Virginia Tech President Tim Sands announced the Hokies were parting ways with head football coach Brent Pry:
Coach Brent Pry has been relieved of his coaching duties effective immediately. We appreciate Coach Pry's efforts and service since 2021. Unfortunately, the results on the field were not acceptable and a change in leadership is necessary. Philip Montgomery will serve as interim head coach. We will continue to fully support our team and student-athletes for the remaining games as we strive together to significantly improve the trajectory of our football program this season.
To our students, alumni, and the rest of Hokie Nation, we understand and share your disappointment with the season so far. As we move forward together, please join us in supporting and encouraging our student-athletes and athletics staff as they take on this new challenge.
Sands also teased a new plan to provide Virginia Tech football financial competitiveness moving forward:
Board of Visitors members J. Pearson and Ryan McCarthy have been charged by the rector, John Rocovich, to work with university leadership and AD Whit Babcock to develop a financial, organizational and leadership plan that will rapidly position the Virginia Tech football program to be competitive with the best in the ACC. That plan will be presented to the Board of Visitors later this month. The new framework for college sports will be fully established for next season, so this is the time to make a major move.
This confirms an earlier report from ESPN's Pete Thamel:
Sources: Virginia Tech plans to fire coach Brent Pry today. He's gone 16-24 through four seasons and started this year 0-3. He's set to be owed more than $6 million in buyout. pic.twitter.com/yh7ejE0n3C— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) September 14, 2025
Comments
Whit Babcock, come on down. You're next.
And the entire Ballein family.
Funny enough Ballein has already been planning for retirement, but his exit might just be moved from the slow lane to the off ramp.
Probably why Sands released the statement and not Whit
I was going to ask, any other time VT has had to fire a coach, the announcement has come from the AD right? Surely this means Whit was not allowed to make this announcement? Or is football considered so big that the President has to make the call instead of the AD?
Very hard to gauge on this as Hokies have only fired one head coach in the last 30+ years but across football in general the Athletic Director usually announces coaches being fired. I hope this shows Whit is sidelined to provide left seat ride of basic info for an AD selected by someone more competent than the BOV/Sands. Really hope Bruce Arians has a big role in this next phase of Hokies football. Football needs a General Manager more than an Athletic Director.
I googled the press releases for half a dozen of the firings from last year. ALL of them were from the AD.
Tech Sideline did a good podcast on this topic. Apparently, Whit is not involved in the new hiring decision, beyond department support, and a committee that reports to Sands is doing the search and selection. They seemed to think that Whit will remain through the coach hiring decision while his replacement is also found.
I can live with that.
Possibly...but that has to be very embarrassing for Whit.
Maybe there is a some sort of plan on the table for "Co-ADs" with one heading Football (maybe Bball too?) and Whit left with non-rev sports.
But that seems messy and you clearly can't pay Whit the same for less duties. Also doesn't address the need to remove some of the "old heads" from the AD.
My guess is he stays on til 9/30 then crafts a Resignation thanking Virginia Tech and looking forward to "exciting new opportunities"
Yes, this is embarrassing for Whit.
But also, these aren't career jobs any more. Not unlike being a head coach, very very few stay at one place for ever. You either leave on your own terms, or you stay long enough to become a villain.
Agreed...
And I am not advocating that Whit be involved with the HC search nor that VT go out of its way to avoid putting him in a bad light.
Moreso just musing about what keeps him here at this point? He's basically having his duties cutoff at the knees publicly. In the Engineering world, this would be akin to taking you off the project and telling you to sit in the corner while everyone else figured it out.
Maybe just lack of any other opportunities at this point?
He's probably ready to retire (educated guesswork on my part). His comments at the BOV retreat signaled that he wasn't planning on staying on as AD for much longer. I think the current environment is exhausting.
Found this interesting... According to Google, Whit and Pry are the same age— 55. Both are surprising for the opposite reasons. I think most people would guess older for Whit and younger for Pry.
Whit may not have managed it well, but I believe he has a pretty good grip on the current CFB landscape, as well as lots of connections in the AD world. At least way more than anyone else at VT.
The BOV may recognize that his insights will be valuable as they develop the plan for the future and Whit may be willing to serve in a "consultant" role knowing he won't ultimately be implementing the plan.
If he is truly looking to retire over making a move elsewhere, helping craft the plan that (hopefully) sets VT up for success as his last act let's him create a positive legacy.
I think "consultant" role is exactly the right characterization here. I don't think Whit wanted to spend much time actually operating a new structure going forward, and the decision on that structure was always going to be made well above him. Pry's failure forced everyone to play their hand now but ultimately the big calls on the structure of the athletic department in the professional era were going to come from the BOV with input from Babcock and a recommendation from Sands.
Maybe Whit doesn't have to show up for that meeting now, but it was never gonna be his bus to drive anyway.
Can't overstate just how important this next AD hire is going to be. Let's be real....the next football HC, whoever he is, probably won't be good enough to get things turned around. Hell, maybe not even the next 2 or 3 HCs. They might get the negative downward momentum stopped, but we are operating at such a massive deficit that I don't think an overnight Indiana/South Florida-style rise is in the cards. I predict we're going to go through this cycle several more times before we get one that hits/stays.
But the AD hire is another story. Top to bottom, every single part and parcel of the status quo in Merryman needs to be excised. Modernize. Streamline. Adapt. We need somebody with big ideas, and realistic ways to implement them. Anyone who says the words "well we've always done it this way" needs to be shown the door. Ideally, they'll hire someone who sees the hidden big dog in this program, the way I always have. A guy who reignites the fire in this fanbase that has just been dying for something to get us to buy back in for so long.
Biggest decision they'll ever make. No pressure.
Really need to snapshot the Athletics org chart and see how the dominoes fall in the coming months. To your point, which I very much agree with, the new org needs to be fresh & clean of anyone who now wears the stench of this embarrassment.
The new AD needs to also come in and light a fire up under the Hokie Club's ass...force them to engage with the donors & fans in every way imaginable. Without them, this program is going nowhere, and right now they are probably teetering on the edge of bringing them back vs losing them forever. They need to show us how each and every dollar we spend or contribute is going to bring the program to the upper echelon of collegiate sports, from the carpet/tiles the student-athletes walk on to the sports medicine care they will receive. I'm sick & tired of the over-focus solely on "the Hokie Club money ensures the student-athlete receives a world-class education while participating in our sports". Let's get real, honest, & transparent about this NIL world: we need money to get the best value athletes so that our spend grants us the highest chances of success in athletic events.
