Dream chasing is an occupation, those with the job understand the process of manifestation. Committed pic.twitter.com/C4fWJPxuuQ— Hendon Hooker (@henhook2) January 7, 2021
Best of luck to him, I hope he tears it up out there
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That hurts. I'll be rooting for him, but I wish it wasn't Tennessee
I justify it as I hope he personally does well, I don't care what their record ends up though
Wishing the Best of luck for HH - but i just threw up in my mouth a little bit.
I hope for the best for the guy, but this is also going on at Tennessee right now:
EDIT: And Pruitt has officially been fired. With cause.
That seems...not ideal
HH walking into Tennessee like
What's the rule on decommitting here? Is he allowed to withdraw his commitment and reconsider?
He's free to go wherever he wants unless he signs an NLI or enrolls.
Best of luck, Hendon!
Not what I was expecting at all, but best of luck to Hendon!
I wish him the best. That is all I can say at this time.
Of all the schools he could've transferred to, that is certainly one of them. Good luck HH2
This is the most disgusting timeline.
Good Luck Double H, I hope you do great...
Can we get Guaranano? It'll be like a trade.
A really bad trade. JG is about the last QB I'd take out of the portal. I live in East Tennessee and follow UT football and basketball (not like I follow VT, like 50% of that). This will definitely boost my interest in UT football, expect I will watch all the games now (well, not the games like Alabama where it's over before halftime).
Pretty sure UT is standing by Pruitt and sticking with him, especially given that last most entertaining coach search.
Having UT family I've had to watch this kid play more than I care to. Not that it matters much now since he's on his way to Washington State, but he would be a step down from Hooker.
To be fair
Sure as God wears sandals, it beats fighting guys with treasure trails.
...
We've probably never interacted on this site before, but you were the first person "here" that I thought of when I read this headline. Lol
At least it's not UVA?
To be fair.... he is the only VT QB that hasn't beat UVA since before social media existed...#IfYouCantBeatThemJoinThem?
But can he catch the snap? Too soon?
In all seriousness, I will be interested to see how he performs with a new system. He had limitations here, but they may have been more of the system's limitations. Regardless, I hope he succeeds.
Which means FU failed!
Are we chalking up the TWO dropped snaps (that were perfect if memory serves me well) to poor qb development by Fuente and Co..?
Nah. He was good when the running game was cooking and play action effective. Teams that figured that out were able to neutralize him. See uva last year. And others. Granted he provided a hell of a spark.
Not at all. They were all on HH. Thus far, qbs have performed better in our offense than they did where they came from or went. This will be another data point. But, my guess is that he will struggle in the passing game and do Hooker things in the running game.
Hilarious tweet. Also, those are some fugly ass jerseys.
Don't go throwing stones at other peoples' fugly jerseys. We're 19-18 in our fugly jerseys.
I didn't think Bucky Hodges had any eligibility left
I can't imagine a better pairing next season than Hooker and Freeze
Is Robert Kraft a Vols booster?
Jimmy Haslam of the Pilot Flying J money
Jimmy is going to have to dig into his pockets for a new coach. At least he won't have to pay for a buyout.
Another "net" portal win.. oh wait.
If only we've ever had a good portal QB or anyone else come our way recently, like Herbert or Jerod Evans. No one is thrilled by this move, but I wish HH the best, even tho it is Tennessee. Living in TN, I hope he at least tears it up while UT continues its stay in mediocrity.
I blame Butch Jones.
From the frying pan to the fire. Good luck to HH, but SEC defenses and the Pruitt mess, or post Pruitt mess, don't look real inviting.
At least it's a bit warmer in Knoxville. 😀
Ahhhh.. don't they have a 5 star commit form 2020 that played this year? Not good Bob.
He's transferring if I remember correctly
It'll be interesting to see what HH could do in the SEC but I must admit not quite as entertaining as the thought of QP smashing JMU
I don't hate Tennessee like the rest of Hokie nation it seems. I don't know a single Tennessee fan and have never even been in the state, even just passing through. With that being said, I don't like this. Not for my own selfish reasons but because I don't think it will be good for Hendon (or anyone who decides to play QB there for that matter).
Tennessee's fanbase is hellbent on returning to greatness. They cannot accept a rebuild. Someone plays a few bad games and the entire fanbase is calling for that player to be benched and probably the entire coaching staff to be fired. Most players don't respond to that very well, and I don't think Hendon will be any different. I hope I'm wrong because, like I said, I don't dislike Tennessee.
