Excellent news to start the new year. Gallo was granted a medical hardship waiver and is coming back for next season.
#Hokies are getting TE Nick Gallo back. He missed what was supposed to be his senior season with a knee injury suffered in August. https://t.co/NgYUNscuxG— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) January 1, 2024
Nick Gallo To Return To Virginia Tech For 2024 SeasonOne of the #Hokies' captains, the tight end suffered a knee injury in the preseason that required surgery and forced him to miss all of 2023, but was granted a medical hardship to return for 2024.https://t.co/NK6jwYSlqv— Tech Sideline (@TechSideline) January 1, 2024
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Let's go!!!
Hokies!!!
Gallo was expected to be TE1 before his injury.
For all intents and purposes, we are returning starters at every position from last year.
Going to miss Wright for his yards after catch.
Hell.the.fuck.yes
My goals for 2024, not in any particular order:
Win at least 9 games
Win another bowl game (fine with 8-4 regular season and the bowl being win #9)
Finish the season ranked
No major off-field issues
Recruiting ranking continues to rise (both average recruit rank and team ranking); doesn't have to be big, just keep the trend upward
Any goals for recruiting?
Good point. I've adjusted above.
We have got to be #1 in the country - or really close to it - in terms of getting players to return. Great to see that the players have really bought into the vision of the coaching staff and see a brighter future.
Now the team needs to deliver on the promise. I mean, just go 3-1 in non-conference games next year instead of 1-3. Heck, with at Vanderbilt, Marshall, at ODU and Rutgers, I'd hope for 4-0. But 3-1 with the same ACC record and another bowl win and we're 9-4, probably ranked and probably looking at an even more promising 2025. It's been a long time since I've felt this good about VT football on the field.
Next year is our year. We will take a step back in 2025, most likely.
Tuten, APR, Felton, Lane, Jennings, Gosnell x2, Gallo, People's, Strong, Delane, stroman, will all be gone.
We will have a lot of first time starters in 2025.
hopefully all those upperclassmen have bought the development time for the recruits to step in and perform without being over their head
That's the hope. I just don't see us sustaining the same level of production that I think we'll have next year with that many first year starters. We'll see. That's a long time from now.
I don't remember where I said it, but in 25 we will get to see how the coaches did developing their 23 and 24 recruits (22 wasn't their class, but interesting to see how many of them might turn into producers). Hopefully we'll have more blowout wins in 24 where we might get to see some of the younger players stepping up to get experience.
Can't discount the portal either. Most of the stars on the current squad were birthed forth from the mythic portal. Reasonable to assume we can continue that success?
Grassroots talent development + continued success in the portal... don't think it's a given that we take a step back in '25. Huge knock on wood of course as this entire discussion takes place under the assumption that we will be good next year, and nothing is guaranteed.
IMHO there is always a dip.
Fuente and Brady Hoke (at Michigan) tried to survive with the previous regime's players and in year 2 or 3 tanked hard.
Other coaches go for a full rebuild on year 1 and tank in year 1 and get better by year 3.
I don't think Pry is trying to survive off of the previous regime but I still think we are going to have a down year the year after next while he gets this train a-rollin'.
The amount of "dip" will depend on whether Drones stays for 2025. The WRs are going to be good but inexperienced. The O-line will need to reshuffle, but it likely won't be a downgrade in talent. Thomas and Coney will need to step in place of Tuten.
Defensively, the dip will depend on whether there are zero, one, or two Delanes in the backfield, and the development of the young LBs and DLs.
Will probably need to go to the portal for C, DE, MLB, and to fill in where development is lacking.
The thing about those dips was lack of NIL and transfer portal. We have 50 players that Pry brought in, 24 players in the transition class, and 42 that played under Fuente. These are straight numbers based on the roster a lot of those 42 players don't have scholarships. Cole Beck, Luke Bussel, Matt Johnson, Ben Locklear weren't playing in the games. There's a handful of RS-So guys that I don't see on any depth chart. It's not like we have been relying on Fuente's players this year.
