I laughed when I read on twitter about Stinespring possibly going to LSU. Kind of like he was going to the Colts. Remember that rumor a year or so ago? No top quality football program is going to go after Stiney. I know I know he is a really nice guy and a great recruiter, we are so lucky he chooses to stay at Tech! lol
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The success of the O-line is critical to our progress. Please, VT, make a great counter-offer. And please, Coach Grimes, stick around to develop the awesome talent you are bringing in!
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You know what really irritates me about this article? I mean besides the piss-poor editing on that piece where it's obvious they just changed names (Grimey is TE coach and recruiting coord?)
The pic of Grimes they use is with his Auburn gear on.
I find that just disrespectful.
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and that piss-poor editing is why I'm ignoring this article. That and the fact that coaching search only says LSU has inquired about Grimes, not that they're interviewing him. I'll wait till I see someone reputable say he's interviewing.
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Go Bob Bostad! Or alternatively, Bostad might be a nice pickup for us if we end up needing an Oline coach. Wisconsin's Oline was sick when he was there. Hope it doesn't come to that, though.
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Would this move make much sense? I feel like if I was in Grimes position I'd rather stay at tech a few years, help build success, then become a viable offensive coordinator or head coach prospect rather than continually making parallel moves job wise between schools. Or am I just wrong haha
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FWIW, according to Bitter (I think referencing coachingsearch.com), LSU has inquired about Grimes. Grimes, as of yet, has not shown any interest in leaving Blacksburg.
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Sorry, I don't see it. He just got here last year. Not to mention he has a family. Unless there is a substantial pay increase I doubt he would uproot his family 3 times in a few years to make a lateral move. Now I can see using it as leverage for some more money.
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Is it just me or have there been more coaching rumors this year than usual. I keep expecting to wake up and find out I'm rumored to go to LSU. By the way, if that happens I'm totally going. Don't worry, I won't let them beat the Hokies.
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It depends on whether or not you were running close to the gravitational anomaly that is Sam Rogers, or if A.J. Hughes was tackling anyone so hard that it bent the space-time continuum. Either of those tricks would be similar to how Han shortened the Kessel run route to under 12 parsecs.
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Something about the phrase "Worse Loss Ever by a Frank Beamer coached school" doesn't give me a good feeling. And yes, I know we beat them in Lane I was at both games.
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But we (Hokies) only scored a FG in that game. Remember all the 3 & outs? The zero offense? I mean at least we scored a TD and moved the ball against LSU.
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If we lose Grimes, I will talk to Tony Washington, Todd's dad, who I have worked with a few times over the years....and get him to get Todd back to Blacksburg! :D
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I know interviewing is a world of difference from accepting the job, but I guess I kind of expected the guy who said he was in Blacksburg to give his family a place to set roots and win for the right reasons to not look for the new thing one year in. Hope he stays though. I thought he was the best hire coming in and I think he can become legend at VT.
(maybe I am confusing him with Lefty but I thought it was Grimes)
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Forgot about that- big issue I'm sure with his family. Know anyone raising kids in Baton Rouge? Yikes.... He'll need the extra $$ for private school, and his home security system. Know a native who just uprooted his family from BR for this very reason. Its gone WAY downhill since Katrina.
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He wants an O-Line that can grind down Alabama; its all about Saben for him. Also, he hasn't had a QB he could legitimely trust, so he wants to keep it on the ground.
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Totally unconfirmed, but some LSU folk seem to think Grimes to LSU is happening.
After a quick twitter/google search, no rumormongering from any legit sources. Only mention is embedded below.
Hadn't heard that, but I'm not in Indy. Top-5 OL coach. RT @SonnyKoufax10 Rumor is LSU is hiring Jeff Grimes as OL coach. Thoughts?— Travis Haney (@TravHaneyESPN) January 14, 2014
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Well considering @SonnyKofax10 has 39 followers he is probably referencing the article we all saw, and I don't put much weight behind this at all. Not to say it couldn't happen but a tweet by this joker doesn't get me scared at all.
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Just to clarify, I wasn't inferring that @sonnykofax10 was a reputable source...I was mentioning that the Travis Haney mention/RT was the only real person who has acknowledged it and he said he hadn't heard of anything.
I'm not in full freakout mode yet. The worst thing is half of the people on those boards dislike the idea of hiring Grimes. They don't know how good they (hopefully won't) have it!
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You stopped being you. You let people stick a finger in your face and tell you you're no good. And when things got hard, you started looking for something to blame, like a big shadow. Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you're hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done.
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Losing Grimes would be a lot more than just losing the immense coaching talent. It would show that the talented coaches at VT, when a program comes calling, can be cherry-picked with no resistance. Jim Weaver has done a lot of good for the program but refuses to open up the purse strings to pay coaches what they deserve, ESPECIALLY when competition comes calling. Maybe Frank isn't advocating for raises right now, or the results on the field over the last two years don't merit it, but Grimey leaving would be further signs of the program back-sliding instead of moving forward.
Sometimes I think the Sugar Bowl loss broke the football program's brain. It hasn't been the same since.
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Lol copy and paste much? Could have reworded it from the other site :p
But I agree with your statement, but I think it is due to losing major playmakers on offense, I.E. Wilson, Boykin, Coale, etc. We haven't had the playmakers on offense since then. I do think the group of receivers now have a chance to develop into solid players when they are upperclassmen.
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I've read this Wednesday is the decision date. They seem to be moving pretty quickly.
If it's Grimes, the sooner the better so we can make a quick hire to replace him. If it's not Grimes, then he's got some shaky bridges to patch up with his OL recruits, especially Taylor.
Suitable replacement if Grimes goes? I'm very partial to Todd Washington.
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The one positive I can see here: If Grimes does say no, he can go to Taylor and say, "Hey look, I turned down a big-time offer at LSU and earlier I turned one down at Texas. I believe in what we're doing here and I want you to be a big part of it. You're not my #2 guy and you're definitely not my #32 guy, you're my #1 offensive tackle right now. You want in?"
Man, I hope Grimes stays.
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This song is really all I want to sing to Grimes. (Frame of Reference: I was writing a paper, listening to the radio and reading this thread when the song came on. I found it oddly appropriate.)
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Grimes is one of the best OL coaches in the country. LSU fans don't know jack shit. I know people in Blacksburg will certainly appreciate him if he stays. However I think he goes. But if we do have that plan in place, I sure hope its someone whos just as good
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Just because he coached it doesn't mean he knew what he was doing. I DO NOT want stiney coaching OL. Its a re-tread. Some of the very skilled rb's we had and dual threat qbs we had covered up the offensive line deficiency
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I don't think hes the devil, I think he is a great recruiter. But by no means will this program get to the next step with stinespring as the OL coach. Im just done with re-treads. This program has been knocked down a peg or 2 because of loyalty to friends. Grimes is 100 times the OL coach that stiney is. IF grimes leaves I want someone just as highly touted
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If he goes, which is what its looking like I can't even begin to imagine how/why/wtf is CFB doing? He finally gets a great coaching staff we have a mediocre year and then bamm bye bye o-line coach. I am not saying this out of spite but maybe just maybe things are slowly starting to slip by CFB.
yes I know we can't control SEC teams and their $$$ but still.. would be sad for all of #HokieNation
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I want Grimes to stay as much as anyone, but if he does leave, it is in no way an indictment of CFB. Assistants move around a lot. I don't particularly like it, but that is the norm in college football right now. Look at FSU. They just lost their defensive coordinator to UGA. He was only with the Noles for a year, because last year Mark Stoops (one of 6 assistants they lost last year) left for Kentucky. Hell, even Saban lost his OC this year to Michigan.
If anything, LSU's pursuit of Grimes is further affirmation that CFB made a great hire. Again, if Grimes decides that this is the best move for his family and his career, I will hate to see him go. But there are other coaches out there and we have absolutely no reason to believe CFB won't be just as prudent with his next hire.