You don't hate Tennessee? This guy needs a word with you
I hate Tennessee
best video ever, was hoping this was what the link was for
My fav line "Neyland Stadium looks like a garbage truck worker convention"
if you did and had, you would. They're like WVU minus the lack of pretense
Oh, WVU fans are pretentious. If you ask any of them, they have never lost a game fairly since joining the Big 12. They have only been screwed over by the Big 12 officials. I mean how else could they go from winning all those BCS bowl games and going to the Final Four in the Big Least?
hilarious since they've been boat raced numerous times in B12 games, but that was more a comment on who they are as people. UT fans and WVU fans may both occupy a trailer park, but only one of the two is convinced they're royalty. In my experience at least
I'm gonna assume that's the hunington response, cause the WVU fans I know don't think like that ... they realize the BCS bowls were under DickRod and haven't liked their coach since, though are coming around to the new guy and they hope DickRod burns in hell.
It's not just the Huntington ones. I think it's mostly the ones who didn't go to the school and have lived in the same town their whole lives.
I'm assuming you didn't go to Battle at Bristol...
I did not.
Can I wish him well and hope Georgia beats his team by 7 touchdowns in the same comment?
Photoshopping the helmet and jersey onto HH and...just...leaving the VT orange pants, thinking they look the same as the Vols' creamsicle crap (which aside from being the wrong color have always had a leg stripe) is absolutely fucking hilarious. Peak Tennessee.
#SmokeyEdits
Now I cant unsee this....
And I've dabbled in Photoshop before. It is not hard at all to alter the orange to be the correct creamsickle shade. That is just lazy.
I think it's worse - it looks like they left all the oranges the VT orange in the lower image, just changed the jersey to white.
.
Interesting move for multiple reasons.
#1 Pruitt appears to be firmly on the hotseat at UT...without a winning record in '21 he may be gone. Leaving one Hotseat coach for another is a bit puzzling.
#2 despite multiple transfers (Guarantano, Shrout, Hill) UT still has 2 QBs coming back with game experience, including Bailey who was a 5* and presumably "the future." I think its very presumptuous to think HH is the clear leader for QB1
#3 admittedly haven't watched a ton of UT games, but it seems that they run a much more Pro-Style offense which would not seem to be a natural fit for HH's skills
He is transferring to be a TE? But seriously, best of luck to him.
Honestly it strikes me as a weird fit. Hooker isn't a guy that is going to drop back on third down and sling the ball all over the place and that seems to be the MO for Tennessee. Run first and second down and then have the QB make a play on third down. Think they were close to the bottom in FBS in first and second down pass rates.
Great points add up to I still don't get it. Not really in a better position relative to playing time. The real idea here is he needs to improve if he wants to be the man anywhere in P5.
Would love to know the real story as to why after all he went through this year.
It hurts to see him on another team but I'll be hoping for his success.
Bummed. I really believe he is the most talented QB Fuente has recruited. I can't logically describe his career arc so far.
i dont think its an arc... i think it looks more like an EKG
I think I can describe it aptly...
Brad Cornelsen
I think he is the best they have recruited amongst a bad pool.
That's a bit of an overstatement.
Both HH and QP were 4☆ QBs, if you want to include Burmeister thats another 4☆.
While I would agree that many of us, including me, had unrealistic expectations for QP after the comments surrounding his E11 performance, he didn't really even become more than a minimal passing threat in 3+ yrs at VT. And Hooker, while he had moments of brilliance, was never consistent especially in crunch time, and has had substandard mechanics that have never been improved. That's basic QB coaching stuff.
Literally not a single QB has shown consistent improvement or development under Cornelson and Fuente. Not one. Sure, it could be that every single one of them had flaws that were irreparable, but I would tend to find the common denimintor here--Cornelson.
You can't ignore that circumstances have made it difficult to gauge development. Injuries and then COVID aren't exactly inconsequential.
There was little improvement the others years before Covid. Covid is not an excuse. Using it as one is lazy.
I wont argue. The number of quarterbacks that haven't excelled is a bad look for coaching. But, JJ did worse at MD. And, I dont think you can coach accuracy but to a degree. Is this staff incapable of developing a quarterback or have they had some bad luck with the ceiling of their 4 star recruits? We will see. If Hooker improves at Tennessee, we will know for sure.
Nice use of the ☆ character. I might steal that, i like it
I can... "dynamic athlete behind center who made a huge splash when taking over starting duties for Virginia Tech but eventually his limitations, particularly accuracy in the passing game, were exposed by ACC defenses"
I dont hate the move, but I do hate UT. From what I understand UT does have a pretty good MBA program, so good on him for going if that's what he's after, and to get the chance to go head to head with some SEC defenses.
It sucks to lose a QB, but I'm in the camp of this is a wash move for us. We lose a lot of depth, but I have faith in BB and Kadum to keep us competitive.
