Following last season (which really brought me back down to earth as a Hokie fan), there have been plenty of negative issues brought up this off-season concerning the state of the football program. And I think it's safe to say that we're all hoping for some good news soon from one particular transfer. But I'd like to try and generate a little optimism as fall camp opens, and talk about some of the positives from the past several months that suggest a promising future for our guys. Here's my incomplete list, in no particular order. Please feel free to add to it.
1. Flipping Doug Nester from OSU
2. Emergence of young, promising talent, particularly on offense
3. Hiring Justin Hamilton
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Bright spots? What are those? /s
Hooker and McClease both withdrew from the portal
Very bright spot...OL Joe Kane apparently survived this:
https://twitter.com/thejoekane44/status/1154901441691181059?s=20
with a few stitches in his hand.
Absolutely this. For anyone who won't click the link, Kane hit a deer and rolled his truck. The young man is alive an well and this may be the best news of the year.
Jeez. Glad he's alright.
But where you able to salvage any of the Venison?
In my experience with salvaging well struck deer meat, it don't work. The impact alone bursts capillaries all over the deer and then the resulting damage from hitting the road again sorta seals the deal. Not saying it can't be done, but judging from the three road kills I've tried to help process, it isn't something worth the effort.
Gotcha, was half in jest as I never actually tried it. I don't hunt anymore (no time, can't wait for retirement) but am more than willing to chow down on the fruits of friends and coworkers efforts...
I knew ye jesteth, just taking the opportunity to chime in on something I have actual experience with since I'm reduced to sitting around kvetching to avoid heat stroke. Main reason I responded at all was that I just missed having to deal with this yesterday, mid morning, when a doe decided to cross the road right in front of me driving 55, then started to freeze up in my lane. Fortunately, she woke up, I hit the brakes, and I missed her by maybe 20', but I assure you, venison wasn't in my mind before, during or after until I read your post. I do recall some road killed deer being donated to soup kitchens and the like, and I assume that there are struck deer that aren't entirely ruined for donation, depending on speed, location of strike, etc., so your point was likely more on target than mine. The deer I dealt with had been well and truly struck broadside, with major bruising, breaking and the like, coloring my response, for sure. I'd be willing to bet there could be a whole OT topic here on car/deer collisions. I've seen a couple of doozies and seen the results of several more. Serious bidness, indeed.
The locker room seems more cohesive and less negative.
Came here to say that Trevon is finally in Miami physically in addition to mentally
I think that is going to be huge for this season.
In a recent interview with Kyle Bailey, Fuente was discussing why he's excited for the upcoming season and said, "I think they like each other a lot more [than last year's team]." Honestly I'm shocked nobody ever discussed that quote because it seemed pretty candid and significant to me.
I was at the disaster of a game at ODU and I was shocked at how lifeless the team was on the sideline, how some guys were just doing their own thing on the bench, etc. Of course that could have been an off night kind of thing, but I thought "this team just doesn't have it". There was little chemistry.
Saw looks of talking, laughing, and bs going on by players on the sideline while we were getting our ass kicked by GT. I was pissed.
And the basketball staff is around to give recruiting pointers
A lot of returning starters on both sides of the ball
Continuity is such a big deal, we're going to be so much better this year...I think too many people underestimate how much behind the 8 ball the defense was coming into fall camp last year. If we had a "normal offseason/season":
1) Our starting corners would have been Alexander and Webb instead of Farley and Watts.
2) Our starting whip would have been Mook instead of Ladler
3) Hill would have played the entire year
4) Galen Scott would have been the safeties coach instead of Nix.
Say what you want, we would have significantly better last year the above held true.
Firing Nix.
This. 100%. I've seen multiple times (can't remember where) that he wanted his safeties to do something different than what Bud wanted them to do. How can you question the ways of Bud Foster? Might explain why Floyd had a tough season last year.
I think this coming season will tell us a lot about what Nix was teaching them vs bud's defensive plan. And then the question will be: How did that happen?
August camp is almost here.
East Mims, FL. Brevard County, fl. Astronaut high school. Didnt know this. That high school plays some ball! Kids gonna contribute.
6'10" if you count the hair
My take on one factor but certainly, not the only, as there a a few, is CF is
Belichick-Esque. He has a certain football culture he lives and operates by. It permeates certain "standards" of behavior and performance. When first introduced in any environment, there is a natural attrition I will sum up as "old vs new" mentality, ways and means, etc. This, IMO, is one of the largest factors in the unstableness we have witnessed. I believe the dust will soon settle and his culture will prevail. A good example of "out with the old in order to bring in the new" is the departure of Trevon Hill. Maligned attitudes in any organization can and will poison the well. The culture change based attrition is largely behind us.
