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Transcript

Spring Interlude · Boundary Corner Podcast

• 0:45
  Welcome back to the boundary Corner podcast.
• 0:49
  I'm Curtis Wilson, I'm Brian siglo buddy we kicking it on a
• 0:53
  Thursday night this week. How you feeling?
• 0:56
  Man it's Thursday night, we survived some potential for
• 0:59
  tornadoes here in the r-va. Got about one thing to about
• 1:05
  three. My wife and son home early from
• 1:08
  school. I was I was I was working from
• 1:12
  home today so I was I was stuck in thankfully Have a path.
• 1:16
  It took for us to kind of went just to the west of where we
• 1:19
  were kind of like through like Western Mechanicsville and
• 1:25
  Ashland. So we didn't quite get as much
• 1:29
  of the, the winds and stuff, some of those other areas got.
• 1:32
  Yeah, I was in the office today, man, and the warning hit.
• 1:36
  We had to go to the basement and kill the warning was over.
• 1:40
  And then I had to go get my son from school.
• 1:42
  They were in shelter in place because the the went just East
• 1:48
  for those in Richmond. It went through param road.
• 1:51
  So, I mean, it, you know, I don't think it ever touched
• 1:53
  down, but it was right there. So, I had to do some cast out of
• 1:57
  work later, because I left the office kind of abruptly, to do
• 2:01
  that, wife and other son had to leave school early.
• 2:04
  So, hectic day, but it's Thursday night.
• 2:07
  We have a super guest tonight. We are talking a lot of spring
• 2:11
  football brine in. Let's just go ahead and bring
• 2:16
  the man on Wellspring David behan managing editor of tech
• 2:21
  Sidelines. David, how are you?
• 2:24
  I'm doing, well, guys, I'm first of all.
• 2:25
  I'm glad you guys are safe. How about me silly and
• 2:28
  Blacksburg? It was very rainy this morning
• 2:31
  when I went to open practice as I'm sure we'll get to, and then
• 2:36
  whether kind of cooled down and is pretty nice out.
• 2:40
  So yeah, pretty pretty well, it's Thursday.
• 2:44
  Which means we're one day closer to the weekend.
• 2:46
  And, yes, sir. Thanks for having me on excited
• 2:50
  to be here. Yeah, we really appreciate you
• 2:53
  coming on David. You know, you are kind of that
• 2:56
  text sideline. I feel like the everything man
• 2:59
  you were in Milwaukee. You were in Brooklyn, you're
• 3:01
  covering practices, you're covering the team when they're
• 3:04
  here. So, you know, just so folks who
• 3:07
  don't know, you haven't read your work, give us A little
• 3:10
  background on yourself and kind of what you do at Tech sideline.
• 3:14
  Yeah. Well, to put it simply.
• 3:17
  I'm a lot younger than you guys. I'm 22.
• 3:20
  I just graduated in May of last year from Virginia Tech.
• 3:24
  I'm originally from Yorktown Virginia which is just outside
• 3:27
  Newport News. I went to I was rival high
• 3:32
  schools with Bruton where Brian Randall went to high school.
• 3:35
  So there's no some knowledge for you.
• 3:38
  I live about five minutes from Minutes from where Tyrod Taylor?
• 3:41
  Michael Vick quite grown up. I you know I came to Virginia
• 3:46
  Tech. I was a freshman in the fall of
• 3:48
  2017 School Communications. Now, School Community formally
• 3:52
  Department Communications Sports media analytics, major first
• 3:56
  graduating class, so proud of everything that's going on and
• 4:00
  in school, communication and shout out to everything, text
• 4:04
  idling does will Stewart. And, and everybody I text
• 4:08
  sidelined the fibers. They donated, you know, this is
• 4:14
  an endowed scholarship that's been going on since August of
• 4:16
  2018 and they donated, you know, over 72 thousand dollars to
• 4:21
  school communication and so because of that, you know, the
• 4:25
  school and there's always supports me analytics program
• 4:30
  and textile on a very close relationship.
• 4:32
  So, I got to know will when I was a student and Chris Coleman
• 4:36
  as well. And you know, when I was Ready
• 4:40
  to graduate a kind just reached out and I knew they were kind of
• 4:43
  looking for somebody to kind of expand everything that they were
• 4:46
  doing. So I reached out, we had a good
• 4:47
  conversation and can't believe it's not even been a year, but
• 4:52
  we've gone through football and basketball season and we've gone
• 4:56
  through a lot. I mean, yeah, consider first
• 4:59
  year in school on the job and I've gotten to cover a football
• 5:03
  season that involved a head coaching change, which is only
• 5:06
  the second one, you know, since 1987 187, since we were kids,
• 5:14
  second one since 87, and then, of course, basketball and I was
• 5:19
  at all, but I think two football games this year and I covered
• 5:23
  20, I was at 27 and 36 basketball games in person and
• 5:28
  you got to cover the got to cover women's basketball as
• 5:30
  well. They have terrific season and,
• 5:33
  you know, it's been, it's been a very hectic.
• 5:35
  March back on March 22nd. Of course, say is March 31st but
• 5:39
  back. March 22nd.
• 5:41
  I told some of my friends who's a 22nd day of the month and I
• 5:46
  had only been in Blacksburg like wake up to go to bed for five
• 5:51
  days of the month bullying because I've been in Greensboro
• 5:54
  covering the women's tournament and then I had been in Brooklyn
• 5:56
  covering the men's tournament. And I've been Milwaukee
• 5:59
  traveling all over the place so it's been nice to kind of pass
• 6:03
  week or so kind of everything settled down.
• 6:05
  But, but yeah, textile and I kind of, like you mentioned
• 6:08
  Curtis. I kind of do everything.
• 6:10
  NG. I'm the football and men's
• 6:11
  basketball beat writer and I'm the managing editor.
• 6:14
  So I manage all of our other content.
• 6:17
  So, we've got some students that we employ.
• 6:20
  We give them a little stipend every month, Chris hirings
• 6:24
  covers, women's basketball, and baseball for us.
• 6:27
  Jack brizendine covers wrestling and does some other stuff for
• 6:29
  us. So I kind of edit and oversee
• 6:33
  all those guys all of our softball coverage or Olympic
• 6:37
  sports coverage, pretty much. Okay.
• 6:39
  So, That's my role. And then on, you know, the rest
• 6:43
  of it is covering men's basketball football which
• 6:45
  obviously takes up a big chunk of my time.
• 6:48
  So it's kept me busy, 100% November and December pretty
• 6:54
  stressful just with I didn't have much time to think just
• 6:57
  because of you know, basketball was doing pretty well.
• 7:01
  And then football decides, we're going to hire, you know, got
• 7:04
  some point, they obviously leaves and you know, football
• 7:06
  decides. Hey, we're going to hire a head
• 7:07
  coach the day before Virginia Tech's post.
• 7:09
  Play at me. Merlin, and then the basketball.
• 7:11
  So, very, very pretty but, but yeah, it's been a long year, but
• 7:18
  it's been very fun. I'm very, very grateful for this
• 7:20
  opportunity I have and, you know, when I'm not working, it's
• 7:24
  nice because obviously, you know, I was a student when covid
• 7:28
  hit. So I miss some time because of
• 7:30
  that, you know, just getting to experience, being a college
• 7:35
  student Blacksburg, as I'm sure you guys remember your times,
• 7:38
  very fondly. So, Just just to be able to
• 7:41
  obviously have money so I'm not exactly like there we go.
• 7:46
  It's a lot more fun when you have the money right now.
• 7:49
  It's nice. It's nice to be able to go out
• 7:53
  with friends that are still here and you know, to go out to the
• 7:58
  Champs Sports Bar, we go grab food itself station.
• 8:02
  You just just to be able to still experience Blacksburg
• 8:04
  because I didn't get to experience so much of it as a
• 8:07
  student because it:. So yeah, shoutouts up.
• 8:09
  Station because that is the spot.
• 8:14
  That is that's my go-to. But you know what?
• 8:17
  Honestly if I if anybody in Blacksburg would sponsor me and
• 8:20
  probably be substation because it's got the point.
• 8:23
  I know, Hamid, the owner very well and it's gotten to the
• 8:27
  point where like I will kind of like walk in the door and they
• 8:30
  like already know what I want. There you go.
• 8:32
  I kind of want a first name basis.
• 8:35
  That's a good thing that is. So you.
• 8:37
  So with all your March travels, like what?
• 8:40
  He had the best bars like that, that you got to experience.
• 8:44
  You know what? Milwaukee was really cool?
• 8:46
  And of course, like I didn't even realize Milwaukee's gotta
• 8:49
  like, like Wisconsin as a whole as a lot of really good beer.
• 8:52
  Yes baby. Yes, they do is high, I made
• 8:55
  sure. So.
• 8:56
  So of course I got into town on Wednesday on me because the way
• 9:00
  it works for a NCAA tournament is Tech plate Friday, right.
• 9:04
  Thursday is all media day. So, you know, the four teams
• 9:09
  that Played in that first session which was Purdue yell,
• 9:15
  Virginia Tech Texas, they have media then there was a break and
• 9:19
  then the four teams have played in later session on Friday.
• 9:21
  They had their meaty stuff on Thursday.
• 9:23
  So, I spent Thursday pretty much working churning out content,
• 9:27
  Friday. Obviously Tech played so that
• 9:29
  kept me busy. And there were a lot of
• 9:30
  basketball games on. So Saturday was very strange
• 9:33
  because there's other second round games going on.
• 9:37
  But I have nothing to do in Milwaukee and I don't have a
• 9:39
  flight until Monday. So I got to go out and
• 9:42
  experience. I went to a really good barbecue
• 9:43
  place and I will tell you about Wisconsin, is the people are
• 9:47
  just so nice. Yeah.
• 9:49
  There's so, so great people, I went to a BBQ Place had really
• 9:53
  good beer. I made sure to have a spotted
• 9:55
  cow. That's what everybody.
• 9:57
  That's what everybody told me. I had to have.
• 9:58
  It was very good, did you get a 12-pack in the airport to take
• 10:01
  on the plane with you? Hide it?
• 10:03
  Because I'm sure that his home office is.
• 10:07
  Out of Milwaukee. And every time he flies in
• 10:09
  there, he says, as I leave, I pick up a 12-pack and take it
• 10:12
  with me. Honestly.
• 10:13
  I probably I wasn't even thinking that, that much at that
• 10:17
  point. I was kind of just like, I'm
• 10:18
  trying to get home and had a layover.
• 10:20
  I'd like an hour and a half, layover in Chicago, but but, you
• 10:25
  know, it Milwaukee was really cool.
• 10:27
  And I tell you, what, for Brooklyn, Brooklyn was cool,
• 10:29
  because as I told you guys, before we went on air, you know,
• 10:32
  just there were a lot of other Virginia Tech people Affiliated
• 10:36
  me. Dia with Virginia Tech there.
• 10:38
  A lot of them students and I'm friends with.
• 10:40
  So we had a ball, we went and found some places and A little
• 10:46
  sketchy maybe at times. But you know what?
• 10:50
  Like, it was to get to experience that, you know, I
• 10:54
  mean, it was like, it was like Friday night or Saturday night
• 10:59
  after Virginia Tech beat Notre Dame in North Carolina duke or
• 11:03
  whatever. You know, we all go out as a
• 11:05
  group and, and I will remember those moments, you know, that
• 11:10
  and the games, obviously. But, but yeah, really, really
• 11:13
  fun times in March and I can't believe College.
• 11:16
  All Seasons coming to an end. Really, really, really big for
• 11:18
  me. By the way, you talk about the
• 11:19
  sketch level. It's like a certain, it's like a
• 11:21
  curve. It's like, oh yeah, it's a curve
• 11:24
  that it's the point where it's like a certain sketches at also
• 11:27
  more to go to, but if you get on the other side of it, you're
• 11:30
  like one ball the fight and I've been here, but I walked into the
• 11:36
  wrong place. I'm gonna do my courtesy beer,
• 11:39
  and then I'm going to see you guys later.
• 11:41
  Exactly. Yeah, and I will, I'd ever been
• 11:44
  in Brooklyn before. So it was so and I don't think a
• 11:48
  lot of the other guys had either.
• 11:49
  So it was an experience, but the nice thing was just where our
• 11:54
  hotel was which was like less than a, my hotel was a half, a
• 11:57
  mile away from the Barclays Center.
• 11:59
  It was nice because we were able to find places right around
• 12:02
  within walking distance. So it wasn't like we had to pay
• 12:05
  for anything so that was cool. Got to go do some sightseeing.
• 12:08
  So overall fun trip and it turned out well for Virginia
• 12:12
  Tech. Yeah, yeah, I'm up.
• 12:14
  I'm actually up there. We were brothers getting married
• 12:17
  and Long Island. So I'm heading down Thursday so
• 12:22
  it should be a good time. All right, let's move to it
• 12:25
  because if we keep going just conversation, we might be here
• 12:29
  till 2:00 in the morning because David even though you might be a
• 12:33
  younger Brethren, obviously it's an easy connection with you,
• 12:36
  man, but let's start off. Let's talk about spring
• 12:39
  practice. You have got a chance all ready
• 12:42
  to go to two of the six which is, you know already.
• 12:45
  I don't know how many more Or than what you got to do with the
• 12:47
  last regime. But let's talk about what print
• 12:49
  process at the beginning of the spring.
• 12:51
  Basically, everybody on this team, has a clean slate and no,
• 12:56
  starting prot is promised. And we look at the quarterback
• 13:00
  room and all these positions. You know, we're here in Cana
• 13:04
  Bromwich getting reps. You know, coach said he was one
• 13:07
  of the best 22 that they had out there.
• 13:11
  He's also at tight end and wide out.
• 13:12
  Now, then Brown and Wells are look like, they're getting An
• 13:16
  equal reps in the first 10 days of Spring ball from you being
• 13:21
  there. Hearing people talk.
• 13:23
  What do you think? We're learning about the
• 13:26
  quarterback position? Why would say first of all, from
• 13:30
  from practice this morning, you know, counterblow merrik they
• 13:34
  talked yesterday on Wednesday just about all the different
• 13:37
  position changes and Connor bore marks.
• 13:39
  One of those guys who they think he's a really, really good
• 13:42
  athlete. So they're like, okay, well
• 13:43
  let's try to find where he can impact us the most this morning,
• 13:47
  he was working out at wide receiver and tight end, he was
• 13:51
  catching passes and guess what? He's a pretty good athlete and
• 13:54
  he can catch passes and he's one of the tallest guys out there.
