It's hard to overstate how let down I am. I can't believe I allowed myself to believe we were good at football again. Still the same old joke we've been for the last decade.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
My problem is I'm more upset than I have been in a while. Now that CFB has changed and this is what we produce as a team with hype and returning production, I need to totally give up and move on to premier league and NFL. Going to vent and then do what I can to not really follow VT football anymore...after we go to the Stanford game (and likely see another L)
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I put it in Alum07's thread, but I'm not dealing with the bullshit today. I'm as pissed as everyone else. Feel free to vent, vent your hearts out, but figure out where the line is and don't cross it.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Here's the problem: I drank 2oz of 1984 wild turkey while watching Dozer's power hour, then somehow a third of a bottle of Kentucky Spirit disappeared during the game, and yet I feel like I could ace the SAT while running a marathon. This team found a way to be so meh, they neutralized alcohol.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I have been hanging around each year hoping that things will improve. They haven't. Under Fuente I watched the first couple games of the season then decided my time was more valuable doing other things than watching such a sh!t show.
I never believed the hype of a sleeper ACC champion (although Clemson looked bad today).
This game was sloppy. Bad coaching was evident. The two zeroes handed them 3 points. A lot, and I mean a lot of miscommunication. You could tell they were not prepared. But sadly they thought they were, only to get slammed.
The self deception is gone now. So is the hype.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Oh Jesus Christ I swear that stupid sequence where they missed the FG, got the delay of game, punted and they got the illegal substitution penalty, then got the FG try, and I told myself this FG was going to haunt us... would have been nice is they had 3 fewer points at the end of regulation...
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Yeah, he's good. But you knew he could run. And couldn't stop it. That's just being bad at defending the run. It's not a matter of getting to the next level, it's basic competence in defending a big part of the college game.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
For me (and I've mentioned on the other pages) was their last play. We crashed three from the right side (not even going to the ball carrier...just crashed down). No one...one stayed home and set the edge...easy read for Pavia to keep and break outside. DBs could recover.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I watched very little (transmission blew, had to buy a car today🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️) but every time I was watching, Delane got smoked. It was no less than 4 times that I saw.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
An absolute shit show, that's what that was. Supposed elite receiving group and an opening game plan designed to actively avoid getting them the ball. An opponent with 1 (ONE!) offensive weapon and we let him pick up six yards at will. Refusal to abandon the screen game and QB run. An inability to block anyone. At this point if I'm an opposing coach and I have prime Peyton manning or an average HS dual threat, I'm taking the HS QB for the guaranteed win against tech
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
The lack of defensive adjustments at the end of the game was mind-boggling. We then ran Drones, for one play, while cramping. Pry better hold himself and his entire staff accountable. Team can't win if they aren't coached to win. Also, Parker Clements is so bad I can only laugh.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Putting Drones back in for a play was absurd. Destroyed the shred of momentum that Schlee surprisingly had. Between that and the Double Zero Debacle, we really got outcoached badly today. It's just sad, man.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Marve has not proved a damn thing at DC as far as I'm concerned. In fact the opposite, several bad offenses have had their best days against his defense
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
1. The OL looked worse today. Not the same. Not better. Worse.
2. Drones was absolutely lost in the passing game. He couldn't see the field at all. Not that he had a lot of opportunities.
3. Bowen. Stiney 2.0? He had an awful gameplan. But again, the OL...
4. Marve. Seriously. If he's still part of this staff in the same capacity next week, I'm done. He does not need to be in charge of a P4 defense. His crew is fundamentally bad at every level.
5. We are not a good football team. Not even close. We just got bullied by Vandy. I don't think we want to be in the SEC as bad as we think we do.
6. Our WR room was supposed to be great. Way too many dropped passes today.
7. Pry still has Mike London level game management skills. It was embarrassing.
8. I see 3-4 winnable games, all the others are tossups or losses.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I'm not sure about awful but they clearly have him looking at something different. He was way too slow to get to his check downs and frequently looked panicked (which is understandable given that Parker Clements was credited with a sack). I think he was trying to be more pocket present but there was frequently no pocket. Just gotta let him do what he does.
Watching Cam Ward who he worked out with all offseason was night and day Cam Ward is wildly good, calm, went through his progressions with ease and never look flustered. Caveat there is that Cam Ward has the best OL in the conference.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Fair what's wild is he ended up with a statistical career passing day in basically a half of football. Imagine how much we would have won by if the defense could have stopped anything and the game plan made any sense at all.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
the inexcusable penalty on the punt handing them 3 points on a field goal is THE difference.
We had bad execution, bad drops, bad coverage, bad tackling. Just not at all what you want to see at any stage -- even if the box score looks close the actual game on the field was awful. And even if you just want to look at the box score and say it's close, it SHOULDN'T BE.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
It's still the coaches' fault for not being on top of it, but incidentally I've always thought it was stupid that two different college players are allowed to wear the same number, you have from 0-100 and there's less than 100 of ya, figure it out.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
105? Hell, put me on the team and don't even give me a number at all, just gimme a jersey that says BEARD on it. I'll play CB at least as well as Delane did.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Lawson should be wearing a different number next week. It cost us the game today. There is no explanation Pry could possibly give that would make it ok to allow multiple guys to wear the same number after today.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
This is absolutely on the coaches and staff. It's completely unacceptable for this to happen when we have dozens of people on staff.
The issue is that we have 121 players on our roster and the NCAA only allows 0-99 on a jersey. So you either allow duplicate numbers and then put controls in place with your staff to verify that duplicate numbers are not on the field at the same time (especially for special teams), or you disallow duplicate numbers and cap the gameday roster at 100 players (which is plenty as no one is using 100 different players in a single game).
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
The dress squad is never more than 70 players. It's a non issue. Teams had no duplicate numbers for 100 years when the rosters were even bigger. Not an issue. No reason to have any duplicate numbers.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Yeah but if you have two guys who want to be 0 then one of them won't be able to promote their "brand" and will miss out on NIL opportunities...I couldn't even make it through that with a straight face. No excuse for duplicate numbers. None.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
It's evident that the team got caught up in their own hype and it backfired with this loss. The silver lining is that it's against a non-conference opponent. Everyone's been brought back down to earth, and we have a manageable stretch of games now before conference play kicks off.
It's disappointing, but I'm heading out for a walk to clear my head and make the most of my Saturday. I suggest some of you do the same. Not the start we hoped for, but there's still plenty of season left to turn things around.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
we have a manageable stretch of games now before conference play kicks off.
But, we don't. We have Marshall (can we beat them?), ODU (can we beat them?) and Rutgers (far more talented and physical than Vandy). We could be 3-1 after those games or 0-4 honestly. With what we saw today, this team has taken a significant step back from last season.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Yeah the sneaky big takeaway from this game is that unless there are drastic improvements in coaching and execution, most of the "50/50" games looks more like 35/65 games. Rutgers especially
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
He wasn't the difference. We fucked around on offense in the first half, and we STILL can't fucking contain a mobile QB. Marve was the bigger problem today, but we need 4 qtrs of Bowen loaded on Monster and Bourbon, not 28 minutes. I want to believe we have talent, but they were not put in a position to win today. With fault on both sides of the ball that tells me there are larger issues with Pry at the moment. The only thing that doesn't have me flipping tables is that we have gotten accustomed to this.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
And it's the primary reason I still won't invest in season tickets. Having half the fall committed to 10 hours of driving, mandatory 2 night stay, and several thousands of dollars invested to just end up being pissed off at the end it isn't worth the investment.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Marve needs to go . Pry being a defense minded HC , this is embarrassing . Totally unprepared for a QB we knew they would be doing a lot of option . The lack of fundamentals on the defense is really really concerning which is why I think Pry needs to make a change ASAP. Offense play calling was crap today . WR didn't get open when the like blocked or Drones wasn't seeing the field . Oline did not block good in run or pass . Idk man this sucks I have held on to hope for too long . Hope the guys can turn things around for their sake but I have no more faith in this program sadly . It's been a fun ride boys .
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Maybe it's time to be realistic. They have a good scheme, they just don't have the horses. Pry's defense is good when he has NFL talent. This team is just B level talent at every position
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Everytime Drones broke thru the 1st level, there was an LB or S there to meet him.
Pavia almost never got touched before gaining at least 5 yds.
No one is going to convince me Vandy has more athletes at LB than we do. They just don't play this useless, wander aimlessly strategy that Marve employs.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Not really an excuse, just an observation. Get some guys that win the one on ones at the line of scrimmage and it's a different team. Didn't see much of that today.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I don't know what scheme Marve is currently trying to run, but it's not what Pry ran at PSU. Our single gap defensive line require LBs to fit their gaps. Our LBs mysteriously disappear and are usually chasing after the runner giving them a 5 yard head start. I have never seen such a passive, sit back and react LB corps. Nobody is flying forward to stop the run. It doesn't make sense at all with what is supposed to be our scheme. And Marve is also the LB coach.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
So this really sucks. We will do better. And then some shitty team like "Alcorn State" holds them to 42 yds rushing.... And we will be reminded that we shit the bed (BAD) in this game. Fuck I thought we'd be at least decent. How in the fuck did we just get manhandled like that?
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Honestly, that was laughable a week ago too. No rational objective person could have believed that. Now being a good or pretty good team winning 8 or 9 regular season games - 10 if we get lucky or play really well - was always what people should have hoped for. 10 seems out, 9 is unlikely, but 8-4 (what I picked us for) is still possible. But man, we have to improve.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
The bonkers thing is that with a 12 team playoff, a loss to Vanderbilt has no bearing on winning the ACC (and therefore making the playoff). I certainly don't FEEL confident about winning the ACC after what i just saw, but this result on paper in a vacuum has little bearing on the big picture wrt VT in the playoff.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
You do realize that was arguably the worst team on our schedule?
Technically, yes we're not mathematically eliminated from the playoff or winning the acc but technically, the A's haven't been mathematically eliminated from the wild card race either. Are they gonna make it? No.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Congratulations on making the perfectly wrong comparison for the point you're trying to make with the A's. It's like you read only the parts of my comment you wanted to disagree with lmao
Do i feel good about winning the ACC? No. But this game has no bearing on that. We're not going to get to November and be saying "man that vandy game is killing us in the ACC standings right now"
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Your comment made me think back to what Beamer said a la Boist St and JMU. You are correct in that Vandy has no bearing on ACC aspirations, and all I'm saying is if we can't effectively win the easiest (arguably [on paper]) game on our schedule, then it becomes an indicator that we're not gonna win the ACC
Especially when you see Miami waltz into the swamp and smear the gators around like peanut butter
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I think preseason on paper you're right that was the easiest game on our schedule. I also think Vandy is significantly better (not good but better) than pre season expectations and likely won't be the worst s&p team that we play this year when the seasons over.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I tend to think we are. We lost a lot of individual battles but I didn't see battles our guys couldn't win. They looked lost and out of place, not undersized and unathletic.
We'll see if the coaches can get them into better positions.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Yeah this feels like ODU losses where we try to rationalize with "ODU is better than they got credit for" and then we look back at the end of the year and they're 3-9 and the QB we made look like Johnny Football is enrolling in the seminary
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Bowen took last year's offense..
Made absolutely zero adjustments and apparently expected Vandy either to be confused because they accidentally watched tape on the wrong team or simply roll over.
Here's the deal...in the NIL Shitscape that we live in now, there are winners and losers who can't compete....we are clearly heading in one direction and not the other.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
While I am disappointed, I am sadly not surprised. However, I am proud of the way the team fought back from 17 points down to tie it and then take the lead. That shows heart, which you can't coach. Here's to massive improvement for week 2. 🍻
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
"Proud" is the word I would use. I'm satisfied that they didn't give up, and both side of the team played 28 minutes of solid ball in the 2nd half. That should give the team some confidence that they can pull themselves back into a game.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
We just got punched in the mouth and didn't know what to do about it. I said before the game that we needed to score early and often and if we didn't we'd find ourselves in an ugly dogfight. I'm positively confounded by the offensive performance. I didn't expect a lot from the defense to begin with but with how our offense was clicking at the end of last year I expected it to at least make sense. When we went on a little run in the second half I joked about how we find something that works then go away from it. Then that's what we did. I don't understand.
Putting Drones in for a play while he's clearly hurt and asking him to run a qb power made absolutely no sense. That was reminiscent of Corn/Fu shenanigans.
At the end of the day VT just isn't fun to watch. We haven't been fun to watch in over a decade. Our fans really showed out today and I'm proud of that. We have one of the strongest fan bases in football. It's just a shame the football team consistently fails to match their energy.
It's a long season. There are still goals to chase. But this performance does very little to instill any confidence in the team. Frank often had frustrating early season losses and followed them up with dominating 10 game stretches. I don't expect that with this team but it's not impossible. We have a easy schedule. Thanks #goacc
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
With the new format, yes, technically. But it doesn't make me feel any better. I don't have any confidence in any game we have on the schedule. the remainder of the year. We have fallen beyond repair as a program, and any hopes of ever joining the SEC just got laughed out of a 2nd-tier stadium.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
How about taking 1 or 2 deep shots early and then start trying to run the ball when the safeties don't load the box and line backers shoot through the gaps during the snap.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Felton had zero deep targets. So maybe Drones overthrows him by 5 yards and it's 2nd and 10. Is that really worse than 2nd and 11 after another failed bubble screen?
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
This was a shit show in coaching. At least Bowen made some adjustments. Special teams were terrible outside of Love and Moore. Delane should get his NIL check held this week. Not a lot of guys came to play.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
While we're venting - where the fuck was the staff making sure all the players were properly hydrated and ready to play late? Losing Drones to fucking cramps when we needed him the most is on the medical and training staff, and Drones.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
This is just a complete failure all around for VT. This is the most money VT had spent on football ever - including now very highly paid (frankly probably very overpaid) NIL players. And a total failure today on all fronts. I'm starting to just get sick of the whole landscape honestly. We had no NIL for the basketball programs because we dumped it all into football, and this is the result we get? This is what going all in on football looks like? We are incredibly poor coached and poorly motivated. Vandy wanted it more and outcoached our staff completely today.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I'm with you... I dropped my fair share on the football program, and now they have the remainder of the season to convince me that I don't need to spend it elsewhere, like basketball, softball, baseball, wrestling, hockey, men's gymnastics, or the bass fishing team.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Maybe we need to give out more nil money, and pay our coaching staff more.... that should make tech a better team...
Oh, we did that. How did that work out for us
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Unfortunately we weren't able to fix the two biggest problems of OL and run fits. It's frustrating to have invested in a lot of good pieces, but those two weaknesses make almost any game a toss up.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I didn't expect the OL to get drastically better. I did expect them to be slightly more cohesive as a unit - they were not. In fact, they looked a bit worse than the end of last season. Maybe one reason Bowen's job was so difficult all day (his play calling was questionable). But the LB thing is a complete head scratcher to me... lining up 5-6 yards off the LOS, even in obvious run situations and being incredibly passive with the "read and react" mentality is mind boggling to me. I just don't get it. I know the guys are limited from a talent standpoint, but there's no reason they should be so passive and consistently, after 2-3 years in the program, in the wrong place or in the right place way too late.
It's a little bit talent and a lotta bit coaching IMO.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I get your point that tech didn't solve their problems of oline and defense, but we did add an olineman and 5 defenders on dline and lb.
Nil will have to be used like a business, no return equals no cap ex expenditures. College football has entered the real world, and if you can't produce, you got to go. No dei in sports, please
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
OL is supply and demand. Lots of people want them so they're hard to land. I get it
Run fits can be coached. And with a DC who is also the LB coach and was a "run game coordinator" at his last stop, it's not an outrageous ask. Not to mention LB is the head coach's specialty and they landed their "number 1 LB target" in the portal. That offense is tricky for sure but 9 out of 12 teams on a Vandy's schedule will look perfectly competent against it, and all of them with less prep time than we had.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
This team compared to the one we heard about all offseason leading up to this game is a total joke. What development were we doing all offseason? No one looks any better than they were last year. We made offense look hard again. It looked like Fuente ball to me tbh. With this amount of talent that is absolutely insane.
I was very afraid of them reverting back towards the offensive scheme they started the season with the last two years, and I'm afraid that did play a factor. French can correct me if I'm wrong
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I felt this so much. We wanted to run behind our OL that wasn't holding it's own. When our WR should be able to do whatever they want vs that secondary.
Finally discovered the downfield pass and the ball moved. It's the same OL as last year, we're going to need to move the pocket for success.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Pry.." it's humbling and maybe we needed some of that " ... I don't know what there was to be humbled about ... we have not had a top 25 time in years . Yes this team we head higher hopes for but the team had not earned anything yet . Disappointed in coaches choice of words .
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Maybe the players needed some humbling after all the hype, but the coaches are responsible for this loss. The gameplan sucked and there's no excuse for having double numbers on the field.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Plenty were saying we could be a playoff team this year. Not favorites by any means, just that with returning roster taking a step forward and knowing the state of the ACC, it wasn't ridiculous to think we could do it. Sounds like maybe the team started believing it was a given
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Pry literally a couple weeks ago "We are not letting the team buy into the hype, we aren't listening to the noise."
Pry now: "We needed to be humbled"
This is the kind of lip service that is going to cause a lot of people to tune out quickly. I feel like fans are being asked to pay for more and more and getting scammed quite frankly.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Miami or Clemson? Before we see Miami we gotta beat the Marshall team that beat us last year, ODU in Norfolk where we've never won, and the Rutgers team that dominated us in the trenches just like that bad Vandy team just did.
This loss may not have changed anything mathematically in the ACC, but it sure did let us know where we are (or aren't) as a football team.
Before the season I thought we wouldn't know much about this team until after Rutgers. That was assuming we took care of these first 3 games. Unfortunately we learned a lot about this team very quickly today.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Unfortunately we learned a lot about this team very quickly today.
And it wasn't a whole lot of promising from what I'm reading. I'll go back and watch it later, having missed most of it, but I'm not feeling particularly encouraged by what I'm reading nor what I (again, very limited) saw.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Ha, thanks. I was excited to get back on here and talk football during this magical run we were about to go on... but at least I have somewhere to vent!
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Everything about the Offensive strategy in the 1st Half was counterintuitive and self-destructive.
We needed to be aggressive and score early points against a team that was clearly going to play dink-and-dunk, ball-control offense.
French called this from a mile away. And I mean absolutely no insult to French but when someone (with admittedly great FB knowledge) on the Internet has a better understanding of general strategy than your highly-compensated Coaching Staff, it says very, very bad things.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
So something stood out to me about the early part of the game today - which resembled a lot of what we've seen early season over the past few years.
We weren't competing.