I hope Hendon has a Heisman-worthy season. I also hope Tennessee never wins another football game as long as I'm alive. Possible? Probably not. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hendon finishes with a Heisman-worthy season, QP wins a Natty.....we roll to .500
Quote from Hendon, featured in The Athletic piece by David Ubben:
I hope he makes it. But he has a lot of ground to make up if he wants to make it to the next level. The communication aspect is a bit concerning though.
Very concerning. Not a good look at all.
I wouldn't make a meal out of the quote. He was asked about what he was looking for, not what he didn't have at VT.
Remember, Hooker tried transferring once before. I don't doubt his commitment to VT and playing his nuts off, but maybe the fire wasn't as bright as fans and himself would have liked.
EDIT: Ubben is a great Twitter follow. Initially a B12 reporter, but now on the beat for Tennessee. Second favorite Athletic writer.
I think that's quite an optimistic view. The assumption is that he didn't have (at least one of) these things at VT, so he had to go somewhere else to get it.
Also worth noting he was offered by Ohio State.
Man, idk why he would pick Tennessee over OSU.
Much better path to starting IMO, and closer to home could be a factor.
Even though tOSU is almost certainly losing Fields, freshman CJ Stroud was a coveted recruit (5* by 247), and they are bringing in a composite 5*, Kyle McCord, in this 2021 class. Perhaps not a factor for Hooker at all, but in an even more insane development, they have another 5* QB already committed for the 2022 class, Quinn Ewers, who is currently rocking a perfect 1.0000 composite ranking. Though I think Sark could maybe steal Ewers back to Texas if his offense flashes next season.
Must be all the NFL success OSU has had \s
Too cold in Columbus? 👀
Jeremy Pruitt officially fired at Tennessee.
For cause to try to not pay him the $12.8M left on the contract, not that it doesn't sound deserved at this point
Tennessee hired a law firm to investigate their own head coach so they could fire him with cause. I'm sure they will find someone to replace Pruitt with, but after the last hiring process and now this, what coach that's worth anything will want to coach there?
is it wishful thinking to say Fuente?
Depends if Clay Travis feels the need to submarine bomb the first leaked name that comes out, like he did Schiano.
I mean, I wouldn't want Greg Schiano coaching my team lol
Anyone that can make hay at Rutgers, plus NFL stops, and national championship caliber stops at Penn St and Ohio St, yeah, I'd want that guy.
As for the Sandusky tie in, Clay took the one sentence in the full FBI report that had Schiano's name, and ran with it to defame his character. Schiano did what he was supposed to do, report the crime to his superiors. They in turn covered it all up.
So, yeah, I'd take Schiano as my head coach.
I agree the Sandusky tie in was a below the belt shot, but I still don't think he's a great coach. I think he's better than any coach UT has had since Fulmer, but that's a low bar.
What he did for that Rutgers program cannot be overstated. He turned of the all-time worst major conference college football programs into a legitimate contender in their conference, being ranked #2 at one point, and becoming a relevant factor in national cfb discussion. Unbelievable run.
I see they're looking for an AD too, could be a package deal. Whit and Fu could roll on down to Knoxville, dehumanize the Vols, and kick off Year -4 of the Fu era at Tennessee. /s
Man, Hooker transfers so he can communicate with his head coach, QB coach and OC and have a path to the next level...then UT hires Fuente and Cornelson....that'd be some shit, lol
You really would wish this on Hendon?
Shame 🏷️Shame 🏷️Shame 🏷️....
Rumor is that Fulmer could be out as well. Possibly forced retirement. Seen multiple places that they "don't expect Fulmer to be involved in hiring the next coach."
Given the lack of coaching choices at this weird time for a school with unknown NCAA sanctions coming, probably ought to just make Fulmer the interim coach since that would make him the best coach they have had since, well since Fulmer.
An offseason isnt complete without a Tennessee coaching search bonfire! All rejoice and pull up the popcorn this gon be good.
Everything that happened to VT football this past year has happened so all of college football can enjoy Hugh Freeze having a Hooker as his starting quarterback.
I am there with you on the boosters at Tennessee thinking this gives them a clear path to Freeze. Saw a Tennessee fan speculating that they were going to steal Ryan Day from OSU. Had me near tears realizing he was serious.
Ryan Day would get one of those Auburn buyouts if he made the jump.
Hmmm....methinks if Freeze goes to Tennessee, Malik Willis will come right along with him. That would NOT be a good thing for Hendon. But this kind of thing happens when you are 100% committed to a dumpster fire. Wish the best for Hendon, but he may want to try to keep his options open to move somewhere else........
This is just going to make me sad. Same with Quincy Patterson. I hope they both do great, but I wish they could have done great here
Soooo what's Pruitt doing? Didn't he used to be a DC at Bama?
Rumor was he and Saban didn't get along, but just rumors.
Weren't there also some rumors of he and Richt almost getting into it at GA? May be a hot head.
