NEW: Virginia Tech standout LB Caleb Woodson has officially entered the NCAA transfer portal, @PeteNakos reports. Woodson totaled 57 tackles and 1 pass deflection. https://t.co/uX5LwB7NkZ pic.twitter.com/PLqImwBDPk— Transfer Portal (@TransferPortal) January 2, 2026
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Brent Pry's "Mike Linebacker of the future". I hope that *checks notes* Pry, can find a good replacement for him
I think the portal may show us if the rumor that the players were good with Pry returning to coach at VT is true or not. I don't think it'll be that bad but this isn't a great start at least.
I can see that Woodson might have a problem with how Pry treated him over his legal issues and stripped him of his captain status, but if the guy doesn't want to be here, send him on his way with a civil farewell.
Hard to imagine Pry could've been much easier on him. He didn't lose any playing time over it.
I agree, was just looking for a reason to ruminate on. We don't know what went on between them privately or whether or not he has any reason for Pry to be the motivating factor in him entering the portal.
I think Pry should've been harder on him... The team was undisciplined.
I had forgotten all about that other stuff as well, I'd agree though don't want to be here don't let the door hit ya on the way out
I was on the same plane as his mom from Nashville to IAD last year after after the Vandy game and she was not shy about letting everyone know she wasnt a fan of Pry and that Caleb could be in the portal sooner rather than later.
If I recall, Caleb had a younger brother who chose Pitt over VT as well. So they certainly weren't drinking the VT Kool Aid.
Really interesting intel, thank you
Pretty big loss, and a disappointing one.
Is it though?
Depends on the replacement but probably not a big loss.
Kinda my thought as well... if we can't replace Woodson with someone of equal or greater quality, we've got bigger issues. I feel like he'd be a depth player on any top 30 or so team.
This assumes that we'll become a top 30 or so team...I'm not entirely convinced that we will but I really hope we do. I do think we'll be better than we have been (but, that's not a high bar)
I mean, I think that's a rational/reasonable goal for next year (given the investment)
This will be year one and the roster he inherited is not a good one. We had a good recruiting class, but I still feel like I want to see how all the portal action pans out before I start thinking we belong in the top 30. It seems reasonable, based on the recruiting class, that we would also do well with the portal, but we would need to replace a lot of players, especially since, even if we got some good players, we might not have depth that is good.
We've seen so many coaches in the last three years go into a terrible situation and turn it around in a year or two.
Excluding Covid, James Franklin has never had a sub-.500 year.
There is no reason why this team cannot rapidly improve in one year.
And if it wasn't clear – I'm not saying that this team should be top 30, I'm saying that a reasonable stretch goal given the funding and the staffs previous history
Ah, makes sense. And I fully think he could really turn it around in 2 years, I just think this coming year might be tough. I'm guessing we'll get some nice transfers in and have a decent year next year.
I'm basically just preaching the virtues of seeing what our roster will look like before we really start guessing where we might wind up next year.
This is the internet, sir. GTFOH with your reasonable take! 😉
Top ten or I want his head!
Better?
Addition by subtraction.
He has a VISIT lined up to Bama. I've heard nothing to suggest he has a offer. My suspicion is that he (and his mother) thinks a lot more about his value than either JF or BP. High maintenance, low production, the exact opposite of what Franklin wants.
He's a dime holding up a dollar. Good riddance!
Agree with this take. I see it as a Mose Phillips type situation. Very athletic player, but not technically sound. Looking for more money and the staff didn't agree.
BTW - Mose had 5 tackles this year for Mizzou.
Paying players and paying the right players is a very important distinction.
He has great physical tools and I would have hoped with better coaching he'd be a key part of the defense.
Well we didn't hire any new LB coached so ...
He's being offered by Alabama, so yes it is.
Did you watch the Bama game last night? It is not Nick Saban's alabama. Indiana absolutely dominated the line of scrimmage.
How many teams this year looked good against Indiana in the past 2 years? How many teams have beat Indiana in the playoffs? How many teams made the SEC Championship game? How many teams made the 12 team playoff this year? How many teams won a playoff game this year? How many teams won an away playoff game this year?
