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Hokie Hi Wrap-Up · Boundary Corner Podcast

• 0:27
  Music. And welcome back to the Boundary
• 0:47
  Corner Podcast along with my partners, Brian Siegler and
• 0:50
  Jonathan Talley. And tonight our very special
• 0:53
  guest Managing Editor of Tech Sideline David Cunningham and
• 0:58
  well what doesn't he do? BC Podcast ACC Suns of Saturday
• 1:02
  Hokey hangover still writing for SI now the man who is in every
• 1:06
  potential podcast in hokey land Mike McDaniels.
• 1:12
  My name is Curtis Wilson in this episode is brought to you by
• 1:15
  Doctor Jeremy Counts at Main Street Pharmacy Your Friendly
• 1:18
  Neighborhood pharmacy 301 S Main St.
• 1:20
  Blacksburg, VA and gentlemen. Before we get into all the fun
• 1:24
  stuff tonight, just a quick minute here to just mention
• 1:28
  because you know one of the events that definitely shaped
• 1:32
  our lives, me and Brian especially, we are a little bit
• 1:35
  older than you and Mike David happened 17 years ago with the
• 1:39
  tragedy at Tech. It's been a lot of stuff going
• 1:42
  around today. You know hearts still go out to
• 1:44
  those families and everyone who was involved that year in that
• 1:49
  time frame because Brian mean you talk about it every year.
• 1:53
  It kind of happened. Me and Brown were both at
• 1:55
  Longwood University at that point in time and we had friends
• 1:57
  at Tech and I'm going to tell you sitting in trying to take
• 2:00
  phone calls sending IMS that day, I I still remember that I I
• 2:05
  lived at I lived on Church St. in FarmVille.
• 2:07
  I still remember the exact house and just sitting there when I
• 2:09
  got back from class that day. But definitely, you know,
• 2:14
  prayers out to all those families on this anniversary.
• 2:17
  Yeah, I was. I was sitting there with my wife
• 2:19
  and she was you know one like 2 semesters removed from from
• 2:23
  being in Blacksburg herself. So it was a it was a trying time
• 2:27
  for everybody and you know just checking in on everyone making
• 2:30
  sure everyone's OK and obviously your prayers still with with the
• 2:34
  families of of those 32 so. So you know, again we'll we'll
• 2:40
  say prayers out to all those folks in the remembrance and of
• 2:43
  that. And as we go on to tonight to
• 2:45
  talk about, you know, you know what Nikki Giovanni said in that
• 2:49
  thing the Hokies will prevail. And right now sports wise,
• 2:52
  Hokies are prevailing all over the place.
• 2:54
  And so let's talk about it and guys, Mike, we'll start you
• 2:59
  first. How you been?
• 3:00
  I see the baby's pictures in the background is me and Mike talked
• 3:03
  a couple months ago and I'm like, did your baby finally
• 3:05
  start sleeping? And he was like, yeah, it
• 3:06
  finally did. Yeah, yeah.
• 3:08
  I finally started sleeping. Got him down around 8:45
• 3:14
  tonight. Finally fell asleep.
• 3:16
  So it took a while. But yeah, he's he's sleeping, so
• 3:19
  hopefully he remains asleep during the duration of this
• 3:22
  podcast. Make it a little easier on my
• 3:23
  wife. David, what about you, man?
• 3:27
  I mean, you've been absolutely the most busiest man potentially
• 3:31
  in all a Hokie independent Hokie sports since March.
• 3:36
  Are is it finally settle down time?
• 3:38
  Are you Are you now back to softball and baseball the rest
• 3:41
  of the spring? I, I, I might pinch it a little
• 3:45
  bit here and there, but but it's been pretty good.
• 3:49
  You know the the spring game is kind of the end of the year
• 3:53
  because obviously baseball and softball's still going.
• 3:57
  But we have fantastic student interns that cover that for us
• 4:00
  at Tech sideline. I've basically been on the go
• 4:03
  since July since football media days.
• 4:06
  I go from football media days to football practice to football
• 4:09
  season and then in the middle of that you have basketball media
• 4:13
  days and then you get into crossover season and then you
• 4:18
  get to January where it's only basketball season and then you
• 4:22
  end basketball season. March is always crazy with
• 4:25
  spring football. You have the spring game and now
• 4:28
  we're done with that. So this is kind of like first
• 4:30
  week. I've actually gotten a little
• 4:32
  bit, little, little bit of a chance to breathe.
• 4:34
  So it's pretty nice. Is that crossover section more
• 4:37
  hectic or is March with spring ball gearing up and like the the
• 4:41
  beat of the of the basketball schedule?
• 4:45
  Honestly, the most stressful month for me is December because
• 4:49
  you have signing day on top of football on top of basketball on
• 4:54
  top of a bowl game, All right. And I I like March.
• 4:58
  I think March is fun. You've got, you've got
• 5:01
  basketball that really, really matters.
• 5:02
  It's winter go home basketball. But at the same time like yes
• 5:07
  you've got football practice. But those early, early, early
• 5:10
  week, you know first really couple practices, yes they mean
• 5:13
  something but like you know and luckily I have Andy bitter and
• 5:18
  and Andy is able to go to football practice and I've been
• 5:22
  able to focus on basketball. So that's been nice this year.
• 5:26
  But man, November is usually kind of chaotic just because
• 5:30
  football season's wrapping up. But December is a mess because
• 5:33
  it's Portal season, it's coaching search season.
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  And on top of that, it's a bowl game.
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  And like, like this year, Virginia Tech's playing in a
• 5:41
  bowl game two days after Christmas.
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  When do I have time to see my family?
• 5:44
  So December's always, December's always a mess.
• 5:48
  But thankfully the Hokies were up in DC this year and I've got
• 5:51
  family up there, so I got to got to go see them and you still
• 5:55
  found time in that month to jump on with us for state of the
• 5:57
  program. So did I did?
• 5:59
  Yeah, you did. You did.
• 6:01
  Excellent. Excellent.
• 6:02
  All right, before we get into football and everything.
• 6:04
  Tally, hold your tongue. I know what you need to say to
• 6:06
  him, but. We're going to have them later.
• 6:08
  Yes, you did because you got to do it.
• 6:11
  We want to talk a little bit about hoops, having both of
• 6:13
  y'all on here, obviously following both programs pretty
• 6:15
  closely. And I want to talk about the
• 6:17
  women's hoops and I'm going to pitch this to David 1st and then
• 6:20
  get your thoughts. Mike, David, you were there.
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  You saw the whole transition. Thoughts on how things went
• 6:27
  down? Yeah, yeah, you're you're really
• 6:33
  leaving it open-ended. I'm leaving it.
• 6:35
  It's yours. Buddy.
• 6:36
  Yeah, yeah. No, that's no, that's fine.
• 6:37
  That's fine. It's it's a tough situation and
• 6:43
  we were talking about a little bit before we started recording.
• 6:47
  This is a program that over the last two years has seen more
• 6:52
  fans support than ever before and I think the fan base really
• 6:57
  hurting for a while there for about a week after it happened,
• 7:02
  just kind of I I can't believe this is happening.
• 7:06
  The five stages of grief I I think Coach Duffy is, I think
• 7:13
  she is a really good fit. I'm very curious to see what
• 7:16
  happens going forward. But as far as the Kenny Brooks
• 7:20
  air and how it ended, you know, it's a little bit of an Irish
• 7:22
  goodbye. That's kind of the way I think a
• 7:28
  lot of people saw it playing out.
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  Unfortunately he never said goodbye to the fan base.
• 7:33
  I think that will still for a really, really long time burn
• 7:38
  some people and really frustrate them and I think that's all
• 7:41
  right. You.
• 7:43
  You feel how you feel and and and there's a reason why, you
• 7:48
  know we call them fans, right? Fanatics, you, you.
• 7:53
  Everybody has their own opinion. I do hate to see some of the the
• 7:58
  Super, super negative things. I've seen some really bad things
• 8:00
  thrown at at Kenny and his family and obviously I got a
• 8:04
  chance to know him really, really well and he was very
• 8:06
  impactful in my career over over my seven years.
• 8:10
  Just really weird. Really weird timing.
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  This is a Virginia Tech program that was kind of at the
• 8:13
  mountaintop, two ACC championships, a Final Four
• 8:17
  hosted college game in the span of two years.
• 8:19
  And poof, it's gone. But the only thing you can
• 8:23
  really do now is turn the page. That error is over.
• 8:25
  You have to turn the page, support the players you
• 8:28
  currently have. And I think there's a, you know,
• 8:32
  it's not a a complete roster by any means, but there's some
• 8:34
  talent on this roster that's still here that chose to stay
• 8:38
  and and play for Megan Duffy. She's slowly putting together a
• 8:41
  staff and I think she's a really good fit and I think Virginia
• 8:44
  Tech women's basketball. I'm not saying the Okies are
• 8:46
  going to be competing at the top of the ACC, you know, for an ACC
• 8:50
  regular season title next year. But I do think that with Babcot
• 8:54
  kind of headed out of the park with this, with this hire and
• 8:56
  I'm very curious to see what she can do with some really, really
• 9:00
  good resources and and capitalize on a fan base that
• 9:04
  really, really wants to win right now.
• 9:06
  Mike, what about you, man? What about you?
• 9:08
  Just how things went down from like you know you have sources
• 9:11
  inside there and things you heard.
• 9:14
  I first of all want to echo everything David just said,
• 9:18
  right? In terms of fan base reaction,
• 9:23
  maybe, you know, Kenny not putting out a statement,
• 9:27
  reacting the way he did to maybe some of that negativity that
• 9:31
  stemmed from him leaving the program.
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  I I get all of that. I get how everybody reacted.
• 9:37
  Think everybody's entitled to feel how they feel, right?
• 9:40
  With all that being said, like if I'm Kenny Brooks and the fan
• 9:46
  base is real upset. Like the fortunate tech fan base
• 9:49
  is real upset that they didn't get any sort of statement from
• 9:52
  him. Like if I'm Kenny Brooks, like
• 9:54
  this is a layup. Like he's he's aced everything
• 9:58
  right And his time in Blacksburg.
• 10:00
  Aced everything like headed up the rebuild brought in Liz
• 10:04
  Kitley and Georgia Amore 2 All Americans.
• 10:07
  Kitley's numbers going up in the rafters.
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  She's the best player in school history.
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  You take the school to a final Four like you nail everything,
• 10:13
  right. So why not just go ahead and put
• 10:18
  out a statement? Have you know somebody write a
• 10:22
  couple paragraph If you don't want to do it, that's fine.
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  Write a couple paragraph statement.
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  Just slap your electronic signature on the end of it, like
• 10:30
  Buzz Williams did at the end, right.
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  And and everybody and it's real funny, right?
• 10:34
  Because the Buzz Williams stuff, like everybody got so frustrated
• 10:38
  with Buzz Williams at the end. And it the reaction now is like
• 10:42
  real funny. Like how people see Buzz
• 10:46
  Williams and the light they view him in now like six years after
• 10:49
  the fact. But like he put out a statement
• 10:53
  and the fan base like didn't love how he went about that.
• 10:57
  So it's like I I feel like there's there's portions of the
• 11:01
  fan base that are just going to react the way they want to
• 11:03
  react. They're upset that he left.
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  They're frustrated that they wanted him to continue being the
• 11:08
  coach for obvious reasons. So there's natural frustration
• 11:10
  there. And I'm not sure, like even if
• 11:13
  you put out a statement, like, there's a portion of the fan
• 11:15
  base, like you're not getting back when you leave, right?
• 11:17
  So the Megan Duffy hire, I think is really, really good.
• 11:22
  David did a great interview with her on the TSL podcast I
• 11:25
  listened to last week. Really, really good stuff there.
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  I I think she's a great hire. You know what she was able to do
• 11:33
  at Marquette, the coaching tree. She's played all over the world
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  like she's played for Muffet McGraw at Notre Dame, who
• 11:42
  obviously is a Hall of Fame coach.
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  He's won multiple national championships.
• 11:45
  Like I think there there's very little not to like about the
• 11:50
  Megan Duffy hire. And I think if if you're going
• 11:53
  in a new direction and you're moving on from Kenny Brooks,
• 11:58
  this is, this is kind of the best possible hire that you
• 12:02
  could have made in my mind. And I think she's going to
• 12:04
  reinvigorate the fan base. I think the fan base is going to
• 12:07
  latch on to her. I think she's a very different
• 12:08
  coach. And Kenny Brooks, it's pretty
• 12:10
  apparent just by listening to her.
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  But I think that she's going to be somebody who will be able to
• 12:17
  kind of take what Kenny Brooks built and kind of continue that
• 12:21
  trajectory of, OK, this is going to be a really good program in
• 12:23
  the ACC for a long time. So it's it's unfortunate with
• 12:27
  the way it went down with Kenny. I understand why the fans
• 12:29
  reacted the way that they did. But I But I think overall, you
• 12:33
  know, the women's basketball program's still in a pretty good
• 12:35
  spot. Yeah, I think, you know when we
• 12:41
  look at the the way the Kenny Brooks thing went down, you
• 12:44
  know, I think David nailed it on the head.
• 12:47
  You know, the Irish goodbye I think is what rubbed a lot of
• 12:49
  the fan base the wrong way. I think if you get that out
• 12:51
  there, you get that statement out there, most of the so-called
• 12:54
  rational part of the fan base is going to be more or less
• 12:59
  placated. I think we we get that he's
• 13:02
  moving on to a situation that is significantly more beneficial
• 13:07
  for him as a coach and not just from the financial piece.
• 13:11
  So I think we, you know, most people understand that.
• 13:14
  I think it was just we gave you you know from a fan base
• 13:18
  perspective. We gave you everything we had
• 13:21
  and you know we we that wasn't that didn't feel like it was
• 13:23
  reciprocated at the end if that makes.
• 13:29
  Sense. Yeah, I agree.
• 13:30
  I kind of agree with what? What are you saying?
• 13:32
  Well, what everybody's been saying, Brian, especially what
• 13:35
  you just said. But it's like, I know I could
• 13:38
  never make it in I guess, traditional corporate America
• 13:41
  now, 'cause like I'm my mouth is too slick.
• 13:44
  And I like it was a couple of years ago when y'all was calling
• 13:47
  the people, you was calling the man conference, Kenny, you know
• 13:51
  what I'm saying? Like saying he couldn't win
• 13:53
  conference games and all type of shit and then when somebody
• 13:58
  leaves you want to fucking get mad and start bitching and
• 14:02
  moaning and all of that stuff. I'm just the kind of person
• 14:05
  where I would have been like, hey, thank you for the people
• 14:08
  that supported us, Whip Babcock, Fuck you if I didn't like him.
• 14:11
  I don't know their situation. I'm just saying if that's what
• 14:15
  it is, fucking you, you're cool, You're cool, you're cool, Fuck
• 14:19
  you, you're cool. And then that's it.
• 14:21
  I. Think I think.
• 14:23
  You know, the people who, 'cause that's, I mean, I'm not a like,
• 14:27
  die hard women's basketball fan. You know what I'm saying?
• 14:32
  Like I turn on the games when they were winning, it was good
• 14:35
  to have, you know, to keep up with.
• 14:37
  Now I'm always going to, you know, keep up with some stats
• 14:39
  and things. But really getting into it last
• 14:41
  couple of years, it's been great.
• 14:44
  But there's some people out there that, you know, they
• 14:46
  probably are pretty die hard women's basketball fans.
• 14:50
  And I feel like those fans may, you know, I don't want to say
• 14:55
  they deserve something because it's like, but if I was the
• 14:59
  coach, I'm just saying the way I would do it would be like, hey,
• 15:02
  thank you for the people that supported us.
• 15:03
  Me and my family will be going through a lot of stuff right
• 15:05
  now. But thank you for the people
• 15:07
  that supported us and let it go when you get.
