ODU to Host Penn State, Maryland and Michigan in June; Coach Wilder Said He Would Call Coaches Fuente and Mendenhall to Attend

Source: Virginian-Pilot Article

ODU coach Bobby Wilder said he will call two ACC coaches โ€“ Virginia's Bronco Mendenhall and Virginia Tech's Justin Fuente โ€“ to invite their coaching staffs to ODU camps.

"I don't think anything else would prove how positive our intentions are than by inviting the other Division I coaches in Virginia to work with us," he said. "We're offering to bring those schools to the 757.

"It might not be the best thing personally for us to do as coaches, but it's the right thing to do for kids."

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Comments

But I thought it was the esteemed opinion that ODU was garbage, and they were literally Hitler for hosting camps?!?

That's only because all recruits in VA owe us a first right of refusual. Or something.

"We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior" Stephen M.R. Covey

โ€œWhen life knocks you down plan to land on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up, if you fall flat on your face it can kill your spiritโ€ David Wilson

When your tax dollars are the ones helping to fund them through their developmental years you kind of hope they don't bail to another state the second that investment could start paying off for the community at large.

"When I was growing up, Virginia Tech was a school that was kicking ass and taking names, and it's time we get back to that" - James Franklin

Oh get off your high horse. Regular students go out of state as well all the time including a large percentage of VT students

Luckily we don't make kids who grow up in the state sign contracts to make sure they never leave if they have any talent or ability which could be monetized.

investment? no one is paying taxes in hopes of the top football recruits coming to Virginia Tech. These kids do not owe anything to any in state school. Not to mention most people wouldn't consider a place that is a 5+ hour drive away part of their community

But they'll consider one that is 5+ states away part of it?

lol ok

"When I was growing up, Virginia Tech was a school that was kicking ass and taking names, and it's time we get back to that" - James Franklin

why do you assume that people have to play for a place that they associate as being in their local community? these are 17-18 year old kids who are trying to be as comfortable as they can while preparing to hopefully go pro. The whole point of college is to get an education (what kind varies for each person) and to grow as a person. Some people think going out of state is the best situation for them personally. Are you seriously going to hold that against teenager?

Also, I didn't accept a job where I grew up, does that make me a bad person for not contributing to my local economy since I used local tax dollars to graduate high school?

I came to VT from NC, I guess I'm a bad person and I should've gone to UNC or NCSU...

no, no, no, the impression i'm getting is:

if you can help us win a Natty or ACC championship, I care about my tax dollars being used on you, if not you are free to leave the state.

i could be wrong but i'm not sure

oh oh I see. I sure hope Alum07 doesn't raise a child outside of VA that becomes a high caliber athlete. That'll be a hell of a moral conundrum.

Editing.... was uncalled for - apologies

"When I was growing up, Virginia Tech was a school that was kicking ass and taking names, and it's time we get back to that" - James Franklin

Heck, I drove from Rhode Island to come to Tech. I not only left my state, I also left New England as a whole. If you are bad, I must be evil incarnate.

"We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior" Stephen M.R. Covey

โ€œWhen life knocks you down plan to land on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up, if you fall flat on your face it can kill your spiritโ€ David Wilson

This is literally the dumbest thing I've read regarding in-state recruiting

This is so wrong on so many levels.

That's only because all recruits in VA owe us a first right of refusual.

I INVOKE THE RIGHT OF PRIMA NOCTA

Wait, wat?

You guys do realize that prima nocta isnt first right of refusal, right?

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"When I was growing up, Virginia Tech was a school that was kicking ass and taking names, and it's time we get back to that" - James Franklin

The 757 choice was obvious but I'm really intrigued to see where else we go. There's been a lot of offers to Louisiana kids this year and a ton of talent there that LSU doesn't bother with. Wouldn't surprise me to see a camp there

i'm thinking Charlotte would be a great place to get all the NC kids...maybe coordinate with UNC-Charlotte on their campus

I thought the ACC was limiting the camps to instate or a certain radius if out of state. My guess is that Charlotte and DC would be no-brainers. I hope that they change it because getting camps other places would be great.

"We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior" Stephen M.R. Covey

โ€œWhen life knocks you down plan to land on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up, if you fall flat on your face it can kill your spiritโ€ David Wilson

I saw that too but I'm hoping once the dust settles there will be no location restrictions

Yea but #goacc

"We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior" Stephen M.R. Covey

โ€œWhen life knocks you down plan to land on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up, if you fall flat on your face it can kill your spiritโ€ David Wilson

"It might not be the best thing personally for us to do as coaches, but it's the right thing to do for kids."

Finally, someone gets it! Great job, Coach Wilder. Almost makes me feel bad about the beatdowns Coach Fu and company will be laying upon you in the coming years. Almost.

โ€œYou got one guy going boom, one guy going whack, and one guy not getting in the endzone.โ€
โ€• John Madden (describing VT's offense?)

"That's how I made my money, by cutting out the middleman." - Bennie Hill (and Coach Fuente)

Pain is Temporary, Chicks Dig Scars
Glory is Forever, Let's Go Hokies!!

This could be very interesting and either works great or backfires, hopefully that 757 Coaching Clinic pays off now.

At the very least if the camps are held somewhat close to each other in terms of date it will make perfectly clear which players and schools are in which camp if they don't go to both.

