Figured I would start a new thread since it is officially posted on Hokiesports now and we can talk about it as something that is occurring instead of a potential
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Knowing nothing about him beyond what was in the other thread, I'm in wait-and-see mode. Suggest we all keep our heads level, wish him luck and hope for the best.
Anyone have an image of white smoke from the Sistine Chapel?
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The VT Football Official Facebook Page post is 26 minutes into being online, and there still isn't a single comment. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. 😅
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As someone who works at a company that got really into hiring "experienced people with good resumes" and living the reality that the mid-career people that got hired are much more capable than the "resume allstars" .... I am glad that we didn't go after a failed P2 DC
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After a nearly seven-week search, the #Hokies threw a curveball with their defensive coordinator hire, officially naming Arizona Cardinals LB coach Sam Siefkes for the role.https://t.co/KGdmjfFrFr— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) January 27, 2025
Yeah he wasn't anywhere close to the radar for me.
But ok, let's see if it works
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Ehh, lotsa crap going on at home (FIL hospitalized with the flu last night) and I really just don't know enough about this guy to have any educated opinion. He wasn't even close to the radar, he was so far off it I don't know that anyone did research to look into it.
But I will say this, Pry better have made a home run hire because it's his job if he didn't. And probably Whit's, too.
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It's all good, he was discharged late in the evening, just hooked up to oxygen at home and has some people stopping by every day just to check on him til the weekend
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The Flu this year has been brutal. It hit me like a Mack truck yesterday, high fever and major chills the whole day. No real breathing or sinus issues with what I had but that fatigued feeling with the fever was the sickest I have been in a while.
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Definitely- a teammate on my league pool team developed pneumonia complications from flu and was hospitalized and died within just 1-2 weeks(heart stopped and couldn't restart it). He was only 52 years old too.
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Put it this way, I think a large portion of the reason he was sent home was because there aren't any rooms left at the hospital. He spent 6 hours in the ER, was told he was going to be admitted and then sent home with all the equipment and nurses that stop by to check on him.
Granted, for him, it's not overly serious and seems to be getting better. But.... Yeah
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Being a (cough, cough, looking both ways side eyed) Vikings fan... I'm happy for the accolades from Mike Zimmer and Kevin O'Connell. Hope Mr. Siefkes works out.
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As fellow Vikings fan, same. Off topic but I think Teddy's injury was a real sliding doors moment for Zimmer's time as a head coach, but I absolutely trust anything he says about defense.
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Or, we are stuck in 6-6 hell again with a win over UVA because that's the measuring stick, and because Pry runs a clean ship and relates to the fan base, and we have no money, nothing changes.
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Na Pry gets year 5 with a bad year. I mean i have no clue what the 6th loss will be, it's a easy 8 win schedule, but we say we have an easy schedule every year.
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I don't think so. Unless the 2025 season is a total implosion, I think Pry is here for the remainder of his contract. I would say there is no coaching change until after the 2026 season. Now this is the year that will make or break Pry getting an extension or not. But if he doesn't, we will have a lame duck 2026 year.
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When was the last time an FBS HC coached through the end of their contract without extending? It just doesn't happen. He's either getting an extension or fired next season. There will be no in between.
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Whit won't be allowed to hire another head coach, but I don't see VT firing Whit. He's going to have to just decide to retire and I doubt that happens in 2025.
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I'm totally with bar on this one. We go 6-6 next year and Whit and Pry are still around, that's Sands choice. I do think Whit gets to hire a third coach if Pry burns out in the next two years. I don't think Sands in interested in replacing the AD.
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I try not to compare the two because so much in college football has changed in 30yrs, but the parallels between last season and the 1992 season are hard to ignore.
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My personal hot take on this is that in more games than I care to think about I think the L is on offense for going "ball control" when we absolutely are/were not a ball control offense and giving the game away
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The Huff thing was wild though. He complained to the press that Marshall didn't have enough NIL support, then the Administration/Boosters got offended and he had to apologize. Bridges were burned.
People are talking about Poindexter going back to UVA, but I'd be more afraid of Huff going there. I think he's a good coach.
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Dex really needs to get some significant coordinator experience under his belt before an HC job. I know he's a great coach and widely respected in VA, but I can see why UVA went with Elliott over him last time since he was a really strong OC for years at Clemson. Dex only has three years of DC experience from UConn which wasn't great, and has been a co-DC for years since but no playcalling or overall coordination involvement. I like Dex and was interested in him as our DC, but I totally could acknowledge the risk.
But yeah...Huff at UVA would be scary. He's a very good coach and very, very good recruiter. I think he would be a nightmare situation at UVA. Dex I could see having a big learning curve being a first-time HC.
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Dex really needs to get some significant coordinator experience under his belt before an HC job.
Does he? Shane Beamer, Sam Pittman, Brian Kelly, Urban Meyer, Dabo, Cristobal, and many others have all been (relatively) successful HCs without ever being play callers.
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It's possible, there are a lot of good exceptions there. But most people are coordinators before HC. If Dex has been passed over three times now for PSU's job that certainly strikes me as odd.
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If his situation at Marshall broke down because of a lack of administration and fan support, I can't see him taking the job at UVA unless it's just a cash grab.
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I'll choose optimism. He's young and light on experience, similar to Marve. But he has coordinated defenses at two schools and there are some indications that he actually knows how to coach linebackers (including at the highest level). If we're going to make a "risky" hire, at least it's somebody from an innovative coaching staff with potential for high upside.
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I think the biggest difference from Marve is that he has coordinated defenses in college before. For me, that was a box that needed to be checked, regardless of what level of college it was. I actually prefer someone from a lower level vs. a P4 retread.
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No idea if he's a good DC or not, and anyone claiming bad or good hire has no idea either.
I think a more interesting question is what the defensive scheme will be in 2025. And how well can he adapt his scheme to the current personnel and coaching staff, and vice versa. And can he get his linebackers to play at an all-ACC level.
I don't think the defense is Pry's or Bud's scheme anymore. Or can it be some sort of amalgam?
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IMO, they probably had a top 3 to 5, realized that they weren't going to land those guys after some other shoes fell and then went deep digging on a ton of different people (which is why it took an extra couple weeks) and this guy came out near the top.
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We need to be realistic. We had people really aiming/expecting to get Al Golden or Knowles. The two DCs from the championship game... Why would they leave their high paying blue blood programs to go to currently a midlevel ACC team where recruiting will be exponentially harder. We love the Hokies and the fan base generally is great, but if we are expecting to pull coaches from National championship game for a lateral move to us then I fear we'll forever be disappointed. I don't know a whole lot about this hire, but am excited for the change and am hopefully we found an up and coming stud of a DC and he can help guide us back to our streak of 10 win seasons, conference championships, a hopefully a run at a natty occasionally.
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I know nothing about hiring football coaches, or even coaching football, or how to recruit an 18 year old to do anything much less run into another human at full speed. So this could be a great hire, it could be a failure higher, but it reminds me the time when a guy I worked with didn't like the price HP charged for harddrives for high end servers so he bought the cheapest drives to get the drive bays and then he bought cheap drives from somewhere else and then spend 2 days replacing all the drives. And it worked and he saved like $20 grand in hardware costs. But we had 100s of drives we had to disposition, he wasted 2 days of time, and if anything went wrong the warranty wasn't the same as a pre-built and tested rack of equipment in a multiple billion dollar company. It might work but if it's a screw you then its all on you where as no one gets fired for buying a Dell.
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I don't hate it. After this started taking so long I believed our best option wasn't a flashy hire, but someone who has called plays as a DC, probably someone from G5 or FCS or maybe even lower who just plain coached good defense. Siefkes actually checks a lot more boxes than that -- he has NFL experience, he has power conference experience at Wisconsin which is a very similar program to us in a lot of ways, has worked with good and innovative defensive coaches like Dave Aranda, Jim Leonhard, Mike Zimmer.
Pry fired Marve, because #1 Pry knows that something had to change and he bought himself at least another season which is a common move in coaching and can work out, #2 Marve couldn't adjust his defense to save his life, #3 his linebackers sucked. We may have whiffed or been outbid on multiple other candidates, but I'm going to view this as a thorough search to find the right guy. Pry is attracted to young, innovative coaches as his coordinators, so this tracks. There are risks, but Pry knows that if this hire fails he won't be making a third hire. I'd rather we do extensive homework than hire a hot name.
Either way, I don't give two shits about winning the press release. I'll wait until next year to see if the defense plays well to make my judgement.
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Look, I'm not trying to be a pessimist - I know my comment on the other thread about him getting the Cards from last to 20th in rushing defense sounded like it...but I also know that we're all doing our best to sell ourselves on this hire right now as well.
I'm ready to give him a shot, and I really hope he knocks this out of the park, because he's *our guy* now. But there isn't a single one of you on this Board right now who could look at any of the rest of us with a straight face and say that you're absolutely stoked about the hire. This was obviously a scramble drill/backup plan acquisition; because otherwise it wouldn't have taken this long - this guy has been sitting on his couch for three weeks now after that win over the 49ers. It's not a bad thing necessarily that we had to apparently go so far down the list...but again, he obviously was nowhere near the top considering we could have announced this hire a little under three weeks ago now. 🤷🏻
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I'm viewing it in a positive light, but absolutely no one should be stoked unless they know this dude personally.
