Latest / Boundary Corner Podcast / Going Camping 2023

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Going Camping 2023 · Boundary Corner Podcast

• 0:45
  And welcome back to the Boundary Corner Podcast with my partners,
• 0:48
  Brian Siegel at Jonathan Talley and Shelton Moss.
• 0:51
  I'm Curtis Wilson in this episode is brought to you by
• 0:54
  Jeremy Counts at the Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg.
• 0:57
  If you love this podcast, the Hokies the town of Blacksburg.
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  Make sure you're supporting Main Street Pharmacy when you go to
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  town. Whether you need prescriptions
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  of tube, of toothpaste or just want to stop and say hello, let
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  The money you spend at Main Street Pharmacy goes towards the
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  things you support. So next time you're in
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  Blacksburg, head on down to Three O 1 S Main St.
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  Fellas, we got a packed one tonight.
• 1:21
  I'm excited to bring this man on tonight.
• 1:25
  He is the owner and creator of Pick Six Previews the.
• 1:30
  Most accurate preview magazine out there He is Brett Ciancia.
• 1:38
  Brett, how are you doing tonight?
• 1:41
  Hey guys, I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on.
• 1:43
  It's it's an honor to be back on with you guys.
• 1:45
  Probably our fourth straight season, but this is a special
• 1:48
  season here, the end of an era 2023.
• 1:51
  When you look across the conference landscape and the
• 1:53
  playoff bracket changing, it's it's a little bit of nostalgia
• 1:56
  this time around. So excited to break it down with
• 1:58
  you guys. And and yeah, so to get into it.
• 2:01
  Yeah, we've got, we've got the PAC 12 kind of dismantling
• 2:05
  there. We've got the ACC more or less
• 2:07
  on on life support here. So it's definitely an
• 2:10
  interesting time to talk a little preview, talk a little
• 2:14
  college football and kind of see what what the Hokie season look
• 2:18
  like and kind of what the ACC schedule is kind of stacking up
• 2:22
  for the Hokies this year. So let's go ahead and jump right
• 2:25
  into it, Brett, you know. We we looked at the magazine.
• 2:29
  We we we love what you wrote there.
• 2:31
  Very, very insightful information about the Hokies.
• 2:36
  But let's start with with some of the weapons that the Hokies
• 2:39
  added on the offense pretty much at every skill position.
• 2:43
  But your success for this team is probably going to begin and
• 2:46
  end with the quarterback. That room now has Kyron Jones
• 2:50
  drones, along with returning starter Grant Wells.
• 2:54
  Regardless of who wins this job, how much additional production
• 2:57
  must come out of that quarterback position this year
• 3:00
  for you to feel that the Hokies could become more of a middle of
• 3:03
  the pack offense versus kind of where you have them right now,
• 3:06
  which is kind of that bottom two or three?
• 3:09
  Yeah, well, that's certainly an area of concern last year and
• 3:13
  definitely need some improvement.
• 3:14
  You look back statistically second worst in the conference
• 3:18
  in a lot of the key metrics. I look at passing wise QB rating
• 3:22
  per attempt. So and the touchdown to pick
• 3:25
  ratio, I think he was a solid 991 to one ratio.
• 3:29
  It's not going to get it done in the ACC.
• 3:32
  So yeah, that's a big area that's needed to improve and it
• 3:36
  was a limitation along with pretty much pick your spot last
• 3:39
  year on the offense. Unfortunately, it was one of the
• 3:41
  worst Virginia Tech offenses I've ever graded, and I think
• 3:45
  they ended up third worst in Power Five overall.
• 3:47
  So. That's certainly the most
• 3:49
  important position but they have a lot to clean up across the
• 3:51
  across the board. Absolutely.
• 3:53
  And then last year you know you had Brad Glenn and Joe Rudolph,
• 3:57
  two guys who have been offensive coordinators in the past and you
• 4:00
  know you mentioned in the magazine they moved on.
• 4:02
  Glenn had the Cincinnati as an offensive coordinator, Rudolph
• 4:06
  moving up to Notre Dame. But now there's going to be more
• 4:08
  of a focus on Bowens, Moorhead RPO spread type system and of
• 4:13
  the metrics we you review. We feel that if OL offensive
• 4:19
  line run push improves that this offense is going to have a lot
• 4:24
  more success for you. As you look through your metric,
• 4:27
  which one sticks out to say if the Hokies are better, that
• 4:30
  one's going to be better? Yeah, well, I like your answer
• 4:35
  actually. I think it's got to start with
• 4:36
  the offensive line. When you look at them last year,
• 4:39
  one of the worst offensive lines statistically in the country.
• 4:42
  You know, I have my, like you mentioned, offensive line, run,
• 4:44
  push and my past protection Sacre.
• 4:47
  They were one of only three in Power 5, the place in the
• 4:50
  bottom, you know, outside a #100.
• 4:52
  So along with Iowa and Boston College with some of the worst
• 4:55
  offensive line play in the country.
• 4:56
  So got it proved there that that's step number one.
• 5:00
  But for this big RPO offense, another one I'll throw in there
• 5:03
  will be the explosive place. I think that's that's huge in a
• 5:06
  wide open spread attack. You know Bowen, you talked about
• 5:10
  Jim Moorehead. They come from that old.
• 5:11
  Those Penn State teams with Trace Mcsorley they were blowing
• 5:14
  off. Huge, huge explosive passes they
• 5:17
  had, say Quan Barkley, you know, ripping off long yardage runs.
• 5:20
  So along with offensive line improvement, I want to see some
• 5:24
  explosiveness return cuz it was really stuck in the mud last
• 5:27
  year. Definitely, definitely pivoted
• 5:31
  to our next point. When you talk in your in your
• 5:33
  outlook, you talk about there weren't enough or I don't want
• 5:37
  to quote you if I'm wrong. You said there weren't enough
• 5:39
  overnight fixes in the offense to imagine a jurastic.
• 5:45
  Change or drastic? Better offense?
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  A better unit? The Hokies took 66 Portal
• 5:53
  offensive transfers. Now, with that being said, was
• 5:57
  that, you know, not enough players?
• 6:00
  Maybe not enough quality players?
• 6:02
  What kind of brought you to that outlook?
• 6:06
  Yeah. So I guess the quantity might be
• 6:08
  there with those six guys? Guys, but when you look at the
• 6:11
  ratings that they didn't rate anywhere near the top 15 of the
• 6:14
  transfer classes and I think it's a little bit of
• 6:17
  uncertainty. So these guys might turn out to
• 6:18
  be incredible. I know that Tooton had a ton of
• 6:21
  production at the NC at the what was it the NCA&T, the FCS level.
• 6:27
  So he could be a star. We'll see.
• 6:28
  And then with with drones, I mean he was recruited the
• 6:30
  Baylor, I think it was a high three, maybe a four-star dual
• 6:34
  threat. I mean, he led a state title in
• 6:36
  Texas. That's a pretty good resume
• 6:37
  builder. So he's got a high ceiling too.
• 6:39
  It's just a little uncertain for me and I guess it's all
• 6:42
  comparative too. I think that these are all good
• 6:43
  players, but when you look at some of the other transfer
• 6:46
  additions across the conference, they are former starters, even
• 6:49
  former all conference guys at other places.
• 6:51
  So maybe it's just, I should have said, maybe more proven in
• 6:54
  other places because these guys certainly have potential.
• 6:58
  Now I would, I would say, I mean, I'm glad to hear you say
• 7:01
  that. Now you did throw us a little
• 7:02
  bit of love. We did pick up Ally Jennings
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  from Old Dominion. And he did make your all
• 7:08
  transfer team, so we're pretty excited about that.
• 7:11
  I was glad to see you throw us a little bit of love on that.
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  So hoping that can translate on the field.
• 7:17
  Yeah, well, it's been such a crazy offseason.
• 7:19
  It was last year too, at the transfer portal boom.
• 7:22
  I felt that, you know, for my preview book, I wanted to add an
• 7:25
  all transfer team, a new feature.
• 7:26
  Everyone's familiar with the all ACC or all SEC teams, but I put
• 7:30
  in an all transfer team so you can start the map where all
• 7:32
  these players are going. Yeah, definitely.
• 7:34
  Yeah, Virginia Tech represented there on the offense.
• 7:38
  Yeah, so Brett, looking looking big picture now, one thing I
• 7:41
  like about your previews is that you include A5 and 10 year trend
• 7:45
  and recruiting also gain grades to kind of give a big a long
• 7:48
  term look at the health of the program.
• 7:49
  I think this is a bit of a sour spot for Virginia Tech fans
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  because of the regression that the program has seen over the
• 7:54
  past few years. But do you think that Virginia
• 7:59
  Tech, is there a good reason to believe that this program can
• 8:02
  get back to being a consistent top 25 team, even if it kind of
• 8:05
  takes a few years to kind of get there?
• 8:09
  Well, yeah, I think that it's definitely possible.
• 8:11
  I think that Virginia Tech has a program, definitely has a top 25
• 8:14
  ceiling. I mean they could definitely be
• 8:15
  in there. I don't know if you meant
• 8:17
  recruiting or overall, but it really in both because first
• 8:20
  with recruiting, the first thing I ever look at is geography.
• 8:24
  I think that's key in recruiting.
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  It always will be. And yeah, they're based in the
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  in that DMV area that that's southeast of the country where
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  there's more and more high school talent popping up and
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  they have a coach now with Brent Pry.
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  I had a chance to interview him last spring and he said his
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  number one concern was returning the importance of in state
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  recruiting. It had been kind of looked away
• 8:45
  in the in the prior regime. So all that to say, I think they
• 8:49
  definitely can be consistent top 25 recruiters going forward.
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  And with the right staff and the right schemes, a top 25
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  recruiting class should translate to a top 25 caliber
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  football team. So and you know I'm a little bit
• 9:01
  on the younger side. So growing up all I knew was the
• 9:03
  Frank Beamer era and and solid defenses, great secondaries, you
• 9:07
  know DBU and they got some consideration there.
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  So for to me, Virginia Tech is a power program and certainly has
• 9:14
  that ceiling. It's just a matter of getting
• 9:15
  back, you know. It feels weird placing them so
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  low in the in the conference and.
• 9:19
  I think it's a matter of time until they're back in that a CC
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  top five competing. You know, we're right there with
• 9:24
  you, man. We feel weird too.
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  We want to get up out of that. But yeah, so the loss of
• 9:31
  longtime starter, that's Hollyfield, I feel.
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  We feel like he was here for about 20 years for how long he
• 9:38
  was at Virginia Tech. But he's moved on now and we're
• 9:42
  seeing more athletic linebackers in that room.
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  Pride and and Marv have started to get players that are more of
• 9:50
  their type of players in. Would it surprise you to see a
• 9:53
  big jump in that defense and in that room, production in that
• 9:57
  room with them getting more athletic players and longer
• 10:01
  players? No, I wouldn't be surprised at
• 10:05
  all. I mean, I'm based out of
• 10:06
  Pennsylvania, so I was a little familiar with what he did at
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  Penn State. It was some of the best defenses
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  year in and year out. And and really one of the key
• 10:14
  points of it was how aggressive they were Attacking and
• 10:16
  aggressive I'd call it. And it's funny when you look at
• 10:19
  my stat chart there for defense. One of the only bright spots
• 10:23
  last year it's hot 40 national was the negative play rate which
• 10:27
  is directly tied to that aggressive nature that blitz
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  happy making plays behind the line of scrimmage causing havoc.
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  So I think that's all part of prize DNA.
• 10:35
  And now with a second year coach bonus, yeah, that wouldn't
• 10:37
  surprise me. So I'm not exactly sure on which
• 10:40
  personnel is going to step up, what, what starter and our new,
• 10:44
  you know, new emerging player it'll be.
• 10:46
  I know it will be someone and there's enough firepower there
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  to to find a starting 11 and I'll find a starting linebacker
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  trio. So I think you're in good shape
• 10:55
  defensively. Yeah, yeah, Definitely excited
• 10:57
  to see what what Lawson can do as a fulltime starter.
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  Maybe see Keller step into that mic position with Dax out there.
• 11:03
  So it's going to be an exciting year to look at that.
• 11:06
  Let's move up a level here and talk about the defensive line.
• 11:10
  You talked a lot in the in the book about the the the D line,
• 11:13
  departures at the defensive imposition and the lack of rush
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  production last year. Tech ranked actually 94th
• 11:20
  nationally and Sacrate in 2022, but one of the bigger offseason
• 11:25
  Portal editions was Antoine Powell, Rowland Junior coming
• 11:28
  over from Florida. We know veterans like Cole
• 11:32
  Nelson, CJ McCray, they're going to play a role there.
• 11:35
  It looks like Powell Rollins kind of the guy to to take up a
• 11:38
  lot of the steps that that Taiwan Garbet had last year.
• 11:42
  Do you think he can have a similar impact for the Hokies in
• 11:44
  a fulltime role, considering that he showed a big flash in a
• 11:48
  more specialized role at Florida?
• 11:52
  Yeah, absolutely. And you got to remember who he
• 11:54
  was competing against on the roster of Florida.
• 11:56
  It's, it's blue chippers everywhere, top 100, top 50 guys
• 11:59
  everywhere. So despite not being a full time
• 12:02
  starter there, I think he's still got valuable experience,
• 12:05
  no knock on him. So yeah, that's potential.
• 12:08
  I like what they have at defensive tackle with some
• 12:10
  familiar names coming back. So yeah, there's there's
• 12:14
  definitely places to build around and and I agree with you
• 12:17
  on that. That's awesome to hear.