I'll answer all those questions
- I'd say 3: Ohio St (2024), Notre Dame (2024), Penn St (2025)
- 1 (Notre Dame 2024)
- 2 (Alabama and Georgia)
- 12 (including Alabama)
- 5 out of 12 teams (including Alabama)
- 2 (Miami and Alabama)
I dont see this as a huge loss tbh. He was often out of position or getting pancaked. I think a change of scenery will do him good.
He'd fit in at UGA.
Good luck to him. Not tremendously surprised nor broken up.
Very good athlete...showed flashes but never really ever looked natural or comfortable at LB.
Meh we won 3 games last season. No one is a huge loss.
Has a visit locked in with Bama
Trade for their backup? /s
He is absolutely a guy I can see succeeding at a bigger program. Idk if it was what we were asking him to do or what but his physical tools never overcame his ability to identify a play or execute
I don't think asking him to fill the right gap and wrap up on his tackles was too complex of an ask of a college LB.
This is a big loss. Woodson is being offered by some of the best teams in the entire country. A guy who transfers from VT to a program with national championship aspirations is a massive loss for us (see Delane, Mansoor). This means we'll have to bring in even more LBs to replace him instead of Woodson plus portal LBs.
People can dog some of his productivity, but if a major program with a legit coach (bama and Daboer) are trying to bring him into their program it means they see potential. Which to me says that he's been underdeveloped, which adds more evidence to our previous sad state of affairs
I was just wondering if it was maybe more of us not developing LBs well. Hopefully with new coaching we'll see better development (and yes, Pry is a NEW coach since he wasn't coaching LBs while he was HC or even doing defensive coaching).
Underdeveloped or underutilized/misutilized. It could also be a case of having him try to fill holes other players left which hurt his production and play.
I recall Franklin saying he liked high productivity (check) players and low maintenance (uh-oh) players.
chicken or egg question for people more savvy with portal ins and outs. what is the more likely catalyst in a scenario like this:
Is it more likely that Woodson sniffed around and got interest and decided to leave?
or
That Franklin has someone coming in and told him that his NIL package would be reduced/changed/not increased etc?
I think in these scenarios, and we are all learning on the fly here, it is usually a bit of both. There are players who teams would like to keep, but only to a certain price point. If that player can get materially more elsewhere, they will probably head out, and if they wanna stick around the school at a lower number, they stay.
Thanks, thats helpful. I always wondered if coaches sit with each kid at the end of season and discusses next year and then they know if they need to portal or not. well, for starters at least. But then I just read that "NIL agency" is completely unregulated and players are holding coaches ransom before bowl games even. crazy.
Just gonna cut and paste from ARTICLE :
"QB: low 750,000, high >3.5 million
RB: low 250,000, high >1 million
WR: low 300,000, high >million
TE: 200,000, high >600,000
OT: low 300,000, high >1 million
IOL: low 200,000, high 600,000
Edge: low 300,000, high >1 million
DT: low 250,000, high >800,000
LB: low 150,000, high >700,000
CB: low 150,000, high > 800,000
Safety: low 200,000, high > 700,000
Specialists: 50,000-200,000"
That is insane, I have 30 years of experience, initials after my name from a professional certification, and the low for most of those categories is more than I make in a year.
Do you work in an industry that brings in as much money as college (or pro) football does? ;^)
Not making an argument for the payment structure, just pointing out a possible reason for it to exist. All that money made has got to go somewhere.
Yet they still need taxpayer support, tax-free status, and donations.
They're passing the hat when they make more than the fans.
Just sayin'.
and will continue to do so until people stop putting money in the hat
I am still having that debate with the family. Is this the year when I stop getting football tickets. The donation level per ticket is $600. That puts our ticket price at effectively $1150 per ticket, or almost $200 per game per ticket.
But I'm just so happy with the recent changes that my heart made me donate, even if my head says it's wrong.
Bingo. I keep seeing people refer to this crazy NIL era of college sports as "late stage capitalism" but it's not capitalism at all. More like late stage statism.
One the reasons - not the only one, mind you - but one of them why when I donate, institutes of higher learning in the United States (or as I like to say, The Education-industrial Complex) are very low on my list of priorities to donate to. We routinely donate $10,000-$20,000 a year. It has been many years since VT or Yale got > $0.
