Latest / Boundary Corner Podcast / One for the Road: 2023

Transcript

One for the Road: 2023 · Boundary Corner Podcast

• 0:00
  Music. And welcome back to the Boundary
• 0:47
  Corner Podcast along with my partners Brian Siegler, Jonathan
• 0:51
  Talley, and Shelton Moss. I am Curtis Wilson in this
• 0:55
  episode is brought to you by Doctor Jeremy Counts at the Main
• 0:57
  Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg, your friendly neighborhood
• 1:00
  pharmacy, 301 S Main St. Blacksburg, VA Gentlemen, since
• 1:07
  the last, since the last time us four got together, it's been
• 1:09
  about a month. How's everybody doing?
• 1:12
  How are the holidays, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera?
• 1:17
  I didn't drink as much since the last time we talked.
• 1:19
  So that I guess that gives you a little bit of preview of of how
• 1:23
  my holidays went down. I I did not abstain from the
• 1:27
  alcohol, but I certainly did not go as hard as state of the
• 1:29
  program, so tally. And it's been a lot, had a lot
• 1:38
  going on over here, man. My kid broke his leg at
• 1:42
  basketball practice so we had to go through surgery, had a rod
• 1:45
  put in and screws in his ankle and all type of stuff and you
• 1:50
  know, just trying to keep him mentally strong on the on the
• 1:53
  journey that we got to take. Their new job just started 2024
• 2:00
  has been trying to fuck me. That's what it's been making so.
• 2:07
  Well, at least it's happening to be.
• 2:09
  Sheldon Yeah, yeah, yeah, man. I mean, I I always tell, you
• 2:13
  know, I'm, I'm very optimistic about most stuff.
• 2:17
  You know, it's it's just hard. But like I said, my son broke
• 2:20
  his leg. It's hard to see him like laying
• 2:22
  in the hospital bed, but once I could get him home and get him
• 2:25
  to doing some normal stuff and you know, to see him being able
• 2:29
  to like play his video game and stuff, I'm like, OK, you're
• 2:32
  going to be all right. We going, we going, we going to
• 2:37
  get through and fine man, I'm, I'm blessed.
• 2:41
  Like I said, we're all blessed. So show him, say New Year, New
• 2:46
  here. That's right, got my got my nice
• 2:50
  fresh cut. How you been, man?
• 2:53
  I've been good. I I got a little respite back
• 2:55
  home in Richmond over the Christmas break.
• 2:58
  My only the only thing I really did was go up to the military
• 3:01
  ball. It was pouring down rain the
• 3:03
  entire time I was in the press box as a credentialed media
• 3:06
  member. However, that did not keep me
• 3:08
  from getting entirely wet because the Navy press box,
• 3:11
  their pipes were leaking water. So we had some spillage right
• 3:15
  next to me on the table. And then to make it worse, the
• 3:19
  window panes had condensation on them, so you could barely see
• 3:24
  out of in the second-half you could barely see out of the out
• 3:26
  of the out of the glass. So it was not I would give it, I
• 3:30
  would not give the Navy press box a good Yelp review.
• 3:32
  I would say maybe like one one star out of 10.
• 3:35
  With that being said though, I got to see some friends, so I I
• 3:37
  think it was a great experience. You should have just came down
• 3:40
  in the bleachers with me, Sheldon.
• 3:42
  You'd have been all right. I could see the game.
• 3:44
  I was soaked, but I could see the game.
• 3:47
  I did enjoy the Military Bowl. We did not get to catch up,
• 3:50
  unfortunately. Shelton, I tried, but Shelton
• 3:55
  got up really late. I got up there really early and
• 3:57
  then like you said, you were going through the press box and
• 3:59
  stuff, but that is what it is. So, but you know, we're back and
• 4:04
  we've got a lot to unload, as we always do.
• 4:06
  We are going to talk about that bowl game.
• 4:08
  We're going to obviously talk about the breaking news that
• 4:10
  broke about going on 4 1/2 hours ago, which tally, I don't see
• 4:15
  the barricades up or the the sandbags up in the background
• 4:18
  yet. So I'm assuming nothing's went
• 4:20
  crazy down in the state of Alabama yet, but we're going to
• 4:24
  talk about that as well. But let's kick off tonight real.
• 4:27
  I told Tally he needs to get the barriers up because it's going
• 4:29
  to be riots. They going to be in the streets.
• 4:33
  Yeah, not yet. Everybody's everybody's calm
• 4:36
  right now, you know, they think they're getting Lane Kiffin or
• 4:40
  Urban Myers, somebody. I don't know who they they think
• 4:45
  they're getting right right now. So everybody's still calm.
• 4:51
  All righty. Well, before we jump on that,
• 4:55
  because I do want to talk about that a little bit, but let's
• 4:58
  jump on what just broke. Oh, it just happened, ended
• 5:02
  about 30 minutes ago. The Hokies won versus a ranked
• 5:07
  team in basketball by more than one or two points and.
• 5:10
  Technically, both. But we'll hit that one in a
• 5:13
  second. Sheldon, I know you were really
• 5:15
  tuned in because you actually texted all of us.
• 5:17
  And it's like, I'll be on as soon as the basketball game's
• 5:20
  over. 8772 Padula career high 32.
• 5:25
  I tried to watch pieces of this game, but I got stuff going on
• 5:29
  based on what's happened the last few times out.
• 5:33
  Pleasantly surprised for me. Sheldon, what about you?
• 5:36
  Yeah, definitely. I mean they they shot the lights
• 5:37
  out. They were 54% from 313 to 24 and
• 5:42
  5454% overall. So just a kind of a lightning
• 5:46
  and bottle offensive performance.
• 5:49
  Obviously Padilla goes off, you got who was it, Tyler Nickel
• 5:55
  goes off 8 for 11/5 or seven from three.
• 5:57
  So you know, I don't know, I mean 3 point shooting kind of
• 6:00
  come and go each game. I don't know how if if that
• 6:02
  level of shooting is sustainable over time, but it was good to
• 6:06
  kind of see them play at least to to close closer to their
• 6:09
  their capability. I think this year they've had a
• 6:11
  bunch of players that have you know regressed from their
• 6:14
  historical norms and so it's good to see it maybe some some
• 6:17
  positive regression. Hopefully some of those guys who
• 6:20
  who who played well tonight can kind of use this sort of as a
• 6:23
  launching pad to kind of get to get to back to where they are
• 6:25
  capable of playing. Yeah, and you know what's even
• 6:31
  crazier tonight is you take a look at the the stat line.
• 6:34
  The guy who's been like lighting it up all year had his,
• 6:38
  obviously his most pedestrian game of the year in Linn Kidd
• 6:41
  from an offensive perspective. I mean, you know, he still went
• 6:44
  out there. You know, grab some boards,
• 6:46
  obviously kids, a big guy a couple blocks.
• 6:49
  But I think maybe the most an impressive thing was Tyler
• 6:56
  Nickel tonight because that 24, Brian, how much did you see of
• 6:58
  the game? I was like you, I was kind of
• 7:01
  checking in and out. We had some stuff going on here,
• 7:04
  you know, family, whatnot. So was checking in and out.
• 7:06
  But you know what I was looking at there, it looks like, like
• 7:10
  like Sheldon was saying, you know, we had a little bit of
• 7:12
  reversion to the mean in a in a positive way, you know, and then
• 7:16
  we also add in, I think, you know, getting a little bit more
• 7:20
  from nickel or I should say maybe more of what we expected
• 7:23
  from nickel for most of the year tonight.
• 7:27
  Yeah, I think he looked like a solid contributor, you know, was
• 7:31
  shooting the ball very well. I think we expected that a
• 7:34
  little bit more. Maybe this is a sign of things
• 7:36
  to come. Maybe this is just kind of a one
• 7:38
  off. I guess we'll see as we get
• 7:40
  further than ACC play. But I liked what I saw tonight.
• 7:43
  If we can get, you know, 8090% of that every game, I I feel
• 7:47
  like we're going to be doing all right against most of the the
• 7:50
  competition that we play. So yeah, if if we can, we can,
• 7:55
  you know, keep most of that level together.
• 7:57
  I think we'll be all right as we get further in the ACC play.
• 8:02
  I liked what I saw though. Let's see if they can keep it
• 8:05
  up. Callie, you catch any of it
• 8:07
  tonight, or were you? Yeah, yeah, I was tuned in.
• 8:10
  I watched on a probably 80 or 90% of the game.
• 8:13
  And Tyler Nickel, he, I mean he had a good game.
• 8:16
  He he wasn't he was letting it fly, you know what I'm saying?
• 8:19
  You could tell he came out with the right mindset and the
• 8:23
  coaches let him play. You know, they he, he, he put
• 8:27
  some shots up. He didn't miss many, but the
• 8:29
  ones the couple did, he missed, it was like you could tell they
• 8:32
  were kind of heat, heat check shots.
• 8:34
  So sometimes coaches will be like, Oh no, we got to take him
• 8:38
  out, calm him down. You know, they they let him keep
• 8:41
  going and he kept playing. But I guess what's to be said
• 8:45
  about this game is they did all of it without Hunter Couture.
• 8:49
  You know, he was a big reason why the defense was pretty stout
• 8:54
  at the beginning because he can guard some different positions.
• 8:58
  But when he went out with that concussion, I mean, he got
• 9:01
  kicked in the head. You could see he was gone.
• 9:03
  He was hurt. So when he went out, I was like,
• 9:06
  they're going to blow this lead because what they kept doing,
• 9:09
  what Clemson kept doing was they kept getting in transition and
• 9:12
  that big man would run the floor, Deshaun Padula would run
• 9:15
  the floor and go low and get caught on a big man.
• 9:19
  So they start exploiting that. And I was like, Oh yeah, it's
• 9:21
  gone. It's over.
• 9:23
  But they just couldn't out shoot the Hokies, man.
• 9:25
  They just kept shooting and kept making them.
• 9:28
  At one time they was like Clemson shooting the ball really
• 9:31
  well. They're 55% from three, but
• 9:34
  Virginia Tech's shooting 65%. Like what do you, what do you
• 9:38
  do? You know?
• 9:39
  So I think the problem that we run into basketball wise is when
• 9:46
  we play the very athletic, physical teams.
• 9:50
  Teams like Clemson aren't the teams that really kill us most
• 9:53
  of the time because they kind of match up the same and it comes
• 9:58
  down to who can shoot. But when you get into teams like
• 10:00
  FSU play, I think that, you know, we gave that game away,
• 10:05
  but FSU was a very physical team that guarded you all the way
• 10:09
  down the floor. They're pushing and Padula has a
• 10:12
  hard time with that because of his size.
• 10:14
  He's a great player, but he's just, you know, he's like 616
• 10:17
  foot, something like that in a lot of these point guards in the
• 10:21
  ACCR 6364, a little bit bigger frame and they put, they try to
• 10:26
  push him around. So we run into that problem and
• 10:29
  it's the offense is much different when the ball isn't
• 10:32
  going through Padula's hands. So I'm interested to see how
• 10:37
  they handle that because nobody on the team can really handle
• 10:41
  the ball like he does, as efficient as he is when he's on.
• 10:47
  But when you get him off his point, it's where we run in the
• 10:50
  problem. So interesting to see how that
• 10:52
  is because the ACC ramps up and you know, you run into Virginia,
• 10:57
  you run into Duke, you run into these North Carolina teams and
• 11:01
  you see what you're made of. But great, great start to, you
• 11:06
  know, starting to get into this, this conference play and going
• 11:10
  in and getting that win against Quincy.
• 11:12
  Yeah, definitely. This is what's coming up with
• 11:15
  started tonight and going through the next three games,
• 11:17
  there's definitely probably the toughest 4 game stretch of the
• 11:22
  ace of conference play because it's down in Miami.
• 11:24
  Miami's 11 and three. Virginia.
• 11:27
  That's at Virginia, Miami at Castle, Virginia at Virginia.
• 11:31
  Virginia's like 10 and 4. NC State's 11 and three.
• 11:35
  Those are two away games. So I mean, is it, is it, is it
• 11:39
  one of those things? Let me let me get your opinion
• 11:41
  on this, Shelton, before we flip over.
• 11:43
  Do the next three games decide if this team potentially could
• 11:46
  make the tournament? Well, probably, I mean because
• 11:50
  those are kind of all your quad one games you got Miami UVA and
• 11:54
  to say, yeah, so those are the, I'm pretty sure those are all
• 11:57
  quad ones because quad one is top 25 on the road, so.
• 12:01
  Got one tonight? Yes, I got one tonight which is
• 12:03
  which is huge and it depending on hopefully hopefully Clemson
• 12:07
  stays in the top 30 but which they are right now.
• 12:09
  But yeah I mean if they if they hold serve and go two and one, I
• 12:13
  mean that they're looking really good they go one and two.
• 12:15
  It's kind of like and it's still in the fringe if they go in
• 12:18
  three I think you know I think they're done.
• 12:20
  So this I think this stretch is very much going to you know
• 12:23
  prove whether or not they can they can make a a shot at the
• 12:25
  NTA AA tournament. I was checking the numbers the
• 12:28
  other day. Right now we're at we're at 9%
• 12:30
  according to Bart Torvick chances of making the NCAA
• 12:32
  tournament, which obviously is not great but that doesn't
• 12:35
  include tonight's win and we still got a long way to go.
