Pilots vs. Virginia Tech, Friday 11/20, Merlo Field

fwill wrote:A deep-fried turkey leg sounds pretty tasty, too!

Honestly, I've never tried it. It looks so horrific... I can just imagine King Hroðgar in Heorot, waiting for Beowulf to come save the day, devouring this turkey leg and wiping his greasy beard on his sleeves while grunting for more mead. Totally medieval. The student section is littered with little bones and little mini-bar alcohol bottles after each game, it's so nasty. The stadium does make a great bratwurst w/ onions and peppers though.

ShipstadPilot11 wrote:If we were on the ball, we could offer turkey legs on Friday. You know, to make the Virginia Tech fans feel more at home. That would be the classy thing to do.

Most of our opponents do it trying to intimidate us... "Hey look. fried turkey *nudge* *nudge*", it doesn't really work though since we've been doing it at home for decades.
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Hmm, I just noticed another parallel between us. Both of our schools have respectable women's soccer and men's basketball but poor women's basketball and men's soccer.

You know... I'm 100% in agreement about offering better food options. I realize there's only so much that can be done and something has to be profitable in order to do it, but if you ask me... improving food offerings is one of the easiest ways to really increase the overall game atmosphere and experience for fans. People loved those BBQ beef sandwiches, and it's not like that was something extravagent.

I mean, even something as simple as a burrito bar or a wrap station or even just high quality sandwhiches or whatever could really be something to make people say, "Hey, I can eat at the game!" instead of saying, "Don't really want a same-old, same-old hot dog... better eat before I go."

Heck, if UP didn't want to deal with doing it themselves... just rent out the space cheap to some of the awesome food carts around town. There have to be a few that would be willing to plop down for a few hours and serve a potential 4,000+ customers.

Ditto for the Chiles Center, by the way... and I think they are indeed going to have food "expos" during certain games this year with Bon Appetit making something special.

We also have an outstanding men's X-Country team (#7 in the nation), but those damn Ducks always overshadow us. It's tough being a small school competing against the Phil Knight/Nike University down in Eugene. But at least we always beat them in women's soccer! Go Pilots!

Telionis wrote:Hmm, I just noticed another parallel between us. Both of our schools have respectable women's soccer and men's basketball but poor women's basketball and men's soccer.

I have to disagree with you here, Telionis. Our women's basketball team was in the WNIT Tournament last spring and our men's soccer just made the NCAA Tournament this year. They certainly aren't our headline programs, though.

Actually the Pilots beat the Ducks at (mens) Regionals this year.

Well one thing I can say for sure... our football team is undefeated since the 50s. Take that, Frank Beamer!

I'm happy I went to UP and couldn't imagine myself having gone anywhere else, but how you describe the football stadium atmosphere/tradidions... it would have been fun to be a part of that.

Then again, Portland likes to be different, so it's fitting that the University of Portland's big thing is women's soccer. Not for everyone, but perfect for us!

Foxhoven scored 22 on the season??? Good God!!! Where do you find these people? I was going to say, maybe someone put Diego Maradona in drag, but she's pretty too!!!

Here's some more information on VT:

Season Record: 16-7
Home: 8-2
Away: 3-3
Neutral 5-2

ACC Record: 7-4
Home: 3-2
Away: 3-2
Neutral 1-0

Goals per Game: 1.91
Goals Given Up per Game: 1.33

Goals For: 44
Goals Against: 31

Goals per Shot: 0.128
Shots on Goal %: 42.4%

Fouls By: 234 (~10 per game)
Fouls Against: 183

All Keepers' Save %: 73.7%
Main Keeper's Save %: 74.0%

Average Home Attendance: 580
Average Away Attendance: 680
Average Neutral Attendance: 428

Main Goal Scorers:

#26 Gray: 10 goals, 2 assists, 0.154 goals per shot, 47.7% shots on goal
#13 Conheeney: 9 goals, 3 assists, 0.150 goals per shot, 40.0% shots on goal
#20 Harvey: 9 goals, 0 assists, 0.257 goals per shot, 54.3% shots on goal, takes penalty kicks
#9 Johnson: 4 goals, 7 assists, 0.114 goals per shot, 42.9% shots on goal
#10 Jukich: 4 goals, 1 assist, 0.143 goals per shot, 57.1% shots on goal, appears to be coming off the bench

ShipstadPilot11 wrote:

Telionis wrote:Hmm, I just noticed another parallel between us. Both of our schools have respectable women's soccer and men's basketball but poor women's basketball and men's soccer.

