This loss wasn't just about losing BB3 and Tre to injury, this is cumulative 6 years of our program going downhill under Fuente. There is really no vision, consistency or identity to our program.
Since Fuente has gotten here, the recruiting has been down
There is lack of development of 3-star players
The roster management has been downright irresponsible
The play calling has been highly questionable
In general, I see no sense of urgency from the coaches when we are down
The decision-making as Seen in the Liberty game as a head coach is very lackluster.
Time to make the move
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So I'm up in Hartford and I'm wondering what it is with Joe's people that they throw fits when I just want some goddamn ketchup on my goddamn breakfast sandwich.
I have coached better games in NCAA 14 than Fuente has done his whole VT career who the fuck punts down 14 with 5 minutes left... UGH!
That was Fuente telling his team we suck and I know it.
It's particularly painful knowing that we've lost more than one game this year when we were up by two scores, with more time remaining than that.
On the other hand, they're symptoms of the same two problems: limited or non-existent offense, inconsistent defense.
At the end of the day, though, do you think there was any possibility of scoring twice at that point?
No, but you NEVER admit that to a group of people you're trying to lead.
I think we're all on the same page at this point.
Nothing up to that point would lead anyone to believe we were capable of scoring 14 points in 5 minutes. He was probably hoping for a defensive or special teams score.
OMG this put a hilarious conversation into my head:
Fuente: "Ok Brad, we're down 14 with 5 minutes left. It's fourth down. How are we going to score points?"
Corny: [scratches his head with a not-too-bright look on his face] "Give it to the defense...?"
Channeling the spirit of Marty Mornhinweg
So when the defense comes off the field, they tell the offense, "Hold 'em." ?
Meh
I am not convinced Whit will do the right thing. In fact, I'm convinced that Whit won't do it.
I'll be surprised if Fuente is fired before December 15th. I'll be only slightly less surprised if he's not fired at all.
The only way I'll continue being engaged with this program is if there's a new coach in 2022. Otherwise, I'm completely out. @vtkey, here's another virtual dollar for you
Then the fans need to empty Lane Stadium vs Duke. I mean, no fans, period. Sucks because it's Senior day but send a message that we've checked out.
Disclaimer: at the beginning of the season I was still thinking we need to give Fuente a few more years.
> Disclaimer: at the beginning of the season I was still thinking we need to give Fuente a few more years.
I had this excuse until 2019. I actively turned against him after the mountaineers game.
I can't even give my tickets away...even Duke fans don't want them. lol
It's gotten to this point. Fans need to just not show up for the Duke game, period. Send a huge message that this shit is unacceptable. Fuente needed to be fired weeks ago. Give it to J Ham for the last few games and hopefully allow the fanbase to rally around the team and seniors for just a few more weeks. But no, Whit is more concerned with giving Fu a graceful exit than anything else. He's going to drag this out and make this excruciating for everyone. The guy has flat out failed at VT. Fire him and get it over with, Whit. You screwed up, move on to the next hire.
Brilliant. Nothing says desirable coaching position with good pay like an empty stadium and a fanbase devoted to a pyrrhic victory.
If a coach is dumb enough to be turned away by that, I don't want them here.
Whit has had the worst year of any P-5 AD. From the incident off-season (that we all do not talk about), to student ticketing, to our amazing o-coordinator ruining bodies, to fan apathy post first half Pitt, to now, Fuente buyout be damned, what was built can be torn down.
There will be change. Status quo will not remain. There are two possible routes. One is to fire Fuente PROVIDED he has the replacement (s) identified and maybe even quietly locked up. If no one decent is on the horizon then Fuente may be told to clean house on offense and hire a new OC.
Fuente will probably be kicking and screaming like a petulant child before Brad has to be fired. The entire house needs to be purged. Makes no sense to have Fuente here any longer less you want this program to be doomed
Skipped the game. Went to Eternals instead. It wasn't very good. Came back and saw the mighty Fuente and Corn managed to put up a measly 3 points to Boston College. What a shitty night.
