The winds were howling and the rain was sheeting down on Lane stadium in waves. I am not even sure if rain can "sheet" but it did - I saw it. I was astounded by the number of fans. True fans are we Hokies. I understand those who were unable to make the trip and I applaud them for braving the storm at the home front, it could not have been easy or fun. And like all of them (those who had power that is), I too was absolutely amazed with the orange and maroon that filled my TV screen.

I so wished I could be there yelling at the top of my lungs, drowning out the deafening sounds of Hurricane Isabel with the rest of the crowd, but alas I could not, and thus was relegated to screaming loudly in my apartment. Any of my neighbors who didn�t know what a Hokie was, do now. By the way, as I am writing this we are 5th in the nation. Nice.

I�m glad that Isabel posed no danger in Blacksburg, and so were the announcers. They could not say enough about VT, and so I grabbed a pen and paper and decided to scribble down the game as I saw it. I have absolutely no concept of game time on most of these scribbles but they are, for the most part, in chronological order.

• I just heard someone say "VT Swarming Defense." It�s good to hear that again.
• Another announcer just rattled off, "Speedy, tackling by Virginia Tech."
• What will turn out to be the first of like 63 times that I hear, "I am amazed at the fan turnout."
• One of the best quotes of the night came next as our defense made some poor Aggie feel like he had just met Terry Tate on the way to the office water cooler ... "Welcome to Blacksburg."

All right, from now on no more added commentary, just the scribbles as they were written:

