Virginia versus Virginia Tech. One game, two teams fighting for one opening in Jacksonville at the ACC Championship game.
With Virginia healing up wounds on its well-deserved bye week and Virginia Tech still having to host Miami, Al Groh will spend the time until November 24 burning the midnight oil in preparation for the Hokies.
There needs to be another group working overtime, too: Virginia’s campus security. "We do have an overall facility security plan for every game," says Jason Bauman, associate director of athletics for facilities and operations. "But we do have a different security plan in place for the Virginia Tech game."
You know it’s coming. You know the Hokies have something up their sleeve.
Two years ago, under the cover of night, someone crept onto David A. Harrison III Field at Scott Stadium to spray paint the Virginia Tech logo at midfield on the eve of the Hokies’ 52-14 dismantling of Virginia. And speculation still persists about whether the miniscule Tech logo carved onto the hardwood court of John Paul Jones Arena was an act of Hokie-ism or vandalism.
But there’s a flipside to Hokie-ism. Last spring, several UVA students admitted stealing and breaking one of Virginia Tech’s fiberglass Hokie Bird mascots. Another one of the statues in Blacksburg was found shattered.
Unfortunately, at some point over the years, college fans began mistaking pranks for misdemeanors. I say let’s get back to simpler times. Vandalism and destruction aren’t needed.
After a lot of hard work, by which I mean spending two hours perusing the Internet for the best of the best, let me give Virginia fans a few new creative ideas for this year’s Rivalry Week. First, look to our men in the military. Prior to the Falcons and Midshipmen’s game in 2005, a few exchange students from the United States Naval Academy stationed at the Air Force Academy painted a fighter plane blue and gold with large letters: "US NAVY ’07/ Blue Angels."
How do you secretly paint a fighter plane in the middle of 4,000 Air Force officer undergraduates? Makes you wonder about "homeland security," doesn’t it?
Deemed by some as the greatest college football ending ever, Cal defeated Stanford in 1982 with an amazing multiple lateral kickoff return as time expired and the Cardinal band erupted onto the field. Not many know that 72 hours later, members of the Stanford Daily printed up fake copies of the Daily Californian with a front-page story headlined, "NCAA Awards Big Game to Stanford." Amazingly enough, an irate Cal coach, Joe Kapp, reportedly fell for the joke.
Finally, as smart as UVA students are, they should bear in mind that "street smarts" always beats "book smarts." The 2004 class of Yale showed that an Ivy League education can only go so far. During the Yale-Harvard contest, a group of Yale students posed as a new school club, the "Harvard Pep Squad." The Yale masqueraders convinced 1,800 Harvard fans in their own section to hold up colored rally cards to create a mosaic that supposedly said, "GO HARVARD." In fact, the letters spelled "WE SUCK."
Whoever said nerds weren’t fun?
Virginia fans, be on the alert. Don’t fall for any new pep clubs or Al Groh impersonators. Lock up the Cav Daily doors extra tight and keep an eye on your fighter jets—uh, Cav Man costumes. The Hokies are coming and so are their tricks of the trade.
Wes McElroy hosts The Final Round on ESPN AM840. 3pm-5pm, Monday-Friday.