Whit Babcock And The Battle At Bristol

With the news last week that Whit Babcock inked a new deal, I thought about my favorite Whit moment. The Battle At Bristol had just ended, and I was walking to the press conferences in the adjacent buildings at Bristol Motor Speedway. I had previously navigated the passage from the press box to the field level several times. This was a different experience. The Vols fans were proudly exiting the speedway singing Rocky Top at the top of their lungs. In my face. Literally in my face. I was trying to keep my head down, but Vols fans kept finding me. It is very similar to a salmon heading upstream. There are bears. There are rocks. Point is, I had to get to the media center in the infield of B.M.S..

I went inside and Coach Fuente was already speaking. The Hokies chose Jerod Evans as one of their player reps, and I was all in. There were some great questions asked by the Hokie media, and I listened with all the fervor as I could muster. After I got over the initial disappointment of losing the game, I decided it was time to find my brother and step dad. I left the media center and started waling up the track to get out of the infield. Outside the press area stood Whit Babcock chatting with Desiree Reed-Francois. Desiree is the Executive Associate Director of Athletics/Senior Woman Administrator. I thanked him for helping to put on an amazing event. He said, “Sorry we couldn’t get the win for you. We appreciate all your coverage.” With all of the action going on around the post game, he still had time to thank me. That’s the kind of guy Whit Babcock is, and Virginia Tech made the right move keeping him in Blacksburg.