Rumor has it that Bronco requested that a basketball hoop be present so that he can properly evaluate the players.

"We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior" Stephen M.R. Covey

โ€œWhen life knocks you down plan to land on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up, if you fall flat on your face it can kill your spiritโ€ David Wilson

Bronco also requested that the kids don't give him their names or wear numbers because it will be unnecessary at UVA. Also, he asked that family refrain from coming because he is no longer used to having a crowd watching

I like the idea of VT doing its own camp. Something about it being
under ODU didn't seem right. Look forward to seeing how it plays out.

Agreed. I guess Bobby Wilder and ODU think they run the 757 and everyone has to go through them to have a camp down there. Screw that. Let Bronco and Co. set up shop there, we will just go straight to the high schools and set up camp.

I don't see it as Wilder thinking everyone has to go through him. I think he's just got adequate facilities for the camp and wants to take advantage of getting a lot of recruits on campus, including some who might not otherwise bother visiting ODU. I'm sure that forging a relationship with some head coaches and ADs at bigger, better-funded programs who will almost certainly have vacancies to fill in the future has probably entered his mind as well.

โ€œYou got one guy going boom, one guy going whack, and one guy not getting in the endzone.โ€
โ€• John Madden (describing VT's offense?)

Wait why is this not the best thing to do as coaches? If those other schools are going to be at ODU, why wouldn't we want to be at the same place?

This whole thing is confusing to me.

My guess is that Fuente is sending a message, planting a flag of sorts. "Oh that's cool that you're running a camp, but VT won't be the school that just happens to show up. We're doing our own and it's going to be awesome." I can see pros and cons to both approaches, my guess is this is a bit of a calculated power play on our part. We're not going to be also-rans in the state; we're going to own it.

"Exit light..."

Pretty much. This way, even though we have to pay more for facilities and such, our camp will be 100% VT-focused. We won't be splitting anything with ODU or UVA or any other school that comes. It will be entirely a Virginia Tech camp. I like it.

Maybe I'm crazy, but I think, even if we are planning our own camp, showing up at the ODU event would be a good idea. There might be some kids there that either couldn't make the VT camp, or don't have us on their radar...YET. If our coaches are charismatic as we think they are, they might be able to make connections with some good players who are currently leaning elsewhere, and not really considering the good guys.

โ€œYou got one guy going boom, one guy going whack, and one guy not getting in the endzone.โ€
โ€• John Madden (describing VT's offense?)

Which ODU event did he invite Tech to? That's the issue I think.

Wet stuff on the red stuff.

Join us in the Key Players Club

I'm talking about the one mentioned this forum topic. Isn't that what we're discussing?

โ€œYou got one guy going boom, one guy going whack, and one guy not getting in the endzone.โ€
โ€• John Madden (describing VT's offense?)

There are three camps listed in the article.

ODU is scheduled to host camps with Michigan on June 5, Maryland on June12 and Penn State on June 16.

The invitation is left ambiguous, given the wording of the article:

ODU coach Bobby Wilder said he will call two ACC coaches โ€“ Virginia's Bronco Mendenhall and Virginia Tech's Justin Fuente โ€“ to invite their coaching staffs to ODU camps.

"Exit light..."

Or did he want a camp with: ODU, LOLUVA and the good guys? Or two camps one for VT and another one for LOLUVA.

Wet stuff on the red stuff.

Join us in the Key Players Club

Ahh. I did not pay enough attention, I see. I thought he was inviting all those schools to one big camp.

โ€œYou got one guy going boom, one guy going whack, and one guy not getting in the endzone.โ€
โ€• John Madden (describing VT's offense?)

The best part about all of this is that Whit, Fuente, and the rest of the gang already had a contingency plan ready to go no matter what happened with the NCAA ruling and the possible overruling.

I don't think it's much of a stretch to think that the old guard would have been much more reactionary, to the point of being caught standing with their thumbs up their hind ends.

It was apparently one of the reasons Fuente came here in the first place. If Whit wasn't going to let him do satellite camps if/when the ban was lifted, he wasn't going to coach here.

Right thing for ODU would have been for Wilder to realize he wasn't going to win recruiting battles against VT and UVA. That for him to get "referrals" from our coaches when they see a kid close to VT/UVA quality would be more valuable.

But he brings in schools that will steal our top recruits. We say FUVM every time we see ODU in state out of state basketball football wrestling u name it. We end up having to take kids that would have normally gone to ODU because we miss on kids that go to out of state poachers. Or worse yet, we get out kids OOS, and the in state kids don't get coverage and end up not getting offers because we're focused else where.

No idea if he is an idiot or a genius, but Wilder is a fail here. Best thing for ODU would have been a far less adversarial relationship. Hope we never schedule them in anything ever again. FU ODU.

VT is hosting a 7 vs 7 tournament in June.

Stop it with the Negative Waves!

Wow where did you see this? Would be awesome.

Wet stuff on the red stuff.

Join us in the Key Players Club

someone I know is going to attend.

Stop it with the Negative Waves!

We also have word of the first "Super Camp" to be formed.

TCU will be hosting a camp with Bama, USC, and Ohio State.

Michigan and UGA have also announced a joint camp.

Hopefully Fuente is calling up the old boss and seeing about us working with the good old Horned Frogs too.