• 15:10
  Yeah. When you got like the daughter
• 15:12
  coming out. And I know she probably did it
• 15:14
  on her own, but like, and you know, I'm 38.
• 15:16
  She's a child of me. You know, she's a young lady.
• 15:19
  I don't want to call her a child, but it's like she's
• 15:21
  coming out to defend her dad. But like you can do that, you
• 15:25
  know, if your wife is, you know, going through what she going
• 15:28
  through, of course she's praying for their family.
• 15:30
  Like I ain't saying you got to tell people your business, but
• 15:32
  she just told it. You know what I'm saying?
• 15:34
  The daughter come out and tell the business.
• 15:36
  So if you if that was going to come out, just be like, hey man,
• 15:39
  we got stuff going on and I'm sorry that I didn't get y'all a
• 15:43
  timely goodbye like you wanted, but this it is what it is.
• 15:46
  Like they gave me more money over here.
• 15:48
  This is where we want to be. I'm at that spring football
• 15:52
  game. Fuck what y'all talking about up
• 15:53
  there in Blacksbury and kept it moving.
• 15:56
  That's just kind of how I feel. You know, all of the whole
• 15:58
  smoking mirrors where the coaches have to go out and it's
• 16:02
  going to be some stuff come out behind closed doors and stuff
• 16:04
  like man, fuck all that. Just tell us what it is.
• 16:07
  If you want to tell it and keep it moving.
• 16:09
  If you don't want to tell it, keep it quiet.
• 16:12
  Ain't gone about your life. That's all I think.
• 16:14
  There you go. I like, I'm good points by all.
• 16:17
  Y'all and I'm going to leave it right there.
• 16:19
  I do have a real quick question, David or Mike, because I I don't
• 16:22
  know where to go for this. I've, I've searched it.
• 16:25
  I can't find anything. What about Duffy?
• 16:28
  What about portal ads especially?
• 16:30
  She had a few of her former players, one very good player.
• 16:33
  I think the young lady averaged 17 and 9:00 last year.
• 16:37
  Any portal movement yet? Or is it different for
• 16:40
  basketball, 'cause I don't know all the rules there.
• 16:43
  Yeah, I mean this is, this is an interesting recruiting time and
• 16:48
  and the recruiting periods for basketball are really, really
• 16:51
  hard to keep up with it. It kind of like changes by the
• 16:55
  week. There was a dead period around
• 16:58
  the Final Four, so that was two weekends ago.
• 17:02
  Now, as we record this, it's funny, I posted this on our TSO
• 17:08
  message boards the other day. I was actually out of breakfast,
• 17:11
  went with my family on Sunday after the spring game and saw
• 17:14
  Megan Duffy out with the recruit.
• 17:16
  She is recruiting. She she is out there.
• 17:18
  She is busy. She's in the street.
• 17:21
  Just because you don't see her does not mean she's not out
• 17:24
  there recruiting. It's just kind of a matter of
• 17:26
  time, you know? This stuff happens fast or slow.
• 17:30
  She's still trying to get in her coaching staff.
• 17:32
  She hired one on Thursday, one on Friday.
• 17:34
  They're two really, really good recruiters.
• 17:36
  They were both recruiting coordinators at their previous
• 17:38
  schools. That stuff will come with time.
• 17:43
  It just kind of takes them a minute to get their footing
• 17:45
  down. And this was kind of the first
• 17:48
  big weekend. They really had an opportunity
• 17:50
  to get some visitors in. And of course, in the portal,
• 17:53
  not everybody wants to wants to take a visit.
• 17:56
  You know, you look at the men's side, Jordan Ivy Curry, the the
• 18:00
  first men's basketball commit, he did not take a visit to
• 18:02
  Virginia Tech before he committed.
• 18:03
  But some kids want to visit and some kids want to to get that
• 18:06
  experience before they commit. So it's a process.
• 18:10
  It'll be an ongoing thing. Over the summer.
• 18:12
  She's gonna fill out her roster. That's a fact.
• 18:15
  It's going to happen. This is kind of a matter of how
• 18:18
  it happens. It's again it it will happen
• 18:21
  over time, but I think she set up her, her staff pretty, pretty
• 18:26
  well so far and the player she has coming back, you know,
• 18:29
  they're pretty talented kids. Like anything on top of that?
• 18:34
  No, I think he about covered it. I I think fan though the same
• 18:40
  faction of the fan base that was getting real upset about the
• 18:42
  Kenny Brooks like lack of a statement is the same group
• 18:45
  that's thinking that Megan Duffy's not out there
• 18:47
  recruiting. So I just wanted to to say I
• 18:50
  appreciated David's statement there off the top.
• 18:53
  So. Let's say some of y'all fans be
• 18:55
  doing too much. I know I do a lot of crazy shit.
• 18:59
  Y'all creating fake pages, talking crazy to these people.
• 19:05
  Stop doing that. Please.
• 19:07
  Just be normal crazy. Don't be fucking crazy crazy.
• 19:11
  You know what I'm saying? Like be be be us crazy don't be
• 19:16
  way down the. Line.
• 19:17
  Crazy. I don't know, man.
• 19:19
  Y'all be they'd be doing too much.
• 19:22
  Some people do. It's not even a joke.
• 19:23
  Some people be creating fake accounts to do stuff.
• 19:27
  I'll be. I I think the same one that's
• 19:30
  that's Kenny Brooks right now was tech sideline not too long
• 19:33
  ago so. Lord, have mercy.
• 19:35
  See, I don't even know. I don't even know.
• 19:36
  I don't even know this much. But.
• 19:39
  But. All right, I'm going to flip
• 19:42
  real quick men's hoops. We've already talked about Jamie
• 19:45
  Ivy Curry. First of all, what a land if he
• 19:48
  comes here. I mean, he is a top ten shooting
• 19:51
  guard in the portal. Top 75 total.
• 19:53
  Like, that's a stud to land. Burnham looks like a good bench
• 19:56
  player out of COC. Let's talk about the new one.
• 20:00
  David if you've had a chance, or or Mike if y'all had a chance.
• 20:05
  Rodney Brown, junior coming all the way from Cal, you know, 6-7
• 20:12
  or so, 180 lbs. What do we know about him?
• 20:17
  I mean, like he played a little bit as true freshman year, but
• 20:21
  what else is there to know on him?
• 20:23
  Yeah. I mean he's a he's a scorer and
• 20:27
  Mike Young everybody knows Mike Young loves loves scores.
• 20:30
  You know he's from California. I I I would imagine it's going
• 20:34
  to be an interesting transition for him to come all the way to
• 20:37
  the East Coast. But he's he's been pretty
• 20:40
  successful or he he was successful I should say in big
• 20:44
  games this year for Cal. You know he didn't average a
• 20:48
  whole lot I think just 3 1/2 points one or one rebound per
• 20:51
  game. But, but he played pretty well
• 20:54
  in some big games. He had 310, three double digit
• 20:57
  games. All of them were in PAC 12 play.
• 21:00
  I believe all of them were on the road and we're talking
• 21:02
  against like Washington State and USC and UCLA.
• 21:05
  So it's not like he can't play. I think he's a guy that the
• 21:09
  hoagies hope has a really bright future.
• 21:11
  He's got three years of eligibility left.
• 21:13
  He was only a freshman this year.
• 21:15
  The hope is that he can get a little bit of his feet wet.
• 21:17
  I think this year maybe help you if he develops immediately.
• 21:21
  If not, you should kind of stash him.
• 21:24
  Let him get his footing a little bit and he's a guy you can rely
• 21:28
  on a couple years down the line. He's rangy, man.
• 21:32
  Like, he's rangy and he's athletic.
• 21:34
  I didn't know anything about him.
• 21:36
  And then I started like, obviously, what?
• 21:38
  As soon as Tech landed him, I was like, all right, let's see
• 21:40
  what he did at Cal because like David mentioned, like he was
• 21:43
  only, you know, only averaged like less than four points per
• 21:45
  game. He's only playing about 15
• 21:47
  minutes at night. It's not like he was a guy who
• 21:50
  was like regularly in the rotation.
• 21:52
  Yes, he was playing, but he was like their their 7th or 8th guy,
• 21:54
  right? Like he wasn't getting a ton of
• 21:56
  myths. Rangy, athletic, can really
• 22:00
  shoot. It shoots like 40% from the
• 22:03
  floor. I think this is a guy who could
• 22:06
  be pretty impactful 4 star coming out of high school.
• 22:11
  He was only a freshman last year, right?
• 22:13
  So I think that has to be you know, taken 2 with a grain of
• 22:16
  salt if you're just looking at his statistics and you're like,
• 22:18
  all right, this kid can't play. Like why is Mike Young
• 22:20
  recruiting him from across the country?
• 22:22
  He's recruiting him from across the country because he's
• 22:24
  extremely athletic and he can shoot the cover off the ball.
• 22:27
  That's why he's recruiting him. All right.
• 22:29
  Like this is not like 2 + 2 = 4 here guys.
• 22:32
  If you're shooting 40% from three and Virginia Tech couldn't
• 22:34
  throw it in the ocean last year that's why he's recruiting him.
• 22:36
  So this is a we're we're starting the California to Vt
• 22:41
  movement is what we're doing and we'll see how it works out.
• 22:44
  Tally, did you get a chance to watch the tally is the tally is
• 22:49
  very harsh on Mike Young right now because he said he's not
• 22:52
  been recruiting athletic players.
• 22:54
  No, he ain't. But I.
• 22:56
  Know what it looks like It's changed a little bit.
• 22:59
  This, this, this mortal cycle though.
• 23:01
  And I and I want to watch what I say, because I don't, like every
• 23:04
  kid that's played for Virginia Tech is more athletic than me at
• 23:07
  this point. But at the same time, what I'm
• 23:10
  saying is that in the ACC, when you play basketball, you're
• 23:15
  going to go against certain guards that Mike Young is
• 23:18
  recruiting guards that aren't going to match up with them day
• 23:21
  in and day out, night in and night out.
• 23:23
  Like our guards haven't been matching up with everybody
• 23:27
  else's guards. You got to have some big guards,
• 23:29
  you got to have some athletic guards.
• 23:31
  Just like Mike said, you got to have some rangy players.
• 23:34
  He just hasn't been going after them.
• 23:37
  He's been this diamond in the rough punch above your weight
• 23:40
  class type person and that'll get you one good year in five
• 23:44
  years. But if you're trying to build
• 23:45
  something and have a consistent program, it's hard to do that
• 23:49
  with those kind of players in the ACC.
• 23:51
  So again, I don't, you know, there's a lot of people just
• 23:55
  talking about, you know, you'll save money and you'll say, you
• 23:59
  know, nil and stuff like that. But you have to look at the type
• 24:03
  of players that we're recruiting as well and that type of players
• 24:06
  that we're keeping, you know, because I think he's got some of
• 24:09
  those players, but for whatever reason, we're not keeping them.
• 24:12
  You know, I don't know if it's the system.
• 24:14
  I don't know. I don't want to go into all of
• 24:16
  it because everybody's thinks I like, want to jump on Mike Young
• 24:19
  and I really don't. But I just feel like with the
• 24:23
  two transfers, well, I don't want to say two, I say the
• 24:27
  transfers that he's bringing in, I see him making an effort to
• 24:31
  try to do some some different type of recruit.
• 24:34
  So because it's only one or two Star Murphy's out there.
• 24:39
  You know, like when I seen * Murphy, I was like.
• 24:42
  What he what the? Fuck he going to do, You know
• 24:44
  what I'm saying? Like, what is he going to do?
• 24:46
  But he actually was a really good player, you know what I'm
• 24:50
  saying? Because I'm just thinking about
• 24:52
  the people that he's playing against, you know?
• 24:54
  But at the same time, it's like there's only one of him in the
• 24:57
  like, you can't just keep getting people like that.
• 25:00
  You can't keep getting people like Justin Mutts that like
• 25:03
  punch above that weight class every single year.
• 25:06
  You know what I'm saying? You're 6-7, but you're playing
• 25:08
  like you're 610, so sometimes you just got to go get some 610
• 25:13
  people. That's all I'm going to say.
• 25:15
  Hey. Let let me ask this, Mike real
• 25:17
  quick. Were you shocked when as many
• 25:19
  portal like it, it shocked me because it was just like, oh,
• 25:23
  portal, portal, portal. And the next thing they're like,
• 25:27
  are we going to have enough people to, did that shock you
• 25:31
  following the program or was it do you think it was like Mike
• 25:34
  finally said, OK, it's time. Well, I the roster was gonna
• 25:40
  turn over quite a bit anyway. The team was, look, Rodney Rice.
• 25:47
  Rodney Rice leaves a couple weeks before the season and that
• 25:50
  puts Mike Young and his staff in a really precarious situation
• 25:53
  because they didn't recruit enough guard depth and they
• 25:55
  didn't keep enough guard depth around.
• 25:57
  I think would be the more accurate statement, right?
• 25:59
  So when Rodney Rice leaves, you're in the same position you
• 26:02
  were a year ago. Like, Sean, Paduela's gonna have
• 26:03
  to play 37 minutes a night. And we saw that, that war on him
• 26:08
  a ton a year ago. Now he came back and I thought,
• 26:12
  in my opinion, like, everybody's gonna complain about the
• 26:14
  turnover issues. His usage rate was absurd this
• 26:17
  year and I thought he played better than he did a year ago.
• 26:19
  He came back, I thought in better shape.
• 26:21
  I thought he was stronger. I thought in a lot of games he
• 26:24
  shot the ball a lot better. He did a better job getting to
• 26:28
  his spots, and he actually improved defensively.
• 26:30
  I thought so. I thought he came back a better
• 26:32
  player. But he was in the same terrible
• 26:34
  situation where, you know, he didn't really have anybody to
• 26:37
  spell him, and the offense ran almost entirely through him.
• 26:40
  The only other guy who could reliably go out and get his own
• 26:43
  shot was Tyler Nickel. But Tyler Nickel, I mean, he was
• 26:46
  basically a freshman. Like, he didn't play a ton of
• 26:48
  Carolina. Then he comes into Virginia Tech
• 26:51
  and you're expecting him to be like your your second or third
• 26:54
  scorer, which is a lot of pressure, 'cause every team in
• 26:56
  the conference is blanketing Hunter Couture.
• 26:59
  And then everybody else knows that your only other scorer who
• 27:01
  can go out and get his is Sean Padula.
• 27:03
  That's a tough way to play offense every night, especially
• 27:06
  when you get an ACC play. So was I surprised that a lot of
• 27:09
  guys portaled? No, I was not surprised.
• 27:11
  I was really not surprised about Sean Padula, like he's been away
• 27:15
  from home. He's got a huge family.
• 27:17
  They haven't been able to see him play a lot during his
• 27:20
  college career. He's halfway across the country.
• 27:22
  It did not shock me that he went into the portal, considering how
• 27:27
  he's been treated from a basketball standpoint the last
• 27:29
  two years. Like, on one hand, yeah, he's
• 27:31
  gotten a lot of recognition. He's played pretty well.
• 27:34
  But he's also been in a situation where he hasn't been
• 27:37
  able to showcase everything that he's able to do from an
• 27:40
  efficiency standpoint because his usage rate is absurd, like
• 27:44
  through the roof. And it's been a really tough
• 27:46
  situation for him as a player, even though he's been playing a
• 27:49
  lot. So I wasn't surprised he went
• 27:51
  into the portal. The one that surprised me a
• 27:54
  little bit was Tyler Nickel. I I think if you know you're
• 27:59
  seeing all these guys transfer out and then a few guys
• 28:01
  graduating obviously, and you're hoping to keep, you know, some
• 28:06
  of the guys around still and you see Collins go portaling, you
• 28:11
  see Pedula go portaling the Tyler nickel one hurt because
• 28:15
  you saw the potential offensively when nickel was
• 28:20
  playing with confidence on that end of the floor.
