From the opening few minutes of the TSL Purdue Recap Podcast:
Very Possible that Wells is not healthy enough to play this week. My understanding is that even on sunday he couldn't push of his ankle. A tremendous amount of swelling and a lot of pain. He should not have played in hindsight in the second half. I don't know if half time was long enough for them to get a full medical diagnosis on him, but probably shouldn't have played.
Sounds like Drones is likely starting.
Edit: I think it might have been Chris Coleman talking not Will Stewart? I don't listen to TSL enough to recognize everyone's voices (except Bitter's).
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Maybe Pop Watson can get a few snaps, too.
Or maybe we stick with one QB for an entire game, like almost almost every other coach does.
I really hope that Pop and Wittke (who was working ahead of Pop in some drills this fall) get snaps in multiple games while keeping their redshirts and mainly focusing on strength and conditioning.
Personally think it would be smart to play them in two games early/mid season and save two games in case of dire circumstances. A comfortable win (if we have any left this season), or one that is out of reach early like FSU are probably the best options
1. This would be the first VT football news Will ever "broke" himself. 2. Every VT QB ever is hurt every fucking game ever. - tired of the shit. If he is hurt, play the next guy
That was Purdue's plan. Hit him again and again until he stopped playing. They only called two late hit penalties when there should have been at least 6.
Sounds like our plan in 1999. Chris Weinke was the first QB to play the whole game against us (though why they only played 3 quarters is beyond me). The rest left the game due to injury or ineffectiveness.
I have been following VT football since 2006 and I'm not sure we've ever had a good pass blocking OL during that timeframe.
2011, 2016, 2020 come to mind
I'll admit I was being hyperbolic, and to Vtkey's point, it's always surprising.
It's not that hyperbolic... having an above average OL once every 5 years is not great.
Agreed!
Hyperbolic in that I know we've had *some* decent pass blocking OLs but man it seems like being a VT QB is just an extremely dangerous profession to be in, as you're always running for your life.
Not to open up old wounds (but I will) I've always felt that a lot of the abuse Sean Glennon received from Hokie fans should have been directed at his OL.
Man, I felt that since his playing days. Seemed like the defense was on him in less than a second.
100%
At the time I felt he was kind of an asshole based on how he carried himself but now that I'm looking back, I know he got trashed talked quite a bit on campus and man that's a lot for a college kid to take. He was probably treated unfairly but I'm not gonna go tell Sergio Render to make a block lol
"Please Mr. Render, May I have a block, sir?"
I made a comment on FB about Render blocking air on a play that Glennon got crushed and probably threw a pick on.
Render, who I had not friended, commented (this was back in the mid 00s, so definitely him) telling me I should shut up and didn't know what I was talking about.
Clipping video to FB wasn't a thing then, or I would have asked him what his assignment was on that particular play.
He'd be the best QB we had since Logan if he was playing now- and that's debatable. He was a pretty good QB to be fair. Better than Willis and Wells - 100%
I'll take Brewer, Evans, and Hooker over Glennon. But Glennon over Wells, Willis, Jackson, QP, Motley.
Tennessee hooker- sure. Injured, anxiety VT hooker? nah.
Isn't that the plot of the next season of Justified?
My wife and I are re-watching all of Justified from the beginning and it holds up. It's just a really really good TV show.
Same here. Forgot how much I hated Colton "Colt".
City is really good too, especially if you hang on until the last 3:30 of the season..........
Read an article that said Sandman is close, so that's our next watch.
So, we started Sandman. NOTHING like Justified, just the same protagonist actor as City Primeval.
Wait wait wait. Are we talkin the gaiman sandman Netflix? (I think it was on the flix).
Not sure how that relates to justified but I liked that too. Also when is sandman 2 coming out?
I don't know, that scene with Raylan and Clement sitting across the table from each other was a great callback to the first scene of the series too.
That said, while I enjoyed City, it'll all seem a bit pointless if it just turns out to be an elaborate long way around to get to that last 3:30 of the season.
