Virginia Tech Football is going to be Virginia Tech Football. Watching the game yesterday it doesn’t feel like the team has gotten worse over the years. Only that there worst qualities have been highlighted. Early on in the game they found themselves in a 3-24 situation and decided to run the ball up the middle and set-up the punt. I hate it. Partially I blame Dan Quinn and the Washington Football Team for going for it on every fourth down and fighting for every inch of the field, but this is Virginia Tech Football after all.
This was the complaint my father always had about Frank Beamer. That he was too conservative, and somehow this attitude has carried on past his tenure. The Hookies are onto their second head coach since Beamer retired, but all their problems are somehow even worse. You’d think when they got a new coach they would look for one a little forward thinking, not one that is going to lay down and give up in the first half of a football game.
Later on in the game Tech was down by two scores. With a daring run up the middle they got into a 4-3 situation from which they decided to kick a field goal. Instead of going for it and trying to win the game they kicked a field goal and gave the ball back to South Carolina who scored a touchdown roughly 8 seconds later. Ball don’t lie, as they say.
That was Virginia Tech’s entire problem in their 24-11 defeat to South Carolina. They played ultra conservative from the start, and it became even worse when they were in desperation situations. Their two minute offense, run up the middle, their down two scores with five minutes to go plan, run up the middle. Do they have an exceptional running back like Lee Suggs or Kevin Jones? No! But that doesn’t matter. This is Virginia Tech Football. Three yards and a cloud of dust in the wrong direction.
The most ironic part of it all is when they did decide to pass and Drones could get a ball close to a receiver they were making plays. Virginia Tech receivers made a couple exceptional catches down field. The only problem was the play calling was for runs up the middle followed by runs up the middle and only one out of ten plays was allowed to be a pass.
My only hope is that when Brent Pry is fired after this season the Hookies go out and look for a forward thinking coach, and by that I mean one that understands the forward pass is a part of the game and isn’t waiting for Bronko Nagurski to come walking out of the locker room.
David Huzzard Writes 