He was at the Ace Hardware in Hampton.
First, I have to say that he was a great guy. Very social, polite, and just left a good impression. I brought my 11 month old son with me and the first thing he said was "is this a future Hokie?" and grabbed a football and signed it for him. It wasn't too busy when I was there, so it was great to talk VT football with him.
A few points:
- He is a BIG fan of Lawson and thinks he is the real deal. He was down in FL recently and is just impressed with the kid. He said that there could be a package with him this fall to get him on the field. I thought that was very interesting.
- He is excited about the team (obviously, he'll say that), but he likes the defense and he thinks the offense will be very solid this year. He likes the secondary with Reavis back there and said that Clark will be the other safety.
- Facyson will be good to go. They aren't worried about his rehab and said the clean break in his leg was a good thing for his recovery. We've seen that stated a few times, but it sounds like a starting secondary of Facyson, Fuller, Reavis, and Clark if everything goes well.
- I asked him who he thinks will be a sleeper on defense this year. He took some time to think about and then said Dooley. He thinks he'll be a big contributor this fall.
- I mentioned that he must be excited about the starting front 4 and he definitely is. He thinks they'll be able to redshirt a guy at DT because they are so deep at the position. They would like to get a couple of good years out of a kid instead of 1.
I honestly could have talked to the guy about VT football for hours, but there were other people waiting to see him and I didn't want to take up too much of his time. There was a great Hokie couple behind me decked out in VT gear that must have been 80+ years old. Bud stood up to introduce himself and they said "why are you standing up? Sit down".
Finally, as I was leaving I heard him say to a fan "Ohio State was loud last year and they had over 100K people, but Lane will be rocking and will be louder with 70K."
Comments
Awesome info. Thanks for the post
Thx for sharing, informative and entertaining!
Best secondary in the P5. Bring it.
The uncertainty at safeties make me hesitate to say that, but they could be awesome, that is for sure.
I was uncertain at safety headed into spring. Now that it's settled on Clark and Reavis (assuming Fascyon is healthy), the only concern is an inexperienced Reavis getting up to speed at a position he was born to play. I am very high on him. Clark can play every position in the defensive backfield, and Kendall and Fayscon are all-ACC caliber.
Fayscon not playing last year and all the injuries have tempered my expectations for him as well. Hopefully he comes out like his 2013 self.
Granted this is all predicated on a healthy Fayscon (I can never spell his friggin name right). If he can't go, things are a little murkier.
Facyson
Fancy son...without the n. That's how I remember it.
That's like how Krzyzewski is Krazy Zewski without the A. I slapped my forehead when I read that.
Oooh, nice.
Best secondary paired with the best front four? UH YEAH
I will agree that Dadi and Ken are probably as good as any DE tandem in the country. Are Luther and Corey the best DT pair? They're small by prototypical DT standards. (Corey admittedly more so, but Lu is still on the small side of average.) Still, they are very, very good. I think the depth at DT plus the insane skill level of our starting DEs put us in the conversation for best D line, but I don't think we're necessarily a shoe-in for best starting four.
As far as a returning tandem of DT? Yeah, probably, although Baylor, Arkansas, Michigan State, and Penn State have an argument. Bama's one DT is very good as well. TCU should have a very good front four as well.
I think too much is made of the size of the defensive tackles. Neither Marshall nor Maddy were really mauled at any time (other than Miami, where everyone on defense player poorly) and both played very well when healthy. Coincidentally, most of the teams I mentioned had a starting DT of a similar size to Marshall. It is becoming a trend to go with a smaller 3-tech and MLB to deal with spread teams and get more speed on the field.
The DL was especially impressive if you factor in SOS. I believe VT, Clemson, and Rutgers were the only teams to play 4 top 20 rushing offenses. Rutgers was a lot worse than VT, Clemson was much better. Our DL was statistically very good last year- top 30 in all DL metrics, 7th in adjusted line yards (essentially rushing yards allowed adjusted by opponent), the best team in the country at rushing the passer, and 2nd in short yardage situations. Clemson and VT were the only teams in the top 10 at both adjusted line yards and adjusted sack rate- Clemson graduated it's entire starting DL while VT returned everyone, so we have a very strong argument.
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ncaadl
Maddy didn't play against Miami. He was long gone by then. In fact, Maddy and Marshall only started 2 games together last year...it wasn't a coincidence that the big running plays didn't happen when those two and Chase Williams were all on the field and healthy.