Oh, and let's not forget figuring out how to not have every home football game be a complete shitshow of long lines, no WiFi, no cell service, etc. It seems like nearly every home game we get a young lady coming to our tailgate in tears asking us if we have a way for them to charge their phone battery or get internet so they can get their tickets.
Good man, couldn't get it done. Gets a six million dollar golden parachute, he'll be fine.
Time to overhaul the entire thing. Bring in someone with vision, can fundraise and can recruit. Easier said than done.
I keep wondering if a Fu/Pry combo would've actually worked well maybe. Like someone with the x's and o's + on field coaching + someone who can schmooze boosters, fans and recruits. We definitely didn't appreciate Beamer enough for doing those things for as long as he did even though the end of his tenure wasn't he best
I think a Mullen/Pry combo would be amazing
Fu as HC and Pry as GM / Chief of Staff / Press Secretary
We need some one that can recruit though
Jeff Bezos as head bag dropper, Sands tells him we need an extra 100m for the football team and we'll do whatever he wants in NoVA for Amazon.
This is actually a good idea
The Amazon Virginia Tech Prime Hokies playing at Lane Stadium Presented by Amazon Cloud on Amazon's Worsham Field. Have every position sponsored Amazon. All jerseys have an Amazon patch. A special one off Amazon blue jersey and game theme. Just whore us out to Amazon.
We need to bend over for Bezos.
Nope - neither of them understood fundraising. Penn State has fans that will raise their own money to fix financial problems. Fuente never worked anywhere that needed to really do that. And Fuente isn't a salesman, which you kinda need to be to fundraise, or at least be personable enough with donors that the fundraising guys can be making the pitch.
Agree.
Two main issues, to me moving forward:
1. Money. Its gonna take crazy money. But in my simple world, if you use shitty bird feed you get shitty birds.
2. Culture change. I don't mean the fan culture exactly : we have great fans, but if something has a VT logo on it, it has to be demanded that it is excellent or it is quickly changed.
Since you mentioned it, the shitty bird feed thing is an occasional source of friction here. Wife is just not totally down with buying the good stuff, regardless of the obvious. Pounds of seed wasted on the ground because nothing would eat it, and all to what? Save 4 or 5 bucks? She never kicks on the sunflower seed, but the small bird stuff gets the CFO in a twist. I love my birds, though, and have always fed them, but unlike the Hokies, they never let me down.
I'm hearing Montgomery will be interim head coach, which is interesting because I figured it'd be JC.
Montgomery has more expierence as HC and has been HC and OC before. I think in a 1 game situation its JC, but we have 9 more games.
Yeah, but considering he was the OC and we went 4 quarters with 63 unanswered points, I'm not sure your offense is who you want leading the charge. Maybe not defense either. Maybe some random guy named Dave from the stands would do better.
Some of that might be attributed to our $1mm QB sliding or going out of bounds short of the first down every time. Or the receivers looking like they weren't running routes with any urgency or speed.
That may have been this game, but that's not what was going on against Vandy. Plus, the sliding short was happening once we actually started to score some points, if my memory serves.
Sliding short and running out of bounds early happened in the first half several times against ODU. I know because I only stayed for the first half and witnessed it. One of the times was with 40 seconds left on third down in the first half requiring a timeout to stop the clock.
Some of that I feel like may have been due to coaching though. His normal mode was to run, drop a shoulder , and hammer the defender. Given that I didn't see him doing that, I have to think the coaches told him to be more careful with himself and to slide and get out of bounds without contact. Given that he previously did not shy from contact, it may be that he's just not used to when he should slide or go for an extra couple yards if he's running out of bounds. That was my take on it anyway.
Not sure I buy that. Three times in the first half, he slid well short of contact and as a result we didn't get the first down. In the second half, I don't think he slid after getting chewed out during half.
I meant before this game I didn't remember him sliding, not about any in-game adjustments. I was thinking the coaches must have told him before the game that he needed to protect himself and slide or get out of bounds rather than trying to bulldoze the defenders.
The worst part on one of the slides was that he had a receiver WIDE open if he just threw it rather than sliding for a couple yards
And on several others he was intent on running towards the sideline where if he had run up the field he converts and could still slide. He wasted yards going East/West rather than North/South.
Yeah, he's definitely not the most aware. It's weird how he seems to have flashes of brilliance then a number of "WTF was that?" moments.
I mean it would certainly help if he was capable of hitting the broad side of a school bus, but his inaccuracy has led to so many hair pulling moments the last few years. I genuinely think we could have won the SC game if he was capable of connecting on the easy passes before the defense gassed out.
Hopefully it gets him away from the offense. Our play calling has been atrocious.
J.C. has been the only coach worth his salt here.
But whoever the Interim H.C. is going to take a beating the rest of the year...sparing J.C. that "honor" might actually be a favor.
My thoughts as well
They need to jettison Seifkes immediately. His defense has been terrible. Arguably, Seifkes got Pry fired in week 3 rather than December. Maybe let JC take over as DC.
I think the Seifkes experience was a complete failure. Had hopes after SC, but those faded fast. The last half of Vandy and the first against ODU was all I needed to see.
it wouldn't surprise me at all if Seifkes goes on to have a great career. he seems like a pretty creative guy, and has proven himself in previous spot.
i said it in another post, when your defense is full of guys from sam houston, ecu, hampton, texas st, new mexico, rice, eastern michigan, georgia southern, north dakota st, and temple...what would we really expect?
of course, that said...we should've been an even match-up with ODU...and obviously we weren't. but i think the team had already basically quit.
Maybe he can turn it around... we saw a good performance/game plan against SCar.
After Vandy beat the pants off SCar over the weekend l'm not sure of what to think of Tech's performance in that game.
Hard to make any good comparisons since SC lost their best player Sellars in 2nd quarter
Might be why SC only put up 7. I don't know how much it had to do with Vandy putting up 31, though.
Prior to Sellers going out it was 7-7 and TOP was about 1 minute in Vandy favor.
From mid 2 Qtr, Vandy had an almost 10 minute TOP advantage. SCar possessions after Sellers went out ended in Missed 53 yard FG, Punt, Turnover on Downs, Turnover on Downs, Fumble, Interception. Vandy had an average starting field position of the SCar 48 yard line for those. Short field, gassed defense because their offense couldn't get anything done.
Fair points.
Now where have I heard that before?
Game on Paper summary. Three factors:
Not only that but to think we have a bad QB situation here...South Carolina's 2nd string QB is Luke Dotty who came in in 2020 as a QB but has since played WR. They have no one behind Sellers other than true freshman.
Isn't this life in the portal era? Even USCe with SEC money can't afford to have 2 quality QB's on the roster. No one who's worth it will go to just sit behind a locked-in starter.
