Beamer Outsmarts Himself, Va Tech Suffers

Late this week, Virginia Tech announced sophomore QB Tyrod Taylor would red-shirt the season, handing the starting job to senior Sean Glennon. Taylor played his tail off last year, beating Clemson in Death Valley, among other good feats for a true freshman. But Frank Beamer decided it'd be best for the program to avoid a platoon, give Taylor an extra year as unquestioned starter, and see what Glennon (not bad last year himself) could do with a young but experienced unit that lost only one starter.

Today, Glennon was simply mediocre, tossing two crucial picks against unranked East Carolina. Virginia Tech looked like they'd hold on to avoid the upset ... until, with two minutes left in the game and Va Tech up two, ECU's T.J. Lee returned a blocked punt for a TD. Glennon gained three total yards on the final Hokie desperation drive. Va Tech loses.

At this point, Beamer would seem to have no choice but to renege Taylor's red-shirt status. It's the worst of both worlds: you lose the benefits of that extra year of eligibility, you lose what should have been a fairly sure W, and you lose any confidence your second-best QB (Glennon) had.

Beamer is all about high-risk, high-reward football. It was surely a risky gambit to sit Taylor. It took only one week to blow up spectacularly. Beamerball ... not off to a good start this season.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.