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Chalk Talk · Boundary Corner Podcast

• 0:27
  Music. And welcome back to the Boundary
• 0:47
  Corner Podcast along with my partner Brian Sega and our long
• 0:50
  time not only podcast friend but lifelong friend in general,
• 0:55
  Coach Robbie Compton. My name is Curtis Wilson in this
• 0:58
  episode is brought to you by Doctor Jeremy Counts down at
• 1:01
  Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg.
• 1:04
  Three O 1 S Main St. Blackford, VA.
• 1:07
  Your friendly neighborhood pharmacy.
• 1:08
  Roddy, Good to have you back man.
• 1:11
  How you doing, brother? It's been a while.
• 1:15
  Good. Good to have you back, man.
• 1:18
  Spent a little time with you guys during the the State of the
• 1:22
  Union or State of the program past year.
• 1:27
  But a couple months ago that wasn't.
• 1:29
  That was always a fun night when we and we we always chat you up,
• 1:32
  hit you up occasionally and we're going to be talking
• 1:35
  tonight with Robbie. Obviously Robbie got to see
• 1:39
  practice up close and personal 10 days ago and Robbie's got
• 1:44
  some takeaways of things that he saw there he wanted to talk with
• 1:47
  us about and good stuff like that.
• 1:50
  But you know, before we get into the football stuff, we got to
• 1:53
  hit a couple of the other sports and Brian, I'll, I'll let you
• 1:57
  lead with this because you said you wanted to talk about it
• 2:00
  tonight. I mean, it's the elephant in the
• 2:02
  room. It's the buzz around Twitter and
• 2:04
  everywhere else, or X or whatever the fuck we're calling
• 2:06
  it now. Twitter.
• 2:10
  The departure of Kenny Brooks to to Kentucky, Obviously big time
• 2:15
  blow to the women's basketball program and we're starting to
• 2:19
  see the dominoes fall from a current roster standpoint, from
• 2:23
  a recruit standpoint. So the dust has not settled yet
• 2:27
  but obviously big, big impact on that program and just kind of
• 2:34
  playing a wait and see game of what's going to be next from a
• 2:37
  coaching standpoint and kind of still processing the feelings of
• 2:42
  you know what this does for the program.
• 2:46
  And I and I I think it's it's it's been a a big gut punch for
• 2:49
  a lot of people. Well, the gut punch, it's like
• 2:53
  the second gut punch, right? You know, because the first gut
• 2:56
  punch was Liz, Liz Kitley tearing me out any chance of
• 3:01
  getting back to the Final Four title.
• 3:03
  One was, it was gone. They announced it right before
• 3:06
  the Blastburg Regional, and that was the first gut punch.
• 3:11
  But I think we were, we were ready for that, right?
• 3:14
  We're ready for it because we saw what happened then.
• 3:16
  We were all like if she didn't tear it.
• 3:20
  More than likely we expected we weren't going to see her, yeah.
• 3:24
  If she didn't tear, it was a terrible sprain.
• 3:27
  Robbie, you deal with athletes and injuries all the time.
• 3:29
  It was like, if it ain't torn, it's messed up and she ain't
• 3:33
  back for a while. Yeah, my wife is an athletic
• 3:36
  trainer and she said she saw the oh man.
• 3:42
  Both of those for Internet. His wife saw something.
• 3:51
  His wife. My wife being an athletic
• 3:54
  trainer, she saw the video, she said.
• 3:56
  Right from the start. She said that young lady's done.
• 3:58
  She She won't play anymore this year, all right?
• 4:03
  So that that happens and then you know, and then they they
• 4:07
  they win the first round game blowout Marshall.
• 4:09
  Right. And then the second round of the
• 4:11
  game was a war with Baylor, which I I think Brian, we, we
• 4:14
  got into chats in Texas. If Kili's in that game, they
• 4:17
  smoke Baylor's ass because Baylor literally had a couple
• 4:22
  ladies have their career games and they won by. 3.
• 4:25
  Yeah, Liz Kelly's on the floor. That shit ain't happening.
• 4:29
  That shit ain't happening. And it And it's sad.
• 4:31
  And and I think, you know, when you look at, you know, looking
• 4:34
  at track and what she was able to do in that game, really good
• 4:37
  offensive game. But I think the the defensive
• 4:39
  side is where she's not quite as developed yet and that's where
• 4:42
  Liz would have stopped a lot of the the, the, the things that
• 4:47
  were going in for some of those players on the on the Baylor
• 4:50
  side of the the court there, you know, and and that's just one of
• 4:54
  those things where you know it's going to come in time for that
• 4:56
  player. She'll get there from, I think,
• 4:59
  from a defensive standpoint, which you know it won't be for
• 5:02
  us. But the sadder part about that
• 5:06
  was watching that game, and we'd seen them play together a few
• 5:09
  times, was getting into this tournament.
• 5:13
  If you had both of them on the floor, and it was a couple times
• 5:15
  it happened this year, they would have been able to double
• 5:18
  Liz because that because the ball rotation would have went
• 5:21
  back to the other side and you would have had either a
• 5:24
  significantly lesser defensive player or an undersized
• 5:27
  defensive player on site. That's where it gets irritated.
• 5:29
  But let's just hit a few things. First of all, like, I get it.
• 5:38
  I think we all get it because there is not any of us sitting
• 5:42
  here that would tell you this, Robbie.
• 5:46
  If someone offered you 3 1/2 times more pay, take a new job,
• 5:51
  would you go? It's a good chance, good chance.
• 5:58
  I mean, money talks, man. And and it's it's one of those
• 6:03
  things where it sucks more because if we look at it from a
• 6:07
  long standpoint and I think that's where I think Virginia
• 6:11
  Tech in general was short sighted especially in the late
• 6:16
  2000s, early 20 tens. You know if we're pushing to get
• 6:21
  in the SEC like there were whispers of in in that time
• 6:24
  frame. You know maybe we we are are
• 6:27
  able financially to be in a better spot if if we were
• 6:31
  ramping up the way we build our off off off the field
• 6:38
  infrastructure at that same time point we might be in a better
• 6:41
  position to you know make some of these plays and things like
• 6:45
  that. But just between the combination
• 6:47
  of not getting the media money that an SEC team gets and still
• 6:53
  revamping, especially in non football sports, how we are
• 6:59
  handling recruiting and fundraising from an
• 7:02
  infrastructure standpoint, it was going to be a tough ask.
• 7:07
  It was going to be a tough ask. And especially when you're still
• 7:09
  trying to grow football, and especially when you're still
• 7:12
  trying to position yourself for realignment, conference
• 7:16
  realignment. Damn right.
• 7:17
  Now, first of all, before we say anything else and close this one
• 7:20
  out, he's not able to join us tonight because he didn't get
• 7:23
  the equipment he needed while he was traveling.
• 7:26
  But he's with us tonight on your YouTube.
• 7:29
  Yep. Responding to super wonderful,
• 7:32
  completely challenged. There he is, there he is with.
• 7:36
  The with the slide but but the last piece I'll I'll hit on is
• 7:40
  this and and and might it might be a take that people don't like
• 7:43
  to hear from me and Brian I know you've digressed with me a
• 7:45
  couple times and a couple of people argued with me where we
• 7:48
  are right now and where the college landscape is you we are
• 7:51
  not at a place where we can put money into a sport where we're
• 7:55
  losing money. We lost $5,000,000 just a couple
• 7:58
  years ago in women's basketball because right now it is in the
• 8:03
  arms race and football and if you do not get into where you
• 8:07
  need to get into, you're respectively going to be second
• 8:10
  tier. And I think with the tradition,
• 8:13
  if you tell me right now and if I asked anybody out there, would
• 8:17
  you give an extra $2,000,000 to Kenny Brooks to maybe make the
• 8:21
  Final Four next year or you put $2,000,000 back in football?
• 8:27
  That's easy answering me. I know it's.
• 8:30
  An easy answer and I think the majority of the people listening
• 8:33
  are going to agree with you on that.
• 8:35
  I think I'm going to, I'm going to give you a counter argument
• 8:37
  here and it's not going to necessarily be Kenny Brooks
• 8:41
  related. It's going to be any coach that
• 8:43
  is the women's basketball coach for Virginia Tech related.
• 8:47
  If you're talking about what, 1.6 million in salary for Kenny
• 8:51
  Brooks, that's part of that, you know, 5 million shortfall for
• 8:54
  the women's basketball program as a whole.
• 8:56
  I don't think that you're going to find a coach that's going to
• 9:01
  make you any degree of competitive in the Atlantic
• 9:04
  Coast Conference that you're not paying at least a million, maybe
• 9:07
  1.2 million a year. So that money is awash anyway.
• 9:14
  But the extra money? If you're saying so, what I'm
• 9:18
  saying is I don't think we could have gotten to three.
• 9:21
  Would it have been worth getting him to two?
• 9:24
  I think that that's hard to argue.
• 9:26
  I I think that's very debatable. I think it's definitely
• 9:30
  something that if the steps have been taken like I was discussing
• 9:33
  earlier, it would have been a no brainer.
• 9:36
  But that's not where we are and tally.
• 9:39
  Just he's on, he's going to be with us.
• 9:42
  He told me he's going to try to do this all night.
• 9:44
  But Yep, and and that's it. Brian.
• 9:46
  Brian, you said it a few years ago though, when we were when we
• 9:48
  had those issues, you were like, you put the money in football
• 9:52
  and the rising tide will raise all the ships.
• 9:54
  And that's effectively what we're doing right now.
• 9:56
  All right, I'm going to flip off basketball.
• 9:58
  We are trying to get a guest on next week to talk in depth even
• 10:03
  more on that. Brian's working, working the
• 10:05
  phones, efforting, efforting, efforting.
• 10:08
  But let's talk about a sport that does not need any
• 10:12
  additional funding, because they are funding themselves pretty
• 10:15
  much in every asset. And just a few weekends ago, the
• 10:20
  wrestling team finished seven at the national championship.
• 10:23
  And if you look at the stats, it wasn't too far from a third
• 10:26
  place podium. It was not that far from a third
• 10:28
  place podium. Caleb Hitman Henson, who Joe
• 10:32
  Rogers said on this program about a month ago, 3 weeks ago.
• 10:37
  Excuse me, Caleb Henson to win a national title.
• 10:39
  Crown him. Crown him.
• 10:44
  Henson wins the national title. The second in program history.
• 10:48
  And overall just a great show for all Americans.
• 10:52
  I I tried to watch as much as I could, you know, everything
• 10:56
  going on, but wrestling is what it is, man.
• 11:01
  The thing is, the way it is right now, collegiate wrestler,
• 11:05
  everybody's fighting for #2. That's true.
• 11:09
  Because if you if you saw if you saw that point total at the end
• 11:11
  of that thing team wise, I mean Tech was just that close from
• 11:17
  being 7th to 3rd but number two was 100 points behind the first
• 11:21
  one. Yeah.
• 11:22
  So I mean it's being second and third in this situation is
• 11:29
  absolutely incredible. It's kind of like women's
• 11:31
  basketball in the late 2000s when Gino was on that fucking
• 11:35
  run at UConn, where? You made it to the national
• 11:37
  championship. You did incredible because you
• 11:39
  know you weren't winning it. Yeah.
• 11:43
  But, but so it was great to see that.
• 11:45
  It was great to see all those guys compete, have great, great,
• 11:50
  a great season. I wouldn't say a great season
• 11:53
  because if you, Joe, Joe was like you know it.
• 11:55
  We are where we should be. It was up and down considering
• 11:58
  the injuries and there was a couple disappointments.
• 12:01
  But I think, you know, you saw people take some of the steps,
• 12:05
  especially some of the younger guys take some big steps this
• 12:07
  year. So I think that's big.
• 12:09
  Yeah, I'm just reading the comments over here.
• 12:15
  Let's put it up. Yeah, put it up.
• 12:17
  Just just oh, no, no, That one's funny.
• 12:19
  It's the one above. That tally's having himself a
• 12:23
  blast tonight. Trump.
• 12:24
  All the money and test get over to national now.
• 12:26
  We don't want to do that. This is the one.
• 12:33
  Oh, this is going to be beautiful.
• 12:35
  Tally. I'm so glad.
• 12:36
  You you. He's probably sitting on his
• 12:37
  hotel room. He's probably got a bottle next
• 12:39
  to him. He's probably watching some on
• 12:41
  TV. But.
• 12:43
  I wore an orange hat and everything for.
• 12:44
  Tally, I know you did. We had a break.
• 12:46
  The news to Robbie that it was it was just going to be us too.
• 12:49
  He's like, oh man, but but the big piece here is SE RTC, if you
• 12:55
  can and you want to support the wrestling program, support that
• 12:58
  because supporting the Southwest, the SE RTC, that is
• 13:02
  going to be the way to keep the the studs coming in and there
• 13:06
  are studs rolling in. I mean, Thomas Stewart, a
• 13:08
  freshman All American. Jimmy Mullen, who's on the
• 13:11
  football team, potentially has the ability to, if not becoming
• 13:17
  All American, potentially won a national title as a heavyweight.