Guess I'll just go to sleep and dream about the times VT Football had good coaches
Shoulda seen Dune again is what it sounds like
These coaches have repeatedly quit on this team. Punting in the fourth tonight is a prime example.
Yes they have. And they are not subtle about it either. It shows a frosty attitude and lack of emotional connectivity that goes with poor leadership
This team doesn't deserve these coaches
I think the fact the vent thead took hours to be made and only has 6 comments tells you everything you need to know about this program right now
Meh. What's there to say that I haven't said for years ?
meh.
More frustrating, there is not a peep out of Whit. My gut feeling is that he won't Fire Fuente at all. He's going to wait out the contract then bring in a new guy
Exactly. Everyone keeps singing Whit's praises and talks like he's this genius AD. He's done some good things with basketball and non-revs, I admit. But he is absolutely failing with this football coaching situation. This is painful and excruciating for everyone.
In all fairness, I don't think he's made any bad hiring decisions, including Fuente. You could successfully (thanks to hindsight) argue he should have fired Fuente last season, but if keeping Fuente was primarily a financial decision, that reasoning remains a valid argument for keeping him until the buyout goes down. Firing him early doesn't gain much and costs us $2.5 million. I know the fans are howling for blood, but it's our job to be subjective and emotional. I want our AD to be rational and objective.
If he doesn't fire Fuente in December, though, all bets are off.
Don't say it's hindsight when people were screaming for it last year too. He not only kept Fuente but absolutely no changes at all were made.
There's a reason everyone was so depressed after they press conference... we've been in a nose dive for 4 years straight and the AD is asleep at the wheel.
Or several years
Have to question him for not seeing that this was the direction the program was heading last year
Fair enough, but that might have been a primarily financial decision and the "stand by your man" act was just window dressing. We aren't a wealthy program. The gamble last December was that the money saved by keeping Fuente another year wouldn't be offset by lost fan attendance. Given how many home games we had in the first half of the season it's a good gamble. Even if Fuente shit the bed (which he now has) we've had all our home games but one, so fan disengagement is less of a financial hit. Now he can fire Fuente and get the fans back on board with the new hire.
Obviously I'm guessing at Whit's thought process, but if I was in his shoes and worried about money, I'd probably have done the same thing.
Again, if he doesn't fire Fuente in December then pass me a torch and a pitchfork.
That's very shortsighted. Teams with way more prestige than us have been dormant for a decade or two. A single seasons returns are meaningless compared to steering the trajectory of the program year over year
I don't agree. Whit has the hatchet. The hatchet man stays quiet until the cut has been executed. And believe me, the hatchet is in his hand.
He buried it in the sand last year
Agree. And I don't get why there us so much support for our AD... maybe he has done an amazing job for other VT sports that I don't follow?
But then the ideas for replacements have me mostly scratching my head too. I never bought into Fuente, didn't understand it. I don't see a hire out of the SEC, including/especially Shane. He's doing good things at SC and Frank is surely enjoying that. I can only imagine how Foster feels watching this season. I wish we could give him a chance to be interim HC for the remainder of the season with a no stress/no expectations promise given his health issues. But we really just need to clean house at this point.
I think he's a top notch AD.
As an AD, Whit has had success in, or arguably improved, football, basketball, women's basketball, baseball, wrestling, and several other sports
Since he's been AD, we went to an ACC championship game in football. We went to the NCAA tournament in basketball 4 times. Made it to the Sweet Sixteen in 2019. Improvements in other sports. I'm pretty optimistic about basketball under Mike Young.
Various other improvements to facilities, other sports, fundraising, and generally raising the profile of VT sports.
Not sure who you wanted for football when we hired Fuente, but most everyone thought he was a great hire at the time.
About the only real unforced error was when he extended Fuente after he went to the ACC championship, which many of us sort are questioning right now.
The Rock Rock Bottom GIFfrom The Rock GIFs
Can someone fix this for me!
Is this what you need?
State Of The Program:
defense gave up 17 points and shut out BC the final quarter and a half...
and we lost by 2 touchdowns...
to a team that's lost 4 straight
But somehow fans still find a way to blame the defense
I fault the defense for all the horrendous tackling attempts I have seen every game for the last two years.
