In the last sentence of the release regarding from the #Hokies' athletic dept. regarding Justin Hamilton being promoted to DC, Tech reveals RBs coach Zohn Burden and CBs coach Brian Mitchell won't return to Tech's coaching staff. No word yet on whether they'll coach in bowl.— Norm Wood (@normwood) December 8, 2019
Burden and Mitchell both not returning to next years staff.
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Mitchell is mixed feelings. I was ready to see him go last year like many but he seemed to do a heck of job turning things this year.
This is opening up spots for DHall, BFlowers, BamBam, etc to return!
Gimme Loren Johnson if he wants it, because he has actual coaching experience. While they other guys can probably recruit, not sure we can afford inexperienced assistants surrounding our young DC
I'd feel far more comfortable about it if Bud stays on in a psuedo-Jerry Kill role (which by the sounds of it he will).
This is a great counterpoint, and I expect he will. I'd just rather have an asst coach with coaching experience already to limit wild cards.
Either way im sure they knew the DB coach spot would open up and have targets already
This is a fantastic idea.
Wiles not returning either.
Is this confirmed?
if the rumors are true, it's a different kind of departure for Wiles and he will be coaching the bowl game
Will be interesting see if part of the Jham hire was to save money so we can go after some quality guys for these positions. With the guys we have returning next year, these should be attractive jobs.
I am hearing that yes this is part of it. That we actually decided to move from Odom to JHam to save money to spend on a bigger name OC, relieving Cornelson of OC duties but retaining him on staff. Start the Chad Morris rumors....
Yep. Lots of chatter on 247 that Corn is in fact out along with up to 2 additional assistants on that side of the ball. Goes in hand with what some insiders said months ago that if we went with JHam we would have some money for a big OC. Looks like this is happening.
What this really means is that we're about to sign Corn to an extension!
Edit: this is not directly targeted to you VTJ12. It's just that I've seen so many things talked about on 24/7 that went the complete opposite way that I'm tempted to crowd source stock advice from that site so I can do the opposite.
Lol, what a savant you are! 247 now completely walking it back saying it looks like Corn is staying and no more changes other than what we already know. That site has become one giant churning rumor mill.
Well that didn't take long.
It makes me wonder if there's a "sauces" memo sent out periodically to the coaching staff - "Rumor of the day" type of stuff just to see where/how fast/how far things will travel.
#CanaryTrap
Morris' son is visiting soon, so it could be possible. Still going to wait and see re: offensive staff changes. Everything that went down this week from Odom being a "lock" to J Ham being announced today just shows how tight lipped Whit and Fu are keeping things.
He already visited. Was here for the Pitt game.
I've been told we are in the top two with Oklahoma, but he had another visit he also enjoyed.
This is likely the only recruit I'll ever have a information about. And now I know how the people with sauces feel trying to balance information that gets shared vs not.
Next you'll tell me that reports on message boards of 2-4 silent commits aren't true.
the tricky thing with silent commits is that sometimes they also become silent de-commits
Hasn't Mitchell been rather mehhh as a recruiter?
Bingo.
Shocked to see Burden go. I really think he's been under utilized (should have been coaching WRs). Heck of a recruiter.
I never got good feelings about Mitchell. Thought he was one of Fuente's guys who never fit in with Bud.
So a guy hired from WVU and no previous connection Fuente is one of Fuente's guys? Or did Bud have a hand in picking him after seeing him in action at ECU and WVU?
904 has mentioned it in the recruiting thread, but Fuente wants to completely tear down and rebuild the running game. My guess is that a new rb coach was the first step of this.
I also wonder if, given the decline in talent in the 757, if his value as s recruiter has decreased.
I think it's more the First part and there were rumblings Burden left a fair amount to be desired in several areas. I do agree that the 757 is mainly over-rated now and does have talent, but to architect your recruiting strategy due to "ties" to the area would leave you underwhelmed
Overrated or overexposed? I think that the talent is still there, but now it means competing with whatever national program wants to recruit there. Looking at 247 All Time Virginia recruits, like 7 of the top 10 recruits (not counting prep school kids) are from the 757.
