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it seems like Arians was going public with ideas that were still being workshopped
This is my thought as well...
I think the thing that concerns me is that anyone who knows about the college football hiring cycle/agent world could have seen this coming.
I don't think this situation is necessarily a sign of incompetence, but just saying it doesn't promote confidence
🍺MAKES "BEER" ⚗️🦃
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9 months 2 weeks
# | Georgia Tech signs a 10 year roughly $190m apparel deal with UnderArmour More reasons to openly bid our next apparel deal. Invite All-birds, Hoka, etc to the table. As bar1990 said, recruits won't care as much about the uniform brand as they will about the money coming to their pockets.
Would a player still be able to sign an endorsement deal with a different brand than the school's apparel provider?
Good point. I'll chalk that up to a misstatement on someone's part in the heat of the moment, but better to get the process right.
Reading some of the quotes today it seems like Arians was going public with ideas that were still being workshopped. I don't think it's necessarily VT bungling everything again, but taking the time to make the right decisions even if that involves tweaking the plan. That is the positive of starting this process so much earlier than standard.
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9 months 2 weeks
# | VT BoV Approves increase of athletics budget by $47.1m this year, growing to a total budget of $212m in 2029 
Do we need Condaliza rice?!
I agree with all of that.
Just pointing out that one of the people on this coach search committee was on nationally televised media talking about how we're going to hire a GM first and take an NFL approach and less than 2 weeks later we're hearing the opposite messaging...
For an administration that failed to identify blindspots on the last two (failed) coaching hires, and has had messaging issues in the past, this is not a good sign.
This makes sense to me. I wouldn't do anything to limit the head coach choice.
Quite a wide brush you're painting everyone with right now, huh
Why would they gimp the head coach selection process by hiring the GM first?
Seems to me they should hire the most important position first (head coach), and then get a GM they're good with. The GM takes some of the burden off the coach, and that's a good thing.
What I am still curious about is if this group of people have the combined right perspective to understand VT's strengths and weaknesses, and how the coach they select can align with those things in mind.
I can also appreciate everyone's ties to VT, but do we need more outside perspective?
Why would you think that's what we mean with that kind of role?
Because Bruce is quoted as saying:
"It's all a business now, and you got to find a businessman," said Arians. "I think the first thing for Virginia Tech, is we're gonna hire a general manager and get him in charge of football. Then, we'll get into the coaching search."
Virginia Tech plans to rebuild the Athletic Department more in the model of what Stanford has done recently." The GM search "correlates directly towards migrating the athletic department to more of a front office look similar to those found" in the NFL.
As for this question:
Have you seen the job description? Have you seen exactly the kind of responsibilities that are coming with this opening?
I have not, because VT has not published one. Which is fine (not saying they should) but it contributes to my confusion. We were going to hire a GM first, but now we've announced a coaching search committee that doesn't include a GM?
The process doesn't seem great. And that may not matter. But it doesn't make me feel confident. It doesn't present as an organization that is aligned on a shared strategy.
Again, as long as the pay is right, why wouldn't a coach want to come in and get paid a lot while having someone else there to take away some of the worst parts of the job? You can easily sell this as a good thing to any prospective coach.
- Coaches are control freaks. The best coaches don't do everything, but they have a complete understanding of every detail and decision that is happening in their organization.
- Coaches want complete control of their personnel. They probably don't want to deal with spreadsheets and salary caps. But they want final say on who is on their team and who is not.
Says Lane Kiffin and GM Billy Glasscock are close to 50/50 in power. (Whether that's true might be up for debate, but ...)
🙄 🙄 🙄 Come on man, Glasscock was the DPP at Texas under Sark, and was the DPP at NC State before that. Dude was hired by Lane. Glasscock is not in any way, shape, or form a GM who is "just the AD of the football team" (like you said above).
Anyways, my point stands - Either the powers that be at VT had a plan that was blown up by reality OR they're misaligned on what direction they want to go. Neither is a good sign.
Whit is not going anywhere. Probably time everyone comes to accept that
Babcock said he's nearing the end of his 12th year as the #Hokies' AD and is looking forward to starting Year 13 in January. Says "buck stops with me" for lack of football success, but wants to fix it. Sure doesn't sound like he's going anywhere. pic.twitter.com/dIrAfIL9MB— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) October 3, 2025
Babcock said there was concern that hiring a GM first who has no connections to the next head coach could have severely limited the #Hokies' pool of candidates for the next big whistle.— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) October 3, 2025
agents wanted to steer clear of our athletic department in the past because of its reputation.
That's not what I've heard reported. The two things I've heard is that:
- Staffing is not competitive at VT (ie; we didn't have a personnel department for the past year)
- The contracts that our assistants have are significantly simpler than what an assistant at BlueBloodU gets
Maybe I'm misinterpreting your post, but it seems to imply that agents dislike Whit/the individuals in our AD and what to avoid dealing with us. I have never heard any credible source say that.
Why would you think that's what we mean with that kind of role? Have you seen the job description? Have you seen exactly the kind of responsibilities that are coming with this opening?
The only thing we know right now is that we are hiring for a role that will oversee the football program. We aren't hiring an NFL GM role, we are hiring a college football GM role. Different roles, different responsibilities.
To further this....
Babcock pointed to Ole Miss as a possible model for the head coach/GM relationship.Says Lane Kiffin and GM Billy Glasscock are close to 50/50 in power. (Whether that's true might be up for debate, but ...)Thinks that could be how #Hokies go with this setup.— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) October 3, 2025
Again, as long as the pay is right, why wouldn't a coach want to come in and get paid a lot while having someone else there to take away some of the worst parts of the job? You can easily sell this as a good thing to any prospective coach.
Wake quarterback was SEVERLY hobbled at the end of the GT game. Even if he plays, his maneuverability will be hampered. Claiborne, who had a kickoff return last time he was in Lane, went down on the final touchdown. Upper body? Can't assume he will be close to 100% either. Those are the two leading rushers.
ATLIEN
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9 months 2 weeks
# | Georgia Tech signs a 10 year roughly $190m apparel deal with UnderArmour In an era where (a) we can pay athletes and (b) VT is broke (relative to our expectations), I think Whit would be a fool to turn this money down. UA isn't the Saudis...
I can only hope. I also hope that Rock continues to be the driving force here. Whit just can't be involved in this next hire. It's been stated elsewhere, agents wanted to steer clear of our athletic department in the past because of its reputation. Keeping that same person involved is a joke.
He was head whistle in the No Fun League. Be surprised if he had not had some PR guidance.
I laid this out in comment in the Jeff King thread, but there's a difference between an associate AD of football and a director of personnel.
In the NFL, a GM owns all personnel decisions - that includes scouting players, hiring coaches, allocating capital, etc. This idea that the person who scouts recruits/portal entrants AND gets to hire the head coach is COMPLETELY FOREIGN to college football. There's one P4 team doing this today: Stanford + Andrew Luck.
I think very few sitting P4 coaches (or G5 coaches with P4 experience) will sign up for this, and I think doing this will drastically shrink our candidate pool. I could be very wrong. We'll see.
He looked pretty good on the last play against NC State. Something happen in practice?
To be fair, I don't think Whit has uttered the words "GM" as something we were going to hire... He did mention expanding the front office, but hasn't said anything about what that title will be, when it will be announced, etc.
I think Bruce was talking off the cuff with McAfee. Bruce is a great Hokie, and is obviously quite knowledgable about the game, but I don't think he's really had PR training.
We eliminated it officially in our 2016 rebrand.
How much is uniforms, and how much is cash to the team or NIL to players?
I'd expect these deals to get bigger.