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Conversely, this is why the head coach is so crucially important to recruiting... because assistants DO move around so much... If Frank has weaknesses... recruiting is probably one of them.
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I'm not sure how much you could blame on CFB. I doubt he has offended/ostracized Grimes. If an assistant coach and HC are happy with each other, and you have to think they are here, then it is the AD's job to retain them. Oh wait... we don't have one of those right now.
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What can CFB do to get and keep great assistant coaches? His hands are tied with salary limits. Is being an assistant at VT considered a stepping stone or a dead end? How well does he develop coaches? How many assistants have gone on to bigger and better things? What will ultimately determine the long term greatness of VT in football is what happens after CFB leaves. How is VT planning to keep the program going and growing? If CFB can't hire great coaches can he develop them? If he is good at preparing great coaches there would be plenty of assistants knocking at the doors in Blacksburg. So it either comes down to money or opportunity to learn. VT doesn't seem to be able to offer enough of either to compete for the top coaching talent. I feels sad.
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Also look at the all-americans he coached. Conaty, Grove, Lehr, Derek Smith. I really want to keep Grimes but if he leaves and we can't pull high level talent, Stinespring is much better that we've had the past 7 years not including last year.
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Things might not be moving as fast as initially reported.
Les Miles says he doesn't expect to hire an offensive line coach any time soon. Threw out "7-10 days." #LSU— Ross Dellenger (@DellengerAdv) January 14, 2014
Or Les is just fucking with everyone.
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Hopefully Grimes doesn't let this sit out there for 7-10 days with the O-Line recruits regardless of what's going on. Would love him to stay but if he is going this isn't the time of year to be screwing with recruits for a week or more
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I was sort of thinking the same thing. If no decisions will be made for a week or so, it's good for us because it gives Beamer and the interim AD some time to try to keep him around. On the other hand, if he bolts but doesn't do it for 7-10 days, that is RIGHT before signing day and things could turn chaotic in a hurry.
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I read this as either a) he's staying, b) Miles is throwing people off, or c) Grimes hasn't really been offered. He wouldn't sit on an offer for a week...
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Gosh I'm torn on this. I honestly want the best for Coach Grimes I really do. On the other side of it, he's made promises to these kids he's recruited. He's also left the job half finished. Of course when a program like LSU comes calling, it's hard to say no. The one downside I saw to the new coaching hires was the fact that they wouldn't be able to see right off the way we see the program and Blacksburg in general.
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My reasoning behind this, is that he has a family with 4 children. I know that he will be offered more money by LSU, but is that money worth the expense of moving your children twice in one year? Does he want to pull them out of school halfway through the school year? I know he is a church going man, Has he found a church he really enjoys? There are many factors that go into his decision. As stated below he was offered to go to TEXAS and turned it down, good sign? Could be!
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I've been thinking about the family aspect, as well, and am hoping that he doesn't want to uproot all of them so suddenly. He's jumped around a lot for nearly the last 20 years, which is probably just what the life of a college coach is, but I have to imagine it sucks.
From hokiesports.com:
Rice - 1 year
Texas A&M - 2 years
Boise St. - 1 year
Arizona St. - 3 years
BYU - 3 years
Colorado - 2 years
Auburn - 4 years
VT - 1 year
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How old are the kids? In light of that sequence, when they arrived might fit the pattern, I see some longer stays in the later part of that list. It would make sense that a guy in the early part of his coaching career would move a lot to move up fast while being either single or its just him and his wife.
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1 year stints make sense at the beginning of your career, but his last 4 stops before us have been a little longer. I'm hoping that we don't end up as a 1 year stepping stone but I don't have a whole lot of confidence.
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It is, but if your tax bracket gets too high you really are only taking home around $50k of that. That being said, $50k is better than a kick in the nuts.
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are you implying that at some point you would rather be kicked in the nuts than be offered money? Like, 50k is acceptable but for only $100 dollars you'd take the kick?
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It's not actually a kick in the nuts. It's like stroking an enormous check to the IRS, which is a kick in the nuts now that I think of it.
I know some people that have made the choice once reaching a particular income level that they cut back because you see months worth of salary going to the IRS. You start to ask why you are working just to give all that cash to the nameless bureaucracy. When they start to reach certain thresholds, they take vacation instead.
Just in case you didn't know, a vacation is NOT a kick in the nuts. Unless you want it to be.
So, in conclusion, sometimes, a raise can be a kick in the nuts but, a vacation is not. Or rather, doesn't have to be.
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That tweet states LM says he doesn't expect a hire for 7-10 days. Might mean an offer is out there but he is allowing time for a response, possible negotiations, or to put out another offer...
This is from Wikipedia "On January 18, 2009, Grimes was hired by new head coach Gene Chizik to fill the vacant position coaching the offensive line at Auburn University.
After the 2010 season, Grimes was interviewed by Mack Brown to become the new OL coach at the University of Texas where it was reported he would become the highest paid coach at his position in the country. Ultimately, Grimes decided to stay at Auburn."
Hope for VT that it is not all about money?
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Maybe we need to start a "Why I Love Jeff Grimes" thread with our best praise, analysis, and (of course) memes to show him some love from the fan base?
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If we lose Grimes, do we go after another zone blocking scheme OL coach? Does Leofller's offense depend on a zone scheme? Was Stiney a zone blocking guy? These are all questions that I have. We recruited man guys before, Grimes then recruited guys for a zone scheme, if we don't use a zone next year then we have a mix of guys that do different things.
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I'm wondering how Ryan Pugh fits into all of this. If Grimes bolts for Baton Rouge, what are the chances Pugh is the contingency plan? He learned under Grimes and has followed him around during his young career. If Pugh is elevated to replace Coach Grimes, that would go a long way in ensuring scheme continuity, etc. I know he is extremely green, but you've got to start somewhere...seems like a logical possibility to me.
Ryan, No. 1, is extremely intelligent. Like all great centers, he knows the game. He grew up in a football family. His dads a coach, so he knows a great deal about the game. Has got a tremendous work ethic. Not only is he helping me from the standpoint of just the logistics of coaching guys, but also helping establish the mentality that we want."
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That would certainly allow Tech to have an inexpensive coach.
I suppose we should try to take the long view here. Grimes is an exciting, dynamic, and from all accounts superb OL coach. We were lucky to get him, and will be lucky to keep him.
That said, the bar at VT really isn't all that high. Was Newsome the worst OL coach ever in D1? I can't say. What I can say is that he was a comprehensive and consistent failure here. The fact that he couldn't teach the basic fundamentals, much less the intricacies of zone blocking, means that just getting a vanilla competent OL coach would be a vast improvement.
Grimes has started a culture change and his line showed great improvement this year, but I'm guessing it would take another year or two before this team really demonstrated his ability.
At the salaries we are willing to give, basic competence may be the best we can expect. And if we happen to find a diamond in the rough, who can not only coach but also connect and close the deal with recruits, bonus. Ryan Pugh could be that darkhorse candidate that can carry on what Grimes started.
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Two thoughts, re the 7-10 days thing....either Grimes wants some time to mull it over/let VT counter/plead with his wife to consent to moving the second time in a year, or the mad hatter was throwing out a smoke screen yesterday (wouldn't be the first time) because he wasn't prepared to address this with the media. Then there's always the possibility that Les is starting the rumor as a smoke screen, and he's waiting to interview an NFL guy, and we know Les likes NFL guys (see: Cam Cameron). Then again, maybe I'm just delusional. Someone please find Grimes and beg him not to listen to Les.
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So sounds like we have to pony up $ for our / or an OL coach or find a very mobile QB and NFL capable RB in short order.
Kinda a no brainer. Spend the money!!! There are probably still some TARP or stimulus funds available.
Alternatively we could sends gifts to LSU with Grimey. If we could dismantle their athletic department before we get overrun, we might get the QB and RB we're gonna need. And in a perfectly executed assault we can get Grimey and a few Helens back to Blacksburg.