• 13:57
  There, you know. So so you know if I think that's
• 14:01
  a a role for him because there I think there's probably better
• 14:04
  Talent than hitting the quarterback room, Jason Brown
• 14:07
  and Grant Wells, you know, especially well as I've been
• 14:10
  impressed with both but I think don't you know, those are the
• 14:13
  two guys that have really impressed and it really stood
• 14:16
  apart from everybody else. Obviously God Devon Farrell.
• 14:20
  True freshman Taj Bullock. He'll be, you know he'll red
• 14:24
  shirt, be a redshirt freshman, but You know, it's those two
• 14:29
  guys and then the other two guys, but, you know, I really
• 14:32
  like what I've seen from from Grant Wells and I'm not going to
• 14:35
  say he's a starter over Jason Brown, but I think both of them
• 14:38
  have a pretty good arm and both of them have a lot of really
• 14:40
  good experience. And if indeed Connor blumrich
• 14:43
  does end up playing at a, you know, wide out at tight end.
• 14:48
  I think he's going to be a good option out there simply because
• 14:51
  he's athletic, he's fast and he's got really good hands.
• 14:54
  I mean, he was I don't want to dis some of the other wide
• 14:57
  receivers, but like he was making at times better catches
• 15:01
  then some of the actual wide receivers were so well, you
• 15:04
  know, I think so far. It's hard to tell obviously
• 15:08
  because it's it's just quarterback, strong against
• 15:11
  nobody. It's not like there's anybody.
• 15:14
  The throne again is No Defenders necessarily, but I would say the
• 15:19
  quarterback has been pretty impressive, what you would
• 15:21
  expect so far, I think as will get to later.
• 15:24
  I think the wide Seavers have kind of been questionable at
• 15:29
  times and it's been more the quarterbacks that, you know,
• 15:31
  it's what you would expect, okay?
• 15:33
  Okay. Yeah.
• 15:34
  When we had looked at some of the tape from some of the games
• 15:38
  that Tyler, but when it called, they use their quarterbacks in,
• 15:43
  sometimes they would use a gadget player, they would slide
• 15:46
  them into quarterback and do some tricks in the back
• 15:48
  backfield there with that. So that might be something that
• 15:51
  that Connor ultimately ultimately, does from a tight
• 15:54
  end position or from a wide receiver.
• 15:55
  Listen, when you can use those, not necessarily trick plays but
• 15:59
  just ways of misdirection with the the offense in the backfield
• 16:04
  there. But let me ask this because you
• 16:05
  talked about Wells already, he won the spring baller award.
• 16:08
  I think it was for practice, either two or three.
• 16:12
  When you think that's more indicative of his performance
• 16:15
  during practice, or if that's something, we're like an
• 16:17
  attitude and effort type thing that they're giving out at this
• 16:20
  point, you know, Brent price. Really, preach competitiveness.
• 16:24
  And that's been the number one. One thing, I think a lot of
• 16:27
  these awards are all competitive driven and I'm not going to say
• 16:30
  that I could not tell you for sure that no, it's not because
• 16:35
  he went out and played, you know, fantastic during practice
• 16:39
  but I think I think every single award and Tyler, bone, and
• 16:44
  Chris, Marv offensive and defensive coordinators are
• 16:46
  releasing these every single day.
• 16:49
  I think almost every single one of these Awards is based on
• 16:54
  competitiveness based on Leadership skills based on the
• 16:58
  attributes that make you you know not necessarily make you a
• 17:02
  good player but make you a good teammate.
• 17:05
  Okay. That leaves Nets and I think
• 17:08
  Grant Wells probably showed off some leadership skills.
• 17:11
  Showed off his toughness, his competitiveness.
• 17:13
  And that's the stuff that they're trying to see, you know,
• 17:16
  in in Spring ball in Winter workouts.
• 17:19
  That's why they did all of the, the winter conditioning and they
• 17:22
  did. And that would be my, my guess
• 17:25
  that's my feel of it that every single one, not just Wells, but
• 17:28
  all the other guys, you know, the ones that win spring boiler
• 17:31
  works. Yeah.
• 17:32
  I think a lot of it. I think some of it probably has
• 17:33
  to do with, you know, their performance Wells probably, you
• 17:37
  know, whether he was at, he had a great accurate day or whatnot.
• 17:40
  You know, whether it was a wide receiver Dwayne Lofton 11 the
• 17:43
  other day. You know, whether they're making
• 17:45
  good catches or whatnot, but I also think it's a mental part of
• 17:49
  the game, too and physicality and Not just okay can you go out
• 17:54
  there and make plays its do every other aspect of your game
• 17:58
  as well? Yeah, that does make a lot of
• 18:01
  sense that you think about it. It's going to be more of a role
• 18:03
  in 21, not just performance or not just your rah-rah guy,
• 18:07
  you're a great teammate. You probably have to do a little
• 18:10
  bit of both to get on that. Like, you are super leadership
• 18:14
  today, but you went 147 passing. I can't give you this award, but
• 18:18
  you had a really good day passing, you're keeping the guys
• 18:21
  engaged. You're showing your leadership.
• 18:23
  So I think you're I think that's a good way to think about it,
• 18:26
  that it's probably a little bit of everything you've already
• 18:29
  mentioned. The name redshirt freshman Taj
• 18:31
  bullet quarterback, you know, 64 230 pounds, Big Arm.
• 18:35
  We saw him in the bowl game. Last year, how are you feeling
• 18:39
  towards his development, you know, kind of early into his
• 18:42
  second year with the Hokies? Yeah, I think he's I think he's
• 18:47
  got a lot of talent and he's got a big arm.
• 18:49
  I think it's and this is not a shot at his previous
• 18:53
  quarterbacks coach, but I think he just I think he needs time to
• 18:56
  develop in this system and I think everybody's learning curve
• 19:01
  is different. But you know, when you look at
• 19:04
  all the quarterbacks in the room Grant Wells and Jason Brown,
• 19:07
  have a lot of experience great. Well is already started for two
• 19:11
  years at Marshall and he come and he comes here, plenty of
• 19:14
  experience. Jason Brown, obviously started
• 19:16
  for South Carolina this year. He played plenty at his previous
• 19:18
  stops. Yeah.
• 19:20
  Devon Farrell and top Taj Buller kind of both in that category
• 19:24
  where they're freshmen, they're very wrong still.
• 19:28
  And I'm not sure, I think we'll find will find out more of an
• 19:33
  indication as Spring ball goes on as we see more Taj Bullock
• 19:36
  and Devon Farrell but I can't tell you for sure how much he
• 19:41
  developed as a quarterback under the last regime, you know and I
• 19:45
  think what what what Brad Glenn is doing to develop Quarterbacks
• 19:50
  is probably a lot different than what Brad core Nelson was doing
• 19:53
  to develop quarterbacks and I think it's not going to be
• 19:56
  instant. Now, the good thing is he
• 19:58
  doesn't have to be the guy, you know, it's not like there's no
• 20:02
  pressure on him because he's obviously, he wants to play, but
• 20:06
  everybody wants to play. But he's got great walls and
• 20:08
  Jason Brown in front of him, and he's already used his Redshirt
• 20:12
  year, but I think there's a lot of room for growth.
• 20:16
  There's plenty of room for growth where he can kind of just
• 20:18
  sit back and learn the ropes from Um some guys who have
• 20:21
  experience and that's not something.
• 20:23
  Okay? Yeah Braixen Burmeister came
• 20:25
  here but he didn't have much experience as a starting
• 20:27
  quarterback before I came here, it was a room filled with guys
• 20:31
  who had talent and guys who played at Virginia Tech but not
• 20:34
  necessarily a guy who who had starting experience before there
• 20:38
  was not necessarily a guy to look up to.
• 20:40
  And and I think the other quarterback I think everybody's
• 20:43
  going to help each other get better in that room.
• 20:47
  You know, we were talking about it Taj Bullock, he had Couple
• 20:50
  passes today we're just throwing on the run.
• 20:53
  You take the snap, you roll your left, you know, you just have to
• 20:57
  throw on the run, hit a guy in the flat and it's passes or
• 20:59
  Fallen shorter, you know, weren't hitting the mark.
• 21:02
  And and I think that's just something where, you know, it's
• 21:05
  just taken him a little while to develop and it's probably tough
• 21:09
  for a young guy. I mean, I can't even imagine
• 21:11
  what it's like for a quarterback at a position so crucial where
• 21:16
  you're trying to learn one Playbook under one coat.
• 21:20
  Coaching staff, you know, you're doing X drills, and then two
• 21:26
  months later, different coaching staff, different, Playbook
• 21:30
  different drills. Yeah, give Leo.
• 21:32
  You're going to complete different things, so I'm sure
• 21:34
  it's going to take him some time, I wouldn't lose any hope
• 21:37
  on him yet. But obviously he don't have any
• 21:39
  pressure on him and he's got some time to develop and that is
• 21:42
  yeah. Yeah for unfortunately something
• 21:45
  like a as you said with the coordinator change, their he
• 21:49
  probably is going to take Another year.
• 21:51
  And but thankfully we do have a situation.
• 21:53
  Now with the guys, we picked up in the transfer portal where he
• 21:57
  doesn't have to be the guy right now.
• 21:59
  And we're next year and maybe not next year and there's that
• 22:02
  gives him a little bit of time to come along and pick up the
• 22:05
  system and get to a point where when he does see the field.
• 22:10
  He's commanding the offense and not out there just because we
• 22:13
  had to put a body out. So let's move on to my favorite
• 22:20
  area. Let's talk.
• 22:21
  Offensive line, addict, Invincible do this second
• 22:25
  quarterback. Third.
• 22:26
  It was kind of a brutal thing, but we go.
• 22:29
  What can we do? This is an offensive line
• 22:32
  podcast. It is.
• 22:34
  So, you know, we talked about a little bit.
• 22:36
  Some of the objectives for spraying were to Grass
• 22:39
  fundamentals and compete every rep and that all starts in the
• 22:44
  trenches. Has.
• 22:45
  So, we're looking at the first team that that's been out there
• 22:50
  so far with the group of, sylas Angie Jesse Hanson, Johnny,
• 22:55
  Jordan, Caden, more Parker, comments.
• 22:59
  How are we feeling about the first team?
• 23:02
  I think, you know what, it's funny because back in January to
• 23:07
  December, this was a group that it was what justjust Jesse
• 23:12
  Hansen, Caden more and Parker Clements like?
• 23:15
  Yeah, we weren't sure of Johnny Jordan was going to come back,
• 23:18
  we weren't sure if Silas jeans you was gonna come back.
• 23:20
  So you bring back to guys with with a lot of experience there
• 23:23
  that you guys have the most experience on the entire line.
• 23:25
  They did, you know, not Katie Moore, everybody saw how good
• 23:30
  cake more was last year. Freshman Parker Clement, got
• 23:34
  another year under his belt. You know, he's learning.
• 23:36
  I think those two guys are going to be good.
• 23:38
  I think the question is Jesse handsome, we never really know.
• 23:40
  He's a redshirt sophomore, never really gotten gotten to see him
• 23:45
  get a lot of action consistently but but I think overall, you
• 23:49
  know, it's not a bad line. All things considered, you know,
• 23:53
  can I mean and I think a lot of its going to come down to what
• 23:57
  skill put would skill position guys.
• 23:59
  You have in the backfield, you know, like Half of half of
• 24:04
  running. The ball is based on the running
• 24:07
  back and quarterback and also based on the offensive line, you
• 24:10
  know, you can have a okay offensive line but you had a
• 24:13
  really good running back. You know, those things kind of
• 24:15
  even out and I think overall this is a pretty good is average
• 24:19
  above average offensive line. You know what, I think as they
• 24:22
  continue to get better and get more reps together and get on
• 24:27
  the same page, I think bill will be even better, but all the guys
• 24:31
  have experience and I think that's the Biggest thing I think
• 24:33
  Hansen's the one guy that potentially doesn't have as much
• 24:36
  experience but Jan z&k to more plate was fantastic last year.
• 24:41
  Johnny Jordan Remember mean he earned Big Ten all-big Ten
• 24:44
  honors you know he was at Maryland and honestly I don't
• 24:48
  want to say he's better than Brock Hoffman but I think those
• 24:50
  two guys were probably on us very Level Playing Field.
• 24:54
  Often had just you know Hoffman was the incumbent and The way
• 24:59
  that that works is, you know, Johnny Jordan had slid around
• 25:03
  and play different positions and stuff but overall I think it's
• 25:08
  it's a pretty good group and remember who's coaching them?
• 25:10
  It's Joe Rudolph and he knows how to coach his offensive line,
• 25:14
  guys, he knows what he's doing and what's really stood out to
• 25:18
  me is what Jesse Hanson said, you know, a couple I think last
• 25:22
  week when we got, we got a chance to talk to him.
• 25:24
  He just crazy after praise at their, Praise of Joe Rudolph and
• 25:28
  Just the skills he had already taught them and for what it
• 25:32
  sounded to me like I'm sure. Vance advice advice, was a good
• 25:35
  coach, great recruiter had, great offensive lines at
• 25:38
  Virginia Tech but I'm sure they're teaching techniques are
• 25:42
  much different and it's good. It's nice to hear the praise and
• 25:47
  go, okay, you know, that's interesting because I don't know
• 25:51
  if I'd ever really heard a virgin that player talk about it
• 25:54
  coach like that. This regime were last regime so
• 25:57
  to hear Hanson. Talk about how much Joe Rule and
• 26:00
  how great he is as a teacher. I think that's really really
• 26:02
  telling. Yeah he seems like he's really
• 26:05
  able to break your fundamentals and scheme and things down and
• 26:08
  teach it in a way that I don't think has been done at Virginia
• 26:12
  Tech for a while. Do you see anybody on this unit?
• 26:16
  Kind of emerging as a leader, I know you kind of had the last
• 26:19
  two have went into the into the draft.
• 26:24
  Is as we've finished out their careers in Virginia Tech.
• 26:28
  No real seasoned veteran outside of Silas.
• 26:32
  Maybe he hasn't necessarily been an entrenched starter for
• 26:36
  multiple years. So who is kind of emerging is
• 26:38
  that leader on the line so far that you're seeing?
• 26:41
  Yeah, I would say Silas gnz but I also would say, Johnny Jordan
• 26:44
  to let me remember when you're the center, you're making all
• 26:48
  the calls. Yep, he's the guy that that is
• 26:51
  making the reads chat with the quarterback.
• 26:53
  Back and Johnny Jordans a very vocal guy and I really I like
• 26:58
  Johnny Jordans game when he came here to Virginia Tech and I
• 27:01
  think you know, Brock often wasn't there, I mean obviously
• 27:04
  would have been the starter all last year, you know?