If you remember the 30 for 30 about the U, they said there was like a wrestling mat in the locker room and people would spontaneously get called into a 1v1 battle against someone else. Just for competition. Those guys fought to win as a cornerstone of their culture on and off the field and they played that way on the field.
But we don't. It looks we run drills and repeat slow motion execution of our plan in our practices but in a full speed game against anyone, we just don't compete. We don't know what to do when the other team just comes at us.
Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth
~ Mike Tyson
~HorseOnATreadmill
I'm witnessing how we play. I'm wondering how we practice.
Also Stiney and Corny called this many screens and jet sweeps.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
We got the hype but all the media forgets we were 6-6 last year. We weren't that good. The O-line barely changed and they sucked last year. It's not shocking that it didn't evolve. I was just bummed that our play calling was so damn east-west.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Went to downtown Philadelphia to watch the game with the VT Alumni Philly Chapter (more on that later). But for now, I have to scroll through the threads to see how many people are calling for Pry to be fired. Can't wait to review the posts.
Note: Semi-sarcasm and dark humor applies to this comment.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
One of the more frustrating things from today and the past decade, is that far too often, fan support/sandman has been the best part of gameday.
Tech fans completely took over that stadium over an hour before kickoff and the team slept through the whole first half and got gassed by the end of the second.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Still trying to wrap my mind around Tuten only getting 9 carries. How in the hell does that happen. I know you're losing but you can't go away from your best plays.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
We had about 9 snaps during the first 15-20 minutes of the game (can't remember the exact number there, so I might be off. It wasn't a lot though). Those snaps included very conservative plays; one's where it looked like we expected to out physical Vandy. That didn't happen, so we had to change it up in order to get things moving.
I don't understand the offensive philosophy at all honestly. We aren't a "line it up and run over you" kind of team, because, quite honestly, our OL is absolute trash. We aren't an air raid team because of, well, Drones. We don't have a ton of creativity (like the Vandy offense?) because we have Bowen. I'm not sure what our offensive philosophy is. All I know is that today looked a whole lot like the CornFu offense minus a competent OL.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Game on the line. Less than two minutes. All you need is a field goal. The best player on your entire offense is Tuten. 3 straight incomplete passes. 3-and-out. 0 yards gained. I didn't think it was possible to do as bad or worse than Corny. And, yet, here we are. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why it's so hard for VT to find competent coordinators on either side of the ball. They are out there and we just can't get them. We suck and coaching is a HUGE reason why.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I'd argue that the best player on the team is Drones, and Vanderbilt was keying in on Tuten.
What Bowen was doing in the second half was working pretty well until that last drive.
I would, however, fault him for putting Drones in for one play after having already put Collin Schlee in. Once you give control to Schlee, you should stick with it long enough to see it through.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Something that gets lost is that drive was so abysmal we should've lost the game in regulation. Even if you don't score, the one thing you absolutely cannot do is go 3 and out and run no clock. We did exactly that.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Up 7 at that point, one stop probably wins the game. Instead, they work through us like a hot knife through butter and score in barely two minutes.
That leaves us plenty of time to answer but so much time that if we don't move the ball, we will have to punt with a decent amount of time on the clock.
So naturally, we throw the ball 3 straight times to leave them absolutely as much time as possible.
D then comes up big in the clutch, right?? Lol...nope, bailed out by a push on a very makeable FG.
This is bad coaching, period. And if this is still where we are 3 years in, the future isn't looking bright.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Yeah...so I'm not buying into anything with this team until they beat a team that has a pulse. When you can't even beat a bottom tier SEC team you should reevaluate your expectations.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
This right here. This goes for both players and staff. I wanted to believe coming into this season like everyone else that we finally had the pieces on the board to make some serious moves, but this team and this staff now have to prove it to me, and any other fan as far as I'm concerned - why exactly we should buy in.
I'm sick of going into every game with a puckered butthole, even against bottom tier opponents we should beat the doors off of on paper. I can't trust anyone's competence at this point. I can't trust this team not to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Why would I? Why should any Tech football fan?
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Why, you ask? Because I've been a VT fan since 1968, maybe? Because I've seen it all before? Because I somehow lived through the Beamer 2-8-1 season to enjoy the first and second Sugar Bowl seasons and still remain a Hokie fan?
Look, nobody's any more disappointed in the way things have been since Fuente's failures lowered us from relevance than I am, and I give nobody an uncritical pass. It's just what my fandom demands of me. I remember the days that a big game might attract 20,000 people, and I was there for many of them and a lot of games that were much less attended than that. But, win or lose, they are my team and I'm going to watch the games faithfully because of that.
I know, times have changed and I hate the pay for play NIL, the transfer portal, and losing to teams we should beat, and can't blame folks for being upset by the prospect of another disappointing season. But me, I'm going to watch, cheer, piss and moan and yell at the TV, but personally, they're my Hokies and while attending games has become less important with age and distance, I will be there in spirit.
But, that's just me.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
The goal before the season started was (1) to beat the teams you are supposed to beat and (2) show some improvement with physicality and discipline. We saw neither today. Now I look at the schedule differently...
Vandy: L
Marsall: Tossup
ODU: W
Rutgers: L (much more talented and physical than Vandy)
Miami: L
Stanford: Tossup
BC: Tossup (physical up front with a mobile QB)
GT: L
Syracuse: L (We haven't beaten them in the dome since the '90's)
Clemson: L
Duke: W
LOLUVA: W
Basically, I only see 3-5 wins on the schedule based on what I saw today.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
What is this "Brent Pry and the rising Hokies football program" narrative? It is nonsense. The guy is 10-14 and today looked worse than the last two years.
Actually he is worse than Fuente if you look at the numbers.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
It wasn't just the visitor side. We dominated the entire stadium. Not sure if it came across on TV, but we even had the "Let's Go Hokies!!" chant going with one side of the stadium chanting "Let's Go," and the other chanting "Hokies!!!" Not to mention we were all braving heat stroke.
You're goddamned right, we deserved better than that trash!
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Straight stupid. All we needed was a field goal shot to win. Never was I more optimistic then deflated. Keep it simple, run the football and steal a game we didn't belong in.
Those coaches should get their heads checked..
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Regardless of play calling, there was some really poor execution:
1st Down: Drones rushed/short-armed the 6 yard pass to Jennings, and Jennings wasn't able to get around quick enough to make the catch. If he takes an extra half second and makes a confident throw, it's 2nd at 4 at worst, and quite possibly a 1st down if Jennings and can turn it up field.
2nd Down: Drones looks for one open man downfield (which I guess wasn't there), and too quickly went to his check-down in the boundary; if he scrambled to the field side, he either buys a lot more time or takes off for a good chunk of yardage (potentially a 1st down).
3rd Down: Drones didn't find anyone down field, then does try and buy time by scrambling to field side but a defender is there and in his face; he chucks an inaccurate desperation pass down field to B. Gosnell for an incompletion (comes up gimpy without contact)
The contrast between the late-game execution between Drones and Pavia was stark. TBF, Pavia been in that position a lot more times, had some failure, but more success. Drones has never been in a position to win the game late, and he choked in his first attempt. Drones was experiencing some cramping, so maybe that affected his play. But he definitely have that "him" factor late in the game. I hope he grows from the experience, because he will need to up his game if VT is going to have a good season.
Drones did show that he can carry his team to comeback from a 3-score deficit into a lead, something that he had never done before. So, there was definitely some growth in this game. Just has to finish strong and take the reins in the final 2 minutes.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
CHOKIES!! That was absolutely pathetic and our team looked sick and tired. Delane should not start next game. I have 4 tickets to the Thursday night game if anyone is interested. I can't support this team anymore as this program only strives to be mediocre so far in my adult lifetime. I'm not okay with that. Adios.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
What I can't understand is how Pry struggles so much to get the team up for games. Outside of one or two games we always seem to start slow and flat and then have to dig ourselves out of a hole, especially on the road. First game of the season in an SEC stadium that your fans have taken over, how can you not get the team hyped for that? It's a trend at this point.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Jerry Kill straight Paul Johnsoned us. His strategy was brilliant. Waiting until 1 or seconds left on the play clock every play. The pistol and option action had our LB playing on their heels. Even when we had a spy on Pavia, he gained at least 5 or 6 yards and usually more. I was obviously disappointed that the OL looked like they regressed rather than took a step forward. But I also felt like our DL was terribly underwhelming. Most of the game, Pavia seemed to have all day to throw or choose to run. Up 27-20, Vandy went to a 2-minute drive style. That's when our DL should have been able to wreak havoc, and they did absolutely nothing.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
We, as a fanbase, deserve better. And I hate the word deserve.
This football program also doesn't deserve a fan base as passionate as we are.
We fucking showed out. It was a damn home game there were so many Hokies there.
Making a donation to the Hokie Club for exactly $0 since 15 players on the team all want to wear the dumbest number in sports and play at the same time. I expect to be given 3 points in return.
I'll continue doing so until Bowen is fired and Pry takes over the defense.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Sums up a lot of my boiling over frustrations at this point. The VT AD is incredibly fortunate to have a fan base like VT that has put up with a continually garbage product for over a decade now. Fans still show up to Lane, donate, buy concessions, buy merch, travel in force, donate to NIL, etc. I just don't think the powers at be at VT have any clue what running a P4 program should look like. Whit is aloof and clueless, and just relies on Ballein to guide him in everything football. And JB should go - he's just a relic of the old guard who has hung around far too long and wheeled and dealed his way to the powerful position of influence he now has.
Pry's a good guy, good personality, but if he doesn't hire some better coaches around him, he's not going to get any better. People are going to start tuning out after all the talk about staying focused, not buying into the noise and hype, then you get completely outcoached and outclassed by Vandy week 1. Last season's turn around looks more like a miracle pulled by Brent Davis implementing some of his run concepts in quick order to salvage the season. Honestly after Marshall last year, I thought one or both coordinators would be fired at the end of the year.
Something is going to have to change, or VT is going to be permanently resigned to irrelevance. I've given up season tickets and Hokie Club membership for a while now, and I honestly don't see myself going back with the way things are looking.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Pry's 1st call this Offseason should be to Ricky Rahne as he was the actual brain running the Offense @ PSU.
Defensively, he either needs to take full control or find someone with some actual coaching chops. Marve is JHam all over again--not nearly seasoned enough to be a Coordinator.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Been a VT fan for 30 years, and I have officially now seen us lose in every fucking side show way possible. And yes we lost because of the stupid fucking thing that has nothing positive to do with football- nothing about winning football- the fucking 12 people wearing the same number bullshit. NOTHING positive regarding football. If recruits "like it" fuck those recruits. Its fucking stupid and always has been. NO FOOTBALL reason to do it- so fucking get rid of it. Hey you- your number is now 15, you don't like it? fuck off. Its all good until it COSTS YOU a football game. Then its exposed for what it is- fucking stupid. No reason to do it. Bear Bryant didn't do it, Jimmy Johnson didn't do it. Win the fucking game. Do things that WIN games- not lose them like this horseshit. There are never - ever- in any game more than 70 players dressed. NEVER. get rid of the stupid fucking childish duplicate numbers that have never helped a team win anything ever. At this point in the fucking disaster that is VT football- ANYTHING that doesn't help you WIN games as opposed to draw penalties needs to fucking go an it needs to go ASAP. If I were Pry, I'd get rid of the duplicate numbers before the boosters get rid of him, but that's just me. He also needs to get a real fucking defensive coordinator in here. I hear there is a hall of fame type DC that lives near VT. Maybe fucking call him?
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
If Pry could somehow coax Bud out of retirement for a couple years, sign me the hell up. Or at least get his opinion on somebody out there that might fit their similar philosophies for Pry to hire.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I was OK with a clean break from Bud, building a new culture, etc. Until we lose to fucking Vanderbilt where they do nothing until they need yards, and then they get them freely. When we needed a stop, we went o-fer. zero critical stops made in that game- nada, none. We are lucky the kid missed a FG- because we didn't stop them there either. I am fairly certain that Bud Foster could have dialed up ONE stop in the 4th Q. Probably several. Even in retirement. We got zero. none.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I thought Pry was a natural successor to Bud. Very similar philosophies. But whatever the hell Marve is trying to run doesn't even resemble Pry's defenses at PSU. VT under Bud and PSU under Pry never had as abysmal LB play as we have been seeing.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Amen. Think back to when Bud had to patch things together with the Vegas Robinsons, Lindell Gibson's, Chase Williams of the world and stone cold stopping people. In terms of Pry at PSU- we've had maybe 2? perhaps 3 DE's in the history of our school as good as Abdul Carter. Corey Moore/Cornell Brown? Point is the talent there on defense is apples to oranges as to what he has at VT right now. Lawson played awful today, Fuga gets washed out as a 6th year player, Delane can't win a 50/50 ball... no comparison in talent
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Agree on the talent comparison. Bud I think was much better at working with lesser talent and getting guys who could do their job/play fundamentally sound even if they weren't the most talented.
On Delane - so disappointed in how much he has regressed. He was continually burned in coverage all day. And we had to pay up big time with NIL two off seasons in a row with rumors of him getting interest from OSU and others. The shot of him at the end of the game sitting on the sideline looking checked out rubbed me the wrong way.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
At some point, despite our lack of talent at certain positions, coaches have to coach. If the guys aren't doing what they are supposed to do after 2-3 years, then put a freaking walk-on in the game. Pry talked all offseason about the competition level, but I didn't see much of anything competitive today tbh.
I miss the days of VT, as the underdog, coming out and simply being the more physical team even in a loss.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I'd have gladly taken an even money bet that they would have gotten the TD and not even had to kick if time was not winding down. The 3 straight complete choke-jobs on the last 3 defensive drives after we took the lead was the most annoying thing to me about the game.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Part of me was upset we moved our first dining reservation at Disney today so it would run over into game start. Part me thought you know what over the years the games that I'm not in person for just don't mean as much. That's just kind of where I am the games in person are fun but honestly I'm tired of the last 20 years yes 20 years of Hokies football.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Okay, I think I can top most of those who did not actually spend money to travel to Nashville and buy tickets. You had a worse day if you shelled out to go to this game.
(1) Go into Philly on the train to the alumni chapter game watch party - it's a pleasant 1.9 mile walk to the station in good weather and get a bit of exercise.
(2) Get off the train and in the 5 or 6 block walk to the sports bar (Wicked Wolf) I get ...
(a) Somebody accosting me for money
(b) A gay guy tries to pick me up
(c) 2 more gay guys try to pick me up - I am not making this up, is it because I am wearing an orange shirt?
(d) Crazy guy talking to himself and walking down the middle of the road
(3) Get to the bar. The sound and video are not in synch. You hear the audio 2-3 seconds before the action happens on the screen. They never do get it fixed.
(4) Try and order wings. A while later, the waitress comes back and apologizes that they cannot make wings. I was planning on leaving at 17-0 and the only reason I stayed was that I had not eaten all day and I wanted my wings.
(5) By this time, we are playing better, so I stick around, get to see us tie the game, then take the lead, then watch the massive choke job at the end with the last 3 defensive drives.
Best part about the day was a bunch of Clemson fans there and they were actually very nice and we had a good time rooting for each other. Ended up where our two groups decided to try and schedule a joint watch party for the VT-Clemson game and do a food drive together with them for it.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
We know Saban wouldn't lose to Vandy under any fucking circumstance... but we super duper double dare know he wouldn't lose to them the way we did- fucking duplicate numbers, zero tackling, zero toughness, shit 1-1 coverage by DBS... nah Saban wouldn't lose like that under any circumstance in any game.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Nick Saban: the last self respecting SEC head coach who wasn't a fat fuck resembling a canned ham. May he, and the boring ass age of football he ushered in, forever rest in peace.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
They can wear tutu's with LED numbers of whatever the fuck they want in practice. Knock youself out, keep it real bro. But for the actual fucking game- where we are trying to WIN- you are not wearing someone else's number. Full stop. Why coach? because there is no positive football reason to do so. Next question.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
This isn't the first time (year) it's been allowed. It's been at least three seasons. Just need the coaching/QC folks to get their heads out of their asses and notice this shit. Lane wasn't returning, so they put in Jennings, therefore Lawson needed to exit. They made so many bone headed mistakes (helmet communications not working, getting to the line after the 15-second shut off, the 00 fart...can't remember others but remember screaming at the TV when dumb shit kept happening).
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I'm not disagreeing with you. More than anything it shows how inexperienced this staff is. The staff should be able to handle it. To me this all rolls up to Whit. He hired a head coach with no experience because he was folksy and had a shoestring Tech connection. His seat should be hot, but it's not because the Virginia Tech athletic department is run like a country club. That is THE main problem here and perhaps that rolls up to Sands as well.
To my original comment, I'm just preparing myself to you beating this point into the ground.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
He should. Like week 2 into my cfb25 dynasty I started changing numbers because I'm thinking "why the hell is Ali Jennings playing linebacker?" without realizing what it was.
Simple fucking solution: want to keep the 25 thing? Fine. Reserve it, you got 99 other numbers to choose one, choose quick before they're gone!
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
It almost can't be talked about too much. It's probably the stupidest thing I've ever seen a coach do at any level, and we literally lost the game because of it.
I've never heard of that happening in any sport in my entire life, and when the refs announced what the penalty was, my jaw was firmly on the ground.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Just ask yourself this. If 30 players wear the same number- how does it help you WIN a football game? It doesn't. There is no football reason for it. none. It does not help you win in any way.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
in the 1970's-80's Alabama and Nebraska had 300 players. There were no limits back then on scholarships and they had a million walk on's. Some how, some way Osborne, Bryant, Switzer were able to run the team of 300 players with no duplicate numbers. Osborne and Switzer are still alive in fact= Pry could ask them how to do it.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
You see this is just the staff thinking ahead to petition the NCAA to allow 00. I mean of you allow 0, 00 just makes sense! /s
Whit to NCAA: "Sir, we need more zeroes on the field so we can win more"
NCAA: " maybe you should worry more about zeroes in the wins column, you've put enough zeroes on the field since you got here"
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I know it's been a while. But this has been a problem for the team for the last decade.
