Of what you ask? Well of being the main character in a storybook ending to the Hokies 2011-2012 season. In fact, the entire Hokie Nation was robbed on Tuesday Night when in the final moments of the 2012 Allstate Sugar Bowl, PAC1012 officials reversed a call that was originally ruled a Touchdown on the field.

Instead we get Michigan putting another notch in their chewed and raw bedpost.

There have been countless articles written on “the Coale Touchdown that Wasn’t” by now and if you explore college football message boards and the comment sections of articles about the game people continue to argue back and forth if it was actually a catch. Fans of other teams have flooded the conversation by refrencing a similar moment in their program’s history that will haunt them forever. Well, that National Championship trophy case in Merryman Athletic Center is still empty, but we apparently can now sit at the big boy’s table along side teams that have been royally screwed at a pivotal moment in an important game by a blown call. But what is beyond the argument of “whether it was a catch or not” isn’t really what should be at the center of the discussion because its the fact that there is SUCH a discussion that shows just how wrong the officials got the call.

Somewhere in the creation of instant replay we seemed to forget that the replay system was never intended to be the replacement for on-field calls. The system was given a purpose and a limited power to allow an official to reverse a ruling if and only if the video evidence convinces him beyond all doubt that the ruling was incorrect. Without such indisputable video evidence, the replay official must allow the ruling to stand. (See NCAA’s Rule Book if you don’t believe it). As someone who works pretty much every day in a legal field that requires the daunting level of proof of “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” the fact that this call was reversed FAR exceeds the absurdity of verdicts from famous cases like OJ Simpson or Casey Anthony. For the original on-field call to be overturned it means that there basically had to be no-doubt-about-it, 0% I’m wrong, I’d bet my life on it kind of confidence in the video evidence. Well, we have all the video evidence and the controversy rages on - just proving just how much doubt there truly was.

Now, had the on-field call been initially incomplete I believe I would have actually accepted the outcome of the call and ultimately the game. I would have been angry for a bit, I would have still believed that Coale was deprived of a reward he so deserved after all he gave the Hokies this season (and four seasons prior). Understand that if the call was originally “incomplete” then the rule, per NCAA, would have forced the replay official to let the call stand because it was simply not possible to definitively know from the video if the instincts and eyes of that on-field official was right or wrong.

But why? Why was it that the official got not just the play but the RULE so wrong? Some conspiracy theorists speculate that it was because the Sugar Bowl Executive behind the game, who was grinning ear to ear and said he was “happy” Michigan was the victor, is in fact himself a Michigan graduate and “encouraged” the outcome one way or another. Looking back over the game its hard to argue against the bias calls that were made against the Hokies. Sure the Personal Foul Roughing the Kicker that swung back the momentum in the first half could have been called by any officiating crew… but when you juxtapose that with a pass interference call on an interception which was clearly a mutual battle for a ball (if not offensive interference) and that the crew whistled David Wilson down when his knee was 5 inches off the ground in a key running play that could have broken open for massive yardage - well then the final call really does raise some eyebrows. Add the fact that the first video review of the play was complete and the official ran back to the field ready to uphold the touchdown call but was then called back to have the (super rare) SECOND video review for further analysis of “possession.” And then add the cherry on top: knowledge that the Michigan-rooting Sugar Bowl Executive was sitting in the same room as the replay official and you have yourself a full-on tin foil hat wearing paranoia onset.

Enter then all the demons that come flying back based upon this bizarre ending to the Sugar Bowl - Tech’s inability to sell more tickets to the game, the ACC’s poor showing against other conferences, VT’s record in BCS bowls, Wilson’s decision to leave school for NFL draft, Beamer’s bowl results and its impact on boosters. ALL of those story lines come back now with that one single bad call (and albeit some other mistakes by the team in the game).

Don’t get me wrong, Michigan does not deserve to LOSE its Sugar Bowl trophy - THEY didn’t do anything (although neither did their offense by scoring a grand total of 184 yards) - but the way in which they won left no one inside of the Superdome truly content. We wanted the storybook ending and we we were robbed along with Danny Coale. That catch, if allowed to stand would be the rolling highlight of Tech montages for years to come, it would be played a 100k times on YouTube in a matter of days, it would be the sugar sweet ending that Virginia Tech fans never, ever, seem to enjoy. And so the familiar Hokie’s drum beat continues… 11-3… no BCS trophy, no hero on the shoulders of the team, no silencing the critics.

