Virginia Tech adds Michigan to future football schedule
The Wolverines become the latest Big Ten opponent to agree to a home-and-home deal with the Hokies, joining Ohio State and Wisconsin.
Friday, May 10, 2013
BLACKSBURG — Virginia Tech and Michigan’s Sugar Bowl matchup last year went over so well that the teams have agreed to a future home-and-home series.
The Hokies and Wolverines will play each other in 2020 and 2021, the schools announced Thursday. The first game will be in Ann Arbor’s Michigan Stadium on Sept. 19, 2020. The second will be at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg on Sept. 11, 2021.
“I am pleased that [Michigan athletic director] Dave Brandon and I have been able to work out this agreement,” Tech athletic director Jim Weaver said. “Michigan is the winningest college football program in the country, and it will be exciting to have the Wolverines come to Lane Stadium.”
Virginia Tech and Michigan have met only once before, but it was a thriller. The Wolverines edged the Hokies 23-20 in overtime, a finish most Tech fans still lament for the overturned touchdown catch by Danny Coale.
Tech is currently 1-1 all-time against teams that were in the Big Ten at the time of the meeting, with both meetings coming in bowl games. Prior to their Sugar Bowl loss to Michigan in 2012, the Hokies beat Indiana 45-20 in the 1993 Independence Bowl.
It continues a trend of Big Ten nonconference scheduling for the Hokies, who have upcoming home-and-home series with Ohio State (2014-15) and Wisconsin (2016-17).
Tech’s other marquee nonconference game coming up is a trip to Notre Dame in 2016. A second game against the Fighting Irish should take place in Blacksburg from 2017-19 when the second cycle of the ACC’s scheduling agreement with Notre Dame begins.
It fits with Weaver’s scheduling philosophy of having at least one BCS-level opponent each season. The only seasons the Hokies lack that type of opponent are in 2018 and ’19, although those spots are sure to be filled in time.
Michigan had been on Weaver’s radar for a while. He said in the fall that he had discussed a possible home-and-home series with a Big Ten school, mentioning the Wolverines as a possibility on the Tech Talk Live radio show. But that agreement had to be put on hold as conference realignment re-emerged.
He hinted at a Big Ten matchup last month when the Notre Dame game was announced but wouldn’t divulge the opponent until the contracts were signed.
At the time, Weaver said he has had conversations with a number of Big Ten schools, although he didn’t say which ones. Virginia Tech reportedly has had interest in scheduling Penn State. Weaver is a Penn State graduate, playing and later coaching there for Joe Paterno.
The Hokies have a Michigan connection on the staff right now. New offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler was a quarterback for the Wolverines in the mid-’90s, getting his coaching start there as a graduate assistant and returning later as the quarterbacks coach from 2002-07. Tech coach Frank Beamer consulted with former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr before hiring Loeffler in January.
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THE ROANOKE TIMES