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It must be money. (Or it could be the Cajun cooking.)
It can't be that Baton Rouge is a better place to raise kids than Blacksburg.
The COL of SWVA is a lot lower than just about anywhere with a major school.
He turned down Texas and that stack of cash, maybe we can keep him.
I hope so.
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Just curious, but is anybody monitoring the Twitter accounts of our 2014 OL recruits? If so, can you gather what they may be thinking about this situation?
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Lets just say its not overly fantastic. But other than Brady Taylor, Tech is still the best team on each of the other fab 5s offer list. This late in the year it would be unlikely they would find a better option.
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It's worse than on the wall, it's slowly being confirmed
Billy Ray Mitchell's HS coach, Chris Partridge, said someone from #Hokies has reached out to Mitchell, told him Jeff Grimes taking LSU job.— Mike Barber (@RTD_MikeBarber) January 15, 2014
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This upsets me inordinately. I imagine we can hire someone good for the job, but I was really impressed with how quickly Grimes got our O-line functioning at a much higher level than we had seen in recent years. He was also doing great recruiting for us.
Now it is up to Beamer and the other coaches to reassure the recruits that they are still going to fit into the system, and most importantly, to find the next OL coach, who will also have to quickly reach out to these guys to make them feel good about staying with VT. The OL recruits are really exciting and I truly hope they stick with VT.
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This is a situation where I want to be pissed off and place the blame on Grimes, but the blame should be placed on our athletic department for letting this happen.
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Uh... how exactly is this the fault of the athletic department? LSU has the highest paid staff in ALL of college football. More than likely it's a situation that was out of the athletic department's control.
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I hate to pull this card... but why do we have an empty trophy case for the crystal ball if we aren't going to do what it takes to keep one of our best hires? The style of football Beamer and Lefty wants to play requires a dominant offensive line. In one season we saw that Grimes was building that through his technique/teaching and recruiting.
Can I be pissed at Grimes for leaving... no.
Pissed at the athletic department for not making a deal with Grimes to keep him... not really. I know we don't have deep pockets.
Am I having trouble accepting the fact that we blew an opportunity to keep a great coach but lost him to a damn SEC school? Yes.
Am I overreacting... probably. But, I WANT TO WIN DAMNIT!
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Shouldn't have signed the ACC exit fee deal. All the jokers associated with that FIASCO are exiting stage left.
Economics matter. Time for these screwballs to hire some marketing people, a financial analyst and try to fix whats left of the ACC.
Just a bunch of sh**** arse non rev sports noone wants to pay to go see. Great for UVA that has like a 9 Jillion dollar endowment for their intramurals, ahem varsity rev sports.
Thats not where we are and not where we'll ever be if we're not careful.
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Well, this sucks. It's also a drawback for having hardly any coaching changes in the last 6-8 years. Some programs deal with it every offseason and the fanbase's are much more accustomed to handling it. I have faith that CFB and SL will find the right guy to replace him. Still sucks though, dude looked liked he belonged in Hokie gear.
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This is premature speculation in my opinion. First off, of course you'd be disappointed that the position coach who recruited you and you had the closest relationship with is leaving a program. That seems perfectly normal to me. Secondly, these commits don't appear to be candidates to be recruited for LSU. If you need some reassurance, check the offer lists for our committed players.
The one exception is Brady Taylor, who's recruitment was in the air after the OSU offer anyway. I think it's unlikely that he stays with VT at this point; otherwise, I see no reason for grave pessimism at this point. At this stage in recruiting, we're exactly 3 weeks from national signing day and these commits have a much closer relationship with VT than other schools.
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Of course it's premature speculation, but players have been known to go to a different school when the one that recruited them or will coach them leaves.
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Sorry but I'm still going to take issue with your statement, "We will probably lose at least one or two" when there is essentially no evidence to support that at this point (players have done it in the past is like saying Mike Vick was a 4 star QB so Ike Whitaker will probably take us to the national title game). Do you not agree that it's more likely for a player to choose a different school when they are more highly recruited/sought after? For example, Javon Harrison's primary recruiter was to leave, then I think we'd have much more reason to be worried.
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#Hokies already have a short list of 5 potential replacements, the name on top of the list rhymes with "Rodd Moshington"....— VTScoop247 (@VTScoop247) January 15, 2014
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This BS irritates me more than us getting or not getting something done. I don't sit well with I defer.
#Hokies interim AD Sharon McCloskey declines comment on whether VT sweetening pot for o-line coach Jeff Grimes. Refers ?s to Frank Beamer.— David Teel (@DavidTeelatDP) January 15, 2014
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Do you not think the AD knows the budget and what they can offer for a coach's salary prepared? Why on earth would the AD publicly comment on those things rather than discussing it with the head coach and allowing him to make the decisions he feels comfortable with?
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Perception. Deferring questions to FB makes it seem like VT is not on top of it. That there is no system no process just FB doing what he gonna do when he is gonna do it.
Some people don't see a need for PR. PR means public relations and focuses on perception.
When reporters have questions about major events, you as an AD should have some answers. Punting to the coach on basic questions is just bad form. You don't have to even have a totally solid answer... but you just have to let everyone know that VT did its best and has been working towards another answer.
Maybe she did have a canned response. Some reporters like to F people over. But you generally try to restrict their access if they're going to misrepresent what you said or didn't say.
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Keep in mind that a very similar thing just happened to FSU since Jeremy Pruitt, their defensive coordinator, was hired away by Georgia. Even though Pruitt's hire at Georgia was confirmed by an unnamed FSU official, I was unable to find any official statements on the events, details, or impending coaching search. It's not uncommon at all for there to be no official comment on these moves, especially when they are still in the process of happening (based on Wyatt Teller's tweet, current players haven't even been notified yet). Sure it's essentially "coachspeak" coming from a higher level in the athletic department, but I simply don't buy this as some huge botched fiasco of a situation by the VT AD. 99.9% of college football fans will end up reading the story on ESPN once it's official and they aren't going to think, "Wow VT's AD didn't even comment. What a clueless bunch of idiots must be running the show in Blacksburg!"
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You're really just trying to put the perception in the minds of the recruits you care about that there is reason to hope that this is going to turn out well in short order. Everyone else will be telling them something different behind the scenes. Go read their tweets and tell me if a PUBLIC face of reassurance and confidence out of the AD or even the coaches wouldn't hurt. Beamer calling them behind the scenes I hope and the AD or even another coach publicly committing as little as possible but making it seem like this won't be the sh** show that the last hiring process was, that we believe we're tracking on a solution well before signing day, yada yada yada. Then hopefully we've got a few guys who will at least be attractive and last til the end of the process that we can dangle in front of these kids. Everyone seems to think these kids don't have offers and I get that. But these kids have an endorsement from Grimes the new LSU OL coach and now that they're in play there is likely to be some renewed interest. I'm would guess 20 programs have probably called these kids pitching against us and for them and they'll be reminding them that despite what they're hearing from the coaches the interim AD seemed to have no clue where this was headed or if there was enough money to hire someone. You gotta counter the FUD.
5 OL, 1 or 2 WR, 1 DT that seem to be on the fence... hope there are no more, but you never know
There is the demand drummed up by FSU and the demand drummed up by VT. I hate that the gap is as big as it is, but when you even have to talk about stuff like this... then there is probably a systemic reason why you can't pull recruits. You F up the little stuff (which is actually pretty hard... good PR people are worth their salaries and then some), thinking you are a big time program that doesn't need to worry about things like public (recruit) perception.
JMHO
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oh, I bet she has the power. Don't know whether she tried to use it or not.
and yes, you can pay your OL coach more than every other position coach. Which is what we're talking about here. I don't think anybody's suggested paying him more than Loeffler, much less Foster.
