TL;DR: Coach Pry pays attention to moms, and moms love coach Pry
Long Story:
My wife and I are perusing the Grant Park Farmers' Market (in Atlanta) and wind up meeting this wonderful woman who is selling citrus trees. We wind up buying a Lemon tree and a Grapefruit tree from her. They have just started producing fruit, and I'm pretty jazzed about it, but I digress...
So, this lovely lady comes over last night to help plant the trees in our backyard (this is her thing; she doesn't just sell it, but she keeps up with us so she can help us plant/take care of it), and she comes over decked out in Vanderbilt gear. Vandy isn't exactly known for rabid fans, so I immediately took note. She see's my VT hat, and she's like 'you guys got a new coach, my son played for him at Vandy.' And it now make sense why she's decked out in Vandy gear.
She loves Coach Pry. She said he's extremely authentic, and she loved that he would always check in with her and her husband, give them updates about their son, let them know when he was doing really well, or if he was doing stupid things that they should know about, etc. Says he still checks in on her family and their son from time to time (and if her son played for CBP at Vandy, it's been 10 years).
Anyways, just another reason to be pumped about the hire.
Comments
He should talk to Galen Scott
No way. That was too juicy of a story to forget about
Which story exactly
Using recruiting trips to cheat on his wife.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2018/04/28/virginia-tech-c...
Nothing to do with recruits' moms tho 💁♂️
How do you know?
Firstly that is a glaring omission in all of the reporting if it's true -- there's no basis to support it based on anything that was reported
Secondly the claim by the twitter user who leveled the allegations is that Scott used VT money via recruiting trips to liaise with his mistress (the twitter user's wife) in MD and FL, which isn't consistent with Scott having a pattern (or an isolated instance) of sleeping with recruits' moms
Thirdly, if that twitter user is a trustworthy source (I'd guess that he is), then we can believe him when he references children aged 3 and 7 which aren't the ages of your typical P5 football recruits'.
It's just a bizarre conclusion to jump to when the only apparent basis for it is YOu dOnT KNoW fOR SurE tHaT hE DiDnt
Being friendly with the moms is a scale. From Torrian Gray (didn't talk to moms) to Galen Scott (way too friendly with moms), you want a happy medium.
I propose we formally establish the TKP Gray-Scott" scale of mother engagement where coaches are rated on a 5 point scale:
1 - Gray level engagement
2 - Cold but not off-putting
3 - good engagement but perhaps not optimal. You might say 3 = sub-optimal mother engagement, also known as 3SOME.
4 - high engagement
5 - Scott level. Excessive
the whole "Galen Scott slept with recruits' moms (or a recruit's mom)" thing is wildly unsubstantiated, has never even been reported by a news source, and is just a really weird way to take that whole story. The more we repeat it the more it gets ingrained as fact when it's not
That may be true, but it's still funnier to imagine Scott hooking up with recruits' moms.
I know, in one sense, that it is. But think about the husband or boyfriend (if either are applicable) as well as the potential damage to the kid if this had happened.
i'd prefer a reality where Fuente won every game he coached here but that didn't happen either
I would have reached peak funny had we been able to name one of VT's new plows after him
I'd argue it's not funny. Do we need something more that makes our program look worse than it already does? Using the trips to hook up with a mistress is one thing, do we really want to see in an article it was really with recruits' moms? We're already trying to make up ground with recruits because of bad relationships with coaches and deciding we'd rather recruit Texas than home-state, in addition to, well, you know, our win count over the past few years. Anything else that makes the program look bad just doesn't amuse me, and I laugh at a lot of crap.
*sigh* I get jokes.
The fact that it is unsubstantiated is why it's an ok joke. If your crusading for Scott because you personally knew him then sure but then that only lends fuel to fire.
Bear with me here. I can get on board with this especially in a face to face setting. You don't make fun of actual things that could be a problem but ridiculously untrue things make for funny inside jokes. Coworker is overweight? Making fat jokes is being an asshole. Coworker is naturally fit through no effort of their own (not talking about gym rats with body image issues)? Nickname is "fat Albert" and it's hilarious. I once fired a guy as soon as he got back from his "birthday" lunch. But his coworkers took him like two months after his birthday due to scheduling issues for everyone/Covid. I had to deal with jokes about firing someone on his birthday for YEARS. But it was still hilarious.
