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Hokies 2023 Season Preview Panel · Boundary Corner Podcast

• 0:45
  And welcome back to the Boundary Corner Podcast with my partners
• 0:50
  Brian Siegler and Jonathan Talley.
• 0:53
  I am Curtis Wilson and this episode is brought to you by
• 0:57
  Doctor Lord Jeremy Counts at the Main Street Pharmacy in
• 1:00
  Blacksburg and Boys, in less than a month we going to be down
• 1:05
  at the Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg.
• 1:07
  What you say? Yes, Sir.
• 1:09
  Yes Sir. Looking forward to it, you know.
• 1:12
  Always good to go down there to three O 1 S Main St.
• 1:15
  Say hello to Jeremy, say hello to everyone and get ready for a
• 1:19
  game man. And this is a special night
• 1:22
  everybody this, this is something that we did last year,
• 1:26
  received very well. We wanted to tweak it a little
• 1:29
  bit, get some a couple of new faces on here, do it a little
• 1:32
  bit bigger this year. So this is the 2023 hokey.
• 1:35
  Season preview I'm a new face. I'm a new face on here.
• 1:38
  I want a new face. We really redid it.
• 1:41
  We got a whole. Weird host.
• 1:43
  Now definitely redid. Full revamp so if if y'all don't
• 1:47
  know we got. Non panelists total one is our
• 1:52
  very own Shelton Moss coming in on segment 2.
• 1:55
  And what we need from you is each segment is going to have a
• 2:01
  little part where we're going to get some audience questions in
• 2:03
  there for the panelists. So if you've got some questions,
• 2:07
  you won't answer it, whether it's general where we can kind
• 2:09
  of run it each segment or whether it's something specific
• 2:11
  for that panelists for that segment.
• 2:13
  Let us know, put it in the comments, we'll get it on air
• 2:16
  for you. And let's let's start it off
• 2:19
  here. We got the the first panelists.
• 2:21
  He is a third generation hokey who has been attending games at
• 2:25
  Lane Stadium since he was two years old.
• 2:28
  He's a podcaster, content creator, and one of the elite
• 2:31
  members of the Virginia Tech Twitter community.
• 2:34
  Please welcome Grayson Wimbish. Gentlemen, thank you for having
• 2:40
  me. It's good to be here.
• 2:42
  Been a little while, but you know, we had so much fun last
• 2:45
  year. I appreciate.
• 2:46
  The opportunity to be invited back to do this, How are we?
• 2:50
  Good. Everybody feels yeah, I.
• 2:52
  Feel like it, Valley? Show how good we feel.
• 2:54
  Man, how How's the weather out there?
• 2:56
  How's the weather? How's the weather out there in
• 3:00
  LA, man? It's good.
• 3:01
  It's hot. It's surprisingly humid, if you
• 3:04
  can believe that. But Sun is shining like always.
• 3:08
  Awesome. Well, we're glad to have you
• 3:10
  here, man. You got to eat.
• 3:12
  Dry heat out there. It is a dry heat.
• 3:15
  You know, mom and dad were out here last week.
• 3:17
  Same with my little brother. And they're like, dude, I can't
• 3:19
  believe you know, 75 degrees out here it means 75 degrees, not 75
• 3:24
  and feels like 96. So very grateful for that, I
• 3:30
  should say. Nice.
• 3:31
  Nice. Well, next person we have is
• 3:34
  Uncle Dan. We had Dan Pulse coming in.
• 3:37
  Go ahead and bring my boy Dan in.
• 3:39
  Dan is the host of Tales from the Terrordome.
• 3:43
  He is your local PK's taste tester.
• 3:48
  He was the Cheetah Wings taste tester.
• 3:52
  Coach liaison. Dan, how you feeling, man?
• 3:55
  Man, I'm good, bro. Damn, we're a second, You know
• 3:58
  that? I'll tell you, this is a good
• 4:01
  looking crew right here, man. Don't come in here, television.
• 4:04
  Don't come in here with the weird shit.
• 4:07
  Don't you start the day now, man.
• 4:10
  How you living, Dan? Man, I'm good.
• 4:12
  I can't complain, bro. I'm fresh.
• 4:14
  I'm fresh off a fan the Fan Day weekend in Blacksburg, so let's
• 4:18
  try and keep it together. Did you go the whole weekend or
• 4:22
  just Sunday? Saturday and Sunday I tied one
• 4:25
  on Saturday night and then Sunday I went to Fan Fest.
• 4:27
  There we go. There we go, very nice.
• 4:30
  Well, we appreciate you having us stand.
• 4:32
  We know you've interviewed a lot of people in the last few
• 4:35
  months. So we got some good questions
• 4:36
  for you tonight. Now our third panelists up in
• 4:39
  the first segment here. He's been in the Vt podcast game
• 4:43
  a long time. He is the Co host of the Two
• 4:46
  Deep podcast. He is a Virginia Tech alumni and
• 4:49
  definitely a dedicated Hokies fan.
• 4:51
  Like to welcome on Pete B, Pete B, how you living today man?
• 4:57
  What's up fellas? Thanks for having me guys.
• 4:59
  How you doing tonight, Pete? It's.
• 5:01
  I feel good. I'm like Tally, man.
• 5:03
  I got I got a little drink in my hand as as I will be known to do
• 5:06
  on a podcast every now. And you would have thought.
• 5:08
  I'm not sure we all look good. Cat Tally looks pretty.
• 5:10
  I figured. That man, this hat game is so
• 5:15
  strong, man. None of us wear hats.
• 5:17
  Occasionally you'll see Curtis with the hat, but Curtis takes
• 5:19
  the hat on and off so often, maybe then you know, it's just
• 5:23
  it's you can't do it. You can't live with it.
• 5:25
  Yeah, I went hatless tonight. Had to show off the hair.
• 5:27
  And yeah, I'm ready for this, dude.
• 5:29
  Let's. Let's get it going.
• 5:30
  I got two things for you, Pete. I got two things, Pete, before
• 5:33
  we get started. Number one, what are you
• 5:35
  drinking? Okay, I got.
• 5:38
  I mean it's an IPA so and that's not going to surprise anybody.
• 5:41
  It's a it's a traditional it's just a little loss in sip of
• 5:45
  sunshine. You can grab this just about
• 5:46
  anywhere on the East Coast. But I'm I'm feeling pretty good
• 5:49
  right now. All right, that's good.
• 5:51
  Sip of Sunshine. I'm not sponsored by them.
• 5:53
  Pete say y'all got some good shit.
• 5:55
  If y'all want to go get Sip of Sunshine, don't do it #2.
• 6:00
  I looked at a picture you put up.
• 6:01
  I don't know if it was your Abbey or you just posted a
• 6:03
  picture. Wonderful looking picture.
• 6:06
  Everybody's out there. They got the maroon on, they got
• 6:08
  the orange on Y'all got the big Vt behind you, and then you got
• 6:12
  a dunce in the front with a Big Blue Delaware shirt on.
• 6:18
  Why y'all didn't get the man of Vt shirt man?
• 6:20
  Listen, that was an old picture. It was the day we played
• 6:23
  Delaware back in 2017. And we we whooped them.
• 6:27
  I think we might have shut him out that day, but he went, that
• 6:29
  was a buddy of mine from I'm from Delaware.
• 6:31
  So he came down to visit, go to the game, and there actually was
• 6:34
  a fair amount of blue hens visiting that day.
• 6:36
  But they were all very nice because they knew they were
• 6:38
  going to get their butts kicked. That was back when we could
• 6:40
  count on stuff like that. All right.
• 6:41
  I just want to see what was up with the Delaware Sherry, but
• 6:44
  OK, perfect. Yeah, the Blue Hens do have a
• 6:46
  pretty good football following. Like they have a pretty, pretty
• 6:49
  solid fan base. So the fact that.
• 6:50
  They're dedicated. Yeah, they're traveling for
• 6:52
  that. All right, let's start it off
• 6:53
  here. So we'll go ahead and break it
• 6:55
  in there. We got the the cordialities out
• 6:57
  the way here. So we're going to start with the
• 6:59
  question for my man Grayson. A whole lot of movement for the
• 7:03
  hoagies. It's offseason. 40% of that
• 7:05
  roster got flipped. Some solid pickups in both
• 7:08
  portal windows. Net positive coaching shuffle.
• 7:11
  I feel like best summer on the recruiting trail since probably
• 7:15
  2017. A distinct lack of negative
• 7:19
  headlines of the Turkey bacon persuasion.
• 7:23
  All that said, how you feeling about the first full offseason
• 7:25
  for coach Brian, that staff? Thank you, Brian.
• 7:28
  This is a great question and I will try and be as short winded
• 7:32
  as possible. But Long story short, I feel
• 7:35
  really good about this offseason given the results of the 2022
• 7:41
  football season. You know this staff is obviously
• 7:43
  they're selling some level of a dream.
• 7:46
  The Hokies, as we all know, won three games and Coach prize
• 7:49
  first year out. I think it's fair to say we all
• 7:52
  expected that. But this summer, man, Coach Pry
• 7:56
  and his staff have gone out and gotten commitments from kids
• 7:59
  like Kaylin Adams, Gabriel Williams, Gerard Johnson and
• 8:02
  Chance Wiggins. What do I love about that
• 8:05
  specifically? Well, two of the names I just
• 8:07
  mentioned are two of the top 10 recruits in the Commonwealth of
• 8:11
  Virginia, and Adams and Johnson are both from Virginia Beach, as
• 8:16
  many Hokies are well aware, Virginia Beach.
• 8:19
  For a long time was a longstanding recruiting hotbed
• 8:24
  and A and a stronghold. Back in the days when the legend
• 8:26
  coach Jim Kavanaugh was selling ketchup popsicles to football
• 8:30
  players wearing white gloves. And then the blue Bloods, they
• 8:34
  got wise. The Ohio States.
• 8:35
  The world. The Penn States.
• 8:37
  The world. The Alabama's the Nick Saban's.
• 8:39
  They came knocking. They've been coaching for eons.
• 8:42
  So getting commitments from 4 star talent.
• 8:46
  Always exciting, getting commitments from in state
• 8:48
  talent, always exciting. Hearing an exorbitant amount of
• 8:53
  good news compared to bad news is always something to
• 8:56
  celebrate. When we've had many off seasons
• 8:59
  that have had a lot of negative undertones, if you will.
• 9:03
  Now many will say and I've already said well, you got to
• 9:06
  develop these kids that are coming in and there's a lot of
• 9:08
  validity to that. I'm in that camp.
• 9:10
  You look at Matt Brown at you and seeing what he's done.
• 9:13
  Half of those kids he recruited to go there are somewhere else
• 9:16
  now. Most notably Tony Grimes.
• 9:18
  He's at A and M and he was, he was the guy.
• 9:22
  And really, you know they haven't developed a lot of these
• 9:25
  these guys. So I'm hoping that Coach Fry and
• 9:28
  his staff, once these guys are in, you know at Virginia Tech,
• 9:31
  we developed them. Only time will tell.
• 9:34
  We're going to have to wait around and find out.
• 9:35
  So if I had, in summation, to give this offseason a grade.
• 9:40
  I'm giving it an A minus. It's gone as about as well as it
• 9:44
  possibly could have after a three and eight season.
• 9:47
  But you pull a 5 star kid wishful thinking or Chris Cole,
• 9:52
  that's bumped up to an A+. So there was a lot to be excited
• 9:56
  about in this offseason. I hope that answers your
• 9:58
  question. That's, that's a great way to
• 10:00
  answer the question, Grayson. And you're right, it's it's a
• 10:02
  recruiting binge that we haven't seen here in Virginia probably
• 10:06
  since 2011, 2010 guys like David Wilson's class when it was the
• 10:12
  way the top ten had three or four guys.
• 10:15
  I think Logan was in that class as well.
• 10:17
  So yeah, I mean it, it has been an A minus.
• 10:20
  And then you didn't mention this, but I think we all see it.
• 10:23
  I think we see Coach Brian, we feel he is part of the
• 10:26
  university. You see him out there, Special
• 10:29
  Olympics Golf last week. You see him obviously.
• 10:32
  Dan, you you've seen him numerous times out within the
• 10:35
  community on a Saturday evening, which is always great to see.
• 10:39
  But PB, I'm going to go in a little different direction for
• 10:41
  the question I got for you, man between 2 Deep and Memory Lane
• 10:44
  that you take care of. You talk a lot about Hokey
• 10:47
  History. You've seen a lot of Hokey
• 10:48
  history in your time. Let's pull out the history books
• 10:51
  on this one. On paper, on paper right now.
• 10:55
  Do you feel there is a team in Hokey History that is has a
• 10:59
  similar pedigree to the one we're about to witness this
• 11:02
  season? Or do you think this is a unique
• 11:04
  team? Well, every team has its own
• 11:08
  unique characteristics, right? And if you look at last year, we
• 11:12
  don't often win three or less games.
• 11:14
  So trying to pick a team from recent history, you're not going
• 11:17
  to get perfect unless you go all the way back to 92.
• 11:20
  But I do think that the 2019 team some then that a team that
• 11:25
  a lot of us can remember and and watch closely has some
• 11:28
  similarities. For one thing, 2018, the year
• 11:30
  before 2019, wasn't a good season.
• 11:33
  That was our first losing year since 1992.
• 11:36
  We went six and seven. We lost the ball game to
• 11:38
  Cincinnati. So coming in to 2019, we had a
• 11:41
  second year transfer quarterback named Ryan Willis because he
• 11:45
  started the the vast majority of the games in 2018 and we had a
• 11:49
  guy behind him who some people were clamoring for, a mobile
• 11:52
  quarterback who hadn't really gotten a chance and had in
• 11:55
  hooker. That's literally.
• 11:57
  Wells and Kyron drones like that's.
• 11:59
  It's a very similar set up there.
• 12:01
  Then you factor in the receiver depth from that 2019 team, Trey,
• 12:05
  Turner, Hazelton, Tavion, Robinson, Grimsley.
• 12:08
  Let's go to the tight ends, Mitchell and Keen.
• 12:10
  I mean that team had some really good receiving options and we're
• 12:13
  hoping Jennings and Lane and Felton and Daquan Wright and
• 12:17
  Holloway Gots. Now we's hoping those guys can
• 12:21
  be what the guys in 2019 were. Then look at the running back,
• 12:25
  Malachi and Mcleese. Mclees was a guy who was slight,
• 12:28
  wasn't the biggest running back in the world, kind of struggled
• 12:31
  with injuries and then in 20/19 he went for 800 plus and had a
• 12:34
  really nice run during that year.
• 12:37
  So flipping to the defense, you will remember Farley and Waller
• 12:39
  from that year, great corners, well the strength of our
• 12:42
  secondary, strength of our defense is hopefully the
• 12:44
  secondary this year as well. You had good safety, Diablo
• 12:47
  Connor and who is our, who's our third guy that year.
• 12:51
  Floyd, of course. And so we look at Stroman, we
• 12:54
  look at people. There's a lot of similarities.
• 12:56
  Now, clearly I want the pressure on the quarterback from the
• 13:00
  defensive line to be better this year than it was in 2019 because
• 13:03
  there was very few sacks. But I for those reasons, I'm
• 13:06
  going to say the 2019 team. Grayson has a great deal of
• 13:10
  knowledge in this area as well, and I know you guys do too.
• 13:13
  I couldn't really think of anything.
• 13:15
  But I think for those reasons, there's there's a lot of
• 13:18
  correlaries to this year, especially with that
• 13:19
  quarterback. I also hope that our quarterback
• 13:21
  doesn't suck for the first four games this year.
• 13:23
  We all hope. That please, please, I can't do
• 13:27
  it again like we saw at the start, especially the way it
• 13:29
  started last year, I can't do. It I can't take it.
• 13:31
  Yeah. I can't take it.
• 13:33
  We didn't. When you do your own thing,
• 13:36
  Pete, you can, you can say that on here.
• 13:38
  We ain't gonna even talk like that, right?
• 13:41
  We ain't gonna even talk about the quarterback being the first
• 13:43
  four games sucking. No, I said.
• 13:45
  I hope he's. Not.
• 13:46
  Yeah, I know. We don't even want to bring it
• 13:48
  up. We don't want to juju.
• 13:51
  I'm sorry. No, no.
• 13:52
  Listen, I hope that Grant Wells does well.
• 13:54
  How about? That no man, awesome man.
• 13:56
  But no. That honestly how you answered
• 13:59
  that question was awesome because I didn't even think
• 14:01
  about the similarities between the teams and.
• 14:04
  When you talk about the transfers coming in, like that's
• 14:07
  why we get smart people on here who know how to dig into stuff.
• 14:10
  Because people like me, I just go off the top, you know, kind
• 14:14
  of like Dan, you know, that's what he does.
• 14:16
  Dan goes down, Dan goes down to Blacksburg.
• 14:20
  We know, Dan, you've been down there.
• 14:22
  You build a lot of relationships.
• 14:24
  You pretty much are what Coach Pry preaches about.
• 14:26
  You know, you Coach Pry talks about the relationships.
• 14:30
  You've built some of those. You've been down, you've
• 14:31
  interviewed players, you've interviewed recruits, you've
• 14:34
  interviewed coaches. You've done a good job of that.
• 14:37
  You know we appreciate your content.
• 14:38
  We appreciate you having a good time and sharing that with us.
• 14:42
  But I will ask you my question for you is through that, through
• 14:46
  that insight that you've got and through those relationships that
• 14:48
  you've built, what gives you the warm and fuzzies about this
• 14:52
  season that's coming up? And also do you feel any pause
• 14:55
  about maybe this season? I've been blessed to develop the
• 15:03
  relationships that I've developed.
• 15:05
  Probably learned that from my mom.
• 15:07
  She's always been a networking queen, so it's really about who
• 15:11
  you know, get you in a lot of rooms and then they figure out
• 15:13
  what you know, and then you stay in those rooms, right?
• 15:17
  The coaching staff seems really excited about the athleticism on
• 15:21
  this team. I think we're more athletic at
• 15:23
  every position group now than we were last year, but I don't
• 15:28
  think it's close. Paul's wise.
• 15:31
  I would probably say what everyone else is saying.
• 15:34
  Offensive line, Not so much the defensive line, but I mean, you
• 15:39
  had Antoine Powell on one edge and then you got a slew of
• 15:42
  others on the other edge. I like our our chances of
• 15:46
  getting some pressure this year and creating some mistakes from
• 15:48
  the opposing quarterback instead of our own.
• 15:50
  But if the offensive line can answer the call, and I think we
• 15:55
  can, because I met Ron Crook this past weekend, and buddy,
• 15:58
  I'm a believer. That man is intense.
• 16:01
  He is 1000% the epitome of an offensive line coach and that
• 16:05
  man's ready to get nasty. Yeah, before, before we hit the
• 16:10
  what's up man, go live button tonight Dan was talking about
• 16:14
  he's like, yeah, I talked to crook and he's like crook would
• 16:17
  be your type of guy. And I was like.
• 16:19
  All right, all right. So, yeah, it's good to hear
• 16:23
  that. I'd like to see a little bit
• 16:25
  more nasty on that offensive line.
• 16:27
  That's what I'm looking forward to seeing.
• 16:29
  And more consistent play. I know I've said it a lot, but I
• 16:33
  felt like last year Lyon was thinking too much.
• 16:38
  Sometimes when you're thinking too much, your feet don't do
• 16:39
  what they need to do and not not trusting your eyes to get to
• 16:44
  your. Screen so peeks of people's
• 16:46
  nuts. I mean you and the wife.
• 16:50
  Talked about it last night, you know, y'all talked about it last
• 16:56
  night about playing line. You just should go go hit
• 16:59
  somebody. You got to be like Lincoln Hawk.
• 17:01
  You got to be able to take the hat and turn it around and it's
• 17:04
  got to be that switch and you become a fucking different
• 17:06
  person. That's what playing Offensive
• 17:08
  Line is about. All right, all right, well, we
• 17:12
  do got one from the chat. Let's throw that up there.
• 17:14
  Let's let these panelists decide what they feel about it, what
• 17:19
  worries you about each, about the team, what excites you the
• 17:23
  most. And I'm keeping it open for the
• 17:26
  field. So that's from my our buddy Delf
• 17:29
  out there. I'll throw it back to Grayson.
• 17:31
  Grayson, what worries you? What makes you excited?
• 17:36
  What worries me about this team? I think it's just not knowing
• 17:41
  going into the season who's going to be the starting
• 17:44
  quarterback. I think that's number one.
• 17:47
  Just has Grant Wells shown stark improvement?
• 17:54
  You know, what's the deal with drones?
• 17:56
  Who's going to March out onto the field against Old Dominion
• 18:00
  at 8:00 PM Eastern on September 2nd?
• 18:03
  And then what excites me is just the fact that it's a clean slate
• 18:11
  and that, you know, last season is behind us and there really is
• 18:15
  a chance to make Stark improvements in 2023.
• 18:21
  I would say that is. Definitely what I'm most excited
• 18:24
  about and I hope that we all see it so.
• 18:28
  What about you? The thing that excites me the
• 18:32
  most would probably be I really like that wide receiver Cord,
• 18:39
  the new additions, Fontel said on my Pod, Tales from the Terror
• 18:44
  Dome. Check me out.
• 18:46
  But he said that the guys that were there last year, like
• 18:49
  Gosnell, Tucker, Holloway, even Lofton, have Really.
• 18:53
  Elevated their game as well. Really been putting in that work
• 18:56
  this offseason, and I think what worries me the most is health.
• 19:02
  Depth can't afford to take too much hits, especially on the low
• 19:07
  offensive line, at least where we're standing right now.
• 19:10
  I mean, we could have some hidden gems in the locker room
• 19:13
  and we don't know about because we haven't seen it.
• 19:15
  But what we're looking at right now is you don't really, you
• 19:18
  can't really afford to have anybody get truly banged up.
• 19:23
  What's exciting you? What's making you worried?
• 19:25
  Well, the thing I've been excited about, and this is just
• 19:27
  pretty much happened since the start of fall camp, a little bit
• 19:29
  in the spring is the defensive ends.
• 19:31
  Because as I said before, we have our pass rush has been, we
• 19:36
  have not been Sacksburg, we have not been the getting pressure on
• 19:40
  the QB, get the hurries, get the turnovers kind of team and that
• 19:43
  starts at the defensive end position.
• 19:45
  But we've been hearing good stuff about Burgos, the McDonald
• 19:48
  that's on the D line. A little bit less about CJ
• 19:52
  McCray, but Cole Nelson's going to be fighting it out.
• 19:54
  A PR coming in, getting on the highlight reel in his first like
• 19:58
  week at camp, That's what excites me because that makes
• 20:02
  such a difference for the secondary, just for the team in
• 20:05
  general. To be able to put consistent
• 20:07
  pressure on the quarterback changes everything.
• 20:10
  And so I've been really excited about with that what I'm worried
• 20:13
  about offensive line, but everyone knows that the issues
• 20:18
  we have on a line, so I'll just say.
• 20:20
  In that secondary, which is so good up front, I do worry a
• 20:23
  little bit about how young we are behind the starters.
• 20:26
  That would be one of my concerns.
• 20:29
  All right. Definitely, definitely Pete is
• 20:31
  Pete is kind of right on board with what I said as far as the
• 20:36
  the defensive line and having a just having a defensive end that
• 20:40
  you have to kind of plan for. You know, we haven't had that in
• 20:44
  a while. Was a team is game planning for
• 20:46
  one of our defensive environment.
• 20:49
  And I think that this year we may have the opportunity to do
• 20:51
  that. So I'm going to throw another
• 20:52
  question that y'all this is just for the panel.
• 20:55
  I guess we'll start with Grayson.
• 20:56
  You can answer this first, if Grant Wells walks out there as
• 20:59
  the starting quarterback the first game, does that change how
• 21:03
  you feel about the season? For me personally, I expect
• 21:09
  Grant Wells to start against Old Dominion.
• 21:11
  That may not be the perspective that Virginia Tech fans enjoy,
• 21:15
  but I do believe it's going to be the one that you should
• 21:17
  anticipate. I imagine it's going to be the
• 21:20
  classic. You go with the guy who has the
• 21:21
  most snaps under his belt in maroon and orange.
• 21:24
  I do expect drones to see action in the Old Dominion game though,
• 21:29
  150%. But I do think by game three, by
• 21:34
  the end of the Rutgers game, we're going to know who the guy
• 21:37
  is for the rest of the season, whether that's Wells or drones.
• 21:41
  It might take an LSU in 2007, in 2007, level of quarterback
• 21:47
  performance out of Wells for drones to take the job early on
• 21:50
  in the season, but he came to Virginia Tech from Baylor to
• 21:53
  play and that's what he's going to do.
• 21:56
  Yeah, I would agree with Grayson that no, I'm doesn't change the
• 22:00
  way I feel about the season. Because ever since the spring
• 22:02
  game, that's what I've been thinking.
• 22:05
  And quarterbacks can get better, College quarterbacks can get
• 22:08
  better. We remember Brian Randall fondly
• 22:10
  because of what he did in 2004, but in 2003 he was far from a
• 22:14
  complete quarterback and everyone wanted Marcus Vic to
• 22:17
  play. And so IT guys can develop and
• 22:21
  get better and I'm hoping that that's what happens to Wells
• 22:24
  this year. Yeah, I mean, I said at the
• 22:28
  Spring Game Live Show Pregame that.
• 22:32
  Carly Jennings didn't come to Virginia Tech to play with Grant
• 22:34
  Wells, but that's exactly what's going to happen.
• 22:38
  Week one, he's going to play with Grant Wells.
• 22:41
  I think we do see Kyron drones. Drones is still relatively new,
• 22:46
  you know, so I mean at quarterback and at Virginia
• 22:49
  Tech, obviously, but that might take him some time, right, to
• 22:53
  get used to it. But as long as we see him in
• 22:56
  packages that aren't predictable, like the Quincy
• 22:58
  Patterson ones. I think that we could have some
• 23:01
  Sean Glenn and Tyrod Taylor type of magic hopefully and if not, I
• 23:07
  mean we're going to, I hope one of them is the guy, right?