That's historical. Present day there are more kids in Richmond, NOVA. I'm not saying it's absent. I'm saying people reference exactly what you said and that doesn't mean there is more talent today.
Some of you won't be happy until you see corny's name on that list. /s
Do you see Kill being promoted at all?
(No Sauces) I would think he's right where he wants/needs to be because of his health. Coaching without being having the full on stress of gameday. I know there's been a few games that were stopped as a result of his seizures, and him being support staff makes more sense to help minimize the chances of stress induced ones as compared to full on coaching.
This is a great perspective.
Nothing wrong with your mind there, buddy.
No.
He's right where we need him.
I am kind of sad to see Mitchell go. Stroman was an absolute victim in 2015. That 2015 game against ECU was tough to watch on that alone. By 2017, he was statistically one of the best DBs in the country. The progression that Farley and Waller made from last season to now is incredible, and Chatman was very good this year as well. He wasn't great at recruiting as far as I can tell, but he was great at developing players.
I'm happy to see Burden go. The running game was inconsistent for Fuente's entire time at Tech until Jerry Kill was hired. I saw somewhere that McClease would go to Kill after drives rather than Burden to discuss things. I don't think Burden had any business coaching running backs at a P5 school.
I wish Cornelsen was gone. People can try to justify him all they want, but I won't go for any of that. Last night, Clemson's staff knew UVA was depleted in the secondary and attacked it. They scored 62 fucking points. Everyone with any connection to VT whatsoever knew we needed to do the same thing when we played them. We proceeded to go out in the first half with the same exact gameplan as the Pitt game. UVA players were literally waiting in the spots where the ball had to go because it was so predictable. If we go out and abuse them in the first half the way we did in the second, we win comfortably. The defense wasn't good by any means, but if the offense does what literally everyone said they should do, we extend the streak to 16 and go to the ACC championship and damn sure don't lose by 45 points.
Eh Cornelson needed to do better. but counter point. Clemson has Lawrence, Higgins, and Ross. You are right that we should have attacked the CBs more, but many times Hooker went through a 2nd or 3rd read and didnt pull the trigger.
I thought he was great in the third quarter when we scored 21 points.
Could have also been the offense play calling from Corn 🤷♂️ But Hooker did do well in the 3rd and even more so Turner coming back for that bomb
He ran one of the touchdowns for 30 yards. The second TD drive, Hooker threw a 20 yd pass, and a 16 yard pass. Most of the other plays were runs. I'll give you the last TD... that was a 61 yard strike.
However, Hooker is not a pocket QB. His game is misdirection, read option. and mix in the pass. The game was lost on an errant pass late in the game.
Not buying the we should have aired it out argument.
I'm not talking full blown, air raid attack a là Big 12. I'm just saying we should have taken some more shots, similar to what we did in the third. Again, the first half and the second half were very different. We scored 6 points in the first half and 24 in the second with 21 of
those coming in the third quarter when we could still run a balanced gameplan.
Fades, digs and some double moves were warranted early - too many one on one opportunities in space to pass up. Airing it out doesn't mean in the pocket - it means putting pressure on the secondary to cover in space.
Clemson also has a running back who averages 8.1 yards per carry.
UVa only scored 17 points last night.
It also may well be that Clemson is really good at offense.
Clemson is very good at offense, but to act like we didn't attack UVA's weaknesses in the first half is wrong.
That game could have gone either way.
Without Bryce Perkins as the UVa QB, and some lapses on defense, VT wins that game. Certainly wasn't proof that Corny should be gone.
Without Bryce Perkins as the UVa QB,
What kind of argument is this? He is UVA's QB. That's like me saying, "well with Mike Vick and Andre Davis and Lee Suggs, VT probably wins."
The UVA fan next to me said "The Hokies should probably throw on us, a lot." UVA fans (maybe like 6 of them) and the UVA coaching staff knew that the secondary was their weakness. Every VT fan knew it was their weakness. It's mind boggling to not go out there and at least try to exploit it.
I'm fine with Corny's system of running some plays to set things up. At some point, you take your QB who has been pretty damn accurate and look at your two tall receivers, huge tight end/receiver and burner of a slot man and say hey, let's throw some fade routes or slants and make their backups stop us. Just line up and do it, no need to be cute or sneaky all the time. We didn't do that the entire first half. Ran right into 14 and 33 and it gave them confidence and here we are now, not hung over from tailgating in Charlotte.
