I don’t think a lot of people expected Virginia Tech to beat Clemson, but there was a point late in the third quarter when something really started to gnaw on me.
By then Clemson had taken a 14-7 lead, the Tigers were well on their way to a third touchdown early in the 4th quarter and the game was slipping away. Virginia Tech’s offense hadn’t scored all game, as its only points had come on a blocked field goal returned for a TD, and their huddle looked like the walking wounded.
Running back Bhayshul Tuten was clearly not at 100 percent, and at one point reaggravated his ankle injury and had to leave the game. Kyron Drones had similar issues and at a point in the 4th quarter also came out. Backup running back Malachi Thomas didn’t even suit up due to injuries, so the only healthy players to consider at those two key positions were young guys.
In my head I kept hearing this question: “What do you have to lose?”
I will confess, one of the things I’m not all that impressed with about Virginia Tech Coach Brent Pry is his reluctance to take chances. Last week against Syracuse, for example, the score was tied, Pry had 29 seconds left, 3 timeouts, and one of the better long-range kickers in college football in John Love. Many a coach would throw the ball a few times and take a chance that with those timeouts, the team could move the ball enough to possibly try a long field goal at the gun and maybe win in regulation.
Pry chose not to. “Hostile environment, backup QB, they’ve got the momentum, I didn’t want to put the ball in jeopardy,” the coach said after the game.
The Hokies lost in overtime.
So tonight, with Drones unable to go at quarterback and the game slipping away, some coaches might take a different kind of chance: put in a young healthy quarterback like a Pop Watson or a Davi Belfort. You’d have to think since Drones and backup Collin Schlee had been hobbled during the week, a package of plays had been prepared and practiced for the younger QBs. Give ‘em a chance and see what they can do, since it looked like you were going to lose any way.
They might surprise you. They may give you a spark you can build on next week against Duke. Or they may go down in flames in a game you were going to lose any way.
What do you have to lose?
Instead, Pry put in Schlee, a 6th year senior that has two regular-season games left in his college career. Next year at this time he could be drinking coffee in an office or practicing with another team, but he won’t be here. He was also injured last week, and Pry said after the game of Drones and Schlee, “Neither one of those QBs are healthy right now.”
I don’t understand. I know if I’m a young QB hearing that my head coach had so much confidence in me he’d rather play an injured QB than give me a chance to show what I could do, I wouldn’t be very happy. I’d also be wondering just what kind of future I had under him as a player.
Pry made a similar decision at running back. Everyone involved with Virginia Tech football knew Tuten wasn’t at full strength, and not surprisingly, the Hokies barely used him. He carried 4 times for 3 yards, but played until he broke, coming out for an injury. At this point they put in Jeremiah Coney, who had a great game last week, gaining 96 yards on 9 carries, but did have a costly fumble.
Many assumed he didn’t play more today because of that fumble, and when he did come in to play the fourth quarter, he got as many carries as I did: Zero. Whether it was meant or not, a big nonverbal message seemed to be being sent to Coney that you can’t be trusted to not fumble the football.
This was the perfect time to deal with that tonight. Give him the ball in the 4th quarter and if he fumbles again, you weren’t going to win any way. If he busts another 47-yard run like he did at Syracuse, he gets the crowd back in the game and maybe you have a long shot of a chance.
But to not give him a single carry while you’re playing a 6th year senior at QB playing on one leg because of injury? What kind of message do you think THAT sends to the young man?
Maybe none of this would have made a difference, but the great coaches in the sport know when to take a chance and trust their players. Nothing builds up a team more in a huddle on the sidelines than when a coach tells his offense with 29 seconds left “ WHEN it’s time to bring John Love in, we’ll kick the field goal and go home. I trust you guys to get us down the field.”
Nothing builds up a young player more than saying “this is the moment you’ve been waiting for, so go take us down the field and make the most of it.” Or “don’t worry about that fumble last week, focus on now and break one to the end zone.”
Stuff like that makes players feel 10 feet tall. Their coach trusts you to get the job done. And everyone on the team notices.
But for the last two weeks, that didn’t happen. Hearing your coach say “we’ve gotta be able to run the ball” tonight after the game after only calling 4 plays that gave the ball to a running back and you (Coney) didn’t get a single carry? Kind of makes you want to wave your hand and say “hello? What am I? Chopped liver?”
These are the things not in the box score that builds a team and makes people want to come play for you. Wins and losses are one thing, but winning programs are built around confidence, a feeling of togetherness, and a trust that the coaches think the players can do the job when everything’s on the line.
Losing to Clemson tonight was neither surprising nor earth-shattering. Most of us expected it.
But failure to take chances in key situations, thus showing trust and confidence in several different players for a second week in a row, is.
It’s a blown opportunity.
And it gnaws at me.