2013: Duke QB - 44 yards on 11 carries
2013: Maryland QB - 123 yards on 23 carries
2013: UCLA QB - 161 yards on 10 carries
2014: Pitt QB - 118 yards on 19 carries
2014: BC QN - 127 yards on 19 carries
2015: OSU QBs - 139 yards on 14 carries
2015: ECU QBs - 184 yards on 25 carries
2015: Duke QB - 109 yards on 18 carries
2015: UNC QB - 74 yards on 18 carries
2016: TENN QB - 106 yards on 14 carries
2016: SYR QBs - 175 yards on 30 carries
2016: GT QB - 121 yards on 32 carries
2016: CLEM QB - 85 yards on 17 carries
2017: CLEM QB - 94 yards on 19 carries
2017: MIA QB - 95 yards on 15 carries
2018: GT QB - 215 yards on 40 carries
2018: UVA QB - 112 on 24 carries (VT win in OT by 3)
2018: UC QB - 64 yards on 9 carries
2019: DUKE QB - 100 yards on 17 carries
2019: UVA QB - 164 yards on 19 carries
2019: UK QB - 233 yards on 34 carries
Certainly Bud has his moments shutting down impact players, but basically half of the losses in his last 5 years were from quarterbacks running all over us, or at least well above average games. Definitely not "always amazing"
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Apologies. But yea, running QBs were Bud's kryptonite. I can only think of a few games in which Bud was able to shut down a running QB (Sugar Bowl 2012 being the most notable). I don't think Bud's D was the per-se answer for Vanderbilt.
And to the OPs point, I do think that Bud would have had his linebackers more ready to go and the defensive backs would've been better at shutting down the passing game, which would have resulted in a better overall defensive result. But Pavia would still have been a major factor (but not enough of a factor to give up 34 points).
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
It always confused me how much trouble it gave Bud, considering the number of years we had mobile running QBs... like you work around them everyday and can't stop them?
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Especially considering his defense, for a time, lined up against arguably the greatest mobile QB ever in practice every day. If anyone should have sat down and schemed how to stop a mobile QB, it should have been Bud during the Vick years.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Correction... Bud's defense was amazing against mid fucking QBs period for 30 years. He struggled sure against "Good" dual threat QBs. There is a big fucking difference. Having said that, Bud shut down Terrell Pryor, Shoelace Robinson, etc. Guys that were on heisman watch lists. The frustration is this juco QB running around on us. Bud would have shut that noise down pronto on the vast majority of occiasions.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I get the feeling that Stroman and Phillips had a long sit down and were told that with targeting being so arbitrary, to stop being goons. And now it's implanted itself too deep in their skulls.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Yeah, the going low and wrapping up, especially for a dude like Phillips who was just a bruiser in high school, didn't seem natural. I think it was tying up his feet a bit. That's how you get hurdled. You're thinking too hard, you slow your feet to avoid launching, you get launched over.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
As a glutton for punishment, I am forcing myself to rewatch.
Here's what I cannot get over... it was bad enough that we called a screen on nearly every other offensive play, but so much worse---the timing and execution of many of these screens was completely fucked.
It's like we never practiced them at full speed. WR not ready for the ball, blockers not setup, Drones throwing it 98mph at the kneecaps--many of these plays were executed at a Middle School level.
Maybe they worked well in practice because Marve had our LB meandering aimlessy 8 yd off the LOS per his usual, but we appeared wholly unprepared for a team that played with any level of speed or aggression.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Maybe they worked well in practice because Marve had our LB meandering aimlessy 8 yd off the LOS per his usual, but we appeared wholly unprepared for a team that played with any level of speed or aggression.
This assessment has me both laughing and crying... Sheesh, I'm sure you're right.
The thing for me is this - we are being asked to pay these players now. I know we aren't spending OSU level money, but we absolutely got taken advantage of this offseason based on the effort I saw today.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
The thing for me is this - we are being asked to pay these players now. I know we aren't spending OSU level money, but we absolutely got taken advantage of this offseason based on the effort I saw today.
I thought about this a few times today. I'm genuinely worried that we have a too player-friendly environment and may have way overspent in retaining this roster last offseason. I hate NIL so much, and I'm concerned that players are learning how to work the system to leverage other "offers" that may or may not exist for more money, or that other teams are faking interest in certain players to get teams to blow their NIL budget on retaining players. I wonder if we have just blown too much smoke up these guys tails and got them thinking they are stars, aren't being held accountable. We hear that they weren't buying into the hype, but the level of disinterest and lack of want to on the field today painted a different story.
I'm sure there are a lot of NIL contributors with buyers remorse on their investment now.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
They are, as are the various "NIL Agents" who feed off the system-- many of whom have no actual qualifications or experience
I wonder if we have just blown too much smoke up these guys tails and got them thinking they are stars
We have--when most of them have little to no actual NIL value and zero chance to play in the NFL.
The second CFB turned into a system where 16 and 17 year-olds were getting 6 and 7 figure payouts simply to show up on Campus and the ability to transfer at anytime for any reason whatsoever, the notion that winning and competition were the #1 priority went out the window. It's about getting your "brand" out there...and if School X isn't showcasing your brand enough, its time to move on to School Y.
And the people who are feeling remorse are the people who couldn't see NIL for the massive scam and money-pit that it is.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I think this sums up very nicely the reasons Saban gave for retiring when he did. He knew it was going to have to become a key focus of the head coach and he wanted no part of it because it's such horse shit.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I'd agree. I think the whole thing has a house of cards feeling that is bound to fall apart at some point in the near future. Why spend money on a product that is inferior out the gate? It's an insanely bad investment of your money. Save it or spend it on your family instead.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
If this game happened to me on CFB25 I would delete my dynasty and start over. I could go on to win the natty, and still be pissed off we lost this game in the spectacularly incompetent way that we did.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I just started year 2 of my dynasty with VT (and arguably am bad at recruiting) but I can not stop any running teams. The linebackers are just awol unless I get lucky and call a run blitz through the right gaps.
Dont get me started about the miracle I had to pull off to beat south carolina when they have that 99 speed WR who just punks delane all day while I cant stop any runs.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I figured out rhat the suggested rush 4 and everyone is in zone was killing me and my LBs were nowhere to be found.... i have to force man coverage every play and control a DT to dosrupt the middle and its way easier.
My current complaint on defense is that when i change players it is always not the one i wanted
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
The fact that we clearly weren't ready to play football.
We lost on the road to a bottom feeder SEC squad when our fans were 75% of the stadium.
We got toasted by a mobile QB (never heard that before). Our inability to convert any screen pass for more than 1 yard and yet we call them every other play.
You guys, I legit had forgotten that we were all convinced last year by the 4th/5th game that Bowen can't call plays well. And then I think Drones and Tuten got hot and we all just moved on for a bit. It hit me today in this game like some repressed memory lol.
Also, I scrolled the roster during the game to see if duplicate numbers are a common thing — I stopped at like jersey number 15 and had already counted 13 duplicate pairs. I'd say they just shouldn't allow duplicates, but from scrolling the roster it felt like we had 100+ dudes on the team.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I slept on it and I feel that Pry's focus on us being a running team is what has lead us to call a completely conservative offensive game plan. It took 4 games and a new QB to switch what we did last year. Now with the offseason Pry wants us to be more run focused and we have gone away from what won last year. IMO it doesn't work with this team and what it's strengths are. We had no problem airing the ball out last year, Dones launched it to the endzone at least once a game.
I put this loss 100% on the coaches; The players didn't quit and almost won the game for us despite the bad coaching. The coaches need to have a hard conversation with themselves and figure out how to not be holding our team back because they feel we should be a certain type of team over playing to our team's strengths.
Also Pry needs to hire some ex DC that had no problem stopping a running QB as an advisor for the rest of the season. I've never seen VT be able to do so and yesterday was a great example of this BS.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Justin fuente wouldn't have fielded a team with as much talent though. Just look at the 2021 and 2022 squads as comparison. Although we do know he can stack som wins if he is given a team someone else recruited
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Didn't even watch the game. Had a nice lunch with my wife and kids and took them and the dog to a winery. My wife updated me about the clown show taking place at the end of the game as we drove home and reinforced my choice to no longer watch Hokie football live. I had a lovely afternoon with my family.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Didn't get to watch replay till last night. Decided not to come on here and look at the vent thread or game thread, thinking that sleeping on it might keep my thoughts more rational.
Well, it's morning now, and all I can say is
WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK WAS THAT FUCKING SHIT?
See yall back here next week.....
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Well, there is "I'm sick and tired" of losing games like this (which has been going on more than a decade, more like 25 years) and then there is, "I'm done".
The game has passed us by. We are in the rear view mirror. I will watch this team play next week, but if we lose to Marshall and ODU, I'm done. I just cant...I just can't.
I stopped watching VT Bball live last season and awaited the final score to determine if I was going to watch the game. That was a positive move to my sports watching enjoyment. Depending on the results mentioned above, it may be time to do the same with VT Football.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Yeah...I'm sick and tired too, but I'll never be "I'm done".
I just lost my best friend of 36 years this spring (we became friends at VT). I'll never have another best friend like that in my life. Just like my late son, he's irreplaceable in that role.
I see VT football, basketball, etc. in a very similar light. Throwing on the jersey and watching games all year round is just a part of me that I can neither shut off nor replace with another team or something else entirely. For better or worse, it's part of my DNA.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
First and foremost, the loss of a loved one, especially outside of old age, is most tragic and a forever void that Faith, Family and Friends help one get through the tough times that accompany it. I too, have lost a family member too early in life. He too, is irreplaceable and miss him greatly. I have a 24 year old special needs daughter who will live with my wife and I for as long as we can physically and mentally care for her. We hope and pray and will do so until the day we die that when we are gone she will be taken care of. We can prepare for all we want, it's a forever thought and concern. I don't see VT sports at any level of the above.
I used quotation marks, as in figurative and not literal. I'm going to watch them play, I said I would. However, depending on how this season plays out, I may start watching them differently (after the fact).
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
However, depending on how this season plays out, I may start watching them differently (after the fact).
I started doing that last season and it has greatly improved my Saturdays. Watching a win is still fun even if I know the outcome, and I don't have any fun watching us lose, so I can simply opt not to watch it. Plus the ACC drops the 1 hour condensed games on YouTube and those are pretty solid.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Oh I'm sorry- I didn't mean to come across as having a problem with your take, I just meant to offer my take. I also didn't mean to equate VT sports to my (or anyone else's) personal loss. I just meant that for me, the VT stuff is similar in nature as being irreplaceable for me, albeit on a completely tangentially different level than the loss of a loved one.
** edit **
I've also said here in the past that in the big scheme of life, a win or a loss or a terrible season is small potatoes compared to what is really important in life. I'm just saying it's an impossibility for me to disconnect from something that's so deeply a part of who I am.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I'm still going to tune into the tech games. But my focus has shifted dramatically. In years past I'd be interested and engaged in college football generally. I'd watch the interesting games. The big teams. Conference foes. I found that watching VT win made the entire rest of the weekend much more enjoyable for watching other teams. It's nice to watch other teams knowing your team has already won.
This year I'm completely disinterested in the rest of college football. Especially after VT had an incredible dud of an outing in Nashville.
I joined a fantasy epl league with my brother and now I'm having way more fun watching soccer than I've had watching football for the last 15 years. My Saturday mornings used to be all football. Now they're all football and it's so soo much better.
I think this is it for me. I'll wear O&M on gamedays. I'll watch the games if I can (I'm not going to put nearly as much effort into watching games as I used to), check the scores if I can't but mostly just enjoy watching soccer instead.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Anybody have an inside scoop on Drones and what's up there with a potential injury? Pry's comments weren't really leaning either way...but it wasn't optimistic either if he had to go back in the game. Basically said, "it didn't look good for him," in regards to getting back in. Just not sure how that boded for this coming week.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Was thinking about something.. Fuente wins that game by 30 with this team, right? With Foster as DC.
Granted he was never capable of getting a team this talented through his own efforts, but there have to be a ton of staff's out there that can do better with what they have.
I'll also add this: just about everyone thought cross training these inexperienced LB's was bad and a waste of time. It's now shown in all 3 of Pry's years here. I can't understand why he's so committed to that philosophy when it's so obviously detrimental, at this stage in development at least
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
If Arizona and Washington hold on, double-digit favorites will go 58-1 SU in college football today according to lined games via @ActionLabs_HQ -- with FBS teams undefeated SU vs. FCS.The one double-digit favorite to lose:+ Virginia Tech (-14.5) vs. Vanderbilt pic.twitter.com/btir3gjLMT— Evan Abrams (@EvanHAbrams) September 1, 2024
Womp...womp
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
This is our new legacy in football. Always giving someone their 'first' or an embarrassing one-off stat. Just like the Men's Basketball team always seems to give a random player their career game at the worst possible time.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I'm still pretty numb, like something internally won't allow me to be outwardly angry or sad. It just is what it is. Plenty that we could've done differently...
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Time removed from the game has only pissed me off more. We thoroughly humiliated ourselves in the national college football conversation, to the point where even third party observers with no connection to the program are expressing shock at how bad our playcalling, gameplan, game management, and coaching looked on Saturday.
Our staff had 9 months to prepare for this game. Our dedicated fans packed the house at an away stadium. This is what was delivered to us. It is beyond unacceptable at this point. Our program's refusal to invest in quality personnel - outside of just the HC - is a clear and undeniable trend, and it has now bitten us ten too many times.
I love Pry as a person. I want to love him as a head whistle. But folksy charm has worn out its luster - now it's prove it time. Either get these coordinators to game plan and call plays according to our strengths, or find new ones who will. Otherwise - repeat the mistakes of your predecessor and brace for impact.
Marshall and ODU will be telling in this regard. If we can't win the games we're supposed to win, in year three, with this roster, then respectfully - what the fuck are we doing here?
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Yeah, I was okayish until I listened to the Cover 3 reaction podcast....the way the national media as a whole is roasting the staff for getting outcoached by a guy on the hot seat is sad. That game really soured me from the rest of the weekend slate of game. This is year 3, Pry and his staff don't have the excuse of being new and not knowing anymore. Poor Clock management and play calling were all something I would've expected 2 years ago...and don't even get me started on the "Double 0" thing. I admit I bought into the hype..not saying we were ACC title or playoff bound, but that for the first time in years we could go out and field a competitive team and improve from the year prior. What I saw Saturday was more of last year: poor run D and O-Line play. Other teams will see this and try to exploit it and if we can't do something to fix it, I'm right where I was after the 1-3 start last year with Pry: "does thisguy even know what he's doing?" It's only one game and the first of many, but man it pissed me off like I haven't been pissed since Fu.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
A couple things to me that are pretty glaring, in no particular order:
1) Delane looked awful. Reminded me of Jimmy Williams back in 05. Supremely talented, but just got absolutely worked. I'd have to rewatch, but first glance some if it appeared to be lack of effort. Regardless, I don't understand how he wasn't benched.
2) Fuga is not a P5 tackle and should not be starting.
3) Put Parker Clements on the bench. I don't care what he does in practice. He's a turnstile on game day.
4) I was wrong to disagree with Chris Coleman's criticism of tech shuffling the linebackers around. They were out of position all game. It's clear they had no idea what they were doing.
5) The offensive play calls the first half were inexcusable. Didn't even look like the same offense from last year. Actually it looked like a reversion to the beginning of last year.
I would make immediate changes on the OL/DL. Fuga should be rotational player at best. Cunningham or Garrett over Clements. Cannot possibly be worse.
If Mansoor has another bad quarter, I'd put him on the bench.
Settle in on some linebackers. We played too many of them on Saturday and they all made mistakes
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I sure as hell hope the players on the team are as pissed off as we, the fans, are. If this is their thought process, then there is no point in supporting VT football any longer.
Tyjuan should send me a check covering all of my time and expenses for driving 24 hours round trip to stay 40 hours in Nashville and watch us get totally fucking embarrassed.
Every other VT fan too.
I'm so tired of this football program.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
This was then most hyped team in a long, long time (8-12 years depending on who you ask). The team had 9 months to prepare for an opponent. Tech fans were told over and over how much production we had returning. 20 out of 22 starters.
And what did we get? A team that basically didn't show up until the second half. If this were a loss where we played well, that would be one thing. But it wasn't.
In the past I've been one to cut slack. But don't give us this "who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?" routine.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I got back Saturday night and after taking some time to recover and rewatching the game, I'm convinced the coaching staff thought this was going to be a cakewalk and had a 2 drive script of completely vanilla plays where we thought we would over power them.
That INT made Drones second guess everything and he didn't recover until late in the first half. I will say that if that dlineman doesn't make a great play, that pass would've gone for a HUGE gain. WRs were running open but their blocking was horrendous. The OLine...i mean woof...need to figure out what's going on there before this weekend.
I have no idea if Marve is capable of being the DC of a D1 team yet. I don't doubt that he will eventually be a good DC, but he's not now and I don't think we're the kind of team to let him figure it out for a few years before he's good. Our LBs looked completely lost the entire game. There was 0 discipline and 0 trust that the player next to you would handle their responsibility. Just so ugly to see from a more experienced team. Delane bought his own hype, I hope he settles down and gets back to business.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Saturday's loss was reminiscent of Fuente losing to Duke at home. Pry's whole schtick is that he knows what P5 football is supposed to look like.
It doesn't look like getting man handled by a doormat SEC team. Each phase looked completely unprepared.
I get that people can have a bad day at the office and young players aren't always going to be at their best....and that the other team has a say in a competition. But the football program demands more from the fanbase and doesn't deliver anything close to the energy that the fans put in.
Took over an away stadium and they took an absolute dump on the field. No problems from last year have been fixed. And it appears there are some new ones (special teams)
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Saturday was bad, but as someone who was at both, the Duke game was worse.
Not a ringing endorsement of this past game and more how bad that game was. VT didn't show up in the first half of this one, but Duke manhandled VT the whole game.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I agree that the game script was different. But the overall feeling I get from both games is the same.
Losses like those don't happen to good football teams. The head coach is responsible. Probably too early to make a change but Pry is trending in a bad direction.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Here's my opinion (not that yours isn't valid here)... In a vacuum that Duke loss was likely worse. But from a program defining standpoint, this one seems far worse. And here's my thought process - the VT fanbase has been asked to invest more and more over the last 5 years. We've stepped up. We did everything possible to help keep this roster together and for what? For another year like the last two (at least that's what it looks like atm).
If we don't win the next three (highly unlikely), then any sort of excitement that the fanbase had will quickly turn to complacency; replicating the same mindset that the football program has and currently is embodying.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
It's all about the end result. I was in the stadium in 1995 when we got shut out in Lane by what ended up being a 6-5 Cincinnati team. That's one of my favorite seasons of Hokie football, not because of how it started (0-2), but because of how it finished.
This staff can talk the talk, now it's time to see if they can walk the walk. Is this 1995 or is it 2022?
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
If Vandy wins 8 games or more it also becomes a footnote that we lost to a good team not last years doormat. Time will tell on that one.
I seem to remember a year that a VT team beat down and eventual national championship team in OSU...at the time we thought we had something special. Turned out we didn't.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I had this same thought before I looked at their schedule. They play 5 teams currently in the top 15, maybe 4 with the LSU loss. They also have to travel to Kentucky.
