For those that are just coming to this thread, it's a little busier than usual. I did a live watch and typed my takeaways from Pry's portion in the comments below. The other interviews I watched later and typed the key points in the body of this post. Thanks for everyone who followed along for putting up with my typos and a diaper change break.
All of the press conferences are now embedded in the post, but here's the link to the HokieSports ESD page for review.
Pry-ssr Takeaways are in comments below 👇.
All have been edited for clarity after furiously typing some gibberish during the live look.
Jones Q&A Takeaways:
- Sick pocket square.
- Maintaining relationships is key to flipping croots. Cotman was flipped more by the recruiting class than the staff, but Jones stayed in contact with Cotman and his father throughout the process.
- Jones talks about getting guys for the system. Jones wants to be able to play aggressive man coverage and went after guys early to play including Lovett and Flemming.
- We recruit defensive backs, we want CB skills everywhere so offenses can't play to weaknesses in coverage. Current group has a lot of people with offensive experience to improve our ball skills. PICKS y'all
- Staff is thrilled about Mose Phillips, didn't know if it was going to happen until 48hrs ago. Knew about him early on, but slow-played it to keep attention off of him.
- Cotman and Phillips are early enrollees
- Relationships, relationships, relationships - Steve Ballmer
Mines Q&A Takeaways:
- Known Jennings for a long time, since 7. Offers consistency and is going to push the rest of the room. He will be a coach on the field.
- Quan is long and athletic. Confident and has a chip on his shoulder. Is going to bring a different demeanor to the room.
- Discussing between staff on where to put ATH's can be animated sometimes. Mines likes WRs that play Defense as well because it shows physically and a team mentality.
- Relationships, relationships, relationships - Steve Ballmer
Villagrana Q&A Takeaways:
- Mics magically suck again 🤷
- Challenge with the portal is it hits all at one time. Have to strategize around that day and the dead period.
- Portal is to fill roster needs not flip the roster. We want foundational guys out of high school.
- Silverlining of not bowling is that the staff got on the road and was able to lock down the class.
- Talks about East TN being a good pipeline from a relationships standpoint, but also because Blacksburg is a place players from the area can identify with.
- Drones was one of 4 guys the staff was really looking at. Being a dual threat was something the staff wanted.
- Staff keeps a board of second stringers that could hit the portal and be a contributor in Blacksburg.
Pry ACCN PM:
- ACCN showing VT with the #46 class, not sure which site has us that low.
- 15 total VA players 12 recruits, 3 transfers
- High School recruiting is the focus, portal is for immediate needs. Pry brings up the transfer calendar being off again. Signees can transfer in a few months and the spring window can mess up development from spring ball. Pry wants one window.
- Excited about Ali, recruited him at PSU, he and Kyron ended up being a package deal.
Forums:
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Comments
It's about the families and celebrating with them.
Pry, in response to the draft-style production VT put on for the signees.
Pry must have had his fill of coffee today. He's got a diet coke right now. No crackle heard thus far.
The transfer portal is a lot to manage. One thing that concerns Pry is that the winter window is open too long.
He brings up a scenario in the HokieSports presser and the ACCN interview where a player could enroll early and the transfer out in April before stepping in the field. Pry wants one transfer window.
Specifies that's not in reference to VT guys, but that it is going to happen and that it's bad for the players and the teams from a development standpoint.
Varner came together late last night. Really likes his rush and the fact that he seems to always be around the ball. Captain at Temple, the more captains/maturity on the field the better.
Pry brings up the RVA group, specifically the players that committed before their senior year and then got more looks as time went on. Commends the entire group for deciding to stay together and being a positive influence with other VA recruits.
Tennessee makes sense for VT's footprint. Pry's time in Vandy helped get in the door there. Really high on Nashville and East TN HS Football.
It helps for a certain DC to be a frosh AA and all SEC LB at Vandy too.
And Jones' time at Memphis, I had forgotten about that.
