Two truths and a lie about Virginia Tech football after its loss to Miami

The Virginia Tech football team was close to pulling off a stunning upset of No. 7 Miami on Friday night. They were ruled to have pulled off a Miami Miracle on the game's final play when the referees ruled that Da'Quan Felton came down with a catch in the back of the end zone. Did he? Well, after going to replay, the play was overturned with what they found to be undisputable video evidence.

In the end, a loss is a loss, but there is no debating that the Hokies deserved a better fate as they played well enough to win. After falling to 2-3 and facing a cross-country trip to Stanford next Saturday, here are two truths and a lie about Virginia Tech after their loss to the Hurricanes.

Truth: Virginia Tech had poor clock management

The Virginia Tech coaches had them ready to play out of the gate. They forced a fumble on Miami's opening possession and turned it into a touchdown. After falling behind, 38-34, with 1:57 left in the game, the Hokies had two timeouts and 75 yards to go to win the game. They ended up with a Hail Mary pass, but getting there was difficult.

To say that the Hokies had some rough clock management is an understatement. There were not one, not two, but three times where Brent Pry could have called a timeout and let the clock run and wasted precious seconds. That wasn't the only questionable clock management. At the end of the first half and Kyron Drones took a sack, Pry quickly called a timeout with 25 seconds on fourth down. Instead of letting the clock creep down to five seconds to end the half.

Instead, John Love nailed a 57-yard field goal, but it left 20 seconds on the clock. Miami returned the kick for good field position and a pass interference penalty led to a field goal for the Hurricanes. Instead of leading 24-14 at halftime, they led by just seven points. Did those three points come into play?

Truth: Virginia Tech looked like the team we expected from the beginning

Through the first four games of the season, we were looking for the Virginia Tech team we expected to get from the beginning. They started fast on both sides of the ball, the offense got into a rhythm and the defense held Miami in check after allowing two early touchdowns.

In the overall big picture, Virginia Tech played more than well enough to leave Hard Rock Stadium with a victory. Instead, they leave with a four-point loss and are left to pick up the pieces to go to Stanford. If and that's a BIG if, they play like that over their remaining six games, then they just might become bowl-eligible.

Lie: Fake field goal was a good call

So there are many opinions out there on the failed fake field goal attempt by the Hokies in the third quarter after the Kaleb Spencer interception against his former team. Virginia Tech had an opportunity to build a three-score lead late in the third quarter with a touchdown, but instead had to settle for a field goal attempt.

Instead of taking the three points and going up 13, Pry called for a fake field goal, which was stuffed by the Hurricanes. It had no chance. The problem with calling that is that you're counting on a line that has struggled in punt protection and field goal protection to pick up a first down or score a touchdown. Take the points. How big would those three points have been?

In the end, it was a very encouraging performance by the Hokies, but you get style points. Now we'll see what they are made of going to Stanford next weekend and looking to avoid a miserable 2-4 hole going into their first bye week.