Having read several TKP threads last night I started thinking about the big coaching hires for VT.
Buzz and Fuente: both VT outsiders, both with head coaching experience, both with recent (at time of VT hire) success, though I'd argue that Buzz had demonstrated greater success than Fuente. (At this point, Fuente's success has a "flash in the pan" or "lightning struck once in the form of Paxton Lynch" feel to it.)
Young & Pry: Young was not as splashy a hire as Buzz, but with a proven track record, a lot of experience, and - crucial to our conversation, I believe - an abiding connection to VT/Southwest VA. I think Pry was also not as splashy as Fuente seemed at the time. While Pry did not have the HC experience, he did have a proven track record in his roles, he was high up in programs that were successful long-term and, was a VT insider with a long history in SWVA. I suspect Whit believes he found the model in coach Young and is hoping it bears out with Coach Pry. I personally am optimistic.
Considering how much success we have experienced with guys who followed Young from Wofford, it got me thinking about the possibility of some current PSU players transferring to VT in the next couple of years. I know PSU is having a good season (I hope they beat OSU today!), but I haven't paid attention to who is playing (well) for them.
That said, the roster shows 6 guys from Virginia:
2 WRs
1 RB
1 TE
1 DT
1 OL
I'm curious if any of them would like to come home.
Go Hokies!!
Bonus Hot Take: We are going to win our four remaining games!
Comments
I think the obvious statement here is that Wofford is below VT in bball, PSU is well above VT in football. It was easy for Aluma and Cattoor to want to come to play in the ACC. I dont think any PSU players would feel the same about playing in the ACC or at VT. The only PSU players that would come to VT are ones that didn't make it at PSU, for whatever reason. Maybe that's good enough for VT now, but don't expect to get all-ACC first team or ACCCG MVP types from PSU.
Not sure if Pry really pursues that. If there's a player at PSU that isn't panning out and Franklin lines him up with Pry/VT then I could see it. But Pry has not gone after PSU commits or any transfers thus far largely out of respect to Franklin and I don't see him really doing that.
Non-compete clauses do exist in college football. I believe Foster (might have been Loeffler) had some language in his contract not to leave for another ACC school.
Publicly, it looks like a gentleman's agreement regarding recruiting because it hasn't stopped Pry from nabbing staff talent. But I wouldn't be surprised if there's a legal written clause he signed not allowing it.
I really hope there isn't. That really ties Pry's hands and takes a huge part of his potential away. PSU is arguably our biggest competition for talent in the region right now, along with UNC. I find it hard to believe VT would make such a hire with that stipulation, but the gentleman's agreement needs to end at some point if Pry is going to start nabbing some top recruits.
I have wondered a time or two if Pry at VT wasn't a 3D chess move by Franklin. Puts a buddy in Blacksburg that won't be a threat to him in recruiting and he might occasionally send us some scraps. I sincerely hope this isn't the case.
I've said it before that I could see Pry not trying to flip current commits to PSU out of respect for Franklin, but if some one is in the portal, or uncommitted then they have to be free game.
Yeah pry cannot be that much of a stooge. And I don't think he is one. You don't get HC jobs otherwise. _and if he is then it's on whit, but I really don't think that's the case.
We got bad roster new coaches. Everyone is figuring it out. It's not pretty but I think there's enough to wait it out
Lefty went to BC after Virginia Tech so I'm assuming he didn't have a non-compete.
He didn't leave on his own accord. A lot (in my limited experience) of non-competes are void if fired.
Foster was also a finalist for the Clemson head job, but if he did have a non-compete it was likely just for DC.
I'd be more interested in any of the Wisconsin OL that might be in the portal. Guys who already know Rudolph's system and could give our line a jumpstart.
Also, guys who Rudolph knows a bit about. So he knows if he can use them or not.
Long story short:
I need to become our very own T. Boone Pickens, and buy the right team from top-to-bottom!
If you've got the money, we support you in doing that!
just to be on the safe side, we should all become our very own T. Boone Pickenses
I played the lottery this past week. Clearly, I'm doing everything I can.
