Last week's contest: What's your best experience with an opposing fan (or fans)?

For some reason, we got WAY fewer entries this week than last week, when we asked about your worst experiences with opposing fans. I'm not sure what that means. Anyway, the winner of a free month of Sabre Edge is David Friedman (dblgushoo), who relates this story of last year's trip to Tallahassee.

My best experience with opposing fans occurred the day of one of the most miserable defeats in recent memory, the 2004 game at Florida State. A good friend of mine from high school who is a UVa grad was living in Tampa at the time and got 3 tickets to the game. His "Tarheel" roommate's brother in law was a huge Florida State fan and invited us all to come to his tailgate with all of his Seminole friends.

We arrived at Doak around 4 p.m. and made our way over to the tailgate. I was impressed to say the least. These guys knew what they were doing. They had all kinds of food, a keg and a HUGE RV with the FSU logo on the back. We were about 400 yards from the stadium. There were 12 FSU fans at this tailgate and not one of them talked trash.

We talked about the 1995 game - they refuse to admit Dunn was stopped short, how much we hated VT, how much they hated Miami and the "new" ACC. We also talked about other teams' fans and agreed that Maryland had the worst by far.

Right before we went into the game, one guy says to us, "Guys, I am not going to talk trash to you, but let me say this - y'all are ranked higher than us, but it doesn't matter. You are going to be back here in a few hours saying shoulda woulda coulda because the Noles are going to win by 20. I have seen it hundreds of times." I sort of laughed and said something like, "We'll see." There was no way I was getting into it with FSU fans.

I won't rehash the game.

After the game, one of the guys came up to me and handed me a bottle of Jim Beam and said, "You need this more than me." The guy who predicted FSU would beat UVa by 20 just chuckled when he saw us. "What did I tell you guys" he said. No one was saying, "We kicked your butt" or "UVa stinks," etc... In fact, most of the guys said they thought FSU played their best game in a long time and no team could have beaten them.

We ended up staying and drinking with these guys until about 1a.m.

It was an awful game but ended up being a really fun day because of the gracious Seminole fans we met.

Thanks to everyone who entered. Now to this week's contest, which was inspired by last week's incident in which some people snuck into Scott Stadium and painted a big "T" next to the "V" at midfield. As much as we hate to admit it, that was a pretty good prank. So our challenge to you:

What would be an appropriate prank to pull on the Hokies next year?

How can we get Tech back, other than winning the game? Think of a fun, clever prank that UVa fans could pull on the Hokies before next year's meeting in Blacksburg. Nothing (extremely) illegal, of course. And, heavens forfend, we're not advocating any bad behavior. (Our lawyer made me write that.) Just come up with some ideas that might be funny should anyone decide, completely on their own, to do such a thing.

Please send your entry to [email protected] with the header: SabreMail Contest. Thanks, and good luck!

Football recruiting.

Despite the loss last Saturday, Lebanon (PA) defensive end Jared Odrick and Lumberton (N.C.) offensive lineman Hutch Eckerson had good official visit experiences.

Odrick, a 6-6, 300-pound 4-star recruit, is one of Virginia's top overall targets. He rated the Virginia visit an "8", with comfort level with the coaches and players being a positive for the Cavs. Will it be enough to gain a commitment? Only time will tell, but Odrick has now completed all five official visits.

Over the next month or so, Odrick plans to host all five of his finalists - Florida, Georgia, Penn State, Virginia and Virginia Tech - on in-home visits. Odrick does have a great relationship with Virginia's coaches, particularly Coach Belin, and the players, particularly Chris Long, but I'm not sure it will be enough.

Look for a decision to come before the end of the year.

Virginia continues to be the leader for Hutch Eckerson, who certainly seemed a bit surprised by Saturday's outcome. Still, he has a tremendous relationship with pretty much all of Virginia's staff and really enjoyed the players and the campus last weekend. Virginia continues to be the leader for the 6-6, 270-pound standout, but the remaining official visits will tell where he ends up. He has visits scheduled to Virginia Tech, South Carolina and N.C. State.

I like Virginia's positioning, but Hutch has always said official visits will be a big part of his decision.

Next weekend promises to be a big one for Virginia, which will host a handful of uncommitted targets. Vance (Charlotte, N.C.) defensive back Rico Bell, Prince George (VA) LB John Bivens, Blue Ridge DB Greg Davis, Deep Creek (Chesapeake, VA) athlete Ras-I Dowling and Scotland (PA) LB/DB Greg Robinson are among the recruits scheduled in for official visits. Bayonne (N.J.) WR Kenny Britt is trying to make it as well.

Commitment update.

Chris Dalton made an official visit to UVa last weekend and had a great time. He is very firm on his commitment and looks forward to getting to Charlottesville next year.

At 6-2, 165-pounds, Dalton possesses great speed and showed outstanding playmaking ability this year. In fact, he broke two single season West Iredell High School (Statesville, N.C.) records this year (receptions and touchdown catches).

