Keydets

In 2020, the VMI Keydets won the Southern Conference for the first time since 1977 and reached the NCAA FCS playoffs for the first time in the programme's history.

The nickname itself is an accident of speech — "Keydets" is simply "Cadets" run through a Southern drawl. That identity carries through the rivalry with The Citadel, a fellow military college whose meetings with VMI go back to 1920 and are now played for the Silver Shako, under the billing of the "Military Classic of the South."

Games are played at Foster Stadium in Lexington, Virginia, rebuilt in 2006 with a $15 million gift from P. Wesley Foster, Jr. that replaced the seating, scoreboard and locker rooms. Among those who came through the programme, Joe Muha and Bobby Thomason were each selected in the top ten of their NFL drafts, and George C. Marshall coached the team from 1939 to 1941.

What VMI has not done is turn 2020 into a pattern.