Justin Fuente is likely returning next season at Virginia Tech, industry sources told @Stadium. The school announced a Tuesday news conference regarding football topics— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 14, 2020
To hammer home the point that nothing appears to be changing with regards to Fuente, the #Hokies just sent this out. A previous email about this signing day press conference sent Sunday did not make mention of Fuente. pic.twitter.com/FU4LM0g7cH— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) December 14, 2020
I'm honestly disappointed to see this. The supposed fact that Whit is able to read the room enough that he knows Fuente has lost the fanbase enough that he needs to hold a press conference to mitigate the reaction over NOT firing him... Yeah, that's not good. Doesn't give me a warm feeling about the future of VT football.
Actually makes me think we made an internal decision today that we are no longer interested in legitimately competing in football anymore.
Comments
Dumb decision. That's the nicest thing I can think of right now so that's all I'm gonna say. See you all next year when we're having the same discussion of if its time to move on from Justin Fuente
The commonwealth cup wasn't worth it.
I sure hope there are going to be changes to other coaching staff positions, but I doubt that will happen. What a bummer.
Egbert also said that Whit had a call with the Board of Visitors today. If that is true, and we are announcing today or tomorrow that Fuente is retained, that paints a very clear picture of football being devalued at Virginia Tech going forward.
Everything pointing toward this decision completely being in Whits hands
What points to that?
Says the guy with all the sauces
Football isn't being "devalued".
They just have a different opinion than you.
They sent the message that losing records are ok. That's devalued Virginia Tech football.
They didn't at all send that message.
It's clearly not OK.
The message they're sending is that they still have faith in Fuente to turn it around.
He gets a little more rope, but it won't be an infinite amount.
Then letting him go in 2021 saves some money, but puts the program that much further behind the 8-ball in being able to dig out from his sub-standard recruiting. I'm worried the cupboards are going to be bare when they finally get around to doing something here.
Alright well consecutive Bottom-5 recruiting classes and losing seasons 2 out of 3 years is acceptable. It's a pattern at this point, and normally you could point to hope on the horizon but we have a shit class incoming and our best players are either going pro or likely transferring for their final year of eligibility.
Again.
I don't think they see it as acceptable. I think they see it as a temporary setback.
If that trend continues, Fuente will be moving along.
At what cost, tho?
That's the point here.
At some point the Program falls so far behind that it can't get back.
The clock is ticking...we haven't been so much as an afterthought on the CF map for almost 10 years.
Keeping a guy around who has not shown the ability to improve that and has been rigid and unable to adapt really whatsoever does nothing to further the Program.
Fuente isn't the answer. He's not gonna wake up one day and learn how to Recruit or be ingratiating with fans or media.
I don't think VT football is going to give up the possibility of long-term football success by giving Fuente another year.
I'm committed to VT football's long term success, as are a lot of other folks here. Like I said somewhere else, if Whit thinks Fuente is our best option right now, I'm OK with that.
Honestly, I think VT lost the chance to have football success around 2014. I would put a decent amount of money down that we will have fewer than two 10-win seasons in the next 15 years. To me, that sounds like giving up on the possibility of long-term success.
How much money would you bet that we win 10 games in a season under Fuente for the rest of his tenure?
If that trend continues, it will create a scenario in which that trend is even more likely to continue.
It's obvious Fuente just doesn't have it. Allowing him another year to set the program back seems like a poor decision.
Depends on what the other options are.
Changing just to be changing would be a wrong move.
We can give Fuente another year. What we can't do is hire a dud to replace him.
I've really liked Whit's hiring decisions.
Not really though. If the guy doesn't have it, he isn't gonna get it. It would be better to fire him and promote internally for a 1 and done season than leave a guy in place who won't succeed.
Would you do that with any other job?
Right on. Leaving a horrible employee working in your organization is never a good idea, whatever the short term cost.
You're making the assumption that he's a "horrible employee".
He's not.
I am.
If Coke hires a new marketing director, and over the next few years the company starts losing billions in sales because people start hating the Coke brand and liking Pepsi's better, then yes, that is a horrible employee and should be fired.
Fuente has not been improving, or even maintaining, the Virginia Tech football brand in the last ~3 years.
VT's brand was diminished before Fuente took the helm.
Fuente was hired to turn things around. It's taking longer than anticipated.
VT has the choice of giving it more time or making a change.
But none of that makes Fuente a "horrible employee".
So what, he isn't supposed to fix it? His JOB is to build the brand.
He has so far failed to do that.
He needed to set the brand on fire first. He inherited four streaks- winning seasons, drafted players, wins over UVA and bowl games. He's ended 3 and a 4th is about to happen, all the while driving fans away. It's okay though, in five more years he'll have everything perfect.
'That's the most ludicrous crap I've ever heard'
Also, if my customers couldn't stand the service my company was providing (lead by that certain employee), it would be insane to maintain his employment in that position. That is from Business 101.
He is a clearly underperforming employee that has shown no ability to improve. The culture that leaving that guy in place creates sickens the rest of your organization because it indicates that performance is not rewarded and underperforming isn't punished.
Leaving a guy who can't do the job well enough in place is how managers get fired.
If I hired a manager that lost 1/3 of the company's revenue in 3 years, I would consider him a "horrible employee", even if he's a nice guy.
I'm not seeing that as a better option.
The BOV doesn't make hiring and firing decisions at this level. They approve new hires because they have financial oversight over all university employees' salaries but they don't get to decide or tell Whit to keep Fuente. The only scenario I see playing out if a BOV call happened was Whit asking them for money to make a change and them saying no. They really don't have many viable mechanisms to just hand Athletics more money here. There are legal provisions tying their hands with regards to auxiliaries like athletics.
Is it possible that Whit said "I think we need to fire Fuente, and I got $10M to do it" and the BoV was like "You know, the optics of that would look really bad, I strongly recommend you don't do it"?
This is something I've been worried about from day one after JUGS mentioned the money would be/is there.
Big cheeses need to consider optics, but more so the bigger picture, which, I'm assuming is a worse and worse product that will cause increasing revenue declines. That's the type of criteria the BoV should be using. Also that, like I mentioned in this thread, if you're paying an employee in the top 25 of their professional counterparts, you should be expecting top 25 results, otherwise you're overpaying.
I get the optics might suck to fire a coach after a year like this. But this demise is 3 years running now, and to recruits, the optics of half empty stadiums is probably more damaging in the long term.
Anything is possible. But the BOV is not tasked with being a PR firm. They are an oversight body. Whit has control over personnel decisions in his unit, like any other department head, dean, or unit director. If he has the money and believes it is in VT's best interest, he can pull the trigger. BOV only approves the new coach's salary when hired.
People are constantly looking for a bogeyman in the VT administration. I think they'll be disappointed to not find one.
The bogeyman followed me around the golf course Sunday if anyone is looking for him.
He must have a cousin.....
This is my fear as well. BOV/Sands doesn't care about football.
If they didn't care about football, we wouldn't have invested in it as much as we have.
In what ways is the university actively investing in the Virginia Tech football program?
They hired Whit. They hired Fuente. There are all the facility improvements over the past 15 years.
Not the biggest checkbook, but also not the smallest.
They also invest in basketball.
So I'm not really seeing the support for that kind of argument.
Were either of them huge cash-grabs at the time? I don't recall so, but I don't have the numbers off the top of my head.
One way your argument holds up is that Whit did make a huge investment in Fuente by extending and changing his contract (for the betterment of Fuente). But, as the numbers here on this site show, that investment is turning out to be a very poor one. One way to show you are investing in the future is to see bad investments, cut your losses, and move on to better ones...not ride them until they hit rock bottom.
Which have largely been made possible by donor money!
20 million for the new nutritional eating area. Tens of millions more for the new weight room and renovation of meeting rooms. Plans to update locker room and player lounge. Brand new dorm across the street.
Sheesh, what does any of that matter. Most of the folks chiming in want Fuente gone, regardless. Is it possible that internet fans don't carry the weight they think they do?
Depends on whether internet fans are an indicator of fans that buy tickets to games. If ticket sales drop, decreasing revenue, and internet fan noise could or did predict that drop, you'd be a fool to ignore it.
Edit: not saying it does predict or is an indicator, but ADs may pay attention to it or know whether or not it is an indicator or just noise. I'm just saying it's possible it's an indicator.
BoV could've said an optional buyout right now in the face of all of the other salary cuts that needed to be made because of the lost revenue would look really bad overall. I'm not happy with the end result for the football program, but not having to spend 2.5m and have even more cuts is understandable.
At some point, you have to hold Whit accountable. I'm not saying that day is today, but retaining Fuente at this point is firmly attributed to Whit. I'll be interested in what he says tomorrow.
I heard Northwestern has an AD opening. Someone send Whit the link on Indeed.
And who are we going to get to fill in for him? Whit has done a pretty decent job since getting to Blacksburg. Let's see what he says and how things shake out before we start repurposing the Fuente pitchforks for Whit.
Good grief. It's an obvious joke. Settle down
At least Frank can occupy his time watching his son build something special while Whit Babcock and Justin Fuente completely destroy what he built himself.
Well.. shit.
This is exactly the type of ringing endorsement I worry about. If our resident xs and os expert thinks this is a bad move who are we to argue with him?
Folks, we are officially a basketball school. Today is the day that VT football officially dies. The new VT admin simply does not get football. Everything about VT is changing, and I can't say I like much of it. A chapter in my life is finally coming to a close. Time to move on.
Enhance your calm
Bye. Will you make a dramatic exit?
Lol, nothing funnier than someone on the internet having a storm off. You will be back. I know it. You know it.
I will participate in this site because it's a great place. But if Fu really is staying, my Hokie Club donation and any future ticket purchases are gone. No sense in following a product that is determined to drive itself into the ground. And I know a ton of others feel the same way. But I'm all about some TKP, my fall Saturdays just got a lot more free.
But the Trainwreck.....
Penny-wise, pound foolish.
This comment aged well.
If we didn't fire him, I kinda hope it's because we couldn't get the candidate we wanted, and don't want to settle for a Tier C candidate.
That also would unfortunately show that VT is now a school that can't get the plan A and B candidate...
Sounds like recruiting the last few years
The optics are absolutely terrible. Don't give me the bullshit about talking about signing day, the press conference is Tuesday and signing day isn't until Wednesday.
No, this is saving face because Whit knows the fanbase doesn't want him back, and he's bringing him back anyway. If he thinks that fundraising, attendance, and engagement in general isn't going to suffer for this, he's wrong.
Yeah Whit could've fired Fuente at the 2021 rate this year due to the season being extended by Covid.
Unless next season and recruiting class is dramatically better, Tech will still owe Fuente $10M and would've paid him another $4M in regular salary over the next year.
Fuck optics. Win games. Let UVA talk about optics. Sounds cool to say.
Part of tomorrow's presser better be Whit announcing that Fuente is going to mandatory PR charm school.
This is my fear. If we keep him, it's because we couldn't find a decent replacement to come.
Which means CJF has turned Blacksburg into an undesirable coaching destination.
What does a coach coming in have to build with?
A 70 and 40 some recruiting class? All the high profile players are eligible for the draft. Last year if we went after a head coach we had a lot to sell (pre covid opt outs) we don't have much anymore.
Unfortunately not a whole lot, you're right on that. I'm not sure how the pitch "help bring Virginia Tech back to dominant levels" resonates with today's kids. Recruiting has to be the hardest part of the job these days, I'm sure.
The on-the-field decisions/playcalling/product is where my hangup with him is though. I just can't get past blown leads, losing to inferior in-state teams, and consistent inconsistency. The product we're seeing is not the product we were told would be delivered, and the trend is not an upward one.
I certainly don't envy Whit having to make the decision, but if I were him, I see the trend and cut my losses before $10M turns into $30M (guesstimation) or more in lost revenue thanks to apathy in the fanbase
Time to move on......VT is no longer a culture fit for me
Go Gamecocks?
Dafuq? You gotta enter the portal first!!!
Respect his decision
C'mon, you can't disrespect the portal and demand respect.
He didn't say it in a screenshot from the notes app with his signature in illegible highlighter at the bottom. That means it's not official.
Seriously. He prayed on it with his family.
Rip Sharkbait
Very disappointing. Been an insane Hokie fan since 1999. I have absolutely no desire to watch anymore Fuente-led predictable and boring football. If Fuente has to remain "head coach," can we hire a "head-er coach" to tell him what to do?
ok I mean at the minimum, something has to change, some offensive staff overhaul is needed starting with Corn, either that or Fuente should take over play calling duties
Ludacris
Anyone else think it's a ryan odom-style head fake?
Gotta wait until the NFL season is over so we can hire Mike Tomlin /s *cries*
That ain't Whit's MO. He's not a bate and switch guy. Either we didn't have a money or we got turned down by all of our options.
WIsh we could know. I'd feel an awful lot better if Whit comes out says, "yeah, everyone turned us down, and I don't want Chadwell, so we're sticking with this wet paper bag of a coach for another year". At least I would get it then. But we'll never know.
He'd never say that, but I have a feeling that is a big part of the equation here.
I'm positive we kicked the tires on Fickell, probably didn't get anywhere and maybe looked at a few other guys.
That's the only way this really makes sense.
I feel this. I wonder how it would impact donations, fan engagement, etc.
@Whit - if you're reading, you can DM the details on twitter @VTFan08. I promise not to tell anyone.
Whit: "we talked with our top 4 or 5 candidates, but unfortunately could not come to an agreement with them. So we've decided to make the safe decision and keep our current coach. Lord knows we can't afford to hire another Justin Fuente"
Room: (unmitigated laughter)
I laughed out loud very hard at this, thank you for that.
Then how did everyone come to think we had hired ryan odom?
You mean barry odom? I think (speculating) we made an offer and got outbid on that one.
No I mean basketball coach ryan odom
Oh I guess I didn't know about that one lol
https://www.thekeyplay.com/virginia-tech-basketball/2019/04/17983/report...
Reading that comment thread, this thing with Fuente has the same feel to me. I hope it is a head fake.
I'm really trying to grapple with the absurdity of Whit back tracking so suddenly on replacing Fu. Either Whit is completely tone deaf and he and Fu are going off the cliff Thelma and Louise style together, or this is some sort of smoke screen. The only thing I can possibly think of is Whit maybe thinks there's a strong possibility Fu lands another job soon (allegedly his agent was putting out feelers), so Whit shockingly tells Fu they are sticking with him. Meanwhile the guy Whit has lined up is maybe coaching through the playoff and can't be/won't be available for a while longer, plus this secures the early signing class if everyone thinks Fu is staying.
Either that or Whit is on drugs. Both seem just nuts to me right now.
🤞 here's to hoping this was Whit and his staff yesterday as they decided to leak the news 🤞
God only knows why they would mess with us like that.
To me, this just shows our Athletic Department (and University leadership overall) are more interested in general athletics over an emphasis on football. That's all fine and dandy, but I don't see it as the smart long term decision.
I suspect VT football will never be what it was again in my lifetime.
I think this shows that the Board of Visitors and Sands have a lack of interest in the Athletic Department in general. Give me the Army superintendant ten times out of ten over Sands. Nothing better then seeing a 3-star General jumping on the sideline. Has Sands ever been seen on the sideline?
Sands needs to focus on his Alexandria arrangement with Bezos. Athletics be damned.
Lets get Amazon to build us a multisport facility in NOVA. Perfect way to invigorate the fan base and strengthen the dynamic relationship of VT and Amazon. /s but....
Not to be cheeky but he is in regular attendance at all levels of VT athletics. He asked to sit with me and my daughter at a women's lax game a couple seasons ago; just appeared to be a regular townie supporting Hokie students. I have seen him at soccer and other events too.
Whether Sands is providing all the financial support he can (or is needed) for VT football to be successful is not a detail I know.
