Welcome back, @Coach_JJ_Fball 👋James Johnson will return to Blacksburg as our Director of High School Relations!📝: https://t.co/cbSSWImCB0#ThisIsHome pic.twitter.com/AoK3bBW2WH— Virginia Tech Football (@HokiesFB) May 9, 2023
At first I thought this was a Mike Young hire.
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Love to have more winners around the program!
(Jk I'm sure he's fine at his job)
Is this just for football, or for all sports?
*Edit- now I found the article saying for football.
Not gonna lie, this caught me off-guard when it specifically mentioned this was for the Football Program.
The most backhanded compliment I've seen in a press release in a while is hidden towards the bottom portion, however:
No mention of his actual head coaching record...
oof - but most likely they just copy/pasted a press release from when he was hired as head coach
but still, oof
It has been a "few" years but I went to high school with JJ. I was a couple of years younger but it was a small school. He was always one of the nicest guys around and I can't remember him without a smile. I imagine his personality will be great in this role making and remaking connections back in his hometown RVA but also with the connections he's made throughout the ACC footprint.
You can be over your head as a coach but still be a good recruiter or coordinator.
Welcome back JJ.
That was Ferbs position right is he gone??
This move is puzzling in a lot of ways.
Still in Glenwood Ferebee's twitter banner, hoping he earned a promotion instead of leaving
Edit:
Okay that makes me feel a little better still so strange. A career basketball assisteant hired as a Football high school relations assistant.
Whit has taken this "We're a basketball school" thing too far. /s
on the other hand, it really is an indicator that This Is Home.
I don't think it's that strange, he's going to be responsible for managing relationships and likely coordinating visits and camps and such. What's the difference between doing that for one sport vs another?
I doubt they hired him to evaluate or even directly recruit players. If they hired him as QB coach, then that's weird.
So we now have a Sr director and director?
So a former basketball asst and head coach gets a job with the football program? Ummm...okay?
Might be the first time I laughed at one of his tweets.
I didn't have this on my offseason bingo card
I think he just pulled a reverse Milton on us. We fired him. He hung around long enough that we just started paying him again and decided to let him stay.
So you're saying we fixed the glitch?
No, we glitched the fix, apparently.
I really like this move. Experienced recruiter and long time P5 staff member in a major sport that has longstanding ties to the recruiting footprint and is very well known as a high character relationship builder.
No real risk as it's not a coaching position, not sure why some folks seem skeptical. This can only add value IMO.
Exactly. Transferable skills.
Exactly. I feel like the criticism I'm seeing is ignoring that the role sounds like it has nothing to do with the x's and o's of football and everything to do with building relationships with local high schools. He might be overqualified if anything.
Agree. If anything, his past actually adds to the story of what Virginia Tech is. Here is a man that was fired after biting off more than he could chew but still wants to come back and be a part of the University. I want that type of employee.
Exactly, recruiting is recruiting and he is managing relationships with schools.
Exactly. If they hire someone with marketing experience to manage marketing at an engineering firm, is it weird because he's not an engineer?
I asked Pry about this and he had a really insightful answer as to why it makes sense. Working on transcribing 40 minutes worth of interview and I will have that posted for TKPC members as soon as I can.
Fam!
Oh man, can't wait to hear all of this! Thanks for getting that all set-up for us TKPC'ers, Joe.
And if you out there would like to hear it as well, go ahead and get yourself fully-dipped and join the TKPC, today!
So, all you non-TKPC members, please consider joining up. Well worth the price of admission even before Joe was getting face time with the big whistle himself.
Y'all non believers need to get dipped in a hurry or you're gonna be missing out. Take it from someone who is "tighter than Dick's hat band," TKPC is well worth the money.
It sounds weird, but I'm glad to have JJ back at VT. I know he won't be a recruiter exactly, but I think at least when it came to basketball he had a good eye for talent and was a super nice person so I think he'll do great at improving relations with high schools.
Yeah he was absolutely a hit with the players. IIRC the only reason we kept Erick Green was because JJ was retained after SG was let go.
Will always remember that Oklahoma State game when Green went off, got us to 8-0 and I thought we might actually be decent
That just made the ensuing 9 game conference slide worse
Loved going to his chalk talks at D2 - he was a great people person.
And with all the changes to VT and The Burg, is D2 still a thing? I almost didn't recognize the area around Turner Street, when I visited during the Bye Week last fall
I follow dinning services on one of the social media platforms it just got another facelift but I think its still a thing
Y'all youngsters are/were spoiled; when I was student there was only Schultz, Owens and Dietrich.
And to get there we had to walk uphill in the snow-both ways!
Also "get off my lawn" /s
I want to say Shultz closed when I was a junior or senior. I think it impacted no one except maybe the corps by then they had already opened Turner (apparently they have food trucks now which I just discovered lookin up the name of Turner)
Nooooooo! Schultz was the best for breakfast. I love getting a pile of food and two drinks for $1.40
Didn't we have a former coach like that.
Dietrich Runs, lasted about two weeks until your body adjusted.
Remember when they opened Hokie Grill.
I was there recently and Turner was nuts. Can't believe the food halls these days.
My dad's high school in Pittsburgh was built on a hill so he could actually walk uphill both ways
One term end at Shultz, I swear they served thawed fish. This was not sushi, just big trays of thawed fish. Cicra 1970s.
I'm gonna have to go with "Trust the Process" on this one. The results will be known in a few years. Brent Pry knows Virginia well as does JJ-it's an intriguing hire, that's for sure.
I mean if it works, great. Brilliant move. If it doesn't, what's the worst that can happen? Seems like low risk high reward