Just to continue conversation. Here are defensive coordinator options who are "on the tree" of connections with Pry. I am sure there are other names out there as well.
1) Anthony Poindexter- Virginia ties, great recruiter, been passed up twice for the DC job at PSU (although for two well regarded DCs in Mario Diaz and Tom Allen). Negative, limited DC experience
2) Tim Banks- current DC and safeties coach at Tennessee. Was the secondary coach under Pry at Penn State. Recruited and developed a top notch defensive line and good corners. Linebacker recruiting has been a weak point. Likely out of the price range unless Heupel wanted a change.
3) Torrian Gray- long time secondary coach under Bud Foster and his secondaries have been terrific in the same scheme and other schemes. Has a reputation for not being a great recruiter, and no DC experience.
4) Bob Shoop- currently a safeties coach at Marshall, but has been a DC at Penn State, Tennessee, and other spots. Ran a similar system to Pry at Tennessee. Ending up at Marshall as a position coach is a bit weird, and being 58 would make me wonder how much he wants to deal with recruiting/NIL etc.
What other names could be out there?
Comments
Feel like if it was any of these other than Poindexter the announcement would already have been made.
I'm 99% sure it's Dex at this point.
Acording to Chris Coleman's recent article on TSL, its definitely not Dex. He could be wrong, we will see.
I don't really read any Chris Coleman stuff so I'll drop my confidence to 98%
Edit: I'm not a subscriber but looking at the free side of his article it specifically says that he won't mention names and Pry is conducting in person interviews this week?
I don't know that anyone knows what VT is doing. All I do know is that Chris mentioned that Dex wasn't going to be the DC in a couple of his last articles. I listened to the TSL Podcast today and he said it again. He also said that iight still could be Dex and this was some kind of smoke and mirrors deal. Who knows.
I hope it is Dex but all this makes you wonder why would Chris mention that's its not going to be Dex in 2 articles and then again on the Pod.
Hmm... this math ain't mathin... to me anyway.
Thanks for that clarification. Definitely throws a wrench into all the other signs that seem to be pointing at Dex
If it was someone interviewed this week and finished playing within the last week that narrows it down to an NFL guy not in the playoffs or the 2nd round CFB losers. I guess it's possible we'd wait for someone to get through their non-CFP bowl which opens it up a bit, but that seems unlikely.
Well Pry also isn't doing bowl prep anymore so it very well could be a team in the CFP still but Pry now has more schedule flexibility to set up interviews.
I can't imagine stepping away from semifinal prep for an interview, but that job environment is pretty hard for me to imagine in general.
Kenny brooks can imagine it
Fair point
That taps the brakes for me on the Dex train. Considering how much smoke there has been around the possibility of Dex as the DC pick, why would Coleman put himself out there so confidently saying it is not Dex unless he had really good sources?
Unless he's helping provide smokescreen? Or there really isn't a decision yet, in which case, I don't know why he'd say it's NOT him.
I saw that also, but I think it was more along the lines that he "had heard" it wasn't going to be Dex. When it comes to hiring coaches, I put little faith into what people say and hear.
That very well could be correct, but TSL is definitely a site that would act as a mouthpiece for the athletic department if asked and I could absolutely see a scenario where we are being asked to tamp down those rumors while PSU is in a title run out of respect for the new coach
I have no inside info. Merely looking at people who make sense given how tied Pry is to keeping the same scheme.
I know switching to a 3-4 isn't really possible with our personnel, but if Pry was comfortable with it how would our personnel match up to a Tampa 2 or a primarily nickel defense? With how we've flipped the DB room it has made me wonder if we're going to utilize more nickel coverages.
And now another safety. That's
54 transfers, 1 commit, and Reddish. Even if one goes to Star and one to nickel/swiss army knife, I feel like we might be changing our base defense.Or our safeties either suck or are leaving and we're looking for bodies and hoping one or two pan out.
I sure hope 1-2 out of five pan out. If not, that's a really bad hit rate.
"Or our safeties either suck "- bingo.
Maybe we need to get 5 linebackers also
We do... maybe not 5, but 2-3 P4 transfers would be lovely.
Yep. At least 2 at Mike. Keller won't cut it. Then I'd say 1 more at star and maybe someone to compete with Woodson at Backer
This is where my head is at right now. I think some of the VT insiders are running a smokescreen for the staff right now on the DC hire. Almost no one who is still coaching makes sense other than Dex. Maybe Banks from Tennessee but they have been done for weeks now. I also think he is going to be out of our price range anyhow.
Realistically, no current sole DC for any playoff team is leaving and making a less than lateral move from a playoff team to VT right now. Dex has the connection to Pry, and there's the logical sense of it being a promotion for him that would allow us to hire him and PSU not to be able to match. I don't put stock in it being any NFL coordinators either, and definitely not Sorensen. I also don't think we would be signing all these impact defensive recruits without them having some idea who our DC is/the hire basically being a done deal. And Dex coincidentally enough was the lead recruiter at PSU for a lot of these guys and has a relationship with them already. I think it's just getting very obvious who it is, but PSU is still in the hunt and Franklin has probably demanded that Pry/VT keep this quiet until they are out (which frankly is a bit ridiculous, but he and Pry are buddies). So now the VT media that has connections to the staff are having to awkwardly throw out misdirection to try and make it seem less obvious. Could be wrong but that's just my take on it.
That is certainly logical enough. Only question that bothers me is why even ask VT media connections to come out and specifically say it is not Dex? Why not just continue radio silence on the subject? Unless it is to keep the national media from asking Dex about it while he certainly needs to be focused on his task at hand.
Maybe that's not what they asked. Maybe they asked for some smokescreen and the one guy decided the best smokescreen would be to say it's not him...
I could get excited about any of these options except Schoop. Wouldn't love Torian, but I could get hype about it.
Gotta figure there's 1 of 3 reasons for the wait:
Really Hope it's the first.
after the J-Ham experience I'm not high on bringing in a) someone without DC experience, or b) one of Bud's guys unless it's one of Bud's guys that also has prior DC experience.
Meh, JHam had significantly less experience than Grey does.
But, I agree that I much rather a proven DC over Torrian.
Torrian Gray was a jumpscare for me. we're still talking about him?????
I keep seeing Tim Banks name come up relative to Miami and Clemson, but can't figure why he would leave the SEC. And if he isn't going to one of those schools, doubtful he'd come here.
I don't think anyone thinks he's going to come here. But he is one of the few people who is familiar with Pry's scheme.
From a recent article:
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/sports/college/university-of-tennessee/fo...
I would be very surprised at that salary for a VT DC. I am not against the idea, just would be surprised.
I've been saying we should back up the money truck for a good one. Not anyone specifically, just be willing to pay. After all, they say defense wins championships.
Did Pry make a comment in a presser that they were pretty far along in hiring process but couldn't say anything because "he was still coaching? Or am I misremembering the quote? Which one of these dudes is still coaching other than Dex? Or was still coaching at the time of the quote?
Banks had just finished coaching at the time.
Also anyone in the NFL
Okay, so if it is Poindexter, who might he be bringing with him in the portal? >=^)
Tony Rojas! ROJAS! TONY ROJAASSS! ROJAS, ROJAS, ROJAS, ROJAS! Football is life!
Of all the names that have been mentioned on this site, I just have a hard time not thinking that it's Dex since he' still coaching and an announcement hasn't been made yet.
Saw where Nick Sorenson was let go by the Niners. Possibly the man?
That's unreal to me. The 49ers were 8th in Defensive Yards Allowed. They were 22nd against the run but 4th against the pass. They just seemed to always be on the field as injuries plagued their offense.
The offense left them facing quite a few short fields as well.
It's also completely shocking to me that with, 3 multi-time Pro-Bowlers, none of the LoB have been nominated for the Hall even with 3 reaching eligibility requirements.
NFL coordinators are a different ball game. Much more plug and play than in college. Sorensen will find a spot and the 49ers will find a new guy- relatively easily. If he doesn't work out, you fire him- you don't have to worry about "recruiting" and players have contracts- so they can't enter the free agent portal unless their contract is up.
I don't know. Saw where they dismissed him from DC but were wanting to keep him in "some other role"
I can't see him taking that step back there. Not saying he would come here but when you only get one year from Shanahan, why stay for less. Plenty of teams looking for DCs.
Sorensen and the 49ers run a very different defense: 4-2-5 wide-9 with zone coverages behind it. While I think APR would have been good in this defense as the Wide-9 speed rusher (like Nick Bosa), I don't think VT would have the personnel or coaches to run it. You need two run-stopping DTs, free-ranging read-and-react LBs that identify the gaps and fill them or fall back in zone coverage, and zone-coverage DBs (including 3 CBs, and often 2-high safety look). The Foster/Pry defense utilizes gap-shooting DTs, gap filling and spilling LBs, a hybrid safety/LB STAR, and man coverage DBs. And I don't think any of the VT position coaches have experience in that style of defense. If VT were to try and implement that scheme, every opposing team be able to run the ball up the middle and pick apart the zone coverage.
Sorensen would be a huge get though. Name recognition, VT guy from NoVA, and players like him. But no college coaching experience. No idea if he can recruit. And scheme is not a fit for VT.
agree with all of that but will note he did PLAY in Bud's scheme. it has been awhile but it's not like he doesn't know how to do it. I'd take him to coach safeties and/or special teams tomorrow...maybe even HC down the road
I think he will have NFL DC offers, and even if that doesn't happen I'd be surprised if he drops all the way to position coach at a struggling college football program.
Sorensen for HC with Pry moved to GM and press guy. I like it.
But your point about him playing in the scheme is fair. I'll counter that playing in it and coaching it are two different things (look no further than Chris Marve). But, he is a great football mind and I don't doubt he would be able to get familiarized with the gap fill and spill scheme in a short amount of time. But, he would lack the experiences in calling plays for the scheme and making adjustments. Maybe with Bud in his JKill role would be able to smooth out that process.
I think it would be a gamble, but maybe that's what Pry needs to do to get this team to the next level.
If Whit/VT could hire Nick Fucking Sorensen- a super respected NFL coordinator who has coached multiple positions- we should throw a fucking parade. That hire would have a huge impact. An NFL DC? you fucking kidding me? this is not Tyler Bowen or Todd Washington.
This. Hiring a DC that has coached in a recent Super Bowl would be an absolute coup. Big swinging dick move.
Can you think of a CFB program that has done something similar in the last decade? I can't. Because it doesn't happen.
Monte Kiffin at Tennessee, they got beat by the hokies in a bowl game.
Wasn't Lane the Head Coach IIRC? Gave him the family discount.
Yea, I think that was one of the reason Tennessee fans were so excited about the hire - because Lane was bringing his dad with him.
And we made Monte look bad in the Bowl game.
Bellichek
Not knocking Sorensen whatsoever, but he has only been a coordinator for one season (this year) and is being demoted. That doesn't scream "super respected NFL coordinator." Frankly, if you took away the fact that he's a former Hokie, this hire would be seen as very random/weird. Zero college coaching experience/recruting experience either.
But hiring Todd Washington, an unemployed former assistant position coach would have been a home run?
I never really thought so. I think that would have been a very poor hire overall. Just not enough college coaching/recruiting experience. Again take the name and former Hokie status off the resume, and people would be outraged at that hire.
Yea, I agree.
There were significant number of people that thought the hire of Sorensen for DC was strange and premature. He really doesn't have that long history of coaching. His first major position job was in 2017 as secondary coach for 4 years in Seattle (with Kam Chancellor). In 2021, he was special teams coordinator for 1 year (with Tyler Bowen). Then went to SF and had the following titles: Defensive Assistant in 2022; Defensive pass game specialist & nickels coach in 2023; and Defensive Coordinator in 2024.
He's a jack-of-all-trades defensive and special teams coach, but never really held down a position coaching job except for in Seattle for 4 years.
And I'm not against hiring Sorensen, but I don't have the same enthusiasm as others on here do. And I don't think there is another top-level P4 school that would really consider hiring him as DC because he really hasn't proven he's DC material and has zero college experience. I would imagine most outside of the Hokieverse would see it as a weird hire.
I do think it would be an interesting tidbit to have two coordinators that coached on the 2021 Jaguars fiasco with Urban Meyer.
What is Darryl Tapp doing these days?
Hating UVA, maybe other things
Coaching the Commanders defensive line
oh nice, getting some time under Quinn
The wide 9 defense is a Quinn's specialty defense, and the reason SF runs it because Shanahan liked Quinn's defense when he as OC in ATL.
If VT does go get Sorensen as DC, you have to go pay Tapp and bring him back too to help with the DEs. Go all in on the wide 9. It would just take a few years for VT to get the right personnel, and most importantly a rotation of 4 gigantic OL-eating DTs. And maybe it would help defensive recruiting to run a successful (but still somewhat niche) NFL defense.
Pry doesn't have the luxury of a few years to get personnel and scheme switched over. He has to turn things around this year or he's toast IMO.
Yea, I agree. And also why I don't think Sorensen makes sense at this time.
I predict it is someone who has not even mentioned it yet.
If that is the case I predict we will either be a bit disappointed (most likely) or possibly ecstatic (if for some reason we swing for the fences).
Jerrod Mayo
At the announcement press conference, our new DC removes the Duke's Mayo costume and we find out it's Flava Flav.
At least he wears a giant clock. He could be both DC and end of half clock management.
"YEAH BOYEEEE!"
Yikes, I read that first sentence wrong!
Guess I should have said "giant timepiece" to keep the double takes to a minimum.
Same! I was expecting a very different sentence 2 😂
.
Tell me more about this Mario Diaz guy /s
I moved to the Great Commonwealth of Virginia when I was 8 to live with my dad in Fredericksburg. I stayed there until after i graduated VT. I love Virginia. It's a great state, a magical place. Having said that- the "virginia" thing with regards to everything encapsulating the VT program is fucking overrated. We aren't winning. If we actually signed the top 5 players in virginia every year I would shut up. But we don't, so can we let go of that a little bit?? please? Can poindexter actually coordinate a defense that can get critical stops? If so, who gives a fuck state he is from? If the logic is the glory days of VT were coached by a virginian with great virginia players, those days are over. We are losing to ODU and Liberty now.
This is all fair but in the world of recruiting if you've already got an in with the immediate recruiting area then you can spend time building relationships further from that area. Everyone in VAHS knows an respects Dex....you bring in a guy from Montana and it's more of a hill to establish those initial relationships.
In the world of scheming and play calling I agree with everything you said, we have no real idea if Dex's play calling will cut it. ASFAIK he only was calling plays at UCONN nearly a decade ago, does he have what it takes to be the guy at VT? I hope we get to find out
This is basically what came to mind thinking of Old Virginia!! The new DC coming in getting asked about the top 10 recruits in VA
Pretty bold strategy, Cotton, coming from guy named Bragg.
I will emphasize this... even if VT got the top 5 players in the state every year, I don't think it would elevate them that much. VHSL is awful and very few programs produce kids that are prepared for college football, much less P4 football. The HS football and talent is much better in Winston Salem-Greensboro-Charlotte (and just south on the other side of the South Carolina border) than in the 757 and Richmond. It is also a shorter and easier trip.
Beamer initially built the program on S&C and finding kids from outside of Virginia to compliment the Virginia kids who wanted to be there. Del-Ricco, Pyne, Freeman, etc. You find the recruit that fits your system and culture, and you be relentless to sell that the place they will succeed best is Virginia Tech. Not take square pegs in round holes just because it sounds good to folks who got wrapped up in the "757" era post Vick.
I still think the Big East falling apart really hurt VT. They were much better at getting good players from PA, MD, and NJ when they had CBS doing regional games across the NE.
"VHSL is awful and very few programs produce kids that are prepared for college football, much less P4 football."- so why are we so focused on "Virginia" this and virginia that?
because we got a bunch of dinosaurs in charge who like to yell at clouds and pine for the "good ol' days" and think that if we just do what we did in the late 90s when we were good we'll be good again. No foresight. No vision. No creativity.
Correct. I can see right through the latest "virginia" hype. The back up LB from a free falling Pitt team is a MUST get... oh, why? He's from Virginia of course.
I also think that Pry is playing the game. He is very good at taking a kid from Virginia to smooth the edges for the "old timers" and then grab kids out of the portal from TX, GA or from name another place USA.
it's also evidence that we're restoring relationships with coaches and important people at regional high school programs. if someone thinks (not you, dc, just a general remark) that we arent letting Jordan Bass's high school coach know we're here if he has second thoughts about the nard dog, then they're silly
i think it's not necessarily a matter of "what did this kid do at his last stop" and more "what can this kid do for us" -- we obv wanted Bass out of high school, staff sees that he could be something useful for us, and is willing to take him on accordingly
edit: two words for clarity
"restoring relationships with coaches and important people at regional high school programs." There is no question that this is what we are trying to do. But to French's point, why? Virginia kids aren't what they were 30 years ago and they aren't special in terms of talent anymore.
I'd like French's perspective but from a random guess regional talent could be cyclical, maintaining relationships there could pay off later with relatively little effort.
exactly, you have to maintain the recruiting relationships so that you have an advantageous position when the time comes and it matters
and even if VHSL talent is down, there are enough P5 players from the commonwealth that are highly rated every year. "Dominating the state" and getting 13 of the top-30 in-state recruits (or whatever) is nice, but i really would like to see more and more of the top-5 coming here instead of PSU, Clemson, Tenn, UF, FSU so forth. And Maryland. I never understood that one.
Because recruiting locally is much more economic and efficient than recruiting over a very broad swath.
There is much less competition than picking a hotspot closer to UNC or Penn St. or Dallas.
That is a good question. Blacksburg is my hometown and I have a few friends that work at VT in admissions and Financial Aid. My understanding is it has to with tuition rates for in state vs out of state.
Since VT has such a money problem, I think they are trying to save a few bucks on in state kids.
My son is now a student at VT. We relocated back to Blacksburg last year from Chattanooga TN. The tuition rate for out of state is more than double what I am paying for in state. My son was able to become a VA resident and had to take 2 classes at a VA Community College to direct transfer to VT to get in state tuition at VT even though he was accepted initially at VT. It costs me $1800 for one semester at Community College but saves over $20k a year in what would have been additional out of state tuition costs.
It's insane to me. But we all know VT tries to do more with less at bargain prices. Until VT changes that mindset and can figure out how to fund the program at the level required to compete with the big boys, we will never have a Championship level team. IMO, we will remain a mediocre 500 or slightly above 500 team.
tuition rates for in state vs out of state
there was rumored to be a move afoot to remedy that issue...that athletics would be billed for in state
I can't believe this isn't already a thing?? and I'm 100% sure LSU, etc does this already
I always assumed it was just free, and the cost of the scholarship was just termed a 30k "value". Why does the academic side need to bill for the athletes? They do not really cost the academic side anything.
Well if universities were allowed not to count that on a budget/cost somewhere/anywhere that would be a game changer for VT and others. Millions "saved" each year.
It's weird because they have programs like that on the academic side and have for decades. My wife is from WV, but she got in state tuition at Tech in the late 90's because she was majoring in Accounting Information Systems and they didn't offer that major at any of the major WV colleges at the time.
Since we're a public university, pretty sure that requires an act of the legislature, which apparently got bogged down.
I don't really understand this:
VT wants to save money by not paying itself more money. I get that the Athletic Dept. and Academic side are two different ledgers, but seems like a dog chasing it's own tail.
I agree that the dog is chasing its own tail. What I can tell you from my own personal experience as a student at VT is that the fundraising rules for academic is holistically different from that of athletics.
When I was a getting my MSEE grad degree I worked as a GRA for an NSF funded engineering research institute at Tech that was a partnership with 4 other schools. My grad degree was corporate sponsored and I got paid about $1600 a month plus my tuition was paid minus the fees. When I graduated the center has 10s of millions of $$ in sponsorship research from well over 100 different corporations. As an academic student in 2000, I could work for the university as a GRA and get paid but an athlete could not.
Also, I read an article the other day about the limitations VT has in athletic fundraising due to VT being a State school. Those limits would require legislation from the state to fix and thats going nowhere. Whitt eludes to this in his interview with Roth.
VT is operating with one hand and leg tied behind its back because of being a state school. Corporate sponsorship is allowed in the academic world but not so much in the athletic world.
VTs money problem is on the athletic side not the academic side. For example, there is a hot shot lawyer in Miami that donates millions to the U and can because of their Private School status.
