Recent Comments
I agree. I hated to lose him.
I like this class so far. Very strong average rating
If we are not careful to clarify what we are wishing for, we will end up with one unified logo - the curly VT.
You sure it's not Rankin
🍺MAKES "BEER" ⚗️🦃
|
2 months 2 weeks
# | Whit Babcock Announces his retirement effective June 30, 2026 Right. When it stops impressing 17 year olds, the arms race will stop. This is not new. Frank wrote in one of his books about losing a recruit to an ice cream machine in another school's cafeteria and made the calls to get one at VT the next day.
I dont think he was coached up at LSU, he was a stud at VT, but the rest of the players at LSU did what the needed to do so he could play just his position and not worry about other DBs not doing their job. He showed what he could do because the scheme allowed that.
Chester Frazier extension nnounced today
Kyle was a first round pick.
Colleges are competing for students, so they are building to attract students and I agree they probably arent budget shopping on the whole.
I will say that every organization organization I have been apart of either company or the government or whatever their is bloat. However, from outside people rarely see what the actual bloat is.
After listening to the TSL pod this morning, I was about to add point 3, accountability. There's no accountability for people half assing their jobs, all the way down the org chart. And it seems like when people left the athletic dept., they weren't replaced and the employees who picked up those tasks weren't held accountable, because they were doing so much and wearing so many hats that if they made a mistake, then, "Well, aw shucks, it's no big deal. You're doing so much and helping us out so much so we don't have to back fill the position that was vacated."
That's one way to turn a good culture into a bad one fast.
The crazy part is I think Princeton is now cheaper than Rutgers. The big Ivy league survive on their endowments and can afford to keep lower tuitions because they aren't in a war to be bigger and better than everybody else.
I like my faulty memory that he was a first round pick better. :)
Is there a single top 100 university that doesn't have a 'bloated administration' or hasn't heavily invested in amenities?
No, and that's a big part of the problem. But at the end of the day, "all the other kids are doing it" isn't an example of good leadership.
people just don't budget shop when it comes to 'the college experience' (TM), and the market is just responding.
This I agree with. And, university presidents can't force Uncle $ugar out of the college loan business. And until that happens there won't be market pressure to control prices.
But maybe there is some hope. My oldest (HS freshman) has a friend (HS junior) who is good enough to get in most anywhere (example: MIT is a legit possibility), who is leaning towards doing a year of CC to knock out basic stuff at CC prices, and he's not the only one. Limited sample size, obviously, but if more kids & parents learn what "ROI" means, maybe the market will shift. Lotta emotion tied up in these decisions, though, and still too many parents that don't realize that the formula that worked well for previous generations isn't working nearly as well now.
He played for the Chiefs but got drafted in the 3rd round by the Redskins.
Thank goodness NIL and instant transfers didn't exist when he played for us lol.
So the Draft started last night? Huh.
Glad Delane got drafted. Second time the Chiefs have taken a Tech Corner in the first round isn't it? Kendall Fuller was the last one wasn't he?
Crystal balls in for Anthony Roberts before his commit date tomorrow! 6'2 185lb WR from NC.
Pretty good pickup.
At a quick glance, he's an athletic kid who thrives with the OZ concept. He's not incredibly shifty and runs a bit "tall", but once he gets to the edge he's got some real speed. He puts out a lot of David Wilson vibes, minus the elite speed, with his running style. Completely different type of back than Mickens.
IMO, Chris Coleman hits the point the best: Yes he gave life to nonrev sports, but his biggest flaw was running a dysfunctional department with limited accountability. He made some good hires and made some mistakes hiring, but arguably the way the Athletics department was run is to blame for some of the hires not working out (fuente especially).
I have long been a believer that a successful AD is a lot more than just "hiring the right person" and then chill out until you make another hire.
I know everyone is celebrating this, and I don't fault people for doing so. But Whit did some great things with our non-rev sports. And, by all counts, made a homerun hire with Justin Fuente (everyone thought so anyway). It just didn't work out.
His biggest flaw(s) IMO were: (1) He wasn't great at messaging. It's beyond comprehension that someone in that position is completely incapable of handling the messaging of the athletic department, including his own self. It was an embarrassment. And (2) As stated above, he was incredibly reactionary. Was that 100% his fault? Or, was he operating within a system that simply handcuffed him? I don't know. But what I do know is that if you want to play in the big sandbox you'd better be a bulldog.
We already got rid of that
Seems like the "he had to cover for bas players around him, exposing him to unfair criticism" and "nobody in practice is worth a damn to challenge him to be better" people were right
LAR took ATL's pick and did ATL things with it. lol
And just like his statement on athletics direction... He is in position to impact that. What is the point of the arms race of amenities for students? Sure if all the prices are high then at the same price point then you see "which expensive af university comes with better stuff". I guarantee you that being a high quality education with cost effective housing will get people to come (the reason I chose VT over other options 17 years ago).
What is the point of spending billions to reject more students? You want an artificially low acceptance rate for your aau application? Is that truly a good roi for the students now paying insane costs for the same or worse education than I got?
He is supposed to be the adult in the room and he was not. "Oh no I had to spend hundreds of millions on luxury amenities because *gestures broadly* they made me. Sorry students but im gonna need an extra 100k from each of you over 4 years."
Whit's tenure to me is best marked by two chapters - before 2020, and after. He came onboard and made a splash hire immediately with Buzz to invigorate the basketball program, had the unenviable task of having to replace a legend in Beamer - and did so with an on-paper slam dunk hire at the time. He invested more in the non-rev sports and built the foundation for a more well-rounded athletics department.
But the TSL podcast really hit on this point - 2020 seemed to break Whit. That was a horrible year for everyone for a multitude of reasons. But just looking at VT athletics, the 2019 Duke debacle and subsequent Baylor drama with Fu really signaled the beginning of the end of the Fu era. It was obvious it wasn't going to work out by 2019-2020. Then all of the headache with budget cuts, COVID, layoffs, etc. The 2020 Fu retention press conference was truly the day Whit lost the support of the fan base. And from there, things could have gone one of two ways. He could have worked to be a better communicator and win back the fans, bring the Hokie Club back to life to reinvigorate donors, and really focus on fixing the football program. But they went the opposite - he retreated (basically abandoned social media) from the fans, Hokie Club and the management of the AD as a whole stagnated and regressed, and he allowed John Ballein to influence him too much with the hiring of Pry. CC at TSL said it best - that hire was just not going to work, and it feels like those years were essentially wasted time. Add onto that the rise of the NIL/revenue sharing era. We did not rise to the challenge in the post-COVID era as an athletics department.
So while Whit definitely deserves some credit for accomplishments during his tenure, it really was the tale of two halves.