Slept On It : Miami

Terrordome? More like a nightmare.

On a night where Thursday night football returned to Lane Stadium with a bang, the noise you heard was the sound of Hokies fans' hearts crashing to the floor.

Thursday night's loss to Miami was an embarrassment at every level. Scot Loeffler's first half play calling was baffling. His second half play calling was almost more so, given the score. Players missed almost as many assignments as they did tackles on Duke Johnson. Everything just went south in almost epic fashion.

There are so many places to begin criticizing this team and coaching staff, but the more I think about it, the less productive it seems. Calling out specific players would be a fruitless exercise; after all, they're kids. Kids who were just as, if not more, amped up for a Thursday night game in Lane on national television. I'm sure every single one of the players was recruited with some variation of the same pitch describing how there is no atmosphere in college football like it.

Enter Sandman reflected that excitement. It just never really translated to the on-field performance. A week after being literally and figuratively run over by a seemingly less-talented Pitt team in front of a primetime audience, most expected this Tech team to come out of the gates with a renewed focus. Instead we spent four quarters watching Duke Johnson outgain the entire Hokie offense 286-262.

What happened to the stoic, hard nosed, blue collar Hokies that traditionally dominate at Lane? As Brian noted
earlier in the week, the electricity that once made Lane Stadium one of the most feared places in the nation has lost its mystique. After Thursday's loss to The U, the Hokies are now 6-5 at home over the last two years, and 13-6 since we registered on the Richter scale closing out Miami in 2011.

Our entrance may be intimidating, but our on-field performance of late has been anything but.

So What Now?

Words are a powerful tool. They have the ability to elicit change and mobilize people to support a cause. However, history has also shown us the power of real, tangible action. You've heard the saying 1,000 times: "Actions speak louder than words." So here we are — as a University; as a football team; as fans and alumni — at a major crossroads. What now?

Since significant changes were made to the coaching staff and make-up of the football program two years ago, we have continually heard and said the same lines time and again: "We're improving every week." "We're almost there." "You can see it." I'm guilty of it myself. The win over Ohio State was supposed to be that watershed moment for this team, yet all we have seen since is regression.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning." For all of the talk about how this team is on the verge of lasting success, it sure feels like we're trending in the opposite direction.

We are all keenly aware of the clout money has in college sports. Fans and alumni have an incredible power to push the needle simply by disengaging from the team. When fans stop coming to games, both the university and the greater community lose out. When alumni choose to stop giving money to a cause they no longer support, the administration takes notice.

As Thursday's game unraveled for Tech, social media exploded with talk of change, perhaps with little thought of what the trickledown effect would be. Change can be good; but change for the sake of change may only provide instant gratification that has little resonance over the long term.

At 4-4, with four games to play, this Hokies team is essentially left playing for three things: Extending the 21-year bowl streak, maintaining control of the Commonwealth Cup and pride. As fans, it is a foreign and unpleasant position to be in.

We are walking a dangerously thin line as a fan base. When fans lose interest in attending games, it is a difficult trend to reverse. Just ask Virginia.

The question is what role should we play as fans? Are we supposed to approach attending games as though the team owes us something? As a fan, do you choose to fork over your hard-earned money to scream your lungs out and cheer in support of your team because you believe that they owe it to you to deliver a victory? I get it. It is hard to watch the team you love underperform. It is only compounded by the sacrifices you make to attend the game.

The alternative is having the mindset that you play an integral part in the outcome, as though you are that vaunted twelfth man. It's that mindset where you're cheering plays an essential role in the performance of the team, contributing to the excitement and the energy that helps push them forward, regardless of the score or the adversity.

We can complain about how we've grown tiresome of a particular player's performance or call for a certain coach's head. But for 99% of us, all of that is out of our hands. As fans, let's control what we can actually control. We can impact the volume and the energy within both Lane and opposing stadiums. We can ensure that Lane Stadium returns to a terrifying place for opposing teams, regardless of the on-field play. Let's continue to impress visiting recruits by showing them how raucous Lane can be and that the volume will remain cranked up until the final whistle. We can continue to stand behind these players and demonstrate that we will show up to every game wearing maroon and orange and contributing as best we can.

Let me be clear: I am not pointing fingers. The fans who have filled the stands at Lane have been great in their support. I don't have to get into how much each of us love this team and this university. We treat them as an extension of ourselves. When they win, we are overwhelmed with joy and love; when they lose, our heart hurts for days on end.

I'm terrified of a time when people start talking about how difficult Lane Stadium used to be for visiting teams. I would take that statement personally. That's not something you can blame on the players or the coaches. It is our job to show up and cheer just as much as it is their job to show up and play hard for 60 minutes.

Legendary coach Vince Lombardi said, "I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious."

We've got four games left. Let's show up en masse at Wallace Wade and BB&T Field. Let's show up at Lane. Let's scream our lungs out and shake our keys so hard that our knuckles bleed. Let's work to do our part in helping turn this thing around. Let's tell both present and future Hokies that we will always be there, and they will never walk alone.