BREAKING NEWS ACC Coach of Year @CoachFuente extends contract w @virginia_tech through 2023 season. More to follow ... #Hokies pic.twitter.com/VhmMKa96sF— VT Football (@VT_Football) April 3, 2017
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Not a huge pay increase, but will be making 4m a year by 2023 (the final year of this new contract).
That can be renegotiated after we win the NC.
I hope he's still here by 2023. that would be awesome. i'm not holding my breath, though
If we can increase our booster giving, and give the guy top quality recruiting resources he might be convinced to stick around. If we don't do that, he may eventually leave for an Oklahoma, etc. when/if they come calling.
I'm doing my part
Wonder if Oklahoma will ever get rid of Big Game Bob. Seems like he always does well enough to stave off getting fired but not well enough to even have a shot at the playoff.
They were in the playoffs two seasons ago
Fuente doesn't strike me as the kind of coach who's interested in a blue-blood program winning him over with cash. He seems like a family man, and seems to really value the small college town feel of Blacksburg. I'm pretty sure his playing career with Oklahoma didn't exactly end on good terms, so I'm not sure if he would be terribly interested in that job for any reason other than he grew up in Oklahoma. I just have a feeling Fuente and his staff view VT as a top 20 program and feel like they can accomplish everything they ever wanted to professionally right here.
Every coach has the perfect job at the perfect price they will leave for. You offer Nick Saban 25 million a year to coach a few years ago (he is getting older) he would have left Bama.
I wonder how many fans at Memphis were saying the same thing before he announced the move to the good guys?
Huge difference between Memphis and VT. Money certainly wasn't the only reason he took this job.
ACC/Power 5 vs American Conference is a no brainer. Just ask VCU.
I think an awful lot of people outside of this fanbase would say VT vs. a real blue blood is a no-brainer too.
Let me tell ya, I just love these threads where you can never have a discussion about a good hire or a contract extension without people trying to piss all over it.
I'm not trying to be, but just saying. It seems pretty hypocritical to me for us to sit here and shit on Memphis and say Tech was such and "obvious upgrade" for him and then turn around and act like Tech to Oklahoma or Texas or somebody wouldn't be a similar upgrade.
ehh...I don't completely agree with you
sure VT isn't a blue blood program like a Texas or a Michigan or Alabama but the actual difference between VT and Alabama, say, is not as great as the difference between Memphis and VT. I'll put it this way. IF VT wins their conference they are almost guaranteed a shot at the playoff, providing they win 10+ games on the way to an ACC championship. But Memphis could go undefeated and still get left out depending on how other teams around the country do.
So VT is actually in a really favorable position just by virtue of being in the ACC (a power 5 conf.). Memphis doesn't have that. Alabama and Michigan and Texas all have the same deal. The real difference between the blue bloods and VT are resources. But they're at least on the same field in terms of opportunity. Win all your games at VT and you're in position to play for a championship. The same can't necessarily be said for Memphis.
If Fuente aspires to one day win a National Title (and what self-respecting Coach worth his salt doesn't?) he put himself in position to do that by taking the job at VT. He, and everyone else, knew that would not happen for him at Memphis. Now he has a clear path to do that. Other than having more resources, what other incentives does he have to leave for a blue blood? There is more to a job than the money, too. Blue bloods inherently come with more pressure, a shorter leash, higher expectations, etc. Blacksburg has a lot to offer and the stakes aren't quite as high but the end goal is still achievable. VT certainly isn't Bama, but we sure as hell ain't no Memphis either.
Yes that's the point. Each program is a clear step up from the other.
That's not the point at all. The point is that you can accomplish your goals at VT, even if it is a more difficult process, there is a clear path to do it. Once you pass that threshold the impetus to keep climbing is lowered significantly. A blue blood would still be a clear step up but not nearly as big of one.
You can't say that 10+ wins and a P5 conference championship are enough to get into the Playoff, just this year PSU won the B1G with 11 wins and was left out. Sure, I could see a scenario where a 10-3 team got in, but it would take a season even weirder than 2007 for it to play out.
So...all you're saying is that Memphis and VT are not on the same level. I would actually argue that Bama is as far ahead of us as we are ahead of Memphis.