The original Justified is still our all time favorite tv series. Quality like that does hold up and the music alone was worth the time. The long term development of the characters, and the virtuosity of even the marginal character actors was a large part of the richness of the series. Boyd Crowder alone was worth tuning in for, brilliant I would posit, from appearance to speech. The gritty reality of the lives in that part of the country was highlighted in non-condescending, but no holds barred writing.
Will admit that we like City, but it isn't nearly as good...yet, as the Harlan County shows. But will also admit that for me, that is a bar that is set pretty damned high.
Agreed, the writing is excellent, the acting is excellent, the relationship between Raylan and Boyd is the core of that show and they never forget it all the way through the final line of dialog in the series finale. Superb television.
Idk about Motley. I don't think he ever got a fair shake; he definitely showed flashes of ability when under the spotlight
agreed - I really wrestled with that one.
I have been defending Glennon since he was playing. The line played harder for Tyrod than they did for Sean. There were a lot of drops where Sean got sacked about 1.5 seconds after snap. Not even Tom Brady could get the ball out that fast.
He just needed someone to steal his jersey every game and he'd be an all time Hokie great.
There was some locker room shit going on there. They did play harder for Tyrod. #sauces
Which is crazy in and of itself, but more so because the receivers liked catching balls from Glennon over Tyrod. #Sauces
Wow. I never heard that. That's interesting. I heard about the OLine from a scout team LB at the time.
Glennon had a better touch especially early on. He was also far more likely to throw it then tuck and run like Tyrod. They wanted catches and not being expected to have to turn around and run block on passing plays when Tyrod made 1 read and bailed.
A lot of the abuse Sean Glennon received from opposing D-lines was directed BY his OL...
SG, perhaps inadvertently, threw his teammates under the bus in a post game interview after a loss by saying he thought he'd played pretty decent. I don't know if that led to any non-support or was a reaction to it. But it was an immature move that was both his doing AND whoever thought he was ready to be doing those interviews.
Somewhat unrelated but I will always remember the time Sean Glennon tried to get into TOTS underaged, showed the bouncer his real ID, and when the bouncer wouldn't let him in, he said something to the effect of "Do you know who I am? I run this town."
Douche in college, heard he's matured since.
Rumor has it, he was wearing jorts when he did this.
If you have to tell someone you run this town, then you don't run this town
That tracks. Had a similar experience with him the first time he came in when I was bouncing at Big Al's.
Me: "ID, please?."
SG: "Do you know who I am?"
Me: "Yeah, I know who the fuck you are, but I don't know how old you are. So, out with the ID."
SG: Hands me his ID significantly deflated.
That first time he had a hard time walking through the door with his head blown up like that. Once it got deflated a bit, he was chill as hell with me every time after.
Yep. A very attractive female friend of mine had a similar experience with him. Asked her to "get a room" before asking her name. She humbled him pretty quickly.
Yeah, there were a couple of years where they did.
It's always quite surprising.
For sure
Tired of keeping injured and limited guys on the field
Put in a healthy back-up
Remember Pry said they were neck and neck on a daily basis
Now everyone will get their wish to see Drones play. I can say I'm not super pumped for it.
This is a 4-6 game season: ODU, Marshall, BC, UVA plus arguably Purdue and Rutgers. I don't think Wells is a good QB, but I'm not sure Drones gives us a better chance to win these next two games.
I just wish Drones would have WR1 and WR2 healthy
Perhaps he can run the RPO read better than Wells? that might be a bright spot. I thought Willis was terrible at it, but Wells is just as bad.
Yeah, I've never seen QBs make that look so hard as Willis did.
Wells ain't it, mo. All off season we heard about how much better he would be because our WR room was revamped. But, NOPE! He's still the same 'ol Wells. Color me shocked.
DE probably gets to him there.
What I look at this and see (besides 5 Tech offensive linemen struggling to block 4 Purdue DL) is 7 Purdue players committed to the run vs 6 VT blockers. You've got 2 VT receivers one on one in press coverage at the bottom of the screen. How do they not burn the DB's for an easy completion, or best case walk in score. Is the not the point of an RPO?
