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I think the pay situation further fans those flames, 'your giving your guys pay raises and ours cuts'.
No, he's giving former G5 coaches the pay of P5 coaches, making all his position coaches equal. If anything, creating a level playing field eliminates the us vs them mentality that you're talking about. There's enough fuel for that when you have coaches from an old regime, but this eliminates their salary from the argument. And like I said above, it's not a paycut if it's a new job. And it is a new job. Just because they were "retained from the prior staff," doesn't mean that they didn't have to be rehired. Fuente interviewed each of them. Why? Not because he just wanted to chat, but because they were applying for a job working for him.

I'm assuming this would be during spring break? Otherwise...classes?
well, the writer attended a liberal arts school in Massachusetts. He probably feels roughly the same way about almost all football players, scandal or not.
Geah!!!!!!
I wonder how the Shane hatters haters will handle this.
Edit :
I wonder how the Shane Beamer haters (or hatters, maybe Im a poor speller, or maayyybeeee I was making a play on words to cover both those who were hating or those who are in the Shane Beamer fan club, hence they wear the hat??hmmm maybe???, no, I cant pull it off, Im a terrible speller) will respond to the fact that his biggest criticism is largely attributed to a coaching call he didnt have control over.
Is it now on Shane for not taking the responsibility of the rotation or does it prove to be more in-line with the controlling atmosphere created by Loeffler that reports seem to be hinting at?
That seems like an odd dynamic and I would imagine it created some tensions behind the scenes, if that were truly the case. It never appeared to me at a 10,000 level view that there was any strife with the coaching staff, but you never know what goes on behind the scenes.
I think the biggest thing from this that people fear, especially the way the team has come together is the chance for an 'us vs them' mentality. That's my only fear, at least with this hire, but I would have to imagine its the same fear that Whit and Fuente have.
I think the pay situation further fans those flames, 'your giving your guys pay raises and ours cuts'. That is an extremely valid point, and it is a little concerning for sure, but we dont know the whole pay structure situation, I havent heard about bonus structures at least, or know if there are any performance based incentives that may off set those cuts?
It is concerning for sure, companies fail all the time because they setup structures that develop these 'us vs them' atmospheres and have staff competing against each other. Based on what I have seen from them so far though, the humility of the leadership has been something, from a view of someone in their 20's, that is very rare, and makes me think the situation will and has been handled appropriately.
Yeah, but the fourth pic is this:

