Virginia Tech football concerning mistakes overshadowed by controversial ending against Miami

Virginia Tech fans are going to talk about the final play in Friday night's loss at Miami. After originally being ruled a touchdown, video replay overturned the call on the field without indisputable evidence, or so it appeared.

Miami remained undefeated with a 38-34 win and the Hokies fell to 2-3. The Hurricanes are in position to tom be the team to beat in the ACC, while Virginia Tech is now looking at going 4-3 to just become bowl-eligible and that road begins Saturday afternoon at Stanford in their next ACC game. I can't believe I just typed that.

Anyway, aside from the final play, there is one thing that is being overlooked, Virginia Tech should have never been in that position. There were several gaffes along the way leading into the final play that could have avoided the finish we had.

Virginia Tech continued simple mistake haunt them....... again

There were four eye-opening gaffes from Virginia Tech that could have been easily avoided and they would have needed the game come down to the final play.

1. Clock management

It was not a master class in clock management from the Hokies. First, at the end of the first half and after Kyron Drones was sacked to force a fourth down. Brent Pry knew he was going to try a field goal, but he quickly called a timeout with 25 seconds left. John Love booted a 57-yard field goal, but there was 20 seconds left. Miami returned a squib kick to get good field position and a pass interference penalty later, the Hurricanes booted a field goal to cut the deficit to 24-17 at halftime. Miami had one timeout and there was no way Mario Cristobal was using it except to freeze Love on the field goal attempt.

Then there was the last drive. Needing to go 75 yards for a touchdown in 1:57, the Hokies managed the clock like they had five minutes left. They were able to move the ball to the Miami 30-yard line with three seconds left, but they lost several needless seconds by not calling timeouts when they should have. Clock management was a huge letdown again.

2. Botched fake field goal

Up 27-17 with Miami driving, Kaleb Spencer picked off a pass at the Virginia Tech 3-yard line and he returned it deep into Hurricanes territory. After not being able to score a touchdown, Pry called for a fake field goal, which Miami stuffed. You're a huge underdog on the road against the No. 7 team in the country and you have a chance to go up 13 points late in the third quarter. Take the points.

Think about how the ending of that game is managed if the Hokies just needed a Love field goal? Those three points would have been huge.

3. Special teams gaffes continue

In Week 1 at Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech was called for having two No. 0s on the field on a punt, which turned into a Commodores field goal. Three huge points in an overtime loss. Sound familiar? Well, just when you think it couldn't happen again, well, think again.

On Love's 57-yard field, the Hokies had two No. 17s on the field, Love and Cole Nelson along the line. Yes, they actually did it again, only this time, they got away with it. If they were penalized, it likely take them out of field goal range. These simple mistakes continue to happen on what seems like a weekly basis.

We'll get a good idea this week what Virginia Tech is made of after flying cross-country to play Stanford as it can go one of two ways, they come together and play like they did Friday night or they lay another egg. Gut check time in Blacksburg.