Friday Night's Reminder of What Makes College Football Great

With Virginia Tech firing Brent Pry after three games and starting the season 2-5, there can sometimes be a lack of stories to write about. So when my fiancée bought six tickets through work for the VT-Cal Friday night game for what would be her first ever game at Lane Stadium, I decided to join her in the stands rather than be in the press box to gain a different perspective.

The plan was to get a little taste of what the fan experience is like nowadays at Lane Stadium amidst a year where the on-field results are no longer the main focus in Blacksburg. This felt like a compelling angle for what has been a lost season and as someone who last sat outside of the press box at Lane Stadium as a senior at VT on the weekend before Thanksgiving when the Hokies had a dramatic goalline stand to beat Pitt. It was also a great chance to get to have my fiancée take in her first VT team and share stories of the past.

Fortunately for her, she got to see what college football can be at its most entertaining and wild.

While I will share my thoughts on what the fan experience is like at Lane Stadium (pluses, minuses, etc), college football sometimes reminds us that even what is a 'lost season' can provide entertaining moments that cause us to fall in love with the sport all over again.

Tonight was one of those as Virginia Tech pulled off a thrilling 42-34 double OT victory over California that had all the drama, chaos, and entertainment that makes college football great.

Let's start with everything that was going on around the action on the field.

First, any conversation starts with the 25th Anniversary celebration of Enter Sandman with ESPN once again delivering a great perspective of the legendary entrance.

Traditions like Enter Sandman are what makes college football (and college sports as a whole) great and distinct from most other major American sports. It's rare that an entrance can become must see TV but Enter Sandman is one of those traditions that has become that for the networks along with things like Clemson running down the hill, the Iowa wave, Florida State planting the spear, the smoke at Miami, Sandstorm at South Carolina, Ralphie leading Colorado onto the field, the Boomer Schooner at Oklahoma, etc. You get the gist.

Those are the traditions you see on televisions but there are the little thing that make college football great and unique across the spectrum of the sport from all the alma maters, the in-game fan traditions like Tech fans shaking their keys on third down, and more.

That also includes the improvised things that can take over college football in a hurry and bring laughter and joy in a world where we need a whole lot more of that.

Case in point, the Oklahoma State fan who took off his shirt and started waving it over his head before others joined him to eventually fill multiple sections.

That event has spread across the sport among programs who have had rough years similar to OK State with Wisconsin, UCLA, and now Virginia Tech students and fans all joining in on the action.

This was one of those wild in-game moments inside Lane Stadium tonight where I looked over from the East Stands towards the student section in the North End Zone and out of halftime, there are several shirtless students waving their shirts over their heads. This group quickly starts to grow as you see dozens and dozens of students moving with haste to sections that aren't actually the best ones in that

Up to that point, the environment inside Lane Stadium was pretty dead after Cal had 20-straight points to take a 20-10 lead into the break. In most sports, something on the field is required for bringing life into a stadium. That's not the case in college football where several fans waving their shirts in the air can begin to turn the tide even amidst 50,000+ fans.

As you can see, those photos came slightly after the initial situation but that was far from the end. The several that started became hundreds of students filling multiple sections of the North End Zone as the temperature dropped below 40 degrees and closer to freezing. To say you have to be crazy to do that in this weather is obvious, but crazy is the type of thing you see in college football.

Tell me what other sport will have a bunch of future engineers, business leaders, doctors, etc taking off their shirts in cold weather and waving it around to cheer on a 2-5 football team that fired their coach. In no other sport are you seeing that type of passion amidst this type of season.

And this passion goes beyond just Blacksburg to places like Madison and Stillwater and so many more places where fans stay loyal and passionate even when seasons go awry.

You also have the banter among fans shown by things like the Calgorithm with fans not taking themselves too seriously and being more than comfortable being cordial and laughing with each other. That doesn't change the intensity we see from fans cheering on gameday but that collegial cordiality is something that should be celebrated.

You look at all the friendships that people have developed through this sport. Shoot, there are plenty of cases of people being brought together in marriage through shared passion for a team and college football. The fans of this sport and their unique loyalty and passion even amidst disappointing seasons, and the community and friendships that come from it is part of what it makes so great. Those shirtless students will have a memory for a lifetime that they may even tell their children and grandchildren about.

