M To Play Virginia Tech In 2020, 2021 Comment Count

Brian

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I don't know if Beamer is still going to be around for this but hey look an honest to god legit opponent in a home and home:

Michigan & Virginia Tech will play a home-and-home series during the 2020 & 2021 seasons; 2020 (Michigan Stadium), 2021 (Lane Stadium).

Da'Shawn Hand will be out of school for multiple years at that point, and the 2020 game is a home anchor for a year when Michigan plays OSU on the road. Thumbs up.

Comments

M-Wolverine

May 9th, 2013 at 12:10 PM ^

Seven years in advance in this era. (Who knows? By then it could be a conference game). But it's certainly a fun match up. Good program, not a lot of hate, the fan base seemed pretty nice at the Sugar Bowl, so a good one to have visit, and then go down and visit. And since we won the Sugar Bowl we have one up on them. 

redwings8831

May 9th, 2013 at 12:15 PM ^

Road games at Arkansas/Virginia Tech in 2019/2021 = 6 home game seasons because odd years is when the west division gets the 5th conference home game.

jadaSPW

May 9th, 2013 at 12:20 PM ^

I'll be curious to see how our schedule lays out for those years. We'll have a better idea of home/away division opponents once the new 2014-2015 schedules are released. Believe it will be announced by the end of May.

mGrowOld

May 9th, 2013 at 12:16 PM ^

I started to get excited then I realized that when they kick-off the game in 2020 I will be 61 years young.  Took a bit of the luster off the news for me anyways.

That's real MgrowmutherfuckingOld.  Stupid time.  Stupid aging process.

jadaSPW

May 9th, 2013 at 12:16 PM ^

Really looking forward to making this trip in 2021, as well as the trip to Fayetteville in 2019 as part of the Arkansas home and home.

Perkis-Size Me

May 9th, 2013 at 12:16 PM ^

Good to see that we're continuing to beef up the non-con schedule. Hopefully by then this won't be a conference game, but still, a great matchup. I hear nothing but good things about the stadium environment down at Va. Tech.



Now let's somehow work USC or Stanford into our future schedule.

Perkis-Size Me

May 9th, 2013 at 2:56 PM ^

I'd say overall its getting beefed up. No more FCS teams, 9 conference games as opposed to 8, and at least 1 major out-of-conference foe every year. It might not be exponentially better, but even just by removing FCS teams, and hopefully eventually phasing out MAC squads altogether, the schedule is unquestionably getting tougher.

Balrog_of_Morgoth

May 9th, 2013 at 12:43 PM ^

This makes me think that the Notre Dame series is done indefinitely. We are supposed to start playing them again in 2020, but this announcement makes me think there will be an even longer delay. Otherwise we are going to have a very challenging schedule playing 9 Big Ten games, Virginia Tech, and Notre Dame. Although, the new playoff format will supposedly emphasize strength of schedule, so maybe Brandon wants to go this route.

Rhino77

May 9th, 2013 at 12:21 PM ^

Wow that September 11, 2021 game will be on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

I just felt really really old and really really sad seeing that date.

Um, Go Blue?!

sundaybluedysunday

May 9th, 2013 at 12:21 PM ^

Huge alumni base out here as well. I know a ton of alumni are going to be making the trip for this one so there should be a very strong Michigan presence as well. Should be fantastic.

JClay

May 9th, 2013 at 12:22 PM ^

Cool for those of us in Virginia to have a short travel to a UM game, but Va Tech is definitely in decline. Still better than another MACky-cake game.

sundaybluedysunday

May 9th, 2013 at 1:07 PM ^

Well yes, they may be on the decline now as Beamer gets older, but the series doesn't start for another 7 years. Whose to say they don't have Foster or an entirely different coach who has them highly competitive and revitalized?



Waaaayyyy too early to speculate as to the quality of the game at this point.

FrankMurphy

May 9th, 2013 at 1:29 PM ^

Might I remind you that when we beat them a year and a half ago, we needed overtime to do it and we only managed to muster 187 yards of offense. They dominated us in every statistical category except the final score. I'm still astonished that we won that game.

gwkrlghl

May 9th, 2013 at 12:33 PM ^

I hope this further reinforces the theory that the playoff will encourage schools to boost their SOS and stop playing nonsense teams. I know this is basically a filler for ND, but it is promising that in the last year we've snagged games against Oregon State, Colorado, BYU, Cincinnati, Arkansas, and Virginia Tech

None of those are Alabama, but it's a heck of a lot better than our non-con schedule for the past 5ish years where it's basically been two MACrificies, Notre Dame, and a non-descript mid-major/FCS team

maize-blue

May 9th, 2013 at 12:45 PM ^

I'm curious to see if the game of football is the same in 2020 or if it gets watered down to basically a game of two hand touch.

MgoRayO3313

May 9th, 2013 at 12:50 PM ^

At the present rate by 2020 two hand touch may be in question. I'm all for improving safety measures, but I do not like the fact that fundamental elements of he game are changing. Contact directed towards the head should be eliminated, tackling, all together, should not.

Leaders And Best

May 9th, 2013 at 12:47 PM ^

If Michigan is going to have 5 home conference games in even years when the 9 game conference schedule starts in 2016, it would seem to make more sense to play your high profile out of conference opponent at home in odd years.

Now we are setting ourselves up for situations like the last 2 years where we will have 8 home games in even years and only 6 home games in odd years. It seems there would be more balance to the schedule if had reversed the home/away order of the games.

SKIP TO MY BLUE

May 9th, 2013 at 1:23 PM ^

Great to see games being scheduled in areas outside the midwest that Michigan has labeled as important recruiting areas. Maybe we can get some games with USF/Miami or TCU/UT down the road.