At VT the big donors can donate a ton of money for facilities or to get a building named after them but they can't to pay athletes. That's what the NIL collective are for at the present. Once the House settlement goes into affect in July VT has committed to the $20.5M for this year but has no clue how to get there next year. They are getting creative and will probably raise student athletic fees.
If I can find the article again about the limits of VT fundraising, I will post the link.
The whole situation is messed up.
Would love to see the article, as I am curious too. Curious how the laws in VA are different from other states.
The messed up part is the law if it's the one I have seen discussed only applies to VT and UVA. Liberty, JMU, ODU and any other school that went FBS after the law are not held to it. There are quite a few pieces. One part limits Tech to Student Fees no more than 20% of the overall athletic budget but I know it had other restrictions as well.
You mean we would have Daniel L Crandall He's Easy To Talk To Head Football Coach Brent Pry if it wasn't for that dang legislature???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
I think "Virginia this and Virginia that" is an easy way to say 'our 5-6 hour radius.' We stick to the 5-6 hours radius because:
All makes 100% sense. In VT's case Wiles and Gray used to bring in some really good talent from Florida. We should try that again. The 6 hour radius is a clear vision/strategy- and like all of those, it needs to pay off at some point. I think Fuente tried to reach further, but he couldn't close on a good player if his life depended on it. Let's see it start to pay off, and I'll buy more into it.
Aiming at talent, Texas/Florida/California are the places to focus if you can sell it. Those kids play football year round and even their second/third tier talent is many times better than top talent here in VA. The Fuente issue was he couldn't sell it and also actively destroyed the 6 hour radius connections so we were hanging in the breeze.
I don't think Fuente 'tried to reach further' - I think he butchered relationships locally, so he was forced to go places where he still had relationships.
The problem with that is that it doesn't scale; VT doesn't have brand recognition in Texas, so we can't just drop in and have people flock to us. Beyond that, it's logistically a challenge to maintain relationships with high schoolers a thousand miles away. They can't fly out on a weeks' notice to visit. How do you scout from 1000 miles away? It's a challenge. Coaches also waste time traveling. If you fly out and kid has a last minute conflict, it's a hassle to come back, etc. Despite NIL and everything, college football high school recruiting will never boil down to a zoom meeting and a job offer.
Florida is a different story all together. Every staff has to have a Florida guy. Fair criticism that we don't have a Florida guy on staff.
Also, Wiles/Gray weren't recruiting the entire state - they had a handful of high schools/areas they were plugged into. Not only that, but when a good player wasn't getting rub, coaches would call up our guys and tell them - Dadi Nicholas was a 2-star or something with a theft on his record? Wiles knew a guy who knew Dadi and put them in touch.
I feel like the TX thing was because Fuente understood them better, but to your point, it's harder to make it happen, it's harder if the player's family want to come see games, or if the player's wants to go home on a weekend, or whatever.
Having a footprint makes a lot of sense, and I think it will pay off. People make it seem like you should be able to recruit well from day one, but also talk about the importance of knowing the recruits and being in their ear from 8th or 9th grade. Pry had to fix relationships first, especially if the HS coaches are in the player's ears and recommending other schools.
But we're getting a lot of guys back from the portal, which feels like a good sign. Now we just need to get the higher rated recruits from in-state and the surrounding states. There really was a lot for Pry to fix that wasn't going to pay dividends right away. I feel like we're still one more year off from getting to see how well a number of things will pay off.
"There really was a lot for Pry to fix that wasn't going to pay dividends right away"- The clock is firmly ticking.
I think part of the footprint too was seeing a lot of players want to transfer to be closer to home, maybe not like a school in your hometown, but close enough that the players could get home relatively easy, their parents could come to games, etc.
Is this a Key Play we, or a VA Tech coaches we? I hear on this site a lot more needing to take most of the top 5 or 10 VA recruits. I mean, Pry initiated relationships with coaches all throughout the footprint, not just VA. Plus, just because we have relationships with coaches in VA doesn't mean the kids from there are automatic takes.
Part of the reason I'd be happier in the B1G than the SEC. Kevin Jones, the Fullers, we had a lot of good players come out of MD, PA. Plus, I'd rather play Penn St and MD than USCeast and Auburn.
I hear ya on where some of our players have come from, but at the same time, Ohio State, Michigan, and PSU fans are some of the most insufferable I've ever met.
Had a friend who went to Auburn. His girlfriend and her sister both went there. Their dad, a Georgia fan, refused to talk to them for weeks afterwards if Auburn beat Georgia. Tree poisoners, warrants issued for Phil Fulmer, I think SEC takes the cake for obnoxious fan bases. Better food, tho...
Totally real world and healthy. Like giving Lane Kiffin- a multi millionaire - your money when he begs for it. Totally healthy/normal as Auburn chases 8 wins.
no bigger dunk on the SEC than basically just rolling their long and storied histories that Just Mean More into one composite Hatable Middling Gulf Coast School. Kiffin has never been HC at Auburn, but really -- Auburn, Ole Miss, Kiffin, Freeze, what difference does it even make?
It's a general trend that HS recruits move south to play football. Being one of the most Southern schools in the B1G could be a small recruiting advantage.
I'm not sure we're far enough south to take advantage of that.
Plus elevation
So let's assume it's Dex, what does this mean for our position coaches on defense? I would assume that means Prioleau is out or back in a development/off-field role and Dex is safeties coach?
Who would coach LBs? I know we have Xavier Adibi on staff as an analyst, but frankly the idea of an internal promotion for a group that has been a major disappointment is underwhelming to me (regardless of the type of player he was).
Assumption is Quinn would be LB coach with Adibi assisting him still.
it wouldn't surprise me if that is the choice at LB, but if Quinn (or Pry or Adibi) saw something the LB's could/should be doing different/better, where was that input before?
Forgot to mention Bud will be helping with defense. Keller already said the tips he was giving during bowl prep were really helpful. I would imagine Marve was a big reason the LB play stunk so badly. Remove Marve, add Bud, and it sounds like a functionally better situation at the very least. Not transformational, but better
It at least seemed like the STAR/Nickel players were in the right spot more often than not and Jenkins in particular was incredible in that role with Quinn as his position coach. If Quinn does end up as LB coach, then hopefully he can do the same for the MIKE and WILL LBs.
We need someone from outside that room on LB's. They've absolute STUNK the last three seasons. Whatever coaching they've been getting so far ain't it
All coaches are on-field coaches now. So, it would just be a reassignment of who is leading safety instruction, film room, etc.
Hearing from a reliable source that Tim Banks has not signed his contract to renew with UT and wants to be a head coach. Vols fans aren't real happy about it.
No offense to anyone here, but I say this with utmost sincerity. Fuck UT. Fuck the Vols. Fuck rocky top. I hope that most of you don't understand the hatred for your own sake.
Another good transfer on the defensive side.
If we truly don't have a DC yet, Pry is the best receuiter in the country
lol. yes agreed. These kids know who the DC is.
So, of course I don't have a dog in the fight, I just want to see a good game, but is it bad that a small part of me wants PSU to lose tonight so that it prevents us from possibly having to wait another week to find out if DEX is our or not?
You want psu to lose for more reasons than that
it is never bad to want PSU to lose; it's only bad to want Notre Dame to win
i will tolerate nd for about 3 hours tonight
It will be a good game. The right side of the PSU OL is legit, and they will try to get the run game going there. ND has a good defense though. I think it will be a physical low scoring game. Question is - is this the week Franklin under-performs against a team that has also underperformed in the post season for most of the past 30 years. Something has to give.
lol, the resistible force meets the moveable object.
shit...i had no idea penn state was playing tonight!! good to know
The flu has apparently hit the ND roster, so my expectations of State Penn losing tonight have been adjusted
There's a lot of fake news about both teams going around right now. I found this one exceptionally hilarious:
I'm glad I've never fallen that deep into the sports-betting rabbit hole.
I see a lot of dudes on that boat...are they the Miami escorts?
At least Nevin Shapiro hooked it up properly
The Penn State Giants
lol any 14 year old suburban kid looks like Drew Allar
Well, we're that much closer to finding out if it is Dex
*ears perk up*
So if we wait one more week, Marcus Freeman is the DC, right?
Inside sauces are actually pointing to Riley Leonard, because who better to coordinate a defense than someone who has coordinated offenses. They'll never expect it.
this is what's known as a "Juan Castillo" and I really hope we don't do it
Didn't Chip Kelly try and do something like this in Philly by converting a coach from one side of the ball to be the coordinator of the other? I don't remember the name of the coach but I distinctly remember this being a thing.
Matt Patricia was mostly a career defensive guy/DC and Bellichick hired him back from detroit as OC... as you can imagine - disaster.
Andy Reid did this, and his name is in my comment, directly above yours
That is it! God that was such a stupid mistake
Absolutely. And he was undercut by Jim Washburn and Jason Babin from the jump, making an already bad situation even worse.
Amazingly enough, Castillo's defense started to improve his second season but it was too little too late, and he became the scapegoat for the failures of the "Dream Team" when Big Red fired him during the 2012 bye week. Of course, Todd Bowles came in and gave up 30, 28, 38, and 31 points in his first 4 games. Just a comedy of errors late in Andy's time as Birds coach, and I can rant about them all in DC-esque fashion if I'm not careful.
So we're expecting an early AM announcement? (Crosses fingers)
I'm drunk and listening to Creed.
I mean, I'm sure as hell not gonna listen to them sober...
If I ever become a billionaire I'm going to donate so much money to VT that our intro song changes to Higher just due to this comment
Will we be getting an announcement
todayin the near future?I sure hope so.
Edited, to be more realistic, I guess.
Highly doubt it. I would assume Monday if its actually Dex
This is a damn fine gif.
If it is actually dex I would assume he wants to at least get back home and tell team before announcing.
Damn old school Willy Wonka always gets a leg
As far as I am concerned they never made another Willy Wonka movie. Gene Wilder for the win.
I agree on this. For a long time I thought Jack Nicholson was the best and only Joker. Then Heath Ledger happened and changed my mind.
I still think Gene Wilder is the best and only Wonka. Depp fell short of that mark IMO but I supposed there's still a chance someone could come along and do one better than Wilder. I doubt it though. I also doubted anyone would ever top Nicholson's Joker and it happened so....never say never, I guess.
"Jack Nicholson was the best and only Joker."- this is still the only answer. WADR
Caesar Romero would like a word.
Romero was the best Joker for the campy show, but Nicholson and Ledger are both better Jokers.
I won't fight you on it. It could be argued that Nicholson and Ledger are 1a and 1b (in either order) - they both captured the essence of the character in very different ways - they had different directors and the films had different feels to them as they were filmed in different eras.
Agreed. Ledger was amazing in his own right.
Jack Nicholson was the best campy cartoony Joker.
Heath Ledger was the best Dark Knight version Joker.
Joaquin Phoenix is neither.
Best Campy Joker
Best Campy Cartoony Joker is Jack Nicholson? Can't get image to imbed.
You and I are absolutely aligned that no one does a better campy Joker than Cesar Romero.
I'll also say that Mark Hamill was the best at blending all the different sides of Joker into his roles.
Who would've expected the guy who played Luke Skywalker to become possibly the greatest voice actor of all time?
Turns out he was really turning in a fantastic acting job when he whined, "But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!"
Fair point. I don't know how to describe what Nicholson's Joker was compared to Ledger's that differentiates him from Romero's, and I'm not sure I want to spend too much mental energy on that.
He was neither but I still enjoyed Joker for what it was, whatever it was.
I don't know if it was because I grew up with the Dark Knight instead, but I actually can't stand the Nicholson Joker. I thought it was hokey, which is different (read: worse) than campy to me.
The 1989 Batman was a somewhat fantastical take on film noir by Tim Burton, think a 1940s or 1950s gangster/detective movie with a Tim Burton touch of crazy. I think Nicholson was perfect for that.
I think people like the Nicholson version so much because it was the only Joker interpretation on the big screen for what, 30 years? I don't think it was all that great. It was good for the movie, but Ledgers Joker is a way more accurate depiction of what a real life Joker would be.
Yeah the Ledger take on Joker is much more cerebral/sociopathic and fits with Nolan's hyperrealism take on Batman. Both are great just different styles. I was big into the Nolan Batman's and still am, but it was nice to go back into 80s/90s world and watch the Burton take as well.
I personally started to get really burnt out on the extreme realism movement in films and going back to the fantasy of 90s action films was a nice change up.
Same. Roast me for this if you like, but I didn't see anything he was doing that I couldn't also do.
I am skeptical of you're ability to kill it in a purple suit/s
you'll just have to take my word for it
Nicholson's version was good because he's basically Nicholson in drag having a good time.
Ledger's version was good because it was completely re-imagined, and had zero Heath Ledger in the character, at least as far as we know.
Phoenix's verson was fascinating, but not particularly enjoyable. In fact, I'm pretty sure he wasn't even the real joker, as he died at the end of the second movie (I think), and never met Batman - only Bruce Wayne. The fact that he was pretty much a psychotic dimwit who died when Bruce Wayne was a young boy suggests that he was merely a template for a future Joker, who would be the genius psychopath contemporary with an adult Batman.
Phoenix version wasn't even the joker, they just needed a title to sell a remake of The King of Comedy. So they shoe horned it in there. I haven't seen Joker 2 so I don't know where the story went.
It went absolutely nowhere in a very cringey way, but Phoenix and Gaga are each a bit fascinating to watch.
It was as if the creators of this movie were repelled by the hero worship their "Joker stars as the King of Comedy, Tarantino Redux" movie got, and wanted to kill it off as definitively as possible so that it could never be made or discussed again.
I heard it was a musical, which is right up my alley, but the first one was meh so didn't watch the 2nd one.
You're safe in giving it a miss. It's barely watchable, and I'm a fan of both Phoenix and Gaga. They were good, but the premise and script are incoherent, and without any discernible point. I'm being generous.
/S
kill it with fire immediately
The only thing good about that version was his girlfriend (Harley Quinn), who could do much better.
I regret that I have but 1 leg to give for this comment, but you certainly deserve more
Amen to this.
Oh lots of new comments on the DC post must be a some new sauce.
Nope just 30 posts about the Joker who is not the new DC
Can you imagine if we were able to pull The Joker in? He has an insane amount of experience in the DC universe.
Even then we'd be less of a clown show than LOLuva
Your signature has never been more appropriate.
This is getting ridiculous. Maybe a new practice....If X number of posts are made on an unrelated subject (e.g. the Joker), admins move them to a new thread?
No.
It's related.
You're joking right?
If the joker becomes our defense do we have to be called the jokies?
Is that any different than where we are now?
We were definitely in "Folie a Deux" mode this year, when we needed more "Dark Knight" better class of criminal.
oh, the Fall Out Boy album?
*gives angry leg*
Our recent DCs
Will Arnett is the only true Batman
Kevin Conroy and it's not close.
Have yall tried mayonnaise on pancakes?
I KNEW this was going to happen.
We're getting a little punchy.
My wife made me eat sour cream on strawberries the other day after seeing it on a Daisy commercial. No thanks Ill stick with Coolwhip
They're strawberries they need nothing, they are delicious by themselves
I would actually be willing to try this.
See my comment below. I'm calling the FBI on you.
They're already aware of me
Yes, we are 😳😉
You look tired, get some rest.
If you are going to health it up. why not just plain yogurt? Better for you than sour cream.
First time I saw that shit my jaw dropped. What kind of menace is out there dipping strawberries into sour cream? 100% chance those people have at least one body buried in their backyard or in their deep freezer
But how do you pronounce Cool Whip?
Hahahaha, was wondering when this would happen. Glorious.
Please TKP, don't change.
Anyone start a flight tracker thread yet for the new DC or interviews?
Funny enough, my wife works near the airport near campus and she said it was unusually busy yesterday. I joked that it was probably the new DC and their entourage and another friend said he had heard there were actually on-site interviews going on yesterday. So, take that for what it's worth. But it is weird for more than a few flights to come in and out of that tiny airport each day unless there's a major athletic event or graduation.
New staff meet and greet before heading out to the coaches convention.
If there was more than one interview yesterday, does that imply that we had multiple candidates involved in the post season?
It could also be that they had one candidate in the playoff and wanted to wait to interview them all around the same time. Sometimes you can get a bias if the interviews are too far apart.
possibly. it might also imply you have more than one hire to make
Right, I've been so focused on DC, I didn't even think of S&C, as well as any defensive position coaches the new DC would want (although I assume usually a coordinator gets a lot of leeway with their position coach selections, or could even be our current position coaches interviewing with the future DC for their jobs - lots of possibilities).
Plus there culd be some people that want to leave but will stay until replaced AND some new positions that may be non-existent before and unannounced until filled.
Someone posted on 247 that Gabbard should hire Pry for National Security if coaching doesn't work out, has kept this DC search air tight lol.
I'm just gonna throw this out there. As they are still playing, could it be Al Golden?
You know what else has become open? This crowd. That makes the task of al golden...
He has recruited VA
I would be absolutely shocked to see a DC make a lateral move from a national title game Notre Dame team to a struggling ACC team.
The only way I can see that as remotely possible is if Marcus Freeman is still running the defense and Al Golden doesn't call plays
Rumor in Cincinnati is that he may get the Bengals DC job. His family lives in Cincy.
or Freeman is leaving and not taking Golden with him.
but I think it is Dex, Hemphill, or Banks
Haven't heard anyone mention the JMU dc yet. Solid resume. Wouldn't hate an
ElmoElko guy.New DC:
I wouldn't either, but if Whit has to sign off on it, any list of possibilities must include a relatively cheap option...that's kind of who he is.
Fify
amendment accepted
Didn't Whit get the donors to Pony up for a BUNCH of extra staff that we didn't previously have though?
To start but we've made some cuts so we are well under the budget originally set.
Not "extra" staff... Just a regular size staff that literally every other program has.
I just meant more than what we already had. I understand everyone else had them, my point is we (at least from my understanding) didn't have money for them until Whit got more from the donors. Again, point is he came up with more money for the program, which I was contesting someone saying he was cheap. If he was cheap, we would have been staffing all those new positions with interns and other cheap as hell options.
Golden makes roughly 2 million per- exact amount unknown because ND doesn't disclose, but sources say its around that number. Whit will offer him 975K and act like that is a favor. So, no Golden isn't coming here.
Live look-in at Pry's hotel room tonight at the coaches convention in Charlotte, where he told all interested defensive coaches earlier that he was having a sweet party tonight. Coaches have been filtering in and out.
This guy is still a candidate...
Alright, let's do a poll. Which gif is accurate?
-or-
Vote via replies with an appropriate gif. A "yes" or "today" reply indicates today, a "no" or "tomorrow" or "not today" (or something similar) indicates not today.
I'm hoping today is the day.
I've been wrong a lot though and I've been waiting on a UPS package that hasn't moved in 4 days so my patience is wearing quite thin waiting on things.
I've got two Fedex packages apparently sitting about fifteen minutes from me, and they've been there since last Wednesday. I'm about to drive to the warehouse and start digging through piles of stuff.
I had a package last week that supposedly hadn't shipped yet arrive at my house. Either someone screwed up or I'm trapped in some sort of spacetime anomaly.
If I'm from the future, then I should let you know they still haven't announced our new DC yet.
BillandTedBogus.gif
Mines a 9'x4' (how do you misplace that) piece for a bathroom reno. Tracking told me it was going to arrive a day early so I took out my toilet and vanity, then it didn't show up and it hasn't since so now I'm short a bathroom in my house awaiting a package that's probably never coming.
That's worse. I just wish I had my new pants.
This wisdom is a bit late, but I've learned not to do action that requires a part until you have it in hand for pretty much similar reason. Similarly, make sure you have the right tool (like if you need a certain socket size, and you think "I've got that size" but find out later you needed the deep socket version.
My package I sent from Atlanta to Virginia is currently at Charles De Gaulle airport.
Winner
EDIT: I should have said "This is a Big Day for Clemson" 🙄
If we don't announce today, I'm gonna start worrying a bit about the quality of the next DC, assuming it isn't someone from ND or Ohio State. I'd have thought they'd have whoever it is locked up by now.
Prepare yourself to be underwhelmed. Now more than ever, money sits at the big boy table. We just paid WVU's OL coach LESS than what he was making. Prepare for a bargain DC hire.
Maybe we short changed the OL coach to pay more for the DC? Just being optimistic lol
Whit can do whatever he wants with the OL coach- in this case a low ball offer and cheaper guy than Crook. What fans need to do in turn is not expect the OL to be better with a bargain coach. Anything else is insanity.