They may probably can win 4 total out of conference, but after that I don't see a win on the schedule barring a much bigger upset than Saturday
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
That VT team did have something special.... until 21 players on the 2 deep were injured and we were at 6th string RBs by the end of the season. I remember a MS paint markup of the depth chart that was posted on here (can't find it unfortunately) that had red all over it with insane injury luck to where half the conversations on the board were on the S&C in the program
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
That's just it, ain't it? I have zero faith in this staff, after what we saw on Saturday, that they can bounce back from this. I think this was a significant loss for our program, in that it ripped off any facade that this staff had as a result of our upward trend at the end of last season. The jig is up. Well coached teams don't lose like we lost on Saturday. Good coordinators don't call plays like we called plays on Saturday.
And it's not something that can be fixed in-season. We all wanted to believe that maybe Bowen and Marve had settled into their roles when we capped the season last year with a bowl win, but the truth just painfully slapped us in the face - our personnel are way too inexperienced, and way out of their element in P4 football. Even with a talented roster, they have shown that they can't gameplan or make adjustments at the level that is required to win games consistently.
I want them to prove me wrong, but I don't even trust them to win against Marshall or ODU based on what I saw. They just showed us who they are. A talented roster will be squandered by a feckless and inexperienced staff, who have yet to demonstrate that they can win when it matters.
Call me a pessimist. I hope I eat my words. But that's where I am at this point - we are not a good football team until proven otherwise.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
So we're going to stumble through our ooc games and then flex our muscles against a bunch of basketball schools?
I mean, we didn't beat anyone of significance last year. This coaching staff has yet to win a big game. This coaching staff has faltered consistently when it matters most. Iiwii
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Everyone is freaking out, but even several of the amazing teams we remember fondly shit the bed early in the season. My freshman year in 95 comes to mind, go 0-2 then ran the table. The season is not over after one game, the real test for the coaches and this team is how they respond to this. I am not throwing in the towel on this season yet.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
VT football = Virginia seasons. i.e. Winter, false spring, winter 2, april fools spring, spring, hell, summer, hell 2, pre-winter, fall, summer again, fall for real, winter
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I have 0 confidence in our coaches at the moment. And the more I think about our wins last year the more I think that the ACC truly is absolute garbage. Our wins were against ODU(C-USA), Tulane (AAC) and the scrubs of the ACC. Our non-con losses were Marshall, Rutgers and Purdue - hardly a murderer's row. The ACC is just complete trash and VT is part of the heap. The wins late in the year were fool's gold. This team isn't good. These coaches aren't good.
We really shouldn't be surprised. We have a HC who had never been a HC before. And he hired two unproven coordinators to lead the offense and defense. Three of the most important jobs on the entire staff are filled with guys who have no real resumes to fit said jobs. It is astounding.
If our defense had a bad game under Bud we kind of brushed it off as a bad game and didn't worry too much about it. Because he was Bud Foster and he had built his reputation. He had experience at the P5 level. He had become a proven winner. He fielded elite defenses for over a decade. His resume was stellar. Bad games happen, even to great coaches. They get benefit of the doubt.
In our case, we have a couple of dopes with no track record. This is their first serious P5 job and they're not proving that they can win at all. They don't have the credibility to deserve benefit of the doubt. They have a bad game every other outing and they haven't beaten anyone of significance since they've been here. Our best win last year was probably against 7-6 Boston F*ing College. We beat, literally, the worst 5 teams in the ACC last year (BC, Cuse, Pitt, UVa, Wake - 10-14 in that order) plus a pair of G5 teams, one of which (Tulane) showing up without their coach and a bunch of players.
This season was going to have to be a show-me season and game 1 was a complete and utter failure. If the coaches manage to win the rest of their OOC games and have VT in contention for the league title in November then I'll reconsider my stance. I think it is highly unlikely we will get there though. These coaches are going to continue being outclassed by real, proven winners at other programs.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Whit Babcock (3)
The Virginia Tech Hokies athletic director has been on the job for a decade and is in danger of his second straight whiff in replacing program legend Frank Beamer. Justin Fuente had to go after four seasons of .500 football, and now Brent Pry's third year is off to a dismal start after being upset by the perennially non-threatening Vanderbilt Commodores.
Pry is 10–15, with zero wins over power-conference opponents who finished the season with winning records. But there was a lot of optimism about the veteran Hokies heading into this season (The Dash bought the hype). Then they opened with a Nashville ambush, losing to a Commodores program that hasn't had a winning season since 2013.
Tech started in a 17–0 hole, failing to get stops and aiding Vandy's early momentum with a midfield interception on its opening drive. The Hokies were a minus-1 turnover margin in the game and still haven't won a game under Pry in which they lost the turnover battle.
Virginia Tech's playoff chances: See above with Clemson. Someone has to win the ACC.
So much fun getting national recognition for our ineptitude
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Agree. If Pry can't get things turned around, I feel the next move will be a change at AD. And that new person would replace Pry eventually. Hopefully Pry can make the changes he feels are necessary and get things back in the right direction this year. There is a ton riding on THIS SEASON.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
The one plus side of that article is that it's actually throwing some shade at Whit instead of just Pry. But I agree completely - at a program like VT - if you shit the bed twice in a row on football coaches, you gotta go.
I still can't understand why Whit gave the greenlight for Pry, as a first time HC, to bring on not one, but two first time coordinators.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I can see an argument against an AD meddling with coordinator hires, but I hope that he at least counseled against Pry hiring such inexperienced coordinators.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I have NOT researched this, but I would guess that over the Beamer, Fuente, and now Pry era's VT has the least or close to the least staff turnover. I'd put decent money on it. Since I'm usually wrong- I'm sure some P4 team has had the same analyst staff for 30 years and that would count in the metrics- but you hear what I am saying. ND changes coordinators all the time, Dabo has replaced people, Saban replaced people. Fuente never did, Beamer rarely did and Pry hasn't. I'm sure that since VT has no money, that will be the excuse. "we can't afford to fire Marve" etc.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Well as you know, being loyal to guys that can fucking coach like Foster and Cav is a good thing. That never hurts a program. Nobody criticized Dabo for being loyal to Venables. Nobosy criticized Bowden being loyal to Mickey Andrews. When you are loyal to Bryan Stinespring and Brad Cornelson- both quickly in coaching siberia after VT- well they can't coach and that's a problem.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I think it just boils down to institutional culture at VT. The university side obviously doesn't hold athletics as a very high priority, and the AD is still run like a country club. We've added a ton of new hires and pumped more money into the AD (just scroll the AD staff directory and look at the number of assistant/associate directors and ADs), but still not many there come from a previous stop where they've had a truly championship-level winning culture. Then no one holds people accountable when they need to - we hang onto underperforming hires way too long and don't make changes or adapt as quickly as we need to. Everyone has a cushy job and there's no real culture or pressure to operate at a championship level. Write it off or not, but I think Whit was speaking a little truth in the infamous 2020 Fu presser when he basically said that if you don't give much to us, your opinion doesn't have any weight. We don't have a ton of high dollar influential donors who apply much pressure, so there is no urgency. We talk the talk but don't walk the walk.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
with zero wins over power-conference opponents who finished the season with winning records.
my guess is he's referring to regular season? Because we beat BC who finished 7-6 last year. Doesn't really change the point, though. This crop of coaches haven't beaten anyone. They have not proven that they can win at this level. It's year 3. Win out or GTFO. That embarrassment last weekend might be the first nail in the coffin. Our best win in the Pry era is over a 7-6 Boston College team. IF that's not an indictment on this staff, I don't know what is.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Right.
I know we've had "bad" losses in the past but this one felt/feels different. For me personally, I believe this is the most deflating loss I've experienced since being a Hokie fan.
Coupled with the MBB woes and the WBB kenny brooks bullshit; the last 12 months of VT athletics are like the dark ages.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I listened to the TSL post-Vandy recap and I'm maybe more upset now than I was directly after the game.
How is it that this coaching staff was completely incapable of getting their team ready for the opening game in Year 3? There's just no excuse for how poorly Pry's teams have played in September during his time here.
Vandy didn't do anything overly surprising. Diego Pavia is certainly a threat in the run game but passing-wise he isn't exactly Tom Brady.
Why is Delane terrible now? Why did Parker Clements forget how to pass block?
Why did it take an entire half to adjust and throw the ball down the field?
There are just a million questions, and honestly, if there isn't a significant turnaround by year end, this staff needs to be firmly on the hot seat next year.
I am so frustrated.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
I said this in my last comment in the previous thread, but VT struggled the most with the pistol formation. And the OLC Chris Klenakis was OC at Nevada when they developed the pistol. He was OLC for many good teams, Nevada with Kaepernick, Arkansas when they were winning BCS bowls, and UL when they had Lamar Jackson. And I don't think Klenakis has installed the pistol at any of his stops since he left Nevada in 2009.
Kill and Beck, with Klenakis's expertise, revitalized a dead offense that highlighted Pavia's skills. I'm not saying it's a worthy excuse, but Vandy did do something that was surprising.
Watch every Vandy preview. How many people mention Klenakis and the pistol? I never saw it mentioned. I think everyone expected NMSU 2.0 and instead they got 2007-2010 era Nevada 2.0.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Jerry Kill > Brent Pry
Tim Beck > Tyler Bowen
Chris Klenakis > Ron Crook (and also Tyler Bowen)
Clark Lea >> Chris Marve
I will note that Clark Lea < Brent Pry -- but Kill is the HC behind the scenes.
I do think, if this season goes poorly, that Brent Pry should consider emulating what Lea did this offseason. We'll see if Vandy is on the rise or not, but I do think that Lea has put together pretty good staffs on both sides of the ball by firing his coordinators and underperforming position coaches, and then taking over the DC position, hiring an up-and-coming (but somewhat proven) OC, and hiring a co-HC with a great track record.
Still a lot of the season left and we'll see how it plays out. But I think it's clear that VT's staff is a little too inexperienced. Besides Brent Pry and Brent Davis, which VT coach has had sustained success at a major offensive or defensive position. Maybe Shawn Quinn at lower levels? That's it. I think Pry should really look at adding experienced coaches/coordinators to either replace or supplement the inexperienced coaching staff.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Kill -- yes. He was making pennies at NMSU ($600K). I don't know that I consider Kill a good HC for a prominent P4 program. He is amazing at building up deadbeat programs. At every stop where he was hired as HC, he took on a losing team and built them up and then leaves. I would still hire Pry over Kill, but Kill does have a better track record.
Built up S. Illinois into AA powerhouse from nothing. Left for N. Illinois.
Built up N. Illinois into double digit wins by the third season. Left for Minnesota.
Built up Minnesota from a 3-win team to peaking at an 8-win team. Left for health reasons (midseason).
Built up NMSU from dirt to a double digit wins. Left for health reasons.
Lea was making $1.5M in 2020 as DC for Notre Dame, so about double Marve's current salary. He makes around $3-4M as HC at Vandy.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Do you think people would be more worried/upset if we had lost to NMSU instead of Vanderbilt? Because in my mind that's pretty much what happened. We got outcoached by former NMSU coaches and outplayed by Pavia.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Im just fucking sick of it man. ODU had "tall" receivers once. The ECU game in charlotte was "hot". The Vandy game had crafty Jerry Kill who just walked out on his NMSU players and we fucking had on staff. He coached at literally the worst "major" college in America in an absolute shit town. But he's the secret sauce. Vandy had the NMSU offense which is "tricky" it was "hot" on the field saturday. Hugh Freeze is a "good coach", yadda yadda yadda yadda. When you lose to fucking Vandy, ODU and Liberty your program is deep in the shitter. Cold hard fact. You aren't "good", your talent is not "top level" and your coaching is not "good". Period. Sick of losing to these dog fucking programs. All this bullshit talk of winning the ACC?? are you kidding me? Boston fucking college is so much better than Vandy, it's not funny. I haven't checked, but I bet Clemson has "tall receivers" and it might be "hot" when we play in Miami. Just sick of it. Seriously. I like Pry, but I am sick of losing to teams like what will be 3-4 win Vandy, making lame excuses all while doubling ticket and parking prices and begging for money like a panhandler. Pulling off miracle upsets or winning bowls when Tulane's whole first string opted out is not how you judge a program. The metal meets the road with constant loses to dog shit teams- that tells you where you are. Sad truth.
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Tech is hyped regional college football with enter sandman excitement for 1 minute while paying through the nose hoping for a power 4 football experience
Log in or register to post comments about the Virginia Tech Hokies
Comments
Fuck this team
Corso called it!
Expectations are 6-6 after today...got down 17-0, came back and then choked with the game on the line. We are the Chokies.
It's hard to overstate how let down I am. I can't believe I allowed myself to believe we were good at football again. Still the same old joke we've been for the last decade.
I'm honestly not even that upset. Whatever, man. Here we go, same ol thing.
Let's bounce back, end on a winning record.
My problem is I'm more upset than I have been in a while. Now that CFB has changed and this is what we produce as a team with hype and returning production, I need to totally give up and move on to premier league and NFL. Going to vent and then do what I can to not really follow VT football anymore...after we go to the Stanford game (and likely see another L)
Soft football team. Same issues
That absolutely sucked. Got manhandled in every phase
I put it in Alum07's thread, but I'm not dealing with the bullshit today. I'm as pissed as everyone else. Feel free to vent, vent your hearts out, but figure out where the line is and don't cross it.
Drink bourbon, erase memories
*mind eraser*
No chaser
Here's the problem: I drank 2oz of 1984 wild turkey while watching Dozer's power hour, then somehow a third of a bottle of Kentucky Spirit disappeared during the game, and yet I feel like I could ace the SAT while running a marathon. This team found a way to be so meh, they neutralized alcohol.
I have been hanging around each year hoping that things will improve. They haven't. Under Fuente I watched the first couple games of the season then decided my time was more valuable doing other things than watching such a sh!t show.
I never believed the hype of a sleeper ACC champion (although Clemson looked bad today).
This game was sloppy. Bad coaching was evident. The two zeroes handed them 3 points. A lot, and I mean a lot of miscommunication. You could tell they were not prepared. But sadly they thought they were, only to get slammed.
The self deception is gone now. So is the hype.
Oh Jesus Christ I swear that stupid sequence where they missed the FG, got the delay of game, punted and they got the illegal substitution penalty, then got the FG try, and I told myself this FG was going to haunt us... would have been nice is they had 3 fewer points at the end of regulation...
Vanderbilt "here we go again" thread
Thankful I didn't buy into the hype for season tickets. Wow, just wow.
Same here. Season tickets no way
It was the predictable issues. Run defense and OL. Vandy is probably better than people thought coming in, but our weaknesses still very much exist.
Padia was the difference, but to get this program to the next level you have to beat mobile qbs. We have had this bugaboo for a long time.
Yeah, he's good. But you knew he could run. And couldn't stop it. That's just being bad at defending the run. It's not a matter of getting to the next level, it's basic competence in defending a big part of the college game.
For me (and I've mentioned on the other pages) was their last play. We crashed three from the right side (not even going to the ball carrier...just crashed down). No one...one stayed home and set the edge...easy read for Pavia to keep and break outside. DBs could recover.
Yep needed 8 in the box if you trust your DBs. Too much trying to sneak in a DB on an edge
After today I have zero trust in Delane. He had an awful game today.
Baffling performance from him. Vandy made some of their biggest plays at his expense.
Was their a pass play not at his expense?
Nope they didn't throw at strong 1 time.
I watched very little (transmission blew, had to buy a car today🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️) but every time I was watching, Delane got smoked. It was no less than 4 times that I saw.
They spied on him constantly and he would run right by the spy. It was terrible..
I'm bummed, but being keenly aware of those two glaring weaknesses have dramatically discounted how upset I'm allowing myself to be.
I'm not sure I saw enough screens today
I think an offensive strategy with more focus on the screen play would have been much more successful.
Also, I would like our LB to play more passively.
any bar recs near downtown Brooklyn???
There's a pretty sweet empanada place and beer garden in Albee Square
An absolute shit show, that's what that was. Supposed elite receiving group and an opening game plan designed to actively avoid getting them the ball. An opponent with 1 (ONE!) offensive weapon and we let him pick up six yards at will. Refusal to abandon the screen game and QB run. An inability to block anyone. At this point if I'm an opposing coach and I have prime Peyton manning or an average HS dual threat, I'm taking the HS QB for the guaranteed win against tech
Speaking the damn truth
The lack of defensive adjustments at the end of the game was mind-boggling. We then ran Drones, for one play, while cramping. Pry better hold himself and his entire staff accountable. Team can't win if they aren't coached to win. Also, Parker Clements is so bad I can only laugh.
Putting Drones back in for a play was absurd. Destroyed the shred of momentum that Schlee surprisingly had. Between that and the Double Zero Debacle, we really got outcoached badly today. It's just sad, man.
Marve has not proved a damn thing at DC as far as I'm concerned. In fact the opposite, several bad offenses have had their best days against his defense
Yeah, I've seen just about enough of him.
10-ply soft bud.
Took everything learned in the 2nd half of last season and completely forgot it.
The things we learned/saw today:
1. The OL looked worse today. Not the same. Not better. Worse.
2. Drones was absolutely lost in the passing game. He couldn't see the field at all. Not that he had a lot of opportunities.
3. Bowen. Stiney 2.0? He had an awful gameplan. But again, the OL...
4. Marve. Seriously. If he's still part of this staff in the same capacity next week, I'm done. He does not need to be in charge of a P4 defense. His crew is fundamentally bad at every level.
5. We are not a good football team. Not even close. We just got bullied by Vandy. I don't think we want to be in the SEC as bad as we think we do.
6. Our WR room was supposed to be great. Way too many dropped passes today.
7. Pry still has Mike London level game management skills. It was embarrassing.
8. I see 3-4 winnable games, all the others are tossups or losses.
Pry should do what Lea did.....fire Marve and take over defensive play calling before this season becomes a dumpster fire!
Yawn...
If you dream of being "An award winning insurance salesman" or taking over "daddy's dealership," the SEC is for you.
I feel like this isn't being focused on enough.
Drones looked AWFUL. If you told me he sustained a major concussion in warmups and they forced him to play, I would have believed you.
What in the world did this coaching staff do in the offseason!?
I'm not sure about awful but they clearly have him looking at something different. He was way too slow to get to his check downs and frequently looked panicked (which is understandable given that Parker Clements was credited with a sack). I think he was trying to be more pocket present but there was frequently no pocket. Just gotta let him do what he does.
Watching Cam Ward who he worked out with all offseason was night and day Cam Ward is wildly good, calm, went through his progressions with ease and never look flustered. Caveat there is that Cam Ward has the best OL in the conference.
