The U, The U, The U is on fire...

I guess you guys have your reasons...there was a time when Miami and FSU were after thoughts in college football as well and I wonder how many folks in the Tallahassee and South Florida areas "jumped on the bandwagon" in the early 80's? Sure you have a lot more vocal support from Tech fans in the last 15 years or so, success brings that out naturally...but I know alot of guys from around here including myself who were going up and watching Tech play in the days of Will Furrer, Vaugh Hebron, Eugene Chung, all the way back to Bruce Smith...so not everyone became fans when Vick came to Tech...as a matter of fact he and is brother are the only 2 QB's in the last 15 years at Tech that I have not seen play in person(De'Shazo, Druckenmiller, Noel, Randall, Furrer, among others I have seen).

I really respect Bobby Bowden and the program he built at FSU and he is a really great guy...I also respect Shnelly and how he brought Miami out of the doldrums of college football to be a national powerhouse but ever since Jimmy Johnson took over I have not cared much for the Canes and even though I like Larry Coker and think he is a good guy it doesn't seem like things have changed much from the days of thug ball down there...but hey you like who you like and I will say this...when the Canes play the Vols I am a Miami fan without a doubt.

You know, if Clarett would have gotten that 40 time down, he wouldn't have had to worry about this whole thing. I'm not saying he would have been a Denver Bronco, I'm saying he would have had enough separation speed to keep running from the cops instead of turning himself in.

I'm telling you now, if Clarett says Gary Coleman did it, we may want to consider that alternative--they're almost twins.

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I guess you guys have your reasons...there was a time when Miami and FSU were after thoughts in college football as well and I wonder how many folks in the Tallahassee and South Florida areas "jumped on the bandwagon" in the early 80's? Sure you have a lot more vocal support from Tech fans in the last 15 years or so, success brings that out naturally... but I know alot of guys from around here including myself who were going up and watching Tech play in the days of Will Furrer, Vaugh Hebron, Eugene Chung, all the way back to Bruce Smith ...so not everyone became fans when Vick came to Tech...as a matter of fact he and is brother are the only 2 QB's in the last 15 years at Tech that I have not seen play in person(De'Shazo, Druckenmiller, Noel, Randall, Furrer, among others I have seen).


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I know not everyone became fans of VT PMV (post Mike Vick), but about 60-70 percent of the fan base could probably be traced back that far and no further back. In bold up there is what I respect greatly--you don't know how many VT fans that don't know about guys like De'Shazo, Druckenmiller, Bruce Smith, Browning Wynn, Ken Oxendine, Vaughn Hebron, etc...guys that were either major contributors to VT's program, pretty good NFL players, or both, and I think that's a damn shame.

Now I don't claim to know every player from 1983 on...mega's got me beat when it comes to the early years of Miami football, but I still love the squads and the style of play from that point on. I honestly could brush up more, but I know about Miami's history than lots of VT fans know about their own. That's what being a fan is all about. Know the team, root for the team, and know it's history--whether it's humble beginnings to greatness or consistent greatness over a long period of time, it doesn't matter. Just know it if you want to proclaim yourself a fan--that's all I ever ask of anyone else.

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Better to like a team from another state for over 20 years and be loyal to them than to jump on a bandwagon for another in-state team almost solely due to the success of a lefty from the other side of the state...most of your VT fanbase that have loaded up on the wagon here recently have maybe 6-8 years worth of history that they've seen and followed with their squad, me, I've seen Miami since '83. 22 years of my life.

It's kind of like Redskins fans asking Carolina or Dallas fans around here why they don't like their "regional" team. I'm a 49ers fan myself...at least I can like a team on their own merits, not because of their proximity to my abode. That Va Tech being "SWVA's team" is a played out &amp; lame attempt at flaming--I'll support any kid that goes up there from around here, but that doesn't mean I have to like the rest of the team that's from Newport News &amp; Hampton or whereever else.

Besides...who cares about that conference record thing you've got up there...if you want to talk team to team, head to head, Miami's got that matchup on lock if you want to look at recent history for about the past 5 or so years. Then let's look at the overall--still Miami. VT's a good program, I've never said they're not, but Miami's an elite program, regardless of the hard times they're probably going to fall on given all of the coaching changes...and that's the difference for me. Miami's a great program with a really good history over the last quarter of a century, VT's a rising one with maybe 10 years max of successful history. Everyone's gotta start somewhere though, and competing every year is the beginning. VT's there to compete in the top 10 for the most part unless something happens...which is highly commendable, but still not enough to make me turn by back on 22 years of loyalty to UM's football program, even if VT is just up the road on 81.


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nice post football fan, you and Mega are truly loyal fans, I respect that!

I agree with your assessment about alot of people becoming Tech fans in the late 90's and later...I would guess its a little lower than your assessment of 60 or 70 percent but its still a fair assumption that the Hokies picked up a good number of (so called) fans during the last 7 or 8 years. For us that have been following their program for a good deal longer than that its actually a little frustrating because we get grouped into the "fair weather" fan pigeon hole as well...well sad to say I didn't save any of my ticket stubs from the 80's or early 90's but I know I was there and know I have been a fan long before starship 7 arrived. I heard my dad say something about going to games all the way back when Carroll Dale played so he definitely has more knowledge than I do but I can go back to the early 80's at least when talking about Tech football and I also have a little knowledge on their basketball program as well.

I followed Miami more in the 80's and early 90's than I have in more recent years and I remember alot about their program from those days because they along with Nebraska, FSU, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and a few others(Alabama, LSU..etc) epitomized success in that era and I remember hoping Tech would be part of that group one day...well those days have arrived but its not as sweet as I thought it would be and part of that is due to the "fair weather" fans coming on board and causing all of from back in the day to get categorized in with them. I'm sure Canes fans from the 60's and 70's felt the same way when the 80's rolled around.

"No matter what the temperature is in Miami, it's still 27 to 7 in Blacksburg."

That, my friends, is the greatest single quote I've seen on this board.

No matter what the temperature is in Blacksburg it is still ZERO (0) ACC championships in Miami [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

That was an even better post.

Glad to see you measure success by conference championships for your team...

No matter how empty the trophy case in Blacksburg, '83, '87, '89, '91, and '01 all belong to THE U.

NEXT???

Well, no comebacks for that.

That was back in the old days. You know, when they got by with all the recruiting violations. I'm surprised the NCAA didn't take back some of those. What a fall. All those titles and now they can't win a conference title.