• 12:38
  So those numbers can fluctuate you know, game by game.
• 12:42
  But so they, I mean yeah they they they have a definitely a
• 12:45
  chance but they just they they got to take advantage this week.
• 12:48
  Yep all. Right now.
• 12:51
  LeBron, I was going to say to to Tally's previous point.
• 12:53
  I think a lot of whether this team is going to make the
• 12:56
  tournament is going to depend on how well Sean Padula can play,
• 12:59
  especially once we get against those bigger guards.
• 13:02
  He seems to have a tendency that you know when he when he gets
• 13:06
  pressed like that, he either holds the ball too long or he
• 13:10
  kind of panics and and we get a turnover right.
• 13:13
  So he's either holding the ball, we don't give to our offense, we
• 13:15
  get a bad shot or we get a turnover because he panics.
• 13:18
  So if we can cut down on turnovers, he did a pretty good
• 13:21
  job of limiting turnovers tonight.
• 13:23
  If we can continue that against those bigger guard teams like
• 13:25
  Tally was talking about, I think we're going to be have a good
• 13:28
  shot in those next three to kind of come out of that two and one.
• 13:32
  100%, All right. Now, one team that plays in
• 13:36
  Castle Coliseum on a daily basis, there is no question that
• 13:41
  they're going to be in the tournament this year, and we all
• 13:43
  saw it. But what a win against the
• 13:46
  number 3 ranked Wolfpack on the other day with Kitley making
• 13:51
  that buzzer beater. We know.
• 13:53
  We know we lost to Iowa and LSU, but we talked on this program.
• 13:57
  This team still is a legitimate national championship contender.
• 14:00
  They had a lot of new pieces coming in and then it started
• 14:03
  coming together and I didn't. I saw the end of that game.
• 14:07
  That's it. I'll put my hands up.
• 14:08
  I didn't get watched the rest of it.
• 14:10
  But I mean, is there much more to say about the Lady Hokies
• 14:15
  Because they're a top ten team? It's not even a question.
• 14:18
  Yeah, I mean they they got star power you know with the with the
• 14:22
  with the top couple of players with Georgia and and and Kitley
• 14:28
  that they you got star power of that which is what the TV likes.
• 14:31
  And then when it comes down to coaching I think Kenny's doing a
• 14:34
  good job of coaching them and bringing the right people in and
• 14:37
  bringing them you know piercing the team together after losing a
• 14:40
  couple of people from that final you know that that final 14.
• 14:45
  So like you said, I mean, you know, that's a a deep tournament
• 14:49
  team. You know, I don't know how deep
• 14:52
  they go. Of course, that comes down to
• 14:55
  March Madness. But the way that they're playing
• 14:57
  and the way that they persevere, I mean they've lost to two very
• 15:03
  good teams, if not the top two teams.
• 15:05
  I mean they're they're up there. So they just got to get over
• 15:09
  that hump to be able to beat those teams.
• 15:12
  You know, I say that and then you'll get put against a 16 seed
• 15:16
  and then be struggling. But you know what I'm saying
• 15:18
  like those top teams that they've lost to that, that's
• 15:23
  where we were kind of OK, can we can we get over that hump and
• 15:27
  and and and beat them and then they play the number three team.
• 15:31
  You know it is at home, but you went on a buzzer beat them.
• 15:35
  So did you get over the hump? Maybe we won that game.
• 15:40
  So we'll see. I'm excited for them though,
• 15:42
  man. I mean, I'm excited that they
• 15:44
  got some some momentum and some and some good stuff going.
• 15:47
  I I'd love to see them have a deep tournament run this year.
• 15:51
  Sean, what you got on them? Yeah I think it was a great win.
• 15:55
  I thought NCC early on hit some tough shots but you know you
• 15:58
  know Georgia was off her game in the first half but she kept
• 16:00
  going at it and eventually the stars this, their shots started
• 16:03
  to fall for her and you know they went on well.
• 16:05
  I think it was a a 12 nothing run towards the end of the the
• 16:08
  fourth quarter and you know came up with a good win.
• 16:11
  So you know All in all I think I think Vegas nailed at Tech was
• 16:14
  one point favorites, 1.5 point favorites and they ended up they
• 16:18
  won by 1. So credit to Vegas for that one.
• 16:20
  But you know you look at their two losses this year IO was a
• 16:23
  close game on a neutral court that could have gone either way.
• 16:26
  LSU I think was just a really, really bad match up.
• 16:29
  I mean we just, we just got out match physically completely in
• 16:31
  that game. We're timing.
• 16:33
  Angel Reese coming back was a huge emotional up put for LSU
• 16:37
  that night too. Right.
• 16:38
  Yeah. And so, you know, yeah, I think,
• 16:43
  you know, after the LSU game, I was kind of worried if they were
• 16:45
  like they were kind of like a just a fringe top 20 team.
• 16:48
  But as Kenny has talked about all season long, you know, he's
• 16:50
  still trying to figure out his pieces and how they kind of fit
• 16:52
  together. And as you've seen throughout
• 16:54
  the course of the year, they've started to gel a little bit
• 16:57
  more. So I think right now, as Curtis
• 16:59
  was saying, they're definitely kind of on that cusp of the top
• 17:01
  ten. And I feel I feel a lot more
• 17:03
  confident about this team right now than I do, you know, 3-4
• 17:05
  weeks ago. Brown, what you got?
• 17:08
  Yeah, I think they're getting together at the right time,
• 17:10
  starting to play a little bit better overall.
• 17:12
  I think the big thing is that you're seeing those other pieces
• 17:15
  be able to kind of bridge those gaps when you know Georgia May
• 17:20
  be a little off from from deep or you know Kitley may not be
• 17:24
  hitting some of those turnarounds or post UPS.
• 17:27
  They can weather that storm a little bit better right now than
• 17:30
  they did in the early part of the year.
• 17:31
  So I think that's really big. You're seeing those pieces kind
• 17:36
  of gel and and and step into a larger role and on the team.
• 17:41
  All righty. So again, that was also the
• 17:44
  Wolfpack's first loss of the season there.
• 17:46
  So huge win. And on the basketball front,
• 17:50
  we'll we'll be, as we're coming on during the offseason for
• 17:53
  football, we'll be hitting on basketball and wrestling here
• 17:55
  and there. Wrestling got a big one against
• 17:58
  Cornell this weekend. I'm sure the ACC won't broadcast
• 18:02
  because you know it's only two top ten teams.
• 18:04
  Wrestling wise, they don't know how to broadcast anything.
• 18:07
  So I digress. But let's let's go to the big
• 18:10
  college football news of the day before we talk about the bowl
• 18:13
  game. And my wife actually said this.
• 18:16
  Hey, before you before you go into football, put y'all see
• 18:19
  Joe's. Y'all, see Joe's comment right
• 18:22
  there. Put that up.
• 18:24
  Yep. So I called him one day and was
• 18:29
  just talking to him about wrestling again.
• 18:30
  I told y'all, if you got questions about wrestling, he's
• 18:34
  the person that to go to. He does keep up with it and he
• 18:37
  can break it down a little bit better for people like me.
• 18:40
  And he was telling me, hey, they're missing some people.
• 18:43
  This person, you know, it's hurt or this person, they're trying
• 18:45
  to hold them out or they want some kind of, you know, I don't
• 18:49
  know what it's called, but some kind of tour where they're doing
• 18:52
  like a Olympic thing and blah, blah, blah.
• 18:55
  But he told me that the kid, Cooper Flynn, he was like, they
• 18:58
  got to bring him back and see if they can save the season.
• 19:01
  And he has been falling since he's been back.
• 19:04
  So yeah, I think Joe said he's, he's #4 at the 125 pounder right
• 19:10
  now. So it's been a, you know, that
• 19:12
  that's been kind of when you know what's going on and you get
• 19:16
  to watch something unfold like that, that's pretty cool.
• 19:19
  So I just want to bring some attention to that.
• 19:21
  Sorry. Go ahead, Curtis.
• 19:23
  Oh, no worries, man. No worries again.
• 19:25
  I I think he had a pretty big win against Mizzou because the
• 19:28
  Missouri lost them dual. But I think that it was 10
• 19:31
  matches, split 55. Again, that's wrestling and all
• 19:34
  that weird point stuff. I know Sheldon's getting into it
• 19:36
  more and more. You got Joe out there.
• 19:38
  We got our buddy Dave Fuqua who can explain things to me, but
• 19:42
  you know, that is what it is. But let's get to the news of the
• 19:45
  day. Tally doesn't have the
• 19:46
  barricades up yet. He might not be able to go to
• 19:48
  work tomorrow. They might be calling a a
• 19:51
  moratorium down in the state of Alabama.
• 19:53
  State holiday man, it's a It's a state.
• 19:55
  Holiday flags at half mast. Morning.
• 19:58
  It's a morning day. But my wife actually said it a
• 20:03
  few weeks ago. She's like, Nick Saban's going
• 20:04
  to retire after these bowl games.
• 20:07
  I looked and sure as hell, she nailed it.
• 20:11
  Nick Saban retires. And so the college football
• 20:14
  world is now. Who takes over Alabama?
• 20:17
  Why is he doing this? Why he's doing it?
• 20:19
  He's got nothing left to prove. He's 72 years old.
• 20:22
  He has a plethora national titles.
• 20:24
  He is considered maybe the greatest coach of all time.
• 20:27
  That can be decided here or there, or a whole another
• 20:31
  category. But I'm going to turn it to
• 20:33
  Tally because Tally, did you work today in the office and
• 20:37
  were you still in the office when the news Breakers were?
• 20:39
  4:00. What happened?
• 20:41
  I want to Let's hear it. Oh yeah, I was definitely still
• 20:44
  at work. And when ESPN sends you
• 20:47
  something, you know that's the real deal, you know?
• 20:49
  Because I get people that always we screw with each other and
• 20:52
  stuff like that. But ESPN hits me with something
• 20:54
  and I'm like, all right, they're probably talking about you know
• 20:56
  because I'm doing training right now and it's just all looking at
• 21:00
  the computer all day and zoom calls and things like that.
• 21:03
  So look down at my phone just real quick and I think and it
• 21:06
  says retiring and I'm like Brett profit and retire already, you
• 21:09
  know what I'm saying? So I opened it up and it says
• 21:13
  Nick Saban retiring. I'm like, wow, So I went
• 21:16
  straight to Facebook and start poking people and calling around
• 21:20
  and people calling me and there's no more work done for
• 21:23
  the day. But in one of my friend groups,
• 21:27
  you know, 90% Alabama fans don't want to spread any false
• 21:31
  information. But somebody said that they
• 21:34
  think that his wife is sick is one of the reasons why or she
• 21:38
  got diagnosed with dementia. I think they say it don't know
• 21:41
  how true that is. Could just be somebody trying to
• 21:44
  cope. But you know, whatever the case
• 21:46
  is, like you said, he doesn't have anything to prove.
• 21:49
  I do screw with Alabama fans and try to piss him off.
• 21:53
  But I mean he's he's, he's one of the greatest coaches that's
• 21:58
  ever coached college football. So, you know, the 17 years that
• 22:01
  he's been at Alabama, he's been nothing short of amazing like in
• 22:06
  the last two years because he's lost three games.
• 22:11
  Something like that. I mean, what else does he have
• 22:15
  to do? But I'm just changing too much
• 22:18
  for him and he just, he got out. Yeah, I think, I think there's
• 22:23
  no doubt that he's the best recruiting head coach of all
• 22:27
  time. I don't think that's a debate.
• 22:28
  I think he's the best team building head coach of all time.
• 22:31
  You can argue from an X's and O standpoint, but in terms of
• 22:35
  preparation for a game when he's got time, I mean it's hard to
• 22:40
  bet against saving. I mean the the loss to Michigan,
• 22:43
  it is something that you just don't see very often by Nick
• 22:46
  Saban team, even with what you some would consider a talent
• 22:50
  discrepancy of this year's Alabama compared to this year's
• 22:53
  Michigan, Nick Saban just did not lose very many games where
• 22:56
  he had multiple weeks to prepare.
• 22:58
  It's. True.
• 23:00
  Very true, Sean, what's your take on this?
• 23:03
  Well, for me, I think Nick Saban is a truly game changing head
• 23:08
  coach. You know, you look at back in
• 23:11
  the back in the late 2000s, you know, he really kind of started
• 23:14
  that support staff model where if you go, I mean go look at the
• 23:16
  Alabama staff directory, they just have the, you know, dozens
• 23:20
  and dozens of an army of support staffers and analytics guys And
• 23:23
  and that model really helped them, you know, kind of build,
• 23:26
  build the program into what they are.
• 23:27
  And I think on top of that, you know, Saban, for me it's not
• 23:29
  about the XS and OS really. It's more about the the program
• 23:33
  management, the the infrastructure, the culture
• 23:35
  building. That's kind of where he's kind
• 23:37
  of made his his living and and people want to work for him
• 23:39
  because they want to play for that culture.
• 23:41
  So I just think for I, I I think he, he really taught me a lot
• 23:45
  about football in the modern day because he he impressed upon me
• 23:49
  the importance of having the infrastructure with football to
• 23:53
  to not only, you know, recruit the best players but also
• 23:56
  maximize the talent of the players that you do have.
