Before you all read into this and whatever just know I am just a messenger and don't mean/want to stir the pot about the issue in Ferguson. We all know the issues regarding Josh Stanford and how he stepped away from the team (issues were not clear) and then magically came back once he cleared his head. Now we see this post, yeah people could read into it a little too much. But with the way the incoming freshmen have played and lack of pt for him this upcoming year is JS5 a transfer or will he stay and fight it out? Pretty telling words "This is the why I feel the way I do about this place"
Joe/Community--if you see this as a bad topic/too soon it can be deleted.. just thought with the laundry that was aired earlier about JS5 and now this got me thinking.
Comments
No comment one way or the other on Stanford or Ferguson. Hope he chooses what's best for him and I wish him the best of luck. side note, amott22 seems to have some facts about VT anyway
definitely. I don't care either way.. don't want to get involved in that stuff but definitely caught my eye especially in regards to what Josh said in his post
I feel like he and Frank have been having some serious differences. Would not be surprised if we lost him.
I must have missed the Stanford post before but I have multiple very strong feelings about the Ferguson situation but this isn't the place to go into that IMO and I do not have enough information to make a decision about Stanford's position with the team. I am glad he has been able to contribute to our program and not knowing anything else about his situation, I can only hope the best for him in the future if that is with the team or not with the team.
EDIT: couldn't see the embedded posts at work
When you are unhappy with something, you will often find anything you can to fuel your displeasure to give you further reason to be unhappy. Regardless of the situation, I hope Josh can find a place where he can be happy.
Yep... If someone wants out, my only hope is that person does it quickly and soon. Nothing can be more damaging to a program at any level than dealing with someone in the locker room who purely doesn't want to be there.
Now I'm not saying this applies to Stanford. But if it does, we should grant him his release immediately and wish him well in the future.
As much as we all love VT, and Blacksburg holds a special place in our hearts, sometimes it can be difficult to remember that is not the case for everyone. Even everyone who chooses to come here & play sports.
Whatever Stanford's feelings, he has a right to them, and even a right to express them. That doesn't mean he is immune to possible negative feedback, either, it just means he has a right to express his views.
Whatever decision he makes about staying at VT or leaving - if that is even something he is considering - I wish him the best of luck. I hope he earns his college degree at whatever location makes him feel most comfortable and best prepared for success in life after sports end. That is what is really most important.
To be honest I think those types opinions are ones he's going to run into any almost any big college. Just my opinion but I don't see the majority of college bound kids relating all that well to situations that the minorities who live in like Ferguson have to deal with.
Social media quotes like those will be all over the place except at a HBI. At the same time there's going to be a group, or groups of people at any big college, including VT, who do respect what those minorities are going through, see the problem and support change. They just wont be as apparent because most college students either simply don't care about things that don't directly affect them or can't relate. Maybe Josh would be happier if he could connect with some of those students who see the issue his way instead of focusing on the folks he doesn't agree with. Just my 2c
I feel bad for the kid really, he's had it rough for the past year and he's got so much potential.
Not trying to be an a hole..honest question...why has he had it rough?
It's gotta be hard to be such a dick that most of the team and staff is happy about you leaving. And then votes against letting you come back. And then you get to come back anyway because the big man decided to ignore the vote he specifically asked his team for.
Not to mention we almost lost one of our hardest working walk-on wide outs, who's been a major contributor, because the guy that just up and quit was invited back--against the team's wishes--and immediately took his snaps.
Not a huge Stanford fan.
E: Em dashes!
Around here, we try to avoid calling our players "dicks" or anything else like that, especially based on #sources.
I'll defer to CFB's and Moorehead's judgement on this. This isn't Cody Journelle going off the rails territory. Give it some time and see what next year brings, and let's try to not dump on a guy that seems to have plenty on his plate and seems to be trying to work through them.
Next time just use "jerk" instead.
He was on the front lines of the pregame festivities of the LOLUVA game, which earned him a gold star from me. Motuapaka and Byrn, who sprinted in from the bench, also warmed my heart. Ef UVA. Still happy, still thankful for the victory.
we lost a hard working walk-on wide-out? who might that be? Cuz Byrn is still on the team and had a couple big catches in the last few games...
Re-read the post you responded to, and this time focus on how he included the word - almost.
I'm with DBU here. "Almost?" How did Stanford affect Byrn? It's not a fantasy team, you don't have to drop Byrn to add Stanford. Furthermore, the guy that's more prepared (practiced more), wants it more, and has the skillset, will see the field. No idea how Burn almost was "lost."
We almost lost Byrn because he lost his play time to a guy that quit the team, immediately upon that guy's return to the team. A return the team and most of the staff wasn't cool with. So Byrn, in his completely justified frustration, almost quit. Same thing with one of our running backs because of Wright.