K. Moore, Clements, Gallo, Thomas were Fuente's guys on offense in the two deep. You could argue that's how we got B. Moore too, which is valid.
Defense is a different story, but some of our best players this year were not Fuente's guys. I'd argue that a lot weren't Fuente's guys, Pollard, Fuga, Kendricks, Tisdale, Peoples all played for Bud. Stroman's recruitment started under Beamer/Bud when got his brother to the NFL, and who knows why VT was where he signed, it could have been Fuente, but it could have been fond memories of being on campus. This still doesn't change that Pry is working with talent he didn't get and develop, but we saw his revamp the offensive room, we have seen him bridge the DLine. Who knows what the team will look like in 2025. But the offense is his, the defensive dip is happening now, not in a year.
Strong, APR, Fuga, Peebles, Brumfield, Pene, Stroman, Jones, and Jenkins have no eligibility in 2025. Delane may go pro. The defensive dip will be greater in 2025, unless the Hokies develop their underclassmen, recruit collegiate-ready players, and/or fill via the portal.
I thought Jenkins was done this year.
did he announce that? I might have missed it. He has a COVID year left of eligibility, if he wants to use it.
I honestly don't know
Did you miss the dip in year 1 when we went down to 3 wins? I think we have a couple linemen on O that were Fuente's guys, but Pry has been trying to upgrade the line. On D, we had more of a "it wasn't broke, so we don't have to fix it" thing, except on the line and one or two LBs. Pry has been trying to upgrade those positions in the portal.
We've seen how productive the guys Pry has brought in through the portal have been on offense. I think we'll get to see some of the 23 Freshman class come in for garbage time to get experience in 24, and maybe some of the best from the 24 class. We haven't seen how well the staff can develop freshmen, and that ability will likely be what determines if we'll step back or not. Unfortunately, given how good many of the starters have been, especially on D, we may not get to see much of freshmen development until 25. But, based on the guys Pry has brought in from the portal and how good they've been, I'm anticipating that next year he may use the portal not as much for problems we've seen on the field, but gaps in anticipated production from guys who haven't started yet.
Basically, I'm not convinced we'll drop in 25, but I doubt we'll be able to tell until then - it will probably seem like it given the production we've got returning and how many will be in their last year of eligibility.
Good point - I didn't think of year 1 as Pry's dip so much as Fuente's ghost still haunting Lane stadium
If Pry is smart, he will get rid of any and all players with any association to Justin Fuente. The sooner the better.
yea, he should definitely get rid of Dorian Strong. complete bum.
hey a broken clock is right twice a day. For every strong, there are 5 Payoute's etc.
lol fucking predictable and wrong. And to clarify- Yep, my opinion is that Justin Fuente's players are small slow and weak. Fucking shoot me.
if you're going to say "any and all", you shouldn't really push back when people give you an example of where you're wrong. Lots of the class of 2022 committed to Fuente before signing for Pry -- does that count as "any association with Justin Fuente"? Sure some of those players have already been walked. Do you honestly want the same for Delane, John Love, Tucker Holloway, Xavier Chaplin, so on?
honestly, cutting down on the absolutist and categorical language that you don't actually mean would go so far in reducing the amount of push back you get.
Nah, nope- I am going to stand by my statement here. Including Strong if you guys want to be assholes about it. Rid the program of all fuente players- fine by me. Maybe we can win now instead of losing to UVA etc. I'll dig in if it makes me look like a clown of the one out of 150 guys that turned out good. Congrats.
I mean, if we're going all players that Fuente recruited, that would include (I'm starting in the 2017 recruiting class to exclude the "Who really recruited them?" year): Caleb Farley, Dalton Keene, Tyjuan Garbutt, Silas Dzansi, Oscar Bradburn, Christian Darrisaw, Dax Hollifield, Tre Turner, James Mitchell, Armani Chapman, Khalil Herbert, and, starting the folks who are still here crew, Nasir Peoples, Nick Gallo, Josh Fuga, Strong, Keli Lawson, Jalen Stroman, Cole Nelson, Malachi Thomas, and both McDonalds.