I had 15 years in a company that had over 5 trillion dollars in holdings and I got laid off 2 years ago because I was too expensive at my position, making less than the lowest of the lower end of those ranges despite multiple exceptional performance reviews over the years.
The NIL system is out of fucking control
maybe you should have tackled more people at work
Can't tell you the amount of times I wanted to over the years when a dev team shoved something into prod, broke it all and then left it up to us to fix it and deal with the fallout.
People love to shit on agile, but it really did clean a lot of that shit up by actively steering away from bulk releases
There is nothing wrong with agile, the issue is all the poor implementations that miss the point it was designed to fix and now you have more issues, but velocity is up so who cares.
There is nothing wrong with any of the project fads, business fads, buzzwords or consultant fluff that gets thrown around, rebranded and resold again and again. The problem is that most businesses are looking for shortcuts instead of processes and half-ass whichever methodology they are using and are surprised when the results come out the same.
Oh my god, you just triggered me from my last gig, which we as middle management kept beating the drum of you're not training anyone and the comp structure sucks, which is why you're stuck in this loop of dwindling returns and high turnover. Nobody listened beyond my manager and just kept looking at automation like it would fix every problem.
They might not have even half assed it, just quarter assed 1 thing and the board three quartered sitting with their heads up their asses on their luxury yachts
its the same problem we are going to see with AI. Used correctly, we should see a decrease in administrative bullshit that people waste their time on today thus enabling employees to do more of their actual work and less work-about-work. Instead, companies are going to try and buy quick fixes and lay people off since "AI can do everything" and then wonder why quality continues to suffer and eventually no one wants their product.
this is how I feel when there's talk of doing "Kaizen events"
the events are hyper-focused improvement events named "Kaizen" but the whole point of Kaizen is continuous improvement. Not instantaneous improvements that occur over the course of a week-long dedicated event and then get left as they are until whenever the next Kaizen event is (usually not for years). Completely misses the mark
Or implementations that are nothing now than lip service when actual practices don't change. I don't care what you call it, if you're still micromanaging the shit out of your employees and teams to make sure that middle management is still calling all the shots rather than having them specialize in making sure the teams can do the jobs, then you're still going to have all the same issues you had before, just with more meetings that piss everyone off.
Man, you guys make me so happy I was a fishing guide, in business for myself and happy with not running employees or chasing big money. More power to ya, but I'll take the slow lane and get to where we're all going just the same.
Exactly. Just reading all of these corporate buzzwords gives me a migraine. I prefer buzzbait and working my own schedule.
For right now we'll put it on the parking lot and circle back to it. Just too many pinches to work through to obtain blue sky at the moment...
Where I'm from, saying something about someone's momma like that are fighting words
Heisenberg is still dealing?
I got laid off after leading a few projects that made one of the most evil companies in world $40 million - way above my pay grade, I feel your pain. Found a more chill gig though, which is a win since this job market is wild right now
Hah, yeah I took a different path. I actually got so fed up with how awful the model has been corrupted at some companies that after being laid off I pivoted toward being a transformation lead to bring some sanity back into it all. I just finished up with converting over a smaller company late last year and am currently in negotiations (well, not really negotiating, waiting for them to finalize the budget so we can make it official) to come on full time to head up their agile delivery model.
I could go into it for hours, but the market has completely lost the plot on what they should be doing. I hate how the industry turned Scrum Masters into mindless cheerleading drones who care more about keeping things fun than actually helping the teams get more streamlined and efficient. I know that's not the case everywhere, but it exists often enough the entire SM job market is completely cooked and finding someone who actually knows their stuff is like a needle in a haystack.
Not sure if it was inadvertent or not but I saw someone downvoted your post so I upvoted to counter it as I saw no valid reason for it to be downvoted...
My stalker is back, apparently
I wonder if Alum's serial downvoter has returned after The Great TKP Re-Opening...
edit: damn missed it by that much
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Lol imagine not being able to come here for a couple years, finally having the doors open back to you, and this is the first thing you do
Kinda proud, honestly, that I was able to piss off someone to THAT extent
Well, honestly, why would you care?
They're delaying the opening of the Alum07 Quarter Million Leg Club by minutes!
I know a lot of people that left agile because of how messed up the industry was getting and found nice waterfall jobs that understand that software tools are software tools and should be used no matter what method you are using.