• 12:20
  Now I'm gonna, I'm gonna have a little little come Jesus moment.
• 12:23
  So you mentioned a big win would be bowl eligibility this year.
• 12:29
  We'd like it obviously. But I think as we look back at
• 12:32
  2022 with one of the worst offenses not on just G5 or P5 in
• 12:38
  the whole country in the solid but not a great defense.
• 12:43
  The Hokies blundered 3 games they blundered ODU.
• 12:46
  They blundered NC State, they blundered Georgia Tech, and they
• 12:50
  didn't get to play UVA, who they probably would have been a
• 12:53
  significant favorite over. So my question, you know, due to
• 12:56
  the tragedy that happened to UVA, But here's what I say.
• 13:00
  Based on this schedule, is this more of a big win, or is this
• 13:04
  more of an expected progression where the close games flipped
• 13:07
  the other way this year well? I'll stick to what I was saying
• 13:12
  just because coming off of last year, I mean it was a pretty
• 13:14
  brutal season win loss record wise.
• 13:16
  I think that, yeah, the Old Dominion game, you really
• 13:19
  fumbled that one away. Literally.
• 13:20
  I saw that snap fly over the holders head.
• 13:23
  That's a 10 point swing man. That's a 10 point swing.
• 13:25
  And you know you mentioned the other two close ones, but there
• 13:29
  were a lot of black eyes too. I mean getting beat down by West
• 13:31
  Virginia, blown out several weeks really.
• 13:34
  The offensive limitations was really.
• 13:38
  Weighed down their grades last year.
• 13:39
  So I think to to get the five in this case six wins for bowl
• 13:43
  eligibility. That shows that you fix the
• 13:45
  offense. That shows that the defense made
• 13:47
  a progression from average to above average.
• 13:50
  So I think all those things are wins and you also have to factor
• 13:53
  in you're playing a couple power fives in the non conference this
• 13:56
  year with Purdue and Rutgers towards the bottom of the power
• 13:59
  five, yes, but still, I mean those are power 5 opponents.
• 14:02
  Marshall had a great defense last year.
• 14:04
  So yeah, I think the getting the a bowl season in year 2 is a
• 14:07
  win. I think you got to start to
• 14:08
  stack those start to get momentum because you know it's
• 14:12
  it's rare to go from three wins to ten wins.
• 14:14
  You got to get that intermediate year, that building block year.
• 14:17
  This is a good spot to try and get the six or seven plus wins.
• 14:21
  Definitely, definitely. When you talk about those wins
• 14:24
  and trying to get there, one named a week as hokey fans don't
• 14:28
  want to see is FSU, which is one of our one of our opponents this
• 14:32
  year. You actually had FSU favored to
• 14:36
  win the ACC and head to the College Football Playoffs this
• 14:38
  year. So they're returning a lot of
• 14:41
  production on both sides of the ball, trending positive and a
• 14:44
  lot of matrix. That said, is there one
• 14:47
  particular matrix that gives you like a little bit of pause that,
• 14:52
  you know, they may can't close it out or they may kind of
• 14:56
  fumble that away? Well, I feel pretty strong with
• 14:59
  the Florida State pick. You know, I think it's a little
• 15:02
  bit of a surprise to see them in the playoff bracket.
• 15:04
  I, you know, I got a lot of attention for that.
• 15:05
  It wasn't by design. I just truly believe it.
• 15:09
  It start with last year, 2022. That was really their
• 15:11
  breakthrough year. Statistically, you look at all
• 15:13
  my numbers and metrics, they were top ten, top 20 and
• 15:16
  everything. Offense, defense, pick your
• 15:18
  number. That was good in itself.
• 15:20
  But then they bring back the number one most returning
• 15:23
  production in America, the entire roster coming back.
• 15:27
  Some key NFL decisions that decided to come back to Florida
• 15:30
  State on their defensive line. Jordan Travis still threat
• 15:33
  quarterback. And then the last piece is that
• 15:36
  not only that those two factors, but they really excel again in
• 15:39
  the transfer portal. Another top five transfer class
• 15:43
  and Norvell, he doesn't just sign them, he really develops
• 15:46
  the transfers into all conference guys.
• 15:48
  So while Clemson ignored the portal.
• 15:51
  Florida State's embraced it and really bolstered the roster up.
• 15:54
  So yeah, I feel pretty good about this Florida State team.
• 15:57
  Definitely to hit their nine and a half win total.
• 15:59
  That's that's why one of the best bets of the year winning
• 16:01
  the conference will still be tough against Clemson.
• 16:04
  But yeah, I think it's a pretty strong team and if they survive
• 16:08
  the ACC 12 and one, that means a playoff bid.
• 16:13
  So in keeping with the ACC opponents at tackle face this
• 16:16
  year you've got the Pitt Panthers, who have been a thorn
• 16:19
  in the side of Virginia Tech for the past few years.
• 16:22
  They're interesting team to watch, I think.
• 16:23
  Obviously they're very good developmental program under
• 16:26
  Narduzzi, his bread and Butters defense, but they do lose a few
• 16:29
  key defensive players this season as well as a running
• 16:32
  back, a band of Canada. Do you think that their success
• 16:35
  will depend on on Phil Jerkovich's health and do you
• 16:38
  see? Their defense being able to kind
• 16:40
  of maintain where they've been the past few years coming into
• 16:42
  our 2023. Yeah, yeah.
• 16:46
  Well, with the defense, it's funny.
• 16:48
  I was talking to Coach Darduzi and.
• 16:50
  He was very adamant that he, he invented his scheme and everyone
• 16:53
  else is copying him, you know, so you know he's the originator
• 16:57
  and everyone else that just drives a a worse version of his
• 17:00
  car and he's likes to say, but yeah, I think and you know what,
• 17:04
  there's some truth to that. I mean look at how they reload
• 17:06
  every year. They they place in the top five
• 17:08
  in sacks every year, one of the most disruptive in the backfield
• 17:12
  every year. So all jokes aside, he does have
• 17:15
  quite a track record defensively now.
• 17:16
  It is more transition than usual.
• 17:19
  More stars are gone, but when you have a coach that's
• 17:22
  successful on one side of the ball, I I tend to side with
• 17:25
  them. So I think that they're going to
• 17:26
  be fine defensively. I like the the transfer edition
• 17:29
  of Dracovic. He was really strong in 2020 and
• 17:32
  2021 before his injury and then last year had one of the worst
• 17:36
  offensive lines in the country in front of him and got knocked
• 17:40
  out of the year again. So I think not only is he with a
• 17:43
  better offensive line here at Pitt, he's back with.
• 17:46
  Frank Signetti, who was the coordinator up at BC when he had
• 17:48
  his best season. So all that to say, I have them
• 17:51
  fourth in the ACC. Outside the top 25, though,
• 17:54
  there's still a lot of questions there.
• 17:56
  Definitely a winnable game from Virginia Tech, but I do have
• 18:00
  them all the way up there at number four.
• 18:01
  I like hearing that. I like hearing that we might.
• 18:03
  You have confidence eventually us taking care of Pitt this
• 18:06
  year. All right, I'm going to flip to
• 18:07
  another ACC school. Let's talk about Louisville.
• 18:10
  It seems like they are getting a huge bump from the hire of Jeff
• 18:14
  Brom by everybody, everybody in the country.
• 18:18
  And that said, there is a lot of question marks for this team.
• 18:21
  For Louisville though, despite the optimism with him coming
• 18:24
  back in the success he had at Purdue, you got them six.
• 18:29
  We feel they probably could be as high as five due to their
• 18:32
  easy schedule or if things just don't click, maybe as low as 11.
• 18:37
  What metric really gave you pause to say they can finish in
• 18:41
  the upper half of the ACC? Well, you touched on its
• 18:46
  schedule, was a key driver here for Louisville.
• 18:48
  But schedule aside, I think coach Brahms, A proven offensive
• 18:52
  guy. He's got a fun offense, It's a
• 18:54
  widespread passing offense, and he brought in two former
• 18:58
  quarterbacks. So these guys are really
• 18:59
  familiar with him. One's a former starter with Jack
• 19:02
  Plummer and then Indiana quarterback, quarterback of the
• 19:05
  year or whatever at the high school level, Brady Allen.
• 19:08
  So he's got his quarterbacks coming in.
• 19:11
  Top 15 transfer Hall too, and then also some good talent on
• 19:15
  offense to build around. So now here's the the testament
• 19:19
  spin is that, yeah, it's a coaching transition season.
• 19:22
  There's a big talent drain on defense that they have to deal
• 19:24
  with. But yeah, I think the middle of
• 19:27
  the pack of the ACC, there's a lot of thin margin there.
• 19:29
  You could argue A-Team like you said from 5th all the way to
• 19:32
  10th. It's a tight pack.
• 19:34
  But their schedule was the difference here.
• 19:37
  They have definitely the easiest in the ACC.
• 19:39
  They avoid the top three and I'm calling that Florida State,
• 19:41
  Clemson and UNC. So they avoid all three of them
• 19:45
  and they play all seven of my bottom 7.
• 19:47
  So schedule wise, huge bonus. And you know, it's a whole new
• 19:50
  world now without the Atlantic and Coastal Divisions.
• 19:53
  The schedules are all scattered around, so you gotta find these
• 19:55
  gems like this where they could even be an average team and go
• 19:59
  eat and four. Yeah, I mean, that's definitely
• 20:02
  what we were looking at too. Like we saw the schedule like
• 20:04
  okay that that makes sense why they're getting a big bump here,
• 20:07
  especially with Brahm coming in. So definitely could see, like I
• 20:11
  said, like I said, we look at it, we could see them five, we
• 20:14
  could see them five. We could also see them 11, just
• 20:16
  depending on how how the defense stacks up, whether they can stay
• 20:19
  healthy. But that schedule is definitely
• 20:21
  going to give them an easy path to 8, like you said.
• 20:24
  Let's pivot over to UVA though. You know, looking at that, that
• 20:27
  team defense was the kind of the lone bright spot for that unit
• 20:31
  in 2022. Yeah, up front they got 4
• 20:35
  starters back, but they lost both starting corners and an all
• 20:39
  ACC linebacker. Are you expecting a regression
• 20:42
  year for the defense? And if that's the case, maybe
• 20:46
  even an uglier overall year two than their than their first year
• 20:51
  with Tony Elliott at the helm. Yeah, well last year they were
• 20:55
  all defense. So when you look at their that
• 20:58
  profile when you watch them, they couldn't get anything done
• 21:00
  offensively. But it was a solid top 20
• 21:02
  defense. And the problem here with 2023
• 21:05
  is it's twofold #1, I don't see a fix on offense.
• 21:08
  I think that's going to struggle again.
• 21:10
  But #2, I don't think that the defense has proven like it was
• 21:13
  last year. You lost their top three
• 21:14
  defenders and worse, it wasn't 50 year guys that have exhausted
• 21:19
  their eligibility and heading to the pros.
• 21:21
  It was they transferred all the teams.
• 21:22
  It's. It's hard to see that happen.
• 21:24
  So you had three time all ACC. Nick Jackson, quarterback of the
• 21:27
  defense there at backer he's gone to Iowa he's going to be
• 21:30
  the starter over there and then and then central Cyprus #1
• 21:35
  cornerback transfer in the entire country heads over to
• 21:38
  Florida State. So their best guys got coached
• 21:41
  and I just don't see any any huge fixes.
• 21:44
  So I have them slated for dead last in the ACC and what is that
• 21:48
  66 out of 69? That's 4th the worst in the
• 21:51
  Power Five. So.
• 21:52
  Looks for it like it looks like a tough year for UVA.
• 21:55
  Yeah, and it does seem that way even, you know, as we follow it,
• 21:58
  even on the recruiting trail, there's not been many wins for
• 22:00
  UVA this year. All right, we got one more for
• 22:03
  you. I'll let you out of here.
• 22:04
  And that is one of the out of conference opponents you
• 22:07
  mentioned. And the reason we're mentioning
• 22:09
  it is because all four of us will be heading to Blacksburg
• 22:11
  for that game and it's Purdue. And let's talk about them.
• 22:14
  Ryan Walters, great job as the Illinois defensive coordinator
• 22:18
  last year. This is his first full time head
• 22:21
  coaching gig. And he walks into what is a
• 22:23
  slightly below average defense in the portal week.
• 22:26
  Absolute havoc on their line for transfers out.
• 22:30
  The rush defense was a little bit above last year, little bit
• 22:33
  above average and graded holding explosive plays down.
• 22:36
  With all these losses, are you expecting that to be the metric
• 22:40
  that just takes the hit in 2023? Yeah, I think that they're in
• 22:45
  for a transition season and not in the good way for Purdue.
• 22:48
  You know, if you if you put it, you know, if you did a blind
• 22:51
  resume on Purdue, you would never have predicted that, be a
• 22:54
  conference champion or division champion.
• 22:55
  They won the West last year. I don't know how it does.
• 22:58
  It doesn't stack up. What is that?
• 23:00
  They were graded 44th and Power 5 despite winning the West.
• 23:03
  So I have them all the way down in 6th place out of seven in the
• 23:07
  Big 10 W. Now I do think the Ryan Walters,
• 23:10
  he's a great defensive mine. I had a chance to talk with him
• 23:12
  too and he's coming in really confident into the Big 10.
• 23:15
  He was saying how he knows the Big 10.
• 23:17
  It doesn't matter that he's a new time head coach now.
