This is true. We should be undefeated. That was a painful loss, and I'm really tired of the feeling of these type of losses. 30 years ago my best football dream was for us to be competitive with national teams, instead of getting demolished in each big game. We've been competitive. The pain is worse. Do I use my Fighting Gobbler t-shirt to wipe grease off my lawn mower engine? Hell No.
I was thinking similarly. It's strange how close we are to being undefeated right now, yet it doesn't feel close. It's frustrating that it seems this team is good enough to win the rest of our games yet I have zero confidence that will happen. Heck, I'm not real confident we'll get three more wins.
Overall, I liked that we seemed to try to push the ball downfield more this game rather than running sideline to sideline every play but if we had been doing that all season, maybe we'd be better at it now. In general, the play calling didn't bother me as much this game as many but when we had first and goal at the one, it bothers me that we a) can't line up under center and sneak one in even if it takes two sneaks and b) we don't have a power back we trust to put in the game and run it right up the gut.
So frustrating that we're both good enough to win out and bad enough to lose out the rest of the season all at the same time.
Yeah, especially since it takes 20 seconds to get a play in, have the QB look over to the sideline to make sure it's the right one, look at the defense, and then look at the sideline again.
have the QB look over to the sideline to make sure it's the right one, look at the defense, and then look at the sideline again.
That☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼this right here REALLY grinds my gears. I know it shouldn't, but it does. To me, it comes across as clueless & lack of prep, poor communication and scheming.
The downvotes keep rolling in but I stand by this. There's like 2 out of more than 1000 defending him on this site. "Fuente defender" is a strawman, getting angry about it is noise. Also fuck gloating over a loss
there are definitely DV stalkers around TKP. They recognize a name they tend to disagree with and then they'll just DV every post the see regardless of whether or not the post actually deserves a DV. I have at least one or two stalkers myself. Comes with the territory when you post a lot and are a vocal proponent for an opinion that not everyone shares.
Yeah, I'm finding that out myself, haha. (The funny thing is, I don't care about DVs on any other comment I've made in this thread, because I had a certain tone on one or two of them. But they go after the one I made to try and lighten the mood a bit. Go figure)
Well I believe you were (publicly) done with Fuente before anyone else (except maybe TJB if he was never sold on CJF to begin with). You're kind of like the anti-Fu ambassador at this point, and being a lightning rod goes along with that I guess. It is what it is
Yeah I was gonna say Alum is probably closer to being the anti-fu ambassador than I am haha. Or DC. I'm certainly loud but I wasn't the first. I was all for giving him more time after 2018. I thought he should have fired Cornelsen then but was willing to give him time to prove us wrong. At this point, he hasn't done that and I'm ready to move on.
I was pretty much done after the slow start to 2019 and the Duke debacle. I knew he just wasn't going to get it done here, barring significant strides in recruiting and staff shakeup. Was willing to give him a pass somewhat on 2018 with a lot of young players and the beginning of a rebuild, but we have gone nowhere as a program since then.
You generally put together well thought out posts about why he should be fired or whatever. But once you get vulgar you lose me. He's still a good human person with a family who is working hard to put together a successful product on the field.
I don't care. I'm so done pussyfooting around this shit just to appease the feelings of everyone who still worships at the feet of Fuente. This man is not good at his job. This man should not be our coach. This man also makes multiple millions per year to put this fucking shit product out there.
I'm over this. This loss sucked but i understand the direction this site is going regardless of how the rest of the season goes. Y'all have a good one.
Even more poignant, what does having a fam anything to do with fielding a competent offense to help balance out (& pick up the shortcomings, sometimes) the defense?
I can't do this anymore. Our program is a joke, our quarterback doesn't have a throwing arm, and we've played one ACC game so far. To think I was excited to watch this game today, is hysterical. I wasted 3.5 hours of my life only to go to sleep upset again. I'll tune back in when Fuente is gone. Until then, I can find more life giving things to do on Saturdays.
I wouldn't say right in the hands...it hit the dude's fingertips. But a layout for the catch may have caught it. Either way, it was a helluva try on both Burmeister and Turner, but it was not the straw that broke the camel's back. There was a whole effing bale of hay that broke that poor camel's back in this game.
Im torn - we left a lot of opportunities out there but I also feel like all the players gave it their all. Still mad about that linemen down the field penalty nowhere close to the play as a group of linemen are essentially standing around
Add the complete and total clock mismanagement of the last 1:30 of this game to the ever-growing list of fire-able offenses Fuente has committed at VT. Yet another game lost solely on bad in-game coaching and complete roster mismanagement.
Whit won't do a damn thing about it though. We're a shit-tier program now and completely comfortable with it.
This -- people (rightfully) crap on Corny all the time, and you definitely don't throw it 3 straight times. A little bit of a better throw and it's a TD, but Tre shouldn't have dropped it anyhow.
It shouldn't have even come down to that fucking play. Yeah Tre dropped it, but our offense was incompetent and impotent for the vast majority of the night.
Barring Notre Dame using all its timeouts, three run plays with the clock going takes a minute and ten seconds off the clock if you do it right. Even if Notre Dame used its timeouts, you still run over 40 seconds off the clock at a minimum. It would have forced either a 55-60 yard fg attempt at a minimum or a Hail Mary. If you are looking to the Turner pass, if you think you have it setup, do it on first down so if it doesn't work you can run two more times.
I'm all for trying to win the game but we should have run the ball after they got the tied up to eat clock. Not a fan of making bb3 throw it on a hurt arm
Not here to try to defend the coaches by any means, but to say the players "played their nuts off" is a bit of an overstatement. There were many instances where players were out of position, keying on the wrong reads, and making missed tackle after missed tackle. So while their hearts may have been in it 150%, their effort, at times, was sub-par. That being said, the coaches certainly didn't set them up to succeed, and that is the most atrocious offense since they are getting paid for what they do.
I see what you're saying, but from my eyes the times the players went flat was because they knew the staff had no faith in them to make plays. These guys don't play lazy, they don't play like they don't care. Missing some assignments is going to happen no matter how hard you play (which is another indictment on the coaching staff, but I digress).
The ONLY reason we didn't lose by 10+ is because guys like BB gave it everything on the field. Kudos to the players, they deserve FAR better than the shit this coaching staff puts them through.
I mean why don't we do something like have a 300+pound guy line up as an RB, have the QBs hand it to him, and let him bulldoze his way in. I mean from the 1???
Could've called TO on the play before that too and saved even more. Fuente had made up his mind for some reason that it was better to bank on them missing a makeable FG than to actually try and give ourselves a chance to win.
That loss is completely on the shoulders of the coaching staff electing to go for two at the end of the third. No reason that early. Take the point. Notre dames late two point conversion is irrelevant if they take the damn point. Inexcusable.— Sean Glennon (@SeanGlennon7) October 10, 2021
VT could have tried to run out the clock after the TD and/or ND would've done an onside kick and VT would've at the very least had a field goal attempt and ND would've had zero timeouts.
That was the dumbest thing Fuente did all day and he had 100% control over it. It would've been the equivalent of Beamer going for two after a 5 yd penalty with Greg Boone at QB.
I still think it's an example of a bad decision because they elected to go for 2 points after a false start penalty. And everyone knew when Blumrick was QB, it was going to be a running play.
His reasoning is that a td and conversion don't tie it if we are up 9, so Notre Dame is forced into an onside kick. Barring them recovering, it changes your entire offensive game plan. You start further upfield, you run three straight times, ND takes both timeouts, which means even if you don't run for a first down, there is only about a minute left on the clock when Notre Dame takes over. Still no guarantee but they are much less likely to be in fg range by the end AND they have no timeouts left if they get close, forcing them to rush out to kick.
Maybe. But if we are up 9, ND probably kicks to be down 2 and then try the onsides kick. If we recover, we have better field position to burn the clock. Not that we would have though with these coaches
Meh. Result as expected, path was different. Shit still stinks like shit.
Remember that one time we had a young QB who passed for a metric shit ton of yards in high school, but he threw an interception in a college game once and was never allowed to throw again? Seems to happen with certain young running backs too. Super cool. He wouldn't have won the game either, but it'd be cool to think that our backups are better than a gimped up starter.
I'm just going to enjoy the fall and find something else to think about. We will be lucky to win 2 or 3 more games. The offense is putrid, and it's apparent that we don't really have a QB on the roster. Defense plays great for stretches and then completely falls apart at times. Like Hamilton, but this just isn't good enough. Looking forward to the inevitable house cleaning that needs to happen. We have plateaued under Fuente and are now regressing. It's time to move on and rebuild.
It may not have been the sole reason we lost the game, but HOLY FUCK was the officiating HORRIBLE tonight. Not just on one side either, both teams had dumb fuck calls by the zebras that were just bad.
I was at the game and couldn't fully make out what was said, but for the love of god, how was it not a horsecollar tackle when I could see it from the stands? Full hand inside jersey and pads and ripping Holston(?) to the ground. Like isn't that the definition of a horse collar?
the explanation is that horsecollar by rule can't occur within the tackle box. it's the correct call according to the rule, but why a horsecollar in the tackle box is somehow more safe than one outside the tackle box (and is therefore allowed) is bonkers to me.
*allegedly* it's not a horsecollar tackle if it happens inside the tackle box. Feel like that carve out is intended to avoid calls when there's a mass of humanity all bunched up between the guards and someone blindly grabs a collar in the scrum.
the coaches took this game away from Braxton and the players. why do a prevent defense at the end instead of bum-rushing a pocket qb, a scheme that literally caused him to get benched in the 1Q.
it's very depressing.
I said this in one of the game threads so please forgive the repeat comment here:
Herndon Hooker threw for 3 TDs and rushed for another.
Burmeister rushed for 1 TD.
Now I know he got hurt and I'm not trying to get down in a guy who is competing like heck for us; the dude has guts. But I can't get over how this coaching staff kept telling everyone that they were confident in Burmeister with the passing game. I'm just not seeing it. Again, I'm very appreciative of the competitor that he is and he really gave it his all, but I got to ask this coaching staff:
"How the heck does Herndon Hooker become a better QB after he leaves our program? Please explain."
Since your comment is an indictment of the coaching staff then I totally agree....I will not shit on our QB1 who almost won us the game with one arm. This just fucking sucks.
Yes. I didn't write the greatest comment, but that was the main point I'm trying to make.
If you read the statements I said about how much guts Burmeister has, you can see I'm trying to avoid criticizing the guy. He left everything on the field and then some. So yes, I'm criticizing the coaching staff.
I watched parts of the Tennessee game today and I kept asking myself how the heck did Hooker get better at Tennessee in his first year under new coach and playbook.
how the heck did Hooker get better at Tennessee in his first year under new coach and playbook.
It's Josh Heupel's offense, that's why. It's meant to go UCFast, pinpoint, killer instinct. BB3 would put up numbers, too. Jerod would win a Heisman with it.
Its the difference between finding an Offensive strategy that maximizes your players strengths and trying to shoehorn a tired, predictable Playbook onto your players without regard.
The coaches should have trusted the offense players on 4th and 1. The defense was never gonna stop that last drive. The lack of trust between the coaches and the players is visible. WTF...
I just dont know where to go from here.
Can't wait to hear all the defenses for Fuente's decisions.
Then I can't wait for Fuente to blame this all on execution by the players on Monday.
Then I can't wait for everyone to go look at Hooker's stats for UT today and tell me the staff didn't fail him miserably. I'll keep banging that fuckin' drum as long as he's playing in college.
If you put Fuente and Corny in a barrel full of nipples, they would come out sucking their thumb. The incompetence is comical at this point. But, you know, GRIT.
We don't have a QB because Justin fucking Fuente ran the entire fucking QB room out of town over the offseason. Burmeister shouldn't even be the fucking starter right now, it should be Hooker.
It makes no fucking sense. I have zero sympathies for the coaches on the QB situation they now have because it's their own fault. They dicked everyone around the last few years and ended up with a guy who can't throw as their top option.
At QB.
I mean great he has guts you'd want in any player and a.drive to win, but dammit why go with the guy who has the least amount of talent.
It comes down to roster mismanagement, yet again. We had Hooker and QP, yet per Fuente "he promised BB3 a chance to come in and compete for the starting job." He is a gutsy player and plus athlete, and I'm not knocking him in the slightest, but why did we even sign him?
At this point just have to go with Kadum or Blumrick the next week or two. There's no way Burmeister is completely healed by then. He's on record saying he was least healthy for Richmond and we saw clearly he aggravated it much worse tonight.
Yeah, I don't think Blumrick should see the field again. The kid looked like he was in a lot of pain. Hope he gets healthy and just take the time to heal.
Even with a healthy Blumerick it would be futile because CornFu run such a dipshit offense with him at QB that it'd never last for more than one series. By series #2 or #3 we be, as Randy Quaid once eloquently put it, "looking like a monkey fucking a football".
Pitt is coming off a bye week too. Unfortunately I think Pitt blows our doors off next weekend. I don't know that we will have a QB to run what little offense we have to begin with.
What's sickening to me is I want our Hokies to win so badly but at the same time knowing winning means keeping CornFu literally makes me want them to lose so we can move on as a program. Fuente is not an offensive genius or a QB whisperer or even a great G5 coach he had a couple of above average seasons at Memphis and was in the right place at the right time and had one good season with a team full of FRANK BEAMERS players and turned it into a hell of a payday to ruin a once proud program.... I'm so sad right now.... I seriously believe Bud retired because he knew Fuente was a fucking hack and refused to let the stress of coaching for an incompetent fucking idiot kill him... If we had given Bud or Shane the job in 2015 I believe Bud is still here but no we're stuck with CornFu(cking piece of shit!).
It doesn't help that UNC has been revealed to be a fraud. Same with FSU when we beat them. Same with ND when we beat them. Fuentes biggest wins up being against down teams
I would almost be willing to bet Whit has been working the back channels and lining things up behind the scenes. Hopefully though his choice doesn't get cold feet at the 11th hour or walk away like last year. But I'm sure things have been in motion already.
I agree with this. $2.5 million is worth the ability to get a head start on the coaching shitstorm that is sure to start pretty soon. There are several P5 teams that are going to be out there looking for a new head coach soon. Can we afford to be the last in that line so we can wait until 12/16?
And, how many hundreds of thousands, or millions, do you earn in fan respect by showing that you (as in Whit Babcock) understand that Fuente & Co are failing the Hokie Nation and that you are willing to do something about it, even if it means taking a loss before the gains?
SoCal is already available. After today, I feel for sure LSU is gonna be open. Miami will be as well. Penn St could be if Franklin leaves for SoCal. FSU, maybe, depending on what the rest of Norvell's season looks like. So there's definitely gonna be some stiff competition out there in the market this season. I doubt we're in play for any of the top candidates (Tier 1) that those schools would go after anyway but if there's a Tier 2 coach that you think you can get and might have to compete with a couple of other schools, I'd much prefer to get in there first with talks. At the very least, backchannels BETTER be open or you just flat out suck at your job. Situations like this, phone lines should always be open. You never admit it. But they should always be open.
And FWIW without revealing anything specific that's behind a paywall, everything I've seen both behind paywalls to public forums to 3rd or 4th hand information from a buddy with donor ties, money is NOT an issue. It's there if it needs to be used. It's just a matter of if the decision makers will actually wake up and go thru with it.
Yep. Especially considering the timing of events last year. Auburn and Texas opened up late, especially Auburn. If we made the move at the time we should have, we realistically could have had our guy, whoever that may have been, before those jobs even opened up.
At least it exposed how truly dire our QB situation has become. We know Kadum is a third/fourth string depth guy at best, BB has guts and can run a little but has serious limitations, and Blumrick can't hit the broad side of a barn and is a TE at QB.
-Josh Jackson regressed
-Ryan Willis regressed
-Hendon Hooker regressed and was run out of the program to only to be successful elsewhere
-Quincy Patterson regressed and was run out of the program only to be successful elsewhere
-Braxton Burmeister regressed
-Zero competent passing QB's currently on roster
-Lost to ODU
-Lost to Liberty, on a game winning play he negated with a coaching decision
-Completely obliterated by average Pitt teams in 2018/2020 (will happen again next week)
-Completely obliterated by below average Georgia Tech in 2018
-Completely obliterated by below average Duke team at home in 2019
-back to back sub-P5 caliber recruiting classes in 2020/2021
-ended a league leading bowl streak
-4Q coaching decisions against ND tonight to lose the game
I'm bored of writing this but it's far from an exhaustive list, how in the flying fuck is it acceptable for this absolute fucking clown to still be our coach?
Subjectively I might hate this more than anything but hilariously it doesn't even come close to making the short list of fire-able things he's done for me. UVA was decent, it was on the road, and the streak had to end sometime.
There are literally two-to-three dozen things he's done in the last 5 years I consider way worse.
I will likely be hungover tomorrow, barely be able to speak due to screaming in the stands and my ears are ringing. Just...damn. Between the "targeting" call on Dax and the lack of completion between tre and bb...I am so sad. Defeat stolen out of the grasp of victory, yet again.
The players gave everything they had. Could not be prouder of them.
Sorry to say, the targeting call on Dax was correct. Dax didn't do anything horrible, it wasn't blatantly malicious, but crown of helmet to face is literally the definition of targeting. Just like the ND guy that got booted, don't think he was doing anything malicious either.