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He just said assistant coach, which includes the OC and DC. Just to put this another way though, would you find it easy to justify paying Grimes $100k more than Charley Wiles and nearly twice as much as Torrian Gray? As has been discussed recently, VT has limited financial resources for the assistant coaching staff. If you raise Grimes' pay as much as might be necessary (I'd speculate at least the $400k range), how does that affect the compensation of other assistants who have excelled at their jobs over a much longer period of time?
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That's what I was getting at (thanks for making a better point than I did). If he's getting $500K from LSU, that puts him ahead of everyone except Foster. If that happens you can bet Gray, Wiles, Stiney, and certainly Loeffler are expecting a raise as well.
Sometimes people leave for a better job, and there's nothing you can do but wish them luck.
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You both seem to have glossed over my last sentence. To repeat... I don't think anybody's suggested paying him more than Loeffler, much less Foster. There are different ways that could be accomplished while increasing Grimes's salary (increasing other coaching salaries, or not, in different combinations). Each has different discussion points.
To answer the question about whether I'd be comfortable paying Grimes more than Wiles, the answer would be yes... it's not all about what you've done at VT. It's what your market worth is. We're not communists.
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I don't believe either of us glossed over your last sentence. Loeffler's salary, according to Andy Bitter, is scheduled to be $400k. If you offer Grimes at least $400k (an assumption in the ballpark of LSU's offer, which may even be closer to $500k), that's a $120k raise or 50% increase. What's a reasonable amount to increase Loeffler's compensation at that point? If there are so many different ways to accomplish a large raise in Grimes' salary without flat out insulting coaches who have performed at a high level and put their trust/loyalty in Beamer, then feel free to describe them in a more detailed manner. Because I'm not seeing it.
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She has the power, but doesn't necessarily wants it. Part of the reason they are moving so quickly to find the new AD is so she doesn't have to deal with the football schedule.
And yeah, no way he was staying with the kind of money they were throwing around. If Washington is indeed the top guy on the list then I think that would soften the blow.
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Well that sucks. So a question for somebody that knows more about these things than me - how realistic are our chances of luring Todd Washington away from the Ravens?
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#Hokies already have a short list of 5 potential replacements, the name on top of the list rhymes with "Rodd Moshington"....— VTScoop247 (@VTScoop247) January 15, 2014
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No problem. I appreciate any additional information from sources and apologize if my response sounded harsh. For whatever reason I feel compelled to try and calm everyone down for the time being.
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Of our 2014 OL verbals, Grimes was personally responsible for recruiting Petit, Taylor, and Gallo. Of the three, I believe Taylor is most in jeopardy of dropping us in favor of his hometown favorite, tOSU.
The primary recruiter for Smith and Mitchell is Cornell Brown with Grimes as secondary. Just my opinion, but I think those two are in less danger of jumping ship.
I believe all but Taylor will stick with their verbals as long as we get a quick decision from a new OL Coach (hopefully Todd Washington). Stiney is apparently already talking with them to let them know what's going on, and I expect him to continue that line of communication until we land the new coach.
Don't forget Pfaff reports this month - we will still have five new OLs , Fab 5 or not.
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We'll get a better coach. JG is probably talking it over with family and friends before he decides. There may also be some contract issues to work out before it can become official.
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Comments
I'd say that's way more likely than Stinespring to LSU. And it really would suck
Why's that?
He knows how to coach an O-Line well in the SEC, and his Line essentially remained intact after he was let go with the purge of Chizik.
I read your original post as Stiney being more likely and went, "Wait, what?"
I agree with everything you have said.
Heh I gotcha. Really hope he does stay for a few more years, at least.
I laughed when I read on twitter about Stinespring possibly going to LSU. Kind of like he was going to the Colts. Remember that rumor a year or so ago? No top quality football program is going to go after Stiney. I know I know he is a really nice guy and a great recruiter, we are so lucky he chooses to stay at Tech! lol
He just got here- leave us alone!
NOOOO. I like the work Grimes has been doing with the line.
The success of the O-line is critical to our progress. Please, VT, make a great counter-offer. And please, Coach Grimes, stick around to develop the awesome talent you are bringing in!
You know what really irritates me about this article? I mean besides the piss-poor editing on that piece where it's obvious they just changed names (Grimey is TE coach and recruiting coord?)
The pic of Grimes they use is with his Auburn gear on.
I find that just disrespectful.
and that piss-poor editing is why I'm ignoring this article. That and the fact that coaching search only says LSU has inquired about Grimes, not that they're interviewing him. I'll wait till I see someone reputable say he's interviewing.
Go Bob Bostad! Or alternatively, Bostad might be a nice pickup for us if we end up needing an Oline coach. Wisconsin's Oline was sick when he was there. Hope it doesn't come to that, though.
Would this move make much sense? I feel like if I was in Grimes position I'd rather stay at tech a few years, help build success, then become a viable offensive coordinator or head coach prospect rather than continually making parallel moves job wise between schools. Or am I just wrong haha
FWIW, according to Bitter (I think referencing coachingsearch.com), LSU has inquired about Grimes. Grimes, as of yet, has not shown any interest in leaving Blacksburg.
Leave our staff alone, LSU.
Sorry, I don't see it. He just got here last year. Not to mention he has a family. Unless there is a substantial pay increase I doubt he would uproot his family 3 times in a few years to make a lateral move. Now I can see using it as leverage for some more money.
Considering he turned down Texas back in 2011, I can definitely see him staying put. Really hope he does.
Is it just me or have there been more coaching rumors this year than usual. I keep expecting to wake up and find out I'm rumored to go to LSU. By the way, if that happens I'm totally going. Don't worry, I won't let them beat the Hokies.
No offense, but with your 40 time, I think we can afford to lose you.
Yeah, my 40 time is terrible. You should see my time on the Kessel run though.
but you have great hands!?!?
I'd take Han Solo on our football team.
Under 12 Parsecs?
Yep. I did it fast enough to turn a parsec into a unit of time instead of distance. You know you're moving when you break fundamental universal laws.
It depends on whether or not you were running close to the gravitational anomaly that is Sam Rogers, or if A.J. Hughes was tackling anyone so hard that it bent the space-time continuum. Either of those tricks would be similar to how Han shortened the Kessel run route to under 12 parsecs.
AJ "The Tractor Beam" Hughes. Because once he lays hands on you, you ain't getting away.
Ohhh. See, I figgered it meant that onced he done lain his hands on you, you thought you done been beamed with a tractor.
I blame twitter
Somehow it has to be LOLUVA's fault too
Well, it looks like it's time to schedule another home and home with LSU. If they want our coaches then we'll play ya for 'em.
yeah...about going to Deathy Valley again...
Something about the phrase "Worse Loss Ever by a Frank Beamer coached school" doesn't give me a good feeling. And yes, I know we beat them in Lane I was at both games.
What about the '98 Gator bowl vs tarholes?
That 98 game felt worlds closer to me that the game in Death Valley. That's the only time I've felt the Hokies were playing in the wrong league
But we (Hokies) only scored a FG in that game. Remember all the 3 & outs? The zero offense? I mean at least we scored a TD and moved the ball against LSU.
We had a safety (Nick Sorenson) playing QB in that game... but they still scored 42
Thus is how the discussion should go.
LSU: Can we has?
VT:
Anything Breaking Bad gets a leg from me.
It appears LSU has interviewed 4 candidates, including Grimes. So in theory we've got about a 75% chance of keeping him.
Hey LSU,
I like those odds.
Maybe we can do this, as a consolation, we keep grimes. You hire whomever. We will meet in the playoffs.
Your fans. Our fans. We line the streets and have a death match. Again.
We are both 1 and 1 as far as I'm concerned.
#bringitthefuckon
Two of the people LSU has interviewed are alumni: Ben Wilkerson and Rob Sale.
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20140109/SPORTS0202/140109020/
http://www.nola.com/lsu/index.ssf/2014/01/former_lsu_center_ben_wilkerso...