It's also not a coincidence that Miami was able to run that zone cutback with impunity with Maddy out and Matuopouka starting his first game...
I'm well aware, I just worded that poorly. I meant between the two of them combined, the Miami game was the only blemish.
I'm ready for some football!!!
welp..
NOW BOARDING: THE HYPE TRAIN!! CHOO-CHOO MF'ERS!
Thanks for the post. I'm so proud to have a stand up guy like Bud as a representative of VT and it's football team.
I think we will get some pick 6's this year. Maybe even some sacks.
You win, sir.
VT is truly blessed to have Coaches like Beamer and Bud
Man, wasn't this good? Thanks for the info.
Hahaha I love this. I was in a Facebook argument with a WVU fan one time. He was stating that he has a friend/family member (I forget which) that worked at Tech, and she informed him that Tech did "under-the-table" type deals with recruits. I thought that was the funniest thing ever, as Frank Beamer runs possibly the tightest and cleanest ship of any Power 5 program. And, when I messaged him about what these deals could be, he wouldn't tell me because of "hackers."
He also said that he has heard from multiple diehard Hokie fans that Bud is an asshole. I met the guy once and I never got that impression. The guy pretty much verified his excellent character after Antone Exum was ripped apart after the 2012 Cincinnati and Bud defended him the way he did.
My wife was saying after we met him that someone at her work had mentioned that Bud was "a little standoffish". She was happy that wasn't the case because I was really looking forward to meeting him. She was also really impressed saying that he was so nice, really cool, great with our son, etc.
My wife took the picture of me with Bud and he asked her if she wanted to get in. While she cheers for Tech and really likes the program, she went to Tennessee. I said "oh, well she's a Vol". He laughed and said "oh, well that's fine. I don't hate. Good school". I then proceeded to tell him that we were dating during the Chick-Fila bowl in 2009 and that wasn't a great night for the relationship. He laughed a bit.
Forgot to mention that I said that my father-in-law is a big OSU fan. "2-0 against OSU would be fantastic"
Having met Bud only briefly on the lake, I cannot say I know him. But, I do know folks who do know him and they seem to think quite highly of him. He seemed friendly to me in my brief encounters. His renowned intensity might have some folks wary, but I consider him one of VT's greatest assets.
The word definitely used to be that Bud was rather standoffish and enjoyed imbibing adult beverages at home a little too much, but I haven't heard anything like that in a decade. He certainly seems to be more open and pleasant with the media than he used to be.
Yeah, I've heard all that and more, but folks grow and move on. I'd hate to be judged on some of my behavior as a younger man.
Love me some xkcd. I feel like this cant be posted enough either:
Where you at rogue_9nine??
This is pretty random, but I'll go with it:
Exploits of a Mom
For some reason I thought I was still over on the vtphreak thread. Anyways, man I love xkcd.
Yeah that would definitely been better under the Phreak thread, but I've never been one to add fuel to a fire either haha
looking forward to hearing him and stacy searels at the chalk talk in nova. thanks for sharing.
Let us know what they say.
I met Bud one time as well, walking out of the WAJ.
He looked right at me and asked if West End was open. I thought I was going to die.
God bless the coaches for putting up with this type of stuff when they go to the hardware store.
He wasn't there shopping....
So this was some type of marketing event?
No, not the market, silly, the hardware store.
Ah, I can always appreciate a good "Dad Joke":
I'm guessing Bud is sponsored by Ace Hardware. He was there from 10 - 2 and was signing autographs, they were grilling hot dogs, etc. He was just hanging outside talking to folks. Pretty cool.
He was in the Ace in Newport News around this time last year also.
Gotcha. I didn't pick that up from your original post. I just thought the guy was on vacay and needed some lighter fluid.
Bud never needs lighter fluid, he just glares until his target catches on fire.
Lighter fluid? People actually use that stuff? Bud could probably start the coals with the stare!
DRINK!
ACE is the Place. Bud knows this.
Somehow you just triggered that jingle in my head. Damn marketing!
He's auditioning for John Madden's spot as spokescoach
Well I certainly hope that the guy doesn't drive to Hampton to go to the hardware store when Heavener's is right there in Blacksburg.
In Bud we Trust, gonna be a better year than the last few mehopes...
You should've asked him how he's gonna celebrate when he's named as Virginia Tech's Head Coach after Frank retires. ;-)