College GameDay goes On The Record about Fuente - "Virginia Tech is in trouble"

The gist of it is, they just aren't buying that it's a good fit anymore. The players are no longer buying into anything that Fuente and his coaches are selling, and this goes back beyond just this year. They are surprised that the players aren't giving it their all for Bud's last year and find that fact very telling. Even more worrisome to them is that Virginia is becoming the kind of program that Virginia Tech used to be.

For the record, I know this was discussed elsewhere, but I hadn't yet seen it embedded and figured that due to the reach of this program, it deserved it's own thread.

[Mod Edit: Embed full video segment.]

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Comments

I think they took it easy on us, to be honest

Sadly, we can't argue with him. At least about the season so far.

this topic keeps getting repeated on here

Hokies, Local Soccer, AFC Ajax, Ravens

Virginia is not becoming what we used to be. They are having an ok season with an ok Sr QB and SR playmakers, but I don't see much excitement around that program.

They have a stingy defense, an exciting dual threat QB, and a workmanlike attitude. For almost 20 years, that was the identity at VT.

That's what the "lets give him a chance," crowd doesn't get. This started with him forcing TMac (the most talented RB he has had) out the door.

He then replaced him with..???.oh yeah, he's like 0-6 on top RB targets.

Unfortunately for JF having an SI article publiahed and Tshirts printed doesn't change culture. And the on the on-field results show that there definitely still a big disconnect here.

When Herbstreit feels bad for us you know we're beyond fucked

Oh, look! Another thread about this!

No horse too dead! /s

No more mention of the other Virginia school in relation to college football please

Reach for Excellence!

VT Football: It'll get after ya!

Proud Hokie since 2004.

To throw some fuel on the Fuente fire. APFOW Sr. told me the other day he had heard that Bud was bowing out because he and Fuente were butting heads.

Now you're welcome to take that rumor with a grain of salt and I suggest you do unless further corroboration comes to light. But the ol' man has some pretty decent #sauces.

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

X2

You will see this game, this upset and this sign next on ESPN Sportscenter. Virginia Tech 31 Miami 7

His decision was made after a phone call with longtime Virginia Tech assistant coach Bud Foster. All Foster told him was, "We win. They don't."

Have ya SEEN our defense this year?

I mean, there should be some tension somewhere.

The turnovers in our favor yesterday were great. The blown coverages still need some attention.

We need changes on defense. Period.

I wasn't arguing this is/isn't the case. Just sharing the info.

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

I don't have any doubt that there would be tension there. That's all I'm saying.

Bud expected a better offense, and Fuente expected a better defense.

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

Not surprising that as things have gone poorly, there's some conflict there.

Fu wanted to (and did) bring in some of his own guys. When things were going well, it was working. Winning being the best deodorant and all. When the team starts losing however...

Hokies United l Ut Prosim

People keep discussing this. But we all know what really went wrong.

We went to the weird curvy VT and stopped inventing the future.

I do art stuff.

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

well Reece with the loss by Miami...I guess that's a bad deal with the way Virginia Tech has been playing...how's the culture working out at South Beach?!

"Take care of the little things and the big things will come."

I honestly want Diaz to do a good job, not a great job, but good enough so that Miami is Miami. I love the turnover chain, because it's so shitty and so Miami, it makes me hate Miami even more, it makes me happy that it didn't come out today. I wanted to beat Miami when Randy Shannon was there, but it's hard to hate Randy Shannon. I wanted to beat Miami when Al Golden was there, but that's a UVA thing. But Manny, oh it so easy to hate Miami. The boat trip and the chain, and everything is just so Miami. I hate this Miami team, I am so much happier to beat this Miami team. I want Miami to be on the verge of being Bak every year and be crushed by VT every year.

These rivalries we have exist because of how good both teams are. We've played some epic Miami teams. We had some excellent games against UVAs historical teams in the 90s, not to mention 38-0 bro. GT, I just fucking hate. Fuck em. It used to be the winner of the Tech game played for an ACC title. That was true for almost ten years.

So yeah, I hope Miami gets to be Miami, I'm all for it. Hell, I hope you UVA is decent. It makes beating them all the more sweeter.

TKPhi Damn Proud
BSME 2009

I get the impression that Miami players care more about the turnover chain than winning a game....suits me

I feel like 5 turnovers should mean that the chain belongs in the lunchpail now.

"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

Ideally, VT wants want FSU, Miami, BC, and Syracuse to be good each year, and everyone else to suck. That way there's enough good teams in the ACC to boost our SOS/Conference perception, but no good ACC teams nearby to compete for recruits with.

No Clemson on that list?

we want those other teams to be good enough that one or two beat clemson every year, their invincible aura goes away, and we have a better shot recruiting blue chip talent regionally

"Why gobble gobble chumps asks such good questions, I will never know." - TheFifthFuller

I'd love it if VT, FSU, Clemson, and Miami were year-in, year-out top 15 with occasional forays by the rest. 4 consistent teams puts the ACC on par with the other P5 conferences.

I'm with you though on Clemson coming down a few notches.