Feels like a moneyball hire to me, not in terms of saving money but seeing upside in someone who isn't on other people's radar. There have been more than few hires of guys like this that turn out to be wunderkinds. It's unfortunate that our experience we haven't had one and 2/3 (JHam, Marve) have crashed and burned. (#3 is Bowen who is competent but jury is still out).
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For all we know, Pry decided he liked the guy 3 weeks ago, then proceeded to vet the hell out of him and talk to like 40 references to see what other people think of him and what he's capable of. Maybe he was chosen, and like I said elsewhere wanted to interview the guys currently on staff to see who he might want to replace.
Remember, we brought in all sorts of guys in on D in the portal, so maybe we had him then and waited for his birthday or his son's birthday to announce. Who knows - we sure don't.
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1.5 or fewer points per drive allowed and 6.5 3rd/4th down conversion percentage allowed, with an average of 17 attempts are my criteria..
Vandy: 34 points, 11 drives: 3.1 points per drive, (7 of 15 on 3rd/4th, including 1 4th down punt that was called back for a penalty, which then was a converted FG) - L
Marsh: 14 points, 14 drives: 1 point per drive (6 of 20) - W
ODU: 17 points, 14 drives: 1.2 points per drive (2 of 13) - W
Rutgers: 24 points, 13 drives: 1.8 points per drive (8 of 19) - L
Miami: 38 points, 11 drives: 3.5 points per drive (11 of 16) - L
Stan: 7 points, 9 drives: 0.8 points per drive (8 of 16) - W
BC: 21 points, 13 drives: 1.6 points per drive (7 of 17) - W
GT: 6 points, 14 drives: 0.4 points per drive (6-24) - W
Syr: 38 points, 13 drives: 2.9 points per drive (8 of 15) - L
Clem: 24 points, 14 drives: 1.7 points per drive (9 of 20) - L
Duke: 31 points, 16 drives: 1.9 points per drive (2 of 12) - L
UVA: 17 points, 11 drives: 1.5 points per drive (6 of 16) - W
Minn: 24 points, 9 drives: 2.7 points per drive (6 of 13) - L
So in summary:
When PPDA>1.5&&Conv%>38.2on17, Tech Record = 1-6
When PPDA<1.5&&Conv%<38.2on17, Tech Record = 4-0
When PPDA>1.5&&Conv%<38.2on17, Tech Record = 0-1
When PPDA<1.5&&Conv%>38.2on17, Tech Record = 1-0
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Could be great, could be a disaster. We will all find out. I hear people with the NFL experience, innovative young mind, etc. But the Cardinals aren't exactly lighting the world on fire in the NFL. We also got really excited about a very respected NFL DL coach coming to VT (Teerlinck) and that ended up being a major flop. I think people oversell NFL experience significantly at the college level.
Can he improve LB and S play, can he make adjustments better than Marve, can identify/recruit/develop good talent (high school and portal). Could be some potential upside if he brings in some additional position coaches around him to bolster recruiting.
Not super excited personally and think some of the VT "insiders" are trying very obviously to spin this as a really strong hire after swinging and missing elsewhere. But we will find out this season if it's going to work or not.
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wasnt marve given a "good riddance" by the fsu fans? Seems like a very different situation here where all feedback on this guy is he has been successful everywhere so far on an upward trajectory
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That was my recollection as well, can't remember what I saw, but I was pretty sure it was something similar with comments that they were happy he was gone.
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2016-17 UW-Platteville Pioneers - DC/ILB coach. 3 shutouts, just 18.9 points allowed per game.
2015 Wisconsin Badgers - Defensive graduate assistant under Dave Aranda.
FBS #1 scoring defense (13.7 ppg) and ranked 2nd nationally in total defense (268.5 ypg) that season.
MS Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.
2014 FIU - QC coach
2013 summer - Air Force Academy - S&C intern.
2012-13 alma mater Wisconsin-La Crosse - student assistant with DB, LB, and specialists.
BS Exercise and Sports Science
2011 Wisconsin-La Crosse Eagles - played defensive back, injuries ended his career.
"After a lengthy and thorough search, one name kept emerging - Sam Siefkes. People across the country couldn't stop praising Sam's knowledge of the game and his abilities as a coach. As I got to know him, I couldn't agree more. I am thrilled to have Sam join our program.
He's worked under some of the best minds in the game, including Mike Zimmer, Kevin O'Connell, Ed Donatell, Jonathan Gannon, Nick Rallis, and Dave Aranda. His ability to design innovative defensive schemes will energize both our players and fans." said Coach Pry.
"Virginia Tech and Coach Pry are getting a remarkable leader in the coaching world," said Arizona Cardinals' head coach Jonathan Gannon. "Sam is a fantastic communicator, teacher and has unbelievable knowledge on how to stop offenses," Gannon continued. "He is a great coach and even better person. He will bring competitive stamina and a ton of juice to Blacksburg. Hokie Nation be ready to see an aggressive, smart, tough unit that will dominate games."
From r/CFB
"As a Cards fan, Siefkes was seen as a future NFL HC and bright defensive mind. He was probably next in line to be the Cards DC."
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"I've been saying it for a long time, I will not hire an assistant coach until I've seen his wife. If she looks the part, and she's a D-I recruit, then you got a chance to get hired. That's part of the deal,"
You have to respect the hrll out of this community. We already have a solid nickname candidate for our new DC and the hire just got announced. We are efficient as hell.
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I find it interesting that Nick Sorensen took a job at Dallas a couple hours after the hire. Maybe he was a finalist for DC at VT and didn't get it? No idea, but the timing is coincidental.
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waiting to see if he brings in someone(s), college or NFL, that knows how he handles the roles of the safeties and perhaps DE's. i don't think he has time to teach the coaches and then oversee how well they are implementing everything. no point in hyping innovation and then doing none of it
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First thing that I worry about is recruiting. Does he have any experience/ connection to our targeted areas? We need a guy to fix the LB group, have experience calling defensive plays, and can recruit.
I don't know if we got who we need.
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Recruiting chops for a coordinator is an added bonus, they are not a criterion for the job. They have almost no recruiting responsibilities. Bowen only recruits for a couple months out of the year and even then, it is one position that he splits with Crist who does most of the heavy lifting. And Bowen is one of, if not the best recruiter on staff.
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Thanks. That is a good perspective to know. It is such a known area of needed improvement that, at least in my mind, recruiting has become a big want with every new hire.
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So, LA, this is not meant to be a snarky comment. It is a serious question.
If Bowen is one of, if not the best, recruiter on staff...why only have him out there a couple months a year? If he is the best, he should be a road warrior, no? Seems like being in the ACC at the moment is like having one hand tied behind our back, we need our best guys meeting with recruits as often as possible.
Really appreciate your insight, btw.
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Because it would take away from his main responsibility, which is being a coordinator. Basically he recruits in January, most of February is a dead period, then he is off the road for spring ball, on the road in April and May, in Blacksburg for OV's in June, and then it's another dead period until fall camp starts. He won't go on the road or carry much of the heavy recruiting lift during spring ball, fall camp, and the season because he needs to focus on his offense.
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all along I thought we might go G5 or NFL, so mine was a little better than that..."okay, cool,
let's see what he can do"
I think the underrated comment is that he's used to coaching guys getting paid (and players coming and going). I don't think he'll have any trouble handling the room.
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Agree that having Bud as a resource should be a huge bonus for someone this young stepping into this role. I just hope that Bud can focus on the processes of managing that side of the ball, the art of play calling, and being a sounding board, while letting Siefkes develop the x's and o's of an innovative scheme that isn't Foster 2.0 that's a decade outdated.
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I think we are who we appear to be. In the present era we are a mid-tiered program with limited resources, and our first choices for talent aren't going to see VT as their first choice. We were never going to land CFP-grade experienced hires away from deep pocketed programs. That's not our tier anymore. Combine that with the admin functionality that took more than a month to decide on making an internal hire for S&C permanent and... we are where we are.
Hope he does great. Hope the Hokies improve as a result. I don't expect a lot given the nut-crusher start we have on deck next year. Might drop season tix for the first time in 25 years, I just can't get excited about the state of CFB overall and VT's place in it anymore.
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Have to disagree with you on this. I found the side tracks on the DC Discussions threads much more amusing than work, and am concerned we are about to enter the "dead period" of offseason. Really not in the mood to talk about mens shooty hoops since we decided to pull the rug out from under it. My first real perspective on what it's like to be a LOL football fan.
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LOL. Totally get it. Unfortunately, I haven't watch a second of BBall. I am just hung up on an almost 100% overhaul of the roster. I feel the Identify is lost and it's now just dudes who happen to have wearing a Hokie jersey.
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After having 12 or so hours to process, my biggest question is around scheme - are we running Foster/Pry's scheme, or Siefkes's scheme or a mix ?
You don't hire this guy as DC if you're not using his scheme, but you also don't give Foster a coaching role if you're not using his scheme... so are they going to meld a gap fit/fill & spill with 3 high safeties? My purely speculative idea that these two mad geniuses are going into the lab to cook up something really unique.