I think it's largely known that Pruitt is good at his job, but no one likes working with him (not unlike Matt Canada). I don't think anyone has fun working for Saban, so I imagine he works there.
All day today Bama fans have been clamoring for him to come home on Twitter
Saylor usually has a pretty good feel for things going on at Bama
Supposedly Saban and Kiffin didn't like each other either, but they made it work. So here I sit in my fan seat and all i think is, "I want a top flight DC to come back, Saban and Pruitt can put on their big boy pants and work it out for wins"
Biggest problem with this is Bama would actually have to pay him if he came home. No buyout for Pruitt so one of those $25k a year analyst jobs doesn't really seem like an option and Saban seems to really like those former head coaches working for peanuts.
https://footballscoop.com/news/jeremy-pruitt-responds-to-his-firing/
Well attorneys are going to fight this
Sure they are and by the time it's over attorneys will have gotten 40% of the $12.8M or more if Pruitt wins as he will ask for additional compensation for damage to his reputation, etc....it's a win-win for the lawyers.
Don't wrestle with a pig...
Please take Fuente back to Tennessee
Fulmer out as AD
Whit is at the top of their list to replace him
Please, please take the Clemson AD. Anything to screw up their Athletics department.
Graham Neff....best No 2 in the country....heh heh
I don't think Whit would leave to go to a school that (allegedly) is going to deal with some very serious violations. I have to imagine itd be even higher stress than now, by an enormous amount.
But who knows, every person has a small number of jobs they can't say no to, and that's their right.
To me a bigger reason to stay away from Tennessee is the way they treated their last two AD's.
Well... word I've heard circulating some journalist circles is that Fulmer launched the investigations with the plan of being able to oust Pruitt for cause and then...
Take his job as the head coach again
Lol. Apparently in the process of this Scooby Doo plot he pissed off some key boosters and was forced to "retire," instead.
No clue if this is true, but a lot of smoke around this, and Fulmer's past as a rather conniving individual seems to suggest it has legs.
I mean if you know how Fulmer got the job in the first place I have no problem believing he pulled something like this.
That would be pretty devastating, especially because I don't have faith in Sands to make a good AD hire. The Graham Neff hire would be ideal. That said, I think that VT AD really is Whit's dream job (short of conference commissioner or NCAA official). I really hope that issues replacing Fuente don't drive him away.
You could have stopped right there.
No, I think he'd do a great job selecting faculty. I just don't think he cares about culture or sports.
I think Whit's name is just thrown up there as fodder. He is a VT guy so I'd be surprised if he moved on, particularly to deal with a situation like the one waiting at Tennessee. Having the ECU AD up there is pretty funny to me since their athletic department is in shambles and I haven't seen a sign it has gotten any better.
If Whit thought thought so lowly of critical fans during that press conference back in December, there's no way in hell that he could ever handle the mob in Knoxville. If we were Tennessee fans, there'd have been a mob chasing Fuente and Whit both out of Blacksburg by now.
If by critical fans you mean the clowns that threaten to pull donations when they don't actually donate then sure.
Of all the names mentioned, none are who they ended up hiring. Just goes to show you can't put all your faith in tweets.
Danny White from UCF is a hell of a hire for them, but he does have a dumpster fire to put out.
McDonalds bags folks. Dan P is dictating from his source texts, so this is interesting all around.
Wonder if Hooker will be on the hook for McDonald's bags?
should've stuck to Hardees cupons.......also this means bagmen with bags are actually real, always figured the bagmen would find more shrewd ways around giving players money
I'd assumed the SEC had moved on to Bitcoin.
You're assuming they know how to use it...
PFFFFFFFT Jason Witten LOLOLOL
What program in their right mind hires a coach with no experience just because they're a former player
Every hire since Fulmer has failed... they gotta try something different, right?
Greg Schiano still holding on line 2.... Hahaha. That last minute switch worked out really well for UT.
a program that has Jimmy Haslam (owner of the Browns since 2012) as a major donor. Yes, the Browns were awful before him, and yes they've turned it around here lately, but dude is cut from the same cloth as Jerry Jones. Actually, scratch that. He's like a worse Jerry Jones.
Jimmy is somewhere in between Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder.
yes. great for Steelers fans and people who don't like Tennessee
Wow...Georgia too?! I mean we've always joked on this site about the $EC, but if this is true, then Nick's coaching tree is littered with 100 bills....
I would hope Hooker is smarter than that. I do wonder if he even knew what kind of dumpster fire he was jumping into.
I would have split as soon as they handed me the bag and it wasn't Hardee's
Huge red flag
So when you go to McDonald's you demand a Thickburger?
Sums-up the
S$EC pretty well... watch the whole videoNot sure I would want to watch an ACC review like that.
