Grabbing Xavier Adibi is AWESOME. He was crushing it as a DC for the last three seasons at Texas A&M-Commerce.
I really hope this is a great launching point for his career. He has a bright future as a coach in this sport, and I'm happy to have him helping the HOKIES fix the defense.
He also worked as a scout for the Jets after his NFL playing career ended. So now we have an analyst with both on-field playing, DC, and scouting experience. He knows how to play LB, he knows how to call a defense, and he has an eye for talent evaluation.
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Big get bringing X back on campus. Satisfies a couple of things too, Hokie Alum, solid track record at this point based on his work at commerce, off field guy who can potentially be elevated to an on field guy depending on how the coaching staff shakes out moving forward.
Crist looks like he has had his fair share of time in the business as well. Not sure what senior offensive analyst does compared to just offensive analyst, but was the OC at Youngstown State under Pelini in 2018-19 and has previous experience with Pry from when they were GAs.
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Whenever you change coaches, there are always some course correct aspects. Whit is hitting all of them. Defense v. Offense; Fu's toxic relationship with former players; Hiring actual former on field coaches for these support roles. Whit is course correcting big time. I'm optimistic it will pay off
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While I 100% agree with the course correcting, curious why you are attributing it to Whit, other than the Pry hire. If Whit was going to hire ex-Hokies and other good staff, he could as easily have done it under Fuente. I guess, to me, it seems like Whit gets credit for Pry, and Pry should get credit for doing all the things that should have happened under Fuente, and are probably just good overall practices for a school that's trying to emphasize and grow their football program to compete at a very high level.
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Justin Fuente was one of the hottest coaches on the market in 2015 and he had every right to dictate his terms before choosing a school. It seems abundantly clear Whit was hands off for the most part and gave him all the rope and then some to hang himself. It's very likely Whit was contractually obligated to some sort of autonomy. Heck, Kill even came in and told Fuente what to do and Fuente ignored him.
Whit's not a dumb man, he observed everything that was happening and kept a pulse on the fan base. So yeah we can give Pry credit (he fully deserves it too) but I think we'd be kidding ourselves if Whit didn't clearly lay out goals and milestones for Pry and the staff he assembles.
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Whit wasn't contractually obligated to any sort of autonomy. Go and listen to his end of season presser from last year - he says he's a coach's AD, that he doesn't get all up in their business. He lets them make their own choices. Based on that, my guess is he states certain expectations and will let the coach fulfill them however he sees fit. And related to that, my read on last year's presser was that it was a performance improvement plan type meeting with Fuente, and even then, I've said how difficult it was to measure actual performance last year, both good and bad, so I won't rehash it.
So yes, I think Whit learned some things, but my guess is he didn't sit down and tell Pry what he should do. He most likely asked Pry what his plans are and how he'd run the program, maybe even more specifically about how he'd accomplish fan and alumni (specifically ex-players) engagement, what his vision for the program is, etc. We heard a couple names tossed around for HC, and we were hoping for certain names, and a certain splash, but from what we've seen from Pry, my guess is even if Whit originally had higher choice candidates, he may have gotten the best answers from Pry (think of the interview with Napier about recruiting after he'd been hired at FL and how we'd have reacted had he said that as the head coach at Tech (especially after all the craptastic recruiting and roster mis-management under Fuente)).
Basically, if you want to give Whit credit, Whit could have hired a GM and chief of staff under Fuente, but he didn't, so credit Pry in my book. Plus, I think Whit would have preferred bigger names as the coordinators like a lot of the comments I see on here, but Pry is loading the position coach spots with lots of experience - again, I gotta think that's Pry. Adibi? That's tough, but again, I can't see Whit telling Pry to go hire someone - maybe as a suggestion? I guess I could buy that. But Pry has also said he wants to find guys who WANT to be at Tech. It's not a stretch to think he'd look at alumni to see if any of them have had a lot of success at coaching, and Adibi has that and played in the NFL as well.