I'll grant you that. The tackling is poor. But any time the defense holds a team to fewer than 20 it's pretty difficult to pin much of the blame on that side of the ball
Offenses have to score and it's easy as ever in this era. There really is no excuse for scoring only 3.
I think that we haven't been shut out since the mid 90s but we have come darn close twice this season under this staff. Another red flag of many. It's only a matter of time until this staff adds that to streaks broken. When is enough enough.
Give Fu and Corny a break.
...they're trying damned hard to break that streak.
I was at that game. We lost 16-0 at home to Cincinnati in 1995. Not a good Cincinnati either. We had 239 total yards on offense including 40 carries for 77 yards and we were 16-40 passing for 162 yards and 3 interceptions, including a pick 6. That loss made us 0-2 on the season (we lost our season opener to BC).
The next week we beat Miami for the first time (I think the first time ever) and proceeded to reel off 10 straight wins to earn our first Big East championship, beat Texas in the Sugar Bowl and finished with a top 10 ranking.
I don't remember how fans felt after the shut out, definitely not happy with the offense and not impressed with Druckenmiller. The defense played well, just couldn't overcome the total ineptitude of the offense. We forgot all about that shit when the wins started.
Link to box score
It was the one year my whole family had season tickets. I still remember that Miami win and the momentum we all felt at the time. Good things were coming! *sigh*
Let's be real - in 2014, we failed to score in regulation against a 3-9 Wake Forest team. Our D intercepted Wake at the goal line and they missed FOUR field goal attempts that would have won the game for them. We didn't even ATTEMPT a field goal in that game until overtime. We should have been shut out, and I'd argue for the purposes of this thread, we were.
Not to mention. The WF playbook was dropped in Shane Beamer's lap for that game
Yeah, I wasn't going to bring that up. I also didn't mention how bad the other teams Wake beat that year. Both were really a bad. They were both 4-8, Gardner-Webb and Army. And the teams they both beat were REALLY bad. And that's apparently how fantastic we were that year /s
It's exhausting and demoralizing to watch
I said all along that a 7-5 or worse record and Fu must go. It appears we'll be worse than 7-5, and the schedule is even softer than I originally thought. If Fu is not gone in December, I really have to wonder about Whit's job status. The football program has enough good things in place for the right coach to turn this around pretty quickly, but Fu is clearly not that right coach.
I've asked SEC fans around here about their impressions of VT then (00) and now (21). How much damage has Fuente and Co done to our reputation? What kind of draw would his job be?
I was a bit surprised. A lot of respect for Frank as that coach that "won the right way" (despite ditching Mark Richt for being the same kind of coach at Georgia and cleaning up a mess almost as bad as PedoU) that would transpire into being "the coach that fixed what Fuente has f*cked up". In their view, it's almost a more appealing prospect now that following immediately in Frank or Bud's footsteps.
IOW, we've had a Feunte rebound - now we're ready for a real relationship again. We just gotta swipe right on the right person.
I am deeply fearful that Whit will do nothing, and Fuente will run it back for 2022. Whit was a coward in December when he failed to set even modest expectations for the program, other than an ambiguous "get better" comment. I have no confidence in him getting this right.
Is it basketball season yet?
Yes
Didn't even know we were playing tonight until I received a text from a friend asking if I'd watch. He is one of the biggest Hokie fans I know and his wife followed up to the text saying she had never seen him this apathetic about Virginia Tech football. I responded and said I'd pay some attention if the bar had a tv. The second bar we went to did. Saw the last 7 minutes and actually laughed. Tennessee orange jerseys, arm tackling and a punt down 14 with 5 minutes to play. I'm actually questioning if Fuente is a good person at this point... He now just comes across as, I don't know, selfish? I hate the word "deserve" but the fans, and especially players, definitely deserve better. He isn't providing seemingly anything different and isn't making changes to do anything better and he's making a shitload of money doing it. It's flat out selfishness / ego in my eyes. Chatting with the ECU grad next to me, he says, "wow, you guys really suck now, huh?" I agreed with him.
