Well, they almost had the K-State blueprint. I even saw where an Oklahoma State commentator said the Hokies were a more athletic version of Bill Snyder’s Wildcats. The win for Tech lay with getting those “almost” plays that Kansas State got—the touchdown on special teams, the interceptions, hitting the long ball, and avoiding big mistakes. It just didn’t happen. The best special teams play didn’t lead to a score, defenders were near Rudolph’s throws but never got a pick, when Tech had a receiver deep the ball wasn’t there, and the big errors were mostly on the Hokies.

This won’t be a loss that bugs me. Sure, it was a kick in the teeth seeing old boogeymen like errant snaps and bad meshes pop up, but it seemed the whole way like the Hokies were easy to pin as underdogs. A beat up LPD versus a high-powered offense stacked with seniors destined for the NFL, combined with a struggling offense full of freshmen and second-stringers against a defense that had slightly fewer struggles of late, didn’t seem like the best odds. But I had hope.

Both teams’ offenses played below their ceilings, with fumbles, drops, and overthrows leading to both squads being able to say they left a few touchdowns on the field. The defenses got gashed, too, but they could say they were a split second from a game changing sack, or a pair of average hands away from a pick six. I think the woulda/coulda/shouldas balance out for both teams.

But you saw all that. So, I’m going to go in a different direction than usual after a loss by spending some time looking at two highlights of this game. The first is Chase Mummau’s big third quarter trick play completion. I was scratching my head trying to figure out who 95 was and completely missed that Tech had rolled out a hybrid of the shield and spread punt formations. The assignments were like a spread formation, with only one personal protector—Ricky Walker—in the backfield, instead of the usual beef wall of Wyatt Teller, Tim Settle, and Walker when Tech goes with the shield. Unlike a typical spread formation, though, the line took very wide splits.

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