• 13:22
  And let's let's talk about not just bring the studs in, but
• 13:24
  keep the studs there because there's some poachers out there
• 13:28
  especially in the the state that's shaped like an oven Mitt
• 13:32
  that are that were coming after a couple guys.
• 13:36
  Yeah. That's one of the crazy things
• 13:38
  about wrestling is if you're in, if you're in wrestling in
• 13:42
  college, you said would, your school ranking doesn't matter.
• 13:47
  Everybody's on the same level. Yeah.
• 13:50
  So, I mean, you don't have this, this stigma of Division Two or
• 13:55
  Power 5 and all of this. You're in, you're in.
• 13:59
  It doesn't matter what school you come from.
• 14:01
  It's true, very true. And there's always chances to
• 14:04
  make the Olympics and things like that.
• 14:06
  And, you know, I mean, my Kyle Lewis, the year after he won the
• 14:09
  national title, should have been there, but with COVID and
• 14:12
  everything that screwed up his year where he could not.
• 14:15
  It was basically, I think what I've heard Joe and my friend
• 14:18
  Dave, you could call it, It's the Olympic red shirt.
• 14:22
  Ever heard that shit? Olympic red shirt.
• 14:23
  Why? Why are you red shirt this year?
• 14:25
  I'm going to make the Olympics. Yeah, I'm going to Olympics.
• 14:27
  Exactly. All right.
• 14:28
  Probably the best excuse I've ever heard for what, exactly?
• 14:30
  For a red shirt, I'm going to make the Olympics.
• 14:32
  Let me do this. All right, well, let's turn it
• 14:34
  over and let's now let's start talking about football.
• 14:37
  And the one thing that broke about would be a week ago
• 14:40
  tomorrow, All time. One of the all time great wide
• 14:44
  receivers at Virginia Tech, Cam Phillips is going to be on the
• 14:46
  staff in some capacity this year, as announced by Coach Pry.
• 14:51
  You know, Cam's been out for a little over six years now, spent
• 14:54
  some time in the NFL, some time up in the Canadian Football
• 14:57
  League, and Coach Pry continues to stick about what he says.
• 15:01
  Right Like the Letterman are coming back.
• 15:05
  You're keeping it home. That's a guy that kind of
• 15:08
  straddled the in the Beamer era, beginning of the Fuente era.
• 15:14
  Kind of saw both sides of it there, so.
• 15:16
  That was something he talked about in his intro at the at the
• 15:19
  meetings the other week was, you know, there's there's guys here
• 15:23
  that have been through the culture that we're looking to
• 15:25
  bring and that's why they're here.
• 15:27
  It's because they understand the culture and the the way that we
• 15:31
  want to do things. That's a good way to put it,
• 15:34
  Robbie. And and another thing about the
• 15:36
  culture right now is how they're recruiting the state of
• 15:38
  Virginia. And I mean during the weekend
• 15:42
  you were down there, Robbie, it was a big land.
• 15:46
  Brett Clatterball Eastern View High School in Culpeper, VA.
• 15:50
  He is a top 315 player that's up there.
• 15:55
  He is the #8 on the composite 35 at linebacker 62220.
• 16:01
  His final five want no joke. It was Clemson.
• 16:04
  It was Georgia. It was Virginia Tech.
• 16:07
  A couple others in there, I know, Robbie, you said you were
• 16:11
  going to try to get to the film. Did you get a chance to get to
• 16:13
  the film? Oh yeah.
• 16:14
  I watched. I watched some of his huddle
• 16:16
  stuff. All right.
• 16:17
  What did you see on him because? He's an impressive player.
• 16:22
  I mean he's he's got good build. Obviously looking at now what
• 16:27
  you see a lot of it when you pull up huddle and stuff like
• 16:29
  that you're going to see highlights.
• 16:31
  So you're seeing the best things.
• 16:32
  He's got he he seems, he seems to replays well.
• 16:37
  He he's seeing his keys. He's got good instincts stealing
• 16:40
  holes. The thing that impressed me the
• 16:43
  most is when he makes contact the the play ends there.
• 16:48
  I mean, there's not you. We get a lot of linebackers now
• 16:52
  that make a hit and they seem to be falling backwards making
• 16:57
  tackles, man. When he, when he makes a hit
• 17:00
  that play's over. He's wrapping, running through.
• 17:03
  He's got good pad level. He he seems to be really great
• 17:08
  at getting off of blocks, using his hands, playing with his
• 17:11
  hands. He reminds me a little bit of
• 17:14
  Peyton Wilson from NC State. We take that.
• 17:18
  And. That that.
• 17:19
  That's a good comparison. I like that comparison.
• 17:23
  And makes tackles. I mean, there's not yards after,
• 17:25
  you know, yards after contact and stuff there from what we see
• 17:29
  here. And I know a couple of those
• 17:31
  teams that I saw in the film there.
• 17:34
  N Stafford. Stafford.
• 17:35
  I mean, these those are teams I've coached against.
• 17:39
  And I mean he's, he's not doing it against slaughters right
• 17:43
  there. Yeah, you know what I mean.
• 17:46
  Looking at the tape, is he like, I know he's listed with the four
• 17:49
  640, Is he kind of that true? Is it a true 4/6 or is that just
• 17:53
  kind of smoke and mirrors right now?
• 17:55
  It's it's I guess it could be very possible.
• 17:57
  I mean he moves laterally very well.
• 18:01
  He gets where he needs to. I didn't see a lot in the in
• 18:04
  those things in his highlights dropping into coverage and
• 18:08
  really covering people. But when when stop routes and
• 18:14
  and old terms the old button hook and curls and stuff like
• 18:19
  that, when he sees it, he gets there in a hurry.
• 18:21
  It's not a lot of yards after the catch in that thing either.
• 18:24
  He's getting to where he needs to.
• 18:26
  So I mean he's pretty quick in that that some of that comes
• 18:28
  with all his instinct of knowing where plays are going.
• 18:31
  You don't have to be as fast when you're pretty sure you know
• 18:34
  where it's going. That's a biggie right there.
• 18:38
  So that that's a that's a huge land right now.
• 18:40
  He sits at the top. He's a four-star composite
• 18:42
  everywhere so everybody sees him as basically a top three 5300
• 18:47
  player which is awesome to see. Now Robbie, you already kind of
• 18:51
  gave it away. Robbie did get to go down to the
• 18:53
  coaches event got to see some practice and got to see a lot of
• 18:56
  different things. So Robbie, I'm going to ask this
• 18:58
  because you kind of mentioned some stuff to coach Proud was
• 19:00
  saying, but what was the field of event, not only from the the
• 19:03
  coaching staff, but what's the feel of the events amongst the
• 19:07
  coaches there like the coaches because these are guys you
• 19:10
  probably know you coach against, you've probably said in many
• 19:13
  things like this, but what's the buzz about where this program is
• 19:17
  going right now? I mean, it's when you guys see
• 19:20
  it, when when they recruit these guys and they post all the stuff
• 19:23
  on social media and all of their things say welcome home, this is
• 19:27
  home. When you walk in there as a
• 19:29
  coach and you definitely, you definitely feel it because they
• 19:33
  know those, a lot of those coaches are coming from
• 19:35
  Virginia. They want them to feel like
• 19:38
  they're coming home and that's what they're doing.
• 19:40
  I mean, you walk into the event, you walk into the thing and all
• 19:43
  of the coaches are at the doors, they're greeting you, they're
• 19:46
  talking to you, you know, I mean, they want it to be that
• 19:51
  comfortable. They want it to feel, to feel
• 19:55
  like home, not just for the kids coming in, but for those
• 19:58
  coaches. As we know, a lot of those
• 20:01
  coaches in Virginia, it is home to a lot of them.
• 20:05
  I mean, you've got a lot of those coaches that played there
• 20:07
  over time. I mean that that's their, that's
• 20:11
  their thing. They want to bring that crowd
• 20:13
  together like that. And I mean, it's a great thing.
• 20:17
  I'm in North, I'm two, 2 1/2 hours from there in North
• 20:20
  Carolina. But it doesn't matter that, you
• 20:23
  know, they're welcome, you're in because you're in their
• 20:25
  footprint. So you're welcome at all times.
• 20:30
  What you got Brian on that? I mean I think that's that's
• 20:34
  kind of what we've been talking about.
• 20:35
  Like I I feel like you're what you're describing there is that
• 20:37
  the culture is completely flipped especially from where it
• 20:40
  was a few years ago. And I I think you know we've
• 20:44
  had, we've had some folks on here that have spoken to that
• 20:48
  from personal experience on the recruiting side.
• 20:51
  You were there with us when we were talking to those folks, the
• 20:54
  state of the program, you know, we we've heard it from other
• 20:57
  recruits that we've talked to, other players that we talked to.
• 20:59
  So it seems to be something that is just a recurring theme of, of
• 21:04
  being very relationship focused. And if you focus on the
• 21:10
  relationships, then the other things start to take care of
• 21:13
  themselves a little bit, yeah. Absolutely.
• 21:16
  All right. Now let's let's let's get off
• 21:19
  that. That's the event.
• 21:20
  That's how you feeling. What's just the feel in the
• 21:23
  building about 2024 right now? Like what you're hearing from
• 21:27
  the coaches? And I know we're going to talk
• 21:28
  about a lot of stuff, we're going to talk about players,
• 21:30
  we're going to talk about some things you set in.
• 21:32
  But what's just the vibe coming out of there?
• 21:35
  Because again, you walked in Merriman, you got to go down on
• 21:38
  the field in the practice fields and all that stuff.
• 21:41
  I mean, is there a difference between 2023 where the team went
• 21:45
  seven and six and 2024? I I I feel like there.
• 21:50
  It's very positive. A lot of people are a lot more
• 21:53
  comfortable in situations you've got.
• 21:57
  You didn't have staff turnover. You know there's not coaches
• 22:02
  leaving and brand new coaches being in a week before this
• 22:05
  whole practice thing starts. And I mean that was the that was
• 22:09
  the thing they were dealing with last year.
• 22:11
  We got there and and two or three days before that they just
• 22:16
  hired a new running backs coach and offensive line coach.
• 22:19
  Yeah, it's just a it's a positive vibe.
• 22:23
  It's building off of what's been going so far and I think that's
• 22:28
  a great thing, great direction to be moving in and I think it.
• 22:32
  I think everybody's kind of feeling that.
• 22:35
  I think that's the thing that that I like what you just said
• 22:38
  there, it's it's the vibe of positivity.
• 22:42
  Because like you said last year, Crooks and Elijah were just
• 22:45
  getting in house there and they're trying to figure out
• 22:47
  everything and what we're going to do this year and all that
• 22:50
  stuff. And now these guys have coached
• 22:52
  a full year, literally a full year together, literally a full
• 22:55
  year together and every, every step along the way.
• 22:59
  Last year where there's some setbacks, yeah, but then there
• 23:01
  were gains, set back gains, set back gains.
• 23:04
  And then at the end of the year with the last, I would say even
• 23:07
  three games. Because the way that team fought
• 23:09
  back against NC State and getting that close with just a
• 23:13
  couple minutes left and not able to get the ball back, probably
• 23:16
  tie the game up and then blowing out UVA and then doing what they
• 23:19
  did against Tulane up in the bowl game.
• 23:22
  I I like hearing this, the positive vibes.
• 23:24
  It isn't like a we're we're King Kong.
• 23:28
  But it's positive. And the good part is all of
• 23:32
  those coaches returning or returning to the players that.
• 23:35
  Know them. They've gotten used to, they're
• 23:38
  falling in that system. So I mean that's.
• 23:40
  You're you're getting your coaching staff comfortable
• 23:42
  because you have continuity, but you're also your roster has
• 23:45
  continuity too. So both of those are playing
• 23:48
  hand and fist there. There's the word I was looking
• 23:50
  for continuity. That's a beautiful word.
• 23:52
  I can't spell it, but I can give it to you.
• 23:54
  There we go. That's a that's a great way to
• 23:58
  to say it. Yep.
• 24:01
  Yeah, so I mean, let's, let's talk to the offense a little
• 24:05
  bit. I know that that's probably the
• 24:07
  big topic that everybody's focused on.
• 24:08
  We got so many returning starters from that last year's
• 24:12
  team, a team that kind of gelled as the year went on, really kind
• 24:16
  of took over the mentality that Kyron Drones brought to the
• 24:21
  table once he became starting quarterback.
• 24:23
  So you know, looking at that, did you sit in on any of the
• 24:27
  coaches meetings during the event?
• 24:29
  Which ones did you see? Did you get to talk to anyone on
• 24:33
  that front? I did.
• 24:34
  I went to actually sat in with with the wide receiver group.
• 24:41
  Good room. Damn good room.
• 24:43
  A little bit from from his days at ECU when I was just a few
• 24:47
  blocks over from it there in Greenville.
• 24:52
  But sitting in there and and listening to some of the things
• 24:55
  they talk about how, you know, just absolutely technical things
• 25:00
  are for the way they do things and certain matchups and certain
• 25:05
  things. They do everything they can to
• 25:07
  take advantage of and use those players.
• 25:10
  And I mean the players in that crowd have to be sharp.