100%. There were so many bad calls of targeting in the first few years of the penalty, but I think they are zeroing in on exactly what they are trying to prevent.
Maybe it's my O&M glasses, but that ND hit looked like he was trying to eff up our defenseless defender. But Dax just took a poor angle at the tackle, lowered his head a bit too much, and that was the first thing to make contact. Nothing intentional, just poor form, and a harsh penalty.
Wanted to second this. Even the replay in Lane looked clean. I got a call from somebody watching at home during the game that said it was legit. Sad cause we will miss him during Pitt.
It's just so aggravating that a person would GET F'ING PAID for being terrible at his job. Fire him anyway. Make the move and sue him afterwards for terrible on-the-job performance. I - and I'm assuming everyone else here - would never get a deal where if I sucked at my job I'd get paid 3x my yearly salary for literally getting fired.
Another thing that really ticks me off is that our offense didn't even score the 29 points. Take away the pick 6 and the field goal setup by another interception by the defense and Cornfu's trash of an offense only scored 19 points.
If you wanted to fire Fuente, congrats you're right. If you wanted to wait out the season, congrats cause you'll find reasons for that too. I'm gonna probably check out for the season cause I'm tired of arguing with the same people every week about semantics.
Regardless of the result I'm already fearing the dumbest, loudest people arguing and I haven't felt that way since Beamer retired.
Honestly, and sadly agree. Been watching the games of teams we will play and damn it, they all look capable of beating us. Syracuse is basically a running team and they have their own version of Burmeister, but with better plays. GT looks decent and Pitt will just unload on us with Pickett at QB. UVa looked pretty good against Louisville today. Ugh, that last statement hurt to write, but it's the truth. BC looks like a tough out so yeah, I am not seeing a lot of wins left on the schedule, even with a healthy QB1.
This. I am pretty worried that Whit will find a way to justify a tanking season because Fuente is down to his 3rd and 4th QBs, even though he runs them into the ground until they die, transfer, or develop elsewhere.
This loss sucks but I'm more concerned on how we come out of this and into the Pitt game. Limp QB is the last thing we will need in what will likely be a shootout.
right? but the difference is the firing squad we're about to face has every rifle loaded instead of just one. Saturday is likely going to be a bloodbath
edti: good chance Fuente out does himself and we lose by a larger margin, at home, than we did to Duke
First, it's Pitt, so it's gonna be ugly no matter what. Factor in key QB injuries and an OC that should have been fired years ago, plus whatever game strategy they're gonna go with because they're scared of something.
not to mention our defense will be hobbled in the first half without Dax. I wouldn't be shocked if Pitt scores 35+ points in the first half and only 7 or 14 in the second
although, for them, this game is probably won in the first quarter if they score twice.
Given the history between the 2 men, there is a 0% chance that Narduzzi takes his foot off the pedal during this game. He's going to go for the killshot with intention to absolutely bury Fuente's career.
About sums up how I feel. Tonight. WVU when we scores 0 points in the red zone. The 3 game stretch last season where we had a 4% chance of losing all three and we went 0-3.
Injuries will get us - was mentioned preseason. It's on us now. We've been close in both losses. But this could get real ugly. Pulling for the guys. Playing gutsy.
Has anyone seen Hendon Hooker and Quincy Patterson Balling out at QB? Anyone else think Fuente has a real problem knowing who his best QB is?! Like how is Braxton a better option than QP or HH?
This is a stupid take....don't question our guy who literally almost won the game with one arm for us. If you want to question the staff and how they develop QBs, fine. But don't shit on someone who gave everything he had to win. This coaching staff is the issue.
Settle down. He didn't trash BB. He is questioning Fuente knowing what a good QB is by using comparables to QP and HH. That's a fair criticism given how they are performing.
It's not BB. If BB was playing in Tennessee, he'd be putting up numbers too. The coaches looked like they trusted the offense a bit more today but it was still obviously not enough. If BB is out for any length of time, we are fudged.
I love BB3 and his gutsy play, no doubt. But if you can't see that both QP and HH are far more talented than BB3 then we aren't watching the same thing.
I'd like to take the opportunity to deflect some anger at someone other than the VT coaches. Did anyone happen to get angry at the ACC Network in how they paid 20 minutes of lip service to VT at the beginning of the game (because of how badass our pregame rituals are), but then after that it was nothing but indecent oral sex service on ND every chance they got? Notre Dame is NOT an ACC school, so why are you commenting on them and showing video of their sideline every damn chance you get? I saw their stupid fighting irish mascot like 20 times, but never once (I did take restroom breaks, tbh) did I see the Hokie Bird.
Maybe I'm jaded, but man I am sick and tired of the ACC sucking up to Notre Dame with their half-assed membership in the conference. I can understand that from their bitches at NBC, but our own damned conference network was gushing all over ND for the entire game. Am I justified in my observation? or just deflecting anger from the loss?
Tim Hasselbeck was God awful tonight. Aside from the ND lust, he just provided zero insight. He just stated braindead opinion after braindead opinion and the times where he was actually trying to dissect a play, he was usually completely wrong about what he was looking at.
Like when he was going on about why we took a timeout before ND's last FG attempt. "It's third down!" No, asshat, your own screen says 4th and 1. I know that ACCN was bad with graphics last year, but in that case, find the dial-a-down and figure out who's right.
I noticed it too, they were talking about that RB like he walked on water and then made Cone seem so much better than he actually was. It felt like they were trying to show ND, "Hey NBC isn't the only one that can suck you off"
Yeah and let's not overlook the defensive collapse we had. People keep clamoring to keep Hamilton around, and... I just don't see it. I don't see the hype. The defense is good but it's not great. I don't see anything worth keeping around in a house cleaning.
In this case I think it was a lot of a more physical/talented team overcoming anything that Hamilton could have done, scheme-wise. ND's players simply man-handled our players in many cases, and in others it was that they were speedier, causing our players to miss tackles.
I'm not super angry about that, but I agree that Hamilton hasn't done enough to protect him, at all costs, from friendly fire of getting rid of Cornelsen, Fuente, etc.
Against a statue QB we created no pressure to move his feet except on the two point conversion where the right tackle tackled our defensive end. Even Hasselbeck as bad as he was commented on knowing the QB was NOT a mobile QB. Gone are the days of all out blitz and overwhelming the offense unfortunately.
First year with the new scheme... just started recruiting the players he needs. I'm not sure you can find a whole lot of other examples of the kind of turnaround like the one his unit has had from last season to this one.
Yes, there have been some head scratching moments this season, but they are certainly much improved.
I understand that you're upset, but please don't call Whit Babcock a coward. There is literally nothing that he's demonstratively done that indicates he's a coward. If anything there are only rumors that indicate that his hands were tied when it was, perhaps, most important for him to move. At the time, hiring Fuente was a great move, and at the time, extending his contract was a great move. Hiring Buzz Williams was a great move despite Buzz's exit from the program. Hiring Mike Young was a great move, as well. I can't even speak to the other sports, but nothing that I know of speaks of cowardice.
Would you have preferred indecisive? Or feckless? Those work for me too.
Whit said in his December presser "...will this decision be right? I have no earthly idea". You can buy into conspiracy theories that his hands were tied, or that Fuente somehow talked him into staying, but the legacy program and cash cow of this athletic department is hemorrhaging fan support, money and energy, and the buck *should* stop with the AD to fix that. And he hasn't. Not only that, he hasn't leaned on this head coach to make any changes to his offensive staff that runs out there like a flag football squad game after game.
Whit is literally paid millions of dollars to manage this situation and get it right. He puffs his chest out after Duke 2019, he is punchy in the December presser about things changing, and yet here we are. So yes, I believe it's a cowardly thing to duck your professional responsibilities in this instance.
If nothing else, Whit should quit or take another job (and would, if he was a smart and self-respecting AD) if he is that handicapped by the school that he can't do the most important part of his job properly. The fact that he's not only still here, but signed an extension, doesn't really support the conspiracy theories a lot of people have that he wanted Fuente gone and was overruled. It's wishful thinking by many because the alternative, which is likely reality, is much more depressing to think about.
No I'm tired of everyone putting him on the pedestal. Fuente was not a "great hire at the time". He was fine. Tell me who we beat out for him?
And extending his contract was not a great move. It was chicken shit cowardly move and I hope we learned a lot from that. Whit played scared now he's a hostage for a kings ransom.
And stop with the conspiracy theories to defend him not taking action last year. He blew a golden chance
And stop with the conspiracy theories to defend him not taking action last year.
I am not spreading or supporting any conspiracy theories. I was merely acknowledging their existence as a plausible explanation for what happened instead of jumping to conclusions based on emotion. All I am saying is that there is nothing demonstrable to indicate that Whit is a coward AD.
Do you know every candidate that was available at the time that Frank was retiring and Whit needed to find a replacement? NO
Do you know every convo that Whit had with each candidate, or their agents, to know for sure that Whit dropped the ball, undersold the job at VT, or otherwise acted like a chicken shit coward AD? NO
Do you know every detail of the situation of the end of last year that you can confidently say that Whit tucked his tail and kissed Fuente's ass to keep him on another year instead of firing him and going with someone else? NO
Do you know that there was a better candidate out there that wanted the VT job but Whit sat there like a chicken shit coward, didn't call up, and hence he was left with the bare cupboard that is Fuente & Co? NO
What golden chance did Whit have, and at exactly what point? Oh wait, you don't know what you are talking about! You know seemingly nothing of the very complex landscape that is being an Athletic Director. You only assume that football is the only important thing for VT athletics and that it is more important to act with your balls than it is to act with your brain.
I am by no means a homer for Whit, but I can at least admit I know very little of the decisions that he has to make, trust that he is making the best decisions for ALL of VT athletics, and will refrain from crucifying the man until it can be proven that he shat the bed.
I can at least admit I know very little of the decisions that he has to make
Trust that he is making the best decisions
You have as little evidence to support that he made the best decisions as I have that he did not. However, I and at this point it feels like most, can objectively say that whatever decisions he made did not work out. Therefore the conclusion is that he made the wrong one.
Yes that is in hindsight to some, but I felt underwhelmed with the hire from the beginning. I think the best measure of a coaching hire (obviously besides success down the line) is what other programs were competing to hire him. So I guess I'll ask the group again, who did we beat out to hire Justin Fuente?
And I think it's important to keep that in mind going forward with our next hire. You should be skeptical if our next head coach isn't on the radar of other programs.
you can Google as easily as the rest of us though. At the time Fuente was considered one of the hottest up and coming coaches. Whit hired a coach that was being talked about for multiple programs at the time. None of us were in the room of those other programs though, so it depends on whether you believe the reporting or not. Hindsight is meaningless in that regard.
Do I believe in Whit? well, he did hire a "hot" coach at the time (fact). And he has made other excellent hires, eg Mike Young ( also fact). So while pissed off at the situation, I'm waiting for the replacement and see what Whit does to rectify the situation.
Don't get your hopes up that anything will change. It'll be Lucy with the football in December again, and Fuente will be back. Despite his many attempts of trying to be fired, he just can't seem to get Whit's attention.
Fuente has 2 lifelines waiting for him at the end of the season. TCU is one when GP retires. I don't know the other (would guess it's FSU). But he only gets those lifelines if he is not fired here at VT.
Post game presser was emotional. This is a solid locker room, but without a QB, Fuente might be toast. What's worse in my eyes at least, all those 4* committed to the class, may not stay if he is let go.
Oh yes, our currently ranked 20th class which will surely be ranked around 35 at the end of the cycle would be a disaster to lose and would sink our absolutely mediocre program in a way we would never recover from.
This was like watching England in a shootout in a major tournament: you know it's inevitable you just don't know how they're gonna lose it this time around
I'm not gonna criticize the kids overmuch. I'm just not, I think it's a bad look. They aren't professionals.
The coaches are. But we've all said the same things about them before. Anything I might say would just be more rehashing. I just...I don't know where we (or I) go from here.
Ugh...I watched the Texas A&M/Alabama highlights and it hurts my soul to watch their QBs throwing strike after strike and yet we have issues getting it a few yards down the field through the air.
Don't know why... but I think he should stay and people should cool the jets. Let's see how we handle the rest of the season. It was a great game and yes the 2pt conversion and punting late in the 4th were questionable but the refs were tough today and the ND QB situation today was quite remarkable. The back up playing lights out and the starter redeeming himself was impressive. Our team was at a talent deficit in this game and it is hard to get the players at VT. People don't want to admit that. I feel like the building blocks are there and the program is just playing tight right now. I wish everybody would just exhale and play and coach more free. Next year is a bad year to be looking for a head coach. No doubt a move needs to be made at OC but you don't do it mid season. I am good to let him play out his contract and basically mandate some coaching moves at the assistant level. I know I am in the minority but so be it.
I find this to be a bad take. It's a consistent trend of mediocrity. The talent deficit is a coaching staff issue as much as any bad play call. Recruiting experts (Barton Simmons formerly of 247 and Bud Elliott of 247) have been extremely critical of our recruiting efforts. We are under-recruiting our potential by a lot. A good coach would not only have a better gameplan but would have talent that could compete with just about anyone in the county. We are not Wake Forest. We are a legit football program that should be ranked year in year our. Fuente isn't doing that after 6 fuckin years. He.Needs.Ta.Go.Periodt.
With all due respect, but this is year 6 of the Justin Fuente era; how many more years will it take? My greatest frustration is his insistence that Brad Cornelson is a great OC. Look at our revolving door of QB talent. If you can stomach it, lookup the stats for Herndon Hooker and Quincy Patterson.
Hooker with the highest completion % of his career (69.6%), already equaled his highest touchdown number at 13, only thrown 1 interception in 112 attempts. He has added 3 more tds on the ground with 282 yards rushing.
QP stats aren't that impressive over 4 games. He has 430 yards passing and 3 tds on 61% completion. He has rushed for 268 yards and 3 tds. NDSU though is a very run oriented team, averaging 317 rushing yards per game. They also only allow opponents 60.8 yards rushing per game and 220 overall.
And it will only get harder to get players here if up-and-coming recruits see that VT can't win the games that they should, that they are letting talent transfer out of the program to have more success at other programs, and really just have no identity other than the best damn entrance in all of college football.
Buzz Williams and Mike Young have done more than enough to show this is nothing more than a weak excuse. Its very possible to get good players to come to VT, you just have to not suck at it.
People don't want to admit that.
Probably because its a crap excuse. If we can recruit at a high level in basketball, there is zero excuse for not being able to do so in football.
Texas A&M beat Alabama with a backup quarterback. Hell, Notre Dame just beat us with a backup quarterback. Why can't we have nice things like a reliable backup? Oh yeah that's right, ours is busy rebuilding Tennessee's football program.
Honestly the bigger beef needs to be that Fu and Co didn't sign a decent QB in the 19 and 20 classes. No way in this age of college football you are going to keep two upper classmen QBs that have starting potential on the roster.
Going to bed at halftime was a good command decision. And honestly I had already switched over to the Dodgers at that point. I feel bad for you guys that are still so emotionally invested in this program, Fuente is just going to keep hurting you. Root for the players and they are playing their hearts out but just keep expecting the coaches to not put them in positions to succeed and you will not be too upset imho...
99% sure watching the body language, Buchner gassed the defense. Coan came in and started shooting freaking laser beams, and we couldn't get home. I don't think it mattered what defense we played at that point.
If I remember correctly from previous film breakdown, the defense really drops off when Dax is out. A lot of those up the middle and over the middle plays ND made on that last drive were plays that Dax usually shuts down. So his loss hurt there and it's REALLY going to hurt against Pitt in the first half.
I said this before the season...with the lack of depth we have at DL and in the secondary, holding leads in the 4th Q is going to be dicey. And particularly on the DL, some of our 2nd stringers don't have P5 size or athleticism.
So you can't effectively pressure the QB and have a tired secondary so it's a pick your poison situation. Play aggressive and risk getting beat deep or play soft and hope to bend but don't break.
We sent Hollifield on the Blitz a couple (maybe Tisdale on the 2nd) times and didn't get close.
Our Offense was going to need to control the ball and score points in the 4th Q for this to be a successful season...unfortunately that simply isn't going to happen.
Frustrating because that's a winnable game on so many fronts: Pull down that dropped interception, Catch that pass late in the game, get pressure on nd QB on last drive, don't waste red zone opportunity.....
I'm proud of the players and they represented well.
My football fan eye went away thinking nd had some dirty plays, NOT a brian Kelly fan. They could've been called for hits OOB, etc.
But, if we want to take a step up to a legit top-20 team, we've got to improve in about every phase. And that goes back to the head Coach being willing to make changes.
Defense is better, but they tanked at the end.
Offense is anemic and stalls when it counts the most.
I'm not sure how anyone can objectively look at the product on the field/results and defend it.
Still proud to be a Hokie, really proud of the effort by the team, crowd, etc. Fun game to watch if you're a college football fan and NOT a Hokie.
So conflicted. I want to win these games (another to the list since the 90's of what if's) but you can't win these games if we want a regime change in program.
but you can't win these games if we want a regime change in program.
Perhaps I misinterpreted your statement, but it sounds like you are torn between wanting to win these games, but you don't think we would win these types of games if we change coaching staff. Hence my reply asking you if you thought this was the coaching staff to win these types of games.