Obviously don't cross over the line into misinformation, but I would agree that joking about the funnier, less true permutation of events makes for a more enjoyable TKP experience.
I think this is GGC's concern. The inside joke works with people who know the backstory. But a lot of people seem to think Scott really did fool around with a player's mother.
You may know it's not the case, but many here don't, and your delivery (in text) doesn't make it clear.
I got laid off on my 40th birthday. It wasn't very funny.
Also, a guy who cheats with recruits moms (I think the substantiated part is he was cheating, which is why he resigned, just don't know that it was a recruit's mom), seems like it would be on a different axis on this scale. I'd think this story of Pry reaching out to check on a mom ten years or more after the kid played for him (sounds like it was both parents, not just the mom) would/should be the 5, or maybe even a 6 on a 5 point scale.
He was using recruiting as an excuse to visit his side chick(s). Nothing ever said the the women of interest were related to the recruits.
That's what I thought, but the comments above all seem to suggest it was with recruits moms. I guess the assumption is recruiting trips must equal recruits' moms.
nothing except TKPers via galen scott joke after galen scott joke
"Galen Scott Joke" anagrams to "Negate Jock Slot". Read into that what you will.
Yea, the 'moms love coach Pry' comment was meant to be a dig at Torrian, not Galen
{/ouch}
...that was a real sad/hurtful mess... felt for that po' hubby in FLA.
(it also truly wounded the Fu' red-light/green-light good/bad-cop look with Mitch' too)
💯
b.street
I always thought this was one of the best things about Beamer when it came to recruiting. The moms all loved him.
He (Frank) and the initial Team Chaplin, really pioneered chaperoning them (the mums/grandmums/guardians). Frank was even known to go cook din-din with them, no joke.
👨🍳
b.street
God damn, I love to hear this about our coaches.
That's people skills done right. And it's clear it's not just to get a kid on campus, but checking on them that long afterwards? That's awesome. Kids don't choose in a vacuum, and having parents comfortable with the coach seems like it would go a long way. And given some of the stories French and one or two other people on here had about the past coaching staff and, well, their people skills, it seems like it would pay dividends on the recruiting trail. Man, if he can put up some wins, I'll feel really good about the future!
...Eye can tell you this little... my coaching-sewing-circle-contacts?
Said @P.s.u. was nearly in tears-- when Pry left. On the Q.T.
They really thought the world of him.
Said we were getting a gemstone of a guy.
💯
HTH's
b.street
Can someone explain to me how to routinely check in on former players from nearly 10 years ago? Does he have an admin maintain a giant spreadsheet with all the players names on there and assign 1-2 every day for the next 5 years? kidding....maybe?
I need those life skills.
I was thinking exactly this as I read the post. I'm thinking that if I were a college football coach responsible for maintaining that many relationships I would need to create a file with each player, their parents, all their background information like their occupations etc., their siblings, what they do, and every topic we discuss every time we talk like a giant log of collected information. And then reread it every time I talk to them. And then set up calendar reminders for ever year to check in with them. Sounds like a TON of work.
do you guys not do that for everyone you meet? I am really the only guy with spreadsheets to track TKP members?
Dear God! We must find and burn that spreadsheet. Who knows what he's put in that notes column!
Make friends by sharing your Bourbon with themsuspicious/paranoidWell. I guess we won't be becoming friends. Damned shame. You look like a good boy.
That doesn't mean I won't share my bourbon ... alcohol is meant to be shared.
...that...that would make us friends though. But you crossed out that bit in my entry.
I just want to let you know this joke got way to out of hand, because now all I can think about it how would I estimate someone's height from their online posts.
I did like that touch. And the redacted UUID.
Just so you know the redacted UUID was so no one could figure out I generated when this thread started and I wasn't a my computer so changing the date and creating one was out of the question.
6'0"
I thought it was funny - especially the basis for intelligence 😂
Everyone knows pir is best
5'9"
Is that my height estimate? If so, you're really freaking good.