I have to disagree with you here, Telionis. Our women's basketball team was in the WNIT Tournament last spring and our men's soccer just made the NCAA Tournament this year. They certainly aren't our headline programs, though.

Hmm. Sorry. I got that impression from reading this forum.

Our men's soccer was fantastic just two years ago. They lost to Wake Forest in the semi-finals of the NCAA tournament, after which WF went on to win the championship. Then Patrick Nyarko graduated (drafted by Chicago Fire), a few other guys got hurt, and we just collapsed (5-12-2 this year ).

Telionis wrote:Foxhoven scored 22 on the season??? Good God!!! Where do you find these people? I was going to say, maybe someone put Diego Maradona in drag, but she's pretty too!!!

What, you don't think this is a good look?



All apologies to UPSF, who is trying valiantly to get this thread back on point. Couldn't help myself... I'm sorry.

Thanks for the heads up, Runner Girl. Sometimes I miss those stories in the sports section since they are always buried between Ducks/Beavers football and Blazer action.

It still bugs me to no end that high school football gets highlights on the 11 o'clock news before the results and occasional highlights of the Pilots games. I believe that one of the top teams in the country should always come before high school sports, but obviously the newscasters disagree with me. There is, however, a direct correlation between attendance at UP games and media attention, so maybe it's time for our UP media reps to do a better job getting the word out about Pilot sports.

So you guys don't have much love for Oregon? How about Oregon State? Who is your primary number one, most hated rival of all???

(For us it's gotta be Virginia. Did you hear that the Rolling Stones will be playing at UVA's Scott Stadium next week? They're 10 point favorites! ).

No offense, I'm getting a kick out of it. Love those turkey legs.

[quote="Telionis"]So you guys don't have much love for Oregon? How about Oregon State? Who is your primary number one, most hated rival of all???


To be hated rivals they'd have to be somewhat equal, so UO and OSU are out. For women's soccer it used to be Santa Clara (I think they are still bitter about us beating them in the championship game in 2002), but I'm not sure if that's still the case. SCU Coach Jerry Smith still likes to talk a lot of smack, though.

Btw, for an ACC team that's in a conference that's supposed to be the top in the country, the offensive scoring numbers for VT aren't very impressive. UP has a massive advantage in having lots of different goal scorers all over the field while still being able to count on three go-to players (Foxhoven, now Kreminski, and Schmidt). Makes the Pilots hard to defend against. What are VT's strenghts?

Telionis wrote:So you guys don't have much love for Oregon? How about Oregon State? Who is your primary number one, most hated rival of all???

(For us it's gotta be Virginia. Did you hear that the Rolling Stones will be playing at UVA's Scott Stadium next week? They're 10 point favorites! ).

As a school, Gonzaga has to be the overall most hated rival in basketball. In women's soccer, UCLA, Santa Clara, and Notre Dame are also loathed. People also tend to dislike different Pac-10 schools based on where they grew up and how they were raised. I personally hate the Ducks.

Oh, yeah, Notre Dame! I hate Notre Dame! I laughed when Kerri Hanks cried after everyone of those "heartbreaking" losses, including last years final. Lousy coach, too. Boo to Notre Dame!

Telionis wrote:So you guys don't have much love for Oregon? How about Oregon State? Who is your primary number one, most hated rival of all???

(For us it's gotta be Virginia. Did you hear that the Rolling Stones will be playing at UVA's Scott Stadium next week? They're 10 point favorites! ).

That's an interesting question, for Women's soccer the reginal foe is probably Washington, just because for a long time we were the only 2 decent teams in the area And in conference DEFINITELY Santa Clara

. But for those of us who are big basketball fans too(while it's been one sided as of late), Gonzaga definitely draws the most ire... haha in the circles I run with calling someone a Zag is the biggest insult we fling at each other... haha, but we pretty much crush the Zags at most other sports, haha which those up north like to conveniently ignore...

ACTUALLY I contend because Gonzaga was SO weak this year in women's soccer, they are one of the big reasons why the NCAA justified giving us a #2 seed


Further: I think Notre Dame WAS a big rivalry in soccer an such, but they conveniently avoid playing us these days, so the hate may have faded for us newer pilot fans. That said, I do in general loathe the Irish... Which is kind of ironic considering my heritage...