• 23:57
  You know there was a time a few years ago where you know, I
• 24:00
  thought that that Alabama was just, you know, more talented
• 24:03
  than everyone else and that's why they won games.
• 24:04
  But really, you know, when you look at something like that,
• 24:06
  when when I was running some of my pro development numbers,
• 24:09
  Alabama gets more out of their talent than almost any of their
• 24:12
  team. Like they recruit really good
• 24:14
  players, but they also maximize those players more than anyone
• 24:17
  else because that's just what Nick Saban does.
• 24:20
  So I think it's it's just a case study and how much, you know,
• 24:24
  the the culture, the program, the administration matters for
• 24:27
  football. Obviously you got to have the
• 24:28
  the right people in charge. But there's just, you know,
• 24:31
  there's just so much that goes into that program and Alabama
• 24:34
  funds and supports football in a very unique way that ultimately
• 24:37
  made save him the perfect fit. And there's really no one that
• 24:39
  has done it better than he has. You play harder when you're
• 24:42
  playing for that. Hellcat is why.
• 24:46
  By the way, by the way, Tally is it is it any coincidence that
• 24:51
  Dodge cancels the Charger? Nick Saban retires like 3 days
• 24:55
  later. Man I.
• 24:56
  Mean people, been people been sending it to me, man.
• 24:58
  It's a lot of stuff going around down here.
• 25:00
  I don't know what to think about it, man.
• 25:02
  I'm, I'm just trying to sit back.
• 25:03
  I'm trying to keep my head on the swivel.
• 25:05
  You know you can't mess. It's like a couple of things
• 25:08
  that you don't really talk about at work here.
• 25:10
  It's like politics, religion and Alabama and Auburn football.
• 25:14
  You can talk about any other teams, but those two, you got to
• 25:17
  keep your head on this world. You don't know who you going to
• 25:19
  piss off. So shout out to, shout out to
• 25:23
  Tricky Nikki. You know you got you got Alabama
• 25:26
  fans yelling, they getting Lane Kiffin.
• 25:29
  OK. That was my next question.
• 25:30
  Do you think? You think they getting Lane
• 25:32
  Kiffin? I don't know, man.
• 25:34
  I Lane's such a a wild card. I I could see him.
• 25:39
  You know, I can say the people in in Tuscaloosa love Lane
• 25:42
  because I think they call him something.
• 25:44
  They call him because he was. He's so crazy like he's got a
• 25:46
  nickname, something like Joey Freshwater or something like
• 25:51
  that. Don't quote me, but you can look
• 25:53
  that up. He's got a nickname.
• 25:54
  I think it's Joey Freshwater. But they said he would tell the
• 25:58
  the young girls at the bars. That's what his name was so
• 26:01
  like. He just does crazy shit.
• 26:04
  And the people in Tuscaloosa, that's Joey, yeah, they they
• 26:10
  they connect with him because, I mean, he, you know, Saban had
• 26:13
  him on a leash when he was there.
• 26:15
  Like, he couldn't talk to the media.
• 26:16
  He couldn't do none of the shit that he does to be himself.
• 26:20
  So if he does come back, he would be coming back like, OK,
• 26:23
  this me, I'm going to do what I want to do, you know what I'm
• 26:26
  saying? But you know for a while it was
• 26:29
  like Dabo was the guy to take over, but they don't want Dabo
• 26:35
  now because Dabo is his inefficiencies is what Nick's
• 26:39
  inefficiencies is like Nick he was changing with the game.
• 26:43
  That's what made him great. But Dabo kind of refuses to do
• 26:47
  that and he's not using the portal and they don't want to
• 26:50
  lose. So I think Dabo's image is kind
• 26:53
  of tainted and he's one of he's he's he's one of theirs.
• 26:57
  So I I I would I would go against saying Dabo.
• 27:01
  I would probably say they would go hard after Lane Kiffin or
• 27:06
  organs coach just cause a lot. Dan Laning, Dan Laning.
• 27:10
  Yeah, I would say those two would probably be the ones I
• 27:13
  would be looking out for. Brian, you got any difference or
• 27:17
  other people you thinking about? Dan Laning is probably at the
• 27:19
  top of my list. I I'm, I'm with Tally.
• 27:22
  I don't think it's Dabo. Dabo took until late 2023 to
• 27:28
  actually make an offer in the Portal.
• 27:31
  He did not secure that offer, but he finally made an offer
• 27:33
  this year in the portal. It's it's amazing how someone
• 27:39
  that from a standpoint of kind of revamping what Clemson was
• 27:45
  doing from a infrastructure standpoint, is not embracing the
• 27:49
  Portal at this point in time. It's baffling.
• 27:52
  Like, why is that the hill he wants to die on?
• 27:55
  Good question, Good question, Sean.
• 27:57
  What about you? I think Alabama needs to hire a
• 28:01
  head coach who is forward thinking and also very serious,
• 28:04
  like Tally, said Lane. Kiffin's kind of a wild card.
• 28:07
  You don't know what he's up to. Dabo was reluctant to embrace
• 28:10
  transfer Portland. ILI think Dan Laning, based on
• 28:13
  those two qualities, is the best candidate.
• 28:15
  I mean, he's done a really good job at Oregon in a short amount
• 28:17
  of time he's he's been with Kirby Smart at Georgia.
• 28:21
  So we kind of know he could. He he's learned from, you know
• 28:23
  his his structure as well. I I think Laning would be the
• 28:26
  best candidate, personally. Yeah.
• 28:28
  And it and it seems like it's going that way.
• 28:30
  He does have the highest buyout on this, but I think there's a
• 28:34
  point that should be made is money probably doesn't matter
• 28:37
  down there. It's not quite Texas level
• 28:40
  buyouts, but this is kind of that second tier, right?
• 28:43
  It's kind of the second tier. And if you take a look at him,
• 28:46
  he was Aga at Alabama back in 2015.
• 28:49
  And then when Kirby moved over to Georgia, he followed after
• 28:53
  two years down in Memphis under Norvell before he went over to
• 28:56
  Oregon. Again, success there in his
• 28:59
  first couple seasons, I mean, I think with 20 and five or
• 29:02
  something ridiculous like that, 22 and 5, excuse me, I missed a
• 29:06
  couple wins there, but it's always that piece.
• 29:10
  Do you want to be the guy after the guy?
• 29:12
  No you don't. You don't.
• 29:15
  You fucking don't. Can you can you tell me who was
• 29:17
  Dakota? In Tuscaloosa?
• 29:21
  No, but he probably wasn't fucking good.
• 29:24
  And they probably hated his guts because if you go to Tuscaloosa
• 29:28
  this next year and you lose 2 games, they going to be on your
• 29:34
  ass. His names was.
• 29:36
  I told her I did. It was all everybody was saying.
• 29:39
  They was Dion fans at the beginning of this season.
• 29:41
  I said fuck it, get Dion down now.
• 29:42
  Y'all wanted him so bad You was buying Colorado shit.
• 29:44
  That ain't happening. You know that can't happen.
• 29:48
  You know why? No, because she do.
• 29:50
  Why? The brothers can't transfer and
• 29:52
  Travis Hunter can't transfer again because they get someone.
• 29:55
  Time. Well, we don't know.
• 29:57
  That because that that there's a moratorium on that right now.
• 29:59
  No, no, no. The moratorium's over.
• 30:01
  It's. 14 days that ended already.
• 30:03
  OK, OK. But here.
• 30:04
  But here's the sneaky piece and we all are liking landing and we
• 30:08
  say Lane's a wild card. Y'all know when Class officially
• 30:12
  starts at Ole Miss January 22nd. That means none of those players
• 30:18
  that he got in the portal have enrolled at all, and that's
• 30:24
  going to also be a huge story. So hopefully by two weeks from
• 30:27
  now when we're back together, either interviewing somebody or
• 30:30
  talking about some stuff, we get to find out more and we know who
• 30:34
  the coach is. So.
• 30:35
  Oh yeah, they're going to get. I think they're going to get
• 30:36
  somebody in pretty quick. They have, because they don't
• 30:39
  want to. You know, they've already got a
• 30:42
  couple of kids this they lost out to because, I mean it's been
• 30:45
  some speculation about Nick leaving or you know, him getting
• 30:49
  old. So you had a couple of kids that
• 30:50
  flipped to Auburn, which was crazy, which I understand it
• 30:54
  because I like Hugh Freeze. But you had a couple of high
• 30:57
  level wide receivers that were Alabama commits now, one was a
• 31:01
  Texas A&M committee and one was an Alabama commit and they
• 31:05
  flipped to Auburn. And then you had another kid who
• 31:10
  was a 25 kid, all of them from the state Alabama, 25 kid, Ryan
• 31:15
  Williams from a school here called Seri Land that was
• 31:20
  committed to Alabama. He reclassified for the 24 year
• 31:23
  and he just decommitted. So it's it's a Nick Saban
• 31:28
  retiring as a big domino man. And like you said, I mean, if
• 31:32
  you have somebody like Elaine Kiffin that goes, and then those
• 31:36
  kids start transferring and then these kids from Alabama start
• 31:39
  transferring out, then you got to bring somebody back into this
• 31:42
  next school that a coach leads from.
• 31:45
  I just hope it all works out in Virginia Tech's fable.
• 31:48
  Just just give me 910 wins next year, man.
• 31:51
  Let's just keep going up. Let's keep it rolling.
• 31:54
  Well, let's let's talk to Virginia Tech football and let's
• 31:56
  tell the truth, Tuesday Bowl edition.
• 31:58
  Yes, it has been two weeks. It feels like forever.
• 32:01
  I feel like I've watched 100 games since then.
• 32:03
  But let's talk about that bowl victory.
• 32:06
  Virginia Tech beats the number 21 ranked two lane Green Wave
• 32:12
  4121. Excuse me, 4117.
• 32:16
  It actually was, excuse me, 4120.
• 32:18
  And we'll get the score right eventually here.
• 32:21
  That was there. Matthews Fish.
• 32:24
  Yeah, it is, man. It is.
• 32:25
  It is voice. But let's talk about that game
• 32:28
  And what we always do. I don't think we're going to be
• 32:31
  as in depth, because there's nothing after this, right?
• 32:34
  But let's talk about it. Sheldon, in your eyes, what went
• 32:37
  well in the press box waving condensation off the screen?
• 32:42
  What went well that Wednesday afternoon?
• 32:44
  I think drones ran the ball very well.
• 32:46
  You know they were able to to open some holes on the O line
• 32:49
  and I know the O line has received much criticism this
• 32:52
  year. But you know they were really
• 32:53
  kind of moving some guys around. I mean it wasn't just like
• 32:55
  drones kind of scrambling for his life or going around the
• 32:57
  tackles like they actually went, you know, they went up you know
• 33:00
  towards the A&B gaps in between the tackles and got some had
• 33:03
  some a lot of success for some of those runs.
• 33:04
  So I thought, I thought that went pretty well.
• 33:08
  You know, I thought they, you know they kind of hit some big
• 33:10
  run plays with Tootin going outside.
• 33:12
  Defense was pretty solid. You know they give up some some
• 33:16
  drives they they gave up some yards but you know they they
• 33:19
  were fortunate that Tulane fumble a few a few footballs and
• 33:21
  and got on top of those. So I think the rain the
• 33:24
  conditions kind of made it a little bit hard to judge as you
• 33:26
  guys you know could certainly see on TV if you were not there
• 33:28
  it was just as if not more wet than you think it was.
• 33:32
  But yeah, I mean they just, they just kind of, you know, brought
• 33:36
  out the the, the road grader, offensive line and they just, it
• 33:41
  was it was a field day, man. They were just running the ball
• 33:43
  over the place. Brian, what about you?
• 33:45
  What went well in your eyes as you were watching it there at
• 33:49
  the house? Yeah, I think the just the team
• 33:52
  intensity. I feel like they stuck with it
• 33:54
  the whole time. They look like they were on a
• 33:56
  mission to win that game. They didn't let those sudden
• 33:59
  changes with the fumbles, with the weather causing some of
• 34:03
  those problems, get them off track.
• 34:05
  They were able to answer and eventually the talent took over
• 34:11
  at the end of the game. That's when you saw that defense
• 34:15
  wearing out for Tulane. That's when we were able to.
• 34:17
  As long as we're able to hold on to the football, we were able to
• 34:20
  finish drives, put up points and put them in a bad spot.
• 34:23
  So I think the team intensity was was the most impressive
• 34:26
  thing for me. Tally, what about you?
• 34:29
  I know you. I know your dad was around when
• 34:31
  your son was getting hurt and everything.
• 34:34
  Or was it before? Was it?
• 34:35
  Out it was before before all. Right, so not as stressful on
• 34:40
  your mind. What?
• 34:40
  What? What?
• 34:41
  What went well in your eyes as you were watching it?
• 34:43
  Well, even before, like even before the game, it it's what
• 34:47
  went well, like the whole team being there, everybody showing
• 34:51
  up and being prepared to play, you know what I'm saying?
• 34:54
  Like I think it said we had 21 of 22 starters that was in the
• 35:00
  bowl game. You know, that was, that's huge.
