Somewhat off-topic, but I just finished reading Mailman, by Stephen Grant. It's the story of a guy who loses his white collar job and comes home to Blacksburg to work as a mail carrier. I laughed out loud in the middle of one of the passages that included, as part of a sentence, "Coach Fuentes did not distinguish himself as the football coach at Virginia Tech". But this comes in the context of him relating that his (Fuentes) wife kept a cooler of drinks on their porch as a hydration station for the mail carriers which was hugely appreciated.
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My wife read this book and failed to report this tidbit about the Fuente family. She said it was pretty interesting and obviously in and around Blacksburg, so I would like to read it once I get through some other books on my TBR.
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Fuente didn't have the people skills to Recruit or deal with the media at this level. That was never going to get better.
Likely as a direct result of that, his Roster Management was a mess and it showed on the field.
But VT Athletics did very little to properly support him. The "more with less" attitude was completely short-sighted and the fact that people like Bellein who were actively trying to subvert him weren't fired instantly was telling for how dysfunctional the Dept. was.
Fuente was a decent guy, probably could have done himself some favors by being more insightful and attempting to at least be personable occasionally, but he never had a realistic chance from the get-go both due to his own shortcomings and VT's.
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He still was losing games to programs with less talent and less resources than us. It's totally forgivable that he couldn't beat Clemson. But he had us losing to ODU, Duke, Liberty, almost Furman, etc. Even with limited resources, there's no way a great coach would lose so many of those type of games.
I don't hate the guy, but he still didn't do some awesome job where we held him back entirely.
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Fair enough and I'm not trying to paint the picture that with enough time things were going to work. They weren't.
He deserves a ton of blame for keeping Cornelson around, particularly after 2018. It was clear opposing D's had figured him out. But there are those with "sources" that claim he wanted to get someone better than Cornelson, but the money wasn't there. $500k wasn't close to competitive for a sought-after O.C. --One could say we got what we paid for.
When Foster retired, Odom clearly was a top choice to replace him, but couldn't offer him a competitive salary. We hired Hamilton for $600k.
Top coordinators at that point were getting paid much more than both our OC and DC were getting combined.
My point is when Fuente was fired, my opinion on the situation was that he was largely inept and arrogant, and was pissed that we were paying him any buyout at all. But as time has passed, my view has become more nuanced.
Its hard to build a winning program when the attitude coming from top is "weights weigh the same."
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Let's not pretend that we didn't have similar issues under Beamer. We could get occasional wins against big-time opponents, but anytime we played an FCS school, the game was WAY closer than it should've been.
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One of my biggest gripes about the Beamer era, starting in about 1995 when things really got rolling, was that they always played up or down to their competition. Most years they could hang in there with any team in the country, but then they'd play Furman and it would be 7-0 at the half.
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I dont have all the box scores in front of me ofc, but from what I remember there were a few games where we beat the doors off of a team in the first half during Beamer's glory days. But yes there were a few 'snooze fests' first halves but that was by design with our offensive scheme, don't beat ourselves and let Mike Gentry's boys wear them down.
If I remember right, that's what happened against us in the 96 orange bowl vs Nebraska. Was something like 10 to 12 after the first half and then Nebraska just went nuclear in the second half as their players were bigger and stronger than ours and we were worn out. Beamer was interviewed in later years saying he made it a point to model his program/team like that Nebraska team
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You're totally right, but frank made up for it by winning so many other games. Having a dud like losing to ECU in 2008 or even shudder JMU in 2010 gets overlooked when you go on to win 10+ games and the conference that same year.
Fuente unfortunately was dropping those kinds of games and also finishing with 6 wins. Yes the admin was dysfunctional but there is no way the admin made him get outcoached multiple times and lose to teams with less talent while only going 50/50 against the other more 'coin flip' games. IMO a lot of that is on him too
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Fuente didn't have the people skills to Recruit or deal with the media at this level.
IMO it's not a 'people' skill thing; it's a strategic/operational thing. Maintaining relationships at that scale is much more about habits and practices than being charismatic or funny or outgoing. The latter doesn't hurt, but there are plenty of great introverted CEOs, sales folks, etc.
