I'm pledging $25 per reply - up to $10k total to @HokieClub for memberships in your name(s) - to those that reply w something nice @hokiesports Sorry about yesterday. Gotta make up & heal. Will keep learning. Cheers to a new 2021 to all #Hokies— Whit Babcock (@WhitBabcock) December 16, 2020
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Comments
Wow, I bet he did not sleep at all last night.
If he did, he slept with one eye open....
Take your damn upvote
... gripping his pillow tight
Excellent! 10/10
Comment of the century right here folks
During warmer months, you may feel like a Salad. But when it's cold and snow is on the horizon, Soup is what sooths the soul. Bravo.
Commenting in the forums feels like playing Cards Against Humanity.
You post something you think is really funny and get no response, other times you post something you think is clever but not overly witty, and people love it.
Thanks for the love.
When you are the one that sets up the plaid level comment......
That was refreshing and much needed.
wow... that's a hell of a mea culpa
Respect. Takes a lot to admit you might have been wrong even if some things weren't in context. Especially as the head man.
I love the quick turn on this one. Admitting faults and changing is key to a good leader. Too bad our FB coach can't and won't no matter how bad. Still a head scratcher to me though for Whit. I thought he was far too savvy to fail that bad yesterday.
Maybe it was a ploy to take the heat and attention off Fu. Then the next day he apologizes, donates over $10k from his own pocket, gets a bunch of nice comments about the program, and Hokie nation feels a lot better than it did two days prior.
Honestly would not shock me.
This earned a ton of respect.
More reason why I think he did not get his way. Years of evidence point to him not being as dumb and tone deaf as he presented yesterday.
I think the guy is worn down from handling an athletic department in the middle of a pandemic and we're reading into if he got his way a little bit too much.
This. It sucks that he had to preside over millions in cuts after working for years to make sure that he can staff every position with appropriate pay.
Thanks Whit. Now others take notes...
I'm looking at you Fu
We should implement a public known, performance based incentive for Fuente.
Fu donates $10k for every time we have to punt or go for it on 4th Down and don't convert.
Fu recoups $10k every time he converts a successful 4th down.
We call it "4th & Goals" and we keep a running, digital tally in the stadium next year of the total amount. We either have a super efficient offense or it at least shows Fuente how much liability Corny is in $$ signs.
or lose a recruit that is verbally committed.
or can't land at least one 4 star recruit in Va.
Throw in a donation for every 3rd and long qb keeper
This should apply to both Cornfu...
A QB keeper on 3rd and long isn't always a bad call though:
I miss Tyrod
You think we're made of gold?!
Forewarning I hadn't logged onto HC in a long time and logged on yesterday.....
How long has the TD pledge been a thing?
I mean I immediately signed up cause I thought that was a great idea. If I'm contributing money I feel like it should contribute to the success of the program but be tied to the success of the program.
I'm not sure exactly when it started, but I know I received a couple emails/texts about it early this season and had never seen anything about it before.
Well I like it. My only complaint about HC now is that it should have a page explaining every fund cause that doesn't go towards the scholarship fund.
It has gotten much more user friendly in the last 1-1.5 years, but I still think some peoples' concerns about the ease of donating are valid. I definitely botched my first donation and priority points by not understanding how the different funds work, so I understand where you're coming from there.
I won't claim to know the ends and outs but I've donated to Drive for 25 every year since I graduated and like just last year realized that was different than Hokie Club and didn't automatically set up that account.
The act of giving money isn't hard. Realizing what program you're in and what you're donating to and why its different than other programs is quite difficult.
It's been a while since I've seen it, but fuck Jack Passion.
They started it just after the season started when it became apparent there weren't going to be many fans in Lane this year. About the same time they sold "season ticket" packages with scratch off prizes.
Good move Whit!!!
I'm honestly glad to see he realized a fence needed to be mended there. Respect.
That said, should what fernley was saying may have happened behind the scenes end up being true, I wonder if he went into that presser in the wrong state of mind (i.e. pissed off and barely able to hide it), and woke up this morning realizing how much of a mistake that was.
I would be willing to donate a considerable sum to VT if I got the real story about the 72 hours following the UVA game.
Calling that presser to defend not firing your coach just doesn't seem to make sense, and Whit even alluded to that. Plus his energy was completely off if he truly was coming out to say "the haters can shove it we're going in the right direction".
It's probably confirmation bias but the Fernley story + presser + how Whit seemed just makes a ton of sense in a very screwed up, VT Athletic Department is a dumpster fire kind of way.
So instead of $10 million we get $10k? Still seems like the raw end of the deal but I guess he is at least trying. What are the odds coach fu does something like that?