With the advent of HD televisions, Tivo, automatic call reviewing by officials (without the need for a challenge flag), and even over-confident broadcaster analysis it seems like now the goal of the instant replay and review is to find any possible way to show something DIDN’T happen - as in this case that WR Danny Coale didn’t have possession of a football that knocked the wind of out him when he smashed it to his chest. With that blatant mistake by the officials we turned a great story in to the children’s book that was printed by Buddy the Elf’s mean father - it just ends - and we walk off the field.

Again? Let’s hope my third trip to the Big Easy for a Hokies bowl game is the charm.

The contents of my bag. I swear one trip to NOLA all I brought was that little black iPhone thingy and a credit card.

Yes, in just a handful of days we will be watching the SECOND ACC team in a 2012 BCS Bowl game. There have been all kinds of jabs at including the Hokies in the game (be it slow ticket sales brought on by poor planning by VT Athletics and secondary markets, Tech’s abysmal showing in big games, and the fact that we lost badly to Clemson in the final game of the regular season) but in reality this game is what Frank Beamer always said Bowl Games were supposed to be: dessert. This is a game against a massively popular opponent we have never played which has little ramifications on either program (its not like our bowl stats can get any worse) and we will be making tons of money off it. Win-Win! Well… I hope its a Win.

I have heard so many different perspectives on this game that I have no idea what to expect - but I know I am excited. I am excited like I was before this season’s UVA/VT game… I just want this game to deliver. There have been some great break downs of the game and what to expect, my favorite being a thorough piece over at The Key Play.com, but one thing is certain and its that the booze will be flowing no matter what the outcome.

Geaux Hokies.

As we get closer to the bowl game there have been some fan-made promotional videos to get tech fans fired up (even if they aren’t buying tickets from VT Athletics site). Billdozervt’s video is no exception to fanning that flame:

It almost brings an orage tear to your eye. That other school in Charlottesville made an attempt at a hype video also, but it looks more like Hokies trying to troll - its honestly painful to watch the awkwardness.

Okay, if you didn’t know any better you would have expected the sound of a record needle ripping across an LP just as ESPN revealed that the Hokies would be heading to New Orleans to take on the Michigan Wolverines in the BCS Sugar Bowl. Kirk Herbsteit pretty much summed it up in his backhanded compliment though - the Hokies may not be the most deserving resume to make it as a BCS at-large but the BCS is showing that its all about the money.

To anyone who may be a fan of Boise State Kansas State Baylor Oklahoma baby whining about a system that PICKED US, please let me point some things out:

1. VT isn’t going to turn down millions of dollars on principle - Beamer was probably just as surprised as everyone else when we ended up with the slot and of course we aren’t going to RSVP “no” to the party that provides the ultimate goal of all collegiate football programs (yes money).
2. There weren’t really a TON of picks outside of VT to chose from … once you factor in that Houston lost on Saturday and was then thrown out of the BCS mix and the fact that the SEC was precluded from sending a third team because of the 2-teams-per-conference rule you were left with VT, Boise State, Baylor, Oklahoma, and Kansas State… taking the four who weren’t invited to NOLA a bit further…
3. Once Boise State lost a single game all of their Cinderella glitter fell off. Honestly zero coverage existed for the team after the loss and though they may have fans that travel well its not like a Michigan/Boise State matchup will prove any more to a college football fan than two years of TCU/Boise proved. No one would care.
4. Baylor? BAYLOR? ARE YOU SERIOUSLY GOING TO TELL US BAYLOR SHOULD HAVE GONE INSTEAD OF VT?! No no no no. Great QB of course but more people will be watching the Heisman selection supporting Baylor than would be cheering for the Bears if they played against themselves in a nationally televised game (and you may have not even known that Baylor mascot was the Bears… I could have said Honey Badgers and you would have believed me).
5. Oklahoma…. okay sure, they are like us in that they got spanked in their conference championship and they DID win more impressive games but the Hokies didn’t lose to a sub-.500 team (Texas Tech) and well face it - people just don’t find the Big 12 sexy. Oklahoma can take its weirdo friend Kansas State and go to a dot com bowl.
6. The Hokies travel well, very well, and have shown it DIRECTLY to Sugar Bowl selection committees in the past with strong showings versus Auburn and Florida State.
7. New Orleans’ Superdome is also the home for the National Championship. You know that the SEC retard-fest will sell the city out of every hotel room, game ticket and truck balls (and amazingly lower the IQ of the state of Louisiana for a weekend) but what if your main goal was to make money for the game you are planning to host less than a week before the big show? Well you NEED to take Michigan, why not take a second rabid fanbase and stir up some controversy while you are at it?