I'm bailing on the Dook game. I'll go to a BBall game instead. Since graduation in 2007 I have never missed a football season without attending at least one game (minus last year with Covid). This will be the first year. I am actively rooting for us to lose to put as many nails in Fuente's coffin at this point. Can't believe I'm saying that but that's what it's gotten to. VTkey can add another monopoly buck for he and Fuente to spend at Hardees in the offseason. Listening to the annoying girl at the party whine about politics is more fun than anything Virginia Tech football related at this point.
My approach with my wife and kids is if we have something better to do, we will do it. If not, I'll turn on and watch the game. I am not dedicating time to this sh$t show. Went out for dinner last night. Fam wanted to go to Costco after the nice meal. I look at my watch and say, I'm gonna miss most of the first half. Oh well. Let's go to Costco. Got all of our stuff, some Christmas presents etc. and there was no crowd and no rush. Filled up with gas right before the place closed. Got home with five minutes left in the first half. (Did I miss anything? No). Got everything settled in and watched the second half. Defense did fairly well. But obviously no depth on offense and it was miserable to watch. After Fuente punted with 5 minutes left I turned it off and turned attention to my fam. Sucks they lost. But I felt great when I went to bed. I set my priorities right. And watching this fiasco of a football program is not on the priority list
I think you summed it up. Everything is flat out ugly and embarrassing about this program right now. Uniforms look horrible, team plays soft and is poorly coached, on and on. And I'm also tired of hearing how Fu is a great guy. I don't know him personally, he may be a fantastic person. But everything he is doing to this program says the opposite, at least on a football coaching level. He wants his golden parachute and has pretty much checked out at this point. He is literally begging Whit to fire him. Then Whit is also incredibly disappointing for allowing this situation to fester and drag out. It's well past time to fire him, but whether it's just lack of wanting to take action or money issues, Whit is making this more ugly and painful by the day. It feels like VT football is truly in the pits right now, and I'm not super confident that Whit will get this right and turned around.
I find it hard to believe an argument that says a college coach who likely wants to continue coaching if he is fired has given up and is begging to be fired. We may all be disappointed in the state of the program and what we consider to be ineptitude at times, but who are we to insinuate that he is just doing this to get the buyout money at this point? Im ready for him to go, but I believe that he wants to see these players have success on the field no matter what the situation is.
After the last 6 years what makes you think he wants success? I mean of course everyone wants to win. But the decisions he has made and keeps making indicates that he might not actually want to be successful.
I don't think Fu coaches next year personally. I think he takes the buyout and gets out of coaching for a while. No big P5 school is going to be interested in him now. He will have to rebuild his rep big time.
And because of greedy and outrageous contracts, he can sit back and sip margaritas for as long as he wants. Meanwhile VT will be stuck cleaning up his mess for years.
My economics professor would argue something along the lines of he gets paid at the rate that the market demands. I don't see how this is greedy. The market is setting the price. It didn't work out. It's still a contract that both parties agreed to. He has no obligation to appease the feelings of fans and decline the buyout money. No need to attack a man's character just because he isn't performing to a level that we expected for the money we pay him.
I've had to let several employees go or reposition them because they weren't performing to my expectations within the scope of my chosen profession. In almost all of those cases, it was a lack of skill that was the source of their underperformance. They demonstrated a basic level of skill prior to being hired but we're not able to consistently perform during employment. At no point did I accuse any of those employees of not caring enough. Put yourself in the shoes of an employee who is being told that they are purposefully failing and tell me how you would feel? There is a good chance you would be pretty passionate in your defense.
We are in agreement that it should be fired. I just don't see a need for fans to doubt someone else's desire to see young men have success both on and off the field.
I understand the economics of it. There is just no reason contracts should have ever been structured this way. Based on the recent ESPN article, it seems to mainly benefit the coaches. Anyone know when including buyouts became the standard?
I was not attacking his character. You can be a good person and lose the desire to fight and win. I guess you watched a different game last night. If the punt at the end doesn't show that he's given up on his team, I don't know what more evidence you need.