• 23:20
  It doesn't matter for your matchup.
• 23:21
  You're not a conference opponent, never played him.
• 23:23
  So yeah, I think it's gonna be a tough transition season for
• 23:26
  Purdue and definitely winnable game there that you guys will
• 23:29
  get the witness and lean stadium.
• 23:31
  Yeah, we're looking forward to that.
• 23:32
  But that's gonna be a big game. I feel like, you know first kind
• 23:35
  of big power 5 out of conference that we've had in a little bit
• 23:39
  at home. It's going to be interesting
• 23:41
  because you know this schedule for the Hokies this year isn't
• 23:45
  isn't a lot of marquee matchup. So that Purdue game is kind of
• 23:47
  circled for a lot of us, so should be should be a lot of
• 23:51
  fun. But let's talk about the
• 23:53
  offensive guy that they brought in.
• 23:54
  We got Graham Harrell there brought in to to run his Air
• 23:57
  raid offense and they went out and got quarterback Hudson Card
• 24:00
  from Texas. Is there an offensive metric
• 24:03
  that you're expecting to improve the most within that system
• 24:10
  compared to what they had last year under Brom?
• 24:14
  Yeah so it is a little bit similar of an offense.
• 24:17
  It's both can be passed heavy and you know Graham how running
• 24:21
  his his version of the Air Raid. Slightly different than coach
• 24:23
  Brahms but in the same family of offense.
• 24:26
  So probably a similar step profile.
• 24:29
  I think the one that might improve might be quarterback
• 24:31
  rating. I think that maybe per on a per
• 24:32
  play basis, maybe they'll get more efficient, but.
• 24:35
  Hudson Card, Yeah, he was a former top 50 recruit.
• 24:40
  Started some games at Texas, had to go against 25 stars down
• 24:43
  there. So it's not exactly the usual
• 24:45
  backup quarterback. I think it's a solid starter,
• 24:48
  probably in the upper half of Big 10 quarterbacks.
• 24:51
  So yeah, you're going to get a solid team, but again, it's only
• 24:53
  going to be in his second start. It's his first Rd. start in the
• 24:57
  at Purdue. So I think it's again a winnable
• 25:00
  game for you guys. Absolutely.
• 25:02
  And you know, he did have some starting time down at Texas, but
• 25:05
  again, holding new system, holding new place, whole new
• 25:07
  environment. Brett, we know you were a busy
• 25:09
  man. You jumped from the Spurs Up
• 25:11
  podcast straight over to the Boundary Corner podcast.
• 25:13
  We really appreciate you taking your time.
• 25:15
  We know you're now headed over to the Big Red Podcast with
• 25:18
  Nebraska, so you continue to make your rounds around college
• 25:21
  football, keep doing what we do, what you do because we love the
• 25:24
  magazine. It's a great read every year to
• 25:28
  not only familiarize ourselves the way you feel the ACC's going
• 25:31
  and our Hokies, but also the rest of the country.
• 25:35
  Yeah, well thanks a ton for the praise.
• 25:36
  Thanks for having me on and huge respect for the Hokie fans out
• 25:39
  there. One of the most passionate in
• 25:40
  the in the country, definitely in the ACC.
• 25:42
  I've seen it first hand. I was down 2009 in Lane Stadium
• 25:46
  for the Nebraska Virginia Tech game.
• 25:48
  A random match up there sure brings back some memories for
• 25:51
  you guys. Danny Cole running down the
• 25:53
  sideline. But yeah, but no.
• 25:56
  But yeah, I want to get back down to Lane Stadium eventually
• 25:59
  and you know get to see that that experience again.
• 26:01
  One of the best in the country, so.
• 26:03
  Big respect to the fan base and to you guys for putting on a
• 26:05
  great product here covering the Hokies and best of luck this
• 26:08
  season. Appreciate it.
• 26:11
  Appreciate it, Brett. Thanks, man.
• 26:14
  All righty Fellows. Before we get into more topics
• 26:17
  tonight we are gonna take a quick pause for a message from
• 26:21
  our digital partners. So as we take a quick break,
• 26:24
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  visiting grassrootsdigitalstudio.com/freewebsite
• 26:42
  Dash Report. Now back to the episode.
• 26:45
  Alrighty and we are back. Before we jump into the other
• 26:49
  topics tonight, y'all we rolled through that.
• 26:53
  We rolled through that. I don't know.
• 26:54
  We got every question in in 30 minutes and less.
• 26:57
  So we did it. We did it.
• 26:59
  We did that quick. But let's think about some of
• 27:02
  the stuff he said. The Hokies, the opponents,
• 27:06
  anything, anything that caught y'all, any of y'all start,
• 27:11
  anything that caught y'all right off.
• 27:12
  And if you're out there listening and you got something
• 27:15
  he said that you don't agree with or you agree with,
• 27:17
  completely put it in the comments.
• 27:18
  We'll talk about that too. Who wants to fire first?
• 27:22
  All right, does did Narduzzi invent the attacking 4/3?
• 27:27
  He said he did. Comment, he said he did.
• 27:29
  There's a lot of that's what he is.
• 27:31
  He keeps already loading on that defense.
• 27:35
  He he's a hell of a developmental coach.
• 27:38
  I'll give him that. I'm inventing the the attacking
• 27:42
  4 three, though I will not pass that on to him.
• 27:47
  No, I just want to beat him. That's what I want.
• 27:48
  I just want to win him, man. He can, we put y'all, can admit
• 27:51
  y'all, can admit everybody on that schedule.
• 27:54
  Beating him is fun because that man gets so pissed off.
• 27:58
  I remember in lane last time me and Brian were at 2019, we were
• 28:02
  on, we were we were in stands across from it and you can just
• 28:05
  see him like upset the whole game because they couldn't move
• 28:07
  the ball in the rain. We scored early.
• 28:11
  He knew he had no chance and he just was cursing the rest the
• 28:13
  whole time. Like he is the funnest guy to
• 28:16
  watch. Because as an opposing fan, it's
• 28:18
  like when you beat them. It's it.
• 28:20
  It's like no one's fault but the referees.
• 28:24
  I remember he, he was bragging head again.
• 28:26
  He's like you know we played the white out at Penn State and we
• 28:30
  didn't jump off sides. We're not going to jump off
• 28:32
  sides in the in lane and what first series I think it was 3
• 28:39
  total the whole the whole the whole game.
• 28:41
  So yeah, I mean. It was so fun.
• 28:45
  It was so fun. You were in school there, man.
• 28:47
  I remember that game. Yeah, I was working.
• 28:49
  I was working that one. That was so much fun.
• 28:51
  So what caught your outfield? I mean, you've read, you know,
• 28:54
  we know you're our data guy. So looking through the magazine,
• 28:57
  anything you agree don't agree with, kind of see where he's
• 29:00
  leaning to when it comes to Hokey's opponents.
• 29:05
  I don't know if there's anything I disagreed with too much.
• 29:08
  I actually, I will say one point of agreement.
• 29:12
  I don't know how Purdue won their division this year.
• 29:15
  They were eight and six. The metrics didn't like them
• 29:17
  that much. I know Tech fans kind of look at
• 29:20
  Purdue and say like oh you know that's a, you know reigning
• 29:22
  division champion. Like gotta watch out.
• 29:24
  I mean you know they've they're, they were okay last year.
• 29:27
  They're getting new head coach. I think that's pretty vulnerable
• 29:30
  game because I know that some tech fans are kind of worried
• 29:33
  about that one. So I would agree with him that
• 29:35
  you know produce A-Team. That's a little bit.
• 29:36
  It was a little bit of a flash in the fan last year.
• 29:39
  Yeah, it was in in the but. But the Big 10 W was dreadful
• 29:42
  last year. I mean Iowa like we talk about
• 29:45
  our offense. The Iowa offense last year was
• 29:48
  Oh my God, like we might If we would have had the Iowa offense,
• 29:52
  we might not have won a game last year.
• 29:54
  Well, at least we had some explosive plays like we had.
• 29:56
  We had some explosive plays here there that.
• 29:59
  Nothing kind of boomed us a little bit here or there.
• 30:02
  Like, the problem with us last year is that if it wasn't an
• 30:04
  explosive play, we weren't doing shit, Yeah.
• 30:07
  But here's the thing that Brett said it I I this is where I wish
• 30:09
  we'd have had him for 20 more minutes.
• 30:11
  He was talking about like the West Virginia blowout and a
• 30:13
  couple blowouts. Y'all we watched it.
• 30:16
  West Virginia was a game, literally until the early part
• 30:19
  of the fourth quarter. It won't like they took us
• 30:22
  behind the shed in the first half and the game was over.
• 30:24
  That was a 1610 game. Welcome to the 4th.
• 30:27
  That was our cornerbacks. We had two and and they were
• 30:32
  gassed by the mid, mid third quarter.
• 30:35
  So big disagreement there. The Pit game, which people look
• 30:40
  at as, oh, you got blown out. Y'all know about the pit game.
• 30:44
  Y'all know that the pass was over the middle.
• 30:47
  We were going to fumble and then Abaconda.
• 30:51
  But I'm this when it comes to Pit, you look at them, it's one
• 30:57
  of these people like Shelton, you watch their development,
• 31:00
  right? But they're never like this.
• 31:02
  They're good and then they have the dips.
• 31:05
  They haven't had a significant dip since 2018.
• 31:08
  They've been 3820. They had the elite defense last
• 31:11
  year. They were in the 20s last year.
• 31:13
  Is this the year they regressed back down into the middle of the
• 31:16
  pack with the defense? Because it happens.
• 31:20
  It happens to just about everybody unless you are getting
• 31:23
  elite talent consistent. I think it's possible.
• 31:26
  I mean, like I said, obviously depending on, you know,
• 31:28
  Jerkovich's health. You know, anything can happen
• 31:31
  there. I mean they they've been,
• 31:32
  they've been, you know, I would say the second best team in ACC
• 31:35
  outside of Clemson the past, you know, 3 or so years.
• 31:38
  Oh yeah. Narduzzi typical, I mean he
• 31:40
  usually maximizes the town that he has, not so much offensively
• 31:43
  always, but like you said, usually when you recruit at kind
• 31:47
  of like that midrange like 35 to 40 level, you're going to you
• 31:50
  know fall back to earth eventually.
• 31:52
  I think going down for last year 1130 before that it's highly
• 31:55
  possible that they're they're due for regression, maybe just
• 31:57
  kind of some stumbles. But still, there's no reason to
• 32:00
  think that they won't be, at least, you know, as at the bare
• 32:02
  minimum I think is 7 one team because that's really what
• 32:05
  they've been in the past five seasons.
• 32:06
  Yeah, I don't think they're going to fall off the bat.
• 32:08
  I think their defense might drop just enough where there'll be
• 32:11
  kind of that average middle of the pack, a CC team, kind of
• 32:15
  that 6-7 range and not in the 3-4 range that we've seen the
• 32:19
  last three years. What about you tell you got, you
• 32:22
  got to have, you got to have something to say?
• 32:23
  You always got something to say. I just.
• 32:26
  The only thing to get that I can, I can say I disagree with
• 32:29
  when he talked about the which he he touched on it a little bit
• 32:32
  when when I asked him the offensive starter or the
• 32:35
  offensive transfers. I just feel like it's a much
• 32:40
  different offense than we had last year.
• 32:43
  And with all the games that you guys are talking about, we had a
• 32:48
  chance in a lot of those games. Whether it was the coaching just
• 32:53
  wasn't where it needed to be. Whether it was a playmaker
• 32:56
  wasn't there that when we needed them, whether it was quarterback
• 32:59
  play, it may have been one or two things.
• 33:00
  But we were in a lot of those games and I feel like we brought
• 33:04
  some people in that can push us over the hump to win a couple of
• 33:09
  those games. Because if we do win three of
• 33:12
  those games last year or four, however many you know it's, we
• 33:17
  have a much different discussion of what Year 2 looks like.
• 33:20
  So y'all know how I feel about this year.
• 33:23
  I've been saying it. Before any depth charts drop,
• 33:29
  before I seen anybody in pads, I got a good feeling about this
• 33:32
  year. What my good feeling is, hell, I
• 33:35
  don't know. I just.
• 33:36
  I just think it's going to be better than better than what
• 33:39
  you're saying. I think we're going to make a
• 33:40
  bowl game, so. I think what you see tally is
• 33:43
  and probably and we all see it and we all look at it is year
• 33:47
  one, there was not much roster turnover.
• 33:49
  Year two, it has been a. A ton of roster turnover,
• 33:54
  including those three guys right there coming on.
• 33:57
  And again, I respect Brett because Brett looks at that.
• 34:01
  He doesn't lean that much into the portal stuff because to his
• 34:05
  point, they produced here, can they produce here?
• 34:09
  So he doesn't. It's not like the big metric,
• 34:11
  because if you take a look at the way it's kind of shaped out,
• 34:14
  we had a good transfer class, not a great, but I think the way
• 34:18
  he shapes it is. It's almost like doing an
• 34:21
  unknown commodity, right? I don't know what Ollie Jennings
• 34:25
  is going to be like on Virginia Tech with Jalen Lane is going to
• 34:29
  look like and he and he gave us some good credit for for
• 34:32
  Jennings obviously. But I think it's more of there.
• 34:36
  Yeah there's there's a lot of potential with what drones can
• 34:39
  do being a former four-star coming in if he wins the
• 34:42
  starting job. There's a lot of potential what
• 34:44
  Toodin can do if he if what he did at NCANT translates to
• 34:49
  Blacksburg. You know same with Feld and same
• 34:51
  with Lane. So when you when you look at
• 34:54
  those pieces there is a lot of potential there that could be
• 34:59
  realized and and or it could be more middle of the pack.
