Feelin' Blue

This one will be short and sweet.  Our offense is terrible and our defense is young and hurt.  How we managed to beat up the Tarheels is a mystery to me.  Thankfully we prevailed and I have not heard a word from all my Tarheel friends this season.  We had great seats and enjoyed a stellar tailgate thanks to our Tarheel friends in the Bowles lot.  Bob arranged a parking spot with our host an we arrived by 8 am for a morning of tailgating and fun.  I will say that the Tarheels fans are late arrivers but they sure can drink some liquor, consequently they can fill up a black tank on an RV!

Showing off our stuff

 



 

Fraternizing with the enemy

 

 

Starting them young

 

Predicted a Hokie win!

Phillip, Scott and all our Tarheel hosts were great to take care of us both with food, parking and perfect seats to the game.  Everyone was fantastic and I look forward to our return in 2016.
If Fedora continues his winning ways there should be a new coach by then.  Maybe Mack Brown will come out of retirement!

 

Great seats in the high donor area with a bunch of disgruntled fans

 

 

Getting ready to score

 

William approves

But I digress.  To recap the Western Michigan game.  Nobody can ever give TECH crap about our school colors, the WMU Broncos are brown and white!!  The only thing worse is brown and orange!!  Oh yea we beat them 35-17 with the lone highlight being that we scored a special teams touchdown 6 seconds into the game.  Left to go refill my stadium cup at halftime.

 

A Rod McGinnis sighting!!!

 

 

Sun is out, Guns are out!

 

 

How do you hydrate with this thing on?

 

 

Hangin with ClubHouse Tailgate

 

Put me in Coach!

 

 

This is about where my memory becomes fuzzy!

 

 



The Heinz Field curse continues.  Apparently when we cross into the State of Pennsylvania we can't seem to remember how to play football.  Should have lost by more than 5 points.  Hopefully the younger players learned something from that loss to a bad Pitt team and fixed it this week.

 

How many yards rushing?  It is a slow, white quarterback for gosh sakes!

 

 

Anybody see my offense???

 

 

Enough of the cute 3 yard passes.  Throw the damn ball!!

 



We are playing our favorite convicts Thursday night in Lane Stadium.  I love beating the Hurricanes even if it is the battle of the Coastal Division Basement.  It is not scheduled to rain but I would not be surprised if it poured down rain like it has in the last several meetings.  We are banged up pretty good and are young all around but I still believe. 

The tailgate is as always in Lot 7 and we are have the dinner catered this week by Sal's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria.  Eric White has graciously agreed to deliver and set up the meal.  The Menu includes Capresa and antipasto salads to start, Grilled Chicken Primavera and a Tortellini as an entrée complimented with bread sticks and finished with Cannolis for desert.  Hopefully this will make everyone's tailgate less hectic and we can all enjoy our meal and leave the clean up to Eric.  Feel free to bring anything you would like to go with this menu but again make it easy and travel light!  Donations are accepted for dinner.  Any extra collected will be used to tip the waiter and buy supplies for future tailgates.

Looking forward to seeing the tailgate gang on Thursday night.  Bring your appetitie and favorite beverage or just mix one up at the HokieMobile bar.  Travel safe and Go Hokies, Beat the Canes!

Purple Rain

What a let down!  The purple and gold pirates with a super intimidating eye patch sailed into Blacksburg on their wooden ship and rained on our parade.  The training staff was still cleaning buckeyes out of the players travel bags when Shane Carden threw for 427 yards, racked up 3 touchdowns in 12 minutes and ran for the deciding touchdown at the very end of the 4th quarter.

The defense was on its heels the whole game and Bud did not seem to be able to do anything about it!!  ECU is a talented team who will play in a bowl this year and I wish them luck this weekend against the TarHoles!

We had them beat in the Tunnel!

The tailgate was a wet one but the rain let up just in time for kick off.  Good crowd and good food.  We went with a breakfast theme and will be doing the same this weekend.  Thanks to everyone for bringing something to the party.  Bob was cooking eggs made to order and the Mimosas were flowing.  I personally had too many rum and cokes!  This early tailgate kept me busy and I did not get any good pictures this trip.  Please send what you have so I can share them with the crowd.

Next up is the bumble bees from Atlanta Georgia!  The "Ramblin Wreck" that is the HokieMobile will be there.  Mine is better looking, even without the cheerleaders.  Maybe they will let me drive out on the field someday?

