Nobody booed Perry when he entered the game. That is preposterous. The crowd was restless and stunned at that point. I don't think 90% of the crowd even noticed that we had changed quarterbacks.
There would have been relentless booing if the Hail Mary at the end of the first half hadn't worked. The entire team would have been serenaded.
I haven't seen it mentioned here how much Justin Fuente contributed to allowing Miami to get back into the game. Virginia Tech led 28-0 and had the ball in its own end with just over a minute remaining. It was second down and the clock running. Miami had zero energy but two time outs. Virginia Tech was going to get the ball first in the second half. I said to the guy next to me that Miami needed a break and Justin Fuente might provide it. He's an offensive guy. An offensive guy might get overconfident and try to do something here, instead of recognizing the massive situational edge of simply getting to the half with a 28-0 lead and with the home crowd dismayed and ready to turn its anger on the listless home favorite.
Sure enough, Fuente tried a cute play fake on second down. It was supposed to be a deep ball but was covered and the Canes got a sack. That was just the break the Canes desperately needed. Diaz recognized the sudden shift and raced toward the official to call time out. If Virginia Tech had merely run a normal play and gained a few years, Diaz was not going to call time out. He feared the Hokies scoring again. The half would have ended tamely.
There was such a vast difference between 28-0 and 28-7 at halftime. This was not a pick-em game. Since the Canes were 14 point favorite beforehand, I'm sure the second half line was Miami -10, or something like that. It is always adjusted upwards when a heavy favorite plays an awful first half. So the projection at halftime was Virginia Tech to win by 11 or thereabouts. That is not much of anything in college football, with all the possessions and stoppages of the clock. It may look like 28-7 but in real world mode this is still a very competitive game, given the logical path of the second half.
Even though Virginia Tech won that game I walked out of the stadium believing Fuente was an even bigger fool than I realized, given that decision late in the first half and somehow not recognizing at the end of the game that all he needed to do was run the clock down and kick a game ending chippie field goal to walk out of there a 38-35 victor.