Having met Fuente at an HC event, I know he's pretty engaging, not unlike in this interview. The problem is that he has to do this day-in/day-out with 300 recruits, 150 coaches, 100 multimilionaire boosters, and 50 administrators/coworkers. There's a reason sales folks use CRMs to track every email, phone call, birthday, etc
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There's an element to both...but to deny that certain coaches simply have better social and closing skills than others sells them short.
You can't just plug a coach into a Program and expect the same success even with tremendous resources. Fuente wasn't going to be signing 5 Stars if even if VT had an unlimited staff and budget. See as a modern example of this: Deboer, Kalen.
And despite your personal antidote, there are others who met Fuente who found him to be somewhere between distant and aloof.
Beyond that, French's "Kabuki story" from years ago really painted a picture of a guy who didn't understand Recruiting at a fundamental level. Then the "Turkey bacon" rationale for locker room problems came off as bizarre.
There's a reason Fuente isn't in Coaching anymore and it's not just because he didn't have enough people sending spam texts to recruits on his behalf.
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It didn't help that his style was very different from the predecessor that enjoyed the fire side chat approach. Fuente's approach to media, alumni relations, fan engagement, etc. was to create a totally insular program where the only thing to judge him on was the Saturday results. So when those started sliding, there was no one left willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
He locked out the media, froze out a lot of the fans and alumni, played the athletic department for more money - so there was no empathy for a bad loss or an off-field or locker room issue. I think he was a good guy and a decent coach but he set up that dynamic between himself and all of other the stakeholders. Pry did the opposite which is probably why he lasted as long as he did.
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Comments
I suppose the pressure is off at this point, so he doesn't need a plastic water bottle to strangle.
Somewhat off-topic, but I just finished reading Mailman, by Stephen Grant. It's the story of a guy who loses his white collar job and comes home to Blacksburg to work as a mail carrier. I laughed out loud in the middle of one of the passages that included, as part of a sentence, "Coach Fuentes did not distinguish himself as the football coach at Virginia Tech". But this comes in the context of him relating that his (Fuentes) wife kept a cooler of drinks on their porch as a hydration station for the mail carriers which was hugely appreciated.
My wife read this book and failed to report this tidbit about the Fuente family. She said it was pretty interesting and obviously in and around Blacksburg, so I would like to read it once I get through some other books on my TBR.
I think coach Fuente is a honorable and decent person who just wasn't a good fit for a D1 head coaching job. Respect the man, dislike the results.
Fuente didn't have the people skills to Recruit or deal with the media at this level. That was never going to get better.
Likely as a direct result of that, his Roster Management was a mess and it showed on the field.
But VT Athletics did very little to properly support him. The "more with less" attitude was completely short-sighted and the fact that people like Bellein who were actively trying to subvert him weren't fired instantly was telling for how dysfunctional the Dept. was.
Fuente was a decent guy, probably could have done himself some favors by being more insightful and attempting to at least be personable occasionally, but he never had a realistic chance from the get-go both due to his own shortcomings and VT's.
He still was losing games to programs with less talent and less resources than us. It's totally forgivable that he couldn't beat Clemson. But he had us losing to ODU, Duke, Liberty, almost Furman, etc. Even with limited resources, there's no way a great coach would lose so many of those type of games.
I don't hate the guy, but he still didn't do some awesome job where we held him back entirely.
Fair enough and I'm not trying to paint the picture that with enough time things were going to work. They weren't.
He deserves a ton of blame for keeping Cornelson around, particularly after 2018. It was clear opposing D's had figured him out. But there are those with "sources" that claim he wanted to get someone better than Cornelson, but the money wasn't there. $500k wasn't close to competitive for a sought-after O.C. --One could say we got what we paid for.
When Foster retired, Odom clearly was a top choice to replace him, but couldn't offer him a competitive salary. We hired Hamilton for $600k.
Top coordinators at that point were getting paid much more than both our OC and DC were getting combined.
My point is when Fuente was fired, my opinion on the situation was that he was largely inept and arrogant, and was pissed that we were paying him any buyout at all. But as time has passed, my view has become more nuanced.