No, we compete with Clemson for too many recruits. I'd rather see them suck, so we have a recruiting advantage in the NC area, and to decrease our competition in the Greater Atlanta Area.

Um, FSU has recruited very well in VA.

These guys are talking heads that cover programs from a macro level national media perspective. They typically don't know what's going on in individual locker rooms or programs. If anyone would stop bitching for a half second and pay attention to what the players have been saying publicly, you'd find that they 1) are well aware of the negativity that fans have embraced and 2) have actually remained united as a team.

Since it's headline news every time something negative comes out now, I might as well start showing the other side of things from the players' perspective.

Joffrey, Cersei, Ilyn Payne, the Hound, Jeff Jagodzinski, Paul Johnson, Pat Narduzzi.

Lets get to a bowl with the weakest schedule in the P5 then we can say the national coverage(and local coverage, and literally the entire fanbase) was overreacting

Here's the bottom line as far as I'm concerned. This team is facing adversity and yet they are sticking together. If you're a Virginia Tech football fan, you should not be relentlessly creating, supporting, or promoting content that the players feel they need to unite against.

Joffrey, Cersei, Ilyn Payne, the Hound, Jeff Jagodzinski, Paul Johnson, Pat Narduzzi.

Yes how dare we talk about this being perhaps the worst team in 30 years for VT(we arent out of that territory yet by any means) where the players might see it!

Like sure I agree the personal attacks on the players are below what we as fans should tolerate. But talking about not creating content that players rally around to be against is kinda insane as any coach with any competency can take anything that isnt gushing praise and turn that into bulletin board material to focus the team.

Facts?! How dare you!

Thanks for keeping things grounded. Agree with the message. Rather have info from the horse's mouth than from the flies that are looking for shit. It's just a little more difficult when that horse is always on that damn treadmill.

And that's...

... the rest of the story.

Clown heads! LMAO!

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

It's the Hokies against the world!! I like it, high motivation.

It is inevitable when the football product on the field is a national embarassment that fans will turn negative.

However, and I hope this is the case for all of the fanbase, my negativity was never and will never be against any of the players (up to the moment one of them becomes a Trevon Hill/Marcus Vick). I support this team like I do the military - I may totally disagree with the plan they are assigned and/or the way they are told to execute it, but my support of each member of the military forces and each Hokie football player is unwavering. I am going to support and root for every one of them each and every day.

The LewDew, Professional Golf Bum

Wait...isn't Hazleton unhappy and thinking of transferring? Did I miss something?

How dare you let your rationality get in the way of our rumormongering!

I think this thread will hang on for a while. Even though we won, this doesn't correct our concerns. Shoot, Miami had 5 turnovers to our 0, and we still only won by 7 on a game that came down to the last play. Our defense came up with big plays that put our offense in a position to score- our first 21 points came on just 92 yards of offense.

And without 1 personal foul we'd of had 6 turnovers to zero and likely another TD.
So, VT has gone from -8 to -3 in turnovers in 1 game. Noice!
This season will still be a slog, but the team looked more like a team. Ball out dudes!

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

And without 1 personal foul we'd of had 6 turnovers to zero and likely another TD.

Side note - I didn't understand why the pic was reversed for a personal foul that didn't impact the play. I thought the correct call would've been for VT to keep the ball and move 15 yards back. Anyone know why this wasn't the case?

Because it happened during the play.

But it was after we had possession, right? If it was block in the back or something after we got the pic, we wouldn't give the ball back to miami would we?

Block in the backs aren't automatic first downs. Basically think of it this way, our defense did something that gave Miami's offense a first down. So Miami's offense got the first down.

I think the penalty was Roughing the Passer on Hewitt that happened prior/simultaneous to Laddler's INT.

Correct.

It was a borderline call, but it was a bad decision by Hewitt to create the opportunity for the call on 3rd & 20 with a 14 pt lead.

Man, honestly...I think it was the right call and an idiotic move by Hewitt several seconds after the ball was thrown. There was a push and then a secondary deal he did. If I was the ref I'd call that all day. I was disappointed, not only did he not do need to do it...but imagine instead of doing that he turned around, realized Ladler had made that interception and started blocking. With his position, that probably guarantees a pick 6. That lets the air out of that stadium. He is supposed to be a leader and you just can't do that kind of crap at anytime but even more so when protecting a lead. Tapping your helmet in front of everybody afterwards, going "my bad" just doesn't cut it.
I hope he is running some laps for that tomorrow.
I saw some bad calls that went against us yesterday but this wasn't one of them.

Agreed, the massive non called holding was pretty bad. We were in the backfield behind the QB often and got collared to the ground. The hands up and lofting into people for blocks was really annoying too.

So if it had happened clearly after Laddler's INT, it would've been VT ball and we would've been moved back 15 yards?

I was just very confused as it happened, because in my mind, VT had possession of the ball at the time the flag was thrown. Curious where/if that line exists.

Not roughing the passer. It was right after Perry threw it.

