Virginia Tech confirmed in a statement Thursday that secondary coach Torrian Gray has stepped down effective immediately to pursue a coaching position in his home state of Florida. Gray thanked new head coach Justin Fuente in the released statement.
"This wasn't about dollars and cents or anything else," said Gray. "Virginia Tech made me a very generous offer to stay, but this was simply a career opportunity and chance to return home to my Florida roots that my family couldn't pass up."
Defensive coordinator Bud Foster also thanked the Dean of DBU for his years of service to Virginia Tech.
"Torrian's been a fine player and a fine coach for Virginia Tech. I know he was torn about this decision, but ultimately we both understood that for him to advance in his career, this day would eventually come," said Foster.
News broke Wednesday evening that Gray would be leaving Blacksburg. Gray is expected to coach the same position at the University of Florida, according to an SI.com report.
Comments
And its official...
I am still going to wear my DBU shirt.
Well, yeah, because we're still DBU.
The Program > One Man
via GIPHY
Happy for Coach Gray...but I think I'll officially cry now...............
Man- they need a win, either a home run hire or a big verbal commit, ASAP. I bet the first round of Recruit Nights are going to be hostile.
How integral to everything was TG? As in, realistically, what impact does this have on the defense? I know he's a great coach, but surely we can find a good replacement who can work with Bud's system.
This is just my opinion, of course, but I think TG's value was his technique on teaching the kids technique. I believe most of the kids responded well to Coach Gray, and it paid off.
I'm not on the ledge over this. HE'S A POSITION COACH. Just find somebody that can follow Coach Foster's orders, relay it to the kids in a positive manner, and rock that floppy hat.
As usual when it comes to apparel, I am probably in the minority, but I absolutely HATE the floppy hat.
Careful, or you'll get placed in Hufflepuff.
He was arguably the best recruiter on the team, that isnt a deposed OC.
Ehh Shane landed more talent, but TG definitely seemed to have a keen eye for getting quality 3* guys like Adonis
I think he probably was better than Shane, considering the contributions of Torrian's prospects. TG also had us in the running for numerous big name players, but couldn't close the deal for reasons that probably were not entirely his fault. I'm sure that FSU and Miami are going to have a lot of trouble now.
I guess we will see tonight. Its going to be interesting to see if it sounds like they've all rehearsed the same response prior to splitting up for the different areas tonight.
I guarantee they've all been given talking points and were encouraged not to deviate. PR 101.
I'll find out in about 3 hours
Yep, I'll be in Arlington
"Why wasn't _______ signed by Fuente? I saw his tape on the Internet and I think he would have been a great get""
if those questioned get asked I will make my way up their and slap a ***
oh and I hope they then get escorted out ASAP
It NEVER fails. Someone will ask (and early in the Q&A) about a player VT didn't get. At least the question can't be about someone who signed with UVA this year.
hopefully the question is "Do you think Drew Harris will ever make it to campus?"
Incredibly, no missed recruit questions at the Richmond event. Some idiotic ones but none about missed recruits.
I'm heading to the NoVA recruiting night tonight in Arlington. I'll jump on later and let you know how the crowd was. Also, I may start a thread looking for questions. Not sure we'll get any answers. Holman Wiggins is the speaker.
TG was supposed to speak at ours down here in Lynchburg tonight...that obviously isn't happening anymore. They got Shibest to come down now.
Damn, I was hoping to listen to him in Roanoke; the brief videos I've seen of him reminds me of Wiles. But we'll get Cornelsen
as they should be.
Please explain your fear of this. Do you not have confidence in Coach Fuente and Coach Foster?
The first 1:05 accurately describes how I feel about this. The rest is just for shits-&-gigs to make me laugh so I won't curl up into a a fetal position and cry. WARNING: MAY BE USFW. If it isn't, crank up the volume.
I haven't seen this video since high school and it is still hilarious. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it. Was gonna post it up if there would've been a "Uva loss rant thread". Thankfully that did NOT happen (thank you Isaiah Ford).
How about a NSFW warning?
I don't find this kind of "humor" funny in the least, by ymmv.
Question: ymmv, Your Mileage May Vary?
right.
And apparently that guy needed a note card to make sure he didn't forget his lines...
Can't blame TG on this one or Fuente, which is key. People in other threads were saying that it was Fuente's fault for not paying him more but to hear that VT offered him more to stay is nice to hear. Hope he does well and at least we won't be playing against him until Bowl season.
Now, I'm excited about the new hire.
Yeah, I think blaming anyone isn't really right. Its a good career move for TG, can't begrudge a guy a good career move.
I think the biggest reason why people were upset is because of the timing, at least that was the factor that made me upset the most.
Yeah, I wasn't happy with the timing, but really, would a week ago have been better for these recruits? Some could have maybe found spots, but really there is no good time for a coach to leave.
By doing it after signing day (which is what every other school does too, like when we hired Shane), they can play damage control on players who area already contractually bound to the University through their NLI. Doing it before signing day, other teams will get in their ears and it can destroy a recruiting class. They can still assure the recruits that they will have a good coach. Also, the rule always is that you commit to the school and program, not the coach. Few coaches, either position or head coach, will remain at your school during the entire time you are there.
