Regarding the move to etsu: said that he was trying to stay in bburg either on staff or in the admin and they pry and whit were helping him but it didn't work out. Considered leaving coaching to stay in bburg but then had an opportunity at etsu come up and decided to go for it. Said he is excited to be in fcs where relationships matter more than nil.
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It's another signal that we have truly had a break from the Beamer era and that's probably a good thing overall. The DL coach we got is a much more accomplished college coach. Love JC Price to death but Franklin hired a better coach.
Having said that, I can't fathom that there isn't a spot for JC with the Hokie club or somewhere else. But also I don't know what goes on behind the scenes and maybe his personality just isn't a fit with the leaders in those places.
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This is such an indictment on the current Athletic Dept. Administration.
You have a highly popular former player and coach willing and wanting to come work for HokieClub which (per Chris Coleman at least) has been ineffectual and understaffed consistently and.....you can't return a Phonecall or E-mail???
I would call it avarice but more than likely its just sheer and utter ineptitude.
Its almost like planning an expansive Renovation of your Basketball Arena (which truly might already be DOA) and then "engaging" your fanbase by declining Postseason play with a sheepish Social Media post.
Look, I am excited and very hopeful for what James Franklin can do at VT but I think we also need to be realistic about the fact that there are systemic issues and personnel that are just broken in the A.D.
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Look, I am excited and very hopeful for what James Franklin can do at VT but I think we also need to be realistic about the fact that there are systemic issues and personnel that are just broken in the A.D.
James Franklin was brought in because we realize those things are broken and are looking for him to guide us into the resolution. The fact that he's basically being allowed to rebuild football as he sees fit and essentially cleaning house of anyone and everyone that isn't one of his guys (that is, everyone from the previous regime) is very telling that going forward its his way or GTFO. And it won't be long until the Hokie Club is razed and rebuilt in the way it needs to happen.
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But the fact that the guy in charge during this period of prolonged ineptitude remains essentially unscathed isn't encouraging.
Whit has:
1) Lost the single most successful Coach during his tenure - Brooks.
2) continued to employ Ballein who was actively subverting the Head Football Coach
3) Feigned ingnorance of #2 in a National ESPN article
4) Presided over a completely ineffective HokieClub.
5) Made 2 horrible Football hires in a row
6) "Weights weigh the same" ---enough said.
The continued unforced stupidity in terms of the handling of the NIT bid declining an NIT bid that did not yet even exist leads me to believe that the SOP inside Merryman hasn't changed much. I don't view an A.D. headed by Whit Babcock ever being part of the solution here.
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And it won't be long until the Hokie Club is razed and rebuilt in the way JMFF thinks it needs to happen.
FTFY.
That doesn't necessarily mean that the way he thinks it needs to happen is the way that it really needs to happen. He's a football coach, not a professional fundraiser.
I'm not saying that the Hokie Club doesn't need to be burned to the ground and rebuilt from the ashes. And I'm not saying that JMFF doesn't have some good ideas on what changes need to occur. I'm just saying that I'd prefer that someone other than the head football coach be the one to do the reimagining of the Hokie Club. Otherwise, we're just going to get another Hokie Club that was designed from the ground up by somebody without professional fundraising experience! Which would just then be Hokie Club 1.1, rather than Hokie Club 2.0, IMnsHO.
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I'm curious how successful Penn State's version of the Hokie Club was prior to Franklin versus how it is now and if he had anything to do with changing it.
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I was speaking in reference to something else entirely, but best not to go further and respect the CG's. But it was odd and referred to more than once in the interview.
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I had the same thought. Just a really tacky thing to say, regardless of how true it was/wasn't. He could have just said "ultimately they went a different direction" or "the coach chose someone he had a history of working with," etc.
"I had never worked with Coach Fuente, he barely knew me, but Tapp and JHam vouched for me" - boom, done, easy. Not controversial. Still recognizes that your coworkers stood up for you.
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It can also be tough to be told over and over again that your skin color is wrong for the job (especially since it seemed fresh in that 3 months of unemployment). Reality is that it is a rampant thing that really does affect people and then they are expected to never speak up.
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If the system is locking out a significant portion of the candidate pool before it is even announced, calling it out from the candidates perspective should be an expectation. Why should someone be expected to play nice when the system doesnt? People being quiet lets the broken system go unchallenged.