Sure we lost two games, I would say we “lost to one team” since it sounds better. Sure we looks like a big bag of douche in the Champonship game. But maybe, just maybe there will be some COACHING adjustments for the Sugar Bowl and maybe since the Big 10 hasn’t seen the likes of Wilson and LT3 the game will go much more favorably for the Hokies. Also we are guaranteed to NOT have ACC refs, which is great news to anyone who was actually watching the game on Saturday. In the end I guess losing the game wasn’t all that bad after all since no Hokie would actually want to go back to that asshole Orange Bowl for the 47th time.

Even with the review they didn’t agree with 36,000 screaming Hokies

Afterthoughts: I guess I DO get to cross “A bowl game in 2012″ of my CHristmas Wishlist after all. Uncle Frank should take Seth Greenberg aside and give him pointers on how to get your team invited to the big game. On another note - I swear to christ you can’t hide from these whores - they pop up when you image search “BCS Sugar Bowl”. Here’s to a month of pregaming!

Standing inside of Scott Stadium last night - after being cursed at, boo’d, and knocked in to by belligerent and frustrated Wahoo fans - it was a great feeling to hear the 25,000 or so Hokie fans overtake the crowd with a passionate “LETS GO” chant.The Hokies are now of course heading to the ACC Championship in Charlotte to take on Clemson in a revenge effort lead by a much more confident Logan Thomas and concussion-dealing David Wilson.

The Hokies looked good in every aspect - and even when UVA seemed to start each drive with a big play the defense locked down and held UVA scoreless (highlighted by new starting linebacker Jack Tyler’s smart pick up of a substitution that stopped a 4th down gamble by Mike London early in the game). The VT faithful began to breath easy early on in the third quarter and never had to look back. By the forth quarter the stadium BELONGED to Virginia Tech.

Somehow the Cavaliers Athletic Admin got away with wedging our band so far away from the field of play that I can only hope we place UVAs band in the parking lot for 2012.

The Wahoos in attendance weren’t all that kind to the Hokies either. Just in my line of sight we had the following:

• Limp wristed Indian/Pacific student who three times dove in to fans when UVA would get a first down. He flicked off Hokies all the way until the 3rd quarter when he discretely snuck out of the stands.
• A middle-aged woman who would turn around and face the Hokies in our section and scream and boo at us when we would get loud on defense. Either she had never been to a college football game where people make noise to disrupt the opposing team’s offense or she was a moron.
• A guy pulled out a flag on the muddy hill after Tech went up by 35 - a UVA fan in a mud covered jersey went running from across the hill to pull the flag out of the guys hand and then held it until he could give it to security.
• Police arrested at least 3 people who did nothing more than slide down the muddy hill (something the crowd had been cheering for). The patrons didn’t enter the field of play and it just added to the buzz kill.
  
• As a good portion of UVA fans streamed out in the 4th quarter a few fans chanted and cursed at every Hokie they saw closing with a “YOU SUCK” - apparently forgetting to check the scoreboard a single time during the game.
• And then this guy exists…
  

But what looked to be a tough fight for Tech (or at least hoped to be an exciting game) was more of a statement to remind UVA who is boss. It was clear from post-game interviews that Logan Thomas and David Wilson were both upset with the fact that the media was in love with UVA all week.