I just see it as further evidence of bad coaching decisions. Doesn't mean I'm right though. You could be right, I just can't buy into that train of thought personally.
pretty sure buyouts have been there for a long time. They are in lots of other contracts and have been for as long as I know of, which is basically 20 years of me working.
However, Kirk Ferentz definitely had them for a long time cause his constant im leasing for the NFL give me money.
Maybe it's time for VT to buck the trend. If we are declined by some good coaches, so be it. It's always said that coaches are generally a confident/cocky bunch, so let them put their money where their mouth is. You want to know if a new coach has true integrity? Well that's it, he demonstrates it by accepting terms that reward him handsomely for good performance, and compensate him adequately for less than that....included with that is a reasonable severence. Sure, it's human nature to grab what you can while you can, but that doesn't demonstrate integrity (BTW, the definition of integrity by Merriam-Webster is the quality of being honest and FAIR). Since most of you seem to believe we will never become a blue-blood football school anyway, why do we have to compete with them in the compensation madness? Maybe we could help stop the insanity, and still return to a top 25 football power again in spite of that! All that is required for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing. OK, I'm ducking now, so start swinging.
I think it lacks in integrity to lowball a coach. We want a top 25 coach but don't want to pay for it. We want to pay bottom 3rd P5 money but demand more of the coach than his peers.
I didn't suggest low pay, I suggested payment based on performance, which is both honest and fair....no lack of integrity about it. Heck, if the coach wins the CFB championship that year, pay him more than Saban.....for that year. So, the climbing trend in CFB coaching salaries, nor the huge buyout that CJF will receive doesn't bother you, because in your mind, that's what the schools have to do to have "integrity"?
The climbing trend has always bothered me for a sport where the compensation for the players tops out at about 50k, But that's a completely different argument.
However, you can either pay to play, or not be upset for poor performance. The large buyout locked Fuente in at a lower rate. That was the cost, we chose to pay later and hindsight, it was the wrong choice.
I am more upset that we could be about to spend a year of coaching salary to get rid of a guy that we should have spent getting better coordinators or support staff.
It's hard to watch his lack of any energy or emotion on the sidelines these days, isn't it? Almost like he is unaware that the fans are back in the stands, running on autopilot. I feel so badly for these kids, they deserve SO MUCH MORE.
Take about 4 steps forward. That's the amount of yards we had passing in the first half.
I wish I cared more, but I'm kind of glad I don't. Normally I would have been edge of my seat steaming mad, but no longer. I knew we were going to lose as soon as Jurkovec was in, and Tre was out. The coaching of our squad shouldn't be this abysmal. I will take any average TKP user and let them call plays and I'd be shocked if any of the users could do worse.
QB1 is not a great thrower to start, when he goes down, we have another guy who is not a great runner, but then we see that he is also not a great thrower. Your OC who calls these bad plays is also your qb coach. It is a full indictment of your program when you have 0 QBs that are ready to run a full offense in the 6th year at the helm. NOBODY HAS WANTED YOUR OC. THAT MEANS HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRED 3 YEARS AGO!
Anyway, I got to follow up that shitshow by watching my fav hockey team blow a 4-1 lead including a goal of the year candidate to tie the game with 3 minutes left. At least that game made me feel some kind of way. I'm tired of VT not giving me anything to feel. It's either "oh neat, we won" or "oh, we lost again".
See whoever is at the Duke game, it'll be me, my wife, and 2 of our friends who are looking more forward to the tailgate than the game when normally it'd be vice versa. Maybe we'll be able to let the "Final Fuente" ring through Lane with the other 6 people in attendance.
I starter charting the throws this game because I'm a masochist and it's pretty stunning. Burmeister had three decent options to throw to on his one pass and picked the one that required max arm strength, which he doesn't have. It was such a bad ball he's lucky it wasn't picked.
Kadum on the other hand had one or two decent balls I don't think the receivers were ready for because BB3 doesn't have the strength to get them there. Then on the plays the receivers were looking Kadum had some terrible ball placement and throwing platforms.
