‘ESPN Absolutely Botched Enter Sandman,’ ‘Coolest Entrance in College Football’ — CFB Fans Have Mixed Reactions to Virginia Tech’s Viral Walkout
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The Virginia Tech Hokies gave ESPN a sold-out Lane Stadium, 65,000-plus fans bouncing in place and Metallica blasting through the speakers.
With that kind of atmosphere, you’d think the broadcast would be easy to get right. Instead, some Hokies fans were left frustrated with ESPN’s camera work and even called for the crew to be fired.
ESPN’s ‘Enter Sandman’ Coverage Gets Roasted
The “Enter Sandman” walkout went viral again before the Hokies’ Friday night matchup with the Pittsburgh Panthers, but this time not everyone was impressed with how ESPN captured it.
Plenty of fans still saw college football theater at its best, while others thought ESPN had one of the easiest layups in sports television and somehow managed to hit the bottom of the rim.
“ESPN absolutely botched Enter Sandman,”one fan tweeted.
Another viewer had a pretty specific complaint about why it looked wrong. “They over-edited it like crazy. Less is more with the camera switching,”they wrote.
“Too zoomed in the whole time,”another chimed in.
A fourth fan went back five years for the standard ESPN apparently failed to match. “The only time they nailed it was UNC in 2021. Wide shot looked way better,”the fan wrote.
“One of the worst productions they’ve done,”another added.
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There is a reason Virginia Tech fans care this much about the camera angle. “Enter Sandman” has been the Hokies’ entrance music since 2000, and the tradition has grown into one of the sport’s signature pregame scenes.
The entire stadium jumping together has become part of the show, which makes a wide shot pretty useful when the whole point is watching the whole place lose its mind.
The tradition is so tied to Virginia Tech thatEnter Sandman became one of the marquee stadium additions to EA Sports College Football 26.
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Plenty of Fans Still Loved the Virginia Tech Walkout
Not everyone let ESPN’s coverage take away from the moment. Plenty of fans were still blown away by the atmosphere.
“Coolest entrance in college football,”one X user wrote.
Sports Illustrated had a similar reaction.
“Enter Sandman at Lane Stadium never gets old 🔥,”they wrote.
It’s easy to see why the entrance still gets that kind of reaction. Virginia Tech entered Friday 4-0 in James Franklin’s first season and hosted an unbeaten Pitt team in a sold-out Lane Stadium on ESPN. The Hokies were trying to reach 5-0 for the first time since 2005, so the building did not exactly need much help getting loud.
The entrance’s reputation was supercharged by the 2021 home opener against North Carolina, when the crowd’s jumping registered on a nearby seismograph. Metallica itself has embraced the tradition, and the band played Lane Stadium in 2025.
So the internet managed to agree on the important part. “Enter Sandman” still rules.
The disagreement was over whether ESPN needed so many camera cuts to prove it.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.
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