Matt Hayes

Walk humbly, son
Walk humbly now
And cherish every step
For a life well-spent
On this earth we're lent
Will be marked by the void you have left
— "Walk Humbly, Son" from the folk band Eddie From Ohio.

Months after the fact, after long days and nights had run into one another and eventually into this moment, there were tears. Never-ending, never-relenting tears. Victor Harris stood in the tunnel at Lane Stadium last week and heard the crowd and felt the enormity of it all. Then the tears started welling.

They call him Macho for a reason, this loud-talking, fist-pumping, sculpted Virginia Tech cornerback whose body is adorned with tattoos -- including a particular ink stain that stands alone without shame: One. As in, No. 1.

"You like to think you're tough, you can handle anything," Macho says. "I can admit it. I had tears in my eyes." Earlier in the week, Cheryl Beamer was in church when a mother of one of the 32 murdered in the shootings at the university in April stood and spoke. The wife of Hokies coach Frank Beamer, she had seen and heard it all over the past four months.

And yet the tears flowed again.

"You think you've cried for the last time," Cheryl says. "Then something triggers it again."

Walk humbly, son. A life well-spent will be marked by the void you have left

Thirty-two lives, thirty-two souls, 32 reasons Virginia Tech has become the team for all of college football. Those lyrics are from the song the university has unofficially adopted as its salve, a bandage to manage the pain and persevere. But what exactly does that mean once the season begins and reality forces itself to the forefront?

We have learned that a team and a town can soldier on in the toughest of times, can come together when they need each other most. We also have learned that at some point, the game becomes more than just a way to heal. It becomes once again -- what this southwestern Virginia community is all about.

And that's when last week's lackluster 17-7 victory over outmanned East Carolina becomes more than an afterthought on a day of remembrance. It becomes a reason for concern.

"This has got to be our wakeup call," says quarterback Sean Glennon. "We can't use the emotional aspect of this game as a crutch. We didn't play well. The way we played won't fly in Baton Rouge."

Ah, yes, Baton Rouge -- Tech will visit LSU on Saturday for what is merely college football's biggest nonconference game of the season. But can Virginia Tech respond?

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The college game is fueled by emotion and motivation, and these Hokies -- regardless of whether they admit it -- may not have the mental horsepower to win. Early last week, when anyone with a microphone, notepad or camera was mulling around Blacksburg, Beamer did his best to shield his players from the media madness and remind them that this game was like any other.

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Then, on the night before the game, in a cramped meeting room at a hotel in Roanoke, he gave in and changed up, telling his team they would remember this game for the rest of their lives.

"He told us to make memories," says linebacker Xavier Adibi.

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Instead, the Tech offense filled the day with too many questions to answer. Though the defense was dominant, as usual, the offense stumbled all over itself. The running game couldn't get untracked. The passing game was an utter failure beyond safe, short routes. And the line was in shambles. All of this against a team that isn't in the same stratosphere as LSU.

It would be easy to blame the problems on the emotions of the week, but these are tangible issues that must be addressed. Or as Beamer so subtly puts it: "It wasn't so emotional that our tackle forgot to block the defensive end that hit our quarterback in the back."

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Late in fall camp, right tackle Ed Wang, the team's tough young pass blocker and emotional spark, broke his ankle. The injury left Tech limited at two spots on the line after guard Nick Marshman moved to tackle and backup Richard Graham stepped in at guard. Marshman isn't a tackle, and Graham -- well, Graham's only other offer coming out of high school was from Princeton. How many think LSU man-child defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey is a little excited about that?

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"The holes just weren't there," says Tech tailback Branden Ore.

Nor was the passing game. During spring drills and fall camp, the Tech staff raved about Glennon's progress. A different quarterback, they said, a different vision from the guy who played poorly in big games last season. But on the Hokies' first play from scrimmage against a decent ECU defense, Glennon threw into double coverage and was intercepted. It didn't get much better the rest of the way:

The Hokies had just 278 total yards, including 52 yards rushing on 27 carries. This reinforced a trend that -- at this point -- is too hard to ignore. In the last decade under Beamer, Tech's offenses have been dynamic and diverse with dual-threat quarterbacks (Michael and Marcus Vick, Bryan Randall) and dull and predictable with pocket passers (Grant Noel and Glennon). Yet Beamer hasn't veered from his staunch backing of Glennon, through his uneven play on the road last season and his eventual meltdown in the Peach Bowl loss to Georgia.

Beamer does have someone else -- freshman Tyrod Taylor -- but if Taylor didn't play against ECU, he certainly isn't going to play against LSU unless something goes terribly wrong. Beamer made a point last week to stress that Taylor, the jewel of the team's recruiting class, wouldn't play against ECU and may not play this season.

Why? Because he's a freshman, and true freshmen don't play quarterback at Tech. Not the Vicks, not Randall, not Glennon. Doesn't matter that true freshmen all over the country have played -- and played well -- at the most important position on the field; this is Beamer's hard-and-fast rule.