• 35:03
  Like, I don't know many teams that were out there in a
• 35:06
  meaningless bowl game that had that many players show up ready
• 35:10
  to play. So, you know, having all of our
• 35:12
  guys there that was ready to compete, we had some of our
• 35:16
  recruits that are coming in that's enrolling early,
• 35:19
  practicing at the bowl practice. Like that's what getting to a
• 35:23
  bowl does for a team like Virginia Tech.
• 35:25
  You know what I'm saying? Some people's like, oh, it's
• 35:27
  just six and six. And, you know, it doesn't mean
• 35:29
  that. Well, for a program that's
• 35:31
  trying to, you know, find its footing, that's a big thing to
• 35:34
  be able to sell to a recruit. Hey, you can come and get your,
• 35:39
  you know get some reps in with some great college players some
• 35:43
  all ACC players, some, you know, think about Chaz Wiggins going
• 35:48
  and working out with the team for the bowl prep.
• 35:52
  Then he goes and plays in the All American Bowl and and and
• 35:57
  and shows out. You know, he does builds up his
• 36:00
  stock because I'm sure that when he's practicing against, you
• 36:04
  know, the likes of Dorian Strong and Mansour Delaine and Dante
• 36:08
  Lovett and Braylon Johnson, it's different than who he's been
• 36:12
  playing in high school. So when he just went to the ball
• 36:15
  game and was working out against those kids, it's like, OK, this
• 36:18
  is business as usual. Everybody's good.
• 36:20
  So that's what I think went good, just having the whole team
• 36:23
  there. And I'll go back to what Sheldon
• 36:26
  said when he said, you know, we had people moving, moving people
• 36:30
  and running the ball, it was like, I text y'all and was like,
• 36:34
  what are we doing? Just run the ball.
• 36:36
  They cannot stop. They can't stop us running the
• 36:39
  ball like he kept trying to throw it.
• 36:42
  And Kyron's, Kyron's, you know, his his release is a little
• 36:46
  different. It's kind of long at the bottom
• 36:48
  and he kept losing it at the bottom and things like that.
• 36:50
  It's like you don't even got to do that.
• 36:52
  Just run it. They're not going to be able to
• 36:54
  stop you because of the wet weather and hot.
• 36:57
  Like Sheldon said, our offensive line actually looked like they
• 37:00
  wanted to be mean and push some people around and we did.
• 37:03
  So those things was good to see. Yeah, 100%.
• 37:06
  Especially that run game. You know 362 yards on the ground
• 37:12
  on fifty runs, two and over 100 drones over 100.
• 37:17
  I love to see the the I'm a I'm a third down preacher.
• 37:20
  I know Shelton's against it because he believes first and
• 37:23
  2nd is more important. That's right.
• 37:24
  But when you get the third down and you go 9 to 16 / 50% on 3rd
• 37:29
  and 4th downs, obviously what they they had 25 total first
• 37:33
  downs, so 16 before they had to get the third down, they
• 37:37
  converted on and then nine more. You're going to win a lot of
• 37:42
  games doing that. You just are.
• 37:45
  But the other thing I got to say we we we we know Daquan right in
• 37:48
  the portal. I don't know where he's landed
• 37:50
  yet. I had not had a chance to look
• 37:52
  at that. But to see Saint Germain and
• 37:54
  Benji Gosnell play out there, both make a couple touchdown
• 37:58
  grabs. St.
• 37:59
  Germain could have had two, but he dropped one.
• 38:02
  It was. It was.
• 38:03
  Lovely seeing that it it it was just to have a bowl win the
• 38:08
  place. I know Sheldon, you were there.
• 38:10
  It was loud. It was probably 8515 Hokies.
• 38:15
  The tailgates were packed as soon as they opened.
• 38:20
  The Porta Johns were few and far.
• 38:21
  Oh, they were terrible. There was not enough Porta Johns
• 38:24
  there at all. Shout out.
• 38:26
  Met Matt Neal at the game near the Porta Johns.
• 38:30
  It was pretty funny, but that's it was like Tally said.
• 38:35
  It was, it was everything. It was everything.
• 38:37
  It was not only the game, but the post, the pre and the fans
• 38:40
  themselves. Not everything was perfect
• 38:42
  though. We did fumble the ball quite a
• 38:44
  few times, which I didn't like to see, but also considering the
• 38:48
  circumstances, Sheldon, it's not a shock because we fumble.
• 38:53
  Tulane fumble. We got on more of theirs than
• 38:55
  they did of ours. And I mean it's to be expected
• 39:00
  in a game like that, especially especially after the especially
• 39:04
  starting about late second quarter through the early part
• 39:07
  of the fourth quarter. It was pouring.
• 39:12
  Yeah, and I think the thing, you know, the thing that with the
• 39:14
  with the turnovers there, you know, we ended up winning the
• 39:17
  battle overall. They got us on one that hurt,
• 39:22
  hurt more just because it was a scooping score.
• 39:24
  So you know, that probably balances out on the whole.
• 39:28
  You know, they got, they got the score, we got a couple more, you
• 39:31
  know, turnovers there that put us in good, good situations.
• 39:33
  So I think the fumbles were bad. They were to be expected.
• 39:38
  I think some of the drops are also to be expected, but I felt
• 39:41
  like we never could really get into rhythm in the passing game.
• 39:44
  They were a little more successful on that front than we
• 39:46
  were, but I think overall our defense kind of did a better job
• 39:50
  of playing playing them balanced and keeping them off off kilter
• 39:53
  a little bit, whereas we were able to kind of lean on our run
• 39:55
  game and kind of keep the the drives moving. 100% Anything
• 40:00
  else? Tally Sheldon went bad that
• 40:02
  Y'all just did not like to see. Steven Gosnell getting hurt?
• 40:07
  Yeah. Is there any report come out on
• 40:10
  him yet? I don't.
• 40:13
  I don't think so. I've heard that, you know, he
• 40:15
  could be back. I heard he was going to miss
• 40:17
  spring. But again, that's just that's
• 40:19
  nothing official. I don't.
• 40:22
  I don't know what the official injury is.
• 40:26
  Chubbs, you hear anything on Steven?
• 40:27
  I've heard, I've heard late spring, early summer is kind of
• 40:30
  the the window that we're looking at.
• 40:32
  Hey, Chance and Brody. Chance and Brody already on
• 40:35
  campus. Give them some reps, baby.
• 40:37
  Give them some reps. The other thing that I'll say,
• 40:41
  and it's still we're going to talk about maybe a potential fix
• 40:43
  of this later, was we didn't have bad run fits, but we had
• 40:46
  some run fits and I know they're running back.
• 40:49
  Makai Hughes is a good running back.
• 40:52
  But it a couple times we just, and I know the weather's weird.
• 40:55
  It's just like I I I had like those flashbacks to those early
• 40:59
  season games when the fits were really bad.
• 41:01
  Like Oh no, here we go again. Luckily, they were math.
• 41:04
  Not bad. Let's go this I'm going to skip
• 41:08
  the anything you have word prepared for because it's a bowl
• 41:11
  game. All sorts of crazy shit happens.
• 41:13
  But think about this going into 2024.
• 41:15
  And Sheldon, I'll let you lead this man, what can we do better
• 41:19
  going into 2024? Just high level based off what
• 41:23
  we saw on this game. I mean, I think, I think
• 41:27
  linebacker play is the biggest thing.
• 41:29
  You know I I was talking to this with a coaching friend I have
• 41:32
  and I think you know probably obviously went on and got the
• 41:35
  the the Mike linebacker from ET or excuse me MTSU.
• 41:38
  And I think the reason for that was because he just he wants
• 41:42
  players at that position that have the instincts.
• 41:44
  I think this year we just didn't really have the the necessary
• 41:47
  instincts at that position. If you look at small details
• 41:49
  like you know how they take their first step and how they
• 41:52
  how they react to the flow of the ball.
• 41:54
  You know obviously if you've if you've played you know that
• 41:57
  being a linebacker is all about reading keys.
• 41:59
  So you read certain keys based on how the guards and and the
• 42:01
  centers are are moving in certain certain ways and we just
• 42:04
  didn't get enough enough good play from from those guys this
• 42:08
  season. So I I I would presume they're
• 42:11
  probably done with with Portola as far as linebackers go.
• 42:14
  But I just think they got to, they got to really sure that
• 42:17
  unit up because it's obviously a very critical position.
• 42:20
  And so if you if you figure you can get the D line straight
• 42:22
  which they have, you've got two lockdown corners.
• 42:25
  Hopefully the safeties are a little bit better with the
• 42:27
  experience you got coming back. I mean the linebacker is kind of
• 42:30
  that one missing piece for for the defense.
• 42:31
  So I mean, you just got to, you just got to get that figured
• 42:34
  out. All right, linebacker play
• 42:36
  tally. What about you?
• 42:37
  Yeah, similar to what? I mean, having something, I
• 42:41
  don't know, the last time that Virginia Tech had this many
• 42:44
  people come back or any people come back.
• 42:47
  Like it seems like every year that we have people eligible to
• 42:51
  leave, they leave. You know, whether it be going to
• 42:55
  the going to the league, you know, going all the way back to,
• 42:58
  you know, the tie rod years when people leaving and going to
• 43:02
  going to the NFL and things like that.
• 43:04
  So having all those guys come back was, was was awesome.
• 43:08
  Just get us prepared to go into 2024.
• 43:12
  But, you know, to kind of piggyback on what Shelton said,
• 43:15
  that one group that has you kind of worried is, well, not even
• 43:21
  just the group, just the middle period, you know, the middle of
• 43:24
  the line. They went out and addressed
• 43:26
  that. The middle of the linebacker
• 43:29
  core, they went out and addressed that.
• 43:31
  You know, I think that, you know, I don't, I'm a little,
• 43:35
  still a little skeptical about safety because I know we have
• 43:38
  some pieces that we can use there, but I don't quite know
• 43:43
  who's going to be there. Is Showman going to be healthy?
• 43:46
  You know, I don't know what he's done to himself and who they,
• 43:49
  who are they going to put by him?
• 43:50
  I know we got some young people, but going out and getting that
• 43:53
  going out and getting Broomfield was made me feel a lot better.
• 43:57
  I can say that. So I'm excited about because I
• 44:01
  mean in the skill positions we got and you you can you loaded,
• 44:06
  you know what I'm saying? Like you got a lot of options
• 44:09
  there that you can you can play with.
• 44:11
  So I guess the only thing that could have went better if we had
• 44:15
  Peyton Wilson or something. There you go that.
• 44:19
  Would have been nice. Right.
• 44:20
  No, it would have been nice. All righty, Brian.
• 44:26
  I mean, it's offensive line podcast, right?
• 44:30
  Let's get better on the old line.
• 44:32
  And I think we finished the season a lot better than we
• 44:35
  started it overall. We saw some run lanes open.
• 44:38
  Some of that was a product of drones just being the starter.
• 44:42
  Some of that was a product of Bowen playing to drones of
• 44:47
  strength and the strength of the other skilled players in the
• 44:49
  offense. But some of that was improved
• 44:51
  offensive line play over the course of the season, but it was
• 44:55
  still inconsistent. Especially when we play those
• 44:57
  higher caliber teams. We need to be able to win or at
• 45:00
  least stalemate in the trenches. Against the Louisville, against
• 45:03
  the Florida State, against the NC State.
• 45:05
  We didn't do that great down the stretch against those caliber
• 45:09
  teams. So I'd like to see that improve
• 45:11
  in 2024. I think you know we we got it,
• 45:15
  we got a guy in there. I'd like to see one more at
• 45:17
  least between now and and the start of fall camp.
• 45:20
  I don't see this one more, but. And don't worry nobody in it a
• 45:24
  little fucking don't bring no fucking Freddie in.
• 45:27
  There. Oh God.
• 45:29
  I mean, he might. He might be good.
• 45:30
  Alex said if he could, if he couldn't get in there in this
• 45:33
  year. He couldn't this year.
• 45:34
  Hang in there next year. Could I say something, Can I say
• 45:37
  something? And Sally, you mentioned,
• 45:38
  actually we've all three have mentioned this.
• 45:40
  All four of us have mentioned this during some way.
• 45:43
  What I want to see better moving forward is the the games where
• 45:46
  we annihilated people. Tulane, we won by 21.
• 45:50
  Syracuse, I want the coaches to bring that mentality to every
• 45:54
  single game. We talked about it like the FSU
• 45:58
  and Louisville and the NC State games.
• 46:01
  We were kind of like oh, oh oh wait, oh wait.
• 46:04
  And we don't need that. Yeah, we went in with that
• 46:10
  shell. Shock mode, shell shock mode.
• 46:13
  And I think maybe they've now experienced it, right?
• 46:18
  Experience is one thing that you cannot teach is going through
• 46:22
  those experiences and one thing, Brent Pry said to us on this
• 46:27
  program. I am constantly evaluating
• 46:29
  myself. I'm constantly evaluating what
• 46:31
  we do while we do it and there were some changes obviously this
• 46:35
  offseason before leading up to the fall break, we got to a bowl
• 46:40
  game. I think this is a coaching staff
• 46:43
  that will look at that and for those big games I think there is
• 46:47
  going to be a different mentality and that's why I want
• 46:49
  to see. Better I want to say.