Since when was 'agile' an industry?! That's the problem smh.
Ehh, agile isn't the industry but it is so engrained in software development that a lot of people just bundle the two together.
Sorry I was not clear l, "how messed up software dev industry was getting by using "agile""
If you were in a spot where you were being told not just what to do but how to do it, you weren't in agile, you were very much waterfall. Agile is supposed to be leadership (business, product, operations, all represented by the Product Owner within the team) giving the roadmap on what needs to be done with the team itself given the leeway to determine how best it should be accomplished, with engineering/development leads and managers setting guidelines on the tools that the teams can use (to prevent fragmentation of technologies) and ensuring the teams have the skills to accomplish it, with the SM supposed to be there to make sure that all remains running well and figuring out how to address and fix it when it isn't.
What so make companies have done is just implement the meetings of agile without any of the behavioral changes necessary to make it work leaving a hellscape of micromanaged crap that bogs down time and has useless roles like SMs doing nothing but being layoff fodder for when that time comes.
One problem with this that we're struggling with right now is that we have many agile/scrum teams, and they're each using their preferred tools for developing/testing/whatever. Which is fine, I guess, but we're working on a big push for increasing our test automation, and anticipate pushback from the teams when we bring up the idea of standardizing test automation frameworks. I get why management would want that, but "it's not agile" to dictate what productivity software to use. And I'm one of the ones in the middle just wanting us to increase our usage of test automation.
/shrug
Sounds to me like leadership failed in their responsibility to set any kind of standards and are now struggling to reign it back under control. And it sounds like they really didn't think of how opening the door wide to everyone would make it incredibly difficult down the line to have the systems be scalable and testable. And I bet you the leaders who shirked that responsibility are now blaming agile concepts for the root of the problems.
Thing is, the longer they wait the more difficult it will be to get everyone aligned again.
A lot of the waterfall i have seen doesn't like Jenkins and won't integrate when software is done because thats not the schedule, which is stupid and not dictated by waterfall, but place do hate in Jenkins and ticketing systems and other basic things that make life easier
I had never heard of a scrum master until I got into my latest position at work, and I just assumed it was someone who liked rugby and led a team or something. Now I think it's just someone who plans potlucks and organizes "team building" icebreakers at division meetings.
I'm pretty sure I still don't know what a scrum master is.
I'd love to talk to you about this. My wife is in the same boat of fed up with SM ways and feels she contributes no actual value anymore and his gone from managing scrum masters back to being the SM of way too many teams - she wants out but doesn't know how to parlay her skills and knowledge to non-agile companies or at least find companies that don't blatantly lie about their roles and agility. Unfortunately as a swe I also see little value in the 'modern' scrum master so I'm not really that helpful in these conversations with her.
Pivot to being a program manager if she likes process, or product if she wants to remain close to dev teams. Or go be a project manager for an implementations team. Scrum Masters are worthless in modern software development; they are glorified secretaries.
Agile Delivery Lead is another name companies have pivoted toward as well as Release Train Engineer, for scaled agile implementations. Do largely the same as what SMs used to do just under a name and title that is more technical than what SMs are now.
The kicker is, there are some companies out there that are so clueless that they will have a role as SM that is basically getting into department head roles with salaries to match. The name Scrum Master has lost all meaning
I saw 19 new comments and thought what could possibly drive this much activity about old news of one of our illustrious LB's leaving and soon realized there is enough propeller heads spinning, if harnessed, could light up NYC for a minute.
which is all insane as a scrum master should just be a team member than spends a small portion of time on facilitating the process and most of their time doing technical work, but ive seen projects where product owners were just the managers of scrum masters who had zero technical background and just all sit in jira all day and wonder why things are late
It's crazy to me that SMs would report to POs because a primary function of the SM is to helps push back on the tendency of business to overload sprints and make every one a crunch. That's how you get burnout and how you end up with dozens of careless bugs per release and end up with multiple stories carrying over from sprint to sprint because the SM is powerless to push back on the team being overworked.
Oh I agree, ive stolen a bunch of burnt out devs and gave them a mostly sane place to work, and the devs don't see the insane things because we are good at keeping them sheltered.
