So, I've wanted to get more excited about tech sports. I'm optimistic about Pry and am hoping to see things turn the corner with football. I'm engaging more with other sports. So, I've sought out more tech-related media to sort of build it all up. My joining here came from a similar desire in the first Fuente days.
I've found some great stuff along the way. But then there have been things that are just awful. How did these people get a platform and get elevated to a point that they semi-represent us as fans.
Joe Rogers is a cancer of a fan. That guy is just insufferable. Be it in twitter form or podcasts.
The DonV podcasts are... not great.
Tales from the transfer portal was lousy.
I've said before that a few of the podcasts sound like the hosts are stoned out of their gourds. And I'd have to be to listen to them.
I've taken in some TSL podcasts. There have been times I'm not even sure Chris Coleman and I are watching the same game. We had games where the other team's qb was green from being on the ground, and he's talking about how we didn't get pressure.
There are some good ones out there. Dwight Vick is great on every show he's on. He does like to take a topic and run with it though.
And tech talk live has been great the last year or so.
But seriously, how did some of these people get to where they are?
And just to reinforce the point, Joe rogers is an embarrassment of a fan at times.
Comments
Joe Rogers and Don V are complete idiots and charlatans, everything they do and say is toxic to the VT media space.
Chris Coleman isn't perfect but he's one of the better media analysts. (Although his takes about quarterbacks are overly simplistic to say the least). Will Stewarts takes are usually pretty solid.
The Sons of Saturday don't have the best presentation and aren't as listenable, but their takes are pretty good as well. Billy Ray and Grayson Wimbish in particular are usually pretty well grounded in reality
I like DonV, but I usually listen to him during the season. Thing about DonV is that that's where the former players that left the program got to speak their mind. Don't see Jerod Evans or Eric Kumah or anyone else going on other platforms. It's too late now, but one day, I would like to hear Hendon's side of what went down with Coach Fu. He's too classy to do it at now, but one day...
I can see how people don't like DonV, he's not everyone's cup of tea and thats ok. I listen to TSL, DonV, Sons of Saturday, depending who they have on. The HokieSpace is big enough for everyone.
This is kind of my thought as well. This is the only place I contribute, but I at least somewhat follow all of the sites you listed.
I mean my main problem with him isn't the inflammatory stuff as much as I just disagree with almost everything he has to say. Honestly just don't think he's very smart or knows very much about football, and he doesn't make up for that by being positive or fun to listen to.
Joe Rogers is the same but tops it off with purely toxic takes, that could potentially do damage to the team if any of them followed him on twitter
Like I said, you have to take the good with the bad. For example, I dont agree with everything on the TSL podcast, but I also dont agree with everything on DonV, but I enjoy listening to both of them. Rogers just seems like a troll to me at this point, but I think DonV and the people on TSL are both passionate about VT sports, but it's just not in the same vein. I had to stop listening to Sons of Saturday for a while because they were just pumping too much sunshine. I've never understood this thing about people not listening when you're "too negative". My dad always tells me, "take the meat and spit out the bones".
As I mentioned, DonV has had a former athletes that have left Tech that were deemed as "malcontents" (especially Eric Kumah, who I think got a raw deal) but they had a chance to tell their side of the story. They wouldn't have been able to do that on TSL or Sons of Saturday.
Don V has made some jokes on his pod that had me rolling laughing
His rant about the UVA botched 3rd-down play in 2021 was hilarious. "Do you know who the fuck you was running that shit on?! The worst UVA defense I've seen in my life! Of course that shit was working in practice!"
DonV provides a viewpoint from 10000 feet. He speaks what a lot of casual fans feel. For instance, he doesn't seem to speak about the intracacies of the offensive or defensive scheme, only if it's successful.
I appreciate his point of view and I think he has a voice that speaks for a lot of fans, especially when VT is losing. Rogers, on the other hand, seems to be negative for the sake of being negative. He doesn't bring any insight. Although, when I heard his preview on DonV last year, I think he had VT losing to ODU and winning only 2 games in the year. He probably had one of the most accurate predictions for 2022.
I'm not a fan of Chris, never knew exactly what it was but that is a great way to put it. It also triggers me that they leave that damn pennant up with Virginia misspelled. Like way to make it look like a joke every episode.
This is just the reality of modern media. People with a unique (for lack of better term) view can build a Twitter following.
