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Josh Morgan will also be moving on from the skins more than likely
Worilds alternates the LB/DE position with the Steelers
Hey Joe, I think this guy has earned the right to put TKP writer on his resume. Or maybe a free t-shirt...
TKP has set the standard for what a sports blog site should be. It's a place to come for insight and education. It is also a place for establishing realistic expectations based on thoughtful analysis. Best of all, it is a community of welcoming and respectful friends. We can disagree, but never with bitter personal slings being bandied about. I am grateful to Joe for keeping us in line and for all the excellent contributors. I can't add to the technical breakdowns, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating those of you who do.
Congratulations TKP! Long may you tote the Lunch Pail of fan blog sites!
Skins also lost Darryl Tapp yesterday. He signed with the Lions where he will go back to playing DE, as opposed to LB like in Washington. I believe that will make him our lone D-line rep in the league.
Missed that. Thanks.
Actually I think bringing up the football offensive coaching staff changes goes against your intended point. The overall offensive numbers went down under Loefler and Co. this year. Total and average rushing yards decreased. LT3's touchdowns decreased, as did his rushing stats and passing TDs were down too. But what increased was the fundamentals and the overall talent of the team. French will back up the offensive line, running back execution and the WRs made huge leaps in the regular season under Lo&Co.
I believe this to be the same as with the 2013 basketball team over 2012. I expect a large jump in talent and execution next year too. With JJ at the helm
Hit Man and Justified. I would vote for his rifle in Hit Man.
Do you think James Johnson is the guy who can take Virginia Tech Men's basketball to the place we want it to be?
Do I think its likely that JJ will miraculously start outrecruiting Duke, UNC, Syracuse and Louisville with their Hall of Fame coaches and basketball pedigree? No. At least not next year.
Do I think that there are many coaches in America that would outrecruit those schools if they came to Virginia Tech?
No. I listed the handful that have proven they can do it. Tony Bennett managed to win the ACC this year by developing his team over FIVE seasons. Guess what his first two years were like? First year full squad 15-16, 5-11 ACC Second year with a full squad 16-15, 7-9 ACC. Third year he started winning 20+ games. This was after he already had a successful stint as a head coach elsewhere before coming to LOLUVA and he came into a program that was not bereft of talent. His team this year had two seniors, three sophomores as his primary starters. UVA had eight players average at least 10 minutes a game and one more with 9.4 mpg. They played a full fifteen man roster this season. The sophomores are from two recruiting classes. JJ hasn't even gotten to his second full recruiting class being in the door.
Look at Miami last year with Larranaga, had an amazing run but that was with four seniors and a point guard that's in the NBA right now. Look at this season, they fell to 17-16, 7-11 in the ACC. That's with a senior coach, three seniors and two of Larranaga's incoming recruiting class. This was with no injuries to the starting five. They had nine players average at least 10 minutes a game. The had a twelve man roster with only one injury to a backup.
Tech didn't have eight or nine healthy players for the majority of the season.
Do I see JJ on this same kind of track to get us to 20 wins consistently? I don't know. Bennett had two 20+ wins without facing Syracuse, Pitt and Louisville every season. He did win this year though. Even the comparison's back to Greenberg should be thrown out the window. Greenberg didn't face those three stalwart's each season either or not at the same time as Duke, UNC and the rest of the ACC.
The thing about almost every coach that has the pedigree to do this: THEY WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH THE VIRGINIA TECH JOB. What reason have we given them to want it? What about how our program has gone the last five years would make someone want to give up even a good thing at a mid major to come into our current potentially poisonous environment? The Challenge? You aren't going to bait many people with that.
If JJ isn't the guy, I think we are going to have to earn our way back in with coaches over time before we can hope to lure one of the next up and coming coaches unless we miraculously have NBA coaching kind of money to throw around. Not necessarily Coach K type money but $2+ at least with an additional $1.5 mil for his staff. We don't pay the assistant football coaches that kind of scratch so I don't see us giving it to the basketball coaches. Besides it is money we don't have right now.
Could we get someone that will perform better than JJ has? Sure. Its possible but we could also hire someone and they turn out worse. And in firing JJ after two years with all the surrounding circumstances we had better hope that whoever it is plans to be the coach for a long time because we will be giving ourselves another big black eye by firing JJ so soon. You can cite all the Utah examples out there and if I wanted to go look I would be able to find an example of a coach that failed miserably more often than those shining stars after two years. Several people have pointed out how badly Coach K failed his first two years. Fortunately for him that was before the internet was available to people and twitter didn't exist. You got your box scores through the newspaper and bad seasons were a slow burn. That was also before Duke was really a power house. It takes a mighty coach with a dedication to the school to build something like that.
The last two season's have been miserable but predictably so. Most people coming into this season projected Tech to be exactly where they were because of the roster shortfalls along with the talent that is the ACC. Do I think that JJ with the roster that he is projected to have right now can be more successful next year? Absolutely. Can I point to all the wins to back this up? They aren't there. Am I predicting we are going to miraculously win the ACC next year? Nope
If the position was open right now, would you hire James Johnson to be the head coach of Virginia Tech?
Guess what? It doesn't matter. The position right now isn't open. James Johnson is our Head Coach right now. Given our schools reputation in the basketball community right now after how Greenberg went out, firing Johnson might backfire on us, making us appear to be toxic. There is something to be said about honoring a contract or at least honoring the spirit of the contract. I know in today's....me, me, me, right now, got to have it world of what have you done for me lately it seems ok to just can someone when they go through a rough patch. In this case though, I would hope that Virginia Tech is better than that especially with how much of the rough patch was of the administrations making more than the coach.
Did JJ agree to take the job? Yes for FIVE years. Will he be given that entire time? Probably not if he doesn't deliver a noticeable improvement next year. He might be gone tomorrow depending on what Whit decides to do. I just think that with the fact that he lost the top player from the 2011, 2012, and 2013 classes for varying reasons not of his doing (three starters out of five) its a bit much for him to be expected to deliver top quality with the additional challenges we have outlined in nauseum in the several threads going on right now. I put up a chart on a previous post with the production the players that left have had. Those are the kind of things that happen to program's that perpetually run through coaches. We need to stop the cycle, give the coach that we hired a chance to deliver and see what happens.
What do you think the record of Virginia Tech basketball will be one year from right now, assuming we keep James Johnson?
If I have to put a figure on it right now, I think next year JJ will probably come up just short of a .500 record. I think that we will likely go 8-4 or 9-3 potentially in OOC scheduling (depends on who we face in the ACC/BIG10 Challenge and the holiday tournaments). I then see us probably going 6-12 or 7-11 in the ACC with the addition of Louisville. Reality is that would be a 30% improvement on wins which is unheard of in the ACC.
If we are going to give the women's coach a FOURTH season who also finished in last place in the ACC with a 14-16 record, and a 4-12 mark in the ACC then we shouldn't be hypocritical about a coach that has had one true recruiting class come in that scored almost half the team's points as freshmen and say sorry Coach but last place isn't good enough. You get two classes of JJ's in scoring 20 points each plus 10 from Smith, 8 from Barksdale, 6 from Wood and 10 from JVZ and all of sudden you aren't scoring 63 points per game, you are scoring 70+ PPG consistently.
The last criticism about why wait I think was succinctly answered in the potential of buying a car. Give Whit another full year to fundraise. Get boosters on board with what he sees as the vision for basketball as a whole and if he has to fire JJ and/or Wolfe next year we will have honored at least the spirit of their contracts, have a war chest from which to make a "compete with the legends" type decision, and be further removed from the Weaver/Greenberg disaster.
Thanks to everyone for all the support over the years! The countless hours are always worth it thanks to the strong reception from the community.