• 25:13
  And I I think, I think he's got a good crowd there with a good
• 25:16
  game plan and and you're going to see some some good stuff out
• 25:20
  of it. All right.
• 25:23
  Love to hear that. Now, Brian, you already brought
• 25:24
  him up. So we we we got to talk about
• 25:26
  it. I'm sorry.
• 25:27
  Can't, can't, can't wait any longer.
• 25:29
  And first of all, shout out to Mr. Drones.
• 25:34
  Kevin in the house with us tonight.
• 25:35
  Good to have you. I'm a.
• 25:37
  Fellow coach can't go wrong. Yeah the fellow coach there you
• 25:39
  go you and you and him talking shot back in state of the
• 25:42
  program. But let's talk about Kyron
• 25:43
  drones because you you said in here last year about this time
• 25:47
  and you said the thing sounds different coming out of his arm.
• 25:51
  But you you were talking to us about now the there it's
• 25:56
  physical specimen, we still know that.
• 25:58
  But you said there were things you saw last weekend that are
• 26:01
  just, it's like, I don't know how you want to describe it.
• 26:05
  Robbie. He's in the system.
• 26:08
  He's settled in to, to to coach Bowen's system.
• 26:14
  He understands where things are going to open up.
• 26:16
  He understands what he's looking for, what things are given he.
• 26:21
  He doesn't have to force things. He knows what's there.
• 26:24
  He knows what to take. He's a smart football player and
• 26:27
  he's got a competitive edge to him.
• 26:29
  He's got a leadership to him. The the guys are following what
• 26:35
  he's doing. He knows that system and they
• 26:39
  know that he knows the system and everybody's more comfortable
• 26:41
  in that situation. And I mean that.
• 26:44
  That's the, you know, yes, he's a vocal leader, but those are
• 26:47
  the leadership parts that they just they just spill out of him
• 26:51
  because he knows what's going on and they're comfortable in that
• 26:55
  continuity of of Woods. I'm going to use that word a lot
• 26:58
  tonight, Brian, now. Thank you.
• 27:00
  You are welcome. They're comfortable in.
• 27:02
  That and and it it's just going to make things easier going
• 27:05
  forward I think. Yeah, I mean it's nice having a
• 27:09
  player that's at that position, that has a command of the
• 27:14
  offense but also has those other intangible leadership qualities
• 27:19
  and also has a physicality that just, you know, you can't under
• 27:23
  understate, right. So Tommy said, yeah, he's got
• 27:27
  that dog in him. So I mean I think you know those
• 27:29
  those those qualities definitely help in the quarterback room and
• 27:33
  everyone feeds off of that because when you when you've got
• 27:37
  a leader on the field like that, everybody else is going to feed
• 27:39
  off that energy. Yeah, yeah.
• 27:42
  We're not sitting here tonight questioning, OK, Oh, no.
• 27:44
  Would they be talking about this kid or they're going to start
• 27:48
  this kid because, you know, you give him a chance.
• 27:50
  Now we know who it's going to be and he knows who it's going to
• 27:54
  be. There's no looking back.
• 27:55
  It's, it's, it's take it to the next level.
• 27:59
  Take it to the next level. All right.
• 28:00
  Well, I got to take it back to one level because I think now
• 28:03
  because last year it was, it was granted, it was Kyron who's
• 28:07
  going to be one, who's going to be two.
• 28:09
  That all played itself out. So this year we kind of have the
• 28:11
  question mark now who was running with the twos the day
• 28:14
  you saw it, because I know obviously there are two kids
• 28:17
  there who are younger. Do you remember?
• 28:20
  Do you recall who you saw that day?
• 28:22
  I think Pop Watson took more snaps, OK with them.
• 28:27
  He took a few snaps here and there in different drills with
• 28:31
  the top wide receivers and stuff like that.
• 28:35
  You know, you know as well as I do, things happen.
• 28:38
  He may have to go out there with the ones.
• 28:40
  Every once in a while Kyron could be making a a huge run and
• 28:44
  have his helmet pulled off and man's got to go out there and
• 28:47
  perform. You never know, Wiki.
• 28:51
  I think that's how you pronounce it.
• 28:54
  Wiki he had. He had a lot of snaps with the
• 28:56
  twos too, but typically Pop was the next guy out there.
• 29:03
  From an arm talent standpoint, who's showing who?
• 29:06
  Did you see show a little bit more from your perspective of
• 29:08
  those? Two, I mean, Papa's in Wiki,
• 29:13
  looks like he has good command of what's going on.
• 29:16
  Just that experience. But man, Watson's got some that
• 29:21
  that that dudes can be electric. I mean you can lose him behind,
• 29:25
  behind some things and he, he shoots out of holes and I mean
• 29:28
  he's moving when he comes out of there, the the kid is quick.
• 29:32
  I mean, he could be very electric in a lot of ways out of
• 29:35
  there, but. Yeah, it looks like he throws
• 29:38
  with the run pretty well too. So he does.
• 29:40
  Nice. All right, so obviously it seems
• 29:42
  like there's still a somewhat battle for the backup
• 29:45
  quarterback position as we continue to move into spring,
• 29:48
  which I don't think anybody's shocked with.
• 29:50
  But like, Kier knows insights from Robbie, especially on pop.
• 29:53
  All right, let's go to the running back run.
• 29:58
  Because running backs. One of those weird rumors,
• 30:00
  right? Because they're going to take a
• 30:03
  ton of hits in the season. Do you really want them to take
• 30:06
  a ton of hits during practice? Well, you want to take some?
• 30:08
  I know y'all want to because y'all coach.
• 30:11
  Like you got to at least get used to this shit.
• 30:13
  But who did you get to see live that day was?
• 30:16
  Did anybody step out? Do we do we get to see Mr. 13.7
• 30:20
  himself? Was Tyler Mason out there?
• 30:24
  Didn't. We saw a little bit of Tooting
• 30:27
  and some drills, skelly stuff, but it didn't look like he was
• 30:31
  getting a lot of full contact stuff.
• 30:34
  The vast majority of the of the snaps I saw, as far as inside
• 30:40
  work team drills, you saw a lot of Coney and prelude.
• 30:45
  OK and. They told, they told us
• 30:48
  beforehand that that some of the running back stuff was some of
• 30:52
  them were a little banged up and a little a little tender.
• 30:58
  I think was what the word said in in some places and there's,
• 31:01
  you know, I think this was one of their first days of full
• 31:04
  contact in the thing. So it's not it's not a time
• 31:08
  where you're going to go out there and really push guys too
• 31:11
  much in this situation. But I'm going to tell you what
• 31:16
  Mr. Mason, I'm interested. I'm interested to see him step
• 31:21
  into some of the things that they do once he gets up to
• 31:23
  speed, because being right here locally, just a few minutes up
• 31:28
  the road in Mount Airy, that kid has been impressive and I'd like
• 31:32
  to see him through a lot of their system.
• 31:36
  And you know what? It's funny you say that because
• 31:38
  when we talked with Coach probably last May, we talked
• 31:41
  about the spring game. Like, you know, some guys didn't
• 31:43
  go. And he's like, yeah, he's like,
• 31:45
  why am I going to try to send a guy out there who's tender
• 31:49
  banged up? Yeah, it's a spring game.
• 31:53
  We got 12 games in the fall. There's no need to go.
• 31:56
  This guy who's a good player, we know we can get out of it.
• 31:58
  There's no need to him to go out there and play.
• 32:00
  So it sounds like he's that mentality is the same way with
• 32:03
  him right now, like he's going to bang up.
• 32:05
  Why am I going to run my backup or my starting running back
• 32:09
  through drills when they might be a little nick from the first
• 32:11
  full pad of practice? It's something Pride told us it
• 32:14
  seems like he's living by. Yeah, I mean Tooting.
• 32:17
  I mean this is this will be his what, 4th or 5th year college
• 32:21
  football? 3rd.
• 32:23
  This will only be his third year.
• 32:25
  He was a true freshman at North Carolina A&T when he went for
• 32:28
  1200 down there. Well, but I mean you're you're
• 32:31
  that many years into being a featured.
• 32:35
  Exactly. What's the, you know what's the
• 32:38
  point of taking hits in the spring when we know what we're
• 32:41
  going to get out of him when he counts.
• 32:43
  Yep. And I I think it's, you know, we
• 32:46
  all know running backs when it comes to later in college and
• 32:50
  profession there there's an expiration date.
• 32:52
  Oh yeah, Normally take so many of those hits like that and and
• 32:55
  why waste them, you know, doing. I'm not saying that that some of
• 32:59
  these drills are wasting reps, but I mean, why take some of
• 33:04
  those shots when it's not completely necessary?
• 33:07
  Yeah. And I mean, if you got padded
• 33:08
  practices, you're probably going to be, you know, anywhere.
• 33:12
  You know, 90% is probably the best you're going to be once you
• 33:15
  get a few practices into the season anyway.
• 33:16
  But if you're much below that, take a seat.
• 33:20
  And I mean it's a development aspect to it too.
• 33:22
  You got all these young guys that can can get in there and
• 33:25
  learn and and and build from there.
• 33:28
  So I mean it's it's never a bad thing because we all know you're
• 33:32
  going to have to rely on, I would say in the college game at
• 33:36
  least three by now. You're going to have to look at
• 33:38
  at least three of them in a season by now.
• 33:40
  So and and that's about what we ran last year.
• 33:42
  I mean it was it was primarily 2 with you know the the occasional
• 33:46
  hit here or there of of of 1/3. So you're you're going to be at
• 33:50
  least running two primary and probably at least one change of
• 33:54
  pace or spell back to kind of give those guys a little bit of
• 33:58
  a blow? Yeah.
• 33:59
  Yeah, and you got to think with Tuden, he went like all touches
• 34:03
  last year, like 220, and he had similar numbers like 250 at A&T
• 34:08
  the year before. So he's already 500 plus touches
• 34:10
  into his career. That is a lot for a young guy.
• 34:13
  That's. That's just.
• 34:14
  That's just those That's not counting his kicker turns and
• 34:18
  things like that. I mean, which from the few,
• 34:21
  there's a few from last year we didn't have to worry about him
• 34:24
  getting hit. Oh no.
• 34:27
  Exactly, exactly, man. And I mean, that's what you love
• 34:30
  to see. And I'm glad that the they're
• 34:33
  taking a little bit slow with that room because it's a room
• 34:36
  that we have good experience in. You don't want to squander that
• 34:41
  and a one off play in in in in the spring game or spring
• 34:45
  practice or anything like that. So take it easy with those guys
• 34:48
  for sure. Yeah, I think that's a big thing
• 34:50
  of coaching staff's looking at too is coach Brooks is very is
• 34:56
  very much a a a student of the game and and developing those
• 35:02
  kids. So I mean you might have to hold
• 35:05
  back one a little bit to keep them as healthy as possible, but
• 35:08
  it's just bringing the other ones up to speed and and getting
• 35:11
  them. Prepare.
• 35:12
  Yeah. And this is a great time of year
• 35:14
  to do that with installs going in and all that stuff and you
• 35:18
  know, getting scrimmages that you know don't don't really hurt
• 35:22
  you in terms of the win or loss record and things like that.
• 35:25
  So that that that's a big thing for this time of year.
• 35:29
  Let's pivot over to the tight end room.
• 35:30
  We know that's another one that's kind of been banged up
• 35:33
  and you got some young folks out there.
• 35:35
  What'd you see from that group while you were out there?
• 35:37
  What's that? The tight end room?
• 35:40
  Tide in room was the was the one that I probably saw the least
• 35:45
  out of, just because they have some guys banged up.
• 35:50
  The one that I remember specifically seeing a little
• 35:53
  more of was Saint Germain. I think he did.
• 35:56
  He got more reps with the first group and things that they did,
• 36:01
  and I think he's a younger guy I talked to.
• 36:05
  I kind of spoke to the Gosnell brothers a little bit, just
• 36:08
  because they're from relatively locally here where I am.
• 36:15
  Yep. Lost there a little bit there.
• 36:17
  Gosnell brothers locally, Is he going to come back?
• 36:22
  Oh, right back. There we go.
• 36:24
  There we go. Gosnell brothers locally.
• 36:26
  Yeah, they neither one of them did participated in in the
• 36:29
  practice that day. They're kind of rehabbing and
• 36:32
  getting some stuff together, so, but I mean I think they're, I
• 36:37
  think they'll be ready to play, ready to go there, you know?
• 36:43
  Yeah, we knew Stevens injury was going to going to kind of be a a
• 36:46
  a longer recovery period. And you know Ben Benji, I know
• 36:49
  that you had a had a nick here, Nick there.
• 36:51
  Did you see much of of Zeke Wimbush out there?
• 36:55
  A little bit here and there. I think in some of the Skelly
• 36:57
  periods and some things like that he he looked pretty good
• 37:03
  catching balls and stuff and some of the drills that we saw.
• 37:06
  But not I didn't see a lot of, I didn't pick up a lot on him in
• 37:11
  like inside or things like that. Most of that was Saint Germain
• 37:16
  with a lot of the guys. And.
