Eight Committee Members:
Bruce Arians
Bridget Ryan Berman
Lynne Doughtie
Bud Foster
Brad Hobbs
Ryan McCarthy
J. Pearson
Eddie Royal
Edit: Cleaned up title and link.
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
You have football minds, business minds, and BoV minds. A good mix that seems like it would be handling both a GM and an Athletics CEO. Interested to hear more about it. Contrary to what Whit said in the podcast about a head coach first, then GM, the smoke has pointed to a GM first, then head coach.
You'd think that if whit misspoke in the podcast, they'd have edited that out.
I'll take him at his word.
So are we still hiring a GM first, or is the GM been found? Or are we now hiring the coach first? Or is the search committee hiring both?
This seems like a fantastic list of accomplished individuals, but that doesn't mean much if they don't have a plan...
Why would they gimp the head coach selection process by hiring the GM first?
Seems to me they should hire the most important position first (head coach), and then get a GM they're good with. The GM takes some of the burden off the coach, and that's a good thing.
I agree with all of that.
Just pointing out that one of the people on this coach search committee was on nationally televised media talking about how we're going to hire a GM first and take an NFL approach and less than 2 weeks later we're hearing the opposite messaging...
For an administration that failed to identify blindspots on the last two (failed) coaching hires, and has had messaging issues in the past, this is not a good sign.
Good point. I'll chalk that up to a misstatement on someone's part in the heat of the moment, but better to get the process right.
You're assuming that the GM reports to the head coach, and not the other way around, as it is in the NFL.
On the latest TSL podcast, CC mentioned they knew who they wanted and were close to making it official.
So excited for Heather Dinich to be announced as our new GM.
At least she'll stick her neck out for us.
And here I was all excited for Rich Rod to be announced as our new GM not knowing that there was something greater working in the background.
This is extremely concerning. I can only hope Rocovich continues to control this and is listening to elsewhere in regard to approving this hire. You just can't let Whit be involved in a third hire.
It makes sense that the Director of Athletics will need to approve any hire, and as of today, that's still Whit. I would expect it to be a pro forma approval, and that the search committee is making the actual decision.
Whit is not going anywhere. Probably time everyone comes to accept that
Yeah, but the problem everyone had was him making a choice of football coach. They announced the search committee and his name was not on the list. Therefore he is not having any sort of influence on the coaching hire, so we got what we wanted without him having to go anywhere. Plus, the timeline would be kind of screwed up if we had to hire a new AD with that whole process and wait for it to finish before then beginning the process to hire a new coach.
Having Whit on board without him making the coaching choice could just be to give time to find a transition in a new AD. The most time sensitive hire is the football coach, so it gives the administration more time to decide on a new AD.
OR, if he isn't making the choice on football, do you keep him and just hire a phenomenal fundraiser? Is there a place for him if he isn't hiring the football coach?
He has not been a poor AD for the other sports other than Fb and men's basketball.
Even men's basketball... VT won an ACC title with Whits guy. wtf? No one thought that was possible when we entered the AcC
Outside of last years funding debacle, which I think was slightly overblown, tech basketball has had one its best decades ever under Whit. And it's looking like this year will be a significant improvement from last years dip
Whit is not making any decisions anymore. And it sounds like he's announcing his well overdue retirement Monday.
So is Jeff King not being named mean he's not involved because he's a candidate for GM and they are also searching for candidates for that role? I would think a GM would be involved, but none of those names seem to fit that role, save maybe Arians.
I'm starting to think we won't go the GM first route... I bet the moment Arians said that on Pat McAfee a dozen agents reached out to Whit saying no one they represent wants to report to a GM.
In typical Tech fashion, it seems we have yet again, bungled it. You have Bruce saying one thing, then Whit coming out and saying this. Assumably, there was a lack of communication, which is a failure in this situation. Insane how we just continually let this man destroy any momentum we ever find.
To be fair, I don't think Whit has uttered the words "GM" as something we were going to hire... He did mention expanding the front office, but hasn't said anything about what that title will be, when it will be announced, etc.
I think Bruce was talking off the cuff with McAfee. Bruce is a great Hokie, and is obviously quite knowledgable about the game, but I don't think he's really had PR training.
He was head whistle in the No Fun League. Be surprised if he had not had some PR guidance.
I can only hope. I also hope that Rock continues to be the driving force here. Whit just can't be involved in this next hire. It's been stated elsewhere, agents wanted to steer clear of our athletic department in the past because of its reputation. Keeping that same person involved is a joke.
That's not what I've heard reported. The two things I've heard is that:
Maybe I'm misinterpreting your post, but it seems to imply that agents dislike Whit/the individuals in our AD and what to avoid dealing with us. I have never heard any credible source say that.
This makes sense to me. I wouldn't do anything to limit the head coach choice.
So, the GM works for the head coach... got it... makes total sense... smh
Or they just understand the current era of college sports and understand that its good to have someone help manage the money and expenses so they can manage the team. If done well, the GM and front office handles all of the prep work for the coaches so they can stay focused on the team itself. And quite frankly, a GM is basically just the AD of the football team. The coaches answer to someone.
I laid this out in comment in the Jeff King thread, but there's a difference between an associate AD of football and a director of personnel.