To be fair, he is getting paid by WVU per his contract still since he was let go. Our contract escalates his pay to match WVU's next season after he's done getting paid by both schools this upcoming season
Here is my point. IF you agree that salary is indicative of the quality of coach you get- I guess you could debate- but let's say that the higher paid coaches are better coaches. IF that is the case, the mental gymnastics around a clearly lateral at best salary for the new OL coach is what it is. You are paying for lateral performance on an OL that has sucked for 5 years. You aren't getting marginally BETTER, you are paying the same hoping for a miracle. Good luck.
A. That's not necessarily the case.
B. It makes sense to manipulate the situation so we pay less and the coach still gets paid.
C. We don't know the the new Defensive Coordinator is yet.
Generally higher pay means higher quality. But when comparing a pair or even a small number of coaches to each other, it may or may not be the case.
Was Crooks performing to the level of pay he was receiving? A strong argument could be made that he was not given that he was fired. If that's the case, then paying a comparable amount for a coach who is performing to that level would be an upgrade.
If WVU's OL's have been better performers and their former coach is willing to coach for us for less or the same amount of money, then it is likely an upgrade.
WVU's coach is bringing us part of his offensive line, which are pieces we badly needed.
So so far, he's definitely an upgrade.
Could be an NFL guy (continuing to be optimistic for the sake of it)
I'm hoping today is the day! *fingers crossed*
Tom Allen (PSUs DC) is leaving to go to Clemson.
Interesting...
Ruh roh. Will Dex finally get that internal promotion?
Maybe. but keep in mind, PSU just lost in the playoffs and continued the narrative that Franklin can't win big games. I bet they shoot a bit higher than Dex to be their DC now- just my opinion. They are not cutting corners this close to a natty.
Good point. Internal promotion wouldn't be a "big dog" move for them.
I'd guess their first target is Banks but they likely lost a bidding war for Allen so are they going to be able to pull Banks? They might settle for Dex. All I know is I've significantly adjusted my expectations with this news. I'm ready for the Whit Babcock - we missed on our guy here's a discount hire DC hire
Gotta be, right? Little old Vee Tee burned again, left with hat in hand, as our prime candidate gets a better opportunity.
I wonder if this is why the 247 guys were saying it wasn't him, if this was happening in the background. Pure speculation on my part there
This is not good for the good guys.
He's right, especially the latter part. Huge move by Clemson to make this move.
Wow, if we strung ourselves along this far waiting for Dex only to lose out.......
We don't have to lose out on Dex... we could actually pay him more than PSU will- but.
Facts. If we won't pony up for the right guy (who, honestly, is still a little light on much-needed experience), what are we even doing here? Why did we fire Marve?
"Why did we fire Marve"- to keep the dogs off of Pry for another year.
Can we? You act like VT has the same budget as PSU, but we're just cheap.
1. We are cheap. 2. Budgets can change- read be increased.
Where's that money coming from? Is Sands going to take money away from engineering to help football? Should he tap into the endowment? Or is there some untapped donor willing to cut a check? I'm quite curious.
Don't really care. Take on debt like Maryland and Tennessee if you have to if it will pay off later. Or continue to turn off donors by losing a lot. Sand's choice.
Serious question - is our Athletic Dept and/or University allowed to take on debt or do we need legislative changes?
Who knows? VT is always special in some regard though
I think the deal may be we may not WANT to. The other thing that I've mentioned before is people say Moore is getting paid less, but that's WAY different may be straight salary. I've seen separate articles report salary two ways (I think while Fuente was still here). One reported salary as if it was full compensation, while another listed salary PLUS incentive income only paid if they met certain performance goals. If we're seeing only the straight salary, maybe we do pay him less than WVU, but provide incentives that might pay him a decent amount more than what he might have made there. That way, we can pay less if they don't meet those goals, but gives the incentive for him to hit those goals.
I would assume the same might be true for a DC. Straight salary possibly less, but offer big incentives. Use the incentives as where you big dog someone else, that way we only pay if we succeed. And donors are probably willing to pony up more if we win a lot of games. I feel like that structure is win/win and why businesses do that as well, such as for bonuses tied to sales goals.
Moore must get a bump for every transfer OL he brings in.
Yeah sounds like Clemson ruined any chance we had at Dex
They may or may not have made him a harder get, but if we wanted him, seems like we should have locked him in before now.
Should have had a handshake deal in place weeks ago and only be waiting to announce. If it's not a done deal yet then we aren't getting him.
Should have had more than a handshake deal. Should have been inked. Which I'm still hoping it was.
Should've talked to his mother...
Guys, we're trying to have a Joker/Batman discussion here. Could you kindly take all this DC Discussion noise to the appropriate thread?
The Joker/Batman discussion is more fun.
Seriously cannot believe this Allen PSU-to-Clemson news. Dex probably gets that job now. VT big-dogged yet again.
If we want to get Dex now, then Whit needs to pony up and offer him a big boy salary that would actually compete with PSU.
Let me just fast forward through the movie for you -
Ron Howard narration: he would not.
We can't outbid PSU.
Does his resume justify doing that? Right now it seems like what makes him the top candidate is being Pry's buddy. Not saying he couldn't work out but he doesn't have the body of work to justify throwing top money for imo. We could find a guy cheaper with more experience
Exactly... find a guy that can actually improve our defense, get critical stops, get the LBs in the right place, call the defense better after the other team adjusts at half... find him- and then pay him.
No... it's because he's one of 3 active DCs (along with Schoop and Banks) who have experience running Pry's scheme. And our personnel are suited to run Pry's scheme. We don't want to start completely rebuilding the defense next year.
"And our personnel are suited to run Pry's scheme"- debatable as French has pointed out numerous times.
Not sure our personnel are suited to run any other scheme, either.
So what DC or HC from FCS are we gonna get? I was excited to wake up today to Dex news but a great DC hire seems far fetched now
Here's our Temu Poindexter. SDSU DC Brian Bergstrom.
(this is a joke, I just googled #1 FCS scoring defense)
If he is TEMU, we won't see him arrive for WEEKS! And he might or might not be either a steal at a bargain price or a complete misfit due to Asian sizing! (speaking as a frequent TEMU shopper)
. (speaking as a frequent TEMU shopper)
... but why
The cheapest option is just to promote Quinn, so that's probably what we'll do. Hell, at least he has DC experience.
That won't keep the dogs off Pry and Whit- which is what part of this is about- make no mistake. Coming off this dissapointing year- something had to be done- like firing Marve.
Of course not, but would it surprise you?
Yes, yes it would for two reasons (maybe 3, I'm making 'em up as I go).
1) I feel like if Quinn was remotely a possibility, he could have done interviews already and just delayed the announcement.
2) He's right, Pry knows changes need to be made, and a half-ass hire isn't the kind of change he needs to make (which also feels like the best argument against those who say prepare to be underwhelmed).
3) if Quinn was a potential candidate, even remotely, Quinn was Pry's first hire if I'm not mistaken. He could have made him coordinator then. I don't think Pry thinks Quinn is ready, or at least a strong enough candidate given #2.
Won't and Shouldn't
That is going to be a hard sell to the fan base. Waiting over a month just to promote from within will not go over well.
Lets "Big Dog" Clemson and offer Allen more? /s (sort of)
That'll go over about as well as the bubble guts in the middle of a norovirus outbreak
You just described the last 12 years of VT football
Foster is back baby!!! Jk but I wouldn't be surprised if he is talked into a more substantial roll to be an interim DC this season.
Nope. Interim coach would be incredibly difficult, if not impossible to sell to new recruits. Nobody wants to go to a school to play not knowing who would be their coach in a year and if that future coach could get them to the NFL. And let's be realistic - they probably know Pry is in the hot seat and needs to make a strong move. While the portal is a possibility, I seriously doubt most kids would go into a situation where they thought it was LIKELY they want to transfer away, unless they're hoping to prove themselves for a larger NIL deal.
So yeah, no way in HELL Foster is the interim as much as WE might like the idea. Also, people forget his health (I think heart) issues. He's probably fine being a consultant or some similar role, but that's WAY different than the stress of being the "buck stops here" for the defense as a coordinator.
It's because I had hope, isn't it?
I'm....tired.
That'll teach you.
Just kidding, it probably won't teach any of us anything.
"They told us we were young. Yet, we understood the enormity of it. We understood what was at stake. Our fear was replaced by something altogether more terrifying. Hope. Hope is so much worse..." (Derry Girls, S03E01)
Love that show.
+++
-Red, Shawshank Redemption
I wasn't necessarily completely sold on Poindexter to start with, felt like a slightly more experienced version of Marve...maybe could recruit too.
But the situation now looks like he was Option 1a and 1b and we didn't have the initiative to close the deal before other dominos might fall.
Now it looks like Pry (who hasn't exactly wowed with his hires to start with) is left searching for another option late in the cycle. That's pretty much what happened with Crooks and we all saw how well that worked out.
Fantastic.
That should not be the case. If Coleman was confidently putting it out there that Dex was not the DC then others (including Pry and company) had to know this was brewing as well. My guess is that they have also known this for a while, so if Pry or Whit try to use this as an excuse for an internal promotion or an underwhelming hire at the last hour, I for one ain't buying it.
Nobody on TSL has any good insider info. Don't let them tell you otherwise.
Maybe, but got it right this time so there is that. Just too specific for me to believe he just wild ass guessed correctly.
100% my thought process as well
I feel like a Co-Defensive Coordinator isn't as strong a hire as we'd want to make. A lot of people seem high on him, but it just didn't feel as good to me. Marve was a DC that couldn't do the job. I'd hate to take someone who wasn't already solely responsible for being DC already.
I feel like there's risks to several of the potential solutions.
Hiring a proven DC from a playoff team is probably the most expensive route, but likely safest. Some risk may be that if it's a blue blood, are they mostly relying on 4 and 5 star talent for their defenses to be as good, and can they recruit the talent they need at Tech.
Hiring a DC from a non-playoff team is probably second safest, but how good are the defenses? Can they recruit well in our area?
Hiring a guy you're promoting to DC - can they actually be successful as a DC? Can they recruit and sell themselves to prospects? This seems like one of the riskiest alternatives.
Hiring a guy was DC at the FCS level - will their success translate to the P4? Probably less risky than promoting a guy to DC.
Hiring a DC from the NFL - can the guy coach players that don't have NFL talent, skill, size, strength & conditioning? Can he recruit? Seems almost as risky as promoting a non-DC, put is probably at least a guy proven to scheme and make adjustments.
I think you have to weigh all those risks, especially given Pry knew he needed to make a change. How much risk does he want to accept given the performance we've had and expectations. Maybe we interviewed Dex, but he seems like a more risky prospect unless he could totally sell a vision and plan to get there. If it was me, I'd rather throw the saying "defense wins championships" to Whit, get him to talk to donors, big dog someone, using the combo of salary and HEAVY incentives for a very competitive salary (as I've mentioned elsewhere) to someone.
American Football Coaches Conference started yesterday and ends Wednesday. If we're doing any sort of press conference about the announcement, then I bet it happens Thursday or Friday. But I'm sure Pry is doing interviews while there. So maybe we find out in the next day or two. I'm not holding out any sort of hope.
Honestly, realizing that the Dex ship has sailed and seeing how we are apparently still trying to schedule guys for interviews, I have a really bad feeling that we royally fucked this up. If you're going to make a move to fire a coordinator, damn well knowing your ass is on the line if you screw it up, you better as hell have someone lined up ready to go as soon as you pull the trigger. Seeing that its now been over a month (Dec 12) since Marve was fired and there are only 2 colleges still playing, neither of them with anyone we would consider to be a candidate, unless you (foolishly, IMHO) think that the DC is coming from a team still in the NFL playoffs, its starting to look like we have nothing.
Which isn't a great fucking place to be when your head coach is struggling to tread water.
Yep- I think we offered Dex a 50K raise and less than what Marve was making - cause- Whit- and he told us to pound sand
I agree with this but I think Clemson sniping Tom Allen resulting in Dex being option numero uno for PSU isn't Pry's fault if Dex really was the guy. I guess we'll see.
Pry should have had a viable list of realistic candidates- not one guy- BEFORE he fired his guy. That's logical and necessary, IMO. It seems that was not the case.
And if that is true, its just another data point in an ever growing database of personnel fuckups by Whit during his tenure here.
Which is extremely frustrating, because the early hires were great. Buzz and Kenny Brooks were phenomenal, and Fuente, at least on paper was excellent. And on top of that fundraising is night and day better than where it was, and we're done decent enough to at least be competitive in NIL.
But its just getting real hard to overlook how often we end up on the wrong side of some real head scratching shit over the last few years.
whole lotta conjecture in this thread
That's what happens when people start saying that Heath Ledger isn't the best joker.
Yeah, because its Mark Hamill
Uh, Mark Hamill was by far the best Cock Knocker.
Why was he called Cock Knocker?
I can't tell you, I have to show you...
Don't fuck with the Jedi master, son.
Avenge me, Hemp Knight
That's true, but we've basically got nothing to work with. lol. We're going crazy!
BREAKING: we got our guy
Just want to throw out there that I once coached VT to 19 sacks in a game of CFB25 and have signed over 10 5stars every recruiting class. My playbook is nearly all variations of man coverage blitzes and I will do the DC job for $400k and a daily allotment of turkey bacon.
My biggest fear is that we have gone down the list and have been turned down by our top 3 or whatever....not good if true
That or we literally just had all our eggs in one basket.
I need to hear something.
Too bad we couldn't take the guy that just beat us. I liked his defense.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/43374638/corey-hetherma...
If the Dex ship has truly sailed and we are that late in the cycle (honestly I don't track most non-HC coaching changes outside of VT), then maybe Pry's best chance at saving his own butt is to oversee the defense himself.
If, and BIG if we went all in on Dex, and because of Pry's loyalty to Franklin we held off on the contract until after they were done playing, then Pry certainly isn't putting VTs best interests first with this job and never will. Ridiculous that his loyalty held things up in the first place, and now PSU can and will likely promote Dex to full DC. James Franklin has screwed Pry and VT yet again.
The more I see, the more and more I think Pry and Whit deserve to go down with this ship when it's all said and done.
Obviously going to wait and see how this plays out, but this is looking more and more like a big swing and miss.
I think it's less about Pry's loyalty to CJF and more about every one else's. Was listening to a Penn State pod last week and they talked about PSU has had one of the lowest transfer rates out of the program of any P4 school and how coaches don't leave for lateral moves (ironically, the Tom Allen move busts that wide open lol).
Regardless, not a good look for Pry right now...
I think everyone is making loads of assumptions.
I think people are just trying to make logical deductions about this. Dex makes the most sense to have been the target given the delay in the announcement while PSU was still playing, his connection to Pry, familiarity with the scheme, and ability to hire given budget since he has been passed over for the sole job at PSU before and we could give him a raise and promotion that they couldn't match. Banks would be a slam dunk but realistically, who is leaving a $1.5MM job at UT to come to VT? Especially if you had offers from Miami and Clemson so now he's probably going to get closer to $2MM at UT. A lot of other names thrown around are retreads. And we know Pry is likely to hire someone he knows personally or is at least familiar with and knows his scheme.
Now with the Allen news suddenly leaking, it's safe to say we may have held out waiting out of respect/deference and now might pay for it.
Or maybe the guy who said last week that it wasn't Dex knew what he was talking about and Dex has just been who WE think is the most logical choice, but he wasn't ever Pry's choice. As mentioned above, we're all making loads of assumptions.
I'm trying to be patient until an announcement is made, but after a month it's awful hard not to jump to conclusions!
My brain registered that as a different CJF at first read and I was thoroughly confused!
If Dex is gone, how many of the defensive transfers coming in are not coming in any longer? Since we have not heard of any of them backing out, I'm hoping against my prior VT experiences that we still either (1) have him in the boat or (2) he was never the main target and the one who was/is the main target is still expected to be here. Guess we will see. If we see multiple defensive people who said they were coming to VT backing out, we are totally hosed.
I think something this offseason changed, and now the transfers sign binding agreements with the school. Not like the last few offseasons where there was nothing binding transfers and they could back out.
I am sure they can transfer in spring again
That would likely be true once the spring portal window opens.
Don't tell me that! I'm trying to keep some level of hope!
Are we at the phase where we actually DON'T want Dex anyways as he would be a bad fit and has no P4 DC experience??
We were recruiting over him anyway
we'll get a VT guy anyway, guy that actually wants to pl.... coach here.
Y'all, it was never going to be Dex. Besides that I've heard this from a very reliable source, here are some other important notes:
- Pry didn't bring Dex with him when he left PSU.
- Franklin hired Diaz to be DC instead of promoting Dex from Co DC
- when Diaz left, Franklin again hired someone else instead of promoting Dex
I'm not saying I know who the hire is but I am saying it was never Dex and, if past is precedent, he won't be promoted to DC at PSU this time either
The rumors at the time were that Pry was actually trying to hire Dex as his DC the first time around before Marve. But then UVA caught wind and involved Dex in their HC search, ultimately slow played him, but caused Pry to move on and Dex just to go back to PSU and hold out there
I think we would all be well served in being patient and seeing what happens rather than getting worked up over hypotheticals and assumptions.
Username checks out...
be a whole lot easier to do if they would hurry the hell on up. from the outside it looks like we've been left holding the bag for the eleventy-billionth time, you can't fault people for thinking that
^^^ this right here.
Whit has done nothing but fuck up coordinator hires since he's been in Blacksburg. Apart from retaining Bud, he has not overseen a single truly good coordinator hire. Why would we expect him to have figured it out now?
I'm all for patience and withholding judgement. But I have no more patience or benefit of doubt to give Whit Babcock, and a whole list of reasons to think that a month is just too long, and something has gone wrong or was whiffed behind the scenes.
Why exactly do you think WHIT makes coordinator hires? There's not a single head coach in the country who is going to be a HC if they aren't the ones choosing their coordinators. If the AD is hiring them, that makes the HC something other than a HC. It makes them more like a manager, and I'm not even sure they'd be a GM. Unless the person was incompetent and happy to collect a HC salary until he was eventually fired.
PLUS, if Whit was the one with control over coordinators, Corny would have been gone a year or two before Fuente, but Whit let Fuente die on the Corny sword. You're putting way too much influence in Whit's hands. He may have the right to, but I'd pretty much guarantee he isn't calling the shots.
Plus, if other people are right, and Whit can't afford another failed HC under him, he'd be doing everything he could, including begging donors for money, getting new donors, begging the new donors for money, etc. to get a home run DC.
I think it s belief that he indirectly controls them by controlling the budget/purse strings.
I guess that's fair, but that's a LOT of conjecture. How do we know who Fuente and Pry wanted vs didn't get or had a limited the budget for. I mean, MAYBE it is true, but what are we expecting, that Whit would pony up the cash to poach away coordinators from top 10 teams? Most of them are probably hoping for HC gigs. There are probably multiple factors with respect to coordinators. PLUS, it's not like there have even been that many. The statement that he hasn't overseen a good coordinator hire makes it sound like he's overseen dozens of them.
He's had two head coaches, possibly played a part in retaining Foster, but then I remember hearing that Foster highly recommended Justin Hamilton. So how much of that was whit vs Fuente taking a hall of fame worthy DC's recommendation on a pick? We had plenty more money than what we spent on Hamilton, so I gotta think that one was influenced more by Foster than by Whit. And I highly doubt Whit had any say, even purse strings related on Corny - that was all Fuente all the way.
That leaves Pry. Everything I remember hearing on here was that he picked Bowen and Marve based on their cerebral qualifications, and that he knew them already. Most head coaches hire people they know, at least to some degree, and it seemed like Pry did that with a lot of his selections. So if Pry was hiring people he had good relationships with, how do we know Whit made purse string limitations?
By my calculations, Whit didn't influence Fuente bringing Corny, probably didn't factor into Foster being retained, and almost definitely could have paid more (a LOT more) than what we paid Hamilton, so doubt Whit was the limitation there. Even still, to date, it appears Whit has overseen the hire of exactly 3 coordinators, which is not a large sample size. (The 3 being Hamilton, Bowen, and Marve, attributing Corny solely to Fuente and not based on any sort of limitation based on budget for that one).
How do we know who Fuente and Pry wanted vs didn't get or had a limited the budget for.
Barry Odom; $1.2 million
I retract a little. How much of Barry Odom in 2019 may have been Whit thinking he was most likely going to have to let Fuente go anyway and preferring to save cash he could use for his next HC and his staff? I mean, maybe Whit talked to Fuente about canning Corny, Fuente said no, so Whit gave him a smaller budget? Plus, do we KNOW we didn't have the $1.2 and Odom thought Fuente wasn't likely to last long so he turned us down, not because of the money, but because he didn't want to be here?