• 23:11
  Yeah, that's all we want, right? That is.
• 23:13
  Always. One of them is the guy I think
• 23:15
  we're going to be. Alright, hold.
• 23:16
  On. Hold on, I'm gonna say something
• 23:18
  real quick, and this is going to be coming from the lips of
• 23:20
  Tally. As long as nobody won the
• 23:23
  touchdown to 1 interception ratio at the end of the year,
• 23:25
  That's what we want. That's what we want.
• 23:28
  I saw a really good question from Bryant Cobbs here and real
• 23:31
  quick boys, one name real quick Grayson tell Darius Payne.
• 23:37
  There you go. So Darius Payne, Dan One Guy,
• 23:40
  Juan Telton, Juan Felton. Pete, I'll go Tucker Holloway.
• 23:46
  I was going to say Felton. There we go.
• 23:49
  So wild outs are going to be the story of the year.
• 23:51
  I like that I'm all, say, those new cover.
• 23:54
  I will say most Phillips. I think most Phillips is going
• 23:56
  to pop somebody on a special team to play Tally Brown.
• 23:58
  What do y'all think? Yeah, you know, man, listen, the
• 24:01
  two took well, Dan said. Felton and Pete wanted Felton.
• 24:05
  And I watched Felton. Dude, I've never heard him talk.
• 24:09
  I really didn't know what he looked like until I seen him at
• 24:11
  media day the other day. And he might be crazy.
• 24:14
  And I like crazy like he just, he was talking to him.
• 24:18
  He wasn't smiling. I mean, he started smiling one
• 24:20
  time when they asked him about somebody, I think they was like,
• 24:23
  are you and Allie Jenny friends? And he was like, yeah, we're
• 24:25
  friends. And he started smiling.
• 24:26
  But other than that, he was right back to what?
• 24:28
  Do you like to run? Give me a go route.
• 24:30
  They can't guard me like that's what I need, man.
• 24:32
  I need somebody. That is he the buyout.
• 24:34
  There is the Corey Moore. Is that what we're getting?
• 24:36
  That's what I need, that's what I need.
• 24:38
  So I got a game film. Bring up the clip from the Sugar
• 24:42
  Bowl. Man.
• 24:45
  Randy. You know, I tell you.
• 24:48
  I'm going to have to go a little different.
• 24:49
  I'm going to go Lane. I think.
• 24:50
  I think he's going to kind of be the breakout player this year.
• 24:54
  I think Jennings is going to get a lot of attention and he's
• 24:57
  going to definitely be a dynamic player.
• 24:58
  But I think Lane is going to be the wideout.
• 25:01
  That kind of makes the offense hum because he's going to be a
• 25:03
  guy that can move the sticks for you but also have a game
• 25:07
  breaking play. So I think that's what we've
• 25:09
  been missing in the offense. We didn't have a lot of
• 25:12
  intermediate routes that were successful last year.
• 25:15
  We were. Sheldon's coming on the next
• 25:17
  segment. We can tell you in the
• 25:18
  intermediate area of the field, we were probably one of the
• 25:21
  bottom Power Five teams in the country last year.
• 25:24
  So a guy like Jalen Lane's going to help with that. 100%, So I
• 25:28
  mean, I like all the all the names here because A, it's not
• 25:31
  one room. We got a couple rooms, a couple
• 25:33
  of y'all wanted wide receivers, but we're seeing it all over.
• 25:36
  We think defensive line, we're thinking secondary, we're
• 25:38
  thinking wide receivers. But let me ask y'all this
• 25:42
  because we're going to have to sit.
• 25:43
  We got to watch ODU. We going well, I know us three
• 25:47
  are going to be at Purdue and I think a couple of y'all going to
• 25:50
  be there as well. But by the end of September,
• 25:52
  we're we're we're leaving Marshall.
• 25:55
  Where do you think we need to be in terms of both overall record
• 25:58
  and I test beat overall record, I'll say 3:00 and 2:00 because
• 26:05
  that away game at Marshall just terrifies me so bad.
• 26:09
  And then we got PIT. And I'm not saying we'd lose
• 26:11
  those games back-to-back, but overall, the Purdue game's not
• 26:14
  going to be that easy. Say what you want about Rutgers.
• 26:17
  It's on the road. It's their Scarlet Day.
• 26:20
  It would not be good to lose the game, but we could.
• 26:23
  Shiano has a tough defense up there.
• 26:24
  That game could be thirteen to 10 or something.
• 26:27
  And so I'm going to say 3:00 and 2:00, and if it is 3 and two, I
• 26:32
  will actually be all right with it because that leaves you seven
• 26:35
  games to potentially get three more wins to go to a bowl.
• 26:38
  And that's all I want this year. I'm going to go four and one
• 26:46
  through September. Hopefully.
• 26:48
  I think we'll drop pit, but I'm hoping the others are W As far
• 26:54
  as when it comes to the ODU, you know, pardon my French, but any
• 26:58
  other result besides beating their fucking ass is not
• 27:02
  acceptable. They deserve to get stomped out.
• 27:05
  This is our State Flag flagship program.
• 27:09
  Hudson Card going to be great. Don't think it's going to be in
• 27:11
  week two and a new offense with a new coach and a new team and
• 27:16
  Rutgers? Definitely beatable.
• 27:18
  You know Piscataway, NJ not scaring anybody and Marshall?
• 27:23
  Very familiar. They just they don't have it.
• 27:26
  Ironically enough they had Grant Wells.
• 27:28
  They probably pretty good because they don't really have a
• 27:30
  quarterback that we know of. They got a good run game with
• 27:34
  Rashi and Ali and they got a Stefan Gilmore's brother on
• 27:37
  defense. But.
• 27:39
  I think we take that one and they prize able to mold his
• 27:44
  vision and get these kids angry, hungry and ready to prove
• 27:47
  something. And I think we're going to go
• 27:48
  out there and be smashed the first month of the season, Mr.
• 27:52
  Wimbush 5 games in September, which is kind of ridiculous in
• 27:58
  theory. I imagine all of us would like
• 28:00
  to win, all five of them. But bottom line is, Pittsburgh's
• 28:04
  a better football team, better football program than we are
• 28:06
  right now. I don't anticipate winning that
• 28:08
  game at all. Would I love to be wrong?
• 28:11
  Oh, good Lord, yes. I would love to eat all the
• 28:14
  crow. But in my mind, in my head, we
• 28:17
  should beat ODU, we should beat Purdue, we should beat Rutgers
• 28:22
  and we should beat Marshall. We kind of talked about it
• 28:25
  before we got on here. I think we're going to drop one
• 28:28
  of those. I'm not sure which.
• 28:30
  I'm with Pete on this. I think we're going to be 3 and
• 28:33
  two. We should be three and two by
• 28:35
  the end of September. And I'm with Dan in the in the
• 28:38
  sense that good Lord, there will be hell to pay if you drop it to
• 28:42
  ODU at 8:00 PM EST in Lane Stadium.
• 28:47
  Cannot happen. Curtis, you asked about.
• 28:50
  I test also in there. Let's talk about like the vibe
• 28:53
  test, because I think starting hot this this year because we
• 28:56
  have a couple winnable games, especially up front.
• 28:59
  If you can start the season 2 and O3 and O, maybe even dance
• 29:03
  four and oh like imagine what that would do for the fan base,
• 29:07
  the feeling the vibes around Blacksburg, the recruiting.
• 29:10
  Like it would be so important for this team to get off to a
• 29:14
  hot start. So that's something even if we
• 29:16
  drop two games in a row after that, starting off three and oh
• 29:19
  would be true. First of all, think about the
• 29:21
  vibe test on this. You go four and oh like Dan's
• 29:23
  thinking and it comes to that pit game.
• 29:26
  How many false starts is nor Dozi's offensive line going to
• 29:28
  have that he likes to talk shit about?
• 29:31
  They aren't going to have a false start.
• 29:32
  Last time me and Mr. Siegler went laying today that he
• 29:35
  claimed that was going to happen, they had three.
• 29:37
  What about y'all kind of kind of like what?
• 29:41
  I really like what Pete said. When he talks about, you know,
• 29:44
  you get a hot start like that. We talked about on our on our
• 29:48
  podcast with With With Pride when we had him on talking about
• 29:52
  just the last game that we played, that Liberty game, which
• 29:55
  we're going to keep going back to.
• 29:57
  Hate to tell you we're going to keep going back to it.
• 30:00
  That that that liberty game, no matter what you think they are,
• 30:03
  no matter what people thought we were supposed to beat them.
• 30:06
  We're not supposed to beat them. I don't care.
• 30:08
  We've seen the team that had been losing games and probably
• 30:11
  should have lost the game, that fought and won a game.
• 30:14
  And then not only that, they carried that momentum from that
• 30:18
  game to the offseason to what we've been seeing in winter
• 30:22
  workouts, summer workouts. Now fall camp is here.
• 30:26
  Like you've been seeing a positive recruiting, you've been
• 30:28
  seeing positive momentum in the program.
• 30:31
  If you get off to a a hot start, a three and no start, a four and
• 30:34
  no start. I mean what's the trajectory of
• 30:38
  that program next you know, but if you get off to a O and two
• 30:42
  start, God forbid or a one and three start, you know even a two
• 30:46
  and two start, it might get a little you know, you got some
• 30:48
  some some some Bluebirds coming around.
• 30:51
  So getting off to a hot start right here, like Pete said, I
• 30:54
  think with just. Turn it up a dodge.
• 30:57
  Yeah, to that point, we we now have a young team.
• 31:01
  We no longer have like 7th, 8th year Fuente COVID guys.
• 31:06
  Still got a couple around, but mainly you know we're going to
• 31:09
  have some 2023 guys playing this year, right?
• 31:11
  Especially with the red shirt rule.
• 31:13
  Now you get four people or four games, You get four games you
• 31:15
  can play without burning it. Imagine, these guys already feel
• 31:20
  very confident. The vibes are crazy in
• 31:22
  Blacksburg right now. I felt it.
• 31:23
  I've seen it. I've talked to them.
• 31:25
  Give them some wins under the belt, a hot start, and they
• 31:28
  actually start to believe it. Bro, It's hard to tell what
• 31:31
  happened. You could talk seven or eight
• 31:33
  games, you know, just get, just get to a bowl, Get us a bowl.
• 31:37
  Get us that extra game. Recruits are going to stay.
• 31:40
  More recruits are going to come. And then you just keep building.
• 31:43
  Elevate the ceiling or elevate the floor.
• 31:45
  Elevate the ceiling, right? And I'm with that and I want to
• 31:49
  piggyback on Pete's point with the vibes like.
• 31:51
  If we can get out there and get three and one of those first
• 31:54
  four, I feel like that would really build the confidence of,
• 31:58
  as Dan just pointed out, a younger team, but a more
• 32:01
  talented team than we've seen in the last, you know, two to three
• 32:04
  years in terms of top to bottom talent.
• 32:06
  I feel like the roster is finally starting to get rebuilt
• 32:10
  in a way that makes sense. I feel like that was probably
• 32:12
  the biggest weakness of the Fuente era was roster management
• 32:17
  and roster building. We recruited, we over recruited
• 32:21
  too many positions we didn't backfill.
• 32:24
  We ran players off for one reason or another.
• 32:28
  Wait, you don't need 10 running? 14 It was 14 one point 14.
• 32:31
  It was a running piece. Oh my.
• 32:36
  God go. OK, Grayson, real quick, let's
• 32:39
  get you on this, the vibes. And then Brian's got one more to
• 32:41
  close this out here. Yeah, I mean September's going
• 32:46
  to set the tone. It's going to set the precedent
• 32:48
  for the rest of the season. We got, we got a, you know, a
• 32:51
  decent ACC schedule this year. But to to Pete's point, it's
• 32:58
  September is the temperature that's that's going to gauge the
• 33:01
  entire rest of the season. So we shall see BODU eat the
• 33:06
  shit out of them. There we go, Yeah.
• 33:08
  We we got to go out there and and make a statement that first
• 33:11
  game, because if you don't, that's when you know we talk
• 33:13
  about vibes. If you go out there and you're
• 33:15
  in a hell game with ODU. Jesus Christ.
• 33:19
  That's not good vibes, All right.
• 33:21
  So before we close out this segment, there's lots of talk
• 33:25
  about Virginia Tech being back, right?
• 33:28
  Fuga even said it at a CC media day.
• 33:32
  I don't think this is the season that we see that as kind of a a
• 33:35
  a factor. But what do you expect to see
• 33:39
  this season that will show you glimpses or signs that were on
• 33:43
  the right track to being back? And I'll let I'll let Grayson
• 33:47
  leave this one off. Sure.
• 33:49
  I want to see stark improvement at the quarterback position and
• 33:53
  I want to see stark improvement in the defensive performances as
• 33:57
  a collective. Grant completed 196 passes on
• 34:02
  332 attempts last year with a 59% completion rate and came in
• 34:07
  with a 97th ranked QBR in the country.
• 34:11
  Respectfully, that has to improve.
• 34:14
  I also want to see that our defenders are wrapping up,
• 34:18
  tackling below the waist, finishing plays and swarming to
• 34:22
  the football. I want to see that our
• 34:24
  quarterback look, he looks past his first read and make smart
• 34:28
  decisions. I want to see those elements
• 34:31
  contribute to us finishing and finishing and winning football
• 34:36
  games. Those factors to Fuga that will
• 34:40
  let me know that we are headed in the in the right direction as
• 34:44
  a football program. I would say discipline,
• 34:51
  especially from the offensive line defensively.
• 34:54
  No offense to Keyshawn artist, but last year when Dax wasn't on
• 34:57
  the field. The defense was really lost.
• 34:59
  So I think that we're going to see multiple leaders on defense
• 35:04
  this year, multiple voices that can keep everybody crowd and
• 35:06
  focused on the goal, quarterback play, don't turn the ball over,
• 35:12
  make smart decisions, receivers separation.
• 35:16
  I think we'll see that. I think we're going to see a
• 35:18
  crisper, more aggressive, more focused, hokey team regardless
• 35:23
  of if the record shows it. I think that.
• 35:26
  A couple of those games last year that really came down to
• 35:29
  this player that play. I think they're gonna finish a
• 35:32
  few of those differently this year and I think that they're
• 35:35
  gonna look a lot different. We're gonna be able to be proud
• 35:37
  of them regardless of the record at the end of the year.
• 35:42
  Hey, Pete. Yeah, I'll finish it off.
• 35:44
  Yeah, I need to see the toughness come back.
• 35:47
  And I don't just mean physically.
• 35:49
  I mean to be able to take a punch in a game, whether it's a
• 35:52
  fourth down conversion or a touchdown, A turnover, and then
• 35:56
  be able to bounce back and that tally mentioned it with the
• 35:59
  Liberty game, people want to knock the Liberty win.
• 36:02
  I was with friends that weekend. Everyone thought we were losing
• 36:04
  that game and we battled and we battled, we battled, overcame
• 36:07
  adversity, we won the game. That's what I want to see.
• 36:10
  Overcoming adversity is something that this team, you
• 36:14
  can go back several years and it's something we haven't dealt
• 36:16
  with well in game. So that's one thing.
• 36:19
  The toughness mentally and physically and then defensively,
• 36:22
  I want to see aggression, some more blitzing and turnovers.
• 36:25
  We have not been able to generate the turnovers and so
• 36:29
  that's what lunch be, lunch pail defense is all about, Fuga said.
• 36:32
  The lunch pail's back. It's not back until we get some
• 36:35
  more turnovers going. All right.
• 36:37
  I agree with that, Pete. And before we close out this
• 36:40
  segment, this is just going to be a yes or no.
• 36:42
  This is a Vibe check. We've already talked about Vibe
• 36:45
  Check a lot here. Bob Check.
• 36:48
  Is this Virginia Tech football team making a bowl this year?
• 36:51
  Pete. Yes, Dan.
• 36:54
  Yes. Yes.
• 36:56
  Grayson, what you got? Yes, I'm saying yes for
• 36:59
  everybody, for my sanity. Yes.
• 37:06
  Well, I'll say, you know, just to finish off with what you
• 37:08
  asked the question now, I mean, Pete pretty much hit the nail on
• 37:11
  the head talking about the toughness, talking about just
• 37:14
  seeing. Virginia Tech.
• 37:15
  Getting back to Virginia Tech and Virginia Tech is what I
• 37:19
  think about vintage Virginia Tech.
• 37:21
  It's not. And you know, everybody talks
• 37:22
  about the lunch pill to talk about this.
• 37:24
  Like the game where Tyrod scored in the corner.
• 37:26
  He put his hand behind the head. Like, I want to see that
• 37:29
  Virginia Tech back, you know what I'm saying?
• 37:31
  I want to see Virginia Tech get that swag back.
• 37:34
  You know what I'm saying? Have some fun on the field.
• 37:36
  D, haul, pick and run off. Take it to the house.
• 37:39
  Hit him with a little shimmy. Do something, you know what I'm
• 37:41
  saying? We we ain't West Virginia.
• 37:44
  We ain't. Fucking UVA like we Virginia
• 37:46
  Tech, Go out there, swag it out, throw them orange jersey zone.
• 37:50
  Let's keep it. Moving y'all by the way, when
• 37:54
  when when we were talking about going to the game, Tally kept
• 37:57
  talking about Purdue, Purdue, Purdue.
• 37:58
  And we agreed to it. I look, it's orange effect.
• 38:00
  What a shock that has to gain. He's pushing us to, but they
• 38:04
  really just keep the orange dust out of it.
• 38:06
  But. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 38:07
  We don't need. We don't need Smoke Gate Lord
• 38:10
  but. I like what all y'all said, but
• 38:12
  Tally, you make a good point. It's to Swagger.
• 38:14
  It's DBU. It is a lunch fail defense.
• 38:16
  It's popping some quarterback down and standing over him and
• 38:19
  saying you ain't doing shit in our house.
• 38:23
  And when we go to Rutgers, when we go to Rutgers, when we go to
• 38:25
  Marshall Fuga, taking it out to the center of the field, opening
• 38:29
  it up, ripping out a massive piece of turf and throwing it
• 38:31
  back in like the old days. Right, Right.
• 38:34
  That's what we want. Dan Grayson, Pete.
• 38:37
  Fellows, I really appreciate y'all joining us tonight for the
• 38:41
  first segment here. Check them out.
• 38:43
  Check Grayson out on Twitter. Always some good content there.
• 38:46
  Check down out on Tales from the Terror Dome where you just
• 38:50
  dropped an interview with somebody, right?
• 38:52
  Yeah, Marcellus Barnes Jr. Marcellus Barnes Jr. the recent
• 38:56
  commit from Tennessee, and PB. You dropped one today too.
• 38:59
  Tell everybody who you got on the program, man.
• 39:03
  Yeah, it was every day, should be Saturday.
• 39:04
  Spencer Hall himself was kind enough to spend just about 50
• 39:08
  minutes or an hour with me and Robbie and it was a great
• 39:11
  interview. We kind of went over everything.
• 39:13
  ACCY state of the program. He had some good perspective on
• 39:16
  pride from a national scale. So check it out.
• 39:18
  But yeah, it was. It was a great interview.
• 39:20
  Well boys, again, we appreciate Y'all joining us.
• 39:22
  Hopefully we run into all of Y'all at some point in
• 39:24
  Blacksburg this season. And with that being said.
• 39:28
  We are going to take a quick pause, not only from our digital
• 39:31
  partner, but our primary sponsor, Main Street Pharmacy in
• 39:34
  Blacksburg. I can probably save you a lot of
• 39:37
  money and I can take a lot better care of you.
• 39:40
  That's pretty much it. My name is Jeremy Counts and I'm
• 39:43
  a pharmacist. I want to operate Main Street
• 39:45
  Pharmacy here in downtown Blacksburg.
• 39:47
  My brother's A pharmacist. I'm a pharmacist.
• 39:48
  My uncle's A pharmacist. My dad's a pharmacist.
• 39:50
  I remember he would give me M&M's to count in little pill
• 39:53
  counters. This is something I've always
• 39:55
  done and I'm just lucky that. What I know so well is something
• 39:59
  that I can do and feel good about it and get back to people.
• 40:02
  Pharmacies are your frontline defense.
• 40:04
  Pharmacy's job is to make sure you're getting optimal care.
• 40:07
  For the lowest price possible. Also, we take the pressure off
• 40:11
  of emergency rooms. I'll tell people immediately
• 40:13
  when they need to go to the doctor, or I'll tell them if
• 40:15
  they just need a cream over the counter.
• 40:17
  If there's something that isn't commercially available, if it's
• 40:19
  something that's not available in a certain strength or a
• 40:22
  certain form or anything like that, we'll make it tailor made
• 40:25
  medications. Some of those options save
• 40:27
  people a lot of money. What motivates me?
• 40:28
  I get to take care of people in limit Blacksburg, I thought.
• 40:31
  Neat. As we take a quick break, we'd
• 40:36
  like to tell you about getting your free website report from
• 40:38
  our digital partner, Grassroots Digital Marketing Studio.
• 40:41
  They'll tell you how your website ranks on Google onsite,
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  SEO and social media. No commitment to buy anything.
• 40:47
  You can get your free report by visiting grassroots
• 40:50
  digitalstudio.com/free Dash website Dash Report.
• 40:55
  Now back to the episode. And we are back.
• 40:58
  What? Man, that was a fun segment with
• 41:00
  those guys. Boys.
• 41:01
  That was a fun segment. Tally, you won't mute, man.
• 41:03
  What are you laughing at? That's am I off from you yet?
• 41:06
  You all you don't do. Hey man, I hope everybody's
• 41:09
  without a commercial with Jeremy.
• 41:11
  I was a commercial with our response.
• 41:13
  Jeremy said if we don't got the medicine, we'll make it.
• 41:18
  He making creams, man. Jeremy, keep it up man.
• 41:22
  I'll be up there. We're.
• 41:23
  Going to be up there soon, we're going to be.
• 41:24
  Up there September What is September the 9th for the Purdue
• 41:26
  game? September 9th baby.
• 41:28
  Hey, we down Sir. Well, you know, by the way,
• 41:30
  y'all y'all just go in. Just swallow it.
• 41:33
  He's gonna make us take Jamison shots.
• 41:35
  At. Least at least three.
• 41:38
  At least three. Long as you get me, long as I
• 41:40
  get pickle juice behind it, I'm good.
• 41:42
  There you go. Well, again, I know, I know.
• 41:44
  He likes to stay away from the Tots rail though, so you might
• 41:47
  be off the hook there. You might be off the hook there.
• 41:49
  Well, that was again fun. Again, appreciate Dan, Pete and
• 41:53
  Grayson for joining us. But now we got another segment
• 41:56
  and we're going to bring in some more of the Hokies finest out
• 42:00
  there, Brian, who we got up first here.
• 42:03
  Yeah, this next panelist needs no introduction, but I'll give
• 42:06
  him one anyways. So he's the managing editor and
• 42:09
  holds down one of the three chairs on the Tech Sideline
• 42:11
  podcast. Give it up for the real David
• 42:15
  Cunningham. How's it going, guys?
• 42:20
  Great to see you. How you doing?
• 42:22
  What's up? I'm doing well.
• 42:25
  It's great to be with you guys. I really enjoyed listening to
• 42:29
  that last segment. Those guys have really great
• 42:31
  perspective and I'm excited to chop it up.
• 42:35
  With y'all, glad to have you. Always a good time when you come
• 42:38
  on here with us. Big to be back on the on the
• 42:41
  panel this year. This is the second time around
• 42:43
  in the panel chair. Little bit different format this
• 42:46
  time, but it should be a blast. Yup.
• 42:49
  Glad to have David on, man. He's got the orange on.
• 42:51
  He ready to go? He's looking good.
• 42:53
  Combed his hair, good for us. He ready my my tech sideline.
• 42:57
  Yeah, man, shot the merch out, man.
• 42:58
  Get it? That's what I was talking about.
• 43:02
  Tech sideline. If y'all ain't going to check
• 43:03
  out tech sideline, y'all go check it out.
• 43:05
  By the way, where can you, where can you buy that?
• 43:08
  Because Tally will purchase one because it's orange and it says
• 43:10
  tech. On as long as you got a full
• 43:11
  edge Sally, if you send me, if you send me your size, I will
• 43:16
  personally go to the office and pick one up.
• 43:18
  I'm doing it. I'm doing it before you get off
• 43:21
  here today. I definitely will be sending it
• 43:22
  to you. It's a 4X but I'm sending it to
• 43:24
  you and then next, well, I'll do my best.
• 43:27
  Hey, you got to you might have to piece two of them together.
• 43:30
  Just take 22 X's and put the mugs together.
• 43:32
  We'll be we'll make it work. You know what I'm saying?
• 43:35
  Take on one side, sideline on the other.
• 43:37
  Whatever we got to do. All right, next on the panel,
• 43:39
  man. He don't need no introduction.
• 43:41
  Y'all, go ahead and bring him in, man.
• 43:43
  He's 1/4 of our Boundary Corner podcast host Shelton.
• 43:47
  He's our analytics guy. Anytime I don't know nothing
• 43:50
  about what we talking about, I'd look at Shelton and guess what?
• 43:53
  He's got the stat for me. Shelton Moss.
• 43:56
  Bring him in for me. Where you at?
• 43:57
  What's up guys? How's it going?
• 43:59
  There he is. There he is.
• 44:01
  What's going on with Shelton? How we living?
• 44:03
  I'm sure I'm just in a hotel ballroom ready to get going.
• 44:06
  I'm the I'm the newest resident in Charlotte, NC.
• 44:09
  I'm pretty excited about that and have to be happy on it.
• 44:13
  Have a good session. Well, congratulations.
