A tough read - cocky tone aside, nothing jumped out to me as glaring untrue or wrong. I laughed a lot at the comment about sending Norvell a ham.
The best thing going for Virginia Tech at the moment is the implosion of the Seminoles, because without the Noles finding new and increasingly hilarious levels of ineptitude on a weekly basis, someone might take a look at the train wreck in Blacksburg. Justin Fuente needs to send Mike Norvell an entire country ham for Christmas, because in terms of being chased by the college football bear, Norvell is the guy Fuente needs to outrun, and Mike is still trying to figure out the Velcro straps on his shoes.
Frank Beamer's incredible run in the ACC from 2004-2011 seems like a distant memory. I thought adding Va Tech to the ACC was a home run, but it turns out adding Beamer to the ACC was the home run, and the Hokies happened to be the team he was coaching. Without Frank they're a mediocre Big East school pretending to compete in football. They are Syracuse with better entrance music and a lunchbox.
Comments
Damn if you fail you get a Christmas ham?! That sounds like great incentive to me!
I wouldn't refuse a nice Boston Butt, as a consolation prize, either. Yea on Pulled Pork
Wow all this is good. I for one am expecting Fuente to give all VT fans a lump of coal.
Ouch.
The truth definitely hurts.
He ain't sayin' nothing most of us haven't said already.
Ha! Better entrance music and a lunchbox. That's a compliment and a backhand compliment with just the right touch of college football pettiness.
Especially from a team with a rock and a hill
And balloons! Don't forget the thousands of balloons!
I hate myself for enjoying this man's writing. I dream of VT being able to dismiss opponents this nonchalantly. I dream of our coaching staff being a strength instead of a drawback. I dream of our recruiting dominating our home state and stealing blue-chippers from our neighbors. At least I can still beat my Klemp$on fan younger brother at golf. And we still have basketball, so thank you CMY for giving me hope.
Clemson has the worst fans in the country. I'm so glad that each year it seems like more and more of the college football world at large is starting to realize this. Can't take a joke, defensive at all times, inferiority complex even when they are on top, always seeking moral superiority over every other fanbase, coaching staff, and program. It's hilarious how annoyed r/cfb has become with Clemson flairs incessant whinging about how everyone is against them and hates them. It's all made up in their heads until everyone gets so annoyed with them talking about it all the time that it actualizes.
I know you live in the middle of SC, so it sucks there, but I hard disagree. Living in Atlanta, you frequently interact with fans from every SEC school, most ACC schools, and a handful of B10 schools. Clemson fans are way better than Tennessee fans, Michigan fans, UVA fans (If one more UVA fan asks me why I can't afford to dress nice to a game...), and worst of all, Georgia fans - those motherfuckers will walk right up to and bark in your face. EVEN when COVID is a thing.
Gotta add WVU fans to that list, and in my personal experience, LSU fans, especially after a loss.
LSU has the real Death Valley. I prefer the experience as a visiting fan in Clemson, over the one in Baton Rouge.
Ultimately I've spent most of my life surrounded by Clemson and Georgia fans. For me it's not even close. I've never seen sports unity like there is between fans of any team other than Clemson in SC. There's a 99.9% hit rate on if you grow up here and you aren't a Clemson fan, you damn sure will never become one.
Also, the most unique aspect of the Clemson fanbase that underscores all the common aspects of "every big team has bad fans" is the deep, deep insecurity. Until you've watched a grown man throw a tantrum in public over a joke about Clemsoning, you'll never really know what it's like to live around Clemson fans. They are so deeply bought in to program propaganda.
They are so deeply bought in to program propaganda.
So what you're saying is IPTAY works and they donate well?
Wish we could try to copy it at VT but for some unknown and inexplicable reason, that's not possible.
This x1000
I lived in Atlanta for a while, and the most obnoxious and delusional fans I have ever encountered have been UGA fans.
Buckeye fans: hold my beer
The truth is that basically any school that is good attracts bandwagon fans that are absolutely unbearable. The SEC in particular has awful fans though.
Having spent four years in Upstate SC and another 7 in the RDU area, I'm going to say that NCSU fans are far worse than Clemson fans... at least in my experience.
