Well, THAT happened. Not only did it happen, but the fallout might be something that Hokie Nation isn’t going to be too pleased with for a while. This is a program working against itself. Now what?
First up, before we say anything, there was a presser with Athletic Department Directory Whit Babcock with a prepared statement, followed by a conference introduction of the Interim Head Coach Philip Montgomery. It’s important for everyone to look at the entire thing and pay attention to what was said,
and contemplate what wasn’t said.
Just to note, that this link to the conference was the first @HokiesFB tweet put out since the Sunday announcement. Whit’s presentation sans any question-and-answer session inspired no one in particular. It basically put a few more names to the list of people supposedly re-organizing and re-building the Hokie football program. There was some excuse dropped in there, somewhere, but Whit was essentially saying that other than being informed of the committee’s decision, he’s out of it.
We won’t speculate much more past that. BoV Rector John Rocovich seems to be running the show at the moment, and any references to Timothy Sands are pro forma head nods. There are still many programs in the department where Babcock has worked a few miracles, just not in any money-making deals. And making money is what the new football team needs to do… and hand over fist from everywhere possible, too.
Which brings us to the first section of this essay, so we beg a big question.
Did Anything Actually Work Saturday?
Objectively, no, nothing really worked. Well, there is a qualification to that. The Hokies could have scored 28 points in the second half… but then couldn’t even get that right because they tried for 2 on two TDs. Of course, both attempts failed – why would anyone think that they would work? This offense has been absolutely dreadful in the red zone for several seasons, now; this season in particular.
I guess the offense finally got something going by switching to a pass attack… well, DUH… But it was way too late.
Tech did manage to get a three-and-out on ODU for their first possession. They only managed 8 yards. Tech defense actually had a relatively good 1st quarter. The offense was almost non-existent, though. There was finally a nice long drive for Tech (still too much running by Drones) but Drone’s fumble on the ODU 3 abruptly ended the Hokie bid for a tie at the end of the quarter. It could have been a major momentum shift. Unfortunately…
Hey, the onside kick worked in the 4th… But it didn’t in the 3rd which led to an ODU score on the short field.
What Didn’t Work was Par for the Course
Even the halftime drone show was a miserable bust with the drones hovering out of sight over the back Chicken Hill parking lot near the airport. (I have to admit, my old arthritic knees locked up and I had to leave during the halftime show or wait and risk not being able to walk up Chicken Hill after the game.) I watched the drone show as I walked up the hill and even noticed that key segments of drones were not lighting up, anyway.
By the time I got up the hill and to my car, the disappointed fans were streaming out of the stands, and the police still hadn’t set up the barrier cones, and direct traffic. Maybe that was fortunate because the light at Beamer and Southgate worked fine and the stream of cars that was building got out just fine.
They fired the Skipper for the extra points that never happened, and by that time the stadium was nearly empty. It was all kinds of agony on that note. I was home watching the Yahoo crawler of the game when I heard the Skipper fire to signal The End. Kind of ironic to think of it that way at that time.
As to what went on for the game? Nothing worked in the first half. Again, there were so few punt return opportunities, that it was really difficult to tell if that unit of Special Teams was actually functional. Of course, other than winning the coin toss, and deferring the possession, there were no Tech kickoffs in the first half. The offense might as well have just punted the ball away on 1st down. Other than the failed TD drive in the 1st, the Hokies went nowhere fast in the 1st half. That might have been the key event of the entire game. The offense lost all momentum, and the defense just folded up shop.
The final half of the game was well out of reach as Tech’s terrible red zone offense couldn’t even manage to get salvage 2-point conversions. It certainly wouldn’t have won the game; the Hokies had just given up too much in the first 3 quarters.
Dun Busted
Well… Everything, really.
As we saw on Sunday, someone somewhere came up with some money from their emergency stash in a shoe… something and Brent Pry was shown the writing on the wall before he was shown the door. It’s going to cost the program some serious money. Pry’s buy out is between $6 and $8 million for a program that is struggling for cash. After that, the team must keep going out on the field and playing football.
Offensive Coordinator Philp Montgomery is reportedly staying the play caller (Okay, like that was working before?) and none of the other staff has reportedly hit the exists just yet. There will definitely be some pride and resume building going on. It is highly unlikely, unless the Montgomery stint pulls off what happened at Georgia Tech, but if this total ground up rebuild is real, no one’s position is safe.
Looking for a Reset Rescue
Georgia Tech, back a couple of seasons, had to part ways with their head coach in mid-season and appointed one of their assistants as Interim Head Coach. The team almost immediately got better, and now Brent Key has a major QB find and some winning seasons under his belt. Currently Georgia Tech is ranked and threatening any team that steps on the field with them.
That’s not to say that removing Brent Pry from the head position is going to work the same good things. Philip Montgomery is a former head coach of a decent enough team, but he’s also stepping into a big cow pie in the middle of Worsham Field because the program has basically hit the rocks, the team is down, and it’s difficult to pull a dispirited group together enough to salvage a season.
Admonition for Everyone: Be careful what you wish for. You may get it and it might not be what you expect.
After Saturday, the wins are going to be extremely difficult. We’ll look at the risks and see if we can divine something out of nothing, just like Coach Montgomery will need to do.