• 37:19
  May just be the you know the comfort and the the somebody
• 37:24
  that understood the the progressions of stuff a little
• 37:27
  bit better right then being that first day.
• 37:31
  But I mean just in the individual group drills, you
• 37:35
  know they've, they've got a couple other tight ends there
• 37:37
  that are that are going to be be able to help them especially in
• 37:41
  the long run. Yeah.
• 37:42
  I think the hope is that Zeke would kind of step into a little
• 37:45
  bit of Daquan writes role in the at least in the past passing
• 37:49
  side of the the the tight end role there.
• 37:52
  So was interesting to see if he if he was doing anything.
• 37:54
  So, you know, getting involved in Skelly and the bad idea
• 37:57
  there, yeah. All right.
• 37:59
  Well, let's flip it over. The room you sat in and talked
• 38:02
  to Coach Minds with someone you go back with.
• 38:04
  Let's talk about that room. And let's talk about, first of
• 38:06
  all, the Core 4. You already mentioned Steven
• 38:08
  Gosnell. He's one of them, along with Jay
• 38:11
  Lane Long, Quan Felton and Ollie Jennings.
• 38:14
  I mean, everybody in there. To me, they all can play
• 38:19
  anywhere. Like they have primary positions
• 38:22
  where they excel at. But you know, we know, Brian,
• 38:26
  you mentioned Gosnell's rehabbing, but just seeing them
• 38:30
  up close and I know they probably ran some of the drills
• 38:32
  and some of the plays and you got to sit in the room with
• 38:34
  them, but just up close in person, like how good are they?
• 38:39
  They, I mean they're that's that's an impressive crowd of
• 38:42
  impressive crowd of football players now, very, very fluid,
• 38:48
  very technical football players. I think a lot of that comes from
• 38:51
  Coach Minds and the way he teaches the game.
• 38:55
  They're very good. They have, you know, the way
• 39:00
  they put routes together, the way a lot of colleges put routes
• 39:03
  together, you have a lot of options depending on whether
• 39:06
  you're being pressed or off or whether somebody's giving you an
• 39:10
  outside release versus an inside release, things like that.
• 39:14
  And I mean they take advantage. They do a good job of taking
• 39:17
  advantage of the things that's given to them and they create
• 39:20
  their own space. They make their self open in
• 39:23
  ways I think it it's built their program and the stuff that they
• 39:29
  do is built very much for higher level receivers that are going
• 39:35
  to continue to play later. And I think you're going to you
• 39:39
  know those guys understand that and they're there to continue to
• 39:45
  grow in that system to help their to help improve themselves
• 39:48
  later for. We got some skipping again.
• 39:56
  He'll be back in just a second here.
• 40:03
  Y'all. Just so you know, Robbie is
• 40:05
  going to be moving to a location higher out of the holler of
• 40:08
  Works works for on the next little while here.
• 40:10
  So next time he joins us, probably not as many.
• 40:12
  So Robbie cut off for a second there, but let me ask, let me
• 40:17
  ask this next. You got those four guys.
• 40:20
  I want to talk about the two young, young guys at the end
• 40:22
  here, but what other guys like? Xavier Turner, Bradshaw, Tucker
• 40:28
  Holloway, Aiden Green. Did any of those guys pop out to
• 40:33
  you, whether it be drills, their physical demeanors?
• 40:37
  Those guys are like those guys were there, they ran, they ran
• 40:43
  some stuff with the ones they were catching passes from drones
• 40:47
  and scaling and things like that.
• 40:48
  It was a lot of rotation, a lot of stuff like that.
• 40:51
  And you can tell there's you've got that core group that knows
• 40:56
  what's going on at all times and they can make those breaks and
• 41:00
  cuts and decisions. You got the next group that you
• 41:02
  can tell are are into the system and learning those things And
• 41:07
  then you've got the younger guys that you can just tell have pure
• 41:11
  raw ability and it's it's just taking a little time for them to
• 41:16
  to see what's going on and learn the intricacies of of what
• 41:19
  they're trying to do. I think it's a good flow down
• 41:22
  through from from the older guys all the way to the younger guys.
• 41:29
  I don't know that the younger guys are going to be at the
• 41:31
  bottom of that thing very long. That's just my opinion.
• 41:36
  You can tell by those abilities and I'm not trying to take away
• 41:39
  anything from some of those other guys, but you can tell
• 41:42
  there's just raw ability that you know you can learn all the
• 41:47
  game you want to. There's some things you can't
• 41:48
  learn. Couple of those guys, couple of
• 41:51
  those younger guys have things that just aren't taught and
• 41:54
  can't be learned. And you and you and you
• 41:57
  mentioned Green. Did did you see much of Chance
• 42:00
  Fitzgerald out there? I probably, I don't recall.
• 42:08
  I I would say nothing stood out to make me think that.
• 42:11
  I know he was out there a couple of times because he was in that
• 42:15
  he was in that second group of receivers that come out there
• 42:18
  some. But they did a really good job
• 42:21
  of mixing guys in and out and you could tell they were trying
• 42:24
  to keep some held back a little bit, not to push them but so
• 42:29
  hard, you know, But I mean it's it was it was definitely a group
• 42:36
  that that's got depth and they've got the the pieces that
• 42:41
  they should be able to recover if anything happens or or
• 42:44
  anything like that. Probably a little better than
• 42:47
  last year as far as being able to step up all right.
• 42:51
  You, you, you, you. You've hinted at those two young
• 42:54
  guys. I want you to start with Chance
• 42:56
  Wiggins 1st and just what you see out of him say.
• 43:01
  Somebody, somebody put the thing up earlier talking about drones
• 43:05
  and how he's got some dog in him.
• 43:08
  Chance Wiggins might have a little dog in him himself.
• 43:11
  I mean he's just like you could tell when he got out on that
• 43:14
  field that day and he's just as happy as he can be to be on a
• 43:18
  football field. I mean he's just he's going to
• 43:22
  be, he's going to be a force in the next year or so.
• 43:26
  I mean he's going to be somebody to watch.
• 43:29
  He loves being there. He, he just loves being in the
• 43:33
  game I think and he's going to compete with every chance he
• 43:37
  gets and and that's one of the best parts of it is seeing those
• 43:41
  guys go out and compete all right.
• 43:44
  Now what about Brody? Because you you said Brody not
• 43:47
  as big as chance physically, but you said watching him run just.
• 43:51
  He's smooth man. He's smooth he he breaks his
• 43:55
  routes quickly. I mean it's a foot in the ground
• 43:57
  and break there. There's not a there's not a
• 44:00
  surprise in my opinion that he's one of the all time leading
• 44:04
  receivers in Virginia history with the way he runs routes and
• 44:08
  the way he snaps things off and I mean it's just smooth.
• 44:11
  I've I've seen some decent receivers in my days coaching
• 44:14
  and and he's right there. I mean, it's pretty impressive
• 44:17
  to see him move in and out of things.
• 44:22
  Yeah, I mean, you know, when we look at that, I feel like that's
• 44:24
  a good kind of 1-2 punch because you got a big body guy that can
• 44:28
  get down the field and then you got a guy like Brody that is
• 44:31
  just a route technician that can really just get open anywhere on
• 44:36
  the field. He he's going to completely
• 44:38
  excel in that in in that program, the way they do things.
• 44:42
  He's going to play his self open a lot and it's going to be very
• 44:45
  fun to watch. So we talked wide receivers,
• 44:50
  let's go over to the offensive line room.
• 44:53
  Oh, hell yeah, yeah. It's going to be quiet for the
• 44:55
  next couple minutes. You you know we're we're a line
• 44:59
  podcast here we we we don't make any any qualms about it.
• 45:03
  You know we we've got some you know little bit of steps were
• 45:09
  taken last year in terms of the production from that group.
• 45:13
  Let's let's start we'll start negative here.
• 45:15
  Is there anything that worries you looking at kind of the
• 45:17
  early, early outcomes of of what the spring was looking like with
• 45:20
  that with those line UPS? Just I don't know if it's as
• 45:26
  much as worries as as just kind of I was expecting it to be a
• 45:37
  little more Now the don't get me wrong the the comprehension of
• 45:42
  what they're doing the things like that the continuity of that
• 45:46
  offensive line is building. It's there.
• 45:49
  They're trusting what crook is, is putting in there.
• 45:53
  You can definitely tell in advancement through that crowd.
• 45:59
  I personally thought seeing seeing the kid come in, the
• 46:03
  transfer kid come in, that you were going to see a little more
• 46:06
  of him moving in and out and trying things.
• 46:09
  And my kind of opinion was like, OK, who does he step in and
• 46:13
  replace? I don't think he.
• 46:17
  I don't think that kids come in and take steps to replace
• 46:19
  anybody. Yet throughout a lot of the
• 46:22
  drills and stuff we saw, I saw a lot of the same guys that we saw
• 46:27
  before. You know the shit and and
• 46:30
  lemons, Chaplin, both of the more boys, I mean, which isn't
• 46:38
  completely surprising. They've been in the system,
• 46:40
  they've been going through. They know what's going on and
• 46:44
  and the new kid his, my, his name slips on my mind.
• 46:47
  Cunningham. Cunningham.
• 46:48
  Yeah. He, you know, I didn't see him
• 46:52
  really with the first group but he's been, he's only been in the
• 46:57
  system at that point for really practice for three or four days
• 47:02
  at that point. So he was kind of in last gotten
• 47:09
  there. So I mean it's not completely
• 47:12
  surprising, but it just, you know, a little more advancement
• 47:17
  and stuff is what I'm looking for and that's going to come as
• 47:21
  they go through the spring and get into the fall.
• 47:24
  And you never know. I mean things can change all the
• 47:26
  time. We we do some spring stuff here.
• 47:30
  I mean we've got kids playing right now that may not even be
• 47:34
  in that position group that they are.
• 47:35
  Now granted that's high school, but you know, just because what
• 47:39
  you see as a first group, right there may not be a first group
• 47:43
  to start the 1st fall practice or even the 1st fall game.
• 47:46
  So it's just it's going to be interesting to see how they kind
• 47:50
  of put some groups together. But you know that group of five
• 47:53
  that played every game last? Well, they played most of the
• 47:56
  games last year. Have that, that, that feel for
• 48:00
  each other, Yeah, I think they're continuing to try to
• 48:03
  carry that on. Yeah, you know what gave me a
• 48:06
  little bit of optimism was seeing that, you know, once you
• 48:09
  get a quarterback that's comfortable with running the
• 48:12
  football and once you see some of the scheme shifts around his
• 48:15
  skill set, you saw the play of that offensive line improve as
• 48:19
  well in tandem with that. So other than that, are there
• 48:23
  any other like big things that that you see from an optimistic
• 48:26
  standpoint heading into the the spring practice and spring game
• 48:30
  here? And I thought they had, you
• 48:32
  know, they were, they were working together well, double
• 48:35
  teams were were nice and tight. They were doing some good things
• 48:38
  there. They did pretty well in pass
• 48:42
  protection for a lot of things. Footwork is very good.
• 48:46
  They're getting, you know, they they're playing with good pad
• 48:49
  level where sometimes it's hard for some of these offensive
• 48:51
  lineman because they're big. But I mean things that I know
• 48:56
  Crook looks at. You can see them developing, you
• 49:00
  can see those things getting better with every play.
• 49:04
  Now they're going against, which we'll talk later about.
• 49:11
  It's a crowd that is doing everything they can not to make
• 49:14
  them look so good. Well, they did fairly well
• 49:18
  against that for the most part. Do you think from a fundamental
• 49:22
  standpoint you're seeing some improvement?
• 49:24
  Is that, is that kind of where you're seeing the most
• 49:26
  improvement? Yeah, they're they're doing
• 49:28
  little things better. They're they're working through
• 49:33
  through first blocks and and coming off the second level,
• 49:37
  making good transitions in those ways, getting good drives and
• 49:42
  good movement up front at times, adjusting well when they may not
• 49:48
  have the best leverage against the defensive lineman.
• 49:51
  Defensive lineman's going to have good leverage.
• 49:53
  Are they making adjustments to that?
• 49:54
  And they did make good adjustments at times.
• 49:57
  So that progression that they're looking for with the offensive
• 50:01
  line I think is there, especially with the first, I
• 50:04
  would say six to seven lineman. So you're seeing, like, less
• 50:07
  panic when they lose that leverage.
• 50:09
  You're not just oh shit. Yeah, yeah, it they're they're
• 50:13
  continuing to try to make something work.
• 50:16
  Yeah, OK, That's good. Did you get a chance to speak
• 50:19
  with Coach Frick? I know you guys are are having
• 50:22
  good relationships with it. He's he's definitely a little
• 50:27
  more comfortable with with what's going on, being there a
• 50:29
  little longer having some you know some.
• 50:33
  I mean, he had, he had relationships with the coaches
• 50:35
  before, yeah. Give him a second.
• 50:45
  Give him a second, ladies and gentlemen.
• 50:47
  Folks, Pearl is coming down in a second while he's while he's
• 50:50
  coming back, just just so you know, Tally Wilson, we lost it
• 50:53
  again. But yeah, I mean he's it's it's
• 50:57
  definitely a better feeling for him this year.