Edit: didn't want to be here either because he didn't think Fuente would last more than a season or two so he'd be looking for a new job, or because he just didn't want to work with Fuente?
Fuente lost to 3-8 ODU, got shellacked by Duke, and his DC was a scum bag that was fired in disgrace. Fuck Barry Odom being any solution to anything. It's meaningless. He's just a guy. He's not Bud Foster.
What Fuente coordinator was fired in disgrace? He had exactly two, Foster and Hamilton. Neither was fired.
The guy who left that apparently had an affair, I think would have been fired, but I thought got to quit instead. Was there a scumbag I'm not aware of?
I don't think JHam was a scumbag, just wound up not being a good DC.
Galen Scott... you can google that
I didn't think Scott was ever DC.
That and "resigned in disgrace" vs. fired are both semantics. He was brought from Memphis to VTand was co-DC and the stated heir apparent to Bud. He was Fuente's guy and he slept with someone and was let go. Anything else is semantics.
When was he Co-DC? Foster was 100% the DC. Maybe he was the intended future DC, but I'm pretty sure he was just a position coach. You said the DC (didn't say Co) was fired. I wasn't arguing the guy wasn't a scumbag, I was arguing that he wasn't the DC.
FFS- Galen Scott- fucking water boy- whatever the fuck you want to call him- Was Fuente's guy to be DC when Foster was gone. In fact Scott was GOING TO BE THE DC if Foster couldn't be talked into it. FFS. Call him assistant fucking analyst for all I care- you know who I am fucking talking about.
You said Fuent's DC was a scumbag and fired in disgrace. I may know exactly who you're talking about, my point is he wasn't the DC.
He wasn't VT's DC- correct... He was the heir apparent and FU's guy.... the point of the post being Fuente being a shit coach and putting no stock into Barry Odom based on that. Sorry you got hung up on semantics.
You said something that was incorrect then kept doubling down. That's not semantics. All you had to do was accept that fact, said, "sorry, not DC, still scumbag on the staff. " then everyone would agree with you and the board wouldn't be polluted with this stupid argument.
Playing dumb is semantics... "oh who are you talking about".. come on... that is what is a stupid argument.
Yet, somehow, Bobby Petrino is back at Arkansas, as their Offensive Coordinator, after having been fired as their head coach in 2012. He's now a different person, after all.
Like Rich Rod- total shitbag, but from time to time can call ball plays to get first downs.
It is very confusing as to what he was. I never remembered him being Co-DC. See below for discrepancies in his bio.
Under his name, it says: Assistant Head Coach/Co-Defensive Coordinator/Safeties
At the bottom under his coaching experience, it listed him as Co-DC at Memphis, but for Tech it says: Assistant Head Coach/Safeties
This is completed incorrect. He slept with a woman while on a recruiting trip. That woman was NOT a recruit's mom.
But perhaps...she was the mom of a recruit's mom... /ssss
corrected
https://roanoke.com/sports/college/va_tech/co-dc-galen-scott-abruptly-re...
Good advice here before calling him out. Easy to forget but also easy to fact check. upvotes for accuracy go to DC
i dont think he ever coached a game as co-DC
Based on timelines looks like promoted to Co-DC at end of season and then resigned in April after 4 months on the job. The point from DC still stands that the heir-apparent of DC was a scumbag who resigned in controversy and shame.
Here is a good article that TKP wrote in January to summarize all the changes at the time https://www.thekeyplay.com/virginia-tech-football/2018/01/15595/fuente-g...
That article brings up some memories...
I really like that format too.
From DC:
This makes it sound like the current DC who was coaching and actively playing a part in losing games to inferior competition was who was the scumbag.
The original point of the thread was Whit not providing enough funding to hire good coordinators. So, even though Scott was Fuente's intended future DC, bringing him up doesn't factor into whether Whit was ponying up cash for who we'd consider a good DC. I'm assuming Whit would not have had to pay Scott a high salary, so doesn't advance the argument either way about whether or not Whit will fund big salaries for good coordinators. So not sure what point bringing up Scott makes, other than just to point out he slept with someone on a recruiting trip (and "fuck Odom" was part of the same message).
So, fine that Scott is the scumbag, but it doesn't address whether Whit pays DCs well because he never paid Scott as a DC. My point holds true that Whit only ever oversaw the HIRING of 2 DCs (maybe 3 if you count retaining Foster, but otherwise it was JHam then Marve, with some unknown 3rd on the way). It's still way too small a sample to say whether what we pay DCs is competitive.
Just to note - JHam is not a scumbag. Great guy and great Hokie. DC abilities aside, he's a great human being.
Kinda the drawback of keeping this search as quiet as they have. Eventually it just looks bad.
reads well-reasoned response; then reads the username
Just read some cryptic non-paywall posts from Mehul over on 247. And maybe I'm crazy or half asleep, but I think he's hinting at Tim Banks. If we somehow pulled that off, I will eat a whole plate of crow and ask for seconds.
I read some similar stuff that "sauces" say it's going to be Banks.
If so then why the wait? What would be holding this move up for 3 weeks?
Maybe he was interviewing the Minnesota DC also. For various reasons they may have wanted to wait on that.... He could have been interviewing a number of candidates we'd consider very good, and maybe, as someone else pointed out, if he wanted to ALSO interview Dex (even if he wasn't the leading candidate), you try to do all your interviews as close to each other as possible. Maybe he was considering the ND DC as well, who knows.
Maybe we all wet ourselves over how good a hire Pry makes. I mean, I know a lot of us are being negative about this, but a lot of us also thought Pry wouldn't fire Marve, and that was the biggest change we thought. Pry not only fired Marve, but Crook and Galt to boot. We knew the OLine was weak, but I don't think anyone was thinking to fire Crook, and certainly not Galt.
And maybe Pry is asking prospective DCs for recommendations for S&C coaches and maybe the new DC wants to interview their new position coaches and some of our existing ones before changes are announced. There could be lots of things delaying that aren't remotely bad. I feel like Fuente's unflinching loyalty to a bad OC has influenced our perceptions of what Pry is willing to do. I think Pry hired Marve because he thought Marve was a sharp guy who could scheme some strong defenses.
Marve didn't work out, so Pry let him go. He made a good call on actually doing that. I don't know why people think Pry, who"s probably in career saving/self preservation mode would roll over and make a half ass hire? He knows his job is tied to performance, so he's going to try to make the best damn hire he can. If we'd be underwhelmed, I doubt Pry would feel secure in his future making that hire.
Why would he make this move?
He wouldn't
Especially after allegedly turning down Miami and Clemson. Both schools with deeper pockets than us.
I'm sure its the deep pockets keeping him away. /s
I don't think it's Banks. But personal relationship with Pry gotta be worth something?
I can't tell if that's what is meant by the three comments that I can find from this post:
#1
#2
#3
EDIT: This was meant to be a reply to VTJ12
Just the phrasing is odd and feel like he's trying to say something. The second comment there "people up and down" up and down is also top and bottom (TB). ""What I...feel and know" Feeling is touching, knowing is believing. TB
Then the third comment is just full of TB..."the below" "the board" "the biggest" then he mentions Chuck Long who played for the Detroit Lions (Banks is from Detroit).
"This is a bottom..." "tailspin based"
Just seems like very odd phrasing and a lot of references to TB in there.
I hope it is! I was going off of what was directly said. I'm definitely not good at reading into comments like you can.
I'm going to be happy if it's banks but talk about reading between the lines...
This fits the mold of what all the insiders historically do trying to drop hints on stuff over there. Little code messages. Cheesy but I guess it drives clicks.
If you're right about this you should look at working for NSA or something.
As others and myself have stated I have a really hard time believing Banks would leave a successful position at an SEC school to come to tech but who knows.
Whit could be playing the long game 5D chess public relations card here. He knows when he wants to retire- it's not now- so hire a splash SEC DC so when we can't beat Duke, he can refer you to the fact that he hired a splash DC and it takes (more) time to beat Wake.
Man, if that turns out to be true, we could have used you 85 years ago breaking the Enigma codes.
An aside, can someone point out why Banks would leave an SEC DC job at a traditional blueblood for what would likely be a paycut at a middling (are we even still middling or is it worse?) ACC school in a shaky conference affiliation with a coach on the hottest of seats? Honest question. I know this is a relationship business but that doesn't make sense to me unless TB senses things are also going south at Rocky Top or maybe he hates his boss, Knoxville, or some combination of those things.
"would leave an SEC DC job at a traditional blueblood for what would likely be a paycut at a middling .."- You wouldn't- voluntarily.
Understood, but they were 6th in the country in total defense last year so not sure where the disconnect is. I guess we'll see.
Unless we suddenly found a dump truck of cash I highly doubt he would.
This is the most FBI analysis of those posts I've seen
I had to google who Chuck Long was. He was an NFL QB.
I hereby nominate "Chuck Long" to be the greatest QB name in the history of football.
He was rumored to be in the mix for OC with Mike Bobo (damn we should have hired him), Pep Hamilton- bum, and Leoffler.. we went with Lefty, primarily because we are VT and he was unemployed (read cheap).
IIRC, Beamer sent a jet to Athens to get Bobo to interview for the VT OC job...he refused to get on the get because he's a UGA alum and didn't want to leave home (for just a lateral hire). We were never going to get him.
Pep got the Colts OC job when we were interviewing him.
Lefty wasn't a bad OC perse...I attribute a lot of the 2016 season to his development of the offensive players.
I second the nomination
Chuck Long was the QB on Hayden Fry's greatest Iowa teams.
He did in fact chuck long.
I always love reading this, "That's right, UVA. You couldn't beat Grant Noel."
Which reminded me - you need to add Pop Watson.
This is peak message board energy, and I'm so here for it.
One of the best message board sagas was on 247 the year we thought we were replacing Fuente but ended up not. Some troll kept dropping fake hints on a new coach and had people watching multiple episodes of Bonanza for clues. What a time.
Bottom line? You are fucking right. 6-7, not competitive in a bowl because your team left and you are bringing in FCS and D2 guys. You are fucking right its a bottom line business, and we don't win.
When I started googling "Tim Banks", it auto-filled the suggestion to "Tim Banks Virginia Tech"
TB Confirmed.
Lol the algorithm got us.
I did the same just now, so it's still going. A lot of people must be searching that.
Being Google's wife has its perks, what can I say
Banks for HC, Pry for DC? /ssssss
Both co-HC, co-DC, co-GMs.
/s
Whoever has the #25 jersey gets to also be the DC for the week. Divert all Marve's salary to BBall NIL, problems solved
Banks might be looking at a potential HC in waiting situation if the trigger gets pulled on Pry in a year or so.
That's a roll of the dice with an AD that has every right to be on the hot seat next year too.
Not disagreeing, but it might be running through Banks mind if he is considering coming here.
And when the "sauces" say we're not getting the DC we want:
Legs for Braveheart references
Greatest movie of all time
Big Trouble in Little China would like a word
I mean, BTiLC might be the best cult favorite of all time, but it's flaming garbage compared to any of the 3 Lord of the Rings movies.
Start your new thread for the debate of the Greatest Movie of all time or at least a consensus top 10 list.
My only thought on this whole thing right now other than the only reason the announcement is taking forever is that the next DC is still coaching and the announcement can't be made until the championship game is played. If that isn't the case... well... i've been used to getting let down a lot in sports recently.
Samesies. And I can't imagine that we're able to pull a lateral move from a team that's in the playoffs. I'm preparing myself to be underwhelmed by the hire. Pry has to know that this is critically important to his career tho. If he doesn't nail this hire and our team sucks again next year that seat of his will be piping hot
I went so far to look up ND and OSU's linebacker coaches (since I figured we weren't pulling their DCs and we also haven't hired a linebackers coach), but alas they were both basically brand new to their positions.
So we can get 'em on the cheap
It would be a real dick swinging move if we got Tim Banks. One that challenges everyone's current view of CFB. Really hope it's true. Obviously it's probably not. But if we're going to win championships we need to be making championship level moves
Yeap - Dabo has 4 times in his career (Chad Morris, Venables, Garrett Riley, and now Tom Allen) gone out and gotten his guy. Would love to see Pry do the same.
Nah, we are hiring a coach from a NFL playoff team.
I called Fangio weeks ago 😅
Dan Quinn for DC confirmed.
And he's bringing Tapp and Sorensen as DE and S coaches.
I don't think we are thinking outside the box enough. Let's hire the first female defensive coordinator. It would be media gold!
Just trying to find a gal who appreciates quick penetration.
Usually, they find you.
Shooting right up the A gap
Lori Locust?
Coaching since 2008
From Pennsylvania
Linebackers coach for Lehigh Valley Steelhawks
Baltimore Ravens DL Coaching intern
Tampa Bay Buccaneers Assistant DL Coach
Tennessee Titans Defensive QC Coach
At the very least, her defenses will swarm
Someone just needs to bite the bullet and make a conspiracy board that tracks Pry's entire career and everyone he ever crossed paths with, and then cross-reference that with all coaches still actively coaching in the CFP and NFL
Brent Pry was born in Altoona where his grandfather worked for the railroad there. Just outside of town there's a famous turnaround and namesake of a minor league baseball team, the Altoona Curve. Trains traverse 220° around the curve. If you travel at a heading of 220° from Altoona it roughly puts you in Bristol, where tech played Tennessee. Also with the same heading from state college you get to Blacksburg and from Buffalo where Pry played college ball you get to Knoxville. Of course this is me eyeballing it but Banks is all but guaranteed if you ask me.
Illuminati confirmed.
Amazing that Horseshoe Curve made it into a VT football discussion. Well played good sir.
Ugh...Fine...I'll take a shot.
2009 Memphis Tigers, the DC was current Ohio State Secondary coach Tim Walton
2011 Vanderbilt Commodores, Pry served as Co-DC with Bob Shoop, currently Marshall's Secondary coach, as well as Robert Livingston (Colorado's DC/S), and Sean Spencer (Texas A&M's DL coach)
2012 Vanderbilt, George Barlow, currently Louisiana's Secondary coach.
2014 Penn State; Terry Smith (Penn State AHC/CB), Will Windham (South Alabama DC/S)
2019 Penn State; Joe Long (Oregon ST/Nickels)
2020 Penn State; John Scott (Detroit Lions DL), Deion Barnes (Penn State DL)
2021 Penn State; Anthony Poindexter (Penn State Co-DC/S)
2022 Virginia Tech; Derek Jones (VT CB), Shawn Quinn (VT OLB), Pierson Prioleau (VT S), Xavier Adibi (Assoc LB), JC Price (Assoc HC/DL)
again- if we are combing this list, why fire Marve? for rando worked with Pry guy..?
What about Banks heading to Penn State and that still frees up Dex to VT? Might just be a timing thing.
This,
Makes sense...
Or Dex and Banks both turn down jobs to come be co-DC's in Blacksburg
Pretty winter morning; hopefully a good day get a DC
I got a feeling, we getting the band back together again...
T and B means Tim Banks, so it's definitely Tim banks. Am I doing this right?
The Blues brothers
Tyler Bowen
Spoilers, but we got more TB than Arthur Morgan
Tim Banks is being extended at Tennessee.
Really looking more and more like we swung and missed
Maybe we tricked Tennessee into overpaying him so that we can bridge the gap between us and a regional SEC team and our guy was always going to be an NFL coach.
yup, this is five alarm fire time
I'm straight up not having a good time.
Right- we've come full circle, we are actually going to be upset if its Dex now! lol. The longer this goes, the more its looking like shuffling deck chairs- Quinn is DC or Co DC, etc.
Well, it's obviously not Dex and apparently not Tim Banks now so it has to be the linebackers coach from Sacramento State right?
Should we go ahead and start a "Who's the next VT football Head Coach" thread?
Welp we fired Chris Marve- I would hope for a reason, and that reason being improving the defense? You would hope. So yeah, If Pry had no plan AB or C or Whit won't pony up for a real DC in today's market. 1. You should have kept Marve and 2. Pry might want to update his resume and put some stuff in storage.
Whit gets fired before Pry
And if the DC hire is as fucked as it appears, they're both dead men walking
If we really have whiffed out and this DC hire is a plan D, Whit's seat better be absolutely scorching. And Pry will be following him after the 2025 season. Hell I'm honestly thinking the complete and utter level of baffoonery in the VTAD is likely why we have swung and missed. Who the hell would even want to work for Whit Babcock and Pry who are both on the hot seat?
Just saw the Banks extension news - we're cooked, aren't we...?
Yep...starting to really think we have swung big and missed. Perhaps even a couple times now. The silence is becoming deafening.
Mehul's posts said should be hearing something middle of the week. Perhaps that was the decision point for Banks on the VT offer or renewing with UT. We may have our answer if the case.
If Banks is off the table, then we could be circling back to Dex. It sounds like PSU is going big external hire for their DC opening. I can't imagine Dex hanging around there after being passed over three times for the sole DC job, especially if he has a full DC job offer on the table with Pry in Blacksburg. Unless he just really likes PSU or really hates VT, I wouldn't want to wait around and get caught holding my pee pee in my hand. Dex certainly isn't the A+ homerun that Banks would be, but he's a very high-ceiling hire I still maintain. Best case, it all works out and everyone is happy. Worst case, recruiting improves a lot and at least have some excitement until Pry is ultimately out.
Pry and Whit are sitting on a fan revolt if the results of the DC search is the beginning of a bad 2025 season.
They were sitting on a fan revolt at the end of last year
The only way they could have messed this up was by fucking up the DC search.
And they fucked it up
Just ridiculous levels of incompetence in Merryman
More like Whiff Badcoach amirite
What will crash first — this thread when it tries to load on my phone, or our hopes and dreams?
2025 will really get after ya!
I didn't think it was possible to feel worse about our DC position, but here we are.
Man people are connecting a lot of dots that are really far away. The only "evidence" we have Banks was ever a realistic target is someone pulling a bunch of t's and b's out of a post by Mehul. I don't know that we should be freaking out this much.
Who knows, but I feel like he was trying to be message board guru with that post and drop some hints. He may have been confident we had a strong offer on the table for Banks and the decision date was today, but maybe it backfired on us.
I'm getting frustrated because it's been over a month since we fired Marve, 2 weeks since our last game, 5 days since all but 2 teams ended their year and we have absolutely nothing in terms of who will be leading a defensive unit that sucked last year. If we had anything lined up and ready to go, there wouldn't be any reason to delay an announcement at this point, so it looks like we either got played again, or we had no plan when we made our move.
Either way, not a great way to start an off-season that Pry absolutely needed to nail in order to save his job. And the longer this drags on the more you have to wonder if all of these defensive players we picked up in the portal and recruiting are going to be spring transfers. Again, not great and makes it real difficult to get excited about the program right now.
Agreed, in reality there was zero smoke around Banks coming here. And it's delusional to think that he would leave Tennessee for the same position here.
Edit: Could not resist the temptation. "Carnac the Magnificent" was always one of my favorite segments of Carson.
Absolutely shocked we got any defensive recruits / transfers if DC was this up in the air. Thats the only reason I'm hopeful there still is someone we are just waiting to announce. Otherwise Pry was out there on the deck somehow getting kids to buy tickets for the Titanic's second voyage after it hit the iceberg
I'm starting to wonder if Pry was just telling recruits it will be someone to run his scheme/familiar with his scheme since he's a former DC and we were making strong NIL offers to convince them to sign. Then the transfer/recruit still has the spring portal window to get out if the hire doesn't end up to be good.
Were our NIL offers that good to compensate for that level of uncertainty? I guess we won't ever really know but that would definitely surprise me. Not knowing your primary coach seems like a big deal
even more conjecture in this thread
Just wait until the DC is actually announced. I can't wait to see how dots gets connected.
Can we preserve the freaking out over a bad DC hire until the DC is actually hired? It's fair to be frustrated with the length of time. I wish it was faster as well, although I have no basis for the "average" amount of time these things take (anecdotal evidence aside, google's AI says the average is 2-4 weeks). It's just crazy to me so many people will jump to the conclusion the sky is falling and we grabbed blackburg HS's DC to be our next DC or something. Am I worried it's not a great hire because we haven't heard a single real leak yet? Absolutely. But so many of you are sitting here with lit torches already storming the castle without any actual information. Take a breath. It's going to be announced this week. Save your anger for then.
