Just to continue conversation. Here are defensive coordinator options who are "on the tree" of connections with Pry. I am sure there are other names out there as well.
1) Anthony Poindexter- Virginia ties, great recruiter, been passed up twice for the DC job at PSU (although for two well regarded DCs in Mario Diaz and Tom Allen). Negative, limited DC experience
2) Tim Banks- current DC and safeties coach at Tennessee. Was the secondary coach under Pry at Penn State. Recruited and developed a top notch defensive line and good corners. Linebacker recruiting has been a weak point. Likely out of the price range unless Heupel wanted a change.
3) Torrian Gray- long time secondary coach under Bud Foster and his secondaries have been terrific in the same scheme and other schemes. Has a reputation for not being a great recruiter, and no DC experience.
4) Bob Shoop- currently a safeties coach at Marshall, but has been a DC at Penn State, Tennessee, and other spots. Ran a similar system to Pry at Tennessee. Ending up at Marshall as a position coach is a bit weird, and being 58 would make me wonder how much he wants to deal with recruiting/NIL etc.
What other names could be out there?
Comments
I would love speculation, flight tracking, and getting big dogged. At least there's hope there. The radio silence is insane. Just give me something. Anything.
Here have a cookie...
Oops, sorry about that. Crushed like your (and my) hopes and dreams for a new DC today...
it's ok. those abominations don't count as cookies anyway. sweetened flour.
I like speculation and flight tracking, but I have to draw the line at getting big dawged. I never enjoy that.
Well, when I talked to RJ last weekend, and asked him what he knows, and he responded with 'I've been asking around, and no one seems to know, I've heard nothing' that feels like either very much a good sign or very much a bad sign.
I obviously don't want to be big dawged but uhhh what are we doing here?
It's "Mike OCain"- an out of work DC that has enough of a resume to not cause people to cancel their donations. Or its an FCS/G5 guy. That's the choices at this point. Are there any good P4 DC's out of work right now?
Either that, or you have to pay them to leave a job they're in now.
Seems like it's "pay up" time.
The truth is out there!
Easily, easily in the top 25 threads, all time TKP. This community sure makes my day!
I asked perplexity "as of today, who do we think is likely to be Virginia Tech's defensive coordinator?"
It said:
The lack of news is becoming news.
If we name Quinn or X after all this time, this board is going to explode.
I think I'll be able to throw on the maroon-tinted glasses and rationalize almost any pick for DC except an internal promotion for Quinn. Promoting Quinn would be an admission of defeat for the Pry era and we'd just be running out the clock after that.
And I think the chances of that are zero. The jobs of Pry and Whit are on the line (along along with everyone else in Merryman by association). I think the long extended search is a product of (1) there is a lot of DC movement with playoff teams that just ended their seasons and (2) not settling for underwhelming.
We're actively "competing" with ND, OSU, OU, UF, and PSU for a DC. While we are surely not in the same class as those teams, nobody that is a worthy candidate is signing on a dotted line until those schools say no. Guys like Poindexter and Guerrieri may not be top choices for those schools but they are candidates. And until they're not candidates, they're not going to sign on a dotted line for VT.
Wait?! Is Walters still on the market? That would be a 1b hire.
No - he replaced baby Belicheck at UW
"Currently, Shawn Quinn, who served as the interim defensive coordinator, is considered a leading candidate for the position"- example 3456673292020 why we are not a serious fucking football program.
Let's jump to a conclusion based on a statement created by an AI which has almost no information to go on.
Pry told us that there was a lot of interest in the DC opening...
A lot of Interest...
What if our new DC is an AI??
god I love tkp
Especially an AI that would probably have limited content to go off of and just hallucinate based on tkp and 247 comments.
That is probably what is taking so long. Raising funds and getting the approvals for installing an AI system.....
For giggles I asked the same question for Florida - here is the answer:
Did you know: Florida has had a DC vacancy as long as we have? They don't seem to be hand wringing about it nearly as much
So you are saying that we are in a bidding war with Florida for someone, right?
