Rivers took took his official visit to Penn State to decommit in person. Classy.
He admitted to rushing his original decision.
Foster and Fuente did a great job rebuilding the relationship from scratch after Rivers committed to PSU.
"Coach Foster's always been so honest with me. That's a big deal to me," the 6-foot-2, 230-pound linebacker said. "Coach Fuente was very genuine with my mother and actually made her tear up a little bit. So, you know, that kind of stuck with me a little bit. That was pretty special."
"I didn't have a relationship with Coach Franklin," Rivers said of the Penn State head coach. "We never talked or anything like that and Coach Fuente was hitting my phone up left and right, calling me. Just simple things like, 'send me a picture of you on a snowboard, snowboarding on the mountain' and stuff. Just things like that, trying to build not just a football relationship but a friendship. That stood out to me. I'm a family man so, you know, stuff like that just stood out to me a little bit more. Coach Franklin, he was good but he just didn't interact with me as well as Coach Fuente did."
Sherando LB Rivers cites relationship with coaches in late switch to Hokies
Comments
Very interesting. This is how you recruit in the modern era, and Fuente gets it.
Fuente is awesome.
I love this. They are preaching that this is home and family, and they are walking the walk.
Man, can you imagine how hard this must be? Not only to keep track of your current players, but then to go to this length for guys that might not even come to your program. Damn.
Respect.
but...but...no one from the last administration tries at recruiting at all /s
Why it's so important to have a great support staff. Which is why we need to grow the Hokie Club.
This takes a VERY special type of person with tons of energy and great character. Fuente and co. have both thankfully. We have an amazing staff guys, let's not take this for granted.
See, that's the difference between a VT coach texting HS boys asking for pictures and a PSU coach doing the same thing...
shit, son.
Damn, that was below the belt
Lol I thought it was hilarious
as did I, hence the poor attempt at a pun
PSU went there first... and continued to do so about 52 times over ~15 years
EDIT: Damn Beta beat me to it.
This is pure savagery.
Me likey. Leg up
Yeah you just had to hit that softball right, it was just hanging there... so you whacked it.
Wasn't that Sandusky's thought process too?
(Sorry... well... not really that sorry.)
Over 100 legs in less than 4 hours. This is special.
I just literally laughed out loud so hard I started coughing. Leg for you, sir.
This gif perfectly sums up the response I was hoping for.
I'm actually delighted you like it with all the other options.
I thought to myself, "Self, how can you appropriately express the initial horror of the statement, then also show that, even though you've argued for and owned a pro-PSU stance, that you find this also clever and hilarious?"
As I searched through googling 'shocked laughing' and 'horrified laugh', I had a brainstorm. I thought, "Well, I've been on the internet too much, I'm sure there's a gif out there of the sequence of emotions someone would go through when they see this comment," and BAM! I remembered this gif.
I googled 'guy smiling while two women are horrified' and the rest is history.
EDIT: Instead of plaid, that comment should go Blue and White
Goddamn, hokie07ME... Freaking savage
This right here is why we need a comment of the week/month/year
HOKIE07ME FROM THE TOP ROPE!
"HE BROKE HIM IN HALF!!!"
Can't help but laugh at the truth in hokie07me's post.
LOL. Better to speak the truth thaN fInd ThaT AN error or possiblY someone was LyIng abOut what he kNew.
As long as he is not have races climbing trees or having sleepovers with recruiticorns, but asking for pictures of him snowboarding sounds a bit creepy to me...
Nah, they probably had been talking about snowboarding - Fuente isn't just focusing on football. So I could see that come up: "What's your weekend like?" "Planning on going snowboarding" "Awesome, send me some pics"
If Foster does this, I bet he could snowboard, too...
Wake surfing and snowboarding are the best.
First chair with Foster and Fuente? How much do I have to pay for that coz I'm down
Always appreciate a chance to pull out the gif!
The salt is real in that comments section.
How about we play them in the playoffs next year and kick their ass with rivers getting either a pick-six or a scoop and score.
Just circle 9/12/20 on your calendar.
Way ahead of you on that one. My mother's family all went to Penn State so this one's bound to start a civil war my family.
I just submitted today my final signatures to finish my grad degree at PSU. Now, Laphroaig!
This man gets it. Prost!
I always find this level of vitriol really distasteful towards these young men (and this is probably one of the more level headed criticisms of Dylan). These teenagers should be given considerable deference in attempting to make such a big decision with so many pressures surrounding them. Regardless, people research and seek out "insider" info and make judgments on these recruits based on 3rd, 4th, 5th hand information.
