Good morning Blacksburg.

TGIFLDWAHHG (Thank God Its Friday, Labor Day Weekend, and Hokie Home Game)

Two Franklins in one issue, unrelated. One filed a comment with federal regulators opposing a pipeline expansion. The other has 66,000 people showing up Saturday night to watch him coach a football game. Also the lore around Homer Hickam, the guy from October Sky, goes even deeper than you realized.

Enjoy the labor day weekend, we’ll see you Monday!

In today's Blacksburg Connect:

Let's get to it.

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The cannon Virginia Tech fires after every touchdown was built for exactly this matchup, and it has never been fired at VMI in Lane Stadium.

The story is worth reading in full at WSLS, which tracked down the cadet who built it. The short version: in the early 1960s, VMI had a small cannon called Little John that it fired at the Thanksgiving Day Military Classic of the South. It threw a clean smoke ring, and the VMI corps would chant at the Tech cadets across the field — where's your cannon?

A cadet in Alpha Company got tired of hearing it. He and another cadet decided to build one, with no money, no materials and no permission from the administration.

VMI fired first. Perfect smoke ring, same chant. Then Tech fired Skipper — and by the cadet's account the blast swallowed the VMI sideline in smoke, blew the covers off the VMI corps' heads, and was rumored to have cracked glass in the press box. When his hearing came back, the Tech corps was chanting "Here's our cannon!"

Oh, and the cadet who built it was none other than Homer Hickam — later a NASA engineer, and the author of the memoir that became October Sky. Boom.

Skipper II will be out at Hokie Village before kickoff Saturday, alongside the Governor's Sword.

Here’s everything Virginia Tech changed over the offseason that you may run into if you are heading to the game Saturday.

1. Screenshots will not work. Lane Stadium moved to contactless NFC ticketing. Your ticket has to live in a digital wallet — Apple Wallet or equivalent — and you tap the phone at the gate. Download your ticket to your wallet before you leave the house, because cell service around the stadium on a sold-out night is not something to gamble on.

2. They renumbered the parking lots. Assigned locations didn't move — the numbers on them did. If you navigate by lot number, check the parking map Friday. Several lots were also resurfaced and repainted. Single-game parking is also now sold for every home game, which is new.

3. Seating was renumbered too. Sections and seat numbers will change to sequential order while the rows will stay the same. Check the map,

4. Two gates work differently. Gate 7 is now a student-only general admission entrance. Gate 2 added ticket pedestals to move the line faster.

5. Free earplugs, and headphones you can borrow. Sensory headphones are available to rent at no charge, and free earplugs are there for anyone who wants them, both while supplies last. Fan Services Booth, northwest concourse by Section 116, near Gate 6. Headphones go back at the end of the game. If you've been avoiding taking a kid to Lane because of the noise, this is the thing nobody tells you about.

6. The food actually changed. New this year: a loaded-fry stand called Enter Fryman by Section 202, where the HokieBird Burner is hot honey chicken and ranch over waffle fries; Mac & Co. by Section 107 with a jambalaya mac called the Gobbler Bowl; Smoked Mac Dogs at the barbecue stands near Sections 129 and 204; pizza by the slice up at Section 232; and a Worsham Waffle at Sweet Victory Desserts by Gate 3. There are now three liquor portables — Sections 109 and 204 and Gate 1 — pouring frozen margaritas, spicy whiskey mules and candied orange lemonade vodka, plus ICEE machines with alcoholic and non-alcoholic flavors by Sections 134 and 206. Check out the full Concessions Directory

7. Tailgating rules were updated. Campus generator and tent guidelines changed for this season. If you run a generator or put up anything with poles, read the policy before Saturday rather than after somebody tells you to take it down.

8. Hokie Village runs 4:00 to 6:45 p.m. on the turf along Beamer Way — closing 45 minutes before kickoff, so it's an early-arrival stop. New food trucks this season: Good Dog Vending, Shelly's Island Cuisine, Sweet Surrender Ice Cream and Star City Burger Co. Live music includes Nashville country artist Cody Cozz. Softball and volleyball players are signing autographs.

9. There's a sword, and an anthem worth watching for. The rivalry trophy is the Governor's Sword, presented at midfield before kickoff by Maj. Gen. William H. Seely III, the 37th commandant of the Corps of Cadets, and VMI superintendent Lt. Gen. David Furness, both retired Marines. Tech last played VMI in 1984. Also new this season: an American Sign Language performance of the national anthem at every home game, by Virginia Tech student Justice Hunter, during the pregame band show.

The flyover is two HH-60 helicopters and an HC-130, flown by Virginia Tech and VMI alumni from the Air Force's 347th Rescue Group at Moody Air Force Base.

One more thing to look for. If you spot kids on the Tech sideline in shirts that don't quite match anything in the team store, that's the fourth year of a partnership between the football program and Carilion Children's — players and young patients spend an afternoon before the season designing shirts they both wear on a game day, and the kids come to the sideline. WSLS was there for this year's and it's a good read.

Del. Lily Franklin, who represents the 41st District covering parts of Montgomery and Roanoke counties, filed a comment with federal regulators on Aug. 25 regarding the Mountain Valley Pipeline's proposed expansion. She says she filed it after meeting with residents on Bent Mountain who raised concerns about the project.

What the project is. It's called MVP Boost, and Mountain Valley filed its application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Oct. 23, 2025, under docket CP26-14-000. Two pieces: a new compressor station in Montgomery County — the Swann station, on land the company already owns beside the existing right-of-way near Elliston — and added compression at the Bradshaw, Harris and Stallworth stations already operating in West Virginia. Per FERC's scoping notice, Swann would run three natural gas turbines totaling 136,900 horsepower. Together the work would take the mainline from about 2.0 to 2.6 billion cubic feet of gas per day — roughly 30% more than it moves now.

What Franklin argues. In her statement she says the pipeline has been damaging to the community since its conception and has left landowners fearing for their own safety and their neighbors'. She says testing has shown corrosion and an inability to operate properly at the current rate, which in her view makes any pressure increase risky. She isn't alone locally — opponents organized as POWHR have argued in Cardinal News that an industrial compressor station doesn't fit the rural character of eastern Montgomery County.

What the company says. Mountain Valley has said the added compression keeps the line within the maximum allowable operating pressure it was designed, tested and approved for, and that the new units use emissions-reduction technology. In its filing announcement, the company said the added capacity is already fully subscribed under long-term contracts with investment-grade utilities in Virginia and North Carolina, and that the project reuses workspaces FERC approved for the original build. Developers have pointed to demand from Southeast markets and Northern Virginia data centers as the reason.

Where it stands. FERC has been collecting public comment while it decides, and has not issued a decision. Developers hope for approval around November 2026, construction starting in the winter of 2026-27, and gas flowing by mid-2028. The Swann station also needs a separate air permit from the state, with its own public hearing.

The pipeline went into service in June 2024 after roughly six years of litigation, protest and delay. Franklin took office in January after unseating Republican Chris Obenshain, 53% to 47%.

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