Hokies interim head coach Philip Montgomery was lifted up by his son, Cannon, in celebration after Saturday's win. (Ivan Morozov)

RALEIGH, N.C. — It’s fourth-and-1 from your own 40 with 1:42 left. You’re up 23-21 on the road. You’re an interim coach in your second game with a team that had next to nothing go right in the first month of the season, one with a haunting recent record in one-score games.

Pop quiz, hotshot: What do you do?

If you’re Philip Montgomery, dang it, you darn well want to go for it. 

Every fiber of your offensive coordinator’s being wants to go for it. Your 235-pound bruiser of a quarterback wants to go for it, expressing as much on the sideline. Your weary fans, just wanting to see someone with a little bravado calling the shots, want you to go for it. Sportswriters with nothing at stake, tweeting from the comfort of the press box, want you to go for it.

Something holds you back, though, a bothersome, nagging, annoying pang of responsibility that hangs over every team’s head coach.

“I really wanted to go for it, if I’m being honest. If we were a little deeper into their territory, I probably would have,” said Montgomery, noting he pretty seriously considered it.

“Our defense had been playing well. And I just trusted those guys to go out and do what they’ve been doing all day. That’s what we talked about, just trusting each other, everybody doing their job.”

Virginia Tech punted. It held. It celebrated. Not long after the excruciating decision to put the ball in the other team’s hands, the Hokies were dancing in the locker room to commemorate a 23-21 win at NC State in their ACC opener, letting loose with a cathartic release after a dismal opening month.

“If an old man getting out there dancing looks silly, that’s OK,” Montgomery said. “I don’t mind looking silly, because we’re going to enjoy those wins that we get.”

Looking silly might be the least of Montgomery’s concerns in the not-so-distant future. He has a quarterback to deal with, one who was absolutely begging for the ball on that fourth-and-1. 

Kyron Drones had come so close to getting the first down the Hokies needed, dragged down just short of the sticks on a powerful 6-yard run to bring up the agonizing fourth-and-1. With a stone face, he conveyed afterward just how badly he lobbied Montgomery to go for it.

“Oh, we’re going to have a talk tomorrow,” said an only-so-slightly-joking Drones, who’d captained the Hokies to the cusp of the win with 177 passing yards, two touchdown tosses and some hard-earned yards on the ground. “I said, ‘Let’s end the game’ like eight times.

Kyron Drones and the Hokies had some offensive balance against the Wolfpack. (Ivan Morozov)

“I'm going to let him celebrate this win tonight. We’re definitely going to have a talk tomorrow.”

Only the defense’s stand after the decision to punt prevented Drones from fast-tracking that conversation.

A Wolfpack offense that hadn’t scored fewer than 33 points in three previous games against teams from the ACC got the ball at its 18 with 1:36 left. It got one first down but bogged down, facing a fourth-and-1 from its 44 with 45 ticks on the clock, needing to move the sticks to even start thinking about getting in range for a game-winning field goal attempt.

Coming out of a timeout, NC State lined up in the shotgun. CJ Bailey took the snap and quickly looked for go-to tight end Justin Joly on an out pattern. Hokies safety Christian Ellis diagnosed the play from the start and jumped the route, extending his left hand with a lunge at the perfect time to knock the pass away for a game-sealing incompletion.

“It was just film studies,” Ellis said. “It was just kind of knowing fourth-and-1, they want to go to their guy. Just making a play when they came to me.”