Apparently in real time the DE is crashing heavily to the RB and is about to be out of position in the event that Wells pulls it. If he does, he's 1v1 with the safety.
He handed it off to the RB who was already on a collision course with a hard crashing DE
Well, give Drones his shot to sick or swim, and allow Wells to get healthy(-ier).
If Drones can't hack it, that argument will be put to bed and hopefully Wells is healed up for Marshall.
If Drones plays well or is at least serviceable, then hopefully we'll be in a better spot come conference play. Drones can at least keep us afloat until Pitt, at which point Wells would hopefully be fully healthy and able to compete to win his job back (keeping Drones on his toes).
You might not be super pumped to see Drones getting his chance, but a lot of us aren't pumped at all seeing the pretty low ceiling that Wells keeps bumping into.
I was under the impression that Wells lit it up at Marshall and he was a QB who could make multiple reads and throw an accurate ball. But so far he's a practice field All-American and has inconsistent accuracy and control on his throws. Low ceiling for sure.
I think Wells was a very okay to pretty goodish CUSA QB
It hasn't translated to P5
Your initial impression was incorrect lol. We knew this coming in. if I recall correctly, he was graded as a low/mid 3-star coming out of the portal. A small bump from his 2-star high school recruiting grade.
Fair enough!
Seems to me that Wells was known as having a good arm, but was also known as someone prone to throwing interceptions. My initial take on his having a good arm but lacking game time production hasn't changed a bit, though I thought he had a decent game against ODU. It's not his arm, it's those six inches between his ears that's the trouble.
He moved the ball at Marshall. why? most college teams not named VT move the ball down the field. Offense is a bad disease in Blacksburg not seen in many other places.
He had one of the best RBs in that level of football. And his staff didn't trust him to throw the ball over the middle of the field. Everything was a screen or a vertical out wide away from the safeties and linebackers. In his biggest game (against Billy Napier for the conference championship) he had one throw between the hashes and it got picked.
So who is evaluating our portal QB recruits? Sounds like a miss to me based on your analysis.
I don't think it was a 'miss' as much as best guy we could land on at the time.
Yeah Wells I can understand, he was a desperation pick up at a time when our room consisted of Connor Blumrick and Tajh Bullock.
If we have a miss its Drones in year 2 so far. He was the scouted and sought after portal QB that while maybe a bit behind on the playbook should have easily won this competition. The fact Wells is still our starter in year 2 is not a good sign. Pop Wallace* not being ready is understandable, he's a true freshman. But Wells should be an experienced backup behind a much more capable starter at this point.
Edit: *Pop Watson not Pop Wallace hahaha
Pop Wallace is a top 10 NASCAR name
This. Russell Wilson's don't just fall out of the sky.
Wells has always seemed like a servicable, but not great pickup that the staff took because that was the best they could do in their situation at the time. If Drones comes out looking worse than Wells, which many people are saying is possible, then I would call that the missed pickup. All accounts point to him being high on our list with Bowen spending a significant amount of time and resources to go get.
Drones is a redshirt fresh or sophomore I believe? We know he's a little bit of project. But if he doesn't improve by end of next year I'll agree
No disrespect to French but I don't feel great about qb improvement with an OL as the qb coach
I think an OL coach will be at least good at coaching footwork.
Drones needs lots of coaching on his footwork.
I think this situation at least partially works.
Yea... I don't either tbh.
Shane was a long snapper teaching RB at one point. It depends on the person.
sure, but on some level I think it's easier for a coach to coach and a student to learn when the coach has done it before and can relate to the demands of the skill being coached. Especially at QB. There is a pretty good reason that most QB coaches are former QBs. They've been there. They've done it. They've seen a lot of what their understudy will see. It's one thing for a long snapper to coach RBs but it's something else entirely for an OL to coach QBs.
The next two games are games we can actually win. Drones has a higher ceiling than Wells but IMO a much lower floor. If Wells is healthy, I think he provides lower risk during these critical games. Start Drones once conference play starts.
I ain't sayin' Drones is the answer. But I would like to see what he can bring.