My apologies Hokie Fireman, I misread your statement. Another poster pointed out my mistake to me
I think he's saying the opposite actually. As a fan he wants the team to win. But he also wants a regime change and that won't happen if we win those games.
As I watched the winning FG split the uprights and realized through continued abysmal clock management we had left ourselves no possibility of answering, I couldn't help but rationalize...at least this makes it more likely that they fire Fuente before next Season.
I'm deflated. Lane was juiced last night. The fans wanted the win, the team wanted the win (and they played so damn tough, cliche I know) and confounding decision making, and scant depth got in the way. (A reoccurring narrative.)
I mean VT lost and that's never good. But on the bright side it's one more nail in Fuente's coffin lid. Here's hoping we have a much better staff in place next year. Im looking forward to checking back IN to Hokie football. 🥃
It's very frustrating how close we are to 5-0. Notre Dame was an expected loss. But the way we lost hurts. Same with WVU, a toss up game we should have won.
Marcolini hit the nail on the head with the 2008 comparison. We lost 4 games that year in equally frustrating fashion. We won the ACC and went to the Orange Bowl.
I don't know if Fuente gets us to Charlotte. Right now, he needs to find a QB, cause we may not have BB3 for awhile.
You're about to learn about the gulf in quality between the coaching staff of 2008 and the one today. Beamer coached that team to Charlotte. Fuente will end up 6-6 or worse.
The most frustrating part, is judging by the eye test this season, we let the two better QBs walk...now, maybe they are only better now because they are getting competent coaching, but who knows
I have no animus towards Fuente, but it's time he be sent packing.
———
He's paid a lot of money to win games, and has already lost two winnable games against high-profile teams this year. Even remaining game on the schedule looks like a coin flip W/L.
Only on the defensive side of the ball, have the coaches shown any improvement. Yet if Tech decided to clean house entirely, that'd be just fine with me.
My wallet shall remain closed to VT Athletics, until they make an effort to make our Football program entertaining again. That means making tough decisions when it comes to the employment of coaches.
Shaming me to change my mind, won't work. The new fundraising campaign was too little, too late.
I trust my arm more than I trust Blumrick's. And I have tendinitis. If we are stuck with qbs of that level after Burmeister is out, we are going to have a long rest of the season.
If it's going to be that bad, it is time to let the younger ones play and develop.
Coaching-wise, the only thing that surprised me is that they went for the points before half. The usual MO is to let someone dagger us, then try to burn clock to go hide in the locker room. I hoped it was a good sign. In the end, it was an anomaly.
There were some crazy games yesterday. I was able to see the end of the TX-OU game and Bama-TX A&M game. From watching those games I realize where I stand at this moment.
1. I like the talent we have on the team and I am frustrated that they have not been given a chance to show case their skills. Even though we hope games should not come down to one or two critical plays, they often do just like some of the games yesterday. Trust your players and play to their skill sets. OU had Rattler throw a 2pt conversion even after getting pulled. To me it showed they knew their QBs' strengths and they utilized it appropriately.
2. While certain players play their hearts out, they need to be honest with themselves and work to improve their skill sets. Anyone remember Ernest Wilford dropping a game winning touchdown? The next year I don't think he dropped anything thrown to him. I doubt Beamer was telling him to work on it or he never throw to him again.
3. We need to move on from Fuente and move away from having an offense centered around a QB running the ball. Having a mobile QB is great but I want a QB that can distribute the ball to the skill players. How many WRs and RBs are on this damn team?! Calzada balled out for A&M and he was under constant pressure. His recievers made fanatic catches. As for Fuente his loyalty to Corny has put him in this spot. We don't know what is done behind closed doors but the perception is our reality. He is giving Corny a pass and the program is not as competitive as we hope.
4. We had been spoiled for a long time by having the same head coach and DC. Other programs had to deal with the gamble that comes with new coaches. Well I guess this is our reality check. Well I love what I am seeing on the defensive side, I am not optimistic that a new coach will retain the defensive coaches. I do wonder if Shane would swoop in and take Hamilton if the opportunity was there. I am also concerned what our transfer portal will look like with a coaching change. Also, all these teasers that there are coaches interested in the VT position are driving me nuts. I need names so I can develop some hope.
5. I'm tired of the vent threads and constant bitching in every other thread as well. I think we all get it and really just don't need to hear it over and over again. Its not good for anyone's mental health.
I have been firmly in the fire Corn camp all year, but last nights loss wasn't on the offense or playcalling. Aside from some predictability at times, I was mostly happy with the playcalling. The defense lost that game last night, specifically letting ND march down the field unopposed twice for a total of 11 points. The tides seemed to turn when Dax got ejected. Not sure what the answer is, just echoing how exhausting this is as a fan.
-Rotating 4 RBs so that nobody could get into a rhythm
-Spending halftime to draw up 2 carries by Keshawn King to start the second half
-Throwing that soft pass to Blackshear in the flat that Burmeister has consistently shown the inability to complete this season
-whatever trickery they attempted on the final play but they didn't have anyone in the same area for a lateral
-Not attempting to just pound it in 4 times from the 1 yard line with Holston. Although the fade to the sideline was a nice call, the pass was horribly off target
The defense basically scored 10 points with their two interceptions and put the offense in a position to win the game. They couldn't run out the clock. Our offensive stats are objectively bad. Subjectively, it's inexcusable not to score from 1st and goal from the 1 yard line. That 4 points we left on the table is the difference in the game.
No depth on the dline means you got exhausted kids by the fourth quarter.
This would actually explain why the offense keeps trying to play ball control offense instead of "opening it up". Offense needs to consider keeping the defense off the field in it's gameplan.
playing scared is playing scared no matter how you slice it. And it's not a productive way to play. Championship teams never plays scared. Quick 3-and-outs are just as bad as, if not worse than, opening it up and moving the ball down field too quickly. We had 5 3-and-outs on 13 possessions. 38% of our possessions vs ND went for 0 first downs. That is atrocious. If your strategy is going to be to control the ball, fine. But at least do it well. We can't even do that.
I remember rolling my eyes/sighing/yelling at the tv at the play calling about a dozen times last night. Three I remember that stand out:
1. Going for 2 after a penalty early in third. Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.
2. Rushing that 1 yard line play. Normally, don't mind teams doing this in general, but as it was happening I was yelling to slow down and get a play called in because we never run hurry up...just knew it was going to be bad and it had that off feeling. This is time and again the case with our play calling, it just never has a good feel/flow.
3. Forget the play specifically, but it was one where as soon as it got going I was basically like "great, classic." Then, BB showed all 23.5mph of his speed and got a 1st down, fastest he's looked all season. I remember thinking shit play call again and bailed out by an individual effort.
There's stuff that we need to be able to do, such as throw a football more than 5 yards through the air without it being a duck...but, once again, apathy has set in. Probably won't be watching the rest of the games, I already watched this movie every week several years in a row. Just brings me down and it's harder to watch from London anyway, better off using my time here exploring.
Hope our boys win out and have a helluva time doing it, but... I'm exasperated once again with the way this game flowed, I'm exasperated that I know what play will be up next, I'm exasperated watching us play into defense's hands, I'm exasperated by poor decision making from the sidelines, I'm exasperated watching what should've been another win get blundered into another loss.
It's just them same ol' fuckin shits, just another diff'rent fuckin damn day. No surprises here. Honestly, I'm so apathetic (I must be) I can't even get upset anymore. Haven't gotten upset for a couple years. Fuck it, I even have to laugh at this clown show now. It's just, whatever at this point. Feel terrible for the players. Hoops and rasslin' can't start soon enough. Yadda yadda. Fuck CornFu & all that. I'll believe Whit when I see it. All done.
Exactly! I'm surprised there are still fans who have hope of winning games like this. It's the same story over and over again. Hokies will have a lead in any big game and then lose that game. Heck, this wasn't even a big game. Notre Dame is not very good. Fuente just isn't the guy. He shows no emotion, he's too conservative, and he's not going to win games that matter. It will be interesting to see the direction this team goes in after they lose to Pitt...
Because we should have won lol. They can totally win these games bad coaching decisions and all. It's actually incredible that we keep finding ways to lose these. (Cuse 16, GT 17, ODU, BC 18, Cincy, BC 19, Duke 19, ND 19, UVA 19, UK, Wake 20, Liberty, Miami 20, and now WVU and ND). All games where we were clearly the better team and found a way to lose, sometimes badly. With a competent staff we win... maybe all of those.
Joking aside, I really did admire your optimism before the season. I just couldn't get behind it because the reality is that these coaches aren't capable of doing the jobs they're paid to do. We had 5 years of empirical evidence. Now we have almost 5.5 years. Nothing has changed. Nothing will with these coaches.
Yeah I was under the impression that the main driver of these close losses were random events that would eventually go in our favor. And that talent and development wise we were about to turn the corner.
Clearly these losses have been the fault of the coaching staff in spite of any talent we have
I wonder if Fuente ever gets tired of blaming execution? Like, at what point does one realize that if the players aren't improving, maybe they're not the real problem?
I never understood that excuse in college sports. Like even if the players were the problem, that comes down to the staff that recruits and develops them
It works for a few plays or even a game. Like someone made the wrong read or cut the wrong way. But when it becomes a repeated refrain after multiple games, it's not a player problem. Either the coaches aren't teaching the players the right plays, adjusting their playcalling to their players' strengths, or recruiting the talent to run the plays they want to call.
The biggest execution issue our team has is the termination clause in Corn's contract.
I tried explaining that to my dad today that it's different than the NFL. The staff is responsible for acquiring and improving their talent pool and he was just like "well that's really hard". No shit. That's why they get paid millions of dollars
What I think is overlooked is Fuente could and should have a safe seat by now. We should have won the UNC, WVU and ND games by 14+. Instead the staff found new and interesting ways to not let that happen. If we have Hooker there isn't a game within two scores, maybe even three, bad coaching decisions and all.
This isn't to defend Fuente, it shows that even when he's been dealt a great hand (WVU, ND and the entire coastal suck this year) that he still finds a way to fuck it up.
Burn it down, hire an SEC assistant or try to poach someone like Mark Stoops (in b4 the haters, yes we can fucking steal Kentucky's football coach).
I don't think Whit will go the coordinator route. I think it's why we didn't hire Elliott last year. I think Clawson could be a potential candidate. Assuming Fickell is out of our reach, I also think realistically we could go after Tom Herman or Gus Malzahn.
Clawson would be a good hire but buckle up for 7-5, 8-4, 7-5 before we get to 10 wins. He won't rush the process and there will be a transition period between recruits.
I would love Jeff Hafley. He's probably the better option between him and Clawson imo. Defense oriented, back to this team's identity
Clawson is certainly a program builder and a winner, but recruiting is the big unknown with him. I'm starting to think Tom Herman makes a ton of sense if we can get him. He's a former Broyles winner, won a natty at OSU, won a NY6 bowl at Houston and a Sugar Bowl at Texas, and a winning record and bowl record. Yeah you can argue he underperformed at Texas, but everyone does relative to the ridiculous expectations. Plus he had a huge buyout at Texas so maybe we can structure his contract where we pay him more down the road so it doesn't offset his payoff from Texas. Could be a really intriguing fit.
Get Herman, two coordinators for $1MM, and load up on a staff of VA/east coast recruiters. Sign me up.
I'm not interested in Herman. He didn't leave Houston all that well off in terms of recruiting and clearly underachieved with Texas - a program with way more resources than we have. I don't see how he can elevate our program.
Who actually meets or exceeds expectations at Texas? Its natty every year or bust there. Plus the talent there just isn't conducive to playing good defense IMO. I'm not going to hold Texas against him, it's not like he had a losing record or anything there, you can just never win enough there. The same will happen to Sark im sure.
I agree. I think Longhorn fans are going to grow weary of Sark as well.
Herman wasn't great at TX but the expectations are insane. Texas has played in one NY6 game since 2010---under Herman FWIW. They have an elite pedigree but haven't been an elite Program for more than a decade.
I wouldn't mind kicking the tires on Herman at VT.
I'm not a Texas fan so I don't expect a title from the program. But a good coach should make them a consistent top 25 team - they're the second most talented team in the Big XII every year. And they weren't a consistent top 25 team under Herman. That job also requires being able to sell a vision to boosters and high school coaches. It's not easy with how fractured their boosters are, but the resources should help get some success short term. He couldn't do it. Some of these issues are what need to be addressed for us, too. Not sure if he'd be able to accomplish it here. Maybe the smaller scale makes it easier. But, how things went at Texas along with what he left behind at Houston worries me.
I'm not saying I have any answers here, just that I'm not sold on him being a great hire like he seemed to be 5 years ago.
So Herman wasn't fired just for underperforming in Austin. He also rubbed people the wrong way and the Longhorn brass was tired of the Tom Herman show (Source: Cover 3 Pod). Whit won't hire him because there is 0% chance he'll get along with the Hokie faithful. I think sometimes we put too much on "cultural fit" but there's something to truly bad fits. Herman can be good somewhere I think, but definitely won't work at VT.
SEC tv deal pays out like 50 million/school even if they suck like Kentucky. This is the manifestation of how bad the old guard like Swofford and Weaver fucked us by being apathetic in a rapidly changing landscape.
Stoops ain't leaving UK and the SEC for a descending VT program. CJF is right where I figured at 3-2. Next 7 games are against the mediocrity that is the ACC. Go 5-2,and save his job again, especially if a W is against UVA. Go 4-3 and Whit better have him packing his sh*t in a box.
I think the consistency of finding ways to lose close games comes down to coaching, both from a decision-making and leadership standpoint. Good coaches will win more of these games than they lose. I don't have all the stats in front of me, but I'm pretty sure we're under .500 (probably well under) in these games. I'd like to say we can turn this around starting against Pitt, but I'm not too optimistic. Probably can't blame all of this on Fuente, but he's the man in charge, and I think changes are needed.
I saw this tweet earlier. The W/L are based on the spread but the results are ugly.
I'm a broken record, but whatever... Our HC is 2-13 in his last 15 games when spread is within 3 points. That's inexcusable ineptitude. By default, you should win about half of those games. A third would raise eyebrows. But a .133 record in toss ups?! Get him off my campus.— Pete B. (@petebvt) October 10, 2021
This maybe more than anything else I've ever seen shows how bad of a problem we have. The coaches have actively negated luck and statistical probability to the point that we lose literally almost all of our winnable games.
Just super bummed a day later that we delayed the inevitable a year. Most of us knew Fuente wasn't it after 2018, 2019 didn't do a whole lot to convince anyone otherwise, and 2020 should have undoubtedly been the final nail in his coffin. We put off ripping the bandaid off when it was obvious it needed to happen and now who knows how long that's set us back. We could have spent this year getting the growing pains out of the way with a new coach and now we're all sitting here having the same conversations we've been having for 3+ years, again.
This is a big thing for me. I really believe that putting off firing Fuente for a year because #optics is going to cost us a lot more in the long run than firing him amid a pandemic would have. If Whit just couldn't get his guy lined up then that's one thing. But if the reason he didn't 🔥⛲ last year was because of #optics then it was a huge mistake.
I keep hearing the "optics" argument but who honestly cares about optics? The media, people on social media? Those people don't matter. Plenty of coaches were fired last year and guess what, optics didn't mean shit.
Exactly. The optics argument was stupid then and it's stupid now. If Pitt blows our doors off next week Fuente should be relieved immediately. You know what other argument is almost as stupid as the optics argument? Money. Tech has it. If they're serious about football they'll find it.
I also don't understand how a difference from a 6-6 record to 7-5 or 8-4 somehow is the deciding factor for Fu saving his job. It's evident it's not working out. How in the world could one or two wins be the deciding factor for the fate of VT football? Barring him winning out and making the ACC championship, I don't see how you retain Fuente another year. Even then I would hope he goes elsewhere. It's apparent that this staff is not taking this program anywhere.
The money thing is dumb too because of the way Fuente's buyout is structured. It was stupid last year when people thought we should wait until late December to make a move for the buyout to drop and it would be equally dumb this year. Coaches aren't going to wait around to accept jobs so we can save money on the buyout - if we wait that's just admitting that we are not serious about getting our top candidates and are okay with whoever is left at the end of musical chairs.
Last night's game made me throw my VT shirt away. Okay, it actually had a hole in it and I've been needing to get it replaced for a while, but figured last night's game was as good enough of an excuse to "make the move," so to speak.
Stayed up to 11-something for the game when I had to get up at 4 AM this morning to volunteer at a water station for the Broad Street Run, ironically enough, with the VT Alumni Association Philly Chapter. Race was a lot of fun.
And one of the worst things, the loss at the end did not surprise me or even get me upset. More just numb. It was not that unexpected anymore. I've become so apathetic about VT under Fuente that Penn State losing was much more important to me than VT winning and I don't even consider this type of a loss to be that bad anymore.
Team can still pull through and win 6 more games this year. Not real likely, but we still have the opportunity. Anything short of that and Corn-Fu had better be gone by the time 2022 rolls around.
By the way, any idea on how badly last night's game set us back with all of those recruits that were supposedly there? Or was it more just a missed opportunity that maybe won't be that big of a deal?
I actually don't think too bad. The atmosphere was pretty good and it was a close game. I think the bigger issues would be with the rumors/stories of the quantity and quality of the resources we had attending to those recruits.