• 50:59
  I think just being there, he's been there the whole year.
• 51:03
  He's had the whole offseason to kind of work with the guys,
• 51:06
  continue to push through. So I think that's a good thing
• 51:08
  all. Right.
• 51:09
  Let me let me ask this Robbie and and and it just didn't go
• 51:12
  back to just you and maybe every position coach and we're going
• 51:17
  to talk about defenses after we get back from break here in a
• 51:19
  second. But how big is it to
• 51:21
  continuously like you talk about Coach Crook walked in a year ago
• 51:25
  almost to the day you Start learning guys, right.
• 51:29
  And I know for a lot of these guys they are, they consider
• 51:32
  themselves teachers. And it's like it's tough to
• 51:34
  teach somebody that you don't know that well because you don't
• 51:38
  know what what they respond to the best.
• 51:40
  And you slowly find that out just from watching him and you
• 51:44
  got to watch him last year and you've known coach Crooke and
• 51:46
  you've seen him coach was there a different, you know, essence
• 51:51
  around him like out there with the guys did it look, did it
• 51:54
  look like last year to this year?
• 51:56
  Did this year make you say, you know, that's that's Ron Crooke
• 51:59
  right there. Last year was him.
• 52:00
  But because he didn't know these guys, he couldn't be all
• 52:04
  himself. Yeah, the the, the relationship
• 52:07
  was there. The the expectations are there.
• 52:10
  They know what he expects. They know what he's looking for.
• 52:12
  They know those things. And with him and Coach Davis
• 52:16
  too, I mean been working together doing things.
• 52:19
  I mean it's it's a big thing to have both of.
• 52:21
  I mean Coach Davis was last year was literally hired I think a
• 52:25
  couple of hours before he spoke to us and I mean literally that
• 52:30
  day. So I mean that kind of that kind
• 52:35
  of setting those expectations and the guys knowing them and
• 52:38
  working through them that continuity is a big thing and
• 52:41
  yeah, you could feel it. It was definitely there and
• 52:45
  they're they're building off of that and that's a great thing.
• 52:49
  Love it. All righty.
• 52:50
  So we are going to come back in just a couple minutes.
• 52:53
  Y'all, we're going to talk defensive side of the ball.
• 52:55
  Some things Robbie's noticed that is his wheelhouse as he is
• 52:57
  a defensive coordinator. But before we do that, we are
• 53:00
  going to take a quick break from our digital partners and Main
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  My uncle's a pharmacist. My dad's a pharmacist.
• 53:19
  I remember he would give me M and Ms. to count in little pill
• 53:22
  counters. This is something I've always
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  done, and I'm just lucky that what I know so well is something
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  that I can do and feel good about it and get back to people.
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  Pharmacy's job is to make sure you're getting optimal care for
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  the lowest price possible. Also, we take the pressure off
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  of emergency rooms. I'll tell people immediately
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  when they need to go to the doctor, or I'll tell them if
• 53:43
  they just need a cream over the counter.
• 53:45
  If there's something that isn't commercially available, if it's
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  something that's not available in a certain strength or a
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  certain form or anything like that, we'll make it tailor made
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  medications. Some of those options save
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  people a lot of money. What motivates me?
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  I get to take care of people and live in Blacksburg.
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  That's all neat. As we take a quick break, we'd
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  website Dash Report. Now back to the episode.
• 54:26
  All righty. And we are back with coach
• 54:28
  Robbie Compton. Robbie, let's flip over to the
• 54:31
  defensive side of the ball before I jump on that.
• 54:34
  See, last year y'all Robbie texts us and I'm going to tell
• 54:37
  you it's one of those things like, he gets to do this every
• 54:39
  year. He texts me and Brian.
• 54:42
  So y'all. Guess who I just had dinner
• 54:43
  with. We're like no clue.
• 54:44
  And you're like Kevin Jones. I'm like, shut up.
• 54:46
  No, you didn't. Sends us a picture.
• 54:48
  Yeah, here we are at the table, all of us.
• 54:50
  It's like you, son of a but who? Who did you get to have dinner
• 54:54
  with this year at the event? Well, well, we sat down at the
• 55:00
  table. I was with coach Davis there to
• 55:02
  start with. OK.
• 55:03
  We had we had some. We had some other guys come in.
• 55:06
  Old coaching legend and Sparky Woods come down and sat with us
• 55:11
  for a little while. Coach Scott Abel, who's here at
• 55:16
  Davidson College, I actually coached against him years ago
• 55:20
  when I was at Halifax. He was at Amherst High School.
• 55:26
  He's a he's a he's a Longwood guy.
• 55:29
  He played baseball in Longwood. We we watched a little bit of
• 55:32
  the I guess you could call it a Longwood basketball game where
• 55:35
  they played against Houston. Didn't work out quite as well as
• 55:40
  I'd hoped. But then of course we had, I
• 55:47
  think Xavier DB have stopped by there and chatted with us for a
• 55:50
  little bit which I remember him as a player taking some kids
• 55:55
  recruiting there and him, him playing linebacker and telling
• 55:59
  somebody not to come across the middle again.
• 56:04
  Then of course you know you you can't have you can't have good
• 56:08
  you can't have a good meal at a coach's clinic without BW.
• 56:11
  Hope and his son Stu, who's a special teams coordinator there.
• 56:17
  I've known BW for for several years now coached against him
• 56:21
  and he's he's a local legend here in the area that I'm I'm in
• 56:25
  now. So some good times with a lot of
• 56:28
  guys, you know you can, you can go to all the clinics you want
• 56:31
  to sit in all the meetings you want to sometimes just little
• 56:34
  little chats like that around around the table.
• 56:37
  You can get a little more out of stuff there than you'll ever
• 56:40
  get. You know drawing on a board all
• 56:43
  day. But you know some some good
• 56:45
  conversation there some some interesting tidbits and just
• 56:49
  seeing how things work and and coaches minds, some of it had
• 56:53
  absolutely nothing to do with football just kind of hanging
• 56:55
  out. So it's always good to build
• 56:58
  that kind of camaraderie within their coaching brotherhood, I
• 57:02
  guess you could say. Yes, Sir.
• 57:05
  Good deal, man. So Brian, what else do you got
• 57:08
  you want to ask him on this stuff?
• 57:10
  So we talked about the offense, you know, from a defensive side,
• 57:13
  Which which meetings were you? Did you hit?
• 57:15
  Who'd you get to see? Talk?
• 57:17
  I'd I went to. I went into the linebacker room,
• 57:22
  tried to pick up a couple little things here and there.
• 57:27
  I played last year, we played AA35 and I graduated 5
• 57:33
  linebackers. So I'm looking for anything I
• 57:37
  can to make some help and try to develop any next group I had.
• 57:43
  I had one linebacker that there was some things I didn't have to
• 57:46
  teach him. He knew where the ball was every
• 57:48
  time it was snap and I mean it kind of like the the the young
• 57:53
  man that we saw that we talked about earlier that's being
• 57:56
  recruited there. You know my linebackers a little
• 57:59
  bit was a little bit slower and but I mean he made-up for it and
• 58:03
  knowing where to be and well I I tried to I tried to pick up a
• 58:09
  couple little things here and there and coach coach Adibi
• 58:13
  talked a good amount in that meeting and I think I got a
• 58:17
  couple little things out of it that I think I can use that'll
• 58:20
  help my guys a little bit. I obviously we don't have the we
• 58:25
  don't get to pick the the guys like they do and I just work
• 58:30
  with what picks me and we're going to go with it.
• 58:34
  So I got I got some good information out of it some
• 58:37
  things that that should be talked about from working at
• 58:41
  some at some D2D3 school stuff and you know I think I can I can
• 58:47
  put it in there and help ourselves.
• 58:50
  One of the other coaches was the defensive coordinator with they
• 58:55
  had four key speakers that come in and talked and one of them
• 58:59
  that I got some stuff from that I took some good notes from, is
• 59:02
  defensive coordinator at Virginia Union.
• 59:05
  OK, right down the street here. And yeah, they had, they had a
• 59:09
  phenomenal year this past year, especially defensively and just
• 59:15
  the simplicity of the way he does something I really liked.
• 59:19
  And I'll use some of that stuff to simplify some things.
• 59:22
  So I should not think as much and play faster.
• 59:26
  The crazy part was I talked to him after he spoke, One of his
• 59:30
  players, which they call he's their nickel player, safety,
• 59:34
  linebacker, right guy. He was actually one of my
• 59:38
  students at the elementary school in Virginia when I was
• 59:41
  there. Oh, wow.
• 59:43
  Oh man. William Davis, oh, Will's going
• 59:47
  to going to be a exceptional player somewhere very soon.
• 59:51
  He did some great things for them as a nickel last year.
• 59:55
  He's like third on the team in tackles and tackles for loss.
• 59:59
  So little things like that, something that I'm looking for.
• 1:00:03
  Maybe I can find a kid like that and and use some of his
• 1:00:06
  techniques and the things that I'm doing.
• 1:00:08
  So those two things I really pulled a lot from.
• 1:00:11
  I was excited to to get some of that information.
• 1:00:14
  Yeah, I'm. I'm looking at Union's record
• 1:00:16
  last year, a lot of 10s and zeros and threes and sevens and
• 1:00:19
  they went ten and two. That's a hell of a year for
• 1:00:21
  them. So it sounds like you were
• 1:00:23
  picking definitely a good defensive coordinator's mind.
• 1:00:27
  And it's amazing how just simple and fast he allows those players
• 1:00:33
  to play which in high school level and and and stuff like
• 1:00:38
  that it the the simpler the better for some of them so.
• 1:00:43
  Nice, those. Were very informative pieces.
• 1:00:47
  All righty. Well, I want to stay in the
• 1:00:49
  linebacker room because we talked about Cunningham.
• 1:00:52
  You said you didn't see him a lot with the ones, but he was
• 1:00:55
  out there and to your point, you made the point about Cunningham
• 1:00:57
  that he's been in there five days, but now you got to break
• 1:01:02
  it to us about Sam Brumfield, It's a four O1 there.
• 1:01:04
  Was he running second team or was he not?
• 1:01:09
  He was not running in second team, OK?
• 1:01:11
  He was in the first team and he is an impressive specimen at at
• 1:01:19
  the middle linebacker spot. I I think they did a very good
• 1:01:24
  job of finding what they were looking for right there and I
• 1:01:28
  think you've got an impact football player immediately
• 1:01:31
  right there. He he is an impressive
• 1:01:34
  individual little shorter in stature people get in my opinion
• 1:01:42
  people get real caught up in in size and and things like that
• 1:01:46
  for sometimes I would say Brumfield's probably 5-11 maybe
• 1:01:54
  right at six foot give or take OK but I mean he's he's a solid
• 1:02:02
  200 and 35240 lbs. I mean he's thick.
• 1:02:06
  He's cut. You stood him and and Marv
• 1:02:08
  back-to-back. It'd be hard to tell him a part.
• 1:02:11
  I I think he's just like Harv OK and and I mean he he's going to
• 1:02:19
  be he's filling holes. He's filling gaps now he's got
• 1:02:22
  plenty of protection in front of him that it's going to they're
• 1:02:26
  going to require take a lot of attention from the offensive
• 1:02:30
  line and he he's going to make a lot of tackles.
• 1:02:33
  He probably had. What did he have, like 130 some
• 1:02:36
  tackles last year in Middle Tennessee.
• 1:02:39
  Something like that, Yeah. I'd like to see him go for that
• 1:02:42
  again, man. Like.
• 1:02:44
  Some of some of the pictures come down.
• 1:02:45
  I'm like, oh man, dude is like, you got tree trunks for legs.
• 1:02:49
  Yes, yes. I mean he he's, he's got a wide
• 1:02:53
  base, a small waist, hips and then a thick, broad chest, big
• 1:03:01
  arms. I mean he's that's a man right
• 1:03:03
  there, buddy. And not a lot of times like,
• 1:03:08
  well, like we talked about that other linebacker when he made
• 1:03:11
  contact, the play stopped there. Yeah.
• 1:03:15
  And I mean that's that's what you want as a linebacker and.
• 1:03:18
  And you know, when we talk about linebacker play too, I mean, I
• 1:03:20
  know you talked about getting like hung up on height a lot of
• 1:03:23
  times. I think I feel like people do.
• 1:03:24
  Because if you're if you're able to, if you've got good
• 1:03:27
  instincts, if you're able to avoid blockers, if you're able
• 1:03:29
  to shed blockers. The height only comes into play
• 1:03:32
  very minimally if you can do those things well.
• 1:03:35
  If he if he's if he's already a little bit shorter, he's playing
• 1:03:38
  at a better pad level and it's harder to get hands on him.
• 1:03:41
  I mean it is you take AA66 guard against 511 linebacker, I mean
• 1:03:49
  if he gets 3 inches lower and the guard gets 6 inches low that
• 1:03:56
  he's still 4 inches shorter. He's still 4 inches underneath
• 1:03:59
  him. And I mean that plays into his
• 1:04:00
  advantage, but his instincts are are pretty impressive.
