CBS Power Five Coach Rankings

Any of you guys seen this....of particular note:

coming in at the #34 spot:

Justin Fuente : Fuente had a Fleck-like ranking in his first season last year, and he climbs four more spots this season after a 10-4 debut and a division title with the Hokies. If he could accomplish that in his first year, what might happen in his second?

and

ranking two spots ahead at #32

Bronco Mendenhall : Bronco was on the precipice of our top 25 last season, but after a rough start to his Virginia tenure, he tumbles a bit in the rankings. Last year's 2-10 mark was Mendenhall's first losing season as a head coach. Will 2017 be his second?

list

DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.

Comments

Just... just let it go. I've been going off the handle over on the CFB reddit and there is no answer. All you can do is shake your head at it.

Outspoken team cake advocate. Hates terrapins. Resident Macho Man Gif Poster. Distant cousin to Dork Magic. Frequently misspells words.

In other words, I wouldn't have published this article.

"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

uva sucks

If you play it, they will win.

"How the ass pocket will be used, I do not know. Alls I know is, the ass pocket will be used." -The BoD

Scoreboard.

The Orange and Maroon you see, that's fighting on to victory.

Is this bulletin board motivation for them to keep sucking?

I can imagine no more rewarding a career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction:
“I served in the United States Navy"

Just a bunch of beauty pageant baloney. Nothing to see here. Off-season fluff.

VTCC '86 Delta Co., Peru Hokie, Former Naval Aviator, Former FBISA, Forever married to my VT87 girl. Go VT!

LOLUVA better hurry up and lock in a long term contract before some school with a lower ranked coach snatches him up. Bronco is probably ready to take a lot less money anywhere else right now, despite what appears to be a great fit for him in hooville.

Sometimes we live no particular way but our own

I'm sort of OK with it. I think it's nonsense, but I'd prefer that he go underrated for a while.

Give it a little time.

---------------------------

OK, having read the notes, now, I realize that it's complete nonsense. Still, I'd rather Fuente fly under the radar for a while.


In all seriousness, that's just funny.

"...When we step on that field, they bleed like we bleed and we're gonna show the world."
-Corey Marshall

We treated it just like we would a top 25 poll with five voters turning in separate ballots including all 65 coaches (the 64 in Power Five conferences plus Brian Kelly of Notre Dame). Those votes were compiled into one final poll.

Once the question was posed to our five voters, the new question became, "What makes one coach better than the other?" Well, there were no set guidelines for any of us to follow. Whether you wanted to rank coaches based on what they've accomplished already, what you think they could accomplish, or by height, it was your call.

Each of our five voters (Dennis Dodd, Ben Kercheval, Chip Patterson, Barton Simmons and me, Tom Fornelli) were free to rank them based on whatever criteria he felt to be most important.

Sounds really scientific. /s

So, Bronco must be taller than Coach Fuente. That is the only thing that makes sense here.

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

Looks pretty even.

Outspoken team cake advocate. Hates terrapins. Resident Macho Man Gif Poster. Distant cousin to Dork Magic. Frequently misspells words.

Fuente didn't button his dress shirt/golf shirt all the way to the top button without wearing a tie.

He is clearly the winner of this round.

He's also not wearing a polo and a blazer at the same time. In retrospect, we should have seen BM to UVA all along. The signs were there.

Outspoken team cake advocate. Hates terrapins. Resident Macho Man Gif Poster. Distant cousin to Dork Magic. Frequently misspells words.

Sometimes I wish I could be in the meetings before articles like this are published. Like how the hell do you try to justify that with a straight face?

"The Big Ten is always using excuses to cancel games with us. First Wisconsin. Then Wisconsin. After that, Wisconsin. The subsequent cancellation with Wisconsin comes to mind too. Now Penn State. What's next? Wisconsin?" -HorseOnATreadmill

Meetings before articles are published? Are you sure these are a thing anymore? Way too many stupid and ridiculous articles for there to have been a meeting and have people agree to publish.