I think building a solid recruiting pipeline in Tennessee will be critical for VT football going forward. Nashville and Knoxville populations have both been exploding. It will eventually be a talent base comparable to what metro Atlanta is, I think.
Pry talks about respecting successful HS programs. There are some programs we want to take a player from every year, because they are winning programs. We want leaders with a winning mentality and they come from these programs.
"I don't know what UVA is doing, but we have 24 VA guys over the last 2 years".
I'll tell you what they're doing, sniffing they're own farts and listening to Mozart.
Not done with the transfer guys! Specifically mentioned needs at RB, OL, and maybe DB to fill the gap between the young guys we just signed and the older guys we have.
11 early enrollees from HS and 4 transfer guys.
We're not done with transfers yet. Pry says the team needs a bonafide pass rusher from the edge, another competitive RB, an OL, and maybe a DB for depth .
Do we have any idea who the enrollees will be?
Not that I heard. Hopefully one of the beat writers figures that out for us.
He mentioned them but not in a direct way I can probably go back in the tape and find the 11 give me a minute
Jones discussed Cotman and Phillips enrolling early. Haven't heard any other names, but if sure it's out there on the interwebs somewhere.
Pry mentioned that all 4 DBs that committed early are not early enrollees. Cam, Dante, Braylon, Williams.
Cottman and Mose are.
Lost my spot in the video and it's a pain on mobile so that's what I can offer.
I also put this in the signing thread
Oh yeah thats much easier than digging through these videos lol
I'm stepping away for a second. got a diaper to change. feel free to add more takeaways
I know the day has been exciting but way to take it to another level!
Can't be doing unimportant things like go to the bathroom when there's work to be done on VT signing day.
Was trying to find a good "oops I crapped my pants . gif" from SNL but I could not find one.
I mean, it was a good class and all, but seriously...
"been a long day guys, go get that power nap" What a line as he walks off the stage
Taking lessons on media quips from Coach Young it seems.
Dang! That was a long diaper change! 😋
Overreaction time! When talking about competing in the RB room, did not mention King and when talking about competition in the QB room mentioned Drones but not Wells. Potential spring transfers?
King is still hurt right? And wouldn't count on it with Wells haha, I think it's still his job to lose
Was talking about spring/next year so hopefully King is not still on the trainer's table and is in the competition. I agree on Wells and would like to see him return.
He mentioned wells at the beginning, said he knows Drones will make Wells better and vice versa.
I noticed the King thing too, but he also didnt mention Duke so think he just was throwing names at the question.
Wouldn't be at all shocked if king transfers... he checks all of the boxes really- Recruited by the other staff, doesn't get a ton of carries, running out of time to put plays on tape for the NFL. Would not be shocked at all.
I thought the reason he didn't get more carries is because he was banged up. He was our leading rusher. And I think he'll do even better behind a better line.
Also, why is autocorrect CONVINCED I want to say Carrie's instead of carries?
For some reason, my mind immediately leapt to the original Jake from State Farm commercial.
The "what are you wearing Jake from State Farm?" - "Khakis". That Jake?
That's the one.
Something something phone feeding suspicion about who you regularly communicate with. It was an immediate leap, not a well-formed one.
King had 74 carries last year- 6.7 carries a game. He may have been "banged up" but that's part of the game. He could get 74 carries in 3 games at a G5 school. The biggest factor is that he wasn't recruited by this staff. That's why most players transfer.
Okay, but other than Wells, our next leading rusher (Holston) had 16 MORE carries for 120 LESS yards. Regardless of anything else, King was our best back.
Edit for clarification - King was our leading rusher, Wells was next, so next leading rusher other than King (not including the QB) is Holston.
Eh, King had a 6 yards per carry average. I think we just need him to stay healthy, and we need a power runner type, so those two wouldn't necessarily be competing. I think a lot of programs have and use two backs in games, especially if your plan/goal is to shove the rock down their throats. In that case, we really just need one or two more good backs in addition to King.