How many sports can have a mediocre matchup produce those type of memories? Very few.

But it goes beyond just the passion of the fans to the players and coaches on the field and the unique stories that we see play out.

Look at Philip Montgomery, a coach who was seemingly on the edge of the coaching business just 18 months ago as an offensive coordinator in the spring UFL. Now, Montgomery has a 3-2 record with two one-score ACC wins as Tech's interim head coach. While the former Tulsa head coach will most likely not be VT's next full-time head coach, Montgomery is coaching his way into likely consideration for plenty of Group of 5 and good FCS jobs. Jobs like Colorado State may be more than apt to consider someone who is showing that they can turn a rough situation into a team that fights to get wins.

Look at the contrast of quarterbacks. On one side, you have Kyron Drones who is looking to get anything he can get from college football in his final year with very low chances of him playing QB in the NFL. He was unafraid to put his body on the line, not sliding once amidst his 19 non-sack carries. Opposite him, you have a true freshman in Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele who looks every part of a QB we should remember for the 2028 or 2029 NFL Draft.

Tell me any other American sport where you can a potential future high draft pick taking on a QB who is more likely to be in the grandstands or playing a different position fighting to make a NFL roster facing off and putting on a show.

Look at guys like Marcellous Hawkins and Joseph Reddish who started their careers off at what is the third subdivision tier of college football and probably at least the fourth or fifth tier when you separate out the various qualities and differences within FBS and FCS. Both Hawkins and Reddish have gone from overlooked talents to promising and productive players with Hawkins running for a season-high 167 yards and Reddish having four tackles tonight after having two TFLs versus Georgia Tech.

At least in football, you don't usually see the undrafted free agents get much of a leash but in college football, a Division II player can show he has what it takes at a lower level and then get his chance at the highest level of the sport. That's awesome.

There's also the beauty that college football is not the highest level of football and doesn't try to claim to be something that it isn't.

John Love and Chase Meyer are both talented kickers who have reasonable chances to make it on Sundays in the future, especially Love. The beauty of college football is that these players are far from finished products which shows when you have these two guys miss field goals that lead to overtime, kicks they will likely make often in pressure-filled situations after college but are still developing now and therefore prone to more variance.

The wild momentum swings and runs that set the stage for the dramatic finish was emblematic of the incomplete product that many of these players are along with the wide variance in talent and ability to consistently achieve peak performance. Outside of college football (and college sports as a whole), you aren't getting the swings like we saw in VT-Cal where the Hokies start 10-0, Cal responds with 20-straight points, and then the Hokies have 17-straight before Cal finds a touchdown to set the stage for a pair of missed field goals and overtime.

Sure, this sport has its imperfections and frustrations as the wrong roughing the passer call late in the fourth quarter was emblematic of.

However, there is nothing like college football. You're telling me a battle of below average NBA or NFL teams is compelling at all. Meanwhile, tonight's VT-Cal game between a VT team that may be headed for 3-9 and a Cal team that may struggle to get to a bowl even with a 5-3 record was a compelling, thrilling game that engaged fans.

As someone who hasn't stepped out of the press box for a VT Football game since I graduated VT, tonight was a delight both to get to show my fiancée a taste of what this sport is about and to simply enjoy the passions and emotions and simple fun that come from college football.

There's a beautiful humanity with this sport that goes from the bonds of dudes waving their shirts in the air to cheer on their team to an overlooked DII player proving himself to be more than capable of performing at the highest level of college football to a coach who was on the brink now making a case for a second full-time head coaching job elsewhere in the sport.

There are so many more reasons that make college football but the fact that a sloppy, roller coaster of a college football game between a VT team that fired their coach and entered the night 2-5, and a Cal team that may struggle to reach a bowl shows could bring out some much passion and interest shows how great college football is.

It's easy to see how great the sport is when you have a Alabama-Georgia showdown, but what really makes college football great is that the same passion you see and entertainment you get for a top 10 matchup also is reflected in a matchup between two bad to mediocre football teams.

Friday Night's VT-California was a reminder of why college football is great. I know tonight's matchup of two bad to mediocre teams will be a fun memory for me and my fiancée to look back on. No other sport are you likely getting that from a matchup between two mediocre to bad teams.