Virginia Tech honoring Newtown shooting victims with decal

• The Virginia Tech football team is honoring Sandy Hook victims
• The Hokies will also be honoring victims from 2007's shooting
• A helmet decal will be worn and it will be half green

The Virginia Tech campus knows all too well the resonating pain of a horrific tragedy.

With the school's football team slated to play against Rutgers on Friday in the Russell Athletics Bowl, the Hokies will be wearing a special helmet decal to honor both the Newtown, Conn., school shooting victims and the victims of the similar tragedy that took place on Virginia Tech's campus in 2007's mass school shooting.

The Roanoke Times reports that the decal is half green for Sandy Hook Elementary School and half orange for Virginia Tech with the number 58 in the center, representing the combined number of victims at the schools in the shooting incidents. It also has the word "Prevail" written across it.

"We've been through what those people up in Sandy Hook are going through," Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said via The Times. "We prevailed in Blacksburg. If anything, it brought us closer and [made us] more determined. The same thing is happening there, where the community is just coming together.

"It's a terrible thing to happen, but we've got to prevail," Beamer added. "We can't let one person define Blacksburg or Virginia Tech. They can't let one person define them."

Additionally, the team is wearing a large ribbon on the side of their practice helmets this week. A smaller decal will be placed on the back of the helmet for the bowl game.

Contributing: The Associated Press