This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 11.

It's Christmas in July for college football fans as today marks the release of the latest in EA Sports' NCAA Football series. If you don't want to look at Tim Tebow for the next 12 months, you can get your hands on the covers made above by readers Casey Richey and Gobbler. Enjoy the game and may it get you through the next month and a half.

And now, a word from our sponsor:

When you go to a particular school or grow up around college football, you are more than just a fan. It's who you are. We thought we could leverage this pride in your roots and show that "where you come from" is more than just a statement about geography. By positioning NCAA Football 11 as a game that understands this pride and is authentic to these traditions, the takeaway should be that anything that is in college football is in NCAA Football 11.

And this doesn't just include game play (though that's a huge part of it). It's rivals and mascots; it's legends and stories. It's those things that are at the very fabric of the game itself. Of course the game is great this year as well. With authentic entrances, mascots and specific offenses for each team, the term "where I come from" takes on a much larger meaning. While playing NCAA Football 11 is ultimately a great sports sim, it should also give you a sense of the pride and emotion one has for being a fan of a team they will never not be a part of.

Hope you enjoyed our "Where I Come From" series as much as I did. We're getting close to real, actual football, guys.

This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 11.

Today, I'm asking for your expectations for the 2010 season. Coming off a 10-win season in 2009, the Hokies return all of their significant contributors from the skill positions except Greg Boone and get Darren Evans back from last year's knee injury. However, the Hokies have to replace six starters on defense (I count Lyndell Gibson as a returning starter) and face a tough schedule.

Taking all that into consideration, how should we define success for this team? I think the answer lies somewhere between "all or nothing" and "just get bowl eligible." Those who think the only acceptable result for 2010 is going 14-0 and winning the national title are as justified as they've been for doing so since Michael Vick was in town. Meanwhile, those who are happy with any season that results in a bowl trip are probably a little short-sighted this year.

I absolutely think this team should be a contender for the national title. The problem is you have to get very lucky to actually accomplish the feat. Winning a national title requires a team to not only be special, but also be incredibly lucky. Unfortunately, I don't think this team is deep enough to overcome bad luck and injury so my expectations for 2010 are tempered a little.

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This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 11.

Today we're discussing our most memorable moments as Virginia Tech fans. Here's mine:

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This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 11.

There have been some great players to come through Virginia Tech the last few years, including Michael Vick, DeAngelo Hall, Kevin Jones and Eddie Royal. But my favorite players are rarely the guys who grab headlines. It's easy to count guys like Vick and Bryan Randall as your favorites, but here are the guys I consider my favorite Hokies of all time:

QB Will Furrer - Well, my pseudonym IS furrer4heisman and with good reason. Furrer led the Hokies in passing for four seasons and was Tech's quarterback when I first started to follow Hokie football.

FS Justin Hamilton - Hamilton played three positions is five years at Tech and was moved from offense to free safety (the quarterback of the defense) and helped anchor the 2005 defense, which is one of the best we've seen in Blacksburg. I think Hamilton personifies the self-less worth ethic that we've come to associate with Hokie football over the past few years.

DE Darryl Tapp - Another guy from that 2005 team, Tapp was a great leader and a fun defensive player to watch.

LB Cody Grimm - What is there to not like about Grimm? He was a former walk-on who was an undersized human wrecking ball from the whip linebacker position and was probably most fans' favorite from last year's team.

Who are your favorite Hokies? I have a feeling Bryan Randall is going to get a lot of votes, as he should.

This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

One of the many reasons I'm a Hokie fan is the game day atmosphere in Blacksburg. As I said on Monday, it always seems like a family reunion when I'm at Virginia Tech for a game.

And on game day, my family is the folks at the Clubhouse Tailgate. These guys have been to nearly every Tech game together since 2002 and accepted me as one of their own when I happened to wander over to their RVs at the 2007 Georgia Tech game in Atlanta.

Since then almost every Tech game I've been to has included taking communion (in our case a shot of Wild Turkey 101) with the guys at the Clubhouse Tailgate. My other personal tradition for home games is to grab a Rail at TOTS when I'm in Blacksburg on game day.

The guys I tailgate with are like a second family to me and make every Hokie game special. What are your tailgating traditions, home or away?

This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

I never had more fun watching a Virginia Tech football team than I did watching the 2004 team. There have been plenty of teams under Frank Beamer that had more talent, but none had more heart than the 2004 team.

What made the 2004 Hokies special was what they went through in 2003. Tech started the season 6-0 and out-scored its opponents 273-82 to move up to No. 3 in the polls. However, it finished the season 2-5, including an overtime win against Temple.

Big egos submarined what should have been a great team in 2003. But in 2004, the Hokies came together to overachieve and win the ACC in their first season in the league.

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This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

I was raised a Hokie despite being over 1,000 miles from Virginia Tech's campus. My family was from Southwest Virginia and I had relatives that went to Tech. Those that went to Tech made sure I grew up wearing Orange and Maroon.

Though the military had taken my family far away from Gobble Country, I did my best to keep up with a program that was growing from nothing. When I was 10, the Hokies made the Independence Bowl for Christmas I requested a (relatively) short trip to Shreveport to see Tech. Two years later, we were making a somewhat longer trip to New Orleans for the Sugar.

My fanhood solidified every time I had to defend the Hokies while growing up. It wasn't easy being a Hokie fan around people who had no clue where Blacksburg was or that Virginia Tech was located in Blacksburg for that matter.

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