/sss
Being anxious about a DC hire on a message board is wild behavior.... Giving thousands of dollars to multi million dollar budget football programs is totally normal and expected behavior though. Fan is short for fanatic.
I mean, I get it. Message boards will have messages. It's just....exhausting to read it over and over again lol. It's bordering on VT football angry fanfic at this point since there is literally zero leaked information. I guess if it makes people feel better to be that angry over hypotheticals they made up that's fine but I'm exhausted for you
I agree with you. Let's just wait at this point. It's not going to be Kirby Smart or Bud or Bill Bellichick. It's going to be someone not quite with that resume. Let's just wait to find out who.
W take
literally slaves to a 24 hour news cycle in which "no news" is spun as "so much news and it's probably definitely bad news"
I think what you're seeing with the premature frustration is really just the intuition of a fanbase who has seen this movie before. Maybe we shouldn't get mad until we have something concrete to be mad about, but come on. We needed Merryman to produce a slam dunk hire here, and if we're all honest with ourselves... did we really think that was going to happen? Why wouldn't this fanbase jump to the worst possible conclusions? The ineptitude of our football leadership over the last decade simply outweighs any patience we might have had. There's no more goodwill for Whit & co. to burn. I would have bet my house that they would find a way to fuck this up, and it's sure looking like that's what they did.
no it isn't -- it's not looking like anything, good or bad
Every day that goes by is another coin on the scale towards "something went wrong". To sit here and say "just relax guys, let's wait and see" is to refuse to acknowledge the abnormality of such a delay. Your position made sense 2-3 weeks ago - for sure, it would have been foolish to jump to conclusions then. But now? Over a month out? It's less tenable by the day. Why blame people for assuming that no news is bad news, this late in the game?
The thing about conjecture is that sometimes it's right. It's just not that crazy to me that people are reading between the lines of a delay like this and assuming the worst. I think the worst grows more likely by the day.
Except that's not how life works. It's not some linear ride where success scales with chronologically-quicker decision-making
Are we at the point where we're gonna widely pan a Dex announcement because it's a week later than we thought it would be? Are we gonna be upset if the guy was always some NFL assistant who is still coaching in the playoffs, just because Tim Banks got an extension in Knoxville?
Yeah the coaching world is connected and nothing is happening in a vacuum. No everyone on a message board putting together a short list of "Dex, Tim Banks, and Shoop" is not some in-the-know about the daily workings of the search and you can scratch the names off one by one and start panicking.
"where success scales with chronologically-quicker decision-making"- Not quicker- better... and it's usually better to have your DC in place as soon as possible in the cut throat 365 24/7 world of free transfers, money, HS recruiting, etc. Slow decision making is counter to modern college football.
and yet we've seen apparently good transfers come in on the defensive side of the ball, to the point that the transfers in were being used as evidence that we had a DC hire in place, just not announced yet
"DC hire in place, just not announced yet"- lets say this is true... what is the logic?
same as it was with Tyler Bowen, still coaching.
i just dont think it's fair to say we can't pull players without a named DC when we're clearly pulling players without a named DC. Roster changes haven't exactly been one-way
Slight tangent, but based on the discourse here, I get the sense that a lot of people would be happy with a Dex hire. He feels like an upgrade from Marve, at the very least from a recruiting standpoint. But the biggest red flag with Marve and Bowen both was that they were first-time coordinators hired by a first-time HC. More than anything, I think the next DC needs to have substantial experience running a defense. Dex is light in that department, only having been DC at UConn for a few seasons before the entire staff got swept out the door there. Dex could be a great hire, but bringing him on board could be repeating the same critical mistake twice in a row.
I would celebrate a Dex announcement. He was the most logical/realistic and high ceiling candidate early on that I started to get onboard with, especially since Pry tried to hire him previously. I think it's just been a whirlwind since there was silence for so long, TSL and others started reporting it was not Dex a week or two ago which led to speculation we were after a big current DC, the Banks connections were made and looks like he's off the table today, so now we're circling back to Dex. It's just been a roller coaster.
Yeah, the number of people who have 100% made their minds up that the DC hire has been completely bungled is a little weird to me. Like, have you never hired someone for a job before? Sometimes it takes time to work all the details out. Now I feel like now no matter who we get they won't be good enough for some people simply because it wasn't announced quickly enough.
I don't understand why people want to live their lives like that.
"Now I feel like now no matter who we get they won't be good enough for some people simply because it wasn't announced quickly enough"... People don't give and won't give 2 shits about how slow it was if we announce Glenn Schumann or Al Golden in fucking June. People are concerned because it is taking too long to hire an unremarkable replacement- THAT is what people are concerned about. If we wait until August and announce its Steve Spagnuolo- everyone will be happier than pigs in shit.
Fair enough, I get worrying it might be a shit hire, what I don't get is assuming it will be before we know anything. I know Hokie fans have an inferiority complex, but don't get mad about something that hasn't happened yet. Wait until it happens and then get mad.
You aren't wrong but its more history than inferiority complex IMO. When Foster retired, we hired JHam. Whit is not exactly playing with house money here.
^^^ This right here. All that I'm getting at in other comments I've made, is that I'm concerned about the quality of the hire - not the time it's taking to get a hire necessarily - but that delay certainly serves as reason for pause.
I fundamentally do not trust Whit Babcock anywhere within 50 miles of a coordinator hire - or any football hire at this point. That's what it's about. My working assumption all along is that Merryman would somehow find a way to fuck up what is a critically important hire.
The delay in that hire, is simply smoke that is beginning to look like it might indicate the fire I already feared was burning.
It's not about how long it's taking. It's that I didn't trust that we'd nail a good hire to begin with, and the delay is only making that hunch look worse.
we're assuming it's a delay because we're assuming we know who the hire was supposed to be and then because it wasn't announced when we assumed it would be announced now we're all assuming it's not happening.
and we all know what they say can happen when you assume -- sometimes you're wrong
We could have tied up our selection weeks ago and not announced because they're still coaching and all the recent interviews weren't for the DC, but for position coaches that will all be announced at the same time as the DC. We're all making a lot of assumptions, including what we think the timeline should be. If the above scenario is correct and we have a signed contract, what would the rush really be to announce right now? Maybe they want to make a splash and announce the DC with who his entire staff would be rather than make the DC announcement and then let him do interviews and announce the position coaches over time. And what's taking awhile could be the position coaches hiring. Maybe we've even chosen all the position coaches now and the reason we haven't announced is it's the Ohio State DC and we're waiting until next Tuesday.
Who knows? Speculating is fun, panicking because we think we know what should be happening and when isn't fun or productive. Wait and see and judge when it happens, not before.
What defensive position coaches are we firing at this point?
Depends on who the new DC wants to keep or let go.
We need a linebackers coach, which could be covered by the new DC or shuffling responsibilities. If it's up to me though, I'd rather get someone new to the program given how awful that position has been the last few years.
Realistically, probably could use a change at safety as well.
Also, the new DC may have people he wants to bring with him and that could be part of the negotiation to take the job.
Making assumptions based on assumptions one has already made isn't a good way to come to a valid conclusion.
All we know right now is that we don't know.
The goal of the Athletic Director and the coach at this stage of selecting a new Defensive Coordinator isn't to mollycoddle the fans - it's to get the best result, and that's surely where their efforts need to be right now.
But sure, if you didn't like Whit before, uncertainty is absolutely going to cause anxiety. If anyone is feeling a high amount of anxiety over this process, they should probably go do something else for a while, as dwelling on it isn't going to change the process a whole lot, but will likely cause even more anxiety.
Nothing quite like lecturing people on a fan message board that they are being too fanatic and should just not do that anymore
Nothing like lecturing people...
...on lecturing people.
I don't mind people being "too fanatic". I rather expect that here. My objection is more when people complain about the AD for making decisions without knowing what the decisions are. Makes no sense to me, that's all.
Guess no one remembers that Foster personally recommended JHam. If Whit had backed someone else (because the HC makes that hire) we would have destroyed him.
I work at a startup that went through a "hire people as fast as possible" phase and it led to awful hires and lots of pain and firings... when we took our time to hire the right person (it took months of searching and interviewing) we found the right person who has done amazingly well
Yeah, I'd hold positions open until we got the right person; one personnel headache can consume several good folks. But I didn't have timing limitations relative to recruiting, class schedules, and practice either.
Was your competition someone you have lost to or had less market share revenue than them for a decade, yet they were able to hire top talent and upgrade quickly at critical positions? This isn't a startup, this is big time college football. Clemson hired their DC in 5 seconds- will they have to fire him soon? maybe but they have been beating the shit out of us lately so perhaps they know what they are doing?
It is more probably that Clemson's hire took a long time and occurred slowly then appeared to us all at once rather than it just happened suddenly.
Yes, the old adage of hire slow and fire fast is the preferred method of building an organization.
Pry's middle name is Schrodinger, and we won't know if his DC hire is good or bad until the white smoke comes out of an air vent on top of Merryman and the doors are opened so that we can see the DC hire.
Where there's smoke.........
Black smoke means no pope
Or that the Wicked Witch of the West is nearby......
Looking outside the college ranks, finding a.
1.) Defensive coach
2.) With linebacker experience
3. Who has ties to the Commonwealth
4.) Who is in our price range
Baltimore Ravens Defensive Coordinator Zach Orr
coached with tyler bowen on urb's jax staff 👀
Orr makes more than Chris Marve, so he is not the guy.
Orr is making 511.
Marve made 875.
We can offer Orr 250k more and still save 100k
Offer $650k with $225k+ incentives.
Think of all the performance incentives we didn't have to pay Marve
I just wanted to say this gif is perfect and I love it. I can HEAR it. Well done.
If Whit is cheap that just means he wants to get fired. If hire a DC with no expirence and don't do well next year then Whit is gone, this is the time the checkbook should be most opened because he should be spending it to save his job. If we had gotten Banks and we were so-so every one would give him another year because it wasn't enough time, but hiring some one like Hamilton means you're done, you've given up, you're not trying.
Adding to that, when is last time a first time DC had an amazing year? Are there any examples at all?
Bud M'fcking Foster!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe Pry interviewed himself for DC, liked what he heard and decided to make a hiring decision. Now he is in the process of hiring a new Head Coach to coach the defense for. It could happen.
I think the concern is justified. I don't know that people are connecting miscellaneous dots as much as the justifiable reasons for delaying the announcement of the DC are disappearing by the day and the worst case reasons are growing by the day. What is more likely at this point Pry got his top guy already and isn't announcing it for X reason or Pry is interviewing options 5,6, and 7 right now? If you said the first, what would be the advantage or courtesy to delaying the announcement today?
Damn right the concern is justified. We went 6-7 this year in a dogshit conference. We need an absolute home run DC hire or the 2025 season might as well be a throwaway year zero of yet another rebuild due to a canned HC and possibly AD, and every day that goes by is another reason to think something has gone wrong and we are interviewing our 4th and 5th options.
We need to win this race, but Lightning McQueen seems to be stuck in Radiator fucking Springs.
I think we can all agree that if it isn't someone still coaching in the CFP or the NFL then something got bungled at some point. If they do get botched, then I hope we get our second choice and not like, our fifth choice lol.
I think they thought they were in it for Banks...until they weren't. There are several decent options out there. In fairness, it's a more complicated decision than calling time out.
remember when we used to make fun of Mike London for his time management?
Those were better days...
So you're saying that we're screwed? 😂
An agreement with the individual.
I get it, but what courtesy remains? Almost all teams are finished playing. If it's someone on an NFL team, then the announcement would be able to be made as those are professional teams and any coach we hire should be able to uphold their professional requirements in the wake of the announcement.
That would depend on the needs of the person hiring. He may have contractual obligations to fulfill on his end.
Another possible reason for delay is the background check/vetting process. My recollection is that it takes about a week just to clear a hire.
It's going to be Tim Walton cornerbacks coach at Ohio St.
/s I just googled OSU defensive position coaches until I found one that overlapped with someone on our staff
but if I'm right mark this down and shower me with credit...and/or scold if everybody hates it
One of the initials checks out also.
What's his middle name?
drink
Going with the assumption that the new DC is still coaching, whether in the NFL or CFP...anyone mentioned Bill Davis? Don't know what his current salary with Houston is
Bill Davis - LB Coach - Houston Texans. Long NFL coaching career, various positions, including DC. Brief stint as LB Coach at Ohio State from 2017-2018, while Pry was at PSU.
Is he a Pry scheme guy? Does he run the gap fit scheme?
No idea - but we're at the point where we are deciphering message board posts to see if people's initials are included in the post. This guy has a one-off connection to Pry in that he coached in the same conference as Pry for one season, so I thought I'd bring him up - it's as much evidence as we ever had that it was Tim Banks lol.
Maybe it's Texans Bill Davis
Looks like he is eagerly awaiting the launch of Girl Scout Cookie season. I have the pile of boxes in my dining room ready to go next week.
Well since Banks is off the table officially now, have a feeling we are either a) circling back to Dex and will be a few days so he can see if he's officially out of consideration for the PSU job (sounds like they are going external), or b) Dex is still off the table as well and Pry is talking to options down the list. Very frustrating process.
IMO I don't think we are waiting on anyone still coaching at this point. This delay is likely due to the Banks decision and waiting around on what Dex is going to do. Just my gut feeling on it.
Be careful connecting those very plain and obvious dots lol. You'll be told that it's all baseless conjecture and assumptions, and that you should be patient and wait for something to be frustrated about.
Yeah I mean, come on. If we aren't supposed to discuss/speculate and wait on primary sources, going to be a quiet board until the VT news release comes out. There's also some additional detail behind paywalls on the other sites that I won't share. Just my best guess on what we are doing at this point given the timing.
If Techsideline or (and I love him) Billy Ray Mitchell actually break inside news - real news regarding VT football, it will be the first time. Both are just propoganda mouthpieces for the program. Hell even Bitter wont ask a remotely tough question anymore, because they are afraid Whit will pull their press pass. They have PTSD from Weaver telling them to fuck off and he wasn't giving a free sign in blog press creds.
I do agree here. I think most of the "inside" info from the other sites these days is being directed from the admin/staff. Nobody is going to tell it straight like it is anymore for fear of being cut off and losing their business model. The tenor of said inside information is also becoming increasingly defensive of the staff's position. Case in point as you mentioned defending lots of Fu recruiting reaches. It was also spun that Crook was a good hire because of simplified scheme and great developer - serious turd polishing there when we knew Rudolph left us in a bind and we went bargain shopping for a coach who had basically checked out but wanted a paycheck still.
VT sports is becoming almost unbearable to be a part of anymore with the utter incompetence and bs quite frankly from all involved.
It's a dark time right now for the 3 revenue sports at VT. Pry vastly underachieved this season with his whole hand picked NIL team returning. Lost 5 very winnable games. Instead of winning 10 games, we won 6 and half the team left and wouldn't play in a bowl. anyone calling 2024 anything other than a failure is lying. The best players on a mid at best OL left, the best CB left, etc to add icing to the cake. We also signed the 43rd class. Pry is not winning on the field, and is not killing it in recruiting either. Duffy has shown flashes and knows how to coach, but she is not going to be supported by Whit at the level she needs to compete in an elite conference. Whit went all in on Brooks- until he didn't of course. Men's hoops has never really been supported sans the early Buzz years when we had more guys in suits than players in the team picture- which is what is needed to compete. Young is a great and proven "coach" but he is not a new school slimeball that is going to kiss runners and agents asses to get a one and done transfer guy, etc. Mens hoops simply can't compete in this environment without wholesale changes in support and philosophy. Common denominator is the president and AD of course. Sure we could have a lucky season or 2 or find an under the radar QB but that's not realistic. Dark times right now.
Clemson was winnable too if we give a non injured running back more than 0 carries
Or Delane is good enough to bring down Klubnick unblocked.
This is what I don't understand about the folks who want to lecture us about being impatient/concerned over the delay in the DC hire. You'll have to excuse my *checks notes* sense of urgency after yet another historically disappointing season.
I'm sorry... when exactly would it be appropriate to ring the fire alarm? After the Vandy loss? Or maybe after Rutgers? Miami? Syracuse? Duke? Please pardon me for my utter impatience towards a staff and AD that just lost 7 games in a season with the highest amount of returning talent in a decade.
Don't tell me to extend more grace and patience, and not get mad until there's an announcement. Respectfully, that ship has left the fucking port. You'll have to excuse my lack of trust and confidence here.
If this delay is because we're poaching OSU's DC, I'll eat my shorts in a week when it's announced. But until then I refuse to inject the copium and act like things aren't on fire.
If we get Dex, great. Fine. I'll be happy enough. But every day that goes by is an indictment, in my view. It's evidence that we have swung and missed, are now interviewing the DB coach from Southeast Kentucky Community College, and are about to be told what a "great developer" and "quick learner" he is.
I'd bet my mortgage that Whit refused to pay big boy money for a big boy coordinator, thinks we can still Moneyball our way to success with weights that weigh the same, and will be packing his office in a year's time and setting this program back another half decade because of it.
I really do hope I'm wrong.
Miami was the game where I lost all faith in Pry. That 2 minute drill was soooo poorly run. It was clear that we didn't practice that, and the fact that we didn't practice it is an indictment on Pry. All the other blunders before this were flukey, could be player related, I could see the upside in some cases, etc. But not being able to run a 2 minute drill was bad.
I don't entirely agree with this... yea, each day there's more time for the fanbase to say 'we didn't get our guy', but I don't think that matters. Basically - if Dex is the guy, I'm going to be equally as excited if it's announced next Friday as I would if it was announced last Monday. Dex is Dex. Schoop is Schoop. JMU guy is JMU guy. The date of the announcement doesn't matter to me (within reason).
So here's the thing I keep coming back to... we (as a fan base) can't be upset if Whit defunds other sports to pay for football, but also complain that we're not paying enough for football. You can say Whit makes bad hires, but you can't say Whit is cheap, then get annoyed that all our money is going towards football.
Someone above said the athletic dept should consider taking on debt in order to compete. While I don't necessarily disagree with that, I'd wager that's not a decision Whit can make; That probably requires Sands/BoV approval.
If VT can't afford a $2m/year coordinator, that's on the donors (and the ACC TV deal). You think the Haslams would haggle over that? You think the Powers Family shuttered when Dabo wanted to pay Venibles $2m? Nah, they said 'where do I sign?'
Vandy- why? If you don't have elite talent, you need elite coaching to win. What is a key part of elite coaching? Saban/Bellichick/Coach K?? - attention to detail. Pry and his staff have none of it- highlighted by losing a game because you allow non winning things like duplicate numbers in the program AND you don't have a water boy to monitor it. We lost that game because Pry- with a whole off season to focus on beating Vandy- had no attention to detail. He didn't even think of the possibility that 2 of the 6 number O's we have on the team could be on the field at the same time... if he did, he would have a coach watch for it. The better coaches harp on the details. You will see Colorado- very sloppy team, ton of penalties, etc- fall off without Heisman winners and 5 star QBs because Coach Prime lacks attention to detail. Vandy turned out to be meh- as I said at the time. They were OK.. just like Rutgers, just like Duke, etc. They were not a great team, and we lost because we had no attention to detail.
The Vandy loss/extra man on the field was a fixable mistake. Yes, it's evidence that pry isn't saban/bellicheck/etc, but I don't think any of us were expecting that? Kalen Deboer - who I think is a fantastic coach - made the same mistake (ironically also against Vandy). I just don't think this was anywhere near as egregious as the Miami 2-minute drill (or lack thereof). You're welcome to disagree though.
Won't disagree- I'm just speaking root cause... too much non winning things around the program, and lack of attention to detail. Those are why he is not winning here big picture. The 2 mins preceding half time against Miami, Pry did everything- everything wrong. He called timeout inexplicably with 30 seconds left on the clock- instead of fucking 3 seconds... and to compound matters he squib kicks to their all conference return guy. Literally the opposite of what Joe Gibbs would do in every aspect.
That's fair enough, honestly. I don't disagree that a good hire is a good hire no matter when it's announced. I just think the optics of the delay are not good, and the delay itself makes me feel less confident in the quality of that hire.
I just straight up don't trust Whit to be at the table of the deal. Even after defunding other sports in favor of football, I still think that he is cheap. Maybe it's a mindset thing, but I just don't trust him to actually cut the necessary check that Pry might need.
I get this - but that anxiety (literally the discomfort caused by uncertainty) will be replaced with another emotion the moment the hire is announced/leaked.
I think it's a mindset thing. There is plenty to criticize Whit for. This is not one of them imo.
