As promised, I kept an eye on the performance of Virginia Tech’s Kam (“The Answer Man”) Chancellor during Saturday night’s game at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Here are the individual results that I observed on those plays that Kam was involved in on defense:
1. On Georgia Tech’s third drive, there was a critical 4th down and 3 that Paul Johnson went for around midfield. Josh Nesbitt ran the option to the right side and pitched the ball to Anthony Allen, and right on cue Kam came up to make the tackle for a 2 yard loss. Oops, Anthony Allen ran right through that tackle for a 5 yard gain and a critical first down. Now Kam Chancellor is 6’3″ 230 lbs., and Anthony Allen is 6′ and 230 lbs., but given that Kam had the “Answers” for figuring out how this triple option offense worked, and knowing who was going to have the football, I would have expected him to be able to tackle a player around the same size. Strike 1 for the “Answer Man.”;
2. Later in the 2nd half Kam had another golden opportunity to make his presence known on the gridiron with his pinpoint precision in knowing who was going to have the football. So there he was waiting for Marcus Wright, all 5’9″ 170 lbs. of him as he came around the left side after Josh Nesbitt pitched him the football at the 13 yard line. I had to close my eyes on this one as given the weight disparity, I was certain that poor Marcus was going to be flattened like a June Bug on the windshield after Kam pulverized him to the ground and no doubt causing a game changing fumble in the process. When I heard the crowd roar I just knew that the next thing I would be hearing would be the piercing shrill of the emergency siren from the paramedic ambulance rolling Code 3 onto the field to tend to the unconscious Marcus Wright laying on the field.
After a few seconds went by and I didn’t hear the siren I opened my eyes and saw that Marcus Wright had scored a touchdown on the play. I watched the replay on the new brightly lit scoreboard and saw that the diminutive Marcus Wright had run right past Kam Chancellor who had whiffed on the tackle. I do believe that he was partially blocked on the play, which never should have happened to Kam given his advanced and insightful knowledge of how this offense works just by watching the blocking schemes. Strike 2 for the “Answer Man.”
This brings me to the critical drive of the game in the 4th quarter with Georgia Tech moving the ball deep into Hokies territory. Josh Nesbitt carries the ball on the option play around the left side after faking the dive to Jonathan Dwyer. He continues running past and through at least half a dozen Hokies not name Kam Chancellor on his way to a touchdown that put the Yellow Jackets up 28 to 17 with about four minutes left in the game. Where was Kam? Was he still in the game? I confirmed that he was, and discovered that he let himself get blocked by a Georgia Tech player, which was really shocking in and of itself since Kam knew who was blocking whom just by watching a couple of films. So that was Strike 3 and “Yer Out” for Kam “The Answer Man” Chancellor.
After the game I reviewed the official game statistics and saw that Kam was credited with “0″ solo tackles. He was credited with jumping on the pile 9 times for assisted tackles. No other contributions were made by Kam in the defensive statistical categories. But he was credited with 1 statistic that will never show up in a tangible football statistical category. Motivation! After the game a reporter asked Josh Nesbitt what he thought about Kam’s pre-season statement about knowing how to defend this triple option offense, to which Josh replied; “How about those Yellow Jackets.” Just an example of the leadership and class personified on a very well coached and respectful Paul Johnson led team.
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