Seems Like After All These Years, We’re Right Back Where We Started…

Getting up on Sunday morning after a disappointing Hokie football loss is hardly new territory for me after watching them for over 50 years, but last night’s loss to Vanderbilt stings in a different way.

Mainly because it goes beyond the results of one game, or even one season, for that matter.

It’s the realization that we have now returned to the status in the college football world we once had in the 70s and 80s: we don’t matter.

When I first started watching the Hokies in the very early 70s, we weren’t considered a football school. We were conversely, just a school that played football. When conversations about who to put on national television or talk about in national media commenced, we were in the “other” category. We’d have our moments, but as a football school to consider as a player every year…um no, that wasn’t us.

If you lived those years, you knew it and felt it. We lost a game to Alabama by a score of 77-6 in 1973, and not a lot of people were surprised. Schools like Virginia Tech were supposed to be bludgeoned by college football royalty.

Frank Beamer obviously changed all that and it became like a poor man who won a modest amount of money in the lottery and now had easier access to the college football executive washroom. We weren’t Ohio State or Michigan, but we were allowed to have a seat at the adult table at Thanksgiving.

And it was very cool.

Last night’s second half felt a lot like that 77-6 drubbing. The Hokies led not by one, but by TWO scores at halftime. They were playing in their own stadium, a place once considered such a home field advantage that teams were wary about coming to Lane Stadium. They had momentum, and showed in the first half they were more than capable of winning the game.

Then the sky just fell to the ground. They were outscored 34-0. Other than a pass interference call when the receiver was in double coverage, they didn’t even make a first down. They were curb-stomped in front of their family, and didn’t make any adjustments to stop the onslaught.

Or at least any adjustments that worked.

I’ve never seen anything like it. It was complete and utter domination by Vanderbilt. Granted, the program started slipping even in the final years of the Beamer era and continued through the last two coaching regimes, but that second half clearly looked like “rock bottom” territory.

I guess you could micro-analyze the culprits who got us there, from coach to athletic director to Board of Visitors to school president; there are many fingerprints you could find on the murder weapon. And I’m sure in the coming days and weeks, social media will get right on that investigation, naming names and demanding action.

I just know I’m a lifetime Hokie through and through. My blood type is Chicago Maroon and Burnt Orange, and I have neither the will nor the ability to say “I’m out, I’m not watching any more.” It’s just who I am and to say otherwise would be lying.

But if you lived the days of when we didn’t matter, then enjoyed the intoxicating ride all the way to Bourbon Street in 2000 when we did matter, you know how frustrating it is to return to the former. I feel like Charlton Heston walking on a beach with the head of the Statue of Liberty behind me, shouting “You maniacs! You blew it up!” to anyone involved in managing the program.

Sadly, it really doesn’t matter who made what decision that got us here. All that matters is that we are indeed “here,” now known better for the team’s entrance than how they played in a game. Last night’s loss just confirmed we’re back to days of old when we didn’t matter across the college football horizon.

Which on a rainy Sunday morning, I find very disappointing to accept.