• 27:07
  And I think Virginia Tech is going to be lucky that he came
• 27:12
  back because imagine trying to replace a center.
• 27:16
  You know, new guy, no experience.
• 27:18
  That's a lot of stress for both a offensive line coach, both
• 27:23
  offensive. Coordinator Johnny Jordan's a
• 27:25
  guy that Virginia Tech's can be able to rely on.
• 27:27
  I think those two guys jeans and Johnny Jordan are going to
• 27:31
  they're the oldest guys in the room and they're going to be the
• 27:33
  guys that that kind of keep everybody in line and are those
• 27:37
  veteran leaders. All right.
• 27:40
  Yeah, the Rudolph thing. You don't put that many guys in
• 27:43
  the NFL, you don't have that many all Americans without being
• 27:47
  a great teacher. And something, you know, I've
• 27:50
  talked with Brawn, he's been my friend for 20 plus years and our
• 27:54
  discussion to get deep on it and he's helped me learn.
• 27:59
  So, and when you hear hands and say that because I remember
• 28:01
  those quotes like he's taught us so much in this short period of
• 28:04
  time, again, not trying to knock anybody, but it's one of those
• 28:08
  Those things where maybe the other guy taught you the same
• 28:12
  stuff. It's just like Brian said, it's
• 28:13
  the style and it's clicking, which is great.
• 28:17
  Now, let's talk about the second line.
• 28:20
  This is what we had from the scrimmage and if you're seeing
• 28:24
  things different, another scrimmage was, you know, a
• 28:26
  couple weeks ago, you tell us. But we've got William Jones at,
• 28:31
  right, tackle. William Jones is an ing, walk
• 28:34
  on, he was a three-star, Bryce, good earner, the guard out of
• 28:37
  Tennessee. Connor McClane.
• 28:40
  The true freshman who literally just committed days days before,
• 28:46
  you know, signing day Nikolai budget.
• 28:49
  Now, ski couldn't tell you who that is, I think just somebody
• 28:53
  that's been on the roster, I've noticed the name's Bob shake it
• 28:56
  left guard, the Juco transfer from Utah and Dimitri Jaguar
• 29:01
  Dias, who was the iupi Pui basketball transfer at 69, who
• 29:08
  Who we thought was coming here to play tight end.
• 29:12
  They've moved him on the line, Brian.
• 29:15
  Put this on the thing. Death is spooky hours right now
• 29:18
  on the offensive line and Yeah, I will.
• 29:22
  And I mean compare this to work Tech was shitting a year ago or
• 29:26
  two years ago, two years ago, just the amount of depth.
• 29:30
  I mean, and that's what happens when you've got a good offensive
• 29:33
  line coach and Vance bodies that produces talent that goes on to
• 29:36
  the NFL. That's just, that's just what
• 29:38
  happens. And I think that you got to give
• 29:40
  advance of ice credit because he put guys in the NFL Christian
• 29:43
  Dara saw ya in injuries last year but Christian darussalam
• 29:46
  was really, really good. I'm not sure how many of these
• 29:50
  guys are going to get drafted. Your butt but between the truth
• 29:53
  is without a doubt going. Oh yeah, I have a feeling that I
• 30:00
  think whether the guys get dropped or not, I have a
• 30:03
  feeling, you know, that I think all three guys could have a
• 30:05
  chance to get drafted, definitely.
• 30:07
  But I think they'll all end up on a team.
• 30:09
  Brock Hoffman will see his Smith look to new to they're all
• 30:13
  really talented, guys. And that goes to show you, you
• 30:16
  know, to new to is the youngest of the group that just goes to
• 30:20
  show you what kind of Of culture upfront.
• 30:22
  Vance of I said cultivated. But yeah, I mean the, the depth
• 30:26
  is very scary. No.
• 30:27
  Bob shik is kind of the veteran of that group.
• 30:30
  He's the guy that actually has experience at some level it is
• 30:34
  Juco, but he has some experience.
• 30:35
  That's not high school ball for the rest of them.
• 30:38
  None of those guys have ever really taken any snaps and
• 30:41
  that's kind of scary. So if you're a Virginia Tech
• 30:44
  fan, you're praying for no injuries because that would be
• 30:48
  killer. But also remember this is Is
• 30:52
  March 31st. There's plenty of time
• 30:54
  especially late spring, early summer to find eyes in the
• 30:58
  transfer portal. And you know, Joe Rudolph is
• 31:01
  going to be sitting there, trying to contact guys trying to
• 31:04
  get guys in here. Yeah, I think if you can get
• 31:09
  that bleep maybe seven I think seven would be a good number to
• 31:12
  have just of guys, you feel very comfortable with starting day
• 31:16
  one. And this is kind of handsome guy
• 31:18
  who I don't believe he's ever started a game.
• 31:21
  Before. So it's actually got four guys
• 31:24
  that have started games before and and climate hasn't even
• 31:28
  started that money game, but that's not a lot of death.
• 31:32
  I know Joe Rudolph. You know, he's probably sitting
• 31:36
  there biting his, fingernails going to make him a little bit
• 31:39
  nervous because just how little depth there is.
• 31:44
  But if you're a Virginia Tech fan, you're sitting there
• 31:47
  looking and it's Joe Rudolph on the offensive line.
• 31:49
  I'm, I'm probably 10. They're thinking, alright, he's
• 31:52
  going to figure it out. And I think the bottom line is
• 31:55
  as long as there is no injuries, and there always seemed to be
• 31:59
  injuries on the offensive line, so don't call but Like this
• 32:05
  offensive line, I think we'll be pretty good if everybody stays
• 32:09
  healthy. All right, let me ask this of
• 32:12
  the five. I we've mentioned of the six.
• 32:14
  We mentioned on the 2D. Can any of those become that
• 32:18
  seventh to help out just from what you've seen and what people
• 32:23
  are saying? That I know.
• 32:25
  We got a couple more that I think what Jack got some reps
• 32:28
  with the second team today? Is that technology?
• 32:31
  Yeah, I think, I think Jack Holyfield's a guy that wasn't on
• 32:34
  the list, but I think he's rapping there.
• 32:38
  I don't know how much, but I would say if anybody probably be
• 32:44
  sik, simply because he has the most experience, but if Hunter
• 32:47
  Hunter McLean's already practicing It Center, you know,
• 32:50
  that tells you how far along he's coming.
• 32:52
  It's tough though. Because so many of these guys,
• 32:54
  yours He's so dumb that has no experience a lot of just raw
• 32:58
  talent. I think it's, I think in don't
• 33:00
  really answer your question, but I think it's too early to tell.
• 33:02
  Okay. Cuz, you know, Rudolph hasn't
• 33:04
  had enough time with them. I mean, think about it.
• 33:07
  He had spring practice for what? Six, seven practices, Joe
• 33:10
  Rudolph, nose, barely had seven practices with deep with these
• 33:14
  guys. He's still trying to figure out
• 33:16
  where they play best. If you remember coming Vance
• 33:19
  vices which I'm sure Rudolph will do.
• 33:21
  Is he played different guys at different position Do a guy like
• 33:26
  was seated Smith Wally. Well, he's not great at tackle,
• 33:31
  he was comfortable out there if needed to be because he
• 33:35
  practiced their fifth kind of same thing Brock Hoffman when he
• 33:38
  had to play guard in the West Virginia game.
• 33:40
  I know we wouldn't great but it's better than throwing a
• 33:43
  freshman in the fire, you know, true.
• 33:45
  And I know Bob chick was was a tackle before you transfer it in
• 33:49
  so that that gives him a little bit of you know, position
• 33:54
  flexibility. Are you might be able to slide
• 33:56
  out to right tackle say in a pinch even though he may be a
• 33:59
  better fit at the guard slot and the power 5 level.
• 34:05
  So I mean you've got already touched on this a little bit but
• 34:08
  you think we go shopping in the spring once once this practice
• 34:11
  and spring game wrap up. I mean I think you try whether
• 34:15
  whether whether you end up buying something, I don't know,
• 34:18
  but but I think if you're if your jewelry off of your Tyler
• 34:21
  Boeing, you're sitting there and you're trying to get some
• 34:23
  experience you want. Experienced guy that can come in
• 34:26
  everybody, even one you can get to you want to, you know?
• 34:30
  Yes you got to get down this under the scholarship limit but
• 34:35
  you want talent and you also want guys that are going to fit
• 34:38
  your culture so they're definitely going to be looking
• 34:40
  for for some guys that will be able to fill those shoes, if
• 34:45
  it's the right thing. Before we go any further, we got
• 34:48
  it. We got a big shout-out here,
• 34:49
  from Dwight, big for you, David Says, you're killing it.
• 34:53
  Yeah, very insightful. I've actually rocking the
• 34:56
  Victory Life. Goodnight, goodnight.
• 34:58
  Yeah. So, shout out to the way Vic.
• 35:01
  We appreciate you listening in the night, always, do, I always
• 35:05
  appreciate the love couple weeks ago.
• 35:07
  He said, here with us, he mentioned, you said, we try to
• 35:11
  go shopping so we need to all be looking at the transfer portal
• 35:15
  tackler guard. What do you think the preference
• 35:17
  would be? I think tackle probably, okay,
• 35:23
  because you gotta tackle, you can side janji inside, okay, the
• 35:27
  Ganges comfortable there but honestly, here's the thing.
• 35:31
  If you get a guard, you can keep Jan's yet and Tackle, you know,
• 35:33
  like the right side of the lines, pretty solid.
• 35:39
  Ya got Carter. Coming to tackle Caden, more at
• 35:42
  Right Guard. Those two guys are very, very
• 35:44
  solid and jandi solid to. So it's kind of just whatever is
• 35:48
  available if that makes sense, you know?
• 35:50
  You got a guy's a good guard, you can slide in.
• 35:52
  Okay, well Jan Z stays at tackle.
• 35:54
  If you got a good tackle Jan's. You can slide inside its kind of
• 35:57
  I guess what fits best got it. All right, let's Roll Along
• 36:01
  here. Something else.
• 36:02
  Print process it in the open and pressor that kind of caught my
• 36:05
  eye and then I kind of laughed and I thought about the next
• 36:07
  position, he said we've got to have the ability to understand
• 36:11
  what's important for each position coach.
• 36:13
  When I look at the running back and I think about Steve Holt,
• 36:16
  I'm sure Stu Holt's. First thought was what's
• 36:18
  important, how do I get nine guys, meaning for up so I can
• 36:24
  break them down. That's all I could think about.
• 36:27
  Because, you know, when Brian broke down the tape on top of
• 36:30
  the bones, you, no offense, you know, it's usually a three back
• 36:35
  system, you know, we saw Malachi already went to Spring brawler
• 36:39
  Ward. We saw him run great last year
• 36:42
  into the season. Like most freshmen, he ran out
• 36:45
  of gas. So, let's kind of put Malachi,
• 36:50
  he's in there. Who else do you think can become
• 36:55
  the two and three? In this offense from the running
• 36:58
  back room, currently of 9 and only one of transfer it out?
• 37:04
  Well, I'll tell you what the depths are.
• 37:06
  I'm sure you guys saw this earlier.
• 37:07
  I'll tell you what, chart was today, the district today.
• 37:11
  So today at practice, this is, this is the way they were going
• 37:14
  through ups at practice. I'll read off the 9u.
• 37:17
  It was genuine Holston at the 10K, Malachi Thomas to chance.
• 37:23
  Black three. Okay, Bryce Duke for gaiwan,
• 37:27
  Hampton five Kenji, Christian six, Marco Lee, Jalen Brunson,
• 37:32
  and then Keshawn King. So that's soul is now I don't
• 37:36
  Keshawn King at nine people were asking questions and I think
• 37:39
  it's I think honestly he's going to be a guy and Prime mentioned
• 37:44
  it yesterday when talking about position changes.
• 37:45
  I think he's going to be a guy. They're going to look to see.
• 37:48
  Can you play wide receiver? You know, can we can we get him
• 37:51
  in space somewhere? Because like you mentioned there
• 37:54
  to so many guys in the running back room and let me read you.
• 37:58
  Some of these comments these notes I took from from when we
• 38:03
  got to sit down and talk. Alternate system coaches, which
• 38:05
  was really awesome. This was back March 1st.
• 38:09
  So it's been almost a month. The day of the Louisville men's
• 38:14
  basketball game. We had the opportunity to sit
• 38:16
  and chat with all these assistant coaches and meet those
• 38:18
  guys, and still whole said he wants, he's running back room to
• 38:22
  be six, guys. He wants chicks.
• 38:25
  Make sense, which you think, okay that's cutting three guys
• 38:29
  out and he said you, there are three attributes that That he
• 38:35
  looks for in a running back and he's never really had a guy that
• 38:38
  has all three, but he's found plenty of guys that have to a
• 38:41
  combination of the two and they all turned out to be really,
• 38:44
  really good. So it's you're tough enough
• 38:46
  between the tackles, you don't get caught and you have Vision
• 38:51
  either have that or you don't. And those three guys, he
• 38:54
  mentioned as guys that have that stood out so far, he mentioned
• 38:58
  olsztyn and you mentioned Bryce Duke and that was back on March
• 39:02
  1st when they hadn't started. I had to bring practice yet.
• 39:05
  Okay. My guess is What you'll see is
• 39:10
  Holston and Malachi Thomas, share them with Jordi of those
• 39:14
  reps and I think you'll find chance of Christ yesterday pants
• 39:19
  black. They have to get him on the
• 39:21
  field because he's that talented.
• 39:23
  They want him on the field so whether it's at running back,
• 39:27
  whether it's a kick returner, you know chance.
• 39:29
  Blacks going to see the field. I think the other guys Bryce
• 39:32
  Duke, I think you could. You could honestly, probably
• 39:35
  potentially Redshirt him be Because you're not necessarily
• 39:39
  going to need him. Now if the option comes
• 39:42
  available to play him, obviously he can play up to four games,
• 39:46
  you know. So I think those right now are
• 39:49
  the four guys, that's what what it seems like.
• 39:52
  I think Keyshawn Kings a guy that could break into it, but
• 39:56
  right now, you know, I think he's just been, he's fighting
• 40:00
  his own battle and where I think heat the coaches coaching staff,
• 40:05
  trying to figure out. Like I said, before, we're here,
• 40:07
  You fits best but over all those are the three four guys I think
• 40:12
  got the top and I'm not saying because because it's too old
• 40:15
  said he told us, you know, if there's a hot hand we're going
• 40:18
  to feed the hot hand, you know. So events of Jalen Holston or
• 40:21
  Malachi. Tom is breaking.