Fuente wasn't a great recruiter. We're still suffering from that. But maybe chill a little? There's two first round NFL draft picks in that list, several more who are still in the league. Several more who were important college contributors. Including this past year.
Okay wait a second, I think DC is right to cry foul here.
This
is not a goalpost move, and it's a bit bad faith to read it as one. It reads to me as an admission that sure, a few guys worked out. But by and large, Fuente could not recruit P5 talent to Virginia Tech, and this doesn't become less true just because a guy that's not universally well-liked said it.
I know DC's track record is working against him here, but we all knew what he meant when he said "Fuente's players," or at least I thought we did. He meant the bad ones. It didn't cross my mind once that he meant the ones that are still here/thriving.
I submit that you guys were kind of being assholes about it. But it doesn't matter now.
What part of this makes you think he was implying limited scope? what part is supposed to lead me to infer it on my own?
And even more bizarre on a thread discussing our starting tight end coming back for another season after medical redshirting. You know, a Fuente guy. Yay Nick Gallo is coming back? Nope, launch him into the sun and fart on him on the way up -- pry would if he was smart. He should have even done it already. All those Fuente players gone, maybe we could beat UVA.
????????????????????????????????????????
This right here, is the gem of the thread. Lol
New quote unlocked.
LOL, I call it the scroll wheel on my mouse. I use it a lot....
Yo be fair, Gallo isn't really a Fuente guy just like Stroman isn't, they're recruitment "started" under Beamer.
Agreed. His recruitment started when CFB recruited his brother Eric. Which was definitely before CJF.
Big, if true.
"associated in any way"
Nick Gallo signed for Fuente in the 2019 class and played for Fuente for three years certainly qualifies as "associated"
Like I said- If you guys want to beat the DCWilson is a hypocrite goal post moving guy here- take my original statement and go with it word for word at face value. Sure- I'll 100% take my chances. No disrepect personally to Gallo or Strong- but given a choice- sure, I'll let all- every one of- the "fuente guys" loose and take my chances on improving from 52 point maryland beat downs, Pitt rushing for 500 yards, UVA beating us with a shit team, etc, etc, etc, etc. I'll take it if you want to play it that way. If Nick Gallo and Dorian Strong are your gotcha's- Im cool with it.
You could say what you mean and mean what you say. Try giving your comments a quick onceover to see if you actually meant to type that. Alternatively, you could use the "my bad, you're right" response instead of digging in and beclowning yourself. Or just keep banging the victim drum. Whatever.
1. I mea culpa on here all the time, so you are wrong. 2. Never played victim - sorry. 3. Again- take what I said at face value please. No moving goal posts. If you want to claim internet victory on Dorian Strong, be my guest. Thanks
You spend enough time on this board to understand what DCWilson was saying. Do you truly not get what he was saying or would you rather nitpick and continue to argue with the guy in every thread?
DCWilson - "Man it is freezing ass mother fucking cold this winter fuck everything associated with winter"
GGC- "Well actually we had a day above 70 degrees in Winter so that wasn't cold, are you saying you don't want warm days in winter"
Thank you, exactly
counterpoint:
GGC: honestly, cutting down on the absolutist and categorical language that you don't actually mean would go so far in reducing the amount of push back you get.
DC: Nah, nope-
I meant what I said. When the strong example was cited I simply said - great that's one- in a nutshell. Simple. I responded to the same people claiming that was moving the goal post and changing the argument- which of course it wasn't. I meant what I said.
You meant what you said but also I spend enough time around here that I should know that you didn't actually mean exactly what you said?
help me out here
This is fair. You arent wrong in that sure- a few Fu guys can play - and would I want them simply dismissed by association - no.
kindly allow me to cordially and pleasantly reiterate that cutting down on the absolutist and categorical language that you don't actually mean would go so far in reducing the amount of noise around here and we can all just virtually handshake and move on
Deal. I will do better
but....it wouldn't be the off-season without a DCWilson feud with somebody
My enemy this offseason is good - hell- mediocre beer... I need to stop drinking so much of it
The real problem is not being able to bitch about our offensive coordinator. It really hamstrings message board dialog.