I should have said that he was awful in the first half.
Fair what's wild is he ended up with a statistical career passing day in basically a half of football. Imagine how much we would have won by if the defense could have stopped anything and the game plan made any sense at all.
the inexcusable penalty on the punt handing them 3 points on a field goal is THE difference.
We had bad execution, bad drops, bad coverage, bad tackling. Just not at all what you want to see at any stage -- even if the box score looks close the actual game on the field was awful. And even if you just want to look at the box score and say it's close, it SHOULDN'T BE.
It's still the coaches' fault for not being on top of it, but incidentally I've always thought it was stupid that two different college players are allowed to wear the same number, you have from 0-100 and there's less than 100 of ya, figure it out.
Its a simple problem to solve...don't let players have the same number.
Don't have to solve a problem that never has the chance to exist. Reducing variables = increasing success.
That's what I'm saying.
Now that there are 105 scholarships you get 5 guys that shouldn't dress. Everyone else should be numbered uniquely. Still no excuse.
105? Hell, put me on the team and don't even give me a number at all, just gimme a jersey that says BEARD on it. I'll play CB at least as well as Delane did.
Lawson should be wearing a different number next week. It cost us the game today. There is no explanation Pry could possibly give that would make it ok to allow multiple guys to wear the same number after today.
This is absolutely on the coaches and staff. It's completely unacceptable for this to happen when we have dozens of people on staff.
The issue is that we have 121 players on our roster and the NCAA only allows 0-99 on a jersey. So you either allow duplicate numbers and then put controls in place with your staff to verify that duplicate numbers are not on the field at the same time (especially for special teams), or you disallow duplicate numbers and cap the gameday roster at 100 players (which is plenty as no one is using 100 different players in a single game).
The dress squad is never more than 70 players. It's a non issue. Teams had no duplicate numbers for 100 years when the rosters were even bigger. Not an issue. No reason to have any duplicate numbers.
Yeah but if you have two guys who want to be 0 then one of them won't be able to promote their "brand" and will miss out on NIL opportunities...I couldn't even make it through that with a straight face. No excuse for duplicate numbers. None.
It's evident that the team got caught up in their own hype and it backfired with this loss. The silver lining is that it's against a non-conference opponent. Everyone's been brought back down to earth, and we have a manageable stretch of games now before conference play kicks off.
It's disappointing, but I'm heading out for a walk to clear my head and make the most of my Saturday. I suggest some of you do the same. Not the start we hoped for, but there's still plenty of season left to turn things around.
But, we don't. We have Marshall (can we beat them?), ODU (can we beat them?) and Rutgers (far more talented and physical than Vandy). We could be 3-1 after those games or 0-4 honestly. With what we saw today, this team has taken a significant step back from last season.
Yeah the sneaky big takeaway from this game is that unless there are drastic improvements in coaching and execution, most of the "50/50" games looks more like 35/65 games. Rutgers especially
I guess on the plus side, our odds of pulling off the upset in Norfolk in a couple weeks probably improved with this loss.
Jerry Kill just can't be the difference here. Why advertise when the deals aren't there???
He wasn't the difference. We fucked around on offense in the first half, and we STILL can't fucking contain a mobile QB. Marve was the bigger problem today, but we need 4 qtrs of Bowen loaded on Monster and Bourbon, not 28 minutes. I want to believe we have talent, but they were not put in a position to win today. With fault on both sides of the ball that tells me there are larger issues with Pry at the moment. The only thing that doesn't have me flipping tables is that we have gotten accustomed to this.
I hear ya, you come back every season hoping to believe so it's a swifter kick to the pants when you're looking at 3-17 at the half
being accustomed to this is a problem all its own, honestly.
And it's the primary reason I still won't invest in season tickets. Having half the fall committed to 10 hours of driving, mandatory 2 night stay, and several thousands of dollars invested to just end up being pissed off at the end it isn't worth the investment.
Same here - the student wants to be back to feel the fall and football but the payoff isn't feeling equal or better.
I'm planning to do a lot of hiking this fall. It's better in basically every way.
Marve needs to go . Pry being a defense minded HC , this is embarrassing . Totally unprepared for a QB we knew they would be doing a lot of option . The lack of fundamentals on the defense is really really concerning which is why I think Pry needs to make a change ASAP. Offense play calling was crap today . WR didn't get open when the like blocked or Drones wasn't seeing the field . Oline did not block good in run or pass . Idk man this sucks I have held on to hope for too long . Hope the guys can turn things around for their sake but I have no more faith in this program sadly . It's been a fun ride boys .
Maybe it's time to be realistic. They have a good scheme, they just don't have the horses. Pry's defense is good when he has NFL talent. This team is just B level talent at every position
This excuse is tired and old.
Everytime Drones broke thru the 1st level, there was an LB or S there to meet him.
Pavia almost never got touched before gaining at least 5 yds.
No one is going to convince me Vandy has more athletes at LB than we do. They just don't play this useless, wander aimlessly strategy that Marve employs.
Not really an excuse, just an observation. Get some guys that win the one on ones at the line of scrimmage and it's a different team. Didn't see much of that today.
I don't know what scheme Marve is currently trying to run, but it's not what Pry ran at PSU. Our single gap defensive line require LBs to fit their gaps. Our LBs mysteriously disappear and are usually chasing after the runner giving them a 5 yard head start. I have never seen such a passive, sit back and react LB corps. Nobody is flying forward to stop the run. It doesn't make sense at all with what is supposed to be our scheme. And Marve is also the LB coach.
Marve is running the defense . Sure pry has some input but he's given Marve the keys to the car .
So this really sucks. We will do better. And then some shitty team like "Alcorn State" holds them to 42 yds rushing.... And we will be reminded that we shit the bed (BAD) in this game. Fuck I thought we'd be at least decent. How in the fuck did we just get manhandled like that?
Out played and out coached! Not much else to say.
That was a virtual home game for us. To play that bad is inexcusable.
Dark Horse playoff contender? That is laughable.
Honestly, that was laughable a week ago too. No rational objective person could have believed that. Now being a good or pretty good team winning 8 or 9 regular season games - 10 if we get lucky or play really well - was always what people should have hoped for. 10 seems out, 9 is unlikely, but 8-4 (what I picked us for) is still possible. But man, we have to improve.
The bonkers thing is that with a 12 team playoff, a loss to Vanderbilt has no bearing on winning the ACC (and therefore making the playoff). I certainly don't FEEL confident about winning the ACC after what i just saw, but this result on paper in a vacuum has little bearing on the big picture wrt VT in the playoff.
You do realize that was arguably the worst team on our schedule?
Technically, yes we're not mathematically eliminated from the playoff or winning the acc but technically, the A's haven't been mathematically eliminated from the wild card race either. Are they gonna make it? No.
Congratulations on making the perfectly wrong comparison for the point you're trying to make with the A's. It's like you read only the parts of my comment you wanted to disagree with lmao
Do i feel good about winning the ACC? No. But this game has no bearing on that. We're not going to get to November and be saying "man that vandy game is killing us in the ACC standings right now"
Your comment made me think back to what Beamer said a la Boist St and JMU. You are correct in that Vandy has no bearing on ACC aspirations, and all I'm saying is if we can't effectively win the easiest (arguably [on paper]) game on our schedule, then it becomes an indicator that we're not gonna win the ACC
Especially when you see Miami waltz into the swamp and smear the gators around like peanut butter
I think preseason on paper you're right that was the easiest game on our schedule. I also think Vandy is significantly better (not good but better) than pre season expectations and likely won't be the worst s&p team that we play this year when the seasons over.
I agree with you on this, but we'll see. Vandy could potentially be worse than we thought
And we could be better than we showed yesterday. We shall see
I tend to think we are. We lost a lot of individual battles but I didn't see battles our guys couldn't win. They looked lost and out of place, not undersized and unathletic.
We'll see if the coaches can get them into better positions.
Yeah this feels like ODU losses where we try to rationalize with "ODU is better than they got credit for" and then we look back at the end of the year and they're 3-9 and the QB we made look like Johnny Football is enrolling in the seminary
Let's simplify this: what are our strengths? Game plan and call plays around that.
We did during the middle of the game (quick plays, misdirection...blitzing/looping DTs) got the lead, then went back to our tired ways.
Don't look up our stats...this was a very winnable games. Poor coaching, play calling and execution cost it.
what are our strengths?
Punting.
Crap, I drank the Kool-aid.......
....again.
We looked like
That's brilliantly BUH-RUTAL!!!!!
Marve has shown nothing in his 3 years here.
Bowen took last year's offense..
Made absolutely zero adjustments and apparently expected Vandy either to be confused because they accidentally watched tape on the wrong team or simply roll over.
Here's the deal...in the NIL Shitscape that we live in now, there are winners and losers who can't compete....we are clearly heading in one direction and not the other.
While I am disappointed, I am sadly not surprised. However, I am proud of the way the team fought back from 17 points down to tie it and then take the lead. That shows heart, which you can't coach. Here's to massive improvement for week 2. 🍻
"Proud" is the word I would use. I'm satisfied that they didn't give up, and both side of the team played 28 minutes of solid ball in the 2nd half. That should give the team some confidence that they can pull themselves back into a game.
Well. The off-season was fun while it lasted!!
We just got punched in the mouth and didn't know what to do about it. I said before the game that we needed to score early and often and if we didn't we'd find ourselves in an ugly dogfight. I'm positively confounded by the offensive performance. I didn't expect a lot from the defense to begin with but with how our offense was clicking at the end of last year I expected it to at least make sense. When we went on a little run in the second half I joked about how we find something that works then go away from it. Then that's what we did. I don't understand.
Putting Drones in for a play while he's clearly hurt and asking him to run a qb power made absolutely no sense. That was reminiscent of Corn/Fu shenanigans.
At the end of the day VT just isn't fun to watch. We haven't been fun to watch in over a decade. Our fans really showed out today and I'm proud of that. We have one of the strongest fan bases in football. It's just a shame the football team consistently fails to match their energy.
It's a long season. There are still goals to chase. But this performance does very little to instill any confidence in the team. Frank often had frustrating early season losses and followed them up with dominating 10 game stretches. I don't expect that with this team but it's not impossible. We have a easy schedule. Thanks #goacc
I told myself that gnawing feeling in my stomach that this would happen was just PTSD.
Nope. I've just seen this movie way, way too many times.
But it's just an exhibition game, right?
With the new format, yes, technically. But it doesn't make me feel any better. I don't have any confidence in any game we have on the schedule. the remainder of the year. We have fallen beyond repair as a program, and any hopes of ever joining the SEC just got laughed out of a 2nd-tier stadium.
It seemed like Drones was holding on to the ball forever. Why didn't he scramble?
No blocking up front ?
Wasn't always the case
How about taking 1 or 2 deep shots early and then start trying to run the ball when the safeties don't load the box and line backers shoot through the gaps during the snap.
Do you not understand football??
When playing an aggressive defense, throwing repeated screens 3 yards behind the LOS is the only way to go.
S/ if not already completely obvious
Felton had zero deep targets. So maybe Drones overthrows him by 5 yards and it's 2nd and 10. Is that really worse than 2nd and 11 after another failed bubble screen?
This was a shit show in coaching. At least Bowen made some adjustments. Special teams were terrible outside of Love and Moore. Delane should get his NIL check held this week. Not a lot of guys came to play.
While we're venting - where the fuck was the staff making sure all the players were properly hydrated and ready to play late? Losing Drones to fucking cramps when we needed him the most is on the medical and training staff, and Drones.
I saw a few camera shots where the staff was teying to get players to drink and they were fetting shrugged off
TBH, trying to get humans, especially in the 18-23 age range, to do anything preventative is a daunting task.
Delane was the most disappointing defender for me by far.
Offensive line was awful and the play calling didn't help at all.
This is just a complete failure all around for VT. This is the most money VT had spent on football ever - including now very highly paid (frankly probably very overpaid) NIL players. And a total failure today on all fronts. I'm starting to just get sick of the whole landscape honestly. We had no NIL for the basketball programs because we dumped it all into football, and this is the result we get? This is what going all in on football looks like? We are incredibly poor coached and poorly motivated. Vandy wanted it more and outcoached our staff completely today.
I'm with you... I dropped my fair share on the football program, and now they have the remainder of the season to convince me that I don't need to spend it elsewhere, like basketball, softball, baseball, wrestling, hockey, men's gymnastics, or the bass fishing team.
Maybe we need to give out more nil money, and pay our coaching staff more.... that should make tech a better team...
Oh, we did that. How did that work out for us
Unfortunately we weren't able to fix the two biggest problems of OL and run fits. It's frustrating to have invested in a lot of good pieces, but those two weaknesses make almost any game a toss up.
I didn't expect the OL to get drastically better. I did expect them to be slightly more cohesive as a unit - they were not. In fact, they looked a bit worse than the end of last season. Maybe one reason Bowen's job was so difficult all day (his play calling was questionable). But the LB thing is a complete head scratcher to me... lining up 5-6 yards off the LOS, even in obvious run situations and being incredibly passive with the "read and react" mentality is mind boggling to me. I just don't get it. I know the guys are limited from a talent standpoint, but there's no reason they should be so passive and consistently, after 2-3 years in the program, in the wrong place or in the right place way too late.
It's a little bit talent and a lotta bit coaching IMO.
I get your point that tech didn't solve their problems of oline and defense, but we did add an olineman and 5 defenders on dline and lb.
Nil will have to be used like a business, no return equals no cap ex expenditures. College football has entered the real world, and if you can't produce, you got to go. No dei in sports, please
OL is supply and demand. Lots of people want them so they're hard to land. I get it
Run fits can be coached. And with a DC who is also the LB coach and was a "run game coordinator" at his last stop, it's not an outrageous ask. Not to mention LB is the head coach's specialty and they landed their "number 1 LB target" in the portal. That offense is tricky for sure but 9 out of 12 teams on a Vandy's schedule will look perfectly competent against it, and all of them with less prep time than we had.
Believe me I'm not excusing the defensive coaching.
This team compared to the one we heard about all offseason leading up to this game is a total joke. What development were we doing all offseason? No one looks any better than they were last year. We made offense look hard again. It looked like Fuente ball to me tbh. With this amount of talent that is absolutely insane.
I was very afraid of them reverting back towards the offensive scheme they started the season with the last two years, and I'm afraid that did play a factor. French can correct me if I'm wrong
First half play calling was crazy conservative. It definitely felt like we weren't attacking their weaknesses, which felt very Fuente-era-ish.
Almost as if we were going vanilla and expected the win
I felt this so much. We wanted to run behind our OL that wasn't holding it's own. When our WR should be able to do whatever they want vs that secondary.
Finally discovered the downfield pass and the ball moved. It's the same OL as last year, we're going to need to move the pocket for success.
Pry.." it's humbling and maybe we needed some of that " ... I don't know what there was to be humbled about ... we have not had a top 25 time in years . Yes this team we head higher hopes for but the team had not earned anything yet . Disappointed in coaches choice of words .
Yup...this team hasn't done shit and just got embarrassed. I guess we'll see what they do from here...
Maybe the players needed some humbling after all the hype, but the coaches are responsible for this loss. The gameplan sucked and there's no excuse for having double numbers on the field.
Plenty were saying we could be a playoff team this year. Not favorites by any means, just that with returning roster taking a step forward and knowing the state of the ACC, it wasn't ridiculous to think we could do it. Sounds like maybe the team started believing it was a given
A lot of this is on the coaches. . Gameplan on both sides was BAD
Pry literally a couple weeks ago "We are not letting the team buy into the hype, we aren't listening to the noise."
Pry now: "We needed to be humbled"
This is the kind of lip service that is going to cause a lot of people to tune out quickly. I feel like fans are being asked to pay for more and more and getting scammed quite frankly.
Exactly 100%
Sounds like it was more than just noise
We will be alright. Doesn't change much other than we gotta beat Miami or Clemson.
Miami or Clemson? Before we see Miami we gotta beat the Marshall team that beat us last year, ODU in Norfolk where we've never won, and the Rutgers team that dominated us in the trenches just like that bad Vandy team just did.
This loss may not have changed anything mathematically in the ACC, but it sure did let us know where we are (or aren't) as a football team.
Before the season I thought we wouldn't know much about this team until after Rutgers. That was assuming we took care of these first 3 games. Unfortunately we learned a lot about this team very quickly today.
And it wasn't a whole lot of promising from what I'm reading. I'll go back and watch it later, having missed most of it, but I'm not feeling particularly encouraged by what I'm reading nor what I (again, very limited) saw.
Do yourself a favor and don't.
I always do, ugly or not. I can't help myself. I (eventually) watch every minute of every game at some point during the season... I'm a sick man🤷♂️
Dude, nice to see you around here again. Wish it was happier circumstances, just nice to see ya though. Welcome back
Ha, thanks. I was excited to get back on here and talk football during this magical run we were about to go on... but at least I have somewhere to vent!
God I wish I could have your level of head buried in the sand!
It's almost like hiring the fucking Jags TE coach and a LB coach that no one in Tallahassee was sad to see leave doesn't set you up for success.
Was waiting for this 🤦♂️
I needed this.
I'm nor terribly upset. Embarrassing loss yes but this is exactly what we were last year so I wasn't at all surprised.
The OL was straight butthole. Tackling was soft. DL disappeared for random stints. Play calling head scratchers. Random coaching blunders.
The only glaring thing to me was Delane getting abused for 4 straight quarters.
Everything about the Offensive strategy in the 1st Half was counterintuitive and self-destructive.
We needed to be aggressive and score early points against a team that was clearly going to play dink-and-dunk, ball-control offense.
French called this from a mile away. And I mean absolutely no insult to French but when someone (with admittedly great FB knowledge) on the Internet has a better understanding of general strategy than your highly-compensated Coaching Staff, it says very, very bad things.
So something stood out to me about the early part of the game today - which resembled a lot of what we've seen early season over the past few years.
We weren't competing.
If you remember the 30 for 30 about the U, they said there was like a wrestling mat in the locker room and people would spontaneously get called into a 1v1 battle against someone else. Just for competition. Those guys fought to win as a cornerstone of their culture on and off the field and they played that way on the field.
But we don't. It looks we run drills and repeat slow motion execution of our plan in our practices but in a full speed game against anyone, we just don't compete. We don't know what to do when the other team just comes at us.
~HorseOnATreadmill
I'm witnessing how we play. I'm wondering how we practice.
Also Stiney and Corny called this many screens and jet sweeps.
We got the hype but all the media forgets we were 6-6 last year. We weren't that good. The O-line barely changed and they sucked last year. It's not shocking that it didn't evolve. I was just bummed that our play calling was so damn east-west.