I wouldn't say I'm optimistic about the hire, but I am quite intrigued.
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My purely speculative idea that these two mad geniuses are going into the lab to cook up something really unique.
This is an optimistic take. Alternatively we threw everything at a wall to see what stuck and said "we'll figure something out" just like we did with the offense in 2022 with all the different schemes/influences and the result was *fart noise*
Let's hope Pry learned from that debacle. I am encouraged that he was flexible enough to go outside of his scheme (assuming that this wasn't an option 999 panic hire)
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Just between Foster and Pry there is A TON of college DC experience. The three of them should be able to come up with something over the summer. Scheme has not been an issue as much as role execution and in game adjustments.
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I've been thinking for quite some time, that Bud's scheme and adjustments always had a steeper learning curve than the average college defensive scheme. In today's game, with transfers and NIL, you just don't always have the time that Bud had to develop many of his star defenders. You need your best athletes to fit right into the scheme and pick it up quickly. So I think it'll be focused on a scheme that has the gap/fit flavors of Bud and Pry, but Siefkes bringing his experience coaching and teaching a wider variety to help expediate the learning curve and simplify things.
The fact that so many of the press release quotes mentioned "teacher(ing)" has me thinking this is the focus. I think it'll be a blend of things. Ideally, in this age...you have a scheme where it is easy to learn the first 85% and that is enough to go out and have a servicable defense that can win some games and allows players to play fast. And the remaining 15% that takes a little bit longer to learn and incorporate enhances the defense in ways that make it tough to attack and plan against and that focuses on generating pressure and turnovers and confusion for the quarterback.
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My understanding is that Bud would have to coach Linebackers to do things that were not instinctual (that's one of the reasons we could never land a big time recruit at that spot), but other than that, the scheme was pretty simple to pick up. Players had to get really good at their job, and trust that teammates were also good at their jobs.
I think it's a talent issue - Defensive talent has been down since 2017. Even the 2019 defensive roster was better than anything Pry has had since arriving at VT.
Now, I obviously believe that despite being less talented, the Marve defenses have underachieved. Still lots of room for improvement. But I don't think the scheme being complex is the issue.
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That's where I immediately went to. Ariens probably knows this guy. Pry mentioned getting help from Ariens. This may be him watching young guys and getting him experience at a DC/play caller level with VT.
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As others have said, we all need to reckon with the fact that we are a lower-mid tier program in 2025.
If we want to be a top 20 team again, we need to win games. That's it. We win, and we attract more talent, better coaches, etc. which leads to more wins. It's a train on a circular track, and our train derailed a decade ago.
To get back on, at some point we've got to figure out how to win with less to work with. Maybe that means a DC with no P4 experience who was 5th or 6th down the list of candidates.
Don't get me wrong - I have zero faith in Whit Babcock or his leadership, and serious doubts that we will see success during his tenure. I think football under his supervision has become a complete fucking dumpster fire, and he is the common denominator along with some of the "old guard" still hanging around Merryman.
But I think a lot of our games have been very close to the kinds of wins I'm talking about - the kinds of wins we need to pull off while working with less. Pry was right to fire Marve because of this - over half of our losses were the result of his inability to adjust. All we can do is hope that this guy can do what Marve couldn't, despite the resume. At some point those close games either have to turn into wins for us and things start to turn around - or they don't, and we fall even further off the tracks and have to try to start over again with a new AD.
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I mean, this is pretty much what college football has always been like for the have-nots. We're just finally waking up to the fact that we are at the kids table now.
Talk to someone who's a fan of a G5 school. That's what Virginia Tech (and everyone else who's not P2) can expect from now on. You take a shot at a young up and coming coach and if you strike gold, you get a few years of increased success and then hope you've got a good replacement lined up for when he gets poached by a big dog. Then you likely regress to the mean until it happens again.
This is the CFB life for the majority of schools and it's not really a new thing. Hell, your odds of a quick turnaround are better now with the portal than they used to be for the bottom half of FBS schools.
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over half of our losses were the result of his inability to adjust
If Marve was as good at his job as Bowen is at his (not an incredibly lofty bar), we would have won at least 8 games last year and would all be singing a different tune.
All the larger issues you mentioned are still true, but it seems reasonable to me this guy could help us hold onto a 2 touchdown lead against Syracuse.
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I have a lot of thoughts on this. Right off the bat this felt like Pry hit the bottom of his contacts and this was a ran out of options hire. But the portal moves seem to fit his scheme so that contradicts that point some in my mind. I think his collegiate experience isn't much to hang his hat on, but the NFL upside is promising. Hopefully Pry fills the gaps at his presser.
A lingering question for me is what staff changes, if any, is he making?
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A lingering question for me is what staff changes, if any, is he making?
Agreed. He's an LB coach so that in theory could mean none....which I think would be a bad idea with the secondary struggles we saw throughout the season.
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Even moreso if we are moving to a 3-high safety defense. Based on some quick reading last night, that middle safety especially really needs to know what they're doing.
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This all may explain the safety transfers. We seemed to get some pretty good quality transfers for a team that cancelled 3 coaches. There was some hints given to guys to get the commits, without passing out names.
I am encouraged. New D&C,new Oline Coach, New DC. I'm looking forward to tailgating the Spring game and evaluating what's going on.
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I am choosing to look at it this way. Pry recognized his system might need help and wanted to recruit somebody that might be able to work with his system as well as potentially adapt or improve it.
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but his offense has looked at least serviceable the last couple years. I still think VT could get a better OC but Bowen is fine. Just fine. He's not Cornelsen bad. He's not Chip Kelly good. We can score points. His scheme seems to mostly make sense. For the most part, he builds the offense around the personnel. There are occasions where I scratch my head. Like, why does the best player on the team only have 3 touches by half-time in a critical game against a rival?
I don't hate the Siefkes hire. I don't love it. I think he needs to prove himself faster than Bowen did, though, if he's going to keep his job longer than a year or two. Pry's putting all his chips on Siefkes, essentially. If the defense turns around and plays good solid football next season and we win 8+ games then I think Pry earns an extension. If not, well, I think he should be let go. Whether or not that actually happens remains to be seen. I think there are still a lot of local politics at play in VT football and, frankly, I think that's holding us back but there's not much that can be done about it, sadly.
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I think Bowen's biggest issue on offense is how dreadful the offensive line has been, and coupled with that fact that he's bound and determined to run a heavy downhill, between the tackles run game with an awful OL. The offense can be explosive and put up points quickly, but it's not efficient and can't control the clock and stay on the field with any consistency. Also the QB position hasn't developed as well as we had hoped, but with a more effective run game I think it helps the pass game as well.
I really think Moore will help significantly with the OL issues. But how quickly he can work wonders is the question. Pry IMO has this year to earn an extension. If not he's probably gone after 2026.
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Yeah, but our entire roster was dogshit when Bowen got here. We had, what, 10 scholarship RBs? Two QBs that left and two transfers in, and I think our best O-Linemen either transferred out or went pro. Our offense was going to be awful, not sure it would have mattered who we had.
The benefit is we've been steadily improving our roster the past 3 years, with the possible exception of the O-Line and LBs. We got a number of transfers in on the line, now we just need to see what we can do with our LBs.
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"The benefit is we've been steadily improving our roster the past 3 years"... debatable - a bunch of guys left for the P4 and were replaced by not a bunch of P4 guys.
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Here's a hot take for everyone. WE wanted the "best" DC money could buy, but there are some implications to the type of hire we wanted. After the announcement took so long, we were thinking maybe we were nabbing someone from one of the playoff teams. There are two potential problems I see with that.
First is, although we've said on here that we don't necessarily need a coordinator to be a good recruiter, it helps if they can. So, how good a recruiter are some of the guys coming from these blue blood programs vs the program or higher NIL doing the job for them?
The second, and probably most direct is, for those guys, they've got scads of 4 and 5-star talent that they rely on. If we don't have that type of talent, more than likely, we have to be innovative with how we play defense. Winning solves lots of things, so we should be able to get more talent once we start winning, but in the meantime, I think we probably do need to be somewhat innovative, or get coaches that can get the absolute most out of every recruit (develop them better than average).
So maybe Pry wasn't ever looking at who we thought we wanted, maybe he was looking for innovators the whole time. I mean, Marve was supposed to be cerebral (so innovative?). Maybe the reason it took so long is he was looking at non-standard candidates, and the criteria are a lot different, and maybe he did a LOT more background/reference checking and film watching of the candidates than we'd expect.
Thinking about it, if I was in charge, that is probably the route I would have taken. So basically the question is, if we're trying to do more with less, is when was the last time any of the "best" coordinators had to do that, or have they been trying to do "more with more?"
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mean, Marve was supposed to be cerebral (so innovative?).
Although Marve was an intellectual, he was brought in to be groomed and developed to be Pry 2.0. So I don't know how innovative he was supposed to be in terms of developing novel schemes. It seems Siefkes may be hired to be his own DC, working. alongside Pry and Bud, and bring in his own defense or at lear his own wrinkles. Idk, I guess we'll see.