But I'm sorry I posted, I'll just ignore the forums in the future.
I hope you keep posting. I didn't downvote but I do think you can be critical without calling players names.
In regards to the insight, people here are naturally skeptical of info without sources. I realize you wouldn't be able to say who this came from, but it's the first I read about. Anyway, I hope you stick around and keep posting.
There are so many rumors of locker room discord that I just ignore them completely. This sounds like an off-shoot of some of the original rumors, but now with detail naming Byrn specifically. In any case, this is from Josh, two days ago:
I know that doesn't prove anything about what might have happened, but if Josh wears his emotions on his sleeve as he seems to, I doubt he'd post something like this without actually meaning it. It's also the only senior on the team he highlighted via Instagram or Twitter regarding graduation.
+1 that's exactly what they are. Rumors.
Why are the only 2 choices either calling players names or ignoring the forums? There are numerous other people here that manage to post without calling players dicks, and I'm sure with a little effort you could as well
I wouldn't let a few downvotes keep you from posting.
Just don't call anyone "Dick"....unless their name is Richard, of course.
Everything in this post is 100% rumor or speculation. No need for it.
All I can say is there are 25-30k students/faculty at VT. I'm sure you don't have to look far to find people who's opinions differ from your own.
That's not really the point though. The point is he feels like he doesn't belong. Tech has like 3% black people I think. As a black person, it can be easy to feel like you're out of place at Tech.
Being the token white kid my entire life prior to coming to VT, even I felt out of place. So where I went from being in the minority to the majority, I can only imagine the magnitude of adjusting from being in the majority your whole life (not saying this is the case for all or even most of our minority students but I'm sure there are plenty this applies to) to being a minority.
Why does it always come down to black or white?
Do you have info that Stanford is unhappy because the town is 3% black?
is that speculation?
Moving from Richmond to VT in the 90's was definitely a culture shock. However, I was prepared to handle it.
Some kids are not. I think the Ferguson stuff he posted is just another tick mark in the negative column for him.
I'm sorry he feels the way he does. I did too, but I also grew to love the 'Burg in my 5 years there. I hope whatever he decides he excels.
If you're basing the sentiments of a college community on yik-yak posts, than you're reeeallly out of touch with the student body. Tech is a very diverse community with a wide array of mostly silent opinions. If you don't like Tech, just say the weather sucks.
Side-note: for those who don't know, the picture he referenced is from a social media app called yik-yak that allows anonymous streams of comments to be viewed and scored by anyone one in a chosen geographical range of the user. It's viewed by thousands of students everyday who go on for a good laugh or commentary they can relate to.
Thank you for clarifying for we old folks. I wasn't following what was in it. I take it that Stanford is yoshithepoet?
I don't know man, he also tweeted this last week:
It snowed in Blacksburg, he was probably referring to the fact that it reminded him of Canada.
At least, that's the non-emotional interpretation of that statement.
If Josh isn't happy wherever he is, he needs to do what he feels is best for himself. If he leaves, I will thank him for his efforts as a Hokie and wish him well. But really, you will find people you disagree with or dislike everywhere, especially on semi-anonymous online platforms. Maybe Blacksburg just isn't the kind of environment he wants, though.
"This place" could also just mean the US (is racism really a thing in Canada? Serious question, never even heard of that being an issue up there). I'd say we should all just sit back and wait for Josh to either suit up again in O&M or tell us where he's going. I honestly don't see much value in speculating until then.
I'd say yes it is an issue in Canada as well. There has been a banana thrown on the ice at Wayne Simmonds in Toronto (I think) and there are other instances just like that.
Canadians are the nicest people but some that I've talked to really don't like immigrants. Ontario has a lot of immigrants from the middle east and they are not always well received.
Racism is a problem north of the border as well. (see the banana being thrown at Wayne Simmons as an example). The thing about Canada is that they're just very good at keeping it quiet and subtle because of their reputation for being nice. I mean, this is a story you would think came from the US, but its all on Canada.
Multiculturalism minister target of racist remark
That was my first thought. Maybe he meant "this place" in a much more broad sense, such as the US or even the world.
Pretty sure racism is a thing just about everywhere.
"This place" could also mean the planet Earth...maybe he aspires to be an intergalactic traveler?
Leg for posting what I was thinking!
I think we are digging a little too deep here. As someone posted above, "here" could mean the U.S., not Blacksburg specifically. But if he was referring to the Burg, I hope he finds a new home quickly.
