Virginia Tech - Brent Pry
Hiring Grade: B-
Virginia - Tony Elliott
Hiring Grade: A-
Miami - Mario Cristobal
Hiring Grade: A-
Duke - Mike Elko
Hiring Grade: B+
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Comments
Based on, you know, nothing.
I really do wonder how much these grades are influenced by media hype. "No one was talking about it, therefore.... we'll give you a B. But just barely!"
I know articles like these are just meant to garner clicks, but it's irritating.
I bet SI gave us an A+ for the CJF hire back in the day, like so many others
And we see how well that turned out.
I'm more interested in the recruiting/field results in 5 years.
For the record the "official" SI grade for the Justin Fuente hire was just an 'A'.
Also of the same class, Dino Babers received an 'A' while Mark Richt and Bronco both received 'A-'.
Original article linked here.
Not too concerned with the grade as an indicator of future success.
The grades from the original post seem be pulled from the 'Cavaliers Now' section of SI FanNation which strikes me as a red flag (link).
I find it interesting that the Boyles award Elliot won seems to be a big factor in his grade, while the one Pry won is also mentioned. The biggest difference the article seems to homer on is the talent Elliott has to wrk with at UVA.
Must be talking about all that talent that it takes to break a paver
It takes a lot of talent to lose to a team so bad it already fired its coach.
Wait, so this "article" is basically just a community sourced post by a UVa fan? Shit, they might as well have just run an article from TheSabre for this.
I knew SI's quality went down recently, but damn....
Please share a link to the original content as per the community guidelines
Not OP, but I believe it came from here
Also of note, the grades were written by a UVA writer/ UVA SI site type of deal.
Justin Fuente and Virginia Tech parted ways with two games left in the regular season. Fuente went 43-31 in six seasons in Blacksburg, but the Hokies were not able to sustain the momentum from Fuente's first season when Virginia Tech went 10-4 and won the ACC Coastal division title.
Now, Virginia Tech turns to Brent Pry, who spent the last eight seasons at Penn State, including the last six years as the defensive coordinator. Pry was a nominee for the Broyles Award this season after coaching the Nittany Lion defense to top-ten rankings in red zone defense, scoring defense, and defensive pass efficiency. Pry also has ties to Virginia Tech, as he began his coaching career as a graduate assistant on Frank Beamer's staff from 1995 to 1997. This will be Pry's first head coaching job, but he has had tremendous success building top-tier defenses at several programs and he begins his head coaching career at a proud football program fully supported by the school and fanbase.
Hiring Grade: B-
Seems legit since they just showed up, SI really knows their stuff. Gotta be honest did not know they still existed until you posted this lol
Their credibility took a massive hit when they went to trying to be the TikTok of sports news. Just absolutely torpedoed their once highly regarded prestige.
Yeah, I forget which company bought them out, but basically SI isn't worth the digital paper it's printed on now, which is a damn shame.
I bet none of those other guys quoted "whoop that tail" in their intro pressers.
That, in itself, should be worth half a letter grade.
Don't' necessarily disagree on Pry being a B-, but no way Cristobal (a proven, P5, top 10 program coach) can be the same grade as Tony Elliott.
It's gotta be relative to expectations right?
But yes, this entire list is bullshit. After seeing Fuente and Herman flip, but Pitman succeed, we should know that grading hires is a dumb exercise.
These are a total crapshoot, and as has been pointed out Fu was an A+ hire on paper at the time.
Honestly I think a B or B- to date is fair. Obviously on winning the press conference, defensive coaching expertise, fit with the program Pry has hit it out of the park. The hires he makes around him will really help to flesh out the rest of the grade. The lack of being able to have an offensive staff in place prior to Jan is really sticking with me, however. I think Bowen is intriguing and certainly has a great recruiting track record. However, we are going to be extremely behind on recruiting and working the portal for offensive players we desperately need, especially at QB. Not landing an impact QB transfer or two this off-season really signals to me that 2022 could be a throw away year. I don't necessarily love that, but overall I am very pleased with the moves so far and direction we appear to be going in.
I wouldn't count us out of landing a transfer QB, still a ton in the portal with some intriguing potential (and, to be fair, some concerning downsides)
Time will tell how this plays out. The media thought CJF was a can't miss hire and here we are 6 years later. With 4 new coaches in the coastal a lot of unknowns can happen.
ESPN: C-
ACC Network: B
SI: D-
Barstool Sports: B
Sporting News: A
See how this works?
TKP: A+
You forgot the clickbait title - You won't believe who got an A.
CBS Sports
Pry has connections up and down the east and southeast, and served as a graduate assistant at Virginia Tech from 1999-97. Bottom line ... he knows how Frank Beamer built the culture of the program. With that said, he has never been a head coach and this is a team that demands ACC contention every year. That's not realistic in the short term, and we'll see what happens after that. Grade: C+
via GIPHY
Sports Illustrated is an F of a publication at this point and that's with the swimsuit issue.
The swimsuit issue is OK, as far as I remember, but I haven't seen it lately.
I forgot they still ran the swimsuit issue. Yeah, fallen down the totem pole, I guess.
Frankly, it's not that hard to find pictures of models in swimsuits in 2021.
It's much harder to find intelligent and interesting sports analysis.
FTFY.
nothing at all... Nothing At All... Nothing At All!!
Stupid sexy Flanders.
I've been a continuous subscriber to SI since 1975 - my freshman year at VT. I read it for years while I was growing up because my Dad had a subscription, even before I went to college. It was a "can't wait until the next issue comes out" weekly with the best writers in sports. As soon as it hit the mailbox each Thursday I would sit down and read it cover to cover (nope, never did the 'read the back page first' thing...that was the cherry on top). I didn't want to miss an issue while I was away at VT, so I got my own subscription. Steve Rushin aside, sadly it is no longer relevant.
And, at one time I had over 30 years of swimsuit editions saved in a box. Now, I barely even glance through the swimsuit issue. It, too, long ago lost its edge and therefore my interest.
I am looking at my recent renewal notice and wondering "why?".
Start a new tradition: scrap that subscription and just send the money to the Hokie Club.
Good grief, people assign credibility to anything on a fancy looking website - without checking into the expertise and/or possible motives of the writer/analyst. Did anyone even notice the writer of this piece is the publisher/editor of some UVa fan blog or something called Cavaliers Now?
I think somebody did notice that. (rottingmind13, above)
You're right. I missed it. Thx.
Because Tony Elliott was such a home run hire that like 18 P5 programs passed on him before UVa was able to steal him away.
Well, they scooped Duke. Right before Duke got Elko.
What's funny is how often the media pegs these guys as the perfect fit, right before they peg them as the perfect fit somewhere else.
We know these ranking don't matter. What matters is press and being seen as a great landing spot. UofSC sucks yet they snagged a former heisman favorite at qb. That got them some great press time which increases their reach to potential recruits. I don't know the reach of SI but having our hire viewed as meh compared to others is not great for our image regardless of whether it is true or not.
TIL that SI still existed.