Virginia Tech football: A View From the Press Box

As the Virginia Tech Hokies are set to (FINALLY) play their third game of the 2018 season on Saturday, I thought it would be a great time to take a look back at the home opener from two weeks ago. It wasn’t the most memorable game from a fan perspective, other than the Hokies scoring 62 points and it being the most recent game.

You see, this was my first experience covering the Hokies from a different perspective; in the press box as a credentialed member of the media.

Pretty cool experience.

As someone who grew up in the New River Valley, I attended games at Lane Stadium as a kid right before the Hokies became a national commodity. Some of those games, well, most of the games I attended weren’t overly memorable other than for the empty seats and losses. And there were plenty of each until that historic 1993 season when the tide began to shift for the Virginia Tech football program.

I’ve been covering the Hokies for various outlets for over seven years now. This is my third year here at Gobbler Country and the ability to work with a great group of fellow writers – and Hokies – is a pretty sweet gig. Going to the press box and covering the game as an impartial media member is a unique experience. For one, you have the best seat in the house and Virginia Tech treats you especially well.

From the pre-game meal, to staffers handing out statistics after every quarter to make our jobs easier, the Hokies are great. Everything you need to do your job is at your fingertips. Associate athletic director Pete Moris and his staff do a tremendous job and should be commended.

After the game, we headed down to the postgame press conference featuring head coach Justin Fuente, defensive coordinator Bud Foster, and players Hezekiah Grimsley, Houshun Gaines, Kyle Chung and Josh Jackson. From here, you can ask questions and work on your postgame stories. Again, someone from Virginia Tech will hand out the stats for the game, making our job easier so we don’t have to pull up the box score from NCAA.com, ESPN or anywhere else.

Overall, it was an outstanding experience which I look forward to continuing for a while. The next home game is October 6 when the mighty Notre Dame Fighting Irish visit Lane Stadium for the first time ever. This should be an epic game-day experience.

Hope to see Lane packed and rocking.