• 1:04:04
  He knew where the ball was going.
• 1:04:05
  He knew where things were and you could just tell that he was
• 1:04:10
  like, I talked a lot when we talked during games last year,
• 1:04:13
  You know, sometimes I was like, what are the linebackers seeing?
• 1:04:16
  What are, Why are they not filling certain gaps?
• 1:04:19
  I don't think we're going to have that question with this
• 1:04:21
  one. I don't think Frontier is going
• 1:04:22
  to leave that idea open. He's coming in to fill and he's
• 1:04:27
  going to know where he's going. Yeah, and and and talk about the
• 1:04:30
  trickle down from that. If he knows where he's going,
• 1:04:32
  he's the quarterback of that, that front seven.
• 1:04:35
  Other guys are also going to know a little bit better where
• 1:04:37
  they're going play to play. Because I think the big thing we
• 1:04:40
  saw last year is the inconsistency there.
• 1:04:42
  There were so many times where we'd look good for for long
• 1:04:46
  stretches, but there'd be just those lapses on certain plays,
• 1:04:49
  whether emotion kind of threw off the mindset of of where they
• 1:04:52
  need to be or or or some other pre snap or post snap movement
• 1:04:58
  just kind of got guys eyes tricked a little bit and and
• 1:05:02
  they were just way out of position.
• 1:05:03
  I I feel like we're going to see a lot less of that with the guy
• 1:05:06
  that has those type of instincts at that position, yeah.
• 1:05:09
  Syracuse should be very worried. After what?
• 1:05:11
  After what technically did him last year and the fact that they
• 1:05:14
  may have gotten better at linebacker to to stop even more
• 1:05:17
  and it's going to be bad news. Syracuse better be worried.
• 1:05:22
  How many safety is he going for? 3-4 safeties.
• 1:05:24
  Let's go 3-4 safeties. 3-4 Safer.
• 1:05:27
  Well, did anybody else catch your eye?
• 1:05:28
  Because I know, I know, I know. I saw someone put this up here.
• 1:05:31
  Let me put it up here. Talking about Kelly.
• 1:05:33
  Kelly Lawson moving over to safety.
• 1:05:36
  Well, Lawson's out this spring, so we don't know what's going
• 1:05:39
  on. I mean, he is.
• 1:05:40
  Brian, you've always said Will Sam is where he should be.
• 1:05:43
  But who was playing those other positions?
• 1:05:46
  Who'd you see it? Will.
• 1:05:47
  Who'd you see it, Sam? That you can remember?
• 1:05:51
  McDonald was out there. He's a will.
• 1:05:55
  OK, I couldn't tell you which one because there's two.
• 1:05:59
  OK, one of them's a defensive end, right?
• 1:06:03
  Yeah, one's a defensive end, one's a linebacker.
• 1:06:05
  The linebacker I actually talked to their dad a little bit.
• 1:06:10
  OK. During some drills and before
• 1:06:12
  practice that was he's a pretty interesting character.
• 1:06:16
  He runs a lot of camps and does some things good dude he he's
• 1:06:21
  very much into the into the culture of things there.
• 1:06:26
  But I I thought, I thought McDonald looked very good.
• 1:06:30
  Him and Bromfield worked well together.
• 1:06:32
  They taught. They communicated.
• 1:06:35
  They did very good at at finding the football and and what we
• 1:06:39
  call vice in it, kind of closing in on it, each one of them
• 1:06:44
  taking a shoulder that way. There's really no cut that the
• 1:06:47
  back can make that we call it vice.
• 1:06:50
  And I'm not, I don't remember exactly what they call it, but
• 1:06:55
  they they worked very well together in that situation.
• 1:06:59
  I saw several other guys kind of rotate at different places, then
• 1:07:04
  rotated linebackers quite a bit. The Woodson kid.
• 1:07:10
  That's the white Victoria guy right there.
• 1:07:13
  I saw him at linebacker, so. OK.
• 1:07:18
  At several different positions, which was kind of something I
• 1:07:22
  didn't expect, but just, you know, kind of learning and
• 1:07:28
  getting things. He's a little bit bigger of a
• 1:07:29
  linebacker. I'd say he's probably 6263.
• 1:07:32
  Yep. Longer kid.
• 1:07:38
  All depends on how you look at it.
• 1:07:40
  The what the They're kind of nickel whatever they call that
• 1:07:46
  guy. Star, star.
• 1:07:48
  Oh, that's it. That's the star.
• 1:07:49
  That's the star linebacker. I I saw buddy Gabe Williams
• 1:07:54
  there a little bit. He played some.
• 1:07:57
  It looked like linebacker stuff out of out of that spot.
• 1:08:02
  He did some good things back in coverage stuff and doing some
• 1:08:05
  other things. So, I mean, it was very
• 1:08:08
  interesting to see a lot of guys kind of moving around and
• 1:08:10
  rotating. And you, you mentioned Lawson.
• 1:08:14
  He was #7 last year, right? No, no, that's Jenkins.
• 1:08:20
  That's Jenkins. Yeah.
• 1:08:22
  OK. Lawson was 20.
• 1:08:23
  One, Lawson was 21, OK, he wasn't in the spring.
• 1:08:28
  I probably didn't notice him quite as much if he wasn't
• 1:08:32
  really participating as much. But they they're, you can
• 1:08:38
  definitely tell they've gotten more comfortable in where they
• 1:08:42
  want them to be and what they want them to do and
• 1:08:45
  communicating. And I think Brumfeld's brought
• 1:08:47
  some leadership to that whole thing, too.
• 1:08:51
  Just getting comfortable in this situation.
• 1:08:54
  But they kind of look at him and say this, this is a cabinet that
• 1:08:57
  you know, was one of tops in the country as a linebacker last
• 1:09:01
  year. He probably knows what he's
• 1:09:02
  doing. We can, we can trust what he
• 1:09:04
  tells us and you can see that that kind of coming together.
• 1:09:09
  Yeah. And it's nice getting some
• 1:09:10
  leadership kind of back in that room too, because I feel like we
• 1:09:13
  leaned on DAX for so long. And then, you know, there was a
• 1:09:17
  kind of a, a little bit of a, a, a void, I think from a
• 1:09:20
  leadership perspective last year, even though I think from a
• 1:09:24
  athleticism standpoint when you know last year's linebacker
• 1:09:27
  group probably went up. But I think the leadership is a
• 1:09:29
  little bit kind of work in progress, right.
• 1:09:32
  So there's. Definitely some athleticism
• 1:09:34
  there, yeah. For sure.
• 1:09:37
  I I, I just love what you and Brian just talked about here.
• 1:09:40
  Brian, you reiterated a little bit more about having the mic.
• 1:09:43
  Knowing where he's going makes everybody else know where
• 1:09:46
  they're going. Oh, yeah.
• 1:09:47
  And I mean, if it's like he's going to see Gap, well, I ain't
• 1:09:50
  supposed to go to see Gap. Oh, that makes sense.
• 1:09:53
  I need to go B Gap and somebody else is going to go ask here.
• 1:09:56
  When you got when you know that the guy that's responsible for
• 1:09:59
  the checks knows what the checks should be, yeah, yeah, that
• 1:10:03
  helps. That's what I've relied a lot on
• 1:10:06
  as a high school coach the last two or three years is I knew my,
• 1:10:09
  my, my mic knew what was going on and where to be, and I could
• 1:10:13
  get the other guy. I could place the other guys
• 1:10:15
  where I needed them, but I knew that my mic could could take
• 1:10:18
  care of things, and that's where I've got to work this year, to
• 1:10:22
  find a guy that I know I can trust to be where they need to
• 1:10:25
  be, all right? We're going to go a little off
• 1:10:28
  script here because Tally's got this question he wants to ask
• 1:10:30
  you. So which coach impressed you the
• 1:10:33
  most this year at the camp? Which coach?
• 1:10:38
  As far as like the drills on the field or in the like the
• 1:10:42
  meetings. I think it's overall.
• 1:10:45
  Yeah, I bet. Or or give both a little bit,
• 1:10:47
  yeah. Coach Minds is probably up there
• 1:10:54
  in in both in both ways 'cause he's so much there, there's
• 1:10:59
  there's a reason that they have decided that he's the assistant
• 1:11:03
  head coach now. Yeah.
• 1:11:05
  Yeah. That's Yep, we lost him again.
• 1:11:10
  That's good punctuation, though. Oh, that's great.
• 1:11:13
  Little pregnant pause after that line.
• 1:11:18
  He going to come back? Just give it a second here.
• 1:11:22
  Every time when I feel like I'm making a good point, it cuts out
• 1:11:24
  and I have to stop and hold on to it Minds Coach Minds is is.
• 1:11:31
  Like I said, it's not a surprise that that he's in a position he
• 1:11:34
  is. He's one of the great young
• 1:11:36
  coaches coming up and I think he's going to have some
• 1:11:39
  opportunities that that are presented to him in the near
• 1:11:44
  future. He's he's energetic.
• 1:11:47
  He's all over the field. He's getting things going.
• 1:11:52
  He's, you know he's kind of a heartbeat out there on that
• 1:11:56
  offensive side coaching Bowen is is the methodical you know calm
• 1:12:05
  keeping things going doing what he needs to do.
• 1:12:07
  The minds is just, I mean he's he he's a guy that's out there.
• 1:12:11
  He's the leader of a of a group out there and I mean he's I
• 1:12:15
  think that was one of the most impressive things running things
• 1:12:18
  like that. Defensively.
• 1:12:23
  I mean Cheetahs always all over the place.
• 1:12:29
  He's he's a high energy. Prelude's a high energy guy but
• 1:12:35
  you know you can never go wrong with those.
• 1:12:40
  Coach Price has that presence. You know he he's the he he's the
• 1:12:44
  man on the he's the kind of the the almost like the old man on
• 1:12:51
  the block is he. Everybody knows what to expect
• 1:12:55
  from him. But I I think Coach Minds is
• 1:12:58
  probably the one that stood out the most.
• 1:13:01
  They know and they're going to follow his energy and he keeps
• 1:13:04
  things going and he he gets some things started with with some of
• 1:13:07
  the DBS and stuff a little bit too now.
• 1:13:10
  So I mean that's at competitive edge.
• 1:13:12
  It's a good thing with the minds and and and coach Cheetah start
• 1:13:16
  going back and forth and getting some of that out of one side and
• 1:13:19
  the hype out of the other. It just makes practice that much
• 1:13:21
  better. I mean, I think, I think those
• 1:13:24
  are good things to have those sick guys keeping things going.
• 1:13:28
  When coaches can bring the juice like that, it trickles down to
• 1:13:31
  the players. I mean, it's it.
• 1:13:33
  Oh yeah, it's it's such. It's such a good atmosphere for
• 1:13:36
  a practice when when you got back.
• 1:13:38
  I'm not going to tell you a lie, Coach, Coach Woteki and I, our
• 1:13:41
  head coach here, he's, we've been working together for 17
• 1:13:44
  years. He's offensive line guy and I
• 1:13:46
  for years I coached defensive line.
• 1:13:50
  I mean, we would, we would start yelling at each other, getting
• 1:13:52
  to the point where the kids thought that these two guys
• 1:13:55
  might come to it. I mean, I mean, we would have
• 1:14:00
  some scuffles here and there at practice.
• 1:14:03
  I'm not going to deny that. It happens.
• 1:14:04
  It happens. But I mean, we could get in, we
• 1:14:07
  could get into some stuff during practice now and the kids are
• 1:14:09
  just like, this is great. And him and I both look at each
• 1:14:13
  other, go, hey, they work. Look at that.
• 1:14:15
  There we go. Getting the fights going almost
• 1:14:18
  as if it was planned. Oh, we got a little.
• 1:14:22
  WWE situation going on. There you go.
• 1:14:27
  He's. A tall man with one leg.
• 1:14:29
  I don't think I'm going to try any of that.
• 1:14:31
  If he can take off his leg and beat you with it, you don't want
• 1:14:34
  to. You don't want to stay near
• 1:14:35
  that. All.
• 1:14:38
  Right. So let's let's pivot over to
• 1:14:40
  secondary. You talked about Cheetah, but I
• 1:14:42
  think some of the question marks that we have going in this year
• 1:14:46
  is safety. Did you see any of the guys kind
• 1:14:49
  of at that position step up and kind of what, what was your your
• 1:14:52
  read on them? They they have some.
• 1:14:57
  They have the athletic ability and the talent for that
• 1:15:00
  secondary corner safeties to be scary good.
• 1:15:06
  You can't go wrong when you have a secondary and you have a
• 1:15:09
  corner that wears a number like 44.
• 1:15:12
  Oh Lord, I'm just waiting for Tally's message.
• 1:15:17
  For that. I mean.
• 1:15:20
  In the In the scrimmage, I mean, oh, what's the kid's name?
• 1:15:25
  Phillips. Moose to safety Moose.
• 1:15:30
  And he laid some wood in the in like the first two or three
• 1:15:34
  plays to the point that some of those defensive leaders are
• 1:15:37
  like, hey man, calm down a little bit.
