deleted -sorry -my eyes were tired and I didn't notice this was an ESPN PLUS article(I have the "autosignin" set). If someone tells me how to actually DELETE the topic I will gladly do so. Again Mea Culpa
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Do you have a link?
It's reasonable to expect the offense to improve a bit with a veteran QB and the defense to be significantly better than last year with so much experience. How much the defense improves will determine if the Hokies win the Coastal.
It's basically behind a paywall. These statements are in his season preview.
(FYI: he's very confident our defense to turnaround)
It makes sense. The defense returns almost all it's starters and even an incremental improvement in performance will be a huge boost to the team's win probability. I would say they are probably an 8-9 win team if the defense is top 50 and a 10 win team if the defense is top 25. The defensive line will have to have surprise contributors to get there.
Are we seriously an 8 win team jumping from 85 to 50? Maybe with this schedule, but we're hardly gonna be ACC contenders if our D is even remotely as bad as last season. 85 to 25? C'mon man.
News flash, 50th is a hell of a lot better than 85th. Definitely not what we've come to expect from Bud Foster's unit, but a huge step in the right direction. I wouldn't say I'd be "happy" with that, but it sure beats giving up multiple 80+ yard plays every game.
Virginia Tech was 41 in Offensive S&P+ and 74 in Defensive S&P+ which was good enough to get 6 wins. It's reasonable to expect the offense and defense to improve this year with the defense jumping the most spots. Stanford went 9-4 (O:26 and D:43), NC State went 9-4 (O:29 and D:54), Oregon went 9-4 (O:31 and D:50), and Duke went 8-5 (O:52 and D:46). Virginia Tech could easily be an 8 or 9 win team with a top 50 defense.
methinks there is no link because it is behind a paywall (ESPN+ or phil steele's magazine)
confirmed. This will be deleted soon....
I spoke to Phil at BWI once. He loved Beamer's coaching staff and philosophies, loved Foster, couldn't say enough about the "program". I'm sure he has a good deal of respect for Fuente as well.
Did you happen to ask him about Georgia Techs passing efficiency
Yep, and he said that in any game where you go 1-2 passing for 32 yards on a broken wheel route you suck. Exact quote from him.
may want to reference this
Both Steele and Connelly have said what we have all thought since last year ended. This is a year with a manageable schedule that could either be another step in the wrong direction or a pretty drastic turnaround.
That's what will make this season so interesting, either the young guys will step up and we go 9-3/10-2 or or they dont develop and we go 7-5.
If we go 7-5 or worse, I'm going to need someone to drive me to rehab...
...and maybe do a couple of home repairs...
...and bring a bone saw...
Nothing here for the naysayers.
Please give Fuente a chance.
We are giving him a chance. But, this is the last chance IMO. Unless he wins 9+ games with no real head scratchers (like losing to ODU or something) he's very much on the hot seat the way I see it. If VT manages 10 wins I, for one, will be more optimistic regarding Fuente. If VT loses 4+ games, however, I think it's fair to assume that he's not the right guy for the job. The only exception to these constraints would be a serious, unforeseen, and devastating catastrophe, like losing the starting QB to a season ending injury. But after all the recruiting efforts and off seasons and getting his guys, a competent coaching staff would be able to get through the easiest schedule in the P5 with little drama. That's fair to expect at a football school.
Honestly, if we lose Willis that should put Fuente under the microscope even more. He's touted as a QB whisperer and gets tons of credit for Andy Dalton and Paxton Lynch (deserved), and he's got two four star guys in Hendon Hooker and Quincy Patterson who've now got experience in the system behind Willis. If Willis goes down, we will see just how well Fuente has developed these blue-chip QB's.
That's a fair point. I'm curious what the general thoughts are about injuries on the DL. If I am to believe what I've seen regarding depth and recruiting any injuries there would also fail to justify losing 4+ games. We should have depth in the trenches on both sides. Injuries are all but guaranteed there and depth is critical for success. I'm not likely to be supportive of keeping Fuente if we lose 4 games "because Garbut was out half the year" or something. A good coach would make sure both lines are adequately stocked with viable talent. Based on what I'm hearing, I'm not sure that's the case for our d line and that concerns me.
Didn't Paxton Lynch flame out as a bust and is now most likely headed out of the NFL?
Yes. I'm giving him credit for Dalton and Lynch, as in they were clearly good QB's and if nothing else he did his job in helping Lynch get paid. Nobody can take that signing bonus from him.
It may have been unclear, or it may have seemed like I was singling out Lynch as a particularly good job. I was trying to be fair in acknowledging his past successes while still holding him accountable for the two blue-chip QB prospects he has waiting in the wings. I quite frankly don't give a damn about Lynch or Dalton if he can't develop our QB prospects.
He is battling Geno Smith to be RW backup for the Seahawks.
We DID lose our starting quarterback to unforeseen and devastating catastrophe last year, the first year in decades that we had a losing record.
Yeah, and despite being pretty underwhelming in just about every way, here we are giving him another chance
What?
Seriously. Some people act like they deserve a hand written thank you letter for being fans after a 6-7 season.
Lmao what kinda shit are you taking out there in Uganda? Name one guy we could hire that would do a better job in this position
Being a football school actually doesn't guarantee you are good every year. Ask Nebraska and Texas much of the last decade. Hell, even ask Alabama from 1997 to 2007, when they had FOUR losing seasons.
I'm usually disagreeing with the Fuente Fan Club folks on here, but I gotta tell you, we'd have to have a really bad season (like 4 or 5 wins) for me to think he should be fired after this season.