Those two articles should help to get anyone up to speed on the situation.
and interestingly, two have VT connections, Grimes and Todd Washington, an assistant OL coach for the Ravens & former Tech player.
If we lose Grimes, I hope we go hard after Todd Washington.
If we lose Grimes, I will talk to Tony Washington, Todd's dad, who I have worked with a few times over the years....and get him to get Todd back to Blacksburg! :D
Bob Bostad is another name to watch here.
I know interviewing is a world of difference from accepting the job, but I guess I kind of expected the guy who said he was in Blacksburg to give his family a place to set roots and win for the right reasons to not look for the new thing one year in. Hope he stays though. I thought he was the best hire coming in and I think he can become legend at VT.
(maybe I am confusing him with Lefty but I thought it was Grimes)
Doubling your salary can buy a lot of roots.
Probably not any of these Roots though...
maybe the white guy.
I think it would be stupid to not at least interview with LSU. I mean its not hurting anything.
Except our feelings
Forgot about that- big issue I'm sure with his family. Know anyone raising kids in Baton Rouge? Yikes.... He'll need the extra $$ for private school, and his home security system. Know a native who just uprooted his family from BR for this very reason. Its gone WAY downhill since Katrina.
Yep. That was me. You speak truth.
Let's be real, Les Miles is just trying to get Grimes to share his secret of his ferocious facial hair.
He wants an O-Line that can grind down Alabama; its all about Saben for him. Also, he hasn't had a QB he could legitimely trust, so he wants to keep it on the ground.
Are we sure he doesn't just want a tip of the spear?
Sounds like he might want the whole thing
NSFW
Now I feel so dirty.
I couldn't help it...
Totally unconfirmed, but some LSU folk seem to think Grimes to LSU is happening.
After a quick twitter/google search, no rumormongering from any legit sources. Only mention is embedded below.
Okay now I'm starting to freak out. Please don't leave Grimey!
(if true)
Well considering @SonnyKofax10 has 39 followers he is probably referencing the article we all saw, and I don't put much weight behind this at all. Not to say it couldn't happen but a tweet by this joker doesn't get me scared at all.
I'm scouting out the LSU twitter sphere like crazy, and it's far from conclusive
Just to clarify, I wasn't inferring that @sonnykofax10 was a reputable source...I was mentioning that the Travis Haney mention/RT was the only real person who has acknowledged it and he said he hadn't heard of anything.
I'm not in full freakout mode yet. The worst thing is half of the people on those boards dislike the idea of hiring Grimes. They don't know how good they (hopefully won't) have it!
Just deny
You stopped being you. You let people stick a finger in your face and tell you you're no good. And when things got hard, you started looking for something to blame, like a big shadow. Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you're hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done.
Good gravy, I wanna run through a wall right now.
Please forgive me for a brief rant:
Losing Grimes would be a lot more than just losing the immense coaching talent. It would show that the talented coaches at VT, when a program comes calling, can be cherry-picked with no resistance. Jim Weaver has done a lot of good for the program but refuses to open up the purse strings to pay coaches what they deserve, ESPECIALLY when competition comes calling. Maybe Frank isn't advocating for raises right now, or the results on the field over the last two years don't merit it, but Grimey leaving would be further signs of the program back-sliding instead of moving forward.
Sometimes I think the Sugar Bowl loss broke the football program's brain. It hasn't been the same since.
Lol copy and paste much? Could have reworded it from the other site :p
But I agree with your statement, but I think it is due to losing major playmakers on offense, I.E. Wilson, Boykin, Coale, etc. We haven't had the playmakers on offense since then. I do think the group of receivers now have a chance to develop into solid players when they are upperclassmen.
Does anyone have a general time frame for when this thing will be decided? How often do these types of coaching searches last? 1-2 weeks?
I've read this Wednesday is the decision date. They seem to be moving pretty quickly.
If it's Grimes, the sooner the better so we can make a quick hire to replace him. If it's not Grimes, then he's got some shaky bridges to patch up with his OL recruits, especially Taylor.
Suitable replacement if Grimes goes? I'm very partial to Todd Washington.
The one positive I can see here: If Grimes does say no, he can go to Taylor and say, "Hey look, I turned down a big-time offer at LSU and earlier I turned one down at Texas. I believe in what we're doing here and I want you to be a big part of it. You're not my #2 guy and you're definitely not my #32 guy, you're my #1 offensive tackle right now. You want in?"
Man, I hope Grimes stays.
This song is really all I want to sing to Grimes. (Frame of Reference: I was writing a paper, listening to the radio and reading this thread when the song came on. I found it oddly appropriate.)
If Grimes takes off I'm officially calling us cursed to be screwed by our offensive line coach. It's happened for years now.
8 years, to be precise.
7 from the coach's presence
1 year break of improvement
1 year back to being screwed by good coach leaving.
Let's say Grimes does go. Do we go after Todd Washington?
Or Bostad?
On the LSU boards they are saying Grimes is the guy....
(this is not the paid site but the free site)
http://lsu.247sports.com/Board/59425/Jeff-Grimes-24943484/1#a24944392
-"I know nothing about him except that the VT fans don't want to lose him."
-"That's good to hear."
Uh oh. Your move, Beamer...
Damn, hopefully we still have a Fab4 in the aftermath
Commence Full-on Panic Mode:
According to JC Shurburtt, it's looking like this is what's gonna happen. Alas.
However, he's also saying the Hokies have a plan in place if that's the case, so that's good at least.
Also, I'm seeing LSU fans posting things like "good recruiter, average coach." Yeesh, some people just don't recognize what's in front of them.
Grimes is one of the best OL coaches in the country. LSU fans don't know jack shit. I know people in Blacksburg will certainly appreciate him if he stays. However I think he goes. But if we do have that plan in place, I sure hope its someone whos just as good
I hope the backup plan doesn't involve Newsome Part 2....
I was just thinking this exact same thing... If that's announced I'm leading a riot through Blacksburg.
Frank: [out of breath] We're... We're going streaking! We're going up the quad and to the gymnasium.
Marissa: Who is?
Frank: Th... W... There's more coming.
Marissa: Frank, get in the car.
Frank: But... everybody's doing it.
French would need to be placed in a mental institution.
The only thing that would be worse would be hiring Ed Ogeron.
But.....recruiting!
Ok, I'm bracing for downvotes here. How about Shane to recruiting coordinator and Stinespring to OL coach? He did coach up quite a few all-americans.
Stiney is a good recruiter. I actually want someone who knows the position to be coaching it.
Stiney coached OL from 1994-2005.
Just because he coached it doesn't mean he knew what he was doing. I DO NOT want stiney coaching OL. Its a re-tread. Some of the very skilled rb's we had and dual threat qbs we had covered up the offensive line deficiency
Pardon me hatenmyeyez, but I have Jake Grove on line 1 wishing to speak with you.
I take it you're one of those "Stinespring is the devil!" kind of guys, no?
note: meme does not reflect the beliefs of it's creator
I'm thinking he's too young to remember some of those good OLs we had before Newsome.
I don't think hes the devil, I think he is a great recruiter. But by no means will this program get to the next step with stinespring as the OL coach. Im just done with re-treads. This program has been knocked down a peg or 2 because of loyalty to friends. Grimes is 100 times the OL coach that stiney is. IF grimes leaves I want someone just as highly touted
Shane to special teams and we hire a RB coach? Stiney can keep recruiting coordinator
Right, Shane to ST and a new OL/RB coach.
In which case, it would appear we are the ones getting the tip of the spear...