• 40:23
  Tackles you going off? We're going to give him a ball,
• 40:25
  you know? But but ideally you'd like to
• 40:27
  have a six-man rotation and I think as you guys mentioned,
• 40:30
  Tyler bone would like to have three preferable guys.
• 40:33
  I think those are the three four, you know, with Bryce Duke
• 40:36
  being the fourth, right there. On the edge that that you'll
• 40:39
  see. So let's talk about the
• 40:42
  attrition that could potentially happen there.
• 40:45
  I know we've talked about you chance, black baby, Keyshawn
• 40:47
  King potentially you know, being in a different position meeting
• 40:53
  room, come fall, are there some guys that you think might hit
• 40:59
  the portal from this group? I know we're looking at probably
• 41:02
  223 either switching positions or hitting the portal?
• 41:06
  Is there is there a name on the list that you think could be one
• 41:10
  of those guys that's in the portal at the end of spring.
• 41:13
  Yeah, I mean I don't want to speculate and here's the other
• 41:15
  thing. A lot of those guys are young.
• 41:17
  Yeah, genuine genuine, Hampton Kenji, Christian.
• 41:20
  And Jalen Brunson are all really, really young.
• 41:22
  The one guy that that's not. That's towards the bottom of the
• 41:24
  group is Marco lie. And, you know, I would not be
• 41:29
  surprised if anybody kind of five or six down.
• 41:32
  On ends up transferring because that's just the reality of
• 41:36
  football or College athletics period to death if you know but
• 41:41
  it also depends on on their situation.
• 41:44
  They come to Virginia Tech just play football, or do, they
• 41:46
  actually like, Virginia Tech, you know?
• 41:48
  And and I have not had the opportunity unfortunately, to
• 41:51
  get a chance to talk to all those guys, but I would not be
• 41:54
  surprised if kind of anybody in that in that lower group, end up
• 41:58
  transferring out, simply because that's the real.
• 42:00
  Again, that's reality of today. Days College athletics world.
• 42:04
  If you, if you're a guy and you want to play and you're not
• 42:07
  playing, why would you not you know hop in the transfer portal
• 42:10
  and go find somewhere else where you feel value, where you can
• 42:13
  get those reps. So it would not surprise me if
• 42:16
  Hampton christianly Brunson even King, depending on what happens
• 42:21
  with his situation. Yeah, you got to remember, maybe
• 42:24
  it's not necessarily even a playing time thing.
• 42:27
  Maybe it's the culture hurt prize creating a culture here.
• 42:30
  He's trying to cultivate a A competition culture, a hate to
• 42:34
  lose culture. And if those guys don't fit, you
• 42:37
  know, he he said there's going to be an attrition.
• 42:40
  Yes, he did. Weather comes from a very very
• 42:42
  top of the very, very bottom. I mean there's going to be some
• 42:46
  I think it's too early. Kind of tell who it might be but
• 42:49
  I would expect some and you know I think I don't know if they'll
• 42:52
  get down to the number of six before come summer or fall but I
• 42:56
  know that's probably what they're shooting for, okay?
• 42:59
  That makes sense. Yeah, it probably guys that
• 43:02
  don't have that position. Flexibility would be in the
• 43:06
  potentially guys, as you said like, Marvel, leave it are
• 43:08
  further along in their collegiate career.
• 43:11
  That might be guys to watch for that and then with the other
• 43:15
  guys, you mentioned the to, they are still young.
• 43:18
  So they're buying into the culture.
• 43:19
  They could walk in and say coach, I don't want to leave.
• 43:21
  I love what you do here in. I'm a freshman, I've got, I've
• 43:26
  got, I can grow and then knowing, you know, Galen,
• 43:32
  holsten's gone after next year, ya know there is that potential
• 43:35
  battle for the for one of the three spots.
• 43:38
  So it's going to be super interesting but I love what
• 43:40
  Brent price said yesterday about like guys like chance black and
• 43:44
  Keyshawn being talented guys and saying our job, how did he say
• 43:49
  it? Exactly it really caught my eye
• 43:51
  was. When we move you it's I'm kind
• 43:56
  of add living here, but he said, when we move you, we're trying
• 43:58
  to do what's best for you to get on the field quicker and by the
• 44:01
  only, so it's helping us when I hear helping us, it means we're
• 44:04
  winning games and I love hearing that because that's something
• 44:10
  and you're younger than us David.
• 44:11
  But we know you followed the program for a while.
• 44:13
  That was always done with Frank. Beamer always always, if a guy
• 44:18
  came in as a quarterback A lot of times, they didn't stick it
• 44:21
  quarterback, but they became Elite safeties came chance tone
• 44:27
  exim. And when you see that culture
• 44:29
  coming back, it is about competition.
• 44:31
  And it is about, Hey, listen, go over here and fight you have the
• 44:35
  capabilities of being on the field.
• 44:38
  If you go to this room. Yeah, yeah, I mean, let me get
• 44:41
  you got tight ends that became quarterbacks of became Titans.
• 44:45
  Titans, the became All-American tackles In quarterbacks.
• 44:53
  And they had rented is quarterbacks and then became
• 44:56
  Elite NFL tight ends again. Yeah.
• 44:59
  Yeah let me read you. Let me read you what he actually
• 45:02
  said. Yes, this is.
• 45:04
  This is it's not everything because he said a lot yesterday,
• 45:07
  but of course, you can go find it.
• 45:09
  This is part of what you said. Yesterday, the conversation was
• 45:13
  about strengths and weaknesses. And let's see, let's give this
• 45:16
  other spot a shot and see if we can't get a little bit better
• 45:19
  play at you right now. See if we can get you on the
• 45:21
  field quicker. An Unity to start in the 2D for
• 45:24
  somebody buried on the depth chart and I breathe are an
• 45:27
  opportunity to earn some playing time.
• 45:30
  Somebody that's a backup has a chance to be a starter with
• 45:32
  another spot. Lots of reasons he said we're
• 45:34
  giving Connor blumrich an opportunity to catch the ball
• 45:36
  and see what he can do to me. The spring is the time to do
• 45:40
  that, and to me, that makes perfect sense.
• 45:42
  You got plenty of time. Why not mess around and see what
• 45:46
  guys can go. Where?
• 45:47
  I mean, you got to remember. Well, all these guys are used to
• 45:52
  Virginia Tech. Besides early enrollees, they
• 45:55
  know, Virginia Tech the coaching staff is still trying to get to
• 45:58
  know them that mean, that's why when you see pictures from
• 46:03
  practice. Every single player, has their
• 46:06
  name taped on in yell, on a yellow.
• 46:09
  A yellow tape written in pain, their name, on their helmet.
• 46:12
  So all the cookie dough, so everybody knows who they are and
• 46:16
  that's just, you know, they're still trying there.
• 46:19
  Experimenting. That's essentially what they're
• 46:21
  doing. They're trying to figure out who
• 46:22
  can play where and can you blame them?
• 46:25
  I mean, imagine if you find out that wow, Connor blumberg is a
• 46:29
  really good wide receiver, you know?
• 46:32
  It's like that's just me, you know spewing but like those
• 46:38
  kinds of things can only be possible if you experiment, we
• 46:44
  got like, Bucky Hodges came in as a quarterback but have
• 46:48
  similar Build back, not quite as well.
• 46:52
  We're not quite as tall or big is Bucky, but I mean the same
• 46:55
  type of overall stature, I think.
• 46:57
  And if he can go out there and catch some balls and create some
• 47:01
  mismatches on the edge, especially with how Bowen likes
• 47:06
  to use tight ends that that's something that we should be able
• 47:10
  to take advantage of wasn't fate, wasn't Faison Odom at
• 47:14
  Fordham that it's like 67 68. And he was able to make a lot of
• 47:21
  plays out there. So might be a similar type role
• 47:25
  for him here, but let's let's move on to the since we're
• 47:27
  talking about tight ends a little bit.
• 47:28
  Let's talk about the wide receivers and tight ends.
• 47:31
  Price said that we look at the depth chart.
• 47:35
  What we'll talk about that in the fall spring is, when you
• 47:38
  kind of see, see what you got, take every all the depth of the
• 47:41
  grain of salt. We've seen a lot of different
• 47:45
  different kind of starting, three wide receivers out there,
• 47:48
  kind of the first week. You look like it was Jade blue
• 47:51
  semen, guys. Now Caleb Smith, we've seen
• 47:56
  Dwayne Lofton and Christian Moss.
• 47:58
  Working in there, a little bit of Jalen Jones who is in your
• 48:03
  observations who is lined up in the slot in these groups.
• 48:07
  Well, it's funny because Jaden blue yesterday when we had a
• 48:10
  chance to talk to him, first of all, he's an amazing kid and
• 48:14
  such a resilient kid with what happened.
• 48:17
  I don't want to go into detail about it but but he's such a
• 48:22
  neat, he's very open and very just, you know, mature.
• 48:28
  You can tell he's he's been through a lot and obviously
• 48:30
  transfer Temple, very talented kid and he straight-up told us.
• 48:34
  Oh I love playing in the slot. So he's He's a slot guy and my
• 48:38
  guess is that he'll be in the slot and you'll see Caleb Smith
• 48:43
  in his natural position out. Why it's funny because to
• 48:48
  fontelle Minds, right before said we're, you know, we're
• 48:53
  thrown everybody the fire. And this is something I actually
• 48:55
  wrote about today. I restored by this today where
• 48:59
  they're the front own minds is throwing everybody at every
• 49:02
  single position. You know, he wants everybody to
• 49:05
  know How to run the offense kind of like position 'less football
• 49:11
  per se. Like look like in basketball,
• 49:13
  you want everybody to know every single role for every single
• 49:17
  player. So if you end up having to put
• 49:20
  somebody in that position, they know what to do.
• 49:22
  If that makes sense. Yeah, but my guess is you'll see
• 49:25
  blue in the slot and guy like Caleb Smith out wide.
• 49:27
  But you know as of now everybody is practicing at every single
• 49:31
  position. That's just the way it's going
• 49:33
  right now. All right, so we mentioned six,
• 49:39
  we've heard blumberg out there. Do you, and you'd mention blue,
• 49:45
  and blue has the production of all these guys on here, blue has
• 49:48
  the production when he had a good quarterback.
• 49:51
  Do you think he's the biggest playmaker when it comes to fall?
• 49:54
  Or do you think someone's going to come out of this group, not
• 49:57
  named Jayden blue? I think it'll be blue.
• 50:00
  I think I don't say he's the real deal but I think he can be
• 50:05
  a very solid option. I think he can put up really
• 50:10
  good numbers and he even said it he's like the reason I
• 50:13
  transferred, you know, I wanted to leave Temple was because you
• 50:17
  know I could I didn't have a consistent quarterback and he
• 50:19
  said it her, you know, that his numbers dropped.
• 50:21
  Goff and Temple just had a problem with quarterbacks and I
• 50:26
  think here assuming Brad glein and Tyler Bowen can can get
• 50:30
  consistent quarterback play, I think Jay Blues a guy, you know,
• 50:34
  it would help to have other options around them so it's not
• 50:37
  like you know they're double-teaming him and he's the
• 50:40
  only guy but I think there are some reliable options, you know,
• 50:45
  especially at tight end that gal, drink to us or pretty solid
• 50:48
  viable options to and Caleb Smith.
• 50:51
  Good. But I think Jaden Blues a guy
• 50:54
  that will be a standout receiver come fall.
• 50:58
  You know, he's he's look good in everything I've seen and he kind
• 51:04
  of talks to talk walks, the walk.
• 51:06
  Like I just that's just the way it goes.
• 51:08
  And I think from what I've seen so far, I think everybody's
• 51:10
  gonna be really impressed with him when they see him, you know,
• 51:13
  in a season, come fall. That's awesome here.
• 51:18
  Let's put a little bit to somebody a little further down
• 51:21
  the list. That we didn't necessarily here,
• 51:22
  right? At the gate.
• 51:24
  They learn, right? He want to Spring baller, where
• 51:26
  I think for practice, for how is he coming along so far when we
• 51:30
  were looking at his tape, for Life, coming in coming, in to
• 51:33
  Virginia Tech, we were like, oh, okay.
• 51:36
  I like, I like this kids game. So, how is he looking so far?
• 51:40
  Well, it's funny. Because he, and he, and all the
• 51:45
  other guys, in that group, she kind of mentioned.
• 51:48
  It's funny because I actually asked fontelle Minds about this
• 51:51
  and Um, what he said was essentially that these guys have
• 51:57
  talent, they just don't have the Reps.
• 52:01
  Let me read you the exact quote. He said.
• 52:06
  So I asked him about the young guys in the room.
• 52:08
  He's like, I've seen progress. I tell them all the time,
• 52:10
  progress, not Perfection. I'm not seeking Perfection.
• 52:13
  I'm asking everyone to make progress and for everybody to
• 52:16
  continue to get better and continue to develop.
• 52:18
  He said this, I thought down and had a solid week.
• 52:21
  He had a Ali. Good day early in the week and I
• 52:23
  challenge immediately after practice, I said, listen, I want
• 52:26
  to see what you can do. The next practice.
• 52:29
  This one's done, this one's over with, I want to see what you do.
• 52:31
  The next practice and he's mentioned, Christian mom's, he's
• 52:34
  a Christian Moss, has a super talented kid and he said, yeah,
• 52:38
  we can label them as unproven guys, but they haven't gotten an
• 52:41
  opportunity to prove themselves. They'll get that this spring and
• 52:44
  fall. So I think for down, right?
• 52:46
  He's clearly impressed Duane, lost them.
• 52:48
  Also, when a spring ball or award, I think that group. up of
• 52:52
  guys, I wrote about this today, Tech needs a couple guys that
• 52:56
  come out of that group that just helped carry the offense, where
• 52:59
  there is some depth behind Caleb Smith, Jaden blue, Who's going
• 53:05
  to be that guy and so far it seems like there have been a lot
• 53:08
  of guys that have impressed. We obviously haven't gotten the
• 53:12
  chance a chance to see it. But from what I can tell, you
• 53:16
  know, fontelle mines, Tyler Boeing everybody's kind of you
• 53:20
  know, everybody thinks they're moving in the right direction
• 53:23
  which is the good news. It is about love what you.
• 53:27
  It's great, getting these tidbits from you about some of
• 53:30
  the quotes especially about progress not Perfection.
• 53:33
  Because, again, that's a A mentality, you'll need to be
• 53:36
  perfect. Just continue to get better
• 53:37
  everyday growth mindset, growth mindset.
