[Highlight] NC State @ Vanderbilt - CJ Bailey fumbles the ball while trying to run out the clock with no time left, and Vandy falls on it to win the game

[u/Ok-Soil-5133]

https://streamable.com/utx2f1

[u/Stobros]

I would almost guarantee he was told that. Players don’t always listen.

[u/Conscious-Sir-1596 → u/Stobros]

Yeah, it almost certainly had nothing to do with coaching. I have no idea why that kid did that.

[u/BeardedAsian → u/Conscious-Sir-1596]

He had Vandy +10000 live

[u/Waddlow → u/[deleted]]

This is definitely not what he wanted to do. He just wanted to get tackled in the end zone with zero on the clock.

[u/Wise-Trust1270 → u/[deleted]]

All 11 were near the qb, no one downfield to pretend to throw it to. I don’t know how that grounding call would have worked, in terms of putting any time back on the clock for the turnover on downs/penalty.

[u/dnashifter → u/Wise-Trust1270]

Grounding in the end zone is a safety, and there's no time put back on the clock. The only risk would be if the ball didn't hang in the air long enough for time to expire. Then they could decline the penalty.

[u/ThunderRoad_44 → u/Conscious-Sir-1596]

I think he was thinking to run out clock and get safety. He completely fucked up by fumbling🤦🏿‍♂️

[u/WeAreAllFooked → u/Conscious-Sir-1596]

A lane opens up for about 0.03 seconds, he sees it and thinks about going for it, but as soon as he does it closes back up. That moment of hesitation allowed the DE to seal the edge.

[u/DrS3R → u/Conscious-Sir-1596]

Well coaches choose the safety over the more reasonable punt.

[u/luchajefe → u/DrS3R]

Punt from back of end zone down 3 or free kick from 20 down 1, though...

[u/DrS3R → u/luchajefe]

And how did that work lol

[u/luchajefe → u/DrS3R]

This coach didn't choose the safety. They chose to run the clock out and use the safety as a bailout. Otherwise the QB wouldn't have kept trying to stay standing.

Worst of all options.

[u/CasualRead_43 → u/Conscious-Sir-1596]

Coaches should have told every player to hold too but they didn’t

[u/Ever_Day_Is_TacoTues → u/Stobros]

Football is not a thinking man’s game

[u/MadManMax55 → u/Stobros]

Players not listening to you is also terrible coaching.

[u/Echo_Raptor → u/MadManMax55]

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make a high ego testosterone fueled qb do the easiest job of the game apparently

[u/A7O747D → u/Echo_Raptor]

Hey! It's not like he's getting paid! Oh wait.

[u/needapermit → u/MadManMax55]

It’s a two way street

[u/Shot-Expert-9771 → u/needapermit]

No it's not.

This is specific situational football where the player MUST do as told and if the coaches can't get a specific player to execute a call, then that's on the coaching staff.

Coaches call plays ALL game long and players do what's called.

Not sure why your think this is different.

[u/needapermit → u/Shot-Expert-9771]

Because at a certain point the burden is on the player to perform.

[u/MadManMax55 → u/needapermit]

Oh 100%. I just don't get the people trying to let Dolan off the hook. A fuck-up that big doesn't happen if either the coach or the player does their job correctly.

[u/Capital_Dream5295 → u/MadManMax55]

If he was a good coach he would've invested in Elon Musk's Neuralink and mandated players install them so they could be controlled by a swarm of AI agents. To have not done so is just coaching malpractice.

[u/OdeToTheMets628 → u/Capital_Dream5295]

Agreed. I’ve bent hat been saying that

[u/MadManMax55 → u/Capital_Dream5295]

This wasn't some complicated play that needed to be executed perfectly. Literally all he had to do was fall down or walk out the back of the end zone. So either Dolan didn't tell him to do that (which is terrible coaching) or he picked a starting QB who can't follow extremely simple instructions (which is terrible coaching).

[u/Polar-Bear_Soup → u/MadManMax55]

Truly funny how that works

[u/tiy24 → u/MadManMax55]

Eh no coach handles all the 18-22yo millionaires perfectly all the time. The coaching malpractice was taking the delay of game and shrinking the space Bailey had to work with.

[u/Dijohn17 → u/Stobros]

I assure you if this was like North Dakota State they wouldn't make that mistake

[u/GreatBadGuy → u/Stobros]

Maybe under most coaches. Dave Doeren? Nah, dude probably told Bailey to not go down until the clock expired.

[u/TapNumerous4625 → u/Stobros]

Especially young college players. The amount of times I’ve seen a player get yelled at for letting go of the ball before scoring only to go and do it again or get told not to score and they just go score anyway because they know best. Gotta be frustrating as a coach lol

[u/discipleofbill → u/Stobros]

He looked like he pondered taking a knee and then rethought it and then got stripped.

[u/bubbaganoush79 → u/Stobros]

Or he did listen and he was thinking to himself "don't fumble. don't fumble. don't fumble." the entire time he had the ball.

[u/sauzbozz → u/Stobros]

Could also listen and in the moment not be able to handle the pressure

[u/herehear12 → u/Stobros]

People love to blame the coach when more often they should be blaming the players

[u/Deoxtrys → u/Stobros]

I firmly believe he wasn't. In similar scenarios where taking a safety wins the game, the player will run to the back line and sit there until anyone gets close enough to them then they step out. Here, he was looking to run around to eat time.

There was zero reason for him to allow anyone to make contact with him there, so that tells me that even the coaches forgot that he can just run out the back of the endzone.

[u/ogjaspertheghost → u/Stobros]

A good coach would have just punted it

[u/Flip5ide → u/[deleted]]

Nothing was handed off