Latest / Boundary Corner Podcast / Hokie Ventures

Transcript

Hokie Ventures · Boundary Corner Podcast

• 1:18
  And welcome back to the Boundary Corner podcast along with my
• 1:22
  partners, Brian Ziegler, Jonathan Talley, Shelton Moss,
• 1:26
  and tonight our special guest managing editor from Tech
• 1:29
  Sideline, David Cunningham. I am Curtis Wilson and we are,
• 1:33
  as always, brought to you by Moments on the Maori.
• 1:37
  Looking for a weekend getaway this spring, summer or fall?
• 1:40
  Moments on the Maori might be exactly what you're looking for.
• 1:44
  Owned by a very proud hokey who was at the Richmond Hokey
• 1:50
  Tailgate tonight. I'm wondering if he'll check in
• 1:52
  there as he rolls back from that.
• 1:55
  Located just outside Lexington, VA, Place gives you everything
• 1:58
  you can think of. The little mountain retreat,
• 2:00
  fishing, kayaking, relaxing by or in the river right outside
• 2:05
  your back door. If you're interested in that,
• 2:08
  click and point your phone with the QR code at the upper left
• 2:11
  hand corner and it will take you right to their page.
• 2:14
  Also check out their Instagram moments on the Maury Man.
• 2:18
  We are we we're we're all back together with one of our
• 2:22
  favorite hokey people out here in David Cunningham.
• 2:25
  What a night it's going to be. Everyone is bespectacled
• 2:29
  tonight, and this is in honor of DC.
• 2:33
  I. Appreciate you guys having me on
• 2:34
  and Tally. Tally got on and was like,
• 2:37
  everyone needs their glasses on and hey, we're rocking them,
• 2:39
  hey. I can't see without mine.
• 2:43
  I know some people probably can take theirs on and off, but mine
• 2:46
  has to be on. I can definitely do this, by the
• 2:51
  way, making his grand return because the man has been working
• 2:57
  his butt off supposedly for the last five months.
• 3:03
  Shelton Moss makes some Shelton. How you living, man?
• 3:09
  I'm doing good, man. This is this is the best time of
• 3:12
  the year where all the the college sports are over.
• 3:15
  David. David knows the knows the grind,
• 3:17
  although he's he's still working too, because he's got to deal
• 3:19
  with all the commitment stuff. But yeah, it's it's been good.
• 3:23
  We'll have some free time in the summer.
• 3:24
  It's kind of relaxed a little bit, but excited to be back on
• 3:26
  talk some. So Smokey basketball.
• 3:27
  They made a little hooky baseball too.
• 3:29
  But obviously, you know, football, football primarily the
• 3:31
  news for all of the all of the big wins on the recruiting show.
• 3:35
  Yep, absolutely. Tonight we are going to be
• 3:38
  talking a little bit of everything with David here.
• 3:41
  We are going to be talking about Hokies hoops to kick it off
• 3:45
  tonight because it looks like that class, all the ends, all
• 3:49
  the outs are done just to kind of take a look at that piece.
• 3:54
  Obviously some other news and things to take care of with all
• 3:57
  baseball. Without a shadow of a doubt,
• 4:00
  we're going to give Shelton a little little free reign to talk
• 4:04
  about a couple of the retirements because he missed
• 4:06
  that. He did he he tried everything
• 4:08
  when that broke to get on, but it just did not work out that
• 4:12
  week. So we're giving him his own.
• 4:14
  And then obviously we're going to talk recruiting because it's
• 4:18
  it's at a level we have not seen in a very long time here at
• 4:22
  Virginia Tech. Everyone in the comments is
• 4:24
  excited about the recruiting Curtis.
• 4:27
  I mean, who isn't, who is not excited about the recruiting
• 4:30
  right now? It's it's going nuts.
• 4:32
  So since the last time we sat on here, which was the Wednesday
• 4:37
  night before the board commitment and Tally was, I
• 4:41
  mean, Tally, I won't give Tally all the credit.
• 4:44
  Dave is smiling because Tally was fighting people on the
• 4:46
  timeline. I mean people on the timeline
• 4:50
  about board. It was.
• 4:51
  Great. And now he he got to he got to
• 4:55
  cock walk all over and be like coach.
• 4:57
  So but we're going to talk about that later.
• 4:59
  But with our buddy David Cunningham managing after Tech
• 5:03
  sideline, we are going to kick it off with basketball tonight.
• 5:06
  And David, first of all, how you been?
• 5:10
  Glad? It's been like 3 months since
• 5:11
  we're two months since we saw you.
• 5:12
  We were talking about spring ball and stuff in the end of
• 5:15
  basketball season. Life good.
• 5:18
  It's been good, you know, funny, I joked on our Techs Hotline
• 5:21
  podcast probably a month ago, it's like, man, you know, you
• 5:25
  might slow down a little bit now.
• 5:27
  Like, not like there's anything going on.
• 5:28
  And, well, since, you know, Virginia Tech has had its
• 5:32
  president and its athletic director retire and the Hokies
• 5:36
  are hot on the recruiting trail on top of basketball transfer
• 5:39
  portal. And you throw in all the stuff
• 5:43
  going on with the board of visitors right now and the
• 5:45
  changes in Blacksburg, and there's a lot going on.
• 5:49
  I haven't gotten much of a break, but it's been good and
• 5:52
  always a pleasure to chat with you guys.
• 5:53
  I appreciate you guys having me on.
• 5:56
  It, it does feel like a a completely new era with
• 5:59
  everything going on between Sands wit You got Franklin and
• 6:03
  House doing his thing. Yeah.
• 6:05
  You had a couple other retirements that are coming down
• 6:07
  the Pike, you know, as of June 30th.
• 6:09
  I mean, it's really kind of like a brand new fresh start, almost
• 6:14
  top to bottom in the athletic department.
• 6:16
  So it's it's been an exciting time, but I'm sure it's kept you
• 6:18
  busy. Yes, well, and, and the, the,
• 6:21
  the, you know, we went through some what 2/2 plus months,
• 6:27
  almost three months of head coaching search in the fall, you
• 6:31
  know, and then you get, you get to the other side of it and it's
• 6:34
  peak recruiting season in the end of basketball.
• 6:36
  And now you've got dueling president in AD searches on top
• 6:40
  of a complete restructuring of the athletic department, they're
• 6:43
  also hiring a head of the hokey club.
• 6:44
  And they're also, as we're going to talk about later, I'm sure
• 6:46
  hiring a CEO to, to oversee this new LLC.
• 6:51
  So it is going to be chaos galore.
• 6:55
  It's kind of just really getting started right now and it has got
• 6:58
  me very busy. But you know what, I think it's
• 7:03
  a it's a really important transformational time for
• 7:09
  Virginia Tech athletics as a whole right now.
• 7:13
  You know, come I I expect the president to be kind of the
• 7:17
  final person of that group hired after the AD, the CEO, the head
• 7:21
  of the Hokie Club. And when we look back at after
• 7:26
  the president is hired, my guess is, you know, a year, maybe
• 7:30
  maybe a little after, a little more than a year dating back to
• 7:35
  when James Franklin was hired. And you can say that probably at
• 7:38
  five of the most prominent positions at the entire
• 7:41
  university. There has been change, knock on
• 7:45
  wood, for everyone involved. It has been positive Change
• 7:50
  obviously doesn't mean, you know, we don't know what's going
• 7:53
  to happen after that. But but they've kind of laid
• 7:57
  down the foundation so far. It is, it's, it's definitely
• 8:01
  interesting to see what's going to happen with that.
• 8:02
  And we're going to talk about that a little later because I'm
• 8:05
  going to tell you the research I've been doing on that and like
• 8:09
  seeing the other schools doing it is pretty wild.
• 8:11
  But let's kick to basketball because to our knowledge, David,
• 8:16
  everything is done right. All everybody who's staying is
• 8:19
  staying. All the guys out are out and
• 8:22
  everybody coming in is in. Yeah, I would, I would assume
• 8:27
  so. I would assume so.
• 8:29
  They, they picked up a commitment from Ethan Copeland
• 8:31
  from a Garfield Stetson probably 2 a week or two ago.
• 8:36
  I I would imagine he's probably the last one.
• 8:38
  But also, you never really know in this day and age, Curtis,
• 8:41
  because they're European. There's a European international
• 8:45
  aspect to this as well, right? Hokies got of Dallas in June
• 8:49
  last year. They got Antonio Doran around
• 8:51
  the same time. So we'll we'll, we'll see.
• 8:54
  I would expect that the the roster to pretty much be
• 8:57
  finalized, but it wouldn't shock me if for either the men or the
• 9:01
  women if there's kind of a a surprise international edition.
• 9:06
  Yeah. All right.
• 9:07
  So we'll definitely keep our ears and eyes open for that.
• 9:10
  But let's talk about the six guys who are in.
• 9:14
  You know you got coal attack coming out of Oklahoma.
• 9:16
  Miles Heidi from San Diego State, Isaiah Elohim from FAUA,
• 9:23
  borderline 5 star when he came out and went to USCA couple
• 9:27
  years ago, Jalen Curry out of Oklahoma State, San Gina.
• 9:31
  I just butchered the hell out of that name.
• 9:33
  But y'all know that's me from NC State.
• 9:35
  And then you mentioned Ethan Copeland.
• 9:39
  Do you have any one of these guys that's like like that's
• 9:45
  like the guy they needed because the we'll talk about the
• 9:48
  turnover in a few minutes here, but like they needed to land
• 9:52
  that type of player for this upcoming season because it seems
• 9:56
  like the Hokies might become a transfer portal basketball
• 9:59
  school. Well I think the additions of
• 10:03
  the three guards on the wing and Elohim and and Copeland and
• 10:08
  Curry are all huge. I think those 3, like you had to
• 10:12
  replace Jalen Bedford and Jaden Shoot and Isaiah Pasha for what
• 10:17
  what that's worth. I mean to be fair, the tech has
• 10:21
  a pretty good core trio of Ben Hammond, Tyler Johnson and Amani
• 10:25
  Hansberry. That's a fact.
• 10:27
  They're pretty talented guys. Amani Hansberry is an all ACC
• 10:31
  pick coming back, but you need guys around them and I think
• 10:36
  that trio of guards, a little bit different skill sets.
• 10:40
  I think as you mentioned, Curtis Eleveen coming from FAU, he was
• 10:45
  really, really highly touted kid, started his career at USCI.
• 10:49
  Think him and Curry, who's from Charlotte originally and played
• 10:52
  for Frank Martin. Are you Maz?
• 10:53
  I think those two guys are going to be instant impact.
• 10:56
  Copeland I'm interested to see. He's a three-point shooter and
• 10:59
  he was on fire at Stetson this year in the A Sun.
• 11:02
  I think those three guys are are really important because you
• 11:06
  have to have quality depth and I think Curry adds a little bit of
• 11:09
  versatility as a ball handler and he's he's a little on the
• 11:13
  shorter side. I don't know how much you want
• 11:16
  to play him and Ben Hammond together, but he also provides
• 11:20
  you the option to do so. So I I like what they've done in
• 11:25
  the back court. I I think that has shaped up
• 11:29
  pretty well given, you know, where it was.
• 11:32
  I mean, they they lost of dollars Bedford Pasha and shoot
• 11:37
  and they added these three guys and you know, you're not going
• 11:40
  to be able to completely replace them, I don't think.
• 11:43
  But I think they did a pretty good job.
• 11:46
  Yeah, I love hearing that. And you know, when you look at
• 11:48
  the the guards, we also had got to look at the front court a
• 11:51
  little bit too, because, you know, you do have Hansberry
• 11:54
  coming back, but you know, you had Gerdock and Dorn both
• 11:58
  exiting the portal. Guys like Atak and Heidi coming
• 12:04
  in. Are they going to be able to
• 12:05
  kind of fill those roles in a similar way?
• 12:07
  I know they're probably not quite size wise matching up to
• 12:11
  the to the departures, but what do you feel about those guys?
• 12:14
  Well, I think Atak is really interesting.
• 12:16
  He's got a unique skill set. He's like 6-9.
• 12:20
  He's 69. He's almost the scene.
• 12:21
  Heidi are almost the same size, but they they've got like much
• 12:25
  different body types. Atak is kind of a slender
• 12:28
  stretch, 4 of sorts. I think he provides you the
• 12:31
  option to play Hansberry at the five, him at the four.
• 12:33
  He's a good three-point shooter, played really well at Oklahoma
• 12:37
  for a bunch of stretches this year.
• 12:39
  And then Heidi, I think Heidi is a veteran defensive presence.
• 12:44
  He played at a San Diego State for a San Diego State program
• 12:47
  that was top 20, top 30 in defensive efficiency.
• 12:50
  Last couple years he's been to the NCAA tournament.
• 12:53
  He knows what it takes. I don't know that he's a true
• 12:56
  inside score, but I think he's a good inside presence as far as
• 13:00
  defensively goes. And that's what you kind of
• 13:02
  need. You need to pair those guys with
• 13:04
  Amani Hansberry. And the other name I wouldn't
• 13:06
  sleep on is Sincere Jones. He's a guy who he got hurt last
• 13:10
  year and he missed a good chunk of basically the entire
• 13:13
  second-half of ACC play, got hurt kind of early mid January.
• 13:19
  But he, Mike Young and the staff raved about him.
• 13:23
  He's just very raw and didn't really have an opportunity to
• 13:26
  kind of get a ton of significant consistent minutes for a long
• 13:30
  time. But he showed a lot of really
• 13:33
  impressive flashes when he did play.
• 13:34
  So I think that's kind of come together how, how they would
• 13:39
  like, I think the front court, you know, if, if they could add
• 13:44
  another player potentially like an international guy, they
• 13:46
  they'd add someone there. And you mentioned Musa Sagna, I
• 13:52
  believe his name is from NC State.
• 13:54
  He's more of a depth piece in in the front court, I think, but
• 13:58
  you could see him have a little bit of of an impact.