The correct answer is Vandy loss. Several of you got it right, several of you did not. Thanks for playing
Some of us got banned for doing that after that game.....
We got the Switch 2 reveal trailer before we announced our DC, c'mon son.... /sssss
*sigh*
Fine, I will be the Defensive Coordinator.
Who is the S&C Coach?
it's going to be the last of the 3 to be filled
In addition to the reply above, I'll say, if it's Ferguson, why not drag it out. He's being paid as the interim, but doing the job. Save the full salary pay a little longer. If he's happy in that situation, run with it.
Unless Pry pulls a rabbit out of a hat here, I think he's pretty much done and dusted. It just seems like we're missing on our top targets and unless he nails this hire I don't think he'll survive another year of bad football. IIWII. College football is changing. VT is getting railroaded and there's not a whole lot anyone can do about it. The sport at large has become much less fun and interesting for me in the last 5-10 years and with VT's decline and apparent lack of vision to get better I barely have anything left to hold onto. It just kinda sucks right now and I don't see how it's going to get any better any time soon without MAJOR overhauls
I share your frustrations and am also losing what interest I had left after Fuente killed most of it. But I will say, even if the eventual DC hire is not a big name or thought of as a great hire, we could still see some decent improvement. I mean Marve is a not a high bar to exceed. Kind of like we did not need a great OC to make the offence better than what Stinespring did. So if we get a decent DC (and LB coaching), it could be enough to get us another 1 or 2 wins. If Pry cleans up the clock management, that could be 1 or 2 more. I mean, just moderate, incremental improvement in those areas could have us at an 8-4 or 9-3 regular season. From there would be in a better position moving forward to try and be relevant again.
Trying to be cautiously optimistic. But you are 100% correct, Pry and Whit are both running short on time to fix the on-field issues and W/L record.
I'm willing to wait and see (because what choice do I have). Optics are bad right now, but make a good hire and the optics instantly change. Win games next year, and the optics change again.
Exactly. Who cares if the hire was made 2 weeks earlier? If it's a good hire it's a good hire. If it's bad it's bad. THAT is all I care about. My glass half full approach is hopefully this is a good hire and a good learning moment for how he can reduce the hiring timeline/process the next time he needs to fill a coordinator position at VT. Otherwise, it's all for nothing and we have to tear the program down AGAIN and rebuild AGAIN and I would rather not do that
Again... people are shitting themselves based on our track record. Not the fact this is "taking long"
It's called a trauma response, bestie. I'm not here to tell people they can't have their feelings about it but just that we can't control it and know nothing so it's probably better mentally to just wait and see.
Smoke and mirrors babe, smoke and mirrors...
We're getting the safeties coach from Youngstown State as DC (or some equivalent) because we are Virginia Tech
I honestly don't care if we hire the waterboy from Kalamazoo's HS team if he can actually coach, recruit, and develop. It will look horrible, but results on the field and in recruits are what matter to me.
Might as well hire me then, hell i'd be a bargain at 300-350k
"We will announce game week prior to our season opener. Keep the DC competition open and the other team guessing." — Bill Belicheck probably
Guys I just heard a rumor from Zeke that Bill Belicheck is actually our DC that we already secret hired and he is actually sabotaging UNC for us before he shows up to fall camp in an old school hokie/turkey costume.
Maybe the real Defensive Coordinator is the friends we made along the way
Knowing is half the battle...
AND MY AXE!!
Ya'all...
Fully expecting a classic Whit budget hire incoming. Sounds like Dex may be more in play at PSU now that they missed on their top two candidates.
Can we start a New Head Coach/AD Conversation thread yet? /s sort of
This thread is really slowing down - people must be getting board of wild speculation lol
I am absolutely convinced it will the same scheme based on the transfer pickups. But, I think they will be less predictiable (thank god.) Bell will move around even more than APR did.
and hoping that with Bud around, they use more Cover 4 and let the damn MIKE blitz instead of it being 85% STAR, 10% WILL, and 5% boundary corner.
Are we going to find a mike???
Sounds like Woodson will be our Mike next year by all accounts.
By which accounts? And if Woodson moves to mike, who plays will/backer?
At the end of the year, it seemed that VT was continuing with JK at Mike and Woodson at Will.
This all may change with a new DC and LB coach, especially if scheme changes (although unlikely to change scheme).
The 247 and TSL staff have continually been saying the coaches are projecting Woodson at Mike next year. I think it's a little weird too since he had been flourishing at Will. But could signal that they still just don't trust Keller, which I can understand.
Hmm, it would make sense. Pry has a history of "promoting" players from Star to Will to Mike (or at least he said something to that effect in an interview last offseason). And Woodson is the best LB-product Pry has recruited and trained. And having a solid player at Mike for 2 years would be nice.
Need someone to take over will. Maybe G. Williams if he can get healthy. Or maybe the DE/LB from the portal. idk, seems the LB room is probably still really messy come spring and fall. I hope not, but we'll see. They really need to put the players in spot in the spring and just train them there. All this cross-training has bad results thus far.
Might turn white today or Monday
Why you gotta bring color into this?
I blame the Catholics
At the end of the day, its always a safe bet to think ND is to blame
Brian Kelly killed a kid.
Where there's smoke.......
deja vu
What's old is new?
Everyday I wake up, I ask myself, "I wonder if today is the day that news breaks about our DC?"
Read/heard some rumors that it could be Tim Walton (Ohio state secondary coach/assistant head coach). Don't think he's ever called plays, so feels like a weird potential hire.
No #Sauces, so could be/probably is all conjecture, but what else do we have to talk about right now? 🤷♂️
He's been a DC at Miami in 2007, Memphis in 2008 when Pry was a DL coach, and for the Rams in 2013. He ran a traditional 4-3 at Miami under Randy Shannon, but maybe he has evolved?
Also saw rumors about Ohio State's safety coach Matt Guerrieri who was co-DC at Duke 2018-2021 and then co-DC under Tom Allen at Indiana in 2023. Walton seems to make more sense given that he's coached with Pry before.
Yeeesh. We are officially to the level of hiring a DC who likely has no other interest from other programs in being their DC this cycle. That or someone currently unemployed.
I don't really like his record as a DC, but I feel like it's hard to complain about hiring someone away from a national championship team if either of these are the guys.
I would rather Pry live and die by hiring his guys than using "was this guy an in-demand candidate at the time" as selection criteria
I'd rather Pry win at some point. He will be fired if these new coaches don't work out, so I hope he is choosing wisely.
Agreed. The point is to win football games, not press conferences. I think all of us get wrapped up in "hey, we got the guy that everyone wanted" in both coaching and recruiting. It's a bad mentality to have as ~90% of people don't know what they're talking about.
Whit and Pry need to make the best hire they possibly can. If it's not a hit at the opening press conference, their job is to eat shit until they prove everyone else wrong (it's one of the worst parts of the job but hey, that's what the money is for). The Commies did this with Dan Quinn (instead of hiring a Ben Johnson-type) and are reaping the rewards. Hoping we can do the same.
So since we are "officially" to some level, you must know who the next DC is going to be? Please enlighten us.
I don't know who it's going to be. Sounds like we have a group Pry is talking to at this point - those mentioned above like Walton and Guerrieri, Adam Fuller's name I've seen tossed around, as well as the DC from JMU, and Geoff Collins. That's kind of the tier we seem to be talking to at this point.
Everybody is tossing names around and nobody knows anything except the people in Merryman. Claiming the sky is falling because some brother's wife's cousin's former roommate throws a name out on Twitter is tiresome.
I'll Judge the hire when the hire is announced.
I am your sauce! https://www.thekeyplay.com/comment/1296501#comment-1296501
Or maybe 07Hokie is, he told me to drink so I did and will continue to do so until our DC is announced
Well....Walton certainly fits into the "still coaching" category.
Would have overlapped with Bowen at Jax too so the connection is there.
I talked to my message board connected Oh St. friends and they thought it would be strange for Walton to make this move since he is an OSU alum and he's been around the blocks a few times and settled into his current role. Also said there have been no rumors on the boards of him leaving.
Question for everyone - we seem to have given up on Tim Banks because he just signed a contract. I want to say someone else in vaguely recent history had just signed a contract before going somewhere else, maybe Jimbo Fisher? Anyway, any chance the contract may have been a negotiating tactic for a higher salary and we could still get him?
I know a lot of people think it's bad optics that there hasn't been an announcement made yet, but maybe the selection has been made and there's some obscure reason we haven't announced, or as I said before, they're making all the position coach hiring decisions first before announcing. Like maybe it IS Banks and he is trying to find the best position coaches possible, between what he's got now, what we've got, and maybe even someone from another school he would prefer to have over either what he's got or what we've got.
I mean, it's feeling more and more like whatever happens at this point there are so many possibilities we're not likely to guess. I know guessing is half the fun, but we're just spinning ourselves into a lot of anxiety based on what happened under Fuente. He was willing to die on the hill with his selections, and I'm not convinced that the JHam hire was anything more than because he was Foster's recommendation. How ca. we think Whit wouldn't have paid more than what we'd pay a first time coordinator. Pry isn't Fuente - we've already seen that because he was willing to let a friend of his go.
I also don't think we can judge how much Whit is willing to pay for a coordinator. If we assume Pry hired Marve and Bowen because of relationships and what he thought they were capable of, he saw Marve wasn't cutting it. He actually let go the weak areas on staff. Since he's not willing to go down with his friends, I think we have to say he knows his job is on the line. He"s going to want to get the best possible candidates. Even if it wasn't about saving his job, he probably wants to win games. Winning lots of games is good for his career and salary.
All that to say, and maybe it's just because I'm an optimist, but I have a feeling we're not going to be as disappointed as some of us think. I guess there isn't much else to speculate about since it's the offseason though. One way or another, hopefully we don't have to wait past Tuesday...
From all the rumblings online, it sounds like Pry asked for authorization to up the salary at least twice over the last month and it was granted. Just reading the tea leaves, I think we went after Banks as our top target as a total moonshot. Unfortunately we got outbid at the end of the day, and Wednesday this past week was the decision point for Banks IMO based on Mehul's comments early this past week. It just didn't go in our favor.
Have also seen that Banks is likely eyeing a HC position in a few years so he may not have been here very long had we landed him. But still would have taken him in a heartbeat.
My worry is now we are going after under qualified candidates and will end up overpaying because we have some cash. You would think we could poach a standing P4 DC with the type of money we supposedly have available. But the names we are hearing now give me a little bit of uneasiness. Hopefully we are all pleasantly surprised but this is dragging out way longer than anyone had hoped.
It's mental to me that anyone is still conjuring up optimistic scenarios this late into the game lol.
I'll be the first to eat my shorts if I'm wrong - I've been all over this thread predicting doom - but I really think we've swung and missed on multiple prospects and are about to overpay, again, for an under-qualified bush league coordinator.
I don't think it's unreasonable to expect or pre-empt that based on Merryman's utter mismanagement over the last decade. I don't think people are mad enough about it.
Agree. I think we have missed on Dex too at this point. Seems like he's well in the mix for the PSU job as things stand.
The most crazy rumor (conjecture!) I've seen is we are looking at hiring both Walton and Guerrieri as a co-DC situation since we supposedly have some cash. Other than the splash value of announcing you just hired a chunk of OSU's staff at one time, not sure I'm onboard with that. Putting two eh options together to plug a DC hole doesn't make it great IMO. But who knows, I'm just waiting on something, anything at this point.
If we've swung and missed, why not an announcement yet? There are all sorts of DCs available that aren't playing anymore this year. Someone said they'd heard there were a bunch of interviews going on last week. Have we heard there are still interviews going on (I haven't seen anyone say within the past 5 days or so that they've heard there are still interviews going on, all we know is there hasn't been an announcement)? If not, that implies we have made a selection but just not announcing. Then the question becomes why haven't we announced yet.
If we're upping the DC salary, that's would put it at at least a million, possibly more, which would have us in the top 30.
Based on what Banks was making and is likely now getting at UT with his new contract, I would guess we put north of $1.5MM on the table for this new hire if we made a run at him.
1.5 would put us in the top 15 of publicly available information.
Zero historical evidence to suggest that we have the desire or ability to land somebody like Banks. And if we did, why did we waste 3 years with Marve? Of course, I'd love to be proven wrong.
I think Pry and Whit both realize their jobs are on the line at this point.
Unlike schools who have turned over coaches a lot, we have very little historical evidence to suggest ANYTHING really. In the past 30 years, we've had, what, 3 DCs (Foster, JHam, and Marve). That really is next to nothing to go on. The past 2 head coaches have only had one OC each, and we all know under Beamer, the goal was doing more with less, and we were usually counting on Foster's defenses to keep us in games, and even so, Whit didn't preside over any OC hires under Beamer. So we're back to Whit going with the selections of OC for the 2 coaches he hired, and no turnover. There really isn't much evidence that really suggests anything about new coordinator hires under Whit.
The only thing we really have is going from Foster to JHam. We definitely had more cash than what we spent on JHam, so that means Foster's recommendation of him must have gone a LONG way. Yeah, as DC pointed out, Fuente wanted Scott, but that was another of his guys and as far as I can tell, doesn't indicate anything about just how much money Whit would/could have put up for a DC hire. And as we saw with Fuente, he was willing to ride the sinking ship with Corny, which suggests it was a lot more about coaching with his guys than cash or preserving his career.
This really seems to me to be the first hire we will have seen that will demonstrate just how much Whit is willing to cut a check for.
Entirely too measured, thought out, and reasonable. You are not message boarding hard enough.
Seriously though, I tend to agree. Handwringing and fear of the unknown are always anxiety provoking. Really hope we get someone qualified who we all like, can recruit their nuts off and finish games, but they don't ask my opinion before hiring. Im just gonna try and be patient.
Think it was Manny Diaz- hired at Temple then bolted for Miami...
I think Jimbo is right as well, wasn't he hired as Maryland's Head Coach in Waiting before being poached by FSU?
I thought FSU had just given him an extension before he left for A&M
Yep, per the ESPN article dated 2017:
James Franklin was supposed to take over for Ralph at UMD. Jimbo was named HCIW when hired by FSU from LSU.
Jumbo was Bobby's CIW wasn't he?
The whole wait just has us all asking ...
Welp. I think this is officially a cluster fuck. I think it's highly unlikely we're going to hire the ace that is required to save Pry's job. My prediction is we hire someone nobody was thinking of and we'll be fed some line to try and make it seem like a 4d chess move and then we'll lose 6 games next year and fire Pry (and Whit, if we're lucky)
What are the chances that Foster comes into Pry's office and says, "Fuck it, I'll be your DC. I'm better than anyone on your list of replacements."
Conspiracy theory (that I dont really believe but would be fun to get out there): Pry is purposely mucking up the DC hire so Foster comes back to be the hero.
He has heart problems. He might as well say, "one extra large heart attack to go, please." Being an analyst and mentor is great because it doesn't have any of the stress of being an actual coach.
Foster:
This is exactly how it's going to go down. Bet.
See you all in the "new AD/HC" thread in a year
FWIW, a connected poster over on 247 just posted in the non-paywall "New DC" thread there that the announcement will leak during the national championship game Monday. So that basically all but confirms it's somebody/bodies on the OSU staff.
no one in that thread is connected
McLovern has posted good info before on uniforms and staff-related stuff. Could just be his guess though but at this point it's either Monday or anyone's guess.
To me, this scenario still qualifies for VPIhokieME's prediction above - that we basically whiffed on our options with experience/qualifications, and this was the third or fourth option down on our list, but it will be spun like it's a 4D chess move that we planned to do all along.
"Look, these guys were in the vicinity of a national championship team!"
It really puts VTs position even more clearly into perspective.
Banks was never coming here--he's a successful coordinator at a P2 school that just made the Playoff.
He clearly was in-line to be extended and was probably using VTs interest as a bargaining chip in negotiations with TN.
I think its pretty clear that we are getting pretty deep down the candidate list and that most of the "best options" clearly see Pry as a guy on the hot seat.
We also haven't found any S&C coach yet which is equally disturbing.
I think the writing is on the wall for Pry here..rather than overpaying for option #7 who probably only will have a marginally better resume than the guy we just fired, VT should save money to pay all the inevitable buyouts at the end of the year.
Not pleasant thoughts and maybe I will be proven wrong by a surprise splashy hire but nothing at all whatsover so far suggests thats likely.
Has anyone even said we really went after him or is this still the zodiak killer interpretation a mehul post
In all honesty, I hope Pry didn't spend much time on Banks because he was a pipe dream of a candidate.
At this point, one has to assume we have made serious inquiries to our "top targets" and have been rebuffed...only real question is who and how many times?
Pry is getting criticized for missing a target he never said he was going after.
I doubt we will ever get any official confirmation on that. Just like everything with VT, it's always innuendo and rumor behind paywalls from insiders, no leaks, and VT spins the final result as their first and best choice. Most other schools have reporting and agent leaks. I guess since VT isn't a big time football program anymore and most of the media covering the team has dried up or is too scared to really report, this is all we get.
This just isn't true. You don't hear At any school coach xyz missed on DC xyz. Not from any official sources. We're not running Fort Knox over here in this industry leaks generally have an incentive.
He's being criticized for not having a DC over a month after firing his previous one.
Presumptively, he's swung and missed on his top candidates (Banks or Poindexter, doesn't really matter) or he wasn't really well-prepared and is now floundering in a search.
Either way, there seems to be a significant lack of direction that doesn't bode well at all for a Coach who has alot to prove in '25.
What does it really matter if he hasn't had a DC for a month? They're bringing in people on defense in the portal and there's no coaching going on. Right now, the bigger issue might be not having an S&C coach since they can be having interaction with the players, but they still have some S&C guys on staff.
It's just optics – if we announce that we're hiring the DC from JMU, but the announcement is made shortly after the Marv firing, then it signals strength to the fan base; "we targeted our guy, and then we went out and got our guy"
If you take a month to make the same exact hire, you can't position it as "going out and getting your guy" - it's inevitably going to be positioned as "we settled for our third or fourth choice."
The latter just kills the vibes. And college football is very much a vibes based business, like it or not.
Telling the fans you can't announce the hire because they are still playing ball also announces strength.
For sure - if Pry makes a good hire, it's a good hire. If Pry lands Jim Knowles (he's not) that's a good hire no matter when it happens. But if Pry lands the JMU DC a month after JMUs last game, the fan base, boosters, media, etc will be convinced this was the third or fourth choice. That's just more pressure on Pry, and by extension the rest of the team.
This whole saga could be a whole lot of nothing, or it could be the 17th canary in the coal mine.
At the end of the day, though, winning cures everything.
Here's the thing...Marve was just extended before this season.
That was despite a ho-hum performance and French's analysis about very obvious, telegraphed Blitzes. And no offense at all to French, but if he notes that, you can be sure that opponents Analysts pick up on it too. The weakest unit was the unit he coached.
What's the significance?
It suggests Pry was OK with what was happening on D and didn't see any major issues. He wasn't planning on canning Marve but after a thoroughly underwhelming season, it was made clear to him he needed to make changes to save his job.
Now, he's conducting a search that he wasn't intending on and (yes there is a ton of conjecture) but all the indications are that its not been particularly successful.
The image that is given off is that of a rudderless ship with Captain Pry drifting out to sea.
I feel like you're probably confusing Pry being okay with what was happening on the field with being okay with Marve. For all we know, Pry had a conversation with Marve about certain things and had enough confidence in Marve that he expected improvement, and anticipated things would get better, and realized when they didn't, he had to make a tough call.
The only indication it hasn't gone well is the timing of the announcement. The one guy said it wasn't Dex days before the Banks thing that ostensibly would have kept Dex at PSU. I mean, a co-DC who hadn't ever had sole play calling duties for a head coach whose seat is heating up doesn't seem like a big confidence boosting hire either (to me, even though a lot of other people seemed to like the idea). The only other candidate that it seemed like we thought might be likely was Banks. Nobody else I heard of sounded like more than pure conjecture. More of our conjecture is Based on the notion that Whit doesn't want to pay any more than like 37 cents for a DC, even though he probably realizes his job may be on the line as well.
At this point, if it's true we'll find out tomorrow, it's only one more day. If it goes any further, I'd assume the person is coming from the NFL like Bowen. Hell, maybe since Bowen has been able to put points on the board and improved substantially from last season, maybe Pry thinks the NFL is a better option to pull from.
You don't extend a coach who you have any concerns with for 3 years when you don't have to.
Marve was under contract this year...he didn't have to be extended.
Pry clearly planned on keeping Marve. Nothing otherwise makes sense.
