3/31/2017 football Edit

Season opener will be played Sunday, Sept. 3

Fed Ex Field will host Sunday Night Football action a week before the NFL season begins. (USA Today Sports Images)

Tim Sullivan • HokieHaven

Editor

Tim Sullivan is the Editor of HokieHaven.com. A University of Michigan alumnus, he is a decade-plus veteran of the recruiting industry.

The first game for the 2017 Virginia Tech football season will take place on a special day: The Hokies' game against West Virginia ha moved to Sunday, Sept. 3. From VT media relations:

BLACKSBURG – The Virginia Tech and West Virginia Athletics Departments announced Friday that the season-opening football contest between the two schools has been moved to 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 3. Tickets will go on sale to Hokie Club members and Virginia Tech football season ticket holders on Tuesday, April 4. The game will be televised nationally by ABC.

“Thousands of our alums call Northern Virginia and the Capital Region their home, so the chance to play in an NFL stadium in front of so many Hokies should be a great experience for our players and our fans,” head coach Justin Fuente said. “We’re also excited to showcase our program on national TV for a primetime audience as we renew our rivalry with a talented and well-coached West Virginia team.”

Virginia Tech’s allotment of student tickets for West Virginia game are already on sale. Those seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis, with a single ticket available for $72 (fees included), or two tickets for $139 (fees included), with a limit of two tickets per student. Students must pick up these tickets at the Virginia Tech Athletics Ticket Office on August 29-31.

The contest will mark the 52nd meeting between the two schools, with Tech owning a two-game winning streak in the series that dates back to 1912. The Hokies claimed a 34-17 victory in the most recent game in Morgantown in 2005 and also won a 19-13 decision against No. 6 West Virginia at Lane Stadium in 2004. Arguably the most memorable contest in the series for Tech fans was a 22-20 victory in Morgantown on Nov. 6, 1999 when Michael Vick led a last-minute Hokies’ comeback that was capped by a 44-yard game-winning field goal by Shayne Graham as time expired.

This season’s game will mark Virginia Tech’s fourth appearance at FedExField since 2004. This will be the first neutral site game between the two teams since they played in Richmond, Virginia in 1962. Virginia Tech and West Virginia also will play a two-game series starting in 2021. The teams will play in Morgantown on Sept. 18, 2021 and will square off in Blacksburg on Sept. 24, 2022.

The Hokies are led by head coach Justin Fuente, who earned consensus ACC Coach of the Year honors in 2016, guiding the Hokies to a 10-4 record and the ACC Coastal Division title in his initial season in Blacksburg. Dating back to the 1999 season — when Frank Beamer coached Virginia Tech to its first 11-win season and a berth in the national championship game — only Oklahoma (14) has registered more seasons with double-digit victories than Virginia Tech (12) among Power Five programs over that span.

For questions regarding tickets, please contact the VT Athletics Ticket Office at 800.828.3244 or 540.231.6731. For questions regarding your Hokie Scholarship giving, please contact the Hokie Club at 540.231.6618.