Sources: Alabama is expected to hire Virginia Tech wide receivers coach Holmon Wiggins for the same position. Wiggins also had been in the mix for a coordinator role at Temple. I'm hearing Virginia Tech could target Jafar Williams, most recently... https://t.co/AgjLSaFRQO— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) January 23, 2019
https://www.nj.com/rutgersfootball/index.ssf/2018/02/former_rutgers_assi...
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Comments
power move. congrats wiggins. Go Hokies!
I would love to see someone with Charlotte recruiting roots - Joe Cox or Gary Downs.
Dude has an impressive resume
Concur. Phenomenal cosmic powers. The universe is his to command. To control.
Itty-bitty living space.
Emphasis mine: worked with Cornelson
With Williams out of work right now this is probably already a done deal.
(Psst: Who do you think Wiggins worked with in 2006 and '07 at Illinois State?)
Yeesh
Shit, this was final jeopardy last night...
Former Rutgers and Maryland assistant as top target? Best recruit he landed was a 4* receiver at Rutgers, which, I mean, it is Rutgers, so that's actually not awful I guess.
NJ has turned out some top talent recently if he has connections there it might work.
This is much more concerning to me about Fuente than the player transfers. Prime opportunity for a big hire
Name one
When this staff has a coaching vacancy, do they literally just open the contacts on their phones and call up friends/former coworkers? Looks like another within the circle comfort hire.
Um, that's what 99% of all coaches do
Man when people want to vent they sure do jump to the downvotes fast. I mean it's not like what you said isn't true.
Wasn't me.
Yeah I'm sure that does happen a lot, but if you're a pretty successful coach who has worked with a lot of successful people over the years, I get it. When you're still up and coming and hire people from a nucleus you worked with at an FCS school 12 years ago who really haven't had any considerable P5 success and, to boot, are easy to get/affordable because they aren't currently coaching, it's fair to say it's somewhat questionable. Especially considering the underwhelming track record with hires so far.
Underwhelming my ass
Lemme give an example...
When I was looking for a particular skillset to come work with me I tapped only the people I knew and worked with DIRECTLY first. I knew their talents, how they could help, they knew me and we already saw eye to eye. Why go through the entire hustle for someone I don't know, trust nor I believe will 100% fill my area of need?
Everyone says, "oh another safe hire" but never provides another answer with a modicum of reasoning nor do we have the money to go poaching big time coaches
Known quantity. Why take a chance when you know what you can get? It can take a year or more before you know if a key hire is gonna pan out. When smart money is on the line you go with what you know.
Congratulations Mr. Wiggins. I'm sure his time in
BirminghamTuscaloosa will be educational.No idea what to expect if Mr. Williams takes over for running backs. Per the article he has recruiting ties in Philly and South Jersey so maybe we'll start poaching kids from PSU's backyard again.
*Tuscaloosa
He is looking at a 200,000 plus raise. Plus the last WR coach is now the OC at Michigan.
So glad we can use our recently announced budget surplus to get a currently unemployed coach who has recruited all of ONE four star recruit in his entire career. Some dude named Bo Melton, who has put up 328 yards and not a single touchdown in two years at Rutgers.
The only plus I see to bringing Williams in is his Pennsylvania connections. Otherwise this just seems like another Fu/Corn inner circle hire that probably won't turn into much. Why not try for another hire as opposed to the easy route?
You're right. Their other connection didn't just get hired away by the best coach in the history of the sport...probably a bad pool of coaching talent.
Wiggins is a good coach, Williams is currently jobless. If Williams is so good, why did Bama not hire him?
for fuck sake people... by this logic literally EVERY other coach in the country is not worthy because Bama didn't hire them instead.
Just because he wasn't hired by Bama doesn't make him a bad coach, or not a good coach.
Agreed it is poor logic, late at night probably isn't the best time for me to be posting lol.
However, I think the question about him being jobless stands. Is that really the best we can do?
That's how we got Nix, and he's just been fantastic.
He's jobless because the place he was working at got a new HC and changed staff. Fuente did the same when he arrived, as does every single HC in every single new position they take. I really have no idea if he is a good coach but him being jobless is not the indicator you're thinking it is.
I hope sincerely he is RB coach though and Zohn moves back to WR.
Fair point. I guess I'd rather see us shoot for someone besides a former Maryland/Rutgers coach, but granted I have no clue who. Someone below mentioned the WVU coach, but seemingly he's going to get a boatload of money to follow Dana.
right! I don't get this whole "hes unemployed complaint" hell nick saban was unemployed when bama hired him if I don't recall.
(Saban left the Miami Dolphins HC position to take the Bama HC position.)
And to think just a few weeks ago, Wiggins was out of place as our WR coach and should have switched with Burden to coach RBs. Suddenly he's hired by Bama and he was a good WR coach and anyone we hire isn't good enough because Bama didn't want them.
Ha! Great point.
Jokes on Bama. The fans know the real truth. #woke.