Jimbo is a control freak...that being said, Dickey is the QB coach and just prepared his backup QB to play smart, decisive football against the best CFB Program of the past decade.
Regardless of what their exact roles were at Memphis, I don't think there is any reasonable doubt that VT got the much less talented Coordinator in Cornelson.
It took a while to leave the stadium from the (East) student section after the final whistle last night. Packed in like sardines slowly moving through the concourse. I don't think i've ever experienced that, and I'm a grad student who did undergrad here so I've been to almost every Fuente era home game. Student section was packed and rowdy from pregame all the way til the end. That almost never happens.
Of course everything else is negative. Another crushing L, bad coaching, our QB situation is f'ed going into the most important game for the division, etc.
As far as coaching goes I can really only come back to two main positives for me. First 2 drives play calling stood out to me where it looked like we actually wanted to do what Fuente said pregame which was let it fly more, we took some shots on longer routes most notably a deeper out route to Tre about 20 yards or so. And then also going for points before halftime was HUGE, far too many times we've chosen to take a knee, we're not some godly team that can afford to give up chances at points. We got 3 points on that drive with 28 seconds on the clock at the start I believe. We need that urgency from our offense all the time, and point blank we need better clock management all around
I feel like we get to the last two minutes of a half and the coaches can't decide what tempo they want to use. They try to burn the clock, but then get us in third and long, force a pass that goes incomplete, and then punt with too many seconds left. Or we need to hurry up to score fast and they're letting the play clock get to zero.
That was the rumor on 247/TSL. It's Knox time. Really really stupid decision not to bring in more depth at qb from the portal over the off season. Good thing we have ~11 scholarship runningbacks.
Wouldn't be surprised to see Tayvion getting reps since he played some qb in high school
I cannot agree more. Going into this season knowing both (1) the size of BB (not his heart but simply his stature) and (2) the risk of injury due to our tendency to run the QB, it should have been pretty apparent that we would need some insurance (ie more bodies in the QB room).
Would be great if we didn't run off all our QBs last offseason! At least this will finally be the end of the Fu era. Hate this for the players though, this is going to be ugly.
The thing is, I agree with this statement but it wouldn't really matter if we still had Hooker or Quincy. They were not going to develop here, and they were not going to be given the decision-making freedom to make the kinds of plays that they are at their new schools. It's the same reason why I didn't worry that much about losing James Mitchell. He was destined for a ceiling of 300 yds/3 tds and a couple rushes in this offense.
As pessimistic as we all feel about this team right now, we're technically in the lead for winning the coastal so you go whatever qb you think gives you the best chance to win.
Oh, wait a minute..... that qb is at TN. Second best. Dang it-that qb is at NDSU.
You go with the qb that gives you the third best chance to win.
So if I may, let us continue this thought experiment.
You left off at the third best chance to win.
Dang it we have to wait another minute now that the third best chance is injured so now go with who gives you the fourth best chance to win. There that will work. However if the fourth best gets injured go with who gives you the fifth best chance to win.
Wait yet another minute the fifth best chance is already injured as well.
So let us now recalculate the current situation. We are going with the guy who gives us the fourth best chance to win and if (or when seeing as how our offense relies on the QB taking too many hits) the fourth best gets injured you go with your 6th best chance to win.
The part about BB3's injury really pisses me off. The coaches must have known about the sprain prior to him re-entering the game and chose to play him anyway after the injury to Blumerick. This should be a firable offense in my opinion. I didn't listen to the post game interviews but I think someone mentioned that BB3 said his arm was numb? Now we're talking possible nerve damage and seriously messing up the kid's life after football by letting (or making) him play after the sprain.
If you listen to certain former players' interviews, you'll hear some very damning stories about how this staff deals with injured players... I don't particularly want to share the interview because it's one sided, biased, and asked loaded questions, but the accusations, IF true, are very alarming.
@bar, CGs state that if you're gonna discuss it, might as well share it. you could just link to an existing TKP thread for discussion if there is one.
If you're referencing a Tweet, article or YouTube video, link or embed it. Ensure your comment is thorough to the point where everyone else contributing to the thread understands it. Don't deal in riddles or mystery.
look gobble, I know you don't like me very much and I know it's your job to moderate but this is a bit ridiculous. I don't envy your job and I'm not saying that I, or anybody else, could do it better than you do but I'm asking that you take your pre-determined biases out of this.
You can't tell me that "hey, this interview might explain things but I'm not going to share the interview because in my opinion it is biased and unfair" isn't a shit-post.
Nothing about my comment is "Bar right, VPI wrong".
You are right about the CG regarding sharing content that you're going to reference. I acknowledged and addressed that. At the same time, I felt the tone of the delivery in your comment was unnecessarily harsh.
Edit: you get the benefit of the doubt here too regarding the edit. I added the edit @bar within a minute of posting the comment because i had the CGs open in the second tab and got distracted before adding in
yeah, I'm leaving it for posterity but when I wrote my response to you I was responding to a comment that only said "take a deep breath man" without all of the context you added after the fact. It felt a little targeted before you added the @bar part.
valid. i'm just like anyone else around here in that i can do better too. we understand that emotions are running high after a loss, which is why the vent thread on saturday nights are typically a bit more wild west than any other threads on the site. after two days, we'd hope that the typical interactions are more civil than hostile, and that even if there is (warranted) major criticism directed towards the program or coaches or performance, that the frustration isn't directed towards other users.
I'm probably going to sound like an unknowledgeable idiot here, but, serious question...if Kadum gets injured against Pitt, and the Tayvion Robinson Emergency QB Package implodes spectacularly, who is left as an option at QB...?
Probably showing my ignorance with our roster here by asking that, but I'm genuinely curious.
And now we have the 2021 Excuse on why Fuente should be retained for another year. Because you can't hold these results against him when the entire QB room is hurt. (You know, because they had no influence on why the QB room doesn't have Hooker or Patterson to begin with....)
If Whit falls for that excuse he needs to find a new job somewhere else. Everyone could see this QB roster problem coming a mile away except for our great coaching staff. Judging by past history with the Corn offense it was only a matter of time for BB to go down with an injury. Fuente chose to rely on Kadum as his backup plan and Blumrick in case of an emergency. He made these decisions and he has to take full responsibility for it.
Fuente says everything he's heard, QB Braxton Burmeister (shoulder) is going to be good to go this week.Connor Blumrick (leg) is out indefinitely. His best guess is he'll be back this year. #Hokies— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) October 11, 2021
I hope we get like a big smoke machine and a mystery QB comes out of the tunnel on Saturday at this point.
If CJF were not on the hot seat, this would be the time to play the freshman and let him grow into the job. Maybe that's a good argument to change coaches now; let's start building for the future today, instead of trying to save a bad coaches job.
The big issue is that we are 6 years into a Fuente program, and this is now the 4th consecutive season where we have serious issues at QB. In fact, the QB that starts the season, rarely gets the majority season snaps because he's hurt (because we rely on the QB to also be the team's leading rusher).
Our MO, now, is we take the transfers that will never have a shot at starting elsewhere and we expect them to get beat to a pulp. And if I'm wrong on this, then I invite anyone to point to evidence to the contrary.
SEC has a new leader in QB Rating:1. Hendon Hooker*, @Vol_Football2. Matt Corral, Ole Miss3. Bryce Young, Alabama* Ranked 5th nationally— Adam Sparks (@AdamSparks) October 10, 2021
You know that nice warm feeling you get when it's cold outside and you take a nice hearty pull from a bottle of bourbon? Kinda warms your soul and makes you feel good? You familiar?
Yeah, this makes me feel the exact opposite of that.
So glad we dicked him around like we did. Definitely couldn't have used his services this year (though, he'd probably get killed in our offense, so maybe we did him a favor)
Beyond our mind numbing QB "rotation"/situation. Did you notice our rushing? BB was our leading rusher. Meanwhile Blackshear was playing really well...actually breaking tackles (not a trend for our backs this season) and has been trending well for weeks. The LAST time he touches the ball is the scoring drive in early second half (first or second series) where he was responsible for 43 of the 61 yards we gained on the drive. Then *poof* he doesn't get another touch the rest of the game (stats say he had a target in the late fourth...so assume he wasn't hurt). Instead we burn the RE shirt of another running back (4....4! Played in the game)...wonder what giving Blackshear and/or Holston another 8-10 carries would have done.
Overlay that with our time killing drive where we burned 0:20 of game clock (about 4:00 left). Think maybe Blackshear could've gotten 3-4 yards and allowed us to run a little more clock (like 1:30-2:00)?
We'll never get a running back in a groove rotating 4 in. 2 makes sense to at least keep legs fresh. Maybe Blackshear missed a block and was put in the Fuente timeout box lol
We don't have faith in any single RB to consistently get us 3 yards per carry. We don't have anyone that you can give the ball to in a short yardage situation and have confidence that we'll pick up the first down.
And that situation is compounded even worse when defenses have absolutely zero respect in the ability of the QB to throw the ball. They're just not biting on anything we're trying to do right now.
Comments
The sad part is that we are two plays away from an undefeated season...
(So far)
This is true. We should be undefeated. That was a painful loss, and I'm really tired of the feeling of these type of losses. 30 years ago my best football dream was for us to be competitive with national teams, instead of getting demolished in each big game. We've been competitive. The pain is worse. Do I use my Fighting Gobbler t-shirt to wipe grease off my lawn mower engine? Hell No.
This isn't worse than getting demolished.
But I do wish we could win some of these close ones.
No, you idiot. That is not how this works.
I am one twister and a pair of slippers away from the wizard of Oz.
Calm down. That was not even that serious of a comment
Might have been an overreaction on my behalf, but I can guarantee you that has been said within the athletic department.
I was thinking similarly. It's strange how close we are to being undefeated right now, yet it doesn't feel close. It's frustrating that it seems this team is good enough to win the rest of our games yet I have zero confidence that will happen. Heck, I'm not real confident we'll get three more wins.
Overall, I liked that we seemed to try to push the ball downfield more this game rather than running sideline to sideline every play but if we had been doing that all season, maybe we'd be better at it now. In general, the play calling didn't bother me as much this game as many but when we had first and goal at the one, it bothers me that we a) can't line up under center and sneak one in even if it takes two sneaks and b) we don't have a power back we trust to put in the game and run it right up the gut.
So frustrating that we're both good enough to win out and bad enough to lose out the rest of the season all at the same time.
As the old adage goes 'good teams find ways to win. Bad teams find ways to lose.'
You're up 8, with 3:55 when your offense gets the ball back. HOW do you only take 20 seconds off the clock???
Yeah, especially since it takes 20 seconds to get a play in, have the QB look over to the sideline to make sure it's the right one, look at the defense, and then look at the sideline again.
That☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼this right here REALLY grinds my gears. I know it shouldn't, but it does. To me, it comes across as clueless & lack of prep, poor communication and scheming.
I call it the prairie dog offense. Except, it's not cute
🔥⛲
I'm here to read all the excuses the Fuente crowd will offer.
Shut up
The downvotes keep rolling in but I stand by this. There's like 2 out of more than 1000 defending him on this site. "Fuente defender" is a strawman, getting angry about it is noise. Also fuck gloating over a loss
FWIW I downvoted both of you
What, and telling someone to shut up on a vent thread isn't noisier noise?
I'd be with ya if it was any other thread. But come on, man.
Sure I was mad and didn't explain at the time and got downvoted correctly. Now I am just giving an explanation
That's fair. (fwiw that was not me downvoting your reply to me)
there are definitely DV stalkers around TKP. They recognize a name they tend to disagree with and then they'll just DV every post the see regardless of whether or not the post actually deserves a DV. I have at least one or two stalkers myself. Comes with the territory when you post a lot and are a vocal proponent for an opinion that not everyone shares.
Yeah, I'm finding that out myself, haha. (The funny thing is, I don't care about DVs on any other comment I've made in this thread, because I had a certain tone on one or two of them. But they go after the one I made to try and lighten the mood a bit. Go figure)
Well I believe you were (publicly) done with Fuente before anyone else (except maybe TJB if he was never sold on CJF to begin with). You're kind of like the anti-Fu ambassador at this point, and being a lightning rod goes along with that I guess. It is what it is
To be fair, at least nobody is blaming him for single handedly ruining the atmosphere of this website, like has been thrown my way in recent weeks.
Yeah I was gonna say Alum is probably closer to being the anti-fu ambassador than I am haha. Or DC. I'm certainly loud but I wasn't the first. I was all for giving him more time after 2018. I thought he should have fired Cornelsen then but was willing to give him time to prove us wrong. At this point, he hasn't done that and I'm ready to move on.
I was pretty much done after the slow start to 2019 and the Duke debacle. I knew he just wasn't going to get it done here, barring significant strides in recruiting and staff shakeup. Was willing to give him a pass somewhat on 2018 with a lot of young players and the beginning of a rebuild, but we have gone nowhere as a program since then.
Fuck Justin Fuente
Your mental weakness is astounding. Good luck.
Congrats, this might be the worst comment I've ever seen here, and that's an accomplishment
That's some straight up shockwave talk
I had to double check that it wasn't AXD1985. Dunno if you remember...but I didn't much care for that guy
edit: am I really catching DVs for poking some fun at myself? Wow. Whoever you are...thank god I'm not you.
I remember them. They also posted a lot on Tecsideline
Downvote.
You generally put together well thought out posts about why he should be fired or whatever. But once you get vulgar you lose me. He's still a good human person with a family who is working hard to put together a successful product on the field.
So leave the vulgar noise out of here.
I don't care. I'm so done pussyfooting around this shit just to appease the feelings of everyone who still worships at the feet of Fuente. This man is not good at his job. This man should not be our coach. This man also makes multiple millions per year to put this fucking shit product out there.
Fuck his overpaid ass.
I'm over this. This loss sucked but i understand the direction this site is going regardless of how the rest of the season goes. Y'all have a good one.
I get what you're saying, but this is a vent thread. It isn't going to be rated PG.
He can be a good guy and a bad coach. I'm a fan of VT winning, at some point that outweighs good guy, so fuck him.
Why does the fact that he has a family matter?
Even more poignant, what does having a fam anything to do with fielding a competent offense to help balance out (& pick up the shortcomings, sometimes) the defense?
Oh, they'll be piping up with increasing levels of completely unwarranted snark the closer we get to the Pitt game, just like they always do.
But they're mighty quiet right now. Gotta take some time to spin and polish
How many people can even defend Fuente still? I feel like 99% of the people on here and Reddit atleast want him fired
Not just Reddit, but also Hokie Nation, Gobbler Country, shit just include fakebook, Instagram, twitter & tick-tock on that.
I can't do this anymore. Our program is a joke, our quarterback doesn't have a throwing arm, and we've played one ACC game so far. To think I was excited to watch this game today, is hysterical. I wasted 3.5 hours of my life only to go to sleep upset again. I'll tune back in when Fuente is gone. Until then, I can find more life giving things to do on Saturdays.
Don't worry. We have enough toothpicks and bubble gum to fix his arm up in time for Pitt.
(Not a knock on Burmeister. Dude played awesome for the terrible situations he was in.)
That quarterback threw a dime of a game winner that hit Tre right in the hands
I wouldn't say right in the hands...it hit the dude's fingertips. But a layout for the catch may have caught it. Either way, it was a helluva try on both Burmeister and Turner, but it was not the straw that broke the camel's back. There was a whole effing bale of hay that broke that poor camel's back in this game.
5 drives too late. ND was begging for us to try them deep
acc is apparently shit so maybe that will help
I swear if I get a Hokie Club donation email this week after that shit I'll chuck my phone in a river.
Don't let them cost you more money, just block the email address.
Honestly what the fuck is Justin Fuente thinking? How does he always find a way to lose? He is so creative.
Flag Football Offense
According to ESPN VT had a 96.1% chance of winning with 3:55 in the 4th Quarter
Thats game over for almost every other game
Im torn - we left a lot of opportunities out there but I also feel like all the players gave it their all. Still mad about that linemen down the field penalty nowhere close to the play as a group of linemen are essentially standing around
I HATE PREVENT DEFENSE WHY DO WE PLAY THIS SHIT
to prevent the win its a classic
Add the complete and total clock mismanagement of the last 1:30 of this game to the ever-growing list of fire-able offenses Fuente has committed at VT. Yet another game lost solely on bad in-game coaching and complete roster mismanagement.
Whit won't do a damn thing about it though. We're a shit-tier program now and completely comfortable with it.
Now?
Good one
After your defense was just shredded right down its throat, it's time to throw three straight with a guy who's throwing shoulder is mangled?
When do the bad decisions cost these guys their jobs?
to be fair that pass to turner looked great. I wanted to go on 4th and 1
It was far from "great," it was just "catchable." Which is more than we've come to expect from our QB's these days.
This -- people (rightfully) crap on Corny all the time, and you definitely don't throw it 3 straight times. A little bit of a better throw and it's a TD, but Tre shouldn't have dropped it anyhow.
^^^this
It shouldn't have even come down to that fucking play. Yeah Tre dropped it, but our offense was incompetent and impotent for the vast majority of the night.