Do you see the point I am making or not?
good faith engagement here -- i slept on it and didn't just reply in the moment, but also didn't want to totally ignore this.
I think things get blurred on message boards because people read the comments at different times and therefore may have different context for different comments -- comments read top-to-bottom are not chronological and sometimes replies within a subthread include the context of other replies from other forked subthreads. I think that happened here.
I am on here enough to know that he exaggerates -- I'd wager there are very few TKPers more engaged in reading content and browsing comments and commenting more than me. I am also on here enough to know that 5 comments back-and-forth in an hour feels way differently in the moment than when read back as a single interaction, or when read back after being away for a few days when catching up on multiple threads.
Trees and forest and all
Your suggestion is that DC didn't mean what he said, and that I should have known that instead of arguing minutiae. At the time of your comment, I had replied to DC exactly once in this thread -- and that comment (to me anyways) was more pointing out that DC often leaves himself open to people arguing minutiae because he overuses absolute and categorical language that he doesn't actually mean or believe. It's right there in my comment that he probably doesn't actually mean it!
So then DC replies that he actually does mean it, and it was quite rude with name calling etc. I didn't argue or nuke straight away, I saw he was at a -3 pretty quickly and figured the community was doing its thing, which is fine. It felt to me that nuking would have come across as overly personal and defensive.
Then the conversation shifted to whether something was a goalpost move, whether DC actually meant what he said, or whether DC was even intending to suggest "the bad players" vs "any and all" etc etc. Which is how we got to a point where folks were commenting saying that DC clearly didn't mean it and I should know better, but after DC himself was saying he was standing by it (confused nick young dot gif)
Yes DC and I go back and forth a lot, yes a lot of it is on particulars -- but I think a small number of notable cases is coloring the view of what actually happened in this thread.
This should stir the pot, new reports of an ok st quarterback coming back for 7th season. Hopefully this can spur some engaging conversations. Just wanted to stir the shit pot....
I appreciate your response and your willingness to engage in constructive criticism with a member of the community. I don't post that often (albeit I am a top 200 user of this website based on turkey legs alone) but I do consume just about every written word here.
From my perspective this happens way to often for it always be what you described. I have no dog in the fight but I can see it clear as day you do not like DC and the way he communicates here. He speaks in exaggerations, I am sure that you have friends that do it the same way. We all know he was implying the quicker we get the stench of the Fuente era off of VT football the better it will be across the board. Peppering him with I told you so facts will just lead to tail chasing we quickly find ourselves regularly. Of course he responded like he was backed into a corner, you all backed him into a corner.
You were right, DC was right. Well shit, now where do we go from here.
I would ask before you dive bomb into another argument with DC, that you let the community regulate the discussion. It pains me to read these exchanges and you are always at least one of the ingredients. You are the moderator of this website (and a damn good one at that) so it is a lot tougher on how you can engage. There are unwritten rules for you that are ever changing. "A moderator shouldn't do this, a moderator shouldn't do that blah blah blah".
I find you to be a very intelligent person and provide an awesome perspective on something I am very passionate about. I hope this didn't feel like an attack because I do appreciate you and what you do here.
I think it's possible that your assessment that i do not like DC painted the way you read this comment:
I've never met dc and i think he might be cool to have a beer with and talk music or sports. I don't know enough about him to dislike him and if you asked me who my least favorite commenter is, i wouldnt say him. But he definitely has an abrasive style and aggressive tone layered under 15 levels of sarcasm. He likes to argue and so sometimes we argue -- i dont even think he and i really argued in this thread if you look at the exchanges just between us and not including other commenters. In fact, if you look back at a lot of "blow ups" like this one, there's not a ton of back and forth between us, like the portal thread where it was mostly between me and wasena whiskey and then me and asspow, but it was entirely related to a comment dc made.
