Amare had some pretty interesting comments on last year's team and Fuente...
Draft prospect Amare Barno says his Virginia Tech teammates checked out last season I @DAonCBS pic.twitter.com/23MXZh0SEs— CBS Sports Radio (@CBSSportsRadio) March 1, 2022
Some points I took notice of (not verbatim from Barno)...
- Morale of team wasn't there
- Players didn't know their roles
- Players did things on their own.
- Players not showing up as early to practice as they did before
- Fuente kinda ost the locker room
- Fuente's job security had players thinking what are they playing for
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S/N1: not surprised one bit.
S/N2: I love you AB, but you might need to work on those communication skills, I heard those NFL evaluators will ask the most outlandish things during an interview.
Very glad we have a fresh start with a new staff and focus.
Yikes!
I mean it's throwing dirt on the grave at this point, but I'm not really surprised.
What went first for the team, the morale or the morality? {ducks}
Maybe a lot of guys had their wisdom teeth out so he's meant they lost their molars?
Thank you... I'm an idiot...
I dont know about you but when my morality goes down, my morale goes up! /s
I can't confirm or deny any of barno's story, but I can say the he personally was not relevent for long stretches of games, and the scouts will see that with their own eyes. He got washed out of a lot of plays. Not sure where he plays in NFL, but I am fairly sure he will have a hard time at de
Yeah wish the best for him, but a third of NFL teams are complete crap each year, if you can't perform when you're team is doing poorly in college why would NFL teams take you.
This. You could describe him as misused because he wasn't allowed to rush off the edge as much, but he was very robotic/going through the motions for long stretches this season. Garbutt was their best DE and it wasn't close.
He's a bold one to claim teammates were checked out. I have no doubt he's right but I don't get the impression he was exactly helping based on how he looked on the field last year
He was best when he played behind the DE or DT as a spy on the QB. I think he'll play more of a LB in the league. He's a physical freak.
Yeah I hate to say it but all those criticisms easily could be about himself as much as anyone else on the team. He had games where he took over (UNC especially) but mostly disappeared for the rest of the reason. Like another person here said, why should NFL teams take a player that's going to check out when the going gets tough?
I always want to see success for Hokie players in the NFL, but man this interview was a bad look. Lesson learned for anyone in an interview, it almost never reflects well on you to complain about a past employer/team, even if your criticisms are true.
He was still holding back even after all that
Barno being the bearer of this message is a little ironic but it shouldn't be news to anybody. Unfortunately, that's just what happens on bad teams. Guys lose their quit and/or just deprioritize the team.
I'd view this way more as an indictment of the overall environment than any individual guys' characters. A new tone at the top and a few good leaders can go a long way.
This can really be applied to any organization as well. I once worked at a company with a toxic workplace and poor leadership, finger pointing all around for anything that went wrong, managers taking no responsibility and blaming everything on their employees. Needless to say I was personally checked out at that company and for sure did not put in my best performance. It was major relief to finally leave there for a better situation.
0% surprised by this.
The on-field performance and the tiny tidbits of information that we would get from behind the Fuente Curtain pretty much told us what was up.
2021 was a Lame Duck year and everyone inside and outside the Program knew it.
To me the damage is already done. Not to mention his explanation and what he actually said in the interview are two different things, I'm not buying this