• 44:15
  Big Congrats on that, man. We know that was a big step for
• 44:18
  you last week. You were, you were, you were
• 44:20
  sitting here in Richmond and you've made your way down to
• 44:23
  Charlotte. Great for you, man.
• 44:25
  All right. Last man.
• 44:27
  He has been on with us numerous times.
• 44:31
  He has a lot of titles and I mean a lot of titles.
• 44:33
  He is the news writer for SI now.
• 44:36
  He is the BC Podcast ACC host. He hosts the Hungy Hokey
• 44:40
  Hangover, the hoop spot for Sons of Saturday Vt Also check out
• 44:44
  his new page CFB Films, which got me reminiscing numerous
• 44:48
  times about things. And also I think the last time
• 44:53
  he was on here he was not a father yet.
• 44:55
  So he's a new father. Not as new as he was a few
• 44:59
  months ago, but welcome back Mike McDaniel, Mikey.
• 45:03
  How you been, man? Quite the introduction guys.
• 45:06
  I appreciate it. Well, you only do.
• 45:08
  Everything in Hokie Nation. I always say when Mike comes on
• 45:11
  with us, he is the busiest man in Hokie Nation.
• 45:13
  He is. I I keep myself busy, that's for
• 45:16
  sure. How's the baby man?
• 45:19
  Last time me and you texted probably three or four months
• 45:21
  ago was keeping you up. Is it better?
• 45:22
  Now sleeping now, Yes. Love to hear that once Once they
• 45:30
  get to that sleeping mode it your dad duty gets a whole lot
• 45:33
  easier. Yeah, he's he's a good kid.
• 45:36
  We love him. He's having smear infection
• 45:39
  issues, but he's doing a lot better now, so hold.
• 45:41
  On hold on, Mike said. Mike said he's a good kid.
• 45:44
  We love him. If he was a bad kid, you
• 45:45
  wouldn't love him. Still love him?
• 45:48
  Would. Still love him?
• 45:51
  That's fair. That's fair.
• 45:52
  I love that. All right, so I'm gonna leave
• 45:55
  this one off. I'm gonna pitch this one to
• 45:57
  David Cunningham first. You've had some chances to get a
• 46:01
  close up view of fall camp. We got Jesse Hanson's medical
• 46:05
  retirement that came out kind of the beginning of the of the camp
• 46:07
  there, throwing a little intrigue into the potential
• 46:10
  starting five for the for the Hokies offensive line.
• 46:14
  What we want to know who has been the most consistent first
• 46:17
  team offensive line unit that you and and others at Tech
• 46:20
  Sideline have have gotten a witness at practice so far?
• 46:25
  Yeah, I think it really hasn't changed since since fall camp
• 46:28
  started. We're now entering the, what,
• 46:31
  third week of fall camp? Tex had probably 10 to 12
• 46:35
  practices by now, maybe probably around 10:00, and it's pretty
• 46:40
  much stayed the same again. It's a very young group, so that
• 46:44
  shouldn't be a big surprise. Xavier Chaplain's been at left
• 46:48
  tackle, Braylon Moore's been at left guard, Kaden Moore's at
• 46:52
  center. Bob Schick has been the guy at
• 46:54
  right guard so far, and Parker Clemens is at right tackle.
• 46:58
  And Clayton Frey, I feel like it's kind of a sixth guy right
• 47:00
  now. He's been working at at right
• 47:03
  guard, but he's also been working a little bit of left
• 47:05
  guard with that second team. I think the biggest surprise
• 47:08
  recently has been Brody Meadows, who was working at right guard
• 47:12
  with the second team after working at tackle.
• 47:14
  He's kind of a guy that that's versatile according to Brent
• 47:17
  Pride. Besides that, again, it's a
• 47:20
  really, really young group life. Gamma True Freshman was in there
• 47:23
  at left tackle with the twos the other day, so it's going to be a
• 47:28
  lot of mixing and matching, I think.
• 47:29
  But but Chris Coleman, my colleague at Tex Island, just
• 47:32
  wrote a really great preview when he talked with some guys at
• 47:36
  media day. You get the sense that this
• 47:41
  offensive line blocking scheme is just easier to pick up from
• 47:44
  Ron Cook. It's it's less detail oriented,
• 47:48
  more just straightforward. You know, let's do our job.
• 47:52
  And I don't know if that's necessarily a shot at Joe
• 47:54
  Rudolph, but I think they just have two different ways of
• 47:56
  looking at it. And Ron Crook has done a lot of
• 47:59
  great things, a lot of the great programs.
• 48:01
  I'm very curious to see when we come out, when when when I'm
• 48:05
  sitting there in the press box on September 2nd watching
• 48:08
  Virginia Tech, Old Dominion, how the offensive line looks because
• 48:11
  it looked okay in the spring game even without Xavier
• 48:14
  chaplain in there. But again that was against
• 48:17
  Tech's second string defense for the most part.
• 48:20
  So the Okies are going to have to to have a a big year on the
• 48:26
  offensive line for for there to be much success at all.
• 48:29
  And I think Mike and Shelton were both agree with me.
• 48:32
  That's the biggest question right now.
• 48:34
  Do you get a sense that Freddy's pushing Bob Chick for that right
• 48:37
  guard spot, or is it more like he's going to be?
• 48:39
  Kind of that swing interior guy, that kind of first interior
• 48:42
  offensive lineman off the bench for us this year.
• 48:45
  I think it's too early to tell to be honest, Sir, at least
• 48:49
  today's Tuesday. We get to talk to Brent Pride
• 48:51
  tomorrow and Wednesday. So that like the last couple
• 48:56
  times it's. I feel like it's been too early
• 48:58
  to tell. And I think part of it is phrase
• 49:02
  coming from the FCS level. Not that it's a huge jump, but
• 49:05
  it is a little bit of a change and he has to kind of integrate
• 49:10
  himself when all of these other guys have kind of been in the
• 49:13
  program. So I think it's it might take
• 49:15
  him a little bit longer to to adjust than even some of the
• 49:18
  freshmen, but I do think it's something to keep an eye on.
• 49:22
  I think that's my kind of biggest question down the
• 49:25
  stretch as we get closer to September 2nd is, is this
• 49:30
  offensive line kind of set in stone or are the young guys are
• 49:34
  the Brody Meadows, the Clayton Freddy's, are those guys pushing
• 49:39
  and and I do think I think Bob Shook has improved.
• 49:43
  Crook was pretty high on him. Brent Prize as mentioned his
• 49:46
  improvement. I'm very interested to see when
• 49:50
  that team, you know that group rolls out on September 2nd
• 49:52
  again. So do you what it looks like and
• 49:54
  how they hold up? Yeah, definitely.
• 49:56
  Looking at, you know, kind of last year what we had, what we
• 49:59
  did, what we didn't do, things like that, you know, was always.
• 50:05
  Frustrating to say the least. So to hear you talk about, you
• 50:08
  know, people pushing for time, the offensive line being better
• 50:12
  is always a good thing. We'll pivot a little bit to to
• 50:14
  Shelton as well. Shelton, we talked to you a lot
• 50:17
  of times about the, you know, various metrics that may have
• 50:20
  hurt the Hokies last year. Some they could control or
• 50:24
  couldn't control a little bit more than others.
• 50:26
  Give us 2 matrices, 2 matrix on offense and one on defense.
• 50:32
  That the Hokies must improve on this year to put themselves in
• 50:35
  bold contention. Yeah.
• 50:37
  So it's definitely want to think of the offensive metrics because
• 50:40
  there's so many to choose from. But the first one I'll start
• 50:42
  with was passing success rate. So success rate is basically
• 50:47
  garbage gain based on down. It's based on measures how how
• 50:50
  much double the stick so to speak.
• 50:52
  So last year Tech finished 118th nationally in passing.
• 50:55
  Success rate for that was because of Wells.
• 50:58
  Also because their viewers cannot separate and that was
• 51:01
  evident in Tech's passing trees. So they very rarely threw down
• 51:06
  the field with a 10 to 19 yard range, 20 plus yards.
• 51:09
  They didn't like take those deep shots except for occasionally
• 51:11
  one that killed Smith and Navy and also because of the lack of
• 51:15
  the running game that Tech had. Teams could just rush for and
• 51:18
  and drop 8 and put a lot of same coverage.
• 51:20
  So Tech was in a lot more obvious passing downs and we
• 51:23
  were in a more obvious passing down.
• 51:24
  Obviously the play pawns can be more, so they need more
• 51:28
  successful plays in the pass game obviously.
• 51:30
  And then the second set for the offense is SAC rate.
• 51:33
  I had Tech finishing at 108th last year in SAC rate.
• 51:37
  Again part of the function of how many passing downs they had,
• 51:40
  but also communication between, you know the offensive line and
• 51:42
  quarterback was spotty at times. So then the last one you
• 51:47
  mentioned were defense. The one thing I noticed, I think
• 51:50
  they need to do a better job of limiting the explosive brush in
• 51:53
  place. So I have a I have a metric I
• 51:56
  made which basically looks at when when an opposing, when an
• 52:00
  offense has a successful play, how successful is it?
• 52:03
  So according my metric tech was 103rd and explosive weapon plays
• 52:08
  allowed. So they were good most of the
• 52:11
  time in terms of preventing successful plays.
• 52:14
  When they got burned, they got burned really bad and I think a
• 52:17
  lot of that gets back to one better play.
• 52:18
  I know Keisha artists and Jane McDonald plan of struggled last
• 52:22
  year but the good news is the views of line should be better.
• 52:25
  You've got returners and Kendrickson Pollard Wilfred
• 52:29
  Penne and at the safe position Sir people's count the Jenkins
• 52:34
  and then linebackers Allen Tisdale and and Kyle Lawson.
• 52:37
  I think you know part of the part of the reason for you know
• 52:40
  launching me close run place obviously was the linebacker
• 52:42
  fits. If you get, if you get better
• 52:44
  linebacker play and see more discipline, you're going to
• 52:45
  limit those, those big Russian place.
• 52:47
  Yeah. And and you said a couple things
• 52:49
  there. First of all, that explosive
• 52:50
  rush plays, I think, if not everybody in this panel went
• 52:53
  back to Pitt. Him breaking that off about that
• 52:57
  explosive plays that immediately maybe go back to that game and
• 52:59
  all the big plays because the big plays won them that game.
• 53:02
  We were competitive. The big plays from Izzy won them
• 53:05
  that game. But some else.
• 53:06
  I'm going to go back to what David said into what you're
• 53:08
  saying about that SAC rate. Brent Pratt has been preaching
• 53:12
  competition competition, competition, right.
• 53:15
  Compete when you, David when you just say Bob chicks getting
• 53:19
  better. Brody Meadows is now being
• 53:21
  moved. Lake Canim is improving.
• 53:23
  It feels like and then the thing we've heard about crook system,
• 53:27
  it's easier to understand is not as difficult.
• 53:29
  I think you're right with that SAC rate.
• 53:31
  The first one, I think that's going to be tough whether it's
• 53:34
  Wells or it's drones to see if we can do drastic improvement in
• 53:39
  10 to 19. But I think we can at least stop
• 53:41
  the SAC rate and definitely with more athletic linebackers.
• 53:45
  Yet we need our run fits, but sometimes just getting faster to
• 53:48
  the whole will screw things up. These guys to my left and right
• 53:53
  played there. They can tell you from being on
• 53:54
  the line and being a tight end. Sometimes just linebackers
• 53:57
  getting there too quick will screw up the blocking
• 54:00
  assignments. Right now.
• 54:03
  Now I'm going to pivot here and let's talk to Mike because we
• 54:06
  ain't had him on them forever and I'm glad to have him back.
• 54:09
  Mike, you have been notating all over Twitter about all the
• 54:12
  improvement that the hoaxes have made in the Portal this
• 54:14
  offseason, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.
• 54:18
  How important do you think it is that this group of portal
• 54:22
  pickups, everybody? I'm just the offense, but
• 54:25
  everybody in general has success on the field in 2023 for Coach
• 54:30
  Pride to continue to make it an attractive spot for the highly.
• 54:33
  Ranked transfers. The biggest story on offense is
• 54:38
  the quarterback position, right? Like, that's the question about
• 54:42
  the offseason and how is that position going to improve?
• 54:47
  Let's go through the transfers just in general.
• 54:49
  The Quan Felton, right? Jalen, Wayne, Ally Jennings,
• 54:53
  BAE, Shell 2. And that's before you even get
• 54:55
  to the quarterback position, right?
• 54:57
  That's all around whoever the quarterback's going to be.
• 55:00
  I think what's really important about the transfers that came in
• 55:03
  to the program for Virginia Tech is that no matter who the
• 55:07
  quarterback is going to be, the position groups on offense
• 55:11
  around whoever it is. Is going to be much better than
• 55:15
  last year. The the floor has been raised
• 55:17
  right. The quarterbacks can only be so
• 55:21
  bad in comparison to last year, right?
• 55:24
  I I think everybody expects a step forward from if it's Grant
• 55:28
  Wells, they expect to step forward.
• 55:30
  I think that's fair just because the skill talent around him is.
• 55:34
  It's just night and day this year compared to what it was
• 55:37
  last year. I think with Wells the thing we
• 55:41
  have to caution is that. We're not totally sure what his
• 55:46
  floor is at Virginia Tech, right?
• 55:50
  We know what his floor was at Marshall.
• 55:53
  I hope to God his floor was what we saw last year, considering
• 55:57
  the skill position. Town around.
• 55:59
  Him on the flip side, you know what could his ceiling be,
• 56:03
  right? It's the ACC.
• 56:05
  He's going up against tougher competition.
• 56:08
  I'm not sure we're necessarily going to see the Marshall
• 56:11
  version of Grant Wells that was really good at times, right?
• 56:14
  I'm not sure we're ever going to see like that peak for a
• 56:17
  consistent period of time. But if we get OK quarterback
• 56:22
  play out of Wells, you know, this offense just needs to be
• 56:27
  like in the 70s or 80s nationally.
• 56:30
  That would be a substantial step forward in total offense, right?
• 56:35
  Back to the question just in general about the transfers,
• 56:38
  like it's important for Pride, I think just to kind of establish
• 56:43
  a culture, have transfers that hit because the portal is just
• 56:46
  such an important part of college football Now you got to
• 56:48
  hit on your on your recruits, right, the high school players
• 56:51
  coming in, but you also have to hit on some of the transfer
• 56:53
  portal guys that impact positions.
• 56:55
  The fact that tech's got so many of them at the skill positions I
• 56:58
  think makes it all the more important that at least a few of
• 57:01
  these guys hit and have a big year.
• 57:03
  Ally Jennings, I think it's going to be really good because
• 57:05
  he has an established track record of being really good.
• 57:08
  I think the other guys will be good too.
• 57:10
  But the spotlights on Jennings, like Tech, was lacking a true #1
• 57:13
  receiver last year. Kayla Smith's a good player.
• 57:16
  He's not a #1 receiver in the ACCI think we can all agree, and
• 57:20
  that's not not to take away from anything he did.
• 57:22
  He was very reliable for Tech last year, but the ceiling's
• 57:26
  been raised on offense just because of the skilled guys that
• 57:28
  were brought in around whoever the quarterback is.
• 57:31
  And if Kyron Drones is a contributor or quarterback,
• 57:33
  right, it let's say things go kind of sideways.
• 57:35
  Grant Wells. You know, maybe it doesn't win
• 57:37
  the starting quarterback job. Maybe it's going to be Kyron
• 57:38
  drones. Like, what's drones going to
• 57:41
  look like as an impact transfer? That could just make this whole
• 57:45
  thing all the more important, right?
• 57:47
  That, you know, prize not only hitting on receivers and running
• 57:50
  backs in these deeper skill positions where you can rotate
• 57:52
  guys in on a regular basis, but now he's hitting on transfer
• 57:55
  portal quarterbacks too. I think that would send a
• 57:57
  really, really good message going not only throughout this
• 58:00
  season but year three and beyond.
• 58:06
  Yeah, I think you're right. I think the big thing with with
• 58:09
  attracting talent, you know we've, you know this offseason
• 58:12
  it's been great and and probably selling a vision but at some
• 58:17
  point we got to see some of the vision start to come together if
• 58:19
  we want to continue pulling in those highly ranked transfers,
• 58:22
  those guys that we need to fill some of the holes we had.
• 58:26
  From you know a roster management situation that kind
• 58:29
  of got a little sideways towards the end of the Fuente era,
• 58:32
  right. So you know I think that's
• 58:34
  important as we kind of move forward.
• 58:37
  So we've kind of hit that, that's the individual questions.
• 58:40
  We know we we've hit those with you.
• 58:41
  We want to pivot over to some, some folks from the the listers
• 58:45
  here. We're going to start with this
• 58:48
  one from our good buddy Jason Long.
• 58:50
  He actually does the music for the program here.
• 58:53
  Our music man's got a question. Let's throw it out there.
• 58:56
  Let's pretend Virginia was cool with betting on in state teams.
• 58:59
  What are some Virginia Tech football prop bets Y'all could
• 59:02
  get behind? As Mike chuckles.
• 59:06
  Mike. Go ahead, Mike is the last one
• 59:09
  let's. Go for it.
• 59:09
  Let's go for it. I don't sports bet do I done
• 59:15
  that before. I'm only the guy who puts the
• 59:18
  pics out on Twitter every week. Virginia Tech specific prop
• 59:22
  bets. It's tough to make him out to to
• 59:25
  make them up on the fly. I think one would be in terms of
• 59:32
  games that starting quarterbacks play, right?
• 59:35
  So like if you can get Grant Wells at like in over under 5
• 59:39
  1/2 in terms of games he starts, I think that could be a very
• 59:41
  attractive one. There we go.
• 59:45
  I think a grant wells with like. A2 to 1 touchdown interception
• 59:49
  ratio would be a good one like what can what kind of odds can
• 59:52
  you get on that. And then I mean I I think the
• 59:55
  typical ones right like one would be what I mean this is a
• 59:58
  prop bet but the win totals like I'm looking at the Virginia Tech
• 1:00:02
  win totals right right around 5/5 and 1/2 like man I that
• 1:00:08
  sounds about right. I I know people are optimistic
• 1:00:11
  Tech will make a ball game and I'm right there with you if if
• 1:00:15
  everything goes right. I think Tech does make a ball
• 1:00:17
  game. But man, the the over unders on
• 1:00:20
  tech win totals this year are pretty close to what it what I
• 1:00:23
  think is what I think is possible.
• 1:00:25
  And that's why that's why you bet, right?
• 1:00:28
  Oh yeah, you better put your money.
• 1:00:30
  You better put your money on that.
• 1:00:31
  Over this year it's over 5. And hey.
• 1:00:34
  Tally's Tally's feeling strong, Sheldon.
• 1:00:36
  What? You got One prop bet, 1-2 prop
• 1:00:38
  bets, you'd say. How about Grant Wells having a
• 1:00:41
  300 year passing game? Cuz he only had one last year
• 1:00:44
  and that was looking to offer. Okay.
• 1:00:46
  So I feel like, I mean, they're gonna, they're gonna get more
• 1:00:47
  passive rights. I don't know if they're gonna
• 1:00:49
  necessarily, you know, run all this, but that'd be an
• 1:00:52
  interesting one all. Right, David.
• 1:00:57
  Yeah. Well, I was about to look up
• 1:00:59
  what Grant Wells season high against an FBS team was last
• 1:01:03
  year, just to give that context. So yeah, Shelton's right.
• 1:01:08
  He threw for 314. He threw for 277 against Pitt.
• 1:01:11
  So with better with better options that that that might be
• 1:01:15
  in place. Shelton, I think it'd be
• 1:01:17
  interesting how many, how many sacks does Antoine Power Island
• 1:01:20
  have? If you look at at that, at that
• 1:01:24
  DB room, Virginia Tech has to force the turnover issue this
• 1:01:30
  year. Virginia Tech has two force
• 1:01:32
  teams to turn the ball over. I mean, Tech was.
• 1:01:36
  Second to last or to last in the FBS last year in just turnover
• 1:01:40
  margin that has to get better. I I'm very interested to see how
• 1:01:47
  you know with the group I'm most excited to watch this year is
• 1:01:51
  the defensive backroom. You got Mansour, Dwayne, Dorian
• 1:01:56
  Strong and Derek Canteen, who in my mind, I think Derek Canteen
• 1:02:01
  might be the second most important transfer portal
• 1:02:03
  pickup. Behind Antoine Power Island,
• 1:02:07
  because I think those two guys are going to impact Virginia
• 1:02:11
  Tech in incredible capacity. Now, I do think Ollie Jennings
• 1:02:15
  is going to have a great year, but it also helps that Doki's
• 1:02:17
  also brought in two other transportal wide receivers.
• 1:02:20
  But I'm Throw a prop bet on who leads Virginia Tech in
• 1:02:23
  interceptions, because you've got three really good
• 1:02:26
  candidates, I also think. Just for for all the Colbeck
• 1:02:31
  fans out there, you can say, yeah, how many, how many punts
• 1:02:35
  does Colbeck down or something? Something like I'm I'm thinking
• 1:02:45
  about. I'm thinking about like false
• 1:02:48
  starts. You know false starts was
• 1:02:49
  obviously a big thing last year. How many games with multiple
• 1:02:54
  false start penalties does Virginia Tech have, right.
• 1:02:57
  I mean that's obviously. Kind of a downer of the prop
• 1:03:00
  bet, but there I think, I think you could get behind it.
• 1:03:02
  I think there are a multitude of of those that would be really,
• 1:03:05
  really interesting for people. All righty.
• 1:03:09
  Well, Jason, we hope you heard Jason lives in Roanoke, so he
• 1:03:12
  could at this technically drive to West Virginia and make the
• 1:03:15
  bet there and drive back. So if you take any of the bets,
• 1:03:18
  Mikey, Shelton or David throughout here, throw them a
• 1:03:23
  little cash because they're going to be down your way.
• 1:03:25
  Brian, what you got next, man? Let's see here, let's see, let's
• 1:03:32
  let's go with with this question here from the audience who are
• 1:03:38
  some nonstarters at the beginning of the season that you
• 1:03:42
  think are kind of established starters by year's end.
• 1:03:47
  And let's let's start with with David.
• 1:03:50
  We'll go back across the aisle this time.
• 1:03:54
  So I think this is interesting. I I won't.
• 1:03:56
  I can't. I can't pinpoint it, but I I
• 1:04:00
  would be tempted to bet that there will be an offensive
• 1:04:04
  lineman that did not start the season that will be a guaranteed
• 1:04:08
  starter at the end of the year. That's just the way it played
• 1:04:11
  out. And I think unfortunately when
• 1:04:13
  you look at it, Virginia Tech got really, really lucky with
• 1:04:15
  the injury bug last year. No injuries on the offensive
• 1:04:18
  line and the offensive line was still that poor.
• 1:04:21
  I'm not saying something's going to happen, knock on wood,
• 1:04:24
  obviously. And Virginia Tech.
• 1:04:26
  Again escaped pretty well as far as injuries were concerned with
• 1:04:29
  that specific group last year. But I think some one of the
• 1:04:33
  young guys whether it be Lathe Gannon or Brody Meadows or
• 1:04:38
  Johnny Garrett or Johnny Dixon. I think one of those guys on the
• 1:04:41
  offensive line, one of those true freshmen or retro freshman
• 1:04:45
  and that's that's another great question from Sam I right now I.
• 1:04:54
  I think Schick is is the current guy, but that's what I'm that's
• 1:04:57
  kind of what I'm interested in right is could Brody Meadows
• 1:05:01
  become the guy at right guard be interesting or Clayton Freddy is
• 1:05:05
  obviously the guy who had the FCS all American experience.
• 1:05:09
  But I think one of those guys on the offmensive line, one of
• 1:05:13
  those true freshmen, retro freshmen is going to.
• 1:05:17
  Solidify themself as a starter at the end of the season.
• 1:05:19
  I don't know who it's going to be, and obviously you got a guy
• 1:05:21
  like Parker Clements who's experienced.
• 1:05:25
  But what happens if something happens is Xavier Chaplin and
• 1:05:29
  Virginia Tech has to have somebody fill in it.
• 1:05:32
  Left tackle, right? What if Brody Meadows moves the
• 1:05:35
  left tackle and all of a sudden he becomes a really good player
• 1:05:39
  there? I'm very interested to see how
• 1:05:41
  this whole offensive line group shakes out, because that's where
• 1:05:43
  they're the most question marks. The questions asked by William,
• 1:05:47
  who are the nonstarters that you think will be starters by year's
• 1:05:51
  end? When you look at a lot of these
• 1:05:52
  other positions, like you look at Mike linebacker, which I'd
• 1:05:57
  love to talk about more later, It's kind of a toss up between
• 1:06:00
  two guys right now. So you know, sure, one of those
• 1:06:03
  guys might be the starter at the end of the year, but that's not
• 1:06:05
  as big of a big of a competition.
• 1:06:09
  The DB room is pretty well set. I could say Keyshawn Burgos and
• 1:06:13
  I do think Keyshawn Burgos is a name that might surprise some
• 1:06:15
  people this year he he's gotten a lot of rave from from Brett
• 1:06:18
  Pride and JC Price at defensive end.
• 1:06:21
  I think he's another name that could potentially solidify
• 1:06:23
  himself as a starter but I don't know if there are there are too
• 1:06:26
  many of those guys because I think across the board for teen
• 1:06:29
  techies set OK for the most part as far as starters are
• 1:06:34
  concerned. I'm very interested to see how a
• 1:06:36
  lot of those those battles for the two two deep good work out
• 1:06:39
  and I know we'll talk about that more later.
• 1:06:42
  So what about you? I'm.
• 1:06:44
  Going to go CJ McRae. I'm assuming he's.
• 1:06:48
  Oh yeah. See I I I'm assuming obviously
• 1:06:52
  Paul Rowland's going to start there.
• 1:06:53
  Yeah. McRae actually grayed out really
• 1:06:55
  well last year. I think behind Garber.