• 35:03
  So that's the question when you, when you middle of the Packers
• 35:06
  are going to, you know, level us up a little bit.
• 35:09
  When you think about everything, nothing's guaranteed.
• 35:11
  When you talk about transfers, you can have somebody that was
• 35:14
  starting at Alabama but gets in trouble and then goes to.
• 35:19
  I don't know Tennessee and could be a totally different player,
• 35:22
  you know? So when you talk about, well,
• 35:24
  you know, it's a sure thing. It's never a sure thing.
• 35:26
  It just comes down to whoever's writing the article, Do they
• 35:31
  trust the coach that has the player?
• 35:34
  So I think with our coaching staff, it's a lot of unknown.
• 35:38
  So people like Brett, people like in the college landscape,
• 35:42
  just don't know what Pride and the staff can do, you know, just
• 35:45
  on the field. We're saying the right things.
• 35:48
  We're recruiting pretty good. Me, myself, I think they're
• 35:51
  going to be fine. I think again I'm pretty
• 35:54
  optimistic about this year. I think that again none of this
• 35:58
  matters till we hit the field. But from what I see, I think
• 36:02
  that it's we going to take a take a step forward.
• 36:04
  So I hope I'm right. I can't handle another year like
• 36:08
  last year. Also, regarding Curtis's point
• 36:11
  about the roster turnover, I was running the numbers today and
• 36:14
  found that. Virginia Tech has turned over
• 36:17
  40% of their scholarship roster from last year.
• 36:20
  So. I mean that kind of shows you.
• 36:22
  That kind of shows you what the coaches thought about the talent
• 36:24
  level last year. And credit to credit to our
• 36:31
  friend PP on Virginia Tech Twitter for this one.
• 36:33
  I think we had 26 portal entrance last this offseason.
• 36:37
  Only four of them went to power, Five schools.
• 36:40
  So that was. No.
• 36:41
  Like what? We're getting rid of, like we're
• 36:42
  not losing. We're not losing that much.
• 36:44
  It's one of those things and that was a big point.
• 36:46
  It was four guys who went. It was what Captain Mcnatty,
• 36:52
  UNC. Yeah.
• 36:54
  Kent State is where? Who's the 4th?
• 36:58
  Caleb Smith was in there. Caleb.
• 36:59
  But he. Didn't get up, but he retired.
• 37:01
  Yeah, so really 3 legitimate and it's a great point.
• 37:05
  Sheldon, you talk about the turnover, but it's who you moved
• 37:08
  out. And it's something we hear Brent
• 37:10
  property all the time. I need competition.
• 37:12
  I need guys who are going to compete.
• 37:14
  And Tally, Brian, y'all, both played at a collegiate level,
• 37:18
  demand you across from in school who you're practicing.
• 37:23
  It's every day. If it's a if it's a pushover,
• 37:26
  there's no challenge for you, right?
• 37:28
  Yeah, yeah, well, you, I mean, you hear all the stories.
• 37:30
  Anybody. Even if you don't, if you never
• 37:32
  played sports, you hear about oh this person ran scout team and
• 37:37
  he was amazing and he did this and.
• 37:39
  He had a great look like it makes a difference.
• 37:41
  Just, you know, for the the practice competition that you
• 37:45
  see, you know, if you have a quarterback that can imitate, I
• 37:49
  don't know, Michael Vick, which was of course would be hard.
• 37:51
  But if you're going up against a quarterback like that and you're
• 37:55
  able to imitate it like it's a, it's a big deal.
• 37:57
  So I just don't think that we had enough players that could
• 38:01
  have a significant, you know, piece on the team last year.
• 38:07
  But this year, I think it's going to be a little.
• 38:10
  Different Brian Brian's favorite point just got brought up by Jim
• 38:13
  West Vt Yeah, I mean I I I talk about it a lot.
• 38:17
  He, he makes the point here. He doesn't think that Tyler
• 38:20
  Bowen and Rudolph mix very well. You know you can throw Brad
• 38:23
  Glenn and that as well for being honest.
• 38:26
  I think there were way too many cooks in the kitchen last year
• 38:28
  as far as what what we needed to do, how we needed to do it.
• 38:33
  You know, we saw some, you know, heavy into what Rudolph has
• 38:37
  traditionally ran to start the season.
• 38:38
  And then as we got further into it, it looked like there was
• 38:42
  some of Bowen's hand on it, some of Glen's hand on it.
• 38:46
  Like, you know, you hear whispers here and there about
• 38:48
  who's doing what, who's calling what.
• 38:50
  Like it's. I think it was just too many
• 38:53
  guys that had experience being an offensive coordinator in
• 38:58
  there with a guy that was doing it for the first time, even
• 39:00
  though his name, the title next to him is offensive coordinator.
• 39:04
  So I I think it's going to be some addition by subtraction in
• 39:07
  that front where you know the philosophy is going to be
• 39:10
  consistent and the philosophy is going to be filtered down from
• 39:14
  from one individual to the rest of the the the coaches on that
• 39:18
  offensive side of the ball and less people in in Bowen's ear as
• 39:25
  the year goes along. 100% We got some more hokey stuff to talk,
• 39:30
  but I do want to kind of. Flip and talk about this, Brett
• 39:33
  mentioned at the beginning sort of a nostalgia year and it's
• 39:36
  effectively it's the death of the PAC 12 with Oregon and
• 39:40
  Washington heading to the Big 10.
• 39:42
  Colorado, which was the first domino to fall, Arizona, Utah
• 39:46
  and Arizona stall all heading to the PAC 12.
• 39:50
  And it's really funny because me and Tally, me and Tally talked a
• 39:53
  few minutes yesterday is like, OK, the Big East died, OK, Big
• 39:58
  East was around from 1991. Literally us growing up and
• 40:02
  shell near you a bit younger than us, so I know it's going to
• 40:04
  hit a little bit different. But for me, Brian and Jonathan
• 40:07
  here and Tyler here, the PAC 12 had been literally a part of our
• 40:11
  life. Like remember, eight or nine
• 40:12
  years old, they they show like UCLA and the Rose Bowl or USC
• 40:18
  and that's gone. It's gone.
• 40:20
  We're never going to see that again.
• 40:23
  And just what are y'all's thoughts in whoever wants to
• 40:25
  lead lead? What are your thoughts about
• 40:27
  what this realignment's going through in general with this
• 40:32
  happening? I mean I think it's, it's
• 40:35
  bittersweet here a little bit. You know the PAC 12 has been
• 40:38
  around what, 100 years, over 100 years.
• 40:42
  I mean it's it's not, it's not a flash in the pay and conference
• 40:46
  or kind of a mix and match. It's something that has had some
• 40:49
  sort of core group for a very long period of time.
• 40:54
  So from that front, it's a little sad but.
• 41:00
  You know, this is something I think everyone saw coming,
• 41:03
  especially once, yes. The last round of of realignment
• 41:09
  started. You know, once you once you lose
• 41:12
  kind of an anchor piece like USC, the writing is on the wall.
• 41:18
  But you know, I I think it's going to be all right.
• 41:22
  I'm I'm more worried now about where the Hokies can land in all
• 41:29
  of this. Then about what?
• 41:32
  Saving college football or whatever that means.
• 41:34
  Like, I just want to make sure that the Hokies stay relevant.
• 41:37
  That's really the only thing I care about.
• 41:40
  Well, I care about two things. I care about the Hokies
• 41:42
  remaining relevant and give me this damn NCAA Football game so
• 41:48
  I can go build my own team and put them where I want them to be
• 41:52
  and win some championships. So EA Sports, stop pushing it
• 41:56
  back. Let's get it right.
• 41:58
  Hey whoever, you got to pay so I can get on the game and kick
• 42:03
  seal of that. What do you say?
• 42:07
  Well, you guys. Sheldon, I know you had some
• 42:08
  thoughts about this in general. Yeah.
• 42:11
  Look, I mean for me it's all about perspective, right?
• 42:13
  You mentioned how you know I, I'm a lot younger than you guys.
• 42:16
  So the cultural eye experience was different from the cultural
• 42:20
  you guys experience, right? Like I did not grow up with the
• 42:22
  Southwest Conference and so because of that, I don't really
• 42:24
  care about the Southwest Conference.
• 42:26
  But you know, that ended in the 90s.
• 42:28
  And now we're seeing the PAC 12 probably going to fold pretty
• 42:30
  soon. I think the nature of college
• 42:33
  sports is change, and I think sometimes people have a hard
• 42:36
  time accepting it. That's not to say that what's
• 42:39
  happening right now in college football is necessarily for the
• 42:41
  better, but it it's the change has been the nature of of
• 42:45
  college sports forever. And people have always talked
• 42:47
  about, you know, the influence of money.
• 42:49
  It's all about the TV ratings. There's no, there's no heart in
• 42:52
  the game anymore. I mean, people have been saying
• 42:54
  this stuff for decades. You know, if you go back deep
• 42:56
  enough, even in the 1930s, believe it or not.
• 43:00
  So I just, I try to have perspective.
• 43:02
  At the end of the day, the question asked myself is, one,
• 43:05
  will there be football in 2024? Yes.
• 43:08
  And two, will I be rooting for Virginia Tech in 2024 also?
• 43:11
  Yes. So with that in mind.
• 43:14
  Yeah, like I'm just, I'm still going to go to the games, I'm
• 43:17
  still going to watch football, I'm still going to, you know, go
• 43:19
  to Pks my friends afterwards. So I just, I tried.
• 43:23
  I tried to have perspective and realize that, you know, it's not
• 43:25
  going anywhere. I personally think culture will
• 43:26
  be fine. It's going to look a lot
• 43:28
  different. I know you what's gonna happen
• 43:29
  in the next five or six years, but it's still football and
• 43:32
  we'd. Love that.
• 43:33
  Now I got a question for you Sheldon.
• 43:35
  This is on a little bit of a different level, a little pivot
• 43:38
  here for you because we know you know a lot of people, man.
• 43:40
  You know we we definitely happy on the show.
• 43:43
  We know you know a lot of people.
• 43:44
  We know you work a lot of different places but you're
• 43:46
  pretty you you know some cool guys on on on Twitter or what
• 43:51
  are we calling it X now? You know some cool guys on there
• 43:55
  and a certain account that you know is really, really good at
• 44:00
  making memes and in in different videos and things like that.
• 44:04
  So I'm wondering, do you, have you talked to that, that account
• 44:07
  or that gentleman or lady? About some of this conference
• 44:11
  realignment and have some of those videos and stuff queued up
• 44:14
  yet? Nope.
• 44:16
  I plead the 5th. All right, he's pleading the
• 44:20
  5th. And that's going to go no
• 44:22
  further concerning the death of the PAC 12.
• 44:25
  But let's talk about this. It came out yesterday and today,
• 44:29
  ACC potentially adding Stanford Cal and SMU.
• 44:33
  Don't. If y'all can hear from my voice,
• 44:36
  I'm not very excited about that at all.
• 44:39
  Because they screwed the pooch. When if you actually would have
• 44:43
  attempted to go after brand names, more known names, teams
• 44:47
  that have been in the Rose Bowl in the last few years, the Nike
• 44:50
  team, one of the, you know, Washington who has a 75,000 seat
• 44:55
  stadium. You might could have
• 44:57
  renegotiated your contract to something actually viable.
• 45:01
  And and I sit here, I think we speak a year from today because
• 45:05
  you know, I can't remember who it was exactly, but somebody out
• 45:08
  there put up that if you're going to leave a conference, the
• 45:11
  A/C G's particular the 15th of August, you have to be advising.
• 45:16
  I don't think that's coming this year, but in my opinion, I think
• 45:20
  realignment's going to happen again.
• 45:21
  I think the ACC is dead in the year and I mean dead
• 45:25
  effectively. There's a date set when multiple
• 45:28
  teams are leaving. What about y'all?
• 45:32
  I mean, let me circle back real quick on the on the Stanford Cal
• 45:38
  SMU. Oh yeah, you'll start that.
• 45:41
  We did an episode called Loose Partnership after the PAC 12 and
• 45:46
  ACC, and all of that came out after the last round of
• 45:51
  realignment and we said. This loose partnership isn't
• 45:56
  going to mean shit. They're going to there's going
• 45:58
  to be teams that jump, and that's that's the only thing
• 46:00
  that's going to matter. Then we saw USC and and UCLA
• 46:04
  jump. So the loose partnership was
• 46:07
  always dumb. We said at the time, if you're
• 46:10
  going to do something like that, you need to go ahead and merge
• 46:12
  the two conferences. And that's what probably should
• 46:15
  have happened at that time if you wanted some form of the PAC
• 46:18
  12 and a CC to survive. In the next five years.
• 46:22
  That being said, I don't think the ACC is dead in a year, but
• 46:29
  if they lose FSU and they lose Clemson, they are going to be on
• 46:33
  life support alright. So whatever, whatever you take
• 46:39
  of that, that that's where we are.
• 46:41
  So if that is the thing that precipitates another six teams
• 46:45
  that jump ship, then yes, the ACC will be dead.
• 46:48
  But I think they're going to unfortunately, hang on.
• 46:51
  For a little bit longer after that, and I'm hoping that we're
• 46:54
  one of the next round that gets out if FSU and Clemson jump ship
• 46:59
  in the next year. Sheldon.