Techmen, we're Techmen, with spirit true and faithful,
Backing up our team with hopes undying;
Techmen, Oh, Techmen, we're out to win today,
Showing "pep" and life with which we're trying;
V. P., old V. P. You know our hearts are with you,
In our luck which never seems to die;
Win or lose we'll greet you with a glad returning,
You're the pride of V. P. I.
I think one of the great benefits of being in the Corps is that you go to every game, and you have to stay until the game is over, no matter the score, truly supporting the team. To this day, even in the worst of games, I still watch every game to the end (ask my wife.... She'll tell you a story or two).
In those days, I'm reminded by some of the lyrics of Tech Triumph (in bold above).
And yes, I agree, some of the media personalities that have risen in the past couple years are a fucking clown show and it saddens me that they come to represent our school and motto.
At least in this community, we have a great group of level headed people that really care and even in the most heated of arguments, the discourse is the best you'll find anywhere.
That's my 0.02. Go Hokies!
I began my Tech fan experience upon moving to Blacksburg in 1965. I learned our fight song early. The words to "Tech Triumph" have special meaning for me. I think every Hokie should learn them. I tear up hearing them at well contested games, regardless of sport, win or lose.
You mean the words aren't "Da da da da da da da daaaaahhhh daaaah, da da da da da da da"
--A former MV
Very true- I didn't miss a single game in the 1983-1988 years-regardless of weather and regardless of outcome. And I can count on two fingers the number of times I have left before game clock strikes zero. And for that I can say I was still there for some fantastic finishes like the 2018 UVA game! One of the things I like the most about our fanbase is that most of them are there even in the waning moments of blowout wins and losses.
Not sure who else remembers one of the Duke games in the 1980s where we were up huge early (damn I miss those days!) and the student side decided to build a cup chain out of the stadium cups. They were thrown and relayed from the entire East stands and even though each cup only added 3/4-1" to the length of the chain, it didn't take long before that chain went from the field level to row 5P (then after holding it for 15 seconds they threw it into the air)! Fun times (along with the early 1980s game where the San Diego chicken visited and and was passed by hand over hand from field level to the top- only to be quickly let down to his feet when some drunk students started to chant "see if the chicken can fly"- which reminded me of the infamous WKRP line "as God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly"!)
Couldn't agree more. I still watch almost every game until the end.
We get just 12ish games each year (13/14 if we're lucky). Most seasons I have to miss 1-4 games due to other obligations (and as our kids get older and our family grows, I know that number will increase). I get to watch the Hokies in person at most once or twice per year. I haven't been in Lane since 2017.
VT football is a scarce and sacred thing. I try to appreciate and savior whatever I can get, even if it's the third stringers in a blowout.
When the football program itself is an unenjoyable dumpster-fire, the talking heads generally need to take it to the extremes in order to keep people engaged, and what you end up with is either toxic optimism or toxic pessimism.
Unfortunately, this is where the VT fanbase has lived the last 5 years
Yeah, everything is "toxic". Buzzword of the last 3 years.
people will stop using it when it stops being so apt
"Empower"
"Having a moment"
🤮
"new normal"
Something something COVID
*ducks*
"I think my dog is a narcissist. Quit gaslighting me by saying it isn't."
The way I look at it. These words have legitimate utility, they just get overused to the point that they lose their utility. I find it helpful to know the core concept in my own mind but avoid the buzzwords and use more traditional English when I actually talk about them.
For example instead of saying "toxic positivity" I might say "I'm not sure it's helpful to pretend to be cheerful about a situation that legitimately sucks, and it's okay to say that it sucks and feel sad about it." Instead of "gaslighting" I might say "I feel like this person is being dishonest about saying they don't remember what they said/did before because that would entail admitting a mistake".
Tales From the Transfer Portal makes me want to remove both of my eardrums with rusty screwdrivers.
I actually enjoy Don V, he was the only one who made me feel like I wasn't losing my mind during the Fuente era.
He was a breath of fresh air compared to some other eternal optimists out there who seemed content with 6-win seasons.
I agree that there are annoying personas who spread hot takes, but if you don't like them then don't follow them.
The internet is why. Any yahoo can do a podcast or write a blog or Twitter something. And that has been amazing for college football. Fullback touchdown, CFB winning edhe, edsbs, tkp, solid verbal, podcast ain't played nobody, and many more. Some of the fan specific sites are incredible amd give better breakdowns that the big names in sports media.