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It was an interesting listen. Always wild to hear how small of a world SWVA/The NRV is.
That said, TSL is state media. Anytime there's a guest connected to the university on, I always assume there's some politicking, propagandizing, or spinning going on..There's definitely a side to this we're not seeing imo
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Oh I feel like it's vice versa. TSL has connections with the program and the university. They have student internships every year. They pay Triumph/Hokie Way for interviews. They record from the corporate research center if I recall correctly. The athletic department often uses them as a microphone in exchange for (some) access.
SOS is just a group of over optimistic fans turned media members.
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Yea Billy was here during the late Beamer/Early Fuente years. Agreed - big fans, 'cover' the program through the lens of an optimistic fan.
TSL kinda straddles the line(s) between bloggers and reporters and fans. Which makes for good content. But I think that gives them a lot of opportunity to less than transparent.
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I saw it as a indictment of how the HokieClub is run. They had a Hokie willing to change professions to stay in Blacksburg and it seems they didn't even try to see if that opportunity would work or how they utilize the opportunity. There is plenty of fundraising material about a Hokie that started as a player and ended up being the Interm HC. Isn't that what they did with Beamer? There is obviously a lot of information about the situation with Price that we don't know, we have one side of the situation but it seems par for the course of the other side(HokieClub).
I think it's to apply pressure to change how the athletic dept thinks and operates around fundraising going forward. What they are doing now just won't lead to success for the dept with how the landscape of college sports has changed in the past 5 years.
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Comments
Regarding the move to etsu: said that he was trying to stay in bburg either on staff or in the admin and they pry and whit were helping him but it didn't work out. Considered leaving coaching to stay in bburg but then had an opportunity at etsu come up and decided to go for it. Said he is excited to be in fcs where relationships matter more than nil.
Yea I really don't know how to feel after that interview. Best interpretation is he was speaking very matter of fact.
It's another signal that we have truly had a break from the Beamer era and that's probably a good thing overall. The DL coach we got is a much more accomplished college coach. Love JC Price to death but Franklin hired a better coach.
Having said that, I can't fathom that there isn't a spot for JC with the Hokie club or somewhere else. But also I don't know what goes on behind the scenes and maybe his personality just isn't a fit with the leaders in those places.
He said he applied to hokie club and they never got back to him
Unfortunately not surprising
This is such an indictment on the current Athletic Dept. Administration.
You have a highly popular former player and coach willing and wanting to come work for HokieClub which (per Chris Coleman at least) has been ineffectual and understaffed consistently and.....you can't return a Phonecall or E-mail???
I would call it avarice but more than likely its just sheer and utter ineptitude.
Its almost like planning an expansive Renovation of your Basketball Arena (which truly might already be DOA) and then "engaging" your fanbase by declining Postseason play with a sheepish Social Media post.
Look, I am excited and very hopeful for what James Franklin can do at VT but I think we also need to be realistic about the fact that there are systemic issues and personnel that are just broken in the A.D.
I think the HC needs to be razed and rebuilt.
James Franklin was brought in because we realize those things are broken and are looking for him to guide us into the resolution. The fact that he's basically being allowed to rebuild football as he sees fit and essentially cleaning house of anyone and everyone that isn't one of his guys (that is, everyone from the previous regime) is very telling that going forward its his way or GTFO. And it won't be long until the Hokie Club is razed and rebuilt in the way it needs to happen.
I sure hope that is what happens.
But the fact that the guy in charge during this period of prolonged ineptitude remains essentially unscathed isn't encouraging.
Whit has:
1) Lost the single most successful Coach during his tenure - Brooks.
2) continued to employ Ballein who was actively subverting the Head Football Coach
3) Feigned ingnorance of #2 in a National ESPN article
4) Presided over a completely ineffective HokieClub.
5) Made 2 horrible Football hires in a row
6) "Weights weigh the same" ---enough said.
The continued unforced stupidity in terms of the
handling of the NIT biddeclining an NIT bid that did not yet even exist leads me to believe that the SOP inside Merryman hasn't changed much. I don't view an A.D. headed by Whit Babcock ever being part of the solution here."We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."
FTFY.
That doesn't necessarily mean that the way he thinks it needs to happen is the way that it really needs to happen. He's a football coach, not a professional fundraiser.