• 46:50
  I want to say too, just that, you know, that brought you
• 46:52
  saying that I thought about something.
• 46:54
  I talked to Don V earlier on the phone and he said something I
• 46:58
  thought was pretty, pretty cool, pretty profound for his analysis
• 47:05
  and what he thinks, OK, we play Clemson next year, right?
• 47:09
  Like, Clemson is us. I don't want a special jersey.
• 47:14
  I don't want them to be telling me Michael Vick's in the
• 47:16
  audience. I don't want them to put on
• 47:19
  anything. We need to go out there.
• 47:20
  And I think the way Don put it was go out there in white pants
• 47:24
  and a maroon jersey at 3:30 and just go beat them like they are
• 47:30
  us. They're the same.
• 47:31
  Like if there is a talent, you know, talent level discrepancy
• 47:36
  is they're not going to be very far, like they're not going to
• 47:39
  be that much ahead of us next year when we play them.
• 47:42
  We just got to go into those games and just go play like when
• 47:45
  Duke went and played a lot of teams, just business, like when
• 47:49
  Elko had Duke going and playing teams and it was just they just
• 47:53
  went and played like they didn't have to get up for.
• 47:56
  It wasn't a special production or anything like that.
• 47:59
  Like we just got to go play no matter who it is.
• 48:02
  You know, I feel like on some of those games like FSU or, you
• 48:07
  know Louisville or whoever the teams might be, it's like, Oh,
• 48:10
  well, you know they they they're this and we got to get this and
• 48:13
  they've been doing this and it's like we're trying to play this
• 48:18
  underdog role when we can just, we're just we're the same teams,
• 48:21
  you know, these aren't teams that's been stomping us for the
• 48:24
  last however many years. You know, Clemson's been beating
• 48:28
  us in the last couple of years that we've played them, but it's
• 48:31
  like now that's not the same Clemson, you know what I'm
• 48:34
  saying? So we just got to go play and I
• 48:37
  hope they like you said that next year we got to go with
• 48:40
  that, that business mindset. You got to go and just go play
• 48:44
  the teams and go beat them because we're going to be as
• 48:47
  good as just about everybody that we play.
• 48:49
  You know what I'm saying? We're going to be better than
• 48:52
  everybody, but we're going to be, we're going to be close as
• 48:54
  far as talent goes. Talent's no longer here to here.
• 48:57
  It's kind of like here to here with the top teams in the ACC,
• 49:00
  so. And then you look at certain
• 49:02
  positions, you can say we're more talented than them.
• 49:05
  They're we're more talented than them.
• 49:07
  All right, real quick, let's talk about the CFP International
• 49:10
  Championship. Michigan beats Washington on
• 49:13
  Monday night. Some people were crapping on the
• 49:16
  game. To me it was a, if you like New
• 49:19
  Age football, you didn't like it because it was low score and
• 49:22
  people were hitting shit out of each other tackling drop passes.
• 49:27
  But let's go back to January 1st.
• 49:30
  Was that not like the best set of New Year's games?
• 49:33
  Maybe in a decade? I mean, I took off January 2nd
• 49:38
  and I'm taking January 2nd off probably for the next 10 years
• 49:41
  because I'm all know my ass is going to be up till midnight
• 49:44
  watching the end of the Sugar Bowl.
• 49:45
  But you know what of of the three games we saw, and I know
• 49:50
  Monday's a little bit different, but what was your favorite
• 49:53
  Shelton just to watch analytically?
• 49:56
  Aesthetically, what was your favorite game to watch of these
• 49:58
  three? Of these three, I would say,
• 50:02
  well, definitely Washington. Mainly because I just love
• 50:04
  watching Michael Pinnix throw the football.
• 50:07
  I mean, just has a beautiful ball, so composed in the pocket.
• 50:10
  And I was, I was kind of, I was kind of rooting for Washington
• 50:14
  also just 'cause they're sort of like, you know, the kind of the
• 50:16
  scrappy underdog. And I love Caitlyn Bore's story
• 50:19
  of coming up from the, you know, the ranks of the NAIA or
• 50:22
  wherever he was and, you know, going 60-7 and three at Sioux
• 50:25
  Falls and coming to Fresno State and then just kind of just
• 50:27
  working. So I have to change.
• 50:27
  So I, I love stories like that. But but yeah, I mean, Michigan
• 50:31
  was I I thought they were the best team in the country the
• 50:33
  whole season, regardless of science stealing or not.
• 50:36
  And that turned out to be the case.
• 50:37
  They just, they just had no. Nobody had an answer for their
• 50:40
  for their defense or their or their running game, really.
• 50:44
  Tally, what was your favorite game of these three?
• 50:47
  I mean, it was a couple. The Alabama, the Alabama,
• 50:51
  Michigan game was pretty good. I I enjoyed watching that game.
• 50:55
  But like, I don't know, I just just the whole thing.
• 50:58
  I guess, you know, just watching all of the games was pretty
• 51:02
  entertaining. I wanted to be a rebel in
• 51:07
  protest, not watch any of them because I don't give a shit how
• 51:10
  good the games are. I wanted Florida State to be in
• 51:13
  there just because I thought that was the right thing to do.
• 51:16
  But I mean, it was, it was some good games, but I was thinking
• 51:19
  the whole time I was watching them.
• 51:20
  Georgia's better than these teams that are playing.
• 51:22
  Still think Georgia would have beat a lot of the teams that was
• 51:25
  in there. I mean, I don't know.
• 51:26
  They probably wouldn't have beat Michigan.
• 51:27
  I don't. That would be a good game.
• 51:29
  But I feel like they could have beat the other three teams.
• 51:32
  Ron, you know, I think looking at the the games on January 1st
• 51:37
  were interesting because I feel like you got kind of a contrast
• 51:40
  in styles. You had a very more modern
• 51:44
  offense offensive performance with Texas and Washington,
• 51:48
  definitely a battle in the trenches with Bam and Michigan.
• 51:52
  Michigan just was so impressive because they won in the trenches
• 51:55
  on both sides of the ball in every game they played in the
• 51:58
  basketball Playoff, and it wasn't close really in any of
• 52:01
  them. That was the first first team
• 52:04
  I've seen go against Bama and be that decidedly better in the
• 52:08
  trenches against an Alabama team.
• 52:11
  It's true. It really shouldn't have been as
• 52:13
  close as it was with how well they were playing in the
• 52:16
  trenches. It's 100% true and that's why
• 52:19
  that was my favorite game because it was.
• 52:22
  You talked about it being the, the second game was the modern
• 52:25
  day game and it was. But that the Rose Bowl, to me,
• 52:28
  that setting the sunset and it was a war.
• 52:32
  It was an absolute war where Sugar Bowl is a little
• 52:36
  different. Texas kind of fought back but
• 52:39
  it's something about two teams just literally locking horns,
• 52:43
  battling, hitting. It's like everybody there's an
• 52:46
  answer. There's an answer.
• 52:47
  And then right at the end and I know everybody's given the
• 52:51
  Alabama OC shit about that play call about it was an RPO and he
• 52:56
  should have thrown it #5 push 65 into Jalen Jalen Melrose leg.
• 53:03
  That's why that play didn't fucking work.
• 53:05
  So Shelton, you said it all year.
• 53:08
  Brian Tally all played in them. The trenches cost Alabama that
• 53:12
  game because when five pushed 65 into Melrose leg, he won't going
• 53:16
  to be able to make the pass. And when he hit his leg he
• 53:18
  wasn't going to be able to cut and get to the outside where he
• 53:21
  had a chance to score. And that was a beautiful game.
• 53:24
  All right, well boys, we've already went 54 minutes.
• 53:28
  I thought we were going to go on an hour total tonight, but that
• 53:31
  don't happen with us because we love the Hokies, we love college
• 53:34
  football. So right now we are going to
• 53:36
  take a quick pause from our digital partners and Main Street
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• 53:56
  I remember he would give me M and Ms. to count in little pill
• 53:59
  counters. This is something I've always
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  done and I'm just lucky that what I know so well is something
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  that I can do and feel good about it and get back to people.
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  the lowest price possible. Also, we take the pressure off
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  of emergency rooms. I'll tell people immediately
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  when they need to go to the doctor, or I'll tell them if
• 54:21
  they just need a cream over the counter.
• 54:22
  If there's something that isn't commercially available, if it's
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  something that's not available in a certain strength or a
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  certain form or anything like that, we'll make it tailor made
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  medications. Some of those options save
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  digitalstudio.com/free Dash website Dash Report Now back.
• 55:01
  To the episode and we are back. And to kick off the second-half
• 55:05
  of our episode, because he was unable to join us on state of
• 55:09
  the program this year, we are going to give Shelton the floor.
• 55:12
  He's got some things he wants to talk about.
• 55:15
  And y'all, if you did not read Shelton's article on the key
• 55:18
  play, just a few. Please go and read that article.
• 55:20
  That is one of the best pieces of work considering Virginia
• 55:23
  Tech football. Concerning where the staff's
• 55:26
  going, Sheldon, you did a hell of a job with that man.
• 55:28
  I'm glad you waited till the end of the season.
• 55:31
  I'm really glad you waited till the end of the season on that.
• 55:33
  But you got some stuff you want to talk about about where we are
• 55:36
  as far as the program goes. So the floor is yours.
• 55:39
  Yes. Well, it was certainly the tale
• 55:41
  of two seasons, the 2023 Hokies, Jekyll and Hyde.
• 55:44
  What a turn around from where they were after that Marshall
• 55:47
  loss, talking about, you know, 80 something and SP Plus and you
• 55:50
  know they moved up. They're one of the most improved
• 55:52
  teams by the end of the season. So, you know, I had a few, I had
• 55:55
  a few graphics and tweets I wanted to share if we could get
• 55:58
  those up kind of as we go along on the first one.
• 56:00
  So I tweeted this after the regular season and power fried
• 56:04
  teams that won conference games by three possessions, 7 ranked
• 56:08
  teams, plus Virginia Tech. I think Texas was in there too
• 56:11
  now, but they also had an extra game.
• 56:13
  So some context there, but it was a really, it was just it was
• 56:17
  weird how Tech was in this company of such elite teams that
• 56:20
  finish the year ranked. And if we could go to a graphic
• 56:23
  one, which is the conference margin of victory, which is also
• 56:27
  very impressive. Tech beat up on their
• 56:29
  conferences by a lot, as we'll as we'll see in a second here.
• 56:33
  I think I can pull it up there. Yep, so we got there.
• 56:37
  So largest margin of victory in conference games this year Tech
• 56:39
  was right around 8.3 which was was pretty good.
• 56:44
  So the one thing again with all the every, every single team on
• 56:48
  this list besides Tech, what they have in common, they all
• 56:50
  finished the year ranked. And even if you go you know past
• 56:53
  Tech some of the teams below that like NC State and and
• 56:57
  Oregon State, you know they're they're in the top 25 for most
• 56:59
  of the year. So basically you got you know
• 57:02
  these 20 or so teams that are all you know ranked or spent
• 57:04
  most of the year ranked and then Virginia Tech it is sort of like
• 57:08
  a such a crazy outlier how how well they performed in in
• 57:11
  conference compared to you know the non conference portion of
• 57:14
  the season. And obviously there was there
• 57:16
  was a huge delta between you know what they did against teams
• 57:20
  that they should have beaten so to speak versus teams that they
• 57:24
  you know were not expected to be like NC State, Louisville.
• 57:27
  So I think for me, you know, my, my lasting member of this team
• 57:32
  would just be how how polarizing I guess they were for the lack
• 57:35
  of a better term. I felt like when they played,
• 57:38
  you know, subpar teams like Boston College or UVA, that was
• 57:41
  when their their skilled players really kind of were able to to
• 57:44
  shine and sort of you know, exert their talent so to speak.
• 57:48
  But when they played obviously much you know, mature experience
• 57:50
  in Taliban teams like Louisville, Florida State, I
• 57:53
  think that was where you saw the the opposite line problems
• 57:56
  really start to kind of rear their ugly head.
• 57:57
  But as Brian talked about, you know, the online did get better
• 58:00
  throughout the course of the season And once you, you know,
• 58:03
  you take those talented skill guys, combine them with an O
• 58:05
  line that's, you know, improving a quarterback, that's also
• 58:08
  improving, it made for really good, really good recipe.
• 58:11
  And if we go to the final graphic here, Graphic 2, which
• 58:15
  is a year two improvement for Power 5 head coaches.
• 58:17
  So this was another article I did for the key play where I
• 58:21
  looked at coaching hires of the Power Five over the past ten
• 58:23
  years or so. And in doing this I'd found that
• 58:26
  Brent Pry, comparing year one to year two, was the fifth most
• 58:31
  improved coach in year 2 for any Power Five team.
• 58:35
  And you look at some of the names on this list.
• 58:37
  Lance Leopold's done a fantastic job at Kansas.
• 58:39
  Kirby Smart, name speaks for itself.
• 58:42
  Jonathan Smith, he was great at Oregon State.
