Call it Danny Coale, Part Deux.
The highway robbery of the Virginia Tech receiver in the Jan. 3, 2012 Sugar Bowl has now been relegated to the second worse case of larceny by a football official in Hokie history, thanks to the job ACC officials did at the end of last night’s Miami-Virginia Tech game.
On the final play of the contest, trailing by 4, Kyrone Drones lofted a pass to the back line of the endzone. Among the collective group of hands outstretched to try to grab the ball were two belonging to Da’ Quan Felton, who pulled it to his chest, gained possession, then landed on his backside. While sitting there, Miami players grabbed at the ball, one dislodged it, but it didn’t matter. Felton had possession, and when his butt hit the ground, it’s like breaking the plane of the goal line.
Touchdown, game over.
An official standing only a few feet away saw it and signaled touchdown. The play was reviewed, but since it was called a touchdown on the field, the cornerstone of instant replay since its inception has been there needed to be incontrovertible visual evidence of the call being made in error to overturn it.
Six minutes passed before a decision was made. That length of time would seem to indicate there was nothing incontrovertible about what they were watching. But after talking each other into a decision, the play was overturned by officials, giving Miami the win.
Lest you think my perspective is colored by orange and maroon glasses, the TV announcers – who seemed to have a clear leaning toward Miami – couldn’t believe it. It was called a touchdown on the field and there was not enough evidence to overturn it, they said. A scan of social media this morning surprised me with so many outlets – many who normally don’t have anything to do with Virginia Tech – claiming the same.
The Hokies, universal opinion everywhere in the country except for Miami and Charlottesville seemed to say, got screwed.
Royally.
It capped a night where the split personality Hokies showed a side that gave hope for the rest of the season and another side that made you wonder just how clueless they could also be at the same time.
After a week of people predicting a disaster in South Beach, the Hokies came out ready to play, scoring on their first drive and racing to a 24-17 halftime lead. At least for me, concern started to creep in on a 57-yard field goal by John Love with 20 seconds left in the half, as an unforgiveable sin from earlier in the season got repeated.
Probably the key play in Virginia Tech’s loss to Vanderbilt in the season opener was a penalty for sending two players onto the field wearing the same number. Head coach Brent Pry was skewered for having enough assistants for TWO softball teams on the sidelines, yet nobody noticed of the 11 players on the field, there were only 10 different numbers. He took responsibility and vowed it would be fixed and never happen again.
But as Love, wearing No. 17, booted the impressive 57-yarder, the right tackle was Cole Nelson, wearing the same No. 17. For something that galactically stupid which supposedly would never happen again, “never” ended up being less than 30 days.
Fortunately, the officials missed it.
The defense showed signs of real strength until the final minutes of the game, reminding you of the Hokie defenses of old, and when Kaleb Spencer stopped a Miami drive with an interception that he returned 77 yards to the Hurricane 17, momentum was clearly wearing orange and maroon. The Hokies led 27-17 at the time, there were 6 minutes left in the third quarter, and any kind of score would have given them additional breathing room.
Instead, they squandered the opportunity. Three plays only advanced the ball 7 yards, with two being passes. Bhayshul Tuten had 141 yards rushing on the night, but for some reason the Hokies only gave it to him once on the drive. Give it to him three times, common sense may have indicated, and as he showed throughout the game, he probably gets those tough yards and scores. Not through with defying logic, the Hokies then chose – instead of kicking an easy field goal – to run a fake field goal play, which was stopped dead in its tracks.
It immediately breathed life into Hard Rock Stadium and gave the momentum back to Miami, not to mention in the final seconds Virginia Tech would have only needed a field goal instead of a Hail Mary to win. It was one of the deals where if it worked, the coaches are geniuses.
If it doesn’t work, it may cost you the game. Which it did.
All said, the Hokies actually played quite well, and the irony of this game is that the Hokies may benefit more from losing in the manner they did than if they had pulled it out. Had they won, some would have said they were lucky to do so, ignored some of the very positive developments in the offense and defense, and focused more on those bonehead decisions.
But teams that suffer crushing defeats in the manner of last night tend to go one of two ways: Either it wounds them to the point they’re never the same the rest of the way, or it becomes a rallying point that brings a team closer together in an “us against the world” mentality. The Hokies played as close to a complete game as they have this season last night, and combined with that anger and feeling that something was unfairly taken from them that they need to take back, could help them morph into the team some expected.
Miami was soft on defense last night and they’re going to lose one or two games. While 2-3, the Hokies are only 0-1 in the conference. They can still win the ACC. Anything is possible.
It all depends on which path this team chooses.
We’ll see October 5 at Stanford.
