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If we get 3/4 of his normal production, it will be close to our record production.
Cool, I like the hire. Time to get to work 👷♂️
His offenses, on average, have done significantly better than ours.
Right? Feels legitimately scandalous that the league heads would sign onto something like that. ACC/Big 12 especially.
Not to be nitpicky, but that is way more than one sentence 🤣
In a straight up comparison, it's really astounding the difference.
In the 21 years of stats, VT surpassed 6000 yards of offense once, while Montgomery-led offenses did so 7 times, including 4 times going over 7000 yards and once of over 8000. In a season by season comparison, Montgomery-led offenses put up 5558.3 yards per season to VT's 4921.
Virginia Tech had 2 years of scoring at least 50 offensive touchdowns. Montgomery did it 8 times, 6 times of at least 60 touchdowns, 4 times of at least 70 touchdowns, and 2 times of 80 touchdowns. His offenses averaged almost 49 TDs per season to our 41.
His 2013 campaign scored 18 more touchdowns than our 2013 and 2014 seasons combined, and he did so with 8044 yards that season to our 9477 over those same two years.
Virginia Tech only ever had more productive years during 2004, 2005, 2009, 2018, 2020, and 2023. I can't really include 2024 because the UFL only has a 10 game season.
Heck, even if they break ranks for financial reasons hold out for MILLIONS. Bama wants to play directional Michigan, well they should hold out for 5-10 million for a one game series. Bleed them and their extra money.
Yes true but if the ACC and Big 12 hold strong they don't have many other options. The G5 doesn't really gain anything by signing up to get smoked in those games. It's in their best interest to hold out for higher paychecks in those buy games.
Yeah, I think that's kind of my point. Recognizing that Notre Dame has a significantly better roster than us, it's still insanely impressive how good he made that line. Offensive line isn't a position where players just show up ready out of high school. He clearly developed those guys over 3+ years.
The fact that everyone at Virginia Tech regressed after his time here boggles my mind
We had a pretty damn good OL in 2020 and a decent one in 2021.
Take a look at 2020's roster:
Darrisaw - Nester - Hoffman - Lecitus Smith - Tenuta
Bench: Brian Hudson, Dzanzi, Zach Hoyt, Tyrell Smith, even Austin Cannon (walk on who played several solid snaps)
Of course we wasted this line with Hooker, Herbert, Blackshear, James Mitchell, Tayvion etc
We saw in the NFL season that huge O lines still matter.
ND had 5+ freshman OL listed at Chaplin's size or bigger. That's not the whole story but its a huge factor.
Fucking surreal to read
Last spring, during intense and, at times, heated negotiations over the future of the College Football Playoff, leaders of the Big Ten and SEC threatened to create their own postseason system if they were not granted a majority of CFP revenue and full authority over the playoff format.
In the end, executives of the 10 FBS leagues and Notre Dame signed a memorandum of understanding handing control over to college football's two richest conferences.
Absolutely embarrassing. Signing your own death warrant.
I'm happy you said this.
It's wild how wide reaching the Bryles coaching tree is, despite the fact that he only coached for maybe a decade? We often forget everyone who was there during that tragedy.
My rule for Virginia Tech, coaching hires has always been "don't embarrass me." no Hugh freezes, no art, Briles, etc..
I really hope the board of visitors did their homework here.
I'm telling you, this year, no one in the country had 8 to 9 P4 level linemen. Xavier Chaplin was the second best(?) offensive lineman in the portal so far?
The supply of quality lineman has been distributed wider across the teams. Which makes Joe Rudolph coaching job this past season even more impressive.
Obviously, Notre Dame's back ups were better than Virginia Tech starters. But there are at least 25 other teams that can say the same.
Yeah, I'm coming out of my posting semi-retirement to express displeasure at hiring anyone from the Briles staff. I hope that Whit and Pry at least ASKED, and got an answer that actually expressed recognition of the great harm done at Baylor even if Montgomery wasn't personally involved in hushing any sexual assault cases.
Because this (admittedly almost a decade ago) ain't it.
Tulsa coach Philip Montgomery, who worked with Briles at Houston and Baylor from 2003 to '14, told ESPN on Tuesday that he expects Briles to return to coaching soon.
"The man's been a fighter his whole life," Montgomery said. "He ain't going to lay down now."
I just want to toot my own horn and say I was the only one on this board to mention Philip Montgomery throughout this whole search.
I think coach underestimated them after game 1 so approached game 2 as bullpen by committee and it blew up in his face.
The late game walk three in a row and then misjudge an easy fly ball that turns into three runs certainly didn't help.
Its been 20 years since VT had 8-9 legit P4 OL on the same roster. Depth of talent is the issue. We have 4-5 guys and projects like Givens, etc at any given time. ND had 9-10 P5 OL on their roster. Rudolph can spend time actually coaching them technique and calls vs. teaching them how to block someone. Big difference. Same at Whisky- he had many more numbers in terms of actual talent.
Can you put this in one sentence that tells me how I should feel about the hire? Or really just good/bad would work for me.
I agree, but the challenge is that this has to be a united front – and united fronts are something that historically, college football teams have never done well.
If Virginia Tech turns down these offers, someone else will take them and take money that we could have had.
Even if a bunch of teams collectively decide to "boycott" the P2, someone will break the strike and take the money rendering all of us powerless.
As usual, the problem goes back to a lack of centralized authority within the sport
Just doing Baylor alone is enough for a book when you start making ties into politics
I hear you – the offensive line got worse under him. And he didn't recruit anyone great either.
But, like I said above, this Notre Dame offensive line he coached was not only one of (if not the) best I've seen in the last half decade, but they regularly were able to go eight players deep with minimal drop off. In the portal era, even the best teams struggle to go five or six deep on OL.
It's tough to call him and "absolutely bum of a coach" after the success he had this season.
That's a low bar.