For example a common slight the PSU fans have against Dylan is that he waited until so close to signing day to decommit wasting the time and effort of the recruiting staff preventing them from heavily pursuing another recruit. However, you have to assume that PSU was unaware of his interest in Tech or that he directly lied to PSU about the strength of his commitment (dubious on its face and directly contradicted by Rivers).
Celebrate the commits you get. Rue the one's you miss. But never judge recruits when you are so far removed from the decision.
This is 'Crootin we are talking about.
/s - I actually agree with you. Vitriol when a recruit is lost is strong from everyone.
I see that argument as valid only if a recruit flips on signing day.
It's not like PSU doesn't have student athletes who want to go there.
The LB they're referring to is Brooks, who is only in play for PSU because he decommitted from Duke and VT didn't want him.
What's the deal with Brooks? Seems like a 4* linebacker shouldn't be seriously considering offers he just got last week this late in the game.
It looks like he has an offer. He probably isn't a take because of Kearney's and Griffin's commitments. No more spots at that position. Not to mention even though Rivers is listed as an OLB he will more than likely end up at mike.
We never offered. Staff didn't see him fitting the scheme.
I meant in regards to his general recruitment. He doesn't seem to have a favorite and is taking an OV to a school he just got an offer from.
Not saying this is the case with this guy, but some kids like to draw the recruiting process out longer so they can get more free trips to places all around the country.
Yeah I would totally do that.
"lower level program"
.......Sorry Penn State, it would be very difficult for Virginia Tech to get lower than you.
you know whats fun? winning our bowl game and winning 10 games in a difficult conference
FTFY
and beating Pitt.
If you have a real beef with PSU folk, bring this up.
Ok, stop snowboarding now.
If this kid doesn't snowboard then this is weird.
Don't know how this is weird. If one of my Airmen went snowboarding I'd probably ask to see a pic too. It's beautiful on top of the mountain and people usually come up with some pretty cool pics when skiing/snowboarding.
you missed the joke...
The downstream reaction of the Rivers commitment was certainly a cascade of excitement!
Foster made his mother tear up a bit? Rear-naked-choke hold? What did that man do to her? We need answers!
Edit: this is what happens when you read TKP in meetings, misdirected jokes.
So, what did Fuente do to that poor woman?
Actually everyone should google how to escape one, just in case.......
I just watched this whole thing and I now have a renewed confidence in myself.
Leg for Kesting!
you must be a BJJ practitioner as well
Seconded.
Fuente not Foster
Idk, I assume he at least said hi to her.
Are you from Dubois, PA? Two of my best friends here in Charleston are from Dubois and are huge PSU fans. We're all going up this year to Happy Valley for the PSU Michigan game.
Why? Do they like seeing ass beatings?
there's a joepa/sandusky joke to be made here...
Not sure who you are asking but for anyone out there that doesn't know, yes, the name of that town is actually pronounced 'Do Boys'. Little over an hour from State College
Excellent article. It's cool to see how things happen in the process.
No wonder Torrian Gray didn't last long under Fuente.
YES! LEG!
I posted this in the Rivers commitment thread yesterday!
DRINK!
This is cool- but it's a funny looking pie
Cake FTW!!!
every time I see this I sincerely hope it's real
I want it to be real so badly
but I doubt that it is
It's from a "reality" show so something close to it happened and they "recreated" it to film.
A bit surprised by this as Franklin has commonly been thought of as a very strong and aggressive recruiter. This certainly makes it sound like he got an early commit and got pretty complacent.
The PSU fans can spew all the hatred they want, but they really have no one to blame here except for their coaching staff...they dropped the ball on this one.
Maybe we should take it easy on the PSU fans though, it does have to be frustrating knowing that for at least the next half-decade their best-case scenario is being the 3rd-best team in their Division...lol
They do know this. With Harbaugh and Meyer in the division, it's going to be an uphill battle.
But then again, this year DID happen.
Not according to the Selection Committee /s /s /s /s /s
Based on the semifinal game result, I'd say the Selection Committee screwed the pooch.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad this kids with the good guys, but PSU had a good football season and would have been a better game against Clemson.
A thousand times this! The only thing I truly hate about the structure of college FB is the beauty contest nature of polling and the playoff committee that always favors the blue-blood programs for a variety of reasons, but mainly $$$.
Edit: meant as a reply to smittyvt