Washington Post ran an article everyday that highlighted UVA and barely mentioned Tech for more than a paragraph, 10+ analysts from ESPN, CBS, SI, and more picked against the Hokies stating that this was the year that UVA bounces back. With just about every single big in-state recruit in attendance for last night’s game that bounce back will need to wait a while longer.

The hate beams will hopefully continue to next week’s game against Clemson - its been something Logan has been talking about since the loss back early in the season so I think we can get 4 more quarters of emotional ass-kicking out of the boys in Orange and Maroon.

Well there is no denying it, UVA has had a great season. They are sitting as a ranked team (#25 in one of the polls), they have ads in the school newspaper informing students how to reserve ACC Championship tickets, and they have a chance to conquer their most bitter rival after seven straight years of defeat and in the process take down a BCS top 5 team and earn a trip to the ACC Championship game. Cute. Very cute, assholes.

Before we go and get all all Hokie-sweaty over this game lets remember that its a game that Tech can and should win.  Granted UVA’s run defense is decent but they can’t say they have seen a talent like David Wilson yet this season, and with a 50th ranked pass defense there will hopefully be plenty of diversity with Logan’s approach and (lord please) with our play-calling to fool the Hoo defense and allow a big play. Speaking of big plays UVA has allowed ‘em as of late… 68 yards, 64 yards, 58 yards, 51 yards… in the air or on the ground the Hokies need to have some against the Hoos to lock up a victory.

But why come to this blog to hear about the X’s and O’s?? - lets focus on the things that really DON’T matter, because that’s what we find important here at Dic Tailgate:

First off, how can UVA even pretend to have a fierce football crowd when their stadium is essentially a glorified Gymboree store. I shit you not, I see more little kids on TV when they broadcast UVA games then I do players on the field. Apparently UVA football games are the IN place to take the entire South Riding family for a nice Saturday. There is nothing intimidating about a group of fans wearing ties as their kids eat lucky charms out of a zip lock bag on 3rd downs… unless off course the lucky charms are shards of broken glass and the parents are throwing bleeding baby carcases on the field - that would be fucking terrifying. I didn’t even circle all the kids in the above picture either, I grew tired of it and figured you got the point.

These mascots are just plain AWFUL. I mean, you have a few options to make fun of here. First you you have a live action “Cavalier?” … a grown man who rides a real live trample-your-ass horse around the field. Next you have some weird boxing/mowhawked My Little Pony thing.  And last but not least you have the crazy-as-all-batshit mascot version of the live-action Cavalier, known only as Cav-Man. Now then, over at UVA they clearly have no control over their animals… you see, the horse which the “real” Cavalier rode in on during the William and Mary game literally bucked him off the saddle on live television (while at Tech we have our horses under serious domination and control) so all his dignity has been lost for all time - he might as well have projectile shat himself while ringing the masturbation bell during a Thursday Night Broadcast, we will never forget. As for mascot number two, the pedophile horse, that thing needs no real analysis as it is clearly one of the most pathetic marketing attempts that has ever graced a football field. Perhaps they thought they could control a Snuggie with orange oven mitts a little bit better than the live stallion after the real thing went all “The Ring” on the field in front of the national broadcast cameras. As for Cav-Man…

LOOK AT THIS THING. Its even dumber than then Demon Deacon - how such a bad mascot was made is possible is beyond comprehension. Perhaps it would take that friend of yours who went to UVA undergrad and brags about their vastly superior education to explain it to us (what was it you studied again? Oh “English”? Great - glad we have that technology covered). This Cav-Man thing is likely is the flasher that has been sexually assaulting men all over Charlottesville in recent weeks… I don’t think we even need to explore who would win in a fight between Cav Man and the Hokie Bird.

WHAT ARE THESE PRICES?! I mean sure I get it, its a big game, but there was no problem landing face value tickets a few years back when UVA was ranked #16 and VT was #8. There wasn’t this kind of hysteria. When UVA has had chances to prevent VT’s trip to the ACC Championship there was hardly a murmur of interest from the UVA faithful or a blip on the Stubhub radar.  But now - apparently ONLY NOW - after the Commonwealth Cup has been in Blacksburg for 2,512 days and counting (meaning that UVA’s 2012’s recruiting class was in 4th grade the last time UVA beat Tech) - is the time that the tides change and all the old shitbag Wahoos want to come out and should racial slurs and complain about the Democrats in a large crowded environment. And apparently all the Wahoos are so certain that it will be a win and want so badly to bring their 3 year-olds to see the teletubbie horse and rapist cavalier man run around the field that they will spend upwards of 300 dollars per seat. Recall back earlier in the season you could get the whole “Hoo Gang” of soon-to-be little douches in the stadium for 72 bucks and it included food too. This inflation is plain stupid.