The bees have caused us trouble in the past and I was just reliving the nightmare of Calvin Johnson scoring 21 points on us in 7 minutes back in 2006 as I watched the first quarter of the ECU game!  The triple option is no longer a secret but we may not be able to contain the outside run.  The Bees do not look good this year but we cannot lose in the division!  I am bringing a couple of Ga Tech fans to the tailgate to help us celebrate so please make them feel at home.  Yes I have been taking crap from all the pirate fans this week.  I have never seen so much purple in my life!

We are faced with another NOON kickoff so the breakfast/brunch theme is on the menu again.  Bring something for breakfast and put it on the table.  Bloody Mary's will be at the bar again.  I plan to start setting up around 8am and be eating at 9:30am.  Hokie Cheer at 11:00 and victory by 3:30pm

Weather looks to be on our side with high of 76 degrees and only 10% chance of rain.  I am going to be optimistic and leave the tent at home!  So with good weather possibly on hand maybe Biff will come to the tailgate sooner than 1 minute before we leave for the stadium!

As always I am looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones in Lot 7 on Saturday.  Travel safe from your homes and as always...

GO HOKIES!!!  BEAT THE JACKETS!!!

Roasting some Buckeyes

Hokiemobile is rollin' in 2014

 

 

What a great way to start the Hokie football season, two wins instead of two losses!!  William & his sister was a slow start but the trip the Hokies took to Columbus have got the juices flowing. 

The Tribe game was poorly attended but it was good to get back to Blacksburg and smell the crisp Fall air. (It was 85 degrees in the direct sun that did not go behind the stands until the 4th quarter.)  The tailgate featured tacos and good friends.  The 4pm start was nice but I would like that for the ECU and Georgia Tech game not high noon!! 

There was the beginnings of an offense noted on the field and something we have missed in Blacksburg for awhile, a Quarterback!  Michael Brewer ( anyone else think his mustache is cheesy?) passed for 251 yards with only 1 interception.  He made good decisions but honestly we should have hung 50+ on a team of this caliber. 

Freshmen scored most of the points and a new running back has emerged.  Shai MacKenzie had 106 yards and was ACC freshman player of the week.  Still don't like the dreads!

 

My favorite player on the team Willie Byrn only turned in 49 yards but they were important ones!

 

The defense stood tall as usual and keep the Tribe out of the endzone. 

 

 

Next up a long road trip to Columbus, Ohio, Home if the Ohio State Buckeyes!!  The two teams have never met on the field and I have had this one circled on the calendar for two years.  The family went with me and we enjoyed a historic game in the "Shoe". 

 

Took a little nap to get ready for a long night on the National TV.  Got to get our beauty rest.

 

 

Tailgated with the ClubHouse Tailgate at the Ohio State Fairgrounds before the game.  Their hospitality was second to none as usual!

 

 

The game was great from the start.  I know I am bias but I believe 4000 Hokies were louder than 103,000 Buckeyes throughout the game!  Seats were where I expected, higher than birds fly but we could still see the butt whooping from there!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frank got the boys fired up and even had to straighten out the refs with a call reversing challenge.

 

 

 The king stopped by to see his hometown team fall apart under the weight of 7 sacks and 3 picks.  The bus ride back to the fairgrounds was a quite one.  Nobody wanted to talk about the Buckeyes National Championship hopes!.

 

 

 

Even the Brutus conceded to the HokieBird by acknowledging who was number one on this night!!

 

Next up is the Pirates from Greenville, North Carolina.  The Pirates are playing a tough non-conference schedule with South Carolina, Virginia Tech and North Carolina back to back to try and make a name for themselves.  You've heard me say it before.  Be careful of those Pirates.  They can beat you with their quarterback.  Anytime you play a team 9 times they are bound to beat you one of those times and we are coming off a football high and may have a hangover on Saturday.

 

Game time is 12:00pm and the weather is expected to be in the low 70's with possible showers. The theme is going to be Brunching It.  Bring any Breakfast/Lunch items you would like and spread it out on the table.  I am sure Bob will be making Bloodly Mary's and Christie said she was bring sausage balls.  Should be setup around 8:00am with first beer at 8:30.

 

Looking forward to seeing everyone in Lot 7.  Any questions give me a call. and as always

 

GO HOKIES!!  BEAT THE PIRATES!!

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday Nite in LANE!

I am sorry for the late posting of the blog but frankly there is not much positive to write about and I am just coming out of my funk enough to be able to face the remainder of the season.  We have won one and lost two since the last post meaning that we need to win two of the next three to even be eligible for the Military Bowl in Washington D.C.!  Speaking of that I received my bowl order forms which must have been printed before the season because it wants to know how many tickets I want for the ACC Championship and the Orange Bowl!