Unfortunately we hired as a coordinator someone who is used to working with the best of the best (NFL Players) and gave him the Meh of the rest. Best scheme in the world doesn't matter when you have LB's who are backpedalling when they should be driving the line to fill a gap in run support.
As said in other locations, I absolutely disagree with anybody who said the team quit. You don't score 26 against a team trying to stop you with players that have quit. The second onside kick was a thing of beauty.
Didn't he have a top 30 defense at Wofford in 2019?
This is correct... per hokiesports
Price's last game at the helm was memorable for all the wrong reasons
What is Sam Rogers up to right now? Would love for him to come in and put a foot up everyone's behind
HC at Hanover HS north of Richmond
It was a horrible game but I'm not sure how much can be attributed to his coaching. I don't have the numbers in front of me but many, many key players did not suit up for that game. Some were savings themselves to improve their draft status, transferring out, etc. He had a short roster to work with.
Agree - I seem to recall a fairly large number of players opting out.
From what I gather, we are cleaning house with all the "old guard" at VT. So JC probably not the best choice there.
https://hokiesports.com/news/2025/9/14/leadership-transition-underway-fo...
Can we make pry a cheerleader? Maybe he can earn some of that severance. Seems to be his only specialty
But what would we do after Halftime??
I'm afraid if we let Pry near the cheerleading Program, they'd do exactly what his Football team did and disappear at the start of the 3rd Quarter.
Statement from Sands is certainly "there's more to be replaced" vibe. Hoping that means Whit.
Classy guy. I really wanted it to work out.
Class guy! Good luck to you and your family.
Pry managing a classier response to being fired from a cannon than Kenny Brooks did to leaving for double the money.
Facts!!
In a different world, he could have been beloved as Bud2.0. He just isn't an HC.
Truly believe that Brent Pry is a good man who was out of his depth in the job. Wish him well and hope the program can recover.
Pleasantly surprised administration made a decisive move instead of taking another season or two of just letting things ride out.
There might've been actual riots on campus if he made it to next season. The way the team got teabagged at home by an in state G5 team made it impossible for them to not take action. That final, as bad as it was, should have been so much worse.
That's what I'm thinking. It kind of sounded like there was things working behind the scenes to get rid of Whit (that he is aware of), but this performance made it so they had to fire Pry within 24 hours of the game.
I'm hopeful that taking Pry out of the picture may let Sefkes and Montgomery develop a better offense and defense plan. I don't think so; but I hope so.
I really liked Pry. He said the right things and improved the VT relationships with the in state coaches.
By letting him go now, the Hokies have chance to right the ship with an "easy" win (is there anything like an easy win for this team?) this week before ACC play opens in two weeks.
Best of luck Coach Pry.
Go HOKIES!
We were still only the second team to fire their HC. UCLA beat us to the punch. Can't even be first in firing someone. /S
Does this mean Whit will be sticking around to oversee this new plan? Not sure how I feel about that. His presentation at last showed he recognized the hole were in, but he's also been in charge for a bunch of the slide, so...
The BOV respects and likes Whit. I'll put my prediction as the follows:
Whit knows he's out (internally it's probably almost a done deal), they're working on negotiating his exit. He will be allowed to resign amicably. He will be engaged in this process because no one knows our strengths and deficiencies better than he does. He might not be getting the job done, but he knows what's up and the BOV trusts that he will be a straight shooter. The financial plan will likely be coupled with structural and personnel changes, which includes Whit. Perhaps a resignation date that allows for some reasonable path to a new person taking over.
This is a very level headed assessment based on reality. Makes the most sense. And the source is solid.
Orderliness, respect, levelheadedness. Whit can be an asset to the process, but can't be in charge of it. There's a lot to like about that approach.
The structural changes had to happen anyway -- the new world clearly demands a new structure (HC plus a GM with way more financial integration than ADs have ever had to deal with before). Whit was very good at all the other parts of the traditional AD job, but he botched two football hires and no one in their right mind would let him make a third even if we were still in a pre-portal/NIL era.
There's a reason the GM hires have mostly come from the pro world. It's where we are now. Now the university gets to figure out how serious we are about competing in it, and that was always gonna be a BoV-level decision. Whit can be essentially an inside consultant but this just makes a little clearer what was likely happening anyway.
I don't think you can say Whit botched the Fuente hire. At the time it looked like a good (great?) hire. He was the hot name at the time. Obviously, it didn't work out.
The Pry hire was questionable when you pair it with the lack of insistence of experienced coordinators.
It's been stated on here plenty of times but the Fuente hire seemed to be such a slam dunk that many well respected journalists use it as a reason that they will never try and grade hires at the time they happen ever again.
I'm still in the camp that Whit and the AD hamstrung fuente
I still stand by the fact that the Fuente hire felt good at the time because the coaching carousel that year was full of "can't miss" coaches that all missed
I recall Fuente and Tom Herman were the two hottest names on the market year. And well... yeah
The Fuente hire failed because no one in the building knew that VT's deficiencies aligned with Fuentes blind spots.
The Pry hire failed for many reasons, but poor staffing decisions was the original sin.
I didn't interpret it that way at all. If Whit was sticking around, the statement would have come from him, not Sands.
This right here is key. The AD normally hires and fires coaches. Sands announced Pry was gone. That tells you something about who's running the Athletic Department now, or, who isn't.
Hate the fact it evens hints that Babcock gets to be involved in what comes next. They can't fire him soon enough.
Committee: Whit, would you hire this candidate for Head Football Coach?
Whit: I like them. I think they check all the boxes and I would hire them.
Committee: Put that in the NO pile.
/s
In all seriousness, I hope it's more like "these are the people on staff who have lots of info you may not know about. This candidate has these red flags we are already aware of internally, but haven't shared publicly, this guy quietly turned us down last time" etc.
this is what i hope is the case. Basically helping out the search team by letting them know the info we have already gathered.
I think this is the correct assumption of the situation. Whit knows what we have done before and who we have talked to. Provide information to know if we should spend time trying to kick the tires on someone.
He wil assist until his assistance is no longer needed.
100% the right call.
Can we get a super bowl winning coach to chair this committee?
Why should we believe Bitter knows anyone close to the program - this news was broken by ESPN. Not a single local reporter had any scoop. This is more speculation than sourced insight.
Any media commentary yet (other than Twitter and local papers)?
ESPN did a top five candidates, 3 players to keep and 3 recruits to retain
Crazy they only say to keep 3
With what we all witnessed last night I'm surprised that the number was that high.