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100% but also, who is to say that some of these guys haven't reached out to Pry and Pry actually had that conversation with them. Some of these hires could have been people that reached out, as Pry said in his introduction interview, to see if there is a position for them on this staff. It doesn't always have to be VT making to move to initiate.
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That's true as well, but again, you can't attribute that to Whit. I'd love it if people are asking to come home to Tech to try to coach. Pry seems like he's doing so much of the stuff we wanted when we hired Fuente - I really hope he can turn it into (a lot) of wins on the field.
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I haven't followed a single thing that Adibi has done since he left Blacksburg but he's one of my all time favorite players from the pre-college years I spent going to VT games.
Also Crist fills in as the 4th on the staff to have at one point served as an offensive coordinator so someone or another is gonna get this offense thing right. He also had a front row seat to the train wreck our offense has been.
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Here's a sampling from the linked article:
1. served as the defensive coordinator for Texas A&M – Commerce for the past three seasons
2. Under Adibi's guidance, the Lions finished the 2021 season with the No. 3 ranked total defense and passing defense in Division II
3. Texas A&M – Commerce also finished the year with the No. 5 ranked scoring defense in Division II
4. Adibi's defensive unit was one of the best in the Lone Star Conference in 2019, leading the league in sacks per game (3.4) and finishing in the top two in total defense (316.3 ypg), passing defense (193.8 ypg), rushing defense (122.5 ypg), Red Zone defense (69.8 pct.), defensive touchdowns scored (seven) and tackles for loss (113.0).
5. His defense included a first team All-American, and the defense earned four all-region and seven All-Lone Star Conference honors
That is an insane list of honors and high rankings across a wide range of defensive statistics - all in the same year!!. And the individual rewards for the players was across the entire unit. The quality of Adibi's coaching is balanced across the entire spectrum of what a defense should be.
Pry is onto something. This is incredible.
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I remember I HATED them when they were first revealed - they didn't wear them with pads in the reveal photoshoot (can't find the pic) and they looked SUPER unflattering because of where the piping ran. Then I saw them in action, and they became my favorites. They made me realize that our uniforms need SOME orange on them - more than the Vick era, less than the RMFW/side panel era. These were the perfect balance.
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Now imagine this knocking on your apartment door at 1:30am because Rock Band had just come out and we were still jamming. All he said was, "It's 1:30." We shut it down real quick!
He also sat with my girlfriend, now wife, for a few minutes while she recovered from puking outside the apartment. She went outside "for some fresh air" because she didn't want me to know she couldn't hold her booze.
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X once showed up at a small gathering we were having at my apartment. Dude was chill, I taught him how to play foosball (not football,obviously, jesus spellcheck!).
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Nice. I played football with Brian in High School and for his dad. Nice to see an B'burg Indian representing. B'burg Bruins now. Cultural appropriation will get after ya.
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Do we get Vince Hall back along with Adibi? The two of them meeting on the field (usually with some poor hapless ball carrier between them) usually resulted in good things
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This is this shit. Some positive news and well thought out decisions coming from Blacksburg lately. It feels like we are building to something that we will all be proud to be a part of again.
I, for one, am truly stoked...... Go Hokies!
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Dang - These Adibis are bad ass, not only were they tough football players but Now Xavier is an awesome coach and his Brother Nathaniel is a badass ATF Agent If I need any protection, I know where to go.
I like the Crist hire too, Blacksburg Native, work with Pry at VT and LA-Lafayette and served in a bunch of roles. From what I'm seeing in some of these Blue Blood programs, they have a lot of support staff, lots of Analysts to breakdown videos, gather information on opponents, talk to players, etc, etc etc,..quite Frankly we need more of these positions and I know whit had put in some more budget towards it.
Lets Go..and bring back Stick it in..Stick it in..Stick it in
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I was there wearing my Vietnam era Army helmet with my custom painted Adibi's Army helmet cover. Everybody around me was high fiving me making me feel like I scored that TD. I even made the cover of the Roanoke Times' Arts and Entertainment insert paper. I forget what they called it then.
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My favorite game as a student! My memory is not the best, but I am fairly certain that Ball threw another pick 6, the offensive play before this one or the offensive play after this one. Don't remember if the pick 6 was by Vince Hall or another defender. But pretty sure we had back-to-back in this game.
