With my Contributer status freshly renewed, I decided to sit down tonight over my Hamburger Helper (Cheeseburger Macaroni) and look at this game with VT beyond the "X"s and "O"s. Perusing this weeks Sporting News I was reading about VT's last game and how they wanted to have a cornerstone victory against ECU, one to set up the rest of the season but wound up fighting for a win and generating more questions than answers. Some called it emotion getting in the way but Beamer seems to know it was more than that. No doubt they will want to redeem themselves this weekend. I'm sure they will adjust and, like LSU, probably didn't have their entire arsenal on display last weekend. The match-up on the field...in my eyes...leans toward LSU but emotion can be a deciding factor in closely matched teams. No doubt the defenses will be running on all eight and both offenses will have their moments. The emotion of the game, the crowd factor even the weather can have an influence on the outcome. Can anyone deny the fact that the '04 Oregon St game was closer than it should have been due to the downpour before the game, or that in '03 the team fed off the chants of "LSU" after Georgia tied the score at 10 with 3 minutes left in the game, or that this team ran out of gas in '05 against Tennessee? I remember before the Florida game in '03 one of the guys I work with said it just didn't seem like the crowd was up for the game. Once inside the crowd seemed flat and it was an overcast, dreary day. Look for this tomorrow... Pre-game crowd. The enthusiasm before the game is a precursor to what lies ahead. It also leads to what the climate will be like inside the stadium at gametime. No one can deny that crowd emotion, especially in Death Valley can inspire the emotion of a team. They feed off of it even if they aren't really "hearing" it. When the team comes out of the tunnel, look for the emotion there. A few guys bouncing around will not cut it. The whole team has to be up...and I have no doubt they will. 1st game of the season, top 10 team on the agenda. Should make for a good one tomorrow... And on that note...let's show the Hokie fans a good time all the while letting them know what Tiger Stadium on Saturday Night is all about... DEAR LORD I'M READY FOR SOME TIGER FOOTBALL!!!!!!!!:crystal: :helmet: :geauxtige
The 03 Florida game was my first trip back to Tiger Stadium since I was a student in the '60s. Even though it was a day game, I agree that the crowd never got into it. It didn't help that the Tigers were just as flat as the fans. :dis:
I remember on the drive to that 03 Florida game, I told my pop that I thought that LSU really had it together and predicted that we would win the MNC that year. After the game on the way home, I wasn't so sure... Turned out that I should have stuck to my guns. I have decided to never count LSU out of anything ever again!
