BLACKSBURG -- When asked this week how he thought the Ohio Bobcats will react today when they tee it up with fourth-ranked Virginia Tech in front of a throng of 65,000 fans at Lane Stadium, Roland Minor's response was proceeded by several shakes of his head.

"I can't imagine being in their shoes," said Minor, the Hokies' starting field cornerback. "To hear that crowd making all that noise. There's nothing like playing in Lane Stadium. Nothing can compare to it. Nothing."

Minor expects the Lane noise meter to hit record decibel readings for the home opener of a season in which Tech (2-0) is being billed as a national championship contender. The sophomore from Washington, D.C., saw his first game in Lane three years ago on a recruiting visit. It's a trip he'll never forget.

"When I came and watched Tech play Marshall in my senior year of high school, I felt intimidated ... and I was coming here!" Minor said. "Standing in the stands to hear all those fans cheering and the way they were going on, I caught chills.

"So I know it's intimidating. You hope they come in here and they get a little bit rattled because of the crowd. That way their mind is not focused on the game and we can take advantage of that."

Ohio (1-1), as its 33 ¹₂-point underdog role suggests, is supposed to be nothing more than a mere speed bump in the Hokies' path. To have any shot of pulling an upset of monumental proportions, Frank Solich's players not only will have to somehow neutralize Tech's heavy edge in talent, but also will have to contend with a raucous crowd.

"Offensively, that can be a real test and a real struggle if you're not prepared to handle it," said Solich, whose offense spent a lot of time working with silent cadences this week.

"It will be a great test to us in every way imaginable. They've got great athletes; it'll be a full house, and it's certainly not an easy place to play. It's obvious that there are no weak spots anywhere."

After spending the season's first two weekends picking off ACC wins against North Carolina State and Duke, the Hokies are anxious to stay home and play some ball.

"We're 2-0 and coming home, and I'm hoping this place is going to be ready for us," Tech coach Frank Beamer said. "It's kind of special when you get in that stadium and things are right, the crowd's right."

The Hokies may suffer an off-game at home every now and then. Rarely, though, do their fans perform badly.

Minor said the pain dealt in Lane by the Hokies' 12th man is so mesmerizing that it sells many visiting high school recruits on coming to Tech. Minor referred to Victor "Macho" Harris, the No. 1 recruit in Virginia last year who now is a backup corner for the Hokies.

"I heard Victor Harris say that when he came here for one game, the fans and everything just overwhelmed him," Minor noted. "And he was just like he'd love to play in front of this kind of crowd. And I told him, that was the same thing I thought."

Not only are the Tech fans loud, they're smart, too, Minor said.

"Here on my visit, I had my [high school] jersey on walking up to the stadium," Minor recalled. "And a few guys walked up to me and they knew my name and everything. That shocked me.

"I didn't know they were so in-depth into their players like that. I was just a recruit and they were saying, 'we can't wait ... we hope you commit ... we know you're going to have a good career here.' All that, you soak that in, and you go back and think about it and it's like, 'I'd love to play for those guys, I'd love to be a part of that.' "

Of course, Beamer's biggest chore these days is keeping his team focused on the task at hand. One loss anywhere and anytime would all but kill Tech's national-title aspirations.

"The only thing we can control is how we play against Ohio," said Beamer, when asked about his club's quick rise to fourth in the polls. "This business is one week to the next. And if we go out and stink it up against Ohio, none of that stuff ... you'll be writing about something else next week."

One thing that never seems to change, though, is the sheer voracity of Tech's backers.

"Our fans have always kind of found a way, regardless of the circumstances," Beamer said. "The fans are like where I'm trying to get our football team. It doesn't make any difference what the situations are ... where we play, who we play, what stadium it is, whether it's done or not ... it's let's go play."