With this caption:
A field full of kids who could only answer one question correctly:
where they must go after winning the Super Bowl.
Not as funny when they include a pic of Tech...
and the conference schedule is asinine to boot. The ACC is a terribly managed league IMO. But, we're stuck in it and I don't think there will be any seismic shifts in the major conferences any time soon. Just get used to being second class, I guess. The league sucks but the team can still prosper despite that. Look at Clemson. In a few years, if Fuente is everything he's cracked up to be and then some we just might find ourselves in the playoffs. Go Hokies.
Bucky I thought was grossly underutilized- only when forced by Motleys injury did Loeffler put him back a wild turkey. That, touches on screens, end arounds, etc- he needs the ball in his hands. I'll bet he's a huge piece of the puzzle next year.
Gray is a fantastic DB coach. However, I don't believe he is irreplaceable. Foster's tenure is long enough that we could even fit the "Played under Bud, so knows exactly what Bud needs" requirement.
I would be very surprised if Bud is running his own social media accounts. He just doesn't seem like a guy who would take the time out to craft frequent posts. I could be wrong though.
The bonuses etc are already set, I'll try and find them after class and post here.
#goACC
As always, you make great points. Please don't take me quoting them in bullet point form as me dissecting your argument, I just want you to know which point I'm specifically replying to at the time.
Otherwise I see no reason why a new manager would come in and ask existing coaches to take a pay cut.
Again, Fuente is not a manager. He's the CEO. The corporation is restructuring. What you made under the old structure isn't factored in to the new pay scale. These are new positions. (I know you disagree with the sentiment that these are new positions, but if you can accept the corporate restructuring analogy, which in my mind is a way better analogy for a coaching change than hanging a "Under New Management!" banner on the outside of Lane Stadium, then every old position was abolished and new ones were created.)
Gray and Wiles had a value established.
To be fair, all our position coaches have a value established.
What is the reasoning? "I want to start my staff on a balanced pay scale so everyone will will be back at the same footing for me to assess."
This assumes the flat position coach salary is so Fuente can assess coaches. But it's just as likely Fuente is just going to treat a position coach job as an "entry level position" with the same base salary for all position coaches. Perhaps the identical base salary will be complimented with performance incentives and bonuses, or promotions in title down the road. We don't know what the logic, or structure, of the identical base salaries is.
This is saying that Wiles and Gray were overvalued before.
I disagree with this. Rather, I think it's safe to say Fuente is using different logic to arrive at his pay scale than Frank used. I don't think it's inherently insulting/devaluing to say, "I want these guys as my position coaches. I offer position coaches $260K a year," and not alter that salary based on what they made under a previous employer.
Employees are not apples to apples, and compensation should not be apples to apples. Even employees that do the exact same role should be valued differently for a variety of reasons.
I think I agree with this in principle, but I also believe that the same job title within a company should have the same base salary. You recognize performance with incentives and bonuses, not with base salary. At least that's how I look at it. I personally feel it's more a slap in the face to have two people with the exact same job description (implying the same inherent worth to the company) have two different base salaries. That breeds a culture of favoritism, or at least the perception of one. It's a far better system, IMO, to present a level playing field where performance is rewarded on top of the base salary, for transparent and empirical reasons.
Again, we'll know a lot more when we figure out exactly what the incentive/bonus structure under Fuente is.
I just don't like that decision.
Completely respect that.
I wonder what their reasoning is on it. We are the only power 5 conference that does not have the schedule released for the following season before December 31st of the current year.
Floyd General Store was the one I was thinking of, didn't know about the Radford one. So many missed opportunities.
Had no idea that Pete was in Valkyrie, I saw them at Gwarbq this year and they were one of the highlights of the festival for me.
Purple's not the heaviest consistently, but it's got a lot of their nastiest riffs in my opinion. I may have overstated though, just from the fact that it's considerably heavier than Yellow&Green while also being more melodic which I think is a pretty rare feat for a metal band. I haven't listened to the split, to be honest, I probably should.
Consider this...all coaches, other than Bud, had no job after Frank retired. Their contracts ended this Summer and they would be without jobs making approximately $0 until they applied for unemployment. So they had to find new ones. What a coincidence that positions were available at Virginia Tech. So they interviewed with the new head coach there, Justin Fuente. Fuente liked what he saw, appreciated that they were familiar with the players, administration, recruiting territory, and the area and saw that the Athletics Department wouldn't have to worry about moving them or housing them either. What a deal! So he hired Wiles and Gray, giving them salaries comparable with the rest of the staff that he was forming, while giving Burden a little less because he's still a little bit green in the game. Now these guys don't have to go find new jobs, move their families, and possibly take less pay elsewhere. Look, they did not receive "pay cuts" because they didn't actually have a job any longer. They were re-hired at a pay that Whit and Fuente was decided as fair. For those who want to say "well they've been loyal to VT and look, Fuente just gave them less for that." Well not quite, their loyalty was what gave them an exclusive interview for the job that they now have. THAT was their reward. They had the opportunity to go elsewhere and try to make more money. None of them did. That's on them, not the staff. Now no coach, other than one who has a title superior to theirs, can use anything above another. Length of tenure no longer matters. Pay no longer matters. Everybody is on even footing and can begin the process of moving forward TOGETHER.
There's no denying that Shazier led with the helmet, like I said I hadn't looked up the rule on that one, I just know it's different than in college. The refs missed a number of things in that game, any number of which could have affected the outcome.
But my biggest takeaway was the lack of control on the Cincinnati side, from the fans cheering when Ben was carted off and throwing stuff at him (totally classless) all the way up to Lewis having no control over his team (the Burfect incident, the player running onto the field with his cape on to shove a Steeler player, Jones shoving a ref). Someone at the top needs to reevaluate what this organization has become. I don't know where the change needs to happen (other than getting rid of Burfect) or exactly how much change is needed. Would a new coach be needed? Would that be enough? But something needs to be changed for this team to improve and move in a positive direction.
f they throw a flag correctly there, and that Bengals drive isn't ended deep in plus territory at a critical moment, is Burfict still as incensed?
With his history and the way he was playing, I think he would take that shot no matter what the score.
Not going to lie, it would be funny if they take their team down there and the following year after football season starts and the cold creeps into the home games players think about transferring. I think it would be funny to se UF or FSU outside their "spring camp" with flyers to come to their school where it is warm 24x7.
TE coaches should be paid a lot. They've got a lot of responsibility in that they have to get their guys ready to play every/any position on the field.
You also have to figure in hazard pay because those guys are so tall.
Maybe because he's such a blur in his defensive highlights, but his offensive highlights really made him look short. He looks like he's 5'9" when he's playing fullback.
But he's a player. Maybe my favorite highlight was his Dwight Clark'esque catch in the back of the endzone. Very strong tackler, takes great angles, arrives in a bad move. A few too many highlights for my taste where he's using his body as a weapon, but he'll grow out of that (or be penalized out of it).
very instinctual.
For now on when I am having a bad day I am going to just watch these highlights. His hits, pancakes, what ever you football guru's call them are really fun to watch. 2:17-2:22 he just pushed a guy off his feet like it was no big deal. I agree we need more play making LB's! Go get'em!
Kevin Jones also left early, had initial success before injuries also played an unfortunate part into his career. For how good we were during those 1990's through 2010's years we were pretty fortunate to not have a lot of players leave early.

Sorry if my rant on Burfect seemed aimed at you, it wasn't, I just think that he's a dirty player that has no place in football. Hits like the one on AB are not only unnecessary, but are unprofessional. Brown is out there just trying to do his job, trying to play the game, like everyone else out there. Many times I've heard players talk about how while it's true that you want to play the game hard, you never want to hurt anyone or see anyone hurt. As professionals, they understand that their playing time is limited and feel a comradery even towards rivals. By his play, Burfect doesn't show this.