• 53:40
  It's it's definitely they did some corporate training
• 53:45
  somewhere, but I'm going to flip to this.
• 53:47
  As you already mentioned, you mentioned Drake, human can
• 53:49
  Gallo. Gallows already run a spring
• 53:51
  ball reward Brian's been looking at the tape about you know how
• 53:56
  Boeing is used as tight ends from what you're seeing in the
• 53:59
  times you've been at practice. How are they utilizing the tight
• 54:02
  ends? You know, are they in line?
• 54:04
  The out and Slaughter, the in HVAC.
• 54:07
  Where are we seeing them on the field?
• 54:09
  Usually in line or in this slide but it's tough because obviously
• 54:15
  most of the Reps were seeing its of quarterback throwing routes
• 54:19
  the tight ends who are just there.
• 54:21
  So that's not a good answer your question, but I don't think
• 54:25
  we've seen enough yet. I think honestly, something like
• 54:27
  a spring game will be more. Telling what I will say is what
• 54:31
  I will say is all the tight ends, you know, a lot of them.
• 54:34
  Them a lot of it's been running routes, you know, physically
• 54:37
  like, you know, whether it's running a post or simple routes
• 54:44
  to get reps. That's kind of the basis of what
• 54:47
  we've seen from the tight ends. And I guess it's kind of, its
• 54:50
  kind of hard when you don't have a Defender to kind of replicate
• 54:52
  with a Titans going to do it in a game.
• 54:55
  A little bit, not as easy as wide receiver.
• 54:57
  We're kind of got the sideline to play off of what would so
• 55:01
  far. I mean, look the tight end
• 55:03
  position might be The position where you take it, does not have
• 55:06
  to worry like as a worry about the least because you got Nick
• 55:09
  Gallo and Drake doing it's two guys that have been here before
• 55:12
  and they've been here for a while and they're very
• 55:15
  experienced guys and Tyler Bowen, like you guys said, likes
• 55:20
  uses tight ends expect to three tight ends sets, you know, I
• 55:25
  like everything we've seen in practice just the way they've,
• 55:30
  they've caught the ball as it pretty good.
• 55:33
  Now, I think there is a question.
• 55:35
  And not necessarily pertains to this year.
• 55:37
  But what happens when do we assess in Galilee who's behind?
• 55:41
  What where's the depth behind? But obviously that's not
• 55:45
  necessarily a question that has to be answered this year.
• 55:48
  Yeah let's talk about that a little bit because we're curious
• 55:51
  about you Benji guys now is he out there?
• 55:55
  Is he getting a lot of scrimmage reps and practice reps or is he
• 55:58
  still limited from his injury? Yeah, he's still rehabbing and
• 56:02
  he's doing some light work right now and I think he'll probably
• 56:07
  be like full go. If that's what you want to put
• 56:10
  it more. Like July August, kind of around
• 56:13
  around summer ball. He still rehabbing Is st.
• 56:17
  Germain in. You'll see an early enrollee.
• 56:22
  He is. Yes, he actually, you know, he
• 56:25
  was, I don't want to, I'm trying to remember where exactly they
• 56:29
  were today and Reps, and obviously, like not every single
• 56:32
  position group where people are repping, pertains to where they
• 56:35
  are on the depth chart. But, but yeah, I mean, he was,
• 56:38
  one of the guys, we got to see a practice today, and, of course,
• 56:41
  he's probably the youngest tight end in that room.
• 56:43
  But but, you know, Catching the ball.
• 56:47
  Well, that's what I tend does, you know, besides block.
• 56:50
  So that's good news. That's a good sign.
• 56:53
  It's not and you can, we can't see that much blocking and any
• 56:56
  sort of practices you know, rules and obviously you don't
• 57:03
  you want to hold that back for some of the scrimmages and
• 57:05
  obviously the spring game. All right, so we just put a bow
• 57:09
  on the offense here with Dave and coming Cunningham of text
• 57:12
  outline before we go to the defensive side of the ball.
• 57:16
  We are going to take a quick pause for the message from our
• 57:19
  digital partners. As we take a quick break, we'd
• 57:24
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• 57:44
  Dash report. Now back to the episode All
• 57:48
  right, and we are back different types, different house.
• 57:51
  I know you're going to report that event.
• 57:53
  Well, we'll have to be right. Well, I mean you don't have to
• 57:57
  but yeah, it is what it is. It'll be, it'll be, it'll be
• 58:00
  less awkward continuity issues. All right, so let's flip now
• 58:08
  defensive side and something that prop talked about
• 58:11
  obviously, is there going to be people who are missing and
• 58:14
  limited this spring? And I feel like the defense Of
• 58:17
  line is a spot that no one needed to miss, because we're
• 58:22
  already thin there and it's already made us, you know, the
• 58:27
  three deep was I. So Nigel sentence.
• 58:29
  God bless the kids Soul. God bless his heart.
• 58:31
  He was on the too deep for the opening scrimmage.
• 58:35
  Now, looking Rudolph and Gunner, Givens, both got moved the
• 58:40
  downsizing effect as Brent price said, the other day, How is
• 58:48
  this, helping with the depth? There we know Mario.
• 58:51
  Kendrick is pretty much not going to be playing, but how are
• 58:54
  those two guys moving over going to help with folks getting reps?
• 58:59
  Well, I think Rudolph helps to ends obviously and Gunner given
• 59:04
  to move from end to tackle. I don't know if it necessarily
• 59:08
  helps in terms of a reps perspective because They're not
• 59:12
  moving the guys because of reps, they're moving the guys because
• 59:15
  that's where they think, you know, but keep Rudolph's. 240
• 59:18
  pounds. Holy Jay-Z, you know he's gained
• 59:21
  that much. What?
• 59:21
  He'd yeah I heard he put on another like 15 pounds since
• 59:26
  that's what JC price you know told us yesterday.
• 59:43
  This is where they fit the best and this is where they think
• 59:45
  they can get the most potential and they won't speed as close to
• 59:48
  the ball as possible. And It's kind of tough because
• 59:53
  essentially you're moving a guy from end.
• 59:56
  You have one more number at tackle and I guess one last
• 59:59
  number, a linebacker and the number n kind of been really
• 1:00:02
  change. I don't know if fraps numbers
• 1:00:05
  really, really change really make much of a difference there,
• 1:00:08
  but overall, just the adjustments, you know.
• 1:00:12
  It's because that's where the staff thinks these guys fit the
• 1:00:16
  best. And as we mentioned before,
• 1:00:20
  yeah, it's probably a little A bit tough to scrimmage or to run
• 1:00:25
  through stuff at times. But, you know, in all honesty,
• 1:00:30
  would you rather not be able to do that?
• 1:00:33
  Be a little bit short in some areas.
• 1:00:34
  Or would you rather put guys at the right position to succeed?
• 1:00:39
  Yeah, you definitely want them at the right position, the
• 1:00:41
  position that you think they're going to have the best success
• 1:00:43
  come fall. And that's best to get out of
• 1:00:47
  the way in spring when you have, you know, less steaks at They're
• 1:00:51
  so I'm definitely with that thinking.
• 1:00:54
  Also looking at the fall, you know, you're getting some some
• 1:00:58
  young guys, some reps here. Cole's stretch, we're getting
• 1:01:03
  gunner in there with some rap stuff with the move to d-tackle,
• 1:01:07
  you know, it's causing a pain point now, a little bit in terms
• 1:01:10
  of the debt but is that something that you think might
• 1:01:12
  pay some dividends in Fall with getting a lot of these younger
• 1:01:15
  guys? Some of those key reps against
• 1:01:17
  you to the second team or the third team versus being varied
• 1:01:19
  further on the depth chart. Yeah I think so.
• 1:01:22
  I think that you definitely I think I mean one of the reasons
• 1:01:26
  why JC price mention it you know Gunner he said Gunner Givens
• 1:01:29
  moving from end to tackle like that gives him a better chance
• 1:01:33
  to play right away you know and well Nelson is a guy on the
• 1:01:39
  defensive end. We got a chance to talk to him
• 1:01:40
  yesterday. Great kid and He's a guy that
• 1:01:45
  really got a lot of reps last year probably when he shouldn't
• 1:01:50
  have simply because like just attrition wise, you know, that's
• 1:01:54
  why he ended up getting the Reps and it's going to pay off this
• 1:01:57
  year. I think you're going to see a
• 1:01:58
  lot of those guys. Cold Nelson will open a those
• 1:02:02
  guys that either got a little bit of reps last year or have
• 1:02:06
  come a long, this spring, get some reps.
• 1:02:10
  I'm not sure how much because obviously, I think a lot of it
• 1:02:12
  will depend on injuries and attrition.
• 1:02:14
  But but I do think it will help further down the line because
• 1:02:17
  imagine worst case scenario you have a tackle or end get hurt.
• 1:02:22
  Well, now it's kind of next man up and you know I think it helps
• 1:02:27
  a lot of cases where if you've had a guy that's been practicing
• 1:02:32
  you know Gunner Givens been practicing a tackle now, he's
• 1:02:35
  got a chance to actually be prepared if you need to be using
• 1:02:38
  that scenario. I agree with that.
• 1:02:43
  And our buddy could probably come to makes a good point here.
• 1:02:47
  You know, you get smaller and faster, they give guards a lot
• 1:02:51
  more problems in one-on-one situations of the pass rush.
• 1:02:54
  So that that's another thing to think about with Gunnar moving
• 1:02:57
  in there. You know, we've shown that he
• 1:02:58
  has good footwork. He's been a tight end.
• 1:03:01
  He's worked. Summit tackle.
• 1:03:03
  He's done other things in the defensive line in high school.
• 1:03:05
  So moving a guy like that that's able to keep the way to keep
• 1:03:09
  that. That Ben And that speed that's
• 1:03:13
  going to cause some guards problems in those one-on-one
• 1:03:15
  situations. Absolutely.
• 1:03:19
  So obviously you know last week got a portal transfer and for
• 1:03:23
  Darius pain from the 757 was out of Nebraska comes home.
• 1:03:29
  Everything we're seeing is he was an outside linebacker there
• 1:03:32
  but it makes more sense if he plays in that.
• 1:03:34
  Obviously Shores up the defensive end up even more even
• 1:03:38
  with the move of Gunner inside and the more we're position,
• 1:03:41
  where he's probably going to, you know, succeed more, do you
• 1:03:46
  think we get in the market in the port?
• 1:03:47
  Oil for a d-tackle or with Kendricks hopefully coming back
• 1:03:51
  healthy and with Pollard and with fuga and with the Nay
• 1:03:55
  planted three technique. Do you do we dive in there?
• 1:03:59
  Or do you think we're done on the line on the d-line?
• 1:04:03
  I will say this. I think you want like I don't
• 1:04:09
  know if it sounds good or bad, but but as a coach and this you
• 1:04:13
  can probably tribute this basketball to you want to hit
• 1:04:15
  the portal and like, get as much talent on the portal as you can,
• 1:04:19
  you know, because because guess what, if they bring in another
• 1:04:22
  end, that's really, really good. That's more competition.
• 1:04:25
  That's more guys in that room. That can back each other up.
• 1:04:29
  So I think if you're a coach, you're sitting there going, you
• 1:04:31
  know who like they're trying to bring in the best talent
• 1:04:36
  possible, whether it's out of the Or obviously the recruiting
• 1:04:39
  class close for the window. But but just across the board
• 1:04:43
  you want to bring in the best talent to create the best
• 1:04:45
  competition to get everybody to make everybody else better.
• 1:04:50
  And I think in this case, yes, you want to go after defensive
• 1:04:54
  tackles but it wouldn't hurt to have another defensive end
• 1:04:57
  either, you know, to create some depth.
• 1:04:59
  Maybe you know, it obviously all varies depending on what guys
• 1:05:04
  are in the portal. You know what talent is
• 1:05:06
  available. But I think if you're JC price,
• 1:05:10
  you're sitting there going, who can we get?
• 1:05:12
  What can I, what guys can I bring in to make this team
• 1:05:15
  better and in all honesty? Attrition, like I mentioned
• 1:05:20
  before is going to happen. Guys are going to leave in the
• 1:05:23
  program, whether it's because of playing time reasons, whether
• 1:05:25
  it's because of then just not flowing and enjoying the
• 1:05:33
  culture, whether it just not, maybe it's not their thing
• 1:05:37
  that's going to happen. You want to bring guys in that
• 1:05:40
  fit, the culture and guys that helped make your team better,
• 1:05:45
  so, you know, to answer your question.
• 1:05:47
  But yeah, you want to Target atom.
• 1:05:48
  Tackle. But if you can get an end, you
• 1:05:51
  know, if you can bring in a guy that said, here's the other
• 1:05:53
  thing, who's to say, you bring an end and he knew playing
• 1:05:56
  tackle because that's where JC price thinks.
• 1:05:59
  He, he fits the best. Like this is the type of
• 1:06:02
  scenario were in. We're looking Rudolph had been
• 1:06:04
  practicing at linebacker. He's now, defensive end, you
• 1:06:08
  know? So your I think it's recruiting
• 1:06:11
  the you try to get the best talent to come and then saying.
• 1:06:14
  Alright, let's see where you fit best in our system.
• 1:06:18
  Yeah. And there's guys that are like
• 1:06:20
  either big in or tweener that you might be able to slide in
• 1:06:23
  there. And to detect leaving the other,
• 1:06:25
  they've been a DNA at their previous school or what we do,
• 1:06:27
  whatever it may be. So that that's definitely an
• 1:06:29
  opportunity that I hope we explore because I definitely
• 1:06:32
  feel like even DND tackle, any any depth you can get on that
• 1:06:36
  line because ideally you want, you know, your third line be
• 1:06:41
  able to give you 10 plus solid steps again want to be able to
• 1:06:44
  go three deep. If you can to get fresh bodies
• 1:06:48
  out there. So, you know, you're not you're
• 1:06:51
  not winded, you're not going to give that 100 percent every
• 1:06:54
  step, but let's turn over to linebackers here a little bit
• 1:06:59
  when Coach, Brown was talking in these, in these presser he was
• 1:07:01
  talking about you don't want to see guys that aren't panicking.
• 1:07:05
  Aren't in a hurry understand their fundamentals and then
• 1:07:09
  follow those and make the right play.
• 1:07:12
  And one of the key positions in this defense is going to be that
• 1:07:15
  that's a more that that field linebacker.
• 1:07:19
  When spring practice open it look like the McDonald's
• 1:07:23
  McDonald's Twins or kind of alternating there.