• 58:45
  Dave Aranda, Steve Sarkisi and Mike Leach, all of our good
• 58:47
  coaches. So you know, there's some,
• 58:50
  there's some misses in there, but I think that's a really good
• 58:52
  company to be in and that's what should give Tech fans the most
• 58:56
  amount of confidence for what this program is capable of going
• 58:58
  forward. I really enjoyed doing the
• 59:01
  research on that piece because it it, it, it sort of shed a
• 59:04
  light on lots of maybe dispelling some myths about
• 59:08
  coaching hires and kind of you know how you sort of evaluate
• 59:11
  progress and where to sort of use that parameter.
• 59:13
  So what I found was that year one for head coach, a new head
• 59:17
  coach in Power Five was not really predictive of how well
• 59:20
  their hire was going to turn out, but year two was extremely
• 59:23
  predictive. So when we talked about you
• 59:25
  know, new hires and rebuilding and you know, how are they doing
• 59:28
  year one, year two, you know, you look at Mike Elko at Duke or
• 59:31
  Deion Sanders at Colorado, really it's year 2 that's kind
• 59:34
  of like the make or break. If you're not successful in year
• 59:36
  two, it's not going to work out. If you are, you know you need to
• 59:39
  be at least steadily improving. And I think year three is where
• 59:41
  most coaches would say that's where you kind of got it, need
• 59:44
  to get the ball rolling. And I think Tech has a really
• 59:46
  prime opportunity to do that this this next season.
• 59:50
  So as Curtis talked about, you know, in my last piece it was
• 59:53
  called wide culture matters, etcetera for the key play.
• 59:56
  And my biggest take away was that I think I think when you
• 1:00:00
  look at this team, it's clear that players want to play for
• 1:00:03
  Brent Pride. You know, we didn't have barely
• 1:00:05
  any opt outs. Most of them were pretty
• 1:00:06
  unconsequential. Guys wanted to come back.
• 1:00:08
  They're coming back next year and obviously nil.
• 1:00:11
  Money is a huge part of that. I'm not, I'm not denying that at
• 1:00:13
  all. But it's a it's a really good
• 1:00:15
  culture and I think culture is so important.
• 1:00:17
  When we talk about it, it's kind of like a buzzword, but when you
• 1:00:21
  really get down to it, it's it's the foundation for your program.
• 1:00:23
  Like if you don't have a good culture, you're you're not going
• 1:00:26
  to win football games. To me, things like scheme, XS
• 1:00:29
  and OS, those are all a byproduct of good culture and
• 1:00:33
  getting players bought in. And I've asked coaches this
• 1:00:35
  before, if you don't have buy in from your players, nothing you
• 1:00:38
  say is going to work. It comes from buy in from
• 1:00:41
  leadership, from communication and all those things really, you
• 1:00:44
  know, tie into culture. And I think Brent Pride has done
• 1:00:48
  a fantastic job of selling the foundation for this program.
• 1:00:51
  And I think there are some pretty good things ahead.
• 1:00:53
  Now Tech obviously has high expectations.
• 1:00:56
  When you start winning games, you're going to raise the
• 1:00:57
  expectation level. It's really, really hard to, you
• 1:01:00
  know, to win 910 eleven games with Power Five level.
• 1:01:02
  So we're going to see if they can get there.
• 1:01:04
  But I do think all the signs based on the the trajectory of
• 1:01:07
  the program, the numbers, the eye test, all point to the fact
• 1:01:10
  that this is a really, really good thing that Virginia Tech
• 1:01:12
  has going. Beautiful, beautiful Sheldon.
• 1:01:16
  Beautiful. And you talk about the returning
• 1:01:19
  players because and I've got it outlined here because we had
• 1:01:22
  finally the last domino that fell you.
• 1:01:25
  You're right. There are guys who could have
• 1:01:27
  left. There are guys who could have
• 1:01:28
  went their their chances in the draft.
• 1:01:30
  All four of the wide receivers could have.
• 1:01:32
  They honestly could have all all four of them.
• 1:01:34
  Even Ollie with his the the small one, Nick Gallo, who would
• 1:01:38
  be a sixth year guy could you know maybe try the NFL or maybe
• 1:01:43
  just try a life and think about all that coming back.
• 1:01:45
  Look, look at that list. I know I've got it there out for
• 1:01:47
  y'all. Look how many guys that is 6.
• 1:01:52
  That's 1010 starters. How many people can sit here and
• 1:01:55
  say every single one of these guys, Nine of the 10 who made
• 1:02:01
  significant contributions this year are back, are back.
• 1:02:06
  It's a big deal. It's a big deal and it's to your
• 1:02:09
  point, Sheldon, with that culture and and again you talk
• 1:02:13
  about how many, how many times did we see the guys go in the
• 1:02:16
  portal. Sheldon, I know you mentioned I
• 1:02:17
  think in the article, if not you made some tweets about it,
• 1:02:20
  There's a guy going into the portal, but he's going to come
• 1:02:22
  back and play this game. And it's not only them that
• 1:02:26
  person wanted to come back and play.
• 1:02:27
  It's Brent Pry allowing it because there's so many coaches
• 1:02:30
  that do not allow it And it just speaks to who he is as a coach.
• 1:02:35
  And I mean like you said, I mean next year it's, you know, we're
• 1:02:39
  going to have to be tempering expectations about seven months
• 1:02:43
  from now and seven months from now.
• 1:02:45
  Yeah, I mean, we had two players that had consequential
• 1:02:49
  production that are not going to be back next year.
• 1:02:52
  You got Derek Canteen, you got Daquana, right?
• 1:02:54
  That's it. Everybody else is back.
• 1:02:57
  Everybody else's back. And then the the additions in
• 1:03:00
  the portal and the the lack of subtractions.
• 1:03:03
  I mean we had Hunter McLean and Jack Hollyfield who were
• 1:03:05
  basically Hunter really didn't see the field.
• 1:03:07
  Jack was a backup offensive line and got some snaps.
• 1:03:11
  You mentioned the two biggest ones.
• 1:03:13
  And then we we talked about the middle linebacker Brumfield
• 1:03:16
  coming over in the portal. We didn't have a chance to break
• 1:03:18
  down his tape, but him coming in to solidify that room and then
• 1:03:23
  Kelvin Gillum with Peoples, this, this staff, and maybe it's
• 1:03:28
  not the staff and we need to get some credits to the analysts
• 1:03:31
  too, right? Because there are guys who are
• 1:03:34
  sitting in that room every day and it's going to be their job
• 1:03:37
  to figure out who may be coming into Portal.
• 1:03:41
  Who fits what we do now? Who have we recruited before?
• 1:03:44
  Where are the relationships? Give some credit to Villa Grande
• 1:03:48
  as well and and and those guys behind the scenes like they are
• 1:03:51
  setting our portal acquisition game up for success whether we
• 1:03:57
  close the deal or not. You know that's on the coaching
• 1:04:00
  staff, that's on the other pieces.
• 1:04:01
  But you know when we look at what what Colby put together for
• 1:04:05
  those offers that went out. Yeah, there was a clear plan.
• 1:04:09
  It it was hitting the the notes that we wanted to hit both from
• 1:04:12
  a player location standpoint, from a player position
• 1:04:16
  standpoint, like they were hitting the ground running and
• 1:04:20
  they had a plan and they executed the plan and we got
• 1:04:25
  more I think more than we expected to, especially on the
• 1:04:28
  defensive line side of it in the trenches.
• 1:04:30
  I think we, as we said earlier, could still use a little bit of
• 1:04:33
  help on the offensive side, but we plugged the holes that
• 1:04:37
  absolutely needed to be plugged. And I think that's, that's
• 1:04:41
  that's where you want to be sitting when you come out of
• 1:04:42
  that first round of the transfer portal is like, OK, we got these
• 1:04:45
  holes here, all right, let's plug them.
• 1:04:47
  Let's make sure that we're at least maintaining the status
• 1:04:50
  quo, if not improving on those positions.
• 1:04:53
  And I think we did that. Tally, I know you got something
• 1:04:57
  to say. Well no, it's just you know even
• 1:05:01
  the last show we did when we had the, you know the the father of
• 1:05:05
  a couple of players and and recruits on the on the show and
• 1:05:07
  they talk about you know how it works in the transfer portal how
• 1:05:11
  it works during recruiting. You know how the coaches are.
• 1:05:16
  You know it The going back to Sheldon's point, the culture
• 1:05:20
  that they built is one that people are interested in in, in
• 1:05:25
  in getting to, you know, you talk to about Chris.
• 1:05:28
  You talk about Chris Brody's dad.
• 1:05:31
  Him talking about, you know, why he was there on the big transfer
• 1:05:35
  portal weekend and how they treated those transfer kids that
• 1:05:40
  came in and rolled the red carpet out for them.
• 1:05:43
  You know, it's OK to get people on campus.
• 1:05:46
  We've got a lot of players on campus.
• 1:05:49
  Hell, I think it was three or four of them that was in that
• 1:05:51
  national championship game. But to get them to come and play
• 1:05:55
  for you, you know, that's big. So like you said, they, they had
• 1:06:00
  a, they had a clear path that they wanted to go and do.
• 1:06:05
  They had a a plan that they wanted to execute and they
• 1:06:08
  seemed like they went out there and did it.
• 1:06:10
  And the culture that they're creating is making people look
• 1:06:13
  at Virginia Tech. You know, I don't know, I'm not
• 1:06:17
  in the room. But looking at how some things
• 1:06:19
  panned out, I mean, we had to turn some good players away.
• 1:06:23
  We just don't have room for them.
• 1:06:25
  So I mean, that's a good problem to have to be like, sorry, we
• 1:06:29
  don't got room. And and that that feeds back to
• 1:06:32
  the culture, right, because you don't have room, because you had
• 1:06:36
  guys that could have left or could have did something else
• 1:06:39
  that had bought in that you want to keep that core together,
• 1:06:43
  right? They, they work well together.
• 1:06:45
  They they fully bought in. You know you want to make sure
• 1:06:49
  that you're trimming the fat as it were, but you also want to
• 1:06:51
  make sure that you're not kicking guys to the curb that
• 1:06:54
  are integral part of the culture that you've established, right.
• 1:06:58
  So I think that's that's another big part is that we're building
• 1:07:01
  upon that year to year. You know just because guys are
• 1:07:05
  out there in the portal just because they've shown that
• 1:07:07
  potential. You want to make sure that you
• 1:07:09
  got the right guys and the right pieces together that maintain
• 1:07:12
  that culture, push the scheme that you were trying to
• 1:07:16
  establish, but also those pieces that work together well, you
• 1:07:21
  know from an individual ability standpoint too.
• 1:07:23
  And I think we're starting to see all that kind of come
• 1:07:25
  together in jail as we kind of move through the end of 2023
• 1:07:29
  season. These guys are working together
• 1:07:31
  really well and I think keeping that culture moving is just as
• 1:07:34
  important as the pieces that we added to kind of complement
• 1:07:36
  that. Yeah.
• 1:07:38
  And when we talk about the culture and they're building
• 1:07:40
  something and it's continuously being built and it's it.
• 1:07:44
  You take a look and you heard the people's and I got to I
• 1:07:47
  listen to the people's interview that Matei and Evan and them did
• 1:07:50
  with him. Andrew, Alex as well also listen
• 1:07:53
  to the Montavius Cunningham. Montavius Cunningham cracks me
• 1:07:57
  up. Tally, I feel like you need to
• 1:07:59
  interview him. We might just get you a
• 1:08:01
  one-on-one. Let's do it.
• 1:08:03
  He reminds me of Sergio render so much hearing him talk.
• 1:08:07
  They're both from that South Georgia and you know, but but
• 1:08:14
  we're in a day and age of college football that XS and OS
• 1:08:18
  will always matter. You've got to have people that
• 1:08:19
  can do that. But we're in a place now where
• 1:08:21
  relationships matter probably more than ever.
• 1:08:24
  Like you talk about there, guys we couldn't let in this year.
• 1:08:27
  You want to make a bet? This staff, whoever was that
• 1:08:30
  lead primary recruiter and Brent Pride, guarantee you they're
• 1:08:33
  watching them. And I guarantee you if they see
• 1:08:35
  them make a good play, they get a text or send them an e-mail or
• 1:08:37
  Adm to say, hey, you played good today, man, keeping that
• 1:08:41
  relationship going that maybe in two years, hey, we need that
• 1:08:44
  kid. I know he wants to be here.
• 1:08:46
  We can get him out of the portal.
• 1:08:48
  And I think these type guys like this whole staff has that.
• 1:08:54
  They have those personalities where they're not afraid.
• 1:08:57
  And we heard about it from, you know, Kevin Drones that
• 1:09:00
  legitimately Tyler Bowen got on a plane and flew to Waco and was
• 1:09:05
  literally the first person there for coward.
• 1:09:08
  A guy who had started one game of his collegiate career who was
• 1:09:11
  a red shirt freshman. Did that says a lot.
• 1:09:16
  All righty, Anything else on this Sheldon portal stuff?
• 1:09:19
  Guys returning? Anything else you want to hit
• 1:09:21
  before we kind of get ready to wrap this up?
• 1:09:26
  Yeah man, I mean look, like I said the bar has been raised.
• 1:09:28
  So right now we're we're all feeling high.