EDIT: Actually, just checked my TKP profile and there it was under my Most MEmorable Moments:
#15 GT @ VT in 2005. Xiavier Adibi and Chris Ellis had back to back pick 6's against Reggie Ball. VT won 51-7. Ball was 11-27 for 143 yards. Calvin Johnson was literally their only offense that day, with 5 receptions for 123 yards and a TD.
It was a great day in Lane!
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The absolute moves that have been made by Pry just within the last week. I mean gah damn.
Hiring Rudolph, Bowen and these two; then Wells, Brown, Blue and Gosnell from the portal. Dzanzi and Jordan coming back. Hype train about to go off the rails
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Comments
Grabbing Xavier Adibi is AWESOME. He was crushing it as a DC for the last three seasons at Texas A&M-Commerce.
I really hope this is a great launching point for his career. He has a bright future as a coach in this sport, and I'm happy to have him helping the HOKIES fix the defense.
He also worked as a scout for the Jets after his NFL playing career ended. So now we have an analyst with both on-field playing, DC, and scouting experience. He knows how to play LB, he knows how to call a defense, and he has an eye for talent evaluation.
Finalist for Football Scoop 2021 Division II Coordinator of the Year
And, most importantly, my personal favorite Hokie. I loved throwing up the X when he made a huge play.
X back in the burg?
Big get bringing X back on campus. Satisfies a couple of things too, Hokie Alum, solid track record at this point based on his work at commerce, off field guy who can potentially be elevated to an on field guy depending on how the coaching staff shakes out moving forward.
Crist looks like he has had his fair share of time in the business as well. Not sure what senior offensive analyst does compared to just offensive analyst, but was the OC at Youngstown State under Pelini in 2018-19 and has previous experience with Pry from when they were GAs.
With the Adibi hire, Pry is playing 3-D chess applied to the long haul. This is a great strategic move.....
Alumni will dig it, also.
Whenever you change coaches, there are always some course correct aspects. Whit is hitting all of them. Defense v. Offense; Fu's toxic relationship with former players; Hiring actual former on field coaches for these support roles. Whit is course correcting big time. I'm optimistic it will pay off
What's next? Maybe we bring back Stick It In!!
And Vince Hall! Be Linebacker U and DBU!
Would be epic!
What's Vinny Fuller up to, anyway? We NEED a Fuller and the others are all busy with the league and TKP.
He is busy schooling the opposition in the courtroom now.
Hall/Adibi highlights
Holy shit I forgot how much I loved watching those defenses!
AME with orange socks is soooooo sexy
Me too.
While I 100% agree with the course correcting, curious why you are attributing it to Whit, other than the Pry hire. If Whit was going to hire ex-Hokies and other good staff, he could as easily have done it under Fuente. I guess, to me, it seems like Whit gets credit for Pry, and Pry should get credit for doing all the things that should have happened under Fuente, and are probably just good overall practices for a school that's trying to emphasize and grow their football program to compete at a very high level.
Justin Fuente was one of the hottest coaches on the market in 2015 and he had every right to dictate his terms before choosing a school. It seems abundantly clear Whit was hands off for the most part and gave him all the rope and then some to hang himself. It's very likely Whit was contractually obligated to some sort of autonomy. Heck, Kill even came in and told Fuente what to do and Fuente ignored him.
Whit's not a dumb man, he observed everything that was happening and kept a pulse on the fan base. So yeah we can give Pry credit (he fully deserves it too) but I think we'd be kidding ourselves if Whit didn't clearly lay out goals and milestones for Pry and the staff he assembles.
Whit wasn't contractually obligated to any sort of autonomy. Go and listen to his end of season presser from last year - he says he's a coach's AD, that he doesn't get all up in their business. He lets them make their own choices. Based on that, my guess is he states certain expectations and will let the coach fulfill them however he sees fit. And related to that, my read on last year's presser was that it was a performance improvement plan type meeting with Fuente, and even then, I've said how difficult it was to measure actual performance last year, both good and bad, so I won't rehash it.