Link for anyone curious:
Andy Staples/On3
His list, in no particular order:
I would be excited about Golish or Helton. Could get excited about Faulkner as well, but not in love with it.
If Virginia Tech hires Michael Vick, with one year of experience taking L's at Norfolk State, I am out. I'd rather be drum fishing and watching early season hockey than watching another disaster.
If Brent Pry, with almost two decades of experience in the coaching profession who was well-respected amongst his peers wasn't prepared for the respoinsibility of a head coach, how is a guy who has done of the leg work, who got a job at Norfolk State because he was a legend in the area (and they were desperate for something to get butts in seats) and not because of any competency, AND had a reputation for being poor at preparation and reviewing film, going to come in and right the ship. It will be a good story until the lights come on, and then it will look like a mess.
At this point, I want someone who has shown they can do more with less, who can change the culture, and try to create some kind of foundation to build on. I loved watching Michael Vick make plays. That doesn't make him head coaching material, just like Mark Messier bringing the Cup to the Rangers in no way qualified him to be a head coach or GM of that team.
Second this ^^^
I hope Vick learns a lot in his first year as a head coach and has a great career at Norfolk State. If he becomes a powerhouse coach, maybe we can have a conversation about him coaching somewhere else.
At this point, he is probably still learning which bathroom is the good one. That isn't a resume.
The Lady Lex'?
The last CV to court (my personal fave): the po' Brewster Buffalo.
Which (knowingly/willingly) redefined going to your death @Midway...
...harsh.
b.street
p.s. too bad only the Sara' made it... two very tough laid down keels-- albeit intended for something different than muleing planes.
Wouldn't make any sense at all to hire Vick. He hasn't got anything near the experience required. We should know that from our recent experiences with Fuente and Pry, and they had significant coaching experience, just not enough of it at the highest level.
Not silverfield, please, I am not a huge fan at all
There's no way we go back to the Memphis well
That list is underwhelming considering we all know Golish is option 1 everywhere right now.
updated: Especially considering what motivation can we offer him...if he doesn't get a top SEC offer, why would he walk away? He is making close to $3M this season at USF thanks in large part to a clause inserted in his contract that gives him a $1M+ raise if USF joins a power 5 conference.
When are the Bulls joining the Big 12, i missed that.
I botched it. Was misreading a report on his background contract details. He does have the clause in his contract but membership part is on me.
I'd be pumped about Ty Helton. His coaching tree is pretty crazy.
Good thing we're getting a head start on all of them then.
Should somebody open up that coaching carousel thread? Is week 3 a record?
almost certainly a VT record. I'm a little amazed it actually happened to be honest
Nico Iama-runningoffmynewcoach helped UCLA beat us to the punch.
I am tired of bad football. The message never matched the production. Don't let the door hit you where the good lord split you.
I am going to say it, and nobody will agree, but I would love to have Tim Beck, who has been brilliant designing offenses that compete against better resourced schools now at Pittsburgh State, New Mexico State, and Vanderbilt. Bring in Jerry Kill to bring back the attitude that Vandy just punked VT and USCe with. Not sure who they would bring on defense, but if those are two guys paired together that have a consistent track record of changing the culture at moribund programs. And make no mistake, Virginia Tech is the USS Lexington, slowly sinking after getting hit by torpedos in the Battle of the Coral Sea.
After that effort, there are some players who need to return some NIL cash, because they stole that money last night.
I could get excited about TB
The most frustrating thing is we literally had Kill in Blacksburg and let him walk to keep "QB-Xtreme" around.
Until proven otherwise, Kill is the real reason for Vandy being a competent FB Program while Clark Lea is all of a sudden being hailed as a coaching savant by the media.
To clarify: I am not advocating for Kill as Head Coach but he was clearly on the way to righting the ship for Fuente and if you watch the Vandy sidelines he is the one running the show on everything Offensive. I am saying we could be 10 steps ahead if Fuente would have had the stones to cut Cornelson
To be clear and fair, the person to blame for not cutting Corny is Whit Babcock and not Fuente. Fu proposed this at Kill's recommendation and Whit veto'ed it over financial considerations. Corny knew he was on thin ice and had interviewed in the offseason (mizzu direction I think).
Fu made lots of mistakes, BUT you could make a coherent argument that this was the key turning point in that era and it's on Whit. We had enough talent that with the right coaching we could have turned a corner. Things might have been different if those changes had gone down as recommended.
Fu was a terrible executive and PR man, but a much better football mind than anyone on the current staff. Love or hate him it's true. Whit screwed him over multiple times, but this was the biggest one imo
This is the first I have ever heard of this...??
There was lots of smoke that Fu wanted Barry Odom and Whit wouldn't open up the checkbook thus Hamilton was hired with not nearly enough experience.
Fu made more than one public statement of confidence in Cornelson...
It's not like he would go out and say I tried to fire him everyone - come on
That's the most ludicrous crap I've ever heard
I also heard/read rumors that Fuente wanted to hire two new, experienced coordinators after 2019, but he was not given the budget to do so.
I'm curious where this is coming from. In all the turmoil and frustration over Corny as OC, even going into Fuente's last year, I didn't hear anything even remotely like this.
According to Fu, questioning QB-Xtreme's OC ability was ludicrous crap
I prefer the story of Yorktown rather than Lexington.
I prefer the story of the USS Eldridge
What, the subject of a hoax story?
That makes a lot of sense.
What's VT's relationship with Kill? Did he come here only because of Fuente? And I wonder if he has a positive or negative view of VT.
Could Kill be a AD assistant or football GM, some promotion in title? Can we pay him more than Vandy does?
Getting Kill to VT would give the is best hope that VT football will be relevant within 3 years. He is master at taking over a bad football team and turning them good.
Didn't kill have a heart attack a few years ago and just couldn't leave the game?
Also, that dude shouldn't be at a P5 role in a recruiting capacity. He... has no interest in being an agreeable person. That's fine at New Mexico State but not VT.
He used to be HC at Minnesota and in 2009 I think it was, he had a seizure during a game.
I'm all for Kill being brought back in a consultant role, but for his own sake I think someone else should hold the big whistle.
Tim Beck with the big whistle. Kill as his senior advisor.
Done. Man that was easy
yea, GM wouldn't make sense. But I was thinking he probably would need a promotion from his role at Vandy to attract him and Beck. But maybe not. Maybe Sr. advisor with Beck getting his promotion is enough.
He had a relationship with Fuente.
When the train started going off the tracks for Fuente, he brought Kill in a consultant role in 2019.