• 1:06:57
  He was Tech's second best grading lineman, especially with
• 1:07:01
  the pass rush. So yeah, that's also a spot
• 1:07:03
  where you're not quite as much as offensive line, but he's the
• 1:07:06
  lineman get definitely get beat up a lot.
• 1:07:07
  So I could see, you know, maybe if the guys get, you know, beat
• 1:07:09
  up all that, you can put them in there.
• 1:07:14
  I keep stole yours. So you got to come up with
• 1:07:15
  something. You all man you you guys just
• 1:07:18
  kept talking and kept stealing my pics is what happened.
• 1:07:21
  I I was going to go with Burgos and I was like maybe maybe
• 1:07:25
  McCray and then McCray got taken.
• 1:07:27
  And then I think all of David's points on the offensive line are
• 1:07:29
  really well taken because I agree with David in terms of
• 1:07:32
  like, I think the starters, you know, for the most part, I think
• 1:07:36
  Tech is pretty set kind of across the board.
• 1:07:38
  I mean, there's some positional competition.
• 1:07:40
  Obviously quarterback, Mike, linebacker seems like offensive
• 1:07:43
  line is pretty much set, but there's going to be injuries up
• 1:07:46
  front. I mean, there always are
• 1:07:47
  injuries up front. The point where like if chaplain
• 1:07:51
  gets hurt and Clements needs to swing around to left tackle
• 1:07:54
  because all of a sudden Clements is the most experienced tackle
• 1:07:57
  on the offensive line because you know he's playing right
• 1:08:00
  tackle. That's where he's comfortable.
• 1:08:01
  But now he's got to play left tackle, like who kind of emerges
• 1:08:05
  there at that position. And David listed a whole list of
• 1:08:08
  guys, you know could Meadows seems like a swing guy, guard
• 1:08:11
  could kick out to tackle. He's versatile, prize raving
• 1:08:14
  about him. It's going to be either an
• 1:08:16
  offensive lineman or it's going to be somebody, a defensive end.
• 1:08:20
  It's going to have to be out, you know across from a PR.
• 1:08:23
  And I I think that's really the two, the two position groups on
• 1:08:27
  the on the field right now on both sides of the football that
• 1:08:30
  I think have you know some guys set and and there are you know
• 1:08:35
  some guys who I think are established starters.
• 1:08:36
  But I think at the same time, there's also enough questions
• 1:08:39
  where, you know, we could see some of the younger guys get
• 1:08:42
  some action that, you know, a lot of tech fans maybe aren't
• 1:08:45
  anticipating. All right.
• 1:08:48
  Let me ask this because I think all those names or names we're
• 1:08:52
  hearing and you're reading about David, obviously great work,
• 1:08:55
  Mike stuff you've been doing as well.
• 1:08:56
  But I'm going to go to actually end game.
• 1:08:58
  So at the beginning of the ACC play this year, we got PIT, we
• 1:09:01
  got FSU, we got Wake Forest, we got Syracuse, which one of the
• 1:09:06
  games Mike McDaniel. So they can't steal from you
• 1:09:09
  this time. Do you consider those as a must
• 1:09:13
  win in the middle stretch of the season?
• 1:09:15
  Where? Three of those four are at Lane
• 1:09:18
  Stadium. Yeah, the answer is pit.
• 1:09:21
  The reason why the answer is Pitt is because #1 Virginia
• 1:09:26
  Tech's going to be in a lot of recruiting battles with
• 1:09:28
  Pittsburgh as long as Brett Prize head coach.
• 1:09:30
  That's just a fact. Like they're in the footprint
• 1:09:34
  prize already trying to reach for recruits in that area.
• 1:09:37
  Pitt historically has gone after similar guys to Virginia Tech,
• 1:09:40
  even before Pry got here. Pittsburgh is always a team that
• 1:09:45
  gives Virginia Tech a lot of trouble, especially at Heinz
• 1:09:47
  Field. But getting him at home, it's
• 1:09:50
  been a little bit more friendly to Virginia Tech over the last
• 1:09:53
  decade. I know, you know recently it
• 1:09:55
  hasn't been great. You kind of have to go back a
• 1:09:57
  little bit to like 2019. That was a pretty big win there
• 1:10:01
  when Pitt came to Blacksburg. But, like, in my opinion, this
• 1:10:06
  Pittsburgh team is flying under the radar in the ACC.
• 1:10:10
  There are three, you know that there are the two established
• 1:10:13
  teams at the top of the conference, right in Clemson and
• 1:10:15
  Florida State on paper. Then there's a whole slew of
• 1:10:18
  teams kind of fighting for that third spot in the ACC.
• 1:10:23
  Pittsburgh's a really attractive pick to me because Norduzi's
• 1:10:26
  just established a really high floor with that football team.
• 1:10:29
  Like, they're always right around seven wins.
• 1:10:33
  They've had backtoback 9 win seasons.
• 1:10:35
  It's the only two they've had in the last two decades.
• 1:10:38
  They have a really good program. They're under in our doozy now
• 1:10:42
  and he's raised the profile of the program over the last couple
• 1:10:44
  seasons and I and now they have a quarterback.
• 1:10:48
  You know when Phil Dracovic, who you know hasn't been healthy and
• 1:10:52
  we've seen both a good version of him and a bad version of him.
• 1:10:55
  But you know he he's reuniting with an old offensive
• 1:10:59
  coordinator. He's from the Pittsburgh area.
• 1:11:03
  They have talent around him. They're replacing some talent at
• 1:11:05
  running back. They do have some good young
• 1:11:07
  receivers. They're going to have a really
• 1:11:09
  good defense. That's going to be a really
• 1:11:11
  tough game in Blacksburg and one that Virginia Tech I think may
• 1:11:15
  need to win to make a bowl game like.
• 1:11:17
  I think it could come down to that because this September
• 1:11:21
  stretch there are winnable games there.
• 1:11:23
  There are certainly questions around a lot of those teams the
• 1:11:26
  month of September in the first four games.
• 1:11:29
  But there are two Big 10 teams on the schedule, too, that
• 1:11:31
  Virginia Tech doesn't see very often.
• 1:11:33
  One of them's on the road in Piscataway, and that's going to
• 1:11:35
  be a weird environment that Tech's going to go into with a
• 1:11:38
  bunch of, you know, a bunch of young players, weird game,
• 1:11:43
  Marshall's inexperienced team with a good coach and Charles
• 1:11:46
  Huff. That's not going to be this,
• 1:11:47
  like, pushover game. Produce a year one situation.
• 1:11:50
  You get that in Blacksburg. I just think that this
• 1:11:53
  Pittsburgh game could be gigantic because I don't know
• 1:11:56
  how Tech looks in the first four games of the year.
• 1:11:58
  And I think if you know how Tech comes out of September is going
• 1:12:00
  to be really important. It's going to dictate whether or
• 1:12:03
  not they make a bowl game. And that Pittsburgh game is is
• 1:12:06
  kind of the last one there where tech's really going to need a
• 1:12:09
  good springboard in the conference play, I think to kind
• 1:12:12
  of, you know, accomplish what they want to accomplish this
• 1:12:14
  year as a team. I just think it's a really
• 1:12:16
  important game for a lot of reasons and recruiting is at the
• 1:12:18
  top of that list. I shown what about you?
• 1:12:22
  I'm also going to say Pitt. The reality is they have been
• 1:12:25
  the second best program in ACC over the last three years behind
• 1:12:28
  Clemson. And I think winning that game
• 1:12:30
  would first of all kind of snap the monkey off their back
• 1:12:32
  because Pitt has had their number a lot over the past few
• 1:12:35
  seasons. And also because it would kind
• 1:12:37
  of show it like tags a little bit back.
• 1:12:38
  You know, being a program like that, kind of like Mike was
• 1:12:40
  saying, I don't know what's going to impact recruiting, but
• 1:12:43
  it would definitely make me feel a lot more confident about the
• 1:12:45
  the longterm trajectory of the program getting that one.
• 1:12:51
  Yeah, well, since they both said that, I'll take a different
• 1:12:54
  approach. I think Syracuse could be
• 1:12:57
  really, really interesting now. This is not a great program up
• 1:13:01
  in Syracuse. It's a it's a program that could
• 1:13:04
  go to a bowl game and and had some success at times last year.
• 1:13:09
  We don't really know what it's going to look like.
• 1:13:12
  But think about the stakes, right?
• 1:13:14
  It's a Thursday night game on ESPN.
• 1:13:16
  This is the time to pitch your program.
• 1:13:19
  And I think the I think as far as recruiting stakes in terms of
• 1:13:26
  the The Pit rivalry are concerned, the Pit game is huge
• 1:13:30
  and just showing that you are back in terms of the ACC, right.
• 1:13:35
  We don't know how the first four games, like Mike said, are going
• 1:13:37
  to play out, but that pit game is a a big a big way to we're
• 1:13:43
  going to find out in that Pit game.
• 1:13:46
  That's Syracuse game. I'm really interested to see
• 1:13:49
  this because it's a Thursday night prime time game on ESPN.
• 1:13:55
  You can pitch your program. That is a selling point for
• 1:13:59
  recruiting, right? It's just like the West Virginia
• 1:14:01
  game last year that is the perfect opportunity to sell your
• 1:14:04
  program. Now that is down towards the
• 1:14:07
  bottom of that four-game stretch, so the Okies only have,
• 1:14:11
  what, four or five games after that?
• 1:14:14
  But that is a game that I think if Virginia Tech wins, I mean,
• 1:14:19
  off the top of your head, can any of you guys tell me the last
• 1:14:22
  time Virginia Tech won a Thursday night game?
• 1:14:25
  Was it Miami 16? Yeah, it was Miami in 2016.
• 1:14:29
  So Virginia has played in a couple of these.
• 1:14:32
  Virginia Tech has played in a couple of these moments in the
• 1:14:34
  last couple years. Georgia Tech a couple years ago
• 1:14:38
  had had a lead and blew it. You even even the non Thursday
• 1:14:43
  night games playing Notre Dame and prime time.
• 1:14:45
  Something like that, right? Virginia Tech has had these
• 1:14:48
  moments and not taking advantage of them.
• 1:14:50
  You think back to West Virginia last year, the Hokies had an
• 1:14:53
  opportunity and they got outplayed if Virginia Tech.
• 1:14:58
  Even though it's not a great Syracuse team, if the Hokies can
• 1:15:01
  come out and play well on a national stage, I think that
• 1:15:05
  does wonders. As far as the eyeballs going to
• 1:15:08
  Virginia Tech, and it doesn't matter.
• 1:15:10
  Virginia Tech could have three wins at that point.
• 1:15:13
  But if you can win on a Thursday night and and show that you are
• 1:15:17
  growing and you guys all know it, pitch the home environment,
• 1:15:23
  pitch the Lane Stadium atmosphere, that is only going
• 1:15:26
  to drive up the program and. I think again, Pitt was my first
• 1:15:31
  choice. I think Pitt is the logical
• 1:15:32
  answer, but I think Syracuse is another pretty interesting one
• 1:15:36
  that that could have some big benefits if the Hokies can get
• 1:15:40
  that win. Before I let Tally ask this last
• 1:15:43
  question, I'm gonna just officially announce here that
• 1:15:46
  this podcast is a Pitt hate podcast.
• 1:15:48
  So I a lot of respect for what Nor Doozy has done from a
• 1:15:53
  developmental standpoint, but. I I can't do, I can't do it.
• 1:15:58
  I can't do it. So I will say though, just a
• 1:16:02
  couple weeks ago, Brett Ciancy was on here with us and said
• 1:16:06
  that Pat Narduzzi told him that he was the inventor of the
• 1:16:11
  attacking 4/3. BK Allie, fire away your last
• 1:16:17
  question man. Yeah man.
• 1:16:19
  So part of my question was just talking about marquee games for
• 1:16:21
  this year and I pretty much you guys kind of hit on what I was
• 1:16:25
  going to ask. With talking about the Syracuse
• 1:16:28
  game on a Thursday night, talking about the pick game,
• 1:16:31
  talking about a little bit about the Purdue game which BCP will
• 1:16:35
  be at the beach at the at the Purdue game.
• 1:16:38
  So everybody needs to get yourself together get on down to
• 1:16:40
  Blacksburg for the Purdue game so we can party.
• 1:16:43
  But a question that I'll ask ask all of you guys is looking at
• 1:16:48
  all of us here. We we pretty much studied
• 1:16:50
  Virginia Tech and and and fantasize about.
• 1:16:53
  What games we're going to? I asked you guys for future
• 1:16:56
  games. What do you guys have circled?
• 1:16:59
  What games are you guys kind of wanting to get to just future
• 1:17:02
  games that the Hokies will be playing in?
• 1:17:05
  Sheldon, you lead man. Yeah, I'll go NC State.
• 1:17:09
  I think they are going to be the best team that Tech plays at
• 1:17:12
  home this year. I think I'll have a really good
• 1:17:14
  defense. They've got Brennan Armstrong.
• 1:17:16
  I think we'll bounce back. I don't know what happened last
• 1:17:18
  year. Well, we do know what happened
• 1:17:19
  last year. You gave.
• 1:17:20
  Yeah, he obviously had a terrible off the blind.
• 1:17:22
  I think he kind of got the gifts, but they've got him.
• 1:17:26
  They've got an A, their new OC Syracuse.
• 1:17:28
  I think your offense might take a little bit to collect the
• 1:17:31
  bill, but they'll get it going soon.
• 1:17:32
  So I think NC State's probably going to be the marketing
• 1:17:34
  matchup that Tech tends to see in lane stadiums.
• 1:17:38
  David. I think NC State is the pick.
• 1:17:44
  I mean, NC State again, I think is NC State or Pitt.
• 1:17:47
  They're the two best teams that Virginia Tech is going to play
• 1:17:50
  at home this year. I think that that September 9th
• 1:17:54
  game versus Purdue, man, that is sneaky like I think that is a
• 1:17:58
  good chance for Virginia Tech. It's it's noon on ESPN too.
• 1:18:02
  That is another that's another good chance for Virginia Tech to
• 1:18:05
  come out and and obviously the program is hopefully trending in
• 1:18:13
  the right direction. But I think that is a good
• 1:18:16
  opportunity to to kind of surprise some folks and kind of
• 1:18:20
  say, hey. You know we're we're we're we're
• 1:18:23
  not back but we are getting there and I think if you can do
• 1:18:26
  that again on the national stage early in the season, we don't
• 1:18:30
  need to talk about all Dominion because that's a game for Gene
• 1:18:32
  Tech should win. I think that Purdue game kind of
• 1:18:36
  like what Mike said earlier this is a brand new team with a new
• 1:18:40
  head coach. It's it's going to be really
• 1:18:43
  interesting and you're playing in Elaine Stadium that is
• 1:18:47
  probably going to be sold out because.
• 1:18:49
  It's a pretty marquee matchup with Purdue.
• 1:18:52
  I think Purdue will probably travel pretty well.
• 1:18:54
  I think it'll be a really great crowd.
• 1:18:56
  It's an early September game. The weather is going to be nice
• 1:19:00
  now that I said that it's going to rain.
• 1:19:03
  But thanks David, but it. Jigs, I'll knock on wood.
• 1:19:07
  But yeah, I think, I think that is a good opportunity again to
• 1:19:10
  sell the program and I think that could do wonders if you
• 1:19:14
  have a great performance against Purdue in week two and you're
• 1:19:17
  two and oh. That I'll leave it at.
• 1:19:21
  That, yeah, Tech fans always talk about when we're tired of
• 1:19:24
  playing at 12:00, we're tired of playing it, you know, in the
• 1:19:27
  middle of the day on the cooking network.
• 1:19:28
  We'll fucking meet the people at that time and get the prime time
• 1:19:31
  matchup. Mike, we'll go to you, the
• 1:19:34
  Cooking Network, Purdue. It produced my pick.
• 1:19:40
  It's a national TV game. Purdue's got it produced a name
• 1:19:44
  brand. The average college football fan
• 1:19:46
  that's excited for football to be back is going to be like
• 1:19:49
  Virginia Tech. Purdue.
• 1:19:49
  That's an interesting game with a rebuilding tech program in
• 1:19:53
  year two and a first year head coach.
• 1:19:55
  Like a college football fan, An educated college football fan is
• 1:19:58
  going to take a look at that game at noon.
• 1:20:00
  It's going to be on one of the screens, right?
• 1:20:03
  Produce an interesting program. Hudson Card is a quarterback.
• 1:20:08
  It's been around a little bit. I I think that Purdue has
• 1:20:12
  potential to be pretty good eventually.
• 1:20:15
  I don't know if it'll be in year one.
• 1:20:17
  I think that's a winnable game for Virginia Tech.
• 1:20:19
  I think if you're looking for a game or two on the schedule for
• 1:20:23
  the Hokies to win to really kind of start to you know, see signs
• 1:20:28
  of life, I think Purdue's one you have to win to really be
• 1:20:33
  like all right this rebuild is finally getting a little bit of
• 1:20:37
  traction. You got to start winning some of
• 1:20:38
  the games that maybe you're not supposed to win, but like not
• 1:20:42
  only those, but maybe somebody's like toss up 5050 games.
• 1:20:46
  Purdue's going to be one of the several toss up 5050 games on
• 1:20:49
  the schedule. It's an early season game.
• 1:20:52
  I think Purdue's the pick. NC State.
• 1:20:54
  Point well taken. They're going to be pretty good.
• 1:20:57
  Brennan Armstrong reuniting with an eye November.
• 1:21:02
  It's at home senior day. The Hokies could be battling for
• 1:21:06
  a bowl game. That could be a gigantic game.
• 1:21:10
  Let me just about one point last year.
• 1:21:13
  One point, yeah, And a game that the game that Tech controlled
• 1:21:16
  for should have had it 2 1/2, three quarters like.
• 1:21:20
  We saw a little bit of adversity and we crumbled.
• 1:21:22
  Didn't know how to win yet. One more of those and we finally
• 1:21:26
  learned how to win. Brian, you got one more to throw
• 1:21:28
  out. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:21:28
  Before we close at this segment, we're just gonna keep this
• 1:21:31
  simple. This is gonna be a yes or no,
• 1:21:33
  Yes or no. Will the Hokies make a bowl in
• 1:21:35
  2023? Mike.
• 1:21:38
  What you got? I'm smiling because I know, I
• 1:21:39
  know David's answer already. No, I I think Virginia Tech goes
• 1:21:44
  five and seven. Too many questions.
• 1:21:47
  Quarterback, offensive line, Mike, linebacker, defensive end.
• 1:21:52
  Like a couple of those positions aren't going to hit.
• 1:21:55
  And I just think, I think there will be improvement.
• 1:21:58
  I think Tech will have a shot. Bowl game is definitely within
• 1:22:02
  within the realm of possibility for sure.
• 1:22:04
  But five wins would be a huge. That would be a huge jump.
• 1:22:09
  The fans may not love that answer, but like that would be a
• 1:22:11
  huge jump compared to what we saw last year.
• 1:22:13
  One FBS win like one. One Power Five win.
• 1:22:17
  Sorry. Like get to 5, get to six wins
• 1:22:20
  show signs of life. I'm going to go no, though, Five
• 1:22:23
  and seven all. Right, he says.
• 1:22:24
  No, Shelton. If I was the betting man, which
• 1:22:27
  I'm not, I would take the over 5.5 wins technical, make a ball
• 1:22:31
  game. And.
• 1:22:35
  I'm with Mike. It's funny.
• 1:22:37
  Mike's like, I knew what David was going to say.
• 1:22:40
  Mike had me on his podcast and talked about this.
• 1:22:43
  And look, I'll say this, the potential is there.
• 1:22:47
  This team has the potential in my mind to win at least seven
• 1:22:51
  games. I if Virginia Tech went out on
• 1:22:53
  that field and won seven games this year, it would not shock me
• 1:22:56
  in the slightest because there is talent there.
• 1:23:00
  But you also have to think, and it's somebody who covers this
• 1:23:03
  program day in, day out. There is a lot of work that
• 1:23:07
  still needs to be done and Virginia Tech is on the up but
• 1:23:11
  not there yet. I think 5 and seven, I think six
• 1:23:14
  wins in a bowl game is very realistic.
• 1:23:17
  I think that's what everybody should be shooting for.
• 1:23:21
  I don't. Until I see it, I don't want to.
• 1:23:25
  I I cannot see it happening And that that might sound bad, but
• 1:23:30
  there were too many games last year like the NC State game.
• 1:23:34
  Like the Miami game games were in Virginia Tech's hands.
• 1:23:38
  And the Hokies, It just went away.
• 1:23:40
  And if Virginia Tech wins those games this year, or even half of
• 1:23:45
  them, Virginia Tech's in a bowl game, no question about it.
• 1:23:48
  It's going to come down to the turnovers.
• 1:23:50
  It's going to come down to the little tiny place.
• 1:23:52
  It's going to come down to clock management.
• 1:23:55
  It's going to come down to Bret Pride being a better head coach
• 1:23:58
  now that he doesn't have the responsibility of calling the
• 1:24:00
  defense. I don't know how that plays out.
• 1:24:04
  I'm going to have to lean 5:00 and 7:00, but I don't think it's
• 1:24:06
  out of the realm of possibility. And I think this will be a much
• 1:24:09
  better team this year with a lot of talent.
• 1:24:13
  And I think Tech is going to surprise some people.
• 1:24:15
  And again, it would not shock me if this is a six or seven win
• 1:24:17
  team. But until the Hokies go out
• 1:24:20
  there and and prove it, especially with the offensive
• 1:24:24
  line questions and a quarterback that we don't know how how good
• 1:24:28
  he's going to be because we don't know who it's going to be.
• 1:24:30
  Everybody else around them and maybe every other position might
• 1:24:34
  be better. I just, I just cannot say
• 1:24:37
  Virginia Tech is going to win six games unless I actually see
• 1:24:40
  the result on the field. All right.
• 1:24:42
  So so Sean's optimistic. Mike and David have to see it
• 1:24:46
  next week. Shelton's going to get more in
• 1:24:48
  depth with us because we are going to be doing a season
• 1:24:50
  preview. So Shelton, thanks for coming
• 1:24:53
  on. Get back.
• 1:24:55
  Get away from the vacuum cleaning person packed in.
• 1:24:58
  Mike and David. Boys, as always great having you
• 1:25:02
  guys come on with us, we really appreciate it.
• 1:25:04
  Check out Mike over hang hokey hangover amongst the other
• 1:25:07
  10,000 things he does and always check out David Cunningham along
• 1:25:12
  with Andy and Chris over at Tech Sideline.
• 1:25:16
  You guys are doing a bang up job this fall man.
• 1:25:18
  Appreciate it boys. And we're going to go to a
• 1:25:21
  little clip of what's been going on on the Boundary Corner
• 1:25:23
  Podcast up to today. Let let me ask this because it
• 1:25:37
  it's already clear how much you love Virginia Tech, just what
• 1:25:41
  you're doing. Why?
• 1:25:42
  Why was it Virginia Tech? Because, man, I'm looking at
• 1:25:45
  your offer list here. You could have went anywhere you
• 1:25:48
  wanted. First, what really caught my
• 1:25:51
  eyes. Coach Brooks.
• 1:25:54
  So Coach Brooks. From Maryland.
• 1:25:58
  We always had that close relationship and you know, we
• 1:26:00
  use a family friend and. He was actually my first offer.
• 1:26:01
  Stuff like that so. When he told me he was making a
• 1:26:03
  move to Virginia. Tech It automatically made my
• 1:26:06
  list. You know, so I went up there for
• 1:26:08
  spring. Practice and I'm like, hold on,
• 1:26:09
  I actually. Like it, you know, sitting down
• 1:26:11
  with Coach Bar, with Coach Queen and Coach.
• 1:26:15
  And you know them just having a vision.
• 1:26:16
  For me, being in the face of the defense.
• 1:26:18
  And, you know, just doing everything in the defense.
• 1:26:20
  That really caught my eye. So I knew it was a place for me.
• 1:26:22
  I just came back on the official to make sure.
• 1:26:25
  The first thing he's looking for is that is there a free access
• 1:26:28
  throw, Is there an alert throw where you can just get it out
• 1:26:31
  there and get some free yardage? That's what you're looking for
• 1:26:34
  first. So if if if the answer to that
• 1:26:36
  is yes, then you're going to throw that.
• 1:26:38
  If not, you're going to move to the next step.
• 1:26:40
  Next step do is there box or presser issues?
• 1:26:43
  Is the box overloaded? Is there some somebody showing
• 1:26:47
  blitz presnap that could create some some issues for you if the
• 1:26:51
  answer is yes. You're going to go ahead and
• 1:26:53
  make a check to pass protection and you're going to throw the
• 1:26:55
  pass in that RPO call. If the answer is no, you're
• 1:27:00
  going to move to the next step. Then you're going to ID the
• 1:27:03
  redefender presnap and determine if they can make the tackle on
• 1:27:07
  the ball carrier at or near the line of scrimmage.
• 1:27:11
  So if the guy that you're reading typically in in like a
• 1:27:14
  four, three defense that we're looking at here, that's going to
• 1:27:16
  be the outside linebacker to the the throw side.
• 1:27:20
  If that guy can come up and make a plate near or at the line of
• 1:27:24
  scrimmage, then you're not going to, you're going to go with the
• 1:27:29
  pass. So if the answer is yes, you're
• 1:27:33
  going to make a perimeter throw or a pitch, whichever the play
• 1:27:35
  call is. And if he's kind of outside the
• 1:27:38
  box, he's playing that pass leverage, then you're going to
• 1:27:40
  go with that middle run or dive. And I said it's my job as the
• 1:27:45
  head coach to make this most, the most competitive roster in
• 1:27:48
  the country. That's my job.
• 1:27:50
  If I'm not. Doing that, I'm failing
• 1:27:51
  everybody in here. We all want to win a
• 1:27:53
  championship, the. Fans, the administration, the
• 1:27:57
  staff, the families, the players that the Letterman.