Went to downtown Philadelphia to watch the game with the VT Alumni Philly Chapter (more on that later). But for now, I have to scroll through the threads to see how many people are calling for Pry to be fired. Can't wait to review the posts.
Note: Semi-sarcasm and dark humor applies to this comment.
I live in West Chester, so I'm interested in hearing how it went. Always looking for more Hokies around here.
There was actually a game watch party in West Chester. It was at Side Bar. Are you on the Philly Alumni Chapter group?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/phillyhokies/
I'm hoping that one was better. Was not at all impressed with Wicked Wolf.
I'll need to look into this, thanks for sending it along!
One of the more frustrating things from today and the past decade, is that far too often, fan support/sandman has been the best part of gameday.
Tech fans completely took over that stadium over an hour before kickoff and the team slept through the whole first half and got gassed by the end of the second.
Still trying to wrap my mind around Tuten only getting 9 carries. How in the hell does that happen. I know you're losing but you can't go away from your best plays.
We had about 9 snaps during the first 15-20 minutes of the game (can't remember the exact number there, so I might be off. It wasn't a lot though). Those snaps included very conservative plays; one's where it looked like we expected to out physical Vandy. That didn't happen, so we had to change it up in order to get things moving.
I don't understand the offensive philosophy at all honestly. We aren't a "line it up and run over you" kind of team, because, quite honestly, our OL is absolute trash. We aren't an air raid team because of, well, Drones. We don't have a ton of creativity (like the Vandy offense?) because we have Bowen. I'm not sure what our offensive philosophy is. All I know is that today looked a whole lot like the CornFu offense minus a competent OL.
Tyler Bowen is trash is the answer
Game on the line. Less than two minutes. All you need is a field goal. The best player on your entire offense is Tuten. 3 straight incomplete passes. 3-and-out. 0 yards gained. I didn't think it was possible to do as bad or worse than Corny. And, yet, here we are. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why it's so hard for VT to find competent coordinators on either side of the ball. They are out there and we just can't get them. We suck and coaching is a HUGE reason why.
I'd argue that the best player on the team is Drones, and Vanderbilt was keying in on Tuten.
What Bowen was doing in the second half was working pretty well until that last drive.
I would, however, fault him for putting Drones in for one play after having already put Collin Schlee in. Once you give control to Schlee, you should stick with it long enough to see it through.
Something that gets lost is that drive was so abysmal we should've lost the game in regulation. Even if you don't score, the one thing you absolutely cannot do is go 3 and out and run no clock. We did exactly that.
100% true but you can even expand beyond that.
The last 4:21 was a masterclass in ineptitude.
Up 7 at that point, one stop probably wins the game. Instead, they work through us like a hot knife through butter and score in barely two minutes.
That leaves us plenty of time to answer but so much time that if we don't move the ball, we will have to punt with a decent amount of time on the clock.
So naturally, we throw the ball 3 straight times to leave them absolutely as much time as possible.
D then comes up big in the clutch, right?? Lol...nope, bailed out by a push on a very makeable FG.
This is bad coaching, period. And if this is still where we are 3 years in, the future isn't looking bright.
Pry learned fucking up the 4th quarter from the best.
Definitely part of the long-term concern here.
Nobody in their right mind is going to confuse James Franklin with a master tactician.
So if PSU is our model, it may not get much better than this if at all.
Yeah...so I'm not buying into anything with this team until they beat a team that has a pulse. When you can't even beat a bottom tier SEC team you should reevaluate your expectations.
This right here. This goes for both players and staff. I wanted to believe coming into this season like everyone else that we finally had the pieces on the board to make some serious moves, but this team and this staff now have to prove it to me, and any other fan as far as I'm concerned - why exactly we should buy in.
I'm sick of going into every game with a puckered butthole, even against bottom tier opponents we should beat the doors off of on paper. I can't trust anyone's competence at this point. I can't trust this team not to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Why would I? Why should any Tech football fan?
Why, you ask? Because I've been a VT fan since 1968, maybe? Because I've seen it all before? Because I somehow lived through the Beamer 2-8-1 season to enjoy the first and second Sugar Bowl seasons and still remain a Hokie fan?
Look, nobody's any more disappointed in the way things have been since Fuente's failures lowered us from relevance than I am, and I give nobody an uncritical pass. It's just what my fandom demands of me. I remember the days that a big game might attract 20,000 people, and I was there for many of them and a lot of games that were much less attended than that. But, win or lose, they are my team and I'm going to watch the games faithfully because of that.
I know, times have changed and I hate the pay for play NIL, the transfer portal, and losing to teams we should beat, and can't blame folks for being upset by the prospect of another disappointing season. But me, I'm going to watch, cheer, piss and moan and yell at the TV, but personally, they're my Hokies and while attending games has become less important with age and distance, I will be there in spirit.
But, that's just me.
I have. A team Incapable of betting the dregs of any conference doesn't get my time on Saturdays (or Thursday).
The goal before the season started was (1) to beat the teams you are supposed to beat and (2) show some improvement with physicality and discipline. We saw neither today. Now I look at the schedule differently...
Vandy: L
Marsall: Tossup
ODU: W
Rutgers: L (much more talented and physical than Vandy)
Miami: L
Stanford: Tossup
BC: Tossup (physical up front with a mobile QB)
GT: L
Syracuse: L (We haven't beaten them in the dome since the '90's)
Clemson: L
Duke: W
LOLUVA: W
Basically, I only see 3-5 wins on the schedule based on what I saw today.
Swap Marshall and ODU. Turn Stanford into an L, BC into a W and Cuse into tossup. Ans yeah we end up in about the same spot. 7-5, probably....
Shoot ODU took South Carolina to the wire. And we're in Norfolk this year. I'd call that one a tossup leaning towards an L
What is this "Brent Pry and the rising Hokies football program" narrative? It is nonsense. The guy is 10-14 and today looked worse than the last two years.
Actually he is worse than Fuente if you look at the numbers.
The worst thing is he and the team seem to have bought into that, after spending the whole offseason talking about how they haven't
Walking out of the stadium with Vandy students trash talking anyone around them was certainly humbling.
Our fans deserve better. How much longer can we as a program sustain this?
That is a poignant picture you've painted here. What a bummer.
Not much longer unfortunately . I know I've lost a lot of hope for this program over the last several years . It sucks .
Figured that would be the case "fuck VT" audibly came through the TV broadcast a couple times during the first half.
That sucks so hard. Thanks for going and representing. The fans were incredible.
We had to walk past the frat houses on the way out. They were awful.
The fans showed up.
I loved seeing all that maroon and orange dominating the visitors half of the stadium. Looked great.
You're right, though, the fans deserve better.
It wasn't just the visitor side. We dominated the entire stadium. Not sure if it came across on TV, but we even had the "Let's Go Hokies!!" chant going with one side of the stadium chanting "Let's Go," and the other chanting "Hokies!!!" Not to mention we were all braving heat stroke.
You're goddamned right, we deserved better than that trash!
All I heard on the radio was that obnoxious stadium announcer bro. Like a combination of DJ Clue, DJ Khalid, and Harry Caray
bro
up 7, 1:52 on the clock... pass, pass, pass.
what the entire fuck was that.
I think it was tied at 27 for that sequence, but criticism of the play calling is still relevant. Terrible sequence of calls.
actually, no. we were up at that point. giving the ball back
we were never on offense with the score 27-20. We went up 27-20 and they equalized on the ensuing drive
Straight stupid. All we needed was a field goal shot to win. Never was I more optimistic then deflated. Keep it simple, run the football and steal a game we didn't belong in.
Those coaches should get their heads checked..
It was tied.
Regardless of play calling, there was some really poor execution:
1st Down: Drones rushed/short-armed the 6 yard pass to Jennings, and Jennings wasn't able to get around quick enough to make the catch. If he takes an extra half second and makes a confident throw, it's 2nd at 4 at worst, and quite possibly a 1st down if Jennings and can turn it up field.
2nd Down: Drones looks for one open man downfield (which I guess wasn't there), and too quickly went to his check-down in the boundary; if he scrambled to the field side, he either buys a lot more time or takes off for a good chunk of yardage (potentially a 1st down).
3rd Down: Drones didn't find anyone down field, then does try and buy time by scrambling to field side but a defender is there and in his face; he chucks an inaccurate desperation pass down field to B. Gosnell for an incompletion (comes up gimpy without contact)
The contrast between the late-game execution between Drones and Pavia was stark. TBF, Pavia been in that position a lot more times, had some failure, but more success. Drones has never been in a position to win the game late, and he choked in his first attempt. Drones was experiencing some cramping, so maybe that affected his play. But he definitely have that "him" factor late in the game. I hope he grows from the experience, because he will need to up his game if VT is going to have a good season.
Drones did show that he can carry his team to comeback from a 3-score deficit into a lead, something that he had never done before. So, there was definitely some growth in this game. Just has to finish strong and take the reins in the final 2 minutes.
CHOKIES!! That was absolutely pathetic and our team looked sick and tired. Delane should not start next game. I have 4 tickets to the Thursday night game if anyone is interested. I can't support this team anymore as this program only strives to be mediocre so far in my adult lifetime. I'm not okay with that. Adios.
What I can't understand is how Pry struggles so much to get the team up for games. Outside of one or two games we always seem to start slow and flat and then have to dig ourselves out of a hole, especially on the road. First game of the season in an SEC stadium that your fans have taken over, how can you not get the team hyped for that? It's a trend at this point.
I'm not investing one more cent into this program until I have a reason to do so.....#wearethechokies
Jerry Kill straight Paul Johnsoned us. His strategy was brilliant. Waiting until 1 or seconds left on the play clock every play. The pistol and option action had our LB playing on their heels. Even when we had a spy on Pavia, he gained at least 5 or 6 yards and usually more. I was obviously disappointed that the OL looked like they regressed rather than took a step forward. But I also felt like our DL was terribly underwhelming. Most of the game, Pavia seemed to have all day to throw or choose to run. Up 27-20, Vandy went to a 2-minute drive style. That's when our DL should have been able to wreak havoc, and they did absolutely nothing.
We, as a fanbase, deserve better. And I hate the word deserve.
This football program also doesn't deserve a fan base as passionate as we are.
We fucking showed out. It was a damn home game there were so many Hokies there.
Making a donation to the Hokie Club for exactly $0 since 15 players on the team all want to wear the dumbest number in sports and play at the same time. I expect to be given 3 points in return.
I'll continue doing so until Bowen is fired and Pry takes over the defense.
I'm fucking done #firewhit
Sums up a lot of my boiling over frustrations at this point. The VT AD is incredibly fortunate to have a fan base like VT that has put up with a continually garbage product for over a decade now. Fans still show up to Lane, donate, buy concessions, buy merch, travel in force, donate to NIL, etc. I just don't think the powers at be at VT have any clue what running a P4 program should look like. Whit is aloof and clueless, and just relies on Ballein to guide him in everything football. And JB should go - he's just a relic of the old guard who has hung around far too long and wheeled and dealed his way to the powerful position of influence he now has.
Pry's a good guy, good personality, but if he doesn't hire some better coaches around him, he's not going to get any better. People are going to start tuning out after all the talk about staying focused, not buying into the noise and hype, then you get completely outcoached and outclassed by Vandy week 1. Last season's turn around looks more like a miracle pulled by Brent Davis implementing some of his run concepts in quick order to salvage the season. Honestly after Marshall last year, I thought one or both coordinators would be fired at the end of the year.
Something is going to have to change, or VT is going to be permanently resigned to irrelevance. I've given up season tickets and Hokie Club membership for a while now, and I honestly don't see myself going back with the way things are looking.
Pry's 1st call this Offseason should be to Ricky Rahne as he was the actual brain running the Offense @ PSU.
Defensively, he either needs to take full control or find someone with some actual coaching chops. Marve is JHam all over again--not nearly seasoned enough to be a Coordinator.
Would absolutely not be opposed to this.
The actual genius was Joe Moorhead. PSU fans are pretty jazzed that Ricky Raine is gone.
Been a VT fan for 30 years, and I have officially now seen us lose in every fucking side show way possible. And yes we lost because of the stupid fucking thing that has nothing positive to do with football- nothing about winning football- the fucking 12 people wearing the same number bullshit. NOTHING positive regarding football. If recruits "like it" fuck those recruits. Its fucking stupid and always has been. NO FOOTBALL reason to do it- so fucking get rid of it. Hey you- your number is now 15, you don't like it? fuck off. Its all good until it COSTS YOU a football game. Then its exposed for what it is- fucking stupid. No reason to do it. Bear Bryant didn't do it, Jimmy Johnson didn't do it. Win the fucking game. Do things that WIN games- not lose them like this horseshit. There are never - ever- in any game more than 70 players dressed. NEVER. get rid of the stupid fucking childish duplicate numbers that have never helped a team win anything ever. At this point in the fucking disaster that is VT football- ANYTHING that doesn't help you WIN games as opposed to draw penalties needs to fucking go an it needs to go ASAP. If I were Pry, I'd get rid of the duplicate numbers before the boosters get rid of him, but that's just me. He also needs to get a real fucking defensive coordinator in here. I hear there is a hall of fame type DC that lives near VT. Maybe fucking call him?
If Pry could somehow coax Bud out of retirement for a couple years, sign me the hell up. Or at least get his opinion on somebody out there that might fit their similar philosophies for Pry to hire.
I was OK with a clean break from Bud, building a new culture, etc. Until we lose to fucking Vanderbilt where they do nothing until they need yards, and then they get them freely. When we needed a stop, we went o-fer. zero critical stops made in that game- nada, none. We are lucky the kid missed a FG- because we didn't stop them there either. I am fairly certain that Bud Foster could have dialed up ONE stop in the 4th Q. Probably several. Even in retirement. We got zero. none.
I thought Pry was a natural successor to Bud. Very similar philosophies. But whatever the hell Marve is trying to run doesn't even resemble Pry's defenses at PSU. VT under Bud and PSU under Pry never had as abysmal LB play as we have been seeing.
Amen. Think back to when Bud had to patch things together with the Vegas Robinsons, Lindell Gibson's, Chase Williams of the world and stone cold stopping people. In terms of Pry at PSU- we've had maybe 2? perhaps 3 DE's in the history of our school as good as Abdul Carter. Corey Moore/Cornell Brown? Point is the talent there on defense is apples to oranges as to what he has at VT right now. Lawson played awful today, Fuga gets washed out as a 6th year player, Delane can't win a 50/50 ball... no comparison in talent
Agree on the talent comparison. Bud I think was much better at working with lesser talent and getting guys who could do their job/play fundamentally sound even if they weren't the most talented.
On Delane - so disappointed in how much he has regressed. He was continually burned in coverage all day. And we had to pay up big time with NIL two off seasons in a row with rumors of him getting interest from OSU and others. The shot of him at the end of the game sitting on the sideline looking checked out rubbed me the wrong way.
You notice they stayed far away from strong and didn't test the middle much either. They went hard after Delane. They saw something on film obviously.
With play like that, I say put in Lovett or one of the other upside younger guys for experience. Delane was picked on all day.
^^So much this^^
At some point, despite our lack of talent at certain positions, coaches have to coach. If the guys aren't doing what they are supposed to do after 2-3 years, then put a freaking walk-on in the game. Pry talked all offseason about the competition level, but I didn't see much of anything competitive today tbh.
I miss the days of VT, as the underdog, coming out and simply being the more physical team even in a loss.
I'd have gladly taken an even money bet that they would have gotten the TD and not even had to kick if time was not winding down. The 3 straight complete choke-jobs on the last 3 defensive drives after we took the lead was the most annoying thing to me about the game.
Part of me was upset we moved our first dining reservation at Disney today so it would run over into game start. Part me thought you know what over the years the games that I'm not in person for just don't mean as much. That's just kind of where I am the games in person are fun but honestly I'm tired of the last 20 years yes 20 years of Hokies football.
#firewhit...this will apparently be my hashtag for 2024/2025
Okay, I think I can top most of those who did not actually spend money to travel to Nashville and buy tickets. You had a worse day if you shelled out to go to this game.
(1) Go into Philly on the train to the alumni chapter game watch party - it's a pleasant 1.9 mile walk to the station in good weather and get a bit of exercise.
(2) Get off the train and in the 5 or 6 block walk to the sports bar (Wicked Wolf) I get ...
(a) Somebody accosting me for money
(b) A gay guy tries to pick me up
(c) 2 more gay guys try to pick me up - I am not making this up, is it because I am wearing an orange shirt?
(d) Crazy guy talking to himself and walking down the middle of the road
(3) Get to the bar. The sound and video are not in synch. You hear the audio 2-3 seconds before the action happens on the screen. They never do get it fixed.
(4) Try and order wings. A while later, the waitress comes back and apologizes that they cannot make wings. I was planning on leaving at 17-0 and the only reason I stayed was that I had not eaten all day and I wanted my wings.
(5) By this time, we are playing better, so I stick around, get to see us tie the game, then take the lead, then watch the massive choke job at the end with the last 3 defensive drives.
Best part about the day was a bunch of Clemson fans there and they were actually very nice and we had a good time rooting for each other. Ended up where our two groups decided to try and schedule a joint watch party for the VT-Clemson game and do a food drive together with them for it.
Miami looking good week 1.
Fuck the SEC!
I have the answer: Nick Saban
I wish
Nick Saban needs Whit's job. I think that's what you are saying, Joe, right?
We know Saban wouldn't lose to Vandy under any fucking circumstance... but we super duper double dare know he wouldn't lose to them the way we did- fucking duplicate numbers, zero tackling, zero toughness, shit 1-1 coverage by DBS... nah Saban wouldn't lose like that under any circumstance in any game.
Nick Saban: the last self respecting SEC head coach who wasn't a fat fuck resembling a canned ham. May he, and the boring ass age of football he ushered in, forever rest in peace.
Damn.
You're going to bring up the duplicate numbers like 1,000,000x a day. 😂
Give me a positive football reason for it, and I'll never mention it again. "Recuits like it" doesn't qualify.
But, but, but....
If you don't let players have the numbers they want, you're infringing on their NIL "rights"....
Wait til that lawsuit drops...I need $1.2 mil because I had to wear #12 instead of #21
They can wear tutu's with LED numbers of whatever the fuck they want in practice. Knock youself out, keep it real bro. But for the actual fucking game- where we are trying to WIN- you are not wearing someone else's number. Full stop. Why coach? because there is no positive football reason to do so. Next question.
This is the best comment on this site you've ever made.
Didn't think a VT coach would top Fuente icing a 55+ field goal during covid...
Three points for two #0s, a number that wasn't even allowed ten years ago.
