Brent Pry voices frustration with overturned Hail Mary, lack of ACC communication

Virginia Tech dropped a heartbreaker to Miami on Friday, falling 38-34 on the road. It appeared as though the Hokies had won the game with a Hail Mary, before the catch was overturned and ruled incomplete.

Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry shared during his press conference on Tuesday that he disagreed with the call and the explanation he received from the ACC.

“As far as the call at the end of the game on Friday night, I received no explanation on the field, no explanation in the locker room. The first thing I heard was what the general public heard at 1:30 that night – a statement that, to me, was confusing at best,” Brent Pry said. “I was finally contacted Monday morning, which was a solicited contact by the head of officials for the ACC. I asked for an explanation and the video that they viewed that merited overturning the call with indisputable evidence.”

Pry received an explanation from the ACC, but it wasn’t one that left him feeling better about the call. He added that he has still seen nothing that should have led to the call of a catch being overturned.

“The explanation was there was a loose ball that was touched by a Miami defender who was out of bounds. The video showed nothing new, nothing that none of us hadn’t seen already,” Pry said. “The words used with me were interpretation and hard to find, which to me, neither one aligns with indisputable. 

“I watched the video that they watched. If it was ruled a catch, I don’t see how you overturn it. There’s no evidence. If it was ruled not a catch, I don’t see how you overturn it. You can’t see enough to tell. That’s my take on it. I feel for our players, our fans.”

The goal for Virginia Tech now is to not let the heartbreaking loss to Miami lead to a loss to Stanford this week.

Brent Pry insists that the Hokies have turned the page, even if that’s not an easy thing to do.

“We turned the page Sunday evening in an aggressive manner with our players, with our staff, with our media, with our player parents, with our own wives’, with everybody,” Pry said. “So respectfully, I’m not going to discuss the last play any further. I’m not going to discuss the officiating. And I’ve asked our players not to discuss it either.”

He added that there is nothing left to say about the final play of the Miami game and that everyone associated with the Virginia Tech program needs to move on.

“I don’t wanna hear about it. I don’t wanna talk about it. If somebody asks you about it, you turn the attention to Stanford. ‘Ask me a question about Stanford.’ We sent all of our player parents a message Sunday evening asking them to join us in doing that,” Pry said. “‘When speaking with your sons, as tempting as it is, talk about Stanford.’

“We’ve got our hands full with Stanford on the road, and all of our attention needs to be there, to make the improvements we need to make. To play with the same intensity that we played with Friday night. We’ve gotta pour everything into Stanford.”