What I'm saying is that this game could have gone either way, but UVa had a scat back QB who is hard to defend against, and now he's gone (after their bowl game). Our defense had completely broken down by the 4th quarter, and Hooker was overwhelmed in his last series due to inexperience, not due to Corny.
This year and last year were the opportunities for UVa to beat us. It's too bad they succeeded this year, but last year SHOULD have been their year.
I see VT beating them handily next year.
But the real point is that every fan is a budding genius Offensive Coordinator in hindsight after you lose a game. Oddly, in spite of this, VT went 8-4 this year, and is in decent shape for next year.
But the real point is that every fan is a budding genius Offensive Coordinator in hindsight after you lose a game.
And it's a shame that VT pays a bunch of money to a guy who is not a budding offensive genius to call the plays.
You've got a point. It would be a lot cheaper to get the UVa fan sitting next to you in the stands to call plays.
Somehow, I don't think it would work out all that well. Corny called some damn fine games this year. UVa may not have been his best work, but, like I said, Perkins was a difference-maker. We scored 30 points. How many other teams scored 30 points on UVa this year? (I'll save you some time: ND, Clemson, and UNC)
Clemson did it twice.
Nicely played.
To be fair, some of those points were their second team, who could compete in the ACC Coastal.
I like the symmetry of scoring 31 points in both halves.
I like that they proved that UVa had no business being in that game.
I hope Florida holds up their end.
like I said, Perkins was a difference-maker
Perkins has absolutely NOTHING to do with Cornelson's offensive game plan!
Sure he does. He's the guy you needed to score more than.
And when I say the guy, I do mean THE GUY.
So why didn't Cornelson attack the weakest part of their defense so the VT offense could score more points than "The Guy?"
I'm guessing he had reasons for his game plan. Part of which was the execution. I saw some of the game plan you describe implemented, and it wasn't working for whatever reason.
It did seem to me that the game plan we had all season worked splendidly when we had both a running and a passing game, and not at all when we didn't have both.
Was I pleased with the season? No. But I did see enough promise in it to want to see what happens next year. I still have faith in Fuente. If he wants Cornelson, I'm good with it.
Of course you are. Everyone here is guessing... unless you really are CJF and not just his staunchest online defender.
Anyway, I'm "guessing" that Corn is just not that good at his job. As a Cowboys fan, he reminds me of Jason Garrett. He's not bad, he's just... not good. In the words of Stringer Bell, he's like a 40 degree day. His teams win 9(ish) games a year, on average, which isn't terrible; there are certainly teams whose fans wouldn't mind a string of 9-win seasons. But for what the Cowboys aspire to be, Garrett is NOT getting it done. And neither is Cornelsen.
The one place I'll agree with you is that it's Fu's call. I just hope Cornelsen isn't the reason that they both get fired.
I feel so attacked on 2 fronts right now by the truth in this statement.
I think you're just wrong.
And the fact that you're a Cowboys fan just makes you more wrong.
But that's just my opinion, man.
I'm not a member of the fire-FuCorn brigade and I generally agree with your perspective re: Fuente and the current direction of the program. However, this is one thing that has bothered me since the UVA loss ...
That game was for the coastal and a shot at the ACC championship. We need our coaches (and our players) to bring their best on the biggest stages. It sucks that we lost the streak but, to me, losing everything else that was at stake in that game hurt more.
I agree.
But it's way too simple to for a fan to blame it all on Cornelson, as if they know the offense better than he does, and as if the defense were not also partially responsible.
True, but ...
The offense needs to take on a larger share of the responsibility for whatever happens going forward. With a full compliment of Fu recruits and everyone who wants to returning I want to see us lighting up the scoreboard and undefeated in the ACC next year. If not, I will lose confidence that Fu can take us where we want to go.
I agree with that.
I'm expecting to see some offense. And hopefully defense, too.
It's cheating to build an offense around an elite talent. The best way to use a QB with talent is to have him run jet sweeps and bubble screens. Anything else is tacky.