• 1:09:31
  We're riding the highs after finishing six and three but you
• 1:09:34
  know in order to get to the next level it it has to take
• 1:09:37
  sustained recruiting and you know just just sustained really
• 1:09:41
  good coaching. And I think I think with tech
• 1:09:43
  schedule they they're set up really well to win bare minimum
• 1:09:45
  eight games next year maybe nine.
• 1:09:47
  I'm not I'm not at 10 yet but look it's just it's just it's
• 1:09:50
  really really hard to win and that's that's something I stress
• 1:09:53
  over and over again. So I'm really excited for this
• 1:09:55
  team for for the future of the program.
• 1:09:57
  But in order to get to that to that level that we all wanted to
• 1:10:00
  get to, you know it's it's going to require a lot of hard work.
• 1:10:02
  But I I think this staff is, is the right, the right staff for
• 1:10:05
  the job. All righty.
• 1:10:07
  Well, let's turn to some fun moments today, boys.
• 1:10:11
  Brian popped it out there a few days ago that we were going to
• 1:10:14
  pull some of our favorite plays from the year, and we have just
• 1:10:18
  that one. And Brian, I think now I'm being
• 1:10:21
  on record of talking about it like three Times Now at least,
• 1:10:24
  at least, but still because it because of the importance of
• 1:10:28
  this place. The pit game, it's the
• 1:10:30
  touchdown. It's after the fumble.
• 1:10:32
  They're within one. And like I said to Kevin and
• 1:10:35
  when we were all together, and Kevin, I hope you heard me say
• 1:10:38
  it the other night, Sheldon, when that fumble happened with
• 1:10:41
  drones and they scored as like, ah shit, we're about to lose the
• 1:10:44
  Pit in some way. We're going to lose this game.
• 1:10:46
  But that didn't happen. This is what happened.
• 1:10:50
  Woods matched up against him Quarter Blitz and drones got it
• 1:10:53
  free to Jalen Lane with running room.
• 1:10:56
  Take it off for the end zone and a score.
• 1:11:01
  From the top, which is going to send the safety over top of this
• 1:11:04
  receiver and then you can just end up having lane coming inside
• 1:11:08
  and there's no one left in the middle of the field.
• 1:11:10
  He's just going to work inside. And because the corner came from
• 1:11:14
  the top and the safety plate over the top, there was all
• 1:11:18
  kinds of room for run after the couch.
• 1:11:21
  That's my favorite player of the year, and there's some more on
• 1:11:24
  here I like, but that's my favorite player of.
• 1:11:26
  The year and I, when I look at, when I look back at it, every
• 1:11:28
  time it's it's actually you see a couple things.
• 1:11:31
  But the thing that I see the most is that a quarterback
• 1:11:34
  understanding what his receivers going to do and a receiver
• 1:11:38
  understanding where he is the field and where the other pieces
• 1:11:41
  are in the field. Because he settled down, he
• 1:11:45
  before he got to the ref, he didn't run himself into where
• 1:11:48
  the referee was to get that throw.
• 1:11:50
  Kyron put it right on him. Nothing but daylight, baby.
• 1:11:54
  Nothing but daylight. All righty, I'll let y'all.
• 1:11:58
  That was, that was that was a play where I realized how fast
• 1:12:00
  Jalen Lane was like, watching watching live men, You you don't
• 1:12:04
  have an appreciation for how fast that dude is.
• 1:12:05
  He is so freaking quick. Real quick, All right, what do
• 1:12:09
  y'all want to pull up next? What are some of Y'all's
• 1:12:11
  favorite plays from this? Season.
• 1:12:13
  I got one I want to say for last, so I'm going to.
• 1:12:15
  He's saving one for last. Yeah, so, so, so if it if we're
• 1:12:19
  talking about a, a moment that happened on the hill, we're
• 1:12:23
  saving that one. For last.
• 1:12:24
  That is going to be last, so I'll go ahead.
• 1:12:26
  All right, Sheldon, Tally, Y'all look through them here.
• 1:12:29
  Which ones was some of Y'all's favorite for the year?
• 1:12:33
  It's one of my favorite was the was the the Tooting.
• 1:12:39
  The Tooting touchdown against FSU jumped over somebody and you
• 1:12:45
  know, even though that game was horrible, it was just seeing his
• 1:12:48
  athleticism. It's like Dang, this dude is
• 1:12:51
  something like I knew he was good.
• 1:12:54
  I knew he was pretty good. But it's like he's he's really
• 1:12:57
  good, you know what I'm saying? And we saw him like scaling up
• 1:13:01
  against high level competition. Right.
• 1:13:02
  Yeah. It was like thing he he he's out
• 1:13:05
  there mixing it up. He's, you know, sitting, talking
• 1:13:08
  some jump and he can play. So I think he kind of took it up
• 1:13:13
  a notch after that too. Yeah, let's run it.
• 1:13:15
  Let's run it here. Second goal Tooting in motion.
• 1:13:21
  They tossed it to the wide side of the field, Tooting turning
• 1:13:24
  the corner. Airborne touchdown.
• 1:13:28
  Air Tooting scores it and Virginia Tech with its first
• 1:13:33
  touchdown A5 yard run by Basil Tootin, the second one of the
• 1:13:44
  season. You see they got the big
• 1:13:46
  offensive tackle Xavier Chaplin out here on the edge.
• 1:13:49
  He gets the block on Cypress and Tootin just doesn't does the
• 1:13:52
  rest if you don't secure the edges down here and you let the
• 1:13:55
  offense. Athletic as hell, man.
• 1:13:59
  Yeah man, and patience too. I love his patience running.
• 1:14:03
  He showed it a lot more as we went out throughout the season
• 1:14:05
  but and just seeing that athleticism and you know
• 1:14:09
  combination of power and and breakaway speed and then that
• 1:14:12
  agility to to make that hurdle at the at the line there all.
• 1:14:17
  Right. Brian, you got any of yours?
• 1:14:20
  Yeah, man, This is when I knew that we were on to something.
• 1:14:24
  This is when I knew, all right, if if we can get this thing
• 1:14:27
  gelled, if we can get this thing moving, this offense is going to
• 1:14:31
  be something to be reckoned with.
• 1:14:34
  It is the drones touchdown run against Marshall.
• 1:14:37
  Oh. Yeah.
• 1:14:40
  So here we go. I'm going to run it.
• 1:14:42
  And Tyler Bowen said tunes got to have a big afternoon today
• 1:14:45
  for us to win on the road and there goes drones right side
• 1:14:49
  pylon for the Virginia Tech touchdown.
• 1:14:51
  But it's a great job by Tyron Jones.
• 1:14:53
  Big, strong quarterback, those black shoes.
• 1:14:57
  You got the white stripe there on the sideline.
• 1:14:59
  I saw green grass in between. I think it's going to be a
• 1:15:01
  touchdown. I love that they brought up the
• 1:15:04
  black shoes too, like the cleats, man.
• 1:15:07
  Everybody complaints about them black cleats, so I'm glad that
• 1:15:11
  they made the broadcast. But that that run there, that's
• 1:15:14
  that's kind of everything that you you get from Kyron Drones,
• 1:15:16
  right? You had a good read.
• 1:15:19
  You had making guys miss making guys.
• 1:15:23
  You missed tackles in the backfield.
• 1:15:26
  Then you saw the speed, then you saw the finish and I was like,
• 1:15:30
  all right, so you know when we all three of us were sitting
• 1:15:34
  together Sheldon was was elsewhere on on this game.
• 1:15:37
  But when we were sitting together against Purdue and we
• 1:15:40
  saw drones kind of run over a guy and and and as he's going
• 1:15:45
  out of bounds I was like this guy's different but this this is
• 1:15:48
  what showed me. All right.
• 1:15:49
  So it's it's not just the attitude he's put all the other
• 1:15:52
  skill sets together. This was something that got me
• 1:15:54
  really excited about what this offense could really be with
• 1:15:57
  drones at the at the helm there. 100% Brian, check out the chat.
• 1:16:00
  Shelton dropped his in there. See if you can get that on the
• 1:16:03
  screen, Shelton. We'll get back to you in just a
• 1:16:05
  second. But while Brian's sorting that
• 1:16:07
  out, I'm going to flip to the defensive side of the ball here
• 1:16:12
  for a second. And that Thursday night in Lane
• 1:16:16
  Stadium in Syracuse, a it felt like old times.
• 1:16:20
  It felt good, even though when this play happened we were
• 1:16:25
  already beating them down by a bunch.
• 1:16:29
  But it was just beautiful to see when two when two defensive ends
• 1:16:33
  meet at the quarterback. All right, getting that one
• 1:16:37
  pulled in here. Schrader out of the end zone.
• 1:16:42
  Here comes the pressure. Schrader safety that is Antoine
• 1:16:51
  Powell Ryland and Cole Nelson was straight in the frame.
• 1:16:55
  Beaver 25 seat We saw Coach Beamer at halftime up here
• 1:16:59
  watching his Hokies. Fired up, proud to see the 25
• 1:17:03
  jersey and they have no answer for APR.
• 1:17:06
  Antoine Powell Ryland. The speed he brings.
• 1:17:09
  Around that edge. And did something of what an
• 1:17:16
  impact he was to that defensive line this year.
• 1:17:20
  I mean he made that unit significantly better and it's no
• 1:17:24
  knocked any of the other guys who have been here a while, but
• 1:17:26
  he effectively, Sheldon, you talked about scaling it up for
• 1:17:30
  next year. He scaled the defensive line up
• 1:17:32
  this year. He made that line better, he
• 1:17:34
  made some of those young defensive ends better and it was
• 1:17:38
  great to see that that night was beautiful in Lane Stadium.
• 1:17:41
  Brian, have you been able to get the one up Shelton wants to see?
• 1:17:44
  Getting it pulled now give me just another couple seconds here
• 1:17:48
  if you want to hit one more and and we'll pull that one in.
• 1:17:51
  All righty, Listen, this is another one that I love and I'm
• 1:17:55
  doing a lot of talking right now, but this is from the Wake
• 1:17:58
  Forest game and this is what the RPO can be with someone like
• 1:18:03
  Kyron Drones running it. This is the huge 75 yard
• 1:18:07
  touchdown to Jalen Lane. Again.
• 1:18:10
  Again, we see how fast he is, but watch the RPO and watch the
• 1:18:14
  safety, because that man took a step and he he paid for it with
• 1:18:18
  his life. Back.
• 1:18:20
  They need to become more of a complete pack back, whether it's
• 1:18:23
  a pass protection. Got right here watching to be a
• 1:18:25
  a starting. Tail back in the ACC.
• 1:18:28
  RPO, I'm going to go in. Oh, you were supposed to be
• 1:18:30
  right there, son. It's going to be an answer for
• 1:18:32
  Virginia. Tech.
• 1:18:34
  And that's Lane 75 yards. The Hokies answer.
• 1:18:39
  Speed Demon. Said.
• 1:18:40
  I got look, I got a guy who can make some plays.
• 1:18:44
  Great job on the RPO finding his wide receiver and then Lane was
• 1:18:48
  gone. I mean by the way, thank HCG
• 1:18:54
  Digital Networks, where we got these from that boy thought that
• 1:18:57
  he was handing that ball off to tune.
• 1:19:00
  He just thought it immediately. He took three steps and as soon
• 1:19:03
  as he gone and again there it is, Shelton to speed of Jalen
• 1:19:08
  Lane because as soon as he caught it and that one guy
• 1:19:09
  wasn't there, it's like that's over.
• 1:19:11
  That's a touchdown. Ron, you ready to pull this one
• 1:19:15
  up? We're good, yeah.
• 1:19:17
  Give me just one more second while I get this pulled into
• 1:19:19
  the. And these are just some of the
• 1:19:21
  plays and I know people are shouting them out here.
• 1:19:24
  Got Ali and the kick return, which we're going to see because
• 1:19:27
  that was like the Captive season.
• 1:19:29
  But any other tally pelle's we might not have that you can
• 1:19:32
  remember? I think it was the, again, my,
• 1:19:36
  my favorite play of the of the season was the the long
• 1:19:40
  touchdown pass to to Felton against Pitt.
• 1:19:46
  I think it was the first touchdown of the game where you
• 1:19:49
  had drones going down, talking shit to everybody that he could
• 1:19:53
  talk shit to. You know, getting to the end
• 1:19:55
  zone like just that that that was a great play because we
• 1:19:59
  scored, but also it spoke to the mentality and the character that
• 1:20:05
  some of our kids have. You know what I'm saying?
• 1:20:07
  Like hey, we ain't going to keep being the, we ain't going to
• 1:20:09
  keep being the the nail. We going to be the hammer.
• 1:20:12
  There you. Go I.
• 1:20:13
  Think we got that one? Was.
• 1:20:15
  I think we had that one in the chat.
• 1:20:17
  I think we did. Hold on, I'm going to add this
• 1:20:18
  one shell. We will get the order.
• 1:20:20
  I think it's one right here. No, that's this is the Syracuse
• 1:20:23
  one, although it's another. I mean, it was kind of like that
• 1:20:32
  though. Yeah, it was a lot of it was a
• 1:20:35
  lot of them that look similar. Speed.
