Illinois Hokie's Recent Comments
Mmmm. Turnips.
I can adapt to the format. TBH it always reminded me of Twitter, the emphasis of getting everything to fit in the title. But it drove me CRAZY that threads weren't bumped to the top when replied to. The redundant posts crippled the site and divided one conversation eight ways.
They actually tried to move it over to a vBulletin board and the natives blew a gasket. It was serious freaking anarchy over there and they lost a ton of traffic because the old hats refused to give the new format a chance. It was a disaster and still a sore subject over there.
Professor Harlan B. Miller of Virginia Tech's philosophy department and head prophet of Gezargenplatzianism, once said in class that the end of Calvin & Hobbes would be the end of western civilization.
In retrospect, I do believe he was correct.
Also, what's reasonable as far as expectations go. Over in the Military Bowl thread, someone said they missed complaining that they were tired of the Orange Bowl. Hopefully when we do rebound and make it back into the playoff picture and land an ACC championship again, we can get back to ENJOYING it.
The focus on offense should be contributing what is needed to complement the defense, and standard stats like total and scoring offense don't need to be dominated. A long time ago I said I call it offensive success when we have more field goals than punts, more touchdowns than turnovers. Manage that and I think we give the defense what it needs to be successful.
I'd argue Bucky, I. Ford, Cam Phillips, Wyatt Teller, Marshawn Williams, and most of all JCC showed significant improvement over the course of the season. Marshawn, of course, got cut short.
Does the ACC keep records of injury reports? Or surely we could just search TKP for the old injury report threads couldn't we? Doesn't Joe always post the report before each game? Those threads should still be here.
Actually, there was a pretty significant little dropoff right after MV1 went pro, and a lot of these program in decline conversations were had then, too. There just weren't internet forums around for them to be has as publicly. The rebound we had when we joined the ACC was a significant rebound back into the top 10, and it happened because of a bounce in recruiting from joining a better conference. Now we're seeing that decline again, and the question is will the staff shakeup bring about the needed resurgence in recruiting to ascend once more. We're seeing more 4 stars and true OL recruits, but we need to lock down the top in state talent again if we're gonna return to prominence.
But my larger point is, it hasn't been a steady decline since MV1 left. It was a sharp decline, a significant resurgence, and then a slower, steady decline. Another resurgence is entirely possible.
That, I think, is a bit of a stretch. Our struggles subsequent to that game are a result of failures in recruiting, IMO. I think of that game akin to Texas' BCS championship with Vince Young over USC: one last hurrah with all out senior talent before reality caught up with us. This dip was inevitable due to the horrific state of the OL, inability to recruit a true successor to Tyrod, etc. Winning that came would not have miraculously put ten 4 star recruits on our roster.
Oddly enough, we are fairly successful at putting WRs in the League. Also tailbacks, they just don't pan out.
As for the Journell thing, our policy on this is pretty cut and dried, and consistent with almost all FBS programs. If a player is charged with a felony they are immediately suspended pending resolution of the court case. Any player convicted of a felony is dismissed from the team. When Journell pled down, the felony charges were dropped and it became a misdemeanor case. We don't dismiss for misdemeanors.
Actually now that I'm looking into it, I can't find anything that says he was actually convicted in that incident. I see tons of stuff about the charges and then that he was suspended for the 2004 season, but nothing about a conviction. Are you sure he was tried for that?
I thought the gun incident in the McDonald's parking lot was immediately after his dismissal?
EDIT: Yeah when I googled it, all the articles from when it happened say "former Virginia Tech quarterback." He was already gone when that happened.
Honestly out of the programs you listed, I think Oregon is the program we should try to model ourselves after.
Brings up a good point.
There's cheating (Miami) and then there's pushing the boundaries of what's allowable. We pretend it's black and white but it isn't.
The programs that get a recruiting edge are the ones that follow the letter of the law but get the most flexibility out of it. They exploit loopholes. That's the sort of behavior that draws investigations and usually result in a slap on the wrist because technically no rules got broken. We make fun of programs when it happens to them, but that just means they are doing everything they can to get a recruiting edge.
To clarify my original point, I'm not saying we have to cheat to succeed. I'm saying to improve our recruiting success we would have to shift our focus from "What does the NCAA want us to do?" to "Can we get away with this?"
Yeah I definitely see us as the team that has to have a few things go our way to have a chance at the national championship. I see us as more of an Auburn. We will field great teams that usually have to catch a break somewhere to get a shot.
Having said that, we DO have to get more aggressive in recruiting if we want to even maintain a hold on the ACC.
To be clear, it isn't my wish. Just because I point out the dichotomy doesn't mean I'm picking the opposite side.
I'll take a clean program and contending for ACC championships. I don't think we have the profile of a national championship program.
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11 years 7 months
# | Virginia Tech Football Recruiting: DE Josh Sweat to Announce Commitment next Wednesday Some people live this shit, man.
Oh good. I'll get my coronary out of the way early tomorrow.
The reality is, VT does not have the history, the prestige, the facilities or the resources to be able to effectively compete for 5 star talent against the premier programs on a consistent basis. That means to land some of these 5 start prospects we agonize over losing out on, we as a program would have to push the boundaries of what is allowable by the NCAA's antiquated recruiting rules.
In not saying we should break the rules, but I am saying if we want to increase our recruiting success we would have to push the envelope way harder and way farther than we currently do. And that means occasionally coming under the same scrutiny by the NCAA that we ridicule other teams for.
The glass half full is what we've traditionally had at VT: an overachieving team that is clean as a whistle. I'm talking about the growing sense of angst and apathy among the fanbase because we can never quite get the glass completely full.
There's pushing the envelope, and then there's wiping your ass with the rulebook. Programs that take it to UNCheat's level rarely have huge success because 1) they were desperate in the first place to go to such extreme measures, and 2) the types of people who condone such dickish behavior are usually too douchey to be able to effectively lead a program to success.
I somewhat disagree. I think there are probably more recruits, or at least more of the recruits that have a major impact on a program, that prioritize making the NFL over winning a national championship in college.
Once upon a time I think your assertion was dead on, and why college football for so long was a story of a handful of teams completely dominating while everyone else battled for the leftover scraps. Today, though, college ball is a de facto minor leagues for the NFL, and the top tier recruits will look at which programs put players into the League at their position.
It was also a joke.
Can't hurt. I'm desperate.