• 47:03
  Yeah, I don't know. I don't know where where for a
• 47:06
  sake could go. Cuz like I don't.
• 47:08
  I don't know if the SEC wants to expand more and they also have
• 47:11
  the ESPN contract, so they'd essentially be negotiated
• 47:13
  against themselves for the. To the payout.
• 47:16
  Maybe I'm wrong. I kind of flip-flopped on this a
• 47:19
  little bit. Part of me thinks like it's
• 47:21
  impossible to get out of the Gor because of the absurd amount of
• 47:24
  cost. But also part of me thinks that
• 47:26
  the state of Florida's going to have some judge that can just
• 47:28
  lure their way out of it and kind of give that to see if we
• 47:31
  pass, which given the state of Florida would not really
• 47:33
  surprise me. So yeah, there's going to be a
• 47:36
  lot of politics in this, but like I said, I just don't.
• 47:39
  I've. I've flipped off both ways and I
• 47:41
  just don't really have a clear opinion at this point.
• 47:45
  Kind of the same way. I mean, I don't really have a
• 47:46
  clear opinion. I know that the ACC talking
• 47:50
  about adding Stanford and Cal is probably stupid because I mean,
• 47:55
  just think about travel time and other stuff like that.
• 47:59
  I guess that's just not a good fit.
• 48:01
  So I don't know it. Gives us.
• 48:04
  It's not worth. It's not worth the bump to also
• 48:08
  factor in what you said, the additional travel time and
• 48:10
  everything else, and probably having to kill at least.
• 48:12
  One or two nonreal sports to accommodate that.
• 48:15
  That's true. Well the only upside would be
• 48:18
  you know, excuses to stay up to like 2 in the morning on
• 48:21
  Saturdays if when tech's. Out West.
• 48:24
  I'm gonna. I'm gonna be up till two.
• 48:25
  I had to sleep anymore. Yeah, I'm gonna let the fans.
• 48:28
  So I'll watch games late at night anyway, and I'm very
• 48:30
  disappointed while watching them, so I'm used to that.
• 48:33
  But when I think about it, you know, you think about just say,
• 48:37
  I don't know, freaking softball or baseball.
• 48:40
  Having a game on a Wednesday. In California, like what?
• 48:45
  Is it Palo Alto or something Palo Alto?
• 48:48
  How do you, how do you do that? How do you, how do you make that
• 48:50
  work? I'm not the guy that knows how
• 48:52
  to fix that, but how do you make it work?
• 48:54
  That's all football. If they don't it, no other sport
• 48:57
  matters. See what Jim's got here again
• 49:00
  Cal, Stanford, SMU to keep the association with Notre Dame with
• 49:06
  the ESPN. I can't see them pushing for an
• 49:08
  ES the the SEC ACC merger, since they merged their property.
• 49:14
  Yeah, I don't see the first one makes sense, makes a lot of
• 49:17
  logical sense. The second one doesn't make
• 49:20
  sense to me, but but the issue is this, and we talk about Gor
• 49:24
  and Chum you brought up, they can't get out of the GR.
• 49:27
  There's one way the GRR ends. If the conference devolves, you
• 49:30
  need 8. And if it's not, if the SEC is
• 49:35
  going to expand because eventually the Big 10 numbers
• 49:39
  are going to get up to 1520 million more tally you down in
• 49:42
  SEC country. They ain't the biggest fan of
• 49:44
  being the second most paid conference.
• 49:49
  That's going to happen when when that shifts, there's going to be
• 49:53
  4 that goes to the South. There's going to be two that go
• 49:55
  up north, and there's going to be two that goes out West.
• 49:58
  And they're going to come in and say we call for a vote of
• 50:00
  disillusionment. They're going to dissolve the
• 50:03
  conference. There is no ACC.
• 50:04
  There is no grant of rights. I'm to Brian, you said it the
• 50:08
  other day. We're guaranteed a landing spot,
• 50:11
  but I think we all want it to be one of the better landing spots
• 50:16
  and not the Big 12. I just want to land somewhere so
• 50:20
  we can win 10 games or win a I mean put me in the Sunbelt so we
• 50:24
  can win the temperature. Put me in the.
• 50:26
  I mean, we going to a bigger, we going to a bigger playoff,
• 50:30
  right? We going to a bigger playoff.
• 50:32
  We going to a bigger playoff, but they're probably going to
• 50:35
  renegotiate. How?
• 50:37
  Being courteous to talk. To I don't want to go.
• 50:39
  I don't want to go to the Sunbelt.
• 50:40
  I'm joking around, that makes sure.
• 50:41
  You're joking about it, but I'm I, I, I just.
• 50:45
  It's so much being thrown around right now.
• 50:47
  So many people are like, up in arms about it.
• 50:49
  It's just like I'm to hear what Shelton says is kind of how I
• 50:52
  am. It's like, am I going to watch
• 50:54
  football if it's being played? Yes.
• 50:57
  Am I going to be rooting for the Hocus?
• 50:58
  Yes. That's all I really know right
• 51:00
  now. All the other stuff.
• 51:01
  Shit. I don't know what they're going
• 51:02
  to do. I don't either.
• 51:03
  But I sit here, I like to speculate.
• 51:05
  I like to talk. I also want to come.
• 51:06
  I want us to be in a conference that's getting paid because we
• 51:10
  joke about the Sunbelt. You imagine getting $20 million
• 51:13
  a year. Hey, now go compete.
• 51:15
  Don't compete. There's 20 million you.
• 51:17
  Don't get no recruits, huh? You better have some good.
• 51:20
  Developments, the conference you're recruiting again is
• 51:22
  getting five times that or four times that.
• 51:25
  And and I think that's where the issue lies.
• 51:27
  And I think me and Brian discussed Friday, we had a
• 51:31
  little phone call and let me tell you what the playoff they
• 51:35
  go, I think they go to 24, I think they go to 24 and then
• 51:39
  they look and say we can have three divisions or we have 4
• 51:42
  divisions. You want a division in the Big
• 51:44
  10 of the SEC, you get in the playoff.
• 51:46
  We'll figure out the other ones in a few in a few years.
• 51:49
  Yeah, I'm crazy like that. I wouldn't doubt it.
• 51:54
  Alright, let's flip it over. Let's actually talk some fun
• 51:56
  stuff hokey wise here boys. Let's talk about a couple
• 51:59
  commitments. Let's start with the offensive
• 52:01
  tackle out of Macon, GA Webb, Davidson, 6 foot six, 290 pound,
• 52:07
  three star rated by 247. Brian Y'all, Who had a chance to
• 52:13
  look at him? What do y'all think of him?
• 52:15
  I have not had much to dive into this kid yet.
• 52:18
  Not a lot of tape out there that I could find, but I mean, I love
• 52:21
  the size 66291. I mean, it's hard to argue with
• 52:24
  that as a tackle coming in. That's a Power 5 build.
• 52:29
  We talked about the other day, I mean if you got a guy with that
• 52:31
  type of size, he's got some of the athletic traits, I think you
• 52:34
  could get something out of that guy.
• 52:35
  So like the pick up, I mean it's not not a flashy rating in terms
• 52:40
  of the the recruiting sites out there, but solid power 5 rating
• 52:47
  for a for a tackle and with that size I think we can work with
• 52:50
  them. Yeah, and he's been, apparently
• 52:53
  he's got something that they like, you know, they probably
• 52:56
  crook likes because. All of us who follow recruiting
• 52:59
  have heard his name for a little bit of time.
• 53:03
  There's been a lot of other names thrown out and you know I
• 53:06
  guess they didn't move on them or they weren't moved by him.
• 53:10
  But this guy, we heard about him a little while ago and they they
• 53:14
  made sure to to keep him in the fold.
• 53:16
  So that is that is again good size.
• 53:21
  I I haven't watched like Brian said much film on him.
• 53:24
  There's not much film out there but.
• 53:27
  He's BMF. He is.
• 53:30
  And if you, if you look, if you want to know how big he is, take
• 53:33
  a look at the picture. It's on 247.
• 53:36
  He's standing next to 75. I think that's a kid out of
• 53:38
  Christiansburg. He's like legitimately 68.
• 53:41
  And he he he right there just about out of out of with him.
• 53:45
  All right, let's talk about the one nobody saw coming.
• 53:48
  I didn't see it. Y'all, didn't see it until it
• 53:51
  literally dropped. We going back to Texas boys.
• 53:54
  We going back to Texas, Texas to Vt Texas to VP out of Fort Worth
• 54:00
  TX. Kelton Ryan 6 foot 195 pound
• 54:03
  quarterback in 86 with offers from Arkansas, Baylor, Miami.
• 54:10
  OK State pit Penn State guys got a lot of offers to be a mid
• 54:16
  three. I know the the the comments are
• 54:19
  he was playing at a very bad school and he's effectively
• 54:26
  transferred to a better school. I mean it.
• 54:29
  If you watch a little bit, I think I said a little bit of
• 54:32
  highlights and a little bit of working out and stuff when you
• 54:36
  see an awful list like that because you can't just say, of
• 54:39
  course, like ratings do matter. People say they don't, they do.
• 54:43
  Ratings matter. But when you see an awful list
• 54:46
  like that and then you see the rating, it just doesn't match
• 54:49
  up. But then when you watch like a
• 54:51
  little bit of his tape. And what he's good at and what
• 54:53
  he does, you say okay shit, I see.
• 54:56
  I can see a coach going to watch somebody else play and see him
• 55:01
  and be like, who the hell is that?
• 55:03
  You know what I'm saying? Which is probably how it
• 55:04
  happened or he started camping late.
• 55:08
  It's why he doesn't have a bigger bump in the in the
• 55:10
  ratings. But again, he's a 2025 kid.
• 55:14
  He's got a long time, you know, he's got a long time to, to get
• 55:19
  more offers, to get bigger, faster, stronger.
• 55:22
  To also, you know, get a bump in in in rating.
• 55:25
  So I'll be interested to see. I haven't dug into it a lot to
• 55:29
  see. Like, yeah, that's how
• 55:30
  quarterback of the future. But I'll be interested to see
• 55:33
  kind of how his progression goes.
• 55:37
  Absolutely all. Right.
• 55:39
  So I'm I'm gonna say it. This guy is Pop Watson skill
• 55:42
  set, but he's got much bigger size coming out of the high
• 55:47
  school. He's already 61, almost 200.
• 55:50
  Get two more years going into going into his junior year high
• 55:52
  school. So what you're saying is
• 55:54
  potentially pop skill set, potentially drones body?
• 55:58
  Yeah. Somewhere, somewhere in that
• 56:00
  ballpark, yeah. So that that's kind of what I'd
• 56:02
  like to see if he really jumped off on tape.
• 56:04
  Obviously he was playing on a team that wasn't very well.
• 56:07
  I don't know what the competition level was relative
• 56:10
  to that as well. I'm interested to see now that
• 56:13
  he's in a on a better team, in a better conference, in a better
• 56:15
  district down there, you know? How his junior year shakes out
• 56:19
  because if he goes out there and has a big junior year, I'm
• 56:21
  you're going to see a bump to a four-star.
• 56:23
  Oh yeah, Did you see that? Did y'all see the video of him
• 56:26
  working out in the Virginia Tech shirt?
• 56:28
  Yeah, that was back in like April.
• 56:30
  Yeah, so apparently they've been on him for a while but him
• 56:34
  working out in that Virginia Tech shirt just again, when
• 56:37
  you're when you're. I don't put a lot into like
• 56:40
  people working out or 707 stuff for me.
• 56:43
  I'd rather see you in pads, but for a quarterback just to see
• 56:46
  Kenny throat. Like, he's got some good
• 56:49
  mechanics and he can, he can spin the ball.
• 56:51
  So it was good to see that. Yeah, absolutely.
• 56:54
  All right, so a couple more commits there.
• 56:56
  We've obviously got a few more places in the boat left.
• 57:00
  Obviously, I don't have this on the rundown, but I'm sure y'all
• 57:03
  saw it. Our buddy and Roanoke, our music
• 57:05
  man. Jason actually texted to me and
• 57:07
  Brian this morning at 6:30. Chris Cole set to commit
• 57:10
  September 10th, the day after the Purdue game.
• 57:15
  We'll see how that goes, but let's talk about a few other
• 57:18
  things in camp. We're going to talk about a
• 57:19
  couple position battles as well. But I always mention something
• 57:23
  that I listened to Coach Prize interview last Thursday, the
• 57:26
  first one, and he mentioned they changed it up.
• 57:30
  Something he shared with us that basically always evaluating,
• 57:33
  always looking to do things different, how they shape and
• 57:36
  shift things. And he mentioned for this
• 57:38
  particular fall camp they're doing effectively 5 minute
• 57:41
  camps, 3 on one off. Callie Siegler y'all went
• 57:47
  through college camps. Tell me what y'all like about
• 57:51
  this concept and what y'all hate about this concept of three in
• 57:54
  ones up until up until the 20 the week of the 20th.
• 58:02
  For me, I think he's they're trying to find ways to keep
• 58:05
  people healthy. You know, because you're just
• 58:07
  getting a roster that I can say you you semi trust.
• 58:13
  And you got a lot of new guys in there, so I think they're trying
• 58:15
  to see them, which every college does, ice baths and stuff like
• 58:19
  that. But probably talked about some
• 58:22
  of the guys not playing when he was on with us talking about
• 58:24
  some of them not playing in the spring game.
• 58:26
  And you hate to see somebody go down in a game like that or even
• 58:31
  in fall practice. So I think that they're just
• 58:34
  trying to maneuver to to make sure that we have.
