Illinois Hokie's Recent Comments
This deserves the elusive Murray Upvote.
As someone raised in bumfuck SWVA, I think you're way off base here.
All games picked up for television, regardless of who broadcasts it, are determined via contract with ESPN. I'm not so certain, but I believe even if our games are streamed by ESPN3, the worldwide leader gets to set our kickoff time.
Really? Man, I must have Hokie radar. I have never noticed a shortage of VT stuff in Kingsport. More Tennessee stuff, yes, but no shortage of VT stickers and license plate frames.
FWIW, I'm not insulted, I just think you're wrong.
Whit would work the OOC schedule for this to become a regular occurrence, IMO. This sort of thing is right up his alley.
After marketing the hell out of this one, I don't think they'd use the same moniker with two different teams. And this was what Bruton Smith always envision, to the extent that he didn't approach other schools when the Hokie Smokey Classic looked like a pipe dream. I think this matchup specifically is his dream.
I have no problem at all finding VT gear in Kingsport. I load up every time I'm there.
There is (was?) also a really great collectibles store right on the state line on Wadlow Gap Road that was pretty much exactly an even 50/50 split of VT and Tennessee merch.
My experience in the Tri-Cities is considerably different from what you're describing.
Bristol is a great town to host the game just because of the nature of the city. Where the actual venue is in regards to State Street is irrelevant, as is the loyalty of the people who live in that neighborhood. We would draw fans from along the entire I-81 corridor and a decent share from NoVa. I don't think we'd have any problem fulfilling our allotment annually.
Next point, I absolutely agree that this whole inaugural thing is PR semantics. I think this is a one shot deal at the racetrack. I can only hope it turns into a regular OOC matchup and a rivalry.
I think what we have right now is that in the ADs' minds, this is a one shot deal, and in Bruton Smith's it's the first game in a storied rivalry.
If this thing goes off without a hitch and is a big moneymaker and prestige-builder for both schools, I think both programs would be willing to tweak schedules to make this happen fairly regularly if not annually.
Well, we definitely have an overachieving coaching staff in terms of getting everything out of our recruits. We're about as well suited to use that formula to climb the recruiting ladder as any.
I'm wondering if it would be possible to design a more easily removable tower (like when they started making collapsible goal posts when fans tearing them down became an issue) and more modular units for the infield buildings so as to make the transition easier.
The LeNoWiSco area is pretty close to an even split, but I tend to see more VT stickers on cars than Tennessee stickers when I go home for a visit. Bristol seems like a pretty good location. Some fans from NoVa won't make the trip, but I think we will have no problem drawing a crowd. I expect BMS to skew about 60/40 in favor of the Vols.
After the national title game were we pulling top 5 recruiting classes? No. After successive ten win seasons and repeat ACC championships were we pulling top 10 recruiting classes? No.
After the BCS championship game, an interviewer asked Frank Beamer if he would use the newfound prominence of the program to expand recruiting, and he replied that, if anything, VT would lock it down. Frank focused in on the 757 and owning the state of Virginia in general, and maintained that perspective through the early ACC years. Has we doubled down on recruiting then similar to what we are doing today, there is a very good chance that we could be pulling top 5 recruiting classes. That was a missed opportunity.
The Battle at Bristol was originally conceived and has always remained envisioned as a matchup between these two schools. It doesn't make sense to do it otherwise, because Bristol is the perfect "line in the sand" location between the two campuses. I guarantee you that calling this the inaugural Battle at Bristol signifies Bruton Smith's hope that this becomes a regular fixture between the two schools.
Health is a concern, and you're right, we might not be able to get more effort out of Frank through no fault of his own. The question there is, does having a future HOF coach carry enough weight to make up for him not being about to run like Jimbo and Dabo (I swear to God...)?
Frank's around for at least a couple more years I'm guessing, so we'll just have to see how this plays out over the next couple of cycles.
This.
Also a two way street. One reason Michael Brewer transferred to VT was because he wanted to hunt and fish the NRV.
The one with Triple H, where he scattered a bag of thumbtacks all over the canvas halfway through the match then took a Pedigree into them, after the match he and Paul were backstage in the locker room, and Mick started picking thumbtacks out of his face. He looked at Paul and said, "When the hell did we use thumbtacks?"
His brain was just gone.
I'll never forget the I quit match with the Rock, when he look like eighteen chair shots to the head while handcuffed. WWE was walking the line between sports entertainment and torture porn during that era.
It's really not random. There is a strong positive correlation between recruiting rankings and vying for a national championship. Right now we would be seriously bucking the trend to make a NC run with our recruiting numbers. And the way to boost recruiting numbers is to land more of the blue chip recruits.
I think our recruiting culture IS being overhauled, as we speak. Adding positions on the staff, expanding our footprint, making recruiting a key factor in considering coaching hires.
I think everything you said would have been dead to rights circa 2006-2012. Now we have an AD who doesn't value recruiting simply in terms of a percentage of the budget, and younger coaches with some giddyup on the trail. Are we where we need to be? No. Are we moving in that direction? Yes.
If nothing else, we're laying the groundwork so that Beamer's successor will come into a tenable system.
IMO, location is bunk. Recruits will flock to a winner.
Long term history is an honest issue. We don't have the pedigree that a traditional historic power has. So we have to build one.
Northing to apologize about at all. I misinterpreted your original comment to mean you thought we'd be hard pressed to ever get more than two.
Dude is batshit crazy, and that has nothing to do with his MPD storyline. The bumps he took over his career were suicidal.
OT but kinda not, there's am homage to Oregon Trail set in a zombie apocalypse called Organ Trail. It's kind of addictive in an Atari 2600 kind of way.
What's their recruiting budget vs ours? They're spending SEC money on coaching, I'm sure they're doing the same on the recruiting trail.
This isn't a knock on us. Basically since Shane arrived, we have made big, big strides in modernizing our recruiting. But I have a feeling we're getting blown out of the water by Clemson.
Actually you're misinterpreting my reaction. My point was, I'm from that area. I used to work summers at BMS through a temp agency to get in free to the supertruck races. I grew up 20 minutes from Kingsport. There is plenty enough of a VT fanbase to fill seats in BMS, plus the I-80 corridor. Roanoke, Waynesboro, Wytheville... Trust me, we don't need all of NoVa to migrate south in order to fill a chunk of that venue. My issue with the statement was not thatbit was personal, it's that it was inaccurate.