When was Virginia Tech ever getting $10 million? We "saved" $10 million by not firing Fuente.
Not sure where you're going with this.
According to a bunch of Sauces on this site we had the buyout. And he is now costing us $14 million at this point, potentially only $11.5 if he lasts all of next season...
Is that some new aged math or what?
$4 million for this year plus a $10 million buyout, drops to $7.5 million next december 16th. Now I know we have a bunch of business and fine arts marjors at tech but I bet even they could do that math...
Don't count on it....when I switched majors to Political Science, my calculus class didn't meet my math requirement. I was forced to take a math class with the book: Skimming a Stone Across the Pond of Mathematics. Made a fortune tutoring classmates that semester.
https://www.amazon.com/Skimming-Stone-Across-Pond-Mathematics/dp/0070390533
🤣🤣🤣🤣
I was just a lowly History major, but I was tracking.
And I am not happy with the announcement.
We weren't getting random money, if people's sources were to be believed, the money was ONLY to buy out Fuente's contract, nothing else. So the money wasn't going to benefit the department in any other way, so it wasn't lost. For all we know, that money may be available next year for a buyout then, but only for a buyout.
I wish OX left his account deactivated. I understand the negativity but some people literally can't take a break from it.
The guy donated in good faith, he is asking for everyone to follow his lead. The program will not get better without donations. He did the best he could do in the situation . keep complaining, and not helping, and the program will continue its slide. You got fuente one more year, it may not be what you want, but tech will not get better without monetary support. Yelling makes fans feel better, but funds make programs better. Maybe you donation doesnt help this year, but it will help in the future. I have complained, and donated, and I hope for a brighter future.
Maybe I'll finish off catching up to IPTAY. Whit didn't say he'd add $20 if I contributed but since I'm not on twitter...
On one hand, this is a good gesture after making a stupid comment about small donations not mattering.
On the other hand:
yea I'm in this boat, glad Whit realized he made a mistake yesterday by throwing the fanbase under the bus by calling us the social media mob. But that 10k aint gonna fix the state of our football program. If the rumors are true about how this really wasn't his decision and theres a whole lot going on behind the scenes, well then we still have bigger problems.
10k is 1 minute of Fu's game salary plus buyout based on how many games we played this year.
Yep. Nothing has changed, and while I like several players in the incoming class, there are no clear solutions for the weaknesses within the program from an infrastructure and roster management perspective. I didn't get to see Fuente's comments today, but did he lay anything out. Did he make a case/plea for the small time donors to take a leap of faith with him? And did he present a vision for how it will get turned around?
I don't know. But so far I have seen two highly talented OL leave, a class coming in where (of the film I have seen so far) I only see three potential starters (hopefully will be more enthused when I watch with fresh eyes after the new year), and no commitment to change, just doing the status quo better.
What do you think of Fuente's claim that 17 of the 24 signees were A-list targets?
Horsefeathers and codswallop.
No
I'm guessing this is in direct response to the "fountain or drain" comment, yes?
I'm glad there is some sort of positivity around the program today after yesterday. Good move by Whit and Fu's presser today seemed to have some good energy to it. We have what we have so let's go make the best of it and get excited for the potential that lies ahead.
Let's hope Whit can come through on his idea of adding recruiting assistants/additional staff. I know a lot of us wouldn't be so pissed at the program right now if we at least had good or average recruiting. The word "embarrassing" comes to mind when I look at the last two Tech classes. Hopefully Fuente can coach'em up so we don't lose to Liberty next time, or worse WVU next year.
Also Richmond next year to worry about, sadly.
Was the Tapp hire an effort to bolster recruiting? JHam as well?
Who are supposed to be the best recruiters on the team?
no snark. I'd love to know.
Not sure if anyone else read the 2 articles from The Athletic with anonymous P5 recruiters but it sounds like there are hardly any coaches out there involved in recruiting. It sounds like the recruiting assistants handle everything and the position coach and/or head coach just comes in to seal the deal.
I would guess VT is a lot more stringent on some of the rules that other teams ignore.
Hopefully the additional Recruiting Staff and additional funding coming in will help here significantly.
[Mod edit: removed links to paywalled content as per CGs]
That article was really eye opening. It gives new perspective to the constant complaints that VT has a subpar recruiting staff when you find out the recruiting staff is doing 95% of the work at richer schools that are beating us
You can't do much recruiting when you can't get face to face. I have been tough on the staff, but I am more interested on their ability to find a top end pass rush transfer than this incoming class. I know we all want DL, but the reality is they have a ton of bodies at DL using up scholarships, and unless they can process guys out they need to turn some current guys into stars.
Instant eligibility is going to make transfer market interesting this year.
