Recent Comments
I recall Fuente and Tom Herman were the two hottest names on the market year. And well... yeah
The Fuente hire failed because no one in the building knew that VT's deficiencies aligned with Fuentes blind spots.
The Pry hire failed for many reasons, but poor staffing decisions was the original sin.
Athletic/NYT piece gives VT a grade of 'B' as far as how good the job is. Here is their list:
- Shane
- Sumrall
- Golish
- Bob chesney
- Ryan silverfield
- Shannon Dawson (Miami OC)
- Tim Banks (Tennessee DC)
- Brian Hartline (OSU OC)
- Charles Huff
- Tyson Helton
- Jamey Chadwell
- Jason Candle
- Will Stein (Oregon OC)
- Jeff Monkin
First I've seen Candle or Banks thrown around. Jason Candle or Chris Creighton are two successful MAC coaches with a history of doing more with less. Neither would be sexy, but I could get behind either.
Agreed.
We gave Pry a near-total pass for 2022 because of Fuente.
But that didn't explain rolling Grant Wells out there again in 2023 and the total lack of in-game management.
Fuente and Pry were failed coaches but for very different reasons.
Still, in a theoretical matchup equal Rosters, Fuente eats Pry's lunch 95% of the time.
I wouldn't hate it, but I wouldn't be thrilled about it either. JMU has been building for a long time. That's very different from a turn around.
But I also laughed at the Tennessee hire. Fuck do I know 🤷
So he UCLA LB'd him?
Ehh I wouldn't read too much into that. I think (no #sauces) that Pry is well liked and no one wants to sink his career.
I mean, TSL was never intended to be a hard news outlet. It was a blog before that word existed, Will Stewart's reflections on VT sports as an acknowledged outsider and untrained football eye, and its spirit was always in that vein. There's room, and demand, for that.
It's why I was surprised (but pleased) that Andy Bitter wound up there, because he's a serious reporter and always has been.
I've heard rumblings that Aaron Rouse may be heavily involved in this transition in some manner. Not sure how I feel about that honestly. Listening to the SOS podcast this evening, Rouse apparently tweeted wishing Pry well and blaming Fuente for Pry's failure. Yes - blaming Fu for how terrible Pry's tenure was. That's insane.
Lol, great comment!
I still stand by the fact that the Fuente hire felt good at the time because the coaching carousel that year was full of "can't miss" coaches that all missed
I've been thinking about this as well; it feels very similar to Clemson to me. You have a "CEO-only" head coach who's not known for being a schematic genius, and all of his successful assistants can't make the next step.
At Clemson, we've seen Chad Morris, Jeff Scott, and Tony Elliott all fail on their own. Among the James Franklin guys, we've seen Joe Morehead, Ricky Rahne, and Brent Pry all hit a ceiling of mediocrity.
My speculative hypothesis is that because these "CEO-only" coaches aren't great at schematic stuff, there's a very clear division of responsibilities, and as a result, there are limited learning experiences for their assistants.
Compare that to a Saban, or a Kirby... those guys are getting into the details of every game plan, instructing what situations to practice, etc, so their assistants regularly get a window into their minds.
Anyways, I could be completely wrong, but that's my hypothesis
I think someone mentioned it somewhere, but give me Arians as GM and Mullen as HC.
Can we try that with the football team?
📡VT RESEARCH📲
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10 months 1 week
# | TSL/Chris Coleman Predicting (reporting?) Whit to be fired For lots of devices these days.
The Microsoft reliability model has replaced the Bell Labs reliability model for most commercial products.
Sometimes it's the best fix.
I'm still in the camp that Whit and the AD hamstrung fuente
🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒
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10 months 1 week
# | TSL/Chris Coleman Predicting (reporting?) Whit to be fired 
I want to say that if Fuente had been around one more year, poor would have gotten here under his tenure. The players we had when he left were not good. His ever poorer recruiting classes weren't going to win many games Pry's first year (if Fuente had stuck, I don't think we would have much if any different).
I suggested Tim Beck in the New Coaching Candidates thread. The fact that you agree just solidfies that opinion.
TLDR: French agreed with me, y'all can't tell me shit!
I'm curious where this is coming from. In all the turmoil and frustration over Corny as OC, even going into Fuente's last year, I didn't hear anything even remotely like this.
It's been stated on here plenty of times but the Fuente hire seemed to be such a slam dunk that many well respected journalists use it as a reason that they will never try and grade hires at the time they happen ever again.
Is it bad that I would be ok with the entire JMU athletic department + football coach?
It worked for Tennessee
I know from professional experience that competent subordinates can make the shittiest of managers look good. It's only when those shitty managers need to elevate their subordinates that their deficiencies start to shine. Could be the case from Pry...able to keep things humming when you have quality parts, but when you need to extract the very best from your parts, things fall apart.
John Parker Romo just kicked a FG for the Falcons. Looks like he won the kicking competition in ATL.
And the Blessed Demon just made a nice tackle for no gain on 2nd and 8.
Nice seeing Hokies play well for the Falcons.