Anyhow, sometimes the message he has gets lost in the aggressive tone. Sometimes it's easy to just kinda shrug and go "here we go again". Sometimes there's one thing he just doesn't let go for months and months at a time. The duke loss, covid eligibility rules, so on, to the point that it becomes actively derailing. (The eligibility thing in particular wore thin pretty quickly)
To ME, the comment above is effectively a higher effort version of "we have contributors on the roster other than dorian strong who were Fuente guys too -- i dont think you want all of them walked. try using less absolute language if you don't want pushback from people on here"
But it's clear that you perceived it as "you're wrong and here's why, shut up" and that's not what i intended. But also that's not how DC perceived it because his reply doubled down on it and was more concerned about the accusation of moving the goalposts than arguing about whether all the fuente guys should be walked or whatever.
I didn't particularly think he moved the goalposts, but i do think he invited the pushback. It's clear that some of you felt my initial reply counted as that pushback, so I'll try and do better to be more clear moving fwd
It is amazing how 2 people can see the same thing so differently. Thanks GGC. That is all I had. Appreciate the responses.
Cheers, I'm gonna lock this one up so someone doesnt try to stir the pot three or four days from now
Phucking Brilliant!!!! The back and forth banter amongst the Big Boys from the Big Board Analytics is priceless (well mostly). I now use the, "You Fuckers should have taken Maleki White" quote and insert it their Ultra Supersonic Rabbit Hole Pic-N-Nanny tirade tennis matches when the comment becomes so narrow that LT Rob makes a comment that is one letter wide and goes down for a good 2-3 inches to finish his post.
I've used the Melachi quote twice. Not sure if anyone gets the reference, but I do chuckle when I use it.
I mean, part of it is that we're far enough removed from Fuente's tenure and I'm enough of a filthy casual that I no longer remember who is and isn't a CJF player.
But beyond that...idk, it just didn't trigger me the way it did everybody else *shrug* the response bothered me more, but I said my piece and it all got relitigated to shit while I was at work anyway, so I'll let it go.
Anyway Nick if you're reading this, not all of us want you launched into the sun, and farted on on the way up. I'm glad you're back.
I mean if you look at my post he pretty much has. Lots of the guys playing on D played for Bud and we trust Bud. We really are at Strong, Lawson, Nelson, Jones, McCray, Pene, and the McDonald brothers on defense, Peter Moore, and the 3 I mentioned above on offense. I wouldn't be looking to get rid of any one I mentioned here as Strong is one of our best players, Lawson will be incredible once everything clicks, Moore has been a solid punter, The LB McDonald has really started to improve under this staff and shown good flashes. Jones made a number of nice plays in his first year at safety. Nelson had a a couple of standout plays this year and was a solid rotational player.
I wouldn't be worried about getting rid of anyone who played for Fuente at this point. The guys have bought in, they are doing what Pry wants. The fact that Jones switch to Safety after being at WR for a couple years shows he's bought in. These guys aren't Fuente's guys they're Hokies.
Bingo. Anyone who was "Fuente's guy" is gone already. Everyone left is a Pry Guy (tm)
A down year the year after next seems reasonable. It's tough to win the ACCCG two years in a row.
All aboard the hype train
Three things that come to mind when seeing the level of retention we are witnessing here. Wholeheartedly agree, we are either #1 or darn close to it.
One, continuity is huge. This level of retention should pay off in dividends next season. It is obvious the players are buying into the message, the mission, the culture, the identity, the brotherhood, etc.
Two, there are only a very small amount of college players who ever see the NFL. The vast majority now have a huge opportunity to maximize their earning potential as they know they won't go to the NFL, thus staying in college and leveraging their full eligibility will become the norm. I believe this too, has played a factor in the retention. But without the One above, how many of these players transfer to another team?
Three, IMO, VT's NIL (or any program's) doesn't have to be the "highest" bidder to retain their players, but need to be competitive enough. We lost a TE with Wright who I think left primary for NIL $. There are others who could have done so as well. But, VT delivered enough to retain just about every starter on both sides. Very impressive to say the least.