I wasn't necessarily agreeing directly on pie - just that I thought it was funny.
From my profile:
Not all cakes are good. Not all pies are good. But if you haven't found some of each that you like, I'd argue you've been desserting wrong. Same goes for cookies, brownies, ice cream, and any other dessert.
For my point - my brother went to a friend's house for Thanksgiving. His mom made pumpkin pie. My brother LOVES pumpkin pie and took a large slice. What he didn't know was that she put pepper in the pie - apparently enough to substantially change the flavor such that he struggled to get it down. I do make an amazing caramel apple pie though. And now that I'm writing this, I'm realizing I may start something. Eff it - I'm tossing this hand grenade.
Yup height estimate.
You know you're about to have to do this for everyone... right? They're going to come out of the woodworks wanting to know how tall they are.
If only they all just had a tape measure of their own.
hmm your name might be throwing me off, 5'8"
Or 7"...
Seems there is a flaw in the system.
It IS an estimate.... If you are really 5'7", that means he's gotten at least 2 estimates within an inch, and really close (however close that is) for APFOW. Them's not bat numbers for what seems like shots in the dark, especially since it's not like he's guessing 5'9" every time.
Off by 7"
Oh, sorry, misunderstood. Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. Ugh, I apparently need a vacation - when discussing height guesses is more interesting/rewarding than my job. Ugh.
So are you 5'1" or 6'3"?
Damn it, I told my wife this guys wither 5'8" or 6'4". She looked at me like she normally looks at me, a bit confused and worried for my sanity.
Dude...I thought it was hilarious. I was just messing around. Funny thing is...the height is awfully damned close. The intelligence is spot on, of course.
His spreadsheet doesn't have that you're a ginger though. Maybe mine does 🤔
Oh I assumed you were playing along, it's just now I am guessing everyone's height.
now i wanna know how tall i am
5-9"
Impressive
Oooh me too!!!
5'5"
I am struggling with this one
Not bad. I am 5'6''
KingJames:
Go for it 🙃
This is a real tough one cause I feel like I have argued on the internet less than the others that have asked .... ugh, 5'10" ish???
Little short there. 6' 🙂
Ok. I'll bite. Whatcha got for me?
5'9"
We might need a thread just for this.
The "Peak off-season: King James Judges you thread."
Sorry James....swing and a miss. I'm 6'-2".
:::: sobs in the corner :::::
Give it a shot
6'1"
Holy shit, nailed it
Ok, my turn. Thnx
5'8"
Close, 5'10"
I'll join the fun too...
6'3"
Not terrible, considering. I'm 6'-8". At least you went the right direction from average!
I thought big guy, just not THAT big.
Has anyone guessed James' hight yet?
5'11"
No need to guess my height, I know it through empirical evidence.
Lol yeah I'd be really surprised if you guessed mine right. Wouldn't expect you to guess "sasquatch" correctly.
It really depends on how creepily he's been paying attention to tidbits of information people have dropped in comments
Like you? Lol
Hey, I can't help that I remember waaaaaay too much random stuff I read. It's a curse, really.
But yes, like me 🤣😂🤣
yeah cyber stalking all of you to decide a hieght has taken a lot of my time
Well, everyone should have a hobby
I'll bite, go for it
5'10"
My turn!
5'7" ish
I'm impressed - 5'6", but I always tried to sneak in an extra inch on recruiting profiles so pretty damn close
King James at home.
Oh I was using NBA hieght for you (with shoes on)
You are remarkably good at this. Thats dead on.
Why not. Go for it.
5'9"
Off a little bit. 6'1"
Still.... could be worse
Apparently this is a current captain of an NHL team.
Can you send me your copy? I'm clueless as to who everybody is.
(And what does my entry say? I'm curious.)
this dude has receipts lol
Sounds like exactly what many good sales people do. And if you have recruiting staff to input the data, its probably not as much of a burden on the coach.
I did that for years, and to some extent still do. My old school 'At A Glance' Daytimer calendars are filled with names, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. of family, friends, clients, etc. I have kept every one of them since 1985.
It would not take a Salesforce admin long to design something that would be perfect for this. All the data would be in one place with automated reminders. The setup and historical data entry would be a bitch because I'm assuming it is not currently in a format that can be easily imported, but I think the ROI would be there for the long term.