So yes, in summary, don’t be fooled by UVA. They are excited to be where they are and they have a decent club - yippie, but the Hokies are a better team and will win the game down in Charlottesville this weekend. Sorry little ones, Daddy will lie to you many more times in your life and you aren’t going to get in to either school you see playing on Saturday, better brush up that AP Spanish for a chance to get a ticket to Christopher Newport.

So just sit back and watch some Football on Saturday you think, happy that your Hokies have survived Thursday Night to potentially play in the ACC Championship, “what possibly can happen this week?” Well, apparently a dump truck carrying thunderous shits can flip over on the BCS highway.

So lets just do the run down:

• Iowa State beats #2 Oklahoma State
• USC beats #4 Oregon
• Baylor beats #5 Oklahoma
• NC State beats #7 Clemson

And significant only to the Hokies (and I suppose the people who pretend to have attended FSU):

• UVA beats #25 Florida State

So what the heck does this do to the Hokies? Perhaps not a lot considering the BCS includes two letters of SEC for a reason. Three teams from the SEC will be saddled atop the rankings as the top three in the nation according to the BCS. And if America wasn’t paying attention the first time through because they nearly fell asleep during Alabama/LSU round 1 get ready for THE REMATCH!!!!! I don’t know about you but I am pretty sick of these same teams, and now it looks like VT will still be at the back of the line of the one-loss teams simply by the virtue that everyone in College Sports will likely pretend as if Saturday, November 19 never happened . Perhaps that’s okay however as cheap suit Clemson really went and soured our one loss by losing to NC State (Stanford and even Boise State may end up jumping us), and Clemson’s loss also sealed the fate that there is no way two top 10 teams will play in the ACC Championship.

Sure you can say there is an outside shot for the BCS, but we need some luck, we need to beat UVA like the spoiled stepchildren of the Commonwealth that they are and if edit: when we succeed, get our revenge on Clemson. Lets do all that before we start moaning about the Hokies place in the one-loss pecking order. And I guess good for UVA, thanks for making the game matter.

Edit: A more amphetamine induced rage post about destroying UVA is forthcoming. 

Do you know how long it has been since the Hokies won both of their Thursday Night matchups in a season? 2005 would be the answer. That’s right, we once relished the Thursday Night lights, attention, and pressure that came with Thursday Night games but as of late many fans have been more fearing the games than embracing them.

But no longer! Virginia Tech has gone and handled two Thursdays in a row. First came a win against pesky Georgia Tech, a team which not only Hokie fans but the nation as a whole believeshas some secret weapon that acts like Hokie-Kryptonite. But we have a new Superman in the form of LT3, who showed that when he wants something he can simply take it. I can’t say I had been as excited for a televised Hokies game in a long time. Something about the VT/GT matchup this year just seemed right. It was a “enough with this bullshit” kind of a feeling that I looked forward to the chance of simply dismantling the silly antics of that triple option and silence those who inked the game as a sure loss early in the season.

Then came UNC on a freezing cold night down in Lane. It was the last home game of the year an a potential trap game for the Hokies. Despite holding Wilson to under 100 yards and some last quarter heroics by UNC (brought on by early victory formation plays by VT) the Hokies again held on and got what they needed to make it a 10 win season yet again.

Here’s to looking forward to our ever amicable meeting with the Hoos down in C’ville.

But that means nothing if the Hokies don’t conquer Georgia Tech on Thursday.

The BC game was a relative snoozer. It was the same formula - offense starts slow, finds itself halfway through. By the end of the game Logan and Wilson had stats that basically kept their season averages exactly the same as they were before the game started and it was enough to notch a W against one of the worst teams in the ACC.