And in terms of actual football, I couldn't really completely blame him for transferring if he decides to. I don't think he played one snap against UVa, which was surprising since Knowles even got some playing time after the special teams blunders. Not saying Stanford should just get a pass for leaving the team the way he did earlier in the year, but if I were in his shoes I'd be pretty frustrated with my playing time as well. However, it is a team game and personally there would be no other colors I'd rather wear than maroon and orange. But bottom line, I wouldn't be surprised if he transfers in the offseason, although this would be unfortunate as he is still one heck of a football player in my opinion.
And for what it's worth, he tweeted these exact words 8 hours ago (sorry, I still don't know how to embed a tweet on here):
"The blacksburg police department has taught me far more about mercy and kindness than the on-campus ministry I used to go to ever did."
Soooo yeah, I don't think "here", as stated in the Instagram post was referring to Blacksburg.
Based on the tweet you mentioned, and the comments above, and all the comments during the year, I'd say we can be pretty confident that Stanford wears his emotions on his sleeve and those emotions change pretty quickly. A number of athletes just seem to have a tendency to say/post comments that are controversial. Many of those athletes happen to be WRs, for some reason. I think Stanford falls into that group.
Wait. I thought Stanford was Canadian, not a typical American teenager.
#confusedface
In the world of overly emotional WRs...
it seems to be easy to bucket crazy athletes by position:
WRs
CBs
Hockey Goalies
Soccer Goalies
Pitchers (esp those of the closer variety)
there just seems to be a disproportionate amount of crazy within those subgroups of athletes...maybe it's just me.
Hey meow us soccer keepers take offense to that! Forwards can be crazy too!!!!
See Mario Balotelli
The first time I heard about him, I thought he was Mario Batali, the ginger TV chef.
As a Liverpool fan, I take offense to that...but you're quite right (as I go off to sob in a corner)
Ugh sounds like there is a back story there. It doesn't come across well when you're talking about how the police have shown you mercy. Hope there isn't any trouble
Sounds like there isn't any trouble, possibly because of the BPD realizing his status as a player. Like I said, he seems to have a propensity for making controversial comments.
well, he is a poet...perhaps he doesn't know it? i'll show myself the door....sorry everyone
To embed a tweet, you just have to expand the tweet, click the three little dots for more options, and click on embed tweet. It will give you the embed code, and then you just have to copy and paste it into the text box here. Hope that helps!
I'm not bashing the kid, but he's had every opportunity to succeed here. Heck, in the grand scheme of things he's been given TWO chances at a D-1 football program. There are thousands of kids that would kill for that opportunity. If he feels the need to base his opinions of an entire University on the opinions of 4 anonymous people, I can't really agree with where he's coming from. Maybe being a little bit more grateful for the position he's in would go a long way here.
If he feels the need to base his opinions of an entire University on the opinions of 4 anonymous people, I can't really agree with where he's coming from.
Exactly. I don't use the app but from what I've heard it sounds like a lot of stupid stuff is posted on Yik Yak. I even have a friend at Emory & Henry who said there was a bomb threat posted on there earlier in the semester. The concept is okay I guess but when people say bizarre things, they could at least put their name on it.
Am I the only one that thinks of this when everyone says yik yak..or whatever it is?
This is what comes to mind for me:
i can honestly say I've never seen one of those.
And now I feel old
Why is that? When were those things around?
I HAD ONE OF THOSE! My grandfather loved recording his Edward G Robinson impressions with it.
As a 90s kid, my brother and I had these growing up but they disappeared one day. Years later I found out my mother threw them away because as you'd imagine, 2 young kids + 2 yakbaks = 1 MAJOR headache for a stay-at-home-mom.
This has been the cause of countless miserable mornings of work....
I'm all about making the most of my opportunities and capitalizing on my decisions, regardless of the circumstances.
I was in college though and I know it can be tough, however...
I don't care what he thinks, and he certainly has the right to think whatever he wants. If he really does not like VT I hope for his and our sake he is gone after this year.
I'm disappointed in myself for reading through this whole thread...can we blow it up so no one else has to read it.
You know, I was going to leave this thread alone after my last comment but I thought I'd chime in again:
After hearing so much rumor and speculation about these topics, reading the tweets, and hearing all the discussion, I just hope that everyone involved does what's best for them. If anyone decides to leave, then I hope they're making a conscientious decision about what is best in their lives, want to thank them for what they've done for us, and wish them well in their futures.
Now I'll leave this thread - and topic - alone.
Isn't this what the internet is for? Pointless speculation, judgement, and hearsay, regarding topics we have no control over?
I dont really get was he agreeing or disagreeing with the post? Saying he didnt like the place because of the protests?? Anyway, Stanford is hard to read. When he is on the field he plays with a lot of passion, but off of it, it sounds like he hates being here. I dont know, not everything is perfect, you have to make adjustments. Try to enjoy something once in a while. If he is a problem in the locker room then he should go.