A Tasty Foul Snack

I've been taking a bit of a vacation from this blog over the past week. I had been investing too much mental time with it over the last few months, and I felt the need to re-energize and search for fresh content. I may even continue my hiatus through the next week, too.

You might enjoy checking out the new links I've posted on this blog. I've posted links to several exotic YouTube videos. One, from the group "OK Go" is quite amazing. Also check out my YouTube box on the right side of the main blog page. I recently posted an old video photo presentation called "Fishing For Jack." This photo story covering my Fall of 2005 trip to the Outer Banks of NC features music from my friends in the group Beggar's Circus.

The feature piece here is a simple reflection on today's Virginia Tech/University of Virginia football. I enjoy writing about football games because they manage to capture both poetry and raw power. By no means do I consider this some kind of polished work. It's merely a sereies of relatively random thoughts and feelings.

A Tasty Foul Snack

With another rivalry game in the books with the people who play for us winning, I am left with a few thoughts that I must exercize.

I actually felt sorry for the DSU quarterback. That kid seemed to be stranded alone on a deserted island by his coaches and teammates. After the game, I counted the number of times that our secondary was involved in plays down the field, and I could only count a handful or so. With Snelling’s sluggish approach to the VT wall for anemic results, Sewell was left to try to win the game himself.

There was a lot of psychic channeling going on around Blacksburg today. I raced home after the game and watched the tape. Doc Walker kept saying what I kept saying and what many fans kept saying and what Frank’s team kept doing over and over again. “Be patient. Don’t be afraid to punt. Let the game come around to you. Patiently make opportunities happen.”

The fans are a pretty smart bunch and much improved in the respect category today. I fully expected a negative response when the Governor presented Terry Holland’s former assistant athletic director with the Commonwealth Challenge award. Yet the crowd greeted the announcement with a collective yawn. Later, the crowd was quick to pick up on the fake fair catch and run. I’m still not sure if that penalty was marked off properly. It also seems that 5 yards isn’t enough of a penalty for that infraction anyway. As the guy right next to me said, “Well, shoot if that’s all you get for that, you should try to get away with that move every time.” I also thought it was pretty cool that the whole stadium seemed to understand that Pace’s missed FG was a big deal, and they gave him an outstanding standing ovation for the 22 in a row over the course of the season.

Sitting in Section 20 near the corner of the known world, I was shocked when people a couple of rows back suddenly began standing and screaming for help. I thought for sure someone must have been having a heart attack, and I couldn’t quite see what was happening. A few seconds later, a policeman sprinted up to the top of the section. I lost him in the pandemonium, and then a moment later he passed by me with two young, toasted, bad wahoos in tow. Obviously they did not get the Jerk Alert messages and got bonked on the head by the turkey police. I’d love to know what those two fellas did to upset the whole top of the section.

Nothing beats the walk across campus after a win over Virginia on a golden afternoon in late fall. Today was no different than it has been many other times over the last 109 years. Blacksburg and the VT campus both turn magical. Buildings become art. Everyone’s your friend. After tossing the ball around with my son in the Shultz lot, I made my way over to portable restroom facility. On the way, I passed by one of the best smelling tail gates. Burgers were on the grill and the smoke was sharing the aromatic joy with the world. I stopped by to congratulate these fine Hokies on their outstanding after game meal spread and was introduced to Chris Ellis’ fine parents. They were both delightful and extremely happy. I told them how much I appreciated their son suiting up and playing outstanding football then went about my business. Winning sure is fun.

My sister relayed to me after the game, that as she was waiting for her shuttle bus, she was sitting and watching the French players load up their Abbott buses. Each player slowly made his way onto his bus with a boxed lunch/dinner. Perhaps there some sort of poetic justice there hidden in that boxed lunch. Chick-fil-a delicacies probably never tasted as sour as they did today to that deflated bunch of Hoos. Maybe next year. After all, they are very young and loaded with talent. The sunny and warm weather today disrupted their finely tuned plan. Next year, they’ll get us. Next year.