It's pretty clear that Pry expected to turn a corner this year. If that had happened, he'd have wanted Marve to stick around. None of that happened.
Under contract until he wasn't. Yes, he was extended and now he doesn't have a job. If he could be let go, what does it matter that he was extended? Pry had expectations that weren't met, so let him go, simple as that.
It matters that we are still paying him and Galt until 2027.
Pry likes to talk about having "hard conversations"....he could have had one of those conversations with Marve prior to this year and let him know what he needed to see on the field to get extended.
Instead, he gave him a $50k raise and 2 more years.
If he was in any serious doubt about Marve's ability, he doesn't do that...at least not if he is competent, which I think is still quite debatable at this point.
His contract expired on Jan. 1st, potentially before any bowl game were to be played. If Pry DIDN'T extend him, it would be similar to letting him go and Marve may have decided to find a job and left at a time that would potentially have made it difficult to find a replacement because of time of year.
Pry likely thought his friend could improve so extended him, and may very well have outlined expectations. But imagine he didn't extend him, Marve decides to find a new job, and gets one in August, meaning Pry has to find a coordinator right as the season is starting which would probably be incredibly difficult. And we only have to pay Marve if he doesn't get another coaching job. And he's likely to want a job because it would be incredibly hard to get one if he just sits on his ass for the next 2 years while he's still collecting from us.
So I cornered Godfrey and Richard at the SZD live show in ATL and asked if we'd have a DC this year. Richard said he talked to a few agents and no one had anny idea what was going on with the search. He said the few folks he talk to were very confused. Godfrey said he texted Pry last week and that news will allegedly be coming soon, but that he plans to pump the breaks on the Brent Pry excitement in the upcoming year(s).
Woof.
Not surprised about Godfrey based on what he said about Pry's seat during one of the Coach Gossip shows.
I wonder if his thoughts on Whit have changed at all with everything that's happened, he was a pretty big advocate of Whit for a long time dating back to the Fuente years.
Admittedly one of the reasons he likes Whit is that he's one of the few ADs with a soul or something along those lines.
Great. Awesome.
More DC candidates than fans at UVA's spring game.
But the same number of DC announcements as fans at the UVA spring game
Washington Commanders are going to the NFC Championship game before Virginia Tech has announced a defensive coordinator.
Who had that on their bingo card?
Latest non-paywall Mehul post on 247. Looks like an announcement is delayed yet again, sometime maybe mid-next week at the earliest. Don't anticipate anything tomorrow.
I'm officially checking out on this at this point. Mehul even seems a little frustrated with whatever is going on at this point, but acknowledges the staff knows what's at stake (hopefully this big decision hasn't gotten in Pry's head and now he's overthinking or being indecisive). But I'm just going to wait to hear something official at this point. Tired of following the bread crumbs and have just moved on since this has taken forever.
Ouch.
Maybe we're talking a long time because our target is super high profile and has all the bargaining chips.
Or maybe everyone has told us no.
Or maybe we have no idea what we're doing.
Or maybe they're still coaching
I have no idea but if Mehul doesn't know we're keeping this ridiculously close to the chest.
Out of all the "insiders" I really take heed of what Mehul says. First off, he posts a lot on 247 that isn't behind a paywall as a courtesy to the fan base. And he has really put a ton of his personal money and time into helping VT football get back to where it should be. Has also been instrumental in fundraising as well and overall coordination of NIL and the program as a whole.
So yeah, if he has no idea at this stage then this is crazy quiet. And maybe a little worrisome.
NGL, the thought has crossed my mind that at this point Pry is trying hard to convince Bud to come back and the search is now just for a cardiologist to travel with the team. /s sort of
I seem to recall a lot of speculation for the past two HC jobs and don't think anybody had guessed Fuente or Pry. After Pry was hired, some of his hires were quick, but also want to say nobody had any real inside info on who his selections were, and Bowen was a late hire because he was still coaching.
I can't imagine us being real underwhelmed with whoever has chosen. If he wasn't going to get a clear upgrade, why fire his friend?
Because he was forced to. I don't necessarily think it was his choice to fire Marve.
You say that, but nobody else forced him to fire Galt. He made these choices. Plus, if someone was forcing coaches to fire people, or presumably get fired instead, Corny would have been gone a year or two before Fuente, or Fuente's firing would have happened earlier because he didn't let Corny go. Pry wasn't forced to do anything.
I'm going to get more speculative Half Life 3 news before I get a DC announcement aren't I?
Funny enough... people thought HL3 would be announced late last year. lol.
At least Oversimplified finally released the third Punic War video the other day so there's that to tide you over
Still........
This DC search is starting to be
And the longer it goes, the more I think they're screwing it up, which has me like
Every time I open this thread.
First time I've opened it and I skipped to the most recent green comment, which happened to be yours. Well said. 😆
I have to stop looking at certain events thinking a hire will come after them because I only end up more frustrated. No hire right after the season. No hire after the bowl games. No hire after the Penn State loss. I was expecting maybe a hire after the Championship game tonight, but I'm guessing not?!?! I honestly don't know what to think anymore. Maybe a hire will be announced out of the blue just when nobody is expecting it. And might I add that all of the speculation and assumptions of who has been interviewed, or who we wanted and missed out on only makes the frustation worse. The reality is, I think we're all frustrated because no one knows absolutely anything and those few that may actually know aren't saying anything. No matter who the hire ends up being, I actually do commend Pry and those involved in the search with how tight lipped things have been. Frustating as hell, but I commend them. When it's all said and done, just PLEASE make a good hire and win more games next year and I could care less how long it took.
Got an email today about the spring game, my first thought was "will we have a DC before the spring game?"
Is it before the JMU spring game? Hehe...
IMO, the simplest explanation for this extended wait is that VT is waiting on the PSU hire, and specifically whether they will hire Poindexter. PSU fans believe they need to go big (i.e., steal a top-end DC from another institute) instead of making an inhouse hire as they ramp up for another playoff run. So, their view is Poindexter is qualified but too risky when he hasn't called plays except two brief stints when Pry and Diaz were hired. There is also conjecture that the UVA job will open up next year, Poindexter is likely to be hired, and PSU doesn't want to be searching for a DC 3 years in a row. (and 4 in their last 5). So, clearly Poindexter is in the running but if he was the frontrunner, he would have been announced by now.
From Dex's point of view, if he is a candidate for PSU and VT, he's going to wait to be passed over again by PSU before taking the VT job. So, it may be that Pry is waiting for Dex to remove his name (i.e., take the PSU job) before moving on to his next option down his list.
But honestly, who tf knows.
Mehul said PSU folks not in play
Mehul also said 2-3 people know who it is and that he's not one of them.
If i knew the multimillion dollar booster talked all over internet message boards i would blow smokescreens all day
I was going to say, Mehul doesn't know who it is, but he knows who it not is? 🤔
I meam that makes sense..... you can know the status of a couple candidates being explicitly not on the table but not be privvy to who is
...or the coach we're getting is coaching tonight.
This is accurate. Shhhh...
Isn't something supposedly getting leaked tonight?
Depends.
(I don't know whose, though.)
I heard depends is really good at stopping leaks.
Al Golden confirmed! All those years getting his ass beat by VT while at UVa and Miami, he wants to finally be on the other sideline! (Man, how things have changed since those days...)
Tim Walton doesn't make sense to me. Overlapping with Pry at Memphis (was his DC, Pry was DL coach in 2008) and with TBo at Jax, so there is familiarity. He did get his ass beat by VT while DC at Miami under Randy Shannon to the tune of 44-14. That Miami defense was bad. The 2008 Memphis D was pretty bad too. He was also DC of a bad Stl. Rams team in 2013. And he has no experience in Pry's scheme, so, idk, doesn't make sense to me. That seems like asking for failure.
Larry Johnson also doesn't make sense. He never overlapped with Pry (left PSU when Franklin took over). He's 73 with no DC experience. He was HC at TC Williams in the early 90s!!
Matt Guerrieri (Safties coach OSU) is interesting, but possible. He's only 35, but he has coached a lot with Coach Cheetah at Duke and has 5 years as Co-DC (4 @Duke (2 with Cheetah) and last year at Indiana). Both Cheetah and Guerrieri were at Duke for that infamous 45-10 game, but his defenses while co-DC have been pretty bad.
All those coaches would be weird hires for Pry at this stage. Some with experience but that experience was with bad defenses.
Who else is coaching tonight that's a possibility? Honestly seems like no good hires.
Larry Johnson could recruit me to a UVA GT game and to eat shit on a plate. He is an ELITE recruiter.
So, you ae saying he is an elite recruiter who delivers distasteful results?
You know how when you're at a restaurant and you're waiting for your meal and you get up to go to the bathroom, and that's always when your food arrives?
Maybe if we start a part two thread then the announcement will happen...
I can't believe this one is still going
...well...
Technically in that clip there was a false belief that something real was occurring, but the smoke was all a sham.
Per #sauces, our new DC is going to be the left upright from the title game. Big time stops in big time moments. Hokies D is #back.
User name checks out
Is it Egbert that usually chimes in and declines positions that come open? Note that he has not declined and you can read HEAVILY into that. And I have totally made up #sauces that say that the delay is in order to announce on his birthday.
Since Virginia Tech is ever special and WE can't announce our new DC (any other team does) while the guy is coaching, I'm telling you it's Steve Spagnuolo. He's still coaching- and that's all that matters apparently. VT can't announce a guy that's "still coaching". So I'm going with an NFL coordinator- so February 10th maybe WE can announce.
If you're right, I am PERSONALLY having a parade in your honor. It may be kind of lame - me riding on my lawn tractor with a helmet with like 50 sparklers and a DCWilson flag yelling and cheering and. Since usually there is more than one person in a parade, I will take Will Ferrell's line from Old School and just tell people there are "more coming."
That is correct.
I have been strangely quiet on this issue. #sauces confirmed. Birthday is in Feb.
Timeline checks out.
Where is today's smoke signal, how will we know the status of the search?
(Virginia Tech football only) You can't announce a new coordinator that is still coaching. So we won't know anything until after the super bowl and possibly after the UFL season.
And then it turns out to be the LB coach from Kent State....
Or a former defensive coordinator from PSU that is already on the staff!
Pretty sure the fire is out at this point.
There was a 2 hour weather delay at work, so I'm on a bit later today.
After seeing us wait 40 days to announce an internal promotion for our strength coach, my expectations for this hire are about as low as it can get, and I'm still probably going to be disappointed
James Johnson it is...
Got to say, I am in the same boat. To wait this long for an internal promotion in S&C - and it's not like S&C has been any good anyway - my ability to have optimism about the DC hire is running on fumes.
It is not in anyway going to be a big time experienced DC hire at this point. It's going to be some "under the radar" guy that Babcock had super secret search for, or its going to simply be a guy that coached with Pry before.
I will reiterate, I don't care if it is the water boy if he can actually coach and recruit.
Since we're just throwing anything at the wall and hoping it will stick at this point - you know who would be a home run DC hire?
Brent Pry.
Give the HC keys to Bud, let Pry have a GM/DC role where the two of them kind of share responsibilities but let Bud be the actual game day head whistle.
Stupidly unrealistic and not how any of this works, I know. But if we're not going to go pay big boy money and hire externally, and instead need to shuffle all of our existing pieces on the board to get the best possible results.... I mean... 👀
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Bud Foster, but where is there any proof that he would be a better GM/HC than Brent? Why would any recruit want to come play for Bud when he hasn't coached since before they even got to HS?
I mean that's the thing though - does anyone have any other bright ideas? Lol. It's not like we're landing huge recruits as it is.
We can use whatever terminology we want - let Pry stay as "head coach" but let him call defense, and let someone else handle game day HC duties. IDK.
My point is that we know Pry can call defense - he routinely had one of if not the best defenses in the B1G. We also know he is less than stellar as HC. But he understands our identity here. He is a phenomenal Hokie... just not a great game day HC. What would it look like to find a way to let him focus on calling defense, without having to split his brain to call timeouts and manage clock? He's not even good at that when it's his only duty.
I'm just entertaining the idea that like ... we might have all the necessary pieces to be a winning program, we just don't have the deck currently arranged in the most optimal way.
Billy Hite, and later Shane did a lot of the "timeouts, etc" stuff for Beamer on game day. Pry needs someone like that.
At this point I'm resolved to my personal opinion that we might have some pieces for being a winning program, but we definitely have a lot more pieces impeding our ability to be a winning program. So to go along with your analogy, I feel like we have a deck of number cards (no face cards), and no matter how we shuffle them we'll still fail to have a winning hand.
If we get to the point where the program has to seriously entertain any such reshuffling moves (bringing Foster into an active coaching role, Pry as DC, etc), then someone needs to intervene to fire Whit and bring in a new AD with the imperative to clean the program from top to bottom. IMO it would be an obvious failure on both for not being able to attract top talent. I don't know what kind of stipulations can be put in place for the ability for the new AD to retain someone, but it better be severe. Yes, there will unfortunately be undeserved casualties, but we've proven as a program that cutting out bits and pieces does not work.
The above would never happen, and even if it did, what successful AD would want to walk into that?
This is a really good analogy. Although, to extend it a bit, you can totally win some hands without face cards, but you are unlikely to win the whole tournament.
Very good analogy.
In that case, to this:
I would say that we are actually to that point. My suggestion about reshuffling the deck in such a way is really just a call from desperation to do anything, try anything. I think we have been here for several years now. I basically don't think that we will be successful until Whit is shown the door and Merryman is completely gutted.
I'd stick with Pry over Bud for head coach. I love Bud, but Pry deserves his shot.
If Pry wants to call the defense, he can. And he can decide what help he needs to run the team.
Quite frankly, if his job is on the line, Pry should absolutely be calling defensive plays and schemes going forward while relying completely on Bowen to run the offense, and bring in some guys who can specialize in time management to help with that
But I just don't see that happening.
This worked well for Clark Lea...though they did a lot of other things different this year than in the past.
Vandy had a miracle season - 6 wins, 12th in the SEC, lost to GA State. Their great season though. lolololol
Compared to Vandy of the last decade that's a vast improvement.
It's all relative. And they did beat Alabama.
And us. Who are we to make fun of a program that just beat us and Alabama in the same season?
Non-Paywall 247:
Gotta be Matt Guerrieri if it's someone from OSU. Has some prior DC experience, although those defenses were statistically far worse than even Marve's. Meh.
He was also really young. I was a much more effective leader at 35 than I was at 32.
If it's him, I'll keep an open mind. I think we can do worse than a Jim Knowles disciple (@ both Duke and OSU).
this quote is from a 2022 article re: Knowles' defense at OSU
"They do a really nice job of keeping it simple for their guys but complicated for the (opposing) offense"
This may be common coach speak but it's almost exactly what Pry said a few days ago.
Not saying this is the pick, but it fits.
We could do worse - but it sure doesn't feel like a "save my job" type of hire
And so it begins - flight tracking season!
Jim Knowles confirmed.
Lmao. One of the guys from 247 is literally doing recon in the bushes at the airport taking pictures of the plane land.
That is hilarious and yet I admire the dedication...
Has nobody deplaned yet? WHO GOT OFF THE PLANE?!?
Somebody said they got right off the plane and into a vehicle right on the tarmac. The posters immediately then requested, "FOLLOW THAT CAR!!"
Boss! De plane! De plane!
What kind of M&Ms does Tattoo from Fantasy Island like?
The Plain, the plain.
Ha!
The dad joke thread is that way>>>>>>>>>>
/s
This looks like a freight. I could be wrong, but doesn't look like a plane (or company) set up for passengers.
What were you looking at? The pictures link of the plane to the right absolute look like a passenger jet, just one that's way bigger than you'd expect one person to be on. Looks more like it would be for a team.
Edit: for the record, that's not a sarcastic what are you looking at -just checking to see if we're looking at the same thing.
I checked the plane via flightradar24.com, found it to be a Saab 2000 twin engine turboprop, registered to Air Charter Express (ACE), which generally charters freight flights, although they do own some aircraft that can carry passengers. My comment was based on the freight operations of the company, and I applied Occam's razor to the situation....the most obvious fact being the most likely. Just my thought process.
Amateur Aviation Nerd here:
The Saab-2000 is definitely a larger than expected plane to use as a private transport. I don't believe that there are any commercial U.S. operators left of this aircraft, but it was typically configured to hold ~50 passengers.
Looking further, the company it is registered to Freight Runners Express has 7 in their fleet that are configured to hold 30 passengers so it looks like they use it exclusively for passenger service (per Wikipedia).
So yes, it is significantly larger than your typical Private transport, but not impossibly large....maybe the new D.C. is bringing along Caleb Downs, Jeremiah Smith and another 8-10 Buckeyes to transfer to VT??? lol...one can dream.
lol, cargo plane confirms it, OSU linemen are transferring to VT. BOOK IT!
Went to the "Freight Runners Express website and clicked on "passengers" and this came up:
Confirmed: Freight Runners Express CEO to be named DC
Tons of experience in logistics and on-time delivery. Our LB's run fits will be ON POINT
I don't know, this sounds like a flight of fancy to me.
And just to have more fun dabbling in DC conspiracies, that plane left Blacksburg at 4pm today and headed back to Atlanta.
I've heard from 8 different, 100% reliable #sauces that GA Techs' AD is hiring Whit to be THEIR DC.
/s in case it wasn't incredibly obvious.
Could it simply be carrying the VT basketball team to GT who we play tomorrow?
I was wondering that, but then why would it have been at Atlanta first before coming here? Since it apparently departed from Columbus, OH first.
Edit: I was wondering if we were playing them, but would have thought the plane would be bringing GT to us since it started in OH, then went to GA before going to Blacksburg. Actually surprised a plane that big could land at the Blacksburg airport.
Sounds like it's available for any team to use. Could have dropped off a volleyball team or picked up some team in Columbus and dropped off at ATL. Sounds like you need to cross reference all sports schedules for each stop to know for sure.
So, when we hired Jim Knowles as our new DC he mentioned he left something in his hotel room on Monday and asked if we could swing by and pick it up?
If it is a private flight, not Delta, why the hell would it go through ATL? (If you did not know, Delta is an acronym for Duh, Everybody Leaves Through Atlanta.)
There was a Birmingham to Atlanta (Fulton Co (FTY), not ATL) flight in the morning. And then a Columbus to Blacksburg flight that afternoon.
For whatever reason, there is not list a flight from Atlanta to Columbus and looking at the flight history it seems to not have each and every flight. Maybe you can request to not be on FlightAware? Or maybe when noncommmercial (just transit), it doesn't list on FlightAware? idk
For today, for instance, two flights are planned. ATL --> Hickory, NC; and Jonesboro, AR --> Dekalb. It has to get from North Carolina to Arkansas somehow, but it isn't listed.
Edit: To answer my own question, it looks the company changes the moniker of the plane on FlightAware sometimes. FRG9506 flew from OSU-->BCB. Three hours later, FRG201 flew from BCB -->ATL. Same type of plane owned by the same company. And probably is the plane that took VT's MBB team into Atlanta for their game today. Notably, no plane has left BCB --> OSU yet today or is planned to leave today. FlightAware does show a plane flew in from Columbia, SC yesterday, flew back to Columbia, SC today, which may have been Torrian Gray? Who knows. A Beamer tweet does show that he was out recruiting at HS an hour away, so probably not unless timed just right.
I think is true...if operating under FAR-135, I don't believe that a publicly-available flight plan has to be filed if not carrying revenue passengers.
But I am not an actual pilot, just a Holiday Inn Express type, so those more knowledgeable feel free to clarify.
This particular plane never passed thru ATL i.e. Hartsfield. It flew from Birmingham to Fulton County FTY which is a smaller airfield West of downtown ATL.
The next recorded movement is from OSU-BCB. So presumably, the plane flew a positioning flight to the Ohio State Airport.
The number of seats (30) is key as it would suggest that this aircraft is operating under FAA rules called FAR-135, which would allow it to utilize smaller airports like OSU, FTY, and BCB. Commercial airlines operate under a stricter set of rules and would never be allowed to land at those places under non-emergency circumstances.
The point of all this is that it suggests that someone clearly hired the plane to fly specific person(s) from Ohio State to Blacksburg. Since it does not appear that any of our sports teams are competing, it would stand to reason that was likely a defensive coordinator candidate.
Nerd hat off.
Ah- that makes more sense. I read it as it left OSU, went to FTY, and then BCB. My bad.
Would a company send it empty from one airport to another? Inefficient yes, but a taxi drives empty from one pickup to another. Just part of the business.