This isn't the first time (year) it's been allowed. It's been at least three seasons. Just need the coaching/QC folks to get their heads out of their asses and notice this shit. Lane wasn't returning, so they put in Jennings, therefore Lawson needed to exit. They made so many bone headed mistakes (helmet communications not working, getting to the line after the 15-second shut off, the 00 fart...can't remember others but remember screaming at the TV when dumb shit kept happening).
I'm not disagreeing with you. More than anything it shows how inexperienced this staff is. The staff should be able to handle it. To me this all rolls up to Whit. He hired a head coach with no experience because he was folksy and had a shoestring Tech connection. His seat should be hot, but it's not because the Virginia Tech athletic department is run like a country club. That is THE main problem here and perhaps that rolls up to Sands as well.
To my original comment, I'm just preparing myself to you beating this point into the ground.
He should. Like week 2 into my cfb25 dynasty I started changing numbers because I'm thinking "why the hell is Ali Jennings playing linebacker?" without realizing what it was.
Simple fucking solution: want to keep the 25 thing? Fine. Reserve it, you got 99 other numbers to choose one, choose quick before they're gone!
It almost can't be talked about too much. It's probably the stupidest thing I've ever seen a coach do at any level, and we literally lost the game because of it.
I've never heard of that happening in any sport in my entire life, and when the refs announced what the penalty was, my jaw was firmly on the ground.
Just ask yourself this. If 30 players wear the same number- how does it help you WIN a football game? It doesn't. There is no football reason for it. none. It does not help you win in any way.
And it's so incredibly simple to avoid.
1. No ST players ever have duplicate numbers. Never. Ever. No exceptions.
2. Even easier, no duplicate numbers period.
Should be a simple concept for road games as the number of dressed players is less than 100.
in the 1970's-80's Alabama and Nebraska had 300 players. There were no limits back then on scholarships and they had a million walk on's. Some how, some way Osborne, Bryant, Switzer were able to run the team of 300 players with no duplicate numbers. Osborne and Switzer are still alive in fact= Pry could ask them how to do it.
iirc bryant used to just put them on scholarship for other sports
Also, if it ever happens again, the coach is fired, on the spot.
You see this is just the staff thinking ahead to petition the NCAA to allow 00. I mean of you allow 0, 00 just makes sense! /s
Whit to NCAA: "Sir, we need more zeroes on the field so we can win more"
NCAA: " maybe you should worry more about zeroes in the wins column, you've put enough zeroes on the field since you got here"
Double-0 Pry, starring in Blunderball.
We need to throw in irrational and imaginary numbers.
IMO having two of the same number was already irrational.
jennings gets to be π
lawson gets to be e
I can hear the refs now- "That's holding on Pi..." and " offsides on i" and "Targeting on Euler's #..."
Maybe we can reallocate our NIL money and get Bud to come back and coach the D the rest of the year so these clowns can see what coaching looks like.
Because Bud's D was always amazing against Pavia-like QBs...
not to mention they essentially ran the goddamn flexbone for large stretches of the game. bud was super good with that one too.
I know it's been a while. But this has been a problem for the team for the last decade.
2013: Duke QB - 44 yards on 11 carries
2013: Maryland QB - 123 yards on 23 carries
2013: UCLA QB - 161 yards on 10 carries
2014: Pitt QB - 118 yards on 19 carries
2014: BC QN - 127 yards on 19 carries
2015: OSU QBs - 139 yards on 14 carries
2015: ECU QBs - 184 yards on 25 carries
2015: Duke QB - 109 yards on 18 carries
2015: UNC QB - 74 yards on 18 carries
2016: TENN QB - 106 yards on 14 carries
2016: SYR QBs - 175 yards on 30 carries
2016: GT QB - 121 yards on 32 carries
2016: CLEM QB - 85 yards on 17 carries
2017: CLEM QB - 94 yards on 19 carries
2017: MIA QB - 95 yards on 15 carries
2018: GT QB - 215 yards on 40 carries
2018: UVA QB - 112 on 24 carries (VT win in OT by 3)
2018: UC QB - 64 yards on 9 carries
2019: DUKE QB - 100 yards on 17 carries
2019: UVA QB - 164 yards on 19 carries
2019: UK QB - 233 yards on 34 carries
Certainly Bud has his moments shutting down impact players, but basically half of the losses in his last 5 years were from quarterbacks running all over us, or at least well above average games. Definitely not "always amazing"
me thinks you missed the sarcasm
I did...
But I do feel like some rose colored glasses can get used for the Bud defenses
Apologies. But yea, running QBs were Bud's kryptonite. I can only think of a few games in which Bud was able to shut down a running QB (Sugar Bowl 2012 being the most notable). I don't think Bud's D was the per-se answer for Vanderbilt.
And to the OPs point, I do think that Bud would have had his linebackers more ready to go and the defensive backs would've been better at shutting down the passing game, which would have resulted in a better overall defensive result. But Pavia would still have been a major factor (but not enough of a factor to give up 34 points).
It always confused me how much trouble it gave Bud, considering the number of years we had mobile running QBs... like you work around them everyday and can't stop them?
THIS.
Especially considering his defense, for a time, lined up against arguably the greatest mobile QB ever in practice every day. If anyone should have sat down and schemed how to stop a mobile QB, it should have been Bud during the Vick years.
Correction... Bud's defense was amazing against mid fucking QBs period for 30 years. He struggled sure against "Good" dual threat QBs. There is a big fucking difference. Having said that, Bud shut down Terrell Pryor, Shoelace Robinson, etc. Guys that were on heisman watch lists. The frustration is this juco QB running around on us. Bud would have shut that noise down pronto on the vast majority of occiasions.
Pryor? When did we play him?
UVa watching us like:
So fucking bad
I'm not particularly concerned about anyone stealing Pry, Bowen, or Marve.
If anyone has the nerve to watch a replay, count how many times Phillips makes the right read and then misses the tackle.
I get the feeling that Stroman and Phillips had a long sit down and were told that with targeting being so arbitrary, to stop being goons. And now it's implanted itself too deep in their skulls.
Yeah, the going low and wrapping up, especially for a dude like Phillips who was just a bruiser in high school, didn't seem natural. I think it was tying up his feet a bit. That's how you get hurdled. You're thinking too hard, you slow your feet to avoid launching, you get launched over.
As a glutton for punishment, I am forcing myself to rewatch.
Here's what I cannot get over... it was bad enough that we called a screen on nearly every other offensive play, but so much worse---the timing and execution of many of these screens was completely fucked.
It's like we never practiced them at full speed. WR not ready for the ball, blockers not setup, Drones throwing it 98mph at the kneecaps--many of these plays were executed at a Middle School level.
Maybe they worked well in practice because Marve had our LB meandering aimlessy 8 yd off the LOS per his usual, but we appeared wholly unprepared for a team that played with any level of speed or aggression.
This assessment has me both laughing and crying... Sheesh, I'm sure you're right.
The thing for me is this - we are being asked to pay these players now. I know we aren't spending OSU level money, but we absolutely got taken advantage of this offseason based on the effort I saw today.
I thought about this a few times today. I'm genuinely worried that we have a too player-friendly environment and may have way overspent in retaining this roster last offseason. I hate NIL so much, and I'm concerned that players are learning how to work the system to leverage other "offers" that may or may not exist for more money, or that other teams are faking interest in certain players to get teams to blow their NIL budget on retaining players. I wonder if we have just blown too much smoke up these guys tails and got them thinking they are stars, aren't being held accountable. We hear that they weren't buying into the hype, but the level of disinterest and lack of want to on the field today painted a different story.
I'm sure there are a lot of NIL contributors with buyers remorse on their investment now.
100% accurate
They are, as are the various "NIL Agents" who feed off the system-- many of whom have no actual qualifications or experience
We have--when most of them have little to no actual NIL value and zero chance to play in the NFL.
The second CFB turned into a system where 16 and 17 year-olds were getting 6 and 7 figure payouts simply to show up on Campus and the ability to transfer at anytime for any reason whatsoever, the notion that winning and competition were the #1 priority went out the window. It's about getting your "brand" out there...and if School X isn't showcasing your brand enough, its time to move on to School Y.
And the people who are feeling remorse are the people who couldn't see NIL for the massive scam and money-pit that it is.
I think this sums up very nicely the reasons Saban gave for retiring when he did. He knew it was going to have to become a key focus of the head coach and he wanted no part of it because it's such horse shit.
I'd agree. I think the whole thing has a house of cards feeling that is bound to fall apart at some point in the near future. Why spend money on a product that is inferior out the gate? It's an insanely bad investment of your money. Save it or spend it on your family instead.
I wonder how many of our pre-season sellout games now have shit tons of tickets on the secondary market?
If this game happened to me on CFB25 I would delete my dynasty and start over. I could go on to win the natty, and still be pissed off we lost this game in the spectacularly incompetent way that we did.
I just started year 2 of my dynasty with VT (and arguably am bad at recruiting) but I can not stop any running teams. The linebackers are just awol unless I get lucky and call a run blitz through the right gaps.
Dont get me started about the miracle I had to pull off to beat south carolina when they have that 99 speed WR who just punks delane all day while I cant stop any runs.
Stopping the run isnt too daunting on cfb25.
Fuck me if I can do anything to ever stop the pass though. Best I can muster is an int or 2 but on 300 yards passing.
I figured out rhat the suggested rush 4 and everyone is in zone was killing me and my LBs were nowhere to be found.... i have to force man coverage every play and control a DT to dosrupt the middle and its way easier.
My current complaint on defense is that when i change players it is always not the one i wanted
the rage powered me to a 6 plate deadlift
nothing but respect for coach kill though
We've never won a game in our new uniforms 😩
So many embarrassing things today.
The fact that we clearly weren't ready to play football.
We lost on the road to a bottom feeder SEC squad when our fans were 75% of the stadium.
We got toasted by a mobile QB (never heard that before). Our inability to convert any screen pass for more than 1 yard and yet we call them every other play.
You guys, I legit had forgotten that we were all convinced last year by the 4th/5th game that Bowen can't call plays well. And then I think Drones and Tuten got hot and we all just moved on for a bit. It hit me today in this game like some repressed memory lol.
Also, I scrolled the roster during the game to see if duplicate numbers are a common thing — I stopped at like jersey number 15 and had already counted 13 duplicate pairs. I'd say they just shouldn't allow duplicates, but from scrolling the roster it felt like we had 100+ dudes on the team.
Inefficient offense. Inept defense. .500 season incoming. I fucking hate this.
Beat the teams you're supposed to fucking beat.
Damn preseason hype.
Has NEVER served VT well.
Prove it on the field, in real games, or you don't have it.
I slept on it and I feel that Pry's focus on us being a running team is what has lead us to call a completely conservative offensive game plan. It took 4 games and a new QB to switch what we did last year. Now with the offseason Pry wants us to be more run focused and we have gone away from what won last year. IMO it doesn't work with this team and what it's strengths are. We had no problem airing the ball out last year, Dones launched it to the endzone at least once a game.
I put this loss 100% on the coaches; The players didn't quit and almost won the game for us despite the bad coaching. The coaches need to have a hard conversation with themselves and figure out how to not be holding our team back because they feel we should be a certain type of team over playing to our team's strengths.
Also Pry needs to hire some ex DC that had no problem stopping a running QB as an advisor for the rest of the season. I've never seen VT be able to do so and yesterday was a great example of this BS.
Justin Fuente wins that game
Hate to say it but I agree. You gave Fu 9 months of prep time for a game, he was generally going to win. Pry is 0-3 now in openers
1-2
Oh jeez you right, the ODU game was the first one last year.
Justin fuente wouldn't have fielded a team with as much talent though. Just look at the 2021 and 2022 squads as comparison. Although we do know he can stack som wins if he is given a team someone else recruited
Didn't even watch the game. Had a nice lunch with my wife and kids and took them and the dog to a winery. My wife updated me about the clown show taking place at the end of the game as we drove home and reinforced my choice to no longer watch Hokie football live. I had a lovely afternoon with my family.
If I had done that, I'd keep it to myself...
OK, just kidding...
Didn't get to watch replay till last night. Decided not to come on here and look at the vent thread or game thread, thinking that sleeping on it might keep my thoughts more rational.
Well, it's morning now, and all I can say is
WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK WAS THAT FUCKING SHIT?
See yall back here next week.....
Had a 20 team parlay between thurs/fri/sat games. Hit 19 of them.
Hmm, I wonder what game let you down?
It's a head scratcher.
But one thing put in the memory bank is we can hit the over this year!!!
Well, there is "I'm sick and tired" of losing games like this (which has been going on more than a decade, more like 25 years) and then there is, "I'm done".
The game has passed us by. We are in the rear view mirror. I will watch this team play next week, but if we lose to Marshall and ODU, I'm done. I just cant...I just can't.
I stopped watching VT Bball live last season and awaited the final score to determine if I was going to watch the game. That was a positive move to my sports watching enjoyment. Depending on the results mentioned above, it may be time to do the same with VT Football.
Yeah...I'm sick and tired too, but I'll never be "I'm done".
I just lost my best friend of 36 years this spring (we became friends at VT). I'll never have another best friend like that in my life. Just like my late son, he's irreplaceable in that role.
I see VT football, basketball, etc. in a very similar light. Throwing on the jersey and watching games all year round is just a part of me that I can neither shut off nor replace with another team or something else entirely. For better or worse, it's part of my DNA.
First and foremost, the loss of a loved one, especially outside of old age, is most tragic and a forever void that Faith, Family and Friends help one get through the tough times that accompany it. I too, have lost a family member too early in life. He too, is irreplaceable and miss him greatly. I have a 24 year old special needs daughter who will live with my wife and I for as long as we can physically and mentally care for her. We hope and pray and will do so until the day we die that when we are gone she will be taken care of. We can prepare for all we want, it's a forever thought and concern. I don't see VT sports at any level of the above.
I used quotation marks, as in figurative and not literal. I'm going to watch them play, I said I would. However, depending on how this season plays out, I may start watching them differently (after the fact).
I started doing that last season and it has greatly improved my Saturdays. Watching a win is still fun even if I know the outcome, and I don't have any fun watching us lose, so I can simply opt not to watch it. Plus the ACC drops the 1 hour condensed games on YouTube and those are pretty solid.
Oh I'm sorry- I didn't mean to come across as having a problem with your take, I just meant to offer my take. I also didn't mean to equate VT sports to my (or anyone else's) personal loss. I just meant that for me, the VT stuff is similar in nature as being irreplaceable for me, albeit on a completely tangentially different level than the loss of a loved one.
** edit **
I've also said here in the past that in the big scheme of life, a win or a loss or a terrible season is small potatoes compared to what is really important in life. I'm just saying it's an impossibility for me to disconnect from something that's so deeply a part of who I am.
Roger that. I appreciate it. Much love to you my man. 🙏
Right back at ya buddy! 🪃🫡
I'm still going to tune into the tech games. But my focus has shifted dramatically. In years past I'd be interested and engaged in college football generally. I'd watch the interesting games. The big teams. Conference foes. I found that watching VT win made the entire rest of the weekend much more enjoyable for watching other teams. It's nice to watch other teams knowing your team has already won.
This year I'm completely disinterested in the rest of college football. Especially after VT had an incredible dud of an outing in Nashville.
I joined a fantasy epl league with my brother and now I'm having way more fun watching soccer than I've had watching football for the last 15 years. My Saturday mornings used to be all football. Now they're all football and it's so soo much better.
I think this is it for me. I'll wear O&M on gamedays. I'll watch the games if I can (I'm not going to put nearly as much effort into watching games as I used to), check the scores if I can't but mostly just enjoy watching soccer instead.
I didn't watch the game, had Roth and Burnop on in the gym. Time and time again I kept hearing the name *Mansoor Delane* and not in a good way.
Anybody have an inside scoop on Drones and what's up there with a potential injury? Pry's comments weren't really leaning either way...but it wasn't optimistic either if he had to go back in the game. Basically said, "it didn't look good for him," in regards to getting back in. Just not sure how that boded for this coming week.
He was cramping should be fine
Was thinking about something.. Fuente wins that game by 30 with this team, right? With Foster as DC.
Granted he was never capable of getting a team this talented through his own efforts, but there have to be a ton of staff's out there that can do better with what they have.
I'll also add this: just about everyone thought cross training these inexperienced LB's was bad and a waste of time. It's now shown in all 3 of Pry's years here. I can't understand why he's so committed to that philosophy when it's so obviously detrimental, at this stage in development at least
Womp...womp
This is our new legacy in football. Always giving someone their 'first' or an embarrassing one-off stat. Just like the Men's Basketball team always seems to give a random player their career game at the worst possible time.
Who needs a national championship, Heisman winner or number one overall draft pick when you have all these other glorious records and firsts???
That's what I said. It's always US.
And we're double digit favorites again this week against Marshall...
At least SEC Shorts didn't call us out by name.
It's Monday, how you guys feeling?
I'm still pretty numb, like something internally won't allow me to be outwardly angry or sad. It just is what it is. Plenty that we could've done differently...
Time removed from the game has only pissed me off more. We thoroughly humiliated ourselves in the national college football conversation, to the point where even third party observers with no connection to the program are expressing shock at how bad our playcalling, gameplan, game management, and coaching looked on Saturday.
Our staff had 9 months to prepare for this game. Our dedicated fans packed the house at an away stadium. This is what was delivered to us. It is beyond unacceptable at this point. Our program's refusal to invest in quality personnel - outside of just the HC - is a clear and undeniable trend, and it has now bitten us ten too many times.
I love Pry as a person. I want to love him as a head whistle. But folksy charm has worn out its luster - now it's prove it time. Either get these coordinators to game plan and call plays according to our strengths, or find new ones who will. Otherwise - repeat the mistakes of your predecessor and brace for impact.
Marshall and ODU will be telling in this regard. If we can't win the games we're supposed to win, in year three, with this roster, then respectfully - what the fuck are we doing here?
Yeah, I was okayish until I listened to the Cover 3 reaction podcast....the way the national media as a whole is roasting the staff for getting outcoached by a guy on the hot seat is sad. That game really soured me from the rest of the weekend slate of game. This is year 3, Pry and his staff don't have the excuse of being new and not knowing anymore. Poor Clock management and play calling were all something I would've expected 2 years ago...and don't even get me started on the "Double 0" thing. I admit I bought into the hype..not saying we were ACC title or playoff bound, but that for the first time in years we could go out and field a competitive team and improve from the year prior. What I saw Saturday was more of last year: poor run D and O-Line play. Other teams will see this and try to exploit it and if we can't do something to fix it, I'm right where I was after the 1-3 start last year with Pry: "does thisguy even know what he's doing?" It's only one game and the first of many, but man it pissed me off like I haven't been pissed since Fu.