• 58:40
  As much camaraderie as possible, but as little injuries as
• 58:43
  possible. I think that's where you're
• 58:45
  getting three days on the field, one day off, and then so on and
• 58:49
  so forth. But when you say what don't you
• 58:52
  like about it? It's just the fear of the
• 58:55
  unknown for the most part. Like you, if you've never done
• 58:58
  that and you never seen it, of course you're going to be kind
• 59:00
  of skeptical if something goes wrong.
• 59:01
  It's like, are we missing time? You need to get as many
• 59:04
  practices in as possible. Are we missing this or so?
• 59:08
  Just things like that, but. Hopefully it works out and we
• 59:11
  see a big jump as far as production on the field.
• 59:15
  Yeah, I mean looking at it for me it's, you know the positive
• 59:18
  is going to be keeping healthy, keeping fresh, having fresh legs
• 59:22
  for longer stretches of those full padded practice, those
• 59:25
  shell practices. I think that's that's going to
• 59:28
  be the biggest benefit looking at it.
• 59:31
  On the flip side, what I can see being somewhat problematic is
• 59:34
  maybe we got a lot of new guys coming in both.
• 59:39
  Freshmen and the transfers. Sometimes when you get into a
• 59:44
  practice routine, you get into a rhythm and I don't know if like
• 59:50
  a day off might throw off some of the rhythm and potentially,
• 59:53
  you know, disrupt some of that progress that some of those
• 59:56
  younger guys or some of those newer guys are making within the
• 59:58
  new schemes. Tell anything just obviously you
• 1:00:03
  we were around the program for years, you've known it for
• 1:00:06
  years, you follow sports in general and he feels on this.
• 1:00:10
  No, it's hard to say because I never really laced them up put
• 1:00:13
  on the pads. But I mean I like what what
• 1:00:16
  prize kind of talking about as far as like you know, just
• 1:00:19
  trying to find some sort of I guess identity.
• 1:00:22
  I know his press conversation. He kind of talked about this
• 1:00:25
  five principles, you know, things like accountability,
• 1:00:28
  leadership. And I think he's done a good job
• 1:00:31
  of identity that isn't just like a chalkboard slogan actually
• 1:00:36
  kind of putting into practice. And you kind of see that, like
• 1:00:38
  when he said. You know when you first got here
• 1:00:40
  like guys were okay with losing reps, guys are okay, teams were
• 1:00:44
  okay with with losing battles like that type of stuff.
• 1:00:46
  I mean you know that's that's the stuff that's the type of
• 1:00:48
  culture building where you can kind of see it happen.
• 1:00:51
  So just to see those things kind of put into put into practice is
• 1:00:55
  pretty good to see. Now we'll translate to wins, you
• 1:00:57
  know sooner or later we'll see. But I just, I really like the
• 1:00:59
  way he's kind of gone about it and I think it's really good at
• 1:01:02
  managing perception. And I think just getting the fan
• 1:01:07
  base excited and and having things to kind of look for.
• 1:01:09
  So he's definitely, in terms of the PR game, he's at 10 out of
• 1:01:12
  10 right there. I feel like the culture under
• 1:01:15
  Fuente was like it was. It was good enough.
• 1:01:19
  Like it wasn't winning every Rep it was.
• 1:01:21
  We're good enough and it can be that.
• 1:01:24
  Way we're getting by. So I mean, I feel like, you
• 1:01:28
  know, winning every Rep The competition that he's brought is
• 1:01:31
  definitely, I think, improve the culture.
• 1:01:34
  Around the program and I think we're seeing that Thomas Train
• 1:01:38
  actually there was the comment that I threw on there.
• 1:01:42
  He talked about better evaluation, doing it every 3rd
• 1:01:44
  day. Yeah, that's a really good
• 1:01:46
  point. That's a really good point
• 1:01:47
  because you actually have a day where you can really sit and
• 1:01:52
  focus on breaking down some of that practice tape, seeing what
• 1:01:56
  you know you you see it on the field obviously, but.
• 1:02:00
  You get a little bit more time to really truly dig into that
• 1:02:03
  practice tape and evaluate and maybe even shuffle things a
• 1:02:07
  little bit as far as whether it's how you want to practice
• 1:02:11
  the next day or next set of days, how you want to do the
• 1:02:14
  rotations. So there's so much that you can
• 1:02:16
  really glean from that by doing three on, one off.
• 1:02:20
  So that's a good point. I'm going to put this up here,
• 1:02:22
  Jim, Just put it up here and probably actually mentioned it
• 1:02:24
  today. This was something their sports
• 1:02:27
  science individual mentioned, that going to this would be
• 1:02:30
  better. And I think again, y'all went
• 1:02:32
  through that stuff. Three in one.
• 1:02:35
  I'm sure y'all you get to a limit at a certain point where
• 1:02:37
  it's just like I can't do anymore or it's Brian y'all
• 1:02:41
  y'all play again. Y'all are on the lines.
• 1:02:43
  I'm losing technique now. I'm losing my technique so.
• 1:02:49
  I mean, I I my fall camp was three days for the first two
• 1:02:53
  weeks, so. Yeah, you know, even like my
• 1:02:56
  son's 13 and watching him, he's playing football this year, He's
• 1:03:00
  in 8th grade. So even watching how they
• 1:03:02
  practice compared to how we practice coming up and things
• 1:03:05
  like that is much different. I see you, Dwight, thank you for
• 1:03:09
  your comment, man. We're going, we'll see you next
• 1:03:11
  week. We're going to get your
• 1:03:12
  perspective on this stuff as well.
• 1:03:13
  But even somebody like Dwight could come on and talk about how
• 1:03:18
  I think he he, he put a tweet up a little bit talking about two
• 1:03:21
  of the days or. Somebody asked them, could they
• 1:03:24
  take the helmet off or something crazy like that.
• 1:03:26
  Like, you know, at my son's practice, they were running
• 1:03:29
  routes with the helmets off. You know, like when I was coming
• 1:03:32
  up, you didn't take your helmet off when you took.
• 1:03:34
  When you stepped on the field. It was just different things.
• 1:03:37
  And the coach said I'm trying to keep them cooler.
• 1:03:39
  You know, you got so many people like Sheldon that pay attention
• 1:03:43
  to analytics and they get paid a lot of money to make sure people
• 1:03:46
  don't get hurt. I guess one parent, they asked
• 1:03:48
  me, have you seen the caller that makes some kind of caller
• 1:03:51
  that's supposed to help? With you not getting concussions
• 1:03:55
  or something, I I don't know. I haven't seen it.
• 1:03:58
  But I'm just saying there's so much stuff out there that, yeah,
• 1:04:01
  of course we're going to see stuff different.
• 1:04:03
  And that's kind of why I say it on my point.
• 1:04:05
  It's just the unknown, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:04:07
  I haven't. I've never seen it done that
• 1:04:08
  way. So I don't.
• 1:04:09
  I ain't going to say I love it because I don't know you.
• 1:04:12
  Bring it back to cowboy collars. It ain't a cowboy collar,
• 1:04:15
  though. It's not that.
• 1:04:16
  It's it's something that looks kind of like a Have you ever
• 1:04:20
  seen somebody put on the earphones to go around the net?
• 1:04:22
  Yeah, yeah. So the earphones that go around
• 1:04:24
  your neck, it looks like that. It's a Heinz device now.
• 1:04:28
  I don't. I'm gonna, I'm gonna look it up
• 1:04:30
  and I'm gonna, I'm gonna put y'all in the chat you search it
• 1:04:34
  because I'm gonna ask y'all another thing I liked about it
• 1:04:35
  and I wonder if this what did to it, Prime mentioned.
• 1:04:41
  I don't know about that if somebody more educated.
• 1:04:44
  You it's it's the skelly helmets that we just actually have them
• 1:04:47
  that look like they look good. They they look like our helmets,
• 1:04:50
  just like. On top of it, instead of the
• 1:04:52
  more just, you know the rough padded ones that a lot of other
• 1:04:55
  places have. I'm gonna throw gems off here.
• 1:04:58
  I'm gonna put the whites up. Yeah, as long as we're more
• 1:05:01
  mentally tough during the games, I have no issue with it.
• 1:05:03
  The other reason I like this, and I'm wondering if this fit
• 1:05:06
  into that about the schedule was Prime mentioned they're actually
• 1:05:11
  going to do a full game week before they do a full game week
• 1:05:16
  with ODU. And I'm wondering if again, we
• 1:05:19
  know there are certain rules with the NCAA of how much you
• 1:05:22
  can practice. And I'm wondering by chopping it
• 1:05:24
  up like this, by giving these guys probably 5 days off, going
• 1:05:28
  up to that last week Okay when we get to the 20th, you know
• 1:05:33
  we're able to do because when we spread our days we can go a full
• 1:05:36
  week, we can do our normal practice routines.
• 1:05:39
  We can go through everything. We can go to the Roanoke, the
• 1:05:42
  Hotel Roanoke on Friday night and almost have like that full
• 1:05:45
  game week where they're really focus.
• 1:05:48
  This is what we're going to do. Here's a practice version.
• 1:05:52
  I wonder if that had to do something with it and if anybody
• 1:05:56
  knows the exact limitation. I know there's a limitation
• 1:05:58
  number of practices and days off you've got to have.
• 1:06:01
  I wonder if that was another reason behind it, because for
• 1:06:07
  anybody it's it's like prepping for something.
• 1:06:09
  You get a chance to do a run through and it actually doesn't
• 1:06:13
  count. It's going to help because
• 1:06:16
  you're going to be mentally ready to be like, oh, I screwed
• 1:06:18
  that up last week during this portion of practice, Not
• 1:06:20
  screwing that up this week. All right, couple other things.
• 1:06:24
  And this is offensive line we're not going to talk about on the
• 1:06:27
  depth chart. But if you heard Clements talk,
• 1:06:31
  first of all Clements is just funny to listen to.
• 1:06:34
  Just the way you talked with this South Carolina accident,
• 1:06:37
  talking about chaplain and little more just literally going
• 1:06:40
  out there and giving everything every day.
• 1:06:44
  He's like, he's like, dude, they're they're, he literally
• 1:06:46
  said. He's like, they're going out
• 1:06:47
  there like this is their last day they're ever going to play
• 1:06:49
  football, which I love to hear, especially from two young guys.
• 1:06:54
  Yeah, I mean it's it's it's big that that Parker's kind of
• 1:06:57
  taking more of a leadership role this year.
• 1:07:00
  You know when we had Kayden on, he talked a little bit about it
• 1:07:04
  too. So those two are going to be the
• 1:07:06
  de facto leaders on that unit this year.
• 1:07:08
  So it's going to be big for him to, to take on the leadership
• 1:07:11
  role and I like that he's. When he's he's got the spotlight
• 1:07:14
  he's highlighted other guys. I like that.
• 1:07:16
  I like that that that that's a that's a good quality of an
• 1:07:19
  offensive live right there. When you get the spotlight
• 1:07:22
  you're you're highlighting the other guys around you so that
• 1:07:24
  that that's big to me and I love hearing it about that chaplain
• 1:07:29
  and more because that's we're going to need those two to step
• 1:07:32
  up and hold down that left side of the line.
• 1:07:34
  I mean, especially with some of the news we got, you know?
• 1:07:38
  A little bit of a little bit ago, you know about Jesse
• 1:07:41
  Hanson, so we got less depth on that offensive line.
• 1:07:44
  So it's going to be big. Those guys play a big role this
• 1:07:47
  year. Was that chaplain?
• 1:07:48
  Was that chaplain going against Powell and that that was, yeah,
• 1:07:52
  that spin. Move was pretty.
• 1:07:53
  Thick Man Chaplain, You better keep going out there and
• 1:07:56
  attacking every day you see somebody like that line up
• 1:07:59
  across from me. Jesus Christ, but how many of
• 1:08:01
  those? Spin move.
• 1:08:02
  You got to drive through it, man.
• 1:08:03
  You can't sit back on the spin move.
• 1:08:06
  You got absolutely smoked there. Anything on the offensive line
• 1:08:10
  Shelton that you see in here and?
• 1:08:14
  Yeah, I mean, I was just kind of look at the numbers.
• 1:08:16
  You know, Hanson, surprisingly enough, not a guy that people
• 1:08:18
  really associate as being like a stalwart at the offensive line.
• 1:08:21
  He was actually Tech's highest graded offensive lineman last
• 1:08:23
  year, according to PFF. Now it was about league average.
• 1:08:26
  So it wasn't, you know, too big of a thing.
• 1:08:28
  But losing him definitely hurts the depth.
• 1:08:31
  And you got Janzie gone as well. Jordan too, I feel like.
• 1:08:34
  Obviously with Parker. We didn't know that a time, but
• 1:08:37
  obviously he was injured last year, couldn't really lift and
• 1:08:41
  obviously that kind of had a huge, huge impact on his play.
• 1:08:44
  So I think he's going to have a positive improvement this year.
• 1:08:48
  Same with more those two guys, they were so good as freshmen
• 1:08:50
  but just fell off a Cliff last year.
• 1:08:52
  I think he'll get back to it. I think when you really need
• 1:08:55
  Parker. Parker to me is the most
• 1:08:56
  important player in this, on this oh line, especially because
• 1:08:59
  of the lack of, you know, overall tackle depth.
• 1:09:00
  So it's going to, it's going to be a little bit thin, but.
• 1:09:03
  I I feel better about the the, the right side than I do now.
