David Teel nails it.
Whether or not Fuente lands at Baylor, this has been and will remain painfully awkward for many parties.
For example, if Fuente stays with the Hokies, how badly will this dalliance fray his credibility with players, staff, fans and his bosses, namely athletic director Whit Babcock and university president Tim Sands?
If he goes to Baylor, what of the assistant coaches he just hired, Darryl Tapp, Tracy Claeys, Bill Teerlinck and Smith? What of the recruits who signed with Virginia Tech last month?
Might Fuente be frustrated with what he perceives as inadequate staff salaries? Might he be swayed by Baylor's plans to construct a football operations center to complement the new stadium it opened in 2014?
Sure, but his timing, to be kind, is suboptimal, and Babcock has every reason to be frosted.
Comments
Only way to make it go away is win the division next season, and motivational methods may be hard to come by.
So let Teerlinck go with Fuente and try to keep the rest of the defensive staff. Hire Robert Prunty to fill the empty defensive line coach role
Hire Shane, who I'm presuming would look kindly on keeping that group, and rebuild the offensive staff.
It's going to be a total gut job IMO.
Do position coaches have buyouts?
Afaik they're salaried employees. Not contractual, so no.
I'm pretty sure they are all under 1-year contracts, unless we've changed how we do things.
And IIRC there is 5 figure check due if they are let go after a certain date.
Ugh. Hearing that from you in particular carries a heavy, heavy weight.
To be fair, I wouldn't necessarily bet on Shane. It might not even be a good idea. I'd say Shane is probably the guy to go for if we were trying to maintain continuity from the current staff to the next.
But that doesn't mean that's the goal. If it isn't, then we're in for another set of rebuilding years. Or maybe really the first set of rebuilding years.
Having lived in State College, PA for a while now, I had front row seats to Bill O'Brien coming in for a few years to bridge the gap before Franklin came in. Maybe Fuente is our O'Brien and his time is up.
Whoever comes next needs to be someone who has a vision.
I don't have any insight into that just was opinionated. Would a new HC keep JHam at DC given his background? Unlikely. Would JHam stay as DBs or Safeties coach no clue. Same with Tapp.
Too many moving parts at this point. Have to see it all play out but I do think Fuente ends up at Baylor.
Maybe JHam wouldn't be kept in the same role. Maybe Claeys gets the job and JHam takes a step down - or out. Or maybe we go, as you noted earlier, with a full house cleaning.
This is exactly the kind of discussion where I'd like to be a fly on the wall in Whit's office, just to understand his thought process.
Whit's gotta be sick to his stomach that's for sure. These next few days weeks are messy regardless what happens.
Not forcing J-Ham to be in over his head from the jump isn't the worst thing in my opinion, though I imagine it may be a tough pill to swallow.
My wife is a Penn Stater, and I mentioned this exact analogy to her if Fuente leaves.
Yikes
Very much an on-point synopsis. However, we all need to respect CJF's right to make business and career decisions that are best for him and his family. The outlook for VT and our football program were never going to rise or fall significantly based on the decisions of CJF. If he stays, next year is the litmus test for him; if he leaves, VT moves on and hopefully improves upon our recent gridiron mediocrity.
Aaah, no we don't. Building a staff and then pulling this stuff shows a complete lack of leadership and integrity. Like most of these newer coaches, it's all about them, not the players, the institution, or even the sport at this point. At least Whit has the brains to hire Coach Young who has real ties to the area. Bottom line, if CJF goes or stays, the damage is done to the program and it will be Whit's second failure in hiring a revenue sport coach. To top it off, my wife and I just upped our contribution again and we get stuck with this.
Might be time to start moving more of my donations back to the College of Engineering.
Calling Brent a "failure in hiring a revenue sport coach" is a pretty big overstatement. He came in, proved that Virginia Tech could be a regular participant in the NCAAT, and left. Sure, it hurt a bit when he left considering he left the cupboard pretty bare, but the program was still in much better shape than at the end of any other coaching tenure during my lifetime.
Without Buzz showing that success is possible in Blacksburg, there's no way CMY comes in and scores his many victories on the recruiting trail (both players and assistants) before even coaching in a single game, and that's pretty significant.
Put it this way, if he stays, we are going to get raked in recruiting. Everyone will use this against us. How are you going to come and play for a coach who clearly doesn't even want to be there to begin with?
Or he stays and gets some of the staff increases he's angling for (assuming that's what's going on here - I could be wrong) and we all forget about this in a couple years cause that's pretty easy to put a positive spin on, to recruits and to the fan base.
I hope you are right and feel the same way. I do very much hope that's all that really is going on here. I hope.
If....that's what he's angling for.
And even, if so, this was a very poor way to handle the situation. Some of the Baylor "insiders" have strongly stated their AD plays things extremely close to the vest and that any info likely came from the Fuente side.
As Alum said above, this is not going to play well for Recruiting.
"Hi, its Coach Fuente, you know, the guy who nearly left 3 months ago. But you should totally trust me enough to commit 4 years of your life to me"
Not to mention the strain on the current players, coaches, and (possibly) the AD. It is going to be a sell-job to win the lockerroom back. The Portal could see quite a few Hokies this offseason, with this whole scenario being a large reason.
Long and short, this whole scenario continues to paint a guy who is extremely tone-deaf in regards to maintaining a Program and has set us up for potentially another roller-coaster Offseason, which has really been the only real "standard" of Fuente's tenure so far.
I've essentially moved into the "hope he goes," camp because I don't see this as reconcilable at this point.
I feel similar about the negative impact to recruiting but this isn't an uncommon thing throughout college football. Every year there are coaches that interview somewhere but don't get the job. Do those schools lose recruits because the "coach isn't in it for the long term"? Probably somewhat but it doesn't seem to be the death knell. Maybe that's because I don't care about those other programs? I don't know....