I did, too
In the words of the great Gregg Easterbrook
" buck buck baaawwwk"
or something....... game over
Barring Notre Dame using all its timeouts, three run plays with the clock going takes a minute and ten seconds off the clock if you do it right. Even if Notre Dame used its timeouts, you still run over 40 seconds off the clock at a minimum. It would have forced either a 55-60 yard fg attempt at a minimum or a Hail Mary. If you are looking to the Turner pass, if you think you have it setup, do it on first down so if it doesn't work you can run two more times.
Going for it on 4th and 1 was the right move.
Fuck Fuente.
And also inb4 the defenders come in saying we lost by a narrow margin and that's indicative of a good performance.
We truly are the chokies. I have zero faith left in this program.
We had an 8 pt lead with 3:44 left and lost....I've got nothing
I'm all for trying to win the game but we should have run the ball after they got the tied up to eat clock. Not a fan of making bb3 throw it on a hurt arm
I agree...but if Tre catches that pass down the sideline we probably would've won.
Agreed it hurts how close that play was. Pain
And if we didn't go for a 2 point conversion from the fucking 8 with our third string QB this isn't even an issue.
What a goddamn fucking clown show
Ding ding ding
I didn't mind the 2 point conversion with the option QB. But after the penalty, you kick the ball.
Impressive to give up 11 points in <4 minutes with no turnovers or crazy plays... just dominated
Make the move. It's beyond time. Players played their fucking nuts off and the coaches mishandled every aspect of their jobs. It's pathetic.
I am here to see what the CornFu defenders say now, because at this point it'll just be comical.
Not here to try to defend the coaches by any means, but to say the players "played their nuts off" is a bit of an overstatement. There were many instances where players were out of position, keying on the wrong reads, and making missed tackle after missed tackle. So while their hearts may have been in it 150%, their effort, at times, was sub-par. That being said, the coaches certainly didn't set them up to succeed, and that is the most atrocious offense since they are getting paid for what they do.
I see what you're saying, but from my eyes the times the players went flat was because they knew the staff had no faith in them to make plays. These guys don't play lazy, they don't play like they don't care. Missing some assignments is going to happen no matter how hard you play (which is another indictment on the coaching staff, but I digress).
The ONLY reason we didn't lose by 10+ is because guys like BB gave it everything on the field. Kudos to the players, they deserve FAR better than the shit this coaching staff puts them through.
Is there some metric about teams being able to score a touchdown when they're first and goal on the 1? Do we rank last in it?
I mean why don't we do something like have a 300+pound guy line up as an RB, have the QBs hand it to him, and let him bulldoze his way in. I mean from the 1???
Somehow the players will still get blamed. Good effort guys.
The players deserve a coaching staff worth a damn.
WVU was on Corn and by extension Fuente. This loss is squarely on Fuente's shoulders.
If Burmeister is hurt, VT can maybe beat Syracuse, Duke and UVA the rest of the way. I really hope that's not enough for an extension.
Fuente is either getting extended by two years or fired at the end of this season IMO.
Did you watch Syracuse play Wake Forest today? No way we beat them without BB3, unless one of the other "QBs" has a revelation moment.
If Fuente gets a fucking extension, I'm making a $5 donation to the Hoos in Whit's name. It'll be the smallest gift he's given them in 6 years.
I dont understand not immediately calling a timeout before the fg, we let 10+ seconds come off first
Could've called TO on the play before that too and saved even more. Fuente had made up his mind for some reason that it was better to bank on them missing a makeable FG than to actually try and give ourselves a chance to win.
Well at least this BAMA-TAMU game is close because I know I'm too wound up to sleep right now
Fuck this shit.
I'm taking a long walk. Yes, I know its midnight. But damn it, I'm talking a walk.
Don't wait up
https://twitter.com/fourscoob/status/1447037821219450880?t=qC41eB2j4Kp-r...
Just what you want to see from the players after the game
embed
Wow if that's not damning
Our leading rusher at halftime was our backup QB
The player with the most carries at halftime was our starting QB
Something doesn't seem right there
And earlier today he retweets plays from both HH and QP. ouch.
🔥🔥🔥
So, like, I want to agree. But wouldn't we still have lost by 1 point? We lost by 3, we get that 1 back and ND doesn't go for 2/settles for 1.
We lost by 3 so what does 1 point matter? Don't understand this argument.
Yeah it's weird to me -- that extra point on the board isn't doing much to stop ND from driving for the late FG.
But having said that, why try a 2pt conv from the 7?????
VT could have tried to run out the clock after the TD and/or ND would've done an onside kick and VT would've at the very least had a field goal attempt and ND would've had zero timeouts.
That was the dumbest thing Fuente did all day and he had 100% control over it. It would've been the equivalent of Beamer going for two after a 5 yd penalty with Greg Boone at QB.
The decision matters because it was dumb as fuck
I still think it's an example of a bad decision because they elected to go for 2 points after a false start penalty. And everyone knew when Blumrick was QB, it was going to be a running play.
His reasoning is that a td and conversion don't tie it if we are up 9, so Notre Dame is forced into an onside kick. Barring them recovering, it changes your entire offensive game plan. You start further upfield, you run three straight times, ND takes both timeouts, which means even if you don't run for a first down, there is only about a minute left on the clock when Notre Dame takes over. Still no guarantee but they are much less likely to be in fg range by the end AND they have no timeouts left if they get close, forcing them to rush out to kick.
Maybe. But if we are up 9, ND probably kicks to be down 2 and then try the onsides kick. If we recover, we have better field position to burn the clock. Not that we would have though with these coaches
Yeah the PAT really didn't make a difference...we choked that game away.
That was such a blatantly idiotic decision. Something you wouldn't even do in Madden. Even if we ended up winning that would be a fireable offense imo
Meh. Result as expected, path was different. Shit still stinks like shit.
Remember that one time we had a young QB who passed for a metric shit ton of yards in high school, but he threw an interception in a college game once and was never allowed to throw again? Seems to happen with certain young running backs too. Super cool. He wouldn't have won the game either, but it'd be cool to think that our backups are better than a gimped up starter.
🔥⛲
I'm just going to enjoy the fall and find something else to think about. We will be lucky to win 2 or 3 more games. The offense is putrid, and it's apparent that we don't really have a QB on the roster. Defense plays great for stretches and then completely falls apart at times. Like Hamilton, but this just isn't good enough. Looking forward to the inevitable house cleaning that needs to happen. We have plateaued under Fuente and are now regressing. It's time to move on and rebuild.
Holding on notre dame didn't exist. That was the game
It may not have been the sole reason we lost the game, but HOLY FUCK was the officiating HORRIBLE tonight. Not just on one side either, both teams had dumb fuck calls by the zebras that were just bad.
I was at the game and couldn't fully make out what was said, but for the love of god, how was it not a horsecollar tackle when I could see it from the stands? Full hand inside jersey and pads and ripping Holston(?) to the ground. Like isn't that the definition of a horse collar?
the explanation is that horsecollar by rule can't occur within the tackle box. it's the correct call according to the rule, but why a horsecollar in the tackle box is somehow more safe than one outside the tackle box (and is therefore allowed) is bonkers to me.
What an absolute dumb carve out of a rule. Thank you for clarifying that, because that was one of the most frustrating things I've seen.
*allegedly* it's not a horsecollar tackle if it happens inside the tackle box. Feel like that carve out is intended to avoid calls when there's a mass of humanity all bunched up between the guards and someone blindly grabs a collar in the scrum.
the coaches took this game away from Braxton and the players. why do a prevent defense at the end instead of bum-rushing a pocket qb, a scheme that literally caused him to get benched in the 1Q.
it's very depressing.
I said this in one of the game threads so please forgive the repeat comment here:
Herndon Hooker threw for 3 TDs and rushed for another.
Burmeister rushed for 1 TD.
Now I know he got hurt and I'm not trying to get down in a guy who is competing like heck for us; the dude has guts. But I can't get over how this coaching staff kept telling everyone that they were confident in Burmeister with the passing game. I'm just not seeing it. Again, I'm very appreciative of the competitor that he is and he really gave it his all, but I got to ask this coaching staff:
"How the heck does Herndon Hooker become a better QB after he leaves our program? Please explain."
Since your comment is an indictment of the coaching staff then I totally agree....I will not shit on our QB1 who almost won us the game with one arm. This just fucking sucks.
Yes. I didn't write the greatest comment, but that was the main point I'm trying to make.
If you read the statements I said about how much guts Burmeister has, you can see I'm trying to avoid criticizing the guy. He left everything on the field and then some. So yes, I'm criticizing the coaching staff.
I watched parts of the Tennessee game today and I kept asking myself how the heck did Hooker get better at Tennessee in his first year under new coach and playbook.
It's Josh Heupel's offense, that's why. It's meant to go UCFast, pinpoint, killer instinct. BB3 would put up numbers, too. Jerod would win a Heisman with it.
We are not running that offense at VT.
We are not running an
thatoffense at VT.FTFY
Its the difference between finding an Offensive strategy that maximizes your players strengths and trying to shoehorn a tired, predictable Playbook onto your players without regard.
I wish I could upvote this 100 times. The exact issue with this team.
Our strategy is offensive.
Better players around him, better coaches, and a better scheme. Heupel is a much better offensive coach then Fuente
FTFY
The coaches should have trusted the offense players on 4th and 1. The defense was never gonna stop that last drive. The lack of trust between the coaches and the players is visible. WTF...
I just dont know where to go from here.
CornFu need to go, this is a lost season
I was a so ready for a FAM thread. And now this.
Can't wait to hear all the defenses for Fuente's decisions.
Then I can't wait for Fuente to blame this all on execution by the players on Monday.
Then I can't wait for everyone to go look at Hooker's stats for UT today and tell me the staff didn't fail him miserably. I'll keep banging that fuckin' drum as long as he's playing in college.
Enjoy this close loss while you can. Pitt's bringing a dump truck of shit and all we got is a bucket. 52 - 13.
If you put Fuente and Corny in a barrel full of nipples, they would come out sucking their thumb. The incompetence is comical at this point. But, you know, GRIT.
Reminds me of the old saying, "son, you're about as useless as taste buds on my ass hole."
I fucking choked on my beer 😂😂😂😂😅🤣
I almost spit out my coffee. Then my grandma wanted to know what was so funny...
Fucking eh, when Sean Glennon goes off on the coaching staff, and you agree with him, it's a bad night
Another super close non-con game we had no business losing. We have got to solve the red zone struggles.
I'm far more upset that we can't stay healthy in non-con games. We got a must win against Pitt on Saturday, and we might not have a QB.
Fuente's job still rests on getting to Charlotte. That's still available, but do we even have a QB to get us there?
We don't have a QB because Justin fucking Fuente ran the entire fucking QB room out of town over the offseason. Burmeister shouldn't even be the fucking starter right now, it should be Hooker.
I have a hard time believing Burmeister was even better than QP in practice, it made no sense that he was the one we kept out of the three
It makes no fucking sense. I have zero sympathies for the coaches on the QB situation they now have because it's their own fault. They dicked everyone around the last few years and ended up with a guy who can't throw as their top option.
At QB.
I mean great he has guts you'd want in any player and a.drive to win, but dammit why go with the guy who has the least amount of talent.
It comes down to roster mismanagement, yet again. We had Hooker and QP, yet per Fuente "he promised BB3 a chance to come in and compete for the starting job." He is a gutsy player and plus athlete, and I'm not knocking him in the slightest, but why did we even sign him?
Yep it's ACC chip or bust.
At this point just have to go with Kadum or Blumrick the next week or two. There's no way Burmeister is completely healed by then. He's on record saying he was least healthy for Richmond and we saw clearly he aggravated it much worse tonight.
Honestly Blumrick is probably in worse shape than Burmeister right now
Yeah, I don't think Blumrick should see the field again. The kid looked like he was in a lot of pain. Hope he gets healthy and just take the time to heal.
Even with a healthy Blumerick it would be futile because CornFu run such a dipshit offense with him at QB that it'd never last for more than one series. By series #2 or #3 we be, as Randy Quaid once eloquently put it, "looking like a monkey fucking a football".
Pitt is coming off a bye week too. Unfortunately I think Pitt blows our doors off next weekend. I don't know that we will have a QB to run what little offense we have to begin with.
im curious to see what kadum could do with the keys and no threat of being yanked
What's sickening to me is I want our Hokies to win so badly but at the same time knowing winning means keeping CornFu literally makes me want them to lose so we can move on as a program. Fuente is not an offensive genius or a QB whisperer or even a great G5 coach he had a couple of above average seasons at Memphis and was in the right place at the right time and had one good season with a team full of FRANK BEAMERS players and turned it into a hell of a payday to ruin a once proud program.... I'm so sad right now.... I seriously believe Bud retired because he knew Fuente was a fucking hack and refused to let the stress of coaching for an incompetent fucking idiot kill him... If we had given Bud or Shane the job in 2015 I believe Bud is still here but no we're stuck with CornFu(cking piece of shit!).
Feel bad for the players as this was a winnable ball game but our coaches haven't set them up for the best shot at success.
That win against UNC really brought back some VT football nostalgia for me. Those were some nice feelings to have for a week or so.
It's amazing how quickly the feeling of apathy can return.
SAME
It doesn't help that UNC has been revealed to be a fraud. Same with FSU when we beat them. Same with ND when we beat them. Fuentes biggest wins up being against down teams
Repeat after me:
Mike London has Time Management skills that are far superior to those of Justin Fuente.
Seriously, the time is beyond passed to fire this guy. Eat the $2.5 mil, start the search early, fire Fuente now.
Or save the 2.5 Mil with zero consequences lol. He's almost surely gonna get fired but we should be smart about how we do it and who replaces him
Completely agree. We need to save our resources for the next staff.
I'm assuming the search has been ongoing, but I'm not sure if firing Fuente now is the right move.
We're going to lose a bunch of games anyway, might as well save $2.5M and plan the next steps in parallel.
I would almost be willing to bet Whit has been working the back channels and lining things up behind the scenes. Hopefully though his choice doesn't get cold feet at the 11th hour or walk away like last year. But I'm sure things have been in motion already.
I agree with this. $2.5 million is worth the ability to get a head start on the coaching shitstorm that is sure to start pretty soon. There are several P5 teams that are going to be out there looking for a new head coach soon. Can we afford to be the last in that line so we can wait until 12/16?
And, how many hundreds of thousands, or millions, do you earn in fan respect by showing that you (as in Whit Babcock) understand that Fuente & Co are failing the Hokie Nation and that you are willing to do something about it, even if it means taking a loss before the gains?
SoCal is already available. After today, I feel for sure LSU is gonna be open. Miami will be as well. Penn St could be if Franklin leaves for SoCal. FSU, maybe, depending on what the rest of Norvell's season looks like. So there's definitely gonna be some stiff competition out there in the market this season. I doubt we're in play for any of the top candidates (Tier 1) that those schools would go after anyway but if there's a Tier 2 coach that you think you can get and might have to compete with a couple of other schools, I'd much prefer to get in there first with talks. At the very least, backchannels BETTER be open or you just flat out suck at your job. Situations like this, phone lines should always be open. You never admit it. But they should always be open.
And FWIW without revealing anything specific that's behind a paywall, everything I've seen both behind paywalls to public forums to 3rd or 4th hand information from a buddy with donor ties, money is NOT an issue. It's there if it needs to be used. It's just a matter of if the decision makers will actually wake up and go thru with it.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Tech would have been at worst the second best job on the market in the late fall of 2020.
Yep. Especially considering the timing of events last year. Auburn and Texas opened up late, especially Auburn. If we made the move at the time we should have, we realistically could have had our guy, whoever that may have been, before those jobs even opened up.
Also fuck kyren Williams saw him throw something that started the scuffle at the end of the game I'm mostly pissed he got to run his mouth
The best thing Swofford ever did, was not locking Comcast into the ACCN. At least I didn't watch any of tonight's game live.
Did everything we could to lose that game. And it doesn't even move the needle. Apathy is real.
Fuente has only beat UNC coming off Bye Weeks.
What I can't get my head around is why Blumrick got the nod over Kadum.
Blumrick doesn't seem like he could hit the broad side of a barn from five feet away, yet he stayed in far longer than I can understand
Because Kadum threw a pick in his one opportunity. That's a death sentence to our coaching staff.
At least it exposed how truly dire our QB situation has become. We know Kadum is a third/fourth string depth guy at best, BB has guts and can run a little but has serious limitations, and Blumrick can't hit the broad side of a barn and is a TE at QB.
And our coaches are on record defending their conscious decision not to go after another QB in the portal. Inexcusable.
Fuente Fuck-Ups:
-Josh Jackson regressed
-Ryan Willis regressed
-Hendon Hooker regressed and was run out of the program to only to be successful elsewhere
-Quincy Patterson regressed and was run out of the program only to be successful elsewhere
-Braxton Burmeister regressed
-Zero competent passing QB's currently on roster
-Lost to ODU
-Lost to Liberty, on a game winning play he negated with a coaching decision
-Completely obliterated by average Pitt teams in 2018/2020 (will happen again next week)
-Completely obliterated by below average Georgia Tech in 2018
-Completely obliterated by below average Duke team at home in 2019
-back to back sub-P5 caliber recruiting classes in 2020/2021
-ended a league leading bowl streak
-4Q coaching decisions against ND tonight to lose the game
I'm bored of writing this but it's far from an exhaustive list, how in the flying fuck is it acceptable for this absolute fucking clown to still be our coach?