• 14:02
  He's more so just a guy who he didn't have a lot of experience.
• 14:05
  He's raw. He hadn't played basketball very
• 14:07
  long, but but he's got some raw talent.
• 14:11
  He's kind of got to mold it into what you you would like it to
• 14:15
  be. Sally, what you got on this?
• 14:19
  Yeah. Y'all do I really need to say
• 14:23
  it? Y'all want me to say it?
• 14:25
  I want you to say it because you texted it the other day.
• 14:28
  David, how long is Mike Young going to be here?
• 14:36
  I mean, it all depends dally. I mean, to be completely honest
• 14:40
  there, I will, I will be very curious to see how the incoming
• 14:45
  athletic director views his that position.
• 14:52
  It it's, it's complicated because I think in a lot of ways
• 14:55
  you could argue that Mike Young has not gone anywhere close to
• 14:58
  enough at Virginia Tech over the last 3-4 years since winning an
• 15:03
  ACC championship and that they've missed on the NCAA
• 15:08
  tournament. And I think this year, this past
• 15:09
  season was a big blunder. They had the right roster, they
• 15:13
  increased their resources, just didn't get it right.
• 15:15
  I think it was a big make or break year.
• 15:18
  The difficult part now is that you're going all in on football
• 15:22
  and, and in terms of resources going really all in on football
• 15:26
  as you should. And you're seeing that pay off
• 15:28
  as we'll talk about with recruiting later.
• 15:30
  And also the, you know, the the staffing and everything going on
• 15:34
  with the football program is in the right spot.
• 15:36
  But it is very difficult to compete in men's basketball
• 15:40
  right now if you don't have the proper funding and if you're not
• 15:43
  funding it competitively year over year over year.
• 15:48
  And Virginia Tech did last year, but didn't, hasn't really
• 15:51
  increased the funding for this year, which makes it just makes
• 15:54
  it really tough. That's not, it's not really a
• 15:58
  black and white answer because a new AD could come in and, and
• 16:03
  feel like, hey, we're going to shift some resources around and
• 16:07
  fund men's basketball more. Or a new AD could say, well,
• 16:10
  we're going to go try to find a coach who will come in and do
• 16:14
  something more with the resources we have.
• 16:19
  It's, it's complicated because I think he's obviously, I think
• 16:24
  he's well liked by a lot of the donors, but at the same time the
• 16:29
  don't, there's a little bit of donor fatigue, I think and you
• 16:33
  got to continue to raise money in this environment.
• 16:36
  I don't really know how how long he's going to be here.
• 16:38
  It's a tough question to answer. And I think everyone around the
• 16:43
  program knows that they have to be better and is that is that
• 16:47
  one year, 2 years? I I'm not really sure, but you
• 16:52
  got to make the tournament and they were really close.
• 16:57
  Might be a little bit different now that it's going to be a 76
• 17:00
  team tournament. God.
• 17:02
  I don't mean to get us started there, but but it really comes
• 17:07
  down to resources. I think you have to have the
• 17:11
  right resources because you can you can make a change, but if
• 17:16
  you don't have the right resources for the next coach, it
• 17:19
  doesn't necessarily matter. So it's kind of a case by case
• 17:22
  situation. But his seat is warm.
• 17:25
  Everyone understands that. Everyone understands that they
• 17:29
  have to win and they have to win now, and they're doing it with
• 17:32
  little resources. I know Shelton wants to add
• 17:34
  something, but he's also, this is the last year of his
• 17:37
  contract, he is, there has been no extensions, right?
• 17:41
  Yeah. I mean, my guess is, well,
• 17:45
  nothing official. I was told back towards the end
• 17:49
  of the season that there was an extension coming in, that there
• 17:53
  was an extension in the works. And the difficult part is that
• 17:57
  right now you're in, you're in a spot where you only have one
• 18:03
  year left on your contract, that you're going into your final
• 18:06
  year. It's really hard for not just
• 18:11
  recruiting, but for everything to kind of coach on a one year
• 18:14
  deal where you don't know what your future is going to be after
• 18:17
  the season. I don't expect to be a long
• 18:20
  extension, but at least and I don't expect that the terms or
• 18:25
  anything had changed. Like it's not like they're going
• 18:26
  to Jack up his buy out, but more so just to especially during an
• 18:32
  athletic director change where so much is changing in the
• 18:35
  athletic department. I think it they need to kind of
• 18:38
  roll it over and he's not the only coach that has a contract
• 18:42
  coming up that's going to expire soon.
• 18:44
  Baseball John Chef, this is John.
• 18:46
  John Chef's entering. He will enter his final year of
• 18:49
  his contract. But I think there will be
• 18:52
  extensions for one both of those guys coming at some point before
• 18:58
  say July 1, something officially announced.
• 19:01
  Just if anything, just to kind of roll and roll them over to
• 19:05
  the next administration. Not too long, but enough where
• 19:10
  it's not the first thing that the new AD comes in and he has
• 19:13
  to evaluate the men's basketball program.
• 19:15
  Do I have to hire a men's basketball coach first thing
• 19:17
  like. But it's it's really
• 19:19
  complicated. But to your point, Curtis, yeah,
• 19:23
  I'm I'm. It's just a really tough spot to
• 19:26
  be in. I'm curious to hear Rochelle has
• 19:27
  to say. Yeah, I mean nothing.
• 19:31
  I mean nothing too too crazy. Like I just want to say I was
• 19:34
  looking at some of the projections for next year, which
• 19:37
  my friend Edwin brought up to me right now.
• 19:40
  T rank, also known as Bart Torvik, has the Hokies as the
• 19:43
  number 31 team in the country, which I was kind of kind of
• 19:46
  shocked by. But you look at it.
• 19:48
  I mean they've they've added some high production transfers,
• 19:51
  like obviously, I think a talk and and Curry being the big
• 19:53
  ones. A few others in there.
• 19:55
  Hello him. We'll get some get some minutes.
• 19:57
  So you got a Mile High as well. So I think I think Mike has done
• 20:01
  a good job of kind of assembling, you know, a a, a
• 20:03
  decent cast of characters that have produced that previous D1
• 20:06
  schools and just making the most of the budget that he's got.
• 20:09
  But I do I I was certainly very surprised to see that tech that
• 20:12
  projected that highly in the rankings.
• 20:14
  I just, you know, like last year they weren't, you know, we
• 20:17
  didn't really know as much about last year's team with just how
• 20:20
  many unknowns there were. I mean, and obviously Neo coming
• 20:22
  over from from Europe. You know, they weren't, they
• 20:25
  weren't very projected very highly in the preseason, in the
• 20:27
  preseason polls. But this year is different and,
• 20:30
  and they've got actual encore production from guys that played
• 20:32
  a good a good program. So I'm I'm excited to see it.
• 20:37
  They got to stay healthy. That's a big thing.
• 20:39
  Yep, they're being burned. That burned them last year.
• 20:42
  On top of all the other problems with closing out games.
• 20:46
  It's, it's, it's hard to win consistently the ACC if you're
• 20:50
  not healthy, especially if you're dropping close games
• 20:52
  that, you know, you really had in hand until the final two
• 20:55
  minutes. And in most of those contests.
• 20:57
  And to Sheldon's point, I mean, you see them rank that high and
• 21:01
  it does give you like a little bit of pause because, you know,
• 21:04
  you, you'd lost a, a good chunk of talent.
• 21:07
  But at the same time, you're, you're bringing in a lot of
• 21:10
  production. So, you know, it seems like at
• 21:13
  least from a a strength standpoint, they're they're
• 21:17
  giving that a lot of, lot of kudos on what Mike Young and
• 21:21
  Virginia Tech have been able to do in the portal in terms of
• 21:24
  just production coming in. Just interested to see with, you
• 21:28
  know, basketball, as as Curtis said earlier, has kind of become
• 21:31
  this, you know, live and die by the transfer portal.
• 21:35
  You, you got the production in here.
• 21:36
  You got to make sure that this is the right mix of characters,
• 21:40
  get things to gel. And I know it's easier in
• 21:42
  basketball than football, much less of a dice roll.
• 21:46
  But we saw, you know, stretches last year where some of that
• 21:50
  continuity didn't really gel the way that you wanted to in in key
• 21:53
  situations, especially down the stretch in some of those games.
• 21:56
  So hoping that the the mix of characters is working out better
• 22:01
  this year than the kind of what we saw last year, even though
• 22:03
  the talent level overall was pretty, pretty high on that
• 22:06
  team, but but sometimes that just didn't that didn't equal
• 22:09
  wins. Yeah.
• 22:10
  And to what we said, you said David was perfect.
• 22:15
  And if you think about last year's team injuries, can they
• 22:18
  stay healthy? Because that team when it was
• 22:22
  healthy, it was like it was kind of an unseen.
• 22:27
  It's a good question. Keep that up there.
• 22:28
  We'll, we'll let you jump on that one next.
• 22:30
  But it was kind of an unseen because if you remember early in
• 22:32
  the season and they'd grab rebounds and go on fast breaks,
• 22:36
  alley oop dunks, attacking the rim.
• 22:38
  That's something we hadn't seen a lot with Mike Young usually
• 22:41
  used to get the rebounds like go run the set, not attack.
• 22:44
  And then Toby gets hurt, Neil gets hurt where it's like we
• 22:48
  can't even do that anymore because it looked like there was
• 22:51
  going to be a different element there.
• 22:52
  It wasn't going to be the typical Mike Young stuff.
• 22:55
  But let's go to Dwight's question.
• 23:00
  What is the basketball identity under coach Mike Young?
• 23:03
  I think that's a great point that sometimes may get lost
• 23:08
  because he's been hit 20/18/20. 18/20/19 was his first season.
• 23:15
  2019, OK, but that's seven years.
• 23:19
  I mean what's your opinion on that?
• 23:21
  What's? What's the identity?
• 23:23
  Or is there not one? Well, I think I think they got
• 23:27
  their to an extent. They got their look back
• 23:30
  defensively when they brought Chester Frazier back.
• 23:32
  I think they won't. The goal is to try to be pretty
• 23:37
  rugged defensive team, like good enough.
• 23:41
  I'm not not that they're going to be really good, but good
• 23:43
  enough defensively, which they were not over the last couple
• 23:47
  years between when when that 22 title and really up until this
• 23:53
  past season. They've always been a heavy 3
• 23:58
  point shooting team. I think Mike Young's teams are
• 24:01
  best when they play inside out. And the problem is really since
• 24:04
  Keve Luma and Justin Mutts have left, they haven't really had
• 24:07
  that in inside presence that can go back to the basket.
• 24:11
  I think Imani Hansberry did at times, but I think even to an
• 24:16
  extent Toby Lalow was very limited at what he could do.
• 24:21
  He wasn't a true kind of throw it inside and he's going to
• 24:25
  create. I'm interested to see what steps
• 24:27
  forward Imani Hansberry can can take.
• 24:31
  I would say as far as style goes, last year's team was not a
• 24:37
  good representative of what they're trying to accomplish
• 24:40
  because they took a risk with the dollars and basically said
• 24:43
  we're going to give you the keys and kind of make this make you
• 24:46
  the focal point of everything. And it didn't work.
• 24:49
  It flamed out. And that's why in January when
• 24:51
  if Dallas was not playing well, you saw them make Ben Hammond
• 24:55
  the focal point and Ben Hammond kind of took it and ran with it.
• 24:59
  He played really well. But you got a, a shifty point
• 25:03
  guard. You got some guys who can shoot,
• 25:06
  but you really just want to my my, I would say run good sets
• 25:10
  and and play inside out. You can't be 1 dimensional and I
• 25:17
  think at times tech has not been good enough defensively, not
• 25:21
  been not been multi dimensional. And the difficult part is they
• 25:27
  were probably a shot or two away from making the tournament last
• 25:31
  year. But that's just the way the dice
• 25:34
  rolls at this point. It's I I wonder if them get them
• 25:43
  the guys that they picked up in the portal is kind of them
• 25:45
  getting back to what they want the identity to be as far as
• 25:49
  you've got some good shooters, you've got you've got a couple
• 25:52
  guys that that have the capabilities to slash, but you
• 25:55
  want to stretch the floor and play a little inside out.
• 25:57
  And I think Heidi gives you a little bit of an inside game
• 26:00
  alongside Hansberry. But I'm also still curious to
• 26:04
  see how it how it fleshes out. I think they got too caught up
• 26:08
  in the of Dallas spotlight last year of Dallas is this high
• 26:12
  profile guy coming in, you want to please him, you want to kind
• 26:15
  of play the way he wants to play.
• 26:17
  And it didn't work out. But we've seen like young teams
• 26:21
  at their best when they don't turn the ball over, when they
• 26:23
  play good defense, when they can play inside out and kind of make
• 26:27
  you defend all five guys on the court.
• 26:29
  And there were too many times last year, even the year prior
• 26:33
  where they were really bad that that they just have not been
• 26:37
  multi dimensional. All right, OK, let's go real
• 26:41
  quick. You mentioned Neo there.
• 26:43
  We talked about Dorne and Gerdack earlier.
• 26:45
  Of all the guys that left in, you know, Tom Johnson was
• 26:51
  another one. No, no, Tom Johnson came back.
• 26:54
  Excuse me there. Who am I missing here?
• 26:59
  That left. Yeah, that left.
• 27:01
  Which one hurts the most? Like who truly like hurts the
• 27:05
  most from not only maybe a team chemistry standpoint, but maybe
• 27:09
  just in general. Like that guy with these other
• 27:12
  this, like they're 31 now. They could have been 21 if you
• 27:17
  had this. Yeah, and I think of I think of
• 27:20
  of Dallas, it would have been good to have of Dallas for
• 27:22
  another year. But that that's, that's really
• 27:26
  like it's you're, that's really hot, really cold in my opinion.
• 27:29
  Like there's not really a good middle ground be really good or
• 27:33
  or not because it's either going to work or it doesn't.
• 27:36
  In my opinion, the biggest one is Gerdach.