If he goes, which is what its looking like I can't even begin to imagine how/why/wtf is CFB doing? He finally gets a great coaching staff we have a mediocre year and then bamm bye bye o-line coach. I am not saying this out of spite but maybe just maybe things are slowly starting to slip by CFB.
yes I know we can't control SEC teams and their $$$ but still.. would be sad for all of #HokieNation
I want Grimes to stay as much as anyone, but if he does leave, it is in no way an indictment of CFB. Assistants move around a lot. I don't particularly like it, but that is the norm in college football right now. Look at FSU. They just lost their defensive coordinator to UGA. He was only with the Noles for a year, because last year Mark Stoops (one of 6 assistants they lost last year) left for Kentucky. Hell, even Saban lost his OC this year to Michigan.
If anything, LSU's pursuit of Grimes is further affirmation that CFB made a great hire. Again, if Grimes decides that this is the best move for his family and his career, I will hate to see him go. But there are other coaches out there and we have absolutely no reason to believe CFB won't be just as prudent with his next hire.
Conversely, this is why the head coach is so crucially important to recruiting... because assistants DO move around so much... If Frank has weaknesses... recruiting is probably one of them.
I'm not sure how much you could blame on CFB. I doubt he has offended/ostracized Grimes. If an assistant coach and HC are happy with each other, and you have to think they are here, then it is the AD's job to retain them. Oh wait... we don't have one of those right now.
What can CFB do to get and keep great assistant coaches? His hands are tied with salary limits. Is being an assistant at VT considered a stepping stone or a dead end? How well does he develop coaches? How many assistants have gone on to bigger and better things? What will ultimately determine the long term greatness of VT in football is what happens after CFB leaves. How is VT planning to keep the program going and growing? If CFB can't hire great coaches can he develop them? If he is good at preparing great coaches there would be plenty of assistants knocking at the doors in Blacksburg. So it either comes down to money or opportunity to learn. VT doesn't seem to be able to offer enough of either to compete for the top coaching talent. I feels sad.
Offered doesn't mean accepted. Have faith!
Think positive, if he does leave...Curt Newsome is not available!
But Stiney is!
Stiney was coaching the O Line when we put a lot of offensive linemen into the NFL.
Also look at the all-americans he coached. Conaty, Grove, Lehr, Derek Smith. I really want to keep Grimes but if he leaves and we can't pull high level talent, Stinespring is much better that we've had the past 7 years not including last year.
And could also run the ball well. Should not have promoted him to OC.
I don't think anybody is going to argue that.
MUMBLE MUMBLE GRUMBLE GRUMBLE MUMBLE. I can hear the other ODAC coaches laughing in my head.
ODAC coaches? I'm missing the link to Div III schools and this...
Newsome is now the head coach at Emory & Henry
Oh yeah I forgot about that.
Things might not be moving as fast as initially reported.
Or Les is just fucking with everyone.
Inconceivable.
Hopefully Grimes doesn't let this sit out there for 7-10 days with the O-Line recruits regardless of what's going on. Would love him to stay but if he is going this isn't the time of year to be screwing with recruits for a week or more
I was sort of thinking the same thing. If no decisions will be made for a week or so, it's good for us because it gives Beamer and the interim AD some time to try to keep him around. On the other hand, if he bolts but doesn't do it for 7-10 days, that is RIGHT before signing day and things could turn chaotic in a hurry.
I read this as either a) he's staying, b) Miles is throwing people off, or c) Grimes hasn't really been offered. He wouldn't sit on an offer for a week...
This sounds like Les may have someone on an NFL staff in mind. They might be available in 7 days or so. One wonders who that might be.
Gosh I'm torn on this. I honestly want the best for Coach Grimes I really do. On the other side of it, he's made promises to these kids he's recruited. He's also left the job half finished. Of course when a program like LSU comes calling, it's hard to say no. The one downside I saw to the new coaching hires was the fact that they wouldn't be able to see right off the way we see the program and Blacksburg in general.
In my opinion I believe grimes stays
In my opinion, I like your opinion.
I appreciate your opinion of his opinion.
I appreciate your appreciation of his opinion of the opinion.
And I appreciate, in said opinion, the belief and appreciation of opinions, in my opinion.
My reasoning behind this, is that he has a family with 4 children. I know that he will be offered more money by LSU, but is that money worth the expense of moving your children twice in one year? Does he want to pull them out of school halfway through the school year? I know he is a church going man, Has he found a church he really enjoys? There are many factors that go into his decision. As stated below he was offered to go to TEXAS and turned it down, good sign? Could be!
I've been thinking about the family aspect, as well, and am hoping that he doesn't want to uproot all of them so suddenly. He's jumped around a lot for nearly the last 20 years, which is probably just what the life of a college coach is, but I have to imagine it sucks.
From hokiesports.com:
Rice - 1 year
Texas A&M - 2 years
Boise St. - 1 year
Arizona St. - 3 years
BYU - 3 years
Colorado - 2 years
Auburn - 4 years
VT - 1 year
How old are the kids? In light of that sequence, when they arrived might fit the pattern, I see some longer stays in the later part of that list. It would make sense that a guy in the early part of his coaching career would move a lot to move up fast while being either single or its just him and his wife.
1 year stints make sense at the beginning of your career, but his last 4 stops before us have been a little longer. I'm hoping that we don't end up as a 1 year stepping stone but I don't have a whole lot of confidence.
I know for me, if I could make $100K more/year (or more!)..........yeah, I would uproot my family. That's a $#!T ton of money to ME.
That said, I don't have kids, so maybe my tune would be different if that was the case.
It is, but if your tax bracket gets too high you really are only taking home around $50k of that. That being said, $50k is better than a kick in the nuts.
are you implying that at some point you would rather be kicked in the nuts than be offered money? Like, 50k is acceptable but for only $100 dollars you'd take the kick?
It's not actually a kick in the nuts. It's like stroking an enormous check to the IRS, which is a kick in the nuts now that I think of it.
I know some people that have made the choice once reaching a particular income level that they cut back because you see months worth of salary going to the IRS. You start to ask why you are working just to give all that cash to the nameless bureaucracy. When they start to reach certain thresholds, they take vacation instead.
Just in case you didn't know, a vacation is NOT a kick in the nuts. Unless you want it to be.
So, in conclusion, sometimes, a raise can be a kick in the nuts but, a vacation is not. Or rather, doesn't have to be.
That's why some people make huge donations to their schools. Keep it out of the IRS's hands and you get a bitchin seat and parking spot.
It is a nice perk of being generous. :)
So the reports he was already offered are incorrect? If they had offered it wouldn't be 7-10 days...
That tweet states LM says he doesn't expect a hire for 7-10 days. Might mean an offer is out there but he is allowing time for a response, possible negotiations, or to put out another offer...
This is from Wikipedia "On January 18, 2009, Grimes was hired by new head coach Gene Chizik to fill the vacant position coaching the offensive line at Auburn University.
After the 2010 season, Grimes was interviewed by Mack Brown to become the new OL coach at the University of Texas where it was reported he would become the highest paid coach at his position in the country. Ultimately, Grimes decided to stay at Auburn."
Hope for VT that it is not all about money?
Maybe we need to start a "Why I Love Jeff Grimes" thread with our best praise, analysis, and (of course) memes to show him some love from the fan base?
How about we all offer to comb that magnificent beard of his?
^^^^ THIS!!....LOL
It cannot be tamed.
Welp, he got offered:
then,
and finally,
This.
If we lose Grimes, do we go after another zone blocking scheme OL coach? Does Leofller's offense depend on a zone scheme? Was Stiney a zone blocking guy? These are all questions that I have. We recruited man guys before, Grimes then recruited guys for a zone scheme, if we don't use a zone next year then we have a mix of guys that do different things.
I'm wondering how Ryan Pugh fits into all of this. If Grimes bolts for Baton Rouge, what are the chances Pugh is the contingency plan? He learned under Grimes and has followed him around during his young career. If Pugh is elevated to replace Coach Grimes, that would go a long way in ensuring scheme continuity, etc. I know he is extremely green, but you've got to start somewhere...seems like a logical possibility to me.
Here is what Coach Grimes said about Pugh to Andy Bitter back in April:
That would certainly allow Tech to have an inexpensive coach.