• 1:15:42
  Save some for the fall. I mean, they have no problem
• 1:15:48
  being physical. They are athletic in in all
• 1:15:53
  aspects. Now there's some young safeties
• 1:15:55
  and stuff out there, but I they have the ability with some of
• 1:16:00
  those players to be scary good in that secondary.
• 1:16:03
  Can can I ask you this because you you know Stroman, you know
• 1:16:06
  Stroman, that that's the name Greg was there.
• 1:16:08
  Greg was a great player. If Phillips becomes that strong
• 1:16:13
  safety because we know you feel like Jalen Stroman's got the
• 1:16:16
  free set. I mean if he locks down the safe
• 1:16:19
  room, you said scary good. If if, if he lays the wood and
• 1:16:23
  don't get ejected on the first hit, he throws at somebody,
• 1:16:25
  which as we know it is like is he is he that piece?
• 1:16:30
  If he if he that piece where you saw, if he's laying that and
• 1:16:34
  everybody else, you know, you know strong.
• 1:16:37
  You saw some of the young corners play last year.
• 1:16:39
  You saw Stroben play. We saw Mansoor and Elaine.
• 1:16:47
  That that dude is athletic. So all right.
• 1:16:53
  Yeah, I think Phillips is, I would say he's he's probably got
• 1:16:58
  that aggressiveness, he's got that he's got that pop too and
• 1:17:02
  that and and he enjoys it like he's looking for and I think, I
• 1:17:07
  think that's going to be, I think that's going to be great
• 1:17:10
  for them. Well it's it's funny because you
• 1:17:13
  mentioned Pearson a little while ago and it it it Harkins back to
• 1:17:16
  the days of where we had always had safeties that popped clean
• 1:17:22
  pops still to this day the the nastiest hit I've ever seen was
• 1:17:27
  Cam Chancellor on what Tyler Boyd and everybody's like that's
• 1:17:31
  targeting and you look this like you know he went shoulder to
• 1:17:35
  shoulder and just knock the shit out of him.
• 1:17:38
  And, and I and I like that because I think that's a trickle
• 1:17:42
  down effect of who your coach is, because the coaches that
• 1:17:46
  don't target them, like don't target them because that'll get
• 1:17:49
  you ejected. But if you throw that shoulder
• 1:17:52
  in their rib cage and in their shoulder and you pop them down
• 1:17:56
  the rest of the game, not only are they thinking about it, the
• 1:18:02
  other guys are thinking about it.
• 1:18:03
  The quarterback is now thinking about not putting it in a spot
• 1:18:06
  to get them wrecked. And when they start thinking
• 1:18:09
  like that, bad passes. Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:18:12
  So I love seeing it. Anybody else out in the
• 1:18:16
  secondary? Because you mentioned Phillips,
• 1:18:17
  you know, all the other guys. Did anybody else catch your eye?
• 1:18:21
  The the the corners just how the the way they move in and out of
• 1:18:27
  things you you think they're in man and next thing you know
• 1:18:31
  they're dropping and moving and just that coverage look it's
• 1:18:37
  they're they're so skilled and athletic enough to be able to do
• 1:18:41
  those things I think is impressive but that's what we've
• 1:18:44
  grown to know from from Virginia Tech in the secondary is their D
• 1:18:50
  BS have been able to adjust and and do things that other teams
• 1:18:54
  haven't been able to do there. There has, there's been a long
• 1:19:00
  history of those of those D BS there and I don't, I don't think
• 1:19:04
  this crowd is is any different. Teams are going to have a hard
• 1:19:08
  time with they start changing up coverage looks and and doing
• 1:19:13
  things like that. You know, we know we don't want
• 1:19:16
  to throw anywhere near this guy. Or that guy and.
• 1:19:19
  He's not dropping to that area and he's moving to something
• 1:19:22
  else that we thought was going to be open because we had him
• 1:19:24
  occupied. And they're that good I think in
• 1:19:29
  the in the secondary party, which is, which is a great thing
• 1:19:32
  to see back. Yeah, I was, I was curious if if
• 1:19:36
  if you saw reddish get bit much play in those screens you were
• 1:19:41
  to look at? He, I think he was in there.
• 1:19:43
  He was in and out some. It's, you know, the the views
• 1:19:51
  sometimes. We were there with all the
• 1:19:53
  coaches. They had a lot of recruits and
• 1:19:54
  stuff there that day. Yeah.
• 1:19:56
  Sometimes it's hard to see a lot of things and really comprehend
• 1:19:59
  what's going on at times, but. I mean they had a lot of guys
• 1:20:05
  rotating in and out where as far as Skelly stuff goes and and the
• 1:20:09
  the the team group you saw a lot of the same five or six people
• 1:20:15
  and they are they are going to do exactly what's what's build
• 1:20:22
  and and you can you can expect I think you can expect very good
• 1:20:30
  very good work out of the secondary and a lot of teams
• 1:20:36
  should be worried about whether they're you know whether they're
• 1:20:39
  going to be able to to extend the field and open things up
• 1:20:43
  underneath because of those things because they can lock
• 1:20:45
  some things down out there I think.
• 1:20:47
  All right, All right. We finally get to the final
• 1:20:51
  piece of the defensive puzzle, and that's the defensive line.
• 1:20:55
  I know Brian's got. He's got his questions about the
• 1:20:57
  interior. But I want to ask about
• 1:20:58
  somebody. I want to ask about APR.
• 1:21:01
  You saw him last year that the kid bowled ball, I mean, right?
• 1:21:06
  At 10 sacks. Relentless.
• 1:21:09
  Crazy motor, crazy skill. Does he look like he took a
• 1:21:15
  step? I I don't know if I would say he
• 1:21:24
  it's hard to take many steps from where he did last year.
• 1:21:26
  It's. True.
• 1:21:28
  He's. Pretty impressive.
• 1:21:31
  He looks a little more comfortable than what he did at
• 1:21:34
  the same practice that I saw last year that that whole group
• 1:21:42
  up front gave gave those ones some trouble now.
• 1:21:46
  But I mean you've you've got, you've got a, you know a top end
• 1:21:51
  in the country and defensive end in sacks, right.
• 1:21:56
  I mean he was he was up there. You've got a returning all,
• 1:22:00
  You've got a guy coming in that's all ACC two years in a
• 1:22:03
  row. You've got a returning guy
• 1:22:07
  that's been there for several years already in Fuga.
• 1:22:11
  I mean I personally was worried at the end of last year with the
• 1:22:17
  number of guys that you know were questioned to be leaving
• 1:22:20
  from that group and where the depth would be and things like
• 1:22:24
  that. Watching, watching that
• 1:22:26
  practice, I feel pretty good about what they've done in that
• 1:22:28
  room. And I I I don't doubt Coach
• 1:22:32
  Price at all. He knows what he's doing, he
• 1:22:36
  knows what he's bringing in there and we had some concern
• 1:22:39
  about the depth of that group and I don't think that there
• 1:22:42
  should be a lot of concern about it right now.
• 1:22:46
  I'm with you. I'm.
• 1:22:47
  I'm with you. I mean, I I think I want to
• 1:22:50
  specifically, you know we can we can look at what, what did you
• 1:22:54
  see from Peebles? What'd you see from Copeland and
• 1:22:56
  Gilliam? There's three guys on the
• 1:22:58
  interior that we brought in in the offseason.
• 1:23:01
  You know one of them big time accolades, the other you know a
• 1:23:07
  lot of different skill sets between the the three there.
• 1:23:10
  You know what, what did you see from them and kind of where do
• 1:23:12
  you think those, those guys are going to slot in, you know, as
• 1:23:16
  we kind of push through the spring here?
• 1:23:18
  Gilliam was a kid who came in from Oklahoma, correct?
• 1:23:21
  Yep. Correct.
• 1:23:22
  OK, and I don't, I don't mean this in a bad way whatsoever.
• 1:23:29
  He was the one that I looked at the least and said he may make a
• 1:23:36
  huge impact. It's weird.
• 1:23:42
  People's come in and I mean he's he's making an impact, which we,
• 1:23:48
  I kind of thought that. Anyway, I've seen him play
• 1:23:51
  before he was at Duke. I mean he come in and I mean
• 1:23:55
  he's a worker now. He's working poor center guard,
• 1:23:59
  guard combinations. They better Start learning how
• 1:24:02
  to do some better double teams where you know the ACC better
• 1:24:06
  learn some double teams to help that to to stop that kid because
• 1:24:09
  he's blowing through some things.
• 1:24:13
  Fuga looked good, but we knew Fuga was because he's back and
• 1:24:16
  he he's doing what he does. Copeland is not the biggest
• 1:24:23
  character on the defensive line up front but man and and I
• 1:24:28
  showed you guys a clip that I'd seen of it and he he blows, he
• 1:24:35
  blows his fingers off of Schick's gloves at one point and
• 1:24:41
  it was nothing he could do about it.
• 1:24:43
  I mean he just got off the ball that quick.
• 1:24:44
  He moved the hands and I mean he was moving but I mean his you
• 1:24:49
  can see him getting leverage, playing to the low pad level,
• 1:24:53
  getting hands extended. I mean, this man squatting 600
• 1:24:57
  plus pounds three or four times. We've seen it in the in the
• 1:25:01
  clips. That man's got some power and
• 1:25:03
  when he gets some of your pads, it ain't nothing you can do
• 1:25:05
  about it. He he's moving you out of the
• 1:25:07
  way. Yeah, and I thought that was.
• 1:25:10
  And like I said, Gilliam did some good things.
• 1:25:15
  But I saw some other things from some of those guys that were
• 1:25:17
  just a little more impressive than what he showed.
• 1:25:22
  There's being good and there's turning heads, and it seems
• 1:25:24
  sounds like the other two were turning some heads.
• 1:25:26
  He's. I mean, he's a guy that's five
• 1:25:30
  at this point, maybe five days in, yeah.
• 1:25:33
  Yeah. People's has played in this same
• 1:25:36
  system and same, you know, conference and everything for
• 1:25:40
  several years. He he kind of knew exactly what
• 1:25:43
  he was doing. Defensive line, it ain't a lot
• 1:25:47
  of, it ain't a lot of finesse and a lot of things from, you
• 1:25:52
  know, I coached defensive line for a good while.
• 1:25:58
  It's not a lot of finesse and a lot of little bitty little
• 1:26:01
  things here, you know, get your hands on the guy.
• 1:26:04
  Get him out. Get.
• 1:26:09
  Him out. Get him out of the way.
• 1:26:14
  Just just give it 30 seconds. That's the best part.
• 1:26:16
  It's 30. It's loading, It's loading, it's
• 1:26:18
  loading. He's on the mountain.
• 1:26:20
  We're. Back.
• 1:26:22
  Almost. How much did y'all get?
• 1:26:26
  We we got get them out of the way.
• 1:26:29
  Get them out of the way. He gets them out of the way and
• 1:26:31
  I mean they're they're very good at that up front.
• 1:26:34
  They're going to, it's going to take, it's going to take a lot
• 1:26:37
  of pressure off the linebackers because they're going to require
• 1:26:39
  so much attention. And when you take two of those
• 1:26:42
  interior guys, whether it's Copeland or Peebles or Gilliam,
• 1:26:48
  Fuga, when you're taking that much attention from the two
• 1:26:52
  guards in the center to try to stop those two, you tell me how
• 1:26:56
  effective. If the R is going to be.
• 1:26:59
  If the R is going to be out there one-on-one against the
• 1:27:01
  tackle. Well, that's the best part.
• 1:27:04
  I think that that that I think the what you're saying is if you
• 1:27:07
  put Peebles and APR next to each other, basically you are going
• 1:27:12
  to be shifting the tight end or you're running back to the
• 1:27:15
  you've got to go play over here. Which is basically.
• 1:27:17
  Going to leave one on ones everywhere else, everywhere
• 1:27:21
  else. And then you talk about
• 1:27:23
  Copeland, what you've seen, we saw some flashes from one of the
• 1:27:25
  young defensive ends last year like Cole Nelson.
• 1:27:28
  It's JC is going to probably be in the air all week.
• 1:27:31
  Like, listen, you're going to get one on ones, you beat them,
• 1:27:36
  you start beating them, They're going to have to do something
• 1:27:38
  different. And then guess what that means
• 1:27:40
  The other side is going to get some one on ones.
• 1:27:42
  And we know how they feast. So.
• 1:27:45
  They're we're going to use 4, They're going to use five.
• 1:27:49
  So that means two can block one somewhere.
• 1:27:52
  Everybody else, you got to win a one-on-one.
• 1:27:54
  Yep. And if they get?
• 1:27:56
  Help, it's from running back. I mean that's that's just a
• 1:28:01
  different situation. Yeah.
• 1:28:03
  And and the and the, the, the plus side of that is that you're
• 1:28:05
  taking guys out of the route if if you're having to chip with
• 1:28:09
  the running back or leave a tight end or anything like that.
• 1:28:13
  Yeah. Then you start limiting the
• 1:28:14
  number of people that can catch a ball because they got the help
• 1:28:17
  here and help there. And the the fact that that you
• 1:28:21
  can rely on that group up front I think is going to open so much
• 1:28:25
  more behind with the linebackers.