But seriously, I think its been a little lost in all of this that Wiggins to Bama is a feather in Fuente's cap too.
So in two years when we need a new OC we can tap into the Bama pipeline? It has worked pretty well for Georgia.
There were two different reasons this was suggested. And I think most suggestions were in response to what to do with the staff without attrition. I suggested it because I thought Burden wasn't getting it done with the RBs and Wiggins not only played RB but also coached RB. I'm sure I'm not the only one that suggested this, not because we thought Wiggins was a poor coach, but rather because we though he could make a difference at a position of need.
This just might be the dumbest post I've ever read lol
Then you haven't been on TKP very long my friend.
Jim Weaver would Be Proud.. I know Jim would Love this Hire..
I don't want anyone who had connections too Cornelson
So Wiggins shouldn't have been brought on?
I would worry less about connections and more about recruiting prowess.
The only good assistant he brought in was wiggins
Shibest has done pretty good had one of best special team units first two years.
Vice is as good as Wiggins. Better recruiter. He's recruited well the last two seasons.
And for roughly the first year, Vice was considered the liability. Not very good lines at Memphis, wasn't lighting the world on fire recruiting at first, Teller seemed to regress....
I have no clue about Williams, but Vice is a perfect example of why you can't judge someone just because they don't have a long resume at the highest levels.
What if he's just a little Cornelson? Does any amount of Cornelson disqualify a coach?
And when did Cornelson become and adjective?
He's always been a adjective man
"corny"
Well that's underwhelming.
To be fair, there's not a lot of talent going to Rutgers regardless of who the coach is.
Shouldn't have called him Homer.
Lmao. The thought did cross my mind.
I am 800% sure...something is going to happen!
Does anyone know how much Houston is paying Tyron Carrier (followed Dana from WVU)? I can't seem to find that info. What I do know is that every receiver who played for the Mountaineers in the last couple years was a stud. David Sills went from being a quarterback to one of the best receivers in college football. Carrier is 31, probably wanting to be a coordinator soon, knows Bryan Mitchell, recruited well at WVU, and VT is more prominent than Houston. I'm sure it won't happen or even cross the minds of Fuente (and Whit?), but THAT would be a home run hire, one that that surplus could certainly go towards.
All correct, but Sills wanted to play QB, they wanted him at WR, he left, and came back from JUCO I believe, and then played WR. Just adding the backdrop.
Also Dana's offer was contingent on getting his assists paid very well at Houston per Godfrey who broke the story of the move (per PAPN). So imagine it's relatively good money, but don't how much.
Not to mention should know the HS coaches in the area
I am pretty sure Houston has deeper pockets than we do.
Williams is the most underwhelming type of hire, which would make him par for the course when it comes to Fuente.
Recruiting prowess? Nope. 247 credits him as the primary recruiter for a single 4-star in his coaching career.
Player development? Not so fast. I can't find a RB drafted during his time at Purdue or a WR drafted during his time at Rutgers or Maryland. He missed out on Caroo at Rutgers (16) and Moore at Maryland (18).
But I mean, why meet or exceed expectations when you can continue to put together a hell of a Conference USA staff?
If you or any of the rest of you think you can do a better job, why don't you go tell Whit to fire Fuente and his staff and hire you as coach instead?
Oh, wait, you can't otherwise you'd be coaching somewhere.
This is a stupid ass comment.
What's an ass comment?
pantat bagus
for those Indonesian speakers out there, you know what I'm talking about.
Saya berolahraga.
Ass comments are comments posted by a few folks here in post game vent threads.
And their brothers who have their logins.
RIP SaladHokie09
That's another bingo space marked off.
Getting quite a few the last 15 hours.
I agree he's underwhelming. Our biggest staff need is recruiting, and we have an opportunity to address it. If we hire Jafar, and fail to address this, I will be disappointed.
So we are going to give him zero credit for coaching Anthony McFarland?
Apparently he also coached Dri Archer, he wasnt too bad himself...
Do we know where we are in this? Is it a done deal? Or was this just a name thrown out?
I know nothing about Williams and he very well could be a step back overall, but so far he's already doing better than Wiggins before he came to VT in terms of recruiting.
Prior to VT, Wiggins was the primary recruiter for three 2* and one 3* player, with an average ranking of 0.7913. Williams has been the primary for twelve 3*, with an average of 0.8363.
It's far easier to recruit higher-star players to a P5 conference than to a G5 conference, solely for the prospect of playing against bigger-named schools and getting more recognition that way.
Fair enough.
In my defense, though, I was honestly thinking that Rutgers was G5 and forgot they are in the B1G. Looks like all of his primary recruits were to either Rutgers or Purdue.
Even Rutgers has forgotten that they're P5, so you're good.
It's fine y'all, we will still have Homer Wiggans on the staff.
forgot about that and honestly didn't think that was going to get more awkward
I had been delaying buying my ticket, and now I'm glad I did.. and wondering who will be presenting at this event.
https://247sports.com/Coach/Des-Kitchings-319/
This would be a big boy hire
It would be a great hire. But he doesn't have a card in the Fuente rolodex, and is currently employed, so cya never.
