You have to be there to fully appreciate it, but trust me when I say there's nothing quite like being at Virginia Tech's Lane Stadium for an afternoon or night of college football. The setting itself is stunning, with the campus nestled on a plateau between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains, and the students are always fired up for the game.
I didn't attend Tech (I'm a University of Maryland grad – fear the turtle!), but my husband did. The school spirit and camaraderie of Hokie Nation is something to behold; the alumni network is as strong as any of the Ivy League ones, and has given rise to the mantra, "Hokies hire Hokies." I'm kind of jealous.
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Game day at the stadium is one, big sea of orange and maroon, and when the first notes of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" start blasting on the stadium's sound system, the entire place erupts into a frenzy. Things might go downhill from here, which is kind of the theme of this year's season, but it's always worth showing up for the team taking the field to the following strains:
“Ex-it liiight!”
“En-ter niiight!”
“Taaake my hand!”
“We’re off to never-never land!”
Here's how the mayhem unfolds:
Enter Sandman at Virginia Tech is always perfect pic.twitter.com/Y3biVK9YRq
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) September 3, 2023
On occasion, I've asked my husband how and when this tradition started, but he usually just mumbles something about it being after he graduated in the 1990s, how bad the team was when he was there, and how everything turned around when Frank Beamer became the head coach.
It turns out that "Enter Sandman" has now been a fixture in Blacksburg for an impressive 25 years, and it has since become a legendary hype song in college football. The school first rolled out the song in August of 2000 to mark the installation of a new scoreboard in the stadium and to celebrate Michael Vick's impressive freshman season (the downfall came later).
Apparently, a young student intern in the school's sports marketing and promotions department was tasked with finding the perfect song to accompany the debut of the new scoreboard, and she enlisted her friends in brainstorming some ideas. Their process was straight out of 2000, according to the AP story linked above:
Their work — reported for the first time earlier this year by Sons of Saturday, a website covering Hokies athletics — included going through Runyon’s playlists from Napster, the peer-to-peer file-sharing application. Coincidentally, it was shuttered in the 2000s after the record industry and Metallica sued over copyright violations; Napster later relaunched as a music-streaming service.
The crew had considered recommending “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses, but decided instead to move forward with "Enter Sandman." They questioned whether The Powers That Be would agree to the song, but they did and a legend was born. The song made its debut at the August 27, 2000, home opener against Georgia Tech, but no one gave too much notice of it once lightning and torrential downpours hit the stadium, causing the game to be canceled.
Not a great start, but the school stuck with the song and it began to gain traction. There was one sticking point, however: Virginia Tech never sought permission from Metallica to use the song. Knowing how hard the band had come out against Napster, there was good reason to worry. Luckily, Metallica loved that the school was using their song, and strong ties were formed.
Metallica, which was formed and remains based in California, recorded a tribute message to longtime coach Frank Beamer for his 2015 home finale. Another pregame message came in 2018 before the Hokies hosted Notre Dame, with lead singer James Hetfield holding the program’s “Lunch Pail” — the beat-up metal box symbolizing the Hokies’ blue-collar work ethic and defensive identity under longtime coordinator Bud Foster.
“You have supported Metallica for so long,” Hetfield said. “We appreciate you, we’re here to support you.”
Virginia Tech and Metallica are now so inextricably linked that, earlier in 2025, the band put on the first-ever concert in Lane Stadium's 60 years of existence; entire sections of the stadium had to be removed to allow access to the trucks hauling the band's stage set. The hubs was there, of course, and the crowd reaction was so loud it registered at Virginia Tech's Seismological Observatory a mile from the stadium.
Here's a taste of that night:
Enter Sandman. Live in Lane Stadium. Put it in the history books. 🤘
— Virginia Tech (@virginia_tech) May 8, 2025
Video courtesy of @Metallica #M72VirginiaTech pic.twitter.com/mVzuySAZZk
It's hard to say if Virginia Tech invented the modern college football hype song, but they definitely perfected the art. Other schools that have gotten in on the act include the Michigan Wolverines ("Mr. Brightside"), the Florida Gators ("I Won't Back Down"), and the LSU Tigers ("Callin' Baton Rouge").
We'll let Metallica's James Hetfield have the last word on the matter; here's what he told the (now-fired) head coach before their May concert: "It’s unbelievable what you guys have done to that song. I bet China can feel it when everyone’s jumping, man."