I suppose we should try to take the long view here. Grimes is an exciting, dynamic, and from all accounts superb OL coach. We were lucky to get him, and will be lucky to keep him.
That said, the bar at VT really isn't all that high. Was Newsome the worst OL coach ever in D1? I can't say. What I can say is that he was a comprehensive and consistent failure here. The fact that he couldn't teach the basic fundamentals, much less the intricacies of zone blocking, means that just getting a vanilla competent OL coach would be a vast improvement.
Grimes has started a culture change and his line showed great improvement this year, but I'm guessing it would take another year or two before this team really demonstrated his ability.
At the salaries we are willing to give, basic competence may be the best we can expect. And if we happen to find a diamond in the rough, who can not only coach but also connect and close the deal with recruits, bonus. Ryan Pugh could be that darkhorse candidate that can carry on what Grimes started.
I think you'd have to put him on the list of potential targets. Where on the list, I don't know. Good call.
I've got like...$200 in Waffle House gift cards that I will gleefully donate to the cause of keeping Coach Grimes in Blacksburg.
$200 in Waffle House gift cards is surely more valuable then whatever increase LSU could offer....how could anyone resist?!?
Two thoughts, re the 7-10 days thing....either Grimes wants some time to mull it over/let VT counter/plead with his wife to consent to moving the second time in a year, or the mad hatter was throwing out a smoke screen yesterday (wouldn't be the first time) because he wasn't prepared to address this with the media. Then there's always the possibility that Les is starting the rumor as a smoke screen, and he's waiting to interview an NFL guy, and we know Les likes NFL guys (see: Cam Cameron). Then again, maybe I'm just delusional. Someone please find Grimes and beg him not to listen to Les.
So sounds like we have to pony up $ for our / or an OL coach or find a very mobile QB and NFL capable RB in short order.
Kinda a no brainer. Spend the money!!! There are probably still some TARP or stimulus funds available.
Alternatively we could sends gifts to LSU with Grimey. If we could dismantle their athletic department before we get overrun, we might get the QB and RB we're gonna need. And in a perfectly executed assault we can get Grimey and a few Helens back to Blacksburg.
Send Grimes to LSU, he becomes OC in a year, hire him back as head coach.
If you love something, let it go.....
We would still need an OL coach
It must be money. (Or it could be the Cajun cooking.)
It can't be that Baton Rouge is a better place to raise kids than Blacksburg.
The COL of SWVA is a lot lower than just about anywhere with a major school.
He turned down Texas and that stack of cash, maybe we can keep him.
I hope so.
Are we allowed to official hate LSU now?
What? You didn't already?
Just Kidding, but I really dislike what the SEC and SEC teams are always trying to do to CFB.
Just curious, but is anybody monitoring the Twitter accounts of our 2014 OL recruits? If so, can you gather what they may be thinking about this situation?
3 of them tweeted (within the last half hour) something along the lines of "This sucks" or ":(" so I'm thinking they're not too happy.
Lets just say its not overly fantastic. But other than Brady Taylor, Tech is still the best team on each of the other fab 5s offer list. This late in the year it would be unlikely they would find a better option.
Funny you should ask... Joe just mentioned this on the TKP twitter account. This is not a good sign.
Maybe...maybe they were all doing homework and discovered that they had another assignment they had to do as well?
I was thinking they might all be bummed about the Celtics trading Jordan Crawford.
Edit: I got distracted at work as i was linking all their tweets and someone beat me to it (damn work). But the writing is on the wall
It's worse than on the wall, it's slowly being confirmed
This upsets me inordinately. I imagine we can hire someone good for the job, but I was really impressed with how quickly Grimes got our O-line functioning at a much higher level than we had seen in recent years. He was also doing great recruiting for us.
Now it is up to Beamer and the other coaches to reassure the recruits that they are still going to fit into the system, and most importantly, to find the next OL coach, who will also have to quickly reach out to these guys to make them feel good about staying with VT. The OL recruits are really exciting and I truly hope they stick with VT.
This is a situation where I want to be pissed off and place the blame on Grimes, but the blame should be placed on our athletic department for letting this happen.
There's no blame - he got an offer to work for a better program for much more money. What could VT have done here?
Well, VT could have offered more money. I think that's the point.
VT can't offer the kind of money he's getting from LSU, if the reports of him making around $400-$450K are correct.
Also, he's going to a program that has a much better chance of winning a title in the next 3-5 years.
Additionally, Grimes is from Texas - closer to home for him.
Uh... how exactly is this the fault of the athletic department? LSU has the highest paid staff in ALL of college football. More than likely it's a situation that was out of the athletic department's control.
I hate to pull this card... but why do we have an empty trophy case for the crystal ball if we aren't going to do what it takes to keep one of our best hires? The style of football Beamer and Lefty wants to play requires a dominant offensive line. In one season we saw that Grimes was building that through his technique/teaching and recruiting.
Can I be pissed at Grimes for leaving... no.
Pissed at the athletic department for not making a deal with Grimes to keep him... not really. I know we don't have deep pockets.
Am I having trouble accepting the fact that we blew an opportunity to keep a great coach but lost him to a damn SEC school? Yes.
Am I overreacting... probably. But, I WANT TO WIN DAMNIT!
Shouldn't have signed the ACC exit fee deal. All the jokers associated with that FIASCO are exiting stage left.
Economics matter. Time for these screwballs to hire some marketing people, a financial analyst and try to fix whats left of the ACC.
Just a bunch of sh**** arse non rev sports noone wants to pay to go see. Great for UVA that has like a 9 Jillion dollar endowment for their intramurals, ahem varsity rev sports.
Thats not where we are and not where we'll ever be if we're not careful.
This makes me incredibly sad. I might have to pick up another bottle of Bourbon on the way home from work.... =(
This sucks. I am so sick of the SEC. Damn them to hell.
Well, this sucks. It's also a drawback for having hardly any coaching changes in the last 6-8 years. Some programs deal with it every offseason and the fanbase's are much more accustomed to handling it. I have faith that CFB and SL will find the right guy to replace him. Still sucks though, dude looked liked he belonged in Hokie gear.
Assuming the worst case, do we expect to retain these OL recruits?
From the twitter posts up above they don't seem very happy about him leaving. We will probably lose at least one or two.
This is premature speculation in my opinion. First off, of course you'd be disappointed that the position coach who recruited you and you had the closest relationship with is leaving a program. That seems perfectly normal to me. Secondly, these commits don't appear to be candidates to be recruited for LSU. If you need some reassurance, check the offer lists for our committed players.
The one exception is Brady Taylor, who's recruitment was in the air after the OSU offer anyway. I think it's unlikely that he stays with VT at this point; otherwise, I see no reason for grave pessimism at this point. At this stage in recruiting, we're exactly 3 weeks from national signing day and these commits have a much closer relationship with VT than other schools.
Of course it's premature speculation, but players have been known to go to a different school when the one that recruited them or will coach them leaves.
Sorry but I'm still going to take issue with your statement, "We will probably lose at least one or two" when there is essentially no evidence to support that at this point (players have done it in the past is like saying Mike Vick was a 4 star QB so Ike Whitaker will probably take us to the national title game). Do you not agree that it's more likely for a player to choose a different school when they are more highly recruited/sought after? For example, Javon Harrison's primary recruiter was to leave, then I think we'd have much more reason to be worried.
Cod Toshington?
VT alum, Super Bowl champion as a player and a coach? Yes, please.
From an era when VT produced decent OLs
coached by Stinespring. In Todd's case, his entire time at VT.
Yes, this!
Damn I am really pissed about this. I feel like we weren't even given a chance....
I think its safe to assume that Brady Taylor is gone also...I just can't see him staying.
Lets hope we keep Smith, Petit, Mitchell, and Gallo.
This BS irritates me more than us getting or not getting something done. I don't sit well with I defer.
politics.