True enough, but some of the ways those Programs overcome this are with Lavish Facilities or coaches who are Ace Recruiters and can talk their way out of anything.
We don't currently have either of those.
Seems like the time to try to get more pay for assistants was when we were looking for a DC. The staff is in place now, what would be the point?
You don't think it's possible that was one of the times he was trying to get it?
The DC position was filled a month ago. He interviewed at Baylor this week..
I am sorry but this is so funny to me, mainly probably because of this comedian who talked about his wife's favorite phrase, "That just frost me."
He start talking about it around 2:50 mark.
I'm picturing Whit with frosted tips.
If he were to not get the Baylor job and try to stay here, would interviewing without informing his AD be a breach of contract? Could Whit fire him for cause and not have to pay the bailout?
Would depend a lot on case law and what if anything was mentioned in the contract as grounds for termination. I went sniffing down the same path earlier. It's entirely possible but we just don't have enough facts to say either way. But if an employer-employee relationship of trust is breached beyond all repair, there is some precedent to support termination for cause.
Was wondering this too. If so, kick his ass to the curb regardless.
Probably not.
I doubt that clause would be in his contract. Even if it was within the contract, breach of that clause would unlikely to be just cause for termination.
Update: Googled and found his original contract: link
There is no condition of his employment barring interviewing, but there is for engaging in other "business or occupation." Interviewing is not considered engagement.
Firing for "good cause" is enumerated, but nothing along the lines of interviewing for another job.
Although I don't see his extension, I doubt it changes any of this.
I just read through the contract, and in particular the compensation structure in Article III, and I'm just scratching my head. Basically he was getting ~$3.45M this year alone to coach, and make appearances for the Hokie Club. THEN, the performance bonuses kick-in with:
- $25k for making the ACCCG
- $50k for making & winning the ACCCG
- $50k for being name national coach of the year
- $50k for making a tier II bowl game
- $75k for making a tier I bowl game
- $125k for getting to the playoffs
- $250k for winning a national championship
- $25k for the APR being at 965+
I am not a contracts specialist, but the salary and bonuses seem completely inverted if we are really pushing to be a premier program. IMHO, the base salary of $500k sounds reasonable, but the HC appearances and other responsibilities accounting for ~3M of his annual is insane. Its like saying - dont die, and show up to your scheduled appearances. I'd rather a contract that absolutely places the incentives on performance - cut the HC stuff by half, and bump the ACCCG appearance to $250k, winning the ACC to $500k, playoffs $750k, and national championship to $1M
I wonder if the salary is structured that way due to the source of the funds -- coming from the athletic department and not from the university itself, where it would be state funding.
To your point: the real ballers play equity not salary.
This is pretty standard break out of pay for most coaches.
I've thought it would be great to have an incentive based contract, but no coach would take it. The last time I really thought about it I only thought Spurrier would be cocky enough (this was when he was at UF, so less cocky than at USCe where cocky comes with the job)
Basically every great coach should just go somewhere to get their money guaranteed because why wouldn't you.
agree, but that would be for the proven great coaches... That is not what Fuente is now or what he was when he was at Memphis. He took a middling G5 school and made them quasi-relevant enough to make some noise.
I would have structured the contract such that his base would have been a bump from what he was getting and then overloaded on the bonus incentives. Then, as an added carrot, included a clause that should he make the ACCCG, playoffs, NC then those bonuses would be incorporated as part of the new base salary for the subsequent year. E.g., $500k base, $1M payout for winning the NC game, then the following year the new base is $1.5M through the remainder of the contract until it requires modification again to incorporate said bonuses.
This would be a major financial risk for VT (or any U) should all the bonuses payout, but it would certainly be a major incentive based on delivered performance, and not hopeful performance.
And you would never get a qualified coach to come to VT. And your career as an Athletic Director would be short-lived.
What you think it should be and what is pretty much the industry standard are two entirely different things.
Performing open heart surgery is easier than firing a college coach for "cause."
...unless your last name is Petrino.
Fuente's stature at VT is permanently damaged. If he stays he is a piranha. My prediction is he goes.
My prediction is this isn't how it will play out. Win and all will be forgotten.
But VT's ceiling (fiscally and otherwise) means this almost certainly isn't the last time he dances with another girl - and probably in the not too distant future. But if you're him, you've got a young, probably pretty talented and good team in '20 & '21. Which is the better time to seriously visit that landscape...now or in 2 years after potentially recapturing a Coastal crown or two?
I think this has all been orchestrated by Fuente's people. First, float his name with the crappy Arkansas job. Then a little more seriously with a good, but not great, Baylor job at a date on the calendar when Fuente holds most of the cards, not Whit. It may not pay dividends for him immediately, but it will. I think his assessment (and gamble) is he can win with the current roster and then a much better job than Baylor will come along in 2-3 years - one that recruits players and money by itself - and his name will be in that conversation rather than a second tier program like Baylor.
I think you nailed it on the head that he's gambling that it all works out. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Baylor never seriously offered him the job or if he wasn't their top candidate. This was calculated to get something in return from VT. Assuming he got it, it buys him even more time. So we either win big next year and this all works out like a fairy tale, or we limp to 8 wins again and we have the built-in excuses of new defensive staff getting acclimated and hey these new resources VT just committed to are helping us with recruits, things are on the rise! Buys just enough time for things to either finally click one year or get another job back home before the buyout gets low enough where he's in danger of being fired. He honestly may be a complete genius.
If he stays, he is a hokie, by definition, unless he somehow gets our mascot changed to a biting amazonian fish.