Last Friday's matchup between Virginia Tech and at the time No. 7 Miami produced everything fans could have wanted and more. Two rivals and football powerhouses met in what was supposed to be yet another run away win for the Hurricanes. However, for the first time all year, the Hokies seemed to click early in the game, forcing a Cam Ward fumble and quickly scoring on a 25-yard touchdown strike from Kyron Drones to Benji Gosnell. Virginia Tech kept rolling even holding a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, their great performance was marred by a controversial late game call that led to Miami beating VT 38-34.
As time expired, Drones fired a 30-yard hail mary to the back of the end zone, and in real time, it appeared someone came down with the ball, but it was difficult to tell which team had it.
After a few seconds of tugging at the football, Miami’s Tyler Rowe jumped up, ball in hand, running down the field thinking he’d intercepted it. However, just as fast as Miami thought they had won, the refs gave Da’Quan Felton of Virginia Tech the touchdown, but said the play was going to be reviewed. Over six minutes later, the referees walked back onto the field and reversed the call to incomplete, giving the Hurricanes the win, to the surprise of many including the Virginia Tech sideline.
In the press conference immediately following the game, Brent Pry shared his frustration with the call on the field multiple times including in his opening statement.
“That’s a tough one right there. The way the game ended, I hope they got that call right. To take that, to overturn it and take that from our kids, our coaches, our fans, I hope they got it right," Pry said.
On Tuesday, the media got their first chance to hear from Pry since Friday night, and learn what he found out, if anything, from the ACC, and hear if his opinion on the matter had changed at all. Unsurprisingly, Pry's opinion on the call had not changed. If anything, his frustration was greater.
“The video showed nothing new,” Pry said of the tape the ACC sent him during their explanation on Monday morning. “The words used with me were “interpretation” and “hard to find”, which to me neither one aligns with indisputable.”
Pry continued to reiterate his disagreement with the decision to overturn the touchdown call on the field.
“I watched the video. If it was ruled a catch, I don’t see how you overturn it; There’s no evidence. If it was ruled not a catch, I don’t see how you overturn it. You can’t see enough to tell. That’s my take on it. I feel for our players, our fans, but we’ve turned the page. We turned the page Sunday evening," Pry said.
Pry then responded with a resounding “yes!” when asked if there should be more transparency during calls and replays and whether he will raise this issue at future conference meetings.
Now however, the Hokies have to look away from officiating errors and past games to control what they can control moving forward. Pry said his players and staff have “aggressively” shifted their focus to Stanford in preparation for virtually a must win game for the 2-3 Virginia Tech Hokies' faint hopes of reaching the ACC Championship.
If they fail to do so, the Hokies will likely suffer another disappointing loss on Saturday.
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