Smart move. No reason an interim AD should make any public statement without the blessing of the head coach of nearly three decades.
I don't get it, you're expressing calm, reason, and logic on a sports blog.
In a situation like this you should have had 20 Q&A ready to go. You want to seem like you've got your sh** together.
We're all making it up as we go along. But you should at least try and pretend you're on top of it.
Do you not think the AD knows the budget and what they can offer for a coach's salary prepared? Why on earth would the AD publicly comment on those things rather than discussing it with the head coach and allowing him to make the decisions he feels comfortable with?
Perception. Deferring questions to FB makes it seem like VT is not on top of it. That there is no system no process just FB doing what he gonna do when he is gonna do it.
Some people don't see a need for PR. PR means public relations and focuses on perception.
When reporters have questions about major events, you as an AD should have some answers. Punting to the coach on basic questions is just bad form. You don't have to even have a totally solid answer... but you just have to let everyone know that VT did its best and has been working towards another answer.
Maybe she did have a canned response. Some reporters like to F people over. But you generally try to restrict their access if they're going to misrepresent what you said or didn't say.
Keep in mind that a very similar thing just happened to FSU since Jeremy Pruitt, their defensive coordinator, was hired away by Georgia. Even though Pruitt's hire at Georgia was confirmed by an unnamed FSU official, I was unable to find any official statements on the events, details, or impending coaching search. It's not uncommon at all for there to be no official comment on these moves, especially when they are still in the process of happening (based on Wyatt Teller's tweet, current players haven't even been notified yet). Sure it's essentially "coachspeak" coming from a higher level in the athletic department, but I simply don't buy this as some huge botched fiasco of a situation by the VT AD. 99.9% of college football fans will end up reading the story on ESPN once it's official and they aren't going to think, "Wow VT's AD didn't even comment. What a clueless bunch of idiots must be running the show in Blacksburg!"
You're really just trying to put the perception in the minds of the recruits you care about that there is reason to hope that this is going to turn out well in short order. Everyone else will be telling them something different behind the scenes. Go read their tweets and tell me if a PUBLIC face of reassurance and confidence out of the AD or even the coaches wouldn't hurt. Beamer calling them behind the scenes I hope and the AD or even another coach publicly committing as little as possible but making it seem like this won't be the sh** show that the last hiring process was, that we believe we're tracking on a solution well before signing day, yada yada yada. Then hopefully we've got a few guys who will at least be attractive and last til the end of the process that we can dangle in front of these kids. Everyone seems to think these kids don't have offers and I get that. But these kids have an endorsement from Grimes the new LSU OL coach and now that they're in play there is likely to be some renewed interest. I'm would guess 20 programs have probably called these kids pitching against us and for them and they'll be reminding them that despite what they're hearing from the coaches the interim AD seemed to have no clue where this was headed or if there was enough money to hire someone. You gotta counter the FUD.
5 OL, 1 or 2 WR, 1 DT that seem to be on the fence... hope there are no more, but you never know
There is the demand drummed up by FSU and the demand drummed up by VT. I hate that the gap is as big as it is, but when you even have to talk about stuff like this... then there is probably a systemic reason why you can't pull recruits. You F up the little stuff (which is actually pretty hard... good PR people are worth their salaries and then some), thinking you are a big time program that doesn't need to worry about things like public (recruit) perception.
JMHO
My guess is the interim tag also carries limited power. She can't hire/fire/renegotiate like a full-time AD could.
That said, VT probably doesn't keep Grimes even if an AD was in place. You can't pay your OL coach more than every other assistant.
oh, I bet she has the power. Don't know whether she tried to use it or not.
and yes, you can pay your OL coach more than every other position coach. Which is what we're talking about here. I don't think anybody's suggested paying him more than Loeffler, much less Foster.
He just said assistant coach, which includes the OC and DC. Just to put this another way though, would you find it easy to justify paying Grimes $100k more than Charley Wiles and nearly twice as much as Torrian Gray? As has been discussed recently, VT has limited financial resources for the assistant coaching staff. If you raise Grimes' pay as much as might be necessary (I'd speculate at least the $400k range), how does that affect the compensation of other assistants who have excelled at their jobs over a much longer period of time?
That's what I was getting at (thanks for making a better point than I did). If he's getting $500K from LSU, that puts him ahead of everyone except Foster. If that happens you can bet Gray, Wiles, Stiney, and certainly Loeffler are expecting a raise as well.
Sometimes people leave for a better job, and there's nothing you can do but wish them luck.
You both seem to have glossed over my last sentence. To repeat... I don't think anybody's suggested paying him more than Loeffler, much less Foster. There are different ways that could be accomplished while increasing Grimes's salary (increasing other coaching salaries, or not, in different combinations). Each has different discussion points.
To answer the question about whether I'd be comfortable paying Grimes more than Wiles, the answer would be yes... it's not all about what you've done at VT. It's what your market worth is. We're not communists.
I don't believe either of us glossed over your last sentence. Loeffler's salary, according to Andy Bitter, is scheduled to be $400k. If you offer Grimes at least $400k (an assumption in the ballpark of LSU's offer, which may even be closer to $500k), that's a $120k raise or 50% increase. What's a reasonable amount to increase Loeffler's compensation at that point? If there are so many different ways to accomplish a large raise in Grimes' salary without flat out insulting coaches who have performed at a high level and put their trust/loyalty in Beamer, then feel free to describe them in a more detailed manner. Because I'm not seeing it.
She has the power, but doesn't necessarily wants it. Part of the reason they are moving so quickly to find the new AD is so she doesn't have to deal with the football schedule.
And yeah, no way he was staying with the kind of money they were throwing around. If Washington is indeed the top guy on the list then I think that would soften the blow.
Well that sucks. So a question for somebody that knows more about these things than me - how realistic are our chances of luring Todd Washington away from the Ravens?
Well they're gonna try
Oooh! I know. Nod Floshington
Nope...its Cod Squashington.
Nod Floshington just signed with Western Kentucky.
Not only was this a reposted tweet from like 6 comments earlier, but you guys stole my attempt at humor!
Give up on edits:
Blyrone Blashinton!
Haha...sorry RocketHokie13...I didn't see your post. Strange we both thought of Cod.
Maybe because I had a Filet o' Fish from McDonalds last night....
The stranger thing is... I don't even like fish, let alone cod.
I didn't see it either. I tried to downvote myself out of principle but alas.....
Coming in from the other side too.
That article directly links to Mike Barber's report from the Richmond Times Dispatch, so it doesn't add anything at all.
Gotcha, trying to delete it. I didn't see the Times-Dispatch link at first. Thanks!
No problem. I appreciate any additional information from sources and apologize if my response sounded harsh. For whatever reason I feel compelled to try and calm everyone down for the time being.
No worries, I've had my ass chewed by the best so I got pretty thick skin. You're not gonna hurt my feelings!
Of our 2014 OL verbals, Grimes was personally responsible for recruiting Petit, Taylor, and Gallo. Of the three, I believe Taylor is most in jeopardy of dropping us in favor of his hometown favorite, tOSU.
The primary recruiter for Smith and Mitchell is Cornell Brown with Grimes as secondary. Just my opinion, but I think those two are in less danger of jumping ship.
I believe all but Taylor will stick with their verbals as long as we get a quick decision from a new OL Coach (hopefully Todd Washington). Stiney is apparently already talking with them to let them know what's going on, and I expect him to continue that line of communication until we land the new coach.
Don't forget Pfaff reports this month - we will still have five new OLs , Fab 5 or not.
Boom! Research, I like it!
I never knew Ken Ekanem's full name...
If its any consolation, Cartoons Plural has reaffirmed his committment to the Hokies....
Grimes let the commits know before his own current OL players?
We'll get a better coach. JG is probably talking it over with family and friends before he decides. There may also be some contract issues to work out before it can become official.