Maybe I was wrong, after today it could have been Whit all along....
feels bad man
I'm trying to rationalize if there is any move that would make me ok with keeping him, jettisoning Corn/Shibest/others but there isn't, it just makes me sad, I think Fuente is a good man/father and based on the reactions from the game Saturday some of the players seem to love him but I just can't square that he's the guy who is going to get us back to competing at the top of the Coastal/ACC regularly which I feel is a more than realistic ask from this program.
Well.... Chad Morris is available....
I'd still want new ST and S&C coaches but ... Chad Morris is available
Fuente said Shibest was one of the best assistant coaches in the country after a post game this year. Fuente also said it was ludicrous crap to question Corn... that's his Oklahoma/QB brother from another mother. I don't think you should get your hopes up.
Well that'll signify that were now a basketball school and any donations I would give are out the window for this awful decision. Sorry for the guys covering the team that we are going in this direction. I have zero optimism if this is the decision for next year
So all those "sources" who just knew boosters had raised all this money. It's clearly a money issue or top candidates said nope.
I strongly suspect more the latter.
EDIT: sounds like I may be wrong
Or Whit decided to keep Fuente because he believed he could get it right.
Id like to believe this, but I just don't understand how Whit can look at past performance/personality and see Fuente having what it takes to improve.
It's possible/plausible that there's an agreement to shakeup the staff. If that's the case, given all the other variables, I'm ok with that approach provided Corn and Shibest are canned, in that order.
Well, everyone who points at Frank's year 5 vs year 6 as a reason to keep Fuente better be correct, because I'm fresh out of damns to give about losing seasons.
I'm hoping we follow the parallel of cleaning out the coaching staff under the head guy.
This is essentially what happened. I think the BOV/Sands was prepared to support Whit either way. If Fuente could sell himself to recruits the way he has continually sold himself to Whit, we would be in the playoff this year.
For all who keep singing Whit Babcock's praises, VT football is dead as long as he is our AD. If he is this tone deaf, he needs to go along with Fuente.
I get that idea, but what signs are there that he's turning things around? It seem like everything with him is "stay the course," which is great if you look like you're heading in the right direction, but we look like we're at almost 180 degrees from the right direction. I don't see how ANYBODY thinks we'll have a winning season next year with Herbert gone. I mean if we retain Fuente and Darrisaw, Tre, and a couple others go pro or transfer, I don't know what kind of record we'll be looking at next year, but I have a REALLY hard time believing it will be good. At this point, I really don't understand how we DON'T make the move.
If this is the case, I've lost all confidence in Whit.
FWIW the Roanoke times article linked in the other thread says the sources say the buyout wasn't a deciding factor in keeping Fuente.
Who are you referring to in particular? Otherwise, this is just a cheap shot at people trying to provide legitimate information.
If Fuente is indeed staying then Cornelson NEEDS TO GO! If all coaches are retained included Corny then a little part of me will die inside by 1pm tomorrow.
It isn't like Whit doesn't know the entire fanbase is expecting a firing. If it isn't happening, perhaps it is for good reason. He is more tuned into the scenario than anybody on these boards.
I disagree that we aren't interested in competing in football. It might be true but I don't believe it. There are a lot of extenuating circumstances that makes firing him difficult this year, including a possible limited coaching pool that may not want to come in after the early signing period during a pandemic. I think this is the wrong move #makethemove but we'll have to wait and see what the university does with football moving forward.
There is literally no case any one can make for keeping Fuente.
What problem has Fuente solved since he has been here?
The BOV / AD don't care about Fuente burning football to the ground.
Insanity is trying the same thing and expecting different results.
Again, if this is true, I think Whit is taking a helluva gamble on the financial windfall from lost fan support versus from having to pay off Fuente and pay a new HC.
For point 2 - wouldn't Whit be the expert at VT on that? And if the "powers that be" have other plans, it seems (to me) that it devalues Whit's authority.
I said "powers that be" because I know it's not a 100% Whit decision/opinion. What I meant was, for example, that Whit has talked with Fuente and other top staff and believes in their reasoning for why the optics of the football program are so bad, what they think they can do to correct that, and that they can correct it soon.
That makes sense, but I still think having a conversation with Fuente 5 years in about why he can't recruit (even after a number of coaching changes from last year) would produce a level of confidence that he actually can change things.
Its already a hellish fire.
Blown out by Duke at home last year, lost to Liberty, Boat raced by Pitt.
Whit is a fucking moron.
This is the reason I wasn't mad at people on here saying they wanted to lose to Clemson and loluva. At least I can use the cup to fill my tears I guess.
I will now be entering the transfer portal. Looking to enroll my fandom at Marshall, Wisconsin, or Ole Miss. Respect my decision. My battery percentage is 56%.
I think you're kidding, but a lot of folks out there are going to check out. It's going to be very tough on the small businesses who have their financial success tied to Virginia Tech football.
And THIS is why this is such a bad move. We aren't saving $10m by not firing him tomorrow, we are only saving $2.5m because things aren't going to magically get better. Our recruiting is dogshit. We don't have better players in the wings. The next few years are going to be rough and now we are only compounding the issue.
And with so many predictably checking out, we are going to lose a lot more than $2.5m over the next few years by keeping him. Even if we went with an interim coach for 2021, it would be better than this.
Just a short sighted mistake that is going to have long term ramifications felt for a very long time. It really does look like the death of VT as a competitive entity.
Absolutely kidding. This team could be 0-12 and I would still be supporting this site and other Tech outlets. Just a mind-numbing decision.
All in agree to this comment. Don't love the decision- but it won't change my support for Joe and any other Hokie out there I can support.
Can't be kidding by much, I'm in the same boat. My enthusiasm has waned significantly over the last three years, and this was the first year I just missed games altogether and caught up on the ESPN box score afterwards. Tech football is not fun under Fuente. It's not something that I want to share every moment of with my 5 and 1 year olds. There are better uses of my time now. And I'm typing this from my office, with 44 mini-helmets on displays. I wasn't a casual fan before, but I think I'm gonna continue to be one now.
This isn't fun anymore.
I absolutely want to support my Hokies, small businesses, and especially TKP. But at this point, the types of things I like discussing, especially in the off-season, like recruiting will turn into me looking at the big board, seeing our top recruiting targets, and betting on one of the guys 2/3 or 3/4 down the list for each position. I feel like it's a freaking joke at this point. For what we're paying for a head coach, we should DEMAND top 25 recruiting classes every year, top 25 rankings every year, otherwise we shouldn't be paying our head coach a top 25 salary (listed on USA Today as 25th highest paid coach). If we expect results that put us at 50-60 in the country, pay the coach that and let's be a basketball school, but you know, working to be that way, because basketball can't pay for our other athletic programs the way football has.
I won't stop paying for the TKP, but I feel like I may kind of check out, because talking about Tech football (if we retain Fuente) seems like it would be as fun as discussing how competitive your 87 Mustang will be at drag racing if two of the cylinders aren't working and you have a flat tire (for the racing threaders), or which fishing lure you should use in the Sahara (for the fishing threaders).
I think Joe is talking more about the Businesses in bburg that make 75% of their annual revenue during football season. If people stop coming to games, those businesses will stop making money.
Yeah I was. Although, I'd rather TKP not fail too.
Me too Joe, me too.
I may monetarily bail on the program but not on this site.
As much as I dislike the decision to keep Fuente, TKP will still have my support, Joe. We fans will still be here long after Fuente is gone.
So that's a great point that we haven't focused on. In a similar vein, when the Air Force was closing bases, they also considered impacts to the surrounding towns' economies. Although I'm sure Whit's focus is on the Tech athletic department, football does bring in a lot of revenue in town as well. Having a program heading south is bad for the town as well. I always thought it was kinda cool to say that if someone wanted to see a game, they'd probably have to stay in Roanoke because that's how big of a draw Tech football games were. Anyway, more reasons than one to make the switch.
If the local economy survived covid they can survive Fuente.
Living in the local area, I can tell you restaurants/bars are drowning right now with the COVID restrictions. Entertainment (bowling, theaters, etc) are hurting. Many have taken out insane business loans to try and stay open. Reduced capacity for dine in and cutoff times for alcohol sales is hurting them. I can assure you that the local economy is VERY dependent on VT (and by extension VT athletics) and in lots of business sectors, they are hanging on by a thread. A secondary side affect is that when people don't frequent the restaurants, meals tax income goes down which is not insignificant to Cburg and Bburg town budgets. And, local COVID numbers are rising, secondary schools were just put into full remote until the end of January. I just hope that VT admin can figure something out to keep our fans visiting, staying, shopping and eating in the Burgs.
How many more years will COVID last? And people were able to adapt to doing business with COVID. If people stop going to Blacksburg because we become a crap program, that's a lot harder to adapt to. Also, having a business survive the effects of COVID is a lot different than thriving when tens of thousands of people descend on Blacksburg for football weekends. If we win 4 games next season, do you think people will still make the effort to drive to Blacksburg to watch us lose?
Fair enough, but seems like my points on what expectations we should have vs. what we are paying the coach are relevant. Maybe not directly to Joe's post, but to this overall thread.
Good choices.
I've got Mizzou and Illinois. I'm not forsaking my VT fandom anytime soon haha.
WHITTTTT DOES FUENTE GOTTA GO 0-12 FOR YOU TO DO SOMETHING YOU FUCKING COWARD
Nice comment. Just stay off TKP for awhile.
Enjoy mediocrity for the next 5 seasons buddy✌
I so done. I having a metal breakdown cause these idiots
\m/ \m/
We're so fucked.gif
PSA - just guessing here, but don't Google that. Your SO and/or place of employment may not approve.
There better at least be a vastly reduced buyout that kicks in at the end of next season... Like $2.5M or less.
It's a 2.5m drop per year until the contract runs out.
But that is always going to happen the week of early signing day. Which puts us in this same spot every year. Either burn a recruiting class or make a move.
Yes, I'm saying $2.5M total starting Dec 2021.
Hoping the excessively negative posters who said they'd check out of football actually do and don't just keep complaining 24/7. It would harm this team and it's morale to be spewing anti-Fuente stuff from now till next December
Yes the true problem with our program is the negative posts on our message boards.
Twitter is definitely consequential and a factor, players and recruits go up there all the time.
As for here, why not just confine everything to a negativity thread? I don't come to this site to see the same complaints and oversights said in 1000 different ways
Twitter is about the least consequential reason a player doesn't commit to a school. You're overlooking the elephant in the room to complain about the peanut shell on the floor.
Are we really going to be that bad next year? UNC and Notre Dame are probably gonna beat us sure but besides them we have a decent shot at running the table. I really don't understand the pessimism or believing the program can't be fixed. Fuente is learning as he makes mistakes and hopefully will be able to hit the recruiting trail in a meaningful capacity next year along with real summer and fall practices
Nah I would expect us to be our old mediocre selves because we don't want to make big moves.
We were that bad THIS year
We lost to Liberty and Wake Forest. We got boat raced by Pittsburgh. We are already that bad.
Literally not true, a team that goes 8-3 instead of 5-6 is hardly any different from the one we have. We lost close games to winning teams, and played a way harder schedule than usual. We have the horses to run next year (will put money on us winning at least 8 under the expected roster if you really want to go that route).
8-3 and 5-6 are the same thing now, holy shit I've seen it all lmao
If we clutch out Wake Miami and Liberty, changing 5 maybe 6 plays total how much different is the actual team? That's literally not what I'm saying at all, you're just being difficult.
As far as whats being taught and how good each unit is the difference between winning and losing 3 close games to good teams is minimal. Yes.
If all these ifs were fifths we would all be blackout drunk right now.
We were also one play away from losses to Duke and Louisville as much as we could have won the games you speak of but I don't see you mentioning that. I've already responded about how all teams in the ACC have close loses. It's a part of the game. It's an L.
Man I wish I had whatever you're on...
He hasn't shown the capacity to change in any meaningful way over the 5 years of his tenure. He's put loyalty ahead of the program. He doesn't understand the importance of advocating for his program and winning over the fanbase. He has a small potatoes approach to recruiting. No, based on everything we've seen, I'm not confident in him moving forward.
I hope I'm wrong though!
But he switched to coaching the scout team! /sssssssssss
AND his small potatoes recruit approach weeds out the "bad apples" more /s
Sounds about like Frank's early years. If Whit pulls a Dave Braine and tomorrow announces that he has told Fuente to fire Cornelson and hire better offensive staff, what are your thoughts there?
Why do we have to constantly compare and measure everything against the history of the Beamer era? Different day and age in 1992 compared to now. What quality assistants is Fu going to bring to Blacksburg given the fact that he's essentially year-to-year now? And what makes you think Fu will actually even make a good hire? What even makes you think he will make any staff changes at all? Everyone and their uncle knows Fuente should have been fired, but the AD refuses to. Fuente has all the leverage. He's going to milk this job for all it's worth until a) Whit finally wakes up and fires him, or b) he gets another job. He wants out of Blacksburg, he just has no other good options right now.
Not true joe. He brought in kill which turned out to be a good decision. He's changed qbs in an effort to get the best guys on the field. Brought in Tapp with the hope of improving recruiting. These blanket "he did nothing" statements are just false.
Let's correct it then. He did nothing that resulted in improvements in win totals, recruiting and fan attitudes. Better?
He's had three declining years and recent shitty recruiting. Yes. First year great. Second year good. Again - moving on is plausible, it's just not the "no brainer" decision being echoed on this site.
You have literally just described a clear regression over 5 years. It's amazing to me that you can see, define and understand that but still have confidence that Fuente can and will reverse it
Never said that he will. I just believe that firing him wasn't the no brained you seem to believe it is. For many reasons. And yes. We have regressed. But he has had success. He needs to focus on recruiting- It will be the nail in the coffin next year likely.
Plot the seasons, draw a line, and then extrapolate
That's a fair point, this is a lot harder than many are giving it credit for. Job's always seems easier when you're not doing it.
Okay well you're right that he hasn't done nothing. He's done lots of things. But they've all resulted in terrible recruiting and 5 wins with several pretty bad losses... So doing nothing might have actually been better now that I think about it
I did write "meaningfully way". He brought in Kill then reportedly ignored his advice to can some of friends. He added Tapp (who I hope succeeds) (a minor change) instead of dedicating himself to the recruiting process.
He is who is, and I don't believe he's right for VT, and it's not in his nature to change. He does things his way, at times stubborn to a fault. Again, I hope I'm wrong.
Yes. We loose our best OL, Mitchel, Herbert (I'm missing a couple of others here), along with the normal Fuente personnel leakage.
We will not be a better team next season by losing a huge chunk of our offensive production.
Not only that, just look at this season. Did you expect us to lose to WF and Liberty? Did you expect us to get run off the field by an average Pitt squad? I will never say we have a "decent" shot at anything with Fuente as our HC.
Honestly wonder if that factored into the decision. Perhaps it's best if Fuente has his hands on the wheel when we hit rock bottom instead of a new coach in his first year
The way our recruiting is going under Fuente, we still have a little while to go before rock bottom is hit. A new coach might at least find the floor in the next couple years.
What has he learned!??
Shibest makes 420k to have our TE return punts. What in tf is that!?
*muff punts
He is also the TE coach isn't he? I feel like people discredit Shibest for returns, but feel like we've gotten a lot out of the TE position since he's been here and we've had some pretty darn good punters and field goal kickers. So not a complete fail. Any chance to get someone else, maybe Lechtenberg, to do returns?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Thanks for that! I haven't heard a joke that ridiculously good in quite a while.
That is an insane theory. We lose good chunks of our most experienced o-line in a decade, we lose Herbert....we can barely score points with Herbert!
No, raw-talent-wise we'll probably be pretty decent.
But this staff will squander it away on screens, qb draws on 3rd and long, or mismanaging the clock in some asinine way.
it would harm this team and morale for fuente to be the coach until next december
That's your opinion sure. I have a different one and many other people share it that aren't on these boards or at least aren't as vocal
I'm with ya Rayo.
exactly. lack of winning and lack of recruiting under Fuente is the harm. Not sure how people are expecting either to turn around under the same regime.