To take your point a little further. At Memphis, even an undefeated season doesn't guarantee a playoff spot. Well there's the opposite to consider as well. At Alabama, even a three loss regular season doesn't necessarily disqualify you from the playoff. You could hardly say the same for Tech. Had we beaten Clemson in the ACCCG, I think we still would have been passed over for the CFP because a conference championship is not a free pass to the playoffs (See: State, Penn).
TL;DR - coaching at Tech lets you play your way into the conversation. Coaching at a blue blood lets you start in the conversation by default and you have to play your way out of it. Where would you rather coach?
Play your way out of...
I'm sorry, but that doesn't make sense. Every team has to play their way out of it in the end. Some teams play their way out immediately by losing to Richmond, and some wait until the end of the year by losing in the title game, but eventually everyone outside of the eventual champ does so. The difference between the blue blood and everyone else is resources. At a blue blood you are not constrained by budgets, and it makes things like recruiting a hell of a lot easier than anywhere else. But that doesn't mean you're in the title discussion by default, otherwise you'd never see a team like Clemson ever contend.
But here's the thing. We're quickly realizing from an administrative perspective that we have the potential to act like a blue blood. Right now, yes the budget does get in the way sometimes, but we're making the necessary moves to eliminate those kinds of constraints within 10 years. You're already seeing this change in basketball where we're spending over $100k per player in our recruiting budget, and that's for a football school. Expect to see the recruiting budget for football to grow in a similar fashion in the coming years, and when that happens, the gap will further shrink.
tl;dr... Yes, there's a gap, but it isn't a chasm. Yes, Bama gets whoever they want, but they still field vulnerable teams, and all we have to do as a program is win the games we're supposed to win and things will take care of itself, and we're positioning ourselves to take a step forward to claim dominance over at least the Coastal.
What I mean is that blue bloods get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to preseason rankings and how much they are punished for losses. Twice last season we were ranked in the top 18 and then lost and we completely fell out of the rankings. A blue blood starts ranked top 15 by default and everyone makes excuses for their losses to keep them ranked until they really start to pile up.
We play our way into the rankings, they play their way out. How is that hard to understand?
It's not hard to understand, you're just starting a totally different argument that doesn't relate to his. VT has a path to the national championship, Memphis doesn't. That's the bar. Once you clear that bar the separation between teams is real, but not nearly as big.
Bama would be a huge step up in most ways, but that gulf is not as big as the difference between a team that has a path to the title and one that doesn't.
As I mentioned in another post, we used to be a more respected program than we are now, with higher preseason rankings and we didn't fall out after a couple of losses. So the idea that we always have had to scratch and claw our way into the rankings and will fall out if we lose is only because the program became such a shit show in the past 5 years. It will take a while to earn that respect back, but I think we can get there under Fuente.
All you have to do is win consistently.
If you lose to the likes of East Carolina, you quickly fall from grace, and have to earn your way back in.
all three of you seem to have missed the point of my last paragraph.
Fuente recognized that he wouldn't have a shot at a title with Memphis. He can get that at VT. Other bigger programs might not be able to offer everything Fuente looks for in a job. They might start in the conversation as opposed to a chance to get into the conversation but that comes with a lot of added pressure and higher expectations. More interviews, more scrutiny, potentially less control over the structure of spring ball (which we know is very important to Fuente) in that he probably wouldn't have the choice to lock the spring game out of television slots.
Is VT a step up from Memphis? Yes. Is Alabama a step up from VT? Yes. But it just isn't the same thing. VT and Alabama have something in common that Memphis lacks. A clear path to the playoff. If VT goes undefeated, or 11-1 and wins the ACC I would be SHOCKED if they were left out of the playoff.
11-1 at VT: fanbase is ecstatic
11-1 at Bama: DAMMIT PAWWWWWWWL THIS FUENTE GUY CAN'T COACH FOR SHIT
To further this point, Alabama's worst season since Saban got The Tide rolling in 2008, was 2010. Take a look at this schedule, conference standings, and the wins and losses they had. In this "down" year Alabama went 10-3, finished in the top 10, all three of their losses were to ranked teams, two of their three losses were to top 10 teams, one was to eventual champion Auburn. Additionally, they finished the season by beating No. 7 Michigan State by 41.
