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Travel oddities, woes and less than optimal game operations were just some of the sidelights of West Virginia’s trip to Blacksburg for the Virginia Tech game.
While I’m sure that the WVU traveling party was happy to trade some of those inconveniences for a win against the Hokies, it marked the fact that the act of just getting to the game isn’t always a smooth operation for athletic teams.
West Virginia chose to fly to this game in Virginia – a bit of an oddity in itself as flight time was under a half-hour. (Various timings had it ranging from 26-27 minutes in length.) With the bus trip to Clarksburg, loading the plane and then unloading it at the airport, then loading buses again for the trip to the hotel, there probably wasn’t a huge amount of time saved over a five-hour bus ride, but if that made for better comfort for the players, then it can’t be argued with.
The team hotel was in Roanoke, some 45 minutes from Blacksburg, due to the lack of a full-service hotel with enough facilities to handle all of the requirements of the team in Tech’s home town, but as it turns out, the hotel in Roanoke didn’t do very well either.
According to multiple sources, the cleanliness of the hotel was quite lacking, even though it appeared to be of fairly new construction. All of the rooms reserved for the WVU team were not ready when it arrived, forcing a good bit of shuffling and waiting. Meals that had been preordered were also delayed, making for a less than optimal experience the day before the game.
On game day, WVU got out of the hotel early, and that proved to be a good decision, as traffic caused a few delays in getting to the stadium.
From then on out, though, operations for the Mountaineers on the field more than made up for those problems.
* * * * * *
Virginia Tech had at least 30 golf carts driving in the tunnel under the south end zone stands, deploying to who knows what missions during the game, and that doesn’t include the ones acting as shuttles to some distant parking lots.
We were happy to encounter one with a knowledgeable veteran driving who assisted us in our search for the media entrance gate, which was unmarked and apparently a mystery to most stadium workers. He drove us to our proper location, but the ride was reminiscent of the one we had on a golf cart on our trip to Auburn some years ago.
On that adventure, Auburn provided carts to shuttle media members from a quite distant parking lot to the press box, but the driver was apparently a veteran of the Baja 1000, and he went flying over curbs and medians, catching some impressive air in the process. I was nearly tossed off the back at a couple of different points while attempting to hold on to all of my equipment.
One other problem with the VT carts – they were mostly gas-powered. At one point, a driver sat outside the field photo work area (which was in reality just a storage room) and revved the motor continuously, nearly smoking us all out with the exhaust.
* * * * * *
One final note on the game ops – on WVU’s last trip to Tech in 2004, Mountaineer postgame interviews with the media took place in the officials’ locker room, which was apparently cleared out quickly after the game. In the 18 intervening years, that space has been converted to an ACC Network room, with the game officials being moved to a tiny space just off the field that was not large enough for interviews.
So, what was provided for visiting team post game interviews? Nothing.
WVU media staffers did the best they could with exactly that, putting up a backdrop in the tunnel outside the Mountaineer locker room, but there was only so much they could do.
Of course, golf carts buzzed by back and forth like angry wasps (turkeys?), making for a terrible work environment. Tech, as a Power 5 program, should be embarrassed with such a setup – or more correctly, such a lack of one.
We’ve had several less than optimal postgame setups over the many years we’ve been covering the Mountaineers, but almost all of those were at non-Power 5 programs, where money and lack of facilities are definitely a factor.
* * * * * *
It’s likely a coincidence, but West Virginia’s two road trips to date have both featured pregame press box meals that the media will also likely get on its Big 12 road games – or is a staple of the home cities WVU will be visiting.
At Pitt, the main course was brisket. That’s never a bad option but maybe a bit of an oddity in the Steel City. There was a truck-a-palooza going on outside Acrisure Stadium, with numerous barbecue vendors set up for the fans to enjoy, so maybe the Panthers were just getting into the theme.
Then, at Virginia Tech, the pre-game spread was pulled pork and baked beans. I’m never going to turn either of those down, but with trips coming up to Austin, Lubbock, Ames and Stillwater, the pork and beef meter is going to be registering at an all-time high this fall.
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