Could have dropped off an Alabama team to OSU, then bringing another Alabama team that was still on the plane to Blacksburg. Otherwise what would a potential DC candidate be doing flying to Atlanta also, and why would they need a 30 passenger plane for a DC?
Edit: or, as homebrewhokie pointed out, there could have been a team going from Alabama to OSU, then empty from OSU to Blacksburg, then a team from Blacksburg to Atlanta.
This airline uses a very odd flight-numbering system. i.e. some flights are 3-digit vs. 4-digit. The flight from OSU-BCB was FRG9506 then the next flight from BCB-PDK was FRG210.
On a major airline like Delta, usually 4 digit codes are used for regional airlines or international Code-shares. That clearly doesn't apply to this air company
I'm sure there is some significance to this, but we'd probably need someone in Ops at this particular airline to explain it.
It's probably equally possible that the plane was used to fly a smaller contingent of OSU home Tuesday morning (a cheerleading team would be a good guess) and then flew empty from OSU-BCB vs. flying a DC candidate to Blacksburg.
Probably already spent too much time on this but it's gonna help get us to 1000--so be it.
I just went to the link, went to the airplane, then to the photos link. The prior flight linked was for a very large jet, this one is much smaller, and that is 100% of the basis of my comment about whether it made sense to carry a single DC candidate vs a team in the prior one.
Its the same plane...
You can track by tail number on flightradar24...the tail number (N506FR) is unique to only that plane. These are its recent movements:
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/frg9506
The plane is a Saab-2000 that is configured to hold 30 passengers. It is quite a bit bigger than a typical private plane would be for an interview of a single candidate. At the same time, there is no clear rationale for it to have flown from OSU Airport to Montgomery Regional...could have been coincidental timing but not impossible that it was carrying "persons of interest" to VT.
Oh, I know it was a Saab-2000. I swear I saw another link someone had put in that linked to a flight with a smaller Cessna jet, but for the life of me don't see the link. Not sure if I accidentally posted to the wrong place, or someone accidentally posted a link to an unrelated flight and took it out, or the 56 hours of straight drinking while waiting for a DC announcement has finally turned my brain to mush.
Edit: yeah, there's another link below. I was comparing the sizes of the two aircraft and referenced it incorrectly since the smaller plane's flight plan is not in this sub-thread.
I challenge the great fans to TKP to drive this thread to 1000 meaningless handwringing comments before the DC hire is announced. Are you all up for it?
Ice cream is better than cake or pie, Duke's mayo is not that great, and cheese is good....
There's a little somethin to piss off everybody in this comment.
If not Duke's, then what's your go to?
Even if they worked together as a team, cake and pie could not come close to being as good as ice cream.
Mustard is way better than mayonnaise. Well, except for things like toasted tomato sandwich and maybe a handful of other things.
Ice Cream is impartial it can be used to supplement both Pie and Cake.
Exactly, the fact that ice cream makes both cake and pie better proves its superiority.
Hellman's
I've had some shit cake and craptastic pie, but I'm still a firm belief in the general category of "dessert." Brownies, cobbler, chocolate bars, pudding, s'mores, etc. etc (in addition to both cake AND pies). At 5'9" it's a minor miracle I don't weigh enough to be an offensive lineman.
You can make a pretty good cake using Duke's mayo.
Duke's mayo creme brulee?
shit, you ain't said nothing but a word. let's do this
after 1000 comments, the thread just gets a second page
Don't encourage them...
I'm probably wrong on the exact specifics, but i remember feeling like we hit it in 2 hours with the Deecommitment thread. that was hella impressive in hindsight -- confluence of bad hokie news and most of us just sitting at home at night during lockdown with nothing better to do than light the internet on fire
Hm...which decommit was that? The rb that went to psu?
Nah Dematrius "Dee" Davis
Ahh yeah. I remember those days..
i try my hardest to forget
Mission Accomplished! It's amazing what we can accomplish when we all pull together. We can move mountains! We can save the whales! We can turn dcwilson's outlook positive (ok, maybe that's a stretch).
dcwillson, I hope there is at least a small smile on your face based on the above.
Sometimes, we get sooo wrapped up in opinions, that folks can get a bit crazy on this site. This comment gives me hope that at the end of it all, we can be friends despite our differences.
I love all of you guys man. It's all good. Of course I smiled.
I would definitely want to buy you a drink one day, argue with you in person over a few pints. We actually agree on a lot more than we disagree on, and I think you're right on a lot of things before others take notice. You were way more right on the eligibility issue than I was, even though you were super exaggerative at the time.
At the end of the day we're all Hokies here.
Anyone have anymore of that DC announcement speculation?
/sss
Which comes first, the new DC hire is announced or the 2025 Iditarod? I'm going with the DC announcement, but I guess we will see.
The 2025 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race will begin with a ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage, Alaska on Saturday, March 1, 2025 at 10 AM.
What about Darryl tapp? Currently a DL coach in the NFL, team is still playing, Hokie ties.
/s
Heck, I would eat mayo (cringes) if we got Darryl Tapp.
Wondering if maybe this is the week.
For continuing to drink heavily until the DC is announced sometime next month? Check.
You are all way off on this. The next DC is dan Quinn, book it. He will finish up by winning the super bowl and then head to Blacksburg
That's how you know this thread is getting to damn big... Drink!
https://www.thekeyplay.com/comment/1296169#comment-1296169
Doubtful. And I wouldn't wish the full Dan Quinn Super Bowl Experience on anybody. I've been there.
I dunno. I was ecstatic seeing a Super Bowl Ring ripped away from Matt Ryan's grasp because Fuck Matt Ryan
I felt this, man. No other NFL team's fanbase lives in the same layer of hell as the Falcons. For example, I'm in the Kansas City airport a few months ago wearing a Falcons t-shirt. Walking into the TSA line and the TSA agent says (very loudly), "Hey 28-3, put your bag on the belt. Step forward." If you're a Browns fan, someone might say, "Aww man, pretty tough to be a Browns fan." But no other franchise has anything quite like 28-3. It's an instant punchline. And for that reason, Dan Quinn and Shannahan can go human centipede each other for eternity.
A defensive coach can't give up a 3rd and 23 to a 5'06 receiver in the Super Bowl. Can't do it. You can't get beat by Julian fucking Edelman in that spot. Can't. Without pads he looks like a guy at your high school reunion. You can't lose a super bowl to that guy on 3rd and forever. And that's exactly what Quinn fucking did. 3rd and 5? sure. And yes I am aware Tom fucking Brady threw the pass. But you can't lose to a guy under 5'09 in that spot- or any spot in football unless it's barry sanders.
As a Browns fan, all of the NFL has had their legs go numb from kicking us while we are down. No fun at this point. At least there are no bandwagon fans to deal with.
Browns fans had signs of life compared to the Lions for many years.
Sometimes hope is the cruelest part.
I dunno, Vikings and Bills fans might have an argument, though Buffalo might only have one for another couple weeks....
Vikings fan here, can confirm this is my general mentality about sports
I'd love to have Dan Quinn back in my life (a very very very very very miserable Cowboys fan)
How is this thread only 2 weeks old? Granted I've been nearly snowbound for a good bit of those two weeks, but I feel like I've checked this thread a million times over a period of at least two months. I think the anticipation and expected lack of payoff is starting to get to me.
hey we're only 150 comments away from the 1000 comments target set by
GGCdzilla77! - I think we can get there todayEdit : my bad, dzilla77, not ggc.
GGC did not set that target - jus sayin'.
no GGC absolutely did not set that target
He is just doing his part to make it happen........
Right!?! Had I attributed the challenge to the correct poster initially it probably wouldn't have resulted in 4 extra comments :p
Don't you let them embers go out again, boy!
*May or may not have just had a childhood flashback.
I haven't done anything productive at work for 15 days watching this thread...just hire a damn DC already!
Your boss knows your habit and paid Pry to delay the announcement so he could document your worklessness.
Just commenting to get us to 1000. I've talked enough shit in here already lmao
we've come a long way from just reaching 25!
I haven't commented in this thread yet, so here's #875.
This one's about as long as the one in Jonestown.
Leg sir. This is Anthony Jeselnik level dark and I am here for it.
Would
Yikes
Ah, fuck it. I'll be 880.
Adding something of substance: Go Hokies.
Not sure if the DC from JMU was ever in the discussion but he's on his way to Texas A&M now. No one knows whose been in the discussion, but if he ever was, he's out of the running now.
From what I've heard, he was definitely in the mix... does this mean we're on to plan z or....?
Plan Z. Man that is bad, but Plan 9 would be worse.
On the other hand, this could mean we landed our one in a million candidate ...
Hey Plan 9 is a great Richmond music store!
Plan Z?
Das ist eine gut one
So I decided during lunch here at the desk to reward everyone for their efforts in this thread.
A leg for every comment just so I could post one of my all time favorite gifs
And I do mean every comment:
Back to flight tracking, are there any possible candidates at USCe? Flight this morning from Columbia SC to BCB. Triton Aviation, Cessna C650 Citation III.
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N2UP/history/20250122/1345Z/KCAE...
FWIW, there was a return flight to Columbia.
Now that's a smaller jet that maybe would have only taken one person potentially.
Smoke around Knowles to Oklahoma, so tOSU staff could be shaking up as well. Glad we waited a month and a half to figure this out.
The glass is always half full if you can change how much it holds!
Seems like plenty of schools are still shopping around for coaching hires. Wonder if their fans think they shit the bed for not hiring a guy before Christmas or if it's just Hokie fans.
Checks website, see 50 new comments in thread. Thinks positively. Looks at column, no new DC topic. Knows it is fluff and other and decides to read anyway...
you are tkping correctly.
I mean, what else are we supposed to do? Work?
Fuck work. TKP is the correct answer.
If there's good news, someone will start a new thread. Even if it's a rumor.
It's your last meal on earth, for whatever reason.
Very tough call, and I could go a lot of different ways. I would probably settle on prime rib, medium rare, with a loaded baked potato and a side house salad, maybe throw in some sauteed mushrooms. Wash it down with a couple of cheap Busch Lights and finish everything up with big slice of cheesecake, as we all know cake is better than pie. Maybe throw in a lobster bisque or she crab soup to start. Die happy and full, while still wondering who our next DC is going to be.
Moby Dick House of Kabob Chicken and Rice.
I need to know the reason, like am I going to be electrocuted so much that I shit myself, and who is going to clean up? How bad do I need to make this shit? Or will I throw up, do I need to account for range of vomiting? Will I get an autopsy, should I make it interesting for the doctor? Like do I need to eat an entire grapefruit with seeds and rhine? To may unknowns for this questions.
I like where your head is at, and I invite you to detail the situation in which the last meal is brought upon you. I guess I had intended it to be an electrocution type thing, but then I would question why I was being electrocuted.
I think the discussion related to post death cleanup and analysis is a good one and warrants further discussion.
Electrocution, got it. So I assume I am in South Carolina, the only state where that is the method for the death penalty. Now what would I do in South Carolina? My affinity for pinball isnt an issue because i am over 18 so I can legally play it. Dancing at a club past midnight? I'm too old for that shit. What about seducing an unmarried woman after proposing to another woman? My game is so bad no jury would convict me base on any evidence provided. I don't own a railroad so I can't be held liable for scaring horses. I doubt I would put a horse in a bathtub, and while I can't find the punishment, I doubt that is the death penalty. So it seems that South Carolina might not be for me. However, Tennessee will use the chair if they run out of drugs for the lethal dose. I probably wont operate a 1 person bicycle with some one else because that just seems dumb. Also not using a lasso to fish, because ain't no one got time for that. Shooting animals from my car? Na, I will just claim i'm whale hunting which is legal. Carrying an ice cream cone in my back pocket? Seems really steep to sentence to death. No STDs so I am a free man, not locking me up for that (also its only quarantine, not death). Serving alcohol at my restaurant in an unincorporated town? Heavens no, I would set up shop in Obion County which has 30,448 residents which meets the requirements of having between 30,200 and 30,475 residents in the county. Obion County here I come! Smuggling skunks across state lines, there we go. Illegal skunk smuggler.
So I am in Tennessee smuggling those cute furry rascals that everyone wants as a pet. Since I have a restaurant in Obion county, right on the kentucky border I am bring those bad boys in via the bluegrass state. Now there are two species in kentucky, the striped skunk and the spotted skunk, which is only found in the southeastern corner of the state, which is really opposite of me as I am in northwestern Tennessee. Now Tennessee has both of these skunks so I might have to drive through Arkansas to Texas to get the Hooded Skunk as it is the closest Skunk not native to Tennessee. So this is a big ring I have going, I am bribing Texas officials in the counties around Corpus Christi as they kill skunks to preserve other game and to protect the money men in livestock and poultry, can't be hurting profits now. So I take these skunks on Texas's furry death row off their hands and drive them back to Tennessee. Note, you get $5 per carcass in Texas, so I have to pay more, with bribes to law enforcement, it's a 14 hour drive so gas is probably a lot if I am in a big truck. Also I can't find the price for a membership for the Four States Auto Museum, which is right on my way, so thats going to set me back. I'm thinking I'm selling these critters for like $300, but that is napkin math, i'd have a detailed spreadsheet if I actually had to bribe people, need to take copious notes of who you bribed so you don't double bribe.
Any who, I get caught because you can probably smell me coming from a mile away. Everyone knows I have people helping me but I am not snitch so I don't rollover. So death penalty for me, however it's a baby boom! So there is a lack of sodium thiopental for all the C-sections going on. Since Tennessee can't give me the lethal injection it's the chair.
I have done more research on what comes next and well, it's not pretty, but Beef with Gochujang sauce, a side of kale, a side of broccoli, and an extra large milkshake, like one of those 3000 calorie ones from The Yard, would do the trick to make my execution a not fun clean up. And all this because skunks are little cute animals that everyone wants as pets. Damn you Tennessee and you're stupid laws
Me looking a the above comment:
Well I'm glad because I got a lot of questions from my wife when I told her I was going to research the death penalty and electric chair. And I dont think I left her with a piece of mind after my explanation
Mine is going to take a while because of how many beers are listed. But hey, it's the last meal.
Starting with a Thai green papaya salad. Served with Saison Dupont.
Continuing to Dan Dan noodles, heavy on the Sichuan peppercorns. Westvleteren 6 (a hoppy and quenchable Belgian single).
Moving to Ethiopian Kitfo (tartare with their berbere spice) and injera. Drie Foteinen Cuvee Armand Gueuze.
Fatty yellowtail sashimi as a reprieve from the intense flavors from the previous 3 courses. Weihenstaphaner Festbier.
Quesobirria tacos. Alvarado Street's Mai Tai PA (all Mosaic IPA).
Squid ink pasta in pesto served over beef carpaccio and a fresh Westmalle Tripel.
Finishing with a dark chocolate pate served with bourbon whipped cream, blueberries, and raspberries. Enjoyed with a Westvletern XII (Belgian Dark Strong Ale, considered by some the best beer in the world).
Are you... me?
You've got one very cultured palate, my friend
I've been fortunate to go a lot of places and try a lot of amazing food! Each of these items is a dish or beer that blew me away.
🤣🤣 so it wasn't just me
I agree with everything you said, except for the cake/pie take. Cheesecake is pie.
I've already had this meal, in between tests and getting results at Mayo Clinic.
And it is a Belgian waffle swimming in butter and syrup...and a diet coke.
BBQ beef ribs
Cole slaw
Potato salad
Baked beans
Warm bread
Iced tea
Finish it off with:
Blueberry ice cream
Glass of bourbon, straight
You mentioned the bisque.
Yada, yada, yada...
THANK YOU 😁
Mettwurst on a soft brotchen, Himmel und äad, and a spicy currywurst washed down with a Mühlen kolsch.
Cup of Burgos and 1970s Turkey 101 for dessert.
I kinda like Köln and Kentucky.
Medum Rare porterhouse,as big as she can be, and a large glass of bourbon
Peanut butter toast of course!
Never change, skippy.
Well given the HRT, I've changed just a tiny bit from what I used to be ....
but I'll never stop eating Skippy and I'll never lose my positivity and optimistic outlook on everything.
Since no one else, outside of possibly Egbert wants this job, I am officially nominating French.
I'm nominating DC to be DC due him not having to change his name at all, and he would also be able to ensure unlimited eligibility for the players we like.
I second that nomination as long as they give dc a weekly radio show so he can complain about the 9 year senior on the opposing team, how short, small and slow our players are, and how little Whit is paying him to be defensive coach. It would be legendary. Like a 90 minute Festivus Airing of Grievances.
Im honored. The first thing I would do is in fact go after an 8th year LB or two.
ECU has a 32 year old punter you know
I got an email from VT telling me to save the date, in regards to the upcoming schedule release on January 27. Can't lie, I chuckled a bit.
LMBO...We're likely to know our schedule before knowing the DC that will be coaching in those games.
Important status update: only 75 comments left after this one to get to 1000. I'm halfway expecting a slew of responses in one of the worst sub-threads to just be a countdown to 0, thereby providing anyone hoping for actual DC status to be so frustrated they go eat the dessert of their choice until they weigh enough to be one of our linemen.
We will get stuck at 999. It's the Hokie way.
What CFB skill tree are you guys looking for (Recruiting, Tactician, Strategist etc)?
Realistically, I don't see us doing better then a level 20, though with it taking this long we may get auto-assigned a level five OC who's gonna try defense.
A pulse
I'd prefer a Recruiter/Tactician with a pipeline in our radius and a 4-2-5 defense. But like you said, we'll probably get a Motivator Veer and Shoot OC with a pipeline in Alaska.
I assume we will find out their pipeline is hawaii after just getting auto assigned one in the offseason because we werent paying attention and then signing no players from hawaii.
If life mirrors CFB25, I want a recruiter/tactician that is youngish with a Tidewater pipeline. 10 nattys will follow
Well, any Al Golden rumors are dead now too, he's headed to the Bengals.
Dang, big dogged again
was Al Golden on our board?
Everyone at this point is on our board
I'm not bored.
Safe to say every single announcement (be it CFB or NFL) we can assume they were next on our board and we screwed the pooch and couldn't get him/her.
Our board is simultaneously everyone and no one at this point lol. Schrödinger's board.
Here's an idea for a prize. Whoever makes the 1,000th comment gets to be the DC. They can be there for a few weeks before getting fired, take the buy out and that will get them well on their way to a secure retirement. Heck, for me it would probably be enough to fully get there. I'm hoping to semi-retire or retire in 2.5 years or less.
We should go for Corny for DC. He was always good at shutting our offense down.
Or Parker Clements
Here are some of my favorite DCs.
the shoe was pretty popular for a while.
Denzel Curry - I just listened to his mixtape: King of the Mischievous South vol2. Really damn good too.
Detective Comics ... but I think we've already been there
This appears to include Washington. Bad list
Counterpoint; DC is my hometown, great list.
Almost there....phone won't load easily
Laptop starting to struggle.
My work computer quit already. I just go to the new comments link
As one always should
Matt Guerrieri's twitter followers include Andy Bitter, Gabe Williams, Shawn Quinn... as well as Chris Maeve and Mansor Delane 👀🤷♂️
What about Tim Walton?
Just Gabe Williams
Matt Geurrieri played football at Davidson College, thus he is going to make a great DC.
I'm going to create a fake Brent Pry twitter account and follow Brent Venables. I'm sure we can land him as DC so they can sit around talking about what it's like to be named "Brent."
Ami doing this right?
...no
LOOK FOR THE CLUES.
Ami Finau was a defensive lineman at Maryland, primary recruiter was Brawley Evans, originally from Baltimore. Pry trying to shore up the MD and DMV recruiting pipeline, you basically just confirmed Evans is the new DC. You heard it here first. He's at Morgan St now, somebody go figure out what players we want him to bring with.
So yes, that's doing it right.
"why are you looking at the same dumb thread?"
Got me. I'll see myself out.
Good morning TKP! I've now added checking this board for rumors as a part of my morning routine....what the heck am I thinking? Anyways, wonder if today is the day? Or will it be just another day of speculations, flight tracking, getting big dogged, or whatever else has happened over the past 40 some days. Anyways, have a great day everyone! *Fingers crossed*
My random coach we're hiring today is Sean Spencer.
We need at Virginia Tech Football DC Wheel of Destiny.
We've been BAMBOOZLED!
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Sorry, the best game ever is Penny Can.
I'll see your Penny Can and raise you the Trivia Game from the bet. Instant classic.
And don't forget "Cups''!
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