ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The ball was dropped, then picked up, then dropped again, then picked up again, pinballing around the field Saturday in the third quarter of the Military Bowl.
Eventually, it wound up in the arms of Virginia Tech freshman cornerback Greg Stroman, who moved toward the end zone at a near crawl as Cincinnati wide receivers tried to again pry the ball loose. The attempts were unsuccessful, and the result was Stroman dragging a Cincinnati player to the pylon for a touchdown.
“It just happened to fall in my hands,” the Northern Virginia native said, “and my teammates pushed me in.”
The rare sack-fumble-fumble-touchdown pushed Virginia Tech’s lead to three possessions, blowing open a game that, to that point, had been relatively close. Cincinnati quarterback Gunner Kiel was also injured on the play, leaving the Bearcats without an experienced replacement, and the Hokies had little trouble from there.
Junior running back J.C. Coleman rushed for 157 yards and one touchdown and freshman kicker Joey Slye made each of his four field goals as Virginia Tech beat Cincinnati, 33-17, at a Hokie-friendly Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. The victory ensured that Virginia Tech (7-6) will finish with a winning record for a 22nd consecutive season, a streak that stretches before most of the players on the team were born.
“It’s a very resilient group,” associate head coach and running backs coach Shane Beamer said. “[A record of] 7-6 isn’t what our fans wanted, but the toughness and resiliency that our guys have shown, ignoring the outside noise and coming out and playing the way they did today — I couldn’t be happier for that group of kids.”
Shane Beamer addressed reporters in place of his father, Frank, who coached from the press box Saturday as he continues to recover from throat surgery. Though the 68-year-old wasn’t on the field, he was as emotionally invested in the game as any other.
“He made sure to let me know to run it in the second half,” offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler said with a grin.
Shane Beamer assumed many of his father’s responsibilities on the sidelines and was doused with the celebratory postgame ice water bath in his place. Afterwards, in the locker room, the elder Beamer wrote a note for a team official to read aloud to the group. Though Frank Beamer couldn’t talk, the note read, he could still dance. And then he started dancing, as he’s done after wins all season.
“He does a little twist,” linebacker Deon Clarke said, laughing.
“He always kills it,” added defensive lineman Nigel Williams.
A few hours earlier, the two had combined to grab the game-altering turnover from Cincinnati (9-4). It started with Clarke, who had covered kickoffs all day in addition to his defensive responsibilities and had just asked to take a break. “I forgot how kickoff was,” he said. “I was winded a little bit.”
Shane Beamer gave Clarke a hard time and told him that if he was going to take a special teams play off, he had better make a play on defense. So on a 2nd-and-5 at midfield shortly thereafter, the junior from Richmond shot through the middle of Cincinnati’s offensive line and sacked Kiel.
“He backed it up,” Shane Beamer said.
The ball bounced on the ground momentarily before Williams picked it up. He saw the end zone in front of him and a Bearcats player closing in behind him. The excitement of the fumble recovery was immediately replaced by dread when Williams felt the ball being poked out of his grasp.
“But I saw a lot of guys behind me, 3-4 guys, and I trusted they would finish the play,” Williams said. “Which they did.”
Stroman made sure of that, barreling into the end zone.
The sequence gave Virginia Tech an irreversible burst of momentum and also altered the game by forcing Kiel to exit. Cincinnati coach Tommy Tuberville declined to detail his quarterback’s injury, only revealing that he was “a little dizzy” and not allowed to return. Kiel was replaced by senior Michael Colosimo, the Bearcats’ fourth-string quarterback who had attempted only five passes in his career before Saturday.
With inexperience under center, Cincinnati’s offense sputtered and Virginia Tech leaned on Coleman, who set a bowl-game rushing record for the program. Frank Beamer watched the final minutes from the press box, another winning season behind him and another locker room dance ahead.
“I just felt like we just had to stay focused, just do it for him,” Stroman said. “He does a lot for us. We just had to do it for him.”
• Tom Schad can be reached at tschad@washingtontimes.com.
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