We started playing better (probably mostly due to Kill) but there was a widely reported near fist-fight between Kill and other offensive staff...essentially with Kill telling them they were incompetent.
Faced with a decision, Fuente chose to retain incompetence and sealed his fate.
Technically he came because Gary Pattterson had a relationship with them both and he suggested it
Wrong. See my above post, but Whit didn't allow change and railroaded us in the process
I think you might be mixing up your missouri-related coordinator interviewing history unless you come back with a source other than your own upthread comment
Hard "no" on Kill.
That would be going in the wrong direction. He's better as a hired gun. Hopefully not for us or anyone we play. Voted most likely to sing "Gloom, despair, and misery on me" in a Hee-Haw spoof.
Would love kills passion on the sideline. Dude can coach.
I suggested Tim Beck in the New Coaching Candidates thread. The fact that you agree just solidfies that opinion.
TLDR: French agreed with me, y'all can't tell me shit!
In possibly related news, I just saw the Vandy-USC score.
Sellers left the game early I think
Sellers left after a targeting early in 2nd quarter with the game tied at 7. The Vandy linebacker hit Sellers straight under the chin well after ball was out. Didn't look like intent to injure but still changed the entire game.
So he UCLA LB'd him?
Not quite that blatant. It was at least a quasi football play, just hit Sellers in just the right spot to ring his bell.
I saw a replay of the hit and it really didn't look like much. Just the wrong hit at the wrong time for Sellers.
Pry seems like a good guy, would like to have a drink or 5 with him. Hate that it didn't work out but he was over matched from the beginning. It's fitting that his so called best friend and ODU were both his first and last loss here.
As for the future? I don't know. A new AD has to be in place before a new HC, just makes sense to me. I for one want a complete clean slate. No more Beamer/VT ties. I love that man but he has been gone for 10 years now. No more #25, no more lunch pail. I want a HC CEO with a AD and President that is aligned and focused on football. Even if that means getting rid of some olympic sports. It's 2025 and football is king! We absolutely have to match our play on the field with our brand in order to have a seat when the music stops for the ACC in a few years.
I, personally, want everything not football or basketball to take a back seat for a few years. Not kill them off completely, unless absolutely necessary. We really need to knock these three revenue generators out of the fucking park, or else we're just delaying the inevitable. Any good corporation that is in as dire of a situation as we are would dump all the non-revenue-generating product lines to ensure the next few quarters are profitable. VT needs to do the same. Otherwise this is all going to be SSDD (Same Shit Different Day).
We should rank all sports to how close they are to championship and fund accordingly after football/basketball
I'm still just thinking about the Pry decision and wondering how on earth he was this bad at VT. I know James Franklin is also known as a bad game manager HC, and Pry certainly had a pretty limited coaching network from basically just being tied to the hip with Franklin for so many years. But he was a DC for a while at a major program in Penn State. Just how could he be this bad of a coach? I don't know if he just underestimated how difficult a job going to HC would be, didn't hire the right people around him to cover deficiencies, or just got exposed without a strong staff and more talent around him like at PSU. It's really mind-boggling how dreadful it was from start to finish here for Pry.
The original sin of the Pry hire was Babcock not absolutely requiring (and funding) him to hire experienced coordinators. Once you've got a couple years as an HC under your belt, then you can start training up your buddies. Bowen had promise but needed an experienced HC to help him not blow two years finding his own way through all the mistakes. Marve needed so much help with the defense that first year it took away from Pry's ability to learn how to be an HC, and the defense never got better from there.
I know, right?
We went from mediocre to poor.
Obviously head coach is very different job from coordinator. I think this 'learn on the job' mentality got us behind the 8 ball.
Then, the staff hires overall were not good. I was stoked with Rudolph, but something was off. I DO think he upgraded general staff and that helped, but the key staff.... not so good. OC, DC, S&C were meh.
I loved his passion to fix recruitment ties in the state. But then CFB changed so drastically that I honestly think it's not as important.
To this point, it's gonna be about the benjamins.
Coach, facilities, education blah blah are important and always will be. But you've GOT to compete for players with cash. Im not sure we can, but that is an AD level issue, IMO and Hokie Club needs to be fixed ASAP.
I want to say that if Fuente had been around one more year, poor would have gotten here under his tenure. The players we had when he left were not good. His ever poorer recruiting classes weren't going to win many games Pry's first year (if Fuente had stuck, I don't think we would have much if any different).
I know from professional experience that competent subordinates can make the shittiest of managers look good. It's only when those shitty managers need to elevate their subordinates that their deficiencies start to shine. Could be the case from Pry...able to keep things humming when you have quality parts, but when you need to extract the very best from your parts, things fall apart.
I've been thinking about this as well; it feels very similar to Clemson to me. You have a "CEO-only" head coach who's not known for being a schematic genius, and all of his successful assistants can't make the next step.
At Clemson, we've seen Chad Morris, Jeff Scott, and Tony Elliott all fail on their own. Among the James Franklin guys, we've seen Joe Morehead, Ricky Rahne, and Brent Pry all hit a ceiling of mediocrity.
My speculative hypothesis is that because these "CEO-only" coaches aren't great at schematic stuff, there's a very clear division of responsibilities, and as a result, there are limited learning experiences for their assistants.
Compare that to a Saban, or a Kirby... those guys are getting into the details of every game plan, instructing what situations to practice, etc, so their assistants regularly get a window into their minds.
Anyways, I could be completely wrong, but that's my hypothesis
His record in one score games has been well documented, and he's gotten a lot of stick (rightly so!) for his game management, but there's also some significant bad luck baked into his W-Ls in those games. Dude could not catch a break and did not help himself make any at all.
I really wanted Pry to succeed. He seemed like a genuinely good guy. But it clearly was not working and definitely needed to be removed. Wishing him good health and good luck. Now can we please, please, please get:
A decent head coach
A competent QB coach
A better AD
If only DC had lived to see it.......so sad.
My theory is they made him erase his TKP account because he's heading the search committee
I have no clue what happened, or when it happened (I took a site break for a while), and don't need to know, but I realized earlier as I was paroosing that his name hadn't popped up. /end
OMG! You're right, I haven't seen a DC post in days or weeks maybe! I hope he's okay, I secretly love snarkyness and he's the king of snarkville.
I appreciate DC and miss him - hope he is ok
Same. Felt like he was quick to find the Doom in the Gloom sometimes, but he was right more often than not.
Should I be reading this comment literally, HT??
No - just sarcasm since hes gone from the site.
To be Clear, I liked alot of what he had to say and would probably have fun sitting down for a couple beers with him - I just got tired of certain complaints being repeated ad nauseum.