• 28:22
  And that's something that comes with more experience, better
• 28:24
  development in the offseason. So that one I think hurts more
• 28:28
  than almost any other. And yeah, you'd love to have
• 28:32
  Pedula back, but the Tyler nickel one hurt a lot
• 28:35
  considering he had a a few years of eligibility left and you
• 28:39
  started to see his potential as the year went on last year.
• 28:42
  So that one hurt. But you know that this roster
• 28:46
  needed needed some turnover and the fan base complaining about
• 28:52
  how the team's not athletic. This is a shot at you.
• 28:54
  Tally this. Everybody else like complaining
• 28:57
  about how the complaining about how the team is.
• 28:59
  Not. No, no, no, no.
• 29:01
  I know. But, but I know.
• 29:02
  But I know you're gonna agree with me on this.
• 29:04
  The fan base, you know, the the same people complaining about
• 29:06
  everybody hitting the portal are the same people that were
• 29:09
  complaining for three and four months about how the team wasn't
• 29:12
  good enough. So, I mean, you can't have your
• 29:14
  cake and eat it too, right? Like, if if the team's not good
• 29:17
  enough, that's one thing, right? But then when everybody leaves,
• 29:19
  you can't complain about the coaching staff not being able to
• 29:21
  keep those guys who you're shitting on for four months, OK?
• 29:24
  So like, you get to a point where it's like this is what's
• 29:28
  gonna happen. One or the other, yeah.
• 29:29
  If you're gonna keep the guys that were mediocre for you,
• 29:32
  there will still be mediocre. Or, you know, they're gonna go
• 29:35
  somewhere else and you're gonna hopefully replace them with guys
• 29:37
  that can get it done a little bit better.
• 29:39
  And ideally, the answer's somewhere in the middle, right?
• 29:41
  Like you develop the guys, they start playing better basketball,
• 29:44
  you bring in more depth behind them.
• 29:45
  But that's not the era we live in, especially in college
• 29:47
  basketball. The portal we talked about, the
• 29:49
  portal for college football, the portal for college basketball is
• 29:52
  insane, insane. It's just what are you going to
• 29:55
  pay me? And it's like that with
• 29:57
  everybody. It's not just like the top
• 29:59
  prospects in the sport like it is with college football where
• 30:01
  it's like NI LS driving everything when you know the
• 30:04
  blue chip guys have their pick of the Alabamas, the Georgias,
• 30:08
  etcetera. Ohio states in.
• 30:11
  In college basketball you could be a guy averaging 10 and six
• 30:14
  getting like half $1,000,000 out of the portal.
• 30:16
  It's insane right now what's happening in college basketball
• 30:19
  on the transfer portal. So yeah, so let.
• 30:22
  Let me, I wanted to hit on something that Mike.
• 30:24
  Oh, go ahead, go ahead. Go ahead, Kirby.
• 30:26
  Go ahead, Kelly. I was just going to say I just
• 30:27
  wanted to hit on something that Mike that Mike was talking about
• 30:29
  because he mentioned a couple of names.
• 30:31
  I'm not going to mention those names.
• 30:32
  I'm just going to say a scenario so earlier in the season when we
• 30:36
  well, I will mention Rodney Rice when he left, you know, David
• 30:41
  Mike, they cover sports pretty well.
• 30:44
  So they understand how that changes the dynamic.
• 30:46
  They they understand like what kind of situation that puts your
• 30:50
  your coaching staff in when you got somebody that essentially
• 30:53
  you're counting on to play for you.
• 30:55
  And then all of a sudden before the season they're gone.
• 30:59
  This is what gets me. Dumb ass fans can be dumb ass
• 31:03
  family members too, so I won't call the name, but somebody went
• 31:07
  on Twitter and said addition by subtraction and then we got the
• 31:13
  other group of dumbass fans that say see, I knew he wasn't no
• 31:16
  good. I said so y'all telling me this
• 31:20
  kid that's ranked as high as he was, that came in, we didn't get
• 31:24
  to see him play. He gets hurt.
• 31:26
  Y'all are going to go off whoever statement and say that
• 31:29
  he wasn't no fucking good just because this person said it
• 31:32
  sometimes just shut the fuck up. You don't know unless you're
• 31:37
  David Cunningham and you're not talking about the season
• 31:40
  preview. Shut up because you.
• 31:43
  Ain't seeing what they doing. You're not seeing what they
• 31:46
  doing behind closed doors. Stop etching your wagon to these
• 31:51
  Twitter users that don't know shit, just like you don't know
• 31:54
  shit. I'm going to tell you, we going
• 31:56
  to start getting this. You know what really grinds
• 31:58
  Tally's gears? That David, let me ask you this
• 32:01
  real quick. What else do we need from the
• 32:04
  portal the next few weeks here or next few months?
• 32:07
  I don't know. I feel like there's been kids
• 32:09
  committing in June, but what do you think they need?
• 32:11
  Because obviously you got a couple really good guards, you
• 32:15
  got effectively a pretty effective small forward there.
• 32:20
  And maybe, in a way I look at Rodney Brown being 66, maybe he
• 32:25
  can play some four, but what else do we need?
• 32:29
  A lot. I mean, you got, look, you got
• 32:33
  you got 4 scholarships last year and if you're Mike Young, you
• 32:36
  have to use all of them. And that's not, you know, that's
• 32:41
  something where he was planning on using all of them last year
• 32:45
  and then Rodney Rice leaves at the beginning of the year and
• 32:49
  technically that's a scholarship you're using, but he's not on
• 32:51
  the team. You know, and I I think the the
• 32:55
  biggest part is Mike has to be Mike and his staff to be spot on
• 32:59
  about their evals. Makai Long, I think was an OK
• 33:04
  eval, but then he gets hurt and misses half the year.
• 33:08
  And so technically you're down to 11 guys.
• 33:11
  And when you look at who you brought in, two of the kids are
• 33:14
  freshmen and two of the kids are reserves who are developing.
• 33:19
  So that gives you seven players that you will feel capable of
• 33:23
  playing, not counting the freshman.
• 33:25
  If you want to throw him into the fire, I think the the one
• 33:29
  good thing Mike kind of hit on it earlier is that Mike Young
• 33:37
  needed an opportunity. He was already going to have to
• 33:40
  do it a little bit, but he needed an opportunity to kind of
• 33:42
  reshape his roster. And one of the things I think
• 33:46
  about is when he was hired in 2019, the transfer portal did
• 33:51
  not exist yet. NIL did not exist yet.
• 33:54
  He has had to adapt. This is an opportunity.
• 33:59
  A couple weeks ago, he only had three or four scholarship kids.
• 34:03
  Malaysia Poteet obviously announced he was coming back
• 34:07
  then. They've gotten 3 commitments
• 34:08
  since. So the Hokies are in a much
• 34:10
  better position now. They're at 9:00.
• 34:13
  They have 4 before they hit that 13 mark but this has given him
• 34:18
  an opportunity to reshape the roster how he wants.
• 34:21
  They they need another point guard.
• 34:24
  My I would think they need another wing and and I think you
• 34:28
  you probably got to get another four.
• 34:31
  Now whether it's a guy who is mainly A3 can play the four or
• 34:34
  mainly A4, they can play the five or like you've got to get
• 34:38
  some some combination. And then I would kind of go for
• 34:42
  somebody who who has a specific role, whether it's a a
• 34:45
  three-point specialist, a defensive specialist, you know
• 34:49
  whether it's an on ball defender or something like that.
• 34:51
  But Mike Young has options. And you know for for everybody
• 34:55
  who said kind of echoing what Mike McDaniel said, for
• 34:59
  everybody who said that Mike Young you know, didn't have
• 35:02
  enough talent on his roster. And then the same people who are
• 35:05
  complaining, Oh well Mike Young lost his entire team.
• 35:08
  It's like, yeah, to be able to get more talent on his roster,
• 35:12
  he has to turn the roster over and that's what he's doing.
• 35:15
  And I think I like the additions he's made so far.
• 35:19
  I think Jordan Ivy Curry is a really a really good get.
• 35:25
  You know he's he's gonna have to have guys around him though and
• 35:30
  the biggest thing to me is going back to the Rodney Rice thing.
• 35:35
  That situation just kind of encapsulates I think the last
• 35:38
  two or three years for Virginia Tech where you did not have
• 35:42
  enough guard depth. If something happened I think
• 35:44
  back two years ago to Darius Maddox he you know left to go be
• 35:49
  with his family and the Hokies are and then Hunter Couture gets
• 35:52
  hurt and the Hokies are are down guards big in the backcourt
• 35:55
  right. MJ Collins was supposed to come
• 35:58
  off the bench this year for the Hokies behind Rodney rising
• 36:01
  behind Hunter Couture. He ends up starting again the
• 36:04
  entire year. You need to have more of a
• 36:10
  security blanket if that's what you want to call it in mind if
• 36:14
  something happens, more of a kind of a, you know in case of
• 36:18
  emergency break glass type of plan like you need to have some
• 36:22
  some more depth in mind there. And I think you know I'm very
• 36:27
  excited to see Ryan Jones. He's the top 100 freshman coming
• 36:30
  in. I think he's going to be a big
• 36:32
  help immediately. I think you you pair him with
• 36:35
  with Melancho Poteet and Patrick Wessler who I, you know I think
• 36:40
  is continuing to come along. I think you've got an all right
• 36:43
  trio there a pretty good trio you could maybe get a guy who
• 36:46
  can play some four and five. There are a lot of different
• 36:49
  ways Mike can go about it and the beauty of it is, you know,
• 36:53
  if he had kept everybody, he wouldn't have, he wouldn't have
• 36:57
  had that opportunity and now he's basically building from
• 37:00
  scratch. And just one note on on the
• 37:03
  question you asked Curtis Mike earlier, the only player that
• 37:07
  surprised me that area in the portal was nickel.
• 37:10
  It's a money thing. Virginia Tech does not have a
• 37:12
  lot of basketball nil and that's just a fact.
• 37:15
  The the NI LS going to football with some stuff going to women's
• 37:19
  basketball, but that's more, you know, individual donor specific.
• 37:25
  Virginia Tech is being competitive in football and I
• 37:27
  own and that's important. But at the same time, you guys
• 37:32
  talked about how crazy the men's basketball nail space is and a
• 37:36
  lot of these guys can enter the portal and they can get
• 37:39
  outrageous deals and they can go make two to three times what
• 37:46
  they probably should be making based on what they're what they
• 37:51
  provide. I should say that that's just
• 37:53
  kind of the way it is. So I I I think Virginia Tech is
• 37:58
  in an OK situation. Mike Young's playing a little
• 38:01
  bit of Moneyball, if that's what you how you how you want to
• 38:03
  describe it. But this is an opportunity.
• 38:07
  You know I'm not sure you could you could label Mike as he's
• 38:10
  sort of on the hot seat. I think his seat's a little
• 38:12
  warm. I think.
• 38:14
  I think he needs to win but also he finished 8th in the ACC this
• 38:18
  year so I I think he he need I think he's heading in the right
• 38:24
  direction but it's not going to matter unless he goes and wins
• 38:27
  basketball games and and I think if if he can do that he'll gain
• 38:32
  back a lot of the fan base. But it does feel really weird
• 38:35
  that, you know, basically the top 6-7 options on the Virginia
• 38:40
  Tech team, you know, all but one Mojo Boutique is are gone.
• 38:44
  That's that's very weird. But this is kind of the the age
• 38:47
  that we live in now. Yeah, yeah. 100% on that.
• 38:52
  I mean, it's been pretty wild and I think we set it on here.
• 38:58
  At least he's doing something. At least he's not standing back
• 39:02
  saying I'm just going to ride with you got me here, Hunter
• 39:05
  graduates and a couple guys leave.
• 39:07
  Whatever. He's at least doing something,
• 39:10
  in essence to try to improve the team versus standing pat.
• 39:14
  Because I think as a fan you get more frustrated if it's just
• 39:18
  we're just going to ride with this again and not all of us
• 39:20
  would be sitting here like that's not going to get us to
• 39:24
  the tournament, that's not going to get us competing.
• 39:26
  You need to do something in into his credit heet like you said.
• 39:29
  Like Tally said, people have complained when he went about
• 39:32
  the players and then when he got rid of them, people complain
• 39:34
  again. Can't make everybody happy.
• 39:35
  All right, before we get into Spring game, Spring game
• 39:39
  weekend, all the fun stuff, we are going to take a quick break
• 39:42
  from Main Street Pharmacy and our digital.
• 39:44
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  My name is Jeremy Counts and I'm a pharmacist.
• 39:53
  I own and operate Main Street Pharmacy here in downtown
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  Blacksburg. My brother's a pharmacist.
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  I'm a pharmacist. My uncle's a pharmacist.
• 39:59
  My dad's a pharmacist. I remember he would give me M
• 40:01
  and Ms. to count in little pill counters.
• 40:04
  This is just something I've always done and I'm just lucky
• 40:06
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• 40:12
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  Pharmacy's job is to make. Sure, you're getting optimal
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• 40:35
  Some of those options save people a lot of money.
• 40:37
  What motivates me? I get to take care of people and
• 40:39
  live in Blacksburg. That's all neat.
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  As we take a quick break, we'd like to tell you about getting
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  website Dash Report. Now back to the episode.
• 41:06
  All right. And we are back and let's start
• 41:09
  talking spring weekend. Let's talk about the fun.
• 41:12
  Obviously myself did not make it.
• 41:14
  Tally could not make it. Mike did not make it.
• 41:16
  But Cunningham, you and Siegel were all over the place during
• 41:19
  spring weekend. I know Brian went.
• 41:22
  David, did you go to Spring Jam on Friday night?
• 41:26
  I did not go to spring jam on Friday night.
• 41:29
  I was actually hanging out with my family.
• 41:31
  What a good, what a good what? A good yeah.
• 41:33
  My my parents came into town, so I was spending some time with
• 41:36
  that all. Right.
• 41:37
  Well, Brian, give us some festivities.
• 41:39
  Who you ran into? Who'd you who'd you yuck it up
• 41:42
  with at Spring Jam? Probably the person I yucked it
• 41:45
  up with the longest was Kevin Drones.
• 41:49
  We were walking around, we were kind of mingling.
• 41:51
  I saw him across the bar. I was like, all right, I'm going
• 41:53
  over there, Beeline. So we talked for about 1/2 hour
• 41:58
  ran into you know Tyrod, Kevin Jones, were there Evans
• 42:03
  Brothers. So I mean it was a good time
• 42:06
  obviously bunch of folks from the podcast community was out
• 42:09
  there, bloggers you know treadmill horse Dan, Dan Poulz
• 42:16
  from Tales of Terror Dome. So there were, there were a
• 42:18
  bunch of folks out there, we had a really good time.
• 42:21
  Obviously all the sons were there.
• 42:23
  Got to hang out with with Billy and Pat, got to talk to Sam and
• 42:28
  and Pete. So it was it was a good good
• 42:30
  night all around. Got to kind of show my wife
• 42:34
  around the the, the, the Hokie Twitter community a little bit.
• 42:37
  So she enjoyed that. He also rolled up on JC and JC
• 42:41
  remembered who he was. Yeah, I mean, you know, that's
• 42:45
  JC, baby. It's chasing over here.
• 42:48
  Well, I don't know JC. Like I said, we were sitting
• 42:50
  here that day talking with him. I felt like we should have good
• 42:52
  and grabbed 3 beers and probably had a blast with JC.
• 42:56
  I don't know Mike, David. Have y'all seen the video from
• 42:59
  Tots yet? Is it the one of Brian chugging
• 43:03
  a rail? Yes.
• 43:05
  I have. You know, I'm disappointed.
• 43:07
  I was, I. So I I went out to Tots with
• 43:11
  some friends that were in town. Actually, I went out.