• 27:38
  Like Christian Gerdach played really well as a true freshman.
• 27:42
  And as I mean, Mike Young told David Thiel down at ACC spring
• 27:47
  meetings that it, it was a financial thing.
• 27:51
  He went to Rutgers. Gerdach, is he really like
• 27:55
  Virginia Tech, Really good, humble kid.
• 27:58
  All my conversations with him, he, he really liked the
• 28:01
  situation he was in. But I, I think, you know, he was
• 28:06
  probably 4th or 5th on that list of guys to keep below the three
• 28:10
  they kept. And unfortunately, the money
• 28:14
  might just didn't seem to work out.
• 28:17
  But Gerdack was a very rugged guy who he had 17 and 19 in that
• 28:22
  win over UVA on New Year's Eve last year.
• 28:24
  Like, he can go get you some rebounds, especially on the
• 28:27
  offensive end. I think he kind of embodied what
• 28:30
  Mike Young wanted to do the way he wanted to play.
• 28:34
  What I will say is I think Miles Heidi is an upgrade defensively
• 28:39
  and I think some of the other guys are upgrade as far as
• 28:42
  athleticism because Gerdak didn't have a big vertical.
• 28:46
  He didn't jump up in grab remounts, but he was great in
• 28:49
  terms of positioning. I think shoot could be quote UN
• 28:55
  quote big loss. But at the same time, I think
• 28:57
  it's easy to kind of produce replicate, I should say 3 point
• 29:02
  shooting and that's really all shoot was.
• 29:04
  He was a three-point shooter who who you ran off screens.
• 29:09
  And I think that's basically Ethan Copeland, except he hasn't
• 29:12
  done it as as high a level. Shoot got picked on defensively
• 29:15
  by a lot of teams. Florida State, Luke Lax came out
• 29:19
  and said it like, hey, we're we're picking on on shoot like
• 29:23
  so I don't know. I think Gerdack is the one
• 29:26
  that's really most difficult to replace.
• 29:29
  The others, you know, I think you wouldn't like to lose them,
• 29:34
  but you understand it a little bit more.
• 29:37
  But Murdock is one who is just like, he's a quality big who
• 29:41
  played well for you. He could have been better in a
• 29:45
  bigger role. Can I ask if you're if you're
• 29:48
  able to answer this, How much for Neo to go to UNC?
• 29:54
  How many more? How big?
• 29:56
  How much bigger was the number that you've heard?
• 29:59
  If you can say, if you can't say, then that's what it is.
• 30:02
  I think, I think it's like 2, two and a half.
• 30:06
  OK. I don't.
• 30:09
  I. Mean, I don't think, I don't
• 30:11
  think it was. I think it was right around 2
• 30:13
  1/2, maybe a little closer to three.
• 30:16
  But I mean, Tech wasn't going to be able to keep him anyway
• 30:20
  financially, regardless of what I mean, even if the number
• 30:23
  didn't stay, even if the number didn't change, it stayed the
• 30:26
  same. Jack wasn't really going to be
• 30:27
  able to keep him. That's a tough part, man, in
• 30:30
  men's basketball, not to rant about this, but like, the price
• 30:33
  to compete is continuing to go up.
• 30:36
  And unlike football, which everyone knows all the resources
• 30:39
  have to go to men's basketball, the price is exponentially,
• 30:45
  exponentially growing. And if you are not increasing
• 30:49
  your your what you're putting into the program every single
• 30:52
  year at a similar rate, you're not going to be as better as
• 30:58
  well off in terms of resources. You know, Virginia Tech is going
• 31:01
  to be one of the best finance football programs in the country
• 31:05
  under James Franklin. That is a fact.
• 31:09
  But men's basketball is completely different.
• 31:12
  And the difficult part is there are a lot of other programs in
• 31:15
  the same boat that like you've got to fun football, you got to
• 31:19
  make sure all your ducks are in a row with football and then you
• 31:22
  got to help men's basketball as best you can.
• 31:24
  Obviously Duke, Carolina, little a little bit different story,
• 31:27
  Virginia, But you know, a team like Notre Dame's running into
• 31:30
  this where you got to put all your ducks in or all your money
• 31:33
  in football and, you know, try to do the best you can with
• 31:36
  men's basketball. Wake Forest a little bit
• 31:39
  different, but I think that I think that answers this question
• 31:45
  a little bit. Yeah, I think, I think you did a
• 31:48
  good job there. I mean, you know, when you talk
• 31:50
  about the finances, I feel like that's that's kind of where
• 31:53
  you're, you're, you're the rubbers meet the road for
• 31:55
  Virginia Tech. A lot of times you talked about
• 31:58
  the growth. You know, Virginia Tech probably
• 32:01
  every year is probably in the bottom 40% of the ACC in terms
• 32:06
  of, you know, financial commitment to the basketball
• 32:09
  program. Meanwhile, they're expected to
• 32:12
  compete in the upper 40% for us as one of those ACC slots in the
• 32:16
  tournament. So, you know, you got you got to
• 32:18
  bridge that gap somehow. And it's only going to keep
• 32:23
  going up as we, you know, continue further down this road.
• 32:26
  So I'm interested to see if that the financial commitments to
• 32:32
  football eventually trickle down to basketball as as things
• 32:36
  hopefully get get back on the right, the right path on the
• 32:40
  football front, because you know, a good football team is
• 32:44
  going to reap benefits for the other programs in the athletic
• 32:46
  department. So, but unfortunately there's
• 32:50
  probably going to be some some hand wringing and some some
• 32:55
  shorter budgets than they would like until that gets gets back
• 32:58
  on the right direction. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of just
• 33:02
  the way it is. And.
• 33:03
  But guess what? You know, if Virginia Tech comes
• 33:05
  on Wednesday games in the fall, basketball will be somewhat of
• 33:11
  an after afterthought and football's Virginia Tech bread
• 33:16
  and butter. And if you're good at it,
• 33:18
  everything else, I think you would hope kind of everything
• 33:22
  else figures itself out. But they got to be good at
• 33:25
  football camp first. Yeah, exactly.
• 33:28
  And and you know, we're seeing. Yeah, I think it's one of those.
• 33:32
  Virginia Tech kind of reminds me.
• 33:34
  Virginia Tech and Alabama are oh, sorry.
• 33:38
  Go. Ahead.
• 33:39
  I think there's a little delay there.
• 33:40
  Yeah, Go ahead. Go ahead, Sally.
• 33:44
  Now, I was just going to say, like me being here, Virginia
• 33:46
  Tech kind of reminds me of Alabama.
• 33:50
  Again, totally different setups. But I just think about the old
• 33:55
  Alabama basketball teams where Avery Johnson was there and he
• 33:58
  was taking Nick Saban on recruiting trips.
• 34:00
  And, you know, some kids were just going on Alabama recruiting
• 34:05
  trips just so they can go to a football game.
• 34:07
  You know, we had some Huntsville kids that went down to Alabama
• 34:10
  and played. And I just think about like how
• 34:15
  they had to recruit back then before they built the basketball
• 34:19
  program up. And then when it got Nate Oakes,
• 34:22
  you know, Anthony Grant was there.
• 34:24
  So Alabama basketball wasn't this, you know, powerhouse.
• 34:28
  And I don't even know if we call it a powerhouse now, but it
• 34:30
  wasn't to the level that it is now.
• 34:32
  And I know a lot of that takes money, but it started with
• 34:35
  football being good for a long time.
• 34:38
  So basketball team had to ride the coach hills of of of Nick
• 34:42
  Saban in that football team in those national championships
• 34:46
  just to start getting that piece of the pie.
• 34:48
  But I also look at what Mike Young does when you talk about
• 34:53
  the identity of the basketball team.
• 34:55
  And again, I'm not comparing the two, but I think that his
• 34:59
  philosophy and what he wants to run is similar to what Nate
• 35:02
  Oates runs because everybody on the floor is kind of an option
• 35:06
  to score. They stretch the floor a lot.
• 35:09
  They don't have a lot of big guys that are going to go back
• 35:12
  to the basket. It's maybe one guy.
• 35:14
  But even when they do have a big guy that has his back to the
• 35:16
  basket, it's more of a he can guard the one, you know, because
• 35:20
  he's that athletic. And again, that's the quality of
• 35:23
  recruits you're getting. But I've seen Mike Young go out
• 35:26
  and get somebody like I think David said, like Kevin Luma or
• 35:31
  Justin Mutts that are undersized fives or fours, but they're, you
• 35:36
  know, able to guard these guards.
• 35:38
  And I think that's kind of the system that he wants to run.
• 35:42
  But I think what we just get into the trouble is that our
• 35:46
  guards are not the same as somebody like an Alabama guard
• 35:51
  because their guards, you know, they had Nelson running guard or
• 35:58
  small forward, which was like 610.
• 36:01
  We just don't have that luxury. But then you do get a guard that
• 36:06
  is 6869 like Neo and you shut the bed.
• 36:10
  No, no, no shade to him, but it just didn't work.
• 36:12
  So it's just kind of my my thoughts of what I think, you
• 36:16
  know, kind of what Mike Young looks at or what he is trying to
• 36:20
  do. Because the year that they won
• 36:23
  the ACC Championship, you can kind of see the interchangeable.
• 36:29
  I think they they don't cause it position less basketball or
• 36:31
  something like that. Don't quote me, but they run all
• 36:35
  different positions. Everybody can do it.
• 36:38
  You know what I'm saying, that you may have somebody like Sears
• 36:40
  that's going to have the ball in his hand most of the time.
• 36:44
  That would be like, you know, Ben Hammonds.
• 36:46
  But I don't know, man. That's a good question about
• 36:49
  Dwight. I was thinking about that.
• 36:50
  But I'm interested to see what we look like if football takes a
• 36:56
  step up. Yeah, I like that completely.
• 36:59
  Football takes a step up, all right.
• 37:04
  So we're going to close the door on hoops.
• 37:07
  Obviously a lot still to go. You know, I don't even think the
• 37:10
  schedule's finalized yet. Is it?
• 37:12
  I know you put something up the other day, David, they got the
• 37:14
  Charleston Classic. Is that Thanksgiving weekend?
• 37:18
  It's the weekend before Thanksgiving.
• 37:23
  I think I do that. I got family in Charleston.
• 37:24
  I could like go down there. I was.
• 37:25
  Trying to. Go.
• 37:27
  I was trying to go going to get down there.
• 37:29
  Yeah. I mean we're going to Charleston
• 37:31
  in like 3 weeks. So yeah.
• 37:33
  And usually the cozo down there can get tickets to different.
• 37:39
  I think so. I think it's the weekend of the
• 37:40
  Miami football game, so. No, no, no.
• 37:43
  Well, that's in Miami this year though, so South Beach or
• 37:48
  Charleston, maybe, maybe we'll see.
• 37:50
  All right, let's flip over and talk Hokey Ventures friend of
• 37:56
  the program now Doug Ballman first reported along with your
• 38:01
  colleague Andy Better about the Hokey Ventures, about the stuff
• 38:05
  being basically sent to whoever it's got to be sent to, to
• 38:09
  establish it's going to be a business BOV meeting very, very
• 38:14
  soon, June. I think it's Monday.
• 38:17
  Is it June 8th? June 1st.
• 38:19
  Next Monday. Tuesday.
• 38:21
  Monday. Tuesday, So June 8th and 9th to
• 38:25
  effectively, I mean, there's not going to even be a doubt shadow
• 38:28
  with how it's going to get past. It's going to move forward.
• 38:32
  And I don't think they would have let it come out that they
• 38:35
  wouldn't if, if it wasn't going to already have a, a handshake
• 38:39
  deal that they they were going to move forward with this. 100%,
• 38:44
  but looking into that and then seeing things like this again.
• 38:50
  Franklin was down at the tailgate tour tonight, still
• 38:54
  waiting for Phil. Phil, where are you?
• 38:56
  You're supposed to be coming on giving us all of the insight of
• 38:58
  what what happened out there. But looking at some of the other
• 39:03
  ventures, you know, you got Clemson ventures like Kentucky's
• 39:06
  one. They're saying it's going to
• 39:07
  look similar to the Michigan State one.
• 39:12
  I mean it it to me, Virginia Tech for the first time in a
• 39:20
  long time is ahead of something right, because this isn't like
• 39:26
  we aren't that 65th program. We're effectively going to be
• 39:29
  one of the 1st 15 to do something like this, right
• 39:34
  David? And when obviously you got more
• 39:38
  Privy Andy doing the research, Doug doing research, y'all all
• 39:41
  kind of sitting there figuring it out.
• 39:43
  What was like the first response tech sideline when it's like
• 39:49
  holy crap that they're actually going to do this?
• 39:53
  Well, I think it, I mean, we knew they were going to have to,
• 39:58
  they obviously have to hire a new ADA 100.
• 40:01
  Percent. But I think it's the perfect
• 40:04
  time for Virginia Tech athletics to to rebrand and restructure
• 40:08
  itself. You're replacing all the big
• 40:11
  positions. You got a new football coach and
• 40:13
  you got to do something different.
• 40:16
  I go back to Whit Babcock in August, going to the board of
• 40:20
  visitors and essentially sounding the alarm on this and
• 40:23
  raising the alarm and saying the university, we need to be
• 40:27
  better, but the university also needs to give us more financial
• 40:29
  help. And the response by the
• 40:32
  university was to say, hey, here's $229 million.
• 40:36
  We're going to go all in and we're going to fund this thing.
• 40:41
  We're going to give you the resources.
• 40:44
  But we also want to make sure we've got our hands on it and
• 40:49
  are putting it in the right places.
• 40:53
  So they've got an athletics committee on the board of
• 40:54
  visitors now, they've got an athletics investment oversight
• 40:58
  committee that is directly overseeing the finances.
