Virginia Tech plans to take an hour-long charter flight from Roanoke to Baltimore’s BWI Airport on Sunday evening. If all goes as planned, the Hokies will be on the field in Landover, Md., for a walk-thru later that night.

Tech shouldn’t experience any headaches trying to get to Maryland for its season-opening game against No. 3 Boise State on Monday night at FedEx Field.

On the other hand, it’ll take a lot more effort for the Broncos to get there. Boise State’s charter flight from Idaho to Maryland on Saturday could take upwards of five hours.

“It is what it is,” Broncos coach Chris Petersen said. “A lot of guys travel across the country (for games). That’s not going to be an excuse if we don’t play well.”

Long flights are nothing new to Boise State. It travels to Hawaii every other year, and that flight is about the same in length as the one from Idaho to Maryland.

This will be Boise’s first trip to the East Coast since it visited Georgia on Sept. 3, 2005. It lost that day, 48-13.

Actually, the Broncos haven’t had much luck at all in East Coast games. In fairness, they haven’t come this far east many times.

Boise State has played on the East Coast only twice – both losses – since becoming a Football Bowl Subdivision team in 1996. It lost to Georgia in 2005 and at South Carolina in 2001.

Petersen said he isn’t concerned about his players being jet lagged. The trip to Hawaii has become standard for the Broncos, though they’ve lost two of their last three games at Aloha Stadium. And they travel in style now, one of the many perks of becoming a major college football powerhouse.

“It’s a heck of a lot easier to travel around here than it used to be eight years or so,” Petersen said. “Guys were flying commercial to go to different places, and so for us to be able to get on a charter plane and not have to stop, that makes a big difference for us.”