As I mentioned in my Winter Holidays in Review post I went to the Gator Bowl with my folks and my Uncle Ken. While I enjoyed the game for the most part, the whole experience was marred by “The Stomp”. The bitter taste left in my mouth after finding out about the incident, combined with waiting to see where Marcus Vick was going to end up as a result and of course laziness and distractions delayed the post considerably. But since we are well into a new college football season, I think its time to post my thoughts, experiences, etc. and move on.

First, the game. Here is the Gator Bowl “The Patch” which allowed the wearer access to the pre-game festivities. Also, here is the front of the Gator Bowl Program (scanned in before DrFaulken taught me the wonders of manipulating the DPI setting since I am a scanner noob). The pre-game and half-time featured a number of musical performances including the Marching Virginians of Virginia Tech and 25 Bands from around the nation performing at the same time. Seeing that many band members take the field a nearly covering it was certainly impressive.

I did not secure the best seats for the game as we were in the uppermost, third deck of Jacksonville’s Alltel Stadium. Here is my view from our seats at the Gator Bowl.

Tech played relatively sloppy ball in the first half while Louisville set the tone for the first half with a brillant fake punt on their opening drive that resulted in a touchdown. A combination of some questionable penalties including some personal foul calls spurred some rather un-Hokie like reactions including “The Stomp” (more on that and Vick later) and cornerback Jimmy Williams swatting at an official which resulted in the senior’s ejection from the game and some more personal fouls. Tech had 75 yards of penalties in the 1st half alone. The Daily Press had an article later that had some quotes with the Big 12 head referee, Steve Usecheck, where he “called Tech’s first-half taunting and late hits the worst he’s seen in his 22 seasons.”

Tech played much better in the 2nd half scoring 25 points while holding UofL to one touchdown and won by a final of 35-24. ESPN Play-by-Play, ESPN Gator Bowl Results, UofL on the Gator Bowl and VT on the Gator Bowl all have varying perspectives on the game. The rain that had held off for the game started to fall. By the time we made it to my truck, it started to pour. Leaving Jacksonville due to the rain and some peculiar traffic patterns (like having road signs pointing to interstate enterances that were closed off due to the event) was a rather difficult and time consuming process, but I guess leaving any event parked so close is usually quite a chore.

On to Vick and the end of the season. Like the officials and many other fans in the stands, I didn’t see “The Stomp” when it happened. I don’t think I found out until I was writing this post a few days after the game. The Sporting News has a summary on Marcus Vick’s rough tenure at Virginia Tech, but eventually he was forced off of the team as a result of “The Stomp” and other incidents. So, he entered the NFL draft, went undrafted, and tried out for the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins signed Marcus Vick as an undrafted college free agent and assigned him a role on their practice squad. Marcus is even listed on NFL.com’s Miami Dolphins roster. I hope he manages to get his life straightened out.

The season ended much better for the rest of the Hokies especially for the nine that were drafted in the 2006 NFL Draft. The Kroger Roth Report Season Cap point out that despite the blemishes on the season, it still was an impressive season with the Hokies ending 11-2 with a bowl victory. Hopefully this season will not be tarnished in the same fashion.