I agree. I don't expect a miraculous conversion from piss poor to hot shit, but with the reality of another losing season sinking in, why the hell not?
We should be showing some progress to keep momentum on the recruiting trail and energy within the fansbase. 5 wins with the chance at a 6th are still very much on the table. A healthy Wells, IMO, gives us the best shot at winning the next two, then you can see if you can get Drones ready for BC.
I love the optimism and also believe 5 wins is possible but I have zero faith that we get passed 3 wins. Please let this comment age horribly.
I had us losing to Purdue in my preseason prediction, and considering it was a crazy weather game, there were injuries, and Purdue plays a unique defense it hasn't changed my view of the season as a whole. Obviously if Wells is hurt and Drones sucks plus multiple receivers being out, that changes things.
My preseason prediction was:
4 should-wins: ODU, Marshall, BC, UVA
1 toss-up: Rutgers
2 probably loss but who knows: Purdue, Syracuse
I agree that Drones is not the best option for us to win, but I went back and watched Purdue film, Wells is bad bad. He's constantly missing layup throws, making the wrong reads, assisting the defense with getting sacks, and throwing the ball to the wrong team.
He's someone with arguably better arm talent than Willis had, but wastes it with even more exaggerated inaccuracy and poor decision making.
As much as I'd like it to be true, more game reps alone will not fix either quarterback this year. At least Drones has not shown a pattern of poor instincts and wrong decisions, and the accuracy issues seem to be fixable (at least moreso than Grant who has had them for 4 years now with no signs of improvement)
Sounds similar to Tua attempting to tough it out against UGA in the 2018 SECCG. He severely high-ankle sprained his ankle on their first offensive possession. He played on that ankle until he injured his other ankle in the 2nd half... but the ankle he had the tightrope surgery done on was the one he injured on the first possession.
Told my buddy to enjoy last Sunday. It's the one day all NFL season where you see McCafferey, Tua, and TJ Watt before they get injured (maybe).
Again, mitigate your hopes that Drones will make things better. Based on what I have seen and heard, he may present a different look, but it doesn't mean he will make things better.
For the folks clamoring for Pop Watson, I am becoming more and more convinced he may get a look, unless the staff decide this season is a lost cause and they don't want him to get beat up and lose confidence if he isn't ready. I don't believe they think Drones is the long term answer, or he would have been playing before Wells injury.
Just stop fucking around and put in Ben Locklear. It's been staring us in the face all along!
Give 'em hell Sir.
You on your A-game this week.
👊🏻
b.street
Juju Clayton time.
I still follow JuJu on instagram and I just saw him throwing bullseyes through the targets at a fair.
ike whitaker never got a fair shake!
Even with an elite quarterback, this team would not be competing with the better teams. Hard to sustain drives with negative rushing yards for the game. Our talent level didn't look much better than ODU and similar or worse than Perdue before our WRs were injured.
That's what I'm saying. Put Tyrod in, and this might be a 6-7 win team.
Not sure this staff is very good at identifying and developing talent at any position let alone quarterback.
Considering our QB coach is Bowen, a former OL, I'm not really sure how much potential for QB development is there unless one of our analysts can help with that.
Lane, Jennings, Tuten, Burgos, APR, Phillips, Felton, Watson...
I think there is a coach available that is supposed to be a quarterback whisperer, maybe he can help lol!
Can't upload the X...but this made me laugh way too hard...like snort and people looked at me funny kind of laugh.
https://x.com/deferredwalkon/status/1701631771480092983?s=61&t=7_Xu_GN9B_X-CWGprIePBg
i busted out laughing
Has bitter or VT for that matter posted the depth chart? I thought AB mentioned seeing it on TSL, but I don't see it posted anywhere.
Yes, it has Wells listed as QB1, but he is also noted as "Questionable" for the game.
Sounds like Pop ain't ready (or our line isn't ready to let him not get ruined)
My interpretation is that CBP understands we're likely to be without Grant Wells (QB1) therefore he's giving him more reps as QB3 so that we have two quarterbacks at 100% availability on Saturday.