• 43:13
  I was out with Grayson Wimbish. I I'm disappointed,
• 43:18
  unfortunately. I was probably, I believe I was
• 43:20
  in the press box or on my way to the press box when you guys were
• 43:24
  doing your live podcast. So I'm disappointed I missed it,
• 43:28
  but I geeked out when I saw that video.
• 43:31
  That was very impressive. You know, when somebody tells
• 43:35
  you to chug a rail, you chug a rail.
• 43:36
  You just have to, I think. That's a rail, yeah.
• 43:38
  I need to talk to Miss Siebler and see how you was acting
• 43:40
  afterwards. Yeah, you know what?
• 43:43
  You know what I did alright. Yeah, it's all cool to chug a
• 43:46
  rail, but I want to know what happened.
• 43:48
  After. That, yeah, it's usually the
• 43:50
  after what happens after you. Yeah, I've seen what happened
• 43:52
  when you chug Evan Williams. Straight up talk.
• 43:56
  I'm just saying. Go ahead, Mike.
• 43:58
  I'd you guys be putting me in a body bag if I was chugging a
• 44:01
  rail toss. But hey, Brian.
• 44:03
  I I really, I love the the hockey.
• 44:07
  Oh yeah, that was crazy. Yeah, you you got to get my wife
• 44:10
  props on that. She actually found that at
• 44:11
  Cracker Barrel. Believe it, Believe it or not,
• 44:14
  yeah. Oh, you got that from Cracker
• 44:17
  Barrel. You paid $300.00 for that
• 44:19
  motherfucker. Cracker Barrel is a high store
• 44:22
  around. You can go in there and get a
• 44:25
  piece of candy. You can go in there and get a
• 44:26
  piece of candy for $20, I'm telling you.
• 44:29
  Yeah, then she got a good deal on it.
• 44:31
  But I don't know what that means in, you know, in terms of
• 44:33
  comparative analysis here of of what it, what it costs somewhere
• 44:37
  else. But anyway, I got to wear it and
• 44:39
  it was cool. If you really need to know the
• 44:41
  price next time we hang out, Brian, I'll have my wifey going
• 44:44
  to figure out the exact amount that came off of that.
• 44:47
  All right? You know they'll sell, they'll
• 44:48
  share, shit like that. But I know you went to Chicken
• 44:52
  Hill for tailgate, Brian. You had a great weekend, dude.
• 44:56
  David, you did too. Even with family in town, it
• 44:59
  sounds like. Yeah, you did you hear what?
• 45:01
  Did you hear what David said said?
• 45:03
  Yeah, unfortunately, I was going to the press box.
• 45:10
  Let. Me just say let.
• 45:11
  Me just. Say.
• 45:14
  This royalty, the the, as I said earlier, this is kind of like
• 45:19
  the last big weekend of of my grind since July, right?
• 45:27
  I am as kind of as ready to get it over with as possible.
• 45:31
  It is great to see people, but like man and I, I'm gonna really
• 45:36
  enjoy when we get into the nitty gritty details about all this.
• 45:40
  But at the end of the day, it's a spring game.
• 45:42
  There's only so much you can take.
• 45:43
  Away from it and so. It's like, there are there are a
• 45:46
  lot of things I would rather be doing on a Saturday than
• 45:50
  covering a spring game. But I enjoyed it.
• 45:54
  And when I say that, it's mostly 'cause, like, there are so many
• 45:57
  people that come into town like, I would have loved to go spend
• 45:59
  time with my parents. I would have loved to see Brian.
• 46:02
  There were there were a lot of other people from the Virginia
• 46:03
  Tech community that that were in town.
• 46:06
  And unfortunately, it's like, sorry guys, I got to go work.
• 46:09
  But it was nice for those who I did catch up with.
• 46:12
  It was nice to see them so. Well, very nice.
• 46:15
  Well, let's, let's get to the game, let's get to, you know, I
• 46:20
  literally just finished watching it last night.
• 46:22
  It only took me all weekend to watch it.
• 46:24
  So let's go to the game, let's, let's ask some, you know, some
• 46:28
  questions. Let's let's discuss a few
• 46:30
  things. We're going to start on defense
• 46:32
  because that's where we started last week when we previewing it.
• 46:34
  And David, I'm going to start with you on this one and then
• 46:38
  we'll go Mike, you'll take it. Second defensive line, give me
• 46:42
  one player that impressed you the most not named APR, because
• 46:46
  the PR is a monster, just whenever it happens.
• 46:49
  It it has to be Keyshawn Burgos, man.
• 46:52
  I mean, my colleague Andy Bitter wrote it in his in his Five
• 46:58
  Thoughts on Sunday. It's like a Hall of Fame spring
• 47:01
  game performance. You have a a tip, you have a tip
• 47:04
  pass. And I don't know if they give
• 47:06
  Hall of Fame. Like you know, they induct
• 47:08
  people into Hall of Fame for spring Game performances.
• 47:11
  But like he had a tip pass that led to an interception, then he
• 47:14
  had three sacks back-to-back to back and then he recovers A
• 47:20
  fumble like this. This man was all over the place
• 47:24
  and I really liked. I asked Sprint Pry after after
• 47:28
  the game about Burgos and he just talked about his motor and
• 47:34
  how he's a hard working guy. He's always going, always going,
• 47:38
  always going, always going. And I think Burgos is somebody
• 47:42
  that, you know, he's maybe not going to be.
• 47:46
  He's not going to be Anton Powell Ryland, He's not going to
• 47:49
  be Cole Nelson necessarily, but I think if he's playing at a
• 47:53
  high level that just provides a routine take even more depth,
• 47:56
  It's only a bonus there. You go, Mikey.
• 48:00
  Yeah, I mean, it's it's Burgos. I I hate to not add more color
• 48:04
  to this, right? But like, it's Burgos.
• 48:06
  He was phenomenal. Like what?
• 48:07
  What more do you want? And he's going to be a key part
• 48:11
  of the rotation at defensive end, right?
• 48:12
  AP Rs Holding down one side of the defensive line probably
• 48:16
  going to be either Cole Nelson or Burgos on the other side, and
• 48:19
  it doesn't really matter who's going to start.
• 48:20
  Burgos is going to get a lot of snaps so it was really
• 48:22
  encouraging to see him perform the way they did.
• 48:25
  Tally, what about you, man who impressed you on the D line?
• 48:30
  I mean, I I of course I want to say Burgos, but we got two
• 48:35
  people that's already said it. So I got to go with something
• 48:38
  different, man. I got to, I got to go.
• 48:40
  I mean, it was good to see. It was good to see Copeland in
• 48:42
  action because I know a lot of people have have, you know, seen
• 48:46
  his workouts and seen different things that he's done.
• 48:49
  But let's see. You know, anytime a defensive
• 48:52
  lineman gets an interception, no matter how he gets it, you know
• 48:55
  what I'm saying? Like, that's just good to see.
• 48:57
  So to see his athleticism to be able to get in and and how he
• 49:01
  moves even though he may not have like you know tremendous
• 49:04
  stats like Keyshawn Burgos did like for us to be getting bigger
• 49:08
  in the trenches and to be getting more athletic in the
• 49:10
  trenches is definitely, definitely good to see.
• 49:14
  So I I'll give it to, I'll give it to Copeland just because.
• 49:16
  He he looked like a big running back after that pick man.
• 49:19
  He was moving pretty good. Yeah, you know what?
• 49:23
  I you know what I noticed on the pick more than anything, though?
• 49:26
  It wasn't that Burgos. It wasn't that Burgos tipped it.
• 49:31
  It wasn't then that Copeland caught it.
• 49:33
  It was that Allie Jennings, which is your #1 receiver,
• 49:40
  hustles back down the field and knocks the ball out.
• 49:43
  He's coming off of an injury and it's a fucking spring game that
• 49:47
  he really don't have to play in, you know what I'm saying?
• 49:51
  But he's so jacked to be on the field that after a pick, he's
• 49:56
  after a pick, he's hustling back to knock the ball out Like that
• 50:00
  made me get pretty hype. You know, that's hype you can
• 50:03
  get on a pick, you know what I'm saying?
• 50:05
  But it's both tech teams, you you're winning either way.
• 50:08
  But I was like, damn, look at Jennings running down the field
• 50:11
  and punching the ball out. So that was pretty cool to see.
• 50:15
  Single about you, man. You know, I'm going to, I'm
• 50:17
  going to switch over to the other defensive tackle Here it
• 50:20
  was Peebles. He looked really fast off the
• 50:25
  ball. Like there were a couple times
• 50:27
  where he was in the backfield before the ball even got to the
• 50:29
  quarterback. Disruptive, you know, it didn't
• 50:34
  necessarily show up on the stat sheet.
• 50:36
  But like everything I saw from him when I was watching the tape
• 50:39
  back, just, I mean he's going to be an animal, so I'm looking
• 50:43
  forward to. That all right.
• 50:44
  I'm going to close out real quick here with two names y'all
• 50:47
  haven't mentioned because it was good to hear their names.
• 50:50
  And that was Jason Abbey, Richmond product from just down
• 50:54
  the road here from my house at Freeman and James Jeanette
• 50:57
  because I think they have to find a fourth defensive end.
• 51:01
  We know it. It's being looked like CJ Mccrae
• 51:04
  got hurt. I you know there are things
• 51:06
  being said that you know, it might be something broken.
• 51:11
  I have not seen official yet, but it was not good.
• 51:14
  He did not come back in the game.
• 51:15
  He was hobbling off. But they need that 4th defensive
• 51:19
  end and to see a young guy like Abby who was sort of under the
• 51:24
  radar being recruited and Jeannette who came in out of a
• 51:27
  JUCO, he first of all James Jeannette did not look 210 lbs.
• 51:31
  I think they're straight up lying about his weight 220-5230
• 51:36
  maybe he did not look 210, but it was great seeing that from
• 51:40
  from those two guys making contributions.
• 51:44
  I want to go to linebacker room next and Mike and we'll start
• 51:46
  with you on this. And in your opinion it's a yes
• 51:50
  or no. Is this still the most
• 51:51
  concerning group on the defense right now?
• 51:55
  I'm personally more concerned about safety than I am about
• 51:58
  linebacker. All right, I there were some and
• 52:02
  I don't want to jump ahead. I know we got this outline.
• 52:04
  I don't want to jump ahead. But there were some guys that
• 52:08
  stood out to me at linebacker like Caleb.
• 52:12
  Caleb Woodson's going to be a phenomenal player like he's he
• 52:16
  was good in a pinch last year. He was he was good on Saturday.
• 52:21
  He's going to be a really, really important part of Brent
• 52:23
  Prize defense here for next few years.
• 52:25
  And so when I see those types of guys on the field, I see the way
• 52:30
  that Brumfield played, like I feel pretty good about
• 52:34
  linebacker. Again, like you don't really get
• 52:37
  the full appreciation of everything that Brumfield's able
• 52:40
  to do only because it is a spring game.
• 52:44
  You are splitting the defense up.
• 52:46
  You don't, you don't see him have full command of the entire
• 52:50
  starting 11. But in what we saw, I was
• 52:54
  impressed. He looked like it was as
• 52:56
  advertised, right? So I am not personally overly
• 53:00
  concerned about linebacker. I think Virginia Tech just on
• 53:04
  paper looks a lot better there than they did a year ago, just
• 53:07
  from a starting standpoint, from a death perspective.
• 53:10
  So I I'm more concerned about about safeties and we'll get to
• 53:13
  that in a bit. All righty.
• 53:15
  David, what about you? Yeah, no, I I thought I I I'm
• 53:21
  like Mike. I do not.
• 53:23
  I I worry a little bit about the safety depth specifically and
• 53:27
  only because genuine Stroman has not was not able to stay on the
• 53:31
  field this past year like and and I don't mean like like he's
• 53:36
  dinged up right now and he was out for targeting a couple times
• 53:42
  so it's like you you have to stay on the field and he's he he
• 53:48
  might I think he's the Most Valuable Player on this Virginia
• 53:51
  Tech defense simply because there's not a lot of safety
• 53:54
  depth and again I don't want to get too too far down but like if
• 53:58
  there was one position. I think Virginia Tech needs to
• 54:01
  target somebody in the transporter.
• 54:03
  If it was going to get somebody to spring.
• 54:05
  It's safety on the on the defensive side of the ball it is
• 54:10
  as far as linebacker. I I feel all right about
• 54:12
  Virginia Tech a linebacker. You know we we haven't gotten to
• 54:15
  see Kelly Lawson this spring but I think Sam Brumfield kind of
• 54:20
  comes in and fills that position a need and everybody else has a
• 54:25
  year under their belt. I agree with Mike.
• 54:28
  I think Caleb Woodson's going to be the real deal.
• 54:31
  I am super excited to watch him play.
• 54:33
  I think he got valuable reps last year and Kiyata Jenkins is
• 54:38
  back too. Like this is a, you know, you
• 54:42
  add Brumfield and Jenkins together.
• 54:44
  If Virginia Tech can kind of get some things straightened out
• 54:47
  there at will, I think the Hokies will be in good shape
• 54:50
  there. You got Gabe Williams coming in.
• 54:54
  I think the depth is starting to develop there, assuming they can
• 54:58
  stay healthy. Yeah, Go ahead, Tyler.
• 55:03
  No, I was just saying, I mean David kind of hit the nail on
• 55:05
  the head when he talking about the depth piece of it, you know
• 55:08
  what I'm saying? Like a lot of years we may have,
• 55:12
  man, it's going to be a good year and then it's football.
• 55:14
  This guy gets hurt and then you get somebody put in behind him.
• 55:18
  That's just a total drop off from who that first.
• 55:24
  The first line of defense is. I think Greg McElroy was talking
• 55:28
  about and then somebody posted when he was talking about the
• 55:30
  spring, the Hokey spring game. And he's talking about just, I
• 55:35
  mean everybody's raving about like we they actually have
• 55:38
  depth. You know what I'm saying?
• 55:39
  You see, you know, Jayden Keller and then you you see Bromfield
• 55:43
  coming in and then Kelly Lawson and the McDonald twins.
• 55:46
  And like you've got some names that can get in and give you a
• 55:49
  couple of plays and just to flip flop back kind of to like the
• 55:54
  defensive line. Fulgomite have played, you know,
• 55:58
  10 plays in the spring game. Again, it's a spring game, but
• 56:03
  he doesn't need to play a whole bunch of players.
• 56:05
  That's not where he's going to be good at.
• 56:07
  You know you need to be able to plug him in and play him.
• 56:11
  Then you think about like you still got Emmett Laws coming in,
• 56:14
  who a lot of people's high on on that defensive line.
• 56:17
  So when you talk about the linebacker, the linebacker is
• 56:23
  going to depend on what the the defensive line can do.
• 56:27
  If the defensive line can do what they're supposed to do and
• 56:29
  keep the offensive lineman from getting to the second level, I
• 56:32
  like our chances with people like Caleb Woodson and Brumfield
• 56:37
  and so on and so forth. I hate to keep going back to
• 56:41
  that, but that is that's going to be the key.
• 56:43
  You know, getting where we what we've got in the trenches right
• 56:47
  now is working. You know if everybody can stay
• 56:50
  healthy there, that linebacker core is going to be fine.
• 56:53
  I'm. Going to get to.
• 56:55
  What everybody we'll get to what everybody's worry is like.
• 56:58
  These guys have been saying here a little bit.
• 57:01
  I'm going to say this before we I'm going to pitch it over to
• 57:04
  Brian to get his thoughts on the linebacker room.