There is not much on earth better than Thursday night football in Blacksburg, VA, probably because I am not working on Friday!!  Even with a indisputable down year it is great to take a breath of the cool fall air in through your nostrils before the stench coming from the offense overwhelms you and you look up on the scoreboard to realize we have beat ourselves again.  I do not think that the ACC has all of a sudden caught up with Virginia Tech, I believe we have given the games away with our mistakes, lack of focus and simple lack of enthusiasm of the players and lack of motivation from the coaching staff.

I have only noticed two times this season where the VT sideline has looked like they were engaged in the game and enthusiastic about playing the game going on in front of them.  Nobody seems to be a leader on the sidelines or the field and without a leader they all seem to just go through the motions and then hurry off the field.  The defense has improved over the past several games and has provided an opportunity for the offense to score some points but they can not stand that so they go 3 and out allowing the defense to again show what they are made of.  If I was Bud Foster I would walk up to Logan Thomas and whisper in his ear, KEEP IT UP AND I WILL PERSONALLY PUNCH YOU IN THE MOUTH!!!

The Duke game was exciting as the day was beautiful.  We had a good crowd at the tailgate and a couple of my Duke friends were entertained by our pregame rituals.  The Hokies spotted Duke 20 points before the offense decided that losing to Duke would be hitting rock bottom.  41 points later I did not have to go back to North Carolina and take same crap from the Blue Devils that I am taking from the Tarholes on a daily basis.  Yes Blue Devils I realize Basketball season starts this weekend but we accepted the fact that we are a football school a long time ago.  We left the parking lot knowing we would not meet again in October but were excited about a couple of road games we though we could win.

Go Ahead, hit her with that stick

Marcus Davis gets the scoring started

 

Finally pressure on the Quarterback

 

 



The next two games against those other teams who wear orange were supposed to be against suspect defenses.  Their defenses are still suspect but the offense found new ways to give up the ball.   Numerous interceptions and punt blocks in both games.  Looks like the BeamerBall gig is up!  We left South Carolina and Florida without a win and in serious jeopardy of a losing season for the first time in 19 years not to mention all the other notable records that will end this season.  Has anyone else noticed that we are not selling out the home games this year??  If the Hokies keep it up Lane. Stadium will look like Sun Life Stadium on a Thursday night in South Florida.

 

The only highlight I could remember

 

 



 

Too much of this

 

 



 

...and this

 



 

 

Please don't hurt me Coach Foster.

 

 

Seems to be the standard play

 

 

I could swear I had 29 seconds left.

 



We are going to try out this catering thing on Thursday and if it works out well possibly do it again for a couple of games next year.  Feel free to leave me some feedback on how it worked out and if you would like to try it again next year.   I will have my own comments next week after the game.  I am traveling to South Bend, Indiana next week to see the Fightin Irish against my hometown Demon Deacons.   Looking forward to the trip but not the weather.

Dinner will be served starting at approximately 5:30pm until 7:00pm when we will toast to the Ol' Hokie Cheer.   Catch me when you get there and I have wrist bands for all who have RSVP'd.  If you get this blog and have not let me know you are in for dinner please call ASAP 336.407.3847 so I can try to contact Custom Catering.  The menu is BBQ Chicken Breast, Mashed potatoes, Seasoned green beans, Fruit, Pasta, Banana pudding, cookies, Iced tea, Lemonade.  Of course the bar will be open as soon as I set up around 3:30pm if I can get into the lot.

The game time is 7:30 with fireworks planned before the game and if we score.  The weather should be nice but cold when the sun goes down.  The low temp will be 29 degrees.  Bring your coats and Hot Hands.  Hope to see everyone there around 4:30 and maybe, just maybe the Criminoles will have an acute bout of food poisoning which will disable them and the offense will find a way to score.  A man can HOPE for CHANGE and move FORWARD can't he??

Stopped by to see Alonzo.  Must be at lunch.

Next up is the other school in Virginia who just laid a smack down on NC State, probably costing Tom O'Brien his job.  The Hoos would love to keep us from bowl contention but it is yet to be seen if that is even a possibility until we win one of these next two games.  No time yet as ESPN is trying to figure out what to do with this dog.

Travel safe and remember to send your pictures (SUSAN!!!) and comments so I can post them for all to enjoy.  Also if you can't make the game the HokieMobile is a great place to crash!   See below.

GO HOKIES!!!  BEAT THE NOLES!!!