I'm not saying that the Hokie Club doesn't need to be burned to the ground and rebuilt from the ashes. And I'm not saying that JMFF doesn't have some good ideas on what changes need to occur. I'm just saying that I'd prefer that someone other than the head football coach be the one to do the reimagining of the Hokie Club. Otherwise, we're just going to get another Hokie Club that was designed from the ground up by somebody without professional fundraising experience! Which would just then be Hokie Club 1.1, rather than Hokie Club 2.0, IMnsHO.
I'm curious how successful Penn State's version of the Hokie Club was prior to Franklin versus how it is now and if he had anything to do with changing it.
They wouldn't admit it even if it were true but he was coach while they arranged a $700M+ improvement to the stadium.
An unresponsive Hokie Club missing out on an opportunity to capitalize on an opportunity falling in their lap for easy fundraising ventures?
Seems about right for them
I was speaking in reference to something else entirely, but best not to go further and respect the CG's. But it was odd and referred to more than once in the interview.
You mean his "the position was not available for a white person" comments? That is a very real thing, especially in the university systems.
If somebody gave him that in writing that is grounds for a discrimination lawsuit.
I had the same thought. Just a really tacky thing to say, regardless of how true it was/wasn't. He could have just said "ultimately they went a different direction" or "the coach chose someone he had a history of working with," etc.
"I had never worked with Coach Fuente, he barely knew me, but Tapp and JHam vouched for me" - boom, done, easy. Not controversial. Still recognizes that your coworkers stood up for you.
Part of me wonders if that lack of filter is what contributed to the lack of spots for him now.
Like you said, not a great look and there are about 1000 ways you can say that (if it's true or not) that are much more diplomatic
It can also be tough to be told over and over again that your skin color is wrong for the job (especially since it seemed fresh in that 3 months of unemployment). Reality is that it is a rampant thing that really does affect people and then they are expected to never speak up.
I love that without the prior context, your comment describes that issue from the perspective of both sides. Hate it, but love it.
If the system is locking out a significant portion of the candidate pool before it is even announced, calling it out from the candidates perspective should be an expectation. Why should someone be expected to play nice when the system doesnt? People being quiet lets the broken system go unchallenged.
Fans will never be happy either way - nobody likes coach-speak but no one wants you to share your real thoughts either.
Pry was a member of the Beamer era though....
Which is why he was hc...he is dc because he was an elite dc that worked with franklin and would have been his dc at whatever school landed franklin
It was an interesting listen. Always wild to hear how small of a world SWVA/The NRV is.
That said, TSL is state media. Anytime there's a guest connected to the university on, I always assume there's some politicking, propagandizing, or spinning going on..There's definitely a side to this we're not seeing imo
they're an easy interview, but not quite the voice of the program. that would be Sons of Saturday
Oh I feel like it's vice versa. TSL has connections with the program and the university. They have student internships every year. They pay Triumph/Hokie Way for interviews. They record from the corporate research center if I recall correctly. The athletic department often uses them as a microphone in exchange for (some) access.
SOS is just a group of over optimistic fans turned media members.
Isnt the main sos guy a former player? But they have never claimed ti be journalists - just bug hokie fans who talk about what they love
Yea Billy was here during the late Beamer/Early Fuente years. Agreed - big fans, 'cover' the program through the lens of an optimistic fan.
TSL kinda straddles the line(s) between bloggers and reporters and fans. Which makes for good content. But I think that gives them a lot of opportunity to less than transparent.
I saw it as a indictment of how the HokieClub is run. They had a Hokie willing to change professions to stay in Blacksburg and it seems they didn't even try to see if that opportunity would work or how they utilize the opportunity. There is plenty of fundraising material about a Hokie that started as a player and ended up being the Interm HC. Isn't that what they did with Beamer? There is obviously a lot of information about the situation with Price that we don't know, we have one side of the situation but it seems par for the course of the other side(HokieClub).
I think it's to apply pressure to change how the athletic dept thinks and operates around fundraising going forward. What they are doing now just won't lead to success for the dept with how the landscape of college sports has changed in the past 5 years.
It did occur to me that JC could have been asked to go on to put heat on HC.
I've found in these situations there is usually more to the story... not ready to take the interview as a fully factual account.