-Lost the Commonwealth Cup
-Lost the Black Diamond Trophy
Ended a rivalry win streak 2nd longest in the country at the time
Subjectively I might hate this more than anything but hilariously it doesn't even come close to making the short list of fire-able things he's done for me. UVA was decent, it was on the road, and the streak had to end sometime.
There are literally two-to-three dozen things he's done in the last 5 years I consider way worse.
Umm, says who? :)
Justin Fuente
And too bad for Whit, I only really care about our Football program winning games. I just can't invest my time and energy into other college sports.
For coaching mistakes I'll add
-WVU 1st and 3
-GT 2017
-ND 2018
-Cincy bowl game
-Kentucky bowl game
BC 2018 and Wake 2020 were bad too but they don't even make the cut because the other were so much more egregious
We will be 4-4 at best going into November.
I will likely be hungover tomorrow, barely be able to speak due to screaming in the stands and my ears are ringing. Just...damn. Between the "targeting" call on Dax and the lack of completion between tre and bb...I am so sad. Defeat stolen out of the grasp of victory, yet again.
The players gave everything they had. Could not be prouder of them.
Sorry to say, the targeting call on Dax was correct. Dax didn't do anything horrible, it wasn't blatantly malicious, but crown of helmet to face is literally the definition of targeting. Just like the ND guy that got booted, don't think he was doing anything malicious either.
100%. There were so many bad calls of targeting in the first few years of the penalty, but I think they are zeroing in on exactly what they are trying to prevent.
Maybe it's my O&M glasses, but that ND hit looked like he was trying to eff up our defenseless defender. But Dax just took a poor angle at the tackle, lowered his head a bit too much, and that was the first thing to make contact. Nothing intentional, just poor form, and a harsh penalty.
What they showed in Lane was (to my eyes) pure shoulder...my bad if there was better views on tv.
Live, it looked like a hard hit.
On Replay, it was helmet to helmet, a legit targeting call.
Wanted to second this. Even the replay in Lane looked clean. I got a call from somebody watching at home during the game that said it was legit. Sad cause we will miss him during Pitt.
It's just so aggravating that a person would GET F'ING PAID for being terrible at his job. Fire him anyway. Make the move and sue him afterwards for terrible on-the-job performance. I - and I'm assuming everyone else here - would never get a deal where if I sucked at my job I'd get paid 3x my yearly salary for literally getting fired.
Oh, I'm not even close.
Football coach is the only career where you can be a fucking loser, and still live in the nicest house in town.
Another thing that really ticks me off is that our offense didn't even score the 29 points. Take away the pick 6 and the field goal setup by another interception by the defense and Cornfu's trash of an offense only scored 19 points.
^^this... and more. Red zone trash won't change
If you wanted to fire Fuente, congrats you're right. If you wanted to wait out the season, congrats cause you'll find reasons for that too. I'm gonna probably check out for the season cause I'm tired of arguing with the same people every week about semantics.
Regardless of the result I'm already fearing the dumbest, loudest people arguing and I haven't felt that way since Beamer retired.
Here's the kicker. Given what our QB situation looks like right now, we might not have another win on the schedule this year.
Duke, maybe.. Everyone else? Not sure we'll be favored on any single game here on out.
Honestly, and sadly agree. Been watching the games of teams we will play and damn it, they all look capable of beating us. Syracuse is basically a running team and they have their own version of Burmeister, but with better plays. GT looks decent and Pitt will just unload on us with Pickett at QB. UVa looked pretty good against Louisville today. Ugh, that last statement hurt to write, but it's the truth. BC looks like a tough out so yeah, I am not seeing a lot of wins left on the schedule, even with a healthy QB1.
Miami is beatable
Starts and ends with the HC. Lost count on how many winnable games are lost due to coaching.
Y'all hang in.
If Florida doesn't want Mullen, we'll take him!
JUGS! good to see you back, I pray we all can hang in long enough
for how long JUGS
for how damn long
It's obvious now but end of year, earlier if things continue down the path it looks like it's going.
I don't know whether to hug you or curse you for giving me hope, lol.
this brings me some comfort, but I also thought it was obvious a year ago
This. I am pretty worried that Whit will find a way to justify a tanking season because Fuente is down to his 3rd and 4th QBs, even though he runs them into the ground until they die, transfer, or develop elsewhere.
Burmeister said his arm was numb the rest of the game after the sack where he landed on his shoulder.
So that's good
Numb, eh? He's one of us!!
This loss sucks but I'm more concerned on how we come out of this and into the Pitt game. Limp QB is the last thing we will need in what will likely be a shootout.
If it's a shootout, it'll be a one sided shootout. Our offense is literally incapable of a shootout.
A shootout requires the other side shooting back.
Right now this VT team simply can not
The term you're looking for is firing squad. We are about to go in front of a firing squad against Pitt.
right? but the difference is the firing squad we're about to face has every rifle loaded instead of just one. Saturday is likely going to be a bloodbath
edti: good chance Fuente out does himself and we lose by a larger margin, at home, than we did to Duke
Saturday's going to be the perfect shitstorm.
First, it's Pitt, so it's gonna be ugly no matter what. Factor in key QB injuries and an OC that should have been fired years ago, plus whatever game strategy they're gonna go with because they're scared of something.
not to mention our defense will be hobbled in the first half without Dax. I wouldn't be shocked if Pitt scores 35+ points in the first half and only 7 or 14 in the second
although, for them, this game is probably won in the first quarter if they score twice.
Given the history between the 2 men, there is a 0% chance that Narduzzi takes his foot off the pedal during this game. He's going to go for the killshot with intention to absolutely bury Fuente's career.
If anyone is looking to double up their life savings the early line is Pitt -6
*please look at my standing in TKP Pick 6 before taking betting advice from me
I'm tired of this.
About sums up how I feel. Tonight. WVU when we scores 0 points in the red zone. The 3 game stretch last season where we had a 4% chance of losing all three and we went 0-3.
Yep. I am tired of this.
Injuries will get us - was mentioned preseason. It's on us now. We've been close in both losses. But this could get real ugly. Pulling for the guys. Playing gutsy.
Has anyone seen Hendon Hooker and Quincy Patterson Balling out at QB? Anyone else think Fuente has a real problem knowing who his best QB is?! Like how is Braxton a better option than QP or HH?
This is a stupid take....don't question our guy who literally almost won the game with one arm for us. If you want to question the staff and how they develop QBs, fine. But don't shit on someone who gave everything he had to win. This coaching staff is the issue.
Settle down. He didn't trash BB. He is questioning Fuente knowing what a good QB is by using comparables to QP and HH. That's a fair criticism given how they are performing.
It's not BB. If BB was playing in Tennessee, he'd be putting up numbers too. The coaches looked like they trusted the offense a bit more today but it was still obviously not enough. If BB is out for any length of time, we are fudged.
We're going to get stomped by Pitt.
Ehhh...
I love BB3 and his gutsy play, no doubt. But if you can't see that both QP and HH are far more talented than BB3 then we aren't watching the same thing.
I appoint hokiealum ad to bring Vt to some kind of relevance in the 2020s
If you need something to wind down on this evening after the debacle....I highly recommend Code 404 on the Peacock app.
Sorry this took so long. Looks like we should have won by a thin margin
I'm beginning to think time of possession is not the definitive stat after all 🤔
Heresy! Balderdash!
+1 for the use of the word Balderdash.
also.... maybe, just maybe, horses don't actually understand football 😲....
no... no.... that's stupid. of course they do. what am I thinking!
Hogwash! Mularkey!
Knew that field goal after 1st and goal from the 2 would bite us in the ass. Never fails
I'd like to take the opportunity to deflect some anger at someone other than the VT coaches. Did anyone happen to get angry at the ACC Network in how they paid 20 minutes of lip service to VT at the beginning of the game (because of how badass our pregame rituals are), but then after that it was nothing but indecent oral sex service on ND every chance they got? Notre Dame is NOT an ACC school, so why are you commenting on them and showing video of their sideline every damn chance you get? I saw their stupid fighting irish mascot like 20 times, but never once (I did take restroom breaks, tbh) did I see the Hokie Bird.
Maybe I'm jaded, but man I am sick and tired of the ACC sucking up to Notre Dame with their half-assed membership in the conference. I can understand that from their bitches at NBC, but our own damned conference network was gushing all over ND for the entire game. Am I justified in my observation? or just deflecting anger from the loss?
Tim Hasselbeck was God awful tonight. Aside from the ND lust, he just provided zero insight. He just stated braindead opinion after braindead opinion and the times where he was actually trying to dissect a play, he was usually completely wrong about what he was looking at.
Like when he was going on about why we took a timeout before ND's last FG attempt. "It's third down!" No, asshat, your own screen says 4th and 1. I know that ACCN was bad with graphics last year, but in that case, find the dial-a-down and figure out who's right.
I noticed it too, they were talking about that RB like he walked on water and then made Cone seem so much better than he actually was. It felt like they were trying to show ND, "Hey NBC isn't the only one that can suck you off"
You are not alone with this sentiment.
Justin Fuente: just the man to find that 3.9%
Yeah and let's not overlook the defensive collapse we had. People keep clamoring to keep Hamilton around, and... I just don't see it. I don't see the hype. The defense is good but it's not great. I don't see anything worth keeping around in a house cleaning.
In this case I think it was a lot of a more physical/talented team overcoming anything that Hamilton could have done, scheme-wise. ND's players simply man-handled our players in many cases, and in others it was that they were speedier, causing our players to miss tackles.
I'm not super angry about that, but I agree that Hamilton hasn't done enough to protect him, at all costs, from friendly fire of getting rid of Cornelsen, Fuente, etc.
We played cushy zone and let them gash down the field twice
Against a statue QB we created no pressure to move his feet except on the two point conversion where the right tackle tackled our defensive end. Even Hasselbeck as bad as he was commented on knowing the QB was NOT a mobile QB. Gone are the days of all out blitz and overwhelming the offense unfortunately.
First year with the new scheme... just started recruiting the players he needs. I'm not sure you can find a whole lot of other examples of the kind of turnaround like the one his unit has had from last season to this one.
Yes, there have been some head scratching moments this season, but they are certainly much improved.
"minutiae"
This makes me want to puke
Honestly at this point, I'm ready to lose every game but the UVA game to end the Fuente era
Nope. Beating UVA would be enough recency bias for the coward AD to not make a move. Sadly it's got to be a clean sweep.
I understand that you're upset, but please don't call Whit Babcock a coward. There is literally nothing that he's demonstratively done that indicates he's a coward. If anything there are only rumors that indicate that his hands were tied when it was, perhaps, most important for him to move. At the time, hiring Fuente was a great move, and at the time, extending his contract was a great move. Hiring Buzz Williams was a great move despite Buzz's exit from the program. Hiring Mike Young was a great move, as well. I can't even speak to the other sports, but nothing that I know of speaks of cowardice.
Yeah, I'm still of the mind that Whit would've "made the move" last year but got overturned somehow.
Would you have preferred indecisive? Or feckless? Those work for me too.
Whit said in his December presser "...will this decision be right? I have no earthly idea". You can buy into conspiracy theories that his hands were tied, or that Fuente somehow talked him into staying, but the legacy program and cash cow of this athletic department is hemorrhaging fan support, money and energy, and the buck *should* stop with the AD to fix that. And he hasn't. Not only that, he hasn't leaned on this head coach to make any changes to his offensive staff that runs out there like a flag football squad game after game.
Whit is literally paid millions of dollars to manage this situation and get it right. He puffs his chest out after Duke 2019, he is punchy in the December presser about things changing, and yet here we are. So yes, I believe it's a cowardly thing to duck your professional responsibilities in this instance.
If nothing else, Whit should quit or take another job (and would, if he was a smart and self-respecting AD) if he is that handicapped by the school that he can't do the most important part of his job properly. The fact that he's not only still here, but signed an extension, doesn't really support the conspiracy theories a lot of people have that he wanted Fuente gone and was overruled. It's wishful thinking by many because the alternative, which is likely reality, is much more depressing to think about.
Alright so we've reached that time of night eh
No I'm tired of everyone putting him on the pedestal. Fuente was not a "great hire at the time". He was fine. Tell me who we beat out for him?
And extending his contract was not a great move. It was chicken shit cowardly move and I hope we learned a lot from that. Whit played scared now he's a hostage for a kings ransom.
And stop with the conspiracy theories to defend him not taking action last year. He blew a golden chance
I am not spreading or supporting any conspiracy theories. I was merely acknowledging their existence as a plausible explanation for what happened instead of jumping to conclusions based on emotion. All I am saying is that there is nothing demonstrable to indicate that Whit is a coward AD.
Do you know every candidate that was available at the time that Frank was retiring and Whit needed to find a replacement? NO
Do you know every convo that Whit had with each candidate, or their agents, to know for sure that Whit dropped the ball, undersold the job at VT, or otherwise acted like a chicken shit coward AD? NO
Do you know every detail of the situation of the end of last year that you can confidently say that Whit tucked his tail and kissed Fuente's ass to keep him on another year instead of firing him and going with someone else? NO
Do you know that there was a better candidate out there that wanted the VT job but Whit sat there like a chicken shit coward, didn't call up, and hence he was left with the bare cupboard that is Fuente & Co? NO
What golden chance did Whit have, and at exactly what point? Oh wait, you don't know what you are talking about! You know seemingly nothing of the very complex landscape that is being an Athletic Director. You only assume that football is the only important thing for VT athletics and that it is more important to act with your balls than it is to act with your brain.
I am by no means a homer for Whit, but I can at least admit I know very little of the decisions that he has to make, trust that he is making the best decisions for ALL of VT athletics, and will refrain from crucifying the man until it can be proven that he shat the bed.
You have as little evidence to support that he made the best decisions as I have that he did not. However, I and at this point it feels like most, can objectively say that whatever decisions he made did not work out. Therefore the conclusion is that he made the wrong one.
Yes that is in hindsight to some, but I felt underwhelmed with the hire from the beginning. I think the best measure of a coaching hire (obviously besides success down the line) is what other programs were competing to hire him. So I guess I'll ask the group again, who did we beat out to hire Justin Fuente?
And I think it's important to keep that in mind going forward with our next hire. You should be skeptical if our next head coach isn't on the radar of other programs.
you can Google as easily as the rest of us though. At the time Fuente was considered one of the hottest up and coming coaches. Whit hired a coach that was being talked about for multiple programs at the time. None of us were in the room of those other programs though, so it depends on whether you believe the reporting or not. Hindsight is meaningless in that regard.
Do I believe in Whit? well, he did hire a "hot" coach at the time (fact). And he has made other excellent hires, eg Mike Young ( also fact). So while pissed off at the situation, I'm waiting for the replacement and see what Whit does to rectify the situation.
Don't get your hopes up that anything will change. It'll be Lucy with the football in December again, and Fuente will be back. Despite his many attempts of trying to be fired, he just can't seem to get Whit's attention.
Fuente has 2 lifelines waiting for him at the end of the season. TCU is one when GP retires. I don't know the other (would guess it's FSU). But he only gets those lifelines if he is not fired here at VT.
Post game presser was emotional. This is a solid locker room, but without a QB, Fuente might be toast. What's worse in my eyes at least, all those 4* committed to the class, may not stay if he is let go.
Lol all 3 of them?
Oh yes, our currently ranked 20th class which will surely be ranked around 35 at the end of the cycle would be a disaster to lose and would sink our absolutely mediocre program in a way we would never recover from.
This was like watching England in a shootout in a major tournament: you know it's inevitable you just don't know how they're gonna lose it this time around
I'm not gonna criticize the kids overmuch. I'm just not, I think it's a bad look. They aren't professionals.
The coaches are. But we've all said the same things about them before. Anything I might say would just be more rehashing. I just...I don't know where we (or I) go from here.
You don't win games with field goals.
Notre Dame did that yesterday!
Technically, ND won that game with 1 field goal.
We had 3.
Carolina has an average of 31.5 pts per game scored on them by non VT teams in conference play
Ugh...I watched the Texas A&M/Alabama highlights and it hurts my soul to watch their QBs throwing strike after strike and yet we have issues getting it a few yards down the field through the air.
Don't know why... but I think he should stay and people should cool the jets. Let's see how we handle the rest of the season. It was a great game and yes the 2pt conversion and punting late in the 4th were questionable but the refs were tough today and the ND QB situation today was quite remarkable. The back up playing lights out and the starter redeeming himself was impressive. Our team was at a talent deficit in this game and it is hard to get the players at VT. People don't want to admit that. I feel like the building blocks are there and the program is just playing tight right now. I wish everybody would just exhale and play and coach more free. Next year is a bad year to be looking for a head coach. No doubt a move needs to be made at OC but you don't do it mid season. I am good to let him play out his contract and basically mandate some coaching moves at the assistant level. I know I am in the minority but so be it.
I find this to be a bad take. It's a consistent trend of mediocrity. The talent deficit is a coaching staff issue as much as any bad play call. Recruiting experts (Barton Simmons formerly of 247 and Bud Elliott of 247) have been extremely critical of our recruiting efforts. We are under-recruiting our potential by a lot. A good coach would not only have a better gameplan but would have talent that could compete with just about anyone in the county. We are not Wake Forest. We are a legit football program that should be ranked year in year our. Fuente isn't doing that after 6 fuckin years. He.Needs.Ta.Go.Periodt.