I see you are being downvoted into oblivion by the echo chamber members who are going postal on this update.
This news is not that surprising- but a lot of these same people losing it said Quincy was the next Tyrod (insert great qb). The hype is ridiculous on the positive side and yes - on the negative side - Bring on the downvotes - but these "sources" stating it's a "done deal" are comical at best. They apparently knew nothing.
The comment you're replying to has a comment score of 0. If that qualifies as "downvoted to oblivion" in your mind, idk what to say lol
Yes, people get all territorial around here about the "right" opinion. No, antagonizing them isn't a good way forward
Now I am looking at next year's schedule worried about losing to teams like Richmond and Syracuse.
I was looking at the schedule and thinking we won't see Lane more than 2/3rd full all season except for the Notre Dame game where 1/2 of the stadium will be green and gold.
is syracuse home or away? i don't care about talent levels...if we play AT syracuse or AT pitt, i pencil that in as a loss.
but glad i was wrong about that in 2016, when i went up to pitt for the game :-)
👆🏼👆🏼👆🏼
Like I've said you ask the players who have played for him and the vote would be to keep him. The vast majority of kids and their parents I've talked to from down here once committed to the program love him.
Yea but there's this one issue where he can't get many talented players to play for him
Darrisaw is about to be a first round pick.
That got us 5 wins.
But but but we have an nfl talent !! Everything is good!
Darrisaw is a lucky get that developed into an exceptional player. There was no indication of him being that level of player during his recruitment. Let's look at what teams we beat out for him:
Darrisaw Recruiting Timeline
So because he didn't get recruited by anybody else he doesn't count? Beamer made a career out of getting/developing those guys.
No he's an exception, not the norm. We cannot compete with a handful of exceptions
yep, you are right about that. if we want to compete for the coastal on a yearly basis, we need recruits who also have offers from ranked teams. look at last year's class and this year's class...how many of those recruits have offers from currently ranked top-25 teams. i would guess very few.
Is this what the site is going to be for another year just downvote after downvote when talking about anything related to the program that isn't doom and gloom? Yea it was time for change. Whit didn't make that change so we all have to be miserable?
No it will be doom and gloom because our football team is on a downward spiral and we aren't able to get off the ride.
And just because you're amped up for another year of fuente means we can't be miserable?
Why do people like you want to be miserable? This is out of our control, he is here foe another year. So we can either just be miserable which is a pretty shitty way to go through live or we can accept it and enjoy the parts we can, players themselves being happy about it and seeing the players individually do well. Or y'all can just remain miserable and sulk and pout and just get angry over something you can't change.
Thank you, I knew I couldn't make it another day without your holier-than-thou attitude shining through on an internet message board. I would suggest finding somewhere else to post about VT football if you don't want to experience misery. It's clear you think very highly of Justin Fuente. That doesn't mean I have to as well. You can't come to a message board and expect everyone to be as cheerful as you after sub .500 win percentages against FBS opponents for 3 seasons in a row.
Then you haven't paid attention. I thought it was time for a change also. But what good is it to even shit on players who are happy he is staying? What does that do for you? Tell me how does that make you feel better?
This speaks to it very well.
Edit: nvm. Cheers friend.
We're still in the process of getting our frustrations out.
I agree with this tweet but I think it's important to think of how Babcock and Fuente would define "support"
What I think their definition of support would be:
- Cheer hard and respectfully in person at games/bowls or in person at alumni meet ups especially Hokie club sponsored ones
- Buy apparel and wear with pride, buy other officially licensed product like car decals and license plates
- Become a season ticket holder
- Support the Hokie scholarship fund/ donate
What I don't think they would care about:
-Venting on message boards that coaches and players are unlikely to read
What they do care about in terms of bad support:
- Tagging social media posts at coaches or especially players such as the horrifying criticism that was tweeted at Hendon Hooker
- Other ways of trying trying to reach players directly for criticism
If y'all have an issue with each other, please take it elsewhere. Thanks.
If I said yes, will you leave here and twitter?
But then talk to all the former Hokies he has shunned from being involved in the program....its brutal watching them game day and after on twitter.
This has been an issue long before he got to Tech. I listened to a former player complain about access for Beamers last game not being able to see Frank or get a ticket without the price of the 2nd market. It's an issue Kevin Jones was hired to try and fix and he got no where.
The opinion of a few guys on Twitter doesn't speak for the player alumni as a whole. No, we don't like seeing what we built on a decline but out of anyone we know how hard it was to win at this level.
I respect your time committed and knowing how hard it is to win at the level this program has, what are your thoughts on how to correct the decline if Fuente is unwilling to change? He hasn't shown the ability to win consistently, recruit effectively, or even adjust accordingly in-game. I use the players on twitter as a snap shot obviously but when the fan base that are not coaches can predict with a high degree of accuracy what plays are coming on offense, its not really surprising that opposing coaches, even Nardouche and his staff are able to find advantages.
I wont fault Fuente for the challenges on defense with the situation that was this year but offensively if it wasn't for Khalil Herbert, we likely are a two win team this year.
Recruiting though is my biggest issue with this team. Ratings obviously can be deceiving, especially in a year where many high schools didnt play football but there dont appear to be many 'surprise stars' in the 2021 class that has 24 commits currently and is only 43rd now but most likely drops significantly as other schools round out their classes.
What do you think can adjust our current trajectory?
I think our largest issue is recruiting and depth. One guy out and we have a situation like the UNC game where you're asking a guy like Matheny to be your free hitter in space against superior athletes and we saw how that went. We have started to address those issues financially by building a larger recruiting staff and putting more money toward that budget. The fundamental issues we had in recruiting were not a quick fix. I don't like that it took so long to address these issues.
I agree that the in game adjustments are frustrating and our approach to 3rd and 5+ yards is incredibly frustrating. I've just seen enough flashes of good football that I'm not ready to burn the house down with Fuente getting another year. Winning is HARD. Think about seasons like 2008 and 2010. We could have just as easily gone 6-6 or 8-4 those seasons if a couple lucky bounces hadn't gone our way. My main point is most players are probably slower to judge the situation because we understand there's probably a lot more to the story than we see. I'm slow to judge this offense because I don't 100% know this scheme. I think burmeister gives us a really good chance to win. He doesn't take the sacks that get us in 3rd and long and he extends plays outside the pocket.
I don't know the future but I'm never jumping ship
That's wonderful and everything, but if we continue to bring in kids that are not talented enough to compete at a high level, then their thoughts on Fuente are nothing but an empty consolation prize/participation trophy. I want us to compete for ACC Championships AND have players that love our head coach.
SOB!
Still gonna watch Hokie football
Not gonna be happy about it for the coach
Gonna do it for the kids who play and those who have played
edit: I also reserve the right to get my hopes up with every recruit and every gameday, only to have them dashed in new and craptacular ways.
I'll absolutely still be watching. But I won't be donating.
I refuse to light my money on fire.
Too poor to donate, anyway.
Not dumb enough to bet, any more.
Just my time on the line.
It's a really tough spot to be in. It's like watching your buddy get serious with an absolute piece of trash of a person and somehow that makes them really happy. So you're happy that they are happy, and you begrudgingly cheer their relationship on, but man it makes you sick inside to know what that significant other is doing to them.
I really like this analogy. Maybe I shouldn't, but I do.
While I appreciate basketball being important, football still drives the train and this train appears headed for a broken bridge over the New River. You know when opposing fans see the news on Twitter and start saying how this is the best news ever, something is wrong.
If there's anything at all we know about Whit Babcock it's that he absolutely never lets the public know what he's doing when a big decision is being made. There were so many rumors about who the next basketball coach would be, and no one at all expected Mike Young.
Unless that is happening here (Fuente actually is being fired despite what these "insiders" are saying), I suspect he really couldn't land who he wanted to land and is content to sit on this thing for another year. I'm not gonna check out, I'm a Hokie, my family from way back are Hokies. I'll be disappointed, but I'm still a Hokie.
I'm with you, but McMurphy and Bitter are real media members...not guys posting semi-anonymously with "sauces."
Announcing a Weds media session pretty much confirms Fuente won't be fired.
This is a cheap and short-sided decision.
We will be in the same position this time next year except shorter on talent, with a job that is even less attractive, and more irrelevant in the CFB landscape.
....and we will have "saved" 2.5 mil...which will be nothing in comparison to what we will lose going forward with a broken program.
boothatman.gif
Just scathing reviews right here from some outsiders.
That NCAAF Nation account is one of the weirdest accounts on twitter, it is UNIVERSALLY positive towards every team and player just in an effort to pander for likes and retweets. The fact that this guy of all people is trashing us is the biggest sign of all that we're doomed.
I think it's a VT fan that tries to put pro VT spin stats out there. I still follow it but I've only ever seen them be positive towards VT
The NCAAF Nation account is run by someone from the commonwealth and I have my suspicions (but no proof) that I know who, and that person is a Hokie through and through
It has been consistently pro-VT, that's for sure. I don't follow it, and it's regularly on my Twitter feed anyway because other Hokies I do follow are liking his pro-VT tweets.
Is this really all we can expect from you for the next year? Digging up anti VT things? I would rather wait to see what happens in the next month. We nay even still have a bowl game.
Any of you "In Whit we trust" people having second thoughts?
Yes
No.
No. There's three possibilities here:
None of these things are directly Whit's fault.
I see Whit as a guy who goes with his best option.
So right now, he sees Fuente as our best option.
Ugh I hate agreeing you with, but I think you're absolutely right.
My issue is that Whit hasn't improved our fundraising in a significant way. I don't want him fired or anything, but I also feel stupid for thinking he was the best AD in the country like 3 years ago.
He's grown Hokie club membership by 60% in 3 years. Not sure how you can say he hasn't improved fundraising in a significant way.
I guess because every time we complain about our embarrassing recruiting, the excuse is that we just don't have enough money to swing a top-40 class.
It'll be interesting to see how much of that apparent progress is undone by this decision to keep Fuente.
Fundraising is improving, but other conferences outpacing us in TV revenue.
Aren't these two on Whit? Didn't Whit give him the 2018 extension that set up the financial bind? Isn't it Whit's job to sell the program and attract top talent?
Tough to raise money in a pandemic. Tough to convince someone to come here when we can't pay them what their asking. Coaches aren't stupid like recruits; they usually do their homework before accepting a job.
First of all, that new contract was awarded before the 2018 season - at that time, recruiting was at it's normal levels and Fuente was 19-8. Said this multiple times, but this was the right move based on the information available at the time.
The buyout from the 2017-2023 contract (first extension) was $3M to fire him tomorrow. The next year, Whit further extends his contact (2018-2024) and substantially increases the buyout numbers to handcuff the VT athletic department into a situation that knew, at the time of signing, they would never be able to afford. And that's a good contract signing at the time?
Also, no off-setting language and the buyout for another school to sign Fuente was unchanged and remained low. (If another school were to hire him tomorrow, the buyout is $750K!)
Great job by Fuente and his attorney to leverage his flirtation with Arkansas. And frankly,, lousy forethought by Whit and VT's attorney.
Man, if my employer had that kind of fear in losing me to another company, I'd probably be driving a different sports car to work every day (outside of COVID-19, of course)!
So tonight I've heard:
- we had $4m of the $10m committed
- we had Elliott if we wanted him
- the BOV was surprised Whit stuck with Fuente.
Uggh.
Whit just showed he is not the genius AD so many have tried to hype him up to be. This is a major failure, whatever in his thought process caused him to so suddenly reverse course and side with Fu. He better brace himself for the backlash.
If that's true that's a pretty tough pill to swallow
Right there with you if above is true. $4M gives him two years to recover enough to find $1M more for Fuente and then the current staff $$.
I would take what you hear with a grain of salt, everyone had this wrong until the end. Whit plays it too close to the vest for these details to get out.
I don't buy this. If VT was at worst top 25 job when Beamer left, it's at worst a top 35 job now. If we couldn't lure a target here, it's because we couldn't meet their salary requests or their staff requirements. Those things can change.
Right, so the prospects that we find as a "suitable" replacement, would rather stay at their P5 coordinator, or G5 HC job than come to VT...if it is from a money standpoint...well...I assume you're not getting a whole lot of new donations by putting out a declining product every successive year that he's been here.
Wasn't VT considered the best job available in 2015? Like, ESPN even had segments in their football shows where they openly ranked us the most desirable opening on the market at the time.
To see that status completely and utterly crumble in 60 months is.... not good
Yes, because there wasn't much competition. Our competition was Iowa State, Syracuse, Miami, UMD, UVA, Mizzou, SCar, and Minnesota. UGA and USC were also searching, but they weren't competing for the same candidates as us - USC wanted a west coast guy and UGA wanted Kirby.
IMO, Minnesota is the only one of those schools that might have jumped us, and that's more due to the B10 TV deal than anything Fuente or Whit have done. If we're going head-to-head with USC or UGA, we'd lose (but IMO we weren't going head to head with them in 2016).
Those rankings included USC and UGA
At no point did anyone think VT was a better job than UGA or Southern California. They might have thought that we made a better hire than those schools did, but no one (in their right mind) thought that ceiling at VT is higher than it is at UGA or USC.
It wasnt about ceiling, it was about combination of football support and job security... i.e. we wont churn through coaches just bc their 11 win season didnt won the natty
Meh, I think this is the media saying this, not coaches. People get into coaching because they're hypercompetitive and love football. Hypercompetitive people would rather play for high stakes and have a shot to win it all than be celebrated for winning 90% of their games.
If memory serves correct, it had more to do with lower expectations compared to the likes of UGA and USC, a patient and loyal fanbase (we may be proving them wrong on this count), support of administration, relatively easy conference to be competitive and have 9-10 win seasons, and solid pieces in place to transition/continue a good program. They weren't stating that it was a dream job due to the likelihood of a national championship or the sort.
More for the handling of this than the decision. The decision is dumb but one can find rationale for it. The announcement of a press conference on the day his buyout drops and then radio silence when it causes a stir is very odd and harder to rationalize.
Absolutely.
Whits next hire is his career.
If he hires another football dud there goes his career.
If it were me, I would want to be sure I had a home run hire in place, if not you give him another year, but then again he's a dead man walking unless the younger defensive staff can really have a chance to go out and recruit
But somebody has got to reach out to some of these old players and use that source to get buy in and branding, otherwise anything less than 9 wins will feel the same, any misstep honestly and we're back here...
This. If you're just getting rid of a guy to hire Will Healy who you don't actually think is any better then you can push it one last year.
Very good point. The unfortunate thing for Whit, if he couldn't get a home-run hire, is that he can't assure the fanbase of that fact. He can't say "Sorry fans, I can't get anybody better for 2021, so we're going to stick with Fuente for the time being." So he would have to publicly roll with presumably blind faith in Fuente and his staff moving forward, which is a bitter taste for a fanbase that is upset and apathetic.
We better go un-fucking-defeated next year
Or at least beat the other in-state teams. /s
I look forward to taking care of business next year and breaking this *sigh* trend...
ODU - 2018
UVA - 2019
Liberty - 2020
Richmond - 9/25/2021
AT West Virginia, AT Miami, VS Notre Dame in 2021 for those who think that Tech will lose Darrisaw, Mitchell, Herbert, and the usual Fuente deluge of transfers, and then come out able to win 10 games and compete for the Coastal with zero incoming recruiting help.
Which, if he stays and takes the COVID mulligan, SHOULD STILL BE THE EXPECTATION in year six as it was in year five.
DJ Harvey and Jaylen Jones, but yeah we need a DT or two for future depth. Plenty of time to hit the portal as well
Where's all of them ToP Recuirts at? Only DJ
Yup, VT hitting up the portal just to field a decent starting team while some of our peer institutions are flush in the two-deep. THATS where I want my football team to be at!
We are desperate for Kansans to save us. It's not a sustainable strategy.
Wow...I think this post really highlights a big chunk of the problem.