• 1:28:01
  So to do that, the roster has to be as competitive as we can be.
• 1:28:06
  I tell him, I told him that I'm bringing somebody in to take
• 1:28:09
  your job. That's what I'm doing, so you
• 1:28:11
  better be on your toes. That's as real as it gets.
• 1:28:20
  And we are back to the 2023 Hokies preview panel with the
• 1:28:24
  Boundary Corner podcast. That last one man for all y'all
• 1:28:28
  that. Haven't checked that out.
• 1:28:29
  We did that about two months ago with Coach Pratt.
• 1:28:31
  Check that out. He gave three fans off the
• 1:28:34
  street 45 minutes of his time to talk about the program and it
• 1:28:39
  was unbelievable. And now we going to get in the
• 1:28:42
  trenches. Everybody knows that this is a
• 1:28:46
  lineman podcast. Definitely.
• 1:28:49
  Yes, Sir. Carefully.
• 1:28:51
  So let's start bringing a gentleman on the We're going to
• 1:28:53
  be talking about some more fun hokey stuff with Brian Lead us
• 1:28:55
  off. Yes Sir.
• 1:28:57
  Yes Sir. This next panelist.
• 1:28:58
  He is a former Virginia Tech offensive lineman and maybe one
• 1:29:02
  of the most well known members of the Hokey podcast community.
• 1:29:05
  He is a Sons of Saturday founder, podcaster and content
• 1:29:09
  creator. Ladies and gentlemen, Billy Ray
• 1:29:11
  Mitchell. 10:30. Can't think of anything else I'd
• 1:29:15
  rather be doing than this right now.
• 1:29:17
  Appreciate you guys having me on.
• 1:29:19
  And this is quite a production you guys put together, so hats
• 1:29:22
  off to you guys. This is this is awesome.
• 1:29:24
  I'm happy to be here. Yeah, thanks for coming man.
• 1:29:26
  We appreciate it. I know good to link up with the
• 1:29:29
  with the Suns of Saturday, do a little collab here with the a
• 1:29:32
  lot of the podcast community bringing everyone together in
• 1:29:35
  the in the Virginia Tech Twittersphere and everything
• 1:29:37
  else. So appreciate you coming on with
• 1:29:39
  us. No doubt.
• 1:29:40
  Appreciate it. Billy Wood.
• 1:29:42
  Hallie, good to see you, my man. Hey, we got to retire That we
• 1:29:45
  got to we got to we got to. I don't want to see you in
• 1:29:47
  Blacksburg and that that gobble till you wobble explicitive
• 1:29:51
  tshirt. This year I'm very anti anti
• 1:29:55
  that tshirt. Come on, man, where you at right
• 1:29:59
  now, man? You be all over the place.
• 1:30:00
  Where are you right now? I am in Osterville on the Cape.
• 1:30:06
  And I fly tomorrow to Charlotte for our hot wings and hotter
• 1:30:11
  take segment. So I'm looking forward to that,
• 1:30:14
  looking forward to seeing Pat smiling face tomorrow and we'll
• 1:30:18
  be doing that. So that's where I am now.
• 1:30:20
  Billy used to be a little bit bigger last time I seen you,
• 1:30:22
  man, you look like you lost some weight.
• 1:30:24
  So if you need a bodyguard, me and Brian are available.
• 1:30:28
  We got. You we.
• 1:30:31
  Got you. I'm down some pounds, but I
• 1:30:32
  still, I still got some pops. So I think, I think I'll be all
• 1:30:35
  right. But we're going to hook you up.
• 1:30:36
  We're going to hook you up with some row back for this, for this
• 1:30:38
  football season. So you give me, you give me an
• 1:30:40
  address and we'll get you. We'll get you some threads all.
• 1:30:42
  Right, man, Sounds good. But next man, we appreciate
• 1:30:45
  Billy being on. Next, we want to bring on Mr.
• 1:30:48
  Luther Mattie. He needs no introduction.
• 1:30:51
  He's a little bit younger than us.
• 1:30:52
  So all you young people who are on the show, I don't want to
• 1:30:55
  hear you talking about. You don't know this person, I
• 1:30:57
  mean. He he was there in about what
• 1:31:00
  20/12/2013. I know he was all ACC performer
• 1:31:04
  on the defensive line that he was an iron hokey Mr. Everything
• 1:31:09
  Luther magic. Bring him in for me.
• 1:31:12
  Luther, how we doing tonight? What's going on, boys?
• 1:31:16
  How y'all doing? How to take me a little energy
• 1:31:17
  drink, man? Sleep there for a second.
• 1:31:20
  Oh man, We're saving the best for last, man.
• 1:31:24
  Saving the best. That's for last.
• 1:31:26
  I'm making notes over here. We are happy to have you here.
• 1:31:31
  I know you didn't mad assist earlier this year.
• 1:31:33
  I looked over that a little while ago.
• 1:31:35
  Great thing you do down the city because you're in the Hill City,
• 1:31:37
  right? You're in Lynchburg still,
• 1:31:39
  correct? Yeah, I'm a good old Lynchburg,
• 1:31:40
  man. About two hours, Two hours.
• 1:31:43
  Blacksburg yeah, Yeah. About an hour N where me and
• 1:31:47
  Brian grew up, man. So it's good to see you still
• 1:31:50
  doing that and you know it's great to have you on because I
• 1:31:55
  go back. I mean all, all of us here.
• 1:31:59
  I mean you and Billy Ray about the same time in school.
• 1:32:01
  I know he's a little younger than you, but I remember
• 1:32:03
  watching you play at Lane Stadium on the washing field
• 1:32:07
  when I was a little bit younger. So it's awesome to have you on,
• 1:32:11
  man, and we appreciate you taking the time tonight.
• 1:32:15
  Yeah and tell you say that cuz I feel old as hell, especially
• 1:32:19
  when I get up in the morning. I'm about 55.
• 1:32:21
  You know what I'm talking about, right Billy?
• 1:32:23
  Like those knees. But yeah, I'm gonna be here and
• 1:32:26
  talk to you guys tonight. Football years go a lot longer
• 1:32:30
  than the regular years, so it's a little bit more off of you.
• 1:32:33
  Got your agent and doggie is? Agent and doggie is Lord have
• 1:32:36
  mercy All right well the the the last gentleman we are bringing
• 1:32:41
  on tonight. He has been with us numerous
• 1:32:44
  times and last night we got to join on him on his podcast.
• 1:32:47
  He is a graduate of Virginia Tech University.
• 1:32:50
  He was an all conference. He was a team captain on the
• 1:32:54
  offensive line. He is the founder of Victory
• 1:32:56
  Life LLC, Offensive guard Mr. Dwight Vic.
• 1:33:03
  Brother, good to have you on again.
• 1:33:06
  Good to see you again. Yo, what's up man?
• 1:33:09
  Didn't I just see you guys last night?
• 1:33:11
  Yeah, we were at the bottom of the screen last night.
• 1:33:13
  Now you're at the bottom of. The night, Yeah, You're at the
• 1:33:14
  bottom of the. Night.
• 1:33:16
  I'll take that. I'll take that, man.
• 1:33:18
  Yo, you got us on this T&T. Lakers versus Spurs schedule
• 1:33:24
  10:30, the 10:30 joint, man. My wife was like, who are you
• 1:33:27
  talking to upstairs? I said my guys from last night.
• 1:33:30
  You know. We made you run.
• 1:33:32
  We made you run late last night. We held you up tonight.
• 1:33:35
  I mean we just we just costing you some sleep.
• 1:33:37
  It's all good, man. I I didn't even realize, you
• 1:33:40
  know, because we weren't that big chat.
• 1:33:41
  You guys got my man Billy up here.
• 1:33:43
  And Luther, this is going to be great, man.
• 1:33:45
  What's up fellas? Hey chilling man, you don't get
• 1:33:48
  in, Don't get in trouble now, do I?
• 1:33:50
  Why is that? You talking to a?
• 1:33:51
  Little don't don't. Get in.
• 1:33:54
  Trouble man. I'm hey, I'm a veteran.
• 1:33:56
  I'm the OG man. Hey I know and not how to get in
• 1:33:58
  trouble I know. What is you?
• 1:34:00
  I'm I can I can school. Y'all.
• 1:34:02
  I can school y'all on that. I.
• 1:34:05
  Believe that, I believe that. Well fellows, we got a lot of
• 1:34:08
  good questions to ask. Y'all, we've got some stuff
• 1:34:10
  coming in from the comments. We're definitely going to drag
• 1:34:12
  for y'all to answer, but Brian, you fired off first, man.
• 1:34:16
  Yeah, I mean we already talked about it.
• 1:34:17
  We're we're aligning podcasts here.
• 1:34:20
  Let's speak specifically about the offensive line and Billy,
• 1:34:23
  this is for you. This line struggled mightily in
• 1:34:26
  all phases most of last year from discipline to assignments,
• 1:34:30
  everything in between. Heading into 2023, what, if
• 1:34:34
  anything, has changed for this group that kind of gives you
• 1:34:37
  optimism to see some significant improvement?
• 1:34:41
  So. We're going to talk a little bit
• 1:34:43
  about the group and then I'm going to do a little bit of a
• 1:34:45
  frequency hot, but but bear with me, I'm going to tie it back.
• 1:34:48
  So 2023, it's looking like Brody Meadows, Braylon Moore, Kaden
• 1:34:52
  Moore, Bob Schlick and Parker Clements.
• 1:34:55
  Every single person backing up that group is a freshman or a
• 1:34:59
  sophomore with the exception of Clayton Freighty, who's likely
• 1:35:02
  going to be the 6th man. You look at Kaden Moore, he's
• 1:35:05
  two years removed from being a freshman allamerican for me.
• 1:35:09
  What changed about the team? That gives me optimism is our
• 1:35:15
  running back room. You guys mentioned it on the, I
• 1:35:18
  believe it was one or two segments ago how we used to have
• 1:35:21
  14 or 16 running backs on the team.
• 1:35:23
  But the room was primarily filled with guys who you weren't
• 1:35:28
  going to see playing running back.
• 1:35:29
  You're going to see him running down the field on punt.
• 1:35:30
  You're going to see him running down the field on kick return,
• 1:35:32
  running down the field on kickoff.
• 1:35:35
  And outside of the team that we had with Raheem Blackshare and
• 1:35:39
  Khalil Herbert. I can't remember a time that
• 1:35:42
  we've seen a room so deep. If you go ahead and you look at
• 1:35:46
  kind of the four that I think you're going to get the most
• 1:35:48
  carries, you got. Malachi Thomas, who went
• 1:35:49
  healthy, is a complete stud. He's averaging 4 1/2 yards per
• 1:35:53
  carry. He came in at 6 foot 180 when we
• 1:35:57
  were watching him in the Syracuse game and those
• 1:35:59
  throwback uniforms, and he looked super scrawny.
• 1:36:02
  You're like, I don't know about this guy, but he sticks his face
• 1:36:04
  in there on blitz protection and he he played his tail off.
• 1:36:08
  He's listed at two O 6 now. Look at Basal Tooten.
• 1:36:11
  He was in 1000 yard rusher last year at NCANT.
• 1:36:14
  And look, I get it. It's a different division.
• 1:36:17
  Did that really matter for Brock Hoffman?
• 1:36:18
  Did that really matter for Justice Reed?
• 1:36:22
  And also Tooten went for 130 yards versus Duke and they're
• 1:36:26
  playing inferior competition. But he's also rushing behind
• 1:36:29
  inferior blocking as well at NCANT and then Chance Black.
• 1:36:35
  I'm just telling you, it's been a little bit of a weight if
• 1:36:38
  you're sleeping on Chance Black. You got to sleep with one eye
• 1:36:41
  open. I think this guy is going to be
• 1:36:43
  an absolute study. Super athletic, he hasn't really
• 1:36:45
  gotten the chance, but when he's got it on the field, super
• 1:36:48
  athletic, game breaking speed, I'm excited to see him.
• 1:36:51
  And then you have Bryce Duke who's a youngster with great
• 1:36:53
  size, who only got better during the offseason.
• 1:36:56
  Last year we averaged 110 yards per game.
• 1:37:00
  I'm going to repeat that. We averaged 110 yards per game
• 1:37:03
  rushing to football and. There I I do not see that
• 1:37:08
  happening again. Bacial Tutin averaged more
• 1:37:11
  rushing yards as an individual than we averaged as a team.
• 1:37:15
  So you know David mentioned this in the previous segment.
• 1:37:18
  I think Coach Crook has really simplified the scheme, has
• 1:37:22
  simplified the responsibilities, is probably on a bit of the same
• 1:37:26
  wavelength from scheme as Coach Bowen is.
• 1:37:30
  So I think if we can be technically sound, we know what
• 1:37:34
  our responsibilities are. Cut out the pre snap penalties
• 1:37:37
  and understand what we need to do and give the running backs a
• 1:37:40
  chance. I really think this unit can be
• 1:37:42
  okay. I really think that we have
• 1:37:44
  enough talented backs where if we can get him to the second
• 1:37:47
  level, there's enough talent there that this unit can be a
• 1:37:50
  lot better than they were last year.
• 1:37:53
  Yeah, I definitely agree with that.
• 1:37:55
  Definitely agree with what you're saying when you talk
• 1:37:57
  about the running back room, when you talk about the line, I
• 1:38:00
  mean 110 yards last year as a team, Pitiful.
• 1:38:05
  That's all I can say. You ain't going to win a lot of
• 1:38:11
  games. Can't do that.
• 1:38:07
  Can't do it and win. No, you can do it, but you ain't
• 1:38:09
  going to do it and. You're not going to win a lot of
• 1:38:12
  games, but we're going to kind of pivot a little bit and this,
• 1:38:15
  this question is going to be for for Luther.
• 1:38:17
  Just talking about the defensive line a little bit and the
• 1:38:19
  defensive line this year is a little, you know, it's a little
• 1:38:22
  bit different. We got a good mix or odd mix,
• 1:38:25
  I'll say, of veterans and up and comers as well as transfers,
• 1:38:29
  Coach Prize identified. No getting after the passer as a
• 1:38:33
  emphasis, a point of emphasis that he's had this offseason.
• 1:38:37
  How do you think this mix of talent will handle the the task
• 1:38:41
  of getting after the passer in 2023?
• 1:38:45
  Yeah, you know, it's funny, right?
• 1:38:47
  It's been quite a while since tech has had like a real, I
• 1:38:51
  thought elite Russia. I mean, Garber was my guy.
• 1:38:53
  He was a pretty good Russia lashing on.
• 1:38:55
  Get me wrong. I'm talking about guy that you
• 1:38:57
  just, you know, he just fears 38.
• 1:38:59
  Right before the half, two-minute jail, somebody just
• 1:39:01
  fears to get after the quarterback.
• 1:39:03
  So I think it's been a while since we have somebody quite
• 1:39:06
  like that to rush the quarterback.
• 1:39:08
  But this is the top three guys is probably going to be CJ Cole
• 1:39:13
  Nelson and then the transfer Antwon Car Island and as far as
• 1:39:18
  who the better player and all that good stuff.
• 1:39:20
  They're all fairly similar size, you know about 6 threeish
• 1:39:24
  between 2240 and 2:50, but I think that.
• 1:39:29
  Ryland has a bit more twitch in that group right?
• 1:39:32
  Like he knows how to bend the corner, turn that toe and and
• 1:39:34
  and get to the court and actually finished.
• 1:39:37
  He has more arsenal as far as moves.
• 1:39:39
  He could do it inside and now he could do a nice spin move.
• 1:39:42
  You know things that Billy probably practice every now and
• 1:39:45
  again. So I think you know he he
• 1:39:48
  probably has the most potential out of that group but also don't
• 1:39:51
  support the gos and interior. You know, I might be a little
• 1:39:54
  nice being that I played the. But I do think that Kendricks,
• 1:39:58
  he does, he does know how to get to the port.
• 1:40:01
  If he cannot in his motor a little bit more, I think he
• 1:40:04
  could have a big time here this year.
• 1:40:06
  And hopefully him and other guys in the interior, they might open
• 1:40:08
  up for the guys on the outside to get to the quarterback if
• 1:40:10
  they could kind of punish that a gap and cause some havoc inside.
• 1:40:15
  So I just want to let y'all know I ain't negated anything to look
• 1:40:18
  to say it. But for the listeners who are on
• 1:40:20
  here who are listening to this man talk, this is a all ACC
• 1:40:24
  perform. He knows what he's talking about
• 1:40:27
  when he looks at the defensive line.
• 1:40:29
  So I get it man. We all passionate fans and we
• 1:40:32
  think and not think we may know what we're talking about, but
• 1:40:36
  when this man is talking defensive line, he knows what
• 1:40:38
  he's talking about. Did you hear what he said?
• 1:40:40
  Talking about bending, getting that.
• 1:40:42
  Hey, I'm just saying man, go back and listen to it.
• 1:40:45
  Y'all going to catch it tomorrow.
• 1:40:47
  I got a I got a I got a quick. A quick question for you guys.
• 1:40:51
  Can anybody tell me who the last player was at Virginia Tech to
• 1:40:56
  get double digit sacks? Was it?
• 1:41:00
  Was it? Ken.
• 1:41:03
  It was Ken sophomore year. He had 10 1/2 sacks his
• 1:41:10
  sophomore year and he had 7 1/2 his senior year.
• 1:41:13
  It's been a while since we've had a since we've had a 10 sack
• 1:41:16
  guy. You know, I'm hoping.
• 1:41:18
  I'm hoping that we can get back to that.
• 1:41:20
  Pressure in the quarterback is monumentally important.
• 1:41:22
  But Kenny Cannon is one of those guys, man, Kenny Cannon go back
• 1:41:25
  and watch some film and see how disruptive he truly was.
• 1:41:29
  And he benefited a lot as well with playing with Daddy Nicholas
• 1:41:31
  too. So we got to get, got to get
• 1:41:34
  back to getting to the quarterback and disrupting up.
• 1:41:36
  Yeah, when you talk about Kenny Cannon.
• 1:41:38
  When you talk about Kenny Cannon, go watch that Notre Dame
• 1:41:40
  game. He was pissed at Notre Dame.
• 1:41:42
  Yes, he was. I can't remember what he it was,
• 1:41:45
  but he was pissed at Notre Dame. And that's also.
• 1:41:48
  The thing about Ken. Yeah.
• 1:41:50
  Yeah, go ahead. No.
• 1:41:51
  I was just going to say, man, that's also, that's actually a
• 1:41:54
  great stat, great hokey trivia. Billy, too, because he's also
• 1:41:57
  one of those guys that you hear me always saying you see me
• 1:42:00
  tweeted by. He's a Virginia Tech guy like
• 1:42:01
  Luther. Maddie is like Jonathan
• 1:42:04
  McLachlan. Those guys, especially Ken, he
• 1:42:05
  was on that Centerville State championship team that beat
• 1:42:08
  Oscar Smith at UVA. They destroyed Oscar Smith.
• 1:42:11
  That Oscar Smith team featured JC Coleman.
• 1:42:14
  The receiver that was a four-star.
• 1:42:15
  They also had Andrew Brown who was a national Gatorade player
• 1:42:18
  of the year. And they had another great
• 1:42:21
  player they they were loaded with Josh Sweat who went to
• 1:42:24
  Florida State and Kenya and Cannon that day was the best
• 1:42:26
  player on the field and to the to the national leader.
• 1:42:30
  He was unknown but he goes to Virginia Tech and does what
• 1:42:32
  Billy said. So shout out to Ken.
• 1:42:34
  That was a great stat look at Ben coming on.
• 1:42:35
  Y'all show. Billy I like what Luther saying
• 1:42:41
  though about the interior because.
• 1:42:43
  This is my view when I see it. We talk about a PO, we talk
• 1:42:46
  about that bend, right. I think there is going to be so
• 1:42:49
  much focused attention to him. The other guys have to eat.
• 1:42:53
  There's going to be those opportunities one-on-one.
• 1:42:55
  There's going to be some opportunities on the A gap like
• 1:42:57
  you talking about Kendricks there, Luther.
• 1:42:59
  So there are going to the focus is going to be on them so that
• 1:43:04
  we're expecting we won't. We'd love to have somebody, but
• 1:43:08
  he's going to get the focus now if he's dominating the Double S
• 1:43:12
  watch out. Because the rest of the line
• 1:43:14
  will leak. Mr. Vick, I got to ask you a
• 1:43:17
  question next, my friend. This staff, obviously we've got
• 1:43:21
  numerous hokey alumni on board. You know, you got your Veil
• 1:43:25
  Winslow as an analyst, we got ex as an analyst.
• 1:43:28
  But they're two of your brothers especially that are sitting in
• 1:43:31
  the coaching chairs right now, and that'd be, you know, Kirsten
• 1:43:35
  Prelude, JC Price, and looking at coach prize interviews.
• 1:43:40
  If there's one thing he is emphasizing to the fan base and
• 1:43:43
  outsiders as much as reestabine the relationship, it's
• 1:43:47
  rebuilding the Virginia Tech culture and identity.
• 1:43:51
  How important is it? And, and you asked Mr. Vic talk
• 1:43:55
  to y'all can all come in because you guys all wore that jersey
• 1:43:59
  and played on that field. How is important is it to have
• 1:44:02
  in these alumni on the staff to set that tone and identity and
• 1:44:06
  culture from the standpoint of what it means to be a hokey?
• 1:44:10
  Well, you know, I feel like, I feel like when it comes to like
• 1:44:14
  Virginia Tech football alumni or even other alumni's, when you
• 1:44:17
  look at Miami or Tech C&M or other universities, I feel like
• 1:44:21
  alumni. The older you get, the more you
• 1:44:24
  really want to see the program stay, you know, stay relevant
• 1:44:28
  and and and do well because you know you were part of something
• 1:44:31
  special. And you the older you get to
• 1:44:32
  realize you big that it was bigger than you.
• 1:44:34
  You realized, like, Dang Virginia Tech, I was part of
• 1:44:37
  something really special. At the same time, I've always
• 1:44:40
  been empathetic to the coaches because the coaches have to
• 1:44:43
  coach and recruit and keep the staff and and and now with the
• 1:44:47
  transport portal and I L there's so many things they have to do.
• 1:44:50
  They're CEOI think that's more you know sometimes the coaches
• 1:44:54
  get blamed for it or they get too much criticism.
• 1:44:56
  I think it's a collective effort from your AD with with Babcock
• 1:45:00
  to Sam and all the people that play a development and
• 1:45:03
  engagement. People that make sure that we're
• 1:45:06
  we're taking care of when we come back.
• 1:45:08
  I feel like, you know, a lot of times we talked about the
• 1:45:10
  previous regime with Fuente. I feel like, no, I know.
• 1:45:14
  I don't feel like I know this. I think the ball was kind of
• 1:45:16
  dropped before Fuente got there. And I've said this before, you
• 1:45:19
  know, God rest his soul. Jim Weaver, he came when I was a
• 1:45:22
  rising senior. He was a great AD.
• 1:45:24
  He helped get Tech to the national championship and he
• 1:45:27
  said he was going to do that. He came from Penn State and
• 1:45:29
  Florida. He had a vision.
• 1:45:31
  Him and Beamer had a great relationship.
• 1:45:33
  But at the same time when Tech went into the ACC and after the
• 1:45:37
  emergence. With my cousin, you had guys
• 1:45:39
  like Kevin Jones come in Tyrod, the program got big and I think,
• 1:45:43
  you know the program was going at a faster rate than the
• 1:45:46
  university was prepared for because you had so many iconic
• 1:45:49
  players. You went into a a conference
• 1:45:52
  that made more sense demographically as far as, you
• 1:45:54
  know, proximity to other schools and you had the Beamer Ball
• 1:45:57
  website. But everything just got really
• 1:45:59
  big and lost in that was the player connections, the alumni,
• 1:46:02
  and all the sudden you got guys like myself and DJ Parker and.
• 1:46:08
  Devon Morgan and all these guys that you can just name from walk
• 1:46:12
  ONS to everybody that had an opinion about what tech should
• 1:46:15
  be doing. But there was no place to to
• 1:46:17
  voice that opinion that you had. You know Kevin Jones, my guy
• 1:46:22
  connect with Fuente and and wit. He was more so with wit excuse
• 1:46:26
  me, not Fuente. And he was supposed to kind of
• 1:46:28
  bring us together. And Chad Beasley put together a
• 1:46:32
  panel I was part of and it seemed to be going well, but
• 1:46:34
  then there was no traction. Since Pride's come in because
• 1:46:39
  Pride was there when I was there.
• 1:46:40
  We were together for three years.
• 1:46:41
  I was there when he was a Gai think him understanding the
• 1:46:46
  relationships and I think what helped him is going away.
• 1:46:48
  I think when you go away sometimes at a school like Penn
• 1:46:51
  State, you get to kind of see how it's done at other places
• 1:46:53
  and him coming back, he has perspective.
• 1:46:56
  And I think him knowing what how it was done in 95 in those
• 1:46:59
  years, he was there and understanding what was, you
• 1:47:02
  know, needed to help get the program.
• 1:47:05
  Built. He understands the importance of
• 1:47:07
  having guys be welcome back and it's just tough though on on a
• 1:47:12
  side note because a lot of times play alumni, everybody has an
• 1:47:16
  opinion, man. Everybody.
• 1:47:17
  You got guys saying we shouldn't run the spread and everybody's
• 1:47:20
  got an opinion. I think when it comes down to
• 1:47:22
  it, you just got to do the simple things right.
• 1:47:25
  There's got to be a systematic approach in place for guys to be
• 1:47:28
  able to come back, talk to players, be on the sideline,
• 1:47:32
  connect with the fans. You know, just stay relevant.
• 1:47:35
  I think sometimes When I spoke about this about several years
• 1:47:38
  ago, fans thought we wanted like a rack of hotel rooms and
• 1:47:42
  limousines and Cadillac trucks and and abundance of tickets.