Guess we are hosed on that one too.
How would you know that though?
I guess with each day we don't have a DC it's money we save from having to pay someone. Whit being a secret financial genius!
I think I know it. We're hiring either Bill Belichik so his son gets the head coach position faster or Nick Saban.
What if the new DC is really just the friends we've made along the way?
That's Pry's entire staff you're describing
/ducks
yo, we're so close! Just a few more comments to achieve
GGCdzilla77's dream!!I'll do my part - happy to contribute to 1K
Also, I have no idea who we're hiring but will convince myself it's the perfect fit by August
Disappointed the thread hadn't hit it yet, tbh
Edit: intended this to be a reply. Drinking heavily now as punishment
First comment on the thread. Almost there...I believe. Also, can you imagine how many comments we'd have if this was pre-TKPC only?
1000 baby.
Worthy of bringing out the lovely ladies.
Last night I told GGC he should lock the thread at 999 just for fun.
dag nabbit I was SO READY to lock at 999 and then just post a part 2 with a troll face but i got caught snoozin
hokietopher's idea 😇
Not gonna lie I had that gif queued up for a while....
This is why we can't have nice things. Because we're caught snoozing on the job
Second most comments on a non-game thread in TKP history. Behind the Fuente interviewing at Baylor disaster of a thread
Wait i thought it was the Dee Davis decommitment thread?
Shockingly the tracker only has that one at 400ish. I was just going off the sorted replies via the tracker but we've now passed the Fuente Baylor thread
wow yeah my memory is hazy there
You lied to me? s/
Wouldn't it be insane if the DC gets announced the day this broke 1,000 posts lol
What if we get to 2,000 posts before the announcement?
Wait a minute.
The number before that is 1999.
So doing the WikiFu...
A member of the 1999 roster
Defensive coaching
Guaranteed to be underwhelming to a Weaverian level
Might have crossed paths with Pry at both Virginia Tech and Penn State AND GSU
Named Anthony
Fire up the DBU.
Anthony Midget is coming home
You, my friend, are in prime off-season form.
"DC" in Roman numerals represents the number 600. It should have happened back then
Maybe the program has been waiting to announce until we hit a comment quota?
Going to be honest. Wasn't aware of the whole 2nd page of a thread feature lol
Gotta tkp harder because i definitely mentioned it on page 1 of this thread
I saw you say that, but took it as a threat lol
Lets Go!!! I hate the waiting, and I will be very unhappy if the answer is Quinn, or Adibi. I want someone who has done the job at a high level. I know Quinn has done it before, but he couldn't beat out Marve, so.........someone else please
Yeah, I am squarely at the "I hope they fired Marve for a reason, and that reason is a much better DC" phase of this. If they hire a JAG, why fire Marve?
We need to think bigger...2000 or bust!
Anybody tracking flights today? (Btw, this is my first time ever commenting on page 2 of a thread)
I'm not sure what to do with this information of a page 2. How does this even work? If someone makes a reply on page one, does a comment get pushed to the next page? If we make enough pages, do the page backgrounds go plaid? Personally I think page numbers should be multipliers for leg counts.
Clearly if you make it to page 2, legs should double.
Every day, we stray further from god's light
We legitimately are gonna have the new schedule before we have a new DC, aren't we?
I mean hear me out, if we can hold off on hiring until then, or MAYBE even longer, we might have saved enough to buy LED lights for Lane. Whit is playing serious 4D chess with finances right now.
I'm told the LED lights are another "virginia tech is special" not in a good way. Apparently there is some insane procurement process that doesn't hinder UVA, JMU or any of the other 200 division 1 schools. Most schools can do the whole process in a month - bid, install, etc. Apparently VT has to play by other rules- like every fucking thing- and that is the hold up.