Not only can Fuente not recruit decent 4 star talent but he can't even develop the 3 star talent he does land. He has to go get portal guys that some other competent coach has developed over the past 2 to 4 years to fill in his gaps. And they are among the most talented guys on his teams.
This is the strategy you use to fill in depth gaps, behind good talent. Not to find your starters. Just another example of why he needed to go.
Whit better not get softball questions from the media tomorrow. I want a tangible expectation for exactly what Fuente has to do NEXT season (not in the arbitrary future, NEXT season) to not be fired after what he has done to the program the last 3 years, and it can't be some intangible "trending in the right direction" absolute bullshit after turning in another 7-6 season to follow up this 5-6 one. Anything less than 10 wins and an ACCCG appearance should be grounds for a firing on the spot after the last 3 years, and I am 99.999999% sure that isn't happening. This was supposed to be the year he was fresh out of chances and he is inexplicably getting another one.
Until covid screwed up the world.
I'm not excusing any of it. But I really would like to have a season without any extra stuff detracting from it. No significant injuries, no locker room drama, no worldwide pandemic that completely rewrites the schedule on a daily basis, no sudden roster change.
Basically, I want a season where there won't be any excuses. If we have a successful season, that's great. If we don't, well, then we can at least have an honest conversation without some asterisk hanging over it.
Winners win. Losers make excuses.
He's had four other ones and proven he can be above average with above average talent, which he is not capable of obtaining.
No he hasn't, which is why I want one.
2016 and 2017, folks keep saying "he still has Beamer's kids"
2018 - QB breaks a leg, locker room drama starts.
2019 - locker room drama all offseason spills into start of season. Doesn't turn around until Kill gets hired.
2020 - covid
I'm sure there's other parts I'm forgetting.
And if it keeps going where there's always something and we can't overcome it, then there's reason for change too. I just want to be able to make a fair assessment.
Locker room drama is not an acceptable excuse when Justin Fuente oversees the locker room, and you're excusing two years for it. Frankly COVID is not an acceptable excuse either when every team had to deal with it and our worst games came without players missing.
But yeah, we definitely need to give this trainwreck another year to get a complete assessment. Next year is totally the year this all comes together.
Based on Fuente's history at VT you won't get a season like the one you describe.
I, for one, am already looking forward to the 2021 football season....
You really needed to wait for a few replies to post the gif, for the added effect of the movie
Whit knows that next years class of coaches are the best it's been in quite some time and that all the top talent will want to come to VT, he's been building these relationships the past few years so it's gonna be the best group of coaches he's signed.../s
Soooo...
UNC is trending up in a huge way.
Miami, well they will be talented.
GT is recruiting well and I think they are trending up despite their record this season (their QB and RB are beasts).
I'm not sure what Whit is thinking and why the decision to keep Fuente seems good to him, but dang, we are going to be in seriously bad shape over the next 5 years. No talent coming in for 3 straight classes (I'm assuming the 2022 class will be awful as well). While other teams in the Coastal are building we are regressing. The new coach, whoever he is and whenever he arrives, will have one heluva rebuild on his hands.
Well...at least they're not going to announce Freeze as our next HC?
I would genuinely rather argue about whether we can live with ourselves morally with a guy like Freeze at coach than argue about the upside of Fuente's third straight G5 level recruiting class as we get boatraced by Syracuse for our 8th loss of the season next October.
Same. I don't understand why people care about the prostitute thing. That's his business. And downvote me, but at this point I'm down to get into grey areas of recruiting with literally everyone else who's relevant. We have little to lose and a lot to gain.
But we know that's not acceptable, so Whit keep him on a tight leash. He's a damn good coach. Better than Fuente.
I am dead serious. I would thrilled to have him as our coach because I want to win.
I am not here to judge the morals of someone paid to win a game where we watch kids beat the shit out of each other for our amusement at no pay.
And to the point of paying players under the table: are we really concerned about not following the rules in a sport where some teams are being paid 50 million dollars annually because they affiliate with Alabama?
The head coach is a representation of the University. I do not want to be represented by a man like Hugh Freeze.
Middle Tennessee State, Richmond, and WVU all approve of Whit's decision.
At this point, are we still a "marquee win" for a program like MTSU? They beat ODU in 2018...we didn't even do that.
If Fuente stays can at least we fire his personality and inset one (or get him a PR agent).
I'm willing to wait until Whit speaks tomorrow to pass judgement. Hopefully we're mandating some changes and investing money for a forreal offensive coordinator. On the positive side, I don't think any new coach would be keeping Justin Hamilton as dc, and I would really like to see him get the chance to succeed.
Zoom recruiting with Zero personality...it will get after ya
So, this is showing up on my Twitter screen.
If Cornelson ain't fired. Plz God no
I still have a lot of faith in Whit. He's done a lot of good things for VT athletics, and he's made some great hires.
I trust his judgment. I could have seen it either way this year. If he wants to give Fuente more time, I'm on board. They'll both have my full support. Had he gone another direction, I'd have supported that as well.
I still think Fuente is a good football coach. I'd like to see a lot of improvement on the recruiting end, and I'm not sure how he's going to do that. This was a COVID year, and some of those games could easily have gone VTs way.
I don't think either Fuente or Whit are idiots. They know the score, and they know where they have to go. There aren't a lot of excuses for not performing next year.
Agreed. But, I think you and I might need to stay away from here for awhile.
Maybe you should. There are bigger concerns.
I'll bite... what?
2018 and 2019 seasons want their end-of-year summaries back.
How is Fuente a good football coach when the product he puts on the field is bad?
The rational take. Thank you.
Tried to tell you
/Furiously codes up a million downvote button.
😂
Ahh yes "I told you so" is such a great thing to post right now
LOL YOU DO IT ALL THE TIME
Lol seriously
What I do has no effect on the program. I don't donate as I am still a college student who prioritizes light beer after keeping my water, electricity, and gas on, and the paychecks I get don't allow much after that. When I do buy tickets, I get them from Stubhub. The biggest financial effect I have on the football program is when I buy a hot dog or something at a game.
It feels bad that nothing I do will get the things done that need to be done. I just hope those who aren't BOV or big time donors but still donate a considerable amount make Whit feel this poor decision. We can't recruit our own state. We lost NC. TX2VT was a joke. Game management is a joke at times. He has shown complete ineptitude at hiring assistant coaches. It's clear Whit doesn't value football the way we do. Look at Cincy since he left.
A college student who prioritizes being a TKP member?
Yeah.... not quite the case. I was part of one of the promos.
HOWEVER,
I am considering re-upping when the time comes. I am pleased.
I think I kinda said this above, but I'm really hoping that this decision was because the top choices (Elliott, Fickell, Napier) aren't looking to move this year. Not that they necessarily wouldn't want to come here, we can argue that elsewhere, but that they don't want to start building a new program during the pandemic and are waiting for the next cycle to pick their school.
If we're a good coaching job, why wouldn't you take it now? In my mind, if people aren't willing to come here, that either says nobody wants to coach here, regardless of COVID (because COVID is a thing at all schools), or maybe Whit is paying Fuente $4.25M, but trying to pay our next coach $2.5M, and if he's doing that, we might as well keep Fuente and the results however bad they may be because that's what we'd be saying our expectations are.
Think about how difficult it will be to build a program right now. Instead of being hired 2-3 weeks before ESD you're being hired on or after ESD. Instead of scraping together a class you have basically no class. We don't know what will happen with COVID, there may not be much in person recruiting until 2022, that hurts your evaluation and ability to sell your vision.
Those first two classes may not be very talented, but they're used to build your culture so that when classes 3 & 4 arrive the culture is established (this is how Bud Elliott explained it on Barton & Bud episode from 12/14). In addition if you're operating with social distancing it makes it harder to establish that culture and get buy in from the players there today.
There may not be fans in the stands again come fall. Financial situations may be unstable. You only get one Year Zero, as soon as you become the HC the clock is ticking and you'll need to produce. You don't want to be in a situation where your effective Year 1 is in year 3 or 4. I would hope that we hire a smart coach who wants to win and not just collect a paycheck. A coach like that will be picky about where and when he moves to a job in order to set himself up a favorably as possible. The when may not be right this year.
COVID is probably a good excuse for a brand new coach, but not someone in year 5. I'd give a new coach a mulligan, but hopefully they'll at least create some excitement amongst the fans. Also, Tony Elliot makes $1.6M - if he came to Tech and got paid $4M, you think he'd be worried about expectations in year 1 or even year 2? I mean if someone doesn't want a big pay raise and is afraid of some hard work and POSSIBLE fan criticism, they shouldn't be a HC and definitely should NEVER consider the SEC.
Not everybody just want a big pay raise (see: Foster, Bud) some people want to win, and therefore set themselves up for success. Why has Matt Campbell not left Iowa State? Would he leave for Texas? Probably not because he probably won't be successful there not because he's not a good coach but because of issues in Austin.
It wouldn't be that potential HC is afraid of hard work or criticism or expectations in year 1 or 2 (there wouldn't be much in a rebuild) but doesn't want to set himself up to fail.
Listen, I want to get rid of Fuente. I don't like him. VT is a good job, it's thought of highly by people in the know nationally. One bad coach, who was the guy following The Guy, does not make it a bad job. I'm trying to think why this year's coaching pool might be turning down jobs they would otherwise take.
Now officially a moot point.
Why? Because Whit said he never tried to replace him? I'm taking everything in that presser with a block of salt.
From everything that happened and was said, including Whit's posture, I'm guessing this wasn't the preferred route, and Whit may have been ready to switch, but somehow got overruled. If that's the case, we have at LEAST one more year of this. I mean, as high as expectations were this year, from who I think we're expecting to go pro, I now have pretty darn low expectations next year. If the bowl streak doesn't end this year, I'm guessing it will next year, and next year will be the second straight losing season. And the Tech HC job will be that much more of a rebuild and that less desirable.
I don't know about that. I remember when USF contacted Dabo about their other co-oc, jeff scott...dabo called up scott and told him this is one you want to listen to, this is the one you have been waiting for. If we contacted clemson about elliott, i am sure he would take the job if offered. Maybe not, i could be wrong...just my gut feeling.
What if Dabo told Elliott that he might not want to try to start his own program during a pandemic because he wouldn't be setting himself up for success? Wait to see the landscape post-COVID, maintain stability now, then choose the right job in the next two years where you can win a lot.
Dabo probably would say just about anything to keep his success going, if he feel it was truly threatened. So... maybe?
I'm shocked.
I'm certainly disappointed in the decision, but how badly is Whit handling this?
You sort of have to be an idiot to schedule a press conference to talk about football on the day Fuente's buyout drops if you're not firing him, while also never publicly supporting him all season and then not clearing things up after causing a predictable stir when early signing day is barely 24 hours away.
'idiot' may be the wrong word. Tone deaf? Clueless? I'm open to suggestions.
If there is one thing consistent with VT Football in the Justin Fuente era, being completely tone-deaf is it. Not surprised at all that this is how it went down, mostly surprised that Whit Babcock has now outed himself as just as big a complete dumbass as the other goons running the football program.
I called it a shitshow in the presser thread. But I think there's a better descriptor.
I think it's more that you can expect hyperbolic reactions on this site and maybe one or two others.
In the big scheme of things, the way Whit is handling this isn't changing the rotation of the earth one iota.
OK. But it is terrible.
Well thank God the planet will be ok.
Too bad about our football program though.
The football program will be OK, too.
(The football program is already not OK)
That's a great point by Wolken. I really hope it means what he thinks it means!
It doesn't...
Wolken just doesn't understand why we're waiting to share big news.
I don't understand it. It's his job to have a pulse on the fanbase. To my knowledge, he still hasn't addressed this. Is that correct? If it's true that the decision has been made to retain Fuente, why won't he release a statement of support or something?
That's what the press conference is potentially for (among other things, maybe). Just cuz some fans panties are all in a bunch because they *think* they know what is going to happen or be announced tomorrow and they are already to jump off the bridge doesn't mean Whit has to draft a press release.
Normally you don't call a press conference to say that the head coach is staying, except when there is an expectation he might not be or you are extending his contract.
Well, there IS an expectation that he is not staying. And if the decision was for Fuente to stay, he could have announced that at any time. He didn't have to wait until the day of the buyout drop. Also, he announced the presser when everyone was ALREADY speculating that Fuente might be fired on Dec 15. Poor PR, yet again, imho. And of course he doesn't have to draft a press release... and fans don't have to write checks either. I want to be part of a fun, transparent program. I guess that means my panties are in a bunch.
What if the decision wasn't formally made until today? What's he supposed to do. If he issues a press release stating Fuente is staying, this site and several others would be going APE SHIT that there was not press conference for the reporters to ask questions.
This is right way to handle it. They announced the press conference late in the day today to give the press time to prep and the announcement, whatever it is will be tomorrow.
If he's staying, you do literally nothing. Having a press release to say someone is staying is screaming that they know they should fire him but won't for xyz reason. If you keep him, you act like there's not even a question
And that would appease exactly nobody. There is an expectation in the fanbase that *something* was going to happen this week.
But I suspect as others have speculated that there is a lot more iceberg to this story than the tip (press conference, day the buyout goes down, TE rumors, etc.) that we see.
I was specifically told "new coach" just a few hours ago. Now, I can only hope this means new coordinator. Otherwise, my #sauces were straight lied to by Whit, or something changed today.
I'm going with lied.
Edit: No this is not my #sauce
In times like this, I kinda feel like it justifies burning the source. Because this wasn't your typical coaching rumor situation with randos posting flight trackers or making up some vague info. There were reputable posters across various sites all saying something was gonna go down. At the very least, someone should explain what happened.
For clarity, I'm not directing this specifically at you, I'm just addressing the situation in general based on that tweet. Like it sounds like someone led multiple people astray.
Bruh...
Everyone's #sauces had a press conference for new coach Tony Elliot, checks cashed, Fuente gone, even the BOV was advised in the morning a firing would take place.
Whit sent out the presser notification for all this, and then leaked out Fuente's staying. We're all shocked.
Yeah, that's what I'm getting at. Either someone straight up lied to all those respected posters or Whit (or someone that can make decisions) threw a wrench in everything last minute. Someone should spill the beans either way and explain what happened.
Oh for sure. I'm not expecting it. But if it were me posting details and this happened, I'd definitely be searching out for explanations to help clean up the egg on my face.
Follow me down the rabbit hole...Plan A is still in place. We all know Whit doesn't like news to break on a new coach before it's official, so to throw us all off, he puts out that Fuente is staying. But at the presser at 1 he'll come out and be all "Psych! got you good you bitches! Fuente is gone, here's our new coach, Tony Elliot!"
That or maybe...
...We just got Beamered.
I will speculate that maybe the BOV suggested that now was not the right time and/or Whit's potential hire got cold feet and backed out.
We should have gotten Whit some 35 below socks. #goaccnetwork /s
I know this is going to sound really dumb, but there's no way that Whit got freaked out by the news breaking today and worried about having to pay the full 12.5 mil buyout and sent out every signal in the book that Fuente is staying until he can officially fire him tomorrow is there? I don't know the legal side of things and if the news broke today Fuente could theoretically claim that's when he was fired?
Well, if Whit told your source, maybe that's more reliable than whatever "industry source" said Fuente is staying. Maybe the "industry source" is one of the equipment managers who likes Fuente and hopes he stays? Sounds like, if I was you, I'd have more faith in your source (assuming you've gotten good info from the. In the past) over whatever nebulous source they have.
11 months from now we will be in the same position and everyone knows it. Only next year the difference is that Whit Babcock can go with him.
They have given up and in a sane world that is a fireable offense.
This. The decision is mind blowing. Fuente is not going to change who he is. If he could/wanted to, he would have already done so. He has an AD who refuses to fire him. What is the incentive to change? We are in year-to-year mode with Fu and will be back in this position again next year and every year thereafter unless Fu finds another job and leaves. This will completely tank the football program. How can you expect recruiting to improve with a situation like this? The insanity of this is just confounding. Whit has made an absolute mess and frankly needs to go as much as Fuente.