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I'm not sure it was Pry 2.0 exactly. I think you're right, he had a similar philosophy to Pry, but the intellectual/cerebral part, at least my take, would be that Pry would expect him to develop the defense more and figure out ways to counter what offenses were doing and adapting. Similarly how I recall how Pry was working with Bowen on things that are difficult for defenses to stop and letting Bowen adapting stuff to take advantage of that. It seems like Bowen was able to adapt (especially given a weak line) and Marve just didn't. He had a couple good players in certain positions (like APR and Strong) but couldn't seem to get a cohesive defense, and not get much out of the LBs (his position group, mind you), he didn't seem to make adjustments much/well either. He'll, maybe he's a good idea guy but turns out he's crap at implementation.
Regardless, you're right, we'll see. It will also be interesting to see if he makes any changes to any of the position coaches. Already looking forward to the spring game!
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Also, in light of the other thread, where Pry said they had a candidate's in the championship game, I'm wondering if it was a position coach that may have had a background as a DC in FCS or G5 first, potentially one of the LB coaches? (Because I still would have had the concerns I listed above about one of the DCs.
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I agree – when your program building (or business building) you have to always ask yourself "what's your unfair advantage?"
Do you have more money? Is there something about your program or your brand that's incredibly attractive? Do you run something that's super innovative?
You look at how Beamer one here, it was by innovating on special teams. You could say that Beamer was to special teams with Chip Kelly was to offense.
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Yeah I 100% agree here. Since it is plainly obvious at this point that we don't have the cash to compete for hires/recruits on a P2 level, I've been thinking lately that VT has to hire the best innovative/schematic coaches it can for its budget. They may not be big household names, but identify really good coaches at the lower levels or NFL positional coaches who want to make the jump. If they hit and are really good, we may not be able to retain them long term. But that has to be our strategy at this point.
JMU has continually reloaded with great coaches year after year. We need to see if we can emulate some of that.
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At the collegiate level, Siefkes built a reputation for coaching elite defenses. As a collegiate coordinator at Wofford (2018-2020), his defense ranked first in total defense and rushing defense two years in a row, leading the program to consecutive Southern Conference Championships and FCS playoff appearances.
Ah there it is, the traditional VT coach's pipeline - Wofford.
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Listening to the Pryssr now. The way Pry is talking, it sounds like Siefkes will bring his scheme to Blacksburg. Credit Pry for not letting ego get in the way and being willing to move away from "his" signature scheme if he thinks it will help us win.
EDIT: Pry also mentioned how impressed he was with how the Cardinals handle "situational football" and how that has been a weakness for us. Appreciate the candor there.
EDIT2: Bitter asked a good question about our safety recruiting in the portal, wondering if Pry was anticipating the Siefkes hire with those personnel moves. Pry mentioned that he's been interested in incorporating more 3-high safety looks for several years now. Was planning to start moving in that direction even independent of the Siefkes hire. Definitely makes the Siefkes hire seem more intentional WRT scheme and Pry's overall vision.
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This is why I am high on Pry. He seems egoless and has a good ability to self evaluate. He also communicates well. Also, he apparently has the ability to shed what is wrong and try to fix.
All these guys saying he has a year to prove he's right or he's gone... I think that is wrong. I know 3 years is a long time to wait but, we see Bowen improve, the lower coaches need the time to learn. If they don't, they are gone.
Pry can identify problems, set a plan for improvement, articulate that plan and execute it. Adjust. That is what we can hope for and realistically expect.
We will never be able to hire a Saban or a Foster, in their prime, we are going to have to be a team that finds a Saban or Faster and give them some time to come up to speed. If they can't then we try again.
This is the realities. I'm ok with that.
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Now more than ever college football is a business. Losing 6, 7 games a year is very bad for business. You want to be able to afford Saban? Win championships. You will never get there losing to Vandy. Nice personable coach or not. If Pry wins 4 games next year he will be fired.
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Maybe it's time to go the Ole Miss route and cheat as much as you can because sanctions won't hurt you more than you gained from just winning. But it also helps to be supported by a conference like the SEC. Tobacco Road would try to ditch us on the side of the road.
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Tobacco road has been trying (and comically failing) to ditch us on the side of the road for over 20 years. I think they finally decided the only way to screw us was to screw everyone else, themselves included, in the process. And here it is in all it's glory. The current iteration of the ACC.
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I think it's more than that.
Siefkes
Marve
JHam
Foster
Elmassian
Mike Clark
Ron Zook ( not sure if he was DC or some other coach - internet lists both)
Bob Brush
And I think the previous one was also a first time DC but I'm too lazy to look it up.
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Gotta say, I am drinking the koolaid. Multiple NFL head coaches have been making supportive, public statements around the hire and his coaching/scheme skills.
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In order to compete against opponents with more resources you have to get creative. What if we target smart up and comers who are cheap, and redirect the savings to players $.
Does recruiting matter the way it used to? $$ likely trumps everything. I know it does to some degree, but the old family meeting is just foreplay to "business matters".
If this affords 2 more 4*'s I'll take the gamble.
We have to try something different.
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Thx, will give a listen. I did listen to TSL Siefkes podcast. If we're employing this strategy I think we made a good decision. He is a framework guy who sounds like an excellent teacher. He talks over and over about concepts, which scale in the brain much better than learning plays. If we were looking for cheaper up and comer with an excellent football mind, well, he sure talks the part.
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Comments
It's over finally. So we got that going for us.
Figured I would start a new thread since it is officially posted on Hokiesports now and we can talk about it as something that is occurring instead of a potential
I know what my knee jerk reaction is to say.
That said, I hope he does well because there's a lot on the line, man.
Knowing nothing about him beyond what was in the other thread, I'm in wait-and-see mode. Suggest we all keep our heads level, wish him luck and hope for the best.
Anyone have an image of white smoke from the Sistine Chapel?
Let's Go Hokies! May the Pry/Siefkes defense make VT the Terrordome for the opposition once more.
The VT Football Official Facebook Page post is 26 minutes into being online, and there still isn't a single comment. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. 😅
I think everyone exhausted themselves with 1.5 months of what-ifs and nobody knows anything about this guy to react
As someone who works at a company that got really into hiring "experienced people with good resumes" and living the reality that the mid-career people that got hired are much more capable than the "resume allstars" .... I am glad that we didn't go after a failed P2 DC
Let's give him a shot.
Yeah he wasn't anywhere close to the radar for me.
But ok, let's see if it works
Was not expecting this reaction from you, Alum. I agree.
Ehh, lotsa crap going on at home (FIL hospitalized with the flu last night) and I really just don't know enough about this guy to have any educated opinion. He wasn't even close to the radar, he was so far off it I don't know that anyone did research to look into it.
But I will say this, Pry better have made a home run hire because it's his job if he didn't. And probably Whit's, too.
Damn, best wishes to your family, man
It's all good, he was discharged late in the evening, just hooked up to oxygen at home and has some people stopping by every day just to check on him til the weekend
The Flu this year has been brutal. It hit me like a Mack truck yesterday, high fever and major chills the whole day. No real breathing or sinus issues with what I had but that fatigued feeling with the fever was the sickest I have been in a while.
Definitely- a teammate on my league pool team developed pneumonia complications from flu and was hospitalized and died within just 1-2 weeks(heart stopped and couldn't restart it). He was only 52 years old too.
That's rough. One of my baseball coach's wife died the same way. About the same age too.
Put it this way, I think a large portion of the reason he was sent home was because there aren't any rooms left at the hospital. He spent 6 hours in the ER, was told he was going to be admitted and then sent home with all the equipment and nurses that stop by to check on him.
Granted, for him, it's not overly serious and seems to be getting better. But.... Yeah
Being a (cough, cough, looking both ways side eyed) Vikings fan... I'm happy for the accolades from Mike Zimmer and Kevin O'Connell. Hope Mr. Siefkes works out.
As fellow Vikings fan, same. Off topic but I think Teddy's injury was a real sliding doors moment for Zimmer's time as a head coach, but I absolutely trust anything he says about defense.
I welcome him and wish him the best of luck.
If Pry believes in him, and he clearly does, let's do it.
He believed in Marve too...
To be fair, we don't know much about what went into this decision.
No, but we do have rampant speculation which many will accept as fact because it fits their favored narrative.
In the end, do we really need anything more?
I would like pie in addition
Hope he does inject a domination mindset into our defense. Make offenses weigh the life-extending benefits of turnovers and three-and-outs.
Best case - he's to this defense what Joe Brady was to the 2019 LSU offensive. Worst case, we're getting a new staff in '26
Let's go Hokies!
Or, we are stuck in 6-6 hell again with a win over UVA because that's the measuring stick, and because Pry runs a clean ship and relates to the fan base, and we have no money, nothing changes.
Pry will be fired if we go 6-6 with another top 45 recruiting class. Bet.
Na Pry gets year 5 with a bad year. I mean i have no clue what the 6th loss will be, it's a easy 8 win schedule, but we say we have an easy schedule every year.
I don't think so. Unless the 2025 season is a total implosion, I think Pry is here for the remainder of his contract. I would say there is no coaching change until after the 2026 season. Now this is the year that will make or break Pry getting an extension or not. But if he doesn't, we will have a lame duck 2026 year.