All this goes back to the heart of the issue. Yes, Fuente is right that execution is an issue but when it's year 6 and QB-fucking 10? then the execution problems aren't solely the players but the guys preparing them.
Can somebody fill me in on VTKey's virtual money thing? I know he's an unapologetic Whit/Fuente guy so I'm assuming this has to do with the buyout
I think it's along the lines of "If I had a dollar every time someone said I was out on VT football/tuning out VT football" kind of deal
Think about the actual dollars it affects the athletic department and the Blacksburg economy. I will be surprised if the Duke game is half full
I made a comment that I wish I had a dollar for every time someone said "I'm out" with this program.
And then I added that if I had that dollar for every time someone said that, we'd have enough money to pay for Fuente's buyout.
Thanks for clarifying
Going to bed at halftime was the solid call. Pumpkin smashing day!
Deleted
This is what happens with a razor thin roster. And unfortunately, it's only gonna get worse before it gets better.
I don't know what exactly happened last December, but it probably set this program back a decade.
I think the more appropriate stat might be length of Fuente's facial hair.
A clash of 4-4 teams had Mediocrity Bowl written all over it, but the game was worse than that.
Fuente is gone. Just a question of whether it happens the day after the season ends or the day after the buyout drops.
Punting on fourth down when they still had a chance to tie the game (albeit a slim one) is inexcusable. You just can't quit.
Punting down 14 with 5 minutes left in the game is firable for cause right? Not even gonna pretend to try to win the game. Fuente please resign and save whatever dignity you have left.
Don't even have the energy to vent. Partly because work is 60+ hrs a week busy and partly because I've just come to expect this stuff from a Justin Fuente coached team. Just looking forward to the relief that will come once he is gone.
Fanatics needs to work on their marketing strategy because, no, I don't want to save big on Hokie gear this morning after that shitshow last night. A coaching change might just convince me though!
Yeah that game was so bad I was expecting a donation request email from the Hokie Club
My wife is more upset than I am, and she's not a Hokie. I'm not just numb.
Anyway, it's 8am and Justin Fuente is still my god damn coach.
No words.
You can't play field position down 2 scores that late.
This as much as anything bothers me about Fuente. He either thinks the fans are so dumb that we will accept an explanation so obviously illogical, he just doesn't care enough to give a real answer, or he really is that obtuse.
All 3 options suck and should be grounds for immediate termination.
apparently he and his staff were the only people on the planet that thought punting there was the best option. I laughed when they lined up to punt...at this point I'm actually ok with uva curb stomping us.
Oh. Now I understand. You have an offense that cannot make more than a 5 yard play and is explosive as a spent firecracker in ice water. And you are down 14 with five minutes left. Field position. Yup. Really strategic thinking there
Woke up hoping to see a "Fuente fired" headline here, nope just another apathetic vent thread. Can we just make these optimistic BB threads, lol? At least that might be fun!
My wife and I were apathetic watching the game. I had a couple of wtf standup and shout at the screen moments, but for the most part I was on my phone during the game. It was a lackluster affair by all parties and pathetic coaching.
Fuente's biggest mistakes are not replacing Cornelson followed closely by whatever sequence of events led to both Hooker and QP transferring out. It's inexcusable that we had three QBs and the coach let two of them leave. I don't care what you have to promise him to get him to stay, you don't let HH leave you with one injury prone QB and a couple of freshmen.
From a completely objective perspective that was an awful football game. Playing in turds like that are how you end up with half your games not even watchable on TV.
Remember HH already stayed once after entering the portal, keeping Corn was probably the reason both left. I don't blame them and would have probably done the same thing myself if that was who was responsible for helping my career start or not start.
Then came Saturday and time to root for the spouse's alma mater.... and it's Georgia. Talk about contrast. Both games were boring, but for completely different reasons.
When we first got married, we'd consider our vacation to be a bowl game, choosing whichever team got the best/most interesting bowl option. It's been pretty lopsided these days. I suspect there will only be one option this year at all. And it didn't have to be that way - we could have easily had 3 more Ws than we do, including ND. And ND is Cincinnati's whole rationale for being "worthy" of a playoff spot this year.