• 1:47:46
  It wasn't about all of that. It was just more so about like,
• 1:47:49
  what is the system? If I'm coming in town and I who
• 1:47:52
  do I talk to about getting tickets?
• 1:47:54
  Where do we all go if we want to get together and hang out?
• 1:47:57
  You know, where do we tailgate at?
• 1:47:59
  Is there, you know, because we were hearing and singing about
• 1:48:01
  other universities. That were inferior to Virginia
• 1:48:04
  Tech that had a better system in place when it came to player
• 1:48:07
  alumni. Now there seems to be Sam and
• 1:48:10
  all the people that know and there's you know there's
• 1:48:13
  communication with the monogram club.
• 1:48:16
  And I just think to kind of put a ball on my point projects
• 1:48:19
  understands and you can text them.
• 1:48:22
  You know when you come you can come talk to him.
• 1:48:25
  It's not like you're talking to a celebrity.
• 1:48:26
  You can come up to him and talk to him and he knows what's going
• 1:48:29
  on. You know, he he he asked you
• 1:48:31
  about what's going on, I think. The players that have played the
• 1:48:34
  Tech, no matter what era, you got to make sure that they still
• 1:48:38
  stay connected because a lot of times, you know on those Twitter
• 1:48:41
  spaces that tallies hosted and other things, we are the voice
• 1:48:44
  in times of dark periods. You know that one space when we
• 1:48:47
  lost last year to ODU, myself, Lauren Johnson and and a handful
• 1:48:52
  of guys that played the Tech were on that and we kind of
• 1:48:55
  rioted the ship that night and kept the fan base afloat and
• 1:48:58
  made sure that everybody didn't panic.
• 1:49:00
  And you need guys like that because, you know, Billy knows
• 1:49:04
  this, Luca knows this. We were all in that lock when we
• 1:49:05
  know how it feels to face adversity.
• 1:49:08
  And I think Prague gets it, man. And you know, I know every time
• 1:49:11
  I go back I get treated like, like like with royalty.
• 1:49:14
  I mean, I was just there in the spring game, man.
• 1:49:16
  And I saw a lot of familiar faces, man.
• 1:49:18
  And it was, it was, it was just great to go back and and know
• 1:49:21
  where I can hang out and see people.
• 1:49:24
  And The Sun's The Saturday. They do a great job of having
• 1:49:26
  parties. And.
• 1:49:28
  It's just a lot of guys are coming back, man.
• 1:49:30
  Still work to do to get everybody back, but more guys
• 1:49:33
  are wanting to come back. I know the NC State game, I
• 1:49:36
  believe that's the weekend Corey Moore goes into the Hall of
• 1:49:40
  Fame. So you're going to see a lot of
• 1:49:42
  us back in town for that. We've already been planning to
• 1:49:44
  talking about that's going to be, that's going to be, that's
• 1:49:47
  going to be a great weekend. Yeah, that's going to be a big
• 1:49:49
  one. And you talk about it like you
• 1:49:51
  know, in the locker room, you know on Twitter, you know people
• 1:49:55
  always are looking for. For leaders and how leaders are
• 1:49:58
  reacting when things aren't going well, right.
• 1:50:01
  So you talked about the space after the ODU game.
• 1:50:03
  You know having guys like you and LJ and some others that were
• 1:50:07
  in there not just talking folks off the ledge but kind of
• 1:50:10
  speaking some knowledge about having experienced that
• 1:50:13
  adversity on the field and and having come from that and and
• 1:50:16
  built something and and and built it in something bigger
• 1:50:19
  than yourself. So I think that's big.
• 1:50:21
  We're going to pivot a little bit here.
• 1:50:23
  We got a got a question that was actually put on.
• 1:50:26
  Before we kind of hit hit the record tonight, Glenn with one
• 1:50:30
  in at GJPV TO9 on Twitter. He he he reached out to us.
• 1:50:37
  I thought this was a perfect one for this segment since, you
• 1:50:39
  know, we got we got guys in here that have played, but sometimes
• 1:50:43
  fans also have these as well. What are some of your game day
• 1:50:48
  or pregame rituals that you had to do either before you played
• 1:50:52
  or before you watch a football game, whether it's live or on
• 1:50:55
  TV? And let's kick it to let's kick
• 1:50:59
  it to Luther first. What you got, Luther?
• 1:51:02
  I'm trying to thank pre Grams. I had a I had a couple of days
• 1:51:05
  of. I used to be a big lifesaver
• 1:51:08
  there, so I had to eat a couple packs of lifesavers the night
• 1:51:12
  before the game. So I used to tear those down
• 1:51:15
  that before the game and be going.
• 1:51:17
  And in my first couple of years, I used to always make fairly
• 1:51:22
  high, like when he was an Allamerican.
• 1:51:25
  Player between him and Marcus, where I just love the way they
• 1:51:28
  rushed the pass. So like the highlights every
• 1:51:31
  single game right before we go out to go extract.
• 1:51:36
  But yeah, that's what I can so I can fix everything and just
• 1:51:39
  watch those guys highlights before we got out.
• 1:51:41
  Nice. Billy, what you got?
• 1:51:44
  Yeah, I mean, usually, usually what I was trying to do is get
• 1:51:46
  myself ready to handle Corey Marshall and Luther Maddie,
• 1:51:49
  that's what I was trying to. Primarily getting ready to do
• 1:51:52
  which is. I'd say is about as challenging
• 1:51:54
  as as anything but two weird things that I would do before
• 1:51:59
  high school games. I would walk down and I would
• 1:52:02
  I'd walk like 2 miles to go watch Westwood High School play
• 1:52:05
  and I would always whether it be before games and honestly before
• 1:52:09
  practice the. I'm a little weird.
• 1:52:11
  I'll listen to movie soundtracks.
• 1:52:13
  So I I was big on listening to like the Friday Night Lights
• 1:52:16
  soundtracks and Braveheart. Those are the couple things that
• 1:52:20
  I do now and then I guess as a as a as a fan or as somebody
• 1:52:24
  going to watch. I got the same route every time
• 1:52:27
  I leave the German club. I go on down, see Rob Sipulla
• 1:52:31
  and the guys in Lot 2 and and get on over to get on over to
• 1:52:34
  Section 5. So that was kind of my kind of
• 1:52:36
  my routine. So Billy, was the any Given
• 1:52:39
  Sunday soundtrack in that rotation?
• 1:52:41
  Was Al Pacino hyping you up before you went out?
• 1:52:43
  There. Honestly, I gotta tell you, that
• 1:52:45
  movie didn't really do it for me.
• 1:52:46
  I wasn't. I wasn't.
• 1:52:47
  Really big. I wasn't really big.
• 1:52:49
  On that movie. I love, I love Friday Night
• 1:52:51
  Lights. I loved Miracle.
• 1:52:53
  I just I, you know, being from New Jersey.
• 1:52:55
  And seeing all the other Al Pacino movies, I'm like, look,
• 1:52:59
  Al Pacino. You don't want to claw with the
• 1:53:04
  fingernails for the edge, though.
• 1:53:00
  Al Pacino is supposed to be a mobster.
• 1:53:01
  He's not supposed to be a. No.
• 1:53:08
  In high school at Paramus Catholic, they always used to
• 1:53:10
  play this like Eminem matchup of the of the.
• 1:53:15
  And then at the very beginning, they had the Al Pacino speech
• 1:53:17
  and it was always, you know, I'd throw my headphones on until.
• 1:53:20
  Until that part, Yeah, you ain't watching any given Sunday for Al
• 1:53:23
  Pacino. You watch any any Given Sunday
• 1:53:26
  for Willie Beeman? That's what Jamie fuck.
• 1:53:31
  It's hard to get football movies right, man.
• 1:53:33
  Not a lot of, not a lot of people.
• 1:53:34
  Get that, get that one. 100% what about you, The white?
• 1:53:37
  You know, I'm a movie guy, man. So I'm looking at Billy, man.
• 1:53:40
  I'm just tripping. I saw somebody comment about
• 1:53:42
  Varsity Blues but. You know man you got to you got
• 1:53:47
  to take me back man. I tell you guys how much I love
• 1:53:49
  being in Blacksburg in Southwest Virginia man.
• 1:53:52
  Thursday nights my last couple of years at tech.
• 1:53:54
  You know I read short of my first year we would Derrick
• 1:53:57
  Smith myself a lot of us alignment we would go to this is
• 1:54:00
  before a really Christiansburg and Blacksburg really blew up.
• 1:54:03
  We would go to Outback Steakhouse and just have a
• 1:54:05
  dinner and just talk especially no home more world games.
• 1:54:09
  We would do it before we travel and we would just go have dinner
• 1:54:12
  together, man. First, first string and second
• 1:54:14
  string, just talk, hang out, fellowship, just talk about
• 1:54:17
  everything, man. We were so close.
• 1:54:19
  We're still close now. And that was just something I
• 1:54:22
  did. And then I would just, you know,
• 1:54:24
  a lot of times I kept it simple, man.
• 1:54:25
  I loved you guys that really know me.
• 1:54:27
  See me on Twitter or even the IG or Facebook.
• 1:54:30
  I love to laugh. So I would kind of take my mind
• 1:54:33
  away from the game and find a movie.
• 1:54:34
  I'm a movie guy. I would watch movies, especially
• 1:54:37
  funny movies or just something. Listen to music.
• 1:54:39
  I'm still a music guy. And then?
• 1:54:42
  I'm spiritual. I'm not overly religious, but
• 1:54:44
  like I would always just meditate and and and read
• 1:54:48
  scripture. I would pray for hell and and
• 1:54:51
  and I did that every every week before a game.
• 1:54:53
  That was my ritual. And the last thing I did,
• 1:54:55
  especially the last two years, you know, you guys were talking
• 1:54:58
  about, you know, the other night, you know, just just now
• 1:55:00
  being married, my girlfriend, now my wife, been married 22
• 1:55:04
  years, been together 26 and I met at tech.
• 1:55:08
  So like every night when I got to the hotel, whether we played
• 1:55:11
  at home or on the road, she would write me a letter.
• 1:55:14
  Like a motivational letter would be in my black travel bag.
• 1:55:17
  So I, you know, we checked in whether we had Boston College or
• 1:55:20
  whatever, Like you know, you have your black bag.
• 1:55:22
  I have that I kept and I would get in my hotel and get settled.
• 1:55:27
  You know, we had meeting and stuff.
• 1:55:29
  And before I went to bed the night before the game, I always
• 1:55:31
  read a letter that she wrote me and it would just she she just.
• 1:55:35
  She just knew what to say and what to write.
• 1:55:37
  And I, you know, I would read that letter and I would be good
• 1:55:40
  And you know and and Luther and Billy know this man when you and
• 1:55:43
  when you're coached well and you and you're ready to play.
• 1:55:47
  I was never nervous. I'm out.
• 1:55:49
  I'll be anxious. But I was never nervous even
• 1:55:51
  against some tough competition because I played against some
• 1:55:53
  dogs. So those are my rituals, man.
• 1:55:56
  Donna, you know, laughing, hanging out with the boys and
• 1:55:59
  and just getting my, my mental, my spiritual right man because.
• 1:56:03
  You know, I think the play old line, you got to be locked in,
• 1:56:06
  you could be aggressive but gotta got to be locked in too
• 1:56:10
  so. Dwight I think that taps into
• 1:56:13
  something that I think is going to be a huge difference for this
• 1:56:16
  team this year is when you're not having to worry about what
• 1:56:22
  your responsibilities are, what exactly you're having to do on
• 1:56:26
  every single play, where you line up what your responsibility
• 1:56:29
  is. That is going to remove if if
• 1:56:32
  we're getting into that point where in year two of this system
• 1:56:35
  and if we've simplified some of this stuff up front and all they
• 1:56:38
  need to worry about is going out and playing and beating the guy
• 1:56:41
  in front of them. I think that'll make a huge
• 1:56:43
  difference for this group because last year, from from
• 1:56:46
  from the top down, it just looked.
• 1:56:49
  It looks like people were still learning exactly where to be,
• 1:56:53
  where to line up, how to, how to handle end of clock situations,
• 1:56:58
  and. You know, Coach Pride's been
• 1:57:00
  very transparent and I really appreciate that about him about
• 1:57:03
  just being like, look like we're learning here.
• 1:57:05
  A couple things that I can get better at.
• 1:57:06
  Here are a couple things that I have changed for, you know,
• 1:57:09
  myself to handle this better. And if that happens from the top
• 1:57:12
  down and everyone just worried about going out there and doing
• 1:57:15
  the best they possibly can without having to worry about if
• 1:57:18
  the guy next to him is going to go the right way.
• 1:57:20
  I think, I think that'll go. I think that'll go a long way.
• 1:57:23
  Billy that that, that's. Leading into one of the
• 1:57:25
  questions we actually have for y'all group, so I'm going to
• 1:57:27
  just roll right into it. We talked about this a lot and
• 1:57:29
  you guys playing line, it definitely is probably going to
• 1:57:33
  hit here, but we've got, you know we wore them maroon and
• 1:57:37
  orange glasses we do. But our assessment last year,
• 1:57:41
  the offense was almost it was, from a schemes perspective, too
• 1:57:43
  many coach. You effectively had three
• 1:57:45
  offensive coordinators in the room right when it ran it.
• 1:57:49
  Joe Rudolph and ran his Boeing first time but had been an
• 1:57:53
  offensive coordinator for a few games down at Penn State and now
• 1:57:58
  you've got the two guys who are the offensive coordinators are
• 1:58:00
  gone and so two parter. Do y'all agree with the
• 1:58:03
  assessment? There were probably too many
• 1:58:05
  cooks in the kitchen last year when it comes to the offense.
• 1:58:08
  And what type of benefits do you think we'll see?
• 1:58:13
  Now? They're just all it's all Boeing
• 1:58:14
  show. Yeah, I I I definitely think so
• 1:58:19
  100% agree it's the average only what, 19 points a game, a little
• 1:58:25
  bit over 300 yards per game, both, you know the lowest and
• 1:58:28
  the ACC last year. I think a part of that is
• 1:58:30
  because they had so many cooks in the kitchen.
• 1:58:32
  Also, to Billy's point, guys just didn't know what one of the
• 1:58:36
  dearness out there, right for Born to be able to talk to Wells
• 1:58:40
  like on a daily basis and he there's no middleman in between
• 1:58:43
  the communications. I think these guys improve
• 1:58:46
  drastically. In connection to, you know, the
• 1:58:48
  guys that came out of receiver, obviously we'll touch on that a
• 1:58:50
  little bit later. I think with all that coming
• 1:58:53
  together, you should offense this ship when you have most
• 1:58:56
  talking and you know you got, we all played a tough one game when
• 1:58:59
  we're younger. You know, once it gets from
• 1:59:01
  point to point, I get it. It's just kind of swirled down a
• 1:59:05
  little bit. So to kind of get from, you
• 1:59:07
  know, him talking straight to Wells on a daytoday basis, I
• 1:59:09
  think that'd be big for this offense.
• 1:59:12
  Look, it's not. I'm not.
• 1:59:14
  I'm not comparing Coach Bowen and Coach Glenn and and Coach
• 1:59:19
  Rudolph to Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and.
• 1:59:22
  James Harden. But.
• 1:59:24
  At the end of the day at the end of the day, they're only you
• 1:59:26
  know, you can only have so many opinions.
• 1:59:28
  There are only so many basketballs and there are only
• 1:59:30
  so many microphones on the sideline to to have guys
• 1:59:32
  analyzing stuff and and what really bothers me because
• 1:59:35
  because people do this all the time and and there's no way that
• 1:59:38
  I'm going to get on a podcast without talking about some of
• 1:59:40
  the ridiculous things that that that that hokey fans do.
• 1:59:44
  Is the offensive line is poor last year and then the
• 1:59:47
  conversation shifts to Will coach Rudolph sucks.
• 1:59:50
  Will coach Rudolph has coach 9 Allamericans.
• 1:59:52
  He's produced 9 draft picks. He was an offensive coordinator
• 1:59:54
  Pittsburgh during James Connors 2014 campaign.
• 1:59:57
  I think it's really simple. Too many cooks in the kitchen,
• 2:00:00
  too many different philosophies trying to fit them all together
• 2:00:03
  at once and then everybody. If it wasn't coach Rudolph's
• 2:00:06
  fault, it was coach Bowen's fault.
• 2:00:07
  Or is Grant Wells fault? It isn't one person's fault at
• 2:00:11
  all. It's just understanding what we
• 2:00:14
  need to do and understand the guy next to you is going to get
• 2:00:16
  the job done. And I'm the quarterback thing.
• 2:00:19
  Everybody wants to guess who it is.
• 2:00:21
  Look, if it's Grant Wells, he's going to be better than he was
• 2:00:24
  last year. Go ahead and watch some of his
• 2:00:26
  Marshall film. He's going to be better.
• 2:00:27
  If it's going to be Kieran Jones, he's going to be the most
• 2:00:30
  athletic quarterback we've had in a long time.
• 2:00:32
  If it's both, then it's both. But I do think that we're going
• 2:00:36
  to take a step in the right there.
• 2:00:43
  That's fair. There's no, there's no way you
• 2:00:39
  can go backwards. So I think we're, I think we're
• 2:00:41
  going to take, I think we're going to take a step at the.
• 2:00:44
  That's fair. Dwight, what do you got?
• 2:00:46
  I I just felt, I mean Billy and and Luther make great points.
• 2:00:49
  You know, Billy's point is well taken.
• 2:00:51
  I just feel like when I watched the offense last year, I don't
• 2:00:53
  know, always do it, but I do it a lot during games.
• 2:00:56
  I live tweet and I would tweet sometimes.
• 2:00:59
  Like I remember we were playing the game.
• 2:01:01
  I don't know who it was. Might have been Georgia Tech or
• 2:01:02
  somebody. And I was like that's a great
• 2:01:04
  call but the backside offensive a guard tackle and tight and
• 2:01:08
  missed their blocks and people you know on Twitter like that's
• 2:01:10
  a terrible when you call that I'm like if you go back I saw it
• 2:01:13
  live because my son and my kids and my friends laugh at me
• 2:01:16
  because when I watch the game I watch the old line and D live
• 2:01:18
  and then I look at the offense the receivers and all of that.
• 2:01:21
  And I would always tweet like, you know gosh our interior got
• 2:01:24
  killed in C state game we were getting destroyed in the in the
• 2:01:28
  interior when it came to blitz pick up.
• 2:01:30
  But people, to Billy's point, were blaming Wales.
• 2:01:33
  So when I came on Twitter space, I kept saying guys, you got to
• 2:01:36
  look at the whole picture, but it's not natural for the average
• 2:01:39
  to casual fan to watch the offensive line.
• 2:01:42
  And they it's just quick to blame them on you know, when
• 2:01:45
  it's a holding call. But we don't look at the whole
• 2:01:47
  thing. Yes, there were too many people,
• 2:01:49
  too many cooks in the kitchen, and on top of it, you know,
• 2:01:52
  similar to, you know what I've been saying for from day one,
• 2:01:55
  the two things that stood out with me with tech over the last
• 2:01:58
  handful of years is. No identity and not knowing how
• 2:02:01
  to win and make game when in place.
• 2:02:04
  And you know, we can talk about all these coaches, the winning
• 2:02:06
  the press conferences and kissing babies and and going to
• 2:02:10
  tournaments and you know, doing the electric slide at the fish
• 2:02:14
  fries. But players got to make plays.
• 2:02:17
  Listen, you talk about Luther, Maddie, Luther, Maddie and Corey
• 2:02:21
  Marshall. I remember shout out to Corey
• 2:02:23
  Marshall. They were dogs, Daddy Nicholas,
• 2:02:25
  all those guys. We can go down the list on the
• 2:02:27
  old line and D line. You know Jonathan McLaughlin he
• 2:02:31
  was, you know, people talk about that Trey.
• 2:02:33
  Trey Edmonds run against Alabama when he ran for 70 yards.
• 2:02:36
  Go look at the kick out block. Jonathan McLaughlin had that
• 2:02:40
  sprung Trey and and Jonathan was a freshman playing against
• 2:02:43
  Alabama. So those are small things.
• 2:02:46
  I look at that, people look at Trey Edmonds now and he was a
• 2:02:49
  great bat during those times attack, but.
• 2:02:51
  The old line was good. You know when you got guys like
• 2:02:54
  Jonathan and Wyatt Teller it makes a play called easier
• 2:02:57
  because you have players that know what they're doing and and
• 2:03:00
  sometimes in many cases football players got to be plays.
• 2:03:03
  I look at the West Virginia game, we had West Virginia, the
• 2:03:05
  defense was playing great. On Thursday night, the first
• 2:03:08
  quarter into the second we were, we were West Virginia, that
• 2:03:11
  powerful offense, they were sputtering.
• 2:03:13
  We had momentum. We had three non routes drop
• 2:03:17
  passes including one of them hit the receiver in the helmet.
• 2:03:20
  Helmet. OK, so if you get those 3
• 2:03:24
  touchdowns, you're up 21. Nothing.
• 2:03:26
  It changes. So you can criticize and
• 2:03:28
  whatever. I'm not giving the the, the
• 2:03:30
  coaches, the past. I'm saying that Billy and and
• 2:03:33
  Luther are right. But I also feel like the players
• 2:03:36
  have to make plays, You know, it's just the way it is.
• 2:03:40
  And you know, I think to to this point, we'll have a better
• 2:03:43
  understanding of what the identity is when the season
• 2:03:46
  starts because this is Year 2. And you know and and you said
• 2:03:51
  last night on my show Curtis that 40% of roster from last
• 2:03:54
  year's been turned over. You have more guys coming in
• 2:03:58
  even though it's year two that actually it will have a better
• 2:04:01
  idea. And I said I said this on many
• 2:04:03
  platforms I was on. I felt like the newer guys, the
• 2:04:06
  young guys were more confident than the guys have been there
• 2:04:09
  the last three or four years when it came to making plays on
• 2:04:12
  both sides of the ball. To that point, Dwight, it the
• 2:04:15
  entire season there was one game that was kind of the defense
• 2:04:20
  had. The problem that the offense had
• 2:04:21
  all season was the defense is not getting enough credit for
• 2:04:25
  how well they played last year for the fact that they were on
• 2:04:28
  the field for 65 to 75% of the game in every.
• 2:04:33
  Field. A lot like the only game,
• 2:04:36
  really, that the Defense didn't hold up their end of the bargain
• 2:04:38
  was Pittsburgh. Because Israel, the Band of
• 2:04:41
  Canada did whatever he wanted. But, and it was only about four
• 2:04:43
  players that game. Exactly.
• 2:04:46
  At the end of the day, like, I I really think that what Virginia
• 2:04:50
  Tech can hang their hat on is kind of what made them great in
• 2:04:53
  the 2000s and into the, you know, the around 2010 was find a
• 2:04:58
  way where the offense can stay on the field long enough, put up
• 2:05:01
  enough points and rely on your defense, which has a lot of
• 2:05:04
  talent. And I thought I'm on record for
• 2:05:06
  saying I think Coach Marvin is going to be a star just based
• 2:05:09
  upon his the way that he carries himself.
• 2:05:12
  He look, he did a great job in the Liberty game.
• 2:05:15
  If the offense can avoid three and out, three and out, three
• 2:05:18
  and out and give the defense a chance to catch their breath,
• 2:05:21
  that's going to make a tremendous difference next year
• 2:05:23
  if they can just find a way to do that.
• 2:05:26
  Facts. Definitely, man.
• 2:05:28
  It's it's great man, to have this panel, to have so many
• 2:05:32
  like, educated analysis coming in, man, it's it's awesome.
• 2:05:37
  I'm sitting here. Giddy you know what I'm saying?
• 2:05:40
  Just listening to that listening to that what Charles is saying,
• 2:05:43
  we're going to go to something a little different, what we want
• 2:05:46
  to talk about, you know I think Dwight said talking about year
• 2:05:49
  2, how we need to look in year two, closing out winning plays
• 2:05:54
  things like that the month of November.
• 2:05:56
  So the end of the season looks like we got Rd. trips to
• 2:06:00
  Louisville, Chestnut Hill and Lane Stadium N you know we we go
• 2:06:04
  play those games at the end of the year and.
• 2:06:09
  We're not favored to win right now on some of those games, but
• 2:06:11
  they look like pretty winnable games if you look at it on
• 2:06:14
  paper, not teams that we should be scared of.
• 2:06:18
  I want to say, how do y'all feel about Coach Pryor closing out on
• 2:06:23
  on winnable games wrapping up this year, which will be his
• 2:06:27
  year too. You know I I.
• 2:06:34
  I I I every year he even when I played but especially now that
• 2:06:38
  I'm doing all this stuff in the media and and and you know
• 2:06:41
  running my mouth and tweeting and doing all different things.
• 2:06:43
  I do always I'm not and this is not you Charlie.
• 2:06:46
  I just laugh at some of my followers and fans that tagged
• 2:06:50
  and they said oh these in this schedule this is easy.
• 2:06:52
  I I have never there was probably a couple of games in my
• 2:06:55
  5 years at tag even as a red shirt when I was just backing up
• 2:07:00
  people not going to play when I was okay.
• 2:07:01
  Yeah, this will be a blowout. But it was very few.
• 2:07:04
  There is, you know, until Virginia Tech, this team, this
• 2:07:09
  era and and I love pride. But until they understand and
• 2:07:13
  learn how to win there is no such thing as a game that that
• 2:07:18
  they should walk in and be like, yes, a Gimme.
• 2:07:20
  I think one thing I remember when Virginia Tech went into the
• 2:07:24
  ACC in 2004 and 2003, they had a loaded team.
• 2:07:29
  This is a team that featured Jake Grove, Ernest Wilford.
• 2:07:32
  Brian Randall, I mean. Vegas Robinson, that team.