• 1:20:40
  Just blowing by the guy. I love having a big, fast wide
• 1:20:47
  receiver on the outside. I feel like that's something we
• 1:20:50
  really haven't had in recent years, having a guy with that
• 1:20:52
  type of size combined with breakaway speed once he gets
• 1:20:57
  moving. But the crazy thing about Felton
• 1:20:59
  is that he just getting started. Like he's got so much that he
• 1:21:03
  can. You know, I'm saying that he's
• 1:21:05
  can do and he still can put out. You know what I'm saying?
• 1:21:08
  Because like the dudes are are stunned, man.
• 1:21:12
  He just, he's raw, very raw. So I'm so happy that he was
• 1:21:16
  coming back not only to help the team, but I think it'll help his
• 1:21:20
  draft stock as well. 1000% All right, we got three more.
• 1:21:25
  And Shelton, this is your play of the year.
• 1:21:27
  This is from the Military Bowl, right?
• 1:21:29
  Yes, it's from the Military Bowl Drones touchdown pass to Benji
• 1:21:33
  Gosnell 4th fourth quarter. Yeah, this is sick though,
• 1:21:44
  because. Yep, so great.
• 1:21:47
  The reason I chose this was because I thought it was a
• 1:21:49
  fantastic play design. And you know I was talking about
• 1:21:51
  it with a coach and I'll kind of I'll kind of relay what he said
• 1:21:54
  here. So you got toss, Sprint, fake,
• 1:21:57
  the H back goes now the primary route and it kind of plays off
• 1:22:00
  our split zone and split toss action that they they run a lot.
• 1:22:03
  So he said a cool cool detail there was the H back, wasn't the
• 1:22:06
  bluff man decoy in that situation it's sort of like a
• 1:22:09
  cross between the the H back slash tight end leak and a
• 1:22:13
  Sprint toss bluff. So lots of lots of technical
• 1:22:16
  jargon in there but basically you know just just having a play
• 1:22:20
  with with deception, with you know multiple or what appears to
• 1:22:23
  be you know multiple options in the play.
• 1:22:26
  Done really good job by drones of if that wasn't, if that
• 1:22:28
  wasn't a real read at least you know selling, selling a read
• 1:22:31
  there. Just, I just love that design.
• 1:22:34
  And obviously drones, you know, made the throw.
• 1:22:36
  Yeah, and understood where he was relative to the line of
• 1:22:38
  scrimmage because that was important as well.
• 1:22:42
  All righty. We got one more defensive play,
• 1:22:44
  Brian. We didn't get to see this until
• 1:22:46
  much later in the evening because we were at a game
• 1:22:49
  ourselves. But Dorian Strong basically just
• 1:22:53
  put BC to bed real early in that game and two beautiful
• 1:22:58
  interceptions here, man, let's get that one up.
• 1:23:01
  The the man who's an all American but not all ACC play
• 1:23:04
  action takes a shot over the middle and it is picked off
• 1:23:08
  right away. Picked off by Virginia Tax.
• 1:23:13
  What a play there by Dorian Strong.
• 1:23:17
  Castellanos going to take a shot down the field under throws it
• 1:23:21
  again and this time intercepted Dorian Strong his second
• 1:23:26
  interception of the game. But Dorian Strong heck of a
• 1:23:30
  heads up play getting his eyes around.
• 1:23:32
  Yeah, he's the he's not the perception player in the country
• 1:23:34
  or something like that. But yeah, he isn't a all ACC,
• 1:23:38
  ALL All ACC cornerback. Multiple second team, All
• 1:23:41
  Americans because his ridiculous completion percentage numbers,
• 1:23:46
  but he can't be the best in the ACC.
• 1:23:48
  Robbie No no. It is beautiful, the 44 Magnum
• 1:23:58
  baby. It it I saw it is growing on me,
• 1:24:01
  but get him in single digits please.
• 1:24:03
  Man, if he going to play like he played this year, to hell, he
• 1:24:06
  can keep it. Whatever you want to do, yeah.
• 1:24:10
  Well, y'all. Well some it is asked for.
• 1:24:12
  We already mentioned it and I do not think I got Bill's call on
• 1:24:16
  this. I I should have found Bill's
• 1:24:18
  call. But, you know, I'm working.
• 1:24:19
  I'm trying to find this stuff. This was just poetic, man.
• 1:24:24
  This was poetic during that game.
• 1:24:27
  They finally get a little bit of life and Tuden just snatches it
• 1:24:31
  right back and then rubs their Dick in a little bit, so.
• 1:24:36
  He does what Tube's going to. Be able to try to scan your kick
• 1:24:42
  right there. Got a blocker in front of him.
• 1:24:46
  It's a corner and he's gone. Basial Toon starts celebrating
• 1:24:53
  at the 30 yard line, 94 yards. What a day for Basial Toon.
• 1:25:04
  This right here. When he gets it outside, he just
• 1:25:07
  runs away from 567 Wahoos. Yep.
• 1:25:10
  He just go, he just, he just goes.
• 1:25:12
  He's 4th in the ACC in all-purpose yards, averaging 111
• 1:25:18
  yards per game. He is going to double that.
• 1:25:23
  At least there we go. Cold beverage on a cold night.
• 1:25:30
  And I'm pretty positive in in at the beginning of that clip where
• 1:25:34
  you hear the pitter pattern. I think that was our coaches
• 1:25:37
  clapping and raising hell in the booth, if I if I can remember
• 1:25:41
  correctly. Because they nailed it.
• 1:25:44
  Because they nailed it, man. The, the patience, though, I
• 1:25:49
  mean, I think that's the thing when I look at Tuten, like he's
• 1:25:53
  not quite that elite level patience that we saw with Khalil
• 1:25:57
  Herbert in terms of just being able to wait for, wait for it
• 1:26:02
  and then just explode through the hole.
• 1:26:05
  But I mean, he's got some of that and he's got a little bit
• 1:26:07
  more, I think, power combined with that, that breakaway speed
• 1:26:11
  and we saw kind of all of that on on display there.
• 1:26:13
  Man, he had patience, accelerated outside and then ran
• 1:26:17
  away from everybody. It was so many plays this year
• 1:26:21
  that he made. You know some of them may have
• 1:26:23
  only went for five yards or 7 yards where he's going towards
• 1:26:27
  the sideline and it looks like it's nothing there and he just
• 1:26:31
  keeps stringing it, stringing it and then he gets he bends that
• 1:26:34
  corner and then you know like in the in the two, in the two lane
• 1:26:38
  game he he he bends the corner and he scores.
• 1:26:42
  It's like how does he get there and how does he accelerate once
• 1:26:46
  he gets there. It's like you expect him to get
• 1:26:48
  caught from somewhere, but he he just doesn't like that.
• 1:26:51
  And when he gets caught sometimes his lower hat he he
• 1:26:55
  looks like he got 3 trunks for legs.
• 1:26:57
  Yeah, he's like a little bowling ball man.
• 1:26:59
  You you ain't taking him down with a little hand tackle and
• 1:27:02
  it's always beautiful to see that.
• 1:27:04
  Well boys, believe it or not, we have wrapped up what is now our
• 1:27:09
  first season as a team winning season.
• 1:27:12
  When we brought y'all on, that's all we need to do is just bring
• 1:27:15
  Tally and Sheldon on Brian. We would have had some winning
• 1:27:17
  seasons. If y'all were listening, I told
• 1:27:19
  you, We told you it was going to happen a long time ago.
• 1:27:21
  Listen, every this panel, these four gentlemen right here, us,
• 1:27:26
  we said we were going to a bowl. Other people doubted.
• 1:27:29
  We did not doubt. Yep, the faith.
• 1:27:32
  Kept the faith but this is effectively the end of our
• 1:27:35
  fourth season on the Boundary Corner Podcast.
• 1:27:38
  We will be back in a couple weeks to start season five of
• 1:27:42
  the Boundary Corner Podcast. Want to really appreciate this
• 1:27:45
  was definitely a year where the growth not only adding to
• 1:27:53
  amazing people to this podcast. Talian Shelton you guys are
• 1:27:58
  awesome in what y'all do. I love chatting with y'all got
• 1:28:03
  to meet everybody got to pretty much meet each other this year
• 1:28:06
  which was great. But we also took growth.
• 1:28:10
  You know I see there's still people watching.
• 1:28:12
  You know we took a growth. We we appreciate everybody who
• 1:28:15
  watches state of the program. I think what over 1500 views
• 1:28:19
  which is in. Just on YouTube we had another
• 1:28:23
  you know 2000 plus audio listens and we had mountain of Twitter
• 1:28:28
  views and Facebook views while that was live.
• 1:28:31
  So I mean that was a monster episode would y'all joined us
• 1:28:35
  you know pre season for the preview panel also monster
• 1:28:39
  episodes. We we've had some some big
• 1:28:41
  monsters this year. We appreciate everyone coming
• 1:28:44
  out supporting us spreading the news to to folks out there.
• 1:28:50
  I think that that's the big thing.
• 1:28:52
  Like word of mouth has been big for our our podcast.
• 1:28:55
  I mean when we started I mean we we we didn't really have a whole
• 1:28:58
  lot of built in network we've we've grown our network both you
• 1:29:02
  know from from friends on in social media you know friends
• 1:29:05
  that we we talked to day-to-day in the Hokie nations.
• 1:29:08
  It's just it's been amazing the response that we've got and we
• 1:29:12
  appreciate all of that support. Definitely, definitely been a
• 1:29:16
  fun ride, man. You know what I'm saying?
• 1:29:18
  I was very reluctant to get into this because it's time
• 1:29:21
  consuming. It takes some time that Brian
• 1:29:25
  and Shelton does most of that work as far as time goes behind
• 1:29:28
  the scenes analytics and getting stats and then Curtis has to
• 1:29:33
  wrangle everybody in. So I just get on here and talk,
• 1:29:35
  but it still takes a lot of time.
• 1:29:37
  But it's very, you know, it's very it's something that we
• 1:29:40
  enjoy doing and we enjoy y'all being here, spread the spread
• 1:29:45
  the word, man. Like we're not done.
• 1:29:48
  We want, we want, we want to do some big things this year.
• 1:29:51
  We want some some new guests, we want more guests, we want you
• 1:29:56
  know more meet ups we we want to do all of that.
• 1:30:00
  You know we going to do, we going to do it all.
• 1:30:02
  So we appreciate everybody for for the last year that we've had
• 1:30:07
  and I'm looking forward to the next year here.
• 1:30:10
  Absolutely can't. Wait, big things ahead in 2024,
• 1:30:14
  I believe. Big.
• 1:30:15
  Things ahead and I'm. Going to go ahead and make the
• 1:30:17
  plug because somebody asked about it.
• 1:30:18
  Rayshawn McCormick out on Facebook.
• 1:30:21
  Listen in March Matassas, He always joins us.
• 1:30:24
  We're going to talk about all these players in 2025 in state,
• 1:30:28
  out of state. So we're.
• 1:30:29
  Hoping we're going to have one or two in the boat that we kind
• 1:30:32
  of breakdown in depth and we're going to look at, look at where
• 1:30:35
  we stand with the rest of that class.
• 1:30:36
  And usually we have Matteo on a couple times.
• 1:30:39
  We'll have him on late February, early March kind of get a little
• 1:30:42
  primer for the season and then we'll we'll bring him on again
• 1:30:46
  kind of late Midsummer to to kind of see where we are before
• 1:30:49
  we get get into the the meat of the season.
• 1:30:52
  So we'll usually have two big recruiting updates.
• 1:30:54
  Obviously we're going to keep updating throughout the year,
• 1:30:56
  but as as we go along it's going to be a lot of fun this year.
• 1:31:00
  We got some some new faces actually we got one behind the
• 1:31:04
  scenes right now that we're bringing on this year Jack Day,
• 1:31:06
  he's going to be a production assistant for us.
• 1:31:09
  So I think we're going to level up pretty good here from our
• 1:31:12
  media standpoint as we kind of move into the season five this
• 1:31:15
  year. So welcome aboard to Jack and
• 1:31:19
  we're really looking forward to to what this upcoming year is
• 1:31:21
  going to bring, absolutely. Yes, Robbie, we will meet this
• 1:31:25
  year. If I got to come to one of your
• 1:31:26
  games on Friday night, we're we're going to make it happen.
• 1:31:30
  We're going to drive to North Wilkesboro so Tali can.
• 1:31:33
  I'm going to make it. I'm going to make it happen this
• 1:31:35
  year, man. I gotta meet Robbie.
• 1:31:37
  All right. Well, boys, that does wrap up
• 1:31:39
  this episode of the Boundary Corner podcast, brought to you
• 1:31:43
  by the Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg.
• 1:31:46
  I'm Curtis. Wilson, I'm Brian Siegler.
• 1:31:49
  I'm Nick Sabie's uncle. And I am Shelton Moss.
• 1:31:54
  Visit the website boundarycornervt.com but listen
• 1:31:57
  to all of our episodes. Check the merchandise.
• 1:31:58
  Shop out while you're there. Always follow us Twitter over
• 1:32:02
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• 1:32:06
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• 1:32:11
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• 1:32:13
  We're on them all as always. Jason Long, our buddy that tally
• 1:32:18
  got to meet our music man in Roanoke.
• 1:32:21
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• 1:32:23
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• 1:32:26
  We thank you for listening. And as always, let's go.
• 1:32:31
  OK.