• 57:07
  I think what's going to be impressive is to see how Lawson
• 57:11
  is with Brumfield because you have someone who y'all mentioned
• 57:15
  it. Mike you said it commanding the
• 57:17
  11 people where Lawson who is just an athletic freak where at
• 57:20
  Willie can be like Rome Attack, Attack the ball carrier attack
• 57:26
  the flats, attack on the blitz where last year not having that
• 57:30
  Mike who can stabilize because we we we saw Brumfield and it's
• 57:34
  and it's tough to you know analyze A linebacker play just
• 57:37
  from that side view you need all the views you need Okay did he
• 57:40
  hit the right gap. It seemed like he was hitting
• 57:43
  most of the right gaps, going to the right spot.
• 57:46
  Doing that we have a. Low bar.
• 57:51
  We have a low bar after what we watched for half the year last
• 57:54
  year. LeBron not thinking this is not
• 57:58
  linebackers not concerning them anymore, even Tally and and
• 58:01
  Cunningham thinking we've got depth now there.
• 58:04
  What about you? I'm at a point where I feel
• 58:07
  comfortable. I don't necessarily feel like we
• 58:09
  have great depth, but I feel like we have two or three guys
• 58:13
  that can get the job done and then another two or three guys
• 58:16
  that you feel pretty good about if you have to rely on them for
• 58:20
  extended periods of a game, right.
• 58:21
  So I think that's that's a step up from where we were last year.
• 58:25
  We've got better leadership in that room with Brumfield in
• 58:29
  there and I think that's going to be the biggest piece of the
• 58:32
  puzzle this year. I think that that team was
• 58:35
  missing a that that group was missing a leader last year.
• 58:39
  Somebody that not only knew what they were doing, but knew how to
• 58:43
  lead from the front, from from the linebacker position.
• 58:46
  And I think we didn't really see that last year and I think we're
• 58:49
  going to get that in Brumfield this year.
• 58:50
  So that's what I'm most excited about because that's going to
• 58:53
  trickle down to those younger guys, to those guys that have
• 58:56
  some experience but may not have always been able to put the
• 58:59
  pieces together all. Right.
• 59:02
  We'll flip over now to the defensive backroom and and I'm
• 59:05
  going to, I'm going to phrase the question this way, David,
• 59:07
  because you you and Mike mentioned your, your concern is
• 59:09
  safety. If the defensive backroom, both
• 59:13
  corners and safety is fully healthy, is this going to, is
• 59:17
  this going to be as advertised? Is it going to be a throwback to
• 59:20
  what we all grew up with if everybody's healthy?
• 59:25
  If everybody's healthy, healthy, healthy?
• 59:29
  That I mean you're for. I think you're forgetting how
• 59:31
  good some of those old Virginia Tech DB units were, man.
• 59:35
  Oh, no, I'm not. Oh, I sat there.
• 59:37
  I watched them. So, so, so let me put it this
• 59:41
  way. If Virginia Tech is completely
• 59:44
  healthy at DB, I feel very good. Dorian Strong and Monsoor
• 59:49
  Delaine might be the best cornerback pairing in the ACC.
• 59:54
  And I think some of those young guys like Dante Lovett are come
• 59:57
  and Braylon Johnson are coming along well.
• 1:00:00
  The the one thing is we have not really seen them in big time
• 1:00:04
  game action yet and that's what I'm curious to see right their
• 1:00:08
  development. You know Chris Maher, we talked
• 1:00:11
  to Chris Maher, we talked to Monsour actually after the
• 1:00:14
  spring game and they spoke highly of those guys.
• 1:00:18
  But you can't teach experience and and that's the next step at
• 1:00:23
  safety. If Jalen Stroman's healthy, I
• 1:00:25
  feel pretty good. But Jalen Jones and most
• 1:00:28
  Phillips have to take that next step forward.
• 1:00:31
  I think they can be good, but we saw a lot last year where they
• 1:00:37
  weren't necessarily good. That's not saying that they
• 1:00:40
  can't be good, but they've still got room to grow.
• 1:00:43
  I'm curious to see if a guy like Quentin Reddish factor's in.
• 1:00:47
  He's a true freshman. Derrick Jones raved about him
• 1:00:51
  when the Hokies signed him in the offseason.
• 1:00:54
  Curious to see where where he fits in, but I think I think you
• 1:00:58
  feel pretty good about most Phillips and Jalen Jones.
• 1:01:02
  If you have Jalen Stroman, if you can kind of spread those
• 1:01:06
  snaps around. I I still think if if I'm
• 1:01:11
  Virginia Tech and there's a safety on the board, I feel
• 1:01:14
  really, really good about in the transfer portal and I feel like
• 1:01:17
  I can go get him, I would do it. If it means it's somebody that
• 1:01:21
  can come in, a veteran maybe who can come in and play some
• 1:01:25
  meaningful snaps, right. I I think back to a couple years
• 1:01:29
  ago, Virginia Tech had Taye Daley.
• 1:01:32
  That's a that's a guy who played at Virginia Tech essentially for
• 1:01:35
  a year. I believe he wasn't.
• 1:01:39
  I mean he he he had I think an an average maybe a little bit of
• 1:01:43
  an above average impact. But I think if you can get a
• 1:01:45
  veteran in that room just to provide a little bit of layer of
• 1:01:49
  added depth, that goes a long way, especially at a position
• 1:01:54
  where you're hitting a lot of guys at full speed.
• 1:01:57
  Remember most Phillips, you guys remember most Phillips targeting
• 1:02:01
  call last year like it wasn't close.
• 1:02:03
  He he knew it man. Like if if those guys like those
• 1:02:07
  guys have to be able to stay on the field even if they are
• 1:02:10
  healthy. But I feel better about that
• 1:02:13
  room than I did, you know, at the at the start of the spring,
• 1:02:17
  I think, OK. The the Yeah, the corners.
• 1:02:21
  Well, yeah, I mean, the corners are a known commodity, right?
• 1:02:24
  You know what you're going to get.
• 1:02:26
  Safety's interesting because, you know, like David mentioned,
• 1:02:30
  like if Stroman's not on the field, you may end up in a
• 1:02:32
  situation where you need to contemplate putting Kiante
• 1:02:35
  Jenkins back there again. Which, look, if that's the
• 1:02:38
  position you're going to be in, right, where you have Jalen
• 1:02:42
  Jones, who had switched positions and basically felt
• 1:02:45
  like a freshman year for him last year, 'cause he's playing a
• 1:02:47
  totally different side of the ball.
• 1:02:48
  And now all of a sudden you're thrust into a role where you
• 1:02:50
  have to play meaningful snaps at a new position.
• 1:02:53
  And they have Bose Phillips, who was actually a freshman last
• 1:02:55
  year, and you have him playing meaningful snaps, which will
• 1:02:57
  benefit him obviously this year and beyond.
• 1:03:00
  But if Stroman can't stay on the field, like Virginia Tech needs
• 1:03:04
  to go into the portal like I I had the same concerns.
• 1:03:08
  Like I think the the Quentin Reddish point by David's a good
• 1:03:12
  one because of the way Derrick Jones did speak about him when
• 1:03:17
  he committed to Virginia Tech and how, you know, difficult.
• 1:03:22
  Derrick Jones talked about how difficult it was to keep his
• 1:03:25
  commitment and the fact that Virginia Tech was able to was a
• 1:03:28
  huge win. Brent Pry was raving about it.
• 1:03:32
  When you have the coaching staff speaking that highly about a
• 1:03:35
  guy, maybe he factors in sooner rather than later.
• 1:03:37
  And I think that's a really good point.
• 1:03:39
  I think it's going to be overlooked because I think
• 1:03:41
  everybody's obviously concerned about, you know, how Jalen Jones
• 1:03:44
  and Mos Phillips are going to factor in if Stroman can stay
• 1:03:47
  healthy. But if you throw another young
• 1:03:50
  guy into the mix and this happens to be the guy that
• 1:03:53
  Derrick Jones and Brent Pry think that he can be and he can
• 1:03:56
  play meaningful snaps early, I think he could get into that
• 1:03:59
  safety rotation. So I I am concerned about the
• 1:04:02
  back end of the defense. I am.
• 1:04:04
  I'm not concerned about corner. I'm concerned about safety
• 1:04:06
  because I think there are issues here where you could run into
• 1:04:10
  maybe your starters not being as effective as you want.
• 1:04:12
  But even more importantly, perhaps like maybe you don't
• 1:04:16
  have the depth there, or at least like the established
• 1:04:19
  depth, the developed depth that you want at this stage of the
• 1:04:22
  game where you're going to have a good offense.
• 1:04:25
  You're going to have a a what we think is going to be a good
• 1:04:28
  front seven. And if you have an unreliable
• 1:04:31
  back end of the defense, you know that that's what turns this
• 1:04:34
  team into like, OK, you have a 10 or 11 win ceiling, you think
• 1:04:39
  right? And now maybe you're back down
• 1:04:41
  talking about an 8 win season, right?
• 1:04:45
  Because now you can't stop anybody in the middle of the
• 1:04:47
  defense. You run to the same issues you
• 1:04:48
  were run into last year. So it's a really important part
• 1:04:52
  of this question with this overall team that I think Brent
• 1:04:55
  Pride and his staff have to figure out a way to solve.
• 1:04:58
  I know they're saying all the right things in the media.
• 1:05:00
  They feel good about Mos Phillips and Jalen Jones.
• 1:05:03
  We know Stroman's a good player if he can stay on the field.
• 1:05:07
  I think the staff feels good about things.
• 1:05:09
  But I'm with David, like if you can go into the portal and you
• 1:05:12
  think you can get a guy that can come in and challenge for a
• 1:05:15
  starting role. I think this is the year to do
• 1:05:18
  it because I think this is the year where you're kind of
• 1:05:21
  working in my opinion, in a one year window with Kyron, drones
• 1:05:25
  and several playmakers on the offense.
• 1:05:27
  We know they're running out of eligibility and they're all
• 1:05:29
  going to be really impactful in several spots. 25 looks like a
• 1:05:32
  rebuild. I think you have to kind of go
• 1:05:35
  all in with this team this year. You if you think there's a
• 1:05:38
  perceived weakness on paper going into the summer, I think
• 1:05:41
  you absolutely have to address it and see if he's the one spot
• 1:05:43
  on the team where I could see them absolutely going after
• 1:05:45
  somebody in the portal. Brian.
• 1:05:48
  Yeah, I'm kind of, I'm kind of with the the, the portal ad and
• 1:05:52
  I'll, I'll kind of approach this from 2 perspectives.
• 1:05:54
  I we don't really know what we have with Reddish and I feel
• 1:05:57
  like Reddish is somebody that you know we've talked about it
• 1:05:59
  on here that I can see playing a lot of meaningful snaps pretty
• 1:06:03
  early just like most Phillips did last year.
• 1:06:06
  I think you're going to see that that type of level of of snap
• 1:06:10
  count from him in 2024. But but to that point like if
• 1:06:15
  you can find a Tay Daley Esque player, especially a guy if he
• 1:06:18
  if he can play, you know some safety and maybe even some
• 1:06:22
  nickel for you, somebody with that type of versatility.
• 1:06:25
  Because, you know, I don't think we necessarily have a true
• 1:06:27
  nickel like we had with Canteen last year.
• 1:06:32
  You know, somebody like that might be a a really good ad.
• 1:06:34
  If you can find that type of player in the portal, that's
• 1:06:37
  probably the type of player you'd want to bring in, in this
• 1:06:39
  scenario to kind of feel a couple of the, the small, small
• 1:06:44
  holes that you have in that back end.
• 1:06:46
  Yeah. I think we're at a point where
• 1:06:48
  we've got some safeties that have some experience and we know
• 1:06:52
  as long as he's on the field that Strowman is is a is a is a
• 1:06:56
  very good piece of that. But safeties in general, you
• 1:07:01
  need to have more of them because they're they're the
• 1:07:03
  player that's gonna most likely get that targeting call right.
• 1:07:06
  So you're at a risk of losing at least one of your safeties in
• 1:07:10
  every single game. Think, hey, think about this.
• 1:07:14
  Think about how many games Virginia Tech starting safeties
• 1:07:17
  and Seer Peoples and and Jalen Stroman played together this
• 1:07:20
  year. They they didn't play an entire
• 1:07:23
  game together. That's crazy.
• 1:07:26
  No, that is crazy. Unless, unless they unless the
• 1:07:29
  UVA game at the very end of the year that would have been the
• 1:07:32
  the only one. But like it was it was they
• 1:07:36
  started a game and then one of them got ejected and then
• 1:07:40
  people's was hurt for a little bit and then they come back and
• 1:07:44
  Strowman gets ejected again and it's like it got and then and
• 1:07:48
  then they're both injured again. It's like you you need
• 1:07:50
  consistency back there. You you have to have it.
• 1:07:53
  I think Virginia Tech's linebackers were not good last
• 1:07:57
  year as a as a whole and I think Sam Brumfield fills a lot of
• 1:08:03
  problems. Can you go get a Sam Brumfield
• 1:08:05
  esque AD? I I don't know if you can.
• 1:08:08
  I don't know if that guy's available, but that's kind of
• 1:08:12
  the that's the biggest question I have for this team heading
• 1:08:15
  into the into the summer is can you can you shore up that depth
• 1:08:19
  at safety because you're going to face adversity and you don't
• 1:08:23
  want to have to be on the road at Miami or on the road at
• 1:08:27
  Stanford. Relying, you know, at the
• 1:08:29
  beginning of ACC play, relying about do we have enough safety
• 1:08:33
  depth? That's something you try to
• 1:08:35
  figure out right now. Tally.
• 1:08:37
  Anything else you need to add or.
• 1:08:39
  Put your two. Yeah.
• 1:08:40
  No, I agree with about 90% of what Dave is saying.
• 1:08:44
  The only thing I don't agree with is when he said it's the
• 1:08:48
  biggest, it's the biggest hole to feel because it's not we're
• 1:08:50
  going to talk about the biggest hole later on, but on the
• 1:08:54
  defense, yes. On the team, no.
• 1:08:57
  But again, I mean, I hate to sound like a broken record, but
• 1:09:02
  a lot of times what they would and did and and I got to give
• 1:09:06
  the coaching staff credit. For the most part, they've hit
• 1:09:10
  on just about every evaluation that they've had in the portal.
• 1:09:15
  Now they've done a good job to go into the portal and pull
• 1:09:18
  players out to be at least productive for us.
• 1:09:21
  So if they can keep that same mantra and go and get a safety
• 1:09:26
  would definitely help right here.
• 1:09:28
  Because you don't, like David said, you don't want to go into
• 1:09:31
  ACC player, get down there and start playing Miami.
• 1:09:34
  Anglo, All right, freshman, you got to go in and show us
• 1:09:37
  something because we don't got nobody else.
• 1:09:39
  You know what I'm saying? It's great when you can find
• 1:09:41
  that kind of like Diamond in the rough and somebody comes on and
• 1:09:44
  plays great before they're they have to.
• 1:09:47
  But you don't want to have to rely on that and that's what
• 1:09:50
  it's been our problem in the past.
• 1:09:52
  I do think that up front is going to help us because we
• 1:09:55
  going to be able to rotate so many people out in and out to
• 1:09:59
  keep some of those lineman off of our second and third levels.
• 1:10:03
  But at the same time it's like our problem last year was people
• 1:10:09
  breaking big runs for the most part.
• 1:10:11
  You know, like I wasn't so scared of the passing game.
• 1:10:15
  Rutgers beat us with like fucking 35 passes, you know what
• 1:10:19
  I'm saying? So we we're having problems of
• 1:10:23
  people busting runs right up the middle.
• 1:10:25
  It's going to be a little bit different this year, hopefully,
• 1:10:29
  prayerfully. That's what I I'm saying.
• 1:10:31
  So you're going to need some guys that's going to be able to,
• 1:10:34
  you know, hold our own and coverage and just come up and
• 1:10:37
  and make a tackle when you have to.
• 1:10:38
  Instead of making 10 tackles, you might have to make five and
• 1:10:43
  maybe that'll help Shrum in a little bit.
