OLLY OLLY OXEN FREE!!! It’s time for the Virginia Tech offense to come out of hiding! After eight games, this unit continues to struggle, and the result is a 2-6 record with the team’s bowl hopes officially on life support. A few minutes on the NCAA football stats page will reveal some very paltry numbers, enough to make Virginia Tech fans grab their chests like Fred Sanford telling Elizabeth that this is the big one. Hokie Nation, make sure you are sitting down for this… The Virginia Tech offense currently ranks in the bottom fifteen in four major offensive categories and…
Author: Rich Luttenberger
Rich Luttenberger
Rich Luttenberger is a Virginia Tech alum and has been passionately following their sports teams for over 30 years. Like most Hokies, he shows that "fan" is really short for "fanatic." He writes as a fan and for the fans. Follow him on Twitter @RichLuttVT
Frank Beamer. Michael Vick. Bruce Smith. Everyone’s favorite Hokies, right? They have to be among the most popular names when Virginia Tech fans and alumni are asked to name their favorite Hokies ever. These three are easily the most recognizable names, and they are arguably the most influential in Tech’s football history. Of course, they are all in my own top ten. But the term “favorite” implies a personal preference, so my top three favorite Hokies of all time are not among those legends. Here they are, in order: Favorite Hokies: #1 – Bud Foster, Former Defensive Coordinator, 1996-2019 Long…
Hot takes. They are highly opinionated. They can be rather polarizing. And after Virginia Tech fell to Miami in a game that the Canes tried to give away, Hokie Nation has a lot of opinions to share. Virginia Tech’s losing streak has grown to four, and the Hokies sit at 2-5 entering their bye week. Here are five hot takes as the team regroups over the week off. Hot Takes: #1 – Grant Wells is the QB of the Now and of the Future Yeah, no jabs to start. No stick and move, like Apollo Creed told Rocky. I came…
The rivalry between Virginia Tech and Miami is about to take a turn that most of the two schools’ fans do not want to see. Well, at least the Virginia Tech fans. Does Miami even have fans? Because I haven’t seen them at Hard Rock stadium in recent years. Anyway…Because of the new ACC 3-5-5 scheduling model, the annual Virginia Tech and Miami game is moving to part-time. They will only play twice every four years. The two teams have played 39 times since 1953 but every year since joining the Big East in 1992. Although Miami holds a 24-15…
It is never good to allow one running back to amass over 300 yards in a game. Nor is it good to allow that same runner to score six touchdowns. Never. So how can there be a “silver lining” to that kind of loss for the Hokies? Well, there were a lot of positive aspects of Saturday’s game for Virginia Tech. Unfortunately, they were grossly overshadowed by a record-breaking performance of one player on the other team. Israel Abanikanda carried the ball 36 times for 320 yards and six touchdowns in Pittsburgh’s 45-29 victory over Virginia Tech (2-4; 1-2 ACC). …
The questions are flying throughout the Hokie Nation. Message boards, Facebook groups, Twitter; you name it, fans are voicing their opinions, for better or for worse. Who can blame them? The Hokies were routed in Chapel Hill last week, closing out a two-game stretch where they were outscored 74-20. They only scored ten points against a West Virginia team who then fell behind Texas by 35 points before finally scoring. Tech followed that by being routed at North Carolina, a team whose defense couldn’t stop Florida A&M when they were without 25 scholarship players. Hokie fans are scratching their heads. …
Last Thursday night, we saw a great display of old school Virginia Tech football. Ball control, defense, and pick six. The problem for Hokie fans is that they were not the ones playing that style of football. West Virginia played much like Virginia Tech did in its heyday, beating the Hokies 33-10 on national TV Thursday night. The Mountaineers (2-2, 0-1 Big 12) just wore down Virginia Tech (2-2, 1-0 ACC), outscoring the Hokies 17-0 in the fourth quarter to run away with the game. During most of Frank Beamer’s remarkable run as coach, Virginia Tech often played their signature…
Virginia Tech took care of business Saturday, beating Wofford 27-7. With the win, the Hokies improve to 2-1 on the season (1-0 in ACC play). And with a short week ahead, they can officially focus on trying to take back the Black Diamond Trophy from West Virginia in a Thursday night rivalry game. The First Half Was Impressive Coming into this game, most Tech fans were probably hoping for a huge margin of victory and an opportunity for the backups to see the field in the second half. And after a solid first half, it appeared as if this was…
When a team suffers an embarrassing loss, there are two ways to react. They can get caught up in the negativity of the loss, or they can put their noses to the grindstone and go back to work, putting emphasis on the defense while hoping to correct the mistakes of the previous week and play better. Virginia Tech did the latter this past Saturday. Actually, they did more than that. They dominated most of the game against Boston College. After committing 15 penalties and turning the ball over five times in a loss at Old Dominion, Virginia Tech played a…
“We made too many wrong mistakes.” Yogi Berra famously said that key phrase. After last Friday, many in the Hokie Nation are saying the same thing. Virginia Tech made way too many “wrong mistakes” in their season opener, falling to Old Dominion 20-17 in Norfolk, Virginia. This was unlike the Hokies’ previous trip to S.B. Ballard Stadium, where Old Dominion just out-played Virginia Tech. In that 2018 contest, ODU racked up over 630 total yards and won 49-35. No, this one had a much different feel. In this one, the Hokies generated better statistics in most box score categories and…