When was the last time an FBS HC coached through the end of their contract without extending? It just doesn't happen. He's either getting an extension or fired next season. There will be no in between.
Whit won't be allowed to hire another head coach, but I don't see VT firing Whit. He's going to have to just decide to retire and I doubt that happens in 2025.
If Whit is not fired AND not allowed to hire a head coach, then you know the issue is Sands, not Whit 🤷
I'm totally with bar on this one. We go 6-6 next year and Whit and Pry are still around, that's Sands choice. I do think Whit gets to hire a third coach if Pry burns out in the next two years. I don't think Sands in interested in replacing the AD.
There's no way Pry is a lame duck coach, but I think he gets 2 of his last 3 years unless 2025 is catastrophic.
And if Pry enters his 6th year as a lame duck coach, VT is not a serious football program.
One less score against us in most games and we are a 1-2 loss team.
A number of small errors fixed will take care of a few of them. Better LB and safety play and that takes care of the rest of them.
I try not to compare the two because so much in college football has changed in 30yrs, but the parallels between last season and the 1992 season are hard to ignore.
My personal hot take on this is that in more games than I care to think about I think the L is on offense for going "ball control" when we absolutely are/were not a ball control offense and giving the game away
Charles Huff at Marshall this year. He then left at the end of the season, their whole team transferred and they had to drop out of a bowl game.
The Huff thing was wild though. He complained to the press that Marshall didn't have enough NIL support, then the Administration/Boosters got offended and he had to apologize. Bridges were burned.
People are talking about Poindexter going back to UVA, but I'd be more afraid of Huff going there. I think he's a good coach.
Oh, yeah, it was no good. And it was not a situation you'd expect to see replicated. The end of the season was a mess in Huntington though.
Dex really needs to get some significant coordinator experience under his belt before an HC job. I know he's a great coach and widely respected in VA, but I can see why UVA went with Elliott over him last time since he was a really strong OC for years at Clemson. Dex only has three years of DC experience from UConn which wasn't great, and has been a co-DC for years since but no playcalling or overall coordination involvement. I like Dex and was interested in him as our DC, but I totally could acknowledge the risk.
But yeah...Huff at UVA would be scary. He's a very good coach and very, very good recruiter. I think he would be a nightmare situation at UVA. Dex I could see having a big learning curve being a first-time HC.
Does he? Shane Beamer, Sam Pittman, Brian Kelly, Urban Meyer, Dabo, Cristobal, and many others have all been (relatively) successful HCs without ever being play callers.
It's possible, there are a lot of good exceptions there. But most people are coordinators before HC. If Dex has been passed over three times now for PSU's job that certainly strikes me as odd.
If his situation at Marshall broke down because of a lack of administration and fan support, I can't see him taking the job at UVA unless it's just a cash grab.
Unless Sands or the BOV takes the initiative, VT will have Pry through 2026. And I don't think they have the initiative.
Seriously, buyouts are expensive and hard, without guaranteed results.
Question is... will he be bringing Ryan Smith back to Blacksburg?!
I knew it would be someone we never heard of.
it's the Hokie way
DCwilson hasn't chimed In on this all afternoon. Either he's in a meeting, or he had a brain annuerism when this news broke.
traveling
Who we surround him with on the staff is huge. Need recruiters and a solid safeties coach.
Funny enough this is what we said about Pry too
To be fair, a NFL LB coach is better than a former FSU LB coach
"DON'T USE THE F-WORD!!!!"
This is a direct quote from the wife to our children.
I'll choose optimism. He's young and light on experience, similar to Marve. But he has coordinated defenses at two schools and there are some indications that he actually knows how to coach linebackers (including at the highest level). If we're going to make a "risky" hire, at least it's somebody from an innovative coaching staff with potential for high upside.
I think the biggest difference from Marve is that he has coordinated defenses in college before. For me, that was a box that needed to be checked, regardless of what level of college it was. I actually prefer someone from a lower level vs. a P4 retread.
No idea if he's a good DC or not, and anyone claiming bad or good hire has no idea either.
I think a more interesting question is what the defensive scheme will be in 2025. And how well can he adapt his scheme to the current personnel and coaching staff, and vice versa. And can he get his linebackers to play at an all-ACC level.
I don't think the defense is Pry's or Bud's scheme anymore. Or can it be some sort of amalgam?
I knew there would be a Wofford connection. Inside track to one win next year!
Well, that also means there's an ACC championship in our future, too.
Well hopefully he can fix the LB position. I would think having an NFL LB coach on staff should help with recruiting the position
being able to pitch the latest thing in NFL defensive trends will also help recruiting...
Ok Sam, let's see what you can do!
I like Pry. I want Pry to succeed. This doesn't feel like a first, second, third... maybe even fourth or fifth choice.
I hope with Pry and Bud's help, they can help him turn out to be a slam dunk hire
IMO, they probably had a top 3 to 5, realized that they weren't going to land those guys after some other shoes fell and then went deep digging on a ton of different people (which is why it took an extra couple weeks) and this guy came out near the top.
Whoa, stop being reasonable. Hot takes only, please! /s
You want a hot take? Everyone in Severance is already dead. Lumon brought them back to life.
Yeah the market for a DC went crazy this offseason and salary expectations doubled overnight which the changes throughout college football.
We need to be realistic. We had people really aiming/expecting to get Al Golden or Knowles. The two DCs from the championship game... Why would they leave their high paying blue blood programs to go to currently a midlevel ACC team where recruiting will be exponentially harder. We love the Hokies and the fan base generally is great, but if we are expecting to pull coaches from National championship game for a lateral move to us then I fear we'll forever be disappointed. I don't know a whole lot about this hire, but am excited for the change and am hopefully we found an up and coming stud of a DC and he can help guide us back to our streak of 10 win seasons, conference championships, a hopefully a run at a natty occasionally.
I know nothing about hiring football coaches, or even coaching football, or how to recruit an 18 year old to do anything much less run into another human at full speed. So this could be a great hire, it could be a failure higher, but it reminds me the time when a guy I worked with didn't like the price HP charged for harddrives for high end servers so he bought the cheapest drives to get the drive bays and then he bought cheap drives from somewhere else and then spend 2 days replacing all the drives. And it worked and he saved like $20 grand in hardware costs. But we had 100s of drives we had to disposition, he wasted 2 days of time, and if anything went wrong the warranty wasn't the same as a pre-built and tested rack of equipment in a multiple billion dollar company. It might work but if it's a screw you then its all on you where as no one gets fired for buying a Dell.
I don't hate it. After this started taking so long I believed our best option wasn't a flashy hire, but someone who has called plays as a DC, probably someone from G5 or FCS or maybe even lower who just plain coached good defense. Siefkes actually checks a lot more boxes than that -- he has NFL experience, he has power conference experience at Wisconsin which is a very similar program to us in a lot of ways, has worked with good and innovative defensive coaches like Dave Aranda, Jim Leonhard, Mike Zimmer.
Pry fired Marve, because #1 Pry knows that something had to change and he bought himself at least another season which is a common move in coaching and can work out, #2 Marve couldn't adjust his defense to save his life, #3 his linebackers sucked. We may have whiffed or been outbid on multiple other candidates, but I'm going to view this as a thorough search to find the right guy. Pry is attracted to young, innovative coaches as his coordinators, so this tracks. There are risks, but Pry knows that if this hire fails he won't be making a third hire. I'd rather we do extensive homework than hire a hot name.
Either way, I don't give two shits about winning the press release. I'll wait until next year to see if the defense plays well to make my judgement.
Look, I'm not trying to be a pessimist - I know my comment on the other thread about him getting the Cards from last to 20th in rushing defense sounded like it...but I also know that we're all doing our best to sell ourselves on this hire right now as well.
I'm ready to give him a shot, and I really hope he knocks this out of the park, because he's *our guy* now. But there isn't a single one of you on this Board right now who could look at any of the rest of us with a straight face and say that you're absolutely stoked about the hire. This was obviously a scramble drill/backup plan acquisition; because otherwise it wouldn't have taken this long - this guy has been sitting on his couch for three weeks now after that win over the 49ers. It's not a bad thing necessarily that we had to apparently go so far down the list...but again, he obviously was nowhere near the top considering we could have announced this hire a little under three weeks ago now. 🤷🏻
I'm viewing it in a positive light, but absolutely no one should be stoked unless they know this dude personally.
Feels like a moneyball hire to me, not in terms of saving money but seeing upside in someone who isn't on other people's radar. There have been more than few hires of guys like this that turn out to be wunderkinds. It's unfortunate that our experience we haven't had one and 2/3 (JHam, Marve) have crashed and burned. (#3 is Bowen who is competent but jury is still out).
For all we know, Pry decided he liked the guy 3 weeks ago, then proceeded to vet the hell out of him and talk to like 40 references to see what other people think of him and what he's capable of. Maybe he was chosen, and like I said elsewhere wanted to interview the guys currently on staff to see who he might want to replace.
Remember, we brought in all sorts of guys in on D in the portal, so maybe we had him then and waited for his birthday or his son's birthday to announce. Who knows - we sure don't.
Nobody should be stoked about any candidate until they see some results on the field.
That's where the criteria are.