I guess when you put in singles instead of Benjamin's it buys you a 3-7 season....
I love how it says they "got sloppy" as if to say that UT should have been more discrete in how they gave recruits bags of money.
This is a death penalty offense (see: SMU). Since it's an SEC team(s)...NCAA will do nothing.
No, you are thinking this is against UNCheat. They'll be dealt with somewhere in between - no death penalty, but no looking the other way either.
No it's not. You basically have to be on probation already and then continue paying players to be SMU'd
Miami didn't get the death penalty over Nevin Shapiro. The NCAA is never going to drop that hammer again.
When Fulmer was asked about Pruitt's performance:
"Well the recruiting has been good."
I shit you not, can't make this up.
All the Vol tears are glorious.
Are they as salty as McDonald's french fries? saltier, I bet
I hope so. Vols are up there on my list of fan hatred.
Dunno exact numbers but a bunch of players from UT have all hit the portal today.
Looks like some talent is leaving. Too RB, top LB, some O line. Maybe we can pickup the RB Gray in a "trade" for Hooker.
Anybody got Big Mac coupons???
talk on local news here about releasing the entire Tenn 2021 recruiting class (ranked 14th in country) from their letters of intent. Specifically 4 star Dylan Brooks DE 6'5" 255 has specifically requested his release. That ought to have TnT drooling.
Between the portal news today and this its like someone drove a gas tanker into the UT dumpster fire.
I assume if they release all the recruits Hendon can get paroled too.........
I'd imagine there may be potential eligibility issues with some of these guys. We should probably start by seeing if any of them prefer Hardee's over McDonald's.
Looks like Hooker did not win the Tennessee starting job.
I hate that for Hooker. I hate Tennessee more though. I guess I can hate them more now, if that's possible. So that's a positive.
Definitely rooting for Hooker, hopefully he gets a shot at some point this season. If not, would be cool to see him transfer to someone like JMU and get another crack at his senior season - assuming he has eligibility left w/ the covid year.
Now he's going to transfer to Richmond and beat us.
/kinda s
It was a curious decision by him to transfer to UT. I suspect he thought more highly of his skills than he probably should have.
...has there been any offensive player in the Fuente era that transferred and played better at their new institution?
A lot of these guys like to kick Corny on the way out but it starting to feel like this staff's issue is more evaluating talent than developing players.
Or defensive player ....
Tavante Beckett was really good at Marshall
He would have been good for us too. Apples and oranges.
Yeah Beckett would have been a starter for Tech if he hadn't had legal trouble. I'm glad he found a landing spot and had success at the Marshall Player Rehabilitation Program.
It's not so much a rehabilitation program as it is a "we'll sweep it under the rug" program. I think Charles Huff is changing that though.
Khalil Pimpleton has done pretty well at central michigan, if i remember correctly.
Eh, Hooker was a 4* QB. Patterson was a 4* and now NDSU Starter. I think the issue is they haven't landed that guy that could take the job as a Sophomore and hold it for a few years and the QBs that need some time to develop won't stay long enough. Paxton Lynch was a 5th year Sr I believe when he had his best year. Evans was a JUCO guy with experience.
I don't know, I think it's as much or more an issue of player self-assessment - and thus lack of personal player development.
Some people might call this an inflated sense of self-worth. Others may simply call it "ego".
FWIW, I don't think VT is remotely unique in this regard.
I'd also be curious to see the stats, but my sense is the career track of the overwhelming majority of football transfers under the portal system - particularly those who transfer laterally or downward - either remains neutral or regresses. In addition to often overestimating their own value, I think transfer portal entrants generally underestimate the challenge of absorbing a new system/culture.
This tracks. Russell Wilson was the first guy I can remember that became an instant impact player as a transfer. He's the exception, not the rule. I wouldn't be shocked if HH thought he could replicate what Wilson did.
Well, he was pre-portal and was kind of a unique situation, but...yeah.
I could be wrong, but it seems like unless you're actually a talented, already performing player in a suboptimal situation, e.g. Khalil Herbert, transferring is just temporarily stroking your ego and making yourself feel better. Most coaches are not in the business of acting against their own self-interest by keeping better players buried on the depth chart.
A lot of these guys think they're in a "unique situation". The Kumah interview was kind of enlightening in that regard, he sounded like a 25-year-old Uncle Rico. If you go into any D1 locker room, 70% of those guys think they're going pro and it's the coach's fault if they don;t.
Except Wilson truly was unique. Kumah wasn't.
Wilson, the 3 yr starting QB, was in a pissing contest with Tom O'Brien - the Head Coach, mind you - over playing baseball, blah, blah - and depending upon which version of truth you believe, might not have even left voluntarily because of it.