• Ugh a back breaking Cols Colas 15-yd. face mask for an automatic 1st and goal for the Aggies. Crap.
• 1st and goal and Tech holds them to a field goal. Would you like yours with fries or a baked potato? Because Colas owes the rest of the D a steak dinner for that stand.
• So ready to get upset at Jones. . . 4th and 1 and he looks like he is going to dance behind the line of scrimmage. . . but what am I seeing? The kid hit the hole, a lot of yards, down to the one. Gotta love this kid!
• From a Game day crew member: "Very few vacant seats. So loyal and supportive."
• Here is one that I didn�t get exactly correct but I have to like what it looks like (from the Game day crew again): "Two most competitive guys seen at Tech: Mike Vick and Brian Randall."
• Touchdown to the tight end. Touchdown to the tight end. As I live and breath, we threw a touchdown to the tight end. Holy Crap. By the way, "Holy Crap" was written about 35 times during this column so get used to it. What a great play, why have I never seen it before? I think they just threw an excessive celebration flag on me. They did, they did.
• Thank you to all the Hokie faithful that went to this game. Freakin� awesome.
• Right in the bread basket E. Green. A sure thing. Like a date with Holly Sullivan (Julia Gulia�s sister in "The Wedding Singer"), that interception was a sure thing.
• Weaver: "Fewer than 3500 no-shows." Fantastic. "It�s unbelievable, and we thank them for their support."
• Corso cannot stop talking about our fans. It�s like the fifth time he has mentioned it. I could listen to this all night. (Little did I know, my wish would come true.)
• "You can never get amazed by Va Tech fans, they are the best." Kirk Herbie.
• Eric Green just dropped Pick Number 2. At least the guy has great coverage. I�ll take that all day long.
• Corso just chimed in with one of the best quotes of the night, about D. Lo, "One of the world�s great players."
• It seems they are picking on Green. Maybe they actually want him to intercept one of these. The Game Day crew had this to say about E.G., "go back to the drawing board if you think you can beat Eric Green."
• Gotta love it when Trev Alberts chimes in to let us know that, "Jake Grove is the best center in the nation." Yeah, like we didn�t know that already.
• It�s 3rd and 26 and the fans are so freakin� loud, I can�t hear myself in my own living room. Holy Crap.
• 4th and eleven and we over-commit. Are you kidding me? Vegas, this guy has wheels. Say it with me � containment.
• Aggies can really move the ball against us. This drive should have died hours ago. We are killing ourselves.
• Another great Corso comment: "I like this turf. Whatever they�re doing, it�s wonderful." Drop the endless end zone rants, we have a field that laughs at hurricanes. I would rather have KJ keep his footing and make his way to the end zone than look like he�s auditioning for the lead in ice capades on an average field.
• OK, I put an asterisk next to this scribble because I was amazingly impressed. It is 3rd and goal and I couldn�t hear a thing from our fans - dead silent as the Aggies drive. Then their end jumped offsides (wasn�t called) and our crowd seriously kicked it up to a notch of Emeril proportion. Unbelievably loud. A&M has to settle for another field goal.
• I don�t want to say anything but I called on-side kick, in my head, before they did it. Freaky wicked call by Franchione.
• This guy Jim Donnan cracks me up. Is anyone more southern?
• Can they please stop talking about the lack of fumbling, mishandling, and turnovers. It�s like the twelfth time they�ve said it.
• Waiting for Eric to make another great play. Look no further, he and Vinny Burns team up to down the ball on the 2. Looks like a safety for us.
• We need the defense to make it 21-6 here folks.
• Turnover comment count � 13 times with 6 minutes to go in the half.
• Again with the killing ourselves. 3rd and long and pass interference. This is going to be a much tougher safety to get now.
• TD for the D baby, I feel it coming on.
• 7 tackles for Michael Crawford and we still have 5 minutes left in the half. This kid is a story, a great story, and Tirico is absolutely in love with him.
• OK, another great Corso quote. . . It�s like he is trying to make good with us so that we don�t strike his rental car again. Let me set this up. Wilds gave a huge cushion to Van Zant. Huge, like something very very big � think if Roseanne Barr and Butterbean had a kid � big. It allowed a 2nd and long to become a 3rd and short. This caused Herby to question our zone coverage. "Not so fast." Corso pummels Herb with "Bud Foster knows what he�s doing. He�s a heck of a coordinator."
• Van Zant 1st down�Bet you can�t make that throw again. D. Lo was one step away from 6 points.
• Puh-lease. I am so unbelievably tired of hearing comparisons to Michael Vick. Everyone that makes a decent scramble for a few yards is suddenly Vickish. Let�s get something straight. Mike Vick is Vickish. Marcus Vick will be Vickish due to the obvious. Reggie McNeal is not Vickish. He is a good QB that can scramble when necessary. Mike Vick is a great QB that can scramble whenever he chooses.
• The unis were a little confusing at first since the Ags have our color, but now it seems that A&M has stolen our game. They are controlling the clock, they are controlling the game, the run, big plays. They are us. Um, why is this?
• Well so much for a safety. What I really meant was a 98 yard TD drive for the Ags.
• Not to take anything away from A&M, but all of their points are due to bonehead penalties on us. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
• It�s kind of funny seeing Big East commercials during our game. So long. . .
• Take a knee and get out of this miserable half.
• 3 plays go our way and we are up 28-0 at the half. Just 3 plays.
• Turnover comment count � 38.
• It�s halftime and now I have to listen to Trev compare McNeal to Vick. Seriously guys, McNeal is good, but no Vick. Once I drove to NOVA from Tech in 3 hours 4 minutes. No lie, I was driving my friend�s brand new Nissan Altima (kind of his graduation gift to himself). I was doing him a favor and driving it up there because he had to drive his moving truck. He still doesn�t know how hard I drove that thing. But just because I broke 100 mph for several tens of minutes does not mean that I am Jeff Gordon. Do you see my long drawn out point here? By the way, if in the market for a new sedan, the Altima is not a bad choice � handles great.
• Lee Corso opened the second half with a turnover comment.
• Randall misses a wide open E Dub and Game Day posts a lack-of-turnovers stat.
• Shoe string tackle on KJ. High knees. High knees.
• 3rd quarter: over 50 on the Lack of Turnovers Comment Meter.
• Here is something I love to hear: "Jones in the belly of the Aggie defense." Credit Mike Tirico.
• It�s a Jones fest now. Herbstreit � "Jones is making better and quicker decisions."
• KJ is running. Beamer going back to basics. Run, run, run. This is our game.
• Now we get the pass interference call. Thank you.
• Game day with a profound introspective � "Hokies are leading, although it doesn�t feel like they are leading." Hmmmm.
• Haa. Just saw the "Not so fast" pencil commercial with Corso. Does anyone make better commercials than ESPN? How about the free-left-over-doughnuts-and-bagels-in-the-conference-room-email @ ESPN headquarters in Bristol, CT commercial. Who thinks these up? That would be a great job.
• Looks like our defense got sick of the McNeal-Vick comparisons too.
• Hey check it out, we are blitzing. Nice move.
• Oh my freakin� lord, are ya kiddin� me? How did we not get the punter? Now he was Vickish.
• We are blitzing like mad now. Like mad, baby!
• "They brought Cols & A-Dub, A-Doob, A-Deeb, Adibi." Way to choke on that one Corso.
• The D looks good now. I am happy.
• Tirico said "Tech has run 20 less plays." I am no English major but I am also not getting paid to speak on TV. It�s "fewer." 20 fewer plays.
• Corso is not right in the head. He just said something about Corey Moore coming out of the stands, around the outside, taking the ball for a score or something. What do they put in their drinks up there?
• Look at all of our receivers. Just look at them. Who are we, the �99 Rams?
• OK Corso is gone. Talking about the AARP and how good-looking he thinks Franchione is. Getting a little cozy up there, huh?
• There are pancakes and a roast on the field now. What in the hell is going on? Do these people get paid for this?
• Offsides on the Hokies punt block team. Really? Are you sure? Good argument for instant replay in college.
• Figures. After the 346th comment about "no turnovers" and after Herbstreit just finished his love fest with Randall, he throws his first interception.
• Yeah, isn�t that funny Kirk � how you jinxed Randall and then he immediately threw an interception. Yeah, regular riot. Thanks buddy.
• Hey we are swarming again.
• A second turnover. We are trying to make this interesting. Why? Why would we do that?
• Tirico is having too much fun with this Doppler radar crap. Football please.
• It is pretty obvious that these are Big 12 refs.
• Is it me or does KJ look like he has another gear that he has yet to use tonight?
• Humes, inside hand-off for a first down. Beautiful call with 12 min. left in the game. Beautiful.
• Randall, Holy Crap. Wow. Was I just watching Vick against WVU or was that really Randall down the sideline for a huge first down? HUGE.
• Tirico says "players make plays and he�s a player."
• Randall on 3rd and nine and he says give me the ball. Touchdown. That boy has great big shoulders and we all jumped on for that drive.
• Frank with the perfect pooch kickoff call. Perfect.
• 4th down and Corso says we should go for it, and we do. Ballsy call Stiney. "Grip it and rip it baby." I have to give credit for this line to Mary-Beth of Road Rules XXVIIXVI right before she plunged into the icy New Zealand waters. Catch the reruns if you have no idea what I am talking about - well worth it.
• Corso just called Wilford "my receiver." Very cool.
• I love these all maroon uniforms. Love them.
• Adibi with a sack, followed by a Hokie INT. Simply the way we play defense folks.
• Game over baby, game over. Bring on opponent number 4.
• Corso just said Jones was his #1 Heisman candidate. I think Corso is in love with us. He could do worse.
• Corso can�t contain himself now. He is stealing the stage. He just asked what happened to A&M in the second half. I�ll tell you what happened Lee. VT, Lee, VT.
• Check it out. The SportsCenter guy just said "deja-Vick." Ha! That�s great stuff.

That�s all, folks.

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