With that said, if we go 9-4 and do so by winning our bowl, 2026/2027 will be mad-sick. I think 2025 may be more flat than up and to the right due to the amount of talent leaving, but still an "understandable" result.
Either way, assuming next year's success comes to fruition, we should have a multi-year trajectory of national level respect.
This!
It's just like any job search, right? Compensation is a huge piece of it, but it's not everything. Do you like the culture and people? Is their room for growth and advancement? Is it in a location you like? Etc
I heard Wright wanted more NIL, and staff didn't feel like he put in the effort in the offseasons to earn it. The quote I heard was something to the effect of 'he's a 3 month per year player, staff wanted him to be a 12 month per year player'
I think it's pretty telling that he didn't play in the bowl game but others who were transferring out did play.
I guess his 3-month window was up (Sept-Oct-Nov).
Fuck 100% of this. All of it. Fuck it. A TE who wasn't a difference maker on a 3-8 fucking team. Catches 15-20 balls a YEAR and wants "more money" ? yeah fuck that. Good for Pry. Pay the guys that actually produce.
The focus on the comment was more around Pry's ability to retain. Wright is an outlier. Him leaving for more money would be mainly due to his own perceived value and in his mind, one, VT couldn't (more like wouldn't) meet it, and two, he thinks he's gonna get it and lots more somewhere else. My guess, wherever he goes, he will either not start or start and be a non factor . IMO, he will disappear into the wind.
Serious question. Where else in America do you get hard cash payments based solely on potential? Nowhere if we are being honest. Only in college football and basketball.
Sometimes real estate? I know that's not what you meant, but I couldn't help myself.
Agreed
EDIT: To DC's point...Look at Arch Manning's NIL valuation. It's something close to $4MM and he has yet to play anything meaningful.
That's out of whack and falls outside of a reasonable signing bonus.
Because the Manning NAME could be worth something? NFL royalty and all that?
What other industry are you paid hard cash for potential based on your last name? Can't think of one- maybe acting?
Getting caked up solely because of your last name? Nah, that could never happen in America.
-potential/future- work, not simply work in real time because of your name.
Speaking Engagements? Politics? Consulting? Attorneys? Any form of nepotism in business?
Not the same thing. Speaking engagements are being paid in real time for work. This would be paid 3 years before said speaking engagement.
but the speaker is paid beforehand (and often a portion months beforehand upon agreement) and the quality of the speech product has no bearing on the compensation.
And a player like Manning does have some real-time performance. He does have to participate with the team, practice, do whatever is required of the NIL contract, etc. The payment amount is just not scaled to that performance, similar to any other type of prepayment based on reputation.
This is where the lines are blurred between NIL and pay for play. Yes people want him on their team and are willing to pay for it.
But there is also inherent value in the Manning name for a football player (just like Bronny James for basketball) that has nothing to do with on field anything that is well within the spirit of NIL payments and not where it encroaches on Pay For Play
NIL is pay for play- full stop. There is no difference or distinction now
Sure assume NIL is pay for play, but it's not entirely and perfectly pay for play without any considerations for marketability
True Arch Manning got paid and didn't even play.
which is how we even got started on this -- there's inherent value in the Manning name for football.
it's absolute nonsense to firstly state that NIL is nothing but Pay-For-Play and then to follow that up with how it makes no sense that some players are getting a lot in NIL when they aren't even on the field to perform to justify it. Maybe the first premise isn't entirely true.
Yeap, as Matt Brown says, there is a market for your roster spot, and there is a market for your brand. The latter does exist, but it's rarely done through a collective.
LOL fucking brand. In college. lol. Like aTm not being able to sell tickets once Johnny Manziel left... oh oops. Or Bama falling off when Derrick Henry left. Oh. Ohio State sure to go in the crapper next year and have a half full stadium once Marvin Harrison leaves. They will struggle to sell tickets and t shirts for sure. Fucking brand. That's relevant in the NBA perhaps... not in college football. VT coming off a 3-8 year managed to sell out Lane this year without Michael Vick on the team- wow. Amazing. The fucking school is the brand.