I will buy a ticket for the billion dollar powerball tonight, if I win, Tech will get some assistance.
Agreed. I will get my name on a new dining hall.
"The Soup Kitchen" has a nice ring to it.
Kind of a fun question... If you were to win 1 billion dollars from the lottery, and lets say after taxes you net "only" 600 million, how much would you give to VT and where would it be allocated? Assuming the amount would also warrant your name on a building
If it were me, I'd probably give $25-50 million to only football
well, first, I'd invest that money in cash-flowing assets. After that, then I'd take a significant chunk of my cashflow and route it to VT. I'd buy/build some really swanky apartments in Charlottesville near UVA's campus and then charge outrageously high rates because I know snobby rich UVA kids would fall over themselves to pay absurd amounts of money to live somewhere "elite" just "because they can" and I would take every penny of profit and put it into the VT Athletic Fund.
I truly LOL'd on this one... well done, have a leg!
Okay, but I'm gonna need the name of these "swanky" apartments before I can condone this plan
Windsor Estates
Eh, not sold, needs to be something like Luxe Apartments, at the Green
Zima at the Grounds?
Ascots at Pantops?
I don't think Pantops is close enough to their
campus*ahem* grounds but I like the submission otherwiseEven further from campus but close enough to build apartments is Ivy. You could call them 'The league at Ivy' since you know, most uva students think they're Ivy league anyway.
Eau de Douche
"Off Campus"
Off Grounds
"Le 'Better Than You' Logements"
Caruthers' Chambers
I would call it:
"The View at Superiority Complex"
- tagline: "Everything looks better from up here"
Since they all think they're higher and mightier than everyone else, if you make SAT scores part of the rental application, you will certainly find the best applicants as it partakes to spending the most amount of money on something based on exclusivity.
"The View, the only place your SAT score still matters"
Funny story... The current VT student body president (or whatever it is called) is from the Shenandoah Valley (I know her dad really well) and when she was 18 WHSV interviewed her and asked her what she would do if she won the huge lottery (she was purchasing her first ticket). She said, "I would use the money to purchase buildings at UVA and name them after the founders and important folks related to Virginia Tech."
That was the most baller thing I've ever heard from an 18 year old....
what has Pickenses got in its pocketses
I don't understand the fascination with largely underachieving players from a largely underachieving program.
System fit.
Think a previous VT QB now Heisman candidate.
That's VT alumnus QB ...
I stand corrected.
Other than wishful rationalizing, how are guys who aren't a fit at PSU suddenly going to be a fit at Pry's VT? I find it telling that there haven't been ANY transfers from PSU to date (although I'm not sure which side it says more about Pry or the players).
And what does Hooker have to with the fascination here with underachievers from Penn St?
The second string player at PSU might be good enough to start at VT, and might want playtime.
A far less likely scenario IMO, but it's possible that there is an under utilized player on PSU who Pry might have some existing connection with, who might want to play here. I doubt this is the case though.
MIGHT be better...
Now the fascination makes complete sense.
I really don't get the fascination with Penn State either. They will never be anything more than the third best program in their division. They've had two media darling star players in the past couple seasons and it's like everyone wants to be them.
Well, divisions will be going away in the next few seasons.
Anyways, I agree that PSU is the third (possibly even fourth) best program in their division, but there are seasons where they are one of the two best teams in the conference.
Beyond that, they are a similar school/program to VT, but just do a lot of things a little bit better than us. It can be useful to benchmark VT against PSU imo.
Maybe a handful of years in the past 20 years have they been the #1 or #2 team in the B1G. For a team with the resources and fanbase of PSU, they have been an underachieving program by and large (although there were other reasons for some of that underperformance).
I don't know, I think they've maxed out. I have a PSU friend who I argue about this a lot... I think 11-1 with a B10 title once every 10 years is the ceiling for PSU (until OSU is down, which doesn't happen).
