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Be interesting to see if whoever they bring in can bring some experienced guys with him as well. Even if we can retain some of the portal dudes, we need overall/startable talent.
A couple things stood out in the roster mgmt segment:
Pry lamented about all of the folks getting in players' ears about their valuation and said it isn't good for college football.
He is reaching out to Bruce Arians (two Zoom calls scheduled) to talk about roster mgmt now that money is such a big part of it.
Yea... I felt that way with Stiney. But coaching salaries are different now. Marve should be set for life. He'll get an NFL job as an assistant linebackers coach, pull in 6-figures a year, throw $1.5m in some low risk index fund, and retire at 55 with $10mil in the bank.
Also, last night I was exhausted. Bedtime with the toddlers was getting difficult. I was getting discourage. One of my kids was puking an hour ago. And then I got this push notification that Marve had been let go. My mood instantly improved. I was all of a sudden in the zone.
Yes I'm ashamed someone's firing improved my mood that much but I also don't care.
Pry is undefeated in the offseason. Top 5 active coach when it comes to offseason inspiration. He pushes hopium like Pusha T moves dope. Undisputed Offseason legend.
I... just need something... anything... to the keep high going once the season starts. I'll take recruits, commitments, wins, OL Pancakes, QBs hitting open targets... literally anything to keep the buzz alive through the season.
It sounded like there were two sets of players that entered the portal.
One was roster mgmt - players who weren't going to have a significant role and were cut to bring roster down from 120 to 105. These players won't be back.
The second group is the players testing their value. If they discover the grass isn't necessarily greener, they likely can come back.
He didn't say it outright, but reading between the lines, there might be a third group that didn't fit out culture. Obviously, they wouldn't be back.
Yea of course his teams were top 5 rushing - GSU and Army both ran the wishbone those years.
One play, anytime in the season in games or practice could mean that #2 is now #1. Why go away when your QBs are gonna be running and subject to injury at any time?
If that was the condition to get his brother to sign, then maybe a package deal.
You're doing great fellow dad!
No sauces, just intuition based on everything I've heard Pry and media members say over the years:
- Players who have an ongoing conversation, raised legitimate concerns, who have been putting in effort throughout the season, etc will be given the option to stick around.
- Players who gave ultimatums or who haven't put in maximum effort over the course of a season/offseason will be asked to leave.
If you follow the team and twitter and see what happened on the field, you can make reasonable deductions about which players fall into which bucket.
Yes, Quinn's idea of a good DC:
I even proof-read through this twice 🙄
Really appreciate these write-ups!
Complete speculation but I would imagine...
Can return
- Portal entrance was fallout from coaching turnover
- Portal entrance followed a player-initiated discussion with staff. Player did not leave a bad taste in the staff's mouth with the decision.
Cannot return
- Portal entrance resulted from a "tough conversation"
- Portal entrance left a bad taste in the staff's mouth/player entered without discussing with staff beforehand.
If Option 2 doesn't happen college football will lose a HUGE amount of its viewers and the money source that feeds it will dry up.
Option 1 where a bunch of Billionaire alumni supporting their own college team can't support this model alone.
If Option 1 wins its over in less than 4-5 years. And the powers driving the current jack-assery can thank themselves for the loss of THOUSANDS of college scholarships for athletics oriented kids of the future (I thknk Option 2 does support this need).
Quinn doing the operational things a tropical DC would.
Do like they do at Hawaii?
Everybody is good, just tired. The toddler is a maniac. Appreciate you checking in and for giving me hope a few months back that going from 1 -2 wouldn't be so bad.
All in all, a good piece by Pry - two things that stand out to me:
- Doesn't throw anyone under the bus. The fans may not like that, but the future DC/Assistants will take note. No one wants to work for a boss who drags them through the mud and airs dirty laundry.
- It's clear to me Pry has known this was coming. He talks about having his list. He has replacements for the short term ready to go. He knew he had to get through signing day.
These are VT/player decisions. He goes into more detail, but in a vague way at that 15ish min mark. A lot of it seems to boil down to how "team first" the player-in-question is, but some of it has to do with roster management.
Drones and Pop both coming back, big news. Lets get a dedicated qb coach ffs.
Thanks for doing this! Hope parenthood is going well.
Pry reiterated that some players in the portal can return if they decide to and some cannot, it depends on why they entered the portal to begin with.
this one is particularly interesting to me. What types of reasons are given for entering the portal? Which of those reasons means a player can return? Which reasons mean a player cannot? Are these determinations up to VT and its coaches or is this some over arching regulation on the portal?
When there were videos coming out of Pry working with the linebackers in his first season as HC, you could tell how pained he was with their practice performance. He kept saying "you are a linebacker, get up in there" when they wouldn't fit aggressively in the gap. Looks like the chickens came home to roost.
I appreciate the sentiment, but even if I was a worthy candidate (I am not), it is much easier to know what the right thing to do at a position is versus teaching it.
I agree. This is only "Part A" of a two-part situation/process. Part B needs to be done right or else there will be no improvement.
Drones to linebacker?!