• 1:07:25
  I know they both change position since their then 11 style that
• 1:07:30
  will back or the other in defensive end who were some of
• 1:07:33
  the key players at that, that feel Li back in position at this
• 1:07:37
  point? Well, you know, it's tough
• 1:07:39
  because it's I tell you what, it's tough to keep track of
• 1:07:44
  who's who's practicing. We're like, it's easy with with
• 1:07:48
  Some of the other positions like tackle and Ender easier but like
• 1:07:52
  a linebacker, you know, cry mentioned yesterday that a guy
• 1:07:56
  like you like Jr. Walker.
• 1:07:58
  This was a week ago. I think, you know, Alan just do
• 1:08:02
  said Jr. Walker's playing you know,
• 1:08:04
  practicing it Sam but he also said Tyler Matheny and been
• 1:08:09
  Skinner there too. But like, Brent, prior
• 1:08:12
  yesterday, mentioned the Tyler Matheny is Yeah, he's practicing
• 1:08:17
  in the mic to so like they're they're all energy, you know,
• 1:08:20
  they're all moving around and I guess that's the beauty of it.
• 1:08:26
  I would expect a guy. Here's what I would expect.
• 1:08:31
  I would expect it to be kind of a hybrid guy.
• 1:08:35
  I mentioned Jr. Walker.
• 1:08:37
  You have the key on to Jenkins, got moved to Jenkins is a guy.
• 1:08:43
  Temari like not necessarily tomorrow.
• 1:08:44
  Connor put somebody in that mole where they got a little bit.
• 1:08:48
  Experienced a linebacker but can also play safety because that's
• 1:08:51
  kind of what you're You're Expecting.
• 1:08:53
  I don't really have a good answer for you just because you
• 1:08:55
  guys are just moving in out, moving in and out.
• 1:08:57
  And it's hard for me to keep up with with who's practicing their
• 1:09:01
  because honestly, I don't even know if the coach is knows
• 1:09:04
  practicing there. But this is a good thing for us
• 1:09:07
  on a podcast. You you know, podcast with TSL
• 1:09:11
  writing because It seems like Brent price potentially giving
• 1:09:15
  you guys a new article every day just from the linebacker.
• 1:09:19
  Rotations, I'm even getting. All right, so let's talk about
• 1:09:24
  this Dax. Hollifield Alan Tisdale entrance
• 1:09:29
  starters for multiple years, since you know what 19, excuse
• 1:09:35
  me, since 20 and 19. How have they looked in the
• 1:09:41
  prime, our system? Does it look comfortable?
• 1:09:44
  Because this is my first thought Brent price system is
• 1:09:49
  essentially a modern day Bud. Foster system, Tisdale and Dax
• 1:09:54
  recruited to a Bud, Foster system, no, knock on J Hamm, but
• 1:09:57
  his was different. How are they looking so far?
• 1:10:00
  And I know it's difficult with linebacker but that's
• 1:10:03
  observations. Yeah, from everything.
• 1:10:05
  I've I've heard, you know, I think we had an opportunity to
• 1:10:09
  talk with Dax couple weeks ago and Seeing their looking fine.
• 1:10:15
  And, and a guy like Dax was a, I remember, talking to him, not in
• 1:10:21
  Marge, but back in like, February January, he was, he was
• 1:10:24
  stoked to have Brent prize head coach, because he's a
• 1:10:28
  linebackers guy, you know? And that is that excites him?
• 1:10:31
  And yeah, I think the transition, I don't want to say,
• 1:10:37
  it's been easy or hard for them, but from everything, I've
• 1:10:40
  noticed, they've transitioned pretty well and it's been Almost
• 1:10:43
  a seamless transition and I think it's cool and practice
• 1:10:50
  last week. It was cool watching Sean Quinn
• 1:10:53
  and Chris Marv. Get after those linebackers, you
• 1:10:56
  know and really kind of rough them up a little bit, you know,
• 1:11:01
  and make them make them dive on the ground for balls or, you
• 1:11:06
  know, do whatever. Go through these intense drills
• 1:11:09
  and, you know, from everything I noticed, you know, Tisdale Jill
• 1:11:13
  and Holly field of both look pretty good.
• 1:11:15
  So you know, Brian mentioned. It just because you started for
• 1:11:20
  three or four years doesn't necessarily mean you're going
• 1:11:22
  to, you know, just because he started three years initially
• 1:11:25
  when you restart for a fourth, however, I would expect guys
• 1:11:28
  like Dax and Alan, Tisdale just because there's one there's not
• 1:11:33
  necessarily buddy behind them but to also because they have
• 1:11:36
  been for the most part, pretty solid.
• 1:11:38
  Both of those positions. I would expect those guys to be
• 1:11:42
  the headliners. At those spots, you know, come
• 1:11:44
  fall, okay, okay. And and probably I'd say if
• 1:11:48
  there's one thing that might could shake that up a little
• 1:11:51
  bit, will probably be a player like Keyshawn artist and pride
• 1:11:55
  mention his he has position versatility, he could probably
• 1:11:59
  play, the will play the mic, they said they tried him Summit.
• 1:12:03
  Mike mentioned, you know, he has to get more vocal if that's
• 1:12:08
  going to Mike's going to be a spot for him.
• 1:12:11
  Does he have the ability to to go after a starting spot at
• 1:12:15
  Mike, if he improves that vocal leadership this offseason I
• 1:12:18
  think potentially and you think about it when you're at Mike,
• 1:12:22
  he's probably Vine with Dax hollifield for a position, you
• 1:12:26
  know? So that's the head-to-head
• 1:12:27
  battle, but I do think I thought it was interesting.
• 1:12:31
  The way probably talked about it, Brian because you kind of
• 1:12:34
  mentioned like, you know, he's got the talent, he's got the
• 1:12:39
  leadership skills to play Mike, you know, he just isn't as vocal
• 1:12:43
  as we need him to be and he's also got the talent to play will
• 1:12:47
  if needed. So, you know, I think I think
• 1:12:50
  you could definitely challenge for that starting spot with
• 1:12:53
  hollifield, you know, but I think again, it all goes back to
• 1:12:57
  leadership skills and can he be the vocal leader?
• 1:13:00
  Because you don't even need to watch for jeans at football.
• 1:13:03
  You know, the defense play, 45 minutes to know the Dax.
• 1:13:06
  How I feel is the most vocal ground feel.
• 1:13:08
  Yeah, you know, that's just, that's just the way it jumps
• 1:13:11
  off. Yeah, it's so you know, your In
• 1:13:16
  a sense vying with the guy who's the most vocal leader on that
• 1:13:20
  defense, in a lot of ways for a starting spot, but I definitely
• 1:13:24
  think it's a possibility. I think, you know, it's not
• 1:13:27
  necessarily on-field Talent, it comes back to know who is he as
• 1:13:32
  a, as a leader, as a player you know, when he's just standing
• 1:13:37
  there you know, in a huddle per se, you know.
• 1:13:40
  Yeah, he is. He is he a leader or is he, you
• 1:13:43
  know, not that he's not a leader.
• 1:13:45
  When he's at a different position, but when you like
• 1:13:48
  probably said, you've got to be vocal in that spot.
• 1:13:50
  We all know again, how vocal Dax is in.
• 1:13:54
  A lot of with the mic to is your barking out.
• 1:13:56
  Calls your Balkan out calls to the lon your linebacking
• 1:14:00
  partners. You're hugging communicate with
• 1:14:02
  the backend at who whichever safety is, you know, making the
• 1:14:05
  coverage adjustments. And if you're not vocal, if
• 1:14:08
  you're not loud, if you're not energetic, you have to be
• 1:14:12
  because there's calls coming in from the sideline.
• 1:14:15
  You know, there's a Shift. Okay.
• 1:14:16
  You gotta tame for that. Somebody needs to come up and
• 1:14:19
  you know, the boundary safety of the field.
• 1:14:21
  Safety has to come up and play man on it and if your not being
• 1:14:24
  vocal, that's not going to last long because people aren't going
• 1:14:28
  to be in the right spot to doing the right job.
• 1:14:30
  So I hope for him, he can over the next few months game that
• 1:14:35
  because he still has eligibility of a couple years left in.
• 1:14:39
  Maybe that's what this year is is he gets he finds his voice
• 1:14:43
  and if he can if he goes out there and wins the Mike great If
• 1:14:46
  not, hopefully, he finds it during the year, where next
• 1:14:49
  spring, we're sitting here talking with you, David?
• 1:14:51
  It's like, he's Sean. Oddest is vocal.
• 1:14:55
  He is a dog. He's barking at people.
• 1:14:57
  He's telling them where to go. That's what I hope happens
• 1:15:00
  because Pride, mention how good his instincts were.
• 1:15:02
  Oh yeah. And we've seen that jump off on
• 1:15:04
  tape and some of the games where he's had some significant time
• 1:15:08
  especially towards the end of the year.
• 1:15:11
  When you some guys were out they were mixing things up a little
• 1:15:14
  bit of Defense. Keyshawn, had a couple, really
• 1:15:16
  big games and some, some big stops getting in there from the
• 1:15:21
  mic position. Getting in there when he was
• 1:15:24
  playing back or as well. So I'd like to see him, come
• 1:15:26
  along, any opportunity, get him on the field because I think the
• 1:15:29
  intent for us. Hopefully, you can come along,
• 1:15:30
  if the mic has issue, whether that's this year, or next year,
• 1:15:36
  All right, what's roll here? Last positional unit we're not
• 1:15:41
  going to cover special teams. I think Peter Lee.
• 1:15:45
  We skipped a few sessions on that because of this trying to
• 1:15:48
  add others down and weather and everything else.
• 1:15:51
  So yeah we don't want anybody out there on special teams when
• 1:15:54
  it's a snowstorm in Blacksburg know.
• 1:15:57
  We can do that during a game. The last game we attended was a
• 1:16:01
  was the pits game in 2019 when it was an absolute Monsoon.
• 1:16:05
  And that was fun. All right, let's go to defensive
• 1:16:07
  back room and do something Pride mention was talking about
• 1:16:11
  building blocks approaching practice then installing And I
• 1:16:15
  hear installing, and then I start seeing for the first five
• 1:16:19
  Spring ball or Awards, go to defensive back, both start and
• 1:16:22
  safeties two corners. I mean, do you think this group
• 1:16:26
  is just clicking the fastest because it's the deepest?
• 1:16:29
  Because there are a lot of guys whose had a ton of reps or is it
• 1:16:32
  something else in play of why they're standing out so much?
• 1:16:36
  I think partially that and also partially Derrick Jones, I think
• 1:16:41
  he's probably just a really good corner, you know, quarterback
• 1:16:44
  coach him a, a, a Lou and safety.
• 1:16:46
  I think those, I think that was probably the spot you'd say
• 1:16:50
  outside of maybe tight end, where you can probably even
• 1:16:54
  more. So, just defensive backs as a
• 1:16:56
  whole, most returning talent and experience.
• 1:17:00
  Like, that's a spot where it, you know, if you want to, if I
• 1:17:03
  want to sit here and read down the list on the roster.
• 1:17:06
  Stir, you know, on many Chapman Jamari.
• 1:17:08
  Connor DJ Harvey has played a little bit Gionta Jenkins, Nike
• 1:17:15
  Johnson, Breann Marine this year, people's Jalen strowman,
• 1:17:18
  Dorian strong and dear Thompson. I mean that's like almost ten
• 1:17:21
  guys that have played. Yeah, and that's what happens
• 1:17:25
  when a lot of those guys are right corner, but that's what
• 1:17:28
  happens when your got, you know, Ryan Smith as the corners coach
• 1:17:33
  had so many injuries. You know what?
• 1:17:36
  And so much stuff happened because a covid and whatnot
• 1:17:38
  guys. End up playing positions and
• 1:17:42
  Justin Hamilton and Ryan Smith always talked about it last year
• 1:17:45
  about how this group is really, really good.
• 1:17:49
  You know, it's kind of just finding the best combination and
• 1:17:51
  that does not surprise me at all.
• 1:17:53
  Because I think a lot of guys know, for example, Shamari
• 1:17:57
  Connor and Armani Chapman. You know, we've seen them in a
• 1:18:01
  Virginia Tech uniform for so long now.
• 1:18:03
  Yes, you know, they they They are our veterans of this program
• 1:18:08
  and it does not surprise me one. Bit that a guy that goes guys
• 1:18:12
  like that of stood out and then you think of guy like Dorian
• 1:18:15
  strong, really, really good first.
• 1:18:18
  Two years in Blacksburg, you know, crazy.
• 1:18:21
  Think he's, he's already played two years but he's played at a
• 1:18:25
  lot of times. He's played like a veteran.
• 1:18:27
  Yeah, you know, he's played really well at corner so, you
• 1:18:32
  know, I think it doesn't really surprise me because of the
• 1:18:34
  experience because How do I would fontelle mindset earlier?
• 1:18:39
  But in terms of defensive backs, those guys were thrown into the
• 1:18:42
  fire right away. Cody, couldn't your yes?
• 1:18:47
  There were no other option and invite to your question is, it
• 1:18:53
  does not surprise me whatsoever. That those guys are, are the
• 1:18:56
  ones earning it because yes, there's some depth at other
• 1:19:00
  positions. But you go, you can go down the
• 1:19:04
  list and there are more Multiple guys on there that have started
• 1:19:08
  and played in real games that mattered.
• 1:19:12
  And you can't match that know, you can't I call it all.
• 1:19:16
  And you mentioned up here, some Prelude.
• 1:19:18
  As you're going through with the safeties there and of the depth,
• 1:19:21
  this is his first major coaching gig from your observations, how
• 1:19:26
  active is he during scrimmage sessions and position work and
• 1:19:31
  what's his Rapport like with that safety unit, so far?
• 1:19:34
  I tell you what, he's really vocal everything here's Ambrose
• 1:19:39
  really vocal. And and it tell you what, one of
• 1:19:42
  the most entertaining things, and one of the things I enjoy
• 1:19:45
  the most about watching practice is seeing coaches, be vocal with
• 1:19:50
  their youth and be teachers whether it's JC price.
• 1:19:54
  I think I got it in a video I tweeted out earlier of hymns and
• 1:19:58
  their chat with CJ McRae. You know defensive end after CJ
• 1:20:01
  McRae. Did some Joe Rudolph chat with
• 1:20:04
  his off? The line Tyler ball.
• 1:20:06
  I mean the list goes on. All those guys seeing a coach
• 1:20:10
  talked with his player and explore, put his arm around her
• 1:20:14
  to the guy's shoulder, and just sit there and explain something
• 1:20:18
  or just belt out orders, you know, and make sure they
• 1:20:22
  understand it. That's Pearson Prelude.
