Monday Thoughts: Things That Keep Me Up at Night

Hezekiah Grimsley walks off the field after Virginia Tech’s Military Bowl loss to Cincinnati, as the clock finally reads 0:00 on Virginia Tech’s difficult 2018 season. (Photo by Ivan Morozov)

Sorry for the delay on this. I spent New Year’s in New Orleans, from December 27 to January 2, and as you can imagine, I had a lot of catching up to do last week when I got home, so last week was shot.

Then there was the whole issue, once I had the time, of struggling to bring myself to watch this game. I wasn’t very successful with that. I managed to watch most of the first quarter, then I didn’t really see the point in it, because as Chris Coleman and later Brandon Patterson said in their follow-up articles, there wasn’t anything to learn about this team. They are who we thought they were, and they played like it again.

I was nicely chastised via email by a subscriber who bluntly said that we (TechSideline.com) “got our butts kicked” in post-game coverage by other outlets. This reader wanted to see a discussion of coaching decisions, play calling, bad officiating, and, as a suggestion, “five reasons to be optimistic about the program.”

Every one of those suggestions pushes a “no” button with me. That’s not to trivialize reader feedback, which is vitally important. But I shy away from discussions of that nature.

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