The mindset gets really old. I see it among my family all the time. You're not smarter than everyone. You're making your life harder for no reason at all
Since this thread is for wild speculation.... What if following the declassification of the Greenbrier bunker, they relocated it to VT. All future infrastructure projects then need crazy amounts of approval to not interfere with / uncover the bunker. Would certainly make things like the hassles regarding the Cassell renovation, potentially closing in the south endzone, merryman upgrades, etc a lot easier to digest.
And yes I'm 83% sarcastic about this.
- Insert SEC or B1G school- any of them- Coach - "hey AD/Facilities guy, we need some cool LED lights- the players and recruits loved how they did the purple thing when we played LSU, can we get those? " - Sure... after this season ends, we will start install right away"... that's literally how it went at South Carolina.
This is exactly the sort of thing that has basically convinced me that we won't be successful until Merryman is completely gutted. The LED's seem like such a minor thing, but it's so indicative of the macro situation.
Whatever the variables are that cause this - maybe it's the specific blend of personnel currently in the building, maybe it's the leadership of Whit himself, maybe it's all of the above - we have an AD that moves at a molasses pace, seems to lack vision and leadership, has no urgency, and worst of all (to me) no killer instinct. No will to dominate. No chip on our shoulder.
We've been mediocre for so long now, it seems like our leadership is comfortable with mediocrity. They say they know how important football is, but they don't act or make decisions like it is. And I know that the immediate rebuttal to what I'm saying is always going to be something about lacking the finances. To that I say - horse fucking shit. There are plenty of other comparable D1 programs that seem to do a LOT more with even less of a budget than we have, and they accomplish this by having leadership and admin who are hellbent on winning.
We don't have that. We have feckless leadership who can't even navigate LED light installation without hand wringing and bureaucratic sludge.
I want leadership in Merryman who is mad as fuck about how bad we've been for the last decade lol. Not disappointed. Not "we have to be better". White hot mad. I want urgency and efficiency. I want leadership that earns the dedication of this fantastic fanbase, who are starved of success and have been for too long.
Remember- this is the AD that was affraid to negotiate with Nike, and rubber stamped an extension. When we FINALLY reached the end of that deal, he fucking signed for 3 more years of the same fucking terms. Maddening. Basically the worst apparel deal in the P4.
Why do we need LED lights...we don't have night games? /s
Lights light the same
We're gonna have another election before we have a new DC
Maybe DC at VT is a politically appointed position because the corps is a real military and our new defensive scheme involves land mines and snipers?
Building on that analogy, maybe it's time for a Merryman coup d'état.
Against Whit's Men North of the Endzone?
I hear land mines are very effective but not very efficient whereas snipers are the reverse. perfect pairing tbh
So Paul Johnson is going to be the new DC?
Forget the new schedule. We might be watching the spring game before we have a new DC.
Let's get this baby to a page 3. C'mon gents!
Tom Petty always gets a leg.
Only to add to the speculation, and to add another comment to the count......More rumors saying that Jim Knowles from OSU is going to OK so how would that affect the 1 or 2 defensive coaches on the OSU staff that are rumored to possibly be coming to the good guys?!?!
Guerreri confirmed.
Seems like a weird lateral move. I would think OSU would have the money to match any offer, so even though there is a lot of smoke there, I would have to think he stays at OSU for more pay. What does OU have to offer besides money? And would he really do that to Mike Gundy? Seems like he could troll OU and get a higher salary at OSU, which would be a win-win for him. But, crazier things happen.
And if he did go to OU, I would think that would make Walton and Guerrieri more likely to leave OSU for a DC job if offered. OU has a bunch of Venable's guys on the defensive staff (a lot like Pry's guys on VT's staff).
Maybe it's a move to be closer to where he established his roots from his time as the Pokes DC. Just a guess
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Ivy-league educated, and currently the DC of the reigning National Champions. Maybe Oklahoma has something I don't know about (I've never been there to be completely honest), but I just can't imagine living in Oklahoma is that strong of a factor that would outweigh the other considerations. But, I really don't know.