• 2:07:37
  Yeah. KJ, Kevin Jones, One of them.
• 2:07:39
  Just arguably, and we can. I'm not going to argue with you
• 2:07:41
  guys, but you can argue the most talented team on paper in
• 2:07:45
  Virginia Tech history. They started off the year
• 2:07:47
  amazing. They went at Texas A and M back
• 2:07:49
  when you did not win that text A and M okay.
• 2:07:52
  They beat LSU. They were loaded.
• 2:07:54
  And then that year they crumbled, losing to Boston
• 2:07:57
  College at home. They did beat UVA, but they
• 2:07:59
  crumbled down the season. Losing to pit losing to West
• 2:08:02
  Virginia they went into the ACC in 2004 picked the finish near
• 2:08:06
  the bottom and Beamer every game and even to the season said
• 2:08:09
  we're going to attack the scratch and claw to win every
• 2:08:13
  game and he said it even when they won a winning streak he
• 2:08:15
  kept saying it when it you know after they they they scared USC
• 2:08:18
  and they were two and two after losing the NC State at home he
• 2:08:21
  kept saying we got a crashing scratching scratching claw and.
• 2:08:26
  I get it now and I got it then, but I get it even more now.
• 2:08:29
  What? He was saying that yes, we have
• 2:08:31
  talent but we have not proven anything because they were
• 2:08:34
  coming off that disappointing O3 season and this is a team in O
• 2:08:37
  four that had talent at receivers.
• 2:08:41
  I mean you talk, you talk about Eddie Royal playing as a true
• 2:08:43
  freshman, talking about what's my guy, man that played
• 2:08:47
  everything, a utility guy, man. He coached.
• 2:08:49
  He was a DC Gifts accordion before he left Hamilton, you
• 2:08:52
  know what I'm saying? Justin Hamilton.
• 2:08:53
  They had so many guys, right? The point I'm getting at and you
• 2:08:56
  know let the rest of the panel talk on this is that I, you know
• 2:09:00
  tally, I feel like Tech you know can definitely finish strong.
• 2:09:04
  But the one thing I've always said is that you need leaders
• 2:09:07
  and you need guys to exemplify, be an extension of what coach
• 2:09:12
  pry, coach Mark JC Price and those guys want them to do you
• 2:09:15
  You need guys to take control of this team and and to learn how
• 2:09:20
  to win. I think we will know more on how
• 2:09:22
  they will finish given how they start.
• 2:09:26
  And I I, I think, you know, if they take an approach every game
• 2:09:30
  like they're being disrespected or no one believes in them and
• 2:09:33
  they have to prove themselves every week, you're going to see
• 2:09:36
  a very, very hungry football team.
• 2:09:39
  You know, Because what I did, you know, was a result of what
• 2:09:43
  JC Price and them taught me how to do J Haygood and those guys.
• 2:09:47
  And then I took that torch and I ran with it.
• 2:09:49
  And then years later. You know, Luther and those guys
• 2:09:52
  and all those guys that came after me, they continued that
• 2:09:54
  because they knew it was expected and they carried the
• 2:09:57
  toys. Even if we did each other till
• 2:09:58
  later in their career, they understood what it meant.
• 2:10:01
  I think these guys are learning what it means to wear that
• 2:10:03
  helmet, understand what it means to walk to that tunnel.
• 2:10:07
  There's a lot of great things at Virginia Tech in that locker
• 2:10:09
  room and around that stadium, around that campus that these
• 2:10:12
  young men are benefiting from but did not know what it meant
• 2:10:15
  to do. You know what I'm saying to put
• 2:10:17
  on, I think. The benefit of having the guys
• 2:10:20
  on that staff even got like Xavier DB and those guys
• 2:10:23
  teaching them and they understand, I think, you know,
• 2:10:25
  you understand what it means to go up to Boston College and take
• 2:10:28
  care of business and go down the UVA and be the UVA team that,
• 2:10:32
  you know we typically beat, but they got to go do it.
• 2:10:35
  So if I look at it right now, ask me that same question out
• 2:10:39
  there the first four games of the season, you know?
• 2:10:43
  Taking you. Talk about.
• 2:10:47
  Yeah, no, I was going to say I think it's absolutely, it's very
• 2:10:50
  important. I mean, obviously you've got
• 2:10:53
  look at what happened last year, right?
• 2:10:54
  There's just so many, at least three, maybe four games in which
• 2:10:57
  Tech literally had to back their hands to win that football game.
• 2:11:01
  They just slip out. Rather was Miami, NC State,
• 2:11:06
  Georgia Tech, even like Tech that won the football games.
• 2:11:09
  But again, they don't know the win.
• 2:11:11
  You know, it's a younger team, but I think it's going to be a
• 2:11:13
  combination of the coaches and some leads up.
• 2:11:17
  I think back to my freshman year when I went to the ACC
• 2:11:20
  Championship, went to the Sugar Bowl, we had leaders like Eddie
• 2:11:23
  Whitley. I think it's really no, people
• 2:11:26
  don't really realize how important Eddie Willy was to
• 2:11:28
  that football. He was a fiery guy.
• 2:11:31
  Every single practice, he's all out, like he's just, I can't
• 2:11:34
  speak how enough of Eddie Whitley, Eddie Willy, Bruce
• 2:11:37
  Taylor. But then you also have guys as
• 2:11:39
  the players that were on staff, like Cornell Brown that can
• 2:11:42
  plead to the side. And when you're fucking up, you
• 2:11:45
  can't kind of have a chat with you.
• 2:11:46
  And make sure you get back on on point.
• 2:11:48
  So I think all that stuff's important and I still that finds
• 2:11:51
  a way to kind of add those pieces together.
• 2:11:54
  You know that's it's going to take a while when I put the
• 2:11:55
  football program back on pace, but it comes to then one of the
• 2:11:59
  football games, I mean Boston College, three and eight season.
• 2:12:03
  I think they have a pretty solid quarterback back in Louisville.
• 2:12:06
  I think they're going to actually be pretty good this
• 2:12:08
  year with the transfer that they brought in.
• 2:12:10
  So although tech's not favored in those football games, I think
• 2:12:12
  they are. And tech and find a way to
• 2:12:15
  Windows football games and you know be above 500 if you step
• 2:12:19
  one in the right direction. Yeah.
• 2:12:22
  I think. I think it's in crucially
• 2:12:23
  important for every fan to not everybody does this exercise the
• 2:12:28
  the schedule comes out and you do the W, you do the L, you do
• 2:12:33
  the L, you go down the whole schedule.
• 2:12:35
  What I'm really looking for out of this football team is yes, I
• 2:12:38
  think we're going to a bowl game is going to be.
• 2:12:40
  It would be monumental for this group.
• 2:12:42
  I think, you know, I'm going to at some point I'm sure on this
• 2:12:45
  podcast and later on in the year give a give a schedule
• 2:12:48
  prediction and predict about we're going to win such and such
• 2:12:51
  game or whatever. But at the end of the day, what
• 2:12:53
  I'm more interested in is just organization and less chaos.
• 2:12:59
  And again, Coach, Coach Prize done a phenomenal job of owning
• 2:13:04
  some of the things that he can do better and owning some of the
• 2:13:07
  things that his staff can do better.
• 2:13:08
  The the staff that we saw from the television broadcast of the
• 2:13:12
  Old Dominion game, which was chaos.
• 2:13:15
  It was unorganized. It was kind of all over the
• 2:13:18
  place. You saw it get better to the
• 2:13:20
  Liberty game. And again, we talked about some
• 2:13:23
  of those games that, you know, we're in a position to win and
• 2:13:25
  didn't win. Did some of that come down to
• 2:13:28
  execution? Yes.
• 2:13:29
  Coach Price said that he's really focused on having more
• 2:13:31
  competitive competitive periods and practice, making sure that
• 2:13:35
  that's extremely important. But we were in position to win
• 2:13:38
  those games against teams who were monumentally more talented
• 2:13:41
  than Virginia Tech. And look, Virginia Tech has has
• 2:13:44
  beaten more talented teams in them.
• 2:13:46
  But the disparity that there was last year was so wide and they
• 2:13:49
  were still in positions to be fighting and clawing.
• 2:13:51
  And that was one of the things I was most proud of of this team
• 2:13:54
  last year is there wasn't really a game that you looked at and
• 2:13:57
  you're like our team quit this game.
• 2:13:59
  They may have lost, they may have gotten out skiing, they may
• 2:14:02
  have ran out of gas towards the end because we're you know 1
• 2:14:06
  deep at basically every single position.
• 2:14:08
  But I never saw us come in and just completely quit and let go
• 2:14:11
  of the rope. So you know, one play goes
• 2:14:14
  another way, one play goes another way, your records
• 2:14:17
  probably a little bit different, but that's what I'm looking for.
• 2:14:20
  Eliminate pre snap penalties, look more organized and and
• 2:14:24
  finish the job and I'm more concerned with that than I am.
• 2:14:28
  We better win this amount of games.
• 2:14:30
  Yeah Billy, I'm I'm I'm with you on that because it's all the
• 2:14:32
  little things. Go back to the NC State game
• 2:14:35
  everybody go back 10 pre snap penalties.
• 2:14:39
  I got three offensive lineman on here.
• 2:14:41
  How many gasters with jar ran? If you had did 10 pre snap
• 2:14:45
  penalties, it's still we still be running them.
• 2:14:46
  We still be running them we think about.
• 2:14:48
  That game how many pre snap penalties and cut them in half
• 2:14:51
  I'll. Probably win.
• 2:14:52
  NC State. You think about the Georgia Tech
• 2:14:55
  game with the fumble issues and I.
• 2:14:57
  Humbles happen, Luther. You were.
• 2:14:59
  You've been. You play defense your whole
• 2:15:01
  life. Defensive players make plays.
• 2:15:05
  But think about when Keyshawn fumble that ball.
• 2:15:07
  Like, we're we're there. We're up points.
• 2:15:10
  If we kick a field goal, it's out of reach.
• 2:15:13
  If we punch it in, they have absolutely no shot, but we
• 2:15:16
  fumble. It's those little things.
• 2:15:18
  And like you said, Billy, I love what you just said there about
• 2:15:21
  the chaos. Who do you look chaotic?
• 2:15:24
  And every week it was a little bit better, a little bit better.
• 2:15:26
  And every week we started being more competitive.
• 2:15:29
  It didn't look as chaotic. Guess we won a couple games.
• 2:15:32
  So I I loved hearing it from all you guys, knowing that you guys
• 2:15:36
  again played on that field. Now I'm going to pivot to
• 2:15:40
  something real quick just because I I like this question
• 2:15:44
  this gentleman brought up and I'm wondering if it's Anthony
• 2:15:46
  Harris we all know of. But in y'all's opinion, Billy,
• 2:15:50
  I'll let you let you start out the gate with this one.
• 2:15:53
  What true freshman are you expecting to get some PT this
• 2:15:56
  year? Offense or defense.
• 2:15:59
  I know, I know you guys are going to hate me for doing this.
• 2:16:01
  I'm going to say I'm going to say I'm going to say most
• 2:16:03
  Phillips because he's who's everybody's talking about and
• 2:16:06
  I'm not I'm not a practice so I'm I'm not see I'm not seeing
• 2:16:09
  him. I'm going to answer this
• 2:16:10
  question with with saying this and I was asked this a ton by
• 2:16:15
  national by national media coming up and saying Pop Watson,
• 2:16:19
  man is is pop Watson is pop Watson going to play
• 2:16:21
  quarterback. I think pop Watson is
• 2:16:23
  tremendously talented. I really do.
• 2:16:25
  I think he's going to have an opportunity to play.
• 2:16:27
  I think he's going to play in the future.
• 2:16:30
  But the idea that he should get thrown in there this year at his
• 2:16:34
  size with no time getting familiar with the playbook.
• 2:16:37
  I'd I'd I'd encourage everybody to pump the brakes a little bit
• 2:16:40
  on that. I think he's going to be a good
• 2:16:42
  player moving into the future. He's got some weight to gain.
• 2:16:44
  He's got some understanding to get down with the playbook so
• 2:16:48
  I'll give you a non answer and I'm really excited for Pop
• 2:16:51
  Watson, but I don't think his time is quite yet.
• 2:16:54
  Got it, Luther. Luther, what you got?
• 2:16:58
  Yeah. So I mean, honestly, I haven't
• 2:17:01
  seen a whole lot of these guys, so I can't really give you guys
• 2:17:04
  a great answer. But I know that there's been
• 2:17:07
  some talk about one of those young safeties maybe kind of
• 2:17:10
  getting some PT here, maybe not start, but again, like playing
• 2:17:13
  time, maybe guys like most. Supposedly he's been looking
• 2:17:16
  pretty decent out there, so I think he kind of just on the
• 2:17:20
  outside looking in, but I'm the player, you know, that really
• 2:17:24
  stands out as a as a freshman being making a big contribution
• 2:17:27
  this year. All right, Mr. Vick.
• 2:17:31
  I think I know. I think I know what he going to
• 2:17:34
  say. I think he going to say #12.
• 2:17:37
  Woodson, Kayla Woodson. I've been on the man.
• 2:17:42
  Listen. I'm not even going to go into it
• 2:17:44
  because I said it last night. But for the respect to your
• 2:17:46
  show, man, I mean he's I, you know, I saw him in high school,
• 2:17:51
  his last junior, senior year. He was, you know, already, you
• 2:17:55
  know looking at stuff, the scheme and and talking to
• 2:17:58
  coaches. I mean he if you see him, you
• 2:18:00
  know, physically he passed the odd test.
• 2:18:02
  But I just, I just love his mindset and he's a worker.
• 2:18:06
  I I I I can see him. Kind of midway through the
• 2:18:09
  season, man, forcing himself into the lineup, barring
• 2:18:13
  something crazy, I just, I'm excited for him, man.
• 2:18:16
  And he looks like, you know, one of those Virginia Tech guys
• 2:18:19
  like, you know, looks like Devon Morgan, you know, Cam
• 2:18:23
  Chancellor. You know one thing about, like
• 2:18:25
  Virginia Tech defensive guys, they always had that look.
• 2:18:28
  Certain DV's that came down in the box can also cover, but he's
• 2:18:33
  also more of a linebacker. Bill too.
• 2:18:35
  But that's my guy. But I mean, I'm like Luther too,
• 2:18:38
  man, I think. You know there's always a player
• 2:18:42
  too. Like the kid you guys were
• 2:18:43
  talking about last night. Curtis.
• 2:18:45
  He was a red shirt freshman last year.
• 2:18:47
  The linebacker that came on strong the Georgia Tech game.
• 2:18:50
  He had a tip pass exception such yeah, those are the guys that
• 2:18:54
  you know will come kind of week three-week 4 that'll surprise
• 2:18:58
  you. But right now my my surprise
• 2:19:00
  that people going to be talking about I stand by.
• 2:19:02
  I said the same thing you know about Stroman.
• 2:19:05
  And Eddie Royal when they came to Tech, so I got a little bit
• 2:19:08
  of a good track record. I say, I say, I think that they
• 2:19:12
  pay attention to the white because I've been seeing Caleb
• 2:19:15
  Wilson on all types of media stuff lately.
• 2:19:18
  I think I got on Facebook and he was like, it was a picture, big
• 2:19:21
  picture of him like kissing his mom or something like that at
• 2:19:24
  media day or Family Day. And then just a clip came out
• 2:19:27
  today where he was absolutely annihilated like a tight end or
• 2:19:31
  something. So.
• 2:19:32
  I'm like, damn, is they listening to Dwight.
• 2:19:34
  They're trying to get him. They're trying to get him on
• 2:19:36
  camera but but he he looks, he does look the part.
• 2:19:39
  He looks the part, man. He.
• 2:19:40
  Looks the part. I seen him when I went to the
• 2:19:42
  spring game, not to cut you off, but when I went to the spring
• 2:19:45
  game and they were announcing like all the freshmen and stuff,
• 2:19:48
  he was on the field just like plain clothes.
• 2:19:51
  And I was like, God damn, who was that?
• 2:19:53
  And when they called his name, like, he was big, like he was a
• 2:19:56
  big, a big dude. And I'm thinking, I looked at
• 2:19:59
  Brian and I was like, he's supposed to be at prom like.
• 2:20:02
  He's supposed to be thinking about, like, you know what I'm
• 2:20:05
  saying? I'm gonna get too explicit, but
• 2:20:07
  I'm like, he's supposed to be at prom, man.
• 2:20:09
  He's supposed to be thinking about like playing football in
• 2:20:11
  college. And he just, man, he just looks
• 2:20:14
  like a college football player already.
• 2:20:16
  And just that the the, you know, kind of the pivot a little bit
• 2:20:20
  with that question that we put up.
• 2:20:22
  Who who gave us that question? You said Anthony, Anthony,
• 2:20:25
  Anthony. Good, great question, man.
• 2:20:27
  But I'll say I wouldn't be surprised to see, you know some
• 2:20:32
  of those young DB's, man. You know, even Brendan Johnson,
• 2:20:37
  you know all of those guys. When you start talking about
• 2:20:39
  just football players, when you talk about offensive line, it's
• 2:20:43
  hard to get into. It's hard to get on the field as
• 2:20:46
  a freshman defensive line, yet you ain't you too lighting the
• 2:20:50
  ass to come in as a freshman. You got to be real good to get
• 2:20:54
  in and just have natural ability to play in the trenches that
• 2:20:58
  early. But you see a lot of times while
• 2:21:01
  receiver or cornerback, like they can get put in the fire
• 2:21:04
  sometimes just because a lot of times that position just relies
• 2:21:08
  on your natural ability. You know you're going to go,
• 2:21:11
  you're going to go through some growing pains.
• 2:21:12
  I think we kind of seen that with Delaine last year.
• 2:21:15
  He he was in the right position. A lot of times he just wasn't
• 2:21:19
  quite strong enough to maybe wrestle a ball from somebody or
• 2:21:22
  maybe to get somebody down with a tackle.
• 2:21:24
  But his technique was there. That's why everybody's so
• 2:21:27
  excited about it. I think we'll see another one of
• 2:21:29
  our young DB's that maybe have to step up, you know, when
• 2:21:32
  somebody needs a breather to just get in and get some PT.
• 2:21:35
  So I wouldn't be surprised to see somebody like a Brailer
• 2:21:38
  Networks or, you know, Fleming or one of those guys get in.
• 2:21:41
  Dante Lovett say Yeah, don't tell the bigger crew.
• 2:21:45
  And Lovett's already you already kind of look too, and you make
• 2:21:48
  the point about that tally. It's also the build and I think
• 2:21:51
  all you guys who played y'all can y'all know what y'all like.
• 2:21:54
  Some of these. Corners come in and you kind of
• 2:21:57
  look and you compare them to your teammates and say hey he's
• 2:21:59
  he's like already there. He's not he's not that far off.
• 2:22:02
  Making the comparisons like you just did to the offensive line
• 2:22:06
  like that. Like those those safeties and
• 2:22:08
  those, you know, corners and stuff.
• 2:22:10
  Not that far off compared to the other stuff where you have to
• 2:22:14
  gain mass. And I'm sure I got three guys
• 2:22:15
  below me here I'm sure and and Mr. Siegel up when he was at
• 2:22:19
  Hampton Sydney. All right.
• 2:22:20
  Y'all need to eat. They just need to eat because
• 2:22:23
  you all ain't got enough weight on you, you.
• 2:22:25
  Need to eat. But you need to eat the right
• 2:22:26
  stuff too. I mean that that that's just
• 2:22:28
  that's just a. Big That nutrition center is
• 2:22:30
  doing it, too. Yep.
• 2:22:31
  Down there. Yeah.
• 2:22:33
  I mean, not everybody can be a, you know, John McLaughlin and
• 2:22:36
  get a starting role on the offensive line right at the
• 2:22:39
  gate. So sometimes you got to come in
• 2:22:41
  there. Jonathan had the size Brian, but
• 2:22:44
  he also and Billy knows this man and I I don't you know I know
• 2:22:49
  your listeners and viewers may disagree but.
• 2:22:52
  People give a lot of credit to the quarterback and the safety,
• 2:22:54
  but imagine having the block, JC Price, Cornell Brown, Corey
• 2:22:59
  Moore, John Engelberger or even Corey Marshall.
• 2:23:02
  And they're moving and the scheme's changing and they're
• 2:23:05
  talking and the quarterback's talking.
• 2:23:07
  He's doing, check with me and you got the crowd cheering and I
• 2:23:11
  got to make sure there's three techniques that moves to A1.
• 2:23:14
  Now I got to help the center and get to the next level.
• 2:23:16
  So Jonathan had a high IQ. I remember I met him, I was
• 2:23:21
  there, might have been for a game.
• 2:23:23
  And I talked to him on the sidelines when we introduced
• 2:23:26
  ourselves to each other. And I was a fan because I was
• 2:23:29
  like to play at Tech at that time as a true freshman special
• 2:23:33
  bro. You know what I'm saying?
• 2:23:34
  Like, because I can tell you right now, I called my dad and
• 2:23:36
  said, dad, I want to red shirt. I was like, I want to red shirt,
• 2:23:44
  yeah. I mean.
• 2:23:46
  I used to call John Quick feed. The thing that for me his first
• 2:23:48
  couple of years he had that, you know and Billy knows that he
• 2:23:50
  started practicing, you know his Craftsman section was all ended
• 2:23:55
  with an attitude like you know, I'm not laughing, I'm just do
• 2:23:59
  what I got to do. Like he was non salon but also
• 2:24:01
  smart, like he didn't really get too too steer, played moves and
• 2:24:06
  I think that helped them a big time freshman year.
• 2:24:09
  Yeah, guys that can play with the even kill but still have
• 2:24:11
  that dog in them, that's a that's a special trait.
• 2:24:14
  That's a special trait to have. Let's We're going to wrap this
• 2:24:17
  up here. We've got two generations of
• 2:24:20
  hokey football alumni on this segment right now.
• 2:24:23
  One was a leader when the program rose to prominence.
• 2:24:26
  One was a leader as Coach Beamer's career wrapped up.
• 2:24:29
  The other saw firsthand regime change in 2016.
• 2:24:34
  With that experience in mind, I'd like to give each of you let
• 2:24:38
  me hear one thing about this team or staff that gives you
• 2:24:41
  optimism for 2023. And maybe one thing that
• 2:24:44
  concerns you at this point still going into the season.
• 2:24:48
  And Billy, I'll let you lead on this one.
• 2:24:51
  Positives are easy. Coach prize tremendous.
• 2:24:54
  He's easy to root for. One of the things that he did
• 2:24:57
  this year that I wanted to see him do in year two, that we
• 2:25:00
  missed out on. Year one was was attacked the
• 2:25:02
  Portal and he did a phenomenal job of attacking the Portal this
• 2:25:05
  offseason. Another year of building
• 2:25:07
  relationships with fans, coaches, alumni.
• 2:25:10
  And for what the staff lacks and experience at some spots they
• 2:25:14
  make up in recruiting. Get it.
• 2:25:17
  Miss if if we want to throw that term around and personality and
• 2:25:23
  the level of talent at Virginia Tech has has elevated.
• 2:25:26
  At the end of the day, who you're going against in
• 2:25:28
  practice, one-on-one ones on twos if you're not getting a
• 2:25:32
  good look. And the best look that you see
• 2:25:34
  every single week is the guy that you're lining up against.
• 2:25:37
  That's not a recipe for success. So I think that that moves the
• 2:25:40
  needle a lot. My biggest fear and concern, I
• 2:25:46
  mean, number one is is conference realignment.
• 2:25:48
  It's it's hard not to talk about that.
• 2:25:51
  That's not something that the coaches can control.
• 2:25:53
  It's not something that the players can control.
• 2:25:56
  But that's kind of the one pressing thing, I guess, that
• 2:25:57
  everyone's thinking about. But what I'm looking at this
• 2:26:00
  season is. The stretch of Marshall,
• 2:26:04
  Pittsburgh, Florida State, Wake Forest, back-to-back to
• 2:26:08
  back-to-back in the moment, How do they handle that?
• 2:26:13
  Those are four really good teams for a lot of people.
• 2:26:16
  We're going to play Marshall and people are going to wake up and
• 2:26:18
  look at the schedule and be like, oh, we're playing
• 2:26:19
  Marshall, whatever. Marshall has great defense.
• 2:26:21
  Marshall has a really good program.
• 2:26:23
  They are very talented. That's going to be no cupcake.
• 2:26:27
  Pittsburgh, they're well to. I know you guys said in the last
• 2:26:29
  segment, you're not Nardozzi guys.
• 2:26:31
  Nardozzi is doing a phenomenal job at Pittsburgh.
• 2:26:33
  He's recruiting well. He's like Marcus, smart man.
• 2:26:36
  He's the guy that you you hate when he's on the other team, but
• 2:26:39
  if he's your guy, you love that dude.
• 2:26:42
  Florida State, obviously, Playoff contention.
• 2:26:45
  Everybody's on Florida State and then Wake Forest.
• 2:26:47
  How are they going to handle that in the moment?
• 2:26:50
  And if you come out of it with being 500, fantastic.
• 2:26:54
  But if you struggle through that, how do you come out the
• 2:26:57
  other end from the bye week against Syracuse?
• 2:27:00
  Are you going to be able to handle adversity and get back on
• 2:27:03
  the tracks? Because you saw it last year.
• 2:27:05
  There was a tremendous stretch of just flailing and trying to
• 2:27:08
  get it together. Are they going to be able to get
• 2:27:11
  through that stretch admirably? And then keep it going after
• 2:27:16
  that bye week, can we see some sort of consistency?
• 2:27:19
  Because I think that's the biggest challenge stretch that
• 2:27:22
  we're going to face is those four games you get the bye week
• 2:27:24
  and then you're right back into it with ACC play.
• 2:27:26
  So I wouldn't say it's fear, I just think that window of games
• 2:27:29
  is going to teach us a lot about where this program is headed.
