That, my friends, was a wild one.
At a time when Hokie fans have long given up on the season and have been reduced to watching for moments, Virginia Tech produced one for the ages with a 42-34 double overtime win over Cal last night.
While announcers kept squawking about how a win could make the Golden Bears bowl eligible, this WAS Virginia Tech’s bowl game, including everything from dramatic plays to questionable calls by officials who didn’t share the same view of the rulebook as I and 60,000 of my closest friends did.
It also was a composite of the highs and lows of Hokie football the last few years, particularly Kyron Drones. His behavior was much akin to a psycho ex-girlfriend, emotionally distant and lost one moment, fiery and intense the next. He looked great at first as Virginia Tech took a 10-0 lead, at times clueless as the offense stalled and Cal took a 20-10 lead, then back in control late in the second half and the two overtimes.
On a night when fans remembered the 25th anniversary of the traditional playing of “Enter Sandman” when the Hokies came on the field, it was as if the team bus had become a DeLorean they had kicked up to 88 miles per hour and went back to the future…which was the team dominating the trenches as a running team.
So committed was the team to the run that in a crucial drive to take a 27-20 lead, they ran nine plays and all of them were on the ground. Many football experts are always saying a coach has to simplify the playbook for a quarterback when a team is struggling, and they simplified it all right: down the stretch they seemed to only run 3 different plays and most of the time it was only one: a quarterback sweep with Drones carrying the ball.
An artistic masterpiece it was not, but it was one of those games you had to be beaming with pride at the heart the Hokies showed. They’ve had their own problems this year between firing a coach and not knowing from week to week who was going to show up for games between injury and the transfer portal.
But to add to that last night, it looked like in addition to having to contend with Cal’s 11, they also had to take on a few officials to get to a point of winning. I’ve watched football for a long time and never seen as ridiculous a call as a roughing the passer call that extended a Cal drive and allowed the Bears to score the tying touchdown. Fortunately, the instant replay crew reversed several targeting calls that should have never been made in the first place, but it added an element of after every big defensive play, you looked around to see what the men in stripes thought had just happened.
Despite all that, somehow Virginia Tech kept going. I’d say at least 7 different times I thought the Hokies had lost, while hoping eight other times the team would bounce back and give one more big Kyron Drones run. “California Dreamin’,” I joked on social media of all those thoughts that Virginia Tech might still have a chance to pull this one out.
The atmosphere at Lane was a huge asset. As you’d expect, the stadium was mostly full and raucous, as is Hokie tradition. But added to the mix was a crowd of liquid courage-fueled young knuckleheads, who despite very cold temperatures, had taken off their shirts, and were spinning them around in their newly created mosh pit in one of the end zones.
It turned the game into a nationally televised ad for Blacksburg, saying if you want to be somewhere where it’s both intense and fun, this is the place to play and watch football.
The two overtimes were essentially the band playing the same song – Enter Sandman – over and over again, while the team ran the same play – Drones running – over and over again. And it worked, despite every bad memory of the Hokies losing in the final seconds constantly entering my mind. A fourth down pass was batted down at the end of the second overtime, and you could just feel everyone at Lane exhale.
It was a win like no other I’ve watched. It doesn’t really mean anything for the future as there is no bowl game to play for and most of the players and coaches will be replaced with shiny new ones by 2026.
But it was a win like the old days. Where people yelled, the team found a way to keep making plays, and the place was electric from start the finish. A win we didn’t expect. Probably a win we didn’t deserve.
A win any potential coach considering Blacksburg might think “that’s a special place.”
A win reminding us all “This Is Home.”
