It’s 2026 and we still don’t have proper technology for field goals, leading to the type of madness that unfolded Friday night in Blacksburg, Va.
The college football community is heavily debating whether Virginia Tech kicker John Love actually made the 36-yard field goal that referees ruled did not cross the uprights in a 35-33 home loss to Pittsburgh.
The last-second field goal miss ruined Virginia Tech’s perfect season and improved the Panthers to 5-0.
Love booted the ball diagonally toward the left upright — if looking toward the bars one would have thought he made the kick based on the reactions.
The fans sitting behind the uprights reacted in celebration.
Love and the holder both celebrated what they believed was a successful kick, with the kicker holding his arms upright in “It’s good form” until he saw the referees signal he had missed.
Those hands then suddenly went to his head in utter shock.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh players celebrated around him after an important ACC road win.
Both first-year Virginia Tech coach James Franklin and Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi could not tell if Love had converted.
Such plays are not reviewable, per NCAA rules.
“To be honest with you, from my angle, I don’t know,” Franklin said. “I think John Love is the best kicker in the country. I had so much confidence that that thing was going to go through.
“From my angle, I couldn’t tell you one way or another. … At the end of the day, they said it didn’t go through so everything else doesn’t really matter a whole lot.”
Most X users seem to believe the kick had been converted.
One poster wrote: “Having just re-watched the game-ending field goal attempt by Virginia Tech last night from two different angles, it sure looks like that kick was good, based on the reactions of the fans behind the goal posts and the players. Only the refs under the goal posts thought it was wide.”
Another opined: “I feel like he made this kick. And they’re not showing us any good angles. Sucks for Virginia Tech.”
A third noted: “Ummmmm. I think Virginia Tech just got cheated…”
One user said: “LMAO VIRGINIA TECH GOT ROBBED 😭 how is nobody talking about this. THAT KICK WENT IN. Oh well James Franklin is now 1-767 all time in big games.”
One popular college football podcast’s X account posted one angle that seems like the ball did not cross the upright by the smallest of margins.
The account wrote: “We might have uncovered the one true angle that reveals Virginia Tech’s fate… no good??