Syracuse just had 5 opportunities to make a basket at the end of the game and finally Fair stepped out of bounds. Looks like NC State is moving on and Syracuse is going home empty handed in the ACC this year.
HAPPY BIRFDAY!
GLAD TO BE APART OF IT!!!
I would love to see the Hooptie theme a van or limo that mocked UVA....that would be awesome haha
RB J.C. Coleman - 455*
FB Sam Rogers - 410
Obviously a math problem. Sam Rogers 455 * 410 = 186,550 lbs.
What happens when Cav Man tries to ghost ride this whip.

Specifically, what "gurus" said this?
Also, what do you mean by "competitive?" We scored 45 points in our last reg season game.
I did a double take when I noticed that Augie Conte broke the Offensive Tackle Power Clean record, but Wyatt Teller lifted more. I guess its where he's listed as a generic Offensive Lineman, but most of us are expecting him to play Tackle.
Do you think James Johnson is the guy who can take Virginia Tech Men's basketball to the place we want it to be?what over the last two seasons has convinced you of this?
If the position was open right now, would you hire James Johnson to be the head coach of Virginia Tech?
What do you think the record of Virginia Tech basketball will be one year from right now, assuming we keep James Johnson?
I almost feel bad for that guy... almost. GO HOKIES!
Right Beamer didn't listen for years and then he finally did, and the difference Is night and day in offense.
Just like the football offense, you can only make excuses and pretend like there's not actually a problem for so long.
Thanks for putting in the time to write this. Better said than I could have, as well as more insightful.
I have one question that I havent been able to find. Whats the rumor about JJ burning bridges with the AAU coaches around the state?
Hmmmm....Dadi returning kickoffs....

What do we look for when we come to TKP?

How do we feel when we leave?


So do we vote on this motion now?