Its hard to build a winning program when the attitude coming from top is "weights weigh the same."
Let's not pretend that we didn't have similar issues under Beamer. We could get occasional wins against big-time opponents, but anytime we played an FCS school, the game was WAY closer than it should've been.
One of my biggest gripes about the Beamer era, starting in about 1995 when things really got rolling, was that they always played up or down to their competition. Most years they could hang in there with any team in the country, but then they'd play Furman and it would be 7-0 at the half.
I dont have all the box scores in front of me ofc, but from what I remember there were a few games where we beat the doors off of a team in the first half during Beamer's glory days. But yes there were a few 'snooze fests' first halves but that was by design with our offensive scheme, don't beat ourselves and let Mike Gentry's boys wear them down.
If I remember right, that's what happened against us in the 96 orange bowl vs Nebraska. Was something like 10 to 12 after the first half and then Nebraska just went nuclear in the second half as their players were bigger and stronger than ours and we were worn out. Beamer was interviewed in later years saying he made it a point to model his program/team like that Nebraska team
You're totally right, but frank made up for it by winning so many other games. Having a dud like losing to ECU in 2008 or even shudder JMU in 2010 gets overlooked when you go on to win 10+ games and the conference that same year.
Fuente unfortunately was dropping those kinds of games and also finishing with 6 wins. Yes the admin was dysfunctional but there is no way the admin made him get outcoached multiple times and lose to teams with less talent while only going 50/50 against the other more 'coin flip' games. IMO a lot of that is on him too
IMO it's not a 'people' skill thing; it's a strategic/operational thing. Maintaining relationships at that scale is much more about habits and practices than being charismatic or funny or outgoing. The latter doesn't hurt, but there are plenty of great introverted CEOs, sales folks, etc.
Having met Fuente at an HC event, I know he's pretty engaging, not unlike in this interview. The problem is that he has to do this day-in/day-out with 300 recruits, 150 coaches, 100 multimilionaire boosters, and 50 administrators/coworkers. There's a reason sales folks use CRMs to track every email, phone call, birthday, etc
There's an element to both...but to deny that certain coaches simply have better social and closing skills than others sells them short.
You can't just plug a coach into a Program and expect the same success even with tremendous resources. Fuente wasn't going to be signing 5 Stars if even if VT had an unlimited staff and budget. See as a modern example of this: Deboer, Kalen.
And despite your personal antidote, there are others who met Fuente who found him to be somewhere between distant and aloof.
Beyond that, French's "Kabuki story" from years ago really painted a picture of a guy who didn't understand Recruiting at a fundamental level. Then the "Turkey bacon" rationale for locker room problems came off as bizarre.
There's a reason Fuente isn't in Coaching anymore and it's not just because he didn't have enough people sending spam texts to recruits on his behalf.
It didn't help that his style was very different from the predecessor that enjoyed the fire side chat approach. Fuente's approach to media, alumni relations, fan engagement, etc. was to create a totally insular program where the only thing to judge him on was the Saturday results. So when those started sliding, there was no one left willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
He locked out the media, froze out a lot of the fans and alumni, played the athletic department for more money - so there was no empathy for a bad loss or an off-field or locker room issue. I think he was a good guy and a decent coach but he set up that dynamic between himself and all of other the stakeholders. Pry did the opposite which is probably why he lasted as long as he did.
He went 5-1 against Carolina, and he's still mad about the one.
My response to that one is if they're allowed to not count the hurricane game, we're allowed to not count the covid loss xD
If we could've Waterboy'd Fuente into thinking every team was UNC, we might be building a statue of him....
If there hadn't been a literal hurricane at the time, he may have set Chapel Hill on fire out of principle.
I always did enjoy the way he despised Fedora and UNC.
He's actually good friends with Fedora. To me, it was Mack who he detested
Were they really? I could swear his bad attitude toward Carolina predated Mack Brown by a few years.
That's what he said in the TSL interview. I was surprised too.
He said that Carolina had won the coastal the year before he got hired, so they kind of set their sights on Carolina as the team to beat.