The Hokie team we saw in the Miami game and then the Duke game was like comparing Dark Knight with the old purple-suited Adam West Batman… just go with this, I have no other pictures from this turd of a game.

Then comes a trip to Duke. A game that some Hokies probably chose to not watch assuming it would be an automatic win. Those Hokies saved themselves from 4 quarters of extreme emotional distress. First, the Hokies offensive wheels were spinning but no chain was attached to the petals. Second, Duke’s defense was  playing outside of its 4.0 high school GPA minds and the momentum seemed to be with Duke the entire contest despite never having a lead in the game.  Combing that kind of sputtering “1st quarter-like” Hokie offense in a game with six turnovers, 12 penalties, and more empty seats than a Green Line train past Navy Yard and you get a Hokies mid-season performance that was a near-miracle win with a 4 point edge.

Enter now the biggest game of the season for the Hokies and the game that has been looming since day one of the season: Georgia Tech. The game is in Atlanta, on Thursday Night, after a bye-week. Three factors that haven’t been particularly favorable for the Hokies in the past few years (you got that Tech Sideline email, just read that again).

Oh no, these crazy assholes again?

I’m done predicting what the heck will happen in this game. With Tech bouncing from best offense performance I have seen in years to a team that looked like it had no answers against Thomas Jefferson High School against Georgia Tech’s wonky offense that has hurt us in the past (unless we brake the bones of the Yellow Jacket play makers) I think I will just sit down and accept things as they come.

I hope the Hokies respond to Duke like the first time I will be playing Call of Duty MW3 multiplayer - hopefully 83 headshots from a bunch of nerd teenagers will inspire them to play to win.  Here’s to looking forward to the first of two Thursdays.

After falling to a score of 10-0 in the Wake Forest game things didn’t look good… and I’m not referring to the buffered video connection for ESPN3 that froze every few seconds. The Hokies offense was sputtering, unable to score a first down, and the defense was giving up big plays to team that frankly has been non-existent in the ACC.

But then, almost in sync with the fans who poured out of the Wake Forest mini-Lane replica, the team turned it on. The emphasis is TEAM. In season’s past it would feel like the defense would carry the team and we would be hoping for a defensive touchdown to secure victory or that only one dimension was working, such as the running game, and that would become the story of the offense for the day. After ECU it looked like we were heading for the same kind of season - run and non fun - and then after Beamer’s partial brainfart against Clemson it was looking as though there wouldn’t be a cohesive plan on how the team was going to function for the rest of the season. But now, with Thomas in more of a groove, it looks like the defense, running, passing, and even kicking game may all be working as gears in the big Orange and Maroon Machine.

According to WP, the Hokies are averaging more passing yards per game (227) than any other team during Coach Frank Beamer’s 25 years in Blacksburg and the team is attempting more passes per game (28.3) than it has since 1995, when an NFL-bound Jim Druckenmiller was a senior junior. The article continues to show that the average yards per pass and average yards per catch have gone relatively unchanged. The reason for the change? After nine miserably predictable years with Stinespring we now have O’Cain making most of the play calls - and as a former QB and friend of Logan Thomas it shows immediately to the fans. The team is more FUN to watch and its not to say the Hokies have abandoned the running game, either, with catch-a-rabbit David Wilson tallying 903 rushing yards and O’Cain is still calling running plays about 60 percent of the time this season. Its a welcome blend that is like moving from Tecmo Bowl to Madden 2003.

That Daria-like hipster of ESPN commentating, Heather Dinich, was at the biggest game on Saturday as far as impact on the Hokies schedule is concerned. UVA surprised everyone with a solid first half against Georgia Tech that turned in to a defensive lock down and win for UVA. For a brief moment UVA actually looked… well, cool. But then they showed too many babies and upset overweight white people wearing boat shoes in the stands to allow that sentiment to hold for very long.  The big win allowed the Hokies to have a better chance of taking the Coastal division and has offered some breathing room for the team to focus on each game ahead and not looking toward Georgia Tech as the one hurdle before a potential rematch against Clemson. With that potential comes a chance to see if this complete package Hokies squad can redeem themselves.

Here’s to looking forward to next week’s Homecoming and last Saturday home game of the season - this season is flying by and its about time the TEAM arrived.