Well, we're 0-1 in games we should win handily...
A couple things to me that are pretty glaring, in no particular order:
1) Delane looked awful. Reminded me of Jimmy Williams back in 05. Supremely talented, but just got absolutely worked. I'd have to rewatch, but first glance some if it appeared to be lack of effort. Regardless, I don't understand how he wasn't benched.
2) Fuga is not a P5 tackle and should not be starting.
3) Put Parker Clements on the bench. I don't care what he does in practice. He's a turnstile on game day.
4) I was wrong to disagree with Chris Coleman's criticism of tech shuffling the linebackers around. They were out of position all game. It's clear they had no idea what they were doing.
5) The offensive play calls the first half were inexcusable. Didn't even look like the same offense from last year. Actually it looked like a reversion to the beginning of last year.
I would make immediate changes on the OL/DL. Fuga should be rotational player at best. Cunningham or Garrett over Clements. Cannot possibly be worse.
If Mansoor has another bad quarter, I'd put him on the bench.
Settle in on some linebackers. We played too many of them on Saturday and they all made mistakes
I think the bigger issue here is that a week 1 loss has become VT tradition
Overreacting to a week one loss to Nick Saban's 'Bama is a whole hell of a lot different than a week one loss to odu or Vanderbilt
Having this mentality is a problem.
Yeah since 2010 we haven't had an "overreaction" to a week 1 loss. The reactions have all been correct. Those teams were not any good
I sure as hell hope the players on the team are as pissed off as we, the fans, are. If this is their thought process, then there is no point in supporting VT football any longer.
Tyjuan should send me a check covering all of my time and expenses for driving 24 hours round trip to stay 40 hours in Nashville and watch us get totally fucking embarrassed.
Every other VT fan too.
I'm so tired of this football program.
Tech fans overreacting about a loss? Come on.
This was then most hyped team in a long, long time (8-12 years depending on who you ask). The team had 9 months to prepare for an opponent. Tech fans were told over and over how much production we had returning. 20 out of 22 starters.
And what did we get? A team that basically didn't show up until the second half. If this were a loss where we played well, that would be one thing. But it wasn't.
In the past I've been one to cut slack. But don't give us this "who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?" routine.
I got back Saturday night and after taking some time to recover and rewatching the game, I'm convinced the coaching staff thought this was going to be a cakewalk and had a 2 drive script of completely vanilla plays where we thought we would over power them.
That INT made Drones second guess everything and he didn't recover until late in the first half. I will say that if that dlineman doesn't make a great play, that pass would've gone for a HUGE gain. WRs were running open but their blocking was horrendous. The OLine...i mean woof...need to figure out what's going on there before this weekend.
I have no idea if Marve is capable of being the DC of a D1 team yet. I don't doubt that he will eventually be a good DC, but he's not now and I don't think we're the kind of team to let him figure it out for a few years before he's good. Our LBs looked completely lost the entire game. There was 0 discipline and 0 trust that the player next to you would handle their responsibility. Just so ugly to see from a more experienced team. Delane bought his own hype, I hope he settles down and gets back to business.
What you did there. I see it 👀
Thank you.
Saturday's loss was reminiscent of Fuente losing to Duke at home. Pry's whole schtick is that he knows what P5 football is supposed to look like.
It doesn't look like getting man handled by a doormat SEC team. Each phase looked completely unprepared.
I get that people can have a bad day at the office and young players aren't always going to be at their best....and that the other team has a say in a competition. But the football program demands more from the fanbase and doesn't deliver anything close to the energy that the fans put in.
Took over an away stadium and they took an absolute dump on the field. No problems from last year have been fixed. And it appears there are some new ones (special teams)
Saturday was bad, but as someone who was at both, the Duke game was worse.
Not a ringing endorsement of this past game and more how bad that game was. VT didn't show up in the first half of this one, but Duke manhandled VT the whole game.
I agree that the game script was different. But the overall feeling I get from both games is the same.
Losses like those don't happen to good football teams. The head coach is responsible. Probably too early to make a change but Pry is trending in a bad direction.
Here's my opinion (not that yours isn't valid here)... In a vacuum that Duke loss was likely worse. But from a program defining standpoint, this one seems far worse. And here's my thought process - the VT fanbase has been asked to invest more and more over the last 5 years. We've stepped up. We did everything possible to help keep this roster together and for what? For another year like the last two (at least that's what it looks like atm).
If we don't win the next three (highly unlikely), then any sort of excitement that the fanbase had will quickly turn to complacency; replicating the same mindset that the football program has and currently is embodying.
I don't think my opinion is valid or invalid....it just kind of is. I think you have stated better what I'm trying to get at.
C'mon son.
This was actually a close game that you had to watch to the very last play in order to know who won. Came down to the overtime lotto.
Doesn't compare to being throttled by Duke for three quarters.
If VT bounces back from this, it becomes a (still painful, but irrelevant) footnote.
It's all about the end result. I was in the stadium in 1995 when we got shut out in Lane by what ended up being a 6-5 Cincinnati team. That's one of my favorite seasons of Hokie football, not because of how it started (0-2), but because of how it finished.
This staff can talk the talk, now it's time to see if they can walk the walk. Is this 1995 or is it 2022?
Agreed.
If Vandy wins 8 games or more it also becomes a footnote that we lost to a good team not last years doormat. Time will tell on that one.
I seem to remember a year that a VT team beat down and eventual national championship team in OSU...at the time we thought we had something special. Turned out we didn't.
VT did have something special, even if it wasn't as special as we thought.
You're right, this season isn't defined yet.
I had this same thought before I looked at their schedule. They play 5 teams currently in the top 15, maybe 4 with the LSU loss. They also have to travel to Kentucky.
They may probably can win 4 total out of conference, but after that I don't see a win on the schedule barring a much bigger upset than Saturday
That VT team did have something special.... until 21 players on the 2 deep were injured and we were at 6th string RBs by the end of the season. I remember a MS paint markup of the depth chart that was posted on here (can't find it unfortunately) that had red all over it with insane injury luck to where half the conversations on the board were on the S&C in the program
That's just it, ain't it? I have zero faith in this staff, after what we saw on Saturday, that they can bounce back from this. I think this was a significant loss for our program, in that it ripped off any facade that this staff had as a result of our upward trend at the end of last season. The jig is up. Well coached teams don't lose like we lost on Saturday. Good coordinators don't call plays like we called plays on Saturday.
And it's not something that can be fixed in-season. We all wanted to believe that maybe Bowen and Marve had settled into their roles when we capped the season last year with a bowl win, but the truth just painfully slapped us in the face - our personnel are way too inexperienced, and way out of their element in P4 football. Even with a talented roster, they have shown that they can't gameplan or make adjustments at the level that is required to win games consistently.
I want them to prove me wrong, but I don't even trust them to win against Marshall or ODU based on what I saw. They just showed us who they are. A talented roster will be squandered by a feckless and inexperienced staff, who have yet to demonstrate that they can win when it matters.
Call me a pessimist. I hope I eat my words. But that's where I am at this point - we are not a good football team until proven otherwise.
This is pretty much what everyone was saying after our 1-3 start last season.
So we're going to stumble through our ooc games and then flex our muscles against a bunch of basketball schools?
I mean, we didn't beat anyone of significance last year. This coaching staff has yet to win a big game. This coaching staff has faltered consistently when it matters most. Iiwii
I mean quite possibly yes, just hilarious to watch everyone flip flop the narrative so quickly.
We'll never improve -> signs of improvement -> we're so back -> bad playcalling/game/decision->we'll never improve
^^^This
Everyone is freaking out, but even several of the amazing teams we remember fondly shit the bed early in the season. My freshman year in 95 comes to mind, go 0-2 then ran the table. The season is not over after one game, the real test for the coaches and this team is how they respond to this. I am not throwing in the towel on this season yet.
VT football = Virginia seasons. i.e. Winter, false spring, winter 2, april fools spring, spring, hell, summer, hell 2, pre-winter, fall, summer again, fall for real, winter
I have 0 confidence in our coaches at the moment. And the more I think about our wins last year the more I think that the ACC truly is absolute garbage. Our wins were against ODU(C-USA), Tulane (AAC) and the scrubs of the ACC. Our non-con losses were Marshall, Rutgers and Purdue - hardly a murderer's row. The ACC is just complete trash and VT is part of the heap. The wins late in the year were fool's gold. This team isn't good. These coaches aren't good.
We really shouldn't be surprised. We have a HC who had never been a HC before. And he hired two unproven coordinators to lead the offense and defense. Three of the most important jobs on the entire staff are filled with guys who have no real resumes to fit said jobs. It is astounding.
If our defense had a bad game under Bud we kind of brushed it off as a bad game and didn't worry too much about it. Because he was Bud Foster and he had built his reputation. He had experience at the P5 level. He had become a proven winner. He fielded elite defenses for over a decade. His resume was stellar. Bad games happen, even to great coaches. They get benefit of the doubt.
In our case, we have a couple of dopes with no track record. This is their first serious P5 job and they're not proving that they can win at all. They don't have the credibility to deserve benefit of the doubt. They have a bad game every other outing and they haven't beaten anyone of significance since they've been here. Our best win last year was probably against 7-6 Boston F*ing College. We beat, literally, the worst 5 teams in the ACC last year (BC, Cuse, Pitt, UVa, Wake - 10-14 in that order) plus a pair of G5 teams, one of which (Tulane) showing up without their coach and a bunch of players.
This season was going to have to be a show-me season and game 1 was a complete and utter failure. If the coaches manage to win the rest of their OOC games and have VT in contention for the league title in November then I'll reconsider my stance. I think it is highly unlikely we will get there though. These coaches are going to continue being outclassed by real, proven winners at other programs.
On the bright side, we are not FSU. They look pathetic!
https://www.si.com/college-football/forde-yard-dash-college-football-pla...
So much fun getting national recognition for our ineptitude
If Pry flames out, Whit has to go.
Period.
Agree. If Pry can't get things turned around, I feel the next move will be a change at AD. And that new person would replace Pry eventually. Hopefully Pry can make the changes he feels are necessary and get things back in the right direction this year. There is a ton riding on THIS SEASON.
The one plus side of that article is that it's actually throwing some shade at Whit instead of just Pry. But I agree completely - at a program like VT - if you shit the bed twice in a row on football coaches, you gotta go.
I still can't understand why Whit gave the greenlight for Pry, as a first time HC, to bring on not one, but two first time coordinators.
I can see an argument against an AD meddling with coordinator hires, but I hope that he at least counseled against Pry hiring such inexperienced coordinators.
Ask Frank Beamer after his 2-8-1 season. Made all the difference once he ditched his original good buddy guys.
I have NOT researched this, but I would guess that over the Beamer, Fuente, and now Pry era's VT has the least or close to the least staff turnover. I'd put decent money on it. Since I'm usually wrong- I'm sure some P4 team has had the same analyst staff for 30 years and that would count in the metrics- but you hear what I am saying. ND changes coordinators all the time, Dabo has replaced people, Saban replaced people. Fuente never did, Beamer rarely did and Pry hasn't. I'm sure that since VT has no money, that will be the excuse. "we can't afford to fire Marve" etc.
Funny thing is this used to be promoted as a strength of the program and the loyalty that Beamer had from his assistants as a huge positive.
Well as you know, being loyal to guys that can fucking coach like Foster and Cav is a good thing. That never hurts a program. Nobody criticized Dabo for being loyal to Venables. Nobosy criticized Bowden being loyal to Mickey Andrews. When you are loyal to Bryan Stinespring and Brad Cornelson- both quickly in coaching siberia after VT- well they can't coach and that's a problem.
Sands has been here 10 years and the list of other programs not named VT that have won national titles in sports is embarrassing. Get rid of him too.
Sands in NOT at VT to win National Titles in sports....
That's pretty obvious.
You have to actively try to be as bad at it as VT has been.
I think it just boils down to institutional culture at VT. The university side obviously doesn't hold athletics as a very high priority, and the AD is still run like a country club. We've added a ton of new hires and pumped more money into the AD (just scroll the AD staff directory and look at the number of assistant/associate directors and ADs), but still not many there come from a previous stop where they've had a truly championship-level winning culture. Then no one holds people accountable when they need to - we hang onto underperforming hires way too long and don't make changes or adapt as quickly as we need to. Everyone has a cushy job and there's no real culture or pressure to operate at a championship level. Write it off or not, but I think Whit was speaking a little truth in the infamous 2020 Fu presser when he basically said that if you don't give much to us, your opinion doesn't have any weight. We don't have a ton of high dollar influential donors who apply much pressure, so there is no urgency. We talk the talk but don't walk the walk.
my guess is he's referring to regular season? Because we beat BC who finished 7-6 last year. Doesn't really change the point, though. This crop of coaches haven't beaten anyone. They have not proven that they can win at this level. It's year 3. Win out or GTFO. That embarrassment last weekend might be the first nail in the coffin. Our best win in the Pry era is over a 7-6 Boston College team. IF that's not an indictment on this staff, I don't know what is.
Right.
I know we've had "bad" losses in the past but this one felt/feels different. For me personally, I believe this is the most deflating loss I've experienced since being a Hokie fan.
Coupled with the MBB woes and the WBB kenny brooks bullshit; the last 12 months of VT athletics are like the dark ages.
my worst feeling as a fan was after that goddamned false start to end the marshall game last year
Hey at least after 3 rounds of changing the scheduling model, BC is off our schedule!!- oh wait.
I listened to the TSL post-Vandy recap and I'm maybe more upset now than I was directly after the game.
How is it that this coaching staff was completely incapable of getting their team ready for the opening game in Year 3? There's just no excuse for how poorly Pry's teams have played in September during his time here.
Vandy didn't do anything overly surprising. Diego Pavia is certainly a threat in the run game but passing-wise he isn't exactly Tom Brady.
Why is Delane terrible now? Why did Parker Clements forget how to pass block?
Why did it take an entire half to adjust and throw the ball down the field?
There are just a million questions, and honestly, if there isn't a significant turnaround by year end, this staff needs to be firmly on the hot seat next year.
I am so frustrated.
I said this in my last comment in the previous thread, but VT struggled the most with the pistol formation. And the OLC Chris Klenakis was OC at Nevada when they developed the pistol. He was OLC for many good teams, Nevada with Kaepernick, Arkansas when they were winning BCS bowls, and UL when they had Lamar Jackson. And I don't think Klenakis has installed the pistol at any of his stops since he left Nevada in 2009.
Kill and Beck, with Klenakis's expertise, revitalized a dead offense that highlighted Pavia's skills. I'm not saying it's a worthy excuse, but Vandy did do something that was surprising.
Watch every Vandy preview. How many people mention Klenakis and the pistol? I never saw it mentioned. I think everyone expected NMSU 2.0 and instead they got 2007-2010 era Nevada 2.0.
Having losing much sleep (or not), I have come to the conclusion that this loss to Vandy was the sacrifice that had to be made to join the SEC! /s
Bud Elliott said it best. If you swap coaching staffs that game is a total blowout. Also "the coordinators aren't any good"
Ha that's great. Makes me feel really warm and fuzzy inside.
I know it's frowned upon to phrasing on the site but I just have to in a sequenced fashion:
DAMN....OUCH....FUCk....SHIT.....DAMMMMMNN
Jerry Kill > Brent Pry
Tim Beck > Tyler Bowen
Chris Klenakis > Ron Crook (and also Tyler Bowen)
Clark Lea >> Chris Marve
I will note that Clark Lea < Brent Pry -- but Kill is the HC behind the scenes.
I do think, if this season goes poorly, that Brent Pry should consider emulating what Lea did this offseason. We'll see if Vandy is on the rise or not, but I do think that Lea has put together pretty good staffs on both sides of the ball by firing his coordinators and underperforming position coaches, and then taking over the DC position, hiring an up-and-coming (but somewhat proven) OC, and hiring a co-HC with a great track record.
Still a lot of the season left and we'll see how it plays out. But I think it's clear that VT's staff is a little too inexperienced. Besides Brent Pry and Brent Davis, which VT coach has had sustained success at a major offensive or defensive position. Maybe Shawn Quinn at lower levels? That's it. I think Pry should really look at adding experienced coaches/coordinators to either replace or supplement the inexperienced coaching staff.
LOL we could have had kill for much less than Pry and Lea for less than Marve... lol.
Kill -- yes. He was making pennies at NMSU ($600K). I don't know that I consider Kill a good HC for a prominent P4 program. He is amazing at building up deadbeat programs. At every stop where he was hired as HC, he took on a losing team and built them up and then leaves. I would still hire Pry over Kill, but Kill does have a better track record.
Built up S. Illinois into AA powerhouse from nothing. Left for N. Illinois.
Built up N. Illinois into double digit wins by the third season. Left for Minnesota.
Built up Minnesota from a 3-win team to peaking at an 8-win team. Left for health reasons (midseason).
Built up NMSU from dirt to a double digit wins. Left for health reasons.
Lea was making $1.5M in 2020 as DC for Notre Dame, so about double Marve's current salary. He makes around $3-4M as HC at Vandy.
Do you think people would be more worried/upset if we had lost to NMSU instead of Vanderbilt? Because in my mind that's pretty much what happened. We got outcoached by former NMSU coaches and outplayed by Pavia.
Im just fucking sick of it man. ODU had "tall" receivers once. The ECU game in charlotte was "hot". The Vandy game had crafty Jerry Kill who just walked out on his NMSU players and we fucking had on staff. He coached at literally the worst "major" college in America in an absolute shit town. But he's the secret sauce. Vandy had the NMSU offense which is "tricky" it was "hot" on the field saturday. Hugh Freeze is a "good coach", yadda yadda yadda yadda. When you lose to fucking Vandy, ODU and Liberty your program is deep in the shitter. Cold hard fact. You aren't "good", your talent is not "top level" and your coaching is not "good". Period. Sick of losing to these dog fucking programs. All this bullshit talk of winning the ACC?? are you kidding me? Boston fucking college is so much better than Vandy, it's not funny. I haven't checked, but I bet Clemson has "tall receivers" and it might be "hot" when we play in Miami. Just sick of it. Seriously. I like Pry, but I am sick of losing to teams like what will be 3-4 win Vandy, making lame excuses all while doubling ticket and parking prices and begging for money like a panhandler. Pulling off miracle upsets or winning bowls when Tulane's whole first string opted out is not how you judge a program. The metal meets the road with constant loses to dog shit teams- that tells you where you are. Sad truth.
Tech is hyped regional college football with enter sandman excitement for 1 minute while paying through the nose hoping for a power 4 football experience
I agree with the sentiment, but...
These what, now?
lol. Yes grammar matters. correction- awful fucking programs