Yup exactly. I had a mall jewelry store job during college and we were encouraged to build our clientele by doing this. They didn't pay me enough to put forth that much effort.
But in a career role that paid more money, say, like maybe, being the highest paid state employee? Yeah I could see myself doing that.
Sales 101.
I haven't gotten to use a book yet, but as I've grown in my role, it's definitely a requirement upcoming. 50-60 customers a month, a lot of conversations can/will be had.
"Oh you went to VT?" Is also a great conversation starter.
and color code it like michael scott's rolodex! green for go ahead and shut up
.
Every day, scroll to the last text message convo in your messaging app, and text that person to check in and say hi. One person per day.
(or use a CRM to keep track of contacts)
Buying fruit trees in Atlanta and doesn't buy a peach tree? Not sure I buy this story. /S
On a serious note, this just reinforces the things we've seen Pry talk about, and the fact that it doesn't stop with talk.
Georgia's peach prowess is a little inflated. California outproduces them.
It was more about every friggin' street in Atlanta being some variation of peachtree rd, st, ave, what have you.
But seriously...
So does South Carolina. But Georgia peaches are better.
https://www.agmrc.org/commodities-products/fruits/peaches#:~:text=United....
Grew up in South Carolina 🤷♀️
Grew up in Georgia. [shrugs in peach]
Best peaches I ever had were from Palisade CO. Big as a softball and super delicious.
Chomp
Anytime you genuinely value people, regardless of the industry, you are respected and loved. Great to have CBP in Blacksburg!
Random story I think y'all will enjoy:
So this week I was staying at a European run resort in the Caribbean. There aren't many English speakers there so when I hear someone speaking it I always go out of my way to meet them. So Thursday night my group is at the bar doing shots and we meet this big blond kid and his group, turns out it's Will Levis the starting QB at Kentucky.
Start talking to him and find out he transferred last year from Penn State. Mentioned VT and coach Pry and he immediately lit up ("that's my f***ing dude"). He also brought up Galt (who I didn't even know had been at Penn State) and was super complimentary of him as well. Definitely way more enthusiastic about those two than James Franklin. Also shouted out T Bow and said the offense will be good down the road. But cannot overstate how much enthusiasm he had for Pry, a guy who didn't even coach his side of the ball. Could've sold me on Pry and VT as a recruit and he doesn't even play for him.
Also was a super cool dude and ended up doing a bunch of shot with us. Going to be rooting for him in the SEC and the draft for sure.
Just gonna derail another offseason thread with condiment talk
I'm going to vomit
Somebody has taken too many hits to the head.
He must have lost a dare... Appetite for lunch ruined.
Gross.
It isn't even Duke's. Still would have been gross, but at least a higher quality of gross.
Opened this thread thinking I'd see some more about Coach Pry's relationships with his players. Got just a bunch of "How tall am I?" comments.
/sigh
69 inches?
Nice
Speaking of Pry, I saw an article on the 4-letter website earlier about what he's trying to establish in Blacksburg. It's Plus content so it's behind a paywall but the first few paragraphs were available and it sounded comforting to me.
It was a Bill Connelly article (the guy behind SP+). Pretty solid and honestly the best insight into Pry's approach outside of a beat writer's coverage. It was more of a macro view on Pry's vision than the granular details of who is playing where.
My takeaways were that Pry is thinking about fit with VT for himself, staff, and how they cater to recruits. Pry has also been very clear about program alignment to be consistent in message which is great to hear.
The biggest concern is that Connelly mentioned a very conservative run focused offense a couple of times, but that could have been him inferring based on the coaching hires.
Otherwise it was mostly pretty upbeat as you'd expect with a profile on a new head coach.
I'm not overly concerned about a "very conservative run focused offense" because that was sort of our identity back in the glory years. We're never going to be a flashy offense like Oregon. We tried to bring offense to Blacksburg and failed utterly.