The only pass i see for Whit is if all the dominoes were set, presser scheduled,, the only thing left to do was make it official, then Elliot (or whoever) backed out at the 11th hour, and Whit's hands were tied.
Also, them coming out today and saying we are retaining him next doesn't officially mean we are retaining him. Today isn't the deadline to fire and hire a coach. I'm confident there will still be some phone calls happening (I hope there will be at least)
I would rather have an interim coach next year than have Fuente burn down our program for another year.
Setting up for one hell of a redemption story.
This is basically the football version of Georgia Tech basketball when they had a Paul Hewitt problem. Did it get better? Nope.
I really really hope I'm wrong and this all gets turned around but I'm not optimistic.
Well at least Paul Hewitt played for a national title.
That's what I'm saying, he reached his peak early like Fuente did and got a new contract that had a bad buyout clause.
Chizick
VT doesn't have Auburn money to throw around and fix a mistake
I heard that whit changed course. Didn't like the Elliott situation for some reason and Fickell was too much money. It may just be that the candidate Whit wanted isn't out there yet. I'd rather wait and hire a great coach then settle for whatever and be doing this all over again in three years and effectively becoming tennessee
My sentiments exactly.
Gus Malzahn was made available yesterday!!
8-4 in the SEC can translate to 9-3 or 10-2 in the ACC! C'mon man, and he's also cashing a fat check, so he didn't need a big paycheck right away. Just, wow. He could of gone on a search for the next week, and found someone!
Gus would not have come here.
In the meantime, can we fire Fuente?
Fear of the unknown is not a good reason to avoid doing something necessary. What happens next year if things get worse for VT and other jobs with more prestige come open?
Don't your two statements together form a circular argument?
Don't your shoulders get tired from carrying water for a coach who would love to be anywhere but Blacksburg?
It's not a circular argument. The argument posited is that it will be easier next year to replace Fuente. We don't know what will happen in the future. If the decision has been made that Fuente's not the guy, there's nothing gained by waiting and hoping the dream candidate will be available next year and will take the job cheaply. If the decision is that you don't know enough yet, then it might be time to pull your head out of the sand. This was supposed to be a special year on and off the field. They lost to Liberty and have the 11th best recruiting class in the ACC. This is the new normal under Fuente, despite his Hail Mary play to find kids in Texas who didn't realize he's toxic.
You're claiming to know Fuente's motivations and Whit's thoughts and options, and you don't actually know either of those.
I don't agree that you can declare that a COVID year is the "new normal". This year was anything but.
We're not the decision-makers here. It's up to us to deal with the decisions that are being made. The one thing we can't do is just make up facts to support our feelings.
But this is the internet - ITS WHAT WE DO!
There are plenty of facts that show that Fuente hasn't been able to perform his job at the required level. Ignoring those facts is essentially the same as making things up.
In 5 seasons Fuente's best win was the ACC title game loss to Clemson.
The things we saw this year looked a whole lot like what we saw in 2018 and 2019. You previously wrote that 2020 was a no excuses year for Fuente. Now you're making excuses for him. I'm sure we'll get more excuses in 2021 if that season doesn't go well.
The post I replied to is the one who claimed to know Whit's motivations. If those are his motivations, they're terrible ones.
Yeah I don't believe this. You can't wait for the perfect coach to fall into your lap when your easy rebuild from last year has no become a 3+ year rebuild... sticking with the guy who did that can't possibly be the answer..
What's the story w/ Elliot
I wish I knew. I feel foolish for letting my hopes get up that high.
Yes! Make the right hire at the right time
We are benefitting from very little competition this year. Next year coaching carousel is going to be crazy, then the narrative will be we should be lucky we got xyz young unproven coach and there's just no way we could compete with all these other schools for coaches. It is foolish not to do it now. Waiting until next year, we still will have lost how ever many million dollars from covid.
A live look at the reaction of Mack Brown and his staff
Our fanbase.
Worst news of the day.
maybe they will announce a restructured contract that is more VT friendly
Fuente is going to make Whit take a baseball bat to the head from the fans, for the second time in under a calendar year, on his behalf. It's really something.
Unless Sands and the Board of Visitors took the decision out of his hands why wouldn't he face the VT community for his decision?
I'm not exactly surprised by this, especially after the emotions of Saturday...However, I'm going to wait to see if any changes are made to the staff before I react. I said on the "Does Fuente deserve one more year" thread that I'd give him another year if he made some changes (Corny, Hilgart, Shibest). If any of those three or a combination I mentioned are gone I won't feel any better, but it will show Fuente knows the heat is on him and he better fucking produce and produce quickly.
The heat has been on him. This is where we were last year
Not trying to be the conspiracy guy, but did Whit knowingly have these conversations with high level donors to get money for other things, but never actually considered firing Fuente?
Cause there are some big checks cashed over the past week.
Whit had a interview with Will Stewart on the TSL pod just over a month ago talking about 12 million for a endowment for the football program. That money was always coming if I remember things correctly from that.
A good way to never get money from those people again
no. that would be highly unlikely.
Donor money at that level is almost always earmarked for a specific purpose. Even money that goes into the Endowment is earmarked for a specific purpose. The reason it is put in the Endowment though is so that the school can earn money from the money via interest rates and investments before using said earmarked money given by donors.
Agreed. That would be a quick way to sour relationships with the mega donors that we do have.
Never thought I'd live to see the day that Liberty of all places was the best football program in the state.
"but its a COVID year.... what else do you expect?" just about sums up the comments on facebook
News Flash: a lot of teams had a winning record this year.
Perhaps VT would have handled COVID better if Fuente didn't treat COVID protocols like he treated the 1999 team.
For all of you folks on TKP who want Fuente to stay... I want to say to you, that opinion, though I disagree with it, is certainly welcome here.
When did this turn into a place where uniformity was celebrated?
Welcome to the world today where you either agree with what I think or you're wrong.
There are legit reasons Fu should stay. I personally don't think they out weigh the negative of keeping him but hey if you think otherwise, at least we both want tech to win.
This is what's going to suck hard. The fanbase is still divided and few have hope. It would've been really nice to have a new coach for everyone to rally behind.
My opinion on this from the start was because of the financial implications, Whit was only going to make this change if he had a home run hire lined up and locked in. If Whit didn't feel like he had the right options to replace Fuente or the ones he had fell through, then I am fine with the decision that was made.
I don't think there are lot of folks that want him to stay - there a folks that understand that it might not be the right time to fire him. For many reasons. That viewpoint is seen as highly unfavorable by the board.
Even if Fuente is forced to make some staffing changes - odds are he just promotes some quality control coach on staff now, or steals away VMI's offensive coordinator, or something. His hires rarely inspire confidence, and need a lot of hand-holding. And most importantly, none of them have hit the ground running from a recruiting perspective. So I wouldn't expect any major gains there regardless of the decision.
This makes my investment in my TKPC membership that much easier, just freed up any money I would have put into the football program.
Dont worry Coach Young, you will still get my directed donation.
Man I even hesitate on donating to other programs right now, because that just means that generally donated money that was normally going to go there would now be going to football
I would have liked some sort of change but. Why did any of you really think he was going to be fired (not the reasons you want him to be gone) Especially after the most recent matchup. I'd say he'd have been retained after a loss to UVA if it was a close one. The players like him and Covid/no Spring Ball/and Whitcock liking him seemed to be a sure enough sign that he had at least 2021 to get shit togethernd show SOME life. And I say that in all caps because I Keli even if he gets us 7-5 next year or 8-5 w/ a bowl win he gets to 2022 to stick around.
Something I have been pondering. Recruiting. It is the number 1 problem. All the other bitching is just a side effect. We need talent. How freaking hard would it be for a new coach to pick up a cold recruiting period knowing the dead period is going to go through a significant chunk of 21? You would almost need a coach that already had relationships in our radius. I am just spitballing, but could that have a significant effect on the thought process. A new coach needs time to build and wouldn't want to start with a mulligan. Shit if I know. I wish we as a fanbase could be a little more level headed about how unique and complicated this situation is though.
I agree, lack of talent (recruiting) is the top problem as far as on the field results are concerned. I also agree, a new coach coming in fresh into the COVID-environment would be tough, but I still think it would put him/that scenario ahead of the game for subsequent classes. On the other hand, as it stands Fuente, an already mediocre recruiter, now has to sell during the remainder of the COVID dead period and on top of that, he's somewhere between hot seat and lame duck. The former still seems like the better long-term play to me.
Not disagreeing with you....but yes, it is tough for every program out there. What would be a huge breath of fresh air is to have a new coach who embraces that COVID is causing problems and finds ways to work around them. What Fuente has basically done is embrace that COVID is causing problems and that excuses everything.
I agree that Fuente's recruiting gets even harder this year. I think an offensive coaching change could help. The defensive coaches might be great recruiters, but they haven't had much of a chance to prove it one way or the other yet. One of the biggest benefits of a new coach is the initial breath of fresh air that gives you that typical recruiting bump. I have no faith that bump would exist this year and no matter what we say now, we want results in about three years. A coach may not want to gamble on his first most crucial year being on the tail end of Covid. This could make the market just a little different than most years.
I have been pretty steady through this that I didn't feel like I had enough information to have a strong opinion. While it felt like it was time for Fuente to go, I don't know how those closed door conversations were looking. I also don't know how the six year fiscal plan is looking around the athletic department.
I hope we are announcing some sort of changes or strategies tomorrow that provides some positive momentum at least.
Anyone that brings excitement over Zoom would have to get better results then Fuente's 76th ranked 2020 class and currently 43rd ranked free-falling 2021 class that very well could end up in the 70's as well once other programs fill in their classes on Wednesday.
Just really needed Eyeore to go away....
If Fuente was recruiting at the program's ceiling - a class ranked somewhere around 25 - I don't think the majority of ANTIFU folks, myself included. would be as upset as they are. The program has no direction, and the staff cannot recruit. And Fuente doesn't strike me as a guy who's going to sell out for an ace recruiter when/if he has to fire his BFF.
Having a Press Conference to announce that a Coach still under contract 3 more seasons is still your Coach makes about as much sense as justifying not using Timeouts in a 7 point game before halftime because the other team had timeouts too.
But what if I told you that you could schedule it, with a cryptic announcement, on the exact day that his buyout drops?
A lot of checkers being played right now at Merryman.
They won't fire him until after our bowl game .....
/s
Ugh thanks, now I'm imagining us getting blown out by a 3-7 Navy team in the Military Bowl 😬
Eh, sort of disappointed but lets see what happens. I'm not changing my hokieclub donation and I'm not leaving TKP.
I'll be more invested next year than this year at least for the sheer fact that COVID will be gone and I can go to Blacksburg. I'll be able to walk around campus. I'll be able to have fun in Lane.
Also, I'm interested in hearing Whit discuss what I hope are fundamental changes in the hokieclub and my fingers are crossed for some news regarding assistant coach changes or recruiters or something.
One thing you can be pretty much assured of is that you WON'T hear it all tomorrow. Vote of confidence for Fu and not much else.
Disagree with the move, but I am willing to hear out Whit tomorrow, only because of the economics of firing someone, most of the staff, and then rebuilding right after instituting department wide paycuts.
Yeah - I get the rumors that we had the buyout money, but did we have the money to bring in a top tier coach? If not, who could we have afforded to hire? Would it move the needle at all? I want to hear it all tomorrow and then I'll be willing to rage.
That's the problem. You won't get those answers. It's not like he's going to come up to the podium and say "Justin Fuente is still our head coach solely because it was too expensive to do anything different." They're going to act as though the thought has never once crossed their mind, as they should if this was the decision that's been made no matter how terrible a decision most people feel it is
No but we might get some answers about moving in a different direction - i.e. Burden to Lechtenburg seemed to work when looking at the quality of guys we brought it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not thrilled but I see why this could happen - regardless of what happened against UVA.
Whit had the perfect coaching game plan drawn up. He just failed to execute and didn't make the unblocked hat miss. Something something COVID19.
Am I doing this right?
All the problems are due to Beamer holdovers that are bad apples and the VT Twitter fanbase. No other school has such an unruly internet presence.
Won't someone think of the twitter mentions in this tough time
We have a record breaking coach when it comes to championships of life.
I want to see if anything else significant happens - ex. staff changes on offense.
I do think that would help a bit especially if Whit forced some change to inject some fresh opinions and new personalities into the equation.
Additionally, I don't know if this will work and/or is possible, but I will say it. CjF doesn't understand and doesn't like the outreach part of the job and WHit has the necessary leverage to gain some accountability from Justin in regards to why this matters and what actions he will take to improve the situation.
Whether he can or not is TBD, but I will judge Whit on whether the offensive staff changes and if you can tell Justin makes a significant effort to connect with the fans and donors in a more significant manner.
What??? But.... but.... I heard from all the trustworthy sauces on here that 20 players we're going to leave over the bye week, all the players dislike Fuente, and he was as good as gone??? /s
In all seriousness, whether you like him or not, it's now officially ridiculous to say that the players hate him. If we had a HC all of the players hated, he'd be gone YESTERDAY. Heck, some of the players on the team have said how much they love and would do anything for him, and did you see how pumped up they were after getting the Cup back?
I don't know if he's the long term solution, but I believe it's the right decision for now. Who are we going to hire, especially with Auburn (and possibly Michigan) shopping alongside us?
Someone competent? Anyone who isn't going to fired next year when nothing gets better?
This might sound sideways, but imagine Michigan makes a move. This sets off dominoes (I know I know). All of a sudden, Fuente has an interview... I'll say NC State... Now we are at the tail end of the coaching carousel cycle, looking for a coach, and that's a bad spot to be in.
But we're $10 million richer
I'll go to home games, if we are able. Because that's what I do. It's what I've done every year since 1986. I was basically born a Hokie. I'll be there.
But, I won't be happy with losses. I won't be happy with predictability on offense that leads to inefficiency. I won't be happy with a lack of excitement around the program, generated by an individual or group who thinks closing off the team is a good idea. I won't be happy with the same developmental issues that we have seen for years. I won't be happy with failings of the basic skills in football, like catching, tackling, and blocking by everyone on offense. I won't be happy with undisciplined players that continue to shoot the team in the foot with penalties.
If this thread's indications are true, then I guess I won't be happy.
You could at least be happy messing with all those cardboard cutouts that are probably still going to be there!
Generally speaking, there are two different opinions on this thread. Each has a 50 percent chance of being right. That percentage is better than Fuente's over the last two seasons.
*Insert obligatory "Math is hard" joke here*
Most of us are engineers, math is not hard for us.
I'm not saying I agree or disagree. Its disappointing to see so many adults acting like the sky is falling.
It is a little ridiculous. The biggest hyperbole ever.
I think Whit wants Fuente to have an honest chance at in-state loss bingo when we play JMU in 2025
Ok, ... BUT THEN CORN NEEDS TO GO ASAP
This disappoints me. I think it's a mistake but here's to hoping the people who are paid to do this for a living know better than I do what the right thing is. I'll be shocked if Fuente turns this thing around. Overjoyed, of course, but shocked all the same.
I dunno, guys. We all have to assume Whit took in the lay of the land and at least felt out his top candidates. If none of them were going to pan out, I don't fault him for staying the course instead of hiring someone he deemed the same/worse than Fuente coupled with the buyout and the turmoil that goes along with a coaching change.
The worst part of my job is hiring and firing people. There is so much lost time and effort in getting a new hire up to speed. It's months before I can truly judge if they are adequate and then I have to figure if that's good enough or if I restart the clock to try someone new. It's always better for employees to improve than get canned, but it's on me to determine if that improvement is likely or going to happen quickly enough to justify continuing to pay them.
That said, I was (am) ready for a change. Fuente has had 5 years. We know who he is and what we're going to get and it's not great, bob. I guess what I'm saying is even with all that, Whit has to weigh the pros and cons and I can understand not pulling the trigger if the available alternative is not demonstrably better.
