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SET THE TONE!
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1 year 8 months
# | GIFTORY: Frame-by-Frame Highlight Reel of Virginia Tech's Commonwealth Cup 🏆 Win Join The Key Player's Club to read comments posted in exclusive content and its members only forum.
Little Bobby Tales is a good friend of mine in real life, thus my reply. He will get what I am saying. I wasn't trying to be a jerk to him
I had a question that I posed in an SZD Single Wing (Godfrey solo mailbag type show for those who don't follow / subscribe to SZD) about how to evaluate a staff in a rebuild like at VT given the context of where things were when Fuente started which Godfrey answered a few weeks back.
His take at that time was we would need to be realistic about the scale of what progress would look like and a 1-win improvement year over year would be a reasonable starting place for a yard stick, especially given the poor talent level Pry had coming in. At that time Godfrey felt better about Marve than Bowen and he encouraged me / us to wait on more data, does the offense continue to sputter or do we see improvement? Does the Defense do the same, etc.
The biggest, most immediate caution light that I saw when Pry came in was a brand new coach with a very green staff. That was mitigated by the experienced hand of O-line coach that came in at the time (Joe Rudolph). With Rudolph cutting ties after one year that left barely anyone with a real depth of P4 experience on staff.
Fast forward to the end of the season and we haven't seen an improvement in win total. We continue to see evidence of poor preparation to play. Strength and conditioning is suspect. The offense actually looks pretty good but we still suffer from a lack of talent, i.e. guys are getting open but can't catch a pass that hits them in the hands / numbers.
I don't think Godfrey's take points to an immediate opening at the HC level this year and if you listen to the rest of this episode you can see why factors like the uncertainty in judicial proceedings with the House settlement in particular are going to make all but the most monied programs very hesitant to take on more dead money in buyouts (remember Fuente is still drawing unemployment from VT) but I think we are facing a come to Jesus moment with VT sports and football in particular that is larger than just the turnover of a few staff or even head coaching positions. We are facing a "can this level of football and the investment that it requires in House payments, NIL support and staff salaries commensurate with the level of quality that is necessary to compete be supported in a way that makes the financial math work at all in the next five years, let alone ten," type of crisis.
This is partly a VT problem but it's also an "everyone outside of the top 15 brands" problem.
Ultimately I think our goose was cooked when we missed out on an opportunity to join the SEC back in 2010/2011. And even then look at big ass brands like USCw who made the jump to the most monied and stable conference just so they could flirt with .500.
This is the bleak future of college sports in a line go up, number go up world.
SET THE TONE!
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1 year 8 months
# | Steven Godfrey suggesting that Pry's seat is much hotter than we think Beamer teams were also mean as shit and weren't afraid to fuck somebody up with a late hit out of bounds in the first quarter in order to set the tone.
I mean, if CAA says that their clients don't sign contracts without buyouts, then you're taking over half the possible coaching candidates off the table. If their other two rivals do the same, then all of sudden no one will sign with you.
It's a lot easier for three agencies to collude together than it for 130 schools.
Edit: I don't mean to suggest that Whit is a master negotiator who just happens to have a gun to his head. I'm just saying that buyouts are a reality of college football coaching contracts until schools start colluding together to stop it.
MY DAWG!
It's good Ju-Ju (Clayton).
They're all ranked in the top 25 (and been in the playoff convo at some point) while seemingly having about the same amount of resources to play with that our staff does.
So their success this year isn't due to massive NIL, sustained recruiting success, etc. all of the stuff that we like to say Pry needs time to get. They just have coaches that know how to prepare their team to win football games
Edit: my original comment may have been unclear. I wasn't saying that these teams improved greatly throughout the year. Just that these are teams arguably win games because of how they prepare/play throughout the season. Because sometimes we talk about teams in this revisionist formula and act like all of the success a team has throughout a season was pre-determined by XYZ moves in the offseason, when in reality sometimes teams just win because their coach knows how to coach football
OMG, now I get it. He was on fire.....
With all due respect, you are really laying it on real thick lately. Maybe back off just a bit.
I have a bad habit of watching the games. I know. Watch him against a good WR in a game.
Yeah I tend to agree here. We could have offered 0 buyout - what is Pry going to do, not sign it and continue being Franklin's DC over a P4 HC job? We do seem to negotiate against ourselves and are way too quick to sign extensions for very little. We extended and gave slight bumps in pay to all of Pry's staff (will grant you Mines for good recruiting work) after a 7-6 year. That is pretty small time.
Consistent 10 wins is a consistent winning team and very tough to do.
He was listed as a top 5 draft-eligible corner before the season started. You're right, his 2024 tape hasn't been to that level, but he has shown talent/tape for that level previously.
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1 year 8 months
# | GIFTORY: Frame-by-Frame Highlight Reel of Virginia Tech's Commonwealth Cup 🏆 Win Join The Key Player's Club to read comments posted in exclusive content and its members only forum.
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Yeah he folded up like a lawn chair in the closing minutes of that game too.
Most of the best DC's aren't coming to VT to work for a coach who will be on the hot seat next year.
A lot of people seem to think that coaches and coordinators are like video cards - just pull out the 3060 and put in a 4080 and immediately get better FPS.
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1 year 8 months
# | GIFTORY: Frame-by-Frame Highlight Reel of Virginia Tech's Commonwealth Cup 🏆 Win Join The Key Player's Club to read comments posted in exclusive content and its members only forum.
Their seven lost commits had an average ranking of 92 on 247Sports.
Wishing we had those kind of recruiting chops to get 7 of those type of guys in the first place.
Well, I now know where I'm staying when I do my midwest ballpark motorcycle trip.
They give him a 1st round grade and then select him in the 3rd.
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1 year 8 months
# | GIFTORY: Frame-by-Frame Highlight Reel of Virginia Tech's Commonwealth Cup 🏆 Win Join The Key Player's Club to read comments posted in exclusive content and its members only forum.
Man, the Ivy League isn't always about having the smartest people, its about knowing the right people. There are doors that open just by having a degree from one of those schools that the rest of us will never see, especially in upper and executive management at any major corporation.
At this point, he's still undefeated against UVA, regardless of whether or not he has games left. Drones technically has games left, and he's on there.
I'm not saying don't offer a buyout, even though it would be nice for schools to band together to stop it. But just with the Pry hire, what leverage did he really have for a buyout other than its accepted industry standard practice and his agent expected it? Couldn't VT have said well thanks but no thanks, we will explore hiring someone else? Maybe offer a more experienced current HC a buyout versus a coordinator with literally no other HC opportunities on the table. I just don't understand why we have to offer the basic same deal to all candidates when all candidates aren't equal. If there's a job opening in the real world, you might have to offer top salary or other fringe benefits in order to land the top target. But if you're down to options C and D who have far less experience, it seems strange to negotiate against yourself if you're VT. Offer little to no buyout and I don't know what alternatives Pry would have other than take the deal or continue to be a DC.