Last season was hopefully the crater season, and this year we should be improved with Fuente's guys, many of whom are still going to be sophomores and juniors. As I've said, I see 7 or 8 wins, and if we do better than that then my hat will be off to Fuente. To me, 2020 is the make-or-break season for Fuente, not this year.
There are coaches around the country who are doing quite well with less talent. The ACC, especially the coastal, has been a joke for the last several years and the schedule we have is arguably the weakest schedule in the P5. In year 4, with this schedule, I think it's absolutely fair to expect a coach at any school with a football tradition to win 9+ games. I'm sick and tired of hearing "{this year plus 1} is going to be our year." it seems like I've heard that every year since 2012. If this team can't manage 9+ wins this year I really don't see how anyone could honestly expect any improvement with this current staff. I'm not necessarily sure that Fuente can't coach football but I'm definitely unsure about Cornelson. Our offense hasn't really improved drastically under his guidance. Not yet anyway. If our offense takes a significant step forward in 2019 I'll feel much better about our coaching staff. Otherwise, the future looks grim. Waiting until 2020 is just silly.
I don't really disagree with any of your points, and I'm also disappointed where the program is, and I also do think it's reasonable to expect a coach making $4 million a year to win 9 or 10 games.
I'm just saying that the problems that led to last season haven't completely gone away. In 2019 we're going to be playing a lot of unproven sophomores and juniors, rather than a lot of unproven freshmen and sophomores. The reason I'm looking toward 2020, is because the core of the team will be juniors and seniors, and at that point there will be NO excuses.
This isn't fun to say, but I can't think of a single player from the 2019 team that I'm confident would start on the 2004 team, which won 10 games. Let that sink in. We should be improved from last year, but we're not exactly overflowing with talent.
You raise an interesting point about who from this team would start on a better Tech team. I went back to French's All-Decade team (obviously not the '04 squad you mentioned) and see that he put three current players on his all-decade team: Keene, Darrisaw and Diablo. He later mentioned in the comments that he forgot about Chuck Clark and would have had him as the FS.
I think Tre Turner and Dax have already shown that they will be in such conversations in the future, but you may indeed be right that 2020 will be the right year to really judge the program under Fuente (who I'm a fan of and hope has great, long success here).
Go Hokies!!!
Legs for both of you. I like Fuente and I want him to be great. I've been critical of him and honestly I've bought too much of the "chicken little" shit that's been swirling around our program for the last few years. I spent a lot of time in the off season before Fuente's first year watching his offenses at TCU and Memphis and I got really excited about the potential offense that I believe Tech has been desperately needing for a long time. The lack of apparent progress to my, admittedly untrained, eye these last couple years has been disappointing. I let my expectations get too high and now I'm mad about it and I'm taking out my frustration by playing the cynic on the interwebs. I know it hasn't been fun for everyone to contend with my negativity and for that I apologize. I suppose, subconsciously, I was doing it partly as a cry for emotional support; in the hopes that people would convince me that the sky isn't falling.
In any case, I believe that all of us, the eternal optimists, the Debby downers, the cautiously hopeful, and the woefully cynical all ultimately want the same thing. For VT to be fun to watch and win games. I also think that, as sports fans, a lot of us probably have superstitions, whether or not we'll admit it. Those superstitions might explain some of the behavior. Some people believe in reverse psychology and predict or argue for the worst case in the hopes the opposite will happen. When it comes to sports, I've fallen into this category more often than not.
But at the end of the day we're all Hokies. We're all going to watch the games and support the team in our own weird ways. One person's way of supporting the team might look like the opposite of support to someone else but I think we can all agree that every time the Hokies suit up every single one of us is hoping they'll win. And that's all that really matters.
Well, as John Prine might advise "Stop wishin' for bad luck and knockin' on wood."
Leg for John Prine. I love "Paradise".
Man, you are self aware. Leg!
Lol he has a chance. You sound personally concerned for him
@Joe Lanza
We had the 85th scoring defense in college football last season. Are we supposed to be happy that the defense is returning starters?
Edit: 98th in yards allowed. 98th.
Yes, Because now those starters have had a year to get experience, marinate, and understand what they need to not be a 85th ranked scoring defense or 98th in yards allowed.
The didn't exactly improve over the season...
If that's what you really think, we must have watched completely different games in late November. I saw a defense that was finally starting to gel and figure out how to avoid some of the mistakes they'd been making.
And it's not like our opponents weren't getting better at the same time we were. And most of them have to replace a lot more than we did.
I felt this way too, then the bowl game happened.
Admittedly, I wasn't able to watch the bowl game, but it didn't sound nearly as bad on the radio as many of the games looked earlier in the year.
I'm not sure why you were down voted for this...
I tend to agree. One thing that was extremely concerning for me last season was the fact that the defense actually regressed as the season unfolded. I am skeptical as to how good this unit can actually be.
With that being said, I think the key factor in this defense being good (maybe not vintage Lunch Pail good) this season is Nix being replaced by J-Ham. Its been "reported" that the wrong calls were going in, calls weren't getting in on time, and the overall communication in a complex scheme was a major issue... And that issue was rooted in Nix simply not knowing what he needed to know when he was thrown into that position.
Yes, because there are three ways to put better players on the field in CFB in my book. 1 - Recruit better players, 2 - Provide better coaching, and 3 - have your current players gain size and experience. I would argue that this off-season has produced two out of three of those goals. If Bud is back to his old self without RL distractions, and JHam is the improvement we think that he will be, then I believe that a top 50 defense is very possible, even with the remaining DL uncertainties. Plus, it's not like we will be playing against a bunch of offensive juggernauts. Guess that I am on Team Optimistic.