Seriously did anyone forget they wear Powder Blue?

Well a close win in Chapel Hill. Tank Bus made the trip with a rag tag crew of Hokies and Hokie well wishers and Tank Bus fans. The combination of the three might have been just enough to pull out of there as winners. Among other winners were the relationships saved during this trip. As of this writing we are counting at least 2. For many of us it was our first VT pre-game communion sponsored by Wild Turkey and presented by the clubhousetailgate.com. Tank Bus tailgaters also took it to a new level this weekend. A reoccurring theme this year has been our figurative tendency to throw rocks at hornets nests. Well one member of the tailgate had the unfortunate experience of reliving himself onto a nest of ground wasps and boy were they pissed. A couple of well placed stings later and the message was clear: Stop f*%$ing with bee nests. Will the Tank Bus heed the message? Only time will tell. Also we are taking applicants for a new Tank Bus owner as we are looking to buy out and replace Paul Loker who continues to bring nothing to the table.

How VT beat GT

***Picture Removed for Sensitivity Issues***

Coincidently this is also how the west was won, man walked on the moon, and Ricky Williams is still playing football.

What needs to happen going into UNC

My boy Scro' just sent me this email about what needs to happen to have a good season. Enjoy:

i guess the first step on offense was to create some sort of repercussion for defenses blitzing us on every play... i guess tyrod running has done this (just like last year.) the second step was to develop a running game... i guess evans' emergence plus tyrod has done this (hopefully getting bdc back will help even more.) now if we can actually get the receivers involved and make teams believe we will hurt them with the pass, well then i guess you could say we will have a borderline average acc offense.

and, nah this story is not over... if we can win another embarrassing game with tyrod and evans doing everything, and yates making dumb mistakes, we will be halfway there. we just have to keep improving, hope to split at bc/fsu, hope miami is still very poorly coached and we can get by them.... then watch maryland, duke, and uva fall down in front of us. then hope we draw wfu in the acccg, and hope tyrod, boone, roberts, and evans can just out-athlete them. then maybe we catch a team as bowl inept as us like say oklahoma or tosu, or maybe even an sec team that is so disgusted that they aren't in the national championship they get all hung over and hurt themselves on jet skis before they play us, and walla... it will be the best season ever. but it all starts this saturday.

HOKIES BEAT THE JACKETS, aka, Tank Bus trip #2

This is very simple. If ECU wins out, they are going going to be a top 5 team. Not bad for our only loss. It will be a nice debate over who gets to play USC for the National Championship, us or ECU, but I think the voters will be on our side, since we will have an ACC championship. Kirk Herbstreit will note 3 main reasons we are picked to play in the national championship over the other one loss teams (and undefeated ECU):

a) strength of schedule ( beat top 15 teams miami and FSU away from lane, and beat #2 and previously undefeated Wake Forest in the ACC Championship game).

b) a resurgent offense that scored 45 points a game on the season (is that right? can something be resurgent if it has never been surgent in the first place? I'll let this slide..Kirk may not be a genius but is awfully easy on the eyes)

c) a beautiful and mystical bus that follows the team around, giving the team confidence as well as a warm fuzzy feeling

Back to reality..its been a tough 2 weeks. GT, in THEIR rebuilding year, is probably going to beat us. Our oline sucks, our QB's are awful, a dlineman from our crappy dline is hurt making our dline even crappier against an option offense, our WR's are...well, they don't matter anyway. I spent the weekend trying to apologize to my dog for naming her Taylor. After a year in the system Tryod can't find a receiver all game against a D2 team, can't read a D2 defense (lets not get into how our experienced oline can't block a D2 defense)? Clearly he is not going to leave for the NFL anytime soon, and he probably should have gone to Florida where they could have used him correctly. Here is hoping Bruce Taylor is good, so when the dog grows up I can lie to her about her name. I should have known to stick to defense anyway. Hokies hate Sean Glennon. Hokies hate Stinespring. There are fist fights in the stands. Diesel is $5 a gallon. I thought this was supposed to be fun? I waited all year for this?

What could possibly save this year? I wish I knew. Our offense won't get much better, our defense hopefully gets a little better. I have 100% confidence that our special teams get better. What else is there? Well, there is one thing that will get better. Tailgaiting.

