October 06/2026
This will be my first update to the blog on all things sports in my life right now, and it comes at an interesting time!
Let’s start with the front runner, Virginia Tech football. For the last 7-10 years of my life tech football has been a source of mostly dread and pain, but things are starting to take a turn. After last year’s terrible 3-9 record, and spending most of the fall caring more about the coaching search than the games, we now sit at 4-1 (more on that later) and have James freaking Franklin as our Head Coach.
JF brought a bunch of his best players with him, and kicked off the summer with a top 15 recruiting class. Expectations to start the season had to be tempered, and honestly most would say that 8-4 would be a fantastic turnaround in his first year. But honestly, after watching the first 5 weeks of the season, I find myself wondering “is this team….good?” Time will tell, but the future is bright. The combo of Grunkenmeyer and Overton may be the best QB/RB combo we’ve had in 10+ years, and they should both be back next year.
In classic heartbreaking fashion, tech just lost this past Friday night vs Pitt on one of the strangest games I can remember. VT outgained Pitt by 200+ yards, but lost the turnover battle 0-4. One of those INTs was the stupidest call I’ve even seen on a turnover. Davion Brown catches the ball and goes to the ground while the defender is wrestling for it. After 5 seconds of rolling around the defender comes up with the ball and they give it to Pitt at the 10 yard line. Tie goes to the offensive player ALWAYS, except in this instance I guess. That play changed the game. UNTIL, tech went down the field in a fantastic 2-minute drill down 2, and had a game-winning 36 yd FG attempt to win it. John Love was 40/42 on attempts inside 40 yds before this, but had he ever had a real game-winning kick before? Maybe not, because he pulled it left in one of the weirdest endings to a game ever. Half the crowd celebrated like we had won, the tech players were celebrating, but the ref signaled no-good. The ball went high over the upright, and unless you had the perfect angle (as later seen on twitter), it looked like the kick was good! The ensuing madness on twitter was crazy, because it was non-reviewable. In hindsight, I just can’t believe he missed it. He wanted the right hash and then pulled it left. Insane.
The turmoil is that Tech missed their chance to be ranked for the first time since 2021. But is it really that bad? It sucks for the fans who had to leave disappointed ( I was supposed to be one of them before the terrible news about Molly Murden came out), 8-4 was always the goal, and that is still very much on the table. If anything, it was a wake up call for a team that made stupid turnovers, got hosed by the refs, and STILL had a chance to win. The secondary has been bad, and the OL has been beat up by injuries the last few games. Let’s go win these next two, and finish the season with a big victory over UVA to go 8-4, and take momentum into a big 2027 season.
Oh btw, Jags are looking great this year. For what may be my last season in Jacksonville, would love for my time here to go out with a great playoff run. Fingers crossed. DUVVAALLLLLL
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