Well folks, I don't really know what to say anymore.
Our D is playing mostly well, but we're down 21.
The Offense is unforgivably bad. Can't run. Can't pass. How much longer do we have to put up with this?
Sound off!
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
I'm hammered. Forgot we have a game thread. Feel free to delete.
I'm sober because I no longer care :(
Hugs.
Our D has put up a valiant effort but has gotten zero help from an O that failed to live up to even my extremely low expectations.
A halftime vent thread? This has to be some kind of a record.
We already have a game thread, and it's slightly early for a vent thread, though it's a likely event.
For giving up 21 points and 275 yards in the first half I really think our D is playing well. They just are playing the entire half and getting less than no help from the offense.
Pitt looks like they aren't even trying. This is supposed to be an important game where VT has all our our goals still on the table, and the offense is putrid. This pattern keeps happening. Fuente has to go.
Fans and players deserve better.
An average coach and oc would have this team better prepared to play today. This is not acceptable.
Same ol' shit, different weekend. No shock. No surprise. All self-explanatory.
This is the first time I have ever missed two games back to back . I also chose not to watch these games unfortunately just because I have lost faith in the program . Just looking at the stats and score . Will Fuente honestly last the whole season at this rate ? Having BB over Hooker and Patterson looks terrible .
Fuck it, make this a vent thread.
Fire him.
That has to be the most depressing 4 quarters of VT football I have ever seen in my life. Shocked isn't even the word. The beer might be talking, fuck it, I'm talking, I'm done. We're supposed to be winning 10 games a season and contending for the ACC. We ain't even making the Pinstripe Bowl. No moral victories.
Whoever the new coach is, they bet get recruiting sorted out. Cause god damn, we need guys who want to fucking win and put a fire up their asses.
And Heupel! Oh we could have had Heupel back in December, if we had just pulled the fucking trigger then! 😩
Edit: pulled the trigger on Fuente, Heupel would have been on the short list.
Fuck this season, coaches, admin, etc. I support the players but I say fire the entire staff. I had a great fuckin day today and didn't check the score one time. Screw these assholes. Get fucked, find a new job, move on.
Heard in addition to Fu pregame, President Sands was heavily booed at halftime. From him clearly not caring about football to cracking down on student life the last few years, not a very popular guy it seems.
He fucking hates Greek life at VT. Mind you, our rep has gotten bad the past few years, but God we haven't had someone die from hazing, looking at you Bryan Kelly!
No one can convince me that he didn't stop Whit from pulling the plug last year. Based on some of the things I've seen and read lately, I think the problems really start at the very top.
Him and the BOV all said no, not during COVID. Frankly, I would have given him the pass then, everybody had odd seasons last year, but good God, we can't even get results at home!
Had Whit said last year, "COVID messed everything up and we're not evaluating him based on this mess of a season", the reasoning for bringing Fuente back would have been defensible. I wouldn't have liked it but I'd have lived with it. Whit instead decided to pretend everything is awesome and insult the fans. He deserves heat.
This, I disagree with.
I think you fully support him until someone is driving him to the airport.
He made his choice. Now he gets to fix it.
It was a completely botched conference by Whit, but Sands really screwed Whit bad. Whit was working and had the resources together, and Sands pulls the plug likely the day before a National press conference is scheduled to fire Fu. Sands just does not get or care about big time college sports. If he knew he wasn't going to allow a change during covid, come out and say it a month before. Instead he hung Whit out to dry.
I've written this before, but I feel like Whit doesn't sign an extension if his boss really did cut his knees out. I think it's more likely that the guy Whit wanted fell through and Whit decided instead to go over the top to appease Fuente. Fuente repaid his boss by, uh /points wildly at the 2021 season.
I thought this too for the longest time, but hearing TSL and some other sites talk about how well liked Fuente is among the upper administration makes me think the rug was pulled from under Whit. I think Whit is happy being at VT and has done a great job other than football so he signs the extension because he wants to stay here.
When the administration stops seeing the research donations cause the boosters stop bringing the academics to football games, they won't be happy.
This ☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼
Few, if any, research dollars are from donations. They come from successful grant applications and the funds associated are what keep a university alive. There's a huge amount that goes into financing a university that I won't go into, but the athletics budget and fundraising strategy are entirely separate from the main university (and are required to be, by law).
Is there any kind of correlation or connection between the two at all??
That's a bit of a broad question, but generally no. The university budget and athletics budget are almost entirely separate, except when a capital project (construction) is involved. Consider the fact that athletics is currently engaged in a huge fundraising campaign to, in part, make coaching salaries more competitive. Meanwhile, VT faculty are among the poorest paid across peer institutions. This has been a problem for decades (read: not Sands' fault) but it's getting worse.
Another general point worth making here is that the athletic department got absolutely annihilated last year without real fan attendance. They were the most hard hit among thr "auxiliaries" on campus (parking, dining, etc) that university core funding is not allowed to pay for. Sands didn't veto firing Fuente. That's crazy. I saw the athletics budget numbers last year (literally saw the report) and it was BAD. Hemorrhaging cash. I can't say that's the only reason we didn't make a move, but it had to be a practical reality in Whit's mind and honestly I can't blame him.
But that situation last year wasn't unique to VT. Every college athletics program lost tons of money last year. Something doesn't add up with last year. You don't schedule a National press conference to address your football coach just to express your commitment to him. Someone or some combination of factors led to a change of course at the last minute.
I can't speak to the financial situation of other schools or what the laws are in those states in terms of what university funds can be used in case of a shortfall. I can tell you what I know about VT specifically.
It was heavily rumored that the buyout funds for Fu were provided by donors and available to make the change last year. I think someone pulled the plug at the last minute because of optics (laying people off because your operating budget is bleeding but raising $10 mil to fire a football coach.) If that's the case we should have addressed coaching controversy early and simply issued a statement saying VT is committed to Justin Fuente in 2021. The whole thing was handled atrociously, and we are paying for it again this year.
"Heavily rumored" should never be confused with "factual".
"Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear" is still a pretty valid concept.
But yes, firing people in a COVID year wouldn't be a great optic, particularly in a payout situation.
I tend to believe the rumors were incorrect. It seemed really interesting to me that we suddenly learn of donors ponying up $12.5M to give Fuente the boot, then find out from Whit's press conference that exact same sum was dedicated to a 5-year infrastructure plan (LINK). I think someone got wind of donors coming up with $12.5M and started making assumptions. I also seriously doubt that if the money had been intended to pay for the buyout (because all of those donors were pissed off enough to throw in millions of dollars) that immediately Whit could have pivoted them to "let's pump the brakes and just use that money for something else." Doesn't add up.
One of the largest donations to VT Engineering, when I was a freshman, was the result of getting Google execs out for a weekend, including attending a football game.
That came straight from Dr Torgesen, and I'm grateful to have sat in his class for the details.
Dr Torg also taught us about the time in the late 90s, agriculture department needed additional funds to continue operating. Got a booster and exec from Cargill? To come down for a weekend, do an overview of the department, and witness a few touchdowns from the president's box. Resulted in a large donation to the school.
Steger took advantage of football to get monies for the school, too.
Sands got booed today.
#fucksands
We tied the second half FAM /s