• 1:10:44
  But you still got to. It's football.
• 1:10:48
  You still got to have some, you got to have some depth there.
• 1:10:50
  Somebody's going to get rolled up on, somebody's going to twist
• 1:10:53
  that ankle. You got to go and get somebody
• 1:10:55
  out of the portal in that safety position.
• 1:10:59
  And safety. Safety fits are still going to
• 1:11:00
  be important. You know.
• 1:11:03
  And that that's the biggest piece to that.
• 1:11:04
  Like even if you're fitting up good in the in the front,
• 1:11:07
  there's going to be times when your state is going to have to
• 1:11:09
  come up in the spill area and make a play or or fill somewhere
• 1:11:13
  if there was a blitz. So there's going to be times
• 1:11:15
  where they're going to have to make a play at the line of
• 1:11:18
  scrimmage or about, you know, 8 or 9 yards in that range, you
• 1:11:22
  know, from the line of scrimmage.
• 1:11:23
  And and we've got to make sure that they can do that
• 1:11:25
  consistently. And I think that was the biggest
• 1:11:27
  thing we didn't see last year was the consistent part of that
• 1:11:30
  like there would be times where they they'd make that play.
• 1:11:33
  But you know, it only takes one or two a game to create a
• 1:11:36
  problem for you. Yeah, they was.
• 1:11:38
  They was having to come up and field fucking 20 times because
• 1:11:42
  what nobody in the front stopping, nobody was we we was
• 1:11:45
  getting sacked or he was going for fucking 90 yard touchdowns,
• 1:11:49
  you know, I'm. I'm going to, I'm going to go
• 1:11:51
  with this on David. David, I'm 95, I'm you and Mike,
• 1:11:54
  I'm 95% with y'all. You said one thing though, they
• 1:11:57
  need a Brumfield desk. I don't think they need a
• 1:11:59
  Brumfield desk. I don't think they need someone
• 1:12:01
  who is an All Conference Caliber type player coming from a
• 1:12:04
  smaller school. I think what they need because I
• 1:12:07
  think what we saw in in the we know we make the jokes like my
• 1:12:12
  God I really I'm just going to say it.
• 1:12:14
  This is per Mike McDaniels death taxes and Stroman getting effing
• 1:12:18
  ejected. It did feel like that a lot of
• 1:12:20
  times last year but the but the truth is just give me a steady,
• 1:12:26
  give me someone who's flexible. They don't need to blow it out
• 1:12:28
  of this world, but they need to play smart and they need to have
• 1:12:31
  a pretty healthy record. That's what we need because I
• 1:12:34
  think what we're seeing here is we know Stroman can play, but he
• 1:12:38
  can make the boneheaded play most can play.
• 1:12:40
  He makes the boneheaded plays. We hope Jalen Jones takes the
• 1:12:43
  step. We hope maybe Quinton Reddish is
• 1:12:45
  the second coming, but I need someone who's going to be
• 1:12:48
  steady. Because if we have someone who's
• 1:12:50
  steady, it's going to keep that room down where when the
• 1:12:53
  boneheaded play happens. OK, He's fine.
• 1:12:57
  He's going to be able to help him run support.
• 1:12:59
  He'll understand the coverage concept.
• 1:13:01
  I don't need him to. Would I love to find a Cam
• 1:13:04
  Chancellor? Yes, that'd be wonderful.
• 1:13:06
  They don't exist though. Cam Chancellor would never make
• 1:13:09
  it through a whole game in in. This.
• 1:13:12
  Nope. Nope.
• 1:13:12
  No, no, no because. They make that hit like Mose
• 1:13:15
  Phillips. Every single one.
• 1:13:18
  How Sean Jarrett would even make it through a game nowadays.
• 1:13:20
  Sean would but. The nastiest hit he ever laid
• 1:13:23
  was clean. It looked terrible the the the
• 1:13:27
  pit sideline guy go back in your memory banks when boom.
• 1:13:31
  And it was just like oh he no actually he just called
• 1:13:34
  shoulder. All right let's flip off here.
• 1:13:36
  I'm going to when I'm going to flip it off but I'm going to I'm
• 1:13:39
  going to throw a little stat down and let Mike and David jump
• 1:13:44
  on this just them Sally Brian y'all don't have to worry.
• 1:13:48
  So last year, Genie Text defense was the 20th total defense in
• 1:13:54
  the country. 20th scoring defense was 50th.
• 1:13:59
  With everything that they've done, can this unit improve even
• 1:14:03
  more going for 2024? David.
• 1:14:08
  I think so, yeah, absolutely. I I I like the pass rush, man.
• 1:14:13
  I I feel really, really. I think you saw that man in in
• 1:14:16
  the spring game, like 13 sacks. I know they're just like
• 1:14:19
  basically two hand touch sacks, but like it wasn't like they
• 1:14:23
  were. It wasn't it wasn't like guys
• 1:14:26
  were just falling down letting him get to the quarterback.
• 1:14:28
  Like, I I feel pretty good about the pass rush.
• 1:14:34
  I feel good about the linebackers.
• 1:14:36
  I I think the corners are really good.
• 1:14:41
  I think this this defense can be even better.
• 1:14:43
  And I'm I say that knowing how good the defense was at times
• 1:14:48
  last year. I think the problem was that the
• 1:14:53
  really the run fits. Virginia Tech could not stop the
• 1:14:55
  run. If Virginia Tech can do better
• 1:14:57
  stopping the run this year, this is a completely different team,
• 1:15:00
  man. Because like look Virginia Tech
• 1:15:03
  was so high in pass, pass efficiency defense essentially
• 1:15:06
  last year because every time teams threw the ball at them for
• 1:15:10
  the most part the Hokies defended it well.
• 1:15:14
  But it was so few so little a game that is.
• 1:15:20
  I mean like I said Dori and Strongum on sort of Lane are
• 1:15:23
  really, really, really good. If you can get, if you can force
• 1:15:27
  quarterbacks to throw it. And I I I think this is a
• 1:15:32
  defense that can do that more. I think you're gonna be in even
• 1:15:35
  better shape. I like the outlook of this
• 1:15:38
  defense. Again.
• 1:15:39
  I don't need to go over safety again.
• 1:15:42
  I don't know. I feel OK about that spot.
• 1:15:47
  But overall, I think this is a unit that can be improved.
• 1:15:52
  You have APR back I think between Cole Nelson and Keyshawn
• 1:15:56
  Burgos. I think that's that's a pretty
• 1:15:59
  good third, two and two and three.
• 1:16:02
  Obviously if CJ McRae is out long term, which is what it
• 1:16:04
  feels like it's going to be, that's going to hurt in terms of
• 1:16:08
  depth. But you've got some young guys
• 1:16:11
  that are going to have to step up.
• 1:16:13
  But I I like the way this sits. I think those defensive tackles
• 1:16:19
  are going to wreak havoc. Honestly I'm just excited to you
• 1:16:23
  know for for August 31st to see these guys go play man.
• 1:16:27
  Like I'm excited for the for the to see Chris Mars defense.
• 1:16:31
  Last year there there were so many questions about Tyler Bowen
• 1:16:34
  entering the year and rightfully so and and how that unit was
• 1:16:37
  going to look. It took him a couple weeks.
• 1:16:42
  It took him a couple weeks tally, but they they figured it
• 1:16:45
  out. I Chris Marv doesn't necessarily
• 1:16:48
  have a couple weeks to figure it out though, like to start the
• 1:16:52
  year right. He's got to kind of understand
• 1:16:54
  it and have a good feeling going into the year.
• 1:16:56
  But I do feel pretty confident simply because so many key
• 1:17:01
  pieces are back. Mike, if you wrap us up on
• 1:17:05
  defense. Yeah, I mean the the answer to
• 1:17:08
  the initial question, can Virginia Tech's defense be even
• 1:17:10
  better than a year ago? Statistically, the answer is
• 1:17:12
  yes. Interior, the interior defensive
• 1:17:17
  line got a lot better. You add Peebles and you add
• 1:17:21
  Copeland, who both have played meaningful snaps at various
• 1:17:25
  levels of football. You add Calvin Gilliam, you
• 1:17:30
  know, you add Brumfield a a true Mike linebacker.
• 1:17:34
  Virginia Tech's issues defensively when they were
• 1:17:36
  having them last year or right up the middle of the defense and
• 1:17:40
  you address those. You address those in the portal
• 1:17:43
  with meaningful guys like Peebles is an all conference
• 1:17:48
  player that you just add to the middle of the defensive line.
• 1:17:51
  He's a stud. He's really, really good.
• 1:17:54
  Copeland's gonna be good. Like Brumfield's gonna be good.
• 1:17:58
  Like talking about another all conference player.
• 1:18:01
  He's going to be good. When you Add all conference
• 1:18:03
  caliber players to a defense that was improving and on an
• 1:18:06
  upswing, on an uptick towards the end of the year, you got to
• 1:18:10
  feel pretty good about it. You have two number one corners,
• 1:18:13
  that's just what you have, right?
• 1:18:15
  And Delane and strong, they're two number one corners.
• 1:18:17
  You have them on the same team. It's the best 1-2 tanned.
• 1:18:20
  I'm a cornerback in the ACC. For my money that's a really
• 1:18:24
  good core guys and look even with even with McCray injury
• 1:18:29
  like OK, so you need to search for 1/4 defensive end Virginia
• 1:18:34
  Tech like going into last year they just they just wanted to
• 1:18:36
  have two defensive ends. It's true.
• 1:18:39
  Like and I'm not and I'm not talking about like like 2-2
• 1:18:43
  meaningful starters. Like no, we need like 2 like
• 1:18:46
  warm bodies at defensive end going into the year last year
• 1:18:49
  and now we're talking about, you know, OK, who's the 4th
• 1:18:53
  defensive end gonna be? That's like a good spot to be
• 1:18:56
  that. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
• 1:18:57
  Like that's a good spot to be in, right.
• 1:18:59
  So and and even with the concerns and safety where you
• 1:19:05
  know Stroman's a good player and the guys who we talked about,
• 1:19:08
  they played meaningful snaps last year.
• 1:19:10
  It's not like you're starting a true freshman in a spot or or
• 1:19:14
  you don't have any sort of depth there.
• 1:19:16
  I am concerned about the depth, but like that's the worst thing
• 1:19:21
  we're going to talk about is like, OK, who's our third safety
• 1:19:24
  going to be? Who's our 4th defensive end
• 1:19:26
  going to be? We've come a long way guys in in
• 1:19:29
  20. 4. Months.
• 1:19:30
  Yeah. We've come a long way.
• 1:19:31
  Insane. Part.
• 1:19:32
  All right, we're going to flip over to the offensive side of
• 1:19:35
  the room. Now we have to talk about the
• 1:19:38
  quarterback room. QD, one solids.
• 1:19:40
  I mean, he looked so smooth out there on Saturday.
• 1:19:44
  He looked like everything was under control.
• 1:19:47
  You know David you you you probably similar to our friend
• 1:19:50
  Robbie who had a chance to view practice talking about how it's
• 1:19:54
  there like that team is his, like that team is his.
• 1:19:58
  So I'm going to stay away from Kyron.
• 1:20:01
  But let me ask you this. I'm going to start with Mike on
• 1:20:04
  this one. All right.
• 1:20:05
  If Pop Watson is quarterback to come fall because her Brett Pry,
• 1:20:09
  he is slightly ahead of of Dylan Witke, is it more of they need
• 1:20:14
  Pop to stay because of his upside potential?
• 1:20:17
  After drones leaves? Or is it just flat out he won
• 1:20:20
  the job? Hard to say.
• 1:20:24
  I mean, I think the easy answer is like, they need them to stay
• 1:20:27
  because it's upside. Like, I think that's the easy
• 1:20:29
  answer based on what we saw. Like, it's kind of tough to say.
• 1:20:35
  I know he didn't have the best spring game.
• 1:20:37
  I also know that you know, the way spring games are operate, #1
• 1:20:41
  spring games don't really matter all that much. #2, like the way
• 1:20:45
  spring games operate, doesn't really benefit a guy like Pop
• 1:20:47
  Watson, whose greatest attribute at this stage in his career is
• 1:20:50
  his ability to run. Can't really do a lot of that in
• 1:20:54
  spring game 'cause you're not live as a quarterback.
• 1:20:57
  So, you know, I, I, I, I think Virginia Tech's in a spot at
• 1:21:04
  quarterback where, like, you know, 25's going to be a
• 1:21:06
  rebuild. So like, I think it's in
• 1:21:08
  Virginia Tech's best interest to just try to develop Pop Watson
• 1:21:13
  and Dylan Wiki, assuming he sticks around, try to develop
• 1:21:18
  them because going into next year you're going to have a
• 1:21:21
  rebuild. And like, sure, could Brent
• 1:21:23
  Pride go and get like an established quarterback in the
• 1:21:25
  portal? Like of course he could.
• 1:21:28
  But I think it would be in Virginia Tech's best interest to
• 1:21:30
  just develop the young guys in 2025, just given kind of what it
• 1:21:33
  looks like on paper at this point in time.
• 1:21:37
  And and look, I I don't think Virginia Tech's in a spot where
• 1:21:41
  you know, and I've seen this floating around social media.
• 1:21:43
  I know Andy Bitter and Chris Coleman David both addressed
• 1:21:47
  this in various columns on TSL. And I think they're right on the
• 1:21:49
  money. Virginia Tech's not in the spot
• 1:21:52
  where like they can go out and get a quarterback out of the
• 1:21:55
  transfer portal to go back up Kyron drones, first of all, like
• 1:22:00
  the caliber quarterback you're going to get.
• 1:22:02
  Like, you'd rather just develop Pop Watson and Dill and Wiki #1
• 1:22:06
  #2. It's like, what's the incentive
• 1:22:08
  of that quarterback to come to Blacksburg and sit behind Tyron
• 1:22:10
  drones? Like, what's the incentive?
• 1:22:12
  Like, OK, you have multiple years remaining.
• 1:22:15
  You know, maybe you get a guy with, like, multiple years of
• 1:22:16
  eligibility. OK, that's great.
• 1:22:18
  But then you know, is that guy, like, guaranteed going to be
• 1:22:22
  better than Pop Watson? Because if the answer's no, then
• 1:22:26
  going into 2025, like Pop could be gone and you could be left
• 1:22:30
  with this guy you got out of the transfer portal that you really
• 1:22:33
  just got to back up. Kyron drones, 'cause you didn't
• 1:22:35
  think Pop was ready right now, right?
• 1:22:38
  So it's like, OK, it was a contingency plan in 24 and now
• 1:22:41
  he's got to be your primary in 25 because Pop Watson, you
• 1:22:44
  scared him away. So you got to be really careful,
• 1:22:47
  right? And I to answer your question,
• 1:22:51
  Kurtis, I really don't know, I I think, I I think they need Pop
• 1:22:56
  to stick around. Like, I think that's the simple
• 1:22:57
  answer. And I don't think we'll really
• 1:23:00
  know until fall comes around and you know, you get another full
• 1:23:04
  summer, you get to camp and you kind of see where you're at.
• 1:23:07
  And I think we'll have like a true answer at that point.
• 1:23:10
  All right, David. Yeah, I mean, I I feel a little
• 1:23:14
  right about the quarterback room.
• 1:23:15
  I I think Pop is a pretty good talent.
• 1:23:19
  I just didn't. Kyron Drone said it best after
• 1:23:22
  the game and he was asked if if he feels like the spring game
• 1:23:32
  does not necessarily benefit quarterbacks who are mobile, who
• 1:23:36
  need to be able to move. And he's like, yeah man, he's
• 1:23:40
  like Pop, you know, talking about Pop, he basically said Pop
• 1:23:43
  is kind of in the same the same situation I was in last year
• 1:23:45
  where you don't get to really showcase your abilities.
