Recent Comments

It's something I've kicked around and (maybe?) have mentioned to Joe before. I think, ultimately, only he should have the permanent one-click insta-ban power, but it might be useful for me to have a quickly clickable "suspend" account that would also trigger an email to him saying, "hey stuff is going down and needs your review." That would be just a bit short of a nuclear option, which should rarely, if ever, be necessary. It allows a short-term fix that doesn't require him to act immediately (since he's busy running this place plus the rest of his life) and therefore takes some burden off of him, but ultimately still requires a bit of checks and balances to prevent me from going on a madman ban-spree. *evil laugh*

A more apt title for the thread would be "Buzzketball gets Rick-Rolled by SJ".

And I get that. My question is, though, win or lose, how much will the result of the Independence Bowl affect you throughout the offseason and flavor your expectations for the 2016 season?

The game is important because we're playing in it. But what will the lasting influence of the game be? For me, there just isn't any, except for saying you remember Frank's last game as being... fill in the blank.

The job that Buzz has taken is going to require a much longer leash in my opinion. Just to illustrate how much turnover there's been, only one guy (Devin Wilson) is left from the previous regime. And remember, this is only the second season under Buzz. It's also only 1/3 of the way through this season too, so we've only seen roughly 1.33 seasons of results.

I'd say the best time to even start thinking about evaluating a coach's performance is after 4 years, and even that's far too early in my estimation.

There's a huge perception issue with VT basketball, and getting Buzz was huge for the program. If you don't think so now, here's what was said after his hiring in 2014 by anonymous coaches:

Candid Coaches: Which school made the best coaching hire?

"Virginia Tech. For a lack of tradition, facilities and location, they hit a home run. Going to be hard getting kids there. There's no close airport, it's close to nowhere. And top 10 in that league won't be easy."

As for Fuente, he's got much more talent already at his disposal. I'm not naive enough to think we'll be back to 10 wins next season, but there's already a lot of buzz and momentum swinging our way even with this recruiting cycle. A couple more years of that plus familiarity with Fuente's system, I think we'll be able to clearly judge in about 3 years.

Finally, I would even caution the whole premise of "how long of a leash do we give so-and-so?" Before the WaPo article that highlighted Clemson's lavish facilities spending, they also had an article that highlighted the issues that come into play regarding severance pay. It's a really good article that's worth a read, but I thought this passage was worth noting:

A few years ago, Colorado political science professor E. Scott Adler tried to measure the success — or lack thereof — of athletic directors who change football coaches in the hopes of landing a winner.

For his 2012 study "Pushing 'Reset': The Conditional Effects of Coaching Replacements on College Football Performance," Adler collected data from more than 100 teams in college football's top division between 1997 and 2010. For teams that changed coaches, Adler looked at the first five years under the new coach and compared their records to similar teams that did not change coaches.

Adler's conclusion: Changing coaches has minimal, if any, impact on team success. In fact, among the worst teams, Adler found, those that changed coaches won about the same amount over five years as those that didn't. For mediocre teams, those that changed coaches actually fared worse.

There are, of course, examples of coaching changes that turn around football programs, Adler acknowledged, such as Nick Saban's hire at Alabama in 2007 and Jim Harbaugh's this season for Michigan. But for every revival, Adler found, there were several teams that just cycled through coaches, piling up millions in severance along the way.

College sports' fastest-rising expense: Paying coaches not to work

One of my biggest gripes about Lefty is that his up-tempo "sonic" offense was almost always running to the line to run the exact same play again. If you don't catch the defense flatfooted by the sudden uptempo, you are screwed.

Football will be fine. Fuente doesn't rely on an offensive system (like Mike Leach, Mike Gundy, Paul Johnson), his offenses are successful because he has a well rounded playbook that he structures in such a way that is easy to teach. His players execute at a high level and they all buy in. It will take longer for him to field a top 10 offense than a "system" coordinator, but I think he has that potential. The only way Fuente doesn't improve the offense dramatically is if we find out that Virginia Tech just isn't a school where you are going to get enough elite recruits to field a championship level team. Which is a possibility.

I think we have a long way to go before we start talking about replacing Buzz. He has to build a winning culture from the floor up. IMO it will take 4 years just to build the type of environment he wants (that's how long it takes for his first recruits to graduate), then he can work on taking it to the next level. Last year was about bringing in his recruits, this year is continuing that process while creating the environment for his new players, next year will be continuing both those processes while further improving his 1st class's skills, etc.

Winning a basketball game in the ACC is a tough. It takes real mental toughness to have a successful season, and Buzz didn't walk into a program that was in the best place mentally.

What if instead, it turned out that a lot of football programs were also throwing their money into similar activities, and it turned out that all the P5 programs were just spending more in order to maintain parity?

Oh, and that while we complain that graduates are saddled with debt, a good bit of it is being spent on things that have nothing to do with education?

Rationalization is a powerful thing, but in an arms race, one entity adds something, then everyone else gets it, so it's just raising the bar for everyone (or lowering it, depending on your perspective).

Good size good tape.

You forgot one thing: great name. (although it would be better for a QB)

With basketball the majority of talented players are either freshman or transfers. Can you imagine trying to put a football team together with that? Give time for the players to mature in Buzz's system and I believe the results will come.

I could never just nonchalantly say I don't care if the Hokies lose - in any sport!! I care because all that there is concerning VT football for the last 23 years that this game is culminating in, is Frank Beamer. He didn't take us to where we are just so that in his last game, it doesn't mean anything. This game as was his last Lane game and his last win over the Hoos means something. It is the last stitch in the Virginia Tech football quilt that he started with just a single thread 29 years ago. Next year when we go for 24 bowls, 24 yr winning streak if we win (those two kinda go together right?), and our consecutive game scoring streak (last shutout 1995 to Cincy), it will still be because I care. As it is always the next man up with players, Fuente is the next man up as head football coach. However he does it, I just want to win because I care.

Does the summer semester count?

No tackling.