Thanks for the memories. Best of luck down there. You'll always be a Hokie, but we'll still have to beat you if we ever meet cuz DBU's right here at Virginia Tech. Ain't goin' nowhere!
Could we talk about the screen grab they used on Twitter for this? What professional organization sends that out with the red underline for "misspelled" words under it?
Dunno how to link comments but this is another example of the sloppiness with the new VT Athletics social media:
http://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2015/december/2/beamerball-social-medi...
Mistakes will happen, for sure but the attention to detail is lacking.
But that goes beyond social media, someone in the AD's office had to have written this not just the social media guy.
Right but he's in charge of the social media aspect.
Ultimately, the lack of attention to detail with the Twitter account is his responsibility.
HokieESQ killed it on twitter too like wtf the misspelled work is the mascot of the f'ing university are you kidding me... that's not what she said.. hahahah but close enough.
Yea I keep tweeting that Pete Morris or Whit need to give her a job.
So one thing I think that gets missed in reflecting on TG's tenure, and inevitably also on Wammy's is just how much more prolific passing has become just in the past 15 years.
I pulled the best conference passing O and D since 99 from the NCAA and there is a notable trend. It is simply put harder to maintain a strong Passing D than in any recent time, and I think the numbers, and perhaps our expectations should reflect that.
We aren't becoming the Big 12, but a Defense giving up200 yds/gm in the air might become the expectation vs 150 yds/gm in 1999.
1999: O Pitt, 240 yds/gm, D VT 171 yds/gm.
2000: #1 O, Pitt, 259.5 yds/gm. #1 D, Boston College #8 Nationally, 169 yds/gm
2001: O, Miami, 250 yds/gm. D VT #8 National 165 yds/gm
2002: O, Miami, 284 yds/gm (we also played #3 Marshall with 269 yds/gm), D Miami, #1 Nationally 155 yds/gm
2003: O Pitt, 288 yds/gm (also played #10 UCONN at 300 yds/gm), D Miami, #1 Nationally, 154 yds/gm.
2004: O FSU, 271 yds/gm (also played #13 USC with 272 yds/gm), D VT #4 National 162 yds/gm
2005: O FSU, 282 yds/gm, D Miami #1 152 yds/gm, VT was #3 national with 154 yds/gm
2006: O BC , 260 yds/gm, D VT, 140 yds/gm
2007: O BC 323 (Matt fucking Ryan) yds/gm, D Clemson 188 yds/gm
2008: This was not the ACC's year for Offense, O Clemson 217 yds/gm, D FSU 162 yds/gm. However we can look at their total yardage given up (2100 is up over 400 yds from the Miami teams of 2003 era) implying that against bad teams they were top dog, but had many games getting passed on, a more total yardage increase than from just adding the 13th game would lead to.
2009: O Duke, 305 yds/gm, D Clemson 167 yds/gm and VT just behind at 165 yd/gm (with the total yardage still creeping up.
2010: O NCST, 280 yds/gm, D Miami 150 yds/gm
2011: O Clemson 292 yds/gm, D FSU 192 yds/gm
2012: O Clemson 323 yds/gm, D FSU 160 yds/gm
2013: O Clemson 333 yds/gm (also ECU was right there at 331 yds/gm), D VT 172 yds/gm
2014: O FSU 303 yds/gm (ECU was ahead at 371 yds/gm). D Clemson 157 yds/gm
2015: O Clemson 281 yds/gm (also had Tulsa at 333 yds/gm and ECU at 271 yds/gm), D BC at 171 yds/gm.
Get out of here double post
Hopefully some good can come out of this, such as no more bs pass interference calls like Chuck Clark had on him vs ECU last year and others like that one!
How is this an advancement in his career? Same position at a school that over the last 10 years probably is ranked the same or lower in defensive stats than us (on average). We complain about the SEC myth, but calling this an advancement is perpetuating that myth.
Gets out the of the Bud Foster bubble of influence to show his own skill set.
Agreed - Was he a good judge of talent, or did Bud look at the tape and say get this guy? Was he a good recruiter, or were players coming to DBU to play for Bud? His chance of riding Bud's coattails to DC when Bud moved to HC took a big hit this year, and VT is no longer the hire from within program it used to be. He has a chance to go to a highly respected conference, with a lot of skilled players, in his home state, where he gets paid more, and prove that he is worth the pay. It also give him another prospective on Defense from another highly regarded DC. I think his chances of eventually being our DC, or someone else's, go way up after this move if he does well, than if he stays under Bud. (and I liked the hat)
Can you really blame him? Fuente took over and lowered his salary, VT is on the decline, we retained Bud so no chance for him to advance here in the near future and the gators are on the rise. For someone who has done as well as he has I would expect nothing less than continued advancement both school wise and position wise. Hopefully he is back in 5 or 6 years as the DC, if not I wish him the best wherever he gets a shot at that...
VT was on the decline, that's why we hired a new coach. Too early to tell if we are still on the decline or on the rise. It makes sense from TG's perspective to prove that he can still coach without Bud and in the SEC.