After reading the Miami Herald article detailing the criticisms of the Hurricanes from Miami recruits, it got me thinking about the significance of the Virginia Tech win over Florida State to our recruiting efforts.
From what I have read in the wake of Virginia Tech’s historic win over the Seminoles, there were several Tech recruits at Saturday’s game. One would have to think that a high school junior being in Lane Stadium during one of the biggest games in the school’s history would be impressed, even humbled and awed by the experience. Heck, I have been to countless games over the years and I am still in awe of the atmosphere.
Granted, we have had some big recruits at games that we have lost (ahem … Boston College, 2007; Miami, 2005), but even then, the recruits have said how impressed they were with the fans and their endless enthusiasm and the intensity of the players, regardless of the score. The same cannot be said for the Miami Hurricanes who have a tough time selling out home games and whose fans will bail after the third quarter regardless of the score or game situation … or, so I’m told.
Let us pretend for a fleeting moment that we are highly sought after high school juniors attending the Florida State game. We are either in the stands on the 50 or actually on the field. As the team prepares to come onto the field, we hear over the loud speakers a pounding bass guitar spilling its hypnotic sounds into the stands and onto the field … Metallica’s Enter Sandman. Suddenly 66,500 Hokie fans begin to jump up and down and as we scan the stands, we are awash with a pulsating wave of Hokie Pride and deafening sound. We can actually feel the ground shaking. My God, is this what big time college football is like?
Then comes the lead guitar grinding out more rifts, and the crowd grows louder as the intensity of the music builds. A crescendo is near. Then, with the players huddled in the tunnel, hopping up and down, eager to storm onto their field and defend it against the onslaught that awaits. The Tech players hungrily eye their prey across the field. Then, at precisely 55 seconds into the now famed Hokie intro, the music breaks into an intense mix of heavy metal guitar and an all out assault on the drums … it is at this moment that players are released from their confinement touching the Hokie stone and sprinting onto the gridiron to take what is rightfully theirs.
The crowd, although familiar with exactly how this scene will play out, lets out a deafening roar that sends shivers down the spines of even the most stoic of stuffy alumni. Even the visiting fans are in shock at this display of pride for a team. And we haven’t even kicked off yet.
Then, to watch the Hokies make big play after big play; to see players dropping left and right only to have their backups get into the fray and battle it out with the same level of intensity; to watch Tech lose the lead and stare another crushing loss in the face; then to watch them man up, dig deep and give back to the ‘Noles ten-fold what they have doled out to us in the last three decades; to watch the fans storm the field, douse the coach and carry players on their shoulders … that, my friends, is the best recruiting tool, ever.
“Hello? Mom? Dad? Tear up those other recruiting letters … I’m coming to Virginia Tech.”