Whit, please...
After watching that game after I attended a group of friends kids last HS football game (cross town rivals with kids on both teams who I've known all their lives), I watched the BC game. Bullet point synopsis.
- Offense 👎
- Defense 👌 at best
- Coaching 💩
- Talent ❓
The last one is now my main concern because new coaches is a matter of when, not if. . IMO, we don't have the talent, nor the depth for that matter. These players, play hard, no question, but they do not have the talent to deliver vastly better results regardless whose coaching them. Better coaches could tap into these players, make them better, and win more than this staff, maybe, more like yes, but how many more? With our previous years recruiting, we are in for a long rebuild and will continue to see our players out classed. Our current state is an amalgamation of all of the above, some categories more than others, but this will be Hokie football for another 3-5 years minimum.
Despite their best attempt at worse, the current coaching staff had near misses against WVU, ND, and SU. I'd like to think a somewhat competent coaching staff would have been able to turn those games in to wins and have us sitting at 7-2 instead of the current 4-5. Depth is my concern, and I fear that even with a change that things are still likely to get worse before they get better.
Even last night, it looked like JHam did not coach his players on what to do after getting an INT. Strong grabbed the pick and then seemed to look around for instruction on what to do - go down or run? Eventually he decided on a run without any type of ball security and fumbled it.
Maybe we don't score on that drive if we keep it, but at least BC wouldn't get a very short field and maybe they don't score there.
Watching the clip a few more times, we see #1 Conner waving for Strong to run in his direction along the sideline. Instead Strong runs it straight into the crowd of players. Baffling.
Also remember Armani Chatman's INT on a 4th down last week against GT. By intercepting the ball on 4th down and not getting any return, VT lost about 32 yards of field position. No situational awareness at all.
Actually I think you flip the reactions and everything is fine. Chatman returning no one would have minded and Strong taking it to the ground before running into a host of BC players would have been the better option.
This was one of Boston colleges best plays
What you say is totally correct. But let's be fair to Conner and Ham. You are a defensive back, you are conditioned to make the interception. Really hard to expect someone to just knock it down or not try to make the pick. That is probably instinctive and cannot blame the player or lack of coaching on that one.
100% will never complain about an int on 4th down in college, especially from a young player. NFL they should know better and thats the difference, but college gets a pass for that.
that was awful
This is what I know. Fu has done less than Zero for VT and he'll walk away with a king's ransom!
Yeah, yeah, obvious stuff...fire Corn, etc, etc.
I'm gonna be a little more petty specifically about this game. Because OF COURSE this is the week that their savior QB returns. And OF COURSE it's the freaking red bandana game, which they did twice this year because 9/11 was a Saturday...that's just freaking exploitation.
On top of that, OF COURSE we have to be on the crap end of some really messed up plays. Hey, our defender does his job and knocks a pass down, and OF COURSE it bounces right into the receiver's hands.
This just guarantees that uva's QB will miss all of their November games except the last one. He'll make a triumphant return against VT and that's the only thing we're gonna hear about during the entire broadcast.
It's just been that kind of year.
Or perhaps that kind of regime under Fuente.
Yikes
I'm thinking if we just switch Corney from offense to defense...
I don't think I've ever seen anyone dismantle an offense so effectively.
I turned it off before halftime to watch Lord of The Rings The Two Towers Extended Edition. Turned my night from unpleasant to enjoyable. Im slowly, and I mean slowly, working through the movies with my wife. She hasn't seen any of them before
Corn during the first half last night
Didn't want to start a new thread for this but why did Pimpleton hit the transfer portal?
He appears to have developed well at Central Michigan.
https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2021/11/04/central-michigan-kalil-pimpl...
I'm still sad we didn't get more Hooker to Pimp highlights
At one point we had Pimpleton, H. Grimsley, and Savoy all in that Slot WR kind of role. Recruited Ellis to play a similar role but he left before playing.
No reason was ever given, but assume he left for a better path to playing time.
Now, none of them are here. That's the Fuente model..from an abundance of guys at one position to ***poof***...nobody.