I thought this was a good move on his part. I'm pretty disappointed that some people are taking the time to comment negative things on his donation thread. Not only does that not up the amount he will contribute, but it is in poor taste and spits in the face of a good faith gesture.
Agreed. I wish this post had as many comments as the others about the presser, with most of them being positive about it.
I'll be honest, yesterday shook me because I have full faith that Whit knows exactly what is best for this school and knows what we need to do to be where we need to be. Before yesterday the only thing you could fault him for was the Fuente hired, but looking back 5 years, there were absolutely no red flags that would lead you to even think this could blow up like it did.
So that presser really just kind of threw me off. It was SO out of character for him that it really shook me. Like, he's been so damn calculated and careful every step of the way, even to the point of getting legitimate press to be the next ACC commish and then THAT happened. It just doesn't register that a person with the track record he has could have a press conference that went off the rails the way it did.
This act today helps alleviate that. Also does make one wonder what the hell happened because something just wasn't right.
Totally agree. Steven Godfrey basically said the same thing on the midweek episode of Split Zone Dou.
How does one go about getting involved in Whit's scheme if one doesn't own a twitter account?
This was a good move by Whit in response to his comments two days ago. I read the live tweets and when I saw the tweets about that little gem I WAS FURIOUS. Then I watched the full presser and understood what he was saying when taken in full context. It still wasn't a good look though.
More from Whit this morning.
I'm a little disappointed that he didn't screenshot this from the Notes app with only 9% battery remaining, and he didn't end it with "Respect my decision, No Interviews" /s
Holy shit, I didn't realize the drive for 25 campaign was nearing 20k HC Members! That's really exciting. I've spoken to some people who portrayed 25k members as a stretch goal that we may never get to. Seeing us actually double our previous enrollment is exciting. I hope we can continue to build and capitalize on it in a big way.
If it makes you feel any better there was a typo when he says he's going to "get of this Twitter machine" instead of get off this Twitter machine.
Before this weeks charades i respected Whit as a calculated, smart, progressive AD. Now I see him as desperate, out of touch, and not a leader. Maybe he is preoccupied with trying to get Boise State type money from Nike in our renewal, but I doubt it. Lost a lot of respect for him this week.
or maybe he had a bad day at the end of a very stressful year
Or what if it was all just a Jedi Mind Trick to get more people involved in the Hokie club?
So up until this week he had been distinguished as an AD that had hit home-runs with all of his previous hires, but now, because of a poorly executed tweet, and the retainment of a coach that isn't living up to expectations as of yet makes him desperate and out of touch??? No matter how good someone is at their job, they still don't get it right 100% of the time and to have the expectation that they should is not realistic. I personally think Fu probably should have been let go but I'm not the AD and I am nit paid to make those decisions. So based on Whit's track record, I have faith in his decision and those going forward. I believe he's earned that right.
Wasn't Whit previously mentioned on the short-list a while back for possible ACC Commissioner replacement? That boat sailed around the same time all this went down. Maybe some of the demoralizing posture, comments, off-weirdness was Whit succumbing to his own reality - staying AD at a cash strapped university where FB is not #1 but the fan base expects it to be no matter the circumstances.
Oh man the twitters have absolutely blown up this afternoon with multiple people saying they've heard from reliable sources that Sands pulled the plug on Whit's plans to fire Fuente late on Monday.
This would align with a lot of the rumors we were hearing on here. If true, it does make one question how dedicated President Sands is to having a competitive sports program.
It's not just black and white...with either he has a commitment to having a competitive football program or not. Given the economic state, and the buyout amount, and others taking pay cuts or getting laid off, it's hard to justify paying 5 figures to a guy to NOT work. Reminds me of the Fridgen situation at Maryland. The AD was told by the governor that the state would not pay the buyout. Sure, you can fire him if you can cover the buyout with private money. Fuente is the highest paid Virginia state employee. That's a hard sell to shell out the money.
Except if private donations are funding the buyout and he still had the decision axed by Sands, that would be....
Not ideal
This. I said this in some other thread, but having Whit's authority taken away if the buyout was privately funded would suck. How do you run an athletic department if you can't make your own decisions about the future of the football program?
IF. BIG IF there was private buyout.
Edit: plus look at the optics. They can afford to raise $10million to fire someone after laying off others? That's sends a bad message to those laid off and those still employed there. That only one position matters, and one only. If that kind of money can be raised to fire someone, why not raise a portion of that to KEEP the other employees? Yes, a lot of people want Fu gone. But he is not the only person in that department.
Eh, you have some variation on that with every coach that gets bought out. I even brought it up myself - if there's someone with $10 million to give to fire a guy, where was that money a few years ago to invest into resources to help him succeed?