The best two times i worked agile was 1 that was actuwlly a self organized team that we all got along and liked working together. We didn't have any one with title but people did the roles. I've yet to build a system as bug free or secure. And the 2nd time on a larger scale had much more focus on conflict of interest so that everyone understood the larger picture and who was doing what so that the teams integrated into the larger project together very little effort, but you need a very good architect as it made our interfaces more robust which meant a lot less headaches.
She was an RTE for years....but now that title is completely lost at most companies and 'SAFe' is hilariously lost.
Been trying to get her to get her PMP and just pivot to a PM as at least from what I've seen they usually end up absorbing all of the responsibilities when SMs get cut
When my first company went agile they converted all PMs to SMs, so it was basically the same role just without the expensive certifications and tests and doing a lot of the same, just with a focus on caring about the actual people of the team. It's sad just how watered down that role has become over the years.
What companies are you working at? I've been in B2B SaaS for over a decade now (all ventured backed pre-ipo, save for public) and I've never heard of any of these titles lol.
Financial technology firms, specifically some pretty large ones.
Ahhh internal tools? that's why.
Agile delivery lead and release train engineer are just other names for scrum master, just depends on what terminology a given company follows. If you see release train engineer, though, it's a pretty good indicator they use scaled agile, which is really just applying agile methods to every level of an organization and not just at the development team level, though also an indication that they've adopted SAFe, which comes with certifications that require classes and at home studying to pass a relatively expensive exam just to say you know the concepts of scrum on top of scrum.
Also SAFe is a bit waterfally
These from NY Times
QB: $1M to $4M
OT: $600K to $1.3M
RB: $400K to $900K
WR: $500Kto $1M
TE: $300K to $900K
Edge rushers: $500K to $2M
Interior DL: $500K to $1.5M
Corners: $250K to $1M
Safeties: $250K to $900K
Sadly I wouldn't have as much of an issue with these numbers if they were for endowed positions. Say Sean Glennon plays 10 games of the 12 he gets that proportion of the endowed position. Tyrod gets the 2/12th. Divide the money.
I've thought about how to best give the college players a cut of the action with out it being just a scheme to pay players for a certain school and one issue is how do you deal with injuries because players will put themselves in bad positions to make money also what if a starter gets injured the first play, do the still get starter money? how would the backup feel about getting backup money when they play 60 snaps in a game. The set amount for any position has issues in execution.
I dont think there is an easy way either, but i would rather the method not promote playing while likely to further injure one's self
...this dilemma is also why the NCAA and its member schools have not pushed Congress hard to give them an anti-trust exception. With it would come collective bargaining but also workmans comp/long term disability costs that could force them to use more football money for football.
The ones most likely to lose if the NCAA does reach that level are non-rev sports. If football players become employees then Title IX will no longer apply so the equation of equal sports to school population ratio will be heavily affected if not outright gone because technically ALL athletes would then be employees for every sport. The return on investment calculation could see most schools down to two or three sports if that happens.
Is that the solution, though? I'm not sure if you need the antitrust exemption to have some sort of collective bargaining. Only MLB has one.
I've not been in favor of an antitrust exemption for CFB, because I can see the NCAA taking advantage of that in ways that rises the boats of the schools at the expense of the players. There does have to be some collective bargaining, though, and you're right that it will come with some longer-term costs that will need to be borne.
Is that true? I haven't seen that anywhere. Granted, I think that as the major revenue foundation that all other sports' scholarships derive from, there should be some relief from Title IX for football, but I haven't given a lot of thought to how much, because I wasn't sure how they would get out from under Title IX.
if a starter gets injured the first play, do they still get starter money? how would the backup feel about getting backup money when they play 60 snaps in a game.
I don't really see this as a big issue if they can figure out a way to make the contracts enforceable (paging Demond Williams). People sign contracts all the time that are inequitable and do the same job. Anecdotally, I work in the medical field, and medical assistants and nurses do the same jobs for differing pay, similar to Nurse Practitioners and MDs. Same job, wildly different salaries. I think if you sign an enforceable contract (which again seems like a big issue) then you play it out.
He must like playing for coaches on a hot seat. Playoff or not, Deboer is going to be on a short leash after losing by 35 to Indiana and 4 total losses.