Glassboro (N.J.) linebacker George Johnson was in attendance as well. The 6-4, 235-pound prospect is a big key to the class at the linebacker position and seems very firm on his decision as well. An official visit to Penn State is not out of the question, and while a commitment taking official visits is not ideal, Johnson seems very intent on becoming a 'Hoo anyway.

Basketball recruiting.

Earlier this week, Virginia's men's basketball program signed yet another player to the 2006 class. Andy Ogide, a 6-8, 215-pound forward out of Paulding County High School (Dallas, GA).

"He's 6-8 and he's very athletic," Paulding County head coach Joel Boone said. "He runs the floor well. He can play the post and he can play the perimeter. He can really shoot the ball from deep. He's a really good outside shooter.

"I think he's a diamond in the rough. He's going to be 6-9, 225 pounds by the end of his senior year. He's a great kid. He will graduate from Virginia and be a credit to the University."

Ogide decided to sign with the 'Hoos after making an official visit last weekend. Georgia, Miami and Mississippi State had shown serious interest, but Virginia was his first official offer. As a junior last season, he averaged 20 points and 10 boards per game.

Ogide is the fourth player to sign with Virginia this fall signing period. Community Christian (Stockbridge, GA) shooting guard Solomon Tat remains firmly committed to UVa, but has decided to sign in the spring.

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There was a lot of discussion about the state of UVa's football program on the message boards this week. Here are two that generated some good discussions, one from the Football board and one from the Sabre Edge subscriber board...

Subject: Just my opinion for whatever it is worth
Posted by: Galileo24 on Wed Nov 23 2005 8:40:07 AM
Message: Our football team began the season last January at 6:00 AM in the morning running steps at Scott Stadium in the cold. They worked all winter and spring, conditioning, lifting weights, working with individual position coaches, and in informal, player run, workouts. They were in Charlottesville all summer working out in the heat on their own and in NCAA allowed conditioning work outs.

The coaching staff works ungodly hours all year long with only a few weeks off. If they aren't recruiting they are breaking down film of the opponents. When game week comes, they aren't starting from scratch. There are many, many hours of work that they did in the off seasons that they pull out and then update based on the opponents' performance in the season. I bet Groh is at work in the morning before many posters arise from bed and is still hard at work when the same posters are back to sleep at night.

No one on this board, absolutely no one, wants to win more than the players and coaches of the Virginia football team. If you say otherwise your either a liar or an idiot or likely both. No one on this board has sacrificed so much of their lives to win football games.

I think there are some very legitimate issues that UVA fans should be concerned about. I think it is fair to question offensive and defensive schemes and playcalling. I think it is fair to question recruiting decisions, player positional decisions, and the on field decision making of players at key positions. I certainly have questions regarding our approach this season on several fronts. I think those questions and concerns can and should be raised and those raising them without silly sarcasm or insults should not be criticized for doing so.

However, suggesting that players are worthless or that there is a lack of effort by players or coaches is incredibly ignorant and unfair. When someone does that, or when they ridicule the players and coaches, it tells me that they are nothing but big thumbsucking babies who are throwing bloody fits because their football team lost a game. They need pacifiers.

Here is a news flash to think about: Groh isn't going anywhere for a while. In another example of his infinite wisdom, Casteen has signed up Groh for the long haul and there is no way that Groh will be removed for at least 3 years if not 5 years. So, here is what our choices are:

1) We can just assume that necessary adjustments won't be made and the program will deteriorate and whine and cry about it for several years, which does nothing except create a negative atmosphere. I came to that conclusion regarding our basketball program a few years ago and rather than contribute to the negativism, I just stopped posting on it. Why add to the negativity? What good does it do? Are we so childish that we can't stop crying publicly?

2) Or, we can look at some of the positives that have happened the last four years and hope that adjustments will be made, since we're stuck with Al like it or not, and keep reasonably positive about the program. I don't think anyone should be pollyannish about it but make fair criticisms while avoiding general attacks on coaches and players and avoid sarcasm and ridicule.

Personally, I'm going to take the latter path. I am going to express my concerns about offensive and defensive strategies and recruiting issues but I'm going to remain overall positive about the program. We are far from hitting the bottom. We will still have a winning season, something Maryland and NCSU didn't have last year. We still have some talent and more coming in. We still have some successes to build upon.

It is far from unprecedented for a program to struggle for 5 or 6 years and then have a break out season. I think the 2002 - 2004 seasons were certainly better than "struggling." Considering the horrible luck we've had with attrition and injuries, you'd think we'd be due some good luck at some juncture.

Just my opinion on things. But isn't it kind of childish to go off the deep end because your football team isn't meeting your expectations??? It's not like any of us were running those steps in the cold January mornings. Sitting in your living rooms watching a game is hardly a sacrifice.

To read the entire thread, please click the link below.

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Notice to Sabre Edge subscribers from UVa Bookstores

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Sabre articles from the past week

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