During his three years in Blacksburg, Virginia Tech football coach Brent Pry has come under a lot of criticism at times. This season the Hokies were expected to be a dark horse for the new 12-team College Football Playoff, but they fell well short of that with a 6-6 regular season. Yes, they were bowl-eligible, but they finished two, three, or even four wins shy of what most people expected.
We could sit here and do a running list of reasons why Virginia Tech, loaded with potential NFL talent, won just six games. A lot of that would include Pry and some decisions he made during games. One of those criticisms was clock management and even being too conservative at the end of games and halves.
Brent Pry: Conservative approach
End of games or the end of the half, it seemed like Pry generally took the conservative approach. There were several examples where instead of going for points before the break or at the end of games, it backfired. One example was in November at Syracuse with a full complement of timeouts after the Orange tied the game at 38-38 with less than a minute left, but he played for overtime instead of trying to get into field goal range for John Love who had one of the bigger legs in the ACC. Syracuse would win in overtime.
As frustrating and maddening moments like that were, there was the final minute of the half and game of Thursday night’s CFP semifinal between Penn State and Notre Dame where both coaches used an aggressive approach and it got split results.
At the end of the first half, the Irish were aggressive to get into field goal range to kick what turned out to be a key field goal that brought them within 10-3 at halftime. On the flip side with less than a minute left in the game, Penn State had the ball after Notre Dame tied the game, and Nittany Lions quarterback Drew Allar threw an interception in Penn State territory that led to a game-winning field goal.
The debate will always rage on whether or not Pry is correct with the conservative approach or not. Against Minnesota in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, he used an aggressive approach and it led to a record field from Love. Those two possessions on Thursday night are two examples for next season when there are two minutes or less on the clock and with timeouts in his back pockets Pry decides which route to go.