Me and my dad went to Durham today too buy a boat and the guy was a Nc State fan and he spoke positively of Tech and said he would like to visit Lane Stadium one day
Although small in number, an ECU fan in the wild gives the shitty fans of any other Carolina (North and South) school lessons on inferiority complexes.
In my experience, there are no worse fans in the country than Wisconsin. Granted I only know a couple but they are awful awful people, not just bad fans. I have heard from many people that they know Wisconsin alums and they're lovely people so maybe my exposure to their fans is just unlucky.
PSU fans had been way holier than though for so, so long, and I have long experience with them. Since I know so many I know good and bad ones.
I had always thought that WVU fans had the reputation that they were the 100% worst but I've also heard the same about Rutgers too.
My dad went to Wisconsin back in the 80s and loved it. Said everybody was pretty down to earth. Granted he was in an engineering phd program so maybe not an accurate exposure to the average fan - his comparison was that they were less entitled than MIT and Caltech
If you get into MIT or Caltech, you probably have to make a deal with the devil somewhere along the line in order to gain that amount of brain power. "Someone thinks I'm a dick" is probably an easy choice versus like "every exam I ace, a puppy dies" lol
I've known a couple PSU fans, and they think their program is on the brink of a national championship every year and that the Big 10 is the best conference in college football. Too much living in the Paterno past.
I live 20 minutes from the Clemson campus. When I first moved to SC, I was like these people are crazy and terrible. But I have a different view now. Clemson SC has a redneck football loving fan like no other. These backwoods southern boys love their football and they can give the program a bad image. But overall, the fans have been nice. I have gone to Clemson games wearing my VT hat and I get no crap. But the biggest difference between VT and Clemson is family. Clemson feels like a family. The program is more accessible to the fans. It is down to earth, not pretentious, and accessible. The program appreciates its fans and lets the fans know that. You just do not get that vibe at VT. With VT there is a wall between the administration and the fans. The coaches at VT sit on thrones (so they think) and seem to treat the fans as a necessary evil. Maybe this is Fuente's personality. But that is how it feels to me.
Disagree.
And I don't only say that, because they play in the Fake Death Valley. I'm happy for their success, and Dabo's. I always considered them, GT, and NCSU our cultural peers. I've enjoyed my trips to the Upstate part of SC, too.
I also wish we gave this Stafford Native/Veteran Grunt a shot, as he hoped, instead of Clemson. The VT Athletic Department heard from me, after The Tigers gave him the nod.
Army combat vet, Clemson grad Daniel Rodriguez embraces life after football
If I recall the story correctly, Beamer had a spot on the VT roster waiting for him, he just needed to complete his associates degree to get admitted to VT or gain NCAA eligibility or something along those lines.
Dabo & Clemson went to bat for him and pursued some kind of waiver, which Clemson admissions / NCAA granted.
friggin NCAA, with their bs.
I was there when he was there. I do not share this view.
I still am a little surprised how much people forget 2012-2015. By the end of 2014, a lot of fans were ready to move on from Beamer. By about halfway through 2015, it was imminent (especially after the 4 OT Duke game). Beamer announced his retirement shortly after. All the major media outlets were asking "what happened to Virginia Tech?" This isn't something new. 2016 was fun but just an outlier. I have plenty of issues with Fuente's methods and personality and cannot wait to move on from him, but all the people acting like this is some new phenomenon and we weren't all losing our minds in the middle of the 2010 decade is surprising to me.
He didn't get the memo that we're a basketball school now. FAIL!
Hasn't Syracuse upset Clemson a couple of times in recent years?
I have a good friend that is a Clemson alum. I told him to enjoy every second of their run because runs have a way of ending.
the difference is clemson is going all in on football with funding/facilities/etc.... we were not.
Looks to me like we have them right where we want them...
there is a scene, im trying to remember which comic it is from. in the scene, there is a guy on the ground with the barrel of a hunting rifle held against his chest, and a thought bubble coming out that says, "right where I want him! his shoulder is going to hurt for a week when he shoots that elephant gun..."
