Made my first trip to campus since Clemson to take in the game and introduce my S.O. and others to the environment. Drove down from NYC Thursday to take in downtown before a full day Friday/Saturday of football. My last experience as an undergrad football fan was the Sugar Bowl so the last decade has certainly felt a little lost. Here are my thoughts on the experience (not the football perfromance).

- The Blacksburg atmosphere has changed, DT was pretty dead on Thursday which is a far cry from the glory days, albeit having class/work on Friday before kickoff would be a huge downer and likely prevented most alums from returning. Saturday however was some of the most fun I've had there in a long time.

- The admin has made a concerted effort to consolidate student tailgating into Center St for easier risk management. It's made for a wild scene with a mass of humanity that the new generation loves. 10 years ago tailgating would be spread throughout the town of Blacksburg at frat houses and across apt complexes. It gave the town a feel that the whole place was going to the game and resulted in the slow march through center to the north gate as kickoff approached. Now all the undergrads head straight to center. IMO I prefer the former but the change isn't necessarily bad.

- The electricity felt a little subdued in the lots (likely because nobody expected a win) but once in the stadium it got released in a big way.

- The student section was fantastic, it honestly felt like the 2 year break from Lane reset the expectations of the students. For 8 years they'd slowly become a "show up for Sandman, leave at halftime" crowd that wasn't engaged. Now that was have 2 full classes of kids who have never been to a game maybe that mindset hasn't been passed down. VT has a huge opportunity with ND coming up to re-establish the terrordome and should do everything they can to facilitate it.

- Uber + Center St has made parking in town during the game infinitely easier, used to be you could never find a street parking spot within walking distance of Lane.

- DT misses Big Al's, there just aren't enough bars in Blacksburg to handle a game weekend rush. Though Friday after kickoff was pretty tame by 2010's standard.

- Was surprised by the amount of players that were DT on Saturday given what happened last season with COVD, a group of starters was literally at Sharkey's from 2pm till close and a lot of others were tearing it up at TOTS.

- I don't know what the protocols are for those guys but hopefully we're not testing vaccinated guys unless they show symptoms. Obviously that environment is as "play at your own risk" as you can possibly get, but amongst the student body all caution has been thrown to the wind.