Same Story, Different Characters: Hokies Fall to South Carolina

It's a mind boggling revelation when you learn that U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels is in fact an asylum patient himself in Dennis Lehane's 1954 novel Shutter Island. The gut punch you feel in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Return of the the King when Frodo is unable to throw the One Ring into the fires of Mordor is both harrowing and shocking. The greatest stories ever told have these "revelations" that challenge our memories of the past, impact our perception of the present, and change our idea of the future.

Then there are other stories that play out in the most predictable of manners. For the Hokies on Sunday in Atlanta, their story was predictable in an almost formulaic sense.

The time for moral victories has left Blacksburg, and no one knows that more than head coach Brent Pry. Pry, who has now dropped to 1-3 in season openers as a head coach, was certainly not in the mood to play the glass half full card postgame.

"Disappointed in the outcome and there's no pats on the back," Pry said in his opening statement to the media. "Too many self-inflicts errors, untimely penalties, drops, dropped balls at the same time. Not good enough in the red zone. You got to have touchdowns down there, you know."

Those 'self-inflicted errors' have become a common trope in close games for the Hokies.

In the 4th quarter, down just 10-8, the Hokies lined up to punt. They had done well all day on special teams, but a gunner not lined up correctly on the line of scrimmage resulted in an illegal formation penalty resulting in a replay of the down. Exhausted, the Hokies lined up for another punt coverage...and got burned.

It was a cruel twist of irony that would make Edgar Allen Poe proud. The brand that had made "Beamberball" famous, the coach that had innovated the was special teams was treated in the sport, taken down at their own game by one of their own. It was, unfortunately, a very predictable story line in a game where the Hokies gave South Carolina every opportunity they needed to fulfill their mission.

"You never like to have your cover team go twice in a row," said Pry regarding the punt return touchdown by South Carolina's Vicari Swain. "You just don't want that. I didn't like it when it happened. And then our gunners, you got to take your shot. You got to finish. I don't know if they assumed that he was wasn't going to catch the ball or he was going to fair catch it, but they came off the gas instead of taking their shot which makes the guy go sideways and gives the rest of your coverage team a chance to make the play. Certainly disappointing."

It was the second consecutive season opener where the Hokies gave up game changing points in the 4th quarter via a special teams procedural penalty. Last season versus Vanderbilt, the Hokies inexplicably had two #0's on the field for a punt, resulting in a long FG for the Commodores. Special team coordinator, Stu Holt, has had decent units overall. However, untimely mistakes have put the rest of the team in harm's way many times in his short tenure (the short kick at the end of the half versus Miami last season that resulted in a long field goal for the Hurricanes, combined with a failed fake FG attempt later in that game ended up being the difference in a 4 point loss).

Kyron Drones was was far from the polished, veteran quarterback that many were hoping to see versus a stout Gamecocks defense. His 15-32 passing was one of his least efficient games of his career, while his two interceptions came at critical junctures: once on a 4th down with the game on the line and another in the redzone.

"Yeah, honestly the throw in the red zone, I was really disappointed," said Pry. "That stuff that he's moved past, I haven't seen that necessarily in camp. We can't make that play. We need those points down there. We got to be smarter than that."

Drones mentioned that, while scrambling on the 3rd & goal play from the South Carolina 9 yard line, he saw Takye Heath open in the back of the endzone. But the ball came out a step late, and the Gamecocks were able to converge on what ended up being an easy pick. That play really let South Carolina off the hook, as the Hokies were looking like an offense that was finding its groove.

On a late drive in the 4th quarter, the Hokies were pushing to get it back to a one score game. But after an Ayden Greene drop on 1st down, Drones misplaced two downfield throws to tight end Benji Gosnell, albeit both catchable if the two were on the same page. The subsequent throw on 4th down was one of desperation.

But there is a glimmer of light for Drones and the passing offense. His deep ball looks exceptional compared to last season, hitting multiple receivers on deep fade routes versus press man coverage. His pocket presence also seems to have taken a step up. He did excellent to avoid a nasty pass rush most of the night, instances last year that would've almost certainly ended in disaster. On one such case, he almost hit Ayden Greene a mile down the field in the endzone for what was a yard or two away from being, and I say this without hyperbole, one of the greatest throws in Hokie history.

