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My guess is bringing in a new DC gives Pry 2025 and 2026. The excuse will be we need to bring in the players to run our new system.
Probably looking at another 6-6 season. Just the new status quo.
Wins over ODU, Wofford, Vandy (I assume Seifkis will study Pavia in the off season). Then just beat Cal, UVA, and WF.
Losses are S.Carolina, N.C. State, GT, Louisville, FSU, and Miami.
Alright - who else has talked themselves into this hire? I'm ready to hop on the hype train again.
CLASS WAR VETERAN
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1 year 5 months
# | VT Officially announces Sam Siefkes as Defensive Coordinator 
In order to compete against opponents with more resources you have to get creative. What if we target smart up and comers who are cheap, and redirect the savings to players $.
Does recruiting matter the way it used to? $$ likely trumps everything. I know it does to some degree, but the old family meeting is just foreplay to "business matters".
If this affords 2 more 4*'s I'll take the gamble.
We have to try something different.
The Chef
Hope this sticks.
Thanks I'll jump on it when I'm back in the office this afternoon
Okay, so is there actually a correlation between being able to think on your feet in a conversation and being able to make quick adjustments to on the field situations? The more I think about it the more I tend to think, yeah there probably is. Thoughts or examples either way?
I think its safe to say that this might be one of the most impactful football seasons we've seen coming up. If things don't improve, we're probably looking at full wholesale Athletic Department changes by the end of the year. Or, the changes work and we ride a good season to a launching point to the next positive era of VT athletics. At this point, I'm not sure there is a middle ground between those 2 outcomes.
Or, the most likely outcome imo is that the changes kind of work and we're still in something of a hamster wheel. you don't think think there's a middle ground, but 7 win regular season + a bowl win is probably just about that. who is to say what happens in '26 or '27 based on that
there is a big big gulf between "wholesale start over" and "next positive era of VT athletics"
I watched an older podcast interview with Siefkes where he mentioned that his back to back top-ranked defenses at Wofford did it with 3 down linemen year one, and 4 down linemen year 2 because that is what the personnel dictated. That is some interesting flexibility. I would guess he ultimately wants to run with 3 down linemen, but might transition into that based on the specific players we have available. My question is what position would dictate this? I am assuming we have some guys who can play standup edge, like you mention above. Do we have the right bigs in the middle to run this? Can his defense work with smaller twitch guys on the line? Aside from the base alignment, what are the important concepts that The Chef carries through his defenses?
At this point, I'm not sure there is a middle ground between those 2 outcomes.
As other TKPers have speculated recently, I'm worried about a scenario where Pry gets fired but VT doesn't pull the trigger on any athletic department changes. But maybe I'm not giving the school leadership enough credit.
Winning cures everything though. I'm cautiously optimistic about Pry's staff changes and will be rooting hard for them to pan out this year.
I would be disappointed if Pry had not taken Bud's opinion and advice on the hire in the highest regard. My guess is Foster liked the idea being part of a new innovative approach and is already dreaming about ways to suggest using it to F with ACC foes.
Gotta say, I am drinking the koolaid. Multiple NFL head coaches have been making supportive, public statements around the hire and his coaching/scheme skills.
That's rough. One of my baseball coach's wife died the same way. About the same age too.
Not sure if anyone else has been having problems with Imgur. It keeps giving me error messages when I try to load photos. Had used it for years but all of a sudden it doesn't work.
7 home games, and only 2 are worth the drive from
NoVa
I'm a little more optimistic with a 7-5 record, but that's still not what we should capable of.
I think there is also a chance that the game management aspect might be something that lured Bud back to assist with. He can work with Pry on hey, take a timeout.
Like someone mentioned above, I am one of those "simple-minded of us" people who is far from knowing the fine details of systems. Was wondering if this system was like the one my other team (Iowa State) uses. Feels like they like to rush only 3 or 4 people and drop 7 or 8 into coverage to clog up the passing lanes. And like to use 5 DBs at times. Definitely give off bend-but-don't break vibes and force the offense to move slowly down the field. They don't do a lot of blitzing though. End up giving up decent amounts of yards and first downs but - often times - not many points.
I might be totally off-base, but was wondering if this system would be more like Iowa State's and totally different from the aggressive, attacking defenses of the good old days when Foster ran things. Any feel for that?
I think at a minimum, Bud can provide valuable management guidance, film review skills, and teach the art of playcalling (regardless of what scheme the plays are for).
He should also be invaluable in helping Seifkes learn how to identify specifically what is going wrong so that the right adjustments can be made. Not just "we're getting beat deep", but specifically why that is happening.
Bud wasn't just a gap-spill scheme guy. He tinkered his defense on a weekly basis to exploit weaknesses and surprise OCs with something they had not yet seen on film. He found ways to get to the quarterback or confuse the quarterback using unusual alignments and different looks. He was able to adjust and tinker his defense mid-game to not only stop successes of an offense but to further exploit their weaknesses. And Bud was always borrowing concepts from other top defenses in CFB and NFL, even though he stuck with his base gap-spilling scheme. I don't think his ability to contribute in his current role would be limited to gap-spilling scheme, and quite honestly I think he would be another good mentor for Seifkes who has had a few good mentors already.
From what I've heard about Siefkes, he also has a knack on how to exploit weaknesses of an offense and able to tinker his defense. If Bud and Seifkes are cooperative and receptive, they can probably really meld their minds together to scheme up something interesting every week. I think it could be a really good pairing.
I agree that he turned down the heat on his seat by jettisoning his DC / OL coach / S&C coach, but there's a good chance we're right on the cusp of / miss bowl eligibility next year and I just don't think any changes will make that go over well.
I feel like there's gotta be someone on the staff that can assist with that / help him learn over time.
Upload the screenshot to imgur then use that link to post the pic. Or if you have a link/time stamp I'll do it for you
If I could figure out how to post a screenshot then I have the perfect example of it from the Cardinals base formation
Either way, the 'gut feeling' of our fans, message board is being validated.
If they're seeing it, then damn sure Whit, admin, coaches are feeling it.
I do think Pry gets it...hence his post-season changes.
I'm not sure how hot Whit's seat is, though.