I'd take it as the other guys besides King would be the ones competing against each other.
And learn how to hold onto the ball. King still fumbles too much.
Fair, but competition isn't going to fix that - I'd think that's a coaching and repetition thing for protecting the ball. He's still good at making a play if the play busts. Who was it a couple years ago, McMilian that would run to where the hole was supposed to be and if it wasn't there, just ran into the backs of the linemen hoping to push them (I guess that's what he was doing)? Or, if a defensive player got in front of him, rather than doing something, he'd essentially plant his feet, do a little shoulder wobble that I guess was supposed to confuse the defender (a motionless juke?), whereupon he'd get instantly tackled. He did better when we had a better line that could open holes for him, but was not a back that could save a play.
I think King is fast enough, changes direction quickly, and has good vision, and can make good plays. He's just small and fumbles more than we'd like. But I think he'll do better with a better line and coaching on the fumbling. (I do feel like the players will get developed this year, and hopefully he'll benefit more from the S&C program).
I don't know if shoving the ball down peoples' throats is going to be our identity next year, but we need a guy who can go get that yard when we need it and everyone knows it's coming.
I think this has way more to do with the OL than the ball carrier IMO.
Also, how many guys do you think there are in cfb who can "get that yard when we need it and everyone knows it's coming"
Edit: I just discovered the statistic called line yards
Oh, yeah, I don't think it will be our identity next year, but just saying I don't think King will transfer away. He has more than one year of eligibility left and I'd like seeing what he could do behind a good line. But, yeah, it would be nice to get a good power guy also to bulldoze his way through things if he has to. But it all starts with the road pavers.
I'm back with a fresh diaper. FYI for those following along, it looks like the other coaches are set to meet with the media, but not necessarily a live conference.
21 players on the roster that have been team captains in various teams. I was really concerned about who would lead this team next year after losing so many long time veterans. It is clear they targeted leadership as a trait. Absolutely critical to getting the culture Pry wants established.
We lost a bunch of close games. We need leaders. Pry is right
I thought that was an interesting tidbit and wondered how typical that was for a P5 class or if it was something the staff was actively looking for.
Seems like it's a very deliberate choice. I think it also shows understanding that not only are we losing some leaders, but we are still blending the old staff's players and the new staff's players. The key to avoiding rifts between those groups is good leadership.
Looking at this group of enrollees and you really can see what Pry has been talking about. He wants leaders who work hard and compete to make one another better. Can't wait to see what the coaches can do with this group.
Also is this what healthy roster management looks like?
I think I saw the #46ranking on espn, and they seem to only care about their 300 so I doubt they have as much in depth perspective
It's always the Mouse's fault.
Yea, I mean, cottman was a top 5 player in VA per rivals, a top 20 player in VA per 247, and I think I saw ESPN and ON3 didn't have him ranked? Regardless, all the services are different.
ON3 has all four grades for every player on their site. I think this is the guy the Bitter calls "intriguing" due to the disparity amongst sites.
247 and ESPN have similar grades for him- Rivals is high on him and ON3 is low.
I think he put up a pretty slow 40 time at some point. That might be contributing to some of the disparity.
Pry has said in interviews he is more worried about how fast someone plays than how fast they timed. If he plays fast, then I'm sure that's why pry went after him.
I think there's simply not enough film out there on this guy. I'm not entirely sure we understand exactly who he is atm.
I haven't had time or bandwidth to keep up with all this, are we good yet
My guess (hope to run the numbers soon) is that we raised the upper quartile of talent a bit. We also improved at some key positions (QB, WR, Secondary) and built some solid pipelines
This was a move in the right direction.
We'll get there, Pop. We'll get there.
Thanks for embedding all the videos by the way, made it much easier that trying to find them. Plus, this is my only real work distraction site I go to, not much time to mess with anything else.
Not a problem, I wanted to have them posted sooner, but the HokieSports videos were not being super user friendly. At least not for this user.