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Written by Sam Renaut
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Tuesday, 16 August 2005 |
You want to know what hype is? Here’s a lesson in hype that
Webster’s can’t teach you. Take a perennial underdog, like a
football team. Throw in some preseason all-America selections and
a huge four-letter word that comes pegged with years of
controversy. Vick. Not Mike this time, the torch has been
passed. It’s younger brother Marcus who will lead Virginia Tech
to Pasadena, CA this year.
Hype. Hype is a curse that DC area fans know everything
about. Every year is the year of the Redskins. The
Nationals will be the saving grace of Major League Baseball. The
Oriole’s will actually make the playoffs this year. The Wiz even
made their first postseason appearance in ages. The Caps
will…well let’s just hope they play this year. The Terrapins
expect another basketball championship and a run at the ACC
championship in football. And Virginia Tech (in heart and spirit,
Tech is a Metro area school) sees itself as a contender year in and year out for the National Championship in football.
So are the Fighting Gobblers (as we Hokies affectionately refer to our
football team) delusional? Is it a Napoleon Complex in shoulder
pads and spandex? Or is it for real? Maybe we can break it
down and get to the root of hype.
Tech has talent on both sides of the ball, no question. Two
preseason all-ACC selections on offense, two on defense, not to mention
a platoon of fast young wide receivers. Drop in one Playboy
all-American in Jimmy Williams, and players on the Maxwell, the
Bednarik, the Thorpe, the Hendricks, the Groza and the Nagurski Award
watch lists. Stir in a Marcus Vick who could be the next GOAT to
come out of Blacksburg. A splash of Frank Beamer, one of the
winningest active coaches in college football, garnished with Mike
Gentry, winner of the Samson Strength & Conditioning Coach of the
Year award this past spring, and a unique blend known as
Beamerball. On the side, a media dish with a top ten preseason
ranking and a bid to win the Coastal Division, if not the ACC
outright. So what does that leave us with? Either an
overrated group of kids in helmets with a vast fan base headed for
disaster, or a team recipe worthy of a run at the Rose Bowl.
It has been the tradition at Virginia Tech to choke at the boiling
point. Look back at the seasons between Michael Vick’s departure
and the arrival into the ACC. Disappointment upon failure and
more disappointment. Finally, Hokie fans everywhere settled into
the idea that Virginia Tech may not be so great after all. The 82
consecutive weeks in the top 25 came to an anti-climactic end, and Tech
entered the 2004 season unranked for the first time in almost a decade.
Enter miraculous season. The hype…the hype…the hype. It
pours back in with a thorough thrashing of a new conference, capped
with a tremendous win in the Orange Bowl to guarantee a seat in the
BCS. And here we are in the preseason again, with Tech gearing up
for the 2005 season, surrounded by media coverage and, of course, the
all too familiar hype.
Always back to the hype. So here’s a theory. It’s the
media. Hype is created on slow, uneventful days to spice up a
column or two. And the fans, always eager to find a bandwagon or
a fad, jump on immediately. Gossip spreads like a game of
‘Telephone’ at a slumber party; exaggeration amplified by the age old
desire to be the person with the latest, greatest news. The last
message from the game is that elusive ‘hype’ that drives fans to buy
team jerseys and go to every game of the season, home or away.
They create media buzz and a larger television audience. Ticket
sales spike, ratings skyrocket, and everyone is happy. Happy,
that is, until the team chokes, blows the season, and revives the curse
of the hype. |
Virginia Tech 