Plan for the worst and hope for the best, not the other way around.

Ugh you're right. And I'm sure Hokie Nation has already given them the uptick in clicks they were hoping for...

"The Big Ten is always using excuses to cancel games with us. First Wisconsin. Then Wisconsin. After that, Wisconsin. The subsequent cancellation with Wisconsin comes to mind too. Now Penn State. What's next? Wisconsin?" -HorseOnATreadmill

Exactly. Part of the calculus there is getting you to click on the article.

I don't see any problem with the coaches ranking either at their respective places.

But the relative ranking between the two is absurd.

Can someone find a gif of a horse taking a dump?!!

Even when you get skunked; fishing never lets you down. 🎣

Outspoken team cake advocate. Hates terrapins. Resident Macho Man Gif Poster. Distant cousin to Dork Magic. Frequently misspells words.

I thought Bronco believed in earning numbers. Not sure how this happened, then.

"Exit light..."

To be fair, he didn't do the ranking.

One of the "voters" on twitter when I pushed him on it said part of it was Bronco had great seasons at BYU. To be fair he did vote Fuente ahead of Bronco on his own ballot.

Wet stuff on the red stuff.

Join us in the Key Players Club

The last "great" season Bronco had at BYU was in 2009... and during that season, they got destroyed at home by a terrible FSU team.

No, I *don't* want to go to the SEC. Why do you ask?

We don't love dem Hoos.

Bruh

Real unscientific poll so it's not going to work me up. I get respecting what Bronco did at BYU but Fuente has done a lot between Memphis and VT. Guess it depends on the voter's preference.

2026 Season Challenge: TBD
Previous Challenges: Star Wars (2019), Marvel (2020), Batman (2021), Wrasslin' (2022)

(I can do these Monty Python gifs all day)

"That move was slicker than a peeled onion in a bowl of snot." -Mike Burnop

"That move was slicker than a peeled onion in a bowl of snot." -Mike Burnop

Their ranking accuracy, visually represented:

Sounds about right. I'd love to talk football with this guy sometime.

the numbers don’t lie and they spell disaster

They have to be looking at career record and giving BM a lot of credit for his past accomplishments.

Plan for the worst and hope for the best, not the other way around.

I wonder when some of the talking heads are going to start to realize that a lot of Mendenhall's success was related to the fact that his players at BYU were 22+ years old as opposed to 18+.

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

that and in crappy conferences. Put his 22 year old freshmen in a P5 conference and I guarantee that success evaporates. I know they did well in bowls against better competition, but I don't see him consistently putting up regular season win numbers in a real conference (or even the ACC during that time period).

Warning: this post occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)..

We have a winner. Older, more physically mature players routinely going against marginal competition will add up to a good amount of wins. UVA probably hired him because of his sustained success with lesser athletes, but then failed to see the massive caveat that came along with those wins. He will not have the same advantages at UVA that he had at BYU.

BYU players vs Mountain West teams:

Warning: this post occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)..

I know they did well in bowls against better competition

I don't see where they even managed that. They were 7-5 in bowl games under BM (6 Las Vegas Bowl appearances, only 5 hours from BYU). Beat only one ranked team in any of those bowl games, Oregon State in '09.

Someone remind me why he was such a good hire?

He was a good hire for us because it will ensure LOLUVA suckitude for the foreseeable future.

Oh wait, that wasn't the question.

My assumption is that they based this on body of work and they are looking at his success at BYU. Fuente is obviously better in the "what have you done for me lately?" category, but Bronco has a larger body of work and BYU is probably held above Memphis. That said, it's only a matter of time before Fuente's success at Tech and Bronco's failures in Charlottesville reverse this order.

Free Hugh

Last year's 2-10 mark was Mendenhall's first losing season as a head coach. Will 2017 be his second?

I told him I’d crawl on my hands and knees to be the DL coach at Virginia Tech. Now, all of a sudden, I’m sitting in this chair and I told him I’d still crawl on my hands and knees to work here. I just want to be here.
JC Price