As
the old saying goes, rumors of Sean Glennon’s demise were greatly exaggerated.
Virginia Tech’s games against Duke have been lopsided affairs, often boring, but
Saturday’s 43-14 victory was full of intrigue, most of it on the offensive side
of the ball. Tyrod Taylor’s injury and Glennon’s sharp work in relief has Hokie
fans scratching their heads, wondering what comes next. I don’t have the answer
to that question, but I do have some thoughts on the game.

It’s been five weeks since Sean Glennon was demoted in favor of Tyrod Taylor,
the Monday after the LSU game. The days following Glennon’s benching were stormy
for the redshirt junior. Glennon made some controversial comments following the
benching, wondering aloud if he would transfer and questioning if he had been
misled by the coaches, who were soundly behind him … until they weren’t (to
borrow a line from Jim Alderson).

Behind the scenes, I was told that upon hearing the news of his demotion,
Glennon stormed out of both Mike O’Cain’s office and Frank Beamer’s office and
announced his intentions to transfer to a teammate. I received a couple of
emails that indicated that the team didn’t respond very kindly to Glennon’s
comments, to say the least. One teammate removed his nameplate from his locker,
and he almost came to blows with one of his own offensive linemen. Then there
was the email that said the offense had intentionally been tanking to try to get
Glennon demoted, in favor of Taylor.

Those were all rumors, scoop, inside sources, etc. They painted a picture of
Glennon as a guy who was isolated from his teammates, not liked, and should
transfer, almost as a safety measure if nothing else. It’s hard to say how true
any of these reports were — I can’t, for example, picture the offense
intentionally tanking. Players want to win. They lift weights, bang heads with
each other, and generally bust their butts January through August, all to win
some games when the ball is kicked off in September.

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