DaTruRochin wrote:. That said, I do in general loathe the Irish... Which is kind of ironic considering my heritage...

Mexican?

fwill wrote: What are VT's strenghts?

Our offense isn't as bad as it looks on paper. Sometimes it works, sometimes it has trouble getting started, especially if the opponent can block the run. Our strengths, as always, are our defense and great special teams... Oh you mean soccer??? No idea. I'm a total n00b when it comes to soccer. It is very likely that you know more about the strengths of my team than I do.
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I didn't even know Notre Dame had a good soccer team.

onetouchfutbol wrote:

Telionis wrote:So you guys don't have much love for Oregon? How about Oregon State? Who is your primary number one, most hated rival of all???

(For us it's gotta be Virginia. Did you hear that the Rolling Stones will be playing at UVA's Scott Stadium next week? They're 10 point favorites! ).

As a school, Gonzaga has to be the overall most hated rival in basketball. In women's soccer, UCLA, Santa Clara, and Notre Dame are also loathed. People also tend to dislike different Pac-10 schools based on where they grew up and how they were raised. I personally hate the Ducks.

Gonzaga is definitely the rival we love to despise in basketball, mostly because they are so good, and they don't mind telling us about it. And they buy up all the tickets when they play in our house, overwhelming our fans.

Our other sports don't generate much "hate", and the Pac-10 rivalries that leak onto our forum are more personally based than relevant to UP. Here I have to agree to disagree with my Husky-loving, Duck-hating Pilot friends. At least we all agree on beer and Pilots.

Turkey legs and Enter Sandman. Someday I've got to visit Blacksburg.

Here's the thing with rivalries and UP... I feel like we are the loveable little sibling that no one dislikes. Definitely there is a rivalry between UP and Santa Clara in soccer and there once was a fierce one between UP and Notre Dame, but those tend to be selective to that one sport. I know that there isn't much love lost between UP and UO XC, and of course for the fans the Gonzaga game is the big one in basketball, though it really hasn't fit the definition of a rivalry since the mid 90s.

For a while they tried to manufacture the Rose City Rivalry with Portland State, but it just didn't have the weight of tradition behind it.

For the most part, the WCC tends to root for each other in most things... I think the only time I don't root for a WCC team is Gonzaga basketball, but that's because of fans on a message board, not for the team itself. And I'll even admit to conflicted feelings to this day when I watch them play. It's kind of embarassing, but watching them make the Elite Eight ten years ago was really, really exciting - I thought it was the coolest thing that a WCC team made it that far.

Take last year in hoops... I think everyone around the conference was genuinely happy for UP and was pulling for us... we were everyone's second-favorite team, including pretty much every Zag fan. So not much of a heated rivalry really.

When it comes to Oregon and Oregon State, outside of soccer (which UP somehow became a power in), there isn't a rivalry so much as a big school/little school thing. The big school is always embarassed to lose to the little school while the little school lvoes nothing more than to show up the big school.

Telionis wrote:
(For us it's gotta be Virginia. Did you hear that the Rolling Stones will be playing at UVA's Scott Stadium next week? They're 10 point favorites! ).

I hope you'll forgive us for cheering for UVA against UCLA this weekend. We'd love to have another game here--assuming we beat you. I'd think that if you and UVA both won, you'd end up getting a quarterfinal home game. Doesn't that tempt you to cheer for UVA over UCLA?

I think the other thing that moderates any potential to "hate" other WCC and Pac 10 teams, who are the ones we play regularly, is that except when we're playing them, we generally root for them to win their games against "outsiders." That's because their wins help our strength of schedule. We're usually battling for a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, and strength of schedule is one of the main considerations.

But, all things being equal, the team I'd dislike the most would be UCLA. I think any team that has a massive grandstand far removed from the field of play, plus bleachers close to the field, that won't let anyone but pro-UCLA fans sit in the bleachers, has got to be considered .... [fill in the blank]. That's why I rooted for USC to beat UCLA in the finals a couple of years ago, notwithstanding that USC's coach is obnoxious and they play dirty (especially at home).

It's got to be UCLA. We haven't beaten them lately except when it counted in 2005. Most of our games have been down there, but we lost to them up here a couple of years ago to start the season. I can't decide whether I'd rather have one more home game or a chance to beat them down there to set things right.