Everyone assuming he is going to Bama and will actually play at Bama. I could see him riding the bench there. He never stood out in a good way like Delane or Chaplin. I am not concerned with him leaving.
It is my opinion that Mr. Woodson is a talented athlete. That being said, he seemed to display a lot of selfish behavior that lowered my opinion of him. It wasn't just his off field behavior but also the way he conducted himself on the field. He would talk a lot of trash after making plays. Meanwhile, we would be getting our butt kicked. I wish him the best of luck. Hope he can find a program to help him develop into the player he wants to be and even more importantly into the man he needs to be.
We can do worse than Woodson, but if we don't have better play than he can provide at MLB, the defense will have a long year next year regardless.
Have to take the money on Woodson and use it to try and get someone better.
I'm tired of reading about Woodson in French's film reviews for all the wrong reasons. If Bama wants him, good luck!
He's a player with obvious physical upside and some good traits for a LB. He could be an NFL guy, I think, but he certainly has a lot of technical aspects of the position that he needs to clean up. Perhaps he will be able to do that in a better situation where he can trust the guys around him more, or the scheme fits him better, etc. or maybe not. Either way, we didn't want to pay him what was necessary to keep him, and we can now spend that elsewhere. Could be a best for both sides situation.
Wish him well, but despite physical upside, doesnt seem like a 'bought in' player.
Hokies won a lot of games under Beamer with less talented rosters, but players were all in. They played with a chip on their shoulder and feasted, mostly on the blue chippers.
We were Indiana/Cignetti before they were.
I'm hoping Franklin's can pull in the talent AND get the buy in.
Can't have your best defensive player/recruit/captain recklessly driving just before the start of a season that decides if you will get fired or not. Sorry, but for whatever Woodson brought on the field, this is probably best for both parties, especially if Franklin is going to drive the culture change that Pry failed to instill.
Cignetti said I'll take production over potential any day. The tape doesn't lie.
Woodson Commits to Alabama
Quelle surprise
Former Virginia Tech "standout" linebacker? I wouldn't necessarily categorize his production as such, but the writing has to fit if he goes to Alabama.
I wasn't impressed and haven't been impressed with any VT LB in years. Won't miss him and think he will be a dud at AL.
For his sake, I hope I'm wrong.
The day Maine walked off campus...
Rayshard Ashby erasure
Wild thought, but I wonder if the DWI played a bigger role in Caleb Woodson's decision to transfer than we're acknowledging... specifically the 12-month license suspension that comes with it.
I remember hearing somewhere Tyrece Radford mentioning something similar when he transferred to TAMU, noting that his transferring had a lot to do with his legal situation after the DWI.
Also In today's NIL environment, where players are earning real money and often driving high-profile cars, that kind of restriction isn't trivial.
Not saying this is the reason, but it feels like a plausible contributing factor that doesn't get discussed much.
I'm certainly not a lawyer but have more experience with DUI restrictions than I'd like. If your license is suspended in one state its suspended everywhere it's updated in the NDR and you wouldn't be able to get a license in another state until its reinstated in the state that it was revokes or suspended afaik
See screen name
This is generally true. Depending on the involved states and their requirements for reinstatement after a DUI, moving can at times make it VASTLY more difficult to reinstate.
If he wanted to have his DUI ignored he should've transferred to Wisconsin where you get your first 3 DUIs free
Wisconsin, the inventors of "Midwest Sober", not drunk because I was only drinking beers.
If anyone is curious, my brother wrote a law review article on this "The First Offense Is Just a Ticket? How Culture and Lobbying Shaped Wisconsin's Drunk Driving Law, and What to Do About It"
Your family castle was pretty messed up about 80-90 years ago, huh
Ya know they never gave us free games? My brother is a lawyer now, I should ask him if we can sue.
Alabama commits probably get a car *and* a driver. They have to differentiate themselves to maintain that "it just means more"
...or they get issued a card from Alabama certifying they are a player. Better than a drivers license down there.
Generally states and DMVs give full faith and credit to DUI license suspensions and will honor them if you move and change your licensing state. I say generally because DMVs are kingdoms unto themselves answerable to no one other than God (and that's a maybe). I don't know what Alabama does but I know from professional experience that NC, MD, PA and Oklahoma honor them.