But with the good come the mediocre and the bad. It's so easy to prop up numbers with bots that some of those sites might not have a following, just sponsorships.
The other thing is that college football is filled with toxic fan bases. One of my friend's wife always got in a piss mood after a loss to Bama. She'd enter every Bama game thinking that they'd come out on top. It's Bama, they have beaten you team for the last 20 years, you aren't winning, why be upset. All of her friends were like this too. Now with a lack of basic logic instilled in many, add in alcohol, and that there is a very thin line between petty and hurtful. College football is at the top when it's petty, paint a T beside a V, a balloon emerging from the field with letters from a rivalry school, changing out cards to have your own fan base state that they suck, and to the other end poisoning a tree, greasing train tracks. You see that all in the oline coverage, the great and the terrible because that is the representation of college football.
My opinions:
TKP - best forum; best fan-to-fan engagement; best football scheme analysis
TSL - best news source; best news analysis
DonV - best opinion from a casual fan perspective; best podcast if you want to hear VT sucks (now that Rogers is a regular on his new format, VT4L)
SoS - best variety of podcasts; best NIL podcasts (Queens of Cassel is the best Hokie podcast out there); best podcast if you want to everything to spun into a positive light
Dwight Vick - best podcast for nostalgia, VT football history
Level Seven podcast/Tech Talk Live - best insider info during the football season
TechLunchPail - fastest news site; best free info on recruiting; most infringing on Bud Foster's IP (although, I think Bud let his Lunch Pail trademark expire)
There are several other podcasts -- Two Deep, Boundary Corner, Hokie Hangover, etc., but they all blend together for me; most are OK, but don't offer anything too unique; the 247 podcast (Inside the Tunnel) has some decent recruiting news, more than their site has for free but likely less than what you get if you subscribe to their site
Great breakdown! Haven't listened to DonV since the end of the football season. Also want to give a shout out to Two Deep. Listened to them last week and I thought they were good. I wish they would do a pod more regulaly.
Pretty sure Two Deep is under the SOS umbrella now
I am not a fan of SOS (mostly guilt by association), but the Two Deep crew are good guys. I have been a guest on their show and Robbie and Pete have always treated me well. My bandwidth has dried up the last four years, so I don't make the rounds like I used to.
Two Deep I've listened to several times. I think some TKP contributors (including Joe) are guests on occasion. Their uniqueness seems to be the beer segment, but as a non-drinker, doesn't speak to me.
There definitely is a media outlet for everyone!
I really enjoy Two Deep. They don't try to be too much, they do a great job recapping each game, the basic stats, and key moments/drives. They give a nice overview of the upcoming matchup, in particular just reviewing the roster and starting line-up and style of the upcoming opponent. They don't pretend to be experts, but they know VT's roster and the depth chart and they put the basic information all in one spot and in an easy and casual format to digest.
Agreed. Been listening to them for years. Started listening to SOS since they were joining.
Yep, I fast forward through a lot of that because I have no idea what they are talking about regarding beer I'm still not sure what an "IPA" is..
An excuse to make beer that people can see through?
I wish I could see through more of the IPAs that are out nowadays...
......hmmmmm, how do you really, feel?
b.street
B Street, any good spring info this year? I remember last spring you had a lot of insight to how the team would look, who the breakout players could be, etc
We scooped the #21 Rb3 guy for Will & Chris about 10 days ago... my peep's best find in what?
2-3 years running? Has some juice to his game. T&F type digits. Said to be kinda strong too.
Not sure what they do with him or how many reps he can get(s)?
Meaning... who do you take reps from: Tut' or Thomas?
(We first thought more of a passing fancy;
although, they are Rb-throwing a bit
more right now. Will that '23
regular season remain=?)
I do not know?
I'ma toying with writing something post-spring.
Prolly an article or two with some scoops and some critiques.
Right now-- just wanna finish Spring off.
Let a few things die down/cool off so they are harder to track back...
Though yah; I've got a few goodies/fun ones I'ma sitting on... just wanna protect my peeps like never before.
💯
b.street
New Ot1 mid-week... time/they=tell here...
💯
HTH's
b.street
Dickson=getting a looksee odd-G too.
b.street
Eye wonder who in the media had this... 1st?
Coach God Bless my peep's.
Best in the business.
👇🏿's, down.
b.s☦️reet
I keep misreading the title as Disgusting Media haha