I'll be curious to see how Whit/Fuente determine what success looks like for the 2021 season.
My suggestion is ten wins for the Hokies, as well as ten wins for Fuente's new team.
New coach pls
Hey everyone! It's okay! Fuente said this was just "an overreaction." Thank goodness.
"We're rolling" too apparently. Well, sh*t does roll downhill, so he's got that going for him.
"We're rolling" to the tune of 2 field goals in the second half of the last 3 regular season games.... Combined
Wow, only 2 field goals? So you're saying we have a kicking problem?
"We're rolling" into an early grave.
I won't be setting my alarm clock on a Saturday for a 12 o clock kick next year to once again see a fuente led team lose to an in state school in embarrassing fashion
And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. This administration has sucked every once of fun and excitement from college football out of me. You in state people probably don't understand this but here in PA, being a hokie is entering the territory of being embarrassing and I'm tired of it
I see no sign of hope, no reason to get excited for the future. All you Fuente truthere out there- What do you think our record would be without Khalil Herbert? We weren't a team this season and aside from recruiting that monster, in what way did Fuente do something this year that didn't hinder the progress and future of this team
You're my kind of guy!
Hokie Club staff banging out that e-mail on Saturday night the moment 00:00 hit, knowing what was in store for us...
via GIPHY
Although I wanted him to get another year, mainly for the defensive staff sake, I wouldn't have been too excited either way Whit went here. The program isn't where any of us want it to be. I understand the discontent of the fanbase but I just love VT football and I'm going to support full throttle no matter what. I'm also a WFT fan and have been claiming SB or bust every year. Finally going back to playoffs there this year. Maybe VT will make a swift turnaround as well. Suck it up buttercups and support the squad! GO HOKIES!
Just to change to something more positive, Wyatt Teller sighting on huge block for Chubb TD in MNF. Beast
As a ravens fan... I hope he balls out with a great grade and Chubb fumbles from now on. Love seeing teller square up though.
Still can't believe people are in support of this decision. I'm tired of seeing you people stick up for a coach/staff clearly in over its head. It's not going to get better. It's not "doom and gloom" to say that, it's reality.
You can make excuses all you want. Winners win. Losers make excuses. We won't win >6 games for a long, long time. The bell has tolled the death of VT football. Maybe it's for the best, I can't afford to donate to the team anyway, but I'll continue to wear my O&M with pride.
Disappointed in the decision. Not surprised.
Hard to judge the decision without ALL the info. Truth be told we don't actually KNOW what the decision is.
There's some folks here supporting this decision that have been mighty quiet lately.
If you think fuente is the guy, please tell me why.
Fuente may be the best guy for now or we may be worried the best guy would be in a bad spot starting in a covid lockdown. Why does everything have to have party lines?
That doesn't answer my question. Nothing I said means we have to have party lines. I just want to know what people see in the guy. That's all.
I haven't seen very many people singing Fuente's praises. I personally would need to know who else was on the multiple choice before selecting the right answer. I also think it is a horrible time to break in a new staff. We saw what just changing the defense, even with a guy that was on staff, looked like during covid.
In Whit I trust. Why don't you? If he could have found someone better, you don't think he would have? He has made VT better all around since he's been here.
Because catchy sayings about trusting whit don't move the needle for me anymore. He's lost my trust with this decision. There is zero chance a better candidate wasn't available. And if he had a guy that was too expensive, then that just proves their unwillingness to invest in our program.
How are you so sure?
About which part?
This part. I mean even if somebody incrementally better than Fuente was definitely available, we need a little more than that.
Gus Malzahn just got fired man. Tony Elliot was reported as interested by numerous people who have a distinct track record of being in the know. Charles Huff is getting looks for jobs. There are always options. You might not think they're better than fuente and that's fine.
Being truly available means willing as well. I am hearing Elliot was locked in, for which I would have been happy with. But I have heard a lot of conflicting things as well. So, somebody is lying or has bad sources. So when you say zero chance Whit could have hired somebody better than Fuente, I am not as certain. I think fans are drawing a lot of conclusions when they (we) don't know shit.
I don't think he's the right guy for the job, but I'll try to make the argument because (1) I'm bored; and (2) I think he can be a successful HC somewhere one day, just not here. Before I get into my argument, I'll note that though I feel he cannot succeed here, I believe those circumstances to be his fault, not institutional.
The hypothetical argument:
(A) The transition: At the end of 2016, we all thought we nailed this hire. The roster hadn't really changed though, he simply took Beamer's players and utilized them more effectively. His coaching acumen is there, he just needs to get the right horses.
(B) QB Play: We haven't had the QB play we've all hoped for, and for one reason or another, we haven't really had a consistent QB starter either. That said, each QB that has played under both Fuente and someone else has reached their peak under Fuente.
The 2017 offense was weak at the skill positions, and although it didn't light the scoreboards on fire, it did just enough to get us 9 wins, even with an inexperienced (and somewhat untalented) QB.
In 2018, for better or worse, Ryan Willis played better than he ever did at Kansas. Unfortunately, he made a lot of bad decisions.
2019 saw three QBs hit the field, with game plans/play calls suited to each of their strengths. Willis slung the ball all over the field (often to the opposing team), Hooker ran a lot of PA/misdirection stuff, and QP MASHED and threw fades. 2020 was similar in this regard.
(C) Preparation/Energy for big games: We now know that WVU 2017 and FSU 2018 were fool's gold, but at the time, they felt like HUGE games, and the team prepared for them accordingly. The 2016 team came out hot against Tennessee, and if not for a historically bad night of ball security, likely would have won. That same team gave Clemson all they could handle. The 2018 team hung with ND for longer than it should have, given the Defensive talent/inexperience and QB situation. The 2019 team gave ND all they could handle on the road with a QB who couldn't throw. The 2020 team brought their A-game versus Clemson before the the wheels came off. Again, if he can just close the talent gap, it seems like he can have the boys ready to give it their best in a big one.
(D) Willingness to think outside the box: Fuente has demonstrated that he'll seek improved staffing for the program's shortcomings (requesting increases to recruiting staff/recruiting budgets); that he's open to constructive feedback from outside consultants (Jerry Kill); and that he's willing to make bold moves in the QB room if he thinks a change needs to be made. (Remember when this site used to just be fight after fight over whether Logan Thomas should be the starter? ****sighs****, the good old days)
(E) The Culture: I know, I know. I know what you're thinking. With the yearly transfer portal exodus, the lack of public interaction with the fans, and the lack of clear "vision" for the program, how can one discuss The Culture? Well, for better or worse, it seems like Fuente has a lot of players with the same kind of attitude. Whether it be Dax, Tre Turner, Brock Hoffman, Hooker, Darrisaw, or any other number of prominent members of the team, there are a lot of guys on this team that seem to have the same kind of "we love the grind" type mentality. All that "big squat Friday" energy. Whether he can recruit enough of these "hard, smart, tough" kinda guys is up for debate, but hey, there's a "brand" there. In due time, he'll have a whole team with this attitude.
The problem
The problem is that the argument I set forth above has about a million holes in it, the biggest being the inability to recruit. I think there are some good pieces to Fuente's coaching, but due to his results on the field in 2018, parts of 2019, and now 2020, coupled with two consecutive poor recruiting classes, those good pieces just aren't going to cut it. If the talent gap seems bad now, how bad is it going to be in 2-3 years? And if his hot seat is this hot now, how can he realistically expect to turn this recruiting around. If I were a HS Senior and I loved Justin Fuente, I'd still be scared to come to VT. How do I know he'll be here when I'm a sophomore or a junior?
Thanks, I don't agree with a lot of this and I'll revisit it in the morning. But i genuinely appreciate the analysis other than the same old "covid" or "who can we get better" excuse.
I think from a recruiting standpoint, Fuente did try to make some changes to the staff to address those shortcomings last offseason. Unfortunately, they didn't get an opportunity to have a "normal" recruiting season, so its difficult to judge those changes.
So can anyone answer why in the world we are having a press conference tomorrow for a big nothing burger? Why leak that Fuente is being retained and still have a press conference in the morning about retaining a coach. Are Whit and Fu going to shed a few tears and bro hug over Zoom tomorrow? Several in the media are wondering wtf is going on. This entire thing is amateur hour.
So...cornelson is calling the shots for the AD publicity now?
I mean, national media were invited to the Zoom call. Not just local sports media. For some mushy story about retaining a coach? Literally no one in the national media cares.
Might just be optimism/speculation, but could there maybe be any chance that Fuente wants out and negotiated a lower buyout? Wouldn't necessarily be a firing which would line up with what everyone is saying, but would also make sense to wait for the day the buyout drops to announce it
I really do hope there's at least something there that warrants a tiny bit of attention from the national media. Part of helping the "brand of VT" is staying on the good side of the national media. That's why I always love it when the Gameday crew comments positively about VT, Lane, etc. But one of the quickest way to get national media to turn is to waste their time.
This would make sense, because everyone knows what play is coming.
Because our entire athletic department is amateur hour. There's no identity anywhere. The PR is awful. There's a global acceptance in the mediocre football program. It's embarrassing. Not to mention the fact that the Hokie club has no semblance of modern functionality. Even Vanderbilt fired their coach this year.
Definitely with you on HokieClub. Its almost as closed up as Fuente. Very little coordination or imagination, also like Eeyore.
from Imgflip Meme Generator
It's a total cluster. Going to be interesting when the truth here comes out.
It was for a different reason that seems to not be happening now. You can't cancel said media session so it'll likely be an awkward "happy with team, COVID issues, backing Fuente etc etc"
I'm sorry for all the hype I've done here. I truly trust my sources & people in AD departments at a few P5 schools. Something isn't adding up and I'm baffled.
I was waiting for you to chime in. 'Dumbfounded' by everything going on is the only word my friends and I have been able to find to describe how we're feeling about all of this.
Any chance at elaborating on that different reason?
Maybe we had Tony Elliott then got big dogged by Auburn?
This occurred to me as well.
This all feels like Whit whiffed. Too much legit smoke to not be any fire (pun intended). I think the presser was announced after he whiffed. I would love the full story of all that went down yesterday but don't think we'll get it at 1 PM.
I don't think think Auburn will go for him, and it doesn't make sense for him to go as an OC
FWIW I'd heard the same things as you through different channels. They're as surprised as you are.
You and every other person I trust to be legitimately connected has had a similar feeling. Something shifted recently, and in a major way. I hope we will get an explanation at some point, but I never hold my breath for these things.
"2020 was one of the most challenging years that we've ever had to face as an athletic department. I'm very proud of Justin, his staff and his team for how they battled each week, and acknowledge the sacrifices that they've had to make. Justin is aware of the high expectations that we have for this program; and while the team may have fallen short on the field, they have excelled off the field and represented this university well under challenging circumstances. Justin and I will continue to have regular discussions about how we can develop this program into one that can, and will, compete for conference titles. I have tremendous confidence in his vision for Virginia Tech football. With that, I won't be taking any questions".
This is all spot on up to the end. Zero chance the last line is true. He HAS to answer questions.
Maybe all the red ink on the balance sheet kept Whit from wanting to add more by losing two coaches. Maybe his top options wouldn't budge, I can imagine keeping Fuente was Whit's first choice either.
Beamer went 2-8-1 in his sixth year at Tech and then the bowl party started. I think at VT we look a little more big picture and the character of the man matters to us. We should give Coach Fuente the time we agreed to in the contract to earn his opportunity to remain our coach. Clearly he could use some improvement in his relations with the fanbase and also needs to improve recruiting. Some of that will improve just by showing the program has stability as momentum takes time to build as our last hire showed us. Let's let the contract play out and take it from there.
Please make it stop.
Coach Fuente got his butt kicked by LIBERTY in Lane Stadium. There's still that.....
JMU 2010. In Lane. Teams have bad days.
Temple 1998. In Lane. Teams have bad days.
Beamer repented for it by taking us the the National Championship in '99 and the Orange Bowl 2010/ Sugar Bowl in 2011.
What has Fuente done to repent for ODU and Liberty?
Edit - not enough coffee.
Huh? I'm referring to the year of and the year after each loss.
Also forgot to mention that in 98 we took down the Alabama Crimson tide in our bowl.
Temple and JMU were separated by 12 years. Between those events we participated in 1 National Championship Game, 1 other Sugar Bowl, 3 Orange Bowls, and won 4 conference championships, with one appearance in a losing effort. Within 24 months of each loss we won a conference title.
Old Dominion and Liberty were separated by 24 months. Between those losses we participated in 0 conference championship games and had our first losing record since 6 years before the Temple loss.
Stop touting those kinds of losses as if they are comparable. Under Beamer they were once a decade events. Under Fuente they are becoming regular occurrences. And Fuente doesn't have nearly the level of success to make one overlook the losses that Beamer had. Trying to compare them is disengenuous.
Nobody gives a shit what happened 100 years ago before the internet was a thing and teams weren't paid tens of millions of dollars for tv
Few people want Fuente gone more than I do. That said, the replacement needs to be a home run hire, there's zero room to stroke Fuente a $10mm check and then have the next hire fail too. If we have to wait a year for a better pool of replacements... it sucks, but I'll eventually come to terms with it. But you better believe I need a blood sacrifice... Corney and Shibest heads better roll tomorrow. Status quo can not happen.
1) I think that many are vastly under rating the difficulties of coaching a football team during COVID that started with losing our first round NFL draft choice defensive back.
2) We also had a rookie DC after one of the best defensive coordinators to ever do the job retired...who had been doing it for 20+ years...do you think that has anything to do with recruiting?
3) JF needs to work on his relationship with his players and the fans...and he will...or he will be gone.
Other teams went through the same shit and won games.
The head coach needs to solve problems not make excuses.
COVID difficulties don't explain the horrible in-game management, placing loyalty to Cornelson above what is good for the team, slow starts, horrendous play calling.
Players aren't developing and aren't prepared to win games. CJF hasn't solved anything. I'm sure he is a great guy, but he is a trash coach at this level. The football program is a tire fire, and the AD is apparently ok with mediocrity as long as we beat UVA.
The only way this decision makes any sense is if Whit insists on a ND style shake up of the surrounding staff. If Fuente stays, fire all the cronies and get some big boy staff around him. Assistant coaches with experience who can recruit.
Yep, if Fuente stays, and there is not a big time shake-up announced, I will sit at my computer silently shaking my fist in disapproval.
I give the defense the benefit of the doubt with covid...but the offensive coaches have no excuses
That's what bluebloods do.... sigh.
Hear me out here guys....Whit is playing chess while we're all playing with pogs. Whit has homerun hire lined up...but he is nervous...so he tells Fuente, "we good", let's a leak out that we're retaining him, just to see fan/donor reaction....but really, no decision has been made yet.
Tomorrow morning, Whit will read all of TKP, fire Fuente, and announce that Urban Meyer will be the next HC at VT
EDIT: My dumb brain couldn't figure out 757hokie83's sarcasm. The below is left for my shame.
If Whit has to leak something this afternoon to get a sense of where the fan base is then he has no fucking clue and is out of his depth. Whit has known for a while now where the fans and donors stand.
Whit isn't short sighted. The most plausible option is that he couldn't get a HC he was comfortable with at the price point the department could afford. Hopefully, sticking with Fuente leads to Whit forcing him to shake up the offensive staff.
I didn't think the s/ would be necessary on my post
Ha. I worked late tonight and came into these posts all at once. There were enough posts that weren't too dissimilar in messaging that seemed serious and combined with my brain being fried, well 🤷♂️
No shame...after the year we've had, its a lot to take in that "yeah, this is the direction we want to go"
I shall upvote your shame.
I love when some people bring up "the players love him" as a defense of Fuente.
Of course they love him, half of them wouldn't have sniffed a second of playing time at the Power 5 level if it weren't for him.
