https://x.com/PeteNakos_/status/1967649632638599246
I thought he would be the next elite corner. But, mysteriously, he was only rotating while Isaiah Brown Murray and Caleb Brown got more work than I expected.
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I thought he would be a surefire starter as well. All the best to him.
I had the misfortune of being at the game Saturday, and I stayed a lot longer than was necessary, so I will add on his behalf that he continued to show good body language, trying to congratulate teammates on made plays, etc. well into the second half.
The team tried for the entire game. I give them a lot of credit for never throwing in the towel.
Couldn't disagree more. First 3 and out, the team turtled. Some players were borderline criminally negligent for their effort. And I don't say that lightly.
You are entitled to you highly educated football opinion. I am holding to my blind amateurs' optimism that the team tried at least in the second half.
I maintain we've got one good half per game and eventually we'll put them together. 🤞
point-wise I can see that from this past weekend, but I would argue we didn't figure anything out until mid-way through the 3rd quarter.
As long as it's the UVA game, that's fine.
Agreed. Other than that one drive in the first half where we decided to just run it every play and the running backs and line put in effort, the team literally looked like it was jogging and avoiding all contact on both sides of the ball.
You and I were watching a very different game.
oof
All of the transfers
Based on what I have seen, turnover of this roster isn't a bad thing. Best of luck to him.
How many of our starters will land on a P4 roster next year? 3?
For anyone that played for us, I hope they are successful wherever they end up. It didn't work out here, but they were willing to wear maroon and orange and get beat up so we could be entertained.
Unless they are purposefully trashing the university publicly or something, that's enough to earn my good will.
both can be true
the players currently on the team deserve our grace, absolutely. Also, this clearly isn't a good fit for them. I hope they land on their feet elsewhere - I doubt many of the players on this current roster will find starting roles in the P4. Kudos to them if they do. I don't think it hurts them or us to get some fresh blood in the program. For better or worse, the players we have on our team now learned how to be losers. Once you learn that, it's harder to learn how to be a winner. We need a coach who will teach their players how to be winners and let him go and bring in players he can mold in that image. That would be easier than breaking the losing habits in the current crop of players..
I'm not opposed to 100% turnover. I want players that have no idea about the current culture and atmosphere around this program.
I would bet Lovett could make a a P4 roster. I have a feeling that our position coaching isn't quite P4 Level
Moore and Delane being a critical part of LSU's success this year gets talked about quite often on SZD so I fully expect Lovett to go somewhere in the P2 and excel because that's how it seems to go.
This is a wild proposal (and one I get chastised for)...with the new model paying players, why can't transfers be trades? This year would have been LSU gives us 2 starters/all league players in exchange.
Because the players are under no obligation to abide by the trade. Its unrestricted free agency. Until there is some kind of CBA or other limitation on player movement, there can't be trades.
My point is they recent changed the regulations and contracts (due to the revenue sharing model). Makes a lot more sense than changing the transfer portal dates (which is going to be a lawsuit and changed almost immediately).
But not before it screws us on pulling a Colorado from two years ago by turning over 80+ players
I think the talent evaluation of Pry's staff was pretty good, even if the coaching and development were bad. Moore, Delane, and Dae'Quan Wright were good talent evals by Fuente's staff though.
Fuente had a lot of really good evals, Strong and Darrisaw were both low 3* or 2* depending on service and both are in the NFL. They had a 4* issue that the top never really panned out for them for different reasons as Hooker probably would have won the hiesman had he not gotten injured at Tennessee.
Its hard to say Prys staff evaluated well as the number of high school recruits playing is abysmal, but hard to tell if they were not good or didn't develop. We have what 1 of those great WR recruits getting playing time? Maybe 2?
The issue with Fuente was both development and too many missed evals of both top talent and developmental talent. Obviously there's a couple standouts with Strong probably the poster child, but if you look through his recruiting classes and offers, there's way too many low end guys who weren't good enough and guys who didn't get offers who played well elsewhere.
We are seeing the same with Pry. Most of the players that left and are playing this year were recruited by Fuente, Moore, Chaplin, Delane, Stroman. Players like Mose Phillips are buried on the depth chart
I cant name one player outside of Prioleau that looks like they've developed here, and that's based on him killing Wofford.
Prioleau did look like he was ready to break out last year as a change of pace back before getting hurt, so it's not totally fair to pin all his success on playing Wofford.
One thing that I have been thinking about regarding Wofford and the remainder of the schedule is the phrase "you see the most improvement between week 1 and week 2." I am hoping that under Montgomery, this is the first time some of these guys have experienced real coaching in the last few years at VT. It is probably like 90% wishful thinking, but I think it is possible.
So much of the production has come from transfers who are only here a year or two, it is hard to judge the talent and development that has come. But if guys like Devin Alves and the backup TEs start showing up (let alone a Wiggins or Adams at WR) then I will start to feel like this might be true.
You are right about PJ from last season.
Ayden Greene, Burgos has been ok, Emmett Laws, Heath, Woodson has developed but may be poorly coached.
Is heath on the team any more? Greene has done well. Burgos has been disappointing for me, I thought hed be a lot better. Laws is coming around and still young.
Heath is injured. Was on sidelines but not in uniform.
Tbh, I haven't been able to watch any of the games after SCAR, so I didn't know he was hurt.
Burgos has had diminishing returns the past two years, the talent is clearly there, and that was a Pry offer. Fuente didn't even offer him.
Anyone else surprised we have made it this far into the week with only one name in the portal?
Also, what is our portal policy now that Pry is gone? Can Lovett still practice with the team? Can he play?
Not really... I think a lot of the guys on this team have already burned their redshirt. No point in entering the portal now if you don't have a redshirt year left.