• 41:02
  And now they're going to have Hokey Ventures LLC, which
• 41:06
  essentially is going to be a financial arm that helps them
• 41:13
  generate more money. And I think to a certain extent
• 41:16
  separate some of the athletic department finances and allows
• 41:22
  them more financial flexibility, but it also lets them be more
• 41:26
  hands on with the money. I remember listening to the
• 41:31
  conversations back in the fall about, OK, we want to invest
• 41:34
  more, but how do we do that? We've got to figure out how to
• 41:38
  rework the numbers and rework the math and pull funds from
• 41:41
  here and to to get what they want right.
• 41:45
  How do we help athletics? Well, we've got to, it's
• 41:48
  complicated from the university side.
• 41:51
  And I think this will essentially allow in that
• 41:55
  instance, a lot more financial flexibility as far as they can
• 42:00
  go. Hey, here's what's happening.
• 42:04
  How do we attack it? Hey, we're pulling the funds
• 42:07
  immediately. This is what we're doing.
• 42:09
  Like maybe speeding through a couple steps.
• 42:13
  You don't have to deliberate as much, but you also don't have to
• 42:18
  have someone sounding the alarm, so to speak on it.
• 42:21
  You can you can have a good understanding of what's going on
• 42:24
  before it happens. So I think this is Curtis
• 42:28
  Virginia Tech being really proactive, really proactive and
• 42:33
  saying, hey, we want a new fresh model.
• 42:37
  And it just so happens that it's coinciding.
• 42:39
  At the same time as a president and an AD change, you've also
• 42:43
  got a you're going to hire ACEO that's going to oversee these
• 42:47
  finances. And you also have a new head of
• 42:49
  the Hokie Club coming in at the same time.
• 42:52
  And what that allows you to do is everyone be on the same page
• 42:55
  as far as, hey, here's how we're attacking this from both the
• 42:58
  university side and athletic side, but also fundraising.
• 43:01
  I think it will be a good thing for Virginia Tech and it is
• 43:05
  innovative and it is unique. And it's not going to be I
• 43:09
  exactly like Clemson Ventures or what Kentucky's doing or what
• 43:13
  Michigan State or Utah are doing.
• 43:15
  I think they're going to take some bits and pieces from it
• 43:18
  all, but put a Virginia Tech spin on it a little bit and make
• 43:24
  it cohesive and make it so everyone understands what's
• 43:29
  going on. And it's not, hey, we're leaving
• 43:34
  athletics kind of on its island and just hoping it survives and
• 43:38
  it it can come and ask us for resources.
• 43:40
  It's we're walking through this hand in hand and we're going to
• 43:44
  make sure we're doing this the right way.
• 43:46
  Yeah. And, and one of the things that
• 43:47
  I've heard, you know, we can, we can say the buzzword here, the
• 43:51
  buzz phrase institutional alignment that, you know, James
• 43:54
  Franklin is Pete preached since he's come on board.
• 43:58
  But you know, one of the things that you're hearing from that is
• 44:01
  that, you know, James Franklin has not been someone that's kind
• 44:05
  of sitting back and letting things happen.
• 44:08
  He's been asking questions. He's like, you know, how are we
• 44:10
  doing this? How are we doing this?
• 44:12
  This gives you the ability to answer those questions quickly,
• 44:18
  to move when you need to move. It's going to create a lot more
• 44:21
  nimbleness within the athletic department and not necessarily
• 44:28
  on demand funds, but access to the funds that are available in
• 44:33
  a lot more cohesive fashion than the traditional setup that we've
• 44:38
  been kind of working with, you know, for the last decade or so.
• 44:44
  So you got you got anything on this?
• 44:46
  I know Curtis. Curtis was like, I know Curtis
• 44:49
  had something to say there for a for a minute.
• 44:51
  I'm sorry, I went. I rambled.
• 44:53
  Yeah, it's what Brian said. It's the institutional lot.
• 44:56
  And it's Franklin. Keeps preaching it over and
• 44:58
  over. I'm sure he probably said it
• 45:00
  numerous times tonight with the tail gate when they got him up
• 45:05
  there. But Shelton, anything from you.
• 45:06
  I mean, obviously you're in the world of college athletics when
• 45:10
  you start seeing stuff like this come down and reading on what
• 45:17
  other schools are doing. And again, very shortly we're
• 45:20
  going to see a structure here at Virginia Tech.
• 45:23
  What's on your mind like that you're muted or something or I'm
• 45:36
  not hearing you? Technical difficulties.
• 45:39
  I had to jump off. Something happened with the
• 45:43
  Internet. Here it went.
• 45:44
  It doesn't show him muted but I I can't hear him.
• 45:47
  Yeah, we cannot. You're going to jump in and out,
• 45:48
  Shelton. All right, Tally.
• 45:51
  What about you, man? Anything as you start, I mean
• 45:55
  it's it's business now. I mean you, you were sales guy
• 45:59
  for years. You're doing stuff now getting
• 46:01
  into real estate. I mean, it's, it's business.
• 46:05
  Yeah, definitely Ben. I mean, I'm just, I'll ask DC
• 46:09
  just because he's he's kind of, you know, our boots on the
• 46:12
  ground guy. I mean, I know what I see and I
• 46:15
  know what I think. But we got a couple of comments.
• 46:19
  Well, a couple, I think Bassmaster said he went to the
• 46:22
  to the tailgate tour and you talk about being in the room
• 46:28
  with Franklin and the stuff that he's saying.
• 46:30
  I remember when Pride was here and I'm not, you know, again, I
• 46:33
  know they're different and I'm not trying to crap on Brett
• 46:36
  Pride because I know he's still here.
• 46:37
  But I know when Brett Pride was the head coach, we got the same,
• 46:43
  we got the same response from people who went to the tailgate
• 46:47
  tours or who met him and they talked about like, oh man, he's
• 46:50
  he's so great and he's doing this.
• 46:52
  What is been the big difference to you, DC?
• 46:56
  Like, what's been the big difference from what you're
• 46:58
  seeing personally from like, Brett Pryor, what he did and
• 47:04
  what James Franklin's doing? Well, I think it really comes
• 47:08
  down to James Franklin knows what a really good program, a
• 47:11
  great program even looks like. He's coached one.
• 47:16
  I've had the privilege of, you know, chatting with James
• 47:19
  Franklin probably 10-15 Times Now and you can just tell he's
• 47:27
  very detail oriented. He, he makes sure every little
• 47:31
  thing is right and he preaches excellence and he, but he
• 47:37
  understands how to achieve it and puts people in the right
• 47:40
  spots to achieve it. There are simple things that
• 47:46
  Virginia Tech has been doing for a while, as simple as making
• 47:53
  sure the doors to the buildings in on in athletics are locked
• 48:00
  all the time that like big programs have been doing for
• 48:04
  years. And it's just like you never
• 48:07
  they just like never really thought about it.
• 48:11
  Like that's one tiny example, but you can see his impact both
• 48:17
  like from the most minute detail to like the big things, right?
• 48:21
  Virginia Tech's on a recruiting leader because of James
• 48:23
  Franklin. And what I think is really
• 48:27
  unique tally is he has been, he worked with president and AD at
• 48:33
  Vanderbilt and then he worked with about 3 different
• 48:37
  presidents and three different ADS at Penn State.
• 48:40
  And then he's now worked with Sans and Babcock at Tech.
• 48:44
  He's and he's going to have a new AD and a new president and a
• 48:48
  new CEO, but he's comfortable in that environment because he
• 48:53
  knows what he needs to succeed. And he's going to have a hand in
• 48:59
  hiring some of those people. But he knows what it takes, the
• 49:04
  kind of resources it takes. I go back to what Jay Pearson
• 49:11
  said about how James Franklin still to this day carry, will
• 49:17
  carry around what the board of visitors, the the funding plan
• 49:20
  for the from the board of visitors and what it's doing.
• 49:23
  James Franklin carries that around because he is on it and
• 49:27
  wants to make sure everyone else is around around him is on it
• 49:31
  too. He holds people to a high
• 49:33
  standard. And that might sound like on the
• 49:37
  surface like, Oh well, like everyone kind of does that.
• 49:40
  I can tell you it's different. It is, it is a different feel
• 49:44
  and I'm interested to see the carryover effect it has when
• 49:50
  these next couple people are hired and you, they move into
• 49:54
  this new era where you have an LLC and you're trying to be as,
• 50:01
  as Brian said, more nimble with your finances.
• 50:04
  Because again, that's kind of the goal of all this.
• 50:08
  James Franklin has has signed off on this essentially.
• 50:13
  Like, I don't know that you'll get a verbal, you know, until
• 50:17
  it's actually, it actually goes through, you'll get a verbal Oh
• 50:19
  yeah, from James Franklin. Like, yeah, I'm I'm on board
• 50:21
  with this. But like, they wouldn't do this
• 50:23
  if James Franklin wasn't OK with it.
• 50:25
  And he knows it will help the program because they will be
• 50:29
  able to raise funds in, in better and unique ways and have
• 50:34
  different approaches while doing it.
• 50:36
  So I think he brings a very detail oriented and go get her
• 50:41
  mindset and it is what's the word I'm looking for is very
• 50:48
  contagious. He surrounds himself with people
• 50:52
  that are very like minded that notice the little details and
• 50:57
  preach excellence and want to get every little thing right.
• 51:01
  And that's just not something that the previous head coach, he
• 51:06
  didn't know because he never been a head coach before.
• 51:09
  It's something that happens when you hire, I would say, one of
• 51:13
  the the best coaches available in the business right now.
• 51:16
  You hire someone who's done it and has won.
• 51:18
  They know what they're doing. Sheldon, now that you're back,
• 51:23
  do we have a mic? Nope.
• 51:30
  Still nothing. Still nothing.
• 51:31
  Hang on. Got got it now.
• 51:36
  There we go that. Had the wrong, wrong setting on
• 51:39
  that's yeah. So did you want me to get to get
• 51:41
  my thoughts on the LLC stuff first?
• 51:43
  Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
• 51:44
  Jump in there first. Yeah, yeah.
• 51:45
  Jump on the LLC stuff Begin. Yeah, it's still quick.
• 51:47
  I mean, so I think this is the future of cause athletics, at
• 51:50
  least at the Power Four level, you know, kind of delving into
• 51:53
  the into like the business and marketing side, because I think
• 51:55
  traditionally athletic directors have not, you know, aren't
• 51:59
  necessarily super business savvy, business savvy people.
• 52:02
  You know, the job is more about fundraising and hiring coaches
• 52:05
  and, you know, kind of kind of schmoozing with big wigs, but
• 52:08
  kind of having a more fully developed LLC to focus on
• 52:10
  marketing and, and revenue generation is I think the, the
• 52:14
  way that we're, you know, we're going to see this go forward in
• 52:17
  the next few years here. They call themselves a non
• 52:19
  profit. I'd be very interested to see
• 52:21
  how long that can sustain itself or what the, you know, what the
• 52:24
  tax implications are there. I also think I'd also be
• 52:28
  interested to know what's going to come of the issue with
• 52:30
  regards to employment, because as you guys know, that's one of
• 52:33
  the big issues with regarding the, the the restrictions on,
• 52:37
  you know, transfers and NIL stuff is the issue of
• 52:39
  employment, which, you know, we're talking about in in
• 52:41
  Congress nowadays, obviously there are tons of challenges
• 52:47
  with employing athletes, schools directly employing athletes
• 52:50
  because you can't have collective bargaining for public
• 52:53
  employees. But if you shift that to a
• 52:55
  separate model like an LLC or what, you know, Kentucky's
• 52:57
  doing, you could maybe theoretically get away with
• 53:00
  that. I don't know exactly how it's
• 53:01
  going to play out or if we would see athletes become employees of
• 53:03
  these of these LLCS if they take that take on that mantle.
• 53:07
  But Needless to say, it is a very interesting development and
• 53:11
  I think we're going to see more schools kind of take on take on
• 53:14
  that model. So I'm, I'm, I'm excited about
• 53:15
  it. So you brought up a good point
• 53:18
  with kind of the future of potential, you know, direct pay
• 53:21
  for athletes and and have them as employees because I mean, I
• 53:26
  know, you know, this is starting as a nonprofit, but I know, you
• 53:29
  know, you see the the language that they're talking about
• 53:31
  there. You know, there's going to be an
• 53:33
  option to to make it a for profit venture moving forward at
• 53:37
  the next extension. So I don't know if this is just
• 53:41
  kind of waiting to see how all the legislative front plays out
• 53:46
  with what's going on with the with the Senate, the SCORE Act,
• 53:49
  the new proposal that just dropped you in the last couple
• 53:52
  days, how far that makes it kind of through the halls of Congress
• 53:57
  there. But it's going to be interesting
• 53:59
  to see how that plays out in in what impact that has on hokey
• 54:03
  ventures from a long term standpoint if they, you know
• 54:06
  move towards more of a for profit structure at that next
• 54:10
  extension. I want to add one more thing
• 54:12
  real quick. Brandon Hall, Virginia Tech CFO
• 54:17
  was at he came from Clemson and was at Clemson when Clemson
• 54:21
  started Clemson Ventures in 2024.
• 54:24
  So they they have, they have familiarity with this background
• 54:30
  understanding. Yeah, that's yeah, a lot and a
• 54:36
  lot of new is a good way to describe it.
• 54:38
  A lot of fresh and and I go on the James Franklin topic before
• 54:46
  we transition. I go back to one of the things
• 54:48
  he said, his introductory press conferences, you guys might
• 54:50
  recall where he said it's got to got to smell, breathe like, like
• 54:56
  a like a big time program. Damn right, that's what he said.
• 54:59
  That is the bottom line and it is good.
• 55:05
  I'd rather if if you're in Virginia Tech shoes, I I like of
• 55:10
  all the positions that you will fill in this year span or so,
• 55:15
  President ADCEO, head of the Hokie Club, football coach, you
• 55:20
  got your football coach. That's the big thing because
• 55:23
  that's I would argue the most important because it may drive
• 55:27
  your financials in so many ways. And they are responsible for the
• 55:30
  on field product but also helping you fundraise and
• 55:34
  whatnot. The others do, but I think Tech
• 55:39
  is in a pretty good spot given it has a a really good football
• 55:42
  coach that knows exactly what he's doing.