• 1:23:48
  I think the staff likes Pop and I think he's Got Talent.
• 1:23:52
  I think it's just hard to tell because you know he's not really
• 1:23:57
  live. You know the fans have not
• 1:24:00
  gotten a chance to see him live that.
• 1:24:03
  That's just the fact, you know, I know Chris Coleman, Andy
• 1:24:07
  Bitter. Two of my colleagues got got a
• 1:24:08
  chance to watch him at A at a scrimmage a couple weeks ago and
• 1:24:12
  they made him live for a little bit.
• 1:24:14
  And I think, I think the staff really likes what they see.
• 1:24:19
  And the way I'll put it is this, if if Kyron Jones gets hurt,
• 1:24:25
  man, it doesn't really matter what other quarterback you're
• 1:24:26
  rolling out. Like.
• 1:24:29
  I think you you trust in the kid that's been in all the meetings
• 1:24:32
  and is the one that's putting in extra work and the one that you
• 1:24:35
  have a good rapport with. And I think that's Pop Watson
• 1:24:37
  and I think, you know, Brent Price said he feels like Pop's a
• 1:24:42
  little bit farther along than Dylan Witke and I would expect
• 1:24:45
  Pop to win the job, just he he just he just looks a little bit
• 1:24:49
  better. But I did hear you know from
• 1:24:54
  talking with some people that the staff really likes how much
• 1:24:57
  Pop has developed this spring. So I think he's somebody like
• 1:25:02
  you don't want the kid to leave, you know, because I think he has
• 1:25:06
  a bright future. And you know, if if Kyron
• 1:25:10
  potentially leaves after this year, well, maybe Pop is the
• 1:25:13
  guy, right? You, you don't know what kind of
• 1:25:15
  situation he's going to get thrown into.
• 1:25:17
  But everything I've seen shows that he has a pretty pretty
• 1:25:22
  potentially bright future in Blacksburg and and there's you
• 1:25:28
  only can take so much from a spring game.
• 1:25:30
  Remember Kyron Drones didn't have a good spring game last
• 1:25:32
  year like. He did the.
• 1:25:35
  Not statistically. Not statistically, but he had a
• 1:25:39
  good. I liked, I liked what I saw on
• 1:25:40
  film. Yep.
• 1:25:42
  Tally. What do you think?
• 1:25:43
  Do you Tally? Are you leaning, it's because of
• 1:25:46
  the 10th show or you think he's going to flat out when the job
• 1:25:49
  is why we're there keeping him? Yeah, I think Pop's going to be
• 1:25:52
  fine. Like I said, I don't want to
• 1:25:53
  over react to a spring game. It's kind of I seen everybody,
• 1:25:58
  they jumped on you David, but I understood what you were saying
• 1:26:00
  about drones last year because it was the same thing that we
• 1:26:03
  said while it was in there. It's like you know,
• 1:26:05
  statistically you can say OK, he didn't have a good spring game,
• 1:26:08
  but I think Mike might have said a spring gaming set up to let
• 1:26:14
  him do what he's good at doing. So, you know, everybody jumps on
• 1:26:18
  spring game and talk about this and that.
• 1:26:20
  And when we got on here and we talked about it and I kept
• 1:26:22
  telling people I was like for me, you got to look at the whole
• 1:26:26
  body of work for the kid, you know.
• 1:26:28
  And that's kind of what I do for for Pop.
• 1:26:30
  He's been in there. I've talked to, you know, people
• 1:26:34
  close to the program, parents, players, they like what what Pop
• 1:26:39
  he is, They like what he does for the team.
• 1:26:42
  I think it'd be hard to go and get somebody to come in and make
• 1:26:46
  an impact like he has on the, you know at least the wide
• 1:26:51
  receiver group right now. You know what I mean?
• 1:26:53
  So you want to like Mike said, you want to develop him as much
• 1:26:56
  as you can because if Kyron goes down, but you don't even want to
• 1:26:59
  think about that or you don't want to talk that up.
• 1:27:02
  It's going to be a drop off with whoever you go get because of
• 1:27:09
  just because he's your quarterback one and how much
• 1:27:12
  time he's put in to run that offense.
• 1:27:14
  So it doesn't matter who you who goes in next, it's going to be a
• 1:27:17
  a drop off, at least for you know a while.
• 1:27:20
  So roll with Pop. I think he'll be fine to, you
• 1:27:24
  know, keep getting those reps, keep getting better, keep
• 1:27:27
  getting bigger because for him to be a running quarterback,
• 1:27:30
  he's small and we got to get him some more weight and I think
• 1:27:34
  it'll be fine. That man needs That.
• 1:27:36
  Man needs to live at the nutrition center, just
• 1:27:39
  constantly being ordering food. Just keep ordering food pop,
• 1:27:42
  Brian, I'm going to pitch it over to you and then we're going
• 1:27:45
  to go back to M1 more. Time Yeah couple things here.
• 1:27:48
  I'm absolutely with David. I don't think that bringing in A
• 1:27:53
  and I'll just we'll we'll throw it to the guys down the street.
• 1:27:55
  A Tony Musket esque quarterback to back up Kyron drones is worth
• 1:28:00
  the the risk of chasing off someone like Pop Watson just to
• 1:28:05
  have a guy that's like basically a Band-Aid should should an
• 1:28:08
  injury occur in 2024 that I don't think it's worth that type
• 1:28:12
  of risk. I think we know enough about
• 1:28:14
  what we have in pop. I think he knows the offense as
• 1:28:19
  good or better than anyone that we bring in at this juncture in
• 1:28:21
  the process for 2024. So I I don't think that's worth
• 1:28:26
  a consideration at this point because we're going to be
• 1:28:28
  looking at potentially a, you know, a stopgap potential
• 1:28:32
  quarterback situation in 2025 anyway, right?
• 1:28:35
  Like it's going to be kind of a rebuild, kind of a retool, you
• 1:28:38
  know, whatever you want to call it.
• 1:28:41
  So. So that's already going to be a
• 1:28:42
  situation regardless of who we have at that position behind
• 1:28:45
  Kyron. So that's number one.
• 1:28:48
  Number two to Tally's point and and really I think all of you
• 1:28:54
  kind of made this point as well Spring game isn't set up for for
• 1:28:58
  pop Watson skill set and I think also and we're going to talk
• 1:29:01
  about this next, I think the the maroon team had what I would
• 1:29:05
  call a dress rehearsal of what these actual starting offensive
• 1:29:09
  line is going to look like come the fall.
• 1:29:13
  So I I think Pop did not not exactly have the the the top
• 1:29:19
  notch crew if you will, on his side of the ball.
• 1:29:21
  So that probably put him a little little more behind the 8
• 1:29:24
  ball on top of everything else that the spring game brings with
• 1:29:27
  it. So I think those two factors
• 1:29:29
  probably played into him not having the best statistical game
• 1:29:33
  or or or really having a ton of standout moments that you kind
• 1:29:38
  of look back on and say, all right, well that's something
• 1:29:40
  that we can take away from or that's something we can take
• 1:29:41
  away from because by all accounts in practice in the
• 1:29:44
  scrimmages he's he's been doing a really good job.
• 1:29:47
  All right. Mike, you said you had one more
• 1:29:49
  thing you wanted to hit before we close it out.
• 1:29:51
  Yeah, it kind of relates just to Pop Watson not being able to,
• 1:29:56
  you know, show his skill set in the spring game.
• 1:30:00
  The spring game is for fans and it's for recruits and it's a
• 1:30:07
  it's a huge recruit. Like it's a huge recruiting
• 1:30:10
  weekend. Like, that's who it's for.
• 1:30:12
  The the practice periods like those extra practices you get,
• 1:30:17
  we talk about like bowl games too, right?
• 1:30:18
  You get the extra practices. Like, that's really important.
• 1:30:21
  The coaches rave about that. That's a big reason why they
• 1:30:23
  play in the the smaller bowl games, right?
• 1:30:26
  That's not the College Football Playoff.
• 1:30:27
  Like it's a big deal for development.
• 1:30:29
  Spring is a big time for development for your roster.
• 1:30:33
  The practice periods are far more meaningful than the spring
• 1:30:37
  game which is for the fans and the recruits.
• 1:30:39
  So if the coaching staff is telling you they really like Pop
• 1:30:42
  Watson, like David just mentioned, and they're talking
• 1:30:45
  about all spring and they're pleased with his development, I
• 1:30:49
  don't want to say they could give a Rat's ass about spring
• 1:30:51
  Game itself because that's that would be a false statement.
• 1:30:54
  But don't put too much into spring Game versus all the
• 1:30:58
  practices and kind of what you've seen with your two eyes
• 1:31:01
  over extended periods of time. It's just a small piece, like
• 1:31:05
  spring game is a piece of a puzzle with several practices
• 1:31:10
  that you've had for a period of five or six weeks.
• 1:31:13
  It's just one small piece of it. I know fans latch onto it.
• 1:31:16
  I just want to emphasize, yeah. And and of course it's football.
• 1:31:20
  It's football. It's.
• 1:31:21
  Football. It's what we get to see.
• 1:31:23
  And it's also. What you get to see, yeah.
• 1:31:25
  And and to what Tally said I think a week ago, like I think
• 1:31:28
  the biggest thing that you can take away from a coaching
• 1:31:30
  perspective of the spring game isn't necessarily like
• 1:31:34
  individual performances but kind of how are you handling a game
• 1:31:38
  type atmosphere, right. Because this is the most game
• 1:31:41
  like setting that you'll have outside of an actual game.
• 1:31:44
  So I think those pieces are where you kind of see and can
• 1:31:47
  actually make some sort of judgement case versus like
• 1:31:50
  individual stats or what you what you see on the tape
• 1:31:53
  necessarily. I think that that matters to a
• 1:31:55
  point but not necessarily more than those other practices.
• 1:31:58
  But I think that game day, atmosphere, element and how you
• 1:32:01
  handle that and and and things like that is probably what is
• 1:32:05
  evaluated more. Yeah.
• 1:32:07
  All right. Before we go to the next one, I
• 1:32:09
  just got to throw it up because I had not seen our man.
• 1:32:11
  Andretti is back in the house, one of our loyal followers there
• 1:32:16
  on YouTube. All right, Andretti.
• 1:32:18
  Andretti got to love him. All right, we're going to the
• 1:32:21
  offensive line next. Here we go, here we go.
• 1:32:24
  Now it's a party. Now it's a party and before we
• 1:32:28
  get into analysis, this is a one word answer.
• 1:32:31
  It's going to be all five of us. And then I'm going to push it
• 1:32:34
  back to David. David Can Virginia Tech afford
• 1:32:37
  to stand pat at right tackle, Yes or no?
• 1:32:41
  No. Mike.
• 1:32:43
  Nope. Brian.
• 1:32:46
  No. I say no, Tally, Fuck no.
• 1:32:52
  And you is coming. All right?
• 1:32:54
  Now that that's been settled, we can't stand pat like is.
• 1:33:04
  Are we going to have to go out and throw some money in the
• 1:33:06
  portal to find a legit starting right tackle?
• 1:33:09
  Because I don't see one right now on the roster unless
• 1:33:17
  something crazy happens. David, you saw some periods and
• 1:33:20
  stuff we weren't accustomed to. We'll see you.
• 1:33:26
  Yeah, I mean, I I don't think you'll ever turn down an
• 1:33:28
  offensive lineman in the portal if he's the right fit.
• 1:33:31
  The problem is, they're so hard to come by.
• 1:33:33
  The problem is that guys that are anywhere between 6 two and
• 1:33:40
  and six, six and say you know, 250 lbs to 283 hundred, I mean
• 1:33:50
  like those giant guys, as you guys well know, they don't come
• 1:33:54
  around very often. They're hot commodities.
• 1:33:57
  They're almost like basketball players in the portal in terms
• 1:34:00
  of how high their values are. I I think Virginia Tech needs to
• 1:34:06
  add on offensive lineman. The the thing I'm most
• 1:34:12
  interested in is to see how some of these young guys come along.
• 1:34:17
  Leith Ganem was a guy who brim pride hyped up a lot towards the
• 1:34:21
  end of the spring. We spoke with him and he said he
• 1:34:24
  was really pleased with how Ganem was coming along.
• 1:34:28
  But it would not hurt Virginia Tech.
• 1:34:30
  I think I would, you know, if I'm Virginia Tech, I would
• 1:34:33
  actually try everything in my power I could to get a guy with
• 1:34:37
  experience, because I think a lot of the other places on the
• 1:34:41
  offensive line are pretty solid, right?
• 1:34:45
  You return both of the Moore brothers, you bring in Montavius
• 1:34:49
  Cunningham. I think Tech likes what it has
• 1:34:53
  with with Xavier Chaplin but I look at at you know, but I think
• 1:34:59
  if you can bring in a tackle, I I think Virginia Tech would do
• 1:35:01
  everything in its power too. You know, I think Ron Crook has
• 1:35:06
  developed that group pretty well in the time that he's been here,
• 1:35:11
  which it's only been a year. But you don't want to have to
• 1:35:16
  lean back and rely on you know some of that youth to start if
• 1:35:21
  you don't have to. We're not talking about oh this
• 1:35:24
  is this is a guy like Christian Darasaw who you know he he's
• 1:35:30
  ready to to start immediately. I mean there have been Virginia
• 1:35:33
  Tech offensive lines in the past that have been really, really
• 1:35:36
  young and really, really good. It it doesn't really feel that
• 1:35:40
  way and if Virginia Tech can add, it should add.
• 1:35:46
  The only question is who's going to be available?
• 1:35:49
  But but if I'm Virginia Tech, I'm making a super, super hard
• 1:35:53
  push to add an offensive lineman, specifically a tackle.
• 1:35:57
  Because man, if you do that, I think you feel a whole lot
• 1:36:00
  better about your depth because you have some really talented
• 1:36:03
  young kids in the program, I think that are continuing to get
• 1:36:05
  better. It's only a matter of time.
• 1:36:08
  But if you have to rely on them. Now I I kind of think about it
• 1:36:14
  like to make a basketball analogy, I think kind of think
• 1:36:17
  about it where MJ Collins was kind of thrown into the fire
• 1:36:20
  last year, right? Some guys just simply aren't
• 1:36:22
  ready to play that many snaps. That's that's just the way it
• 1:36:26
  is. Mike.
• 1:36:29
  This this kind of goes back to the conversation we were having
• 1:36:31
  about safety. Like if you feel like you can
• 1:36:35
  make a run at a one year stop gap at tackle, you absolutely
• 1:36:41
  need to do it because this is a one year window.
• 1:36:43
  That's how I view it. I view it as a one year window,
• 1:36:46
  not that like Pry and the the program won't continue to be
• 1:36:49
  good. That's not what I mean.
• 1:36:50
  I just mean like with this group, this is a one year window
• 1:36:54
  with the key contributors on offense and defense.
• 1:36:57
  So I feel like if you can go into the portal and make a run
• 1:37:02
  at maybe a couple tackles because I mean David hit around
• 1:37:06
  the head like it is really, really hard to portal offensive
• 1:37:10
  lineman. Not to say you can't get them in
• 1:37:12
  the door, but you don't really know if they're right fit until
• 1:37:15
  they show up. Like you just don't like it.
• 1:37:17
  You put them on the practice field, you see how they learn
• 1:37:19
  your scheme. You really don't know if they're
• 1:37:21
  going to be a fit until they get there.
• 1:37:23
  Like portaling offensive lineman is really, really, really
• 1:37:26
  difficult. At least that's how it's been
• 1:37:28
  since for, you know, the four or five years we've had, it's been
• 1:37:31
  tough. Like the use cases are not very
• 1:37:33
  good now Virginia Tech's over the scholarship limit.
• 1:37:36
  That's really important to note, right?