DC was the loveable villain that TKP needed - I'm fairly certain DC and I are NOT aligned on most things but when it came to football I think he mostly knew what he was talking about and I agreed with his larger points - I think the way he presented them was pretty abrasive, though, and he beat the hell out of every horse he killed which could get pretty annoying pretty quickly
As off-putting as he was, you gotta admit he's been right about a lot of things (even as he was simultaneously hilariously wrong about most of the details - due in large part to his weird insistence to overly exaggerate just about everything to make his points)
Yes. He and I didn't agree on much outside of sports either. But he knew ball, I'll give him that.
It's probably because I'm constantly surrounded by opinionated assholes who are wrong a lot of the time, but I found DC entertaining and was able to let a lot of the bombastic things he spouted flow under the bridge. He also had good golf advice
Yeah the man knows golf too. Good shout
So do we know where his account went? Did he nuke it?
Dont know, but Little Bobby Tables is his buddy IRL. Don't know if he wishes to share anything.
Bobby if you see this please let him know that there are posters that miss his comments even if a couple drove people nuts.
Its nuked. Went to find a thread I know he commented in this summer and when I clicked his name it got the Frank Beamer meme User Not Found. He's also wiped from the Big Board.
He could be under a temporary ban, though.
Same. I've never had an issue with anyone here, regardless if I agree or disagreed with their opinion or delivery.
There is that one guy years ago, who created two usernames and posted from both of them and then I think Joe called him out on it and he left the site?
Anyways, other than that, I haven't seen anything in the 10-15 years I've been on Tkp that has really rubbed me the wrong way.
Ah, good ol' Bender. Hokieknight something and then HokieMacGuyver or some such. Dude loved sowing chaos. There were a couple of others, too, who really went all in on trolling, but we took care of them fast. Bender was always right on the cusp. Joe gave him a time-out for a bit, then the guy promised to behave...and didn't. Bye.
Yeaup I remember that guy. He'd post a ton of comments back when we got an auto +1 leg for each comment posted to keep his numbers up. He's really the only guy in the history of this site that I remember having a real problem with
There was also that Starscream guy or whatnot. I think he created a couple accounts and was just batshit from the start
Yeah, he's the one I'm thinking of. He also started messaging me on Twitter and I had to block him there. Had way too many screws loose.
Starscream meltdown was most memorable to me.
Sobering comment: Godfrey says VT can't afford Sumrall and he'd stay at Tulane over VT on college football Enquirer today at 1 hour 3 minutes.
Didn't say anything about Mullen/VT, but did discuss the idea of Mullen to UCLA.
If he thinks he can get an SEC gig direct from Tulane, he's absolutely smarter to stay there. There's even more downside to the VT job now than there was in 2021 (and it's clear the 2021 market saw a lot of downside, thus us ending up with Pry), and he can crush the AAC while he waits and keep his recruiting chops fresh in an area he's comfortable.
We aren't going to get guys with slam-dunk options elsewhere -- or who think they'll have slam-dunk options if they wait a year.
If we are ready for $8m for an HC, and $1.7m coordinators then we should hire cheap until Hokie club is running like it should
chicken and egg. HC won't be running like it should until there is someone legit at Head Coach to be excited for. Even you have someone who knows how to raise funds what is he selling to donors to raise funds for? We hired a lame duck so you can pony up to get a REAL coach. losing sales pitch IMO.
If Sands wants to see real change then the school needs to make a leap of faith with the top 20% of donors. Find and pull in a head coach and AC that is gonna fire up the other 80%.
That's good info, but part of me thinks really?
I get him not needing to jump if he can get another top tier job straight from Tulane. But purely on not being able to pay him enough? That is pretty embarrassing if so
It's easier to win at Tulane than VT. He's getting comparable money there, so why not stay, keep winning, keep looking appealing, then take a higher paying job the following year.
Regardless, it doesn't matter. UF will likely open, even if auburn doesnt, and I'm sure he'll go there.
Well we elevated literally the worst person to be interim head coach lmao. His offense sucks, he doesn't know the players very well (and likely doesn't have their respect), his offense sucks and despite having talented players, he's not particularly charismatic, and yeah he has experience but he wasn't a good head coach at Tulsa and specifically was not a good game manager.
The major issue right now is that the team clearly quit on Pry. I'll make another longer post about this below. What that means is right now we need a guy to rally the troops and get the best out of this team, then retain the top players or as many as possible. There's no reason to believe P Mont would be the guy to do it, he has zero ties to the school or the region.
To me the decision was between Price and Mines, two coaches that have the players love and respect. Price has done it before and did a good job. If he didn't want it then Mines would be a great pick to see what he can do, but also more importantly retain our best players and recruits. As top recruiter on staff and VA guy it makes a ton of sense. 3rd option to me is Matt Moore for the same reasons as Mines but he also just got there and really has his hands full with that unit.
I would not be surprised if we make a change on interim (not sure how often or if that's ever happened for non scandal reasons). If we start immediately losing guys and beat Wofford by like 10, get blown out by State and Wake then get like 70-0'd by GT, I think making a change on the interim during the bye is worth it. That outcome is certainly possible if the guys quit and I think under P Mont, this random new guy you just brought in, that is more likely than not
The part that sticks out to me is that you think beating wofford by 10 is not only possible, but grounds for a change at the top. At this point, I don't expect a single win. The team quit on Pry. I don't think they're going to suddenly start playing hard for anyone in the building, frankly.
I would be perfectly okay with having a 100% new roster in 2026. I see no reason to keep any of the current players. Complete reboot needed imo.
This. We basically need to death sentence our program without actually killing it for several years.
Totally new staff, and I mean totally, down to the equipment workers and health/nutrition staff.
Every current player need to earn their place. Those that want out can go, and we'll recruit a new roster of individuals that are hungry to play.
Maybe for the r-soph and older but there are ton of good young guys on this team. Peterkin, Chambers, Laws, Evans, Harrell, Crim, Adams, Wiggins, Gabe Williams, Hanchuck, Clarke, Overton, Robinson
These are all very talented young players that it would be stupid to let go. That's one thing Brent Pry did well, was recruit some of these good young Va players. A lot of them are not easily replaced, definitely not by the portal (we saw in this class that the portal might not be as reliable going forward).
I'm not a great evaluator of football talent but it seems like everytime I saw Terion Stewart run the ball I was like THIS GUY IS THE FUTURE
... and now I'm looking him up and apparently he's a grad student in his 5th year of eligibility. No wonder he isn't on your list.