But almost doesn't cut it. And in watching the game from a bird's eye view, the Hokies were almost always almost making the play. For Drones, his receivers didn't help him out much. A trio of crucial drops, all on 3rd down and all past the line to gain, ended drives prematurely. Of his 20 incompletions, 3 were blatant drops, another 2 were slight miscommunications with a player finding the soft spot in the zone, and another 4 at least were throwing the ball out of harms way while under pressure. This is not to make excuses for the senior captain, but when combined with his 37 rushing yards on 10 carries (less two sacks), Drones had a better game than what his stats indicated. Still, his performance follows a simple yet agonizing motif for this Hokies team: the wrong mistakes at exactly the wrong time.

To be clear, Pry was referring directly to a question around the defense with this quote. However, it's clear through his other statements that he felt like the overall game plan was a very good one. And it's hard to argue against that. 

Both new coordinators hires, Sam Siefkas on defense and Phillip Montgomery on offense, made significant adjustments during the game while also sticking to proven tactics to slow down a potentially potent LaNorris Sellers led offense and negate a lethal Dylan Stewart led pass rush.

Defensively, the Hokies did what other teams have successfully done against Sellers: Play a high shell and make him take the short stuff underneath while keeping eyes on him as a scrambler. Sellers had a mediocre game, made much better by one throw in the 4th quarter to the best athlete in college football, Nyck Harbor. The defensive line for the Hokies was, in a way, dominant all night. The Gamecocks had just 3.2 yards per rush. The Hokies racked up 4 sacks on their way to 7 tackles for loss. It's not time to crown this the best Lunch Pail Defense since 2017, but don't be surprised if this unit finishes as one of the best units in the ACC.

As for the offense, it's clear we are a week or two away from seeing this unit in it's published form. There's a lot of red ink on the draft, you could say. Drones and the passing game has its issues, but the wideouts are making contested catches that simply weren't in the arsenal last season. It's a promising gorup that will have a big day sooner rather than later. On the ground, the Hokies struggled to find much at all. 

The longest run of the day was 11 yards, and most went for 2-3. Montgomery made a decent adjustment at halftime by trying to stretch the ball to the outside a bit more and away from star edge player Dylan Stewart, but South Carolina's team speed didn't allow the Hokie backs to break one. This team looks like they are missing their top running back...which they are. Terion Stewart, a transfer from Bowling Green, is still nursing a foot injury (although he is progressing very well). His ability to break tackles was sorely missed on Sunday, as the Hokies felt like they were running into a brick wall at times. Drones had a few missed reads in the option game, but for the most part the Hokies stayed away from designed runs for him. In summation, the Hokies need to find a way to get 5-6 yard chunks on runs without a Bhayshul Tuten in the backfield...if they can't this could be a tough year on that side of the ball.

Close games are normally decided by a handful of plays. In this one, the Hokies were on the wrong side of the three most influential in the game:

To explain what Expected Points Added (EPA) means, on the interception in the endzone from Drones, the Hokies were expected to get 3.68 points on that drive when you consider all other instances in college football where a team had a similar down, distance, field position, and game state (time and score). On the flip side, before the Sellers touchdown pass to Harbor the Gamecocks were expected to score 1.87 points on that drive. The next play was a touchdown (7-1.87=5.13 expected points added). 

More simply put, the three plays that had the most impact in the final score all went against the Hokies. That's happened all too often for this team under Brent Pry. At some point, the Hokies have to find a way to get some of those game changing plays of their own.

But it just hasn't happened for this team...yet. So many close games, and it just hasn't happened. The Hokies haven't lost by more that two touchdowns since early November of 2023 against Louisville. Yet during that span they've suffered nine losses. The Hokies continue to find themselves longing for that one moment where opportunity meets serendipity. Where just the right thing happens at just the right time.

Remember that twist at the end of The Return of the King by Tolkien to conclude the Lord of the Rings trilogy where Frodo, the lowly hobbit who had courageously bore the One Ring across Middle Earth, to selflessly destroy it? When the Ring's power overtook him, that's just when Gollum lunged at him to try to grab the Ring for himself, accidentally flinging himself and Ring into the fire of Mount Doom destroying the Ring and saving Middle Earth. 

The right thing needed to happen at just the right time.