So yes, I think Whit learned some things, but my guess is he didn't sit down and tell Pry what he should do. He most likely asked Pry what his plans are and how he'd run the program, maybe even more specifically about how he'd accomplish fan and alumni (specifically ex-players) engagement, what his vision for the program is, etc. We heard a couple names tossed around for HC, and we were hoping for certain names, and a certain splash, but from what we've seen from Pry, my guess is even if Whit originally had higher choice candidates, he may have gotten the best answers from Pry (think of the interview with Napier about recruiting after he'd been hired at FL and how we'd have reacted had he said that as the head coach at Tech (especially after all the craptastic recruiting and roster mis-management under Fuente)).
Basically, if you want to give Whit credit, Whit could have hired a GM and chief of staff under Fuente, but he didn't, so credit Pry in my book. Plus, I think Whit would have preferred bigger names as the coordinators like a lot of the comments I see on here, but Pry is loading the position coach spots with lots of experience - again, I gotta think that's Pry. Adibi? That's tough, but again, I can't see Whit telling Pry to go hire someone - maybe as a suggestion? I guess I could buy that. But Pry has also said he wants to find guys who WANT to be at Tech. It's not a stretch to think he'd look at alumni to see if any of them have had a lot of success at coaching, and Adibi has that and played in the NFL as well.
100% but also, who is to say that some of these guys haven't reached out to Pry and Pry actually had that conversation with them. Some of these hires could have been people that reached out, as Pry said in his introduction interview, to see if there is a position for them on this staff. It doesn't always have to be VT making to move to initiate.
That's true as well, but again, you can't attribute that to Whit. I'd love it if people are asking to come home to Tech to try to coach. Pry seems like he's doing so much of the stuff we wanted when we hired Fuente - I really hope he can turn it into (a lot) of wins on the field.
I know this alumnus sure as hell likes this hire. One of mine (and I am sure a lot of others) all time favorite Hokies.
Awesome. Although I wish we had another Xavier Adibi on the field playing !
patience my friend!
I haven't followed a single thing that Adibi has done since he left Blacksburg but he's one of my all time favorite players from the pre-college years I spent going to VT games.
Also Crist fills in as the 4th on the staff to have at one point served as an offensive coordinator so someone or another is gonna get this offense thing right. He also had a front row seat to the train wreck our offense has been.
Here's a sampling from the linked article:
1. served as the defensive coordinator for Texas A&M – Commerce for the past three seasons
2. Under Adibi's guidance, the Lions finished the 2021 season with the No. 3 ranked total defense and passing defense in Division II
3. Texas A&M – Commerce also finished the year with the No. 5 ranked scoring defense in Division II
4. Adibi's defensive unit was one of the best in the Lone Star Conference in 2019, leading the league in sacks per game (3.4) and finishing in the top two in total defense (316.3 ypg), passing defense (193.8 ypg), rushing defense (122.5 ypg), Red Zone defense (69.8 pct.), defensive touchdowns scored (seven) and tackles for loss (113.0).
5. His defense included a first team All-American, and the defense earned four all-region and seven All-Lone Star Conference honors
That is an insane list of honors and high rankings across a wide range of defensive statistics - all in the same year!!. And the individual rewards for the players was across the entire unit. The quality of Adibi's coaching is balanced across the entire spectrum of what a defense should be.
Pry is onto something. This is incredible.
Grooming a future DC if/when Marve leaves (hopefully because he had success so moving to a HC position)?
I guess the coaching staff is also "Next Man Up."
Who's in the rest of the defensive staff 2-deep?
Since he was on staff last year, he's just going to say "You see that? Yeah, don't do that."
X-citing news indeed
Bad ass. I would have sent him out for every coin toss
Crucify me but these are still some of my favorite uniforms
Light years better than the ones with the weird orange ovals on the side.
I remember I HATED them when they were first revealed - they didn't wear them with pads in the reveal photoshoot (can't find the pic) and they looked SUPER unflattering because of where the piping ran. Then I saw them in action, and they became my favorites. They made me realize that our uniforms need SOME orange on them - more than the Vick era, less than the RMFW/side panel era. These were the perfect balance.