It just seems to me that he's trying to get a raise. And good for him. He's considered one of the best DCs in the game right now and I would imagine he'll be a top candidate for HC next year.
Maybe Pry, Franklin, Day, Venables should all just sit down and hash things out together because there are a lot of ifs, ands, and buts involved! It could work right? lol
Yea, there is a lot of action with blue blood schools. It's going to take some time for things to shake out. Enjoy the ride. VT is probably one of the least desirable locations for a DC by comparison.
Not worthy of it's own thread but this is interesting. And crazy:
Article from BVM Sports
Imagine going from Golden to Marve. It's not going to happen, but WTF? How did Marve make a top 5 list? And I guess that's why I've never heard of Best Version Media until googling ND defensive coordinator to see if any of their candidates overlap with the names on the VT list.
LMFAO... now you know why I put no stock in fucking anyone with a computer "reporting" on college football.
There is an author listed, but yea I'm guessing it was AI generated.
Journalism as we used to know it is dead. The combination of the desire to hear the news you want to hear, calling legit journalists fake news, along with the rise of AI has created a firestorm of terrible journalism.
CZY over on 247 in the Mehul "Welp" non-paywall thread on this subject just chimed in and said:
Even the really reliable insiders like he and Mehul are starting to express frustration. Yeah I don't feel super optimistic about this at all. Signals to me that we still don't have a hire and Pry is struggling making a big decision like this. And Whit likely trying to put some financial constraints on this too isn't helping.
My personal odds on Quinn ending up being the hire just keep increasing by the day.
Is it really insane when ND, PSU, OU, and UF all have openings at DC right now? Seems like it's simple supply and demand principle. DCs are in demand and will go to the best offer they get. None are signing on the dotted line if they are getting interest from other top institutions.
Many new DC's are hired every year. We aren't a "victim" this year. We aren't special. We think we are, but we aren't. This is not some one in a decade DC market. This happens literally every year.
I agree. But I also don't think it's crazy to suggest that our top candidates may be in consideration for other better DC positions and we have to let the dust settle a little bit. If Pry wanted, He probably could have signed Torrian Gray in one week. To me, the delay suggests Pry is being really diligent and trying to get a DC that is in consideration for other top jobs.
And I guess it could just be Pry and Whit suck at this and swinging and missing at position coaches that have no other prospects. I just refuse to think that's the current status, and honestly it doesn't make sense to me. Pry is a great salesman and this job can be a great stepping stone. It's still has enough prestige in the ACC that a DC would be able to showcase their abilities against some high-powered but flawed offenses. And VT had a top 30 defense last year by some advanced metrics (which is crazy to believe, but true). And the talent level and depth is solid for the ACC.
"The right hire within the parameters he was given"- so fucking over this. So fucking tired. We should move to G5 if we have no fucking money. We continue to use extreme couponing techniques, we continue to lose. It's so fucking tiring how poor we seem to be.
Thing is, I'm not convinced we are actually that poor. Are we OSU? Absolutely not. But we have the budget to go toe to toe with most of the ACC. With fucking Duke at the very least.
We just don't open the checkbook, because Whit won't open the checkbook. We are convinced at an institutional level that we can somehow pay less than everyone else and still make home run hires. We think we can home-grow mediocre personnel into winners, because Frank was homegrown.
That's it. That's what it is. Utter refusal to modernize. Utter refusal to move forward. Utter refusal to succeed.
We're not that poor. You can look at our AD budget. We're not last in the ACC. We're not hurting for money. There's no reason for the penny pinching that goes on.
But we also don't know what those parameters are. It could be that he was given a cap of 1.5 million a year.
This data is publicly available on the knight commission. We're a top 30-35 public school when it comes to Athletic Department budget depending on the year. You can assume there are 5-10 private schools with a larger athletic department, and that puts us in the top 35-45 best funded athletic departments.
