It was the mantra at the McCue Center throughout the summer of 2018 and into football season that fall. ‘Beat Tech’ was ubiquitous: chanted in team huddles, printed on T-shirts, plastered on the walls of the weight room.

Brennan Armstrong was new to the Virginia-Virginia Tech rivalry at that point. The quarterback had enrolled early at UVa that spring after growing up in Shelby, a small town in north-central Ohio where a different college football rivalry was king.

Three years later, with the Hokies coming to Scott Stadium this weekend, Armstrong understands the significance of the Commonwealth Cup clash.

“It's my rivalry,” Armstrong told reporters on Zoom on Monday. “Ohio State-Michigan used to be my rivalry; now, this is mine. This is who I am.”

UVa had dropped 14 straight to Tech when Armstrong first arrived; an overtime loss in Blacksburg to finish the 2018 regular season extended that drought to 15. The Wahoos finally vanquished the streak in 2019 with a thrilling, field-storming 39-30 victory at Scott Stadium that clinched the program’s first-ever Coastal Division title. Tech bounced back with a one-sided win in Blacksburg last December.

Joey Blount has played in each of the last four UVA-Tech games. The safety had a team-high eight tackles in that 2019 win in Charlottesville. A super senior back for a fifth season, Saturday's 3:45pm kickoff will be his last crack at the Hokies.

“Being a part of the program now for five years and seeing the growth of where we started off and what we’ve done so far in this five-year matchup that I’ve been a part of, it’s just really become part of my journey here at UVA,” Blount said on Monday. “I want to make sure that I leave a good legacy behind.”

Both teams are reeling going into Saturday’s regular season finale. The 6-5 Wahoos have dropped three in a row, and had their hopes of a second straight division title squashed with last weekend’s 48-38 loss at Pitt. Tech has lost five of its last seven, and last week fired head coach Justin Fuente. Defensive line coach JC Price is the Hokies’ interim head coach for the rest of the season. At 5-6, Tech needs to win this weekend to become bowl eligible.

UVa is an early touchdown favorite on Saturday. Blount and Armstrong joined head coach Bronco Mendenhall on Zoom on Monday to talk about the regular season finale at Scott Stadium. It’s a Tech-heavy edition of the 3-2-1: