Recent Comments

If you want to have a team, you must be strong at quarterback. I read this as we need someone who can either push the existing field, or maybe our existing qbs can't run the new guys offense. Either way, we will be in for a guy for 26 that can hit an open receiver. I know the line has been an issue, but a 3 step drop and hitting a receiver is going to be huge in this guy's offense. Not being pessimistic, but tech has wasted some talent at wide receiver that past 2 seasons

Rangel was originally recruited by Phil Montgomery when he was at Tulsa so there is a connection there. Given how we burn through QBs not a bad thing to have another one with actual game experience.

I fully trust that Whit will follow the examples laid out by teams currently having success in this new landscape of college football...about 26 years after everyone else

The fact that there is an entire front office now is just insane, again it's been coming for a long time

It's been here for the 15 years now (I'd argue ever since Saban's THE PROCESS became a thing). People finally feel like they can (or have to) acknowledge it now.

more people trying to take their slice of the pie while we pretend this is an amateur sport

Dude... this is my biggest beef with even attempting amateurism. It's not that I think players "deserve" money because coaches get it. It's that everyone (schools, ADs, coaches, broadcasters, etc) are allowed to sell their money to the highest bidder, but players (until recently) weren't.

So, I'll start by pointing out that the title of this thread is "GM now the most important job in college football" and the title of the article is "GM position the new gold rush for college football" - I think the latter is a far more accurate assessment of where we stand.

There's a quote in the article: "We're hitting the golden age of the personnel world, as far as college football goes" - I think this is 100% true - we're going to see funds redirected from facilities, coaching staff, etc towards personnel. And of course, every college football team needs someone who can optimize that distribution of limited money.

BUT I don't think you can copy/paste the NFL GM onto college football, for a variety of reasons, all of which boil down to: 'the business of college football is significantly less organized and predictable than that of the NFL.'

I love this excerpt from the article:

The flurry of GM hires with NFL backgrounds came with much fanfare and big paychecks, with Lombardi leading the way at an unprecedented $1.5 million per year. But it has also been met with skepticism from the GMs and player personnel directors who came up through the college ranks. To them, experience in the NFL doesn't translate to the recruiting trail.

"[Stewart] is going to walk into Nebraska and be like, 'Wait, I've got to do what now? I have to talk to this kid because his teammate is a 2028 [recruit] that we want?' All of those things are just learned, you know," said a fellow Big Ten GM, who questioned whether NFL executives fully understand the relationship-driven nature of recruiting. "I don't know that Lombardi is giving Belichick 15 phone calls to make at night so that at the end of the deal, 'Johnny Smith' doesn't say, 'Well, I talked to [NC State coach] Dave Doeren once a week and I haven't heard from Bill Belichick.'"

I DO think you're going to see the rise of three positions:

  • The head coach - The Head Coach/CEO; drives on field strategy and recruiting strategy. The Saban-esk figurehead will still exist.
  • The Associate AD who focuses primarily on football - this will be analogous to COO type; maybe the president at an NFL franchise. They own budget, resource allocation at a higher level (facilities vs staffing vs players vs op ex), GTM, etc for all of football. This person will have enough football knowledge to understand/recommend changes (ie; this person can watch film, practice, etc and advise the AD if the team should (a) spend an extra $10m to fire/hire a new head coach, (b) $2m to replace a coordinator, or (c) $2m to get better players, etc. This will allow your AD to fundraise, negotiate rights, manage the relationship between football and the university/other sports, etc.
  • The expanded director of personal role - I think this includes scouting, recruiting, compensation management/distribution, making sure players are in the right classes, etc

The latter two jobs will have a lot of different names at different programs. Neither job is quite like an NFL GM.

We've got so many other holes to fill on this team that I don't see any point of using the portal to go 3 deep on QB. We're not even 2 deep at every position.

Given our ~20 year track record of any returning QB who played a meaningful number of snaps the prior year, at best, staying the same year-over-year (and often getting worse year-over-year), I am not opposed to bringing in another starting QB from the outside every year.

Ideally, we will have a QB coach that can improve a returning QB, but it's been so long since we have had that at VT that I'll believe it when I see it. At some point, it will happen. Hopefully in 2025. But I'm not going to hold my breath.

The fact that there is an entire front office now is just insane, again it's been coming for a long time, but it's just more people trying to take their slice of the pie while we pretend this is an amateur sport

Yeah adding schlee as a depth piece made sense but I'm not sure that I get this move unless they're uncertain the Kyron is going to be ready to go. Pop should be as ready as he's going to be at QB2 this long in the program.

I'm not looking at it from only a VT fans perspective, I'm looking at it as a college football fan. Consolidation of the sport will decrease quality of content and interest.

Just look at playoff projections for this year. There's like 8 schools who will be in this thing every single time. It will be just like the several years of the 4 team playoff that Clemson OU Ohio State Bama got in every time, except lamer.

CORI McMILLAN... ACC PLAYER OF THE YEAR!

McMillan and Michelle Chatfield... ACC 1st team

Kylie Aldridge... ACC 2nd team

Jordan Lynch, Zoe Yaeger, Emma Mazzarone, Emma Lemley... ACC 3rd team

Lynch also named to the ACC All-Freshman team

Congratulations ladies!!!

He needs a 9 win season to hit .500 as a head coach. I see 7 as more likely.

If he pulls off the 9 wins, he could go with 7 win seasons from here on and be ok.
8 wins requires a subsequent 8 win season to hit .500.
7 wins requires a subsequent 9 win season to hit .500.
6 wins requires a subsequent 10 win season.
5 wins probably gets him fired.

The clarification that these games actually don't count as ACC games in unscheduled years takes a lot of wind out of the announcement. Yes it means they both have more guaranteed marquee matchups but anybody can make those deals. The funny thing is it restricts Clemson far more than ND.
Clemson 9 ACC games
South Carolina
Notre Dame
That gives them one free game per year most years.

I read somewhere that all parking lots would be back in normal operations for VT staff on Thursday morning.

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