Yeah the roster management has been abysmal during Fu's tenure. Recruit depth at a position and then proceed to run everyone off in no time.
But Fuente is pleased with the team's effort
https://247sports.com/Article/Justin-Fuente-really-pleased-with-Virginia...
Actually, I agree with the point I think he's trying to make. The team's still playing. They haven't given up.
Unfortunately the coaching has severely let them down.
What can you say? Something's missing, but they were out there trying to win.
I am torn between not caring anymore and saying/feeling "F this Sh*t" like the Wake Forest press package preparer a few years back, which still gives me a chuckle.
This is good, right?
Looks like Fuente learned enough in the loss to not repeat the offense.
This statistic should just about put an exclamation point on the final season of Cornelsen's career as a P5 Offensive Coordinator. What a miserable excuse of an OC he has been. How do you think that a quarterback listed as 6'1" and 205 ( which means he's really 6'0" and 195) could be the best option for playing a season of P5 football? Especially one with a documented propensity for injuries? Absolutely atrocious roster management at the QB position. Losing HH and QP was such an amateur hour statement about the ability of our OC to inspire and motivate the QB room. Our offense has been bad for 5 years mainly because our OC has no clue how to train and retain QB talent. Whit, please make the move and clean house.
P5 coach? I'm not even sure if he could secure a job at the FCS level now even as a position coach.
Holy shit
7 games to own the streak! I think we can achieve it.
BC has big physical-up-frontness.
Just my opinion - If I could, I'd go to Senior Day and cheer, give the seniors their send off for the 1st quarter. Then leave. Empty stadium for quarters 2-4.
I like Fuente the person. Fuente the coach - either he's gotta overhaul his offensive coaching staff, or he needs to be shown the door along with the rest of the offensive coaching staff. Given the talent they have to work with, I think the defensive guys are at least getting results on field commensurate with the talent they have and vs. the talent they play against. They have not earned a pink slip in my mind.
I know we've supposedly got a pretty good recruiting class coming in for 2022. In thinking of best business decision we can make, and given Fuente's buyout, and given Fuente actually did well with better players that Beamer left in the cupboard for him, maybe it's Fuente can stay if he's willing to overhaul the offensive staff to try to retain the good recruiting class and not have to spend $millions on the buyout?
Also, I know we all have our preferred replacements for Fuente in line, but thinking realistically, can we get any of them? Can we really pay the buyout AND afford someone new? We don't have unlimited deep pockets.
All I know is Whit's job in handling this just seems like a sh*t sandwich right now. No matter how he tries to take a bite out of solving this, he's gonna have to take a bite of something gross. Retaining a good recruiting class while changing out part or all of a coaching staff? And figuring out the $$$ side of it while grappling with are the new guys actually gonna be better?
As a fan, it makes dropping this rope personally and heading for the deer stand more and more appealing.
I just don't think the $$$ is there and if the stands aren't full anymore, that's not going to improve matters.
Probably better off following the spouse who is tractoring a pasture and go tend chickens...
Re: JHam and the defensive staff, they should understand how it is coaching under someone who gets booted - no ill-will, VT appreciates your efforts and you're welcome back. If a position opens up in the future, we'd love to have you apply to come back with the new guy.
I was feeling ok about our recruiting class when the season started, it's not a world-beating ranked class but seems solid enough. If Fu gets canned, idk how the chips fall with recruits staying or going. I don't want VT to be that school that does a coaching Bait-and-Switch. Yes, it's worth $2.5 mil to me.
Also, if I'm not mistaken, we don't pay the buyout as a lump sum, it's evenly divided over the remainder of the contract. That takes a bit of the upfront sting out of paying him and a new coach. Hopefully the new one doesn't have a huge buyout owed to his old school, too. Whit's job is to find money and I'm confident he will if need be.
I think post-UVA regardless of outcome is the time to announce the moves to let the new staff get to work on the recruiting/retaining side of things ASAP.
So I picked a good weekend to forget that Tech was not playing on Saturday. I can honestly say that's the first time that's happened in 16+ years. Anyway, how did Burmeister get injured and how bad is it? Any other notable injuries?