• 2:27:33
  Luther, what you got? Yeah, so.
• 2:27:37
  So for me, I feel whole about the offensive side, I mean.
• 2:27:41
  Just watching that play last year, it's just just miserable,
• 2:27:44
  right. It's a guy and I end all, but
• 2:27:46
  just watching off, I could barely finish watching the
• 2:27:49
  football game. I hate to say it like that but
• 2:27:51
  it's. I'm just being honest.
• 2:27:53
  So you know I think for me I feel a whole lot better about
• 2:27:57
  what the Billy kind of touched on a little bit earlier is the
• 2:27:59
  addition with the transfer portal.
• 2:28:00
  So I'm really big on Allie Jennings.
• 2:28:03
  I think he's going to be an all conference type of player, that
• 2:28:06
  receiver. Then you add felt and then you
• 2:28:09
  also add lane at receiver. So.
• 2:28:11
  I think comparing this year, it's election office that's
• 2:28:13
  going to be a big step forward and I think them just finding
• 2:28:17
  identity as far as whether it's on blocking or you know getting
• 2:28:21
  the ball down the field more vertically.
• 2:28:23
  I think them actually trying to identify those things and
• 2:28:25
  actually focusing on what they are as an offense that makes it
• 2:28:28
  feel a whole lot better pull to this scrambling and trying to
• 2:28:31
  figure things out. So that being said, a little bit
• 2:28:33
  about the offense, I'm a bit concerned with the Mike
• 2:28:37
  linebacker situation. I know we have two really good
• 2:28:40
  guys. Battling out, I think will be,
• 2:28:43
  you know, a good fit, but that they're not kind of solidified
• 2:28:46
  that they think Mike's a very important position to kind of
• 2:28:50
  have in that type of defense. Then with those guy hearings and
• 2:28:55
  the lack of death, I should say. But between Mike and Will, I'm
• 2:28:59
  kind of concerned there just because that tech defense did
• 2:29:01
  struggle part of the open field tackling once you got to that
• 2:29:05
  second level, I think they'll be better.
• 2:29:09
  But I don't feel great about linebacker.
• 2:29:11
  I know Sisdale's been there for quite a while.
• 2:29:12
  I liked him earlier in his career, kind of took a step back
• 2:29:17
  linebacker. I'm a bit concerned and I'm
• 2:29:19
  hoping they can kind of, you know, pick up and do a little
• 2:29:21
  bit better than what they did last.
• 2:29:24
  Year. Yeah, definitely a spot that,
• 2:29:26
  you know, there's some question marks especially, you know, you
• 2:29:29
  know for for for all that he did during the time there.
• 2:29:31
  You know, that's definitely a leader back there and everybody
• 2:29:34
  where they need to be so. Losing that leadership is going
• 2:29:37
  to be interesting to see who steps up there, Dwight, what you
• 2:29:39
  got for this one, you know? The first part of the question
• 2:29:43
  about what I'm excited for, you know, right.
• 2:29:45
  Is that the first part? Yeah.
• 2:29:47
  Yeah, especially, man. I'm excited man, because from
• 2:29:49
  day one, you know, I knew Pry. Pry was the right guy.
• 2:29:54
  I knew it. I I just knew it.
• 2:29:56
  You know, for the record, I said this on you guys.
• 2:29:58
  I've been on Y'all Show a lot. I've said it on other shows,
• 2:30:00
  including the Suns The Saturday, I was rooting for Fuente.
• 2:30:05
  I wanted Fuente and his staff to win because I'm a hokey first.
• 2:30:08
  I think now I look back on it, it's tough to replace a legend.
• 2:30:12
  It just is. But I I just feel like pride
• 2:30:15
  gets it, you know? It's tough because I know a lot
• 2:30:17
  of former coaches and guys wanted to to be on that staff
• 2:30:21
  with him, including to my brother, Todd Washington, Jane
• 2:30:24
  Graham. I know Stein Spring made it
• 2:30:25
  known he wanted to come back. So that shows you how much guys
• 2:30:28
  love pride, that coach with him and against him.
• 2:30:31
  I think the fact that he went away as I mentioned earlier in
• 2:30:34
  y'all show and went to Penn State and and saw how it was
• 2:30:37
  done there in the in the probably arguably the best
• 2:30:40
  conference helps Tech tremendously because it was
• 2:30:43
  similar to when Weaver got to tech as an A Ed.
• 2:30:46
  He had been at Florida and Penn State.
• 2:30:48
  So he saw what it took to take tech to the next level as we
• 2:30:51
  entered into the 2000s. I just think you know it's I'm
• 2:30:56
  very optimistic. I knew he was going to recruit
• 2:30:58
  well. I knew he was going to get guys.
• 2:31:00
  Not just the 757 guys, but you know, Virginia and New Jersey
• 2:31:05
  and DC, Maryland, that Mid-Atlantic in the South.
• 2:31:08
  You know, I think we're only getting started there when I'm
• 2:31:11
  afraid or what worries me is not the exes and nose.
• 2:31:14
  He's got a very competent staff. I love Billy's point about Ma
• 2:31:17
  being a star. I completely agree.
• 2:31:20
  Pierson Prelo is the one of the best football minds I've ever
• 2:31:22
  been around, along with Tony and Gray.
• 2:31:26
  You know, he's no longer coaching with us.
• 2:31:27
  He's down in South Carolina. I remember the great defensive,
• 2:31:30
  according to Greg Williams called Pierson Frelo when he
• 2:31:32
  coached with the Washington Redskins.
• 2:31:34
  Now commanders, he said Pierson Frelo was his smartest player.
• 2:31:38
  This is a pro NFL defensive court.
• 2:31:41
  That shows you what kind of pedigree Pierson Frelo has.
• 2:31:44
  I don't worry about our staff. I don't worry about recruiting.
• 2:31:47
  My concern Billy touched on this is not the future of a Gene
• 2:31:50
  Tech, but just making sure we have the best fan base.
• 2:31:54
  And I know people say this, but we have a top five, top three
• 2:31:57
  fan base. The fan base is so good it got
• 2:31:59
  us a Sugar Bowl berth in 2011. We were 11 and two we finished
• 2:32:04
  behind Clemson. We were.
• 2:32:05
  We earned the right based on the credibility in the record, but
• 2:32:09
  our fan base travels so well. Our fan base deserves a
• 2:32:12
  championship. But we have a very sometimes
• 2:32:16
  impatient and irrational fan base and my fear is that people
• 2:32:21
  aren't patient. Because we're in stage now with
• 2:32:25
  the NIL the portal, I I don't want us to become so impatient
• 2:32:32
  and if if this takes longer than expected what do we do because
• 2:32:36
  you know people look at look what Duke did last year.
• 2:32:39
  It's almost like you know you're expected to win.
• 2:32:41
  I'm just because I I look at, I know it's it's tough but I look
• 2:32:46
  at UVA and even Pit. Billy I'm with you.
• 2:32:50
  I'm, I'm. I know.
• 2:32:51
  Y'all don't like pit. I respect pit.
• 2:32:53
  I got a lot of heat lash because I tweeted about Narduzi what
• 2:32:58
  what tech should be doing right. But here's the thing they were
• 2:33:03
  patient with Narduzi. Look what he's doing now since
• 2:33:07
  it's not fashionable in in our generation now, this era of
• 2:33:10
  sports and life in general. But I think patience is
• 2:33:13
  something we got to have. And on the flip side, mention
• 2:33:17
  UVA. You know, I played during the
• 2:33:19
  Golden era, the UVA Tech rivalry, but since then, and I'm
• 2:33:23
  not taking shots at them, but other than the Perkins year,
• 2:33:26
  they've been irrelevant for a very, very, very long time.
• 2:33:30
  And last year, like Luther, Maddie said, for the first time
• 2:33:34
  in my life affiliate with Tech. When I watched Tech play, I was
• 2:33:39
  praying for the game to be over. I.
• 2:33:43
  Was and that it was. It was tough to watch.
• 2:33:46
  And and I realized how irrelevant we were despite
• 2:33:49
  having that fan base. So my fear is that this doesn't
• 2:33:53
  get done. All this work prides doing that
• 2:33:55
  we don't turn the corner and get back to what we and exceed what
• 2:33:59
  we used to be. I don't, I don't want to be
• 2:34:01
  irrelevant. I live in the DMV.
• 2:34:03
  My dad and fatherinlaw die hard Washington Commanders fans.
• 2:34:07
  And they live more on the glory days and trying to beat the
• 2:34:10
  Cowboys and actually winning games.
• 2:34:12
  I'm like, y'all are so bad that y'all y'all y'all look forward
• 2:34:15
  to beating the Cowboys and the Eagles and not actually being
• 2:34:18
  relevant. That's how bad y'all become.
• 2:34:21
  I do not want Tech to be like we're going to beat UVA this
• 2:34:25
  year. That's not the.
• 2:34:26
  Goal. I'm from the era where we were
• 2:34:30
  both ranked, we were both good and we were going to go to a big
• 2:34:32
  time bowl and have a chance to maybe play for a championship.
• 2:34:36
  So it's a long answer, but that's what I I secretly worry
• 2:34:40
  about that Sometimes I do not. Want us to if we lose Labor Day
• 2:34:44
  night, bro, stay, stay where you are, man.
• 2:34:50
  As far as where you at mindset wise, I just want to I'm I'm
• 2:34:54
  going to go to something a little different.
• 2:34:56
  I was just sitting here looking at a couple things, but I think
• 2:34:59
  we talked about it on one of the other segments, Josh Fuller
• 2:35:01
  said. I don't know the direct quote,
• 2:35:03
  but he said Virginia Tech is back, the lunch pill is back,
• 2:35:07
  we're back. Something like that at at a CC.
• 2:35:11
  Media Day, Media day. So again, I'll tell you kind of
• 2:35:16
  my answer and I want to just hear from from y'all what you
• 2:35:18
  think. I don't think that we're back,
• 2:35:20
  you know what I'm saying, as far as back to what Virginia Tech
• 2:35:25
  is. But I was sitting here looking
• 2:35:27
  at, looking at D'Angelo Hall, Just highlights.
• 2:35:35
  You know, you can type in D'Angelo Hall highlights from
• 2:35:37
  Virginia Tech. And the reason that I did is
• 2:35:39
  because Delaine is wearing a mansoor.
• 2:35:41
  Delaine is wearing #4 this year. And I don't know if nobody's
• 2:35:45
  prepped the young man or what number 4 means in that
• 2:35:48
  backfield. But like I watched the play, we
• 2:35:51
  was playing Miami. When D Hall comes up and he
• 2:35:54
  strips that, he comes up to make a form tackle, give it.
• 2:35:58
  He strips the ball and takes it and goes and scores.
• 2:36:01
  And not only does he take it in score, it's like it was swag
• 2:36:05
  when he did it. Like once he got to the when he
• 2:36:07
  got to the when he got to the end zone, he knew what to do.
• 2:36:11
  Like he knew how to put on the show.
• 2:36:13
  You know, I look at another it was another pick out.
• 2:36:15
  It may have been West Virginia. He takes the pick and he's
• 2:36:18
  pointing people out, hey, you block him.
• 2:36:20
  You block him like he knew what to do with the ball.
• 2:36:23
  And it's been so long since we've seen Virginia Tech just be
• 2:36:27
  dominant like that on the back end.
• 2:36:29
  And then you have the the Luther Maddies on the line that's
• 2:36:32
  making eight again. I'm going back to it.
• 2:36:35
  A CCACC defensive line. You know what I'm saying?
• 2:36:39
  Like all ACC defensive line, to get back to that lunch Bell
• 2:36:42
  defense would be great. What do y'all need to see to to
• 2:36:47
  say we back? I think to your it's that
• 2:36:52
  confidence, right? Like I think.
• 2:36:56
  Like those guys have been in the program probably 2 weeks and
• 2:36:59
  they're making plays and they're just out there having fun,
• 2:37:02
  right. And I don't really see this
• 2:37:03
  early in the in the on the show. Like a lot of times guys are
• 2:37:06
  kind of just timid you know like when I I know when I was playing
• 2:37:09
  it was 11 hats to the full football.
• 2:37:11
  I'm not gonna late hit every now and again too.
• 2:37:13
  I just want to jump on the paw and just touch the running bat.
• 2:37:16
  I just want to put my hand on you right.
• 2:37:17
  Like, that was my goal. And I kind of got that from guys
• 2:37:20
  like Bruce Taylor and and James Gay.
• 2:37:22
  Like he always want to finish and you know, get to the.
• 2:37:25
  Get to the ball carrier. So I think it's more of that
• 2:37:27
  guys just being more confident, their ability being loser,
• 2:37:31
  right. I think playing, I talk about
• 2:37:32
  defense so much. I think you just win games.
• 2:37:34
  I'm just being a bit biased there.
• 2:37:36
  You got to be, you got to just be a dog.
• 2:37:38
  Well, I know it sounds like it's, you know, football, pep
• 2:37:42
  talk or whatever. It's true, like you got to got
• 2:37:44
  to live a hat to the football and you got to be out and you
• 2:37:46
  just want to lay your pants out. So I think they get to the point
• 2:37:49
  where they're feeling confident, they're playing loser and they
• 2:37:52
  trust their teammate. Then they can come back and they
• 2:37:55
  can actually, you know, be more confident with that lunch pay
• 2:37:58
  and do those type of things to be a dominant football team.
• 2:38:02
  I don't mean to go to go yoga. I don't need to go like Yoda,
• 2:38:08
  Buddhist culture on you here. But at the end of the day, I
• 2:38:12
  think one of the things we got to realize is everybody's
• 2:38:14
  concerned with like, are we back at or are we not.
• 2:38:17
  It's not a it's not a it's not a yes or no thing.
• 2:38:20
  It's if you're lost in the forest and you don't know what
• 2:38:22
  direction you're going. You know what your next step is
• 2:38:24
  going to be? And I think Tech just needs to
• 2:38:26
  find a way each week, each year, each month to just get better as
• 2:38:30
  they go along. And if they can stay focused on
• 2:38:33
  that and stop having this thing over their head of like are we
• 2:38:36
  back, are we not, Are we supposed to be just just improve
• 2:38:39
  day-to-day? And I think that you can say
• 2:38:41
  confidently with the way that this offseason is gone, the way
• 2:38:44
  the recruiting has gone and the way that the conversation around
• 2:38:46
  Virginia Tech has been. That we are headed in the right
• 2:38:49
  direction and when Virginia Tech is back, everyone's going to
• 2:38:53
  know they're back. We don't have to.
• 2:38:54
  We're not going to have to get on here and and talk about what
• 2:38:57
  percentage of back we are walking.
• 2:39:01
  In the right direction. Is this one of those things?
• 2:39:02
  If you have to ask, you're not, Like if you're if you're having
• 2:39:06
  to ask, are you back? You're not back yet.
• 2:39:08
  Like, just don't think about eating the whole whale, man.
• 2:39:10
  Take take a bite at a time, you know what I'm saying?
• 2:39:11
  It's, you know, you just got to go in the right direction, I
• 2:39:13
  think. I think we're doing that.
• 2:39:15
  Yeah, I yeah, I'm with Billy, I think.
• 2:39:18
  I think young dudes, I get it. I like the confidence and we're
• 2:39:21
  back lunch pill. That's cool.
• 2:39:22
  That's fun. You know I know I'm an OG.
• 2:39:25
  I'm. I'm fine with that that mindset.
• 2:39:28
  But again you will know tech is back when it's a close game and
• 2:39:34
  you have no doubt that the defense or the special teams,
• 2:39:37
  the office is going to make a play.
• 2:39:39
  You'll know that you like when D Hall.
• 2:39:42
  Miami came into Blacksburg that night in 2003 on a 30 something
• 2:39:46
  3738 game-winning streak. The airs are all set on Tuesday
• 2:39:51
  during the press. Come, this was my boy, that's my
• 2:39:53
  brother. He played after me.
• 2:39:55
  He said, Yo, I think Miami's beatable mind you, they just
• 2:39:58
  came. They're coming in there.
• 2:39:59
  They won national championship. They own a 30 something plus
• 2:40:02
  game-winning streak because Miami game team is that good.
• 2:40:06
  I don't think they're that strong.
• 2:40:07
  And he he said it and Bema got mad.
• 2:40:09
  He put a muzzle on him that week not figured Bema said stop.
• 2:40:15
  So the all went out there and showed you what he meant.
• 2:40:17
  He set the tone beginning the game.
• 2:40:19
  Eric Green got to pick six. They made Brock Berliner like he
• 2:40:23
  should have been playing in the Lego League.
• 2:40:25
  Okay, you know what I'm saying. At the end of the day, they
• 2:40:28
  showed us. I remember watching games with
• 2:40:31
  my wife and it when we in 2007 after the Virginia Tech tragedy
• 2:40:36
  that affected us forever. We were in a dogfight with Chris
• 2:40:39
  Johnson in East Carolina. East Carolina has been a rival.
• 2:40:41
  It was a dogfight. We would have better team but we
• 2:40:44
  were flat because of all the emotion.
• 2:40:46
  First game, back league course, so game days there.
• 2:40:48
  She looks at me and says defense has got a score.
• 2:40:51
  The next series, Macho Harris gets a pick, takes it, you know
• 2:40:55
  we had to and takes it in for a touchdown.
• 2:40:58
  That's how you knew Virginia Tech was back even in 2015, 2014
• 2:41:03
  I was looking this up just to make sure I was right. 2013, we
• 2:41:05
  went eight and five. Those were lean years, down
• 2:41:09
  years, and we were still 897 wins even after that debacle
• 2:41:13
  against Wake Forest. The three overtime game we're
• 2:41:15
  doing like this and we had to beat UVAUVA was was a solid team
• 2:41:20
  that year. They were trying to get to the
• 2:41:22
  bowl game. That's the game before the game.
• 2:41:24
  We both in the midfield and it was about to do a fight, a lot
• 2:41:27
  of, a lot of talking. But Gene Tech won that game.
• 2:41:31
  Bucky Hodges had the game, went in touch and he also had the
• 2:41:34
  long catch. That's, you know, again, I can
• 2:41:37
  keep doing this. It's not really about so much,
• 2:41:39
  you know, the historical perspective.
• 2:41:41
  It's just knowing your program. Like right now, as much as I
• 2:41:44
  love and you guys know how much I love pride, I'm still
• 2:41:49
  wondering and waiting to see who we are right now under his
• 2:41:53
  regime. Because I don't really know our
• 2:41:56
  identity yet because everything I just described historically
• 2:41:59
  was the Beamer era and Bud Foster era.
• 2:42:02
  OK, I'm waiting to see this new era, you know what I'm saying?
• 2:42:06
  So we will know when we back and when, you know, we're three and
• 2:42:11
  two or four and one and we know K, it's a close game, What
• 2:42:14
  should we expect? Because everything I was
• 2:42:16
  describing, we knew in a close game somebody was going to make
• 2:42:19
  a play defensively, offensively, on special teams.
• 2:42:22
  And that's kind of what it means to be back, because we knew that
• 2:42:25
  could happen. That can happen.
• 2:42:28
  I think what it is, is, and Billy, you kind of alluded to
• 2:42:31
  this. We're not going to know we're
• 2:42:33
  back. It's just going to be organic.
• 2:42:36
  We're going to walk out that force and it's going to feel
• 2:42:39
  like it did for me 15 years ago, 2007, 2008.
• 2:42:44
  And it's like, you know, my buddy from San Diego's calling
• 2:42:49
  me Billy's hit me up in the DM. Tally and Brian are Texan, The
• 2:42:52
  White's Texas Luthers is in on the DM, and you're going to just
• 2:42:55
  feel it. It's not going to be that moment
• 2:42:57
  now, now. It's not going to be like a
• 2:42:59
  moment, but I think it will be a moment.
• 2:43:01
  When I say that because if you tell me we're 4:00 and 1:00 and
• 2:43:05
  we go down to Florida State and I'm just just hypothetically and
• 2:43:09
  it's late fourth quarter in 6 foot 6, Kalau lost and sneaks
• 2:43:14
  through on the special teams and get his hands out and flows the
• 2:43:17
  game. It's going to be that moment and
• 2:43:19
  we're not going to know it right in that moment we aren't.
• 2:43:22
  But in a couple years, you guys are going to be sitting across
• 2:43:25
  from us, maybe on Zoom, maybe we're at PK's, maybe we're.
• 2:43:29
  Somewhere downtown, maybe we're at Sharky's and one of y'all is
• 2:43:33
  going to say, Billy's going to say you remember that night,
• 2:43:36
  that play and we're all going to be like that was it.
• 2:43:41
  That's when we were back right there, gentlemen, Y'all do not
• 2:43:46
  know how much it means to us. Y'all joining us tonight.
• 2:43:50
  You guys are pillars within the Virginia Tech community.
• 2:43:53
  You guys playing for the program, you know?
• 2:43:57
  We we started this thing up three years ago.
• 2:44:00
  Tally joined us this year and it has been a ride and it's been so
• 2:44:04
  much fun. I look forward to hopefully
• 2:44:05
  catching you all at the games. Billy, we're going to be at
• 2:44:08
  Purdue. I hope you're there.
• 2:44:09
  We're going to find you, buy you a drink, Luther, Dwight.
• 2:44:12
  If y'all come down, we're going to catch y'all as well.
• 2:44:14
  But we really appreciate it, guys.
• 2:44:16
  Man, thank you guys. I know you know it's 11:45.
• 2:44:19
  You guys have been on here for for three hours.
• 2:44:21
  Luther, it's great seeing you. Dwight, it's great seeing you
• 2:44:23
  and. Brian Curtis and Tally, you guys
• 2:44:26
  have done such a great job and I think one of the things that I
• 2:44:30
  learned early on was what makes this fan base so special.
• 2:44:33
  While I may disagree with a lot of the people I love that people
• 2:44:37
  I love that everybody gives a damn and gives a shit.
• 2:44:40
  And that's what makes. So.
• 2:44:42
  Special and you know credit to you guys for for building what
• 2:44:46
  you guys have built and I'm I am looking forward to to sitting
• 2:44:50
  down and saying that is that is the moment that.
• 2:44:53
  That we do get it going. So great job by you guys.
• 2:44:55
  Seriously, this was, this was awesome.
• 2:44:57
  I second that, man. I second I told you guys last
• 2:45:00
  night. I tell you all the time, y'all
• 2:45:01
  are killing. And I love it.
• 2:45:03
  And I'll say this, man, look at all the people you got you had
• 2:45:06
  on. I know it's a lot of people that
• 2:45:07
  couldn't make the panel but between you know Jonathan and
• 2:45:12
  Luther's joint they do and y'all's and the things I do with
• 2:45:15
  Mike and the things I do with Danny Noakes we got all these
• 2:45:18
  different imagine when tech starts getting back to relevance
• 2:45:23
  all the all the and we didn't even mention the tech sidelines
• 2:45:27
  and there are so many people that cover this program that
• 2:45:31
  wanted to see it do well. Like Billy said, we might not
• 2:45:34
  always agree, but when they start doing well, it's going to
• 2:45:37
  be crazy man. Because you know, we when I
• 2:45:40
  played it was just Tech sideline and David till you know what I'm
• 2:45:44
  saying? Yeah.
• 2:45:45
  Yeah, too. He gave it to you.
• 2:45:47
  MM Barber and those boys. Yeah.
• 2:45:50
  My yeah was that was them. Now you got all.
• 2:45:52
  But this is cool man. I appreciate.
• 2:45:53
  I I never take any love or a chance to sweep my mind for
• 2:45:56
  granted, man. I appreciate y'all.
• 2:45:58
  Man, Yep. And we.
• 2:45:58
  Appreciate you guys do a great job, man.
• 2:46:00
  I'm gonna hit a couple games. Let's figure out a way to.
• 2:46:03
  Get together as a tailgate or something like that.
• 2:46:06
  Yeah, drinks growing Curtis. I wrote that down so I'll
• 2:46:08
  remember. I'm the guy with three kids
• 2:46:11
  here, man. Bring the wallet, Curtis.
• 2:46:15
  Bring the wallet. Drinks on our sponsor.
• 2:46:19
  That's pretty good. Yeah, there we go.
• 2:46:21
  Jamison shots all around. Jamison shots all around.
• 2:46:24
  Well, listen, as we wrap up tonight, I want to thank
• 2:46:26
  Drayson, Wimbush. We'll take Dan, Pete B, Dwight,
• 2:46:30
  Vick, Luther, Maddie. Really.
• 2:46:33
  Ray Mitchell from the Suns of Saturday?
• 2:46:35
  David Cunningham from Tech sideline.
• 2:46:37
  Mike McDaniel from, well, wherever?
• 2:46:39
  Mike McDaniel. Everywhere from because.
• 2:46:41
  He's from everywhere. And our own Shelton Moss for
• 2:46:44
  joining us tonight. That does wrap up this episode
• 2:46:47
  of the Boundary Corner podcast brought by Main Street Pharmacy
• 2:46:51
  in Blacksburg. I'm Curtis Wilson.
• 2:46:53
  I'm Brian Sigler. Visit our website
• 2:46:56
  boundarycornervt.com to listen to all of our episodes.
• 2:46:59
  We also have a merchandise shop. I shared that with Mr. Vic last
• 2:47:02
  night. Go in there, check it out with
• 2:47:04
  some of the things we are putting out why you're there at
• 2:47:06
  our website. Follow us Twitter, Facebook,
• 2:47:09
  Instagram, subscribe to our YouTube channel and your
• 2:47:12
  favorite podcast source. We're on all of them.
• 2:47:14
  As always, we let our buddy down and rolling Jason long play us
• 2:47:17
  in. He plays us out every week.
• 2:47:20
  Check himoutjasonlawmusic.com. He's also on Spotify.
• 2:47:23
  And check his YouTube channel and his Facebook page is out.
• 2:47:27
  And as always, we thank you for listening.
• 2:47:30
  Let's go. Okay.