Perkins isn't an elite talent.
He's accurate on short passes, has a mind for the game, and is elusive and pretty quick. He can make something from nothing, which is what the rest of the UVa offense is. Without him, they have a real problem.
He is good enough to exploit flawed defenses, which is most of the Coastal.
Don't forget those QB powers on 3rd and 8.
Honestly, I'll be the one to say it.
Your defense of everything Corn is pretty exhausting
Correction. Bryce Perkins or not, with only half of the 6 or 8 massive lapses on D, VT wins the UVA game by 10 pts.
If you join TKP, you might have a different take on this. 😁
Clemson's second string scored 14 points. I think Clemson is very good on,offense
It helps that Clemson has the likely #1 draft pick in the 2021 draft at QB. Lawerence was throwing dimes like he was at the Trevi Fountain last night.
I thought Hooker threw some dimes in the third quarter when we attacked their secondary.
Key word "when"
Burden was much better at coaching WRs than RBs.
Why Fuente brought in a former RB to coach WRs and moved the WR coach to RBs will always be baffling to me, and I know I'm not alone in this.
IIRC, it was to give Zohn more experience to become an OC. That way he wasn't coaching the same position like TG has done for years.
Not accurate
Burden never confirmed this. It was the talking point given by Fuente. Burden in ALL of his interviews stated repeatedly that WRs is where he wanted to be. He was not a RB coach, he was a good WR coach though. But it would have been dumb for him to jump from his first P5 job due to that reason alone.
The original reason given was the WRs were extremely important to Fuente's scheme and that Wiggins, having coached in that scheme, knew what Fuente wanted there. So he was made WR coach.
However, as I stated prior to the Jafar Williams hire, who I think is a good WR coach, if Burden wasn't the WR coach again he would be gone. I felt he would jump, apparently he was kicked.
It's got to be a 3 time kick in the nuts for Burden which like life seems wildly unfair.
first, moving you to RB position that you've never coached, even though you were doing a good job at the WR position and have never desired to coach RBs.
second, now that Wiggins has moved on I'm not making you WR coach again even though it's where you actually want to be. I'm keeping you in the position you don't want because I still want your recruiting.
third, production at RB is bad due to your coaching even though you have always stated you want to be a WR coach and this was my decision to move you here because I wanted your recruiting help, and now I'm firing you.
Football coaching can be a tough racket.
Fuente is moving pieces around to accommodate the guys he wants to retain. If you're perceived as "indispensable", you generally stay on the staff.
Jafar Williams was a WR at Maryland
Wiggins was RB coach in the past and Burden WR coach. Fuente flipped them because "it was good for their careers."
It was good for Wiggins at least.
Wiggins had coached WR's earlier in his career, and obviously was a damn good WR coach - clear from the results on the field at VT and the fact that Saban hired him away to coach WR's at Alabama.
Fuente took a chance on Burden by keeping him on staff, for whatever reason he didn't develop into a good RB coach and his 757 connections have not been a recruiting gold mine either.
Good points.
Seems like he (Fuente) tried to make lightning strike twice. Before Wiggins joined Fuente at Memphis to coach WRs, he had been coaching RBs the previous six years.
Could be that it's easier to move from coaching RBs to WRs than the other way around.
I'm wondering why they let them know now, but I'm also OK with it.
And once you let them go, they shouldn't be coaching any more.
Maybe they also wanted to get a jump start at finding new jobs, assuming it was mutual or they wanted out? Now that conference play is over coaching changes will be in full swing
Does not sound mutual
Either way it probably helps those guys out so they can start looking for new jobs. If they were being let go no reason for position coaches need to stick around for the bowl. You need to let those guys go ahead and move on.
Agree. Just pointing out that it did not sound to be mutual, as the previous post had assumed
If what everyone is saying about Wiles is true, we are going to miss his presence in Florida
Hire 904 as his replacement. Bam. Florida recruits flock to VT and he can get flights instead of vans
Is Wiles leaving? Haven't heard anything about that
Yes. Entire non-paywall thread about it on 247. Insiders confirm he is out.
Out meaning fired or retiring?