Idk, i love the energy. Passionate, honest, wholesome (whether right or wrong) he's all-in; like Pry is, this team, and like every Hokie fan/alum should be.
It all happened well before NIL but I still wish a certain basketball coach had placed more inherent value in the Curry name for future potential value.....
Advertising, which is exactly what NIL is supposed to be. You know, where the industry has actors based on nothing other than name recognition promote products and services. I mean, what about Josh Brolin's acting career says he knows anything about telecommunications, and yet he is paid by Comcast for commercials.
Edit: As someone pointed out, Manning likely isn't paid for potential, his uncles did work that has made his NAME more valuable. People who were fans of Peyton and Eli are likely to have interest in him regardless of where he went to college. People who are children of famous athletes are likely to be worth more from an NIL perspective unless they just really aren't very good at sports, but man, if they are also really good, they are worth more, and they are actually more likely to get put in national compared to local commercials and such - big companies may actually want their name recognition.
I actually saw an Ali Jennings commercial for Harvey Chevy.
Taulia Tagovailoa did Covid-19 commercials for moderna lol
Some companies/firms give signing bonuses, but that's at least going to be based on actual academic performance or job performance elsewhere. You could compare the two, but it's admittedly a weak argument.
Is football performance in high school equivalent to performance at another company (maybe a smaller or less prestigious firm to keep the comparison to HS football) for 2 years in a similar role? You did a good job at a small consulting firm so now you're going to Deloitte and they're offering you a signing bonus. Probably not a 5- or 6- figure bonus like some of these kids are getting so that's where it breaks down a bit.
Right, signing bonuses are sort of this, but no firm is going to pay you based on "I think you will make a great consultant in 2 years" type thinking. Wright has done basically nothing in real games. Any NIL demands or payments are based solely on potential.
And the money disparity is insane. I mean Deloitte makes 15 times what college football does in a year, give or take. They should be giving out $100,000 signing bonuses to Harvard kids. But they don't because that would be stupid.
Obligatory from me: Harvard sucks!
It's not uncommon to get a $30k-$60k signing bonus out of a top business school. But, IMO that's not the same thing - it's not paying someone for their potential success - it's paying them to take them off the job market
I think this is more apt than you give it credit for. I got a (low) 5-figure bonus to join a mining company as an engineer in 2009, and I know someone who was given a $60k signing bonus to join the US Forest Service a couple months ago.
I think your point about correlation with actual performance being stronger in the corporate world is true though.
The NBA seems to do this every year in their draft
The single most unwatchable event on TV. Easy. None of the draft picks actually belong to the team making the selection for one. Very rare. As soon as the Clippers pick, you know the pick is really dallas's. So so so fucking annoying and must be changed. Also - you are right, 8 of the top 20 picks are players only Fran Frascilla has heard of.
Venture Capital - you're giving a business cold hard cash in hopes that your equity stake will be worth something one day.
Only after a scrutiny level of due diligence is performed. Paraphrasing here....first, determine EBITDA....second, conduct "bank examiner" level scrutiny to validate many things, one being their earnings before making an investment. As for start-ups, in order to get any serious $ (Series A) paying customers is needed at the very least. All in all, these entities being invested into/acquired are performing one degree or another. Now, Angel $ is a different topic. There is less established biz and more speculation to your point above.
Correct - many are shit companies run very poorly, but they make margin/money. That's what investment banks want. Not a lot of debt, a lot of "cash" and good margins.
I would suggest that hiring bonuses in the NFL and elsewhere might qualify as "hard cash payment based solely on potential."
It seems a key part to good roster management ties into paying the right price. At a certain point, the cost far exceeds the value. And we as fans often want VT to keep everybody at any costs, but that mentality is bad for the team overall.
That is great news.
I'm glad Gallo didn't make the Wright decision.
Assuming he's back to form when the season starts... do we have the best TE lineup in the country?
Another one bites the dust....