• 1:28:29
  It's going to cause double teams in some places.
• 1:28:31
  It's going to give somebody else an advantage in a one-on-one
• 1:28:34
  situation, pass rushing, things like that.
• 1:28:37
  And then you get that. You get that.
• 1:28:42
  Was that was the shortest. Usually we're getting 20 minutes
• 1:28:44
  before the breakdowns. You're going to get that star
• 1:28:53
  from the edge. That's really going to help
• 1:28:55
  some, you know? And we know Virginia Tech loves
• 1:28:59
  the corner blitz here and there. So, I mean, nobody's expecting
• 1:29:03
  that to start with. And they're focused all their
• 1:29:05
  attention on the floor up front. And then he comes screaming
• 1:29:08
  through their head, poor running back, trying to chip that thing.
• 1:29:12
  Trouble. Exactly.
• 1:29:14
  So I mean Robbie, Anything else? We're getting close here to
• 1:29:17
  wrapping it up. Anything else in?
• 1:29:20
  2 1/2 hours. Huh.
• 1:29:23
  Y'all were talking about where it's going.
• 1:29:24
  It's going to take 2 1/2 hours. Well, if we had talked about
• 1:29:27
  everything, it was going to take 2 1/2 hours.
• 1:29:30
  See, that's what I'm tasked with with.
• 1:29:32
  Between Sigla and Tally and Sheldon Curtis, can we get 90
• 1:29:38
  minutes? Like, OK, we can do it boys.
• 1:29:40
  Y'all got to listen to me though, because that's why I
• 1:29:43
  like stated we. Stubborn.
• 1:29:45
  Three hours, that's why. That's why the kickoff shows
• 1:29:48
  goes 2 1/2 because it's like. I got to cut all my notes and
• 1:29:51
  everything down. I was like, I'm not going to get
• 1:29:54
  off topic and I'm going to try to stick to the position we're
• 1:29:56
  talking about. Y'all remember we went longer
• 1:29:59
  than Oppenheimer on the state of the program I.
• 1:30:02
  Guess so. Well, we were.
• 1:30:05
  All the Oppenheimer thing. Not Oppenheimer.
• 1:30:09
  The state of the program thing was kind of it's kind of like
• 1:30:13
  dog years. Depends on how much you had to
• 1:30:16
  drink and how much you know, how much you indulged yourself.
• 1:30:21
  You know it was it's state of the program time.
• 1:30:25
  State of the program instead of. You know, dogs age and dog
• 1:30:28
  years. As far as I'm concerned, most of
• 1:30:32
  us only spend about an hour and a half in state of the program
• 1:30:36
  time, so. At at varying levels and most.
• 1:30:41
  Of. Us started here and we by we
• 1:30:45
  were we went down here. We were gone by the end.
• 1:30:48
  Oh yeah, Curtis, Curtis was yelling by the end.
• 1:30:49
  That's how you knew Curtis and that's.
• 1:30:51
  How you knew I was feeling good? I mean, I couldn't beat Brian
• 1:30:54
  from the year before, but I don't.
• 1:30:55
  Know. No, don't.
• 1:30:57
  Nobody tried that. Nobody, please.
• 1:30:59
  Nobody tried that. It's not.
• 1:31:01
  It's unsafe. Unsafe.
• 1:31:03
  By the way, for those who have never heard that go listen to
• 1:31:06
  that lot of great guests including Robbie, including our
• 1:31:10
  wonderful sponsor Jeremy, all of us Dwight, such a.
• 1:31:14
  Beautiful little pharmacist. We had Dwight on here a couple
• 1:31:18
  weeks ago and to tell you how inebriated I was that night, I
• 1:31:22
  texted Dwight, you want to come on here?
• 1:31:25
  Like, that's what I it's like I'm just texting people
• 1:31:27
  randomly. You want to jump on?
• 1:31:28
  You want to jump? On I don't care.
• 1:31:30
  It's a family atmosphere and if you if you want to hang, come
• 1:31:32
  hang. See, we we know we're in trouble
• 1:31:35
  in that situation, the louder Curtis gets.
• 1:31:38
  Yep, the. Loudest Bron gets LeBron starts
• 1:31:44
  to leaning in towards the camera screen.
• 1:31:50
  It's quiet for like periods of time and then like random loud
• 1:31:54
  noises. I'm.
• 1:31:56
  Just I'm literally, you're starting on about 5:00 because
• 1:31:58
  I'm loud natured anyway and it's just about every 30 minutes to
• 1:32:02
  stay in the program. I'm up another.
• 1:32:04
  The crazy part was this past year was we're going in, we're
• 1:32:07
  talking about things and then suddenly it's like everybody
• 1:32:11
  just the medium is like, wait a minute, where do counts go?
• 1:32:13
  He's just like his screams there, but there's nobody there.
• 1:32:17
  He's coming back or or what happened he?
• 1:32:20
  Disappeared into the Voice, disappeared into the wildness.
• 1:32:23
  Boy, I don't think anything's broken since we've been sitting
• 1:32:26
  here. Nobody else has hit the portal
• 1:32:28
  for women's basketball or men's basketball since.
• 1:32:32
  You know, if if we're, if we're talking about that too.
• 1:32:34
  And we did. We were talking about the
• 1:32:36
  different things that that I, I listened to and and and went to
• 1:32:41
  while we were there. And you know you're talking
• 1:32:46
  about the portal and all that and and and learning some of the
• 1:32:50
  new recruiting stuff and how this portal stuff is things.
• 1:32:55
  And like they discussed a little bit about you know their
• 1:32:59
  commitment to high school players and the high school guys
• 1:33:03
  and things like that and those relationships.
• 1:33:07
  Just a little piece I wanted to throw in there that that's the
• 1:33:10
  way they're building program and that's the way they want to
• 1:33:13
  continue to build it. And there may be some changes
• 1:33:16
  coming through recruiting stuff and and how they're doing visits
• 1:33:20
  and all kinds of things like that.
• 1:33:23
  I I feel like they're not too worried about all those things.
• 1:33:27
  They're going to take it in stride and keep moving and and
• 1:33:30
  and live on the relationships that they've built and continue
• 1:33:33
  to do that. And I think that's a great thing
• 1:33:36
  for for us as fans, for our athletes that are in what they
• 1:33:41
  call their footprint. I think it's a great thing and I
• 1:33:48
  I I commend Coach Pry and his staff for for taking that stance
• 1:33:53
  and and doing those things and not falling too far into what
• 1:33:58
  all of this could be. I I think that's a a stand up
• 1:34:01
  thing and that's a big thing for the program.
• 1:34:03
  Yeah, Robbie, you when you mentioned that to us, to me it
• 1:34:06
  it's Ted how to me how invested they are because they're trying
• 1:34:11
  to help y'all as high school coaches, even though
• 1:34:14
  everything's not set in stone yet, this is the direction
• 1:34:17
  things are going. We're going to have to do things
• 1:34:19
  different. That really helps.
• 1:34:22
  It's a great look on the staff, but it's also helps y'all as
• 1:34:25
  coaches like how we prepare for visits, how we prepare if we're
• 1:34:28
  going to take players to schools.
• 1:34:30
  How do we prepare for this? Because what y'all don't want to
• 1:34:33
  do if you've got a kid who's getting highly recruited and
• 1:34:35
  it's regardless where he's going, right, regardless where
• 1:34:37
  he's going for recruiting trip, you don't want, like, listen, we
• 1:34:40
  can't do XY and Z, we can't do that.
• 1:34:44
  And if you're out there getting ahead of it, it makes your life
• 1:34:47
  a lot easier versus if he does XY and Z.
• 1:34:49
  Now I've got to pull him in. The side Monday morning said you
• 1:34:52
  did these three things right. Yeah, I did.
• 1:34:54
  You went on an official then you can't go back there and like,
• 1:34:57
  what do you mean, coach, You can't do that.
• 1:35:00
  So I I love that they're doing that, man.
• 1:35:02
  Well, sets expectations. See, like when you have clear
• 1:35:04
  expectations of what a, what, what a staff is going to do from
• 1:35:10
  a footprint standpoint, you can can prepare your players for
• 1:35:14
  that. You can have those discussions.
• 1:35:17
  And and I think that that's going to be big long term
• 1:35:19
  because you know, just talking NILI think we have a very good
• 1:35:23
  NIL situation. But it's a whole lot easier to
• 1:35:26
  use that NIL to retain players. Yep.
• 1:35:30
  Than it is to go out there and flip your roster with 10 or 12
• 1:35:33
  players every cycle. So I think that's going to be
• 1:35:37
  the the most, the best use of our of our nil money is
• 1:35:40
  retaining players, making sure we're not getting poached by
• 1:35:44
  those bigger teams by those blue blood teams.
• 1:35:47
  And then you know working that in with with recruiting the
• 1:35:51
  footprint as hard as we can. Still being a developmental
• 1:35:56
  program while supplementing any holes that that kind of occur in
• 1:36:02
  the roster through the transfer report like we did this this
• 1:36:05
  past offseason with getting the mic and and and retooling the
• 1:36:08
  defensive line. They're they're they're very,
• 1:36:11
  they're very upfront and open about, you know, their their
• 1:36:15
  plan is to to build the relationships in that footprint
• 1:36:18
  to to fill their roster with the kids that they know want to be
• 1:36:25
  at Virginia Tech and they want, they want to build that way.
• 1:36:31
  They want to build those kids. They're not afraid to develop
• 1:36:34
  kids and push them because when they want to be there, they
• 1:36:38
  don't have to worry about somebody swooping in to take
• 1:36:40
  them, you know, because that because they want to be there.
• 1:36:44
  100. Percent we can.
• 1:36:46
  And as he said, we can use the portal to fill holes, that of
• 1:36:50
  things that didn't go our way. And you know, we've seen that in
• 1:36:55
  the last couple of years. It's filling the holes, filling
• 1:36:58
  the little things that we didn't get through, you know,
• 1:37:01
  recruiting parts, but they're filling a lot of things
• 1:37:03
  recruiting wise. Yes, they are.
• 1:37:05
  And I mean that's a that's A to be able to take a young kid in
• 1:37:11
  today's society and have them understand what it means to
• 1:37:15
  commit to a place and to love a place enough to know regardless
• 1:37:20
  of well so and so told me they could give me this much money
• 1:37:24
  and a new car to be playing there.
• 1:37:27
  I want to be at Virginia Tech. Well, they didn't offer you a
• 1:37:30
  car. Well, I don't care.
• 1:37:31
  I want to be there in that program.
• 1:37:33
  I want to be with that coach. I want to.
• 1:37:45
  Give you 20 seconds, we're on delay.
• 1:37:51
  And there we are. And he's back.
• 1:37:53
  And I and I think that that says a lot about their approach to
• 1:37:57
  things and and why you're going to get that continuity and
• 1:38:01
  consistency through what they're doing 100%.
• 1:38:05
  All right. Well, boys, I'm going to wrap up
• 1:38:08
  this episode of the Boundary Corner podcast, brought to you
• 1:38:10
  by the Main Street Pharmacy. I'm Curtis Wilson.
• 1:38:14
  I'm Brian Siegler. Robert Copton.
• 1:38:17
  Visit our website boundarycornerbt.com to listen
• 1:38:20
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• 1:38:23
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• 1:38:43
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  him down at the Grandin Village Farmers Market down in Roanoke
• 1:38:50
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• 1:38:54
  where you can connect to all of his music.
• 1:38:55
  Apple, Spotify, his YouTube and Facebook pages.
• 1:38:59
  Appreciate you coming on again Robbie Robbie's fifth
• 1:39:01
  appearance. You still trailed to white, but
• 1:39:05
  that means you want to come on a lot more to catch up to him.
• 1:39:08
  This is your 5th. Hey, I can't.
• 1:39:11
  I can't compare to a Victoria when it comes to anything.
• 1:39:14
  Virginia Tech. Yo, are we going to start the
• 1:39:16
  SNL thing with the Five Timers Club?
• 1:39:18
  Like we going, we going to get some sort of like T-shirt or
• 1:39:21
  some shit that we pass out? We.
• 1:39:22
  Could we could create one? You know, put their faces on the
• 1:39:25
  back as a merchandise shop? Beldrick Cornerpot.
• 1:39:28
  Your face. Dwight Vick's face.
• 1:39:29
  Mike McDaniel. David Cunningham's faces on the
• 1:39:32
  back. That'd be pretty funny.
• 1:39:33
  My goal, just for tally, is to make it a good 44 times.
• 1:39:37
  There we go. I.
• 1:39:40
  Think I think when Matei comes back later this month he'll
• 1:39:42
  officially be in the Five Timers Club.
• 1:39:44
  He will. Be he will.
• 1:39:45
  Actually, he might be more than that now.
• 1:39:46
  He might be the Six Timers Club. But anyways, we thank you all
• 1:39:49
  out there for listening, especially on Twitter tonight.
• 1:39:52
  Appreciate y'all hanging out with us.
• 1:39:54
  As always, boys, let's go. Okies.
• 1:40:35
  The.