I think it's pretty telling that an hurt Grant Wells is QB2, but a healthy Pop Watson is QB3.
Not surprising, just tells us that Pop has a ways to go.
I think it's
QB1 - Wells,
doubtfulquestionableQB2 - Drones, probably starting
QB3 - Watson, it's a rough day in Piscataway
Well, I woke up this morning in Piscataway
With the sun shining down on me, what a day
But soon enough, my luck began to stray
Oh, it turned out to be a rough day
Rough day in Piscataway, I can't seem to catch a break
Nothing's going my way, gotta find a way to shake
Off the troubles that come my way
On this rough day in Piscataway
I headed down to the local Tiki Bar
Ordering a margarita, my favorite by far
But the bartender's smile, it didn't go far
He quipped, "No salt today, buddy, it's bizarre"
AI lyric generators are nuts!
EDIT: Going deep into this rabbit hole. Just generated lyrics for a song with the topic/theme "Cheeseburger in Paradise", in the style of Tool....it is something.
Lol this is incredible. At first I wondered if I inadvertently quoted a song.
I'm pretty sure every day in Piscataway is a rough day.
Hard to believe that's not actually a song. Probably is.
Wells is still listed as QB1. If he's injured then that means Drones gets the start at QB2 and Pop is backup at QB3.
Yeah, I included Exhibit A to clarify for OP that Wells was still listed as QB1 on depth chart and Pry's statement wasn't an indictment on Pop.
I think the staff's 2 QB rotation deal may be partially to blame for Wells' playing with a pucker, as my old OL coach used to say. It's like his play gets inhibited by a fear of messing up. This would explain some of the stories we hear about how great he looks in practice vs games. It's the only thing I can think of that explains the play where indecision forces him right into the waiting arms of a Purdue player. Like someone said above, Wells' problems reside between his ears.
any athlete hindered by a fear of messing up should quickly be Darwined-out. If you don't thrive on the competition, don't play
I don't think it's that simple...
I also think a better solution would be to have a sports psychologist work on changing the mentality
Seems like he played hesitant last year too...someone noted on here, and I tend to agree - Wells biggest flaw as a QB is the 6 inches between his ears
need more play with this mentality
I said this so much in the off season that I was sounding like a broken record: I thought Wells would start the season and one of three things would happen. I thought a) he would be massively improved and our offense would be okay (this was the least likely option, IMO) b) he would be supplanted by the end of September and our offense would be slightly better (which is, at this point, what we're all hoping for) or c) he would be exactly who he was last year, and nobody would supplant him and our offense would be poop.
I think option c) is probably the likeliest at this point but there is a sliver of hope that Drones comes in this week (in part due to Wells' injury) and performs well enough to win the starting job outright and our offense is at least halfway serviceable with him at the helm.
I'm glad we upgraded our WR and RB rooms. But I was under no illusion that simply upgrading our skill talent would yield meaningful (noticeable) positive results offensively. We still lack QB and OL, two of the most important pieces to a functional offense. This offense is bad and the solution is not yet on campus. I echo what others have said, in this thread and others, that I sincerely hope our coaching staff will prioritize rebuilding the OL and put a massive amount of effort and resources into that front (pun intended, sorry not sorry). It all starts in the trenches, on both sides. Revamp the OL and then fill in the gaps from there. That's how you build an offense.
I was hopeful for progress coming into the season. One series in on offense during ODU and I was almost certain that Drones would be getting the start in week 2.
Slight disagree, we have a young OL room with potential and Pop *might* be good. The solution could be on campus and if it's not at the QB spot, QB is the most portalable position.
I used to play rec baseball (13-15) with a kid that reminds me of Wells. His name was Ray. His mom was a straight dime piece, but that's another story. When he turned 15, Ray had some serious muscles from hitting puberty. He hit homers and frozen ropes to the gap in practice. He could hit baseballs HARD. But in games, he got so nervous he couldn't make contact. He wasn't overswinging or abandoning his mechanics. The pressure of rec league baseball got to him so bad that he couldn't do what he did in practice. I think of Ray when Grant Wells throws balls way too hard or misses easy targets.
