OXFORD — It’s not a big part of Miami coach Chuck Martin’s conservative, straight-forward, offensive approach to winning football games.
His playbook isn’t fancy — and it certainly isn’t tricky.
But the RedHawks strayed away from the standard Tuesday night.
“It felt good because we’ve been running that play in practice,” said receiver Reggie Virgil, who found himself on the tail end of a momentum-boosting touchdown that helped Miami beat Northern Illinois.
The play? Well, it started with quarterback Brett Gabbert, as usual.
Gabbert handed the ball off on a jet sweep to receiver Javon Tracy, who slowed up to focus downfield.
Virgil got behind his defender and headed toward the far-right corner of the end zone. That’s when Tracy chucked it to Virgil, who went full extension to make the catch for a 30-yard touchdown connection that upped Miami’s lead to 17-0 with 3:50 left in the first half.
“Javon, he always talked about how good he can throw,” Virgil said. “I wanted to be the one to throw it. But he obviously can throw better than me if you seen the throw.”
The throw was placed perfectly.
“It was kind of cool to see us execute a trick play,” Virgil said. “That was my first one, so it was cool.”
Martin said he had recently received playful nudges from Miami athletic director David Sayler about his playbook.
“Sayler always gets on me because I never call a trick play,” Martin smiled. “We never fake it. We never do this. I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m with you. I’m with you.’
“And I hate when people run them against us,” Martin added. “Like Ball State. I’m always amazed. They’re so good at it.
“I think (trick plays) are awesome. I’ve just got issues.”
Martin elaborated on “the truth behind the trick play.”
At a practice last week, Martin said Tracy approached him.
“‘Coach, when are you going to let me run the reverse pass?’” Martin recalled Tracy’s inquiry. “He said, ‘I was 2 for 2 in the spring.’
“I’m like, ‘Man, that’s a heck of an idea.’ If there’s any team that doesn’t give up anything on defense and you might have to try them, Northern Illinois is probably that team.”
So, Martin searched the tapes.
“(Tracy) didn’t believe me,” the coach noted.
After an extensive search, Martin found the formation and how the play operated.
“We put it in the next day,” Martin said. “Javon was all smiles. I don’t think he thought we were going to call it.”
Martin explained that Tracy was knocked out the play prior from a targeting hit, but he was cleared the next snap.
“I said, ‘Are you good? Are you ready to throw the ball?’ I figured we’d test it out with a reverse pass — his first play back in the game.
“Ridiculous pass,” continued Martin, who noted that Tracy played some wildcat offense at quarterback in high school.
“That’s the best pass I’ve ever seen him throw. I’ve seen him throw a lot of bad passes. He thinks he’s good. The safety did a good job, but that thing was on a dime in the corner of the end zone.
“I don’t think Brett could have thrown it any better,” joked Martin. “That was a pretty amazing throw. I’m glad he brought it up. I’ll give credit to Javon. I’d like to take credit for it, but … I’m glad Reggie caught it, though.”