Nobody has burned their redshirt yet this year, as there have been only three games. (Or 1.5, depending on how you look at it.)
Couldn't this mean they already burned their redshirt years in previous seasons?
Somebody posted on one of these threads that there were really only a handfull of players that had not taken a redshirt previously in their career
It was I
Woodson, kellar, lovett and like 2 more plays that weren't freshman. The freshmen aren't playing anyways
They eval'd good out of the portal that's it. They could not develop for shit, especially out of high school.
Worse than Fuente at development who saw Tre Turner look exactly the same his senior year as he did coming in as a true freshman
Agree here. Fu was pretty poor at development, a lot of players who just never really improved over the course of their eligibility. But with Pry, not only are recruits not developing, but we actually have seen regression. Parker Clements went from All-ACC freshman to a turnstile under Pry, Delane regressed each year and is now balling out at LSU, Drones has steadily gotten worse each year. And we've seen absolutely no benefit from these highly rated WRs that Fontel has brought in - they mostly can't even get on the field for the most part.
To be fair, I think payer development is more on the positional coaches. I don't think the head coach is evaluating individual player film at each position and personally running drills.
I concede that ultimately the head coach is ultimately responsible for who is on his staff and the job they do.
This comment was just about players that had the chance to red shirt. We only have a few non-freshman on the team that haven't taken a redshirt.
Yeah I swear I clicked reply on another comment a bit further down. Mobile being glitchy today I guess
Yeah you were replying to me. I think evals were mostly good out of high school, but you're right the evals out of the portal were really good and it's kinda hard to judge HS because those guys haven't gotten much playing time.
and if the NCAA passes 5/5, there is no eligibility reason to declare now
Well, they have one more game to play and then redshirt. Maybe some are thinking they'll get some highlight tape against Wofford and THEN redshirt and enter the portal.
edit: Another consideration to make, NIL payments are typically tied to being there and playing. Some, most(?) are paid in monthly installments for this reason. And a third consideration is that some of these guys, particularly younger guys are waiting to see how things shake out. If they like the coach hire, or their position coach is retained, etc. they might want to stick around. There isn't much incentive for them to rush when they can just wait and enter when everyone else does at the end of the season.
I think they also like getting paid. I don't believe they collect any NIL if they redshirt and transfer.
Technically yes Lovett can continue to practice/play but will the staff allow it is another question
My understanding is unless Montgomery has reversed it, Lovett is out and banned from facilities.
He would only play the next game if he wants this to be a redshirt year for him. Then he would basically quit the team if he hasn't already.
Since he bailed on the team, kick him off and end payments.
Wait until next week. 4 games to preserve RS. Pad stats this week for transferring. This week is kind of a try out for those who will be playing the rest of the season.
Lovett apparently drawing quite a bit of P2 interest. Florida, Wisconsin, Texas A&M, Nebraska and Colorado are a few who have reached out so far.
And yet, he can't transfer to any of them until January.
He gets a special transfer window now... assuming he can actually get enrolled
That is what I meant. All schools have closed their academic windows for the fall already. So this transfer period literally means he has left the team and been banned from facilities. He might have been kicked out of tech entirely as his scholarship has probably been revoked and there is nowhere to go except home.
There are quite a few schools on the quarter system that he could transfer to sooner. UCLA is one of those schools. And let's be honest, this is football so I bet other schools would find a way if they wanted him bad enough.
Yep. I fully expect him to land somewhere in the P4.
(prolly: once they finalize the new single-shot Portal Window system): opening Jan. 2 and closing Jan. 11 for Football (FBS)... or something calendar close are your magic numbers...
...to leave inside this Firing generated (3o-day) Window... means you miss at least November and December; and quite possibly the October's pay stub to boot. That could amount to multi $10 Ks of income per month for the few you'd prolly wanna Coach Next keep.
So, we shall Biblically see... although, we IV think we see(s) a lot lot lot mo' making like a baby and heading out after early January... in extreme particular if they tank like Shamu under Monty to close. Then, we have the Wake leftovers look from the 4-game r-shirt cut-off thingy looming. i.e., don't die of shock if they are in self-preservation mode for the next 8Q's of: work. Tanking. Ducking. Sliding.
Go'on and bet the Over on Mr. French's film-room critique, suffering a hard non-P.C. painful response here TKP peeps.
All of which MEANS ...you seriously need to have a New Ranch Master in place by the end of 2025 to mind the Beamer Barn. (As opposed to minding the barn after the horses have all run, away...)
again... we shall, see...
b.street
He was one of those guys that looked completely lost against USCe. So naturally, he's gonna look like a world-beater wherever he goes next.
kg was saying that one other guy is in the portal, do we have any idea who?
It will be really interesting to see how Dante does at UCLA. Will it be another case of a player doing better at a new school than they did at Tech? I wish him the best, seems like a good kid.
Always loved his mom's posts as well, her enthusiasm and support of the team were fantastic! Loved this message as well:
Class!
I assume Chesney knows what he's doing and Dante will have a solid role there. Yeah I was a little surprised he didn't translate here as well as we'd hoped, DeMatha guys are usually as close to a sure thing as you can get
This was the year he was supposed to contribute and he decided to opt out after Pry was fired so he didn't play most of the season. I don't think we can really conclude that he didn't translate.
He's certainly no Rosetta Stone.
Wasn't he left off the 2-deep starting the year? I don't know the situation or issue, but it seems ther was something that happened (or didn't happen) over the summer resulting in a demotion after being a contributor in 2024.
I was expecting him to be one of the starting corners, but it didn't happen. Why? Don't know.
he missed his dues to the stone cutters so he was out.
No, he's listed as a starter
He was supposed to be the man and was a possible starter but not THE starter