Given the circumstances now in 2020 with other department layoffs, it's hard to compare to normal times.
Refer to current firing and hiring search debacle at Auburn. Big money donors with too much influence creating pure dysfunction.
Maybe not. I've poked around the Virginia state employee database that several newspapers put together each year, and most of the coaches come in at odd places, because only a portion (if any) of their salary comes from state funds. In fact, I've rarely (if ever) been able to find any VT coaches on that list. I don't know if that's because they don't get any state funds, or their actual state salary is under $50K, which means their names aren't included.
https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2020/10/05/virginia-salaries...
If we're going strictly by salary provided by state funds, the highest paid state employee is Charles Phlegar, the VT vice president for advancement in 2015.
I've heard absolutely nothing from #sauces to justify these claims. Just about everyone is in the dark. I'm starting to doubt Sands and the BOV provided a decision. Those of us with #sauces all came on here Monday morning getting prepared for a press conference for a new HC. Ox posted this tonight. Knowing the TSL crew, they got close enough to hear something:
This would line up with Whit's comment about putting Fuente's success with his, his mean culpa the next day, and his letter which followed today.
This would also align with the time line Monday. The BOV meeting was in the morning. Posts were being made the deed was done by lunch time. Then the presser scheduled. Then the statement he was being retained which followed the presser release.
So if Whit, and Whit alone made this decision
What in the actual fuck?
That was a "mean culpa", on his part.
if it was "Whit and Whit alone" why did he seem so strange in that presser
if it was "Whit and Whit alone" and buyout money existed independently of state funds, that is, um, severely damaging to my faith in him. Too many unknowns to say for sure, but it doesn't look good either way.
I'd venture to guess he got told it better be the right decision and his job was now on the line.
I would add once the decision is made, there's lots of moving parts, and the abrupt about face likely pissed off those moving parts.
Between 4pm Monday and the presser Tues, he realized he made the wrong decision.
or, as has been widely rumored, he made up his mind to do one thing, called a press conference to discuss it, only to be overruled by President Sands, forcing him to eat the shit sandwich on a conference call with the media.
This clearly seems the most logical based on the actually known facts that are out there. And I still think this makes the most sense.
FWIW though, mehul (who is on the BOV) on 247 (free side) has said this is "1000% not true".
I can't remember where we are with believing these percentages though. I also do not know for a fact that the poster named "mehul" is the Mehul on the BOV, but it seems to be widely accepted that he is. So... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I dove into the 247 boards this morning for the first time. I will never do that again.
It is really tough to comb through for various reasons. I do not frequent it.
To me, the most logical is that Whit was given the blessing one way or the other. He covered all his bases and didn't like either decision. It is a horrible time to break in a new coach and the hires available weren't sitting with him right. So, he met with Fuente and somehow Fuente changed his mind from 51% to fire to 51% to keep. We were in a shit situation and he chose the status quo. He seemed uncomfortable because he is uncomfortable with the future either way.
All this, if you ask me right now, I say Fuente has at least two more years if he can stay above .500 and if Jham can show positive strides, Jham will be the next head coach of Virginia Tech. Call me crazy.
From what it sounds like to me from what I've heard and Whits comments.
I don't think he was sold on other candidates, was sincere in he thought Fuente was the best option next year. Him not getting involved with the assistant staff - is only going to help in the future - by all accounts he sounds like an AD people would want to work for.
But man, his demeanor both at and after the press conference was so strange to the point I thought, is he going through some personal stuff?? I don't want to speculate about anything, he could just be exhausted with all of this and Covid but wow it Felt like a funeral or something.
It was a funeral. VT football died on 12/15/2020
There has been a high level of frustration and anger in Whit. I am sure this year has been the year from hell relative to athletics and the financial distress. It looks to be like he and FU basically tossed this year into the trash can even if the fan base did not.
Did Sands pull rank on Whit and tell him he cannot fire FU? Maybe. If you look at the financials firing may be more risky than not, especially with. O other decent candidates on the horizon.
But even if Sands did pull rank, Whit lost his demeanor.
We can all speculate as to why but one thing is for sure. It has been a crappy year and athletics are bleeding financially. He is under and enormous amount of stress and pressure. Sometimes even the best leaders fail to contain it.
So I'm going to give some props here because this is the first time in 15 years of donating to the Hokie Club I ever got something personalized back from Virginia Tech.
I made a donation a couple of months ago for my yearly and split it between football and basketball. Today I got a very nice personalized and signed thank you card for the donation from the football program.
I realize it's personal in that it was printed with my name written on a pre printed card, but someone took the time to do this and it's greatly appreciated. It's a step in the right direction.