing losses to teams we “should” have beaten seems to be part of our fabric.  (Older Hokies, you might want to sit down for this.) Miami of Ohio in 1997.  Temple in 1998.  East Carolina in 2008.  JMU in 2010. Wake Forest in 2014 (That dreaded 0-0 regulation game). Liberty in 2020.  Old Dominion in 2022.

Or the heartbreaking bowl games where we gave up late leads or statistically dominated yet lost.  Georgia in the 2006 Peach Bowl.  Michigan in the Sugar Bowl after the 2011 season.  Cincinnati in the 2018 Military Bowl. Kentucky in the 2019 Belk Bowl. 

And there have been plenty of regular season heartaches. Both UVa and Syracuse in 1998. West Virginia in 2002. NC State in 2004.  Matt Ryan and Boston College in 2007.  UNC in 2009. Boise State in 2010.  Notre Dame in 2019 and 2021.  Georgia Tech and NC State in 2022. 

Of course, none have been more devastating than losing a (supremely small) fourth-quarter lead in the National Championship game after outrushing Florida State 278-30!

I used to hate the nickname “Chokies.” But I eventually got used to it.   If the shoe fits…

To add insult to injury, Hokie Nation has had to endure the pain of being on the losing end of so many signature wins by other schools (often those that the Hokies “should” have beaten).  Rutgers will always remember their fourth-quarter comeback and 50-49 walk-off homecoming victory over Tech in 1992. 

Kansas won their first New Year’s Six bowl in forty years when they beat Tech in the Orange Bowl in 2006.  Munchie Legaux became a household name when he led Cincinnati to a last second victory over the Hokies at Fedex Field early in the 2012 season. 

Liberty, Old Dominion, and Marshall are programs who not too long ago played division IAA football, and they all beat Tech for the first time recently.

And now we can add Vanderbilt to this list, as they snapped a 61-game losing streak when down by seven or more points in the fourth quarter.

As if that is not bad enough, Vandy’s streak ended in front of an enormous crowd of Hokies who made the trip.  If you watched the Vanderbilt game on television, you saw that at least three-quarters of the stadium was in orange and maroon.  If you were there with me, you heard the Hokie crowd, and you heard us boo the Commodores as they came out of the locker room onto their own field!  Hokie Nation took over the stadium and the city.

But the season opener was another gut punch to a fan base who is so loyal and so starved to return to national relevance. 

Nashville is a “destination,” and with so many Tech fans in town, it was very festive, like a bowl game weekend.  But that spirit soured after the loss.  For some it ruined the weekend.  

It reminded me of the National Championship game from the 1999 season.  After that loss, my friend and I were miserable on the walk back to Bourbon Street.  My wife (of two years at that point) said that it looked like we were going to a funeral.  To this day, she still talks about how that night almost ruined the entire trip for her.

Unfortunately, I let it ruin mine.

And over the years, I let those bad losses ruin other weekends.  Then I went to work grouchy on Monday.  And I didn’t even turn on ESPN for a week until the next game. 

Is this the way to live a life?

No. 

I get that “fan” is short for “fanatic.”  Hokie Nation is full of fanatics who love our school and our teams.  However, the term "fanatic" implies extremism, and fanatics may cross the line into irrational thoughts and behavior.  

I love the Hokies and I follow the sports teams excessively, and I do consider myself a die-hard fan.  However, I have learned to deal with losses like this most recent one and still keep my sanity (which has been VERY difficult at times).  

My wife’s words sat with me over time – so now I take a page from Morrie Schwartz’ book and detach from the experience.  Literally, in the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, Morrie explains the process of detachment.  He experiences his emotions fully, like opening a faucet, then he accepts the emotions and puts them aside so he can move on.

Hopefully a lot of Hokies were able to detach Saturday night and enjoy their time on Broadway.

It sounds cliché, but football is life.  Our fan experience mirrors our life experience. We live, we love, we lose.  Our passions give us purpose.  Our love gives us fulfillment.  And our losses need to be grieved.

Then we move on.  There are always going to be ups and downs.  In football, things are usually not as bad as the most recent loss.  And conversely, after a win our team is probably not as good as we think they are.  The pre-season hype and expectation was a little too much for Hokie Nation, just like the emotional reactions to the Vandy loss were a little extreme.

Stay grounded fellow fans.  As a friend recently said to me, be careful of putting yourself on a pedestal, because that is when someone comes to knock you off it. 

Vanderbilt knocked Hokie Nation off that pedestal Saturday.  And since we drank a little too much preseason Kool-Aid, the fall was high and the impact was hard.

But now it is time to pick ourselves up a fan base, heal from the hurt, and move on.  Just like we do with pain and loss in real life.  We move on.

And it is not our lot in life to suffer.  Sure we have had more than our fair share of heartache, but Hokie Nation has also enjoyed some clutch wins, several Big East and ACC titles, some big bowl wins, and a lot of ten-win seasons.  We even reached the national title game.  Good times will return.

However, we need to stay a little more rational.  We should avoid preseason predictions of playoff appearances, just as we should stop calling for coaches to be fired after one loss.  As Bud Foster said in our recent podcast, take it game by game and evaluate the season after it is done. 

As fans, let’s keep the Vanderbilt loss in perspective.  Sure it hurts and it is embarrassing, but it is just a game.  We live vicariously through our team, but in the end, after each game we go back to our families and friends and jobs and start looking forward to the following week.

That next opponent is Marshall.  We owe them one after giving them a program defining win last year.

However, Marshall will not be intimidated when they march into Lane Stadium because they already beat this VT roster.  And fresh off a 45-point, 549-yard showing last week (with 259 net rushing yards), they will know what to do to keep the Hokies’ offense off the field like Vanderbilt did.

Granted, Marshall did accumulate those stats against FCS Stony Brook.  But it will still give the Herd some confidence to go along with the film on how Vanderbilt ran all over the Tech defense.

I do think the Hokies are the better team and will rebound, but I certainly don’t expect them to win easily.  I’m done with “expecting” results this year.  I foolishly drank too much Kool-Aid over the summer, and now my stomach is upset.  I’m just hoping for a comfortable victory.  As I will hope for victory in the subsequent weeks.

The Hokies have been here before.  No, I’m not predicting a string of wins like 1995 or 2010. But it is possible to still have a good season after that bad loss in game one.  The talent is still there.  And things can change, like they did last year.  It’s a long season, try to enjoy it.

Don’t drink the Kool-Aid, but don’t give up after one game. And replace “expectation” with “hope.”  That should keep us all grounded.

Since I was in Nashville for five days, I think it’s appropriate to end with words from Jelly Roll in his New Artist of the Year acceptance speech at the CMA Awards last November:

“The windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror for a reason because what's in front of you is so much more important than what's behind you.”

Although our windshield was just cracked, Jelly Roll is right.  Let’s keep our heads up and eyes forward.  Go Hokies.