But likewise, anyone who says "Meh, I'm not impressed" is using the wrong criteria.
Right but we don't have that yet so we have to judge them on stupid criteria for now!
Like it or not, it's what we do best at TKP!!
I have yet to find out his Cake/Pie allegiance for instance.
1.5 or fewer points per drive allowed and 6.5 3rd/4th down conversion percentage allowed, with an average of 17 attempts are my criteria..
Vandy: 34 points, 11 drives: 3.1 points per drive, (7 of 15 on 3rd/4th, including 1 4th down punt that was called back for a penalty, which then was a converted FG) - L
Marsh: 14 points, 14 drives: 1 point per drive (6 of 20) - W
ODU: 17 points, 14 drives: 1.2 points per drive (2 of 13) - W
Rutgers: 24 points, 13 drives: 1.8 points per drive (8 of 19) - L
Miami: 38 points, 11 drives: 3.5 points per drive (11 of 16) - L
Stan: 7 points, 9 drives: 0.8 points per drive (8 of 16) - W
BC: 21 points, 13 drives: 1.6 points per drive (7 of 17) - W
GT: 6 points, 14 drives: 0.4 points per drive (6-24) - W
Syr: 38 points, 13 drives: 2.9 points per drive (8 of 15) - L
Clem: 24 points, 14 drives: 1.7 points per drive (9 of 20) - L
Duke: 31 points, 16 drives: 1.9 points per drive (2 of 12) - L
UVA: 17 points, 11 drives: 1.5 points per drive (6 of 16) - W
Minn: 24 points, 9 drives: 2.7 points per drive (6 of 13) - L
So in summary:
When PPDA>1.5&&Conv%>38.2on17, Tech Record = 1-6
When PPDA<1.5&&Conv%<38.2on17, Tech Record = 4-0
When PPDA>1.5&&Conv%<38.2on17, Tech Record = 0-1
When PPDA<1.5&&Conv%>38.2on17, Tech Record = 1-0
Could be great, could be a disaster. We will all find out. I hear people with the NFL experience, innovative young mind, etc. But the Cardinals aren't exactly lighting the world on fire in the NFL. We also got really excited about a very respected NFL DL coach coming to VT (Teerlinck) and that ended up being a major flop. I think people oversell NFL experience significantly at the college level.
Can he improve LB and S play, can he make adjustments better than Marve, can identify/recruit/develop good talent (high school and portal). Could be some potential upside if he brings in some additional position coaches around him to bolster recruiting.
Not super excited personally and think some of the VT "insiders" are trying very obviously to spin this as a really strong hire after swinging and missing elsewhere. But we will find out this season if it's going to work or not.
The fear I have is that Pry was sold by a guy who is super intelligent and eloquent, which I think is how Marve got to the front of the line in 2021.
wasnt marve given a "good riddance" by the fsu fans? Seems like a very different situation here where all feedback on this guy is he has been successful everywhere so far on an upward trajectory
IIRC it was more a buzz of "good riddance" "onto the next" "meh" when he left, it wasn't an overwhelming narrative.
They were definitely stoked be be rid of him
https://www.reddit.com/r/fsusports/comments/rb9kk4/virginia_tech_hires_f...
That was my recollection as well, can't remember what I saw, but I was pretty sure it was something similar with comments that they were happy he was gone.
The old Scott Loeffler effect?
Hokiesports: Staff Sam Siefkes
ESPN - Hokies target Sam Siefkes of AZ Cardinals for DC
Sam Siefkes (SEEF-kiss), wife Carrissa (July 2020), daughter Brynlee.
2023-24 Arizona Cardinals - LB coach
2022 Minnesota Vikings - Asst LB coach
2021 Minnesota Vikings - Defensive QC coach
2018-20 Wofford DC/ILB coach.
2016-17 UW-Platteville Pioneers - DC/ILB coach. 3 shutouts, just 18.9 points allowed per game.
2015 Wisconsin Badgers - Defensive graduate assistant under Dave Aranda.
FBS #1 scoring defense (13.7 ppg) and ranked 2nd nationally in total defense (268.5 ypg) that season.
MS Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.
2014 FIU - QC coach
2013 summer - Air Force Academy - S&C intern.
2012-13 alma mater Wisconsin-La Crosse - student assistant with DB, LB, and specialists.
BS Exercise and Sports Science
2011 Wisconsin-La Crosse Eagles - played defensive back, injuries ended his career.
"After a lengthy and thorough search, one name kept emerging - Sam Siefkes. People across the country couldn't stop praising Sam's knowledge of the game and his abilities as a coach. As I got to know him, I couldn't agree more. I am thrilled to have Sam join our program.
He's worked under some of the best minds in the game, including Mike Zimmer, Kevin O'Connell, Ed Donatell, Jonathan Gannon, Nick Rallis, and Dave Aranda. His ability to design innovative defensive schemes will energize both our players and fans." said Coach Pry.
"Virginia Tech and Coach Pry are getting a remarkable leader in the coaching world," said Arizona Cardinals' head coach Jonathan Gannon. "Sam is a fantastic communicator, teacher and has unbelievable knowledge on how to stop offenses," Gannon continued. "He is a great coach and even better person. He will bring competitive stamina and a ton of juice to Blacksburg. Hokie Nation be ready to see an aggressive, smart, tough unit that will dominate games."
From r/CFB
"As a Cards fan, Siefkes was seen as a future NFL HC and bright defensive mind. He was probably next in line to be the Cards DC."
I'm glad you included the wife's name and month and year of marriage. Truly a major data point to consider on whether he's the right hire!
Apologies... I do appreciate the collection of data, just found it eccentric to include that tidbit.
As Pry's mentor James Franklin once said
https://www.espn.com/blog/playbook/fandom/post/_/id/3555/james-franklins...
Translation: She's Qualified
Need a picture of the wife, to see if she's qualified.
I want a season that makes people pronounce it "Sam CHEFS-kiss."
You have to respect the hrll out of this community. We already have a solid nickname candidate for our new DC and the hire just got announced. We are efficient as hell.
Thanks for sharing these stats.
I find it interesting that Nick Sorensen took a job at Dallas a couple hours after the hire. Maybe he was a finalist for DC at VT and didn't get it? No idea, but the timing is coincidental.
waiting to see if he brings in someone(s), college or NFL, that knows how he handles the roles of the safeties and perhaps DE's. i don't think he has time to teach the coaches and then oversee how well they are implementing everything. no point in hyping innovation and then doing none of it
Someone in the other thread said he might bring back former VT safeties coach Ryan Smith
From r/CFB
Well, that's encouraging at least
rev up the hype train, we just stole an NFL DC
Good precognitive work.
Ah so maybe we were the one that big dogged Knowles. A potential NFL DC is better than a National Champion CFB DC, right?
First thing that I worry about is recruiting. Does he have any experience/ connection to our targeted areas? We need a guy to fix the LB group, have experience calling defensive plays, and can recruit.
I don't know if we got who we need.
He's young, probably pounds Red Bull, and looks like he could he get me a great deal with quality service on company office tech.
He can recruit.
Say it with me guys:
Recruiting chops for a coordinator is an added bonus, they are not a criterion for the job. They have almost no recruiting responsibilities. Bowen only recruits for a couple months out of the year and even then, it is one position that he splits with Crist who does most of the heavy lifting. And Bowen is one of, if not the best recruiter on staff.
This ^^^
I want my coordinator to coordinate first and foremost. Recruiting is more important for position coach and head coach hires.
Thanks. That is a good perspective to know. It is such a known area of needed improvement that, at least in my mind, recruiting has become a big want with every new hire.
So, LA, this is not meant to be a snarky comment. It is a serious question.
If Bowen is one of, if not the best, recruiter on staff...why only have him out there a couple months a year? If he is the best, he should be a road warrior, no? Seems like being in the ACC at the moment is like having one hand tied behind our back, we need our best guys meeting with recruits as often as possible.
Really appreciate your insight, btw.
Because it would take away from his main responsibility, which is being a coordinator. Basically he recruits in January, most of February is a dead period, then he is off the road for spring ball, on the road in April and May, in Blacksburg for OV's in June, and then it's another dead period until fall camp starts. He won't go on the road or carry much of the heavy recruiting lift during spring ball, fall camp, and the season because he needs to focus on his offense.
I would love to be really positive but I have to be realistic.
I mean honestly, did anyone do a fist pump when they heard this news? I am guessing no. I know I sure as hell did not.
My most honest reaction was
all along I thought we might go G5 or NFL, so mine was a little better than that..."okay, cool,
let's see what he can do"
I think the underrated comment is that he's used to coaching guys getting paid (and players coming and going). I don't think he'll have any trouble handling the room.
This is the way.
I do like the hire a lot more with Bud coming back as an analyst. Hopefully, Siefkes will be smart enough to lean on Bud.
Agree that having Bud as a resource should be a huge bonus for someone this young stepping into this role. I just hope that Bud can focus on the processes of managing that side of the ball, the art of play calling, and being a sounding board, while letting Siefkes develop the x's and o's of an innovative scheme that isn't Foster 2.0 that's a decade outdated.