VT is a blue collar, work-your-tail-off, punch em in the throat, wear em down type of place. That's our identity. VT is tough, stifling defense that strikes fear into the opposition. VT is ground and pound. I want VT to be the type of team that can successfully execute a running play even when everyone in the world knows what's coming. There is nothing more demoralizing for a defense than knowing what's coming and still not stopping it.
I'm okay with a conservative, run focused offense so long as it executes. And I feel pretty confident that our defense will be stout under Pry. He certainly earned his stripes on that side of the ball. VT needs to find an identity again. It makes sense to me to go back to what worked. Soul crushing defense and spirit sapping offense.
My concern is if we become conservative just for the sake of being conservative. A number of defensive head coaches start out emphasizing this philosophy. I'm not saying Pry is like that, but it is a concern I will hold onto until we have more answers.
The so long as it executes part is where the rub lies. If the offensive philosophy takes advantage of space while wanting to pound the rock then I'll be thrilled. If it's dumb bash our heads into the wall for 2 yards at a time I'll be pretty frustrated.
I'd also contend that "bringing offense to Blacksburg" failed under Fuente because of the system and lack of QB development, not because an intelligent offensive system cannot work in Blacksburg.
I guess I get this. But it doesn't seem like Pry does anything just for the sake of it.
Yes, I won't deny that! I guess my main point is that I'm not overly concerned with what the specific offensive philosophy is. With Bud Foster I felt like a complementary offense was missing for a long time. I got so fed up with having a top 10 defense and an offense that seemed stuck in mud that the draw of a big shiny "high-octane" offense was really strong. I got pulled into believing that we needed to have an Oregon style offense to be good. But I've come to realize that the offensive philosophy itself isn't all the important to the success of the offense. What's important is that the coaches are able to mold and develop their players to execute at a high level on Saturdays. It doesn't really matter if your philosophy is ground-and-pound, run-and-shoot, smoke-and-mirrors, or whatever else. If you can get your players to execute at a high level you can be successful. If you can't then you'll fail. Simple as that. Which brings me to...
I don't think the system was the problem. Lack of development (not just QBs) certainly contributed to the failure. Ultimately, I think there was just an utter lack of ability, on the part of the coaches, to get the players to execute. These coaches could have been trying Alabama's system for all I care, it didn't work because the coaches couldn't transfer the necessary skills/knowledge to the players to execute.
I know that I've joked about how Blacksburg is allergic to offenses and maybe that's what you're getting at here. I don't actually believe that. It's a joke. We have had a string of offensive coaches over the last 15 or so years who have largely failed to put a consistent product on the field. I don't think it's because of philosophy or system. I think those coaches just couldn't get their players to execute a sensible game plan week in and week out.
Who didn't love watching Herbert run all over everyone in 2020. Bring a slightly competitent passing game strategy and a defense and that season is way more fun.
I think people need to be ready for our O Line to suck this year, and maybe next year as well without some transfers. The new classes will slowly build depth there but right now we are about 0 deep outside the starting 5 (one of those being Hansen with hardly any career snaps). A couple injuries up front and the offense is donezo for this season.
The Wisconsin run offense I can live with. We brought the important part of that coaching staff to develop that kind of line here.
I love Bill C - great piece. I also love comments like this:
My soap box thesis is that when people say "high octane offensive" they really mean "an offense good enough to play complementary football."
Get first downs, sequence play calls to set the defense up later in the game. Be efficient in the red zone.
I haven't coached at any level, but I assume the team has to get to above average offense before going to ludicrous speed offense.
You may be on to something. However, Wisconsin's offense was good. Efficient, even. I don't think anyone would call it "high-octane".
I think when an offense can regularly score more than 40 PPG it starts to be considered high-octane. Especially if it scores on really explosive plays.
An offense can be good, effective, and score enough points to win, without being high-octane, I think. If we're able to control the ball, score on a majority of our possessions (fgs, and tds) and force the other team's offense into panic-y mistakes that will be enough for me. We don't have to be scoring 20 points per quarter for me to be satisfied.
High Octane is scoring. Not yards. Alabama is super super efficient in the red zone- they score points. That's high octane. Brennan Armstrong leads a 6-6 team for big yards- not necessarily big points.
Virginia's offense was good for 21st in the nation at 34.6 ppg. Team Defense was a bad 104th.