In the NFL, a GM owns all personnel decisions - that includes scouting players, hiring coaches, allocating capital, etc. This idea that the person who scouts recruits/portal entrants AND gets to hire the head coach is COMPLETELY FOREIGN to college football. There's one P4 team doing this today: Stanford + Andrew Luck.
I think very few sitting P4 coaches (or G5 coaches with P4 experience) will sign up for this, and I think doing this will drastically shrink our candidate pool. I could be very wrong. We'll see.
Why would you think that's what we mean with that kind of role? Have you seen the job description? Have you seen exactly the kind of responsibilities that are coming with this opening?
The only thing we know right now is that we are hiring for a role that will oversee the football program. We aren't hiring an NFL GM role, we are hiring a college football GM role. Different roles, different responsibilities.
To further this....
Again, as long as the pay is right, why wouldn't a coach want to come in and get paid a lot while having someone else there to take away some of the worst parts of the job? You can easily sell this as a good thing to any prospective coach.
Because Bruce is quoted as saying:
VT Scoop/SBJ reported that:
As for this question:
I have not, because VT has not published one. Which is fine (not saying they should) but it contributes to my confusion. We were going to hire a GM first, but now we've announced a coaching search committee that doesn't include a GM?
The process doesn't seem great. And that may not matter. But it doesn't make me feel confident. It doesn't present as an organization that is aligned on a shared strategy.
🙄 🙄 🙄 Come on man, Glasscock was the DPP at Texas under Sark, and was the DPP at NC State before that. Dude was hired by Lane. Glasscock is not in any way, shape, or form a GM who is "just the AD of the football team" (like you said above).
Anyways, my point stands - Either the powers that be at VT had a plan that was blown up by reality OR they're misaligned on what direction they want to go. Neither is a good sign.
Quite a wide brush you're painting everyone with right now, huh
Reading some of the quotes today it seems like Arians was going public with ideas that were still being workshopped. I don't think it's necessarily VT bungling everything again, but taking the time to make the right decisions even if that involves tweaking the plan. That is the positive of starting this process so much earlier than standard.
This is my thought as well...
I think the thing that concerns me is that anyone who knows about the college football hiring cycle/agent world could have seen this coming.
I don't think this situation is necessarily a sign of incompetence, but just saying it doesn't promote confidence
I think I agree with this. Anything going public should have been already pre approved at this time and Arians comments sound like they were definitely not pre approved. But I think this falls more on Arians than the school as it should've been very clear not to be too public with everything and Arians is not a one time guest on that show. VT was not placing him there to talk about it.
Glasscock is an unfortunate name.
Glasscock lol
Well that's quite the list of brands she can pull from to try and sway a potential coach in our direction
So our next uniform deal is with Armani?
A little unorthodox, but we will look good at least
edit:
Edit 2: just to balance things, here's the Victoria's Secret variant
take your leg
Sensational.
Plaid
Almost! Just 3 away from 50!
...and to try to get sponsorships from. Welcome to Lane Stadium at Worsham Field in the Victoria's Secret Athletic Complex.
dammit, Bobby, think bigger.
The HiTechs, brought to you by Victoria's Secret.
The Armani Owner's Suites for the biggest donors.
The Apple Scoreboard
And, of course
The apparel deal with Polo by Ralph Lauren
I think the team would look great boarding a plane for away games dressed in Armani suits.
I think one of the guys on the committee was an exec for Boeing.....
But I'd prefer the team to actually get there, so let's not explore that opportunity
Agreed....boarding an A320 is great in my book.
The ceo of boeing from 2020-2024 was a VT grad and actually setup a boeing office on VT campus. He was brought in to clean up after the 737 debacle
Yep, Dave Calhoun is a Hokie, but his degree was in accounting. I'm glad his replacement, Kelly Ortberg, has an engineering degree. Maybe Boeing can get back to the business of good engineering, instead of bean counting.
What I am still curious about is if this group of people have the combined right perspective to understand VT's strengths and weaknesses, and how the coach they select can align with those things in mind.
I can also appreciate everyone's ties to VT, but do we need more outside perspective?
Do we need Condaliza rice?!
I heard she's actually at the top of the committee's list for the HC job after missing out on the Browns job a few years back
Condoleezza lol
Question: Who/where is The Key Play representative on this committee?
Asking the real questions
Maybe Eddie Royal lurks
Bruce Arians.
I get put on every other committee, it seems, but not this one! Sigh...
Does Eddie Royal working with Jimbo make his potential as next VT HC more or less likely?
I think there's a less then 5% chance either way.
I'm not sure what the chances are one way or another. Either way I don't want Jimbo anywhere near our program.
This.
What if he donates sone of his a&m buyout?
Resurrect Marty Shottenheimer.
Joe Gibbs!
Too bad Gene Hackman died earlier this year; he did an amazing job in 'The Replacements' with 'unpolished players' and built an entire roster from scratch! (plus maybe he coulda brought that entre cheerleading squad with him to Lane...)
That was a great movie despite having Reeves in it.
I thought he was a good fit in it as he looked a little fish out of water in it.
Pat Summerall and John Madden did an outstanding job of making fun of themselves.
As good as Bob Costas and Al Michaels making fun of themselves in Baseketball? ;^)