Dead cat bounce
I very much disagree that the team quit on Pry. If they had quit on Pry they would not have scored 26 points after halftime. ODU kept their starters in until the last 2 minutes and where doing their best to run up the score and stop us from scoring.
Agree- the Vandy game I couldn't see the fight in the last of the 3rd til end of the game, but this week I was at least happy to see us scoring. The 'crowd'-usingthat term loosely-was engaged. Technically, we 'won' the second half!
Defense looked like shit but when they stood up a bit better in the second half we had subbed out a lot of the starters.
Offense may just be that bad. O Line is obviously hurt and terrible, then Montgomery's scheme doesn't seem to be mitigating that in any way, in fact it may be contributing to that (I'm not sure Montgomery's offense is any good even with a perfect offensive line).
Imo we scored 26 because of our skill players, they were getting open and running hard, and occasionally Drones hit the open man
Price, Mines, and Moore are all younger coaches who are going to need jobs next year (maybe we retain them, but highly doubtful)--reigning over a possibly 1-11 VT team doesn't exactly put a bright spot on that resume.
Montgomery has been a previous HC, with 8 years of Head Coach level pay and (I'm nearly positive) is still being paid by Auburn.
He has the most experience and the least to lose by being the captain of a sinking ship that is already taking on water.
We've basically guaranteed 1-11 with him in charge though. Go to Price or Mines and you have a chance of maybe getting to 4-8 winning a couple conference games and keeping some of our good players. 1-11 is just throwing in the towel and doing even more serious damage to the brand
I feel like you may be imputing more value to the interim head coach than they deserve.
While I don't disagree with your premise that either Price or Mines would be a more inspiring choice, they aren't going to:
-improve Drones awareness
-teach our LB to fill gaps
-correct obvious talent deficits in our secondary
-heal the injured OL from what was already a questionable group to start with
This is fundamentally a bad team that is going to lose to anyone who has their shit together. I am legit concerned that Wofford may take us down to the wire.
Wouldn't it be ironic if Pry left and this improved...
Even better...LB play improves and Micah Parsons shows up to give the team a pep talk🤣
I am not. Unless 50% of the team quits we are going to tan Woffords hides. I imagine somebody has already told Drones if you quit you have to repay your NIL funds.
I appreciate your optimism - forgive me for not sharing it. I doubt very seriously anyone's hide gets tanned this weekend. But if it does happen, not likely to be Woffords. This team is in absolute shambles at the moment and I don't think there's a single win left on the schedule.
I respectfully hope you have to eat your words ... with a VERY BIG SPOON!
I would love nothing more
Trying to figure out what I said that deserves downvotes other that being optimistic.
Hopefully just a fat finger dv. You said nothing wrong
that was my bad! totally unintentional. I think i must have hit it while scrolling. Have corrected the DV with an UV. 🫡
Sung to a familiar tune -
Exit Pry.
Take his hand.
He's off to Former Coaches' Land.
Sigh.
Well here we are.......
I thought the game was a day time start and as I spent my day ripping out my front yard landscaping and starting my redesign project. Great workout, beautiful weather, very fulfilling activity. I thought I missed the game.
I also watched the Backyard Brawl, I have two daughters who are Neer's. Now that was an exciting game! It wasn't until that game that I realized we played at 7pm. Decided to sit around and watch. Long story short, watched the 1st half in a mixture of sorrow and amazement. Barely paid attention after that. But for the first time since 1993, I couldn't have cared less. Seeing the empty stands was what broke my heart.
Apologies, as I digress. My wife and I decided to make Sundays a zero internet day and we pretty much put our phones down for its entirety. I did play a few games of Risk as I am a total kid nerd when it comes to Risk. Kinda like when I was a kid and had many a battle between the coins in my coin jar or my collection of pencils.
I have now spent my early morning catching up on all the TKP commentary (yesterday showed me how much I love this site and the folks who participate on it).
I had no idea about the in-season transfer opportunity. That is amazingly stupid and pathetic that it even exists, but hey, we are in crazy times when it comes to CFB.
Overall, if a college/university doesn't put forth the resources or doesn't have them, there is no way for them to be effective in today's college football landscape. I don't care who the coach is. Compensation drives behavior. There is no other way to put it. It is the king of Kings. Right now all of these football players who have the opportunity to make NIL money more than likely don't give to licks about where they play versus trying to find the biggest paycheck to launch their college career. At the very least, this is a human nature factor that is sitting at the head of the table. Some kids may care about the school at first....
As far as their college career and their years of eligibility, I like it to an election. As soon as they are "elected", their first thing in office is the beginning of their next election cycle campaign strategy. How do I make myself more electable so I can maximize this situation ongoing?
When you mix the unlimited transfer portal with NIL money, these players are motivated to perform for their marketability to go after and create more value for themselves. This is the way, under current circumstances every player should be (and probably is) thinking this way.
With little to no boundaries in terms on how they go get it, I don't think the locker room is for a coach to lose it as much as it was before. These players have been paid. They are looking to get the biggest paycheck. They don't care about the school they play for as much as they do about making the money. If a coach tries to jazz up the troops to play hard for themselves and represent their school they're like, " I got paid. I'm not gonna put myself out there. I'm not gonna risk getting hurt. I'll opt out and sit out in order not to hurt my potential marketability for next season's NIL catch.
This is a major condition that exists and trying to run an organization around this is very difficult. IMO, the best way to lead, cultivate, manage this situation is to be absolutely and unequivocally transparent to all involved, especially the players. The organization's goal should be to take every NIL player and help them perform better in order to do one of two things...1) put them in the best position to make more more NIL in year 2 regardless of where that may be. Why is this important? If an organization does this, they have the best chance to get the best out of that player in year 1 and it shows the player that the organization truly understands the current landscape and they are their first and foremost for the player.
2) It puts the organization in the best position to possibly retain the player for year 2 outside of some outrageous offer.
If the players leaves then great. Be the program that shows all of CFB that this is where players come to market themselves to get the most money next year. Embrace the One and Done mentality. Show them we focus on NIL development and opportunity maximization.
I understand, I'm speaking in a large, broad brushed way. One can eviscerate the above with granular particulars on the facets of running a successful CFG organization, but I'm only focusing on this particular factor.
At the end of the day, an organization needs to fully embrace what this landscape is and what's the best way to get a psychological edge on the players mind and how they're going to be supported while they are here. Until things change, in my most humble opinion, this is the way to build the foundation for any degree of success above and beyond who the coach is.
HC and their staff, The AD, and the University, they too have their own set of circumstances in how they fit into this current state of affairs.
You want to break some stuff -
no
Lol. I can see him now with his thick Cajun accent interacting with some Montgomery County locals with a thick Southern Appalachian accent. Talk about a linguistic adventure.
