Self-Inflicted Wounds And Dome Demons Write An All-Too Familiar Story For Virginia Tech

Raza Umerani

Editor-in-Chief

November 2, 2024

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — You know the movie franchise where they keep making sequel after sequel? And you pretty much know what’s going to happen every time, but you still go to the movie theater to watch the same ending?

Think Fast and Furious, Scream, Halloween or your other intellectual property of choice.

That’s Virginia Tech football in 2024. 

For the fourth time this season, the Hokies (5-4, 3-2 ACC) snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, with Saturday afternoon’s 38-31 overtime loss to Syracuse inside the JMA Wireless Dome being the latest installment of a proverbially overcooked film franchise.

“That’s kind of where we are,” Tech head coach Brent Pry said after the game. “I’ve got to do better. We’ve got to play better. The really good teams get over the hump. You learn how to win those close games. We’ve got to do a better job there. And when we do, you certainly like your win total a little bit better.

“It’s not horseshoes. It’s not good enough to be close. We’ve got to get over the hump, find ways to win games at the end.”

Despite holding a commanding 21-3 lead in the third quarter — all while being without starting quarterback Kyron Drones and running back Bhayshul Tuten — the Hokies unraveled in the final quarter-and-a-half and overtime, allowing the Orange (6-2, 3-2) to reach the endzone in five of their final six possessions.

“I think against a group like that, you’ve got to make them earn it,” Pry said. “And we did it in the first half. We didn’t do it in the second half. And we didn’t garner a takeaway in that part of the game. You can’t make enough mistakes to allow them to make opportunities. We had too many penalties and, to me, too many mental errors. 

“To me, when we look at that film, I think we’re going to be upset about several things.”

Indeed, there are a number of self-inflicted wounds to be upset with.

The first of which isn’t entirely on Tech. On the final possession of the first half, the Hokies were driving to extend their 14-3 lead when quarterback Collin Schlee fumbled a shotgun snap before taking off for 15 yards and a first down to get into field goal range. However, the officials reviewed the play and correctly concluded that his knee was down when he went down to pick up the loose ball, bringing it back.

What was seemingly incorrectly ruled by the referees, however, was what happened thereafter with the clock. The review required an ensuing 10-second runoff, but a timeout could keep the time on the board, meaning Tech would’ve had 17 seconds to still work with. But, the time came off anyways, and the Hokies weren’t granted the luxury of a timeout. Thus, the clock ran out, and the half was over with an ever-important three points left off the board.

“It wasn’t very clear to me, to be honest,” Pry said. “And they were hustling to the next play. I was told there’d be 17 seconds on the clock. I look up and there’s seven. So we’re going back and forth. They said I’d get the timeout back. The scoreboard didn’t show that. And they’re on to the next play.”

While the Hokies carried their offensive momentum into the second half, going up 21-3 on a beautiful pitch and catch from Schlee to Ali Jennings, the defense began to show its cracks. Four of Syracuse’s final five possessions in regulation ended in touchdowns — multiple of which were a result of poor tackling by Tech’s secondary and/or lack of penetration by its front. 

Its offense didn’t do too much to assuage the shifting momentum. After Syracuse scored two touchdowns in four minutes to make it a one-score game, backup running back Jeremiah Coney coughed up the football on a perfect hit by Duce Chestnut. That gave the Orange a short field to punch in a 28-yard touchdown connection from Kyle McCord to Justus Ross-Simmons to take the lead. 

Still, the Hokies bounced back on both sides of the ball, responding with an eight-play, 75-yard drive capped off by a 15-yard scoring scamper from Malachi Thomas. It was a strange sequence as Schlee got banged up on a run and had to leave the game for a play; that play was Thomas’ touchdown run, as he waltzed into the endzone untouched as Syracuse’s defense converged on backup QB Pop Watson for some reason.

Then, the defense forced a three-and-out and induced a 15-yard penalty on the ensuing punt, giving Tech an opportunity to put the game away with another touchdown from a short field.

It wasn’t meant to be. The Hokies stalled inside the 10-yard line and settled for a 27-yard John Love field goal to go up seven points.

From there, you could almost sense what was going to happen.

Syracuse embarked on a methodical 14-play, 75-yard drive to tie the game, converting multiple key third downs along the way. With just 29 seconds on the clock, LeQuint Allen jumped over the pile of bodies on the line of scrimmage for the game-tying score. 

29 seconds isn’t exactly enough time to read a book or make a sandwich, but with three timeouts, Tech still had a chance to work its way down the field for a potential game-winning score. 

Instead, Pry and Co. opted to run out the clock and play for overtime.

“Hostile environment, backup, they’ve got momentum,” Pry said. “I didn’t want to put the ball in jeopardy. … I was kind of like, ‘hey, let’s run this thing out and get to OT and let’s win it there.’”

They would not win it there.

The Orange took the lead in just two plays as Allen ran circles around the Hokies defense with a pair of quick runs, the latter of which punched the ball in from nine yards out.

Tech had a shot once its offense took the field; a defensive pass interference call on its first play set up a first-and-goal from the 10. But, after a pair of plays for no gain, an already banged-up Schlee was run around the left side where standout Orange linebacker Marlowe Wax forced the game-ending fumble.

Somehow, some way, the Hokies had found a way to lose another game it had a firm grasp on. Even without its star QB-RB tandem, Tech’s backups played sensational games in relief — Schlee had 260 total yards and two touchdowns while Thomas and Coney combined for 169 yards and two scores on the ground — and built an 18-point second-half lead. 

But turnovers, penalties, defensive disasters, clock calamities and seemingly so much more culminated in a loss that’s becoming borderline expected from a Hokies team that appeared destined for better just two short months ago.

“I don't think it's one thing,” Tech receiver Stephen Gosnell said. “I think it's all little details we do throughout the game. We do dumb stuff on the field. They cause penalties. We don't execute certain plays that finish the game when we have a chance to finish it off.”

The Hokies are now a drab 2-11 all-time at Syracuse — weird stuff just happens to this program in that building — and an incomprehensible 1-11 in one-score games under Pry with all four losses in 2024 coming by seven points or less. Even when they deserve to win ballgames, they can’t get over the hump. They can’t finish, and no matter what they say, they haven’t learned.

The preseason hype and postgame apologies alike mean nothing. The words are wind. 

“We know how good we are,” Gosnell said. “But, at the end of the day, there's no moral victories. We're still 5-4 no matter what the record could have shaped up as. The only thing we can do is not sulk. We've got a big game to play at home next week.”