…and 3. WIN an in-conference game. Boston College is to thank for crossing two more off the list.

The Eagles fell just inches short as time expired in the first half - it proved to be an accurate representation of the entire game for Boston College and it ensured the momentum would remain with the Hokies the rest of the day. 19-0 was the final score thanks to some good kicking by Chris Hazley and marked the first time the Eagles have failed to score a point in over a decade worth of games.

Now, BC quarterback David Shinskie won’t get the start against Notre Dameas a result of Saturday’s game. It seemed like an unfair punishment that doesn’t give Bud Foster and the defensive powers of Virginia Tech enough credit. The announcers for ACC Select television coverage didn’t feel that the blame was Shinskie’s alone, but they also commented on how great it was for VT fans to have Stinespring as an assistant coach so they were clearly off their fucking rocker, snorting cocaine whilst jamming to Tatum. Yes, Stinespring did learn the “Screen Pass” (a.k.a. button A play on Tecmo Bowl play selection screen) but I still found the effort uninspiring.

Really, it was a win in traditional Hokie fashion - some big plays, lots of running up the middle, an all-important game changing turnover, and normal uniforms. Perhaps it is the Top 10 team we were supposed to get 3 weeks ago… who knows, at least it allows us to cross off two more from the “To Do list”.

Here’s to next month, a new Chipotle, and a new beginning back in Blacksburg.

So step one is complete – the Hokies have a 1 in the win column three weeks in to the season. It didn’t come easy either, bouncing back from a 10-0 deficit the team finally came to life in the second half. The final score, though impressive and besting the oddsmakers who favored Tech by 20 still gives me concern simply because of the two teams we saw on the field – the first half squad and the second half squad.

Per usual the Hokies relied on a turnover and good adjustments in the second half, a victory for Bud Foster in response to an otherwise lackluster defensive showing in the first half. Granted the defense is learning here in the third week of the season but its unfortunate they are just now finding themselves when the team is unranked and scratching for legitimacy. We are all still scratching their heads at why Jim Weaver would schedule two games in 5 days, but excuses are getting harder to find and it was a welcome return to Hokie football we know in love.

And can we please never ever have a game exclusively broadcasted on ESPN3.com? I’d rather have Jefferson Pilot shooting the game with a Gameboy Camera then have to endure the scrub list announcers stagger through a disjointed steam of compressed video on my computer screen. I feel like I’m doing work when I watch a game with a mouse and keyboard in front of me, and given the Hokies past two games its been a job that Mike Rowe would even say “fuck this” to.

Stinespring still needs a pink slip too – don’t let 49 points convince you otherwise, the play calling in the second half was encouraging but not representative for the same old crap we can expect next week.  Remember that a lot of the drives were assisted by ECU’s penalties, Tyrods quick reaction when the pocket collapsed, and long backyard football bombs that seemed more risky than well calculated. Step two is winning a conference game. Here’s to crossing another off the list next week.

Has anyone taken a look over at BS’s page on Wikipedia recently!? Sarah H. did and passed it along… It is a beautiful piece of writing. Take a look:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Stinespring

And in case anyone changes the wiki content for lack of references, below is the page as of right now (Sept. 12, 2010) memorialized for your enjoyment:

“Stinespring has faced criticism from the fans[1] and players[2] for offensive output during his time as offensive coordinator, which compares poorly with that of his predecessors under Frank Beamer.[1] Stinespring is widely considered the worst offensive coordinator in all of college football and has been a ball and chain that the Hokies have had to drag around for years. At least ten times a game a play is called where you can actually hear the entire stadium say, “Really dude?” It is unknown why he is still employed but it has recently come to light that he has information about Frank Beamer that he has used to essentially blackmail Frank into keeping his job.

It has, however, recently come to light that Stinespring is in fact three babies standing on each others’ shoulders and wearing a trenchcoat. In light of this, is is remarkable that he/they can manage an offense at any level of college football.

Stinespring’s bad habit of not resigning in the face of his own overwhelming incompetence has made clear how little he cares for Virginia Tech. Stinespring may, in fact, be an agent of the University of Virginia. While some doubt this in the face of UVA’s continued inability to beat VT, the situation has given birth to the phrase “Even Bryan Stinespring can’t lose to UVA!”