• 55:46
  That is the truth. And again, I think it's what
• 55:49
  we've all said, it's alignment. I, I don't think, you know, we
• 55:53
  can say, well, this is going to be separate and no, James
• 55:56
  Franklin is going to be a driving force behind rookie
• 55:58
  ventures. There's going to be things that
• 55:59
  he wants done inside this entity.
• 56:02
  They're going to do them. I I don't think that's even a
• 56:05
  question. And I think again, what you said
• 56:07
  just there, David, having the head football coach as this
• 56:11
  comes together as a new president comes in, as a new
• 56:14
  athletic director comes in. It's, it's, they're going to
• 56:20
  basically follow his lead. The Bob, if it's somebody that
• 56:23
  they like and Franklin's slightly down on, that guy's not
• 56:26
  going to make it or that Lady is not going to make it to the next
• 56:30
  chair. Yeah, I'm, I'm interested to see
• 56:33
  what what this does on the sponsorship front as well,
• 56:35
  because I mean, I think that's a, that's a big opportunity that
• 56:38
  I think Virginia Tech could capitalize on.
• 56:42
  You're looking forward. So the sponsorship piece, at
• 56:45
  least in the short term, I know Sheldon talked about some of the
• 56:48
  long term amplifications there, but in the short term, yeah, I
• 56:53
  feel like sponsorships is where, you know, there's a lot of hay
• 56:57
  to be made on the Virginia Tech front that that could really
• 57:00
  reap some benefits financially. Well, and I think going away
• 57:05
  kind of being a little separate from the university I think
• 57:08
  allows you some flexibility. I mean, you guys know how in
• 57:11
  terms of laws and regulations from the Commonwealth of
• 57:15
  Virginia, like, and universities, I think being
• 57:19
  separate will allow you to go around some red tape.
• 57:23
  Like, you know, for example, like Virginia Tech's replacing
• 57:27
  its scoreboard and getting LED lights this summer, which are
• 57:31
  they're, they're working on right now.
• 57:32
  And those are going to be up, you know, for that VMI 730 kick
• 57:36
  to, to open the season, right? Something like that.
• 57:40
  A project like that, the video board, the lights might be a
• 57:45
  gazillion times easier when you have an organization like an LLC
• 57:50
  because you don't have to. You can kind of do it, outsource
• 57:54
  it a little bit, do it on your own and have those funds set up
• 57:58
  right. You don't have to go through all
• 58:00
  the, what I imagine is a much longer process of, of trying to
• 58:04
  make sure the money's there and get stuff done.
• 58:06
  You can. You can bypass bypass some
• 58:09
  things you wouldn't normally be able to.
• 58:11
  Yeah. And it's good.
• 58:12
  It's good to see that we kind of set that that that video board
• 58:15
  out in style at the spring. Oh my God.
• 58:21
  All right, let's move on. Again, more with Hokie Ventures
• 58:25
  and stuff. Again, as everything starts to
• 58:27
  release and we'll talk about it more.
• 58:28
  Y'all mention the stuff that came out today from Capitol
• 58:32
  Hill, which is crazy, where college football primarily
• 58:36
  podcasts talking about Virginia Tech sports and it's like
• 58:39
  Capitol Hill. Did you see this thing that came
• 58:41
  out today? And it's like, I feel like that
• 58:43
  could be a six hour episode to get into all that stuff because
• 58:46
  it's so many things coming down. But I'm going to stay away from
• 58:49
  that because also there's some. Things.
• 58:52
  There's some things to like and some things that I'm like.
• 58:54
  I like the tampering thing. Let's get that going and get Ole
• 58:58
  Miss and Clemson just won't kill each other.
• 59:01
  All right, real quick, Baseball. Baseball made the tournament.
• 59:08
  And you know, I think it had been foreseen for the last few
• 59:11
  weeks, especially after the Clemson series.
• 59:13
  OK, there it is. They have a nice little run.
• 59:15
  Nice. Run, you know, nice run the ACC
• 59:19
  tournament and then they get shipped out West to the 51 and
• 59:23
  6. All right, 51 and six.
• 59:25
  Let me make sure to Yeah, 51 and six.
• 59:27
  UCLA, Brooklyn's, they are the number two seed.
• 59:33
  Obviously somebody mentioned, was it you, Shelton, David
• 59:37
  Shelmori, also Evans heading that way?
• 59:40
  Yep, you said that, right? Yeah.
• 59:41
  Evan Hughes heading that way going to be calling the game.
• 59:47
  Listen, I was talking with, you know, Phil here the other day.
• 59:52
  It's baseball. You're in.
• 59:54
  You have a chance because baseball.
• 59:57
  Every. Single one of us have played it.
• 1:00:00
  Myself and Tally have our kids who play it.
• 1:00:04
  Weird stuff happens in baseball, so you got a shot if you just go
• 1:00:06
  play. So Shelton.
• 1:00:10
  Obviously saw this team early, David, you've been kind of
• 1:00:13
  covering them on and off. I'm what do you all feel and
• 1:00:18
  whoever wants to say it first go.
• 1:00:19
  What do you all feel about just this team in general making it
• 1:00:23
  in any possible chance We're looking on Sunday night because
• 1:00:30
  they are Friday that they've they've done the miraculous.
• 1:00:37
  You can take it. Yeah, well, yes, I so I did see
• 1:00:41
  them see them for the season opener all the way back in
• 1:00:43
  February. But I will say I think it's a
• 1:00:44
  very different team than the one where I saw back back on the
• 1:00:48
  season opener. They just they're playing a lot
• 1:00:51
  better. They're pitching better for
• 1:00:52
  sure. You know, I was like, I'm
• 1:00:54
  looking at the numbers right now, you know, 30 and 24
• 1:00:56
  overall, you know, not super impressive, but they had the 7th
• 1:01:00
  most difficult schedule in the country.
• 1:01:02
  So they loaded up really, really heavy on their non con schedule
• 1:01:05
  and that was a major reason why they got and I think also the
• 1:01:08
  reason why I got so much respect from the committee getting a two
• 1:01:10
  seed, which, you know, most people didn't expect.
• 1:01:12
  But the kind of point to that is that you you get matched up
• 1:01:15
  against the the best team in the country, which is not not ideal.
• 1:01:17
  But I mean, like I was not able to to watch the team of ton just
• 1:01:21
  based on my work schedule. But you know, certainly they,
• 1:01:25
  like I said, they've been pitched a lot better.
• 1:01:27
  I think their offense is more balanced than it has been in
• 1:01:31
  years past. Guys like, you know, Ethan Ball
• 1:01:33
  hitting the hitting the cover off the ball, a few others.
• 1:01:37
  So I mean, yeah, like I said, I don't, you know, don't have any
• 1:01:40
  special insights. They they're playing good ball
• 1:01:42
  at the right at the right time. And that's always what it comes
• 1:01:44
  down to in baseball. So I think it's a good it's a
• 1:01:46
  good regional. I mean, they're playing Saint
• 1:01:49
  Mary's. So I think is winnable.
• 1:01:52
  And then who was that the 4th in Cal Poly?
• 1:01:54
  Yeah. So those are both winnable,
• 1:01:57
  winnable games that will just come down to, you know, having
• 1:01:59
  to beat beat UCLA twice. But I mean, it's a good line up.
• 1:02:02
  I mean, Ethan Gibson beat Daniel, Ethan ball, groovy
• 1:02:07
  Letterman, I mean Letterman, they're just they're just
• 1:02:09
  playing well. Obviously, you know, with Renfro
• 1:02:13
  and and Steve kind of sat on the table there.
• 1:02:16
  It's a good it's a good team. I mean, I know that I know for a
• 1:02:17
  fact that chef was very high and in this roster at the end of the
• 1:02:21
  season. It just took a little bit of
• 1:02:22
  time for them to kind of, you know, find their find their
• 1:02:25
  stride And again, just with how difficult their non kind of
• 1:02:27
  schedule was. They're playing, you know, Texas
• 1:02:29
  A&M, Tennessee getting crushed. It takes a little bit of time to
• 1:02:31
  kind of respond to that, you know, and and really just, you
• 1:02:33
  know, kind of come into your own.
• 1:02:34
  So, but I think, I think they've definitely come a very long way
• 1:02:37
  since since opening day. It's a, it's been a pretty cool
• 1:02:42
  way for them to kind of cap off what's been a very, very rough
• 1:02:46
  Virginia Tech athletics calendar year.
• 1:02:49
  And I and they, I mean, this was in March, I think, or early
• 1:02:54
  April, you know, they, they lost a Marshall and did not play
• 1:02:57
  well. And they kind of looked
• 1:02:59
  themselves in the mirror and, and got right.
• 1:03:02
  And it was around the same time I think they lost a series at
• 1:03:06
  Boston up at Boston College. They should have won that.
• 1:03:09
  They really just need to make like one more play.
• 1:03:14
  They were 16 and 18 after that Boston College series.
• 1:03:17
  They've won 14 of the last 20 and the last couple years.
• 1:03:23
  And I think, you know, John Shep's been here for 9 years.
• 1:03:25
  It's almost a similar situation to Mike Young where they they
• 1:03:28
  haven't done a ton and they had that 22 team that went to the
• 1:03:34
  Super regional hosted was awesome, ran into an insane
• 1:03:38
  Oklahoma team. But the way they have kind of
• 1:03:42
  gathered together as a group and responded and it certainly
• 1:03:46
  helped that they've stayed healthy.
• 1:03:48
  They have played really good defense, but they've they've,
• 1:03:53
  they've pitched well. Their hitting's come together.
• 1:03:56
  They've really done a little bit of everything.
• 1:03:59
  They've found different ways to win games.
• 1:04:01
  And it's not been the same guy. Like, you know, obviously Brett
• 1:04:05
  Renfro has been phenomenal. He's looking like a like a early
• 1:04:09
  MLB draft pick. But they've gotten pitching from
• 1:04:12
  other guys. Griffin, Stig, Logan Eisenrich
• 1:04:17
  has been pretty good. Some of their relievers have
• 1:04:20
  have stepped up and played well. They're hitting Henry Cook,
• 1:04:24
  Hudson Letterman, You can't forget Ethan Ball, who's been
• 1:04:28
  outrageous on a tear. He was awesome in Charlotte last
• 1:04:31
  week in the ACC tournament. They've kind of got some young
• 1:04:34
  guys, some older guys all mixed in together and it's Shelton
• 1:04:38
  said. It took them a little bit of
• 1:04:39
  time to find their groove, but they've played really well as of
• 1:04:42
  late. And Curtis, to your point, man,
• 1:04:46
  I don't I wouldn't expect them to win the regional.
• 1:04:48
  And I was a little bit surprised that they got a number two seed
• 1:04:50
  given their RPI was 42. But again, played a really tough
• 1:04:54
  schedule. But I think if if they're on as
• 1:04:58
  far as pitching goes, this offense has shown the ability to
• 1:05:01
  to hang with some of the best. They took a game from Georgia
• 1:05:04
  Tech in a three-game series. Georgia Tech is a top three team
• 1:05:08
  in the country. They took a game from Georgia
• 1:05:10
  Tech earlier in the year like they played Carolina close
• 1:05:13
  needed just a little bit more. And maybe if Brett Renfro's on a
• 1:05:17
  little bit more rest, you're throwing him, I think they might
• 1:05:20
  have just saved him for the NCA tournament.
• 1:05:21
  But if if Renfro gives you his best start and you get a little
• 1:05:25
  bit more pitching help, we we could be talking about a
• 1:05:28
  Virginia Tech team. That's that's maybe surprising
• 1:05:30
  some folks. So regardless, I think this
• 1:05:33
  program and honestly, Virginia Tech as a whole kind of needed
• 1:05:36
  this like needed, you know, softball finish the year pretty
• 1:05:40
  strong, obviously made the NCAA tournament, but baseball doing
• 1:05:44
  it too. Given how many other Virgin Tech
• 1:05:47
  teams have just not been very good this year, I think it's
• 1:05:49
  important to end on a high note. And for a program that has kind
• 1:05:53
  of teetered and fallen off down the stretch over the last couple
• 1:05:57
  years, it's really cool to see them come together and do the
• 1:06:01
  exact opposite and start to trend up at the end of the year.
• 1:06:04
  And it's going to be fun. Watch this weekend.
• 1:06:08
  You know, I think they might be playing a little bit late just
• 1:06:10
  because LA, you know, Pacific Time zone, but but I would
• 1:06:14
  encourage you to tune in and when they when they're hot,
• 1:06:18
  they're really fun to watch. Absolutely, Kylie, Brian,
• 1:06:22
  anything before we close out baseball, Kylie said.
• 1:06:25
  He he watched enough baseball this weekend.
• 1:06:27
  And I don't watch enough baseball for my lifetime, I
• 1:06:30
  believe. But baseball's a funny sport
• 1:06:32
  like that, man, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:06:33
  You never know. I mean, what the weather looks
• 1:06:36
  like, if it's too hot, if it's raining, if it's too cold, just
• 1:06:41
  comes down to pitching and hitting.
• 1:06:44
  You know, for the most part, like you, I've seen games, well,
• 1:06:49
  somebody wins one to zero and I've seen games this 18 to 16.
• 1:06:53
  So it's you, you play all year to get to the postseason, you
• 1:06:59
  know what I'm saying? And then you go back to thinking
• 1:07:01
  about like basketball, we have a totally different conversation
• 1:07:04
  about Mike Young if he just gets to the to the postseason, if he
• 1:07:10
  gets to the NCAA tournament, because that is what sports is
• 1:07:14
  built on. So doesn't matter what they did
• 1:07:16
  at the beginning of the season or the middle of the season,
• 1:07:19
  they're going to the tournament. You know what I'm saying?
• 1:07:21
  They're playing in the postseason.