With all due respect, but this is year 6 of the Justin Fuente era; how many more years will it take? My greatest frustration is his insistence that Brad Cornelson is a great OC. Look at our revolving door of QB talent. If you can stomach it, lookup the stats for Herndon Hooker and Quincy Patterson.
Hooker with the highest completion % of his career (69.6%), already equaled his highest touchdown number at 13, only thrown 1 interception in 112 attempts. He has added 3 more tds on the ground with 282 yards rushing.
QP stats aren't that impressive over 4 games. He has 430 yards passing and 3 tds on 61% completion. He has rushed for 268 yards and 3 tds. NDSU though is a very run oriented team, averaging 317 rushing yards per game. They also only allow opponents 60.8 yards rushing per game and 220 overall.
And it will only get harder to get players here if up-and-coming recruits see that VT can't win the games that they should, that they are letting talent transfer out of the program to have more success at other programs, and really just have no identity other than the best damn entrance in all of college football.
His players never gave up and clawed back into the game somewhat. He is also playing a graduate assistant at QB. Give him a year or two.
Buzz Williams and Mike Young have done more than enough to show this is nothing more than a weak excuse. Its very possible to get good players to come to VT, you just have to not suck at it.
Probably because its a crap excuse. If we can recruit at a high level in basketball, there is zero excuse for not being able to do so in football.
Texas A&M beat Alabama with a backup quarterback. Hell, Notre Dame just beat us with a backup quarterback. Why can't we have nice things like a reliable backup? Oh yeah that's right, ours is busy rebuilding Tennessee's football program.
Because Fuente is a 40-some-year-old man who cannot learn from his past coaching mistakes. #MakeTheMove
Honestly the bigger beef needs to be that Fu and Co didn't sign a decent QB in the 19 and 20 classes. No way in this age of college football you are going to keep two upper classmen QBs that have starting potential on the roster.
Going to bed at halftime was a good command decision. And honestly I had already switched over to the Dodgers at that point. I feel bad for you guys that are still so emotionally invested in this program, Fuente is just going to keep hurting you. Root for the players and they are playing their hearts out but just keep expecting the coaches to not put them in positions to succeed and you will not be too upset imho...
Prevent Defense is an oxymoron. It only prevents the team playing Prevent Defense from winning.
99% sure watching the body language, Buchner gassed the defense. Coan came in and started shooting freaking laser beams, and we couldn't get home. I don't think it mattered what defense we played at that point.
That was my reading as well. The loss of Dax to the targeting penalty at a critical time in the game didn't help either.
If I remember correctly from previous film breakdown, the defense really drops off when Dax is out. A lot of those up the middle and over the middle plays ND made on that last drive were plays that Dax usually shuts down. So his loss hurt there and it's REALLY going to hurt against Pitt in the first half.
The D looked gassed late.
I said this before the season...with the lack of depth we have at DL and in the secondary, holding leads in the 4th Q is going to be dicey. And particularly on the DL, some of our 2nd stringers don't have P5 size or athleticism.
So you can't effectively pressure the QB and have a tired secondary so it's a pick your poison situation. Play aggressive and risk getting beat deep or play soft and hope to bend but don't break.
We sent Hollifield on the Blitz a couple (maybe Tisdale on the 2nd) times and didn't get close.
Our Offense was going to need to control the ball and score points in the 4th Q for this to be a successful season...unfortunately that simply isn't going to happen.
Frustrating because that's a winnable game on so many fronts: Pull down that dropped interception, Catch that pass late in the game, get pressure on nd QB on last drive, don't waste red zone opportunity.....
I'm proud of the players and they represented well.
My football fan eye went away thinking nd had some dirty plays, NOT a brian Kelly fan. They could've been called for hits OOB, etc.
But, if we want to take a step up to a legit top-20 team, we've got to improve in about every phase. And that goes back to the head Coach being willing to make changes.
Defense is better, but they tanked at the end.
Offense is anemic and stalls when it counts the most.
I'm not sure how anyone can objectively look at the product on the field/results and defend it.
Still proud to be a Hokie, really proud of the effort by the team, crowd, etc. Fun game to watch if you're a college football fan and NOT a Hokie.
So conflicted. I want to win these games (another to the list since the 90's of what if's) but you can't win these games if we want a regime change in program.
Respectfully, do you really believe this coaching staff can improve the football program??? Do you really believe the team next year will improve?
Where did you read that in what I wrote?
Perhaps I misinterpreted your statement, but it sounds like you are torn between wanting to win these games, but you don't think we would win these types of games if we change coaching staff. Hence my reply asking you if you thought this was the coaching staff to win these types of games.My apologies Hokie Fireman, I misread your statement. Another poster pointed out my mistake to me
I think he's saying the opposite actually. As a fan he wants the team to win. But he also wants a regime change and that won't happen if we win those games.
Oh, gotcha. I reread his statement and see that interpretation.
With ya.
As I watched the winning FG split the uprights and realized through continued abysmal clock management we had left ourselves no possibility of answering, I couldn't help but rationalize...at least this makes it more likely that they fire Fuente before next Season.
It's a totally deflating position as a fan.
I'm deflated. Lane was juiced last night. The fans wanted the win, the team wanted the win (and they played so damn tough, cliche I know) and confounding decision making, and scant depth got in the way. (A reoccurring narrative.)
It just sucks.
I mean VT lost and that's never good. But on the bright side it's one more nail in Fuente's coffin lid. Here's hoping we have a much better staff in place next year. Im looking forward to checking back IN to Hokie football. 🥃
Also, we don't win wearing AME anymore so...
Slept on it, we're an OC and a QB away from 5-0 and a top 10 ranking
It's very frustrating how close we are to 5-0. Notre Dame was an expected loss. But the way we lost hurts. Same with WVU, a toss up game we should have won.
Marcolini hit the nail on the head with the 2008 comparison. We lost 4 games that year in equally frustrating fashion. We won the ACC and went to the Orange Bowl.
I don't know if Fuente gets us to Charlotte. Right now, he needs to find a QB, cause we may not have BB3 for awhile.
You're about to learn about the gulf in quality between the coaching staff of 2008 and the one today. Beamer coached that team to Charlotte. Fuente will end up 6-6 or worse.
The most frustrating part, is judging by the eye test this season, we let the two better QBs walk...now, maybe they are only better now because they are getting competent coaching, but who knows
I'll reiterate what I stated last year:
I have no animus towards Fuente, but it's time he be sent packing.
———
He's paid a lot of money to win games, and has already lost two winnable games against high-profile teams this year. Even remaining game on the schedule looks like a coin flip W/L.
Only on the defensive side of the ball, have the coaches shown any improvement. Yet if Tech decided to clean house entirely, that'd be just fine with me.
My wallet shall remain closed to VT Athletics, until they make an effort to make our Football program entertaining again. That means making tough decisions when it comes to the employment of coaches.
Shaming me to change my mind, won't work. The new fundraising campaign was too little, too late.
I trust my arm more than I trust Blumrick's. And I have tendinitis. If we are stuck with qbs of that level after Burmeister is out, we are going to have a long rest of the season.
If it's going to be that bad, it is time to let the younger ones play and develop.
Coaching-wise, the only thing that surprised me is that they went for the points before half. The usual MO is to let someone dagger us, then try to burn clock to go hide in the locker room. I hoped it was a good sign. In the end, it was an anomaly.
There were some crazy games yesterday. I was able to see the end of the TX-OU game and Bama-TX A&M game. From watching those games I realize where I stand at this moment.
1. I like the talent we have on the team and I am frustrated that they have not been given a chance to show case their skills. Even though we hope games should not come down to one or two critical plays, they often do just like some of the games yesterday. Trust your players and play to their skill sets. OU had Rattler throw a 2pt conversion even after getting pulled. To me it showed they knew their QBs' strengths and they utilized it appropriately.
2. While certain players play their hearts out, they need to be honest with themselves and work to improve their skill sets. Anyone remember Ernest Wilford dropping a game winning touchdown? The next year I don't think he dropped anything thrown to him. I doubt Beamer was telling him to work on it or he never throw to him again.
3. We need to move on from Fuente and move away from having an offense centered around a QB running the ball. Having a mobile QB is great but I want a QB that can distribute the ball to the skill players. How many WRs and RBs are on this damn team?! Calzada balled out for A&M and he was under constant pressure. His recievers made fanatic catches. As for Fuente his loyalty to Corny has put him in this spot. We don't know what is done behind closed doors but the perception is our reality. He is giving Corny a pass and the program is not as competitive as we hope.
4. We had been spoiled for a long time by having the same head coach and DC. Other programs had to deal with the gamble that comes with new coaches. Well I guess this is our reality check. Well I love what I am seeing on the defensive side, I am not optimistic that a new coach will retain the defensive coaches. I do wonder if Shane would swoop in and take Hamilton if the opportunity was there. I am also concerned what our transfer portal will look like with a coaching change. Also, all these teasers that there are coaches interested in the VT position are driving me nuts. I need names so I can develop some hope.
5. I'm tired of the vent threads and constant bitching in every other thread as well. I think we all get it and really just don't need to hear it over and over again. Its not good for anyone's mental health.
I have been firmly in the fire Corn camp all year, but last nights loss wasn't on the offense or playcalling. Aside from some predictability at times, I was mostly happy with the playcalling. The defense lost that game last night, specifically letting ND march down the field unopposed twice for a total of 11 points. The tides seemed to turn when Dax got ejected. Not sure what the answer is, just echoing how exhausting this is as a fan.
I was absolutely not OK with decisions like:
-Rotating 4 RBs so that nobody could get into a rhythm
-Spending halftime to draw up 2 carries by Keshawn King to start the second half
-Throwing that soft pass to Blackshear in the flat that Burmeister has consistently shown the inability to complete this season
-whatever trickery they attempted on the final play but they didn't have anyone in the same area for a lateral
-Not attempting to just pound it in 4 times from the 1 yard line with Holston. Although the fade to the sideline was a nice call, the pass was horribly off target
The defense basically scored 10 points with their two interceptions and put the offense in a position to win the game. They couldn't run out the clock. Our offensive stats are objectively bad. Subjectively, it's inexcusable not to score from 1st and goal from the 1 yard line. That 4 points we left on the table is the difference in the game.
No depth on the dline means you got exhausted kids by the fourth quarter.
This would actually explain why the offense keeps trying to play ball control offense instead of "opening it up". Offense needs to consider keeping the defense off the field in it's gameplan.
playing scared is playing scared no matter how you slice it. And it's not a productive way to play. Championship teams never plays scared. Quick 3-and-outs are just as bad as, if not worse than, opening it up and moving the ball down field too quickly. We had 5 3-and-outs on 13 possessions. 38% of our possessions vs ND went for 0 first downs. That is atrocious. If your strategy is going to be to control the ball, fine. But at least do it well. We can't even do that.
I remember rolling my eyes/sighing/yelling at the tv at the play calling about a dozen times last night. Three I remember that stand out:
1. Going for 2 after a penalty early in third. Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.
2. Rushing that 1 yard line play. Normally, don't mind teams doing this in general, but as it was happening I was yelling to slow down and get a play called in because we never run hurry up...just knew it was going to be bad and it had that off feeling. This is time and again the case with our play calling, it just never has a good feel/flow.
3. Forget the play specifically, but it was one where as soon as it got going I was basically like "great, classic." Then, BB showed all 23.5mph of his speed and got a 1st down, fastest he's looked all season. I remember thinking shit play call again and bailed out by an individual effort.
There's stuff that we need to be able to do, such as throw a football more than 5 yards through the air without it being a duck...but, once again, apathy has set in. Probably won't be watching the rest of the games, I already watched this movie every week several years in a row. Just brings me down and it's harder to watch from London anyway, better off using my time here exploring.
Hope our boys win out and have a helluva time doing it, but... I'm exasperated once again with the way this game flowed, I'm exasperated that I know what play will be up next, I'm exasperated watching us play into defense's hands, I'm exasperated by poor decision making from the sidelines, I'm exasperated watching what should've been another win get blundered into another loss.
It's just them same ol' fuckin shits, just another diff'rent fuckin damn day. No surprises here. Honestly, I'm so apathetic (I must be) I can't even get upset anymore. Haven't gotten upset for a couple years. Fuck it, I even have to laugh at this clown show now. It's just, whatever at this point. Feel terrible for the players. Hoops and rasslin' can't start soon enough. Yadda yadda. Fuck CornFu & all that. I'll believe Whit when I see it. All done.
Exactly! I'm surprised there are still fans who have hope of winning games like this. It's the same story over and over again. Hokies will have a lead in any big game and then lose that game. Heck, this wasn't even a big game. Notre Dame is not very good. Fuente just isn't the guy. He shows no emotion, he's too conservative, and he's not going to win games that matter. It will be interesting to see the direction this team goes in after they lose to Pitt...
Because we should have won lol. They can totally win these games bad coaching decisions and all. It's actually incredible that we keep finding ways to lose these. (Cuse 16, GT 17, ODU, BC 18, Cincy, BC 19, Duke 19, ND 19, UVA 19, UK, Wake 20, Liberty, Miami 20, and now WVU and ND). All games where we were clearly the better team and found a way to lose, sometimes badly. With a competent staff we win... maybe all of those.
Starting to figure it out now, eh?
Joking aside, I really did admire your optimism before the season. I just couldn't get behind it because the reality is that these coaches aren't capable of doing the jobs they're paid to do. We had 5 years of empirical evidence. Now we have almost 5.5 years. Nothing has changed. Nothing will with these coaches.
Yeah I was under the impression that the main driver of these close losses were random events that would eventually go in our favor. And that talent and development wise we were about to turn the corner.
Clearly these losses have been the fault of the coaching staff in spite of any talent we have
Some of those probably can be chalked up to random bad luck. Like we lost the Syracuse game because that dome is freaking cursed.
But most of those are on coaching.
And any close losses this season will definitely be pinned on coaching just due to the lack of depth, especially at QB.
Deep down inside I knew we were going to lose like that. Because it's happened before. It's a pattern with CJF.
I can make a lengthy list of how this game was lost.
The players and the fans deserve better. Players are 12-0, Fans are 12-0. Fuente is 6-6.
I wonder if Fuente ever gets tired of blaming execution? Like, at what point does one realize that if the players aren't improving, maybe they're not the real problem?
I never understood that excuse in college sports. Like even if the players were the problem, that comes down to the staff that recruits and develops them
It works for a few plays or even a game. Like someone made the wrong read or cut the wrong way. But when it becomes a repeated refrain after multiple games, it's not a player problem. Either the coaches aren't teaching the players the right plays, adjusting their playcalling to their players' strengths, or recruiting the talent to run the plays they want to call.
The biggest execution issue our team has is the termination clause in Corn's contract.
I tried explaining that to my dad today that it's different than the NFL. The staff is responsible for acquiring and improving their talent pool and he was just like "well that's really hard". No shit. That's why they get paid millions of dollars
Coach Fu- Very adept at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. SMH How many times we've had to watch his game mismanagement.
What I think is overlooked is Fuente could and should have a safe seat by now. We should have won the UNC, WVU and ND games by 14+. Instead the staff found new and interesting ways to not let that happen. If we have Hooker there isn't a game within two scores, maybe even three, bad coaching decisions and all.
This isn't to defend Fuente, it shows that even when he's been dealt a great hand (WVU, ND and the entire coastal suck this year) that he still finds a way to fuck it up.
Burn it down, hire an SEC assistant or try to poach someone like Mark Stoops (in b4 the haters, yes we can fucking steal Kentucky's football coach).
Where is that 6 million plus for just the HC coming from? Why would anyone leave that stress free job for the rebuild?
Okay that's actually way higher than I thought. I'm more curious as to where they're getting that money
The next coach will be a P5 coordinator, G5 coach or maybe Clawson.
I don't think Whit will go the coordinator route. I think it's why we didn't hire Elliott last year. I think Clawson could be a potential candidate. Assuming Fickell is out of our reach, I also think realistically we could go after Tom Herman or Gus Malzahn.
Clawson would be a good hire but buckle up for 7-5, 8-4, 7-5 before we get to 10 wins. He won't rush the process and there will be a transition period between recruits.
I would love Jeff Hafley. He's probably the better option between him and Clawson imo. Defense oriented, back to this team's identity
I'm OK with this as I am convinced Clawson will build his culture and show progress from year to year. He's the man for the job in Blacksburg IMO.
Hard disagree. I think we will be at the same overall level as Fuente just a little less bipolar.
I definitely understand why someone thinks this way. I just happen to be a believer in what he's done over the years.
It would be a Mike Young type of hire (some question marks) no doubt.
Is Clawson the Mike Young equivalent for football? Is there a Mike Young equivalent for football. I'd take that person in a heartbeat if they exist.
Clawson is certainly a program builder and a winner, but recruiting is the big unknown with him. I'm starting to think Tom Herman makes a ton of sense if we can get him. He's a former Broyles winner, won a natty at OSU, won a NY6 bowl at Houston and a Sugar Bowl at Texas, and a winning record and bowl record. Yeah you can argue he underperformed at Texas, but everyone does relative to the ridiculous expectations. Plus he had a huge buyout at Texas so maybe we can structure his contract where we pay him more down the road so it doesn't offset his payoff from Texas. Could be a really intriguing fit.
