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The first Fu extension after 2016 was definitely warranted. The second extension that he got the very next year was the unnecessary one that really hamstrung us as far as getting rid of him. That was the seven-year deal with the big buyout. You literally just signed him to an extension the year prior, and 2017 was a solid but definitely step back year with some warning signs. And Whit doubled down and extended him yet again. That was the big mistake. Whit got played big time by Fu's agent there.
Whit extended Fuente after a first-year, 10 win, ACCCG appearance where he was within one score of the eventual national champion (who shut out Ohio State, don't forget) and won the bowl game. I'm pretty sure he was wanting to keep him from jumping to another program, and when he did it, I don't think anybody questioned whether it was a good idea or not. From all appearances after that first year, we were headed in a good direction. I don't think ANYBODY questioned his potential or prophesied a downward spiral from there.
I'm assuming not all programs within Ivies are equal. There may be some programs like robotics (just as an example) that have better programs outside, at tech heavy schools. I did reference law as one area where I believe high power firms are much more likely to recruit from compared to other schools.
I assume an analogy would be getting into and getting a degree in engineering at Tech is a lot harder and more impressive than getting a degree in psychology, even though it's the same school.
For VT football, 6-6 isn't good enough.
News at eleven.
I don't understand the buyout on 90% of CFB contracts anyways. Is Pry not taking his only shot at HC because they buyout isn't large enough? He was making just under $1.5 mil at PSU. That's what his max per year buyout should be then. Lower based on years coached at VT based on his $4+ mil salary. He's already out earned being a coordinator he should be at just about $0 buyout.
Coordinators are even worse, Bud makes sense, he should make sure he has a deal to keep him at VT unless he gets an HC job. But he is one of the GOATs. Marve, Bowen, keep them at two yesr contracts and pay bonuses for good work until Jjob security is earned
Yeah maybe that would have been the ideal time to get rid of Corn...But I'll list off the 2018 shitshow just for funsies:
1) Bud almost died
2) Galen Scott was fired for diverting program money to fund an extramartial affair before the season started (and the last minute replacement was one of the worst position coaching Bud has ever had).
3) Our top returning cornerback became academically ineligible before the season started
4) The other starting projected cornerback tore his Achillies before the season started
5) The projected starting WHIP linebacker was dismissed after a felony charge (again before the season started)
6) ECU decided to cancel their game with us in mid-September. Things got so chippy between programs that the rest of the VT/ECU series was cancelled.
7) During the ODU game (game 3/12), we lost our starting QB for the year after he broke his leg and Fuente dismissed our top pass rusher after he (allegedly) talked shit about an coach's disabled son
8) One of the highest rated defensive recruits on the roster requested to be redshirted after four games.
9) In one of the most embarrassing losses I can remember as a Virginia Tech fan, Georgia Tech beat us 49-28 without completing a pass (and only attempting one).
10) 14 players left to the transfer portal during or after the season (which was near the top of P5 football, remember the portal started in 2018). Turkey Bacon. Players on the active roster didn't want to beat Marshall and go to a bowl game.
11) It was revealed after the season that a freshman was suspended prior to the start of the 2018 season (and subsequently dismissed from the team) after he filmed a sex tape of himself and a woman without her consent.
Did I forget anything?
How about just having the game management of the average Madden player? If he does that we win Miami and Duke. Slight gameplan improvements from the coordinators and we win Vanderbilt Rutgers and Syracuse as well, and maybe even have a shot at Clemson.
We're close but the improvement needs to happen on the sidelines and in the booth. It's the easiest thing to fix but also impossible if the staff refuses look in the mirror to do it.
Between graduate school and postdoctoral work, I spent almost 7 years inside of the Ivy League. Trust me, they are nowhere near as good as they think they are. Spend any length of time there and be objective in your observations and you will find those institutions contain large numbers of people that I would describe as highly intelligent, but not too bright. Also, it was essentially impossible to fail there due to grade inflation. And this was the 1990s. From what I hear now, it's pretty much impossible to get less than a B.
I've been banging this drum for weeks. How the hell does Whit keep repeating the same mistakes by signing 💩 contracts? He did it with the Nike deal, Justin Fuente, and now our coordinators. There was absolutely no reason to extend those guys after last season. Zero. If another school wanted them, then good riddance.
So now when the very likely scenario of us needing to change DC popped up, we are hamstrung financially because of Whit. Again. Get rid of him.
I mean, we had Drones who was expected to be in that conversation. He just didn't improve anywhere near as much this offseason as we expected, and then he got hurt.
Odds of the Gator Bowl? I live just south of Jacksonville, so a local bowl would be awesome. Although I had been planning on visiting the 'rents up in VA through the 4th of January, so the Militry Bowl Might be cool.
I think it would take several years. Year 1 PF (post Fuente) was a dumpster fire, but I incredibly doubt much of anyone could have done better. There's the 10 scholarship running backs everyone points out, but the other is how many players that were on the roster that transferred out that wound up going to G5 or FCS programs that didn't seem to contribute much. That's not a roster we were going to win many games with.
And Pr6 had to rebuild relationships with coaches and start new relationships with kids in the recruiting window. Fuente built relationships with specific kids, but we saw how often that panned out for good recruits (almost never). So Pry couldn't just bring in new recruits the way some programs with big names or existing relationships might be able to. And it's hard to fix an entire roster through the portal for a couple reasons.