If we had that season, we would probably talk about it as a HUGE success. In Bama terms, it was their worst season in the last 9 years.
In the 2013 season, Alabama lost to Auburn to knock them out of the National Championship, and then lost to OU in the Sugar Bowl, so the next year they had posters made for their locker room.
Because they lost two games that year, which was quite unacceptable.
Honestly though, and I know this sounds ridiculous, but that 2013 Alabama team was probably their best most well-rounded offense ever. It's a shame that was something of a (relative in Bama terms) down year on defense for them. 2012 and 2013 with a veteran AJ McCarron that offense was scary as hell because he could make all the throws when the running game wasn't working. You throw AJ onto this past years team and Clemson is down 30 before they even have a shot in hell at coming back.
There was a time when VT was regularly preseason top 10-15. Contrary to what some want to believe, we used to be considered amongst the top programs in the country. And we always had those frustrating losses down the stretch and couldn't live up to our preseason billing. Have we fallen back? Absolutely, but I think we can get back to that level under Fuente. We did used to be very much so more respected than we are now. Alabama has inordinate resources over us, but it wasn't until a coach the caliber of Saban took that program back to its glory days and beyond. They were not in the national conversation for a while before he arrived.
I think Fuente can get VT back to the level where we are respected as a threat to win the ACC and be a national contender most years. When we start getting preseason rankings back in that top 10-15 range, we can contend for the national title again.
I agree with you, and it is easy to forget indeed. In terms of winning a success, most "Best teams of each decade list" has us around 7 for the 2000-2010 decade. We used to have much more acclaim, and we regularly started seasons with legitimate title hope aspirations.
VT was there, but never quite got to that next level of being able to start AND finish the year in the top 10-15. They'd always lose some game they weren't supposed to lose, and those recruiting classes never quite got as high as we'd have liked to see them.
I'd like to see Fuente get VT back to the 10-15 rankings, while winning those games they're supposed to win.
'09 Memphis Alum here (stayed in town until 2011)... And honestly, plenty of UofM fans would have said he'd never leave. But you'd have to actually find a UofM football fan to ask first...
To give you some perspective on the Memphis fan base....They perceive their BBall job as a top 5 job in the country. From a football standpoint, UM is probably 3rd or 4th in the fan pecking order WAY, WAY behind UT, then, Ole Miss and then Miss. St., along with the occasional handful of Razorbacks. Hardcore UM fans will think their FB job is a destination, but to the rest of the country, let's be honest, that's laughable.
It was funny to see the town painted Tiger Blue during basketball season, and mostly UT orange during FB season.
I even had a kid in one of my classes call UM DBU. My roommate and I both erupted with laughter and they had no idea why.
I absolutely loved my time there, but the fan base is delusional. Passionate, but delusional.
Appreciate the insight. As you know we've got plenty of homers here too!
I hate to break it to you have ever been to Norman, OK? That place is also the definition of small town college feel.
I was there a few years ago to visit my wife's grandparents and we went to the OU-Kansas St game. K State won, but either way the next day it was like they rolled the sidewalks up in town, the place was dead at 1PM on a Sunday afternoon in gorgeous weather.
I don't see Oklahoma being a 'destination' job for Fuente. Sure, that's his home state, but the way his playing days in Norman ended probably soured him on the program. I'd be more worried about Okie Lite. As long as T. Boone Pickens is still alive and pouring in truckloads of cash, they could be a threat to steal him away from us. Thankfully, Gundy is doing well there, and appears to be in it for the long haul.
Has Fuente ever said anything about Oklahoma being home? I know he grew up there, but i've never heard him talk about it and for all we know his family may have left as well. It's not always a given that someone wants to go back to where they were born. I would think that if he leaves against our will it's for a bonafide blue blood and only after years of huge success in blacksburg.
I see notre dame as a destination for
FUThe FU.I have more faith in Fuente being here in 2023 than I do in Buzz being here in 2020.
There it is. Can't go more than 20 comments in a thread about Buzz, Fuente, or Bud without someone going all crazy girlfriend on us...
In the current climate I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that our coach may be different in 5 years.
Also, part of what I love about the crazy girlfriend meme is that the actual girl totally embraces it. I think it's awesome.