This is why having a sports psychologist on staff is important
but when do you think of Ray's mom?
And is she anything like Stacy's mom?
she's got it goin' on.
I think of Ray's mom any time I hear Stacy's Mom on the radio. Same deal, but Ray didn't like anybody talking about how hot his mom was.
Google Search: "Grant Wells' Mom"
I don't even know where Ray or his mom are these days. Lost track after high school.
I want to say this pregame so it doesn't look like I'm saying it in hindsight.
I've been defending Wells as the starter, but I want to be clear, I don't think he's very good. If Drones starts today I expect it to be worse, and I will gladly eat it if it's not. We have these arguments every year just like most other fanbases. I feel like I've been vindicated before:
LT3> Mark Leal
Josh Jackson> Ryan Willis
Ryan Willis< Hendon Hooker
Hendon Hooker >Braxton Burmeister (yes this was a real thing)
Wells >Jason Brown
Wells> Drones
I didn't have any opinion on the LT3 vs Motley. I think if we have good pass pro and terrible run blocking we should legitimately give Ben Locklear a look. I'm not joking. Pop needs to put on weight, I don't believe in Drones. Locklear is 6-5, knows the offense, and showed good decision making in 2 spring games. Once we get into conference play, why not?
I tend to agree, but I am holding out some hope that Drones's skillset will force Bowen to call the game differently (kinda like when Kentucky had to play Lynn Bowden at QB and move to triple option mid season), and possibly better.
I don't think this will happen, but I don't think it's completely insane to hope it will.
Ya that's my thought. Having someone that can run around and cause confusion is worth it for the some fact that a defender might lose track of someone and allow us to get a wide open receiver while he scrambles.
Year 3 or bust IMO
I'll eat it. I'm all in on Drones now. Y'all were right, bench Wells forever.
Ditto
I don't think Drones' arm is better than Wells, but Drones can throw on the run and looks better at getting out of the pocket and finding a receiver. With our OL looking like turnstiles, Drones worse looking deep ball won't come into play as much as his better QB rushing and throwing on the run.
There were many close call, where Wells would've been a shoe string sack that Drones escaped with relative ease.
I was a wells apologist but although I think wells on his best day is currently better than drones, I think the offense has a much larger playbook and it opens up the run game more with drones in. Thus, build for the future, run the offense the way we actually plan in running it tailored to a dual threat qb, and build XP for drones and the young guys
There were times drones seemed caught in between decisions to run or throw that he hesitated that I think he will get better at with more live reps. There were a lot of moments he also could have kept his head up while rolling and had every db chasing him with wide open wrs behind him. Now he'll get lots of good film to review and improve his abilities
I didn't watch the game myself (because, frankly, I had better things to do) but from reading comments here and on Twitter it seems as though our offense with Drones was the best version of itself that we have seen this year (possibly in 2 years?). If that's the case, especially considering our top two wide outs were out, I think it's pretty clear that Drones is our best option moving forward. I will be beyond disappointed if Wells starts against Marshall
2 years for sure. Only competition would be last year's BC game and ODU this year.
ngl this roster "gamesmenship" is getting real old.
Pry had some pretty strong opinions on Tuesday depths charts too. The live feed crapped out, so I wasn't able to do a full watch on my lunch break, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them disappear between now and next season.
I'm fine with that actually. I'd rather get no depth chart than 1 with 10 "ors" and 3 people that suddenly don't play in starting rolls.
Yeah me too, why bother with it. It seems like it's just frustrating everyone.
He basically said that for him most of the depth chart isn't concrete on Tuesday and that the staff needs the week to evaluate performance and injuries. Makes sense, to a degree, especially with the youth and injuries on our roster, but I think the staff also feels like the QB position and the depth chart is some 4D chess match with the opposing team that it clearly isn't.