Get Herman, two coordinators for $1MM, and load up on a staff of VA/east coast recruiters. Sign me up.
I'm not interested in Herman. He didn't leave Houston all that well off in terms of recruiting and clearly underachieved with Texas - a program with way more resources than we have. I don't see how he can elevate our program.
Who actually meets or exceeds expectations at Texas? Its natty every year or bust there. Plus the talent there just isn't conducive to playing good defense IMO. I'm not going to hold Texas against him, it's not like he had a losing record or anything there, you can just never win enough there. The same will happen to Sark im sure.
I agree. I think Longhorn fans are going to grow weary of Sark as well.
Herman wasn't great at TX but the expectations are insane. Texas has played in one NY6 game since 2010---under Herman FWIW. They have an elite pedigree but haven't been an elite Program for more than a decade.
I wouldn't mind kicking the tires on Herman at VT.
I think Texas talent is pretty overrated too.
I'm not a Texas fan so I don't expect a title from the program. But a good coach should make them a consistent top 25 team - they're the second most talented team in the Big XII every year. And they weren't a consistent top 25 team under Herman. That job also requires being able to sell a vision to boosters and high school coaches. It's not easy with how fractured their boosters are, but the resources should help get some success short term. He couldn't do it. Some of these issues are what need to be addressed for us, too. Not sure if he'd be able to accomplish it here. Maybe the smaller scale makes it easier. But, how things went at Texas along with what he left behind at Houston worries me.
I'm not saying I have any answers here, just that I'm not sold on him being a great hire like he seemed to be 5 years ago.
So Herman wasn't fired just for underperforming in Austin. He also rubbed people the wrong way and the Longhorn brass was tired of the Tom Herman show (Source: Cover 3 Pod). Whit won't hire him because there is 0% chance he'll get along with the Hokie faithful. I think sometimes we put too much on "cultural fit" but there's something to truly bad fits. Herman can be good somewhere I think, but definitely won't work at VT.
This guy Frank Beamer - maybe you've heard of him. He used to coach at Murray State, grew up in Fancy Gap, knows the culture real well.
maybe if tech had hired beams in 2003, sure
I'm sure Clawson would bring some of his wf guys w him. Speeds up rebuild and culture.
SEC tv deal pays out like 50 million/school even if they suck like Kentucky. This is the manifestation of how bad the old guard like Swofford and Weaver fucked us by being apathetic in a rapidly changing landscape.
Don't look now, but...
Stoops ain't leaving UK and the SEC for a descending VT program. CJF is right where I figured at 3-2. Next 7 games are against the mediocrity that is the ACC. Go 5-2,and save his job again, especially if a W is against UVA. Go 4-3 and Whit better have him packing his sh*t in a box.
I think the consistency of finding ways to lose close games comes down to coaching, both from a decision-making and leadership standpoint. Good coaches will win more of these games than they lose. I don't have all the stats in front of me, but I'm pretty sure we're under .500 (probably well under) in these games. I'd like to say we can turn this around starting against Pitt, but I'm not too optimistic. Probably can't blame all of this on Fuente, but he's the man in charge, and I think changes are needed.
And finding ways to lose what are supposed to be toss-up games too. Pretty sure his record in those over the past 3+ seasons is pretty bad too.
I saw this tweet earlier. The W/L are based on the spread but the results are ugly.
This maybe more than anything else I've ever seen shows how bad of a problem we have. The coaches have actively negated luck and statistical probability to the point that we lose literally almost all of our winnable games.
We have the best home environment. The best fanbase. Just need a coach that brings something to the table instead of taking stuff off.
Fuente is what we see on tape.
ND did get the benefit of multiple bad calls. But the game should not have been that close to begin with.
Just super bummed a day later that we delayed the inevitable a year. Most of us knew Fuente wasn't it after 2018, 2019 didn't do a whole lot to convince anyone otherwise, and 2020 should have undoubtedly been the final nail in his coffin. We put off ripping the bandaid off when it was obvious it needed to happen and now who knows how long that's set us back. We could have spent this year getting the growing pains out of the way with a new coach and now we're all sitting here having the same conversations we've been having for 3+ years, again.
This is a big thing for me. I really believe that putting off firing Fuente for a year because #optics is going to cost us a lot more in the long run than firing him amid a pandemic would have. If Whit just couldn't get his guy lined up then that's one thing. But if the reason he didn't 🔥⛲ last year was because of #optics then it was a huge mistake.
I keep hearing the "optics" argument but who honestly cares about optics? The media, people on social media? Those people don't matter. Plenty of coaches were fired last year and guess what, optics didn't mean shit.
Exactly. The optics argument was stupid then and it's stupid now. If Pitt blows our doors off next week Fuente should be relieved immediately. You know what other argument is almost as stupid as the optics argument? Money. Tech has it. If they're serious about football they'll find it.
I also don't understand how a difference from a 6-6 record to 7-5 or 8-4 somehow is the deciding factor for Fu saving his job. It's evident it's not working out. How in the world could one or two wins be the deciding factor for the fate of VT football? Barring him winning out and making the ACC championship, I don't see how you retain Fuente another year. Even then I would hope he goes elsewhere. It's apparent that this staff is not taking this program anywhere.
Fuck keeping him at 8-4/7-5 our schedule is soft as hell this season. The worst he could do to stay imo is 10-3 with an ACC championship.
But literally doesn't matter because it won't happen. We're probably going 5-7/6-6
The money thing is dumb too because of the way Fuente's buyout is structured. It was stupid last year when people thought we should wait until late December to make a move for the buyout to drop and it would be equally dumb this year. Coaches aren't going to wait around to accept jobs so we can save money on the buyout - if we wait that's just admitting that we are not serious about getting our top candidates and are okay with whoever is left at the end of musical chairs.
Last night's game made me throw my VT shirt away. Okay, it actually had a hole in it and I've been needing to get it replaced for a while, but figured last night's game was as good enough of an excuse to "make the move," so to speak.
Stayed up to 11-something for the game when I had to get up at 4 AM this morning to volunteer at a water station for the Broad Street Run, ironically enough, with the VT Alumni Association Philly Chapter. Race was a lot of fun.
And one of the worst things, the loss at the end did not surprise me or even get me upset. More just numb. It was not that unexpected anymore. I've become so apathetic about VT under Fuente that Penn State losing was much more important to me than VT winning and I don't even consider this type of a loss to be that bad anymore.
Team can still pull through and win 6 more games this year. Not real likely, but we still have the opportunity. Anything short of that and Corn-Fu had better be gone by the time 2022 rolls around.
By the way, any idea on how badly last night's game set us back with all of those recruits that were supposedly there? Or was it more just a missed opportunity that maybe won't be that big of a deal?
I actually don't think too bad. The atmosphere was pretty good and it was a close game. I think the bigger issues would be with the rumors/stories of the quantity and quality of the resources we had attending to those recruits.
I agree. The atmosphere was great. Close game against a good opponent. Sucks we lost but the recruits got to see "the show" which is the goal.
We def have the wrong OC. Texas A&M beat Alabama and their OC is none other than Darrell Dickey. 😡
Just an FYI Jimbo calls all game day plays.
Jimbo is a control freak...that being said, Dickey is the QB coach and just prepared his backup QB to play smart, decisive football against the best CFB Program of the past decade.
Regardless of what their exact roles were at Memphis, I don't think there is any reasonable doubt that VT got the much less talented Coordinator in Cornelson.
That QB played his nuts off. I was extremely impressed.
And you can quote me on that.
Still miss this guy. What a legend.
A unique experience in the student section
It took a while to leave the stadium from the (East) student section after the final whistle last night. Packed in like sardines slowly moving through the concourse. I don't think i've ever experienced that, and I'm a grad student who did undergrad here so I've been to almost every Fuente era home game. Student section was packed and rowdy from pregame all the way til the end. That almost never happens.
Of course everything else is negative. Another crushing L, bad coaching, our QB situation is f'ed going into the most important game for the division, etc.
As far as coaching goes I can really only come back to two main positives for me. First 2 drives play calling stood out to me where it looked like we actually wanted to do what Fuente said pregame which was let it fly more, we took some shots on longer routes most notably a deeper out route to Tre about 20 yards or so. And then also going for points before halftime was HUGE, far too many times we've chosen to take a knee, we're not some godly team that can afford to give up chances at points. We got 3 points on that drive with 28 seconds on the clock at the start I believe. We need that urgency from our offense all the time, and point blank we need better clock management all around
I feel like we get to the last two minutes of a half and the coaches can't decide what tempo they want to use. They try to burn the clock, but then get us in third and long, force a pass that goes incomplete, and then punt with too many seconds left. Or we need to hurry up to score fast and they're letting the play clock get to zero.
Blumerick torn ACL & Burmeister sprained AC joint 4-6 weeks. Not what you'd like to hear the day after
That was the rumor on 247/TSL. It's Knox time. Really really stupid decision not to bring in more depth at qb from the portal over the off season. Good thing we have ~11 scholarship runningbacks.
Wouldn't be surprised to see Tayvion getting reps since he played some qb in high school
I cannot agree more. Going into this season knowing both (1) the size of BB (not his heart but simply his stature) and (2) the risk of injury due to our tendency to run the QB, it should have been pretty apparent that we would need some insurance (ie more bodies in the QB room).
Thanks for the update.
Would be great if we didn't run off all our QBs last offseason! At least this will finally be the end of the Fu era. Hate this for the players though, this is going to be ugly.
The thing is, I agree with this statement but it wouldn't really matter if we still had Hooker or Quincy. They were not going to develop here, and they were not going to be given the decision-making freedom to make the kinds of plays that they are at their new schools. It's the same reason why I didn't worry that much about losing James Mitchell. He was destined for a ceiling of 300 yds/3 tds and a couple rushes in this offense.
Is it time to give the ball to Bullock?
As pessimistic as we all feel about this team right now, we're technically in the lead for winning the coastal so you go whatever qb you think gives you the best chance to win.
Oh, wait a minute..... that qb is at TN. Second best. Dang it-that qb is at NDSU.
You go with the qb that gives you the third best chance to win.
So if I may, let us continue this thought experiment.
You left off at the third best chance to win.
Dang it we have to wait another minute now that the third best chance is injured so now go with who gives you the fourth best chance to win. There that will work. However if the fourth best gets injured go with who gives you the fifth best chance to win.
Wait yet another minute the fifth best chance is already injured as well.
So let us now recalculate the current situation. We are going with the guy who gives us the fourth best chance to win and if (or when seeing as how our offense relies on the QB taking too many hits) the fourth best gets injured you go with your 6th best chance to win.
Seems like a reasonable plan.
/s 🙄🙄
Is this the offensive minutia being ironed out for this Saturday?
The part about BB3's injury really pisses me off. The coaches must have known about the sprain prior to him re-entering the game and chose to play him anyway after the injury to Blumerick. This should be a firable offense in my opinion. I didn't listen to the post game interviews but I think someone mentioned that BB3 said his arm was numb? Now we're talking possible nerve damage and seriously messing up the kid's life after football by letting (or making) him play after the sprain.
Yes, he did say that. And yes it means our coaches knowingly played a very injured Burmeister at the end of the game.
If I recall, they did the exact same thing to Hooker as well, in playing him in a game where he was very clearly hurt.
If you listen to certain former players' interviews, you'll hear some very damning stories about how this staff deals with injured players... I don't particularly want to share the interview because it's one sided, biased, and asked loaded questions, but the accusations, IF true, are very alarming.
WTF is this? either you share the interview or you don't. GTFO with this nonsense.
take a deep breath man
@bar, CGs state that if you're gonna discuss it, might as well share it. you could just link to an existing TKP thread for discussion if there is one.
look gobble, I know you don't like me very much and I know it's your job to moderate but this is a bit ridiculous. I don't envy your job and I'm not saying that I, or anybody else, could do it better than you do but I'm asking that you take your pre-determined biases out of this.
You can't tell me that "hey, this interview might explain things but I'm not going to share the interview because in my opinion it is biased and unfair" isn't a shit-post.
Nothing about my comment is "Bar right, VPI wrong".
You are right about the CG regarding sharing content that you're going to reference. I acknowledged and addressed that. At the same time, I felt the tone of the delivery in your comment was unnecessarily harsh.
Edit: you get the benefit of the doubt here too regarding the edit. I added the edit @bar within a minute of posting the comment because i had the CGs open in the second tab and got distracted before adding in
yeah, I'm leaving it for posterity but when I wrote my response to you I was responding to a comment that only said "take a deep breath man" without all of the context you added after the fact. It felt a little targeted before you added the @bar part.
valid. i'm just like anyone else around here in that i can do better too. we understand that emotions are running high after a loss, which is why the vent thread on saturday nights are typically a bit more wild west than any other threads on the site. after two days, we'd hope that the typical interactions are more civil than hostile, and that even if there is (warranted) major criticism directed towards the program or coaches or performance, that the frustration isn't directed towards other users.
He's referring to the mook Reynolds interview on Don V Fridays podcast
I'm probably going to sound like an unknowledgeable idiot here, but, serious question...if Kadum gets injured against Pitt, and the Tayvion Robinson Emergency QB Package implodes spectacularly, who is left as an option at QB...?
Probably showing my ignorance with our roster here by asking that, but I'm genuinely curious.
I think it's fair to not know the 4th string QB.
Anyway, hokiesports roster shows Tahj Bullock and Ben Locklear as the other two QBs on the roster.
Bullock! I knew I was forgetting someone!
I'll be honest, while Bullock had slipped my mind...I had absolutely no idea who Locklear was until you mentioned him. 😬
Well shit I hope Bullock's had some quality reps in practice
Yeah if that's the case, feel like you gotta give it to Bullock and at least run the old Quincy playbook from the ND game.
And now we have the 2021 Excuse on why Fuente should be retained for another year. Because you can't hold these results against him when the entire QB room is hurt. (You know, because they had no influence on why the QB room doesn't have Hooker or Patterson to begin with....)
If Whit falls for that excuse he needs to find a new job somewhere else. Everyone could see this QB roster problem coming a mile away except for our great coaching staff. Judging by past history with the Corn offense it was only a matter of time for BB to go down with an injury. Fuente chose to rely on Kadum as his backup plan and Blumrick in case of an emergency. He made these decisions and he has to take full responsibility for it.
Beat Syracuse, GT, Duke, UVA, Pitt, and Miami.
I think we go 2-4.
Might as well start the coaching search thread now.
I hope we get like a big smoke machine and a mystery QB comes out of the tunnel on Saturday at this point.
If CJF were not on the hot seat, this would be the time to play the freshman and let him grow into the job. Maybe that's a good argument to change coaches now; let's start building for the future today, instead of trying to save a bad coaches job.
The big issue is that we are 6 years into a Fuente program, and this is now the 4th consecutive season where we have serious issues at QB. In fact, the QB that starts the season, rarely gets the majority season snaps because he's hurt (because we rely on the QB to also be the team's leading rusher).
Our MO, now, is we take the transfers that will never have a shot at starting elsewhere and we expect them to get beat to a pulp. And if I'm wrong on this, then I invite anyone to point to evidence to the contrary.
Well, I don't think the intent was there for Willis to be a heavy running QB.
In other news:
https://twitter.com/AdamSparks/status/1447271840158679043?s=20
Here's the embed for you:
Super glad for Hooker getting to ball out and show the world what he can do on the field.
You know that nice warm feeling you get when it's cold outside and you take a nice hearty pull from a bottle of bourbon? Kinda warms your soul and makes you feel good? You familiar?
Yeah, this makes me feel the exact opposite of that.
So glad we dicked him around like we did. Definitely couldn't have used his services this year (though, he'd probably get killed in our offense, so maybe we did him a favor)
Beyond our mind numbing QB "rotation"/situation. Did you notice our rushing? BB was our leading rusher. Meanwhile Blackshear was playing really well...actually breaking tackles (not a trend for our backs this season) and has been trending well for weeks. The LAST time he touches the ball is the scoring drive in early second half (first or second series) where he was responsible for 43 of the 61 yards we gained on the drive. Then *poof* he doesn't get another touch the rest of the game (stats say he had a target in the late fourth...so assume he wasn't hurt). Instead we burn the RE shirt of another running back (4....4! Played in the game)...wonder what giving Blackshear and/or Holston another 8-10 carries would have done.
Overlay that with our time killing drive where we burned 0:20 of game clock (about 4:00 left). Think maybe Blackshear could've gotten 3-4 yards and allowed us to run a little more clock (like 1:30-2:00)?
Would've liked to see someone the size of Holston / Marco Lee / Tahj Gary try to run it up the gut 3 or 4 times when we were at the 1 yard line.
I agree that the RB management in this game was baffling. Shout out to Blackshear for making some great individual effort plays.
We'll never get a running back in a groove rotating 4 in. 2 makes sense to at least keep legs fresh. Maybe Blackshear missed a block and was put in the Fuente timeout box lol
We don't have faith in any single RB to consistently get us 3 yards per carry. We don't have anyone that you can give the ball to in a short yardage situation and have confidence that we'll pick up the first down.
And that situation is compounded even worse when defenses have absolutely zero respect in the ability of the QB to throw the ball. They're just not biting on anything we're trying to do right now.