I don't know exactly why, but your comment reminded me of that comic panel.
Knowing the tone deaf approach of our
couchcoach I'm sure he we even screw the gift up to Norvell and send him some steamed blue crabs instead of a Smithfield ham.Don't know about your couch, but I'm sittin' on mine, and I'll take the crabs or the ham, please.
(crab) leg
Well maybe there's a former Memphis HC secret Santa
Tech needs to start over, get a defensive minded coach, and rebuild the right way. Flash hasnt worked at tech. We need tough football players, not signing 10 4 star receivers a year. Vice has a recipe on the o line, now start getting tough players for the rest of the positions. Finesse football hasnt worked in blacksburg.
Please get rid of enter sandman also. If your team aint tough, dont play tough music. It is a joke, and I personally am not interested in jumping up and down to see tech play right now. Maybe later I will, and hopefully they can keep me interested so I will continue to buy season tickets.
Enough with the tough charade, we are a pushover team. Great article, the truth can hurt.
Bye the way, go hokies, please keep it respectable by playing to the whistle blows.
Dabo had a few years head start over Fuente. But when Fuente came in, both programs were about at parity with total revenues. Now Clemson is 30-40% above VT. VT is laying off people, cutting salaries, and canceling sports programs. VT program has no identity, is in a financial tailspin, and recruiting has tanked as well. Indifference in the fan base is next.
I think it is safe to say that Dabo has kicked Fuente's butt.
I personally would be fine if we went with the bare minimum athletic programs for the ACC, and prioritized revenue sports Football (like Clemson) and Basketball. That's likely an unpopular opinion on my part, I realize.
What sports programs has VT cancelled?
Yeah the money point overall is fair, but last I saw Clemson is the one who cut a sport, not us haha
the irony is that with all that extra money, Clemson is the school that has been cancelling sports, not VT
When they get to experience Blacksburg in the cold and wind they might just freeze up. I thinkwe could suprise them tonight.
It isn't like we have played in the cold yet this year either. Would still like to shock the world tonight though.
Don't I wish. But this is 2020, not 2000. I'm more concerned with the home team freezing.
Tech had it Beamer years and Clemson is having their Swinney time. Lets see how they do when Swinney leaves for Bama.
does anybody know how to stream the game for free?
EDIT*
Wrong thread
Ooouch! That one hurts..."Syracuse with better entrance music and a lunchbox".
That got me right there
Jokes on them... we ditched the lunchbox
I mean, Clemson wasnt some powerhouse until Dabo took over. Did they accomplish anything between 1990-Dabo? The guy can spare me with the whole VT to ACC being a letdown thing.
That being said. Fuente isnt going anywhere. Buying him out now after laying off a bunch of people isnt a good look and plus that money would be better used on other things given this covid year. He literally just needs to replace Corn with someone to appease the fanbase enough to get another year or so here. If he hired a VT legend that has deep ties to the 757 to run the offense I bet people would be okay with him staying another year or two.
I seriously doubt that. Yes, the offense is a big problem but the issues most fans have with Fuente go much further than our offense being disappointing. I think it's highly unlikely that anyone could come in and have immediate success with the players we have. At least, the kind of success that would turn the tide for Fuente. He needed to have a big year this year and fell flat on his face. Firing Corn now is two years too late. Even if he does there's no chance 2021 will be a 10 win type of year and that's what it would take to save his job.
Personally I don't care how it looks to fire Fuente after other layoffs. Football is the lifeblood of the entire athletic program. If he's not fired and replaced this month you can count on there being much more significant long term damage done to the entire department. If football fails (and it's failing spectacularly under Fuente) then everything else fails with it. Keeping Fuente any longer is a long term catastrophe to pinch a short term penny. Not worth it. #makethemove
This. Fuente has proven that he can't recruit, and he cannot overcome that. An OC change won't change that.
With that post game press conference, it seemed to me Fuente knows he is on his way out. There just seemed to be a spirit of resignation in him.
Clemson fans are AIDS and they can go fuck themselves.
Even if there are people here who might agree with this, this type of comment has no place here.
At least we can say we made them work a lot harder for it than Miami did, at least for a half.