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Monday, December 27, 2004 by Will Stewart, TechSideline.com Hokies Depart for New Orleans Tuesday After a short Christmas break, the Hokie football team is back in Blacksburg today and preparing to leave for New Orleans on Tuesday. The team practiced from Dec. 18th to Dec. 22nd in Blacksburg, then departed for their homes for the holidays, where they were able to spend Christmas with their families, but it's down to business now that the holidays are over. Once the Hokies arrive in New Orleans, they will treat the rest of the week as a regular game week with regards to how they spend their practice time. Meanwhile, most Hokie fans will start arriving in New Orleans on Saturday, January 1st. That will give the fans at least two full days to tour the city and experience New Orleans before the game starts at 7:00 local time Monday night, January 3rd. Yours truly has a brutal travel schedule, with check in time at Richmond International Airport on Saturday morning at -- gulp -- 5 a.m. That's the bad news. The good news is that arrival in New Orleans is 8:35 a.m. local time, and the first of three full days in the Big Easy starts then. (Editorial Note: when I first typed that last sentence, I typed "Big East" -- shudder. Old habits die hard. Let's see: three days in the Big East, or three days in the Big Easy? No contest.) On the way back, it's even worse: I have to report to my hotel lobby at 4:15 a.m. the morning after the game. Obviously, I won't be sleeping after the game -- I'm worried about having enough time to write it up! How you decide to spend your time in New Orleans is up to you, of course, but if you want to plan your time around college football in general and Hokie football in particular (of course), here are some items of interest that have come across our desk Friday, Dec. 31st:
Saturday, Jan. 1st:
Sunday, Jan. 2nd:
Monday, Jan. 3rd (Game Day!):
That's not a complete list, and forgive us if we left something out, but there's a little something there every day. Hokies the Road Team, and Other Fun Facts VT will be the road team at the Sugar Bowl, which means they'll be wearing their white jerseys and maroon pants. You can expect to see Auburn in blue jerseys and white pants. The Hokies expect to be completely healthy for the game. The big injuries are Mike Imoh's hamstring and Jimmy Martin's high ankle sprain, and publicly, they're putting on the "I'll be a hundred percent" face. With Cedric Humes back to form, Imoh's injury isn't as critical, though it would obviously be nice to have him full speed. Martin is the bigger concern, though the Hokies covered for his absence well against Virginia and Miami. The other injuries of note were the fractures and broken bones suffered by Kevin and Jonathan Lewis. Jonathan had a pinky broken in three places against UVa, and Kevin suffered a broken hand. Both players were very effective in the Miami game, playing 42 plays (Jonathan) and 16 plays (Kevin, more than any other backup DL played). For those of you staying at home to watch the game, we have good news and bad news. The good news -- really good news -- is that Brent Musberger won't be doing the play by play on the game. Mike Tirico, one of our favorites, will. The bad news? Tim Brant and Terry Bowden will be in the booth with him. Suzy Shuster will be the sideline reporter. Lastly, Doug Doughty released his Top 25 recruits in the state of Virginia on Christmas Day, as is customary, along with an accompanying article. The Hokies currently have commitments from 8 of Doughty's top 20, including 3 of the top 4 (Victor Harris, Elan Lewis, and Deveon Simmons), with a shot at #5 (Greg Boone). We have folded the Top 40 (Doughty goes all the way up to #50 and beyond) into our recruiting database. By the way, we are aware that the links to Doughty's Top 25 from 1998-2001 on our football recruiting page are dead links, and we are taking steps to correct that this week by entering those lists right here on TSL (instead of relying on roanoke.com to leave them in one place). |