I'm trying to get used to the fact that VT just isn't a serious football school anymore. It's weird, because it's all I've known. But that's just our reality right now. Football is second fiddle now (or 3rd, or 4th) and you can see the results of that on the field. We're losing to Rutgers by 3 scores in September. We're not a football school.
I honestly still think VT football is very firmly the top dog and priority for Whit. We just aren't very good at it. Football is still king- despite the ESPN article. If softball was king, we would have won a natty by now, given how close we are. Now, Whit did play a part in fuente hiring clowns like Tyron Nix, Lechtenberg, etc.- in no way P5 coaches. But Fuente's inability to recruit at the P5 level is why we still suck. And that's not on whit or priorities
This is my opinion as well. When Pitt comes to town, VT will have sold out 3 straight home games despite having a ~.333 winning percentage over the last 15ish games.
Football is king. It gets a disproportionate amount of the AD budget. One could argue it should get even more (and it absolutely should have from 2010-2020). Now we're playing catch up. Just like Nebraska, Miami, and other 90s/early aughts power houses
Exactly - people blaming Whit and even President Sands for the state of our football team are kidding themselves.
We had a legendary coach that probably hung around 2-4 years too long, which set us back. We followed him up with a young exciting hire that started well but quickly fell apart, and waited 2-3 years too long to fire him, but that was partly due to a pandemic when the BOV wouldn't approve paying him $10M to leave when they were telling students not to come to campus.
It stinks now, but we still have great fan support and we have a coach that seems to have a long term plan. The tough part about rebuilds is that there can be times where it seems like no progress is being made, but just look at recruiting patterns and our roster vs the one in 2021 and you can see progress.
We aren't Ohio State or Georgia so we can't just open the door for 5 stars, and Brent Pry isn't Deion so he's not going to attract 80 new high caliber players. This is a standard rebuild and we have to be patient.
And its short sighted horseshit that they allowed that to happen. I know, $10M up front is a big cost, but dammit, the damage that Fuente did by letting our recruiting fall to absolute ruin while trying to desperately take any job that would have him, like Baylor, did us so much damage that the $10M will look like a fucking bargain in the long term.
Yep. Willie Taggart lost to Jacksonville State- and they got him the fuck out of there. Like we should have done when Fu lost to ODU. Show that you are serious about football.
Just not true haha. That was Norvell in his 2nd year. Year after they were 9-3, now this year title contenders.
A great example why you don't knee jerk fire someone because of one game
You have to remember they were handing out MANDATORY salary reductions to all staff during that time period. You just can't pay somebody 10 million to go away when cutting salaries.
Even then, the athletic budget is separate from the university as a whole. The only thing that was problematic here was the optics of firing the coach and the buyout that came with that. The optics would have blown over in the span of a couple months, if that.
And even then, if there was a shitty professor who was actively costing the university money, there would have been no second guessing, he or she would have been terminated. But, much like what happened with the Stadium Woods situation and the issue that caused us to compromise into football getting only a fraction of the practice space they needed (something that is also impacting our ability to recruit) things got political and the university lost its spine. Instead of doing the right thing, they did the thing that appeased those who were making the most noise, and cut off its own dick to avoid any controversy.
Budgets might have been separate but the athletic department personnel had the same pay cuts.
Spot on, and even though the athletic/academic money is completely separate, it would have been an optics nightmare.
I realize hindsight is 20/20 on this, but I don't really blame the BOV or Sands for hitting pause at the end of 2020 when things were still very much in doubt about what 2021 would look like.
Probably a significant portion of that staff exists now because of the football program. Football put VT on the map. The number and quality of enrollees at VT have both climbed by leaps and bounds ever since Vick took the country by storm. Academics want to believe that education drives the bus. Football actually drives the bus.
Ahh yes, reminds me of how all professors would give surprise tests and quizzes on Friday morning right after a Thursday night game out of complete spite that the athletic department would dare to schedule a major university event during the school week.
I worked at the call center, hitting up parents and alumni for donations. They did NOT cancel our shift OR shorten it one Thursday night when we had a 7:30 (away) game, so we were scheduled to be on the phone harassing people for money who were trying to watch the football game until 9. Luckily, the guy the ran the place had just graduated and wasn't dumb, so he went in the back and turned off the power around 7. It would've taken so long for everything to reboot and restart, it just didn't make sense to keep us around, so alas, he just sent everyone home...