I like them more than most of the uniforms we've had since.
But I can't shake the fact that I only like them because we were good when we wore them.
Dude was a bad ass. I'm excited to see him back in Blacksburg.
Now imagine this knocking on your apartment door at 1:30am because Rock Band had just come out and we were still jamming. All he said was, "It's 1:30." We shut it down real quick!
He also sat with my girlfriend, now wife, for a few minutes while she recovered from puking outside the apartment. She went outside "for some fresh air" because she didn't want me to know she couldn't hold her booze.
X once showed up at a small gathering we were having at my apartment. Dude was chill, I taught him how to play foosball (not football,obviously, jesus spellcheck!).
Nice. I played football with Brian in High School and for his dad. Nice to see an B'burg Indian representing. B'burg Bruins now. Cultural appropriation will get after ya.
Cultural appropriation will, in fact, get after ya.
Nice! Xavier was one of the guys I identified as a great fit to bring back to this staff. Glad it happened!
Beat me to it.....
It took entirely too long for someone to post this in this thread.
Note, Crist was promoted not added, he was here this season
Edit: does not apply any more
IYKYK.
Yeah found the wording odd but I used the article title from Hokiesports.
My signature finally applies to something
The real question is, will he be bringing back those uniforms when he arrives on campus?
Do we get Vince Hall back along with Adibi? The two of them meeting on the field (usually with some poor hapless ball carrier between them) usually resulted in good things
Vince hall and Adibi duo were the days! Used to love playing with them on ncaaf game .
Edit: just saw I put hall twice lol my bad
Fuck yea! Glad to see Xavier home.... one of my all time favorite Hokies and the original #11!
This is this shit. Some positive news and well thought out decisions coming from Blacksburg lately. It feels like we are building to something that we will all be proud to be a part of again.
I, for one, am truly stoked...... Go Hokies!
Misread your first sentence as "this is shit" and was about to throw hands
the BDE continues. I like it
Dang - These Adibis are bad ass, not only were they tough football players but Now Xavier is an awesome coach and his Brother Nathaniel is a badass ATF Agent If I need any protection, I know where to go.
I like the Crist hire too, Blacksburg Native, work with Pry at VT and LA-Lafayette and served in a bunch of roles. From what I'm seeing in some of these Blue Blood programs, they have a lot of support staff, lots of Analysts to breakdown videos, gather information on opponents, talk to players, etc, etc etc,..quite Frankly we need more of these positions and I know whit had put in some more budget towards it.
Lets Go..and bring back Stick it in..Stick it in..Stick it in
I was at Tech when he played, and the video quality of these highlights is making me feel old AF.
I was not, but the quality is still making me feel old AF.
Agreed, but it makes me smile knowing I was hammer drunk on bourbon in that crowd, even if I don't remember that play specifically.
So was the announcer, "Touchdown Xahbier Abidbii"
I was there wearing my Vietnam era Army helmet with my custom painted Adibi's Army helmet cover. Everybody around me was high fiving me making me feel like I scored that TD. I even made the cover of the Roanoke Times' Arts and Entertainment insert paper. I forget what they called it then.
Oh man that was a fun game to be at, the East stands were lit
My favorite game as a student! My memory is not the best, but I am fairly certain that Ball threw another pick 6, the offensive play before this one or the offensive play after this one. Don't remember if the pick 6 was by Vince Hall or another defender. But pretty sure we had back-to-back in this game.
EDIT: Actually, just checked my TKP profile and there it was under my Most MEmorable Moments:
The absolute moves that have been made by Pry just within the last week. I mean gah damn.
Hiring Rudolph, Bowen and these two; then Wells, Brown, Blue and Gosnell from the portal. Dzanzi and Jordan coming back. Hype train about to go off the rails
via GIPHY
We had good memories as an undergrad during the Xavier Adibi & Vince Hall Days. You might even say those defenses were okay!
Shoooo, getting old when the players I was there with are coming back as coaches!