ANYWAY, year 1 was a throwaway. Year 2, we could kind of expect to see some progress. I think year 3, there's been enough time between this year and last, to see the defense (at least specific parts) aren't doing well, and are highly subject to 2nd half meltdowns. And our offensive line needs to be better. But Bowen definitely seems to be able to scheme with what he's got. I'm just hoping Pry cares enough about winning to make hard choices about staff.
Aren't sacks counted as run plays (since they count as negative rushing yards)? Or are you suggesting QB rushes related to the sacks causes bad passes that makes our secondary look good? I mean, after seeing Delane some, I can see that, but Strong seems VERY good, and I'm assuming why he's ranked so high as a CB in the draft rankings.
If that's the case, and Pry is being told make changes or else, I'm really going to find it hard to believe in much of what Pry says moving forward. For a guy that talks about being unafraid of difficult conversations, if he didn't have some idea that he would have to shake up his staff after this season without being forced to do so, then his words ring hollow and he's just another coach that can't fire his buddies. If he thought status quo was acceptable after this turd of a year, then it just signals to me that he wants to coast into a golden parachute with this job and has no intention of making tough decisions for the program.
The really crappy part of all of this is even if Pry is forced to fire Marve and/or Bowen, thanks to Whit extending them through 2027 last year, they're going to be owed a decent chunk of buyout change. Read on the other boards that Marve's buyout alone is just shy of $3 mil. That could be limiting on who we can pursue if we have to eat $3-$6 mil in buyouts in addition to finding new coordinators for around $1 mil annual salary each.
Corny being left to coach the bowl as interim kinda makes me think Keeler is not interested in bringing him to Temple.
Sort of a pat on the head and move on. Give the guy some rope and let him hang himself kinda move imo.
Fuente should have been fired after 2018. Or at least, he should have been told to find a new OC or walk.
🦃 LEG KING 🦃
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1 year 8 months
# | Steven Godfrey suggesting that Pry's seat is much hotter than we think What I'm reading into this...
An ultimatum is about to be told to him... Fix your shit in the coordinator positions or you're out of a job.
I'll believe that when I see it and we haven't seen it yet.
This is where I am at the moment. We've been a mostly .500 team for over a decade. And it's not like we've had very stiff competition. The ACC has easily been the weakest power conference for most of the last decade, save Clemson. We had a couple of years where we had the easiest schedule in the P5 and still struggled. Pry has done very little to indicate that he can win at VT. I don't know if it's him or if it's VT, but 3 years in it is very apparent that something about the combo just isn't working. Something needs to change.
Beamer teams didn't make a lot of mistakes, we don't resemble that
Yeah that was kind of my point. Giving Pry a few years because he said that's how much time he needs to "get the program where he needs it" doesn't make sense and isn't any likely to solve the issues we've seen.
Will getting a new DC solve all of the issues? Idk but I'm willing to test the hypothesis that it will help some
Yeah this is where I'm at on Whit. He destroyed any confidence I had in him to do what is necessary when he waited 3 years too long to cut Fuente loose.
He and the admin in general seem to be absolutely allergic to being proactive in their decision making, and instead are reactive to an insane level of fault.
So... I won't believe it until I see it.
I liked his shiftiness, but he had a couple spin moves 1 yard short of the 1st down marker, where you'd like to just see him dive for it. Ya just hope he doesn't spin into the next Kam Chancellor that decommitted a year prior.
Is Pry even doing things the Beamer way? He was part of the Beamer staff long ago and he knows what to say, but I don't think it really resembles a Beamer team. It is referential to Beamer with focusing on VA, but realistically we go outside of it and get transfers when we can. We sure as shit don't play BeamerBall. At this point he has improved the roster year over year, the problem is dumb mistakes and our defense getting gashed. I think Pry has done a good job marrying the feel of the Beamer years while modernizing the way we build our roster, what he hasn't done is build a staff that will make us successful.
I am more of a Fullcast guy, but I dabble in SZD from time-to-time. I agree with 2hokiesin1, to me, Godfrey isn't saying that Pry is really on the hotseat this year, he is saying that the admin may have finally realized that a bigger change may need to happen for success to occur for VT football. Maybe if the stars aligned something happens this season, but the Lea DOA comparison is interesting to me, because that makes it sound like there is some pressure on Pry to make changes and take a step forward next year or there will be consequences.
I do wonder how much of this blurb came from insider info vs his intuition on things. It does feel like there is a lot of complacency within the athletic department and university admin, but Mehul and others that appear to be close to the program have been pretty clear Whit and Sands understand that football is important to the university and results matter. Since the last 3-4 Fuente years I have definitely felt like I'll believe that when I see it and we haven't seen it yet.
My understanding is only head coaches have buyouts, nobody under them does. The idea being the head coach is the one needing protection, but if he goes, most of his staff should go, so you don't want to add buyouts for them. And a buyout isn't to keep a coach from jumping ship, it is to protect coaches from schools firing a coach before they're given a chance to succeed. I'm sure certain SEC schools might try firing a coach every year if they didn't meet some threshold if there wasn't a buyout in place. And buyouts aren't based on yearly salary (other than as maybe a multiple of a yearly salary) -they're designed to make it PAINFUL for a school to let a coach go before they're get the chance to succeed, which is why they go down over time. Once the coach has had the time to recruit players and do the things they want to do, their performance should stand on its own merits. From there, schools can also put clauses in a contract where if the coach jumps ship, there are financial disincentives.
Basically, coaches want protection to not be fired after one year because they haven't had a chance to bring in the players they want, but shouldn't be protected (or have much protection) like 5 or 6 years in, when they should have been able to set up everything the way they want and be performing as well as they'd be expected to.