Silly me. I thought when I had said after my most recent trip to Clemson that this was the worst BC game I had ever seen that I wasn't tempting the football gods to prove me wrong. There's more than enough to go around, so let's just get right into it.
1) Shinskie's 0.00 Quarterback rating
And here you thought Tuggle's 16.67 rating from the Clemson
game was the worst you had ever seen. "Not so fast my friend", as Lee Corso would say. Shinskie took on the challenge head first and managed the near impossible 0.00 QB rating. To be fair, the QB rating is a weird mathematical formula that combines four different equations, sums them up, multiples and then divides the product....but the only thing that kept Tuggle from a perfect zero was his one touchdown pass.That being said, they both scored a negative (which is not allowed by the formula) or zero in the other collective seven categories.
I bet you never thought you would pine for the good 'ol days of 4 for 20 with three interceptions, 23 yards, did ya?
If I had to give a specific play, I will EASILY go with the pick-6 for VT. Shinskie pulled off one of my biggest pet peeves a QB can ever do, pump-faked to the man he's throwing it to when he's not moving. All you're doing is baiting the defense to close in on the guy. Basically, you're saying "Hey, this game isn't tough enough. I want another challenge. I'm going to give you a head start on the ball. This is exactly where it's coming and whom I'm throwing it to. Are you ready? Are you sure? Sure you're sure? Okay, because here comes the ball...here it comes...ready? Okay, I'm going to throw it now, right this way...make sure you're ready for it...and...here it....comes!"
VT is plenty good enough on defense not to need this sort of help, but we provided it anyway.
2W) Being Dr. Jekyll / Mr Hyde
After beating FSU and Wake, I know the team felt like they were in position to play a tough VT team. After all they had beaten a team with "team speed" And they had beaten a Good QB'd team in Riley Skinner.. But who knew that it all wouldn't really matter much when they played a tough VT , with Dual threat QB Tyrod Taylor.
Now its just a hard time finding which Boston College team shows up for a game.. Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde.
3M) The Virginia Tech fans near our tailgate and in my section
I'm going to try to be as specific as possible, as not ALL Hokie fans are bad. In fact, the salute and rousing round of applause Lane Stadium gave Mark Herzlich as they donated 9,494.94 to Uplifting Athletes gave me goose bumps.
But on to the shitty hokie fans I encountered.
It should be noted that my expectation level was
actually very high. As I've stated before, my girlfriend is a Hokie and a classy fan at that. I have many friends who are Hokies: Amy, Allison, Angela, Ben, Channing, Jen, Jon, Johnny, Keith, Renee, and the list could go on and on. The reason why my expectations were so high were not based solely on the fans I know, but on their collective pride in the new VT campaign called "Hokie Respect" which they all believed to be a smashing success.They gushed how Nebraska fans (who are pretty much known for being the best fans in the nation) loved their experience in Blacksburg so much that they wrote letters back to the student newspaper to say how well they were treated. I was told that people would come up and say "Welcome to Blacksburg, thanks for coming!".
Now, I don't need to have my ass kissed. I understand it's a football game and you're there to cheer for your team. I understand there's a reason why, IMO, that Clemson has the best fans in terms of visiting an away team and that not many are going to compare.
Clemson, they were not. Think Morgantown (but without the bottles of urine being thrown at you).
My first taste of the hostility came when we went to Top of the Stairs and I said "hello, how are you?" to a couple. The made eye contact, saw my shirt, and turned away.
My tailgate (or more accurately, the tailgate I attended) was made up of three Hokies and myself. You would have thought that by being WITH other Hokies, it would have made it alright. I think the best analogy, as much as I can understand it, is how African American folks were treated in the deep south in the 30's and 40's. My friends (who were Hokies!) were outcasts, let alone the looks I received. Let it be known that nothing was said to us aside from one guy who called out "What, did you lose a bet or something?". Not the worst experience ever, but certainly not positive noteworthy.
As we made our way to the seats, a large woman decked out in VT gear walked by and punched me in the hand. Not wind-up haymaker or anything...think high school bully style where they drop the shoulder and swing through with the arm and hand. I'm a pretty darn big guy and she turned me around. Guess I should have been ready for it.
As we got to our seats, the girl sitting next to us spilled her drink into our seating area, saw me, and decided to let it flow into where we were sitting. No reason to clean that up, it's only going to be an Eagles fan sitting there.
After the score was 24-0, that's when the heckling really started. The guy directly behind me tapped me and said "Thanks a lot for ruining my bet. I had a Hokies win and the under! I knew the Hokies were going to win, but I didn't think you guys were going to let us score this much if we didn't let you score at all."
This prompted his hairy hag of a wife to cackle with vigor, while pointing at me, and coming within a couple inches of my face (old hag pictured to the right here).
I haven't wanted to hit a woman in all my life, but she was seriously making me consider the option.
After that was over with, the guy a couple sections back started with the "Matt Ryan sucks!" chants, which apparently got old as he dug into the vault and busted out the not terribly relevant any longer "no more Hasselbecks!" yelps. When that didn't get the result he wanted he started jeering the Red Sox yelling "Go Angels", "Boston Sucks", "New York, Junior", and anything else he could think of.
I guess I probably wouldn't have really cared if they hadn't been so often in nature, or if they weren't AFTER VT was now up 31-0. Seriously, there's no reason to do this shit anyway, but if you're up by thirty and blowing someone out, I guess I just have a hard time understanding why you're going to taunt an opposing fan when I'm clearly by myself. Your team is clearly kicking the shit out of my boys, I'm in pain enough as it is. Just sit back and enjoy the win, douchebag.
