41... George Del Ricco.

via: http://spec.lib.vt.edu

In the mid-90's, George Del Ricco put his indelible stamp on the Mike linebacker position. Hokie fans grew very familiar with the sound of Del Ricco's name being called over the Lane Stadium loudspeaker as he was credited with yet another tackle. Del Ricco had 130 and 137 tackles in 1994 and 1995, by far the two highest single-season tackle totals for a Tech defender since 1987, when defensive tackle Scott Hill was credited with an amazing 177 tackles.

via: TSL

Now look at the picture again, this time with Metallica's Seek & Destroy blasting in your head. Envision the tackle happening, hear the cracking of the pads and get fired up, because there's only 41 more days.

Trivia*:

1. Which Hokies drafted this year had 41 career starts?
2. Tech played in and won their first ACC game 41-17 against?

If anyone has pictures of general Hokie awesomeness that they'd like featured on the countdown email them to me (thekeyplay [at] gmail [dot] com). I'd appreciate it.

*The first person to leave a comment with the correct answer(s) gets a point. Each correct answer is worth a point. At the end of the season the most points wins a free tee from GameDay Passion.