Personal News: I ❤️ y'all pic.twitter.com/pwUAnV6C2A— Jon Laaser (@LazeVT) January 3, 2022
Definitely sad to see him go. Maybe we can get Bill Roth back!
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Personal News: I ❤️ y'all pic.twitter.com/pwUAnV6C2A— Jon Laaser (@LazeVT) January 3, 2022
Definitely sad to see him go. Maybe we can get Bill Roth back!
Comments
Laze encompasses what being a Hokie is, he's leaving to do something selfless and help others get through what he's gone through. This man has been a Hokie through and through and I hope when he decides to come back to the booth it's back to Hokie Nation because I know I personally would accept him back with open arms
Bring back Bill
He's in Blacksburg, and seems like a no brainer to me (assuming he wants it)
Best of luck to him.
This gif gives me anxiety because this is every day of my life x2.
Same, but x1. Autism will get after ya.
May these words stay immortal.
He'll be missed
Sad to see this news, but I respect him for following his heart. His broadcasting excellence will be missed.
I'm happy for him that he's going to be pursuing a newfound passion that is important to him and his family. Not gonna lie, that's pretty awesome and its for a good cause. Absolute best of luck to him going forward.
I'm sad that he's not going to be on the radio for us anymore. He's been great for us the last few years, and he is absolutely going to be missed.
I'm also sad that he's inevitably going to be regarded as and associated as being the voice of the Fuente Era, which is a timeframe that will not be fondly remembered down the line, because he deserves so much better than that.
Ut Prosim.
Evan Hughes getting the early call up on line 1??
Evan was my first thought of a replacement as well and at the very least I think he deserves the opportunity to finish out the MBB season with Burnop and then apply for the full-time position in the off-season.
Ummm, Bill Roth back with Burnop would be amazing but I don't know if his plate it too full running the SMA program. Being the voice doesn't just encompass falling into the football booth every other saturday in the burg. He would have to do all football and M b-ball games.
Not to mention what I assume is a decent amount of prep work to call a game competently. Would be sweet, though.
To be fair, he currently works weekly pbp broadcasts for ESPN in the fall.
That said, he'd also need to be on the call for men's basketball, which could be problematic in the late fall semester and entire spring semester for his classes.
Thanks for the info. I wasn't aware of this.
Obligatory
Would love to see Kyle Bailey get the role if he would take it. He is doing great work in Charlotte.
Kyle is a childhood friend. Does he call games in addition to his talk show?
I was going to ask if you were from Christiansburg, but Radford, I see on your profile. My wife knew Kyle from choir/theater at Christiansburg High School.
I see where you played QB at Radford under Lineberg. My grandfather played OLB at Radford ('56). Missed playing for Lineberg by a few years though. I was at every game of Lineberg's last season while I was teaching Radford's drumline.
This was a really cool comment reply.
I grew up in Christiansburg (Kyle and I had the same babysitter), but my dad is from Radford. We built a house in Radford and moved when I was in 6th grade.
My dad played ILB for coach Lineberg in his hey day in the 70s. In that regard, it was really cool to play for the same high school coach. Unfortunately it was a little bit like the end of Beamer's career by the time I came along. We were one game short of a state title sophomore year, then lost some good players and assistants andwe never really recovered.
Props to you for leading the drum line. The Radford drum beat was ELITE. It used to get us so fired up
Did your sophomore year happen to be '97?
2003 season.
If your sophomore year was 2003 then we missed each other by a year. And yes the Radford drumline was ELITE before I got there. Not that they dropped off because of me, but my predecessor was a Radford percussion student named Dan Boothe who was unbelievably talented and a gifted teacher. He's now an internationally acclaimed composer and conductor. I was not at that level, but I had a good group of kids and we had a lot of fun for two years. I taught them Stick It In and told them not to scream the words, but the rest of the band took care of that for us and we couldn't play it again.
I thought it was the pelvic thrusts that were problematic. ;^)
What a small world. I never really went back to watch any Radford games once I went off to college, but if I'd known the band was playing Stick It In? Well, I would've been willing to make an exception. Haha. Nice work!
It got played once and only once. I couldn't risk getting in trouble because the band was screaming a double entendre phrase at football games.
He did play by play for the Pulaski Yankees that I am aware of, and does an excellent job with the pregame shows for the Hornets and Panthers. I think he would be very comfortable in the role.
Well that's the rumor rn. It's likely to be Kyle Bailey
Bring Bill Roth Home?
He's already Home, teaching at least one class in Blacksburg, but also occasionally does play-by-play for ESPN. Not sure he's available for all of our games.