I guess I would say the "Hokie Respect" campaign of "RESPECT: The Moment, The Opponent, The Game, Themselves, The Competition" doesn't include "fans of the other team".
If you have the opportunity to got to Blacksburg for a game, don't. Just sit at home and punch yourself in the face. It's cheaper and you'll feel the same afterward.
4W) Bringing back a QB Controversy
Although I don't 100% buy into this. It's already being said.Why
isn't Marscovetra starting. Well he may get his chance.. But I for one hope not. Not because I have anything against the guy at all.. But because that would mean our situation had gone from bad to worse. Because I don't think Spaz makes that change anytime soon. But the worst thing about this is that it raises doubt , and doubt decreases confidence.. something that young players need. I hope Spaz stands by his choice of Shinskie , and Shinskie thrives.
5M) Constantly saying to myself "who the hell is that?"
I like to think I know enough about BC football to see a player on the field and know who it is. But as a result of Spaz's decision to put anyone and everyone in on any given play offensively or defensively, I was left asking myself who the player was who just royally screwed up. It's bad enough when a bad play happens, but when you go to see why player "X" was out of position, missed a block, missed a tackle, was getting blown off the ball, etc., it was that much more frustrating not even knowing who the players were. I'd say a good half of them I was able to finally figure out, but many others I'm still unsure on.
6W) Kickoff returns
You hear the old saying , its all about field position right? Well nothing determines that field position quite like Kickoff returns. Do I think we have good players in these positions? Yes. I just am not happy with the results. When you have freshman QB's the playbook that is used from your own 20, and your own 30-35 is COMPLETELY different. We have got to get the ball downfield so the QBs can have a better chance, and not feel all the heat on them all the time. And this is attributed to all hands in KO return play ( Coaching, blocking , etc)
7M) Lack of defensive adjustment on the run
Ryan Williams is fast. We knew this going in. One of our keys to the game was to force him between the tackles and not get outside. For reasons that are blatantly not clear to me, we kept allowing VT to motion guys around to the point where the weak side of the formation had three defensive players left at most.
Williams would take the carry, blind counter and would simply turn the corner and out-flank the DE and LB on the side. No adjustments were made and the grand majority of his runs that had success were A) on the edge, but B) almost always to the weak side. If I can pick up on it, I expect the coaches to. I'm sure they did, but why they didn't adjust is my complaint here.
8W) Frank Beamer running up the score
I had a lot of respect for Frank Beamer prior to this game. With the game well in hand, up by over thirty, the right thing to do is just run clock and kill 
the game. BC has never done anything low to VT, and it (had been) turning into a good, intense, but clean rivalry.
I guess Frank wanted to push it into another gear.
Not only did he instruct "Ju-Ju" to pass deep on a slant (80 yard TD pass), he even went for it on 4th and goal late to punch in another touchdown. I guess 44-14. wasn't good enough for Frank.
My guess is that no one showed Frank tape of the BC/ND game of 1992 followed by the 1993 game when David Gordon shit all over Lou Holtz.
Most VT fans who are in the know believe that NEXT year is THEIR year, and if something happens this year it's just icing on the cake.
I don't have to tell you how this lines up in 2010 when the Hokies come to Chestnut Hill. I just hope the ACC folks have enough wherewithal to schedule it as the last regular season game.
Payback is a bitch, Frank.
9M) Realizing that this is probably all my fault (the BCMike attendance curse)
In my defense, I thought it was over with. I had an 
impressive attendance curse going in 2004-2006, but after wins vs. Wake Forest to start the year in 2007, Georgia Tech in Atlanta a couple weeks later, the Notre Dame win in South Bend the same year, capped off by the ACC Championship-sealing victory over Clemson to end the regular season, I thought I was in the clear.
Here are the games I have gone to since Clemson 07 with the result in parenthesis. I count all teams I'm there cheering for, so not just BC--and not just BC football.
1) ACC Championship game in Jax (BC FB loss to VT, 30-16)
2) @ Clemson (BC hoops loss to CU, 78-56)
3) @ Chapel Hill (BC FB loss to UNC, 45-24)
4) Gaylord Hotels Bowl in Nashvegas (BC FB loss to Vanderbilt, 16-14)
5) @ Atlanta (BC hoops loss to GT, 86-78)
6) ACC/SEC Kickoff Classic in tATL (VT FB loss to 'Bama, )
7) @ Clemson (BC FB loss to CU, 25-7)
8) @ Blackburg (BC FB loss to VT, 48-14)
* I did attend Matt Ryan's first game as a Falcon in an Atlanta win, so it's possible my attendance curse is only NCAA-binding.
The "good" news, as I've relayed elsewhere, is that I don't plan on going to any games anytime soon. Except the basketball game vs. GT in the spring...so you can circle that as a loss for our Eagles this year.
10W) Brendan Deska was our 2nd leading WR
This is not to say that Brendan Deska is not a good player, a good BC guy, or by any means disparage his continued effort late in the game.
However, when our converted D-lineman who does not appear on the two-deep (or anywhere for that matter) is the second leading receiver on the game, you know you have some serious problems.
Recap:
BCMike- Shinskie Rating,Hokie Fans,Who the hell is that, defense adjustment,BC Mike curse,
Wesley- Jekyll-Hyde, QB, KO returns, Beamer, Deska being #2
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