The issue is they got put in a terrible spot. They are a top ten all time program. And they are in the same division with two, arguable, mount Rushmore teams. (Michigan has wins and old time championships, but they don't have a lot of modern day championships, Oklahoma would be the one making the argument)
Bama does have to play one top 10 team every year (Tennessee), Texas and OU play eachother too, and USC plays ND.
But Michigan, OSU, and PSU in the same conference is tough from a historic standpoint.
Nebraska is the only top 10 team that isn't forced to play another top 10 team every year.
Correct, the days of Joepa, no road games until october, no night games, no other teams in the mid atlantic in big time conferences, etc. are long gone. Paterno was a great x and o coach that build a very cultist, insular program in a different era. Every kid in PA and eastern ohio wanted to play for Joepa in front of 100K... that era is basically a million years ago. Having said that, they are a hell of a lot better than VT right now- in all facets.
Because their underachieving players are bigger, faster, and stronger than ours.
Surprised I had to scroll down this far to find the correct take
Hmmm. Where is it all of these under-appreciated world-beaters are ending up? If only there was a way to look that up...oh wait a minute, there is.
So let's see where these all of these huge talents stuck behind future 1st round draft picks ended up after entering the portal last season and this past spring.
LSU...ok, there must be a bunch of diamonds in the rough.
Arizona St
Purdue
Ok, not exactly playoff contenders, but contributors on middleocre P5 teams. Let's see the rest.
UMass (2)
UConn
Temple
Akron (2)
Colgate
Lackawanna College
Long Island Univ
Nowhere State (3) - incl a former top 100 transfer from FSU
So out of 15 transfers, one went to a blue-blood, 12 went to G5 programs (or less), and two went to programs in VT's ballpark (although I suspect many here would argue they're both a small step down as programs). Of the two who went to non-blue blood P5 programs, I don't see any indication VT ever pursued either (even though they had to be known quantities to some of the new staff).
I definitely see the message board fascination with PSU transfers now.
I have no idea what argument you're having. DC said their players are better than ours. Ours are pretty bad so I don't think saying that means they are world beaters. They're just not as bad as ours. That's not so hard to do. We're really, really, bad.
Pry has pulled no one and won't pull anyone from PSU. It ain't gonna happen.
He has loyalty to Franklin to a fault. To have brought in zero guys is a Tajh Capehart level blunder from Pry imo.
It's nice that he wants to show loyalty to his buddy, but news flash you know who wouldn't show that courtesy if the roles were reversed? James Franklin. Dude has killer ambition and honestly we need to see some more of that from Pry
That's one take. Alternatively maybe none of their players want to come to Tech.
I mean that is conditional on if he isn't trying at all yeah. That's what it appears to be
Or maybe, just maybe Pry sees more value in trying to recruit the bulk of his classes from HS players instead of relying as heavily on the portal as say Fuente was. I'd personally rather see us build from the base by recruiting better out of HS players than feeding so heavily on the portal. Sure it might be a slower climb but the foundation will be better.
If Pry wants to make it to year 4-5, he needs to be portaling hard. It's not like were .500 and a rising soph/junior class is going to take us to the next level. The roster top to bottom needs full upheaval and to even be competitive you need as many P5 transfers as possible that might remotely fit your scheme until probably the 2023 class is ready to play
It's not one or the other; we can do both.
This reminds me of every NHL trade deadline when the consensus fan trades are "All of our bad players for all of their good players. Who says no?"
If there's a guy who isn't working out there bc PSU has depth at that position and they could come in and contribute at Tech, then I hope Pry is kicking the tires on it at least. But I just think it's overestimated how many of those players fall into that bucket AND want to come to Tech.
Guys enter the portal for lots of reasons. If a guy enters the portal uncoerced and of his own free will, I see no reason why there should be some sort of hands-off agreement between Franklin and Pry. The guy is going to go somewhere, so why should Franklin care if he goes to VT and why should Pry feel guilty?
The bigger question is how many PSU transfers are even in VT's strike zone? I'm guessing very few - and the evidence so far seems to bear that out.