Illinois Hokie's Recent Comments
There is a definite creep factor to this gif. The white guy seems a little too into it.
The SEC was a respectable 7-5 in their bowl games. Their three highest ranked teams all lost.
In 2014 the SEC went 3-5 against the ACC.
Actually, as memory serves, my mantra on Loeffler has been he gets three years to install his system. That means this upcoming season will be the one where I cast my ballot on whether or not Loeffler should be retained. And should his offense stink on ice, I'll have no qualms calling for his termination. But the same would be true if we had won ten games the last two seasons. Judging by Bryan Stinespring's first two season as OC, he was going to be really good in the position. It takes time to evaluate what a coaching hire brings to a program.
Now you may be confusing the fact that I will frequently bring up the absolute mess Curt Newsome left our OL in, but that goes beyond just recruiting and has more to do with the fact that he was just a genuinely shitty choice to be our OL coach. As far as overall talent goes, I don't think I've ever used that particular topic as a Loeffler apologist.
Also, are we seriously just supposed to accept that the SEC is the best conference in college football? There's increasingly little evidence to support that claim.
I will agree that Dadi and Ken are probably as good as any DE tandem in the country. Are Luther and Corey the best DT pair? They're small by prototypical DT standards. (Corey admittedly more so, but Lu is still on the small side of average.) Still, they are very, very good. I think the depth at DT plus the insane skill level of our starting DEs put us in the conversation for best D line, but I don't think we're necessarily a shoe-in for best starting four.
Are you in the states? Who is your cable provider?
It's the same bell you're always ringing: undersized D linemen. When you line up 230 lb DEs against 310lb OTs whose only game plan is to push your ass out of the way, the schematic advantage of speed is greatly reduced. That's why it's really important that we have landed a guy like Settle, along with 315lb Steve Sobchak, who can plug up the middle against pure power, and are looking at 270lb Vinny Mihota at DE. Put some beef on the line and suddenly Pitt's behemoth OL might not have its way with us so bad.
It's one thing not to follow coaching hires. That's an admittedly obsessive level of devotion. (Yes, we are all obsessive fans here, and I own that.) But to not even know who you're playing against in the national championship game, at that point you aren't a fan, you just made a fashion choice using a college program's logo.
Granted this is all predicated on a healthy Fayscon (I can never spell his friggin name right). If he can't go, things are a little murkier.
And I'm just over here like...
I was uncertain at safety headed into spring. Now that it's settled on Clark and Reavis (assuming Fascyon is healthy), the only concern is an inexperienced Reavis getting up to speed at a position he was born to play. I am very high on him. Clark can play every position in the defensive backfield, and Kendall and Fayscon are all-ACC caliber.
I'm guessing the reason is copyright law? I love Phreak's stuff, but by the letter of the law, it's pirated.
I'll say Duke and BC, not because of looking ahead/hangover but because it's probably our toughest one two punch as far as opponents go. Duke nearly beat us last year, and BC drubbed our defense something awful.
I nearly went NC State/Miami, but I really think Miami has lost a lot with the departure of Duke Johnson.
The damn Blackhawks are doing everything they can to cause me sleepless nights and hypertension in this Anaheim series.
Well, I do now.
It sounds like a starting secondary of Facyson, Fuller, Reavis, and Clark if everything goes well
Best secondary in the P5. Bring it.
Well, as the ginormous string of back and forth below this proves, there's a whole lot of speculation involved in what "out recruiting" means. I see that at one point you started throwing out number of 4 and 5 star recruits landed by various programs, which is what these discussions always devolve into. To that I will say, unfair comparison. Historically, VT has not used recruiting service ratings, at least not as the primary determining factor, in targeting recruits. Under Beamer, the focus has been our own internal evaluation of talent. This leads to 2 star Kam Chancellor becoming one of the dominant safeties in the NFL. It's a proven system, as our poll rankings routinely outperformed our recruiting rankings by a stretch of about 15-20 years.
Our budget and recruiting staff infrastructure was also insufficient to compete using the same model as the elite programs. That is changing, and Whit has done about five years of work in fourteen months in terms of getting our program in line to compete nationally for elite recruits.
So to answer your question, have FSU, Clemson and Tennessee been out recruiting us? In my estimation, no. We have been finding 3 star hidden gems who turn out equal or better results to those programs' 4 and 5 star recruits through our own different system of recruiting. But I also think our recent inability to seal the deal with some very desirable recruits in our own backyard demonstrates that our window to recruit the way we traditionally have is closing. We have become somewhat of a marker program for recruiting services, in that if we offer a kid, that usually puts them on the national radar, and programs with more cachet swoop in and snatch them up.
Do we need to change the way we recruit? Yes. And we are. Not because we are being outrecruited but because our recruiting model has become untenable. Whit Babcock understands that, and were in good hands.
Couldn't find that. Using this as a stand in metaphor.
Why yes it is...
It's been my experience that there is a strong inverse correlation between the prominence of a college football program displayed on a person's attire and the likelihood that said person can sustain a conversation about "their" team. I've tried to engage people wearing Longhorns, Sooner, USCw and anOSU gear before, and it seems like by and large, the majority of the fans of elite programs have no idea what's actually going on within the program. The Longhorns fan in particular sticks out in my mind. Going into their BCS championship game vs Alabama, I asked him if he was worried about Colt McCoy being able to survive the Crimson Tide pass rush. He got all confused and said, "We don't play in the SEC." He didn't even know who the opponent was.
I agree with what you're saying, but in general I'm seeing much more of a "bring it" reaction to those claims rather than saying it couldn't possibly happen. There's a difference between confident and cocky, and by and large the reaction I'm seeing here regarding anOSU fans' call for a blowout falls in line with the former category.
I'm actually glad you mentioned the ODU thing. That left a bad taste in my mouth, and I pointed out that a lot of the comments directed toward ODU on that thread were the exact same type of comments that we're directed at VT during the late 90s.
But by and large, this is by far the most respectful, football-savvy, levelheaded football forum I've ever been a part of. As for your other examples, I think in general the feeling on GT is that they had an exceptional year due to having the right people in their system, many of them seniors. It's not to say it's a fluke, just that it is very unlikely to happen reliably every year. As for scoffing at the idea of losing by 20, I wouldn't want to be part of a fan base that doesn't take exception to the idea that we will be beaten by three scores at home by a team we beat by two scores away last season.
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11 years 1 month
# | Report: Virginia Tech Football Signee Eric Whitehead to Enroll at Nassau Community College Do JUCOs ever redshirt for non-medical reasons? Seems like they really wouldn't need a development year if they're coming from a decent JUCO conference.
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11 years 1 month
# | Report: Virginia Tech Football Signee Eric Whitehead to Enroll at Nassau Community College 
Now don't go spoiling his narrative with those pesky facts...
Well, to be fair, the Twitter thing started as a back and forth between Phreak and Bill, with Phreak just basically asking over and over and over if Bill used any of his video in the power hour. Phreak started getting belligerent, Joe banned him, and then Phreak acted like an emo teenager who had just lost the PlayStation for the weekend. The bulk of the meltdown was actually in reference to bring banned.
I don't have a horse in this race, and this entire thread has been highly entertaining. But I agree with a lot of what HOAT is laying down. I could see this place becoming a mutual admiration society.