I HAD THE SAME THOUGHT
I immediately pictured Blake Clark's character, Farmer Fran, from The Waterboy. Would need to hire someone to translate as he hit the recruiting trail this fall/winter.
Overall this is too bad.
Pry was a great culture fit, at least I thought.
He came in and started mending the broken relationships around the state and amongst the alumni.
Said all the right things.
Actually recognized that he needed to change his staff when things weren't going well (which couldn't be said about Fuente & Co.)
And for a game a half at the start of this year, things were looking promising!
I know we got Jerry Kill-ed in the second half of that Vandy game but I wonder if anything happened in the locker room at halftime that caused things to go so south so quickly.
All told I REALLY wanted Pry to succeed but I guess it just wasn't in the cards. Or the locker room. Or the NIL budget. Or the AD's office.
honestly seemed like nothing changed on defense other than pavia didn't throw a dumb int and we didn't punch out a ball from the RB .... those are the only 2 plays that we stopped them in the first .... then our offense which was in a "get 3.4 yards per play and score in 8 minutes" gameplan fell apart without the starting OL.
I think we need a football centric AD.....
Actually want a football centric General Manager and a funding focused athletic director. Focused on finding more, improving existing, putting the right people into leadership in this area AND has the backing to make hard decisions, be it on existing personnel and existing sports.
Yup. I want the new AD to focus on managing and making money, and making sure they have a sport-focused general manager responsible for each sport (all 20 of them, I think).
Now that you put it in these terms -
The athletic director position has always been like the one go-to person in the department that leads the entire thing, no? And the skills of the AD have been the direction of the program in general - so if we have a financially-minded AD then you might be able to say our primary focus is on fundraising/revenue generation.
And now I have been thinking that we need - like you said - an AD focused on managing and making money, and have a sport-focused GM.
But after reading your comment it made me think a little. I think the Athletic Director should probably have a Director of Sports (aka GM of sports) and maybe a CFO of Sports under them so they don't have to focus specifically on financial health and could instead delegate that to an (important) person who specializes in that.
Now a single financially-minded AD and/or a CFO of Athletics will still probably be facing strong headwinds if, say, your television contract and your apparel deal are both shit but hey gotta start somewhere.
Not sure about other sports but Baseball hired a General Manager this summer and believe both basketball teams now have a GM.
Not sure the general tasks differences between these and what would be expected for Football. It is a much more complicated position that requires a significant difference in experience than the hires in our other sports. Baseball's GM only has a couple years experience at ECU post-graduation.
MBB is the only market that's even in the same universe of complexity, and even with that you're dealing with 1/8 the number of players. For the other sports it's more just a change of title for what used to be a recruiting coordinator.
This is where I'm at as well, except I think the title should be Associated AD of Football instead of GM. Just because a college GM is nothing like an NFL GM lol.
I'm hopeful (not holding my breath), that the university gets there shit together and brings in the right people and money to make this thing work.
Pry's a good man and if we're able to turn this thing around I suspect he'll be remembered as a good dude who loved the hokies but like our budget, just wasn't good enough.
Everything happens for a reason. And when things don't make sense, a la the state of our program, a full reset is needed and Pry in a way helped us get there.
Or I just love silver linings too much.
Not sure if anyone else already posted this, but VT is catching Premier League strays. Open the image in the tweet to see...
Is all publicity still good publicity? At least they picked us?
LMAO
Been thinking a bit about DC's departure. Part of me, well mostly me, feels he left this site because he was 100% right about this season and many of us (including me) were wrong to one degree or another. Some more than others, but DC was the one to stick to guns and state the truth. Most of us have been on this a site long enough to remember that DC at one time used to get a lot of down votes. Then one day, it only took one poster to say, "DC may be blunt AF, but he has pretty good to great insight and isn't wrong, it's just how he presents it". After that, he started to ascend the turkey legs chart and had become one of the most prominent members on TKP.
However, recently, I started to see more and more down votes on his comments. Yes, he may have beaten his points to death this off season, but if he was on here today, he would have the absolute right to say, "I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO, YOU FUCKING FUCKS".
I think he is done with VT Football and more so than the average fan. It is clear he has been a donor, long term active fan, had some access to HNW donors, etc. He's super pissed and rightfully so. And, he may feel like we fellow TKP'es are a bit too homerish to deal will at the moment.
Either way, I hope he returns. He is very insightful, smart, and entertaining.
If not, I wish him only the best.
I think there were at least a few posters who took this angle
but yeah, DC is polarizing and I think there were a lot of people who didn't want to listen to the truths he was tellin'
Regardless, VT is heading in a new direction now - maybe that will prompt his return? We shall see.
He generally got upvotes from me to counter some of those DV. I agreed with a lot of his comments even if I wouldn't use the same language.
Yes he was polarizing, but also condescending and continually moved the goalposts if his initial argument was proven wrong.
I had several interactions with him like this. We all come here to talk VT football and to have fun. It's not fun when one guy is consistently being an ass and talking to you like you're a child.
I would welcome him back if he learns to interact with other adults like peers and not subordinates.
yeah the tone of the posts definitely came across arrogantly - I totally get that
Did he leave the site or get erased? I'm not interested in canceling my membership, but does your account get erased if you do? To the point that clicking the username in old comments takes you to an error page?
I just recently joined after having never been a member. My stuff was all visible, my profile/posts and such were all still visible from before the site went members only. It never returned the 404 error for me.
I am guessing he requested it. I say this as there are members who IIRC were "suspended" but are still in the board. One example is AXD1985. I want to say he was suspended but his profile is still there and if you want a lesson in what not to do on this board, his negative plaid comments showcases this well.
That guy was DC without the redeeming qualities. And I'll....I'll just leave it at that.
The issue with DC was never what he said, it was always how he said it. But yea wish he was still here to rub it in my face. I know a few of y'all are friends with him IRL, y'all should bug him to come back.
I mean, I mostly agree with your larger point but sometimes it was what he said.
As an example, I have a pretty good idea of his political leanings based on stuff he said. I shouldn't know that.
There's others on here that do the same...
Yeah, he wasn't the only one...
I was one of the people saying that DC's overall argument was usually right, but the points that he would use to make that argument were often wrong or nonsensical and he would move the goalposts.
His turkey legs had started going up before that, he was early on the Fuente hate train, and as the Fuente era slowly came to a close DC started gaining followers and more upvotes.
It was only in the last few years he started occasionally admitting when he was wrong. Which made it all the more frustrating when he would still right-margin a thread with goalpoast moving, haha.