A 3:30 game is coming to lane, and VT Tank Bus is coming with it. This is a chance for Hokies every where to get very liquored up, and get very obnoxious. We can finally be on the same page. Tank bus will be making its first trip to the parking lots of Lane. It will be in the normal spot, in the public lots, with the riff raff. Also, as incredible as it may sound, a few passengers have gotten off the Tank bus! Inconceivable! This means, there may be a few extra seats available on this trip (you, yes you, could ride on the tank bus!). It is still TBD on whether we let these band wagon riders back on the bus, we will take our cues from Frank Beamer, maybe we will wait and see if there is room.

Details....Tank Bus will leave Falls Church at 5pm sharp on Friday. Tank bus will depart Blacksburg at 10am on Sunday. In between is what you make of it. If anyone is interested in riding, send cash, compliments, or black mail me. Whatever it takes. The captain will have further details. This will be our first real tailgate with games, food, music, and other creature comforts.

Things we learned on the Maiden Voyage

1. Josh Edwards may be out of our lives forever.

2. We take heart wrenching losses much better than before. Is it old age, or practice?

3. Its hard to get arrested in Charlotte, we tried, and failed.

4. Its hard to get kicked of bars in Charlotte, we tried, failed many times, and eventually succeeded. Apparently repeatedly ramming your head into a girls chest trying to knock her over, under the guise of dancing with her, is eventually grounds for dismissal in a Charlotte bar. Good to know.

5. Katie does not like apologizing. Ryan is still waiting....and in my opinion, this is getting ridiculous. Its just dancing.

6. We may be old, but we still got it. Quick math, Friday afternoon - Saturday night....approximately 2 hrs of sleep, 2 hours thought collecting/showering (varies individually), 4 hours of ECU game watching, which leaves about 24 hours of drinking/being hilarious/generally raising hell and making people angry.

7. Tires are WAY overrated.

This is going to be a close one, and could very well be decided in the parking lots.

6-3, VT, everyone make sure you don't forget your nightly prayers to Bud Foster this week.

Tone

Innaugural VT Tank Bus Trip/Game 1

14 brave and ambitious Hokies signed on for the trip of a lifetime. The 2K8 season opener (Saturday 30 Aug 08) versus those pesky pirates from somewhere in North Carolina. The trip down was for the most part completely uneventful. There was a very minor side track where we lost a little air in one of the tires and had to get it repaired but it was such a non-issue I can't even recall what tire it was or how long it took. The tailgate was a great warm up for many awesome ones to come. As we all know by now Tank Bus performs a lot better than this young Hokie football team. Hopefully VT will pull out of this tailspin and have a successful season. For now chalk it up as a Tank Bus victory. Special thanks the Gobbler crew for the 45 mph trailer job. See you all in two weeks in the Burg for the GT game. Below are some pics of the ECU trip.

Minor road side issues being worked out

5:30 AM: Arrival in Charlotte and tailgate beginning

Typical Tailgate scene, no big deal

Paul works us through opening credits as Professor Gers pilots the bus

Version 1.0 Tank Bus CREW, Jump on it!

Also Hokie Diplomat and VT-NJ ambassador Melvin P recalled the trip for us all in verse. Such passion and unique creativity derived from only a single trip on Tank Bus can be an inspiration to us all.

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this NoVa port
Aboard this tanky bus.

The mate was a mighty driving man,
The skipper brave and sure.
14 passengers set off that day
For a fourteen hour tour, a fourteen hour tour.

The roads they started getting rough,
The tiny bus was tossed,
If not for the courage of our fearless Ry
The TankBus would be lost, the TankBus would be lost.

The Bus sat tilted on the shore of this uncharted highway
With Williams!
The Loker too,
The would be vomiter and his gf,
The Garber
The professor (omg, that one works) and Katie Collins, (et. al)
Here on VT TankBus.

Actually the trip may have been summed up more accurately by local wise cracker and anti-silver lining visionary Sean when he wrote the following:
"I can only speak to what happened up until about 5pm on Saturday when I tapped out… but I think it’s safe to say it can only go up from here for the Tank Bus (the vanity plate can be read as “think bus” – TNK BUS – which is kinda funny).

I don’t think there’s been a more disastrous maiden voyage since the titanic. Congratulations to Ryan for keeping his head and keeping everyone safe during the blowout. I don’t think I’ve seen a better job of averting complete tragedy than his moves on 81. He deserves the German Bus Medal of Honor for his poise under pressure. Maybe he can teach Glennon a thing or two this week and help salvage the season.

I hope you all were able to go at least 60-65 on the way home… and that you made it home."

-Sean