I can't think of any individual circumstance in the portal-era even comparable to Wilson's transfer. Comparing Wilson and Kumah is comparing completely different animals in almost every way.
In ToB's defense, he had a great QB who went off and played baseball ever summer missing out on fall camp. He finally said make a decision, baseball or football. If it is baseball, then you are going to have to compete for the starter role and effectively lose to the backup because you aren't there. He also had a highly ranked backup (M. Glennon) who also got drafted.
I was only commenting in the unusualness of the circumstance. I wasn't judging O'Brien. Or Wilson.
I wasn't judging anybody either. I just kind of think that ToB was criticized unfairly for the results. Wilson also went to Wisconsin to play in a different system behind a different line.
Cross reference Herbert, Khalil
Are you saying that players over estimate how much of a difference they can have on a new team, or that coaches overestimate their ability to 'coach-up' a recruit?
I'm saying neither. In so many words, I'm saying players have had so much smoke blown up their ass for almost their entire life that many are incapable of taking a step back and reflecting without extreme bias.
The new "team" - or the old one - doesn't really factor into it because it's more about me.
I think coaches sometimes err and think they can coach a guy up, but my guess is they have a pretty good idea of a recruit's ceiling more often than not - and even more-so after a few months of practice. The coaches aren't gonna say it, but they have to know if you get 10 contributors out of a class, that's good - and they know some guys are likely never going to be more than practice fodder and injury depth.
I think it's harder than just a few practices to know some ones ceiling. What you will see is their work ethic and if the have one they'll contribute, if not then they either are athletically better than everyone and can play, or they need motivated to get there. And some times the amount of motivation needed isn't worth it. But to say that some one like Cody Grimm's ceiling was obvious a few practices after he got to VT is ridiculous, his senior year I never thought he would play in the NFL, and he started. Joe Burrow went from we'll find some one better to eh, he's an okay starter for a team that plays defense to record setting top of the draft QB in 2 years.
So I see it more of a quadrant with work ethic verse athletic ability as the axes
Joe Burrow isn't a particularly good example. Somewhat highly recruited QB (don't care about his star rating, elite programs don't waste QB schollies) in an elite program who transferred to another elite program.
Of course, they don't know on every player. But if I wasn't clear, I think they actually have a decent idea on many players before the even set foot on campus, let alone after a few months of practices). Obviously after 30 or 40 practices they know even more.
But nevertheless, I think they have a pretty good bead on the ceiling for 80-90% of players by then.
Only real "if we were wrong, a lot of people were wrong" I will always be disappointed in is QP.
https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2017/june/13/trent-dilfer-quincy-patt...
It didn't help that the coach he committed to got fired after he committed.
I'm not 100% on the timetable involved but I was kinda surprised he stayed after that. I remember Heuple's early comments sounded like he wanted to clean house.
The coach/staff that recruited him to UT is different than the staff there now - could definitely be a contributing factor.
GTFO. Hooker was our best QB, he didn't transfer because he though Braxton Burmeister was so much better than him.
He went to a better program overall where they've got 4* guys all over the place, regardless of how well they develop that talent.
And maybe it's not Fu and Corn's lack of evaluating talent, but developing like they claim to be so fucking good at.
In terms of developing talent and "4* guys all over the place", you may need to compare the last five years of Virginia Tech NFL draft picks and the last five years of University of Tennessee NFL draft picks. Tell me what you find and who develops talent.
4 first round picks in 5 years is pretty good development.
This sucks even more when you realize how bad Milton has been at michigan.
I kind of saw this coming. Hendon was very good at executing what Fuente and Cornelsen like to do with all the misdirection, but he wasn't great in a traditional passing game. The second Pruitt got canned, he should have tried to transfer somewhere else. I'm sure he would have been given a waiver.
Agree. Hooker was his worst when needing to scan the field and make a decision. Even against prevent type defenses where something is always given. I thought QP had a higher ceiling but was even more limited in passing and wasn't making the progress we hoped for. I do not think coaching can be blamed for the lack of development of either (entirely at least). I saw a quote in this thread where Hooker wanted to prepare for the next level, and so far, he is a step and a half behind Jerod Evans who wasn't NFL talented either. It is hard to find those great qbs. Blue bloods do, but still have blue chippers fall on the depth chart. It is truly remarkable how good VT was at the position for so many years. Sean Glennon would be better than any qb we have had in years.
When Sean Glennon had an oline that would/could protect him, he was a great QB. But half his time at Tech he was getting hit less than 2 seconds after the snap. Even Big Ben last year with the fastest release in the NFL was 2.5 seconds.
Is your under 2 seconds an actual stat or just what you think it was?