She created the "Overly Attached Girlfriend" character herself for her entry into a contest to promote Justin Bieber's Girlfriend perfume, so I don't think it's too unexpected that she would embrace it.
TIL...
Trying to start a tangent here. "She has nice teeth"
If we get some more Hokie Club members then we can afford to pay these guys like a top tier program
I typically don't like the extensions being given out after 1 year into a contract because they typically end up as disasters. However, I'll allow it.
I'd be so happy if her turns into Beamer 2.0 and I'm in my 50's before he retires.
Said this on the other topic but I'll bring it over here to the popular one:
Currently the Hokie Club sits at 11,402 members, as of March 29th so hopefully there was a bump just before deadline, but it's a long way to 25,000. Just hope Whit and VT can maintain this high level of coaching we are seeing across the board.
We need to get the non-football watching engineer demographic. You figure that conundrum out, you will get to 25k.
That's one of the problems, when your biggest educational draw is high level engineering. I don't mean that in a bad way, but it's true.
If we stopped playing ECU I would bump it up to 11403.
STAAAAHP!
It is true, we have a large untapped portion of our alumni base out there. I also think a lot of non-alumni VT fans could help contribute too. I know a bunch of diehard VT sports fans who didn't go to school there but do not donate to the Hokie Club. I think the biggest fundraising obstacle we have to overcome is incentivizing membership beyond just a means of getting season tickets/a parking pass. Too many casual fans out there will say, "Why do all that when I can just buy tickets on stubhub when I want to go to a game, or buy a parking pass from someone when I want to tailgate."
We could give them cool bottle opener keys in the shape of Virginia for $80 bucks a pop...
Along those lines, I think at football games we should advertise the heck out of the Hokie Club, but gear it towards your casual fans. The Hokie Club ads I see during the games are geared towards current Hokie Club members, like reaffirming why it's important to join/what your money goes towards. That's preaching to the choir. Instead of our broad, big picture goals like funding scholarships, etc., have some saying "Memberships start at $100, join today and get your exclusive Hokie Club 2017 season car magnet/tailgating cup/gameday shirt. Don't miss out, be a part of the club and support VT athletics." Something along those lines.
Sell beer in Lane Stadium, but only sell to Hokie Club members.
You give us problems, but APFOW gives us solutions.
Cuz only the Hokie Club Members would probably be willing to pay $15 for a budlite?
Bud lite, phhft. If I want to drink water, then I would buy water.
...for $15!
bud light is like sex in a canoe...its fucking close to water
Heart just about stopped beating seeing the words Fuente and Contract in the same sentence before recognizing the whole thing.
This scared the shit out of me
Usually I'm not a fan of extending contracts after one year, but I truly think we found a gem so I'm happy about this one.
I feel like Fuente is here for the long haul, but at the same time I wouldn't be at all surprised if he got snatched up by a blue blood. If he is getting courted heavily by the blue bloods it probably means he is doing something right in a big way. I've already mentally prepared myself for the fact that the cost of a trip to the CFP, might be Fuente leaving.
I would take a National Championship win if it meant we lose Fuente.
Definitely. Of course i'd be down for him staying for as long as he wants if he did win one.
We could facilitate the supply... as in tomorrow!
Edit: meant to post under 757Hokie83 above.... I guess I should have another!
Le Sabre providing some comical comments on the thread about it.
http://chat.virginia.sportswar.com/mid/8718032/board/football/
My favorite...
"Fuente has been propped up by amazing QBs the last few seasons... time will tell if he's just a flash in the pan."
shh they don't actually follow football close enough to know that this guy is known for recruiting these amazing QBs
They're so used to getting beat they don't even know who's doing it.
He has a point. I mean, if he was a real QB genius he would split time between three QBs per game /s
Let's not forget that UVA is "harder together".
I'm just waiting for them to announce their spring festival includes an emotional feel-good session on how to succeed at football and school called TouchingTips
Holy fuck I always forget how eye bleedingly awful it is to try to read the threads on that dumpster fire.
Thanks Joe. For a place to chat Tech without wanting to murder myself.
Also, lol at them for referring to 'BM' without a hint of humor.
Also also, lol at them for basically having given up on ever beating Tech.