• 1:20:25
  I mean, it easily noticeable when you go to a practice
• 1:20:29
  because he's I don't say, he's always yelling because that
• 1:20:31
  sounds bad but he's a very vocal No guy, and from everything I
• 1:20:36
  can tell, you know, his guys have responded very well to it.
• 1:20:39
  And, yes, he doesn't necessarily have the D1 coaching experience
• 1:20:44
  for. Remember, this is a guy who
• 1:20:45
  played for a long time, he won a Super Bowl, you know, he's got,
• 1:20:49
  he's got plenty of experience, and I think so far, his guys
• 1:20:54
  have really taken very well to everything.
• 1:20:58
  He's tried to kind of implement, and I've really enjoyed kind of
• 1:21:03
  wandering around. Practice in know.
• 1:21:06
  You looking at that group, you know, it's funny because last
• 1:21:11
  week's practice, it was the safety is right next to the
• 1:21:14
  linebackers and all three of those coaches.
• 1:21:18
  Pray, Lou, Marv. Quinn are all just yelling at
• 1:21:22
  their dog. You'll build your guys.
• 1:21:24
  Yeah. And hopefully, that's the fun of
• 1:21:26
  watching practice seeing these guys learn from the coaches who
• 1:21:32
  are teaching them and I think that's exactly.
• 1:21:34
  What Pearson Prelude embody so far.
• 1:21:37
  It's awesome to hear and the guy who came on mention here that
• 1:21:41
  will calm a little while ago. Our buddy coach Robbie comes and
• 1:21:43
  he's a huge Washington fan Redskins commanders, whatever
• 1:21:46
  you want to call them. And he said he remembered when
• 1:21:48
  he was on the Skins, he read some articles talking about how
• 1:21:52
  piercing legitimately was already a coach.
• 1:21:55
  He was a coach on the field getting guys in the right spot.
• 1:21:58
  So is one of those he doesn't have title as a safeties coach,
• 1:22:02
  but like you mentioned all those Those years of playing getting a
• 1:22:05
  Super Bowl ring, he's been a coach for a long time.
• 1:22:08
  Now, Pearson was also a leader, not only back in the 90s, but
• 1:22:13
  obviously with those stops from the what we've said here.
• 1:22:17
  But now Jermaine Walter's gone, probably going to get drafted in
• 1:22:20
  a few weeks here. We hope he does.
• 1:22:23
  There's no leader in that corner back room.
• 1:22:26
  If you like the safety room with your Mari coming over?
• 1:22:29
  He's the vet. He's played.
• 1:22:31
  He's been a good player. He's like that down.
• 1:22:34
  Who do you think in this is what we're going to call it hashtag
• 1:22:37
  this who do you think is going to be the alpha cheetah when it
• 1:22:42
  comes to fall camp and we got David giggling over here, the
• 1:22:47
  alpha cheetah, you know, I will give you but here's what I would
• 1:22:51
  expect, my three options would be Armani Chapman.
• 1:22:56
  The most veteran, the tenured I of the group has the most wraps,
• 1:23:01
  a guy like Dorian strong already mentioned him.
• 1:23:04
  And then, honestly Marie on Marie's a guy that would not
• 1:23:07
  surprise me whatsoever. I think he's come a long way.
• 1:23:11
  And we know we were talking about this before before we went
• 1:23:13
  on some of the Social Media stuff, seems like Brie on
• 1:23:18
  Marie's, always, like been posted by the coaches, like
• 1:23:22
  that's mine. I've always seen the coaches
• 1:23:25
  kind of post about, how well he's been one of the guys.
• 1:23:28
  It's doing well, so far. So I think those three guys, the
• 1:23:31
  first two. Chapman has been here, he's a
• 1:23:36
  veteran, strong, he's really good.
• 1:23:38
  He's don't, you know, he's only played two years and I think
• 1:23:41
  bring on Marie's a guy who, you know, was kind of in between
• 1:23:45
  good at times, you had his moment, but wasn't necessarily
• 1:23:51
  in that first group he wasn't necessarily a go-to starter.
• 1:23:54
  He just got a lot of playing time.
• 1:23:55
  I think he's a guy that would not surprise me to stand out,
• 1:23:58
  but but if I had to guess, I think it would come from from
• 1:24:01
  one of those first two guys. And You know, that's definitely
• 1:24:06
  not just in the corner back room, but, but across the board,
• 1:24:09
  like, those kinds of things when I, as many member have the
• 1:24:13
  chance to watch practice, those are the kinds of things that are
• 1:24:15
  cool to look for. Just, just who's being vocal,
• 1:24:19
  you know, who's who's barking out signals, who's sitting there
• 1:24:23
  and patting the other guy on the back and giving them advice,
• 1:24:26
  when something doesn't go their way, you know, those are in, and
• 1:24:29
  it's tough to pick up on those things.
• 1:24:31
  Necessarily 25 30 minute, period.
• 1:24:33
  AIDS. But it helps.
• 1:24:35
  And of course you notice those during the games too, but I
• 1:24:38
  think one of those first two guys, maybe, maybe that third
• 1:24:41
  guy, those are probably the guys if I had to guess, would
• 1:24:45
  probably be be the alpha cheetah, you know.
• 1:24:48
  There we go. When everything is said and
• 1:24:50
  done, Awesome, awesome. So I know we crowd was talking
• 1:24:55
  about after you every practice they're talking Personnel,
• 1:24:58
  Personnel, shifts and things like that.
• 1:25:01
  On the defense in this is probably going to.
• 1:25:05
  I think Circle back to where we were just talking, but what
• 1:25:09
  groups do you think are looking the most fluid and practice in
• 1:25:12
  terms of either? The starting Personnel or the
• 1:25:15
  Personnel, groupings altogether? Well, both sides of the ball.
• 1:25:21
  I would say you have to go with the group's a most experienced,
• 1:25:24
  right? Like that's just what makes the
• 1:25:25
  most sense? I think offensively, you could
• 1:25:28
  maybe say quarterbacks, but my guess would be tied hands just
• 1:25:33
  because of the veterans in that room.
• 1:25:35
  You know, you got two guys in yellow and Dooley has that have
• 1:25:39
  been here before. Grant Wells and Jason Brown
• 1:25:43
  while their experience. You know, they've only been in
• 1:25:46
  Virginia Tech since they enrolled in the spring
• 1:25:48
  defensively I think it's got to be the DBS, whether it's corner
• 1:25:52
  or safety, you know it's it's funny because there hasn't
• 1:25:55
  really been much attrition there besides your main water leaving
• 1:25:59
  like that's the same group that's been here.
• 1:26:01
  So you know I would guess tight end and defensive backs.
• 1:26:06
  Those are probably the two groups that they probably just
• 1:26:09
  the most consistent throughout fluid as As you said, and I
• 1:26:13
  think it probably goes back to those are the groups that had
• 1:26:18
  the less amount of changes, obviously tight end group lost
• 1:26:21
  James Mitchell with her, which hurts.
• 1:26:23
  But but it wasn't, it's not like gallo and do is weren't doing
• 1:26:27
  the same thing they're doing now.
• 1:26:28
  Before, you know, they've been here before, same with the DVDs,
• 1:26:32
  that they play, pretty much 10 games without him last year.
• 1:26:36
  You do the injury so that they, they've been, you know, we've
• 1:26:40
  had to count on them as The 1A 1B whatever you want to call it
• 1:26:44
  in terms of your depth at the tight end position.
• 1:26:47
  So I'm with that. What are some of the groups that
• 1:26:50
  seem to be more in flux? I know we talked about defensive
• 1:26:52
  line and some guys moving around is there a spot on the offense?
• 1:26:57
  It's kind of similar to that or is it more just on that
• 1:27:00
  defensive side kind of at deep in Savannah needs to tackle
• 1:27:04
  running back? I mean I mean here's what I
• 1:27:08
  would say this is again this is a time period.
• 1:27:11
  And where they're trying to figure out who fits where, you
• 1:27:14
  know, so they sit there and write Prime mention that their
• 1:27:19
  scrimmaging up until spring game, their scrimmaging every
• 1:27:22
  Saturday and then on Sunday and Monday.
• 1:27:26
  They're sitting there and they're talking with the
• 1:27:28
  different coaches and then one day they'll make the decisions
• 1:27:30
  and kind of talk with the players about it about who could
• 1:27:34
  potentially move to a different position and We know how many
• 1:27:39
  running backs are in the room. It would not surprise me.
• 1:27:43
  If some of those guys end up testing your talented.
• 1:27:45
  Different position wide receiver would make sense simply because
• 1:27:50
  they want you, where can we utilize your skill set to Moe's
• 1:27:54
  like if chance black started catching passes out of the
• 1:27:56
  backfield maybe maybe not him because he's a little high up on
• 1:27:59
  the list but a guy like Kenji Christian or Keshawn King
• 1:28:04
  potentially catching passes out a wide receiver unit depending
• 1:28:07
  on where their skill set. And with everybody else in that
• 1:28:10
  wide receiver room that would not surprise me at all.
• 1:28:12
  And on the other side I think the linebackers I think the Sam
• 1:28:17
  linebacker them trying to figure out because you know, that's the
• 1:28:21
  dynamic linebacker. If you want to call it, that's
• 1:28:24
  the one that has kind of be that hybrid.
• 1:28:27
  I think that would probably be the one that's in flux.
• 1:28:30
  But at this point, you can probably say besides like
• 1:28:33
  quarterback and like line offensive line.
• 1:28:37
  Everybody's pretty much in flux. I mean they seem to just be
• 1:28:39
  moving everybody all over the place and again, this is Spring
• 1:28:44
  ball and they, that's kind of the luxury of it.
• 1:28:47
  We're imagine. If you, again, imagine if you
• 1:28:50
  find out that, oh my God, this guy's amazing, it Sam
• 1:28:54
  linebacker. And he was playing safety
• 1:28:55
  before. You know, those are the kind of
• 1:28:57
  things that you only will be able to find in if you test it
• 1:29:02
  in Spring ball. Yeah, something else, I have a
• 1:29:06
  question with. Obviously, we have noticed
• 1:29:09
  Really since printer I got here, we knew it was coming at the
• 1:29:12
  beginning. You know, at the beginning
• 1:29:15
  middle of last year, is it noticeable around merriment at
• 1:29:18
  the practices, the support staff and how many additional people
• 1:29:23
  are now that have been hired? Yeah, I mean, here's what I will
• 1:29:30
  say, there are always a lot of people in football practices
• 1:29:33
  because that's the way football practices go.
• 1:29:34
  But, but you can kind of like feel the vibe that makes sense,
• 1:29:40
  okay? Like look, it's a you can feel
• 1:29:44
  the culture. I was impressed at pro day when
• 1:29:49
  I win. Not now, not everybody has to be
• 1:29:53
  there, you know, because it's pro day.
• 1:29:55
  It's just for the guys that are trying to go to the church, you
• 1:29:58
  know, go to the NFL. Yeah.
• 1:30:01
  And the amount of support staff, you know, whether it's just
• 1:30:06
  people that work behind the scenes, other other staff
• 1:30:08
  members that are there, helping out doing things.
• 1:30:15
  I'm impressed. And I think One of the one of
• 1:30:19
  the parts that is probably overlooked.
• 1:30:22
  And, you know, you don't necessarily always get the best
• 1:30:25
  look at this because it's all behind the scenes.
• 1:30:29
  But from what I can tell, Brooke prize done, a really good job.
• 1:30:32
  And I think credits got to go to Mike filigrana who's kind of in
• 1:30:35
  that role overseeing kind of all the operations below him.
• 1:30:41
  I think they've done a really good job of creating this
• 1:30:44
  culture not just within the football program, but everybody
• 1:30:47
  else is Staff and everybody being on the same page.
• 1:30:50
  And I could feel it when I went to, you know, when I went to pro
• 1:30:54
  day which you know, was a little kind of all over the place but
• 1:31:00
  you're also kind of giving like you're letting the NFL Scouts
• 1:31:04
  kind of run the show so that's just the way it goes.
• 1:31:06
  Well I got practice you can you can sense that you know that
• 1:31:10
  there is a culture in that the support staff like there was a
• 1:31:14
  there's a lot of supports that just come out.
• 1:31:16
  You know, I can notice that there's on the side I'm watching
• 1:31:18
  practiced, you know, like I can tell that that there's a good
• 1:31:24
  culture being cultivated if that makes sense.
• 1:31:30
  Make perfect sense, makes perfect sense.
• 1:31:34
  One more thing we want to hit on I don't know.
• 1:31:38
  Do you, do you monitor the textile on board?
• 1:31:41
  Sometimes is that what? If not, it's not in my duties.
• 1:31:45
  Okay, that is not that that is one of Chris Coleman's.
• 1:31:49
  Main duties. Christian will monitor the
• 1:31:51
  board's because okay, always we always post stuff on there like
• 1:31:55
  I post my articles and share them, but I'm on there
• 1:31:59
  occasionally, but sometimes that place can be a mess if you guys
• 1:32:05
  are like, oh yes. Like would us when it was
• 1:32:09
  announced that you have to pay five dollars to get into the
• 1:32:12
  spring game. Oh, I don't know.
• 1:32:14
  See, those are, that's one of the times.
• 1:32:15
  I don't get on it. Are you going to avoid this that
• 1:32:20
  this point. Here's what I will say.
• 1:32:22
  I think it's, I think it's a good idea.
• 1:32:27
  Yeah. Like now what I wish if from a
• 1:32:32
  fan perspective and to give you guys more information about me,
• 1:32:37
  so I'm the oldest of three children and my sister is
• 1:32:41
  currently a sophomore at Virginia Tech.
• 1:32:43
  And my brother is going to be a freshman here in the fall.
• 1:32:47
  And I almost I have a good amount of family that's coming
• 1:32:50
  up for the spring game, you know, make a weekend out of it.
• 1:32:52
  3.24 32, lots of great stuff going on in the community.
• 1:32:57
  Yep. And they're not going to be
• 1:32:59
  hampered by a five dollar charge from spring game but they're
• 1:33:03
  also, you know, not the oldest of the old generation that that
• 1:33:09
  likes to go to these things. And what I think would have been
• 1:33:13
  better. Is one announce it like, I don't
• 1:33:15
  know, back in December or January when you announced it
• 1:33:19
  hey we're going to charge and because the fact that you're
• 1:33:24
  making people pay ahead of time for it, when it's just find out
• 1:33:27
  that you're telling me. I can't walk up and give you.