• 1:37:38
  Because, you know, Brent Pry, yes, like he, he and his staff,
• 1:37:42
  they're going to be having some tough conversations.
• 1:37:46
  And I'm sure some of them have already been had, you know, with
• 1:37:48
  some of these players that aren't going to be a part of the
• 1:37:50
  program in the fall because he needs to make room to maybe go
• 1:37:54
  out and get a right tackle. But if you can make enough room
• 1:37:57
  to maybe go get two, I think that would be pretty beneficial.
• 1:38:02
  Because from a depth standpoint, like David mentioned, I mean,
• 1:38:06
  obviously all eyes are on the Parker Clement situation, but
• 1:38:10
  like David mentioned, Xavier Chaplin.
• 1:38:13
  Yes, he's big, he's athletic. We think the staff likes what
• 1:38:18
  they have there on the left side of the offensive line.
• 1:38:21
  But if he starts to struggle or he gets banged up, which he was
• 1:38:25
  banged up as a freshman or else, he would have gotten on the
• 1:38:28
  field, I think pretty early. He was banged up as a freshman.
• 1:38:32
  He's got that injury history there.
• 1:38:34
  It wouldn't it wouldn't hurt having another veteran offensive
• 1:38:37
  lineman in the room at the tackle spot.
• 1:38:40
  So I I think it's really important.
• 1:38:43
  I also think that Tyler Bowen's scheme, and we didn't see this a
• 1:38:47
  lot in the spring game because the quarterbacks weren't live,
• 1:38:49
  but we saw it a lot the second-half of the year last
• 1:38:51
  year. I think a big reason why the
• 1:38:53
  offensive line play improved is because Virginia Tech's offense
• 1:38:56
  with Kyron drones just looked so drastically different.
• 1:38:59
  Didn't have a drop back quarterback here roll in the
• 1:39:01
  pocket a lot. All that stuff benefits
• 1:39:05
  offensive lineman, right? Benefits the offensive line and
• 1:39:08
  for as well as Virginia Tech's offensive line played in my
• 1:39:12
  opinion the second-half of the year.
• 1:39:13
  I think a lot of it had to do with the scheme.
• 1:39:15
  Like I don't think the play and and this is nothing against Ron
• 1:39:18
  Crook, I think he has to have done a great job developing guys
• 1:39:20
  in the one year he's been in Blacksburg.
• 1:39:22
  But like, the scheme helped a lot.
• 1:39:25
  Like the way the offense looked and and the way they were
• 1:39:28
  calling plays and running, the system helped a lot in the
• 1:39:30
  second-half of the year, and I think it can help them again
• 1:39:32
  this year, right? So like, yeah, Parker Clements
• 1:39:35
  is not great when he's standing stationary at right tackle, but
• 1:39:38
  like, if Virginia Tech needs to roll with him and they're
• 1:39:41
  running kind of a similar offense into the second-half of
• 1:39:43
  the year last year, I think they'll be OK.
• 1:39:46
  So I don't think it's like a A5 alarm fire situation, but I
• 1:39:49
  think if you can go out and get a tackle, you absolutely need to
• 1:39:51
  do it. Kali, just because he said, you
• 1:39:55
  know, go ahead. Mike made it sound good, so I
• 1:40:00
  don't want to come in and and make it sound real bad, you know
• 1:40:04
  what I'm saying? Like, he was kind of diplomatic
• 1:40:06
  with it, but he mentioned the name, so I'll say it like
• 1:40:11
  Parker, like he he too old and too big to just keep getting
• 1:40:16
  beat, You know what I'm saying? Like, I get it.
• 1:40:19
  Keyshawn Burgos is fast and he's big and he's athletic, but he.
• 1:40:24
  As it sits, is not a top performer in the ACC like
• 1:40:30
  Parker's going to see better defensive ends than Keyshawn
• 1:40:34
  Burgos. At least one every day,
• 1:40:37
  probably, Yeah, at least one every day.
• 1:40:39
  And David just told us at the beginning of the show that
• 1:40:44
  Burgos had a Hall of Fame day, a fucking Hall of Fame Day.
• 1:40:51
  And I think Parker's been there for fucking nine years and you
• 1:40:55
  let somebody have a Hall of Fame day and it ain't just his fault.
• 1:40:58
  So, you know, I play around and joke around and I think they do
• 1:41:02
  got to get better there. I think Parker has to be better.
• 1:41:04
  I think he'd be good as a depth piece.
• 1:41:06
  I just don't know that he's a starter.
• 1:41:07
  You know, I think that our floor has been raised at Virginia Tech
• 1:41:12
  and I. Some of these guys who we have,
• 1:41:14
  we just have to go with. But it's kind of hard for
• 1:41:18
  offensive line as well because offensive lineman has to have
• 1:41:21
  continuity. And you're playing different
• 1:41:23
  people at different positions. And you know, you may be used to
• 1:41:26
  this guy starting beside you or this tight end starting beside
• 1:41:29
  you, and you're calling plays and different things are going
• 1:41:31
  on during a play. When you're at a spring game,
• 1:41:35
  you got the most offensive lineman on the field of any
• 1:41:38
  other position. You know, we're just trying to
• 1:41:41
  find five In a spring game. You're saying you need 11:50.
• 1:41:46
  We just ain't got it right now. But just at individual workouts,
• 1:41:52
  individual one-on-one things. I've always seen Parker get
• 1:41:56
  beat. And as a veteran lineman and
• 1:41:58
  somebody who the coaches have raved about during practice, you
• 1:42:02
  know, MVP during the spring, different things like that, you
• 1:42:07
  just expect a little bit better play from him than what I've
• 1:42:09
  seen. So that's why I'm super hard on
• 1:42:12
  him, I guess. But yeah, I'm with, I'm with MM
• 1:42:16
  said it best when he said this is like, this is your year, you
• 1:42:21
  know, and I'm going to go ahead and say it like the coaches are
• 1:42:24
  buying into it as well. Like the trajectory has to go
• 1:42:28
  up. You got the, like.
• 1:42:30
  I think one of the hardest shirts that I've seen them
• 1:42:31
  wearing is the shirts where they had the the three, the seven,
• 1:42:34
  and then the question mark, Like that question mark can't be less
• 1:42:38
  than 7. You have to make you have to win
• 1:42:41
  more games than that because that's what you're selling, You
• 1:42:45
  know what I'm saying? Then if you win more games than
• 1:42:46
  that, even if it's eight games, even though you want to win
• 1:42:49
  more, if that trajectory keeps going up, then what you're
• 1:42:53
  selling in your program, it's easier to go out and recruit.
• 1:42:56
  So quarterback leaves, you might go pull a top quarterback.
• 1:43:01
  You know if you're in the position where you need somebody
• 1:43:04
  to come in, well you say hey, you see what we did in this
• 1:43:06
  program? We built it up.
• 1:43:07
  We won this many games. We this piece away.
• 1:43:10
  We got these many people coming back.
• 1:43:12
  Like it's a couple of things that can happen if you have that
• 1:43:15
  that season that most people are expecting.
• 1:43:18
  But if you ain't good in the trenches you ain't going to have
• 1:43:21
  a good season. So we got to find a way to have
• 1:43:24
  the best 5 lineman on the field to protect the quarterback.
• 1:43:29
  Parker look like he going to get somebody killed.
• 1:43:32
  Brian, what you think? I think that in in terms of
• 1:43:37
  trajectory, so let's start there in terms of trajectory, the
• 1:43:40
  offensive line is going to determine more than any other
• 1:43:43
  position on the field how many wins we get this year.
• 1:43:47
  Because with all the pieces coming back with, you know, you
• 1:43:50
  and Ollie Jennings where you didn't really have him most of
• 1:43:52
  last year, you've got so many pieces that fit on this offense
• 1:43:58
  that can really take that next step.
• 1:44:01
  That next step is going to be limited to how well this
• 1:44:04
  offensive line progresses from last year and we saw it with the
• 1:44:09
  scheme shift. You know, Mike pointed it out.
• 1:44:13
  You know if if I'm an offensive lineman on like a five step drop
• 1:44:16
  if you're rolling the pocket and I'm hinge blocking instead of
• 1:44:18
  having to drop back and make sure that this guy doesn't speed
• 1:44:22
  rush around the edge on me while I'm kick stepping that that's a
• 1:44:27
  whole lot easier block. I I can I can use more of my
• 1:44:31
  lower body. I can use a whole lot more of my
• 1:44:33
  athleticism than if I'm just standing there and having to
• 1:44:36
  stay in front of this guy coming at me full speed.
• 1:44:38
  So it's a lot easier block the scheme is making that the job of
• 1:44:41
  the tackles especially a lot easier so that's that's number
• 1:44:45
  one but in terms of just getting guys in you know I I I
• 1:44:51
  definitely think we need at least one tackle.
• 1:44:53
  I know Mike said two. I would like at least one tackle
• 1:44:56
  and and it needs to be somebody that at least had some sort of
• 1:44:59
  experience. I don't know if it needs to be a
• 1:45:02
  you know kind of a one year rental of a guy that's you know
• 1:45:04
  been a multi year starter. You know we've seen I think
• 1:45:08
  we've got an offer out there for Andrew Chamblee at Arkansas.
• 1:45:12
  I don't know if if he's going to be somebody that we get a visit
• 1:45:14
  with or anything like that. But at least that's somebody
• 1:45:17
  that has seen some time in the SEC think he was all SEC
• 1:45:22
  freshman team or something like that.
• 1:45:23
  So he's he's at least shown that he's capable of you know putting
• 1:45:30
  good work out there against some of the best in the country in
• 1:45:32
  terms of of pass rushers. So you feel a little bit good
• 1:45:35
  about that if that's somebody that you're targeting.
• 1:45:37
  But that's that's a position that we've got to level up
• 1:45:39
  because again I'm circling back. This is the importance of having
• 1:45:43
  this offensive line is going to dictate how big of a step this
• 1:45:46
  offense can take in 2024. And back to Mike and David's
• 1:45:50
  point, I mean this is a year that really matters because I
• 1:45:53
  feel like this is going to be the highest ceiling that we're
• 1:45:56
  seeing for the next, you know one to two years depending on
• 1:45:59
  what we're able to do in the portal and and and recruiting
• 1:46:02
  heading into 25 and 26. But the window is here to to do
• 1:46:07
  some big things this year. I'd hate for the offensive line
• 1:46:10
  to hold that back. And that's the point of it.
• 1:46:13
  And Mike, you keep saying it and David you said it to this is a
• 1:46:17
  big gap. This is not a gap year.
• 1:46:18
  This is a go all in year. Go all in.
• 1:46:21
  You have a quarterback who threw 17 touchdowns through 17
• 1:46:25
  touchdowns, 3 picks, was super efficient, almost ran for 1000
• 1:46:29
  yards in, you know, less than 10 games.
• 1:46:34
  You brought your entire wide receiver quarterback.
• 1:46:36
  You brought your running backroom back.
• 1:46:38
  Yeah, I'm with you. You have to go all in.
• 1:46:40
  I was going to ask you all one more question, but I'm going to
• 1:46:42
  skip it because I think we're all to a point where we need to
• 1:46:45
  go get offensive lineman. And I think Tally made the point
• 1:46:49
  just a second ago to kind of answered it.
• 1:46:51
  I would rather have Parker Clements here as a depth piece
• 1:46:53
  because it would be nice to know if you bring in another tackle
• 1:46:58
  again. To me, Parker's the 2020, 2040
• 1:47:02
  club. He plays really, really good 20%
• 1:47:04
  of the time. He plays OK 20% of the time, 20%
• 1:47:07
  of the time, and then 40% of the time are the times You just lose
• 1:47:10
  your mind because it's like how did three steps ago, you look
• 1:47:14
  very solid and now you're you're stumbling to get it.
• 1:47:18
  I think that's what the frustration is.
• 1:47:20
  It's his age. If he was a true sophomore, we'd
• 1:47:24
  be like, OK, every single one of y'all be like especially Italian
• 1:47:27
  Brown who played the positions we get it.
• 1:47:30
  It happens sometimes. You're young, you're going to
• 1:47:32
  learn. It's the age piece that Tally
• 1:47:34
  keeps bringing up. I'm going to flip on go down to
• 1:47:36
  tight end because obviously without Benji Gosnell and Eric
• 1:47:40
  Gallo, it was sort of a interesting tight end room.
• 1:47:44
  David, who was your tight end MVP of the spring game from what
• 1:47:47
  you saw? Hairston I I don't want to
• 1:47:52
  butcher his name. Is it Jarish Jarishas.
• 1:47:58
  I don't. I'm not.
• 1:48:00
  I I honestly don't know how to. Actually, I have a pronunciation
• 1:48:02
  guide right here. Let me.
• 1:48:03
  Oh, there we go everyday. Jarishas Jarishas Hairston from
• 1:48:09
  Facet. Yeah, I was just saying he's
• 1:48:12
  he's he's like a Martinsville Bassett guy.
• 1:48:14
  That's pretty darn cool. He got a touchdown in the spring
• 1:48:17
  game, man. You know, it's funny.
• 1:48:19
  Tight end is a really good position for Virginia Tech.
• 1:48:22
  I mean, Hogas are they, They're pretty solid there.
• 1:48:26
  Nick Gallows back Harrison St. Germain Benji Gosnell, you know
• 1:48:33
  you add you got Zeke Wimbush kind of sitting there.
• 1:48:36
  This was an opportunity for Hairston to kind of get some
• 1:48:39
  run. He caught a touchdown pass.
• 1:48:41
  I I feel good about this tight end room.
• 1:48:44
  Even if, even though Gosnell and and Gallo will be coming off
• 1:48:49
  injuries, this is a group that has shown a lot.
• 1:48:54
  Saint Germain and Gosnell each caught touchdowns in the the
• 1:49:00
  spring game or sorry, not in the spring game, the Military Bowl.
• 1:49:04
  Yeah, like like this is a tight end room that's showed out.
• 1:49:09
  I have don't really have any questions about him, but it was
• 1:49:11
  really cool. You know, Harriston again, local
• 1:49:13
  kind of a local guy. For him to catch a touchdown
• 1:49:15
  pass in the spring game. I thought that was a really,
• 1:49:19
  really cool moment. What?
• 1:49:22
  Yeah, that easy answer is Harriston played a lot of snaps
• 1:49:26
  caught the touchdown pass was effective when he was in.
• 1:49:30
  Obviously got the opportunity to play with the Virginia Techs 2
• 1:49:33
  starting tight ends or like top two tight ends on depth chart
• 1:49:35
  hurt. I I feel good about tight end.
• 1:49:40
  I just know that Virginia Tech's gonna have to use the depth like
• 1:49:44
  neither one of the top two guys have stayed healthy really at
• 1:49:46
  any point in their career. So you know the the guys down
• 1:49:49
  the depth chart are going to need to contribute at some point
• 1:49:51
  this year. I just don't know when it's
• 1:49:52
  going to be. So it is encouraging to see
• 1:49:55
  Harrison the step up and I don't know how much Harrison in
• 1:49:58
  particular is going to play. He's probably like 5th on the
• 1:50:01
  depth chart at tight end. He probably play Winbush before
• 1:50:06
  him because of the upside. You certainly play Saint Germain
• 1:50:10
  before him with the experience and the upside as well.
• 1:50:14
  But yeah, I mean, all eyes are on Gallo and Gosnell and whether
• 1:50:17
  or not they can stay on the field.
• 1:50:19
  Brian, Who's yours? I think Brian's gonna have a
• 1:50:21
  different answer because Brian looked a lot more tape.
• 1:50:25
  You know, I mean, I I really liked what what Harrison brought
• 1:50:28
  to the table, honestly. He showed that he could be a guy
• 1:50:31
  that can be relied on the block. I think that's that's the
• 1:50:35
  important thing. Like we know what we have with
• 1:50:37
  with Gallo, we know what we have with Gosnell.