• 1:09:08
  I did about last last year's team for sure.
• 1:09:11
  Nice nice. And let's talk about some other
• 1:09:13
  depth stuff we're hearing. You know we saw we'll shout him
• 1:09:16
  out. David Cunningham going out there
• 1:09:18
  busting it at practice trying to put depth charge together and
• 1:09:22
  you know it's it's it's by law Tally knows this tally had to
• 1:09:26
  talk to Toast Frye about it by law got called quarterback.
• 1:09:29
  It's cliche, I know, but it's been told it's been said.
• 1:09:33
  Wells and drones each having times with the ones rotating
• 1:09:37
  days effectively. But here's what I'll ask you
• 1:09:40
  August 22nd, boys, and we'll start with Sheldon.
• 1:09:45
  August 22nd, that bonus week. That week we're going to go into
• 1:09:49
  prepping. We'll pronounce the starter on
• 1:09:52
  the 22nd because there will be a media day that day.
• 1:09:56
  I think so. I mean, I think he, I think he
• 1:09:59
  did it. He definitely did it earlier
• 1:10:01
  than Fuente did. Last year it's my understanding.
• 1:10:06
  So yeah, I think he's because I know with with like Fuente was
• 1:10:10
  kind of like you know he he went to wait to the absolute last
• 1:10:13
  possible minute and then when he did make the announcement it was
• 1:10:15
  like you know in a hush tone it's like OK let's just move on.
• 1:10:18
  I think prize taking a little bit more kind of making the
• 1:10:21
  announcement having to be like OK this is our guy.
• 1:10:24
  So yeah, I would say that media conference is probably going to
• 1:10:26
  be the time that he does it all right He he says 22nd we're
• 1:10:30
  announced, Sally. I don't know, man.
• 1:10:34
  I I was kind of on the fence about it when we talked about
• 1:10:36
  it. I said I could see it kind of
• 1:10:40
  lingering on just to kind of throw some, we don't know who's
• 1:10:44
  up on that first game and then giving Purdue a little bit less
• 1:10:48
  to know of who's going to do it. But I think Prior kind of what
• 1:10:51
  Sheldon said though, man, I mean with us knowing Prior we've
• 1:10:54
  talked to him, I feel like he is too candid of a guy to hold
• 1:10:59
  something like that and that's one of the things that the fan
• 1:11:01
  base like. Longs for.
• 1:11:03
  So yeah, I think he's going to announce somebody about that
• 1:11:06
  time. I think it's going to depend,
• 1:11:10
  and I think it's going to depend on the the, the trend, because I
• 1:11:14
  think we know that from a grass of the offense perspective.
• 1:11:17
  Wells is a head of drones at this point.
• 1:11:19
  He was in the spring. I think he still is at this
• 1:11:21
  point. Is he seeing enough practice to
• 1:11:26
  practice with drones picking things up?
• 1:11:31
  Where he's not quite ready by August 22nd, That's my only
• 1:11:35
  question. I could see him playing some
• 1:11:38
  gamesmanship with Purdue and ODU, but when we really go back
• 1:11:41
  and look at it, there's not a lot of tape out there on drones
• 1:11:46
  that's really going to, you know, waste hours of ODU and and
• 1:11:51
  Purdue's coaches spending time bringing down tape.
• 1:11:55
  There's not enough out there for them to really justify that, and
• 1:11:58
  any smart coach is already going to have a scout team.
• 1:12:02
  Quarterback that can that can run and do the things that
• 1:12:05
  drones is at least running a handful of plays in that
• 1:12:07
  practice anyway. So I don't think there's any
• 1:12:09
  games with ship there. But like I said, my question is
• 1:12:12
  how is the battle trending? Is it starting to trend where
• 1:12:16
  you know it's ratcheting up every week in terms of the grass
• 1:12:18
  of the offensive? If there is, you know you might
• 1:12:20
  give one last week to to let Let drones prove himself to see if
• 1:12:25
  he can take that role. If if he's not making that
• 1:12:28
  progress, then I think you go ahead and name it for Wells at
• 1:12:31
  that point, Yeah, I think, I think you're y'all are right.
• 1:12:36
  I think it's announced that week, but I think there's going
• 1:12:38
  to be a caveat in it regardless who it is.
• 1:12:41
  I think if it is Grant Wells, there's going to be the caveat
• 1:12:44
  of we have to take advantage of Chiron drones, athleticism, his
• 1:12:48
  ability to run the ball, he's going to be used.
• 1:12:51
  If it's drones. We're going to be dependent on
• 1:12:53
  Grant to be helping Kyron. We got to depend on him to be
• 1:12:57
  ready if something happens to go in and play immediately.
• 1:13:01
  So he's on caveat where he's not basically burying like that's
• 1:13:04
  our guy. I don't care what happens one
• 1:13:06
  way or the other but I think it has to be that week because I
• 1:13:10
  think what that does it puts a firm stamp on who we are as 18.
• 1:13:15
  And I feel like talking with Brent pride like we have he's
• 1:13:20
  that sort of person he wants to I'm going to tell the team and
• 1:13:23
  I'm going to tell him who it is and I'll go out here and tell
• 1:13:26
  the public and we're going to be strong when I go forward like
• 1:13:30
  that. So I I feel like we do know but
• 1:13:34
  who knows he might throw some curveball let's talk D line and
• 1:13:38
  and if anybody was actually shocked y'all tell me pal.
• 1:13:40
  Ryland already on the ones. Just got here this summer.
• 1:13:44
  Anybody shot? Nah, Nah.
• 1:13:47
  If you're shocked, then y'all didn't see the tape.
• 1:13:50
  But let let's talk this. Not so Again, We've seen him on
• 1:13:53
  tech, we've seen his stats, we know what he is.
• 1:13:57
  But my feeling on the defensive line room in general is to go
• 1:14:03
  from average to above average, because I do think it was an
• 1:14:06
  average line last year. With the exception of stack
• 1:14:09
  numbers, everything else you know good at creating negative
• 1:14:13
  plays in the run game. What's up I?
• 1:14:16
  Was going to say sack numbers in the Pit game, in the pit game.
• 1:14:19
  That's it. That's it.
• 1:14:21
  But but my fields, two players are key.
• 1:14:24
  I think Burgos is key. I love to hear him probably talk
• 1:14:27
  about him today and I think Pain's key because if to me if
• 1:14:31
  those two guys click, you've not only got your 4th end, you've
• 1:14:36
  also got that guy that can go likely inside out as needed.
• 1:14:39
  What y'all think? Yeah, we talk about pain.
• 1:14:42
  Pain was in that clip as well. And to talk about him coming
• 1:14:45
  back from a injury, you know, I know it's not, you know, full,
• 1:14:50
  full game or anything like that. But to see how he moves and it's
• 1:14:54
  good to see, you know, coming off of an injury to have another
• 1:14:57
  guy like that, to throw in depth wise.
• 1:14:59
  And again, we've got a lot of guys that can move in our bead,
• 1:15:05
  you know? We haven't seen that a lot on
• 1:15:07
  our lines. We're usually going after the
• 1:15:10
  small twitch, you know, twitchy guys.
• 1:15:12
  But when you talk about Burgos or you talk about Roland Powell,
• 1:15:18
  these guys are big and physical and they can move.
• 1:15:20
  So I think we'll take a step in the defensive line.
• 1:15:23
  I think we have an opportunity to, you know, of course football
• 1:15:26
  you could have injuries, we don't speak that, but I think
• 1:15:29
  we'll take a step forward just with with some of the some of
• 1:15:33
  the guys that we're plugging in. Yeah, I mean processed today he
• 1:15:36
  talked about Burgos being a motor guy, big motor guy and you
• 1:15:41
  already got a guy that's that big.
• 1:15:44
  If you say he's got a motor, I mean that that's going to be
• 1:15:47
  somebody that's going to outwork everybody around him seeing him.
• 1:15:50
  Yes, they they said he could push for a starting spot in in
• 1:15:53
  the in the press conference today which you know.
• 1:15:57
  Worked my ears up a little bit but I was just hoping for Burgos
• 1:16:01
  to be pushing for a fourth or fifth spot on the on the DN
• 1:16:04
  position. If he's doing more than that
• 1:16:07
  then we then we we cook them with something fellas.
• 1:16:10
  Talking about pain too. I mean, we've seen flashes he
• 1:16:13
  got brought up in the presser last week and this week as being
• 1:16:16
  somebody that's working, working really good, making some
• 1:16:19
  progress, pushing some guys. You know, if he can be that
• 1:16:22
  fourth guy in the rotation, that's only leveling up the
• 1:16:25
  interior of that line as well. And with pain being kind of a a
• 1:16:30
  tweener there, you could get him in at certain spots on on
• 1:16:34
  rundown, certain spots on passing down.
• 1:16:36
  So he gives a little bit of versatility across the line as
• 1:16:38
  well. Anything on the D line room,
• 1:16:42
  Shelton? I like having Kendricks back and
• 1:16:46
  Paul a lot. They were probably.
• 1:16:48
  Our two best lineman last year to look at stuff like pass rush
• 1:16:51
  win rates, Nelson is a guy that is good to have back, but he's
• 1:16:56
  got to improve a lot and CJ McCray also in there as well.
• 1:16:59
  So in terms of pass rush, I think it's a pretty good setup.
• 1:17:04
  I mean I know the run defense was kind of hit or miss, but
• 1:17:08
  we've got some guys that can that can get to the QB, I think
• 1:17:11
  and I think that's gonna be the key this year because you know
• 1:17:14
  we were talking the other day. What was did you did you find
• 1:17:18
  that the Havoc stat you were trying to find look up?
• 1:17:21
  No, I didn't have the Havoc stat.
• 1:17:23
  Yeah, I didn't have the Havoc set.
• 1:17:24
  I just got the SAC right. I mean we were bottom 30 in
• 1:17:26
  terms of SAC, right. And I think in terms of you know
• 1:17:28
  preventing explosive plays, obviously the the run defense
• 1:17:32
  was was terrible in terms of explosive plays.
• 1:17:35
  So yeah, that was, that was probably the biggest thing that
• 1:17:37
  I noticed looking at the stats. So again it's it's and this was
• 1:17:41
  a solid defense last year was a solid defensive line.
• 1:17:44
  It wasn't spectacular and I think could and that's why we
• 1:17:49
  I'll go back to the gentleman we first started with Powell.
• 1:17:51
  Ryland is that guy that can make it spectacular because y'all
• 1:17:56
  seen it. If you have an edge guy, the
• 1:17:58
  attention shifts every everything about that offensive
• 1:18:02
  setup Tally and Brian from both playing there.
• 1:18:05
  When you have that guy that can come off the edge and can fly
• 1:18:08
  and condemn every single person is like, where is he?
• 1:18:12
  Yeah, where is he? Quarterbacks looking for him,
• 1:18:15
  tackles trying to call him out, guards trying to know where do I
• 1:18:17
  push, where do I kick tight in Tally, I'm sure there were times
• 1:18:20
  you played edge guys. You're like, I don't really want
• 1:18:23
  to go against him. Yeah, man, it's it all comes
• 1:18:25
  down to like you. Like if you have the game plan
• 1:18:28
  for somebody on a defensive line changes the whole game plan that
• 1:18:33
  your office has, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:18:35
  If you have a defensive line, I mean, and then this year is
• 1:18:38
  going to be big for JC because you have so many.
• 1:18:40
  JC haters that are out there, you know, they said he couldn't
• 1:18:43
  recruit. You know, he starts getting a
• 1:18:45
  couple of recruits in and then they said, well, he can't coach.
• 1:18:48
  So we're going to have to see, can he coach?
• 1:18:50
  You know, like, I think J C's fine, but I'm just saying for
• 1:18:56
  the Virginia Tech landscape, you know, this is a big year for the
• 1:18:59
  defensive line and then shifts you to another point, our
• 1:19:04
  cornerbacks like your defensive line.
• 1:19:06
  Is a direct reflection of what you're They can't guard forever.
• 1:19:10
  You know what I'm saying? It was like a lot of times when
• 1:19:12
  we talked about Delaine last year, him being a freshman
• 1:19:15
  tossed in the in the games that he may or may not have been
• 1:19:19
  ready for. It was it's tough to cover a
• 1:19:22
  long time like that. Especially when you got a
• 1:19:24
  quarterback that's running around and they're breaking off
• 1:19:27
  routes and things like that. Wasn't that he just, you know,
• 1:19:30
  even got beat. It's just sometimes you.
• 1:19:32
  Hell, you don't you. You can have perfect coverage
• 1:19:34
  until that last two seconds. And you're hoping that your
• 1:19:37
  lineman get to them and cause some kind of chaos.
• 1:19:40
  Had we weren't doing that. So I feel like if we are, if
• 1:19:44
  we're able to, if we can't get to the quarterback, if we can
• 1:19:46
  pressure them enough where they have to throw some air at
• 1:19:49
  throws, then our defensive backs out, we have a defensive
• 1:19:52
  backfield that can cause some chaos as well.
• 1:19:55
  So if that defensive line is 2 steps better than last year,
• 1:20:01
  then I think our defense has got some cooking.
• 1:20:04
  Yeah, in that cornerback room, the first three are good.
• 1:20:07
  You got two guys who were previous freshmen, Allamerican,
• 1:20:10
  Actually, I think Canteen was a freshman Allamerican too, wasn't
• 1:20:12
  he? I think you're right.
• 1:20:14
  I think he was a freshman. But I'm pretty positive.
