- November 21st, 2022, 7:12 pm
#647630
I told myself a long time ago that I was too invested in my favorite teams' outcomes on the weekend, and it wasn't healthy to let my mood for the entire week be affected because one of my teams lost. Had it been my alma mater, or one of my pro teams, I would probably have already moved on.
That said, I don't know why this loss to Virginia Tech is so difficult to leave behind. My mind tells me that we are overperforming with an 8-3 record given our QB carousel, injuries, lack of depth, et al. I fully expected us to lose every one of our games against Power 5 teams and finish 8-4, so if we beat New Mexico State, we are ahead of my projection.
Still, losing to Virginia Tech stings. I was in the stands for the BYU game and hollering at my TV from my seat at home watching the Arkansas game, and after those victories, I dared to dream big for our Flames. 11-1, a higher-tier bowl game (against Notre Dame just to make the vision complete!) and a Top 15 slot seemed within reach. After the UConn loss, I tempered my expectations considerably but still thought beating Virginia Tech would be a nice consolation prize. They've never been more vulnerable in recent years than now, and we handled the Old Dominion team that beat them at the beginning of the year. I expected our team to be a little embarrassed after that UConn debacle and ready to administer a beatdown on an in-state rival that still had a lot of fans in our backyard. It would have been a victory that gave us bragging rights for years to come.
We sat with a couple of Tech fans during the game, and they were generally well-behaved and even thanked us for the hospitality after the game. Still, they were thoroughly enjoying the fact they beat us, and between their taunting and what I read on a message board I stumbled across, this wasn't just a win to break a long losing streak. The fans were quite exultant about the fact it was us, the fraudulent, Bible-thumping online diploma mill in Lynchburg, that they beat. Even Lynchburgers who hate Liberty were piling on.
Maybe that's why it stings - I am not from Virginia, so I don't have any deep-seated animosity toward Virginia Tech or Virginia but boy, they sure hold us in contempt. Yeah, maybe we've earned some of it, but there are thousands of good people that work, attend, and graduate from here and are making a positive difference in the world, and I feel quite protective of them.
Maybe it would feel differently if we had been blown out, but we had a lead well into the 4th quarter and the opportunity to close it out, and we weren't able to do it. Bad playcalling, turnovers, a tiring defense -- it could have been any of those things or all of them. Truth be told, we haven't played our best football since the 1st half of the Arkansas game.
I'm expecting we'll beat New Mexico State, and we'll go to one of those ESPN-affiliated bowl games and play some other fair-to-middling G5 opponent, and maybe we'll win that one and finish 10-3. It will have been a good year. Still, this one stings, and we have to live with it for a long time. Once we're in C-USA, it's G5 teams and the occasional FCS squad coming to Williams Stadium, and program-elevating wins like the ones we had this year will be a thing of the past unless the CFP expands, and even then we're not guaranteed to be the G5 team of choice if we win a league championship.
Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest, and it's on to New Mexico State. Since this is Thanksgiving week, I wish you and yours a blessed and bountiful Thanksgiving. I appreciate all of you!