Glennon, like every Qb, was much better when he had time. But part of being a great QB is playing under duress and Glennon has a terrible internal clock. Every QB faces pressure but the really good ones know when to get rid of it. Yes, his line wasn't good at pass blocking but it wasn't remotely a one way street. Glennon often made them look bad.
That 2008 oline was just bad, offense looked bad with Glennon and Tyrod there. But I'd never call Glennon great either. He was probably the least athletic QB VT has started in 25 years.
Grant Noel would like a word.
Sean Glennon has entered the chat
Oh he crossed my mind, I think he was more athletic.
Go back and watch a lot of those games. That 2 seconds was an actual stat from watching the game clock.
he was a great QB
Folks overuse the word "great" an awful lot and this is definitely one of those times.
This just makes me more nervous than I already was for our quarterback room. I remember after the UNC game last year when Hooker's performance led many to claim Fuente was a clown at evaluation for not realizing he was better than Burmeister. Maybe that wasn't fair criticism, but it's not great that a guy who many were so high on apparently can't even win the job at a dumpster fire like Tennessee.
As a die hard Hokies fan, I hope Burmeister proves all the haters wrong. But man, this is a bad look.
Take a step back from the ledge.
The Hooker-Burmeister situation has been highlighted across this forum, and behind the paywall on the TKPC. A membership is well worth it.
The guy who left because he was presumably told he wasn't going to start this year doesn't win a starting job after transferring into the SEC, and that's a bad look for the program?
This is speculation. It was clear that Hooker was frustrated with his playing time, but it was also clear it was a tossup between him and Burmeister all last season. I can't imagine what information is behind TKP paywall that clarifies that actually Burmeister was way better than Hooker and him leaving was no big deal.
I mean you can look at their stats and game logs from last season (or the film) and Hooker had a better season than Burmeister.
I've never seen a bigger spin than turning Burmeister's 15-22, 212 yd, 1 TD performance against UVA into proof of concept that he is the best QB for this offense we've had since Evans. Hooker had basically that stat line every week.
I'm all in on believing he has improved in the offseason, possibly significantly, and we have no choice but to rally behind him. BUT, he still has to show it on the field. Playing like he did against UVA every week will mean our offense is functioning at the same level as it was during Hooker's starts the last two seasons.
To clarify, you're agreeing with me right? Your wording implies you're disagreeing, but I'm with you on every word here.
Oh I'm definitely agreeing. The Burmeister > Hooker takes in regards to last season have left me having one of those moments where I'm convinced we were watching the 2020 season on some alternate timelines.
Both are limited as passers in different ways, at least at this point in their careers. Like I have said many times, I hope Burmeister proves me wrong more than any VT player ever has, but the magnitude of optimism around him has been a little confounding to me.
I think a moderate uptick in his passing could put us in a better position, but I mostly agree. He did already have his areas where he was better than Hooker (he's a little faster, and also a more talented runner). If he can close the gap on the negatives (intermediate accuracy being the most important probs), there's definitely some upside there. But, like you say, without marked improvements to his passing work, we're closing down whole areas of the playbook for a moderate uptick in a few pieces of it.
Hooker lost me in the Clemson game. I kept thinking there was a health reason for the weird actions so I was careful not to judge harshly. Now, apparently, he was just cold. That doesn't make me high on Burmeister, but I am at least optimistic we haven't seen his best stuff yet. Fingers crossed.
Mustard-covered fingers, even.
Hooker - what game was it when he was shaking on the sideline? I've blocked it out. Up til that game he was the better qb. After that meltdown and performance. Everything. Fell apart. Like he was a different person. Striking. From my casual view it literlooked like some kind of mental/physical breakdown.
I mean, yeah. It's most definitely speculation.
But, given all the evidence we have in front of us, it seems like at least fair speculation, right? The coaches, almost certainly, didn't go to Hendon at the end of the season and say "You're our guy next year," only to have him transfer out of the program. FWIW, I thought Hooker looked like the more complete package all of last year, and if you'd asked me who I wanted to start coming into this season, it would have been HH all the way. But, I'm still not sure how any part of this saga, as much of a bummer as it is, reflects negatively on our program.
They're both interesting guys with obvious caps on their respective upsides. Hooker not starting at Tennessee doesn't tell me anything about him or BB that I didn't already know. That's what I was trying to say.
I'll meet you halfway and say Hooker thought he was good enough to start, and didn't like it wasn't a sure thing here, and transferred to somewhere he thought he'd have a better shot. I think what this tells me that "I didn't already know" is a guy who is arguably more talented then the starter we do have wasn't even good enough to start at a program that is itself not particularly strong at the position. It's another data point that points to this as a position of worry.
I'll just say, it's very very obvious that we NEED Burmeister to be healthy and good if we're to have a good season. I think that desperation is making the fanbase a little... unwilling to hear evidence that suggests that might not happen. If I'm wrong I'll happily eat crow, but let's at least cut the sour grapes talk that suggests Hooker wasn't good enough to start for us or he wasn't in that conversation.
Sure, I buy most of that. Definitely never argued that Hooker wasn't good enough to start here. And we're potentially VERY thin if Burmeister goes down. Certainly true.
What I will say is that we talk about how "good" a quarterback is in very definitive ways, when we probably shouldn't. Obviously there are people that are better than others (Trevor Lawrence is certainly a better QB than I am, for example) but there's a whole crowd in the middle who could probably start at a P5 program. To decide between them it comes to what is demanded of them in a particular system. I think Hooker would have been good (has been good) in our system. Same is true of BB. I don't think I learn anything from the fact that Tennessee has another middle of the pack dude that they prefer. That's all I'm saying.
I mean you can certainly look at it that way. I don't, but understand the reasoning. Really I'm replying to a number of comments on here, not you specifically, that seem to be dismissive that this is in any way a bad sign. The comment above yours asked me "to walk back from the ledge" as if I'm being hysterical by virtue of simply pointing at an obvious fact. As if by pointing at some dark clouds in the distance and suggesting that it might rain is crazy talk.
I don't understand how it is a bad sign. The only bad sign we can have at this point would be related to the quarterbacks still on the team. Whether fans thought hooker was better than BB is really irrelevant. Hooker regressed with each snap caught on film and now is struggling to play in a whole different system. Whether fans agree or not, BB was going to be part of the Clemson game plan with or without the muffed snap by Hooker. That should tell you he wasn't a solid starter here either. For years now I have been trying to figure out if the system is over simplistic or if the quarterbacks arent capable of being more complicated. Wanting a more diverse quarterback that can buy time and progress through reads tells me that the coaches wanted more than Hooker was delivering. That doesn't mean he wasn't good at what they did allow him to do. It is just as time went on, defenses were figuring him out too and anytime he had to scan the field and make a decision he seemed to crumble. All that to say we may not be in good shape at qb right now, but Hooker failing at Tennessee does nothing to sway my opinion either way. I think I would have actually felt more down on VTs potential if he tore it up throwing all over the yard there because it would prove we were holding him back.
We got a free evaluation by another coach of a player that our coaches evaluated to be similar in talent to the guy we're definitely starting. That tells us something about the talent level of our quarterback room relative to another team's. It's not the end all be all, but it does tell us something. You can make all kinds of alternative explanations about "different systems" and etc to try to explain it away if you choose. But just know that if you do, you're choosing to look at it in a rosy way.
I am not explaining anything away or being rosy. Hooker is a very limited thrower of the football by my own evaluation. I didnt need Tennessee to confirm it. But, had they shown my historical evaluation to be off, I would now be questioning our system much more. I think we saw the ceiling of Hooker. I do not yet know if we have seen the ceiling of BB.
Agreed. It's also worth noting that the coach that evaluated and brought Hooker in is no longer employed there. I really liked #2 and wanted him to excel, but like you I think he hit his ceiling and it was lower than what was needed. His inability to perform during the Clemson game really took a lot of wind out of his sails IMHO, though I'm not sure we'll ever know the full details there.
I hope BB steps up and balls out, and I hope Hooker gets a chance and plays well also. I'd like to have them both on the team for obvious reasons, but we don't live in that world anymore. I'm not sure how it's a damning diagnosis of our team or culture that he left.
I'm not sure either. Who said that?
I don't know. Guess I'm confused.
GO HOKIES!!!!!
This is kinda off topic, but kinda not as well: South Carolina is going to start Zeb Noland at QB for the opener. Why does that matter?
Because Zeb Noland started the offseason as a grad assistant with one year of eligibility. He was also benched at the end of last season for North Dakota State University, and potentially could have been third-string this year behind QP and the guy who replaced him. So now South Carolina, a big bad SEC school, is going to start a guy who couldn't cut it at NDSU...
One injury to a guy with barely 70 career attempts, and you're starting a backup NDSU QB in the SEC. This is to say that sports are fickle, and it's almost always impossible to beat the counterfactual. We don't know what Hendon could have done last year if healthy, or this year if he stayed. We don't know that Joe Milton might suck against Bowling Green and Hendon leads a revival of Tennessee football.
Fingers crossed for Shane this season.
Zeb's dead...
Yeah, good luck Zeb,,, in the SEC. You will see multiple 325 DTs coming at you weekly. And multiple 275 DE's......
Watch him come out slinging and everyone is going be confused as fuck with how good he is but couldn't win the job at NDSU.
Let's not forget he was backing up Trey Lance...
According to the NDSU website, Noland split time the last eight games with a true freshman QB named Cam Miller. Miller would start the two playoff games for NDSU last year.