I think the negative recruiting against CFB is the twilight of his career had him grasping at straws with some talented players that had red flags.
This, combined with the eternal optimism that CFB has that a kids just needs a chance to turn things around lead to a roster with an untenable number of problems.
I hope the volume of those problems are a thing of the past.
Beamer truly believed that college kids were just that, college kids. They deserved second chances. As a mentor and a coach, that's awesome cause it's true.
Right, wrong,or indifferent, that doesn't fly in modern sports or society anymore. Results matter. Optics matter. Brand matters. Social media has made it arguably difficult to manage firestorms inside a locker room. A bad kid is a bad kid, who needs to clean up elsewhere and find his situation somewhere else. A coach allowing cancers is a bad moral person, etc etc....
I go back to Ike Whitaker in 06. He had some horrible drinking stories, and they finally had to let him off the team. In 08, Beamer and Ballein were talking to him in the VT football office about life in general and trying to fix his situation. Wasnt even on the team anymore.
Does Fuente care? If course he does, but he's not going to put up with the bullshit Beamer did. That's the big difference. I welcome that as it will result on the field in due time. But it didn't help Beamer to close out his career.
Can I give you 10 legs? You are spot on as this is a difference in personalities and a sign of the times.
It isn't a negative on Fuente, but more indicative of how truly special Frank is as a person. He inspired through his heart for the kids and not some big go get em speech.
uh, Hill got plenty of 2nd chances from Fuente, as did Reynolds. Just because Fuente booted guys at positions of need doesn't mean he's not giving them opportunities to redeem their mistakes.
I agree with you, but I see your point as my comment doesn't come across that way. I'm just making the point that Frank (sometimes to a fault) wanted to give additional chances. It was a good part of him that even he acknowledged occasionally would bite him.
I do believe that CJF's inserting some discipline a bit earlier at times (which I support) I also believe based on how he has handled some of the situations he is doing a good job is being equitable and judicious in that thinking (aka being consistent matters, but not every situation is the same and that matters too). Aka he gave several guys multiple chances and they pressed their luck too far
I read a story about Whitaker that was written in 2010. The coaches basically saved his life well after he was dismissed from the team. His story haunts me in a way.
Depth at almost all positions! We are far less susceptible to one injury being the end of our season than in the last few years. (See OL)
Except for DL, I agree! Real high level I see the Beamer years as being defined by incredible play from a handful of positions. Most notably some exceptional QBs, RBs, and DBs sprinkled in. The current roster doesn't necessarily have a Tyrod, but it does have a lot of really solid talent at nearly every position.
A personal bright-spot is tickets are going to be cheap this year and I'm changing jobs allowing me to go to more games
Everyone around the program minus the doomsdayers, seem extremely positive about the program and the upcoming season.
Dax and Oscar are roasting UVA twitter accounts
Funny enough, my tickets are the same price pretty much every year.
I wasn't able to get season tickets as I was unsure of my work schedule the whole season so I StubHubbed every ticket
loluva is getting all the hype, all the praise and preseason kudos, something we usually get. This year's victory will be all the sweeter for it, and their swollen heads will pop like balloons in a straight pin factory. Can't wait.
If we can get our transfer portal players eligible and get a commitment from a certain transfer RB then:
The sunshine we will be blowing up our own asses will be far warmer and brighter!
The fairy dust we will be sprinkling will be more glittery and twinkly!!
And the shit we will be troweling out will smell sweeter and more flowery!!!
In short, it's the opening of camp week!!! Let's make a F'ing Edie's ice cream commercial!!! Go Hokies!!!!
Since UVA football beat the Hokies? (Well it SEEMS that long)!
There was no off-season news worthy of Andy Bitter tweeting during vacation.
The sun?
Offensive line talent and physical development - all young and room to grow as players even more
Wasn't sure where to put this, but here seemed as good a spot as any.
I was in the airport in Orlando going through TSA and was behind a UCF football player. I complemented him on the team and program and let him know that I was excited for the upcoming season. During the conversation he mentioned that one player they were really excited about was Cam Goode (this was before he knew we were from Virginia and that we were VT people). Apparently he had a great Spring and has been one of the hardest workers on the team. I couldn't help but think, "man I wish he had worked out here."
In any event, I'm happy that the offseason seems to have solidified our Hokies as a team!
I saw he had some sacks in their spring game. If he puts in the work he could end up doing well. Or maybe it just indicates what UCF's oline will be like.
He certainly has talent, but had to work hard and wasn't willing to - at least initially. I don't think it's a far fetched idea to think maybe he learned a lesson and is doing something positive as a result. If so - kudos and good for him.
All of the studs that are committing this offseason is a definite bright spot
This article gave me all of the feels. Some of the highlights:
Dax has really stepped up as a leader. I'm very bullish on the linebacker group. I don't think Dax/Ashby will ever be as good as Hall/Adibi but I think they're going to be pretty damn good for the next two seasons.
Dax/Ashby may never be Hall/Adibi, but Dax himself is paving an O&M road directly into the hearts and record books of VT's defense. He looks like he is on track to be historically good.
Dax's jeep is on point, also.
Arrow of Time moves in the direction of on-season.
Justin Hamilton - if you say this 10 times in this thread it's not enough. He is dynamic, has a great vibe with Foster for in-game changes etc
Note - if you think Foster was in the booth solely due to his health you are missing the point. MANY issues with Nix (booth calls) and Foster went to the booth as it was killing them.
Back to the positive - the ability to run the system is key and this will feel more like the traditional Hokies as the season goes along - a big part of the credit will be this change
Nix being an issue has popped up several times even by Joe above. I am having a hard time understanding how Nix was such a detriment to our defense last year, but we didn't do anything about it until after the season. If he was such a problem as many seem to think, then why not fire him mid-season and let JHam take over immediately? Obviously mid-season firings are not ideal, but if he was such an issue and we had his replacement on staff already who could fix the issues, why wait?
Not trying to be argumentative, just would like more info. I would also like to hear Joe's answer to this as well as others.
No #sauces, so purely conjecture on my part.
1) Nix had JUCO connections and we desperately needed a couple DTs potentially closer to being college ready for the future. Sure enough we signed 2 JUCO DTs.
2) it seems clear that Bud was dealing with some stuff this past season. It might have seemed to make sense to ride out the season with Nix, who has SEC DC experience and had been preparing with the position group, rather than making a mid-season change to Hamilton as a first time position coach.
3) Last year's team team faced plenty of change and locker room issues without the additional distraction of a mid-year coaching change. It's risky to fire a coach when you're trying to move forward from a division and rally the troops.
Adding to number 2, I firmly believe Scott was being groomed to be Bud's eventual replacement, which obviously went horribly south. I think Nix may have been brought in for an audition in that role as well (prior DC experience, SEC experience), but that also went horribly wrong. With Bud's contract status up in the air, I wonder what the long-term plan is now, or if Bud stays on longer now. I'm not oblivious to the fact that he's most likely looking at retirement sooner rather than later.
Fuente's comments about Bud sticking with the program at media days were forward leaning, more so than I think he needed to be if there was going to be a change, but guess we will see.
https://hokiesports.com/news/2019/7/18/football-fuente-excited-for-possi...
Makes sense. Thanks for your take.
I hope that everyone's optimism about JHam taking over comes to fruition. I love the hire and hope our D get's back to expectations.
I think we will fall in love with many of these young players this year. We have athletes all over the field. Some of them were thrown in a little early last year, but so expect there will be a noticeable learning curve across the board. I really hope that the defense can get back to near Bud form because I'm expecting the offense to be pretty good.
We're in the NCAA Preseason top 25. lolUVA is not: https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2019-07-02/college-football-r...
cue meltdown in 3-2-1.....
It's not a meltdown, it's reality
ODU
Rhode Island
Furman
UNC
GT
Duke
Wake
UVA
By my count that is 8... and no reason to throw a parade. IIWII. 2020 should be better.
that's fair. I was meaning if we only win eight and not nine or more
Interesting note: No Miami either. Da U not bak?
NFL Camps have started, college ones soon, football is in the air. Even bad football is better then all the other sports combined...
Amen! This week starts football being on TV from now to February.
*Does Happy Dance*
As much as I love football, and I really do, I have to say that good college basketball is better than bad college football in my opinion.
gotta agree with this
I've got a Basketball Jones....
I've got a Basketball Jones....
I've got a Basketball Jones....
Oh Baby, hoo, ooo, oooo
UVA Twitter having a collective meltdown over Dax.
None of our coaches slept with croots moms that we're aware of.
Mike Gundy would like a word:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/usatodayhss.com/2019/oklahoma-state-mike-gu...
and somehow that's not even the best part of the article. i'd submit this:
that we know of. i guess we could say that about any offseason, though.
UVA broke another Rock
So we are still living rent free inside their heads.
They should be paying us. Rent free or not, it's a place I wouldn't live if I had to.
The summer will come to an end. Speculation over what players will or will not do are over.
Both of those are positives in my book.
Not having to worry about chop-block o'clock coming over the horizon
4. It appears that as of July 31st, there are no known pending academic fraud, 5th strike discipline, pending major drug charges being worked out, fist fights during workouts among the current roster. That is a bright spot and an improvement over the last couple of years.
...is....is that you?
His drunk brother got into his account.
(Just kidding, DC!)
Made a thread about how well the offseason went...then Feaster goes to uscjr and bud foster announced retirement
