Virginia Tech announces contract extension for @WhitBabcock!— HokieSports (@hokiesports) August 9, 2021
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nice -- i am generally fond of Whit, and think he has largely made good decisions. not sure what happened with the end-of-season football presser, but he nailed the CMY and Kenny Brooks hires, and seems to have nailed the Szefc hire as well. he's gotta get the football program righted and elevated, though -- whether that's through increased support for current staff, or nailing the next hire. I think the majority of us around here think the most viable route is the latter
I have always thought that this presser was called to announce a coaching search only to have his plans overruled at the last minute.
Glad to see he got an extension, Whit is really important for our future.
Whit's response after the presser has been a positive, and the fans getting behind the team is a must.
I still think he nailed the Fuente hire at the time. It was the right choice then, even if it didn't work out overall.
I agree with this. Hindsight is 20/20 and ADs just don't have that luxury when making hires for future goals. I trust Whit. Perhaps Covid19 had a big impact on what he wanted to do re: Fuente after the 2020 season. We'll never know for sure. But he's done quite well with just about every other sport - if he can just get football right he'll go down as one of the best ADs in VT history
Based on what?
At the time, Fuente was seen as an up and coming offensive minded coach, who was able to take a team with limited talent (Memphis), and take them to a fairly high level. The thinking was he would be able to take a higher level of talent, and pair that offense with Foster's defense. It was in theory a match made in heaven, and most people at the time thought he was a great fit with the culture of Tech/Blacksburg.
It clearly hasn't worked out that way, but as was said, at the time it looked like a great hire.
Lots of discussion on the potential at the time right here on TKP:
https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2015/december/10/virginia-tech-has-it...
https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2015/november/10/justin-fuente-bio
https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2015/december/4/articulating-my-excit...
Lol Fireman the prophet
Excellent.
Good news on a monday morning no less? I could get used to this, go hokies!
This is excellent news. In my opinion the hiring of Whit has been the most important thing to happen to Virginia Tech Athletics since Michael Vick did Michael Vick things in the 1999 season.
Hard to believe there are many out there that could do a better job. For anybody upset with football, the sport has a pretty poor success rate when hiring head coaches. Great hires will fail more often than succeed in football. I am interested in the fundraising improvements as we move into the future.
I have all the faith that if Fuente does not right the ship, Whit will get us on the right path, even if I am a little confused by how last season was handled.
We are really lucky to have this guy running the athletic department.
Great news. He makes good hires, builds good buildings, gets advertisers, and has improved fundraising. Arguably the best AD in the country.
Thank you for your service Whit!!!
I mean this contract runs through when he's supposed to be opening a new and improved renovated Cassell in a few years, which should help vault basketball to new heights. And that was announced shortly after his English Field renovations which help put that program back on track as well.
Be interested to see if we have any big plans going forward for improving the fan amenities in Lane once the Cassell reno is done.
I know this is going to be a double standard .....
but there should be no fan amenities at Lane, you want to piss? here is a trough, you want to eat? here is a turkey leg, you want a drink? here is a coke that fills up just enough to leave space for an airplane bottle worth of bourbon. If you want two airplane bottles you'll just have to drink some coke. The amenity should be watching football on a giant slab of concrete that echos the sound
for miles. So the only amenity to work on is more wins.
Basketball on the other hand I understand fan experiences, you need nicer seats, fancier foods, and a gatling gun t-shirt cannon. I don't know why it's different, it just is.
Yes, but I am sure the fans (the ones who can afford them) in Buffalo enjoy the heated seats
How do heated seats work when you stand for the entire game?
The 3 hrs of TV timeouts give you ample time to warm the cheeks.
It is very interesting seeing the contrast between the TKP community and the VT Facebooks groups. Seems that many of the fans on social media do not have the most glowing opinion of Whit.
Social media only allows for extreme points of view. Any rational thought is filtered out through A.I. because it is bad for business.
With all due respect, having seen what Facebook has done to some of my friends and family, let alone society in general, there isn't a bigger compliment to this site than saying it is in stark contrast to the reaction on Facebook.
Signed in just to leg these responses. I haven't even tried to look at VT Football stuff on Facebook, which I largely avoid anyway, but I'm glad to hear TKP is very much different from that.
As they say, ducks fly together.
You mean a web app created to help college dorks get laid became a defecto "public square" and there were unintended consequences once investors realized they could use it to monetize human dislocation? I'm shocked... shocked I tell you.
Contract extended but no increase in yearly compensation.