Thinking on the Margin: Virginia Tech In The Orange Bowl Tonight!

Virginia Tech (#5) plays Kansas (#8) in the Orange Bowl at 8 PM tonight.

Last April, the Kansas athletic department passed out more than 700 Virginia Tech T-shirts to its student-athletes and officials as a tribute to the 32 victims of the tragic shooting spree at the Blacksburg, Va., campus on April 16. Women's basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson, who worked at Virginia Tech for 14 years before coming to KU, spearheaded the effort, and the baseball and track teams wore the shirts in competition that weekend.
Almost nine months later, the Kansas football team will be able to pay its tribute in person. The Jayhawks will stand with Virginia Tech and observe a moment of silence before the teams kick off the 74th Orange Bowl.
"God has blessed everything that has happened there," said KU safety Darrell Stuckey. "They persevered through that and came back to another bowl game."
Virginia Tech did more than persevere. The Hokies were one onside-kick recovery against Boston College away from possibly playing in the national championship game. Kansas? It, too, pictured itself in the title game when it was 11-0 and ranked No. 2 in late November. But the Orange Bowl is no consolation game. Both programs are motivated to leave Miami with the first BCS bowl victory in school history.

It sounds like it will be a good game and one more thing to (welcomingly) distract me from studying for my field exam...

With all the support other schools have been giving Virginia Tech after the tragic shootings last spring, it's hard not to like everyone we play against -- even UVA...

Here is a neat fan video paying tribute to the Hokies' football team and to my alma mater: