I'm just curious to see what the masses think. Without everyone bailing on the team over the offseason and even during the season.
Fuente is 100% responsible for not being able to retain them. Do we still think we are where we are today if the players couldn't leave?
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Portal challenges aren't specific to VT. Our staff's job isn't made any harder than any other school's.
It's not specific to Tech, but being the second highest in transfer rate has to be an indicator.
For the most part, we lost players who were passed on the depth chart by younger players, with a few notable exceptions including JJ who has had as tough of a last few weeks as Willis has.
So I'm going to say "yes". We wouldn't be much better off than we are now.
Wouldn't it be nice to have some backups with playing experience?
Look at clemson last season - kelly bryant (who had just taken clemson to the cfp final) gets passed by a freshman. Redshirts/transfers mid season. Freshman goes down against syracuse. Clemson almost loses with 3rd string QB.
Look at clemson last season - kelly bryant (who had just taken clemson to the cfp final) gets passed by a freshman. Redshirts/transfers mid season. Freshman goes down against syracuse. Clemson almost loses with 3rd string QB.
You can say that again.
I don't think we have a talent problem. I think we have a development problem. We have not seen any evidence that the offense or any of its individual parts is improving. From year one this coaching staff has apparently been focused on making the running game work. And in year four the running game is still hopelessly broken. QB performance has regressed year over year and despite an influx of apparent wr talent that group has looked miserable in blocking and below average running routes. Pass catching has been fair. Our offense has basically been moving in reverse for four years which is the opposite of what one would expect from a coaching staff touted as offense oriented.
I agree with the 'development problem' and will add one more somewhat related to development and the portal. Our staff doesn't seem to have any idea how to handle redshirting, either. Guys like Keshon Artis or James Mitchell burning their shirts last year is ridiculous. We need to space out talent on at the LB spot, and Mitchell was going to be a multi-year starter by basically all accounts, so to play both on kickoff coverage when we had a kicker who could boot the ball out of the endzone every time, robbing them of a season of eligibility and additional development time is beyond egregious to me.
I agree on the redshirt aspect. On the talent part I have to disagree. We are playing three guys on the d-line that should be redshirting. We are playing 3 freshman offensive lineman. Our middle linebackers are sloooow. They are making a tackle 4 yards up the field that other teams linebackers are making at the line. I'm not even going to bring up the defensive backfield......talent is a problem here, but development of what talent we do have is a problem too.
Agree there. I think I've made my thoughts on our recruiting and scouting pretty clear in a bunch of threads. The staff has shown they can't perform at the level necessary in those arenas to be successful here.
Drake Dellius playing against BC because we were down a couple WRs, yet not throwing the ball to him in that game is another head-scratcher before the 4 game rule. a RB could have went out and lined up at WR as a decoy
VT has a talent problem and a development problem.
Yep
I would say none. We didn't be Odu before the portal
I think the portal was more of a symptom than a cause. I don't know each player's specific reasons for transferring, but the further we fall the more I think it was the result of guys who felt like they had better opportunities elsewhere.
Very little. The negative impacts of transfers were offset (and probably exceeded by) the positives.
I keep reading a thousand theories for why this team isn't very good. But nobody seems to want to accept that this team is just very young and plays like it. It's just not very good
In conjunction with that nobody has yet to step up as a playmaker on Offense or Defense. Tre Turner might become one and King looks like he might threaten to be a playmaker, but that's about it. Willis can at times, but he makes too many mistakes and is too inconsistent for anybody to believe in him.
There is nobody yet on this team who can make the BIG play in the BIG moment and have the other players (and fans) to jump on his back for the ride.
Players have always been allowed to transfer, and we have had a number of guys with eligibility left transfer to smaller schools over the years. the only difference now is a more liberal waiver process and the portal being "public" like everything else these days. Players transferring because they were passed on the depth chart is nothing new to VT football. What's new is the volume of players doing it.