After Virginia Tech finished pounding his football team into oblivion, Virginia coach Mike London said he told players to feel "disappointed."
With the program's first-ever ACC Championship appearance at stake, Virginia picked the wrong time to limp helplessly to a 38-0 beatdown against its rivals. It was the wrong time for the team's first shutout and its first blowout of the year. It was the wrong time for a running game which had averaged 177 yards per game to only manage 30. And it was certainly the wrong time for Hokie quarterback Logan Thomas to carve apart a typically stout Virginia defense.
"I told them it's OK to be disappointed because it is disappointing," London said. "To have worked hard to get yourself in a position to play in a big game, to represent your side of the conference in the big game, and then to have a game get away where you get beat on the field offensively and defensively is disappointing."
When senior safety Rodney McLeod talked about never beating Virginia Tech, he summed up a feeling shared by many fourth-year University students. His eyes dropped, his face clouded by a look of pain. He shook his head and said, "It hurts." He paused, shook his head again and said, "It hurts a lot. Four years since I've been here, I never won."
I've only been here for three of the Virginia Tech losses, but I can relate to that disappointment.
For as long as I can remember, my favorite part of Thanksgiving was the Saturday - rather than the Thursday - festivities. My favorite meal of the holiday was chili, not turkey, and my favorite game of the week showcased a different rivalry in a different state. Every year my family watched our beloved South Carolina Gamecocks battle hated Clemson for in-state supremacy which meant more than almost any bowl game could.
This year, for the first time in my life, I decided there was a game more important to me. Two weeks ago I wrote that I was dangerously close to drinking the orange Kool-Aid, and after watching Virginia upset then-No. 25 Florida State and the ACC's officiating crew, I was essentially chugging the stuff. I explained to my parents that I could not miss the Virginia Tech game this year, and I also could not justify the 12-hour round trip drive down to South Carolina for such a short window at home. Instead, I gave up Thanksgiving with my family - and the rivalry matchup in Columbia - to watch a different rivalry in Charlottesville.
Virginia rewarded my decision with its worst game of the season, and as a kneejerk reaction, I am tempted to say I feel cheated. Especially after watching South Carolina obliterate Clemson - and getting a text from my dad saying chili was not the same without me - I wanted to say I invested in the wrong rivalry this year.
But then I think about the rest of Mike London's postgame speech, in which he emphasized, "I'm proud of my team. At 8-4, no one thought we'd be this far or get to this point. 8-4 is a good season for us ... It's disappointing to lose and to lose a chance to represent the Coastal Division in the ACC Championship, but in no way are we disappointed about the season."
The funny thing about disappointment is that it implies there was a letdown from some expectation, but count me among the "nobody" that expected Virginia to finish 8-4 preseason. I struggle to blame players for raising my expectations and then falling short of them. Virginia may have played its season's worst game at the wrong time, but it also just played the wrong team.
Down seven in the first quarter, Virginia faced fourth-and-1 from the 6, and London risked certain points for a chance at paydirt. The coach used the same strategy against Maryland, dialed up the team's reliable power play and won his bet. Against Virginia Tech, he used the same play on the same gamble and lost.
"It was the opportunity to send a message to our guys up front that if you're going to win championships, if you're going to win games, you've got to be able to knock people off the ball and gain a yard, particularly with your favorite running play," London said of his decision. "They did a good job of defending it, and we didn't get it. It set the tone for them to go the other way."
That play set the tone that our best was not good enough for Virginia Tech and part of the Cavaliers' loss simply stems from playing a better team.
Still, the Hokies were not 38 points better than the Cavaliers. Maybe the players did not understand the stakes of the game, or maybe they folded because the stakes were too high. Either way, they are not blameless for the thrashing they received. Various bowl representatives lurked around the press box during that game and they undoubtedly left unimpressed with a team which could not even land a solid punch as its rivals knocked it out. I certainly am - it was the wrong time for Virginia to fall flat.
But it would also be the wrong season for me to pile on the team.
Nobody wants to get toasted by a bitter rival and then hear a moral which says, "Look at the bigger picture and it's not that bad." But I'm looking at the bigger picture and realizing it's not that bad. London talked about the importance that this game was even "relevant" - and this team and its fans have long searched for relevance at the end of the season.
I spent my first two years here hoping to buy into the Virginia football program, but found my lifelong Gamecock ties were hard to cut, especially when the Cavaliers did little on the field to justify forgetting my hometown team. This season, the Cavaliers have given me every reason to be a fan, and as frustrated as I am with the game's outcome, I'm also grateful that I truly cared about it. I'm mad I gave up my Thanksgiving for that game, but I'm also thankful there was a reason to do so.
London said after the game, "We're disappointed, but at the same time, 8-4 and the chance to be 9-4 for this program? I'll take that."
I'm disappointed, but I'll take that too.
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