I think we are who we appear to be. In the present era we are a mid-tiered program with limited resources, and our first choices for talent aren't going to see VT as their first choice. We were never going to land CFP-grade experienced hires away from deep pocketed programs. That's not our tier anymore. Combine that with the admin functionality that took more than a month to decide on making an internal hire for S&C permanent and... we are where we are.
Hope he does great. Hope the Hokies improve as a result. I don't expect a lot given the nut-crusher start we have on deck next year. Might drop season tix for the first time in 25 years, I just can't get excited about the state of CFB overall and VT's place in it anymore.
I could still be angry and incensed in the Fuente era. I'm days away from total apathy now. Whitt and this hacky carpetbagger have pushed me this far.
Mixed emotions. He's has his +/-
I think he's a good a hire as the Hokies were going to get.
I think he has more upside potential than downside, so I'm good with the hire.
And.......I'm way more happy that the DC Discussion threads are now dead.
Have to disagree with you on this. I found the side tracks on the DC Discussions threads much more amusing than work, and am concerned we are about to enter the "dead period" of offseason. Really not in the mood to talk about mens shooty hoops since we decided to pull the rug out from under it. My first real perspective on what it's like to be a LOL football fan.
I honestly don't think I've watched a single minute of men's hoops at all this year. That's how much I've checked out.
Same
LOL. Totally get it. Unfortunately, I haven't watch a second of BBall. I am just hung up on an almost 100% overhaul of the roster. I feel the Identify is lost and it's now just dudes who happen to have wearing a Hokie jersey.
After having 12 or so hours to process, my biggest question is around scheme - are we running Foster/Pry's scheme, or Siefkes's scheme or a mix ?
You don't hire this guy as DC if you're not using his scheme, but you also don't give Foster a coaching role if you're not using his scheme... so are they going to meld a gap fit/fill & spill with 3 high safeties? My purely speculative idea that these two mad geniuses are going into the lab to cook up something really unique.
I wouldn't say I'm optimistic about the hire, but I am quite intrigued.
This is an optimistic take. Alternatively we threw everything at a wall to see what stuck and said "we'll figure something out" just like we did with the offense in 2022 with all the different schemes/influences and the result was *fart noise*
Let's hope Pry learned from that debacle. I am encouraged that he was flexible enough to go outside of his scheme (assuming that this wasn't an option 999 panic hire)
It is absolutely an optimistic take. BUT I also struggle to imagine that Foster is going to come out of retirement just to "figure something out."
Just between Foster and Pry there is A TON of college DC experience. The three of them should be able to come up with something over the summer. Scheme has not been an issue as much as role execution and in game adjustments.
I've been thinking for quite some time, that Bud's scheme and adjustments always had a steeper learning curve than the average college defensive scheme. In today's game, with transfers and NIL, you just don't always have the time that Bud had to develop many of his star defenders. You need your best athletes to fit right into the scheme and pick it up quickly. So I think it'll be focused on a scheme that has the gap/fit flavors of Bud and Pry, but Siefkes bringing his experience coaching and teaching a wider variety to help expediate the learning curve and simplify things.
The fact that so many of the press release quotes mentioned "teacher(ing)" has me thinking this is the focus. I think it'll be a blend of things. Ideally, in this age...you have a scheme where it is easy to learn the first 85% and that is enough to go out and have a servicable defense that can win some games and allows players to play fast. And the remaining 15% that takes a little bit longer to learn and incorporate enhances the defense in ways that make it tough to attack and plan against and that focuses on generating pressure and turnovers and confusion for the quarterback.
My understanding is that Bud would have to coach Linebackers to do things that were not instinctual (that's one of the reasons we could never land a big time recruit at that spot), but other than that, the scheme was pretty simple to pick up. Players had to get really good at their job, and trust that teammates were also good at their jobs.
I think it's a talent issue - Defensive talent has been down since 2017. Even the 2019 defensive roster was better than anything Pry has had since arriving at VT.
Now, I obviously believe that despite being less talented, the Marve defenses have underachieved. Still lots of room for improvement. But I don't think the scheme being complex is the issue.
Whit Babcock= 12D chess
Thanks this legit made me laugh out loud
The long defensive coordinator nightmare is over!
Long live the Defensive Coordinator!
plot twist - it's the same color smoke but it just looks lighter because it's dark in the background as opposed to light
The smoke is blue/black, not white/gold.
The smoke is a dress.
I'm glad someone got that one quickly.
You say tomato...
I say yanny
At least you're not resting on your Laurels.
And there it is.....
Did this guy ever work with Arians? Is Siefkas a Bruce Arians recommendation? Just curious.
Someone in my group chat brought this up too, I'm curious about how he made his way to interviewing in Blacksburg.
That's where I immediately went to. Ariens probably knows this guy. Pry mentioned getting help from Ariens. This may be him watching young guys and getting him experience at a DC/play caller level with VT.
As others have said, we all need to reckon with the fact that we are a lower-mid tier program in 2025.
If we want to be a top 20 team again, we need to win games. That's it. We win, and we attract more talent, better coaches, etc. which leads to more wins. It's a train on a circular track, and our train derailed a decade ago.
To get back on, at some point we've got to figure out how to win with less to work with. Maybe that means a DC with no P4 experience who was 5th or 6th down the list of candidates.
Don't get me wrong - I have zero faith in Whit Babcock or his leadership, and serious doubts that we will see success during his tenure. I think football under his supervision has become a complete fucking dumpster fire, and he is the common denominator along with some of the "old guard" still hanging around Merryman.
But I think a lot of our games have been very close to the kinds of wins I'm talking about - the kinds of wins we need to pull off while working with less. Pry was right to fire Marve because of this - over half of our losses were the result of his inability to adjust. All we can do is hope that this guy can do what Marve couldn't, despite the resume. At some point those close games either have to turn into wins for us and things start to turn around - or they don't, and we fall even further off the tracks and have to try to start over again with a new AD.
I mean, this is pretty much what college football has always been like for the have-nots. We're just finally waking up to the fact that we are at the kids table now.
Talk to someone who's a fan of a G5 school. That's what Virginia Tech (and everyone else who's not P2) can expect from now on. You take a shot at a young up and coming coach and if you strike gold, you get a few years of increased success and then hope you've got a good replacement lined up for when he gets poached by a big dog. Then you likely regress to the mean until it happens again.
This is the CFB life for the majority of schools and it's not really a new thing. Hell, your odds of a quick turnaround are better now with the portal than they used to be for the bottom half of FBS schools.
If Marve was as good at his job as Bowen is at his (not an incredibly lofty bar), we would have won at least 8 games last year and would all be singing a different tune.
All the larger issues you mentioned are still true, but it seems reasonable to me this guy could help us hold onto a 2 touchdown lead against Syracuse.
I have a lot of thoughts on this. Right off the bat this felt like Pry hit the bottom of his contacts and this was a ran out of options hire. But the portal moves seem to fit his scheme so that contradicts that point some in my mind. I think his collegiate experience isn't much to hang his hat on, but the NFL upside is promising. Hopefully Pry fills the gaps at his presser.
A lingering question for me is what staff changes, if any, is he making?
Agreed. He's an LB coach so that in theory could mean none....which I think would be a bad idea with the secondary struggles we saw throughout the season.
Even moreso if we are moving to a 3-high safety defense. Based on some quick reading last night, that middle safety especially really needs to know what they're doing.
This all may explain the safety transfers. We seemed to get some pretty good quality transfers for a team that cancelled 3 coaches. There was some hints given to guys to get the commits, without passing out names.
I am encouraged. New D&C,new Oline Coach, New DC. I'm looking forward to tailgating the Spring game and evaluating what's going on.
I am choosing to look at it this way. Pry recognized his system might need help and wanted to recruit somebody that might be able to work with his system as well as potentially adapt or improve it.
Bowen was an NFL positions coach when we hired him. He seemingly is working out so I will choose to believe this hire will work out at as well.
Bowen's first year, though....was....woooof
but his offense has looked at least serviceable the last couple years. I still think VT could get a better OC but Bowen is fine. Just fine. He's not Cornelsen bad. He's not Chip Kelly good. We can score points. His scheme seems to mostly make sense. For the most part, he builds the offense around the personnel. There are occasions where I scratch my head. Like, why does the best player on the team only have 3 touches by half-time in a critical game against a rival?
I don't hate the Siefkes hire. I don't love it. I think he needs to prove himself faster than Bowen did, though, if he's going to keep his job longer than a year or two. Pry's putting all his chips on Siefkes, essentially. If the defense turns around and plays good solid football next season and we win 8+ games then I think Pry earns an extension. If not, well, I think he should be let go. Whether or not that actually happens remains to be seen. I think there are still a lot of local politics at play in VT football and, frankly, I think that's holding us back but there's not much that can be done about it, sadly.
I think Bowen's biggest issue on offense is how dreadful the offensive line has been, and coupled with that fact that he's bound and determined to run a heavy downhill, between the tackles run game with an awful OL. The offense can be explosive and put up points quickly, but it's not efficient and can't control the clock and stay on the field with any consistency. Also the QB position hasn't developed as well as we had hoped, but with a more effective run game I think it helps the pass game as well.