Depending on when you worked there, I think I know who you're talking about, and that wouldn't surprise me at all hearing something like that happened.
When we're you in school? In my day (2008-2013) Thursday afternoon classes were all canceled for Thursday games (mech engineer degree). I remember bring Gatorade and vodka into my Thursday morning statics lecture one year.
2002-2007. They never canceled classes for us, even in the afternoon. Hell, I remember tailgating in the morning, going to class, and then going back out to the commuter lot right afterwards during some afternoon classes my senior year. And some 7Eleven cups may or may not have allowed the tailgating to continue in class at the time.
I remember they used to open the tailgating lots earlier for Thursday games back then, and that was when I believe there was RV parking in the Prices Fork lot. Really hard to focus on an early morning class when you roll up to campus and there are people at their RVs tailgating already.
From what I remember, I don't think they officially opened the commuter lot when I was a student for tailgating until around noon, or 3pm at the latest for the Thursday night games.
That said, if you had a commuter pass, nobody cared if you set up shop at the asscrack of dawn, as long as you didn't get into everyone's way.
I was about the same time and did the same tailgate between classes. Hell the professor I had for a 4:00 Thursday class told us he wasn't cancelling, but would not ask us what was in our cups if we didn't ask what was in his!
Reminds me of my Con Law professor. Our Thursday 3pm class was at Mike's downtown.
I was at tech the same time. Only one class ever on a Thursday afternoon. Physics Lab taught by a clueless GA. Me and my lab partner went after tailgating all afternoon because one missed lab was an auto-fail. I can't remember the exact lab, but it may as well have building an EmDrive. We were the last group there by far and the GA finally let us go with a C- for the day.
I'll never forget Kevin Young announcing that he would be having a test on a Friday morning after a Miami Thursday night game while going over the syllabus and that he would not be changing it during my surveying class. Never cared for him after that.
Kevin was an interesting guy to work with when he was in the private sector. We worked together for a couple years.
We have the desire to be a big boy program, but as an overall program we don't know how to act as anything more than a small regional school. From our recruiting efforts to our coaching hires, to our staffing, to our spending, to our fundraising, to our complete unwillingness to even appear to bend the NCAA rules, we act like a small minded podunk school. And when you act like that, we shouldn't be surprised to see on field results on par with one.
When your boosters that fund the program are just happy that the program exists in the ACC, this is what happens. When they are just content with the status quo, and believe you me, they were very happy with the status quo from about 2004 onwards, well.... Its very difficult to ramp things up when the rot comes to the surface.
I agree. Whit should have taken the Buzz Williams mentality to football, but he hasn't. He went safe with Pry- VT ties, Penn State coordinator- so exposure to big time/P5 recruiting. It was safe- not go out and get someone lese head coach cutthroat deal. We shall see if it works. Pry has to win next year- 8,9 games and not lose to ODU. If he does that, we will be in good shape. If not- let's see what Whit does.
Our boosters didn't want a cutthroat head coach. They wanted a comfy hire of someone from the VT family with roots in the area who would be more than willing to rub shoulders with them whenever they come to campus. They don't really care about the results of the team as long as they get to act like they are buddy buddy with the people who run it.
perfect synopsis - spot on
9 might be tough
- Clemson looks easier but still have more 5 star talent than VT has ever had so that's a tough game.
- @ Pitt is a loss because until VT proves it isnt, it just is
- @ Duke depends on if Elko is still there
- @ UNC is tough, but not well coached and I think Maye can go to the draft this year
That's 4 games that we either don't have talent or will be out coached. We could win them but that's a big leap in the offseason.
It's wild that this isn't even exaggeration.
Pry seemed more than willing to cut our throats when he was recruiting for Penn St.
Why do you think Nix was a clown? I mean I don't think he fit with Bud's system, but for a late hire he probably had the best resume we could get.