I think we could all agree that players loving their coach is a good thing. I hope none of our guys read posts like yours as it is so disrespectful to the guys working so hard and shows a certain callousness that hopefully doesn't become a hallmark trait of our fanbase.
It's why I encourage everyone to stay off social media as much as possible! So much of social media is a bunch of self-loathing single 30-somethings that just happen to have the right answer to everything but can't hold a job! And worse, the rest of us begin to waste time reading their crappy overreactions all day! I'm just on TKP now, but even that is beginning to get taken over by the same people!
Sad to see a bunch of "adults" losing their freakin minds tonight over this.
Hey I might be A self loathing 30-something but I am NOT single. I am a verified sex-haver who works freelance. So no. I DON'T keep jobs. So you're working with a 75% win percentage on your assumptions and that's better than Fuente's W/L record. And therefore I nominate you as the next head coach. Gonna go partake in some trauma-based self-destructive tendencies but DAMN if my ability to find a domestic partner while on social media doesn't redeem my other 3 so-outlined shortcomings.
Not only has JB been a TKP member since you were in middle school, but he's held a steady job since long before you could legally drink. Don't act like you're all high and mighty just because you don't like his criticisms of the program. You don't know anything about being an adult that's invested more than a decade into their fandom.
Guys, this is all going to be real funny when Fuente leaves in six weeks to interview at TCU.
Isn't that the best case scenario?
I'm extremely frustrated that Whit is keeping Fuente around, but I am almost equally frustrated by how ham-handed Whit and Co. continue to be with PR for Virginia Tech sports.
Calling a press conference the day your coach's buyout drops to do anything other than fire him is inexcusably stupid.
You're a few days away from signing day, and the Vegas odds that Fuente would be let go had to have been pretty high. It makes it look like you have no idea what you're doing, and that's going to impact recruiting, fundraising, future hires, etc.
Please hire someone who understands how PR works, and fire Pete Moris.
The part that is going to really suck for a while is gonna be watching the teams that hired Elliot and Fickell turn around and start excelling in the next 5 years. Meanwhile we'll be exactly where we are today
To be fair, I lamented the Fuente hire in 2016 ONLY because I thought Tom Herman was a better candidate. And I said back then, essentially, what you just said about Elliott and Fickell. Herman hasn't had the success at Texas that I (or most people, probably) expected. Coaching hires are always going to be a gamble. Hiring Fuente was just as much a gamble as hiring Elliott or Fickell would be. The real measure of a program is what they do when that gamble doesn't work out. In my estimation, the Fuente gamble hasn't worked out. We're just bleeding chips right now. I think it's time to take a gamble on another coach while VT is still somewhat desirable. I'm concerned that by keeping Fuente for another year we're going to become a less and less desirable place to be for the next coach. VT was widely considered one of the top jobs available at the end of 2015 when Fuente was hired. 5 years later and VT is only considered a good job by some folks. Another couple years of mediocrity and bad recruiting is going to leave the VT job closer in comparison to Duke than Texas.
Looking forward to every thread devolving into the following conversation:
This is what a Coach that is integrated into Virginia Tech culture in a short period of time looks like, you judge the difference
Fuente .....
Nothing, going back a month
Sure its just twitter but its not surface deep when Coach Young takes the time to connect to the school for basketball and the general public.
I think this just goes to show how much personality goes into how a fan base perceives a coach. I mean, really CMY has only been here a year and that was a 0.500 season, but has immediately been accepted and loved by Hokie Nation because he has the right attitude and a great personality, and that really more than anything shows what CJF is really missing. I mean, its easy to put up with a personality like CJF if you are winning, but hard to hive him any rope once he starts losing due to his personality and how he shuts out the fan base from the program.
Fuente only wants to coach at practice and on Saturdays in the Fall. Head coach is a 24/7 job and he will never be successful because of that.
It's difficult to watch something like this and not think Fuente is the right person at Virginia Tech.
I'm definitely at a crossroads - In 2016, I thought Fuente was the perfect coach for VT - a young, offensive-minded upstart with earnest sensibilities that would be welcomed in a place like Blacksburg.
Right now, I don't know how to feel. I want to continue to believe in Fuente because I still think he's the right human being to hold the position. I gave him a pass in 2018 because of how weird that season was. I felt like the wheels were put back on the tracks in 2019 after the Duke game.
2020 was supposed to be the year we took that next step. I can accept losing to Clemson. I can't accept losing to Wake Forest and Liberty. I can't accept getting our shit pushed in by a mediocre Pitt team. We had serious, serious depth issues (how much better is this team with Farley, Hunter, and a healthy Payoute?). Recruiting is an absolute mess unless Fuente managed to find 25 Christian Darrisaws in the 2020 and 21 classes.
If Fuente is staying, he needs to get us out of this hole. Beat the teams you're supposed to beat, go punch for punch against the teams above our weight class and bring in some wardogs to replenish the cupboard.
It actually isn't difficult because succeeding at this job is a lot more than just winning at a press conference. A lot of what he said in there was a bit hypocritical too. He talked about being honest (which he isn't, he has a major tendency to blame others), he talked about trusting others (which he doesn't do), he talked about being selfless (which he isn't). This whole press conference reeks of boomerism, blaming the world for his inability to coach.
But at the end of the day the recruiting results, fan engagement, and donor engagement are reasons to not think Fuente is the right person at Virginia Tech.
You're portrayal is solely based on your perception that Fuente is a horrible person which is no where rooted in reality.
Go read your prior comments. Talking about noise - any dissent from Fuente is a horrible coach and person - is shot down and "reminded" how terrible he is
Personally, I think a refresh is needed as well, but he's not destroying the program - the past few seasons have been rough but any "rebuild" will be much quicker than other schools it's not like Nebraska or GT where you're having to start from scratch.
A longer term view - Fuente is on a really short leash and A new staff has pieces to work with to setup whatever modern offense (hopefully not triple option)
One thing I am glad we get to give Hamilton and the defense a real chance to see what they can do - there's been flashes, even if those flashes have been sandwiched between really poor play
Also. A lot of people were convincing themselves (myself included) that Tony Elliott was a home run hire, but he DID have a lot of question marks
1. Who would the assistance be?
He's been at one place he'd have to gut Clemson or bring in outsiders he hasn't necessarily worked with, which is risky especially for a first time head coach
2. Can he build a winning culture?
He's only been an assistant and part of the Clemson culture - he might know what it looks like but can he be the one at the reins to build it?
3. Recruiting support
Like a over, he's part of a well oiled machine but could he get the support needed at VT to transform the program - could he hire the right assistance, who would be doing much of the recruiting work
4. Branding and fan perception
Would he be able to energize the fan base or get past players to buy in and use them to his advantage?
I don't know the answers, He seems like he will one day get a chance, but he was risky along with a lot of the other names thrown around...
Fuente falters next year - he's out, it doesn't seem like any of the options won't still be there
And hey, maybe they renegotiated his contract like Michigan?
And further more...jk
But look at Chad Morris on paper he's a no brainer
Head coach in high school developing a top program
Took over and completely revamped a Power 5 offense into a top national team when the ACC was really struggling to beat SEC teams
Translated that to head coaching success at the collegiate level
Scott Frost (who I still think if given time can make Nebraska a top 25 team but we'll see)
Harbaugh, Tom Herman, Jim Mcellwain, Gus Malzahn, the list goes on - Whits next hire needs to work out.
I think most people would agree that Fuente is a good guy, but that doesn't translate to recruiting better, making better in game adjustments, rallying the fans, winning games. You can be a good person but be the wrong fit for the job.
If we had a shot at Elliott, and didn't pull the trigger for some reason...then I honestly don't know what to say anymore. It will end up being a highly regrettable decision, I feel. I could be horribly wrong there, but that's just my personal opinion in the moment.
All I know is you don't hold press conferences that national media outlets are invited to just to announce that you're retaining your current HC on the day his buyout goes down. An audible was called for some reason, it's too late to cancel/reschedule all this without looking like idiots or appearing like something awkward went down, and we're just gonna see Whit and possibly Fu sitting around on Zoom acting like everything is copacetic.
Yep. Its embarassing, honestly. I wonder if we had TE all but confirmed and then Auburn opened up threw a wrench in the plan?
Man I had to google that one
I thought the excitement from bitch slapping UVA was going to last longer than a day and a half...
I know, right?
Wonder how Whit is sleeping tonight knowing that in about 12 hours he will have disappointed and pissed off about 80% of the fans that are still engaged with the program? Hey everyone...just wanted to call this meeting to remind you that we had another losing season over here, but dont worry, everything is fine! 2021 is THE year!!!
This may get me in trouble. But hear me out.
For a fan base that loves to talk about the Good Old Days, there's a lot of selective amnesia going on.
The "Fuente Must Go At All Costs Because These Last Three Years" contingent should pull up Frank's first 6 years for perusal (24-40-2). Also, Frank's last four seasons (ACC rank): t-6th, t-4th, t-9th, t-7. Fu had us at the doorstep of a conference title his first year - our first ACCCG appearance since 2010.
For all the misgivings Hokie fans have had about on-and-off-field discipline issues, guys running afoul of the law etc? And how that's a reflection on Fuente as a leader? I would say "take a trip down Hokie Football '95-'08ish Player Misconduct Memory Lane". Spoiler alert: it ain't pretty. (Neither is any other program, for the most part, because 18-21 year olds are knuckleheads. In general.)
I'm not stumping for Fuente here (although I've been pretty vocal about the huge buyout being more crippling long-term than keeping him another year) - in fact, I was excited at the prospect of getting in some new blood. He has stumbled badly. But the standard he is held to is kind of unfair, at times historically inaccurate, and fueled by emotion and - if we are being brutally honest with ourselves as fans - an overinflated notion of our program as some sort of borderline blue blood. We went to ONE natty. Twenty years ago. And it has haunted our expectations and collective sense of entitlement ever since.
I cannot stress enough - the current state of things is absolutely gutting to me. And there's plenty to dislike about the job Fuente and his staff have done on the field and about his missteps off the field. I'd have gone along with a coaching change and seen what a new guy could do. But man, CJF is still - 5 years later - coaching in the shadow of Franklin Mitchell Beamer. And because we all hold Frank in god-like esteem, Fuente will always be lesser than. It's hard to coach with the sword of Damocles hovering over you, in the uneasy hands of Fans Who Will Always Love The Last Guy More. I've been guilty of it. A lot of us have.
might be a bit of a homer hot take here, but I think going to one natty DOES make us a borderline blue blood. Look at the list of schools that have been there in the modern era. Comparatively, it ain't big.
I dunno though. FanSince99 here. Maybe I'm hopeless in thinking it can happen again, because I've seen it happen once. If VTFB is the house Frank built, I don't think it was unreasonable to expect Fu to come in and make some additions and upgrades. I should add that when he was hired I don't think many of us expected him to bomb like he has.
Leg. Fair enough, even though we definitely disagree on the blue blood point. Without getting into a protracted explanation, I'd say we are a national brand, but not in the echelon of what we all consider true blues.
And when we talk about bombing, maybe we are standing a little too close to have an objective POV. When I think flops from the big hires of the last several years, I think Scott Frost. I think
Kirby SmartJeremy Pruitt, I think Charlie Strong. Chad Morris. Dino Babers. Muschamp. More recently, Kevin Sumlin.I'd throw Fu in a bin with guys who have had overall winning records, made bowl games, and have generally - GENERALLY - pulled their weight in their conference - but have rabid fan bases for whom meeting the above criteria is not enough. Off the top of my head, recently: Harbaugh, Clay Helton, Tom Herman, mmmaybe James Franklin after this season. Not to put the programs themselves in the same category - just coaches who have, given expectations, have done "okay".
BIG edit above. I didn't mean Kirby Smart. My bad
How is Kirby Smart a flop? He has 4 straight division titles, 1 SEC title, 1 playoff and NC appearance which he lost on a walkoff, 3 straight 11+ win seasons and top 10 AP finishes not including this year, 4 straight top 3 recruiting finishes including 2 #1 classes, and his only losses to Florida were in his first year and Covid year. He's levelled that program up from Richt and is competing for playoff spots every year. UGA has only 1 NC. He's the best coach that program has had since Dooley.
His record is eerily similar to Richt's was 5 years into his tenure. Kirby currently is 51-13 overall, 32-9 in conference. Five years into his tenure, Richt was 52-13 overall, 30-10 in conference.
I wouldn't call Kirby a flop, but I do think he's one of the most overrated coaches in FBS (I'd definitely put him out of my top 5, maybe outside of my top 10). IMO UGA is one of the three easiest place to win in America (which IMO are OSU, UGA, and USC, the latter of which has fallen off as talent in California has decreased over the last decade, but I digress). The fact that Kirby has appeared to hit a ceiling is concerning for UGA fans.
I'm not disagreeing that there are concerns about him. The offense needs to change, we'll see what happens next year, but yeah they might've hit a ceiling. I think that ceiling can still make the playoff. But "flop" and putting him in the same frame as Sumlin and Babers is ridiculous.
Yep see above. I misspoke. Meant Pruitt @ Tennessee.
Haha, we can disagree on what a flop is, but Pruitt is definitely in flop realm and the same convo as those other guys. Leg 🍗
As someone who has been fully supportive of giving Fuente 6 years let me offer a small rebuttal.
I agree that coaches need to be given time. I think VT will never be a 3 year turnaround type program and I have myself made the point that had we applied the success now mantra of today we would have gotten rid of Beamer and may never had reached where we are today. All that being said two points spring to mind:
1) Beamer's first years were hamstrung by Dooley's infractions. I was not at Tech at the time but my understanding is that while fans wanted Beamer gone the Admin gave Beamer time because he wasn't playing with a full hand at first. So the extra time was given to show what he could do when he wasn't held back. He obviously succeeded. Contrasted to Fuente who's biggest obstacle was a recruiting cupboard left bare. He needed time to get over that time and build up his own recruiting. The buzz in early days was good enough to get a lot of high value transfers to fill holes. However in the long term he has not only burned bridges locally he has failed to deliver on well planned recruiting drives. Remember TX2VT? We had top recruits lined up and then the relationship with that QB went sour and the whole thing went tits up. Not to mention our continued downhill slide with local recruits. Now VT's recruiting is perhaps in its worst position since those early days with Beamer and there is zero indication that Fuente understands what he is doing wrong or can correct that course. Additional time will only exacerbate this issue.
2) For as much as we all hated Stinespring and O'cainspring at OC during the good ole boys days, we were winning ten games and going to bowl games. It was a long term slide that many could see coming but definitely had arguments as to why it was that way. Fuente succeeded with the remnants of what Beamer left him and the transfers that came with the buzz. Conversely Fuente is failing with his own recruits consistently worse every season and still believes he has the right staff. Again demonstrating zero confidence that he understands the problems he has or the methods in which to fix them in the face of failure.
I have maintained that VT is a 6 year build. We are not a program that can bring in a name and expect immediate turnaround success. However to warrant that amount of time there needs to be an upward trend, not a downward one. Right now we are spiraling downward. With Fuente remaining at the helm there is no obvious path to fix recruiting in the next 3 years let alone 5 which means VT will continue to struggle unless... Fuente somehow manages to win beyond expectations with what he's got. Unfortunately like the points above there is zero indication he is able to do that nor cognizant that he must make changes to do so.
And when any of what you describe has been pointed out, it's met with bristling and a pop shot at the person asking. "That's the most ludicrous crap I've ever heard, next question."
This is it right here. He was successful with our last crop of NFL and high level college football players and a one year mercenary JUCO QB. His second season was less successful with only the former to work with. The next three years of primarily Fuente guys has not yielded those results. The recruiting has dropped off a cliff the last two years as well. It seems loyalty is preventing necessary staff changes. It's hard to see how we are heading in the right direction.
Leg. Great stuff here. Well said.
When we talk about Fuente's time at VT, it can't be overstated how bare the cupboard was when he arrived. The established guys on the roster were a good bunch, but we really spun our wheels in recruiting OL, DL, RB, LB, specialists.