Our football and basketball teams have been producing at a top 50ish level, so yea, there's an issue there.
This is what I think, except I think it's the boosters who have this attitude, not Whit.
I've just heard too many people speak highly of Whit and heard too many horror stories about the Weaver days. I do believe that Whit has done a lot of great things to modernize us since then. That said, I do tend to believe a different skill set is required for the new era of college athletics that we are entering. Less politician, more business owner/media person. I don't think that's what Whit excels at.
We're just frugal
I wish the hokiesports app would stop sending push notifications until after this hire. I'm getting overly excited for that VT logo only to get Bball and FB schedule updates.
We need a transfer portal for coaches.
Drove through icy SC, GA, and all of FL
New DC ❌
1000 comments ✅
2 pages ✅
We are going to get a schedule before we get a DC
Junior Day is tomorrow....wonder what, if anything, will be told to recruits about a DC?
I think I know why we don't have a DC, yet - Pry (or anybody else) never posted the opening on the TKP Jobs Board.
Yeah, maybe he just hasn't gotten the word out.
Recruiter forgot to post the req
No, VT is bound by "state laws" on every meaningless bullshit thing that hinders no other major college program. LED lights, and we probably have to leave the job open in the roanoke times for 60 days and interview 300 people. State laws, you know- that OSU, Clemson, Bama are not bound by regarding their football programs.
Shoot, even other VA state schools know how to navigate these impossible "state laws" better than VT. At this point I think its an institutional VT problem. They, like some other state agencies and organizations, probably have outdated or obsolete processes and ways of doing things, like hiring and procurement. Or a lot of times its gatekeeper people who have been in their positions forever and hold things up because "that's the way we've always done it."
Not related to the DC search and maybe more of a question/comment for Joe or one of the moderators - I typically use the Tracker list at the top of the page to keep tabs on various threads, which will tell me when there are unread comments, and then I typically use the "N" hotkey to go straight to the new comments within the threads. Since this is now a 2 pager most of the new comments are on the second page. When I open the thread it loads Page 1 so I'll need to scroll to the bottom and click on Page 2, but I guess it counts that as viewing the thread so then the "N" hotkey then doesn't work for Page 2 and I need to scroll through and see what time comments were posted to try and find recent ones if I want since none of them are yellow.
Is there anyway around that by having it load straight into Page 2?
same issue
FWIW, switching to page 2 adds "?page=1" to the URL. It's not a great answer, but you could manually type that at the end of the link in the browser to start on page 2. I've been leaving a browser tab open on page 2 and refreshing (which keeps ?page=1 in the URL), instead of clicking the tracker link again. This works to easily find new comments on page 2, but still has the opposite problem of marking any new comments on page 1 as read.
I'm having the same issue
If and when the new DC is finally announced, I nominate that the thread simply have a picture with white smoke rising from the Sistine Chapel. No words, just the image. No words needed for TKP. It will be like the classic SI cover with Team USA celebrating the win over the Soviets.
Well in 7 days, we can start a new thread "Looking for a DC - February".
Okay, I officially now dislike the second page of this thread. When I click over to page 2, all the unread comments are now mysteriously read, and I don't know which comments are new and which are old.
Edit: There were 18 new comments in the thread. I clicked into the first page (because that's where the first new comment was), and there were four new comments on the first page. I expected there to be 14 new comments on page 2. Sadly, there were none. =_^(
yup; if it's not on P1 or at the very end, you can't find it : (
Begs the question, should we make a pt 2 thread or keep this one going as far as possible?
I'd like to propose a motion that all future comments to this thread be posted as replies to the very first comment. This way, all new comments will show up on Page 1. All in favor say "aye"?
Maybe just a new thread "New Defensive Coordinator Conversation - Part Deuce"
EDIT: As VBVTUSGC just suggested. I will TKP harder next time.
When the New Defensive Coordinator Conversation is as long as the New Defensive Coordinator search....
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