I would interpret this as Wiles going out in better fashion - possible retirement or taking a step back. The separation of Charlie's situation from the changes ready announced would be the reason. Wiles likes JHAM and wouldn't want his change to take away from the move for Justin. I am betting on retirement in some form or fashion - otherwise it would have been combined with today. Take it as a positive
This is not a mutual split.
Yea already scrubbed the Hokie sports bios late last night.
Care to go on Mr. TKP Reporter?
Not going to go into too much detail out of respect to who I talked to, but this was a completely unexpected move.
Was it? I've heard that Kill wasn't impressed at all with Burden and his RB coaching and film review.
I'm talking about the decision to get rid of Wiles.
Not sure I get why they would get rid of Wiles. Unless they wanted a fresh slate, I see a lot of value in him from both the experience and continuity standpoints.
I think he's referring to Wiles. His Hokie Bio hasn't been touched yet.
That's fair, but it's a pretty big story in the Hokie Football world so I had to try to pry a little more out. I am sure more details will emerge with time.
From what I've been told, there isn't a lot of info about the situation even for Wiles. Not great.
If they are letting Wiles go after initially telling him he was safe, that is pretty low especially for a long time coach who has historically done a great job.
If Wiles wasn't given much of an explanation, that's some Busch League s---. He's been around long enough to at least earn a full and honest reasoning behind it.
He was given an explanation, just not more than that. Sorry for not being clear. I'll refrain from talking about it until more is figured out.
Ah gotcha. Understood on not being able to really give all the details. Gotta be smart with what you divulge.
Yes maybe. I think we can get a more dynamic recruiter in his spot.
He has done a good job bringing in DL from Florida, particularly underrated guys.
But the other half of that is we've missed out on A LOT of our higher targets, partially necessitating the need to find these under-the-radar guys.
Wonder if Loren Johnson would be brought on as a position coach. Wasn't there talk of adding him to the staff in the off season?
One has to suspect with Burden and Mitchell being replaced that Fuente was also not happy with recruiting results this year as well
well we had 4 Running backs committed...But overall Burden was good for us at 757 so I was a little surprised.
not surprised about Wiles, he was tied in with Foster for a while.
Definitely not surprised about Mitchell, he was always replaceable.
Anyone know how Khalil Herbert's visit went? Believe he was on campus this weekend. I'm a fan of us getting him as it's a good roster management move to balance out the tenure in the RB room that is being rebuilt.
Would love to see some of the TCU connections coming to town. They always have a solid defense in an offense heavy league. Flip side, TCU is involved in recruiting Virginia.
Funny, use our existing coaches to recruit Texas...hire some TCU coaches to improve our VA recruiting
So I've been curious. The Texas RB, Campbell supposedly was going to commit on the spot, but something came up. And some say it had to do with Burden. So with Burden gone now, is it a result of this recruiting incident?
Additionally, him being gone, does that increase or decrease the situation with BC? I'm just wondering if there was an issue between the two and now that he is gone, it improves our chances or not.
from what I've read on various boards it is not the direct reason for his dismissal, but if the story is true, it definitely seems like a an indicator of an ongoing underlying issue
The story goes that Burden was hosting one of our RB commits on an official that day, and between that and it being game day, he was basically too busy to say hi to a major prospect in his position group that had traveled 1,000 miles to visit VT. All it takes is 5 minutes to greet the kid and his group.
edit: I don't know that it affects Campbell's interest or not, IMO he is mainly interested in VT because his buddy DD is committed to VT and we run a dynamic offense.
Interesting. If true, only reason to not have time is because you don't expect to still be RB coach at VT when BC signs. Maybe Burden knew changes were coming and just decided to focus on coaching for the day.
ouch
I guess not necessarily a popular move with the players
Yikes
Don't be too alarmed. I like his later tweet better :
Adam Lechtenberg next RB coach per VTscoop
There had been rumors for a while now that something was going to happen on the offensive side of the ball and other coaches were going to be changed. Is Burden what was considered at that point, or are there more coming is what I wonder.
There could be 1 more post Bowl Game, wouldn't be shocked but think it would depend on whose available.
Vice is getting some fluff by SEC team but don't see it materializing.
Brian Mitchell hired by NC State to coach their cornerbacks