Bryan Stinespring has replaced Maurice DeShazo as the most hated man in the history of Virginia Tech football.

Below are Virginia Tech’s offensive statistics during Stinespring’s time as offensive coordinator

…

[miserable stats from Stinespring’s tenure are then displayed]

…

Below are the reasons coach Frank Beamer has relentlessly cited for retaining Bryan Stinespring: [References listed]“

In less than one week the Hokies went from outside dark horse candidates for a BCS title game on the cusp of playing one of the most anticipated nationally televised and highly touted games in recent memory to suffering one of the worst loses in the history of Hokie football.

Who really knows why the stars aligned and gave us this horrific one-two shitshow start of a season. Perhaps my new Hokies shirt is the opposite of lucky (it will never be worn at a game again), perhaps we OVERused that third down gobble sound effect to a point that the mojo turned on us, or maybe we lost more talent than we realized, or maybe just maybe we have spent too many seasons under the old motto “we don’t rebuild, we reload” and we need some actual effort and coaching changes to harness the amazing talent we have on the field to get back to a winning program…. regardless we can’t fix the fact that going in to week 3 we still have a big ol’ zero in the win column.

So what then do you look forward to when your team, in under 5 days, goes from being an AP Top 10 team to one that may be lucky to field any votes in the polls come Monday? Well, restart, rebuild and take it one step at a time…

1. WIN a game
2. WIN a road game
3. WIN an in-conference game
4. WIN a game against a ranked opponent
5. BECOME bowl eligible
6. BECOME a ranked team
7. WIN any bowl game
8. MAKE the ACC Championship game
9. WIN the ACC Championship game
10. WIN a BCS Bowl game (Orange Bowl)

At this point I am looking forward to being able to cross off ANY of these as the season goes on, in fact it will be the only thing that keeps me going. Ideally I’d want to be able to cross off 8 or more come the end of the year but after this start I am counting each as a milestone.

One good thing has come from all of this — this fall has become a much less stressful, less anxiety filled, and more of a carefree season - its like worrying all year about getting a date to  prom and just deciding to burn the place down the night before instead. Now every game is simply a “win” and something we can be thankful to have on the books. No more cracked out Saturdays cheering for a team in front of us to fall, no more overstressed work weeks in which I try to balance sanity with anticipation and fear of what the weekend will hold, and no more talking trash constantly to anyone who cheers for a team other than VT…

Sniffle… sniffle… yep, fall is not going to be the same.

In what looks to take almost a year to go from rumors-to-reality, the downtown Blacksburg, VA Chipotle location is set to open on October 5th, 2010.

Hampered by continuous construction delays which included lowering the main street retail spaces floor by a number of feet combined with one of the worst winter storms on record, Blacksburg will be getting their beloved burritos almost six months later than originally expected.There is some speculation as to if there will be some kind of grand opening celebration  or promotion. Bastardized burrito pusher, Moe’s, had to resort to giving away 52 free burrito coupons to each of the first 300 people in line on opening day. Never have I heard such drastic measures from a Chipotle (much less one that is destined to be a huge success), still if its a unique Blacksburg location t-shirt and a free burrito for the first hundred or so in line, you may just see people camping out as if they were waiting in the old Cassell Coliseum first-come-first-serve student football ticket handout.

And to anyone who has just plain had it with their jobs working in the city, they are still hiring employees for the new location. Though we all hope they leave the all-important burrito rolling in the hands of a 40+ year old Latina mother with a smile - they are the only ones who really do it right.

Remember to mark you calendars for October 5… just in time for the Wake Forest Homecoming game.

The Washington Post had a delightful sports section today, the front page had three things I was stoked to see… first Dibble is fired from the broadcast booth by the Nationals, secondly, Nyjer Morgan’s freak out brawl is highlighted with the man himself taunting the crowd as he exits the field, and lastly a cover piece on the Hokies, their stellar running game and potential to head to the BCS Championship game. And for good measure there’s even an upskirt shot in the upper left just to make sure we had some smut in there too.

Go ahead and click on the different articles in the image and learn more …