• 1:20:17
  Yeah, pretty positive. He was.
• 1:20:19
  And so those guys are locked. It's all about the freshman.
• 1:20:22
  Because when I looked at DC's depth chart and I started
• 1:20:25
  reading cornerbacks, it's like Braylon Johnson, That freshman
• 1:20:28
  just got there. Dante Lovett, he just got there.
• 1:20:31
  And then coach mentioned Christian earlier today it's
• 1:20:34
  like and he's in prize. I love the again, it's the
• 1:20:37
  candidates. These guys are going to play.
• 1:20:40
  One of these guys is going to play a lot this year and it's
• 1:20:44
  that whole he mentioned he's like it's it's the constant
• 1:20:47
  developing. Developing right.
• 1:20:51
  You know growing pains through the first four games, but if you
• 1:20:53
  start getting better games, five, 6-7 and eight, you're
• 1:20:56
  going to the games going to slow down, you're going to be better.
• 1:21:00
  We did. I don't want to cut you off,
• 1:21:01
  Curtis, but I want to play this right quick.
• 1:21:04
  Last year we did a space after the ODU game.
• 1:21:06
  I was livid. I was on the pledge.
• 1:21:08
  No way. Everybody was.
• 1:21:12
  Dwight came on and talked to. It was over, you know?
• 1:21:12
  Did. You Dwight came on, but you know
• 1:21:15
  besides the white, he called some backup and LJ came on as
• 1:21:19
  well and he said, you know, somebody was on there and said,
• 1:21:23
  you know Gene tech's not going to recruit Well, you just lost
• 1:21:26
  the ODU you have, you know. Recruits watching it, blah,
• 1:21:29
  blah, blah. And LJ said this is what you
• 1:21:32
  have to do as a coach. I'm, I'm paraphrasing, this is
• 1:21:35
  what you have to do as a coach. You have to sell that.
• 1:21:37
  You know, you have to say we lost a couple of games because
• 1:21:41
  when we talked earlier we talked about games that we lost about
• 1:21:44
  one or two points. So one or we didn't have enough
• 1:21:46
  depth. But now you brought in some
• 1:21:48
  players and and I'm sure Pride went to him and talked to him
• 1:21:52
  and said hey, if we get you here we can use you immediately, so.
• 1:21:57
  You want to see some of these players get on the field and
• 1:22:00
  produce immediately because that's just going to be another
• 1:22:04
  good selling point to the next proper recruits.
• 1:22:08
  Even the recruits that they just brought in or they're bringing
• 1:22:10
  in for the 2024 class, you know, that's that's what they're
• 1:22:14
  saying. Hey, I know I can go here and
• 1:22:15
  play. Hey, I know that they're
• 1:22:17
  building something. I can get in here and play.
• 1:22:19
  So when I seen those freshman's names on there, you know, some
• 1:22:23
  people get a little nervous. But I'm like, hell.
• 1:22:24
  Shit, we ain't got nobody in front of them.
• 1:22:26
  Kelly had a. Let's talk.
• 1:22:28
  Let's talk about this real quick, though, because we talked
• 1:22:31
  a ton about how much the wide receiver room has flipped.
• 1:22:35
  But when we look at the first six in this cornerback room, one
• 1:22:38
  of them was in the two deep at the start of last season.
• 1:22:41
  That's true. Only one, the cornerback room
• 1:22:46
  has completely flipped. It has.
• 1:22:49
  We had Bria Murray in our in our coffee room.
• 1:22:53
  No disrespect, but I don't keep my ass.
• 1:22:57
  If I had this, we had Brianne Murray in that playing
• 1:23:02
  significant steps, man. I mean come on.
• 1:23:05
  The thing is I think with Lovett all three and and to me always
• 1:23:09
  Lean Braylon because of who Dad and and and and that's he's
• 1:23:13
  going to have that mark on who dad is.
• 1:23:15
  Where he played I I don't until we see it.
• 1:23:20
  But it's that feeling of Braylon Johnson might be the 4th one.
• 1:23:26
  I mean it's just it's I know it's lineage and I know it's it
• 1:23:29
  could be that nostalgia where you want the guy who was here
• 1:23:33
  when it originated and his son to basically take that torch and
• 1:23:37
  kind of replan it and say we're back to where we were.
• 1:23:40
  But I'm pretty sure he started all four years at Highland
• 1:23:43
  Springs. They want three state titles.
• 1:23:45
  You know, he's got it up here because his dad was that type of
• 1:23:48
  player. You know it's up here.
• 1:23:51
  So the question is, which of these, which of the which of the
• 1:23:54
  three plays a ton, which gets a red shirt and which is getting
• 1:23:59
  significant minutes on special teams and to give blows probably
• 1:24:05
  every fifth series to the upper guys when needed?
• 1:24:09
  It's hard. It's hard to say, man, because a
• 1:24:11
  lot of them are are so. I guess they're so similar as
• 1:24:15
  far as body sizes. They are and and and builds and
• 1:24:19
  things like that, but they aren't under built right all
• 1:24:22
  about 180 a 180. They're not under built to be.
• 1:24:25
  Corners and and I mean, like I said, I think I talked to y'all
• 1:24:28
  about it. When you talk about college
• 1:24:30
  football, like cornerback is the I don't want to use the word
• 1:24:34
  easiest. I don't want to use the word
• 1:24:35
  easiest, but it's the it's the most likely position for a
• 1:24:39
  freshman to come in and be able to contribute quickly because
• 1:24:43
  that is. Pretty much a lot of
• 1:24:45
  athleticism. And those guys do a lot of work,
• 1:24:47
  you know, and they're usually getting some high level work,
• 1:24:50
  even in high school as D B's with a lot of these trainers and
• 1:24:53
  stuff. But you talk about quarterback,
• 1:24:56
  quarterback's pretty tough to go in and just be a stud lineman.
• 1:25:00
  It's very, very rare for a lineman to come in his freshman
• 1:25:03
  year and have his body ready to go and have his feet ready to go
• 1:25:07
  and have his mind ready to go so.
• 1:25:10
  I wasn't really surprised at the cornerbacks that we have are are
• 1:25:13
  making some noise. I'm just ready to get to it and
• 1:25:16
  see what they can do. I'm ready to see them in the
• 1:25:19
  games man. I'm ready to see them put it on,
• 1:25:21
  but on the all once jerseys and let's go play.
• 1:25:25
  That's the second game. Let's go play.
• 1:25:28
  By the way, my first trip down there, I've got to go to the to
• 1:25:30
  the bookstore and get orange shirt because the only orange
• 1:25:33
  shirt I got is a Nike one. Everything else in a room like
• 1:25:35
  this. You need orange, man.
• 1:25:38
  I know it's the orange effect. I got to buy one.
• 1:25:40
  It's like guaranteed. I have to buy one real quick.
• 1:25:43
  So those corners have been covering the wide receiver room,
• 1:25:46
  which we've talked about a ton, flipping over Jennings and
• 1:25:50
  Layton, Felton with the ones, but obviously rotating.
• 1:25:53
  We saw Bosdale and Holloway and another name that from last year
• 1:25:57
  popped up. I may be a little bit shocking.
• 1:25:59
  That's Dwayne Lofton. Sheldon, any shock, anything
• 1:26:03
  you're hearing about any of these guys or heard about any of
• 1:26:06
  these guys, any of the six? Not really, honestly.
• 1:26:12
  I mean I think it's pretty impressive they done kind of
• 1:26:14
  turn that room over. You know like we were talking
• 1:26:16
  about we have to, I think we have to trust coaches to some
• 1:26:20
  degree. Obviously when we look at Brent
• 1:26:23
  Pride flipping over 40% of roster because he knows that the
• 1:26:26
  talent level last year wasn't good enough.
• 1:26:28
  Similarly, you can look at what he did with the wide receiver
• 1:26:30
  room getting in all those handful of guys and the reason
• 1:26:34
  for that is because they just know that the talent level there
• 1:26:35
  wasn't good enough last year. So when we kind of assess you
• 1:26:38
  know Grant Wells and how he performed last year, obviously
• 1:26:41
  he could have been a lot better. The receivers did not do many
• 1:26:44
  favors. So I think the coach has done a
• 1:26:45
  good job of totally revamping that room in just one year.
• 1:26:50
  And obviously I trust fontel mines a lot with his player
• 1:26:52
  evaluations and hopefully he can get those guys coached up.
• 1:26:55
  You know he he was talking to podcast a while back about how.
• 1:27:00
  You know, perimeter blocking in his room is non negotiable.
• 1:27:02
  Like if you want to play for this staff you have to block,
• 1:27:06
  which I really like to hear because blocking to me has been
• 1:27:08
  a big sore spot for Tech over the past few years.
• 1:27:12
  So hopefully you can get this guys coached up.
• 1:27:14
  I have a lot of faith in him and I think, I think that's a room
• 1:27:17
  where we're going to see a lot of improvement.
• 1:27:19
  Yeah, I mean he's a tight and he knows, he knows about blocking
• 1:27:21
  out there on the perimeter. So he's the one of the best ones
• 1:27:25
  that could probably get that that group doing that at a
• 1:27:28
  consistent level. Whatever he's telling, man,
• 1:27:30
  people are buying. I'm back.
• 1:27:32
  They are. We've talked to Frontil and you
• 1:27:35
  see the, you see the. First of all, I wonder who's
• 1:27:38
  garden? Felton in practice.
• 1:27:40
  Like, that's a big ass dude, man.
• 1:27:41
  You know what I'm saying? Like, we had wide receivers.
• 1:27:45
  What, what? What?
• 1:27:46
  What Coach call him today? Avatar.
• 1:27:49
  Avatar. Like he's like Avatar out there.
• 1:27:52
  What The thing is, is like I don't think tech fans, we
• 1:27:55
  haven't seen wide receivers. The size that we're going to see
• 1:27:58
  some of the wide receivers that we're bringing in and that we
• 1:28:00
  have and even with some of the skill set, I know I don't want
• 1:28:03
  to look too far ahead because anything can happen.
• 1:28:06
  You know, talking about the people that we have on on on
• 1:28:08
  campus. But even the wide receivers that
• 1:28:11
  they're bringing in like Makai White just committed to Maryland
• 1:28:15
  because we don't got space for him.
• 1:28:17
  You know, I ain't saying like he was a lot to go to Virginia
• 1:28:19
  Tech, but I'm sure we had a shot to get him.
• 1:28:23
  You were showing us a whole lot of love until the last like week
• 1:28:26
  or so when? People can spend it how they
• 1:28:27
  want to, but I mean we've got a lot of wide receivers and
• 1:28:31
  everybody knows we don't have a lot of room.
• 1:28:33
  So you just got, you know the number one receiver in the in
• 1:28:37
  the in the state of Virginia. Then we get Chance Wiggins.
• 1:28:39
  I don't know exactly where he falls in another top receiver in
• 1:28:42
  the state of Virginia that's coming in.
• 1:28:45
  And then you see these guys that they have that are.
• 1:28:48
  They saying that's the the number one of the the first
• 1:28:52
  team, the second team like it's going to be a lot of competition
• 1:28:55
  in that room and when people talk about competition it you
• 1:29:01
  can have competition of sorry people and you just going to get
• 1:29:04
  the battle of the media. You know what I'm saying like
• 1:29:07
  this, the people that that the the caliber that we have been
• 1:29:10
  bringing in and what we see now I think.
• 1:29:13
  The best players going to have to play, the best players are
• 1:29:16
  going to rise to the top because you got a lot of talented people
• 1:29:19
  in that wide receiving room. I think it's probably our
• 1:29:21
  deepest unit right now. Which, considering where we were
• 1:29:26
  last year, saying something. Yeah, it's crazy.
• 1:29:28
  It's saying a hell of a lot. And just in general that room
• 1:29:31
  and we talked about the growth of guys now and we talked about
• 1:29:33
  Holloway coming up. Holloway obviously going to
• 1:29:36
  probably be fighting with punt return.
• 1:29:38
  Again, everything is changed. I think that's again, we talked
• 1:29:43
  about being nostalgic. That is the one thing about this
• 1:29:46
  area of college football we're in with the portal.
• 1:29:48
  You're a bad team one year you go make the right moves, build
• 1:29:52
  the right culture, bring the right people in.
• 1:29:55
  It doesn't take long to flip and that's where I was.
• 1:29:57
  That's why I kind of went after Brett a little bit and said it
• 1:30:00
  ain't like we were two and 10 and got boat raced in 10 games.
• 1:30:04
  We got boat raced in really one. One, I'll say this, we didn't
• 1:30:09
  bring in any sure things, but we brought in a whole lot of good
• 1:30:14
  compared to what we had, the talent level that was on the
• 1:30:17
  roster last year, what we had, all right, anything breaking, we
• 1:30:21
  didn't. We didn't change conferences
• 1:30:22
  while we sitting here. Everyone quit and check it real
• 1:30:25
  quick. Not yet, man.
• 1:30:27
  Not yet. Yeah.
• 1:30:27
  Yeah. All right, well, since that is
• 1:30:30
  it, we are going to wrap up this episode of the Boundary Corner
• 1:30:33
  podcast brought to you by Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg.
• 1:30:36
  I am Curtis Wilson. I'm Brian Siegler.
• 1:30:39
  Jonathan Talley. And I'm Sheldon Moss.
• 1:30:43
  Visit our website boundarycornerbt.com to listen
• 1:30:46
  to all of our episodes. Also, we do have the merchandise
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• 1:31:20
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• 1:31:27
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