They
were so close, just 30 minutes away from a sense of “mission
accomplished” and a quiet offseason of anticipation. But with their
colossal meltdown against the Georgia Bulldogs, the Hokies have thrown
everything back on the table for debate: quarterback play, coaching
philosophies, in-game execution by players and coaches, recruiting … you name
it. The next eight months, until the September 2nd season opener against ECU,
won’t be a peaceful time for Virginia Tech football.

In the article Players
With a Lot Riding on the Game, I started off with Sean Glennon, and since he
turned the ball over four times in ten minutes of this mess, he’s a good place
to start in this article, too. Glennon had gradually quieted most of his
doubters with a strong performance over the second half of the season, as the
Hokies won six straight. If he had just gotten the job done here, he could have
spent the spring and summer hammering down his hold on the starting job.

But Glennon did the worst thing you can do, losing his poise and committing a
flurry of turnovers that gave Georgia short fields and set up Bulldog
touchdowns. Glennon’s collapse against Georgia will now serve as his signature
game (think Grant Noel’s five-turnover performance against Miami in 2001), until
— and if — he gets a chance to erase it.

With a whole season behind us and a bowl game to reflect upon, it’s clear
that Glennon is a ways away from consistently being a good quarterback. He’s
been good in spots, bad in others. It’s foolish to say that he’ll never be a
good quarterback, though. Bryan Randall won an ACC championship in his senior
season, but as late as the fifth game that year, after he threw a hideous
interception for a touchdown against West Virginia, I turned to the person next
to me and said, “I guess he’ll never be a good college quarterback.”
We all know how that ended up.

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