One of the great dirty secrets of VT Football is what a "disinterested" - let's be nice about it - recruiter Bud was. Love the guy, and I'll always love him for bringing us to the levels of success we DID attain. But as an elite DC, his input could have maybe won some of those player battles we famously lost. Like I said, I'm being nice when I say he was disinterested. J-Ham has scraps to work with on defense. It showed this year, and will echo for a couple seasons at least. We just don't have the horses. (I thought the defense showed some real maturing over the last few weeks, so hopefully that's an encouraging sign to take into 2021.)
Fuente's staff has been otherwise hit and miss. We seem to pull good talent at WR/TE overall. VV has got some really good things going on the OL. We've recruited pretty well at QB re ratings, but the development has not been there. TnT needs time to establish itself, but it can't get much worse than what Bud and Wiles left us (or didn't leave us, rather). I'm not sure what Shibest does, but it's not recruiting (or coaching special teams, for that matter). Fuente can't be held responsible for the Galen Scott disaster, which was a definite setback in recruiting...
Brass tacks: I agree that this was never going to be a quick transition, and the first two years may have been fool's gold. But the bloom is definitely off the rose (I know for a lot of us that's putting it lightly). If he wasn't at the tipping point this season, we can damn sure bet he's there now, and will be moving forward.
I just want to win 8-10 games a season, and every 3-4 years win the coastal. I want us to not crap the bed the week after breaking into the top 25. I have no delusions that we will ever make it to the playoffs given the format right now. I want to have hope that we will have a fun season and make a NY6 bowl once or twice a decade. I don't get that with Fuente. Up until 2018, I planned my Saturday around Tech football. In 2019 I watched the game as long as I didn't have something pressing going on. This season I don't think I watched a whole game from start to finish. I wonder if I'll even turn the TV on next year.
welp. If he's staying, some offensive staff changes are a must. They should've happened a year ago, in any event.
As far as Fuente the coach/person, he had almost gotten me back in the boat with that 6-1 stretch last year where we only lost to ND in South Bend. Then came the Hiccup in Hooville, the bowl game, and the "nobody passed away" quote. I didn't know the context of that quote till recently (throwing it back at a smartmouth reporter, can't remember which one), but I checked out emotionally after reading it. Imagine Saban saying something like that after a loss. Imagine any of the successful coaches we'd all like Fuente to emulate saying that. You can't, because they wouldn't. That mindset told me he didn't have what it took, and I have seen and heard nothing this season to disprove that except for the LOLUVA game, and even there we turtled in the 2nd half as per usual. Too little, too late.
I'm not a Fuente fan by any of the stretch, but getting rid of him just for the sake of getting rid of him doesn't help any in the long term if his replacement isn't any better than he.
The pool of available coaches is poor right now. We live in times that are so fucking weird that we all, 5 years ago, would be in disbelief if someone told us this is what the future holds.
Whitt has some of the blame for putting the department behind the rest of our peers, but the university in general has a hard time bringing in money. Just because we can afford a buyout does not mean we can afford CF replacement.
In coaching terms, Fuente is still a young dude. He certainly isn't dumb. I'm sure he has learned some things and will at least have the opportunity to grow from it.
Over the year I've seen friends lose businesses, I have friends who have lost loved ones from C19, and others who are stuck in brutal lockdowns and are dealing with the issues of long-term isolation. We have witnessed issues of police brutality, riots that have destroyed businesses and property, and a rise in warring political extremists.
Worrying about who is or isn't going to be Tech's new coach isn't even something on my radar. Let's take a breath and relax.
BOO..BOOOOOOOOOOO
We're Rutgers again!
It's the recruiting trend that concerns me the most. If we were holding steady at top 25-30 recruiting classes, I'd be ok with keeping Fu at least until his contract is complete (or buyout down to 5M), Even if Fu did change OC, it seems it'll be pretty difficult to improve recruiting if people see his time coming to an end in a year or two.
While I understand the frustrations about lack of program access and not having the media presence/personality of Beamer (or MY), I don't agree with the personal attacks on Fu's character.
Based on the fact that Whit has been silent on this until now, I think this decision wasn't made until after Whit's end of season meeting with Fuente. I wonder what he said or promised to keep his job another year. We will probably never know but I am sure there are some metrics Whit laid out for 2021 and what needs to happen for him to continue beyond next season.
I was thinking about this being an option yesterday, but I can't for the life of me think of what Fuente's plan could have been to make Whit confident in next year. If this is the case I would love to see what Fuente and Whit talked about.
I just can't for the life of me figure out what he could have said in one conversation to change Whit's mind. It makes no sense. Either Whit has gone bonkers, or something else is at play here. You don't work the back channels, schedule a press conference for today, and stay completely silent on the situation for over a month now just to reverse course at the 11th hour.
My guess: Whit had the next coach lined up, but said coach pulled out at the last minute due to an offer or offers from other programs that opened up later (i.e. TE and Auburn). Whit was put in a bind. He cannot just unschedule the press conference and he doesn't have time before the scheduled press conference to try to line something up with his second or third choice so he has to go out there and put on a brave face.
Everything I've seen says this was not the case. TE was extremely interested and likely won't be a candidate at Auburn anyway.
TE at head whistle and retaining Fu as OC. Everybody's happy?
I'm in the camp that either Whit's candidate(s) backed out or for some reason the Fuente retun leak is a distraction, but that really doesn't make sense to me either.
Based on the fact that Whit did not confirm he was returning until now is the only reason I don't think the decision was not made until yesterday. If he had made the decision to retain him earlier than that, there would be no reason not to announce it earlier to make sure recruits stay in the fold.
Your theory about potential candidates backing out also works in this scenario. All I am saying is I think it was still up in the air until yesterday.
I am bummed, but not surprised. We need a new play caller, and barring some recruiting miracle, the defensive front is not going to improve if Ham can't scheme better the to strength of his players. I'm hopeful for next year but very apprehensive.
Really hoping this will light enough of a fire under Fuentes ass to go out and get a better play caller.
Also, if this is true, for the love of god Fuente, acknowledge that you need to do better and change is needed. Act like you have some responsibility for the current state of the program.
Just doing this would go a long way in my book.
Don't just go up there with the same stoic and vague remarks that make you look resentful to the fanbase.
I wish we were not at this point, but realistically what are our options? Middle of Covid is not a good time to look for a new coach and STAFF. We don't have crazy money to throw around. We lost a few really close games, that would have made this season a much different story. Yes the Pitt loss was unacceptable. Sorry to say it but we just got to swallow this pill. In 2021 things should be back to normal by fall.
"Was winning the cup back worth keeping fuente one more year?"
Expectations officially lowered by Whit. Fu makes excuse after excuse for 5 years, 1-2 players injured or our of the lineup blows up the whole thing, the 2 worst home losses in 40 years, and losing to 2 G5 in state online schools that started FBS football 5 minutes ago. OK, we are keeping that guy. We are keeping him off of a 75th ranked recruiting class with the 11th ranked acc class coming in behind it with zero 4 star players. And oh, high school coaches in our own state hate this staff. Great. Let's keep him. What this does is officially lower expectations. We are the 3rd best team in the coastal- at best depending on if we catch a lucky break and actually beat Pitt one year. that is best case scenario. So adjust accordingly. As long as Fu is here, and 1 DB is missing or someone turns pro or a QB is not named starter and leaves are the excuses given if Duke kicks our ass again, or if Liberty has tall receivers or if BC has a "big" TB, welp you were warned loudly by Whit. Wake Forest/UVA/VT football... same/same. Enjoy.
This is tough to swallow, but it very much the truth..
A weird thing here is we are almost certainly going to be worse next year. We lose at least Deablo on D and then Darrisaw, Mitchell, and Herbert on offense at a minimum. That is with none of our usual transfers. I can't see a reality where we are not back here next year. I'd hope Whit knows that and he just couldn't get his guy. But with how he has handled things with the press conference announcement I have much less faith in him.
LOL. We are going to be much worse next year without Darrisaw, Herbert, Hooker, Deablo, Bradburn, etc. Gos help us if ANY warm bodied WR hits the portal too. This was a free eligibility year and other than Strong, what TF or RS Fresh contributed? The future is bleak as its been in 30 years.
I guess the school accepted that the bar for football is completely fine set at trying to beat UVA, trying to have a winning record, and trying to compete in the Coastal every three years. This is such a joke. They are going to give him another 2-3 to crap all over it and then nothing will be left.
Fu has already shown he is unwilling to acknowledge glaringly obvious areas that need change, let alone actually change anything. He is stubborn to his own fault. The in-game coaching and lack of scheming has been bewildering off and on for several years. Recruiting has a solid track record of sucking now. What more is there to prove???
I hope Whit just could not find the money/support and calculated this is the safest option for VT football. Which means, VT football is not that important and the institution that it built in the early 2000s is moving on and completely satisfied with the program being a mid-tier ACC football team. Unless we find tons of $$$, this will be the case into perpetuity.
Completely apathetic now and forever....what a sad day. Yours truly.
Probably rehashing some things that were said above, but I feel like the only way I don't feel totally bummed after this press conference (assuming Fuente is indeed retained) is that there are some actual acknowledgements and steps taken by leadership after the conference:
1. Coach Fuente taking responsibility to a greater extent and addressing concerns - I think this on its own would go a long way and is definitely something that's overdue at this point. If he doubles down on how things have been, that's quite discouraging. I'd like to see him admit to the recruiting failures and the state of the team rather than make excuses. As the face of the program, he needs to take responsibility as any good boss would.
2. Some staff changes announced - I think it's safe to say that the majority of us are on the same page as far as it goes with the offense. Cornelsen seems over his head and we need someone better than him at the reins of the offense, especially as Hamilton navigates being a DC and settles into the position. We can't expect our defense to carry the team and our offense has gone stale. Like some have said, without Herbert this season may have been even more grim. If the coaching staff stays exactly the same after this, I'd be real bummed.
Ultimately though, today is just going to be a lot of talk most likely. Whatever Fuente and Whit say or promise, the fanbase should hold them to. Words ultimately mean nothing if they're not backed up by some sort of action. Let's hope that today is the start of some actions taken to help Hokie football grow and not just empty words.
1 ) would be a paradigm shift for FU and I highly doubt he will go to that extent. He said just last night on TTL "We are rolling." LOL!!!
2) Corn gone. What decent coordinator and slew of coaches would want to come work under someone who likely has a 1 year leash, especially given the circumstances of the program. Sure, we can get anyone better than Corn, which is not hard, but will that move the needle enough?
The problems here are too systemic and far gone, as we have hashed over and over again on this site. Band-Aids will not fix problems that originate from a boss who is unwilling to change, acknowledge reality, and not make excuses indefinitely of why the team is not winning. That is what we are here to do, WIN games. Not have a sub-par football team with "good kids" that get to "enjoy success" every three games. F this.
I'm definitely in the camp that we should move on from Fuente, I'm just coming at this from the point of view of these things being the things that could in some way redeem the path we're currently on. I don't necessarily expect the changes I'm hoping for to actually come, just saying that talk is cheap and it'd be nice to actually have something positive come out of the conference today regardless of which way it ends up going.
I'm starting to see that VT actually has a weak ass fanbase. I see multiple posts about people jumping ship because of this. Man, there are way worse schools out there with dedicated fans. It's part of the game. Changes in the football landscape are slow moving, like a glacier at time. Idk, didn't think I'd see this many fairweather fans in the mix.
That's it, blame the fans if it makes you feel like a true Hokie.
There is nothing I hate more than when people clamor on about being a true hokie or blah blah blah. But I'm just calling it like I see it. People can't handle having a bad team and are off to find greener pastures. If you think that has an implication on "true hokie" status, then that is just you projecting. If you went to VT, you are a true hokie, football fandom is irrelevant.
Glacier? SC East Shane. Fair? Fu has made your username an embarrassment. What the hell is there to be a fan of these days?
Well, you prove his point.
idk if "weak" is the word, or if "spoiled" works better. having Beamer + Foster together for so 👏 long 👏 really conditioned this fan base to believe that sustained success with minimal evolution is effortless and easy.
I think the average fan knows that we need to have evolution to succeed. The reason so many are frustrated is that the only evolution we're seeing is a regression. We aren't competing where we used to compete. We are losing to teams that 10 years ago would have been just flat unacceptable where nowadays its met with a shoulder shrug. Our recruiting, while it was never great under Beamer, was serviceable. Our recruiting right now is an abject disaster, with our recruiting peers over the last 2 years being some of the historical worst programs in the major conferences. Our defense has taken a major step backwards, but given Bud leaving and a coach stretching his legs there for the first time in his career, there's a little bit of leeway. But offensively, we're a predictable mess, with no ability to run a passing game with any of our 4 deep at QB, 3 of which who have been with the program for at least 2 years.
Evolution takes time, but we shouldn't have to accept the product falling into complete disrepair before it kicks in. Right now we are not seeing any positive growth of the program, from a scheming or recruiting perspective. And most signs point to it actively getting worse year over year. That is where the frustration lies.
I mean hell, for the last 2 years we were sold that 2020 was going to be THE year, and then we finish with a 5-6 record with losses to Liberty and Wake Forest. We were sold that recruiting was finally going to turn around this year, and we're looking at another just flat bad class. And look, I understand that COVID plays a part here, but its playing a part for everyone across the board, so there's no excuse to not be holding our own when compared to others. But we just aren't. The goalposts keep moving.
I've worked with people like this before. Always had an excuse for why something couldn't get done or why it isn't their fault for something not being done correctly. In the end, time after time, the root cause was that the person was just completely in over his or her head, and things did not improve for the team until that person was removed. Right now, VT football appears to be in that situation.
The average fan doesn't go on TKP, tweet about VT sports, etc etc etc. The feedback loop of the internet ("Hokie twitter") is such that the extreme views are more readily available.
Would you agree that the 'average fan' isn't donating either?
800% agree
You know what's a "weak ass fanbase"? Accepting losses to Liberty.. That's what's weak.
Who is accepting losses to Liberty?
Whit Babcock
Tf am I supposed to do about it? I don't accept it. There, now what? I want Fuente gone. Now what? Does my voting ballot come in the mail or something? I don't know about you, but I don't see anyone here accepting losses to Liberty. In fact, I seem to remember a fairly strong response to that game.
Virginia Tech would be the second most attractive job on the market right now. The odds of that being the same in 2021 are slim to none
Wish I could upvote this twice. That's one of the things that bugs me the most. Now is the time to make the move, especially if your reasoning is "well, let's give him one more year to shake things out". Because as the landscape is right now, only Auburn is a better job and they likely wouldn't be looking at the same candidates we are. But next year? Texas and Michigan could be open. Tennessee could be open. USC could be open if Clay Helton underdelivers. And then all those dominoes that get knocked over as all those blue blood programs start plucking coaches from other programs. The market is in our favor right now. You have to be realistic in that Fuente probably isn't gonna make much difference between now and a year from now. He could, but odds are we're not looking at a dramatic turnaround. But the odds the market is in our favor again next year? Its a safe bet it'll be more crowded.
Really wish I had that n button for this thread!
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I'm just eagerly waiting for the news from the press conference heard round the world here this afternoon. I just need closure. I'm not sure anyone knows what Whit has to say besides Whit so I'm interested to hear what he says. If all the insiders are right and we're keeping Fuente then it is what it is. If they're wrong and Whit was playing everyone (I doubt this, BTW) that will leave a sour taste in my mouth but again, it will be what it is. I could see myself getting excited about football next year if Fuente is not the coach. Unfortunately, if he's retained (which it sounds like is the case) I probably won't tune in very much next year. I've seen enough of Justin Fuente's brand of football and it's not fun for me. I'd rather spend my fall worrying about stuff around the house and spending time with my family than watch my beloved Hokies play boring, uninspired football on the way to a 6-6 finish (or worse).
Everybody brace yourselves for some significant attrition in the next few weeks. Don't worry, we're rolling though!