Roughing the passer is either "replay the down" (except 15 yards and an automatic first) or "15 yards from the end of the run", whichever is more advantageous for the offense.

pretty sure the call was personal foul, illegal hands to the face, during the pass rush - before the ball was thrown

if one of our defenders had clipped an offensive player (low block from behind), or blocked them will illegal hands to the face during the return, we would have retained possession after a 15 yard penalty from the spot of the foul

Bud Foster clearly disagrees. Lol.

"That's it guys. Let's get out of here. That cold drink's waitin' on us, let's go." - Mike Young after win no. 300.

ah thanks, I was mixing that up with the 4th Quarter foul on Hewitt.

Let's flip this. If Miami had five turnovers to our zero and had won...everyone, everyone would be talking about the turnover chain yada yada yada.

Let's give credit where it is due, we won a game no one gave us a snowballs chance in hell of winning.

"Take care of the little things and the big things will come."

this doesn't correct our concerns

I mean, my #1 concern is turnovers. If we can stop turning over the ball I think 8+ regular season wins is in reach

I'm glad the players are rallying around each other, and the clown pic was pretty funny. I'm all for them rocking together and trying to "prove" these guys wrong. However, we know the Gameday guys don't hate VT, they aren't happy to see VT struggling, there is literally video evidence of them lamenting VT's downfall from last week. These guys are not anti-VT, they were calling it like it was for a team that was like 1-6 in their last 7 ACC games with 5 of those losses being by double digits or something ridiculous and coming directly off a 35 point home loss (our worst in 45 years) to DUKE. I am as happy as anyone that we won, I hate Miami with a fiery burning passion, and I think there are things to be optimistic about after this game, especially how the players have rallied together, but we can't pretend one game is some kind of course correcting referendum on our entire football program. We need to see more moving forward.

I was at the game yesterday and REALLY feel like they were pumping noise into the stadium. The stadium was half empty when we went up 35-14 but it was soooo loud when they were making a come back.

Also, a small tidbit. Manny Diaz came up on the video board "jumbotron" in a pre-recorded video thanking fans for supporting U of Miami and the Boos were deafening. They ere booing him for the entire video and it was loud.

Pour some Beer on it

The second part is where Tech needs to be careful. We've been spoiled with a coach that was an institution. And other coaches know that. We don't want to get to our next hire and end up at a point where we are booing our own coach during games. Hokies in general don't have that in them, and would be odd territory indeed.

To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
@VTnerf on insta, @BuryHokie on twitter, #ThanksFrank

Hokies in general don't have that in them

Idk man, have you read these boards? I feel fairly confident that if they put up Fuente on the jumbo late in a losing game there'd be some serious boos.

"In general."
We might mumble and murmur, but outright booing...but not sure the older crowd has that button.

To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
@VTnerf on insta, @BuryHokie on twitter, #ThanksFrank

I think the biggest difference is that a large number of our Football fans are Alumni or friends/family of alumni who may have grown up going to Tech games. Miami on the other hand, is an NFL crowd. A lot of people just go to get drunk and see football, but have no real ties to the university.

Pour some Beer on it

We are still in trouble, but now we have a reason to hope.

Proud author of one plaid comment.

I knew I always liked Red's character for a reason. Who knew he was a Hokie fan?

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

Who knew he was a Hokie fan?

Maybe it's because he's Irish.

You will see this game, this upset and this sign next on ESPN Sportscenter. Virginia Tech 31 Miami 7

His decision was made after a phone call with longtime Virginia Tech assistant coach Bud Foster. All Foster told him was, "We win. They don't."

I remember in 2014, Miami had fans had just about had it with Al Golden. Then they walk into Blacksburg on a Thursday night and beat us 30-6. I remember watching a Miami fan's post game YouTube video, and he was taking on the same attitude as we are right now. I am cautiously optimistic about what we saw on Saturday. Could it be the game that turns things around and propels us back into relevance? Entirely possible. Could it just be an anomaly, and we're exactly who we thought we were before the Miami game? Also entirely possible.

Marshall University graduate.
Virginia Tech fanatic.
Formerly known as JWillHokieAlum.

We could also accept that we finally played well against a bad team..and had to hold on to win

I just watched this for the first time. Hey, before the Miami game I could not have disagreed with anything that they said except for one thing...

"UVA is now what Virginia Tech used to be..."

UVA is no where close to being what Virginia Tech used to be. Remember they called us the Coastal Kings, 8 straight 10-win seasons, an absolute shut down defense and a level of consistency year after year that was unmatched by anyone else in the ACC. UVA is 4-1, they appear to have a good defense and a good athlete at QB. They have never won the ACC outright. They've tied for first twice ('89 and '95). And they've only had one 10-win season in history ('89).

That statement did not belong in the conversation. It is fair to say that VT better watch out because UVA is trending up, while VT is looking as bad as they have in over 2.5 decades. But to say they are what we used to be or become what we used to be is just wrong.

Game Day loves Blacksburg and wants us to do well. Maybe that's them stokin' the fire to get us focused.

"Nooooooooooo!"
~What happened?
"James Franklin to Virginia Tech...."
~Fuck me......*sigh*
"Oh my God.... They're gonna take all our recruits... like WTF bro...."
~*squints eyes in disbelief*

Leg for you

Pour some Beer on it