• 1:07:22
  So, yeah, they got a tough draw. I don't know how far it goes
• 1:07:26
  after getting in, but that's a step that you take when you're
• 1:07:31
  trying to build the program. So I I'd like to see him go win
• 1:07:35
  a win a couple of them and move on.
• 1:07:38
  So I'll be watching. To to add some to add some
• 1:07:42
  context real quick, and Shelton knows this because he works in
• 1:07:45
  in the college baseball world. The the change in from a house
• 1:07:51
  settlement, the change in terms of everyone looks at Rev share
• 1:07:56
  and everything you can spend there.
• 1:07:58
  But Olympic sports were heavily impacted by in terms of
• 1:08:01
  scholarships, what they're allowed to allocate.
• 1:08:04
  And it used to be you could have 40 something players on a
• 1:08:07
  baseball roster, but you only had like 11.9 or 11.7
• 1:08:11
  scholarships to go around. You're talking 1212 scholarships
• 1:08:15
  essentially on a 40 man roster. They have changed the rules
• 1:08:21
  where you can have, I think it's up to 34 players on the roster
• 1:08:24
  and all of them can be on scholarship now.
• 1:08:27
  And Virginia? Virginia Tech has played against
• 1:08:29
  some teams like North Carolina, Georgia Tech, teams at the top
• 1:08:32
  of the ACC where every player on their roster is on scholarship.
• 1:08:35
  Virginia Tech I think has 16 guys on scholarship this year
• 1:08:38
  and that number is going up, I believe to 21 or 22 next season.
• 1:08:43
  They're going to fund it better, but it's really impressive when
• 1:08:47
  you put it in that kind of context that some of the teams
• 1:08:49
  Hokies are competing against, they got more scholarships.
• 1:08:53
  Chef has recruited really well and I think they've run to the
• 1:08:57
  injury buck here over the last couple years.
• 1:08:59
  Guys just not been able to stay healthy, particularly pitching.
• 1:09:02
  And it's kind of been the perfect mix.
• 1:09:04
  And now they're in the postseason.
• 1:09:05
  Then I think it'll be really neat to to see them play.
• 1:09:09
  And you know, the hope is you got a lot of young guys, Ethan
• 1:09:11
  Ball, you got to build on that. And I think it it it can be
• 1:09:16
  really exciting for things to come like look at next year.
• 1:09:21
  You know, they they have recruited some really, really,
• 1:09:23
  really good talent in Virginia in the Mid-Atlantic.
• 1:09:28
  Interested to see if they can kind of build on it.
• 1:09:30
  A. 100% And as far as if we're in pro's healthy or not, we're
• 1:09:34
  going to know because as much as people will say you got to save
• 1:09:39
  them if you go to UCLA, it's baseball.
• 1:09:41
  You've got to get to UCLA. You do not not throw your number
• 1:09:44
  one pitcher so many times you see people do that.
• 1:09:47
  Oh, but we can save him for the next game.
• 1:09:50
  Then anything you might be getting eliminated, you got to
• 1:09:53
  throw him number one. Get him out there.
• 1:09:55
  All right, let's move on. Shelton how how long do you want
• 1:10:01
  the floor for for the Sands and Babcock retirements?
• 1:10:05
  And you know what they brought? It's just a.
• 1:10:09
  Few minutes. I mean it's.
• 1:10:10
  Just a few minutes, OK Shelton. Shelton missed of the
• 1:10:13
  announcement of Tim Sands retiring and Whit Babcock
• 1:10:17
  retiring. And again, when we talked about
• 1:10:20
  that, he tried to get on it just did not work out with his
• 1:10:23
  schedule. So Shelton, you know, how do you
• 1:10:27
  feel about these guys and everything that they've done in
• 1:10:32
  them effectively retire and. You can throw a Boleyn kicker in
• 1:10:35
  there if you want. And a Boleyn kicker if you want
• 1:10:37
  that because this happened in 30.
• 1:10:39
  Days, yeah. So I mean, First off, I would
• 1:10:43
  say on on Sans, like I thought about how I wanted to kind of
• 1:10:48
  kind of think about this. I, I do have some level of
• 1:10:50
  sympathy for, for administrators in today's age, just with how
• 1:10:52
  much, you know, uncertainty there is in Cos athletics, you
• 1:10:55
  know, it's a very turbulent time.
• 1:10:56
  And I think when NIL first became a thing, we just didn't
• 1:10:58
  really know like what was going to happen.
• 1:11:00
  I think the Virginia Tech administration initially
• 1:11:02
  struggled with that and they were probably a little bit, you
• 1:11:05
  know, reactive rather than proactive.
• 1:11:06
  So, but I mean, so, so too, we're a lot of other schools.
• 1:11:09
  So, you know, it's it's a tough time to be a college athletics
• 1:11:12
  administrator, like I said, but when I think back on the tenure
• 1:11:16
  overall on SANS, I am somewhat of a a different opinion than
• 1:11:21
  most. I don't think it's the job of of
• 1:11:23
  a college president to Americomanage athletics.
• 1:11:25
  Obviously you want to be, you know, a guider for athletics
• 1:11:27
  because it is a huge part of the university's identity and brand.
• 1:11:31
  But I don't I don't think micromanaging can have some
• 1:11:34
  downsides too. That being said, I think you
• 1:11:36
  could argue SANS is probably a little bit two hands off.
• 1:11:39
  I mean, I think, you know, I think that David and the, the
• 1:11:41
  TSL folks have kind of talked about that a lot on the podcast.
• 1:11:44
  You know, just not really. He just, he's not a very
• 1:11:46
  confrontational person And he, you know, he, he did, he's not a
• 1:11:50
  type of guy that's going to walk in a room and say no, demand
• 1:11:52
  changes to, to, to staffing and then the way that the program is
• 1:11:55
  run. So obviously there's a balance
• 1:11:57
  you want to find there, but, you know, I, I think obviously
• 1:12:01
  there, there are some structural challenges with, you know,
• 1:12:04
  getting more fundraising. I think what Mahul was saying on
• 1:12:06
  the board was that he's, he's been supportive of athletics,
• 1:12:08
  but it was a challenge to, to get the BOV, you know, in
• 1:12:12
  alignment and, and try to get that funding.
• 1:12:13
  I think what was pushing that for, for a long time, it just
• 1:12:15
  happened to be that, you know, last year was a year that they
• 1:12:18
  could actually get that in process once they kind of
• 1:12:19
  changed some of the, some of the board members.
• 1:12:21
  So it's not, it's not like Sands is, you know, unilaterally
• 1:12:23
  responsible for, you know, giving, giving athletics all the
• 1:12:27
  funding they want. It's it's a process.
• 1:12:28
  There's, you know, multiple hands involved.
• 1:12:29
  So I'd say kind of a mixed bag from that perspective on wit.
• 1:12:33
  I think that. So First off, if I just want to
• 1:12:36
  touch on the non revenue sports, I think he did a great job with
• 1:12:39
  non revenue sports overall. Look at the coaches he's hired
• 1:12:42
  for wrestling, softball, baseball, men's basketball.
• 1:12:46
  I know the last few years haven't been good, but we've had
• 1:12:48
  success there with buzz getting to the Sweet 16 ACC
• 1:12:51
  championship. You know, for me as a student
• 1:12:54
  who was part of that and part of the, you know, quote UN quote
• 1:12:56
  glory days of Vt non revenue sports, I really appreciate
• 1:13:00
  that. I love being able to support
• 1:13:01
  those teams and just seeing all the that they had means a lot to
• 1:13:04
  me. I know where football school and
• 1:13:05
  always will be. But I just want to say that
• 1:13:07
  that, you know, being able to to have a well-rounded athletics
• 1:13:10
  program is something that's important, I think.
• 1:13:12
  And I don't think we should toss it, toss it up to the side.
• 1:13:15
  Now, all that said, again, we know football's king and that's
• 1:13:18
  the make or break. And I think he just never, he
• 1:13:21
  just never got that right. I mean, you know, I've talked
• 1:13:23
  about this before, but statistically, the last five
• 1:13:26
  years of BT football have been the worst five year stretch of
• 1:13:28
  the program since the late 1970s.
• 1:13:29
  I mean, you know, not just when Bimar first got here.
• 1:13:32
  You go back to where we were an independent, had very little
• 1:13:35
  money. We're not relevant at all in the
• 1:13:36
  college scene. I mean, that's how long it's
• 1:13:38
  been since we've had a stretch like this.
• 1:13:40
  And obviously Fuente was a was a good hire in paper that just
• 1:13:44
  didn't work out. We did not surround himself,
• 1:13:46
  surround him with the resources needed to, to elevate the
• 1:13:48
  program. And I, I don't think he was the
• 1:13:50
  guy to do that anyway. And then pride to me, you know,
• 1:13:53
  just to be blunt, I, I think it was a lazy hire in hindsight.
• 1:13:56
  I do not think he was he, he had the head coaching chops.
• 1:13:59
  I think it was a very reactionary panic move to, you
• 1:14:02
  know, to get a guy that's a quote UN quote culture fit, But
• 1:14:05
  he just wasn't cut off for leading a program.
• 1:14:07
  And I don't think there was a ton of demand for him.
• 1:14:09
  So that's a big black mark for him.
• 1:14:12
  At the time, we thought that pride was getting, you know,
• 1:14:14
  pride got more resources. He didn't spin it very wisely,
• 1:14:17
  in my opinion, based on his coordinary hires.
• 1:14:19
  But then after that we fell behind and just, you know,
• 1:14:22
  weren't weren't able to catch up.
• 1:14:23
  So again, we can re litigate all the reasons for that.
• 1:14:25
  Again, it's an issue with, you know, the board and what the
• 1:14:28
  university wants to invest in football.
• 1:14:32
  But my big criticism of wit, I would say just lack of
• 1:14:36
  accountability and lack of communication, lack of
• 1:14:38
  leadership. I think there were people in the
• 1:14:40
  department who were not held to account for for not doing as
• 1:14:45
  good of a job as they should have.
• 1:14:47
  I can speak to specific examples of people that you know, might
• 1:14:50
  have gotten reshuffled or promoted when they didn't
• 1:14:52
  necessarily deserve said promotions, as David probably
• 1:14:57
  can too. So I just think he didn't, you
• 1:15:00
  know, he should have come in like, like, and this is
• 1:15:02
  something that, you know, Chris Coleman has said.
• 1:15:03
  So I don't want to take credit for what for what he's argued.
• 1:15:05
  But that 2023 ESPN article where they talked about all the issues
• 1:15:09
  with with within the athletic department should have merited a
• 1:15:13
  a thorough investigation. There should have been people
• 1:15:15
  that you know, were were pushed out or lost their jobs over
• 1:15:18
  that. Just, you know, for that to go
• 1:15:20
  on for, you know, Fuente and blend to be beef in for that for
• 1:15:23
  that period of time with, you know, no, just no communication.
• 1:15:26
  You had heads to the Hokie club who weren't, you know, didn't
• 1:15:32
  have any prior fundraising experience and we're kind of
• 1:15:34
  bouncing other responsibilities. It was just kind of a mess and I
• 1:15:37
  and that's a whole another conversation.
• 1:15:39
  You want to get into the club and some of the some of the
• 1:15:41
  infrastructure issues there. So I just think he, he just, it
• 1:15:46
  just didn't, didn't hold people accountable.
• 1:15:48
  Like, and that's what you got to do.
• 1:15:49
  And, and, and if you're, if you're a college athletic
• 1:15:53
  director. So I mean, that's kind of how I,
• 1:15:54
  that's kind of how I phrase it. I mean, it's a good, it was a
• 1:15:57
  good, a decent 12 year run for, for most of the sports, but just
• 1:16:00
  never got football right. And I would argue it's probably
• 1:16:02
  well past due. I think it was kind of a kind of
• 1:16:04
  weird situation where pride kind of pride kind of bombed, bombed
• 1:16:08
  out so quickly that you were kind of forced into firing him
• 1:16:11
  and then you were stuck with wit and Sands and limbo.
• 1:16:14
  But you can't really hire a new coach until you know, or can't
• 1:16:17
  hire a new ID until you get the new president.
• 1:16:19
  So it's just a weird, just a weird situation overall.
• 1:16:21
  But yeah, that's my thoughts just.
• 1:16:25
  All right. Well, well, thanks, Sheldon,
• 1:16:27
  because like you said right there, football is king.
• 1:16:30
  If you don't get football right, then nothing else is going to
• 1:16:34
  ever succeed. And that's the honest truth.
• 1:16:37
  And right now, and, and I know we have not played one single
• 1:16:43
  game in the James Franklin era, but what is happening on the
• 1:16:48
  recruiting trail is again, we talked to David and before he
• 1:16:53
  jumped in, we haven't seen this in probably 20 years.
• 1:16:58
  Back before 247 was like a big thing going back to the early
• 1:17:03
  2000s, one of the top quarterbacks in the country the
• 1:17:06
  year we got it. We are now at this precipice
• 1:17:09
  where a couple weeks ago Peter Borg was set to make the
• 1:17:13
  decision between Georgia, Virginia Tech and Penn State.
• 1:17:17
  He is a top 100 player. He is a top ten quarterback.
• 1:17:22
  He just finished what, 5th in the Elite 11 competition this
• 1:17:26
  weekend. He's 64.
• 1:17:28
  He's 220 lbs. He spins the shit out of the
• 1:17:31
  ball. If y'all go watch his huddle
• 1:17:34
  highlights and watch him throw a ball and he is literally.
• 1:17:39
  I'm not going to count Logan Thomas because Logan Thomas
• 1:17:43
  should have been a jumbo tight end.
• 1:17:45
  He is the highest rated quarterback this school has
• 1:17:48
  gotten since Tyrod Taylor in 2007.
• 1:17:55
  Tally, you went to war. You told everybody you get it.
• 1:17:59
  You were like, go. I mean, when he when he when he
• 1:18:03
  put the hat on and said I'm going to Virginia Tech.
• 1:18:07
  I mean, I just listen to people like David.