I really think Moore will help significantly with the OL issues. But how quickly he can work wonders is the question. Pry IMO has this year to earn an extension. If not he's probably gone after 2026.
I think taking a chunk of core players that he's worked with and familiar with is going to be huge in accelerating this.
Really hard to judge QB development ability based on the current sample size, though I do agree it has been underwhelming so far.
Well, we got two experienced transfers and a freshman transfer, so that seems like it might go a long way to being ready earlier.
Yeah, but our entire roster was dogshit when Bowen got here. We had, what, 10 scholarship RBs? Two QBs that left and two transfers in, and I think our best O-Linemen either transferred out or went pro. Our offense was going to be awful, not sure it would have mattered who we had.
The benefit is we've been steadily improving our roster the past 3 years, with the possible exception of the O-Line and LBs. We got a number of transfers in on the line, now we just need to see what we can do with our LBs.
"The benefit is we've been steadily improving our roster the past 3 years"... debatable - a bunch of guys left for the P4 and were replaced by not a bunch of P4 guys.
Most important criteria for the new DC.... Will he be letting multiple players with the same number on the field at the same time?
No but our ST coordinator still will lol
Here's a hot take for everyone. WE wanted the "best" DC money could buy, but there are some implications to the type of hire we wanted. After the announcement took so long, we were thinking maybe we were nabbing someone from one of the playoff teams. There are two potential problems I see with that.
First is, although we've said on here that we don't necessarily need a coordinator to be a good recruiter, it helps if they can. So, how good a recruiter are some of the guys coming from these blue blood programs vs the program or higher NIL doing the job for them?
The second, and probably most direct is, for those guys, they've got scads of 4 and 5-star talent that they rely on. If we don't have that type of talent, more than likely, we have to be innovative with how we play defense. Winning solves lots of things, so we should be able to get more talent once we start winning, but in the meantime, I think we probably do need to be somewhat innovative, or get coaches that can get the absolute most out of every recruit (develop them better than average).
So maybe Pry wasn't ever looking at who we thought we wanted, maybe he was looking for innovators the whole time. I mean, Marve was supposed to be cerebral (so innovative?). Maybe the reason it took so long is he was looking at non-standard candidates, and the criteria are a lot different, and maybe he did a LOT more background/reference checking and film watching of the candidates than we'd expect.
Thinking about it, if I was in charge, that is probably the route I would have taken. So basically the question is, if we're trying to do more with less, is when was the last time any of the "best" coordinators had to do that, or have they been trying to do "more with more?"
Excellent take.
Although Marve was an intellectual, he was brought in to be groomed and developed to be Pry 2.0. So I don't know how innovative he was supposed to be in terms of developing novel schemes. It seems Siefkes may be hired to be his own DC, working. alongside Pry and Bud, and bring in his own defense or at lear his own wrinkles. Idk, I guess we'll see.
I'm not sure it was Pry 2.0 exactly. I think you're right, he had a similar philosophy to Pry, but the intellectual/cerebral part, at least my take, would be that Pry would expect him to develop the defense more and figure out ways to counter what offenses were doing and adapting. Similarly how I recall how Pry was working with Bowen on things that are difficult for defenses to stop and letting Bowen adapting stuff to take advantage of that. It seems like Bowen was able to adapt (especially given a weak line) and Marve just didn't. He had a couple good players in certain positions (like APR and Strong) but couldn't seem to get a cohesive defense, and not get much out of the LBs (his position group, mind you), he didn't seem to make adjustments much/well either. He'll, maybe he's a good idea guy but turns out he's crap at implementation.
Regardless, you're right, we'll see. It will also be interesting to see if he makes any changes to any of the position coaches. Already looking forward to the spring game!
Also, in light of the other thread, where Pry said they had a candidate's in the championship game, I'm wondering if it was a position coach that may have had a background as a DC in FCS or G5 first, potentially one of the LB coaches? (Because I still would have had the concerns I listed above about one of the DCs.
https://theforkball.com/how-the-cardinals-are-changing-the-way-defense-is-played/
obviously, time will tell, but i like the idea of a guy that will try to innovate and scheme around what he's got.
I agree – when your program building (or business building) you have to always ask yourself "what's your unfair advantage?"
Do you have more money? Is there something about your program or your brand that's incredibly attractive? Do you run something that's super innovative?
You look at how Beamer one here, it was by innovating on special teams. You could say that Beamer was to special teams with Chip Kelly was to offense.
Yeah I 100% agree here. Since it is plainly obvious at this point that we don't have the cash to compete for hires/recruits on a P2 level, I've been thinking lately that VT has to hire the best innovative/schematic coaches it can for its budget. They may not be big household names, but identify really good coaches at the lower levels or NFL positional coaches who want to make the jump. If they hit and are really good, we may not be able to retain them long term. But that has to be our strategy at this point.
JMU has continually reloaded with great coaches year after year. We need to see if we can emulate some of that.
Ah there it is, the traditional VT coach's pipeline - Wofford.
Maybe a good hire, maybe not. I'm not even gonna try and speculate. Bring on baby beams and those arcade chickens and let Sam show us what he can do.
Listening to the Pryssr now. The way Pry is talking, it sounds like Siefkes will bring his scheme to Blacksburg. Credit Pry for not letting ego get in the way and being willing to move away from "his" signature scheme if he thinks it will help us win.
EDIT: Pry also mentioned how impressed he was with how the Cardinals handle "situational football" and how that has been a weakness for us. Appreciate the candor there.
EDIT2: Bitter asked a good question about our safety recruiting in the portal, wondering if Pry was anticipating the Siefkes hire with those personnel moves. Pry mentioned that he's been interested in incorporating more 3-high safety looks for several years now. Was planning to start moving in that direction even independent of the Siefkes hire. Definitely makes the Siefkes hire seem more intentional WRT scheme and Pry's overall vision.
This is why I am high on Pry. He seems egoless and has a good ability to self evaluate. He also communicates well. Also, he apparently has the ability to shed what is wrong and try to fix.
All these guys saying he has a year to prove he's right or he's gone... I think that is wrong. I know 3 years is a long time to wait but, we see Bowen improve, the lower coaches need the time to learn. If they don't, they are gone.
Pry can identify problems, set a plan for improvement, articulate that plan and execute it. Adjust. That is what we can hope for and realistically expect.
We will never be able to hire a Saban or a Foster, in their prime, we are going to have to be a team that finds a Saban or Faster and give them some time to come up to speed. If they can't then we try again.
This is the realities. I'm ok with that.
Now more than ever college football is a business. Losing 6, 7 games a year is very bad for business. You want to be able to afford Saban? Win championships. You will never get there losing to Vandy. Nice personable coach or not. If Pry wins 4 games next year he will be fired.
Maybe it's time to go the Ole Miss route and cheat as much as you can because sanctions won't hurt you more than you gained from just winning. But it also helps to be supported by a conference like the SEC. Tobacco Road would try to ditch us on the side of the road.
This is pretty much what DC has been saying on here for what feels like the last several years.
If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying.
Michigan got caught in a huge sign stealing scandal - nothing happened to them. So yep.
Tobacco road has been trying (and comically failing) to ditch us on the side of the road for over 20 years. I think they finally decided the only way to screw us was to screw everyone else, themselves included, in the process. And here it is in all it's glory. The current iteration of the ACC.
Strawman alert.
Fun fact pointed out in message boards:
VT now has six DC hires in a row that did not have p5 DC experience prior to coaching VT
True, and one of those was the greatest DC in VT history, and one of the best college football as ever seen.
I think it's more than that.
Siefkes
Marve
JHam
Foster
Elmassian
Mike Clark
Ron Zook ( not sure if he was DC or some other coach - internet lists both)
Bob Brush
And I think the previous one was also a first time DC but I'm too lazy to look it up.
Here's his HS highlights, in case anyone was curious
https://youtu.be/LItPNBCiXew?si=g7T4tvJ9PYWtmdiQ
He should feel at home as he's used to seeing teams where their oline doesn't block
Gotta say, I am drinking the koolaid. Multiple NFL head coaches have been making supportive, public statements around the hire and his coaching/scheme skills.
I choose to be excited by this news.
In order to compete against opponents with more resources you have to get creative. What if we target smart up and comers who are cheap, and redirect the savings to players $.
Does recruiting matter the way it used to? $$ likely trumps everything. I know it does to some degree, but the old family meeting is just foreplay to "business matters".
If this affords 2 more 4*'s I'll take the gamble.
We have to try something different.
Feels like you've been listening to The Cover 3 Podcast
Cover 2? Did they talk about this? Will check it out.
They've been talking about it for like a year. I think they cover it a bunch in these two episodes this week
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Z0lcjjfYr8GnaIGhvOwJ0?si=x5FWpLBHQjqom...
https://open.spotify.com/episode/00sFUEeCcVrCz4XNGiQ08E?si=7VTAKNg1TYyHO...
Thx, will give a listen. I did listen to TSL Siefkes podcast. If we're employing this strategy I think we made a good decision. He is a framework guy who sounds like an excellent teacher. He talks over and over about concepts, which scale in the brain much better than learning plays. If we were looking for cheaper up and comer with an excellent football mind, well, he sure talks the part.
Anyone seen any contractual details on Seifkes yet?