Im confused, Im under the impression based off every comment you, tjbHokie, dcvt ever write - you all are fans of Fuente and his staff, am I miss interpreting your prior comments?
G5 assistants
Lech
Mitchell
Nix
also showed Torrian the door, and ended up paying Mitchell what Torrian WAS making prior to paycut, essentially swapping them out.
Sorry if past coaching hires/decisions don't instill a boatload of confidence.
He also focuses a lot on recruiting... which isn't something that's typically part of our standard coaching profile
Nope. It's all about comfort and the system. And then just hope it all works out and everyone turns into great recruiters after several years. Which ignores that fact that most coaches typically have recruiting ability or they just don't. Skills that can be gained over time to a certain degree, but some are naturally better than others and have the right personality for the job. While we are learning on the job, others are beating us in the here and now.
And considering the staffs that UNC and GT have put together, with an emphasis primarily on recruiting, things are only going to get more difficult over the coming years.
DUKE just hired Trooper Taylor.
And this is the problem. We can't continue to ignore the vital importance of recruiting when the arms race is quickly migrating to building out recruiting staffs and putting wow factors all over campus. Now, our new residence hall will help, and the facelift of Merryman was nice as well, but we need a dedicated recruiting staff with proven experience on the trails, or we will fall behind. Our peers are getting better and adapting in this race, and by doing nothing, we will fall behind.
I know, I know... money. But Whit might have to make some hard decisions soon about some priorities. If football is supposed to be our revenue driver, we can't afford for it to fall off, and as such, we might need to re prioritize some funds into a legitimate football recruiting staff and budget.
I think Mack Brown, ironically enough, made an interesting analogy several years ago at Texas that I feel is pretty applicable here. He said that making that program successful was like a box of BBs - a good coach had to be able to gather them all and put them together in the box for things to work. This was the administration, the boosters and fan base, alumni, media, good relations with the high school coaches, etc. I feel those BBs are scattered all over with VT right now. Media has been walled off, fans are becoming increasingly apathetic, stories of bad relations with football alumni, and lack of a dynamic recruiting staff to build those relationships in the high schools and establish pipelines. Now, our regional competitors are gearing up, and are slowly chipping away at the top recruits. It's not any one school, but the cumulative effect of missing more top recruiting battles than we win.
There are only so many top recruits to go around, and the competition is getting greater. Many feel that we aren't utilizing our available resources to their full potential. I appreciate the great strides we have made in basketball and other sports over the past few years, but I can't help to wonder if we are robbing Peter to pay Paul to a large degree. Football is the revenue driver, and we can't get overly ambitious with the athletics department as a whole if we aren't taking care of the cash cow.
If we can't get this collective momentum back in our favor, the program will be inching closer and closer to irrelevance. I fear we will truly be starting from square one with the program in a few years if we can't right the ship.
I don't mind money going to Buzzketball, because I think we might be on the verge of turning the basketball program into a profit center for us, and I think its smart to put money there knowing that we could potentially have it self sustained in short time. That said, I do know a Cassell renovation is coming in a few years, and a lot of money will be put there. Unfortunately, that's kind of what we have to do now just to bring our facilities up to standard in this league.
Des just got a promotion to OC at NC State, so he won't be an option
I go back to my original comment on this thread. A Joe Cox would be a good recruiting hire, coaches TEs, but maybe you could slide some people around on the offensive side. Same with Gary Downs, who would be a RB coach. That gives you someone with great connections in Charlotte. Charlotte will be fertilie recruiting ground the next three or four years. More so than a regular cycle.
If anybody is interested getting some insight into Williams' approach...
Developing Wide Receivers DVD
Oh great, the book is already written on him. s/
^^ underrated comment
Question
How big was Wiggins when it came to recruiting, and who is he currently recruiting...
Or I guess, who WAS he recruiting to VT that might be eyeing Bama?
Not sure how big he was in recruiting but he impressed the hell out of me last year at the Arlington Recruiting event. He knew sooo much about every player and had me convinced we had a crazy good underrated class coming in. Keep in mind I'm a huge homer with Hokies sports. Anyway, I had a good feeling about him recruiting kids and selling VT to parents of recruits. I'm selfesly bummed that he's gone as I think he could have been special here.
Hmmm something about this picture
Yea 41% is a little low for a coach. And it's on power save mode so he probably let it get really low before charging it up a little bit.
41% battery at 8:41? Coindence? Look how many followers he has, there is something going on here
Ah the ol' change my pics and bios to make it look like I'm all in on VT to impress croots trick.
I noticed that too. And that is the first time I have thought about Tino Ellis in some time.
But what does it mean?
And here is the reverse.
Although on his bio he still links to Hokie sports.
via GIPHY
Just announce it already FFS
Saban hiring another VT person.
Breaking news: Saban hires the entire support staff from every other D1 school to regain the upper hand on Clemson.