• 1:33:30
  It doesn't matter to me because I get to.
• 1:33:32
  Yeah, you know, I have a press pass.
• 1:33:34
  I'm going to be watching it anyway.
• 1:33:36
  Yeah. But like if I'm a fan, I'm
• 1:33:39
  walking up to the gate. You're telling me I can't just
• 1:33:40
  give somebody five dollars in get in you.
• 1:33:43
  No. And I think it's I think it's
• 1:33:48
  going to help the program. I mean it's not going to be like
• 1:33:50
  a huge money generator but it if you can if you get x amount of
• 1:33:55
  people to come, if you can generate like a hundred thousand
• 1:33:58
  dollars you know, just from a spring game that's another
• 1:34:02
  that's another potential support staffs but yeah you're paying a
• 1:34:04
  salary right there yet. What?
• 1:34:05
  What? Hold on.
• 1:34:06
  It's going to be higher than that when we went in 1624.
• 1:34:10
  Sure. Yours 43,000.
• 1:34:12
  Yeah, and the buzz going around right now with prai, I think
• 1:34:18
  it's like the white Vic said, he thinks if they open up the
• 1:34:22
  stadium full, it could be a full house.
• 1:34:25
  And I like your point though. They did do it late in the
• 1:34:28
  process, if they had done this January 16th, when they, when
• 1:34:32
  they, when they drop the date, they will they drop the date.
• 1:34:35
  They should've dropped this as well.
• 1:34:38
  I think it will help. Though is there's going to be
• 1:34:40
  people like Brian. And like you like myself.
• 1:34:45
  I'm not going unfortunately whoo-hoo, but I'd go in there
• 1:34:49
  and I'm getting ready to pay five bucks.
• 1:34:51
  I haven't seen the link, but if there's a link to donate more
• 1:34:54
  money, there's going to be people sitting there saying, you
• 1:34:57
  know what? I'm going to go ahead and give
• 1:34:59
  my big donation right now. Here's 5 bucks, here's 200.
• 1:35:04
  Here's my 25 for the year and then the next thing you know,
• 1:35:08
  it's this process of when the spring game happens is when I
• 1:35:11
  give my annual donation it's a ritual and and I don't know, can
• 1:35:16
  you buy up to the day of the game or is it weird that you can
• 1:35:20
  if you can buy on on the day you just have to do it on your own
• 1:35:24
  the moment within that and you know that all the all the
• 1:35:27
  tickets will be on the mobile any day.
• 1:35:29
  Yeah. I think it's for the other thing
• 1:35:33
  I would say is I actually talked to some people in athletics
• 1:35:36
  about this. If you're going to do it, When
• 1:35:40
  you release it, say where the money's going, yeah, that would
• 1:35:44
  help a lot of people. If you just say, look, it's
• 1:35:46
  being, it's going back into the football program.
• 1:35:49
  Like they are going to use the money on whether its staff or
• 1:35:54
  whatever. Yes.
• 1:35:55
  Just even say like, it's just going back to Virginia Tech
• 1:35:58
  football instead of so people don't.
• 1:36:02
  You know, so random guy who just wants to go to a spring in
• 1:36:06
  because he's in town and never keeps up with 14 SEC, football
• 1:36:10
  pays five bucks and is good, where's it going?
• 1:36:13
  Well, if you put it in a release, it's very simple.
• 1:36:16
  Just put in the really say, the money's going to Virginia Tech
• 1:36:18
  football because that's what I was told.
• 1:36:20
  I talk to people in athletics, they were like, it's going to
• 1:36:21
  Virginia Tech football. I'm like put it in the release
• 1:36:24
  man. Then people won't have to ask me
• 1:36:27
  questions about, where to Yeah, I love those points.
• 1:36:35
  David love that you're for it, but also love that you've
• 1:36:39
  already seen the opportunities. Yeah.
• 1:36:41
  There's like we can do this better.
• 1:36:44
  And that should be a gold next year.
• 1:36:46
  And hey, maybe next year is the thought process of five to come
• 1:36:50
  into the game. Maybe the alumni stuff's going
• 1:36:55
  good paid 25 meet and greet. Alumni pay 100 tailgate with the
• 1:37:01
  alumni out at the Hokie Village in the next thing you know
• 1:37:04
  you're going from You know, if there's even just a thousand
• 1:37:09
  people that will say I'll throw a hundred bucks to go to a
• 1:37:11
  tailgate with some of the alumni, the profits go up one
• 1:37:16
  last thing before we close everything out here because this
• 1:37:19
  has been awesome. I feel like we could probably go
• 1:37:21
  another 30 or 40 minutes but it's late.
• 1:37:25
  We have things to do. We have to all get to sleep.
• 1:37:28
  But, you know, you already mentioned the men in the women's
• 1:37:31
  basketball teams this year. You talked about rustling, I'll
• 1:37:34
  have Jack brizendine, who covers it?
• 1:37:36
  That following, he definitely is great at keeping up with the
• 1:37:39
  matches. If you can't see them, they
• 1:37:41
  finished seventh at Nationals. Indoor track has two national
• 1:37:46
  champions finish his 10th. Do you think this athletic
• 1:37:52
  department is in the best spot potentially in the history of
• 1:37:56
  the school as a whole, and then you can make a really good case.
• 1:38:01
  Yeah. And now what's interesting is
• 1:38:04
  Will it'll be better to judge, and this is not me pushing to
• 1:38:08
  question. It will be better to judge when
• 1:38:11
  the Directors Cup stuff comes out which is which will be
• 1:38:16
  sometime. It will probably be some time.
• 1:38:19
  Late summer kind of like like july-august just where
• 1:38:24
  everything comes out and it just all the numbers, all the
• 1:38:28
  standings for for every sport and I think Tex highest ever
• 1:38:33
  finishes like 24th or 25th and I think the probably be but 15,
• 1:38:38
  maybe 16. I mean, like here's the here's
• 1:38:41
  don't take my word for it but like I think this is probably
• 1:38:45
  one of the best years in Virginia Tech Athletics, when
• 1:38:48
  you've got the men, Ends. Somebody asked me was is the
• 1:38:50
  best ever a year for the men's and women's basketball team and
• 1:38:53
  I'm like at the same year Mike this is only the second year
• 1:38:56
  ever that they go into the tournament the same here.
• 1:38:58
  Yeah, and the managers will the ACC tournament and the women,
• 1:39:03
  you know, we're right on the doorstep.
• 1:39:06
  They finished fifth in the ACC, technically the finish in a tie
• 1:39:09
  for third, you know, like like there's that there's track and
• 1:39:13
  field couple national champions wrestling's doing really well.
• 1:39:17
  Mykhailo has had a chance to win a National.
• 1:39:19
  Asheville Championship. I screwed out of it.
• 1:39:21
  We're all just going to put that thing.
• 1:39:22
  You got screwed out of me, and don't even discount baseball's
• 1:39:26
  playing pretty well right now. Softballs.
• 1:39:30
  I'm roll. 14 game win. Streak number five in the
• 1:39:33
  country. I mean, look, everything's
• 1:39:36
  coming together. Now, the question is football
• 1:39:39
  ever going to get back, you know.
• 1:39:40
  Yeah, we like but what I think but I think overall and I
• 1:39:44
  actually wrote this story. I wrote it back kind of in
• 1:39:51
  between the NCAA tournament and bases.
• 1:39:54
  He tournaments this kind of writing about how the men's and
• 1:39:59
  women's basketball programs, both came together and I kind of
• 1:40:01
  Praise with that guy said, look, like you got to acknowledge
• 1:40:05
  that. He's done a really good job.
• 1:40:08
  Now maybe the Justin Fuente higher didn't work out, but at
• 1:40:11
  the time it was pretty good higher and not every higher is
• 1:40:16
  going to work out. And that's just the way it
• 1:40:18
  happened, but across the board. I mean, he's knocked it without
• 1:40:25
  God's, not it out of the park in just so many different areas and
• 1:40:29
  what he's building it each. As he's building foundations for
• 1:40:33
  donations for each of those Sports where the goal is over
• 1:40:37
  time. The foot the the indoor track
• 1:40:41
  team, the wrestling team is almost there, I think.
• 1:40:45
  They're supporting themselves because there are so many people
• 1:40:47
  involved in so many alumni coming out and have such a
• 1:40:50
  strong feel, they're supporting them.
• 1:40:53
  And what happens in the long run is football.
• 1:40:57
  Reach those dividends because instead of having the right to
• 1:40:59
  three million dollar check to the other sports, it writes a 1
• 1:41:03
  million dollar check portal. Yeah.
• 1:41:05
  And I think in the end, it'll be, here's the thing.
• 1:41:09
  You get football back on the right track and then you
• 1:41:11
  essentially have Me to be, you know, I like volleyball right
• 1:41:16
  now. Volleyball, did not have a great
• 1:41:18
  season but it was also the first year of Mercy buyers.
• 1:41:21
  Yeah. You know like like there are
• 1:41:24
  very few sports that are not in a good place right now and you
• 1:41:28
  can still go back on the right track, everybody's going to be
• 1:41:31
  looking around going, we're in a pretty good spot.
• 1:41:32
  Not what I will say is and IL is going to play a huge factor in
• 1:41:37
  everything and I always come around and Nal was going to play
• 1:41:41
  a huge role in everything that happens in the future because
• 1:41:48
  I'll give you an example. This isn't public knowledge yet
• 1:41:54
  but we will Stewart has promoted on the message boards but in the
• 1:41:58
  next couple days it's going to be announced that text.
• 1:42:02
  Sideline has n IL deal with Justin mutts and it's we are
• 1:42:08
  basically getting Prince of the the awesome picture, my guy
• 1:42:13
  Liam's. Liam took of his posterization
• 1:42:17
  of Paulo Bank arrow and what's going to happen is Justin's
• 1:42:20
  going to sign it. X amount of them and we're going
• 1:42:23
  to sell at least 250 of them and Justin's going to get.
• 1:42:28
  X amount of money Justin could potentially make you know
• 1:42:33
  doesn't could make thousands of dollars just by simple poster
• 1:42:37
  deal. No.
• 1:42:38
  And this is, this has nothing to do with even getting him to
• 1:42:41
  stay. This is just a simple.
• 1:42:45
  And I only reason I'm telling you guys is because I know it's
• 1:42:47
  going to be announced soon. We got a release written up,
• 1:42:49
  already about it and Justin's already signed the contract and
• 1:42:53
  everything. It's just a waiting on whether
• 1:42:56
  to be announced, but those are the types of things.
• 1:43:02
  That the Virginia Tech fans are going to have to buy into in the
• 1:43:05
  future and I know it's not easy and I know it's different, very
• 1:43:09
  different like put it simply a simple donation, a simple and IL
• 1:43:15
  deal could potentially get a student athlete to stay or get a
• 1:43:19
  student athlete that wasn't considering coming to your
• 1:43:21
  school. Consider to come to your school
• 1:43:23
  percent. Again, this has no indication on
• 1:43:25
  whether Johnston who ended up staying or not, but because of,
• 1:43:29
  you know, He has potential to make x amount of money because
• 1:43:34
  we're, I think we're going to end up selling like signed
• 1:43:37
  copies of his poster for like, a hundred bucks, you know.
• 1:43:40
  And you can pre-order pre-ordered copies, you know,
• 1:43:43
  and if we end up selling 500 of these posters, he's making
• 1:43:48
  money. He's like, 70. 80 percent of
• 1:43:51
  that money is going to him. Yes.
• 1:43:54
  And that is an awesome opportunity for student housing.
• 1:43:57
  And what's one student athletes? He's a happening.
• 1:43:59
  Everybody else is going to want to get on that tree.
• 1:44:01
  Exactly. And this is where the donors is
• 1:44:05
  where everybody else has to come into play.
• 1:44:07
  Yeah and it's and you it's going to get to the point where you're
• 1:44:10
  not going to be able to overlook it and say well it doesn't
• 1:44:13
  matter. You know, that doesn't apply to
• 1:44:15
  us, it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen.
• 1:44:18
  And this is kind of just the start so that I like this kind
• 1:44:23
  of all those in the same conversation with Babcock's at
• 1:44:26
  that. Yeah, like Department in a
• 1:44:28
  fantastic spot. So many of these sports are
• 1:44:30
  excelling, would not surprise me if softball ends up going to the
• 1:44:34
  College World Series this year. They're that good good?
• 1:44:38
  Really that good, you know, imagine what happens if you know
• 1:44:42
  Keely Richard. You know, a softball player is
• 1:44:45
  kind of in the same situation where there's a sight you know,
• 1:44:49
  Virginia Tech softball ends up going to all the way and there's
• 1:44:56
  a picture or photo or something. Like give those girls goes to
• 1:44:59
  give those You're napping Zen IL deals, you know, that's going to
• 1:45:04
  recruit more players to your program, better players and
• 1:45:08
  Inter. It's just going to keep cycling,
• 1:45:09
  cycling cycling. So I think that's kind of the
• 1:45:12
  next wave and it helps a lot at Virginia Tech.
• 1:45:16
  Athletics is in a really good position right now.
• 1:45:19
  It really is, man. Well, David, it has been an
• 1:45:24
  absolute pleasure tonight. Are you joining us?
• 1:45:27
  I thank you for, you know, taking the time out of your
• 1:45:30
  evening to sit here and talk with us to Old heads, for all
• 1:45:34
  you guys out there. Check textile on.com for all of
• 1:45:39
  David's articles also follow him.
• 1:45:42
  He is a great follow. If you love to exports on
• 1:45:44
  Twitter, the real David Gonna See You in na.
• 1:45:48
  Brian, we got anything else, man.
• 1:45:50
  I think we're good, man. All right.
• 1:45:53
  Well, that is going to wrap up this episode of the Boundary
• 1:45:56
  Corner podcast, along with David Cunningham.
• 1:45:59
  I'm Curtis Wilson. I'm Brian Sigler.
• 1:46:01
  Visit our website, boundary Corner D t.com to listen, to all
• 1:46:05
  of our episodes. And while you're there, don't
• 1:46:06
  forget to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and
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  subscribe to our YouTube account and your favorite podcast Source
• 1:46:14
  including Spotify Amazon and apple podcast is always we.
• 1:46:18
  Let our buddy Jason long place. In play us out, Jason told us
• 1:46:22
  the other night. He's got some new music on the
• 1:46:24
  way. So hopefully, we'll To play that
• 1:46:26
  here in just a few weeks. Catch him on Spotify and apple
• 1:46:29
  music. We thank you for listening.
• 1:46:33
  And as always let's go. Okay.