Now that we have a new coach and basketball is on the up and up, mental health should improve. Can we convince him that he can will help several thousand of us by continuing to call our games?
Joking aside, good for him. I've thought about a career change after a lot of stuff that's been going on for 6 months, but can't quite pull the trigger.
He'll be greatly missed. Listening to Laze has become my favorite part of VT football games in recent years.
Best of Wishes Laze! It was awesome to have you while we did and you will always be part of the family!
Best of luck to Lasser hope he finds his new path extremely rewarding.
He will absolutely be missed. I know I (and I suspect many others) were anxious when Roth left and not sure about accepting the "new guy," but to his credit, Laaser was an absolute pro and quickly won me over.
If VT is lucky enough to hire a next voice with similar talent and dedication to our last two, we will be in great hands
I was so skeptical when he took over for Bill. But I can now say without hesitation, I don't know who would've done a better job in Bill's absence.
Thanks for the memories, Laze. I wish you all the best in your new endeavor.
Adam Witten is filling in on the pregame so far
Edit: and now filling in for the play by play.
This is good reading of the landscape. He's got a baked in base as I have the feeling the number of Hokies with depression, hysteria, questions of life's meaning, and abandonment issues is at an all time high. Laze better get things going and fast.
I joke, but good on him for pursuing his passion and especially at time when the need for mental health care is becoming more apparent by the day.
Happy for him to pursue a passion but I'm going to be honest, I'm a little confused at the timing especially with it being the middle of basketball season
He just posted on Twitter that he's leaving Blacksburg to move to Savannah, GA because "why the hell not". He tweeted on 12/15/21 that he just bought his first house (sold by Bud Foster's wife). To go from signing for a first home to up and moving 3 weeks later is a huge change. Must have had one heck of an epiphany about his life's mission and goals. I guessed he was going to continue the Clean Mountain Air campaign in Blacksburg when he first announced his departure.
Edit: so he tweeted again to clarify that he and his wife are doing a tour of the country since they have plenty of time and Savannah is the first stop. That combined with the sudden job departure makes me think he won the lotto or some inheritance haha.
Yeah seems odd... Does this whole campaign then abruptly quits mid (Basketball) season and leaves the "clean mountain air" as soon as he can?
Sometimes people do confusing things i guess, doesn't have to make sense to everyone else if it makes sense to him...
Does seem odd... the timing of it. 12/15 bought the house from Foster's wife and commented "People ask why. That's why. This is a family. This is HOME". Talked about what he should name his new bar in his house on 12/20. on 12/29 he talks about the post bowl game and being part of the "best crew in the business". On Jan 2 he posts "Tomorrow we launch the all-new officially VT licensed line of "Clean Mountain Air" merchandise" and to be on the lookout for the link to order. (Interesting that he used the word "we" and as of yet I haven't seen the link to order). Jan 3rd is his announcement that he is leaving effective immediately. That just seems like such an abrupt time to leave with a home bball game on the 4th. Then today, he announces Savannah is his next stop, because "why not".
Professionally, I wouldn't think you would give 0 days notice and just quit/leave on a very public job like he did. It just seems so odd. I'm guessing there is more to the story that we probably will never hear (and that's ok). If someone personally knows him, I hope they reach out. I genuinely hope all is okay with him and his wife and I sincerely hope that he is successful where ever he lands.
Listened to the Roth Report Podcast last night and the radio guy asked Bill if he was interested. Bill said he was happy with Westwood 1, ESPN, and the SMA gig, but then said, we'll see what happens. You have to listen to it and the interaction with his radio buddy, but the way he communicated it certainly sounded like he was willing (is going to) to walk away from all of that and take the job again.
Bill left his dream job for what he thought was his dream job at UCLA and realized he made a terrible decision. He came back to VA Tech a couple years later and fell into all these roles to fill the void of what he really still wants to do which is be the voice of the Hokies along side Burnop. Those guys have been vacationing with their families together in FL for decades and are close as hell. I think if he wasn't going to do it, he would not have left the door open out of his respect for Va Tech and that role. This isn't a HC hire with all the typical smoke and façade.
With the Panther's announcing their new play by play, it got me thinking about VTs replacement for Laze.
Do you guys think Bill Roth will be back for football only and the App State guy for basketball, or will VT get another full time voice of the Hokies?
The rumor mill has been surprisingly quiet, especially given our broadcasting school that is run by Roth
Agreed. Part of me thinks he really enjoys molding the next generation of broadcasters and journalists at VT, making his own coaching tree if you will.
Don't be surprised to see some students from the program calling games. It's epic to see them getting gigs and putting together a solid background.
Move aside, Syracuse...there's a new big broadcasting dog in town.