• 1:18:09
  I know what's going. To happen before it happens,
• 1:18:11
  man, you got to be locked in. You got to be, you know, you,
• 1:18:15
  you got to be different than Dan.
• 1:18:17
  You got to listen to the board sometimes.
• 1:18:22
  But no man, I mean. Like I tell people, some some.
• 1:18:25
  People are, you know what you call it, PTSD or a little
• 1:18:29
  gunshot about getting excited about stuff.
• 1:18:31
  Like, I get it, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:18:33
  We've been down. But like I told people, I think
• 1:18:37
  I was probably one of the first Virginia Tech fans that when
• 1:18:41
  James Franklin got fired was like, Oh yeah, he coming to
• 1:18:44
  Virginia Tech now. I didn't think it was really
• 1:18:47
  true then, but I thought it would be cool if he did.
• 1:18:50
  You know what I'm saying? When I go back and look at the
• 1:18:52
  post and people was like, oh, you crazy.
• 1:18:54
  You know, we, we don't want him or he's going to be.
• 1:18:57
  I'm like, I don't think we've ever seen somebody like him at
• 1:19:01
  Virginia Tech. Just what he brings, a coach of
• 1:19:03
  his stature #1 because I know that, you know, most Penn State
• 1:19:08
  fans say stuff like, you know, he doesn't win the big games.
• 1:19:10
  It may be true. We'll see.
• 1:19:11
  We haven't gotten to the big games yet.
• 1:19:13
  I'm just saying they put Virginia Tech and VMI at prime
• 1:19:17
  time, 7:30 or 7:00 as the first game.
• 1:19:22
  That's a 10:00 game, my time. Do you know what I'm saying?
• 1:19:26
  Like 10:00 AM. They're just putting that game
• 1:19:29
  there because James Franklin is the head coach and they want to
• 1:19:32
  see what his first team runs out of the state of the tunnel to in
• 1:19:37
  the Sandman, what it looks like. So how you sell that to recruits
• 1:19:43
  is I'm going to get the eyes on you.
• 1:19:45
  You know what I'm saying? We got a prime time game playing
• 1:19:47
  VMI and we were three and nine team.
• 1:19:51
  He's already has. A proven record that he can put
• 1:19:54
  people. In the league, you know the
• 1:19:56
  coaches around him and stuff and the big knock was, well, he
• 1:20:00
  doesn't. He he he screws quarterbacks
• 1:20:03
  over. I'm like, maybe, you know, I'm
• 1:20:05
  not advocating for him because I, I haven't watched it enough
• 1:20:08
  to know, but you know, I heard from some of the fans that he
• 1:20:11
  he's going to screw these quarterbacks up and this and
• 1:20:14
  that. But I'm like, what about the
• 1:20:16
  other twenty 3050 guys did he put in the league and you called
• 1:20:21
  out two quarterbacks that still got drafted, still got paid,
• 1:20:26
  still went to their yeah, Steele.
• 1:20:29
  Steele went and and lived on their dream to go to the NFL,
• 1:20:33
  which I get it, they're five star guys.
• 1:20:35
  And you expected more? Out of them.
• 1:20:37
  But I'm like, he's put a lot of guys in the position to make a
• 1:20:40
  lot of money. They put themselves in that
• 1:20:42
  position because of how they produced.
• 1:20:44
  But just as a recruit and as a, you know, a family of a recruit.
• 1:20:52
  If Jane Franklin came and talked to me, I probably would listen
• 1:20:55
  at what he has to say. That's all I'm saying.
• 1:20:58
  So I'm excited about it. I don't, I think we got a chance
• 1:21:01
  for everybody who we talked to right now, even before this
• 1:21:06
  heater that they've been on. I think that when you put James
• 1:21:10
  Franklin in front of a recruit in their family, I think you
• 1:21:13
  have an opportunity for a couple of reasons because of what he's
• 1:21:16
  done in the past. And, you know, this is just
• 1:21:21
  being a minority coach, you know, that does touch certain
• 1:21:24
  people a different way. Just saying that it shows the
• 1:21:29
  inclusive in how far we've come as a country to have a coach,
• 1:21:33
  you know, that looks like James Franklin to be at the forefront
• 1:21:36
  of a program of a town like Blacksburg.
• 1:21:39
  Not saying nothing's wrong with Blacksburg, but I'm just saying
• 1:21:42
  Blacksburg is nestled up in the, you know, in Virginia, you know,
• 1:21:45
  in the mountains and and certain people may think that you got to
• 1:21:50
  look a certain way to coach there.
• 1:21:51
  You got to look a certain way to even play there.
• 1:21:53
  And a lot of times, man, we've come so far as a country that
• 1:21:56
  that doesn't matter. Like a lot of these schools and
• 1:21:59
  a lot of these administrations just want the best that is
• 1:22:04
  offered, whether that's a player, whether that's a coach
• 1:22:08
  or whether that's a I'm hoping AAD.
• 1:22:11
  So I mean, I'm I'm excited about, you know, the way that
• 1:22:16
  Virginia Tech is moving or athletics in general.
• 1:22:19
  I know a lot of people are mad. They're like, I don't like this
• 1:22:21
  they're getting paid or I don't like, you know what we're having
• 1:22:24
  to deal with here. I'm like, man, it's fun times
• 1:22:28
  for me, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:22:29
  Like I'm excited again, you know, now I want us to be on the
• 1:22:32
  winning side of some of this stuff and I'll be even more
• 1:22:35
  excited. But the way we're moving and the
• 1:22:38
  way that the the comments are saying that the tailgate tour is
• 1:22:41
  going, hey, man, who knows? I'm just going to keep watching
• 1:22:45
  DC and let them tell me what's next.
• 1:22:47
  Well, I I want to chime in here, Brian.
• 1:22:50
  I'm going to ask Brian Curtis. This Virginia Tech has been on
• 1:22:54
  such a recruiting heater lately. How exciting is it?
• 1:22:59
  Like you're just checking your phone in the middle of the day?
• 1:23:01
  Oh, boom. A a commitment Like how?
• 1:23:05
  How much of A revival has it been as far as recruiting goes
• 1:23:10
  for both of you guys, man? I'll, I'll jump in first here.
• 1:23:13
  It's it's. Been, I haven't been this
• 1:23:16
  excited about recruiting in a long time.
• 1:23:18
  I think the last time I like had even a little bit of juice was
• 1:23:22
  very much a COVID induced fever, fever dream where, you know, we
• 1:23:29
  went on a decent little run there and then things kind of
• 1:23:32
  fell apart as we got further and further into the into the COVID
• 1:23:35
  cycle there. That was the last time I was
• 1:23:37
  really like locked in, locked in on recruiting.
• 1:23:40
  And you know, we saw the first couple years of the of the
• 1:23:43
  Fuente regime, you know, we had had some good, good cycles.
• 1:23:47
  They're kind of starting that off on the heels of the 2016
• 1:23:49
  campaign. But I've not been this excited
• 1:23:52
  about recruiting. And not just that, having these
• 1:23:57
  battles against blue blood programs really, really popular,
• 1:24:01
  you know, really, really well regarded programs across the
• 1:24:04
  country and going into them and not feeling like you're just
• 1:24:08
  included in that top five or that top 4 is like, OK, well, we
• 1:24:12
  have a good relationship, but you're not really an option.
• 1:24:16
  Like it doesn't feel like that anymore.
• 1:24:17
  If we're in that top four, top three, top five, whatever it is.
• 1:24:20
  I you got nice clothes, but you're ugly.
• 1:24:22
  Hey, we, we. Got just a good a chance as
• 1:24:25
  anybody else when? We're in there now and that
• 1:24:27
  that's how I feel any time we're approaching this, I'm like, OK,
• 1:24:30
  well, if, if we've made it this far, Brian, can I tell DC
• 1:24:37
  something right. Quick before you finish so I'm
• 1:24:41
  usually. The.
• 1:24:42
  One who post like in our group chat I'm probably most of the
• 1:24:47
  time the person who posts like a commitment because I stalked
• 1:24:51
  boards and things like that. Whenever the tight end committed
• 1:24:56
  I posted it and Brian's words were he did it again.
• 1:25:01
  I'm not used to this shit. Go ahead, Brian, you can finish
• 1:25:07
  now. Hey, man, it it's.
• 1:25:09
  It's wild, man. It's it's just.
• 1:25:11
  It's like I said, I haven't been this excited about a recruiting
• 1:25:15
  cycle in a long time. And it and it's, you know, we
• 1:25:18
  still got to go out there in the fall and you got to win football
• 1:25:20
  games at the at the end of the day, that's what matters.
• 1:25:23
  But acquiring talent is is going to breed success because if you
• 1:25:29
  know, Sheldon, can you give us the blue chip ratio and all
• 1:25:32
  these things and that matters. We see that that matters that
• 1:25:35
  the teams with the higher blue chip ratio do well across the
• 1:25:39
  board. So if you're getting this type
• 1:25:41
  of talent in the building that that that matters.
• 1:25:44
  And when you look at Franklin's history at Penn State, at
• 1:25:47
  Vanderbilt, especially at Penn State because of the, you know,
• 1:25:52
  the transfer portal and all that, like he does a really good
• 1:25:54
  job of retaining the talent that he brings in the building.
• 1:25:57
  So I think that that's the bigger thing is that you feel
• 1:26:00
  good that that you're going out there and you're winning the
• 1:26:02
  battles, but you also feel good that you're going to get that
• 1:26:05
  talent in there. And the talent that is showing
• 1:26:08
  development is going to going to be kept and retained.
• 1:26:11
  And, and, and you're, they're going to make a big effort to do
• 1:26:13
  that. And I, I think that's something
• 1:26:16
  to get excited about as well, because one of the things that,
• 1:26:20
  you know, when you look back fondly on kind of the, the old
• 1:26:23
  way, I'm, I'm very much I'm, I'm, I'm pro player movement,
• 1:26:26
  I'm pro players, players getting paid.
• 1:26:28
  But one of the things that was nice before that is you got to
• 1:26:31
  see guys come in, stay four or five years, see how they
• 1:26:35
  develop, see how they grow, Get, see, see how they do on the
• 1:26:38
  field, grow into a star player from a guy that maybe, you know,
• 1:26:43
  you felt good about out the gate, but you had to see how it
• 1:26:46
  goes. You're going to get a lot more
• 1:26:48
  of that with Franklin in house. So I'm, I'm excited about that
• 1:26:50
  piece of it as well. Yeah, for for me, David.
• 1:26:55
  I'm not quite back where I was a few years ago, but I'm closer
• 1:27:00
  than where I was about two years ago when it was just like, oh
• 1:27:03
  God. But it keeps going.
• 1:27:06
  It was like what Tally said a little while ago.
• 1:27:08
  We've never had someone like Franklin here.
• 1:27:12
  We never had like a Sean Spencer here.
• 1:27:15
  Those type of guys who are ace, They're ace recruiters.
• 1:27:19
  Sean Spencer. Sean Spencer is considered one
• 1:27:21
  of the best recruiters in the country before he laid foot in
• 1:27:25
  Blacksburg. And then it starts building.
• 1:27:28
  It's like, yeah, it's OK. You know what we should do OK.
• 1:27:31
  And we saw what we did at the end of last year.
• 1:27:32
  It's like, that's that's great. What, 24 got some good talent,
• 1:27:36
  got some good guys in the portal.
• 1:27:38
  It's feeling good and then it's the heater of what we went on
• 1:27:42
  with Bork, JJP Buchanan, big ol ugly because he ugly.
• 1:27:48
  So you know he's going to hit people hard when he's blocking.
• 1:27:51
  And it was cool because you expected those.
• 1:27:54
  The Bork one was, you know, I think we got I think we got them
• 1:27:59
  because quicker path to probably starting than he would be at
• 1:28:03
  Georgia, quicker path. Plus he he actually is a good
• 1:28:08
  driver. So he met he missed a few
• 1:28:10
  criterias there at Georgia where you got to run 106 and do dumb
• 1:28:16
  stuff and and those three were great.
• 1:28:19
  And don't get me wrong, like I said, with Bork, we've never
• 1:28:22
  seen anything like that in the last few years.
• 1:28:24
  But it was the car Hoff like completely out of left field
• 1:28:28
  like Cali. I know you have been kind of
• 1:28:32
  like like talking a little about it, but it wasn't like this is
• 1:28:36
  the sheer thing. And then when that popped up
• 1:28:39
  just the other day and it was just like this kids where he's
• 1:28:43
  from where he's from Columbus, OH, what's he look like?
• 1:28:47
  He ain't 2:15. They got that all pig wrong.
• 1:28:50
  That kid looks 230 already. He looks.
• 1:28:54
  Huge. So he's a top ten player in the
• 1:28:56
  state of Ohio. He lives in Columbus.
• 1:28:58
  He's one of the best tight ends in the country and he just, he
• 1:29:01
  comes with getting attacked. He goes to school with Ryan,
• 1:29:04
  Ryan Day's son. You go to school with Ryan Day's
• 1:29:06
  son and it's like, like. Wait a second.
• 1:29:11
  Like that. That doesn't happen to us.
• 1:29:14
  Well, again when you go back. Yeah.
• 1:29:17
  When? You go back to and some people
• 1:29:19
  like I said are are looking at things like you know, well, why
• 1:29:24
  are we doing this or why are we taking this?
• 1:29:26
  I'm like, well, we didn't have nothing, you know what I'm
• 1:29:28
  saying? Do y'all remember when probably
• 1:29:31
  got fired and this person decided to to sit out or this
• 1:29:35
  person decided to transfer and we had no depth?
• 1:29:38
  Or, you know, think about two years ago when Kamari Copeland
• 1:29:41
  gets hurt and he wasn't supposed to be the guy, but he gets hurt
• 1:29:45
  and it totally changes what you can do on the defensive line
• 1:29:49
  because you have no depth. You know what I'm saying?
• 1:29:51
  So that you have to, in today's football, when you get what, 105
• 1:29:57
  scholarships, you have to maximize every scholarship that
• 1:30:01
  you have. That's why they're taking 3
• 1:30:03
  running backs and, you know, 2 tight ends, maybe 3 tight ends
• 1:30:07
  and, you know, putting pressure on people to get in if you go, I
• 1:30:10
  can't remember which running back said it, but it's like
• 1:30:14
  whoever did the piece and asked them, you know, why now I think
• 1:30:17
  it may have been Kobe that interviewed him and he's like, I
• 1:30:19
  got to get in. I, I would hate to, you know,
• 1:30:21
  not get in and not, you know, not not have a spot in something
• 1:30:26
  that you know, I think that they're building something
• 1:30:28
  special. So that's why you're seeing
• 1:30:31
  these high level guys coming out of left field.
• 1:30:35
  Even though if you look again, if you look or if you catch DC
• 1:30:39
  on the right day, he'll give you a little little bit of a, a
• 1:30:42
  inkling of what's happening, But he don't give us much, but he'll
• 1:30:45
  give you a little bit if you catch him right.
• 1:30:47
  You got to pay attention. You got to pay attention.
• 1:30:50
  You got. To pay attention, man, because
• 1:30:52
  it's small, right you got. To pay attention, but you got,
• 1:30:57
  you know, these guys that are looking at going and getting in
• 1:31:00
  because in the, in the age of NIL, it runs out.
• 1:31:05
  You know what I'm saying? Like they're going to, they're
• 1:31:08
  going to cut the deals or pay the people.
• 1:31:12
  Who are the? First in line, you know what I'm
• 1:31:15
  saying? If they're high on the board.
• 1:31:16
  So it's like, OK, most of the time in the old Virginia Tech
• 1:31:21
  way, we had to be like, please come here.
• 1:31:24
  We'll just wait on you, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:31:26
  And then that's when we get so, you know, disgruntled when they
• 1:31:30
  go, oh, I'm going to go to Georgia, you know, so I'm going
• 1:31:33
  to go to, you know, where Florida.
• 1:31:36
  You were in there. You were in there, but you got
• 1:31:38
  left at the altar again. I mean it at this point now it's
• 1:31:41
  like, what is it? It's not even June yet, you know
• 1:31:43
  what I'm saying? You're looking at where you're,
• 1:31:45
  you know, how many commits you have and where you're composite
• 1:31:48
  score is and things like that, which is I think Brian's always
• 1:31:51
  say it. What was the number, Brian, that
• 1:31:53
  you said we need to be competitive.
• 1:31:55
  I said we got to be above 88 every year, got to be above. 88
• 1:31:59
  every year and. Some change right now so we're.
• 1:32:02
  We're we're well on our way to, to trying to push 90.
• 1:32:05
  So can we do some? Real quick, Shelton.
• 1:32:09
  I know you have not got to follow this as much because
• 1:32:13
  you've been really working. But when you just randomly pull
• 1:32:17
  up 247 a few weeks ago and you start seeing this caliber of
• 1:32:22
  player, where are your thoughts? Because you know you you haven't
• 1:32:28
  followed this closely in years. And again, now that this is
• 1:32:31
  happening and you've been at work for five months and now
• 1:32:34
  it's like, wait a second. What was your first inkling and
• 1:32:37
  reactions to that? I mean, I wasn't really that
• 1:32:41
  surprised 'cause. Like, you know, I think the
• 1:32:43
  people think the thing that people should know is like James
• 1:32:46
  Franklin pound for I, I had someone who used to work in
• 1:32:48
  college recruiting tell me this. James Franklin pound for pound
• 1:32:52
  is probably the single most dynamic recruiting personality
• 1:32:55
  in kosher ball. I mean, if you if you give him,
• 1:32:58
  you know, equal resources to all the other coaches, he can hold
• 1:33:00
  his own with anyone. And he's he's just got that
• 1:33:02
  dynamic personality. So I mean, you know, it's it's
• 1:33:05
  no surprise that recruiting, recruiting all his talent.
• 1:33:07
  And I mean, he's done it, you know, through the through the
• 1:33:10
  Portland through high school as well.
• 1:33:13
  So, yeah, I'm not I'm not really that surprised.
• 1:33:14
  And obviously, you know, NIL money helps, of course, and
• 1:33:17
  that, you know, not going to be dense about that.
• 1:33:20
  I mean, they're they're investing right now, but it's
• 1:33:22
  just you know, you, I mean, you can put him up with anyone.
• 1:33:25
  Like he's just got that. He's just got the chops.
• 1:33:27
  Like it's really that simple. I mean, you know, pry, like pry
• 1:33:31
  talked a little bit of a good game and, you know, he had a few
• 1:33:33
  decent recruiters on staff, but he just doesn't just unstack up
• 1:33:37
  to to Franklin, who's really is a closer and you need it.
• 1:33:40
  You got to have a closer on the on this on the staff and I think
• 1:33:43
  it's great. So, yeah, I mean, I guess from
• 1:33:45
  like a from like a, you know, big picture standpoint, I
• 1:33:48
  certainly did not expect that Tech will be in the top 15.
• 1:33:51
  I don't think they're going to stay there.
• 1:33:52
  But you know, we saw Fuentes first few classes were kind of
• 1:33:55
  hovering like the fringe top 25 range.
• 1:33:58
  And really I don't think it's been since maybe 2019 that Tech
• 1:34:01
  is out of top 30 class. I'm not mistaken.
• 1:34:03
  This class will definitely be top 30, probably top 25 when
• 1:34:06
  when it's all said and done. So we're kind of getting back to
• 1:34:09
  that, you know, kind of late 20 tens, but really the, you know,
• 1:34:13
  2000s early 20 tens type of type of talent influx that we we got
• 1:34:18
  accustomed accustomed to seeing for so long.
• 1:34:20
  So just how far out of it? We were 26 last year, Sheldon.
• 1:34:23
  26 last year that that it's crazy how that class closed out
• 1:34:30
  too and and when. We talk about kind of the way
• 1:34:32
  the the rest of the landscape is setting up for the rest of this
• 1:34:35
  this cycle. I mean, big, big official visit
• 1:34:39
  this weekend. Big David's going to be.
• 1:34:43
  Working this week and like you know if if you're able to.
• 1:34:48
  You know, close the deal on a Chris Whitehead, you know, oh
• 1:34:52
  God, Composite 5 star ripples #1 player in the state #4 edge in
• 1:34:57
  the country. I mean, top 35 national, I mean,
• 1:35:01
  that's, that's that, that is the gem of your class and and that's
• 1:35:05
  after you get the the 7th best quarterback in the country.
• 1:35:08
  So, you know, if if you're able to close that deal, that that
• 1:35:12
  really pushes the scales up higher and you know it, it would
• 1:35:16
  be, you know, the first five star we've really had and you
• 1:35:20
  know, close to a decade more more last five star was was
• 1:35:25
  Kendall. All right.
• 1:35:27
  Yeah. So going back even further, so
• 1:35:29
  even further than the. Deck Devin Hunter won a 5 star.
• 1:35:32
  No. I don't know he.
• 1:35:35
  Was a he? Was a he?
• 1:35:36
  Was a high four. Yeah, he he was right.
• 1:35:39
  There if OK I. I, I I.
• 1:35:42
  Was actually looking at this earlier if if you look at at the
• 1:35:48
  composite rankings Whitehead. Would be the 5th.
• 1:35:56
  Highest ranked recruit in Virginia Tech history behind
• 1:35:59
  Kevin Jones, Kendall Fuller, Tyrod Taylor and Marcus Vick.
• 1:36:03
  That's crazy. Head of macho, Head of.
• 1:36:06
  Ron Williams ahead of Logan. Give him, give him what he want,
• 1:36:09
  I mean. I think what it's so so.
• 1:36:13
  Impactful is how quickly they've transformed this this vision and
• 1:36:17
  they haven't played a game yet. And sometimes it can be very
• 1:36:20
  difficult to sell a vision, sell something that you're trying to
• 1:36:23
  build and say, hey, would this is what we're building towards.
• 1:36:27
  That is who James Franklin is. He's a salesman.
• 1:36:29
  He loves to do that. He loves to to pitch young
• 1:36:33
  people on what he's building. And he's got other people, Sean
• 1:36:37
  Spencer, Matt Moore, I think even Matt Moore, Infanto, mind
• 1:36:41
  you, stuck around that they've been pretty good.
• 1:36:45
  But Norval McKenzie, who of course has a lot of Georgia
• 1:36:48
  ties, even Ty Howell, like they've got guys who understand
• 1:36:55
  recruiting and are all on the same page as far as what they're
• 1:36:58
  selling. They've got the resources to do
• 1:37:01
  it. But you've seen them really hit
• 1:37:03
  the ground running. And it's going to be a crazy
• 1:37:05
  couple weeks here with official visits.
• 1:37:08
  It's this weekend in May and then.
• 1:37:10
  First couple weekends. In June and and and they are.
• 1:37:15
  There's no. Limit on how many guys?
• 1:37:16
  You're, you know, you're, you're not capped on how many guys you
• 1:37:19
  can take anymore. You can take as much as you
• 1:37:22
  want. And if you're James Franklin and
• 1:37:24
  you're this coaching staff and you're looking at trying to
• 1:37:27
  overhaul a roster real quick and create competition, there's one
• 1:37:32
  good way to do it and that's bringing a lot of really good
• 1:37:34
  talent. Yeah, definitely.
• 1:37:37
  Well, David? As we get wrapping up here.
• 1:37:40
  Obviously I'm glad you got to get off the grid and take off
• 1:37:44
  last because it seems like the next three or four weekends are
• 1:37:49
  going to be nuts, man, for you, you know, down there.
• 1:37:51
  And obviously like you said, the doors are locked now, so got to
• 1:37:57
  be even sneakier maybe when we get you a helicopter or
• 1:38:00
  something. But listen man, boys, y'all got
• 1:38:03
  anything else before we close it out tonight?
• 1:38:07
  Because it's been a fun. I thought Brian was like hell.
• 1:38:09
  We got like an hour Brian. We can probably keep going to
• 1:38:13
  too. Hey, man.
• 1:38:14
  Yeah, David, I. Always.
• 1:38:15
  I always forget how long winded we can be at times.
• 1:38:18
  So, you know, we talked a lot against stuff tonight.
• 1:38:20
  You're just long winded when you're happy, man.
• 1:38:22
  Hey. You're damn right, damn right.
• 1:38:25
  I I think the big. The biggest thing, guys, I mean,
• 1:38:27
  just think about it. Right, Like say a year ago, you
• 1:38:32
  know, they were coming off of a disappointing season and it's
• 1:38:36
  what the future hold and this they won three games and it was
• 1:38:41
  rough too and it was a wake up call.
• 1:38:44
  I think for a lot of people. In, in the athletic department
• 1:38:46
  and you're seeing the, the results of that now, the what
• 1:38:51
  they're doing in terms of transforming it and obviously
• 1:38:54
  hiring new people. But they, they've got a big time
• 1:38:58
  coach now. And I'm, I'm happy, you know,
• 1:39:01
  talking with people like, you know, you guys and other
• 1:39:04
  friends, people that follow Virginia Tech all the time,
• 1:39:07
  like, you know, our subscribers, it's a lot more enjoyable to
• 1:39:11
  discuss this when I mean, obviously when they're hot on
• 1:39:14
  the recruiting trail, but just when they're trending in the
• 1:39:17
  right direction. And it's been a while.
• 1:39:22
  It's been a really long time, honestly, since they've been
• 1:39:24
  trending to a point like this where where you're like, man,
• 1:39:29
  are they building to something 10 years, 10 years.
• 1:39:33
  December 2016 in a mispass from Jerrod Evans.
• 1:39:40
  That would have been Clemson. That's how long it's been.
• 1:39:44
  It's been 10 years. So hope it's a great thing.
• 1:39:49
  David. We appreciate you joining us
• 1:39:51
  tonight, man. And that is going to wrap up
• 1:39:53
  this episode of the Boundary Corner podcast brought to you by
• 1:39:57
  Moments on the Murray with our special guest Tech Sideline
• 1:40:00
  Zones Managing Editor, David Cunningham.
• 1:40:02
  I am Curtis Wilson. I'm Brian Siegler, Jonathan
• 1:40:06
  Talley. And I'm Sean Moss.
• 1:40:09
  Visit Boundary. Cornerbt.com to.
• 1:40:11
  Listen to all of our episodes while you're there.
• 1:40:13
  Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, all the fun spots
• 1:40:16
  including YouTube. If you have not joined there
• 1:40:19
  yet, please join us there. As always, we're on every
• 1:40:23
  podcast source you can think of. Actually, I'll do this real
• 1:40:26
  quick follow David Cunningham seriously y'all go to Twitter be
• 1:40:32
  real D Connor great follow obviously check text island out.
• 1:40:37
  We love what y'all guys do over there.
• 1:40:40
  We we appreciate that you're always willing to come on with
• 1:40:42
  us. As always, we let our buddy
• 1:40:45
  Jason Long down in Roanoke play us in play us out.
• 1:40:48
  Check out Jason Long music.com to get to all of his fun stuff
• 1:40:54
  and he's going to be having a couple concert dates here in the
• 1:40:58
  next few weeks. May 30th, the Grand Village
• 1:41:00
  Farmers Market in Roanoke, 8:00 to noon and then on June 7th,
• 1:41:05
  Harmony for Hope, it's a fundraiser for the Lymphonia
• 1:41:07
  Research Foundation. This is down at Mangoes Bar and
• 1:41:11
  Grill, and if you're wondering where that is, leave.
• 1:41:17
  Where is Mangoes? I thought he had it in here.
• 1:41:20
  He didn't put it on here. Damn it.
• 1:41:21
  Jason, why don't you put that on here?
• 1:41:23
  Moneta, VA, check that out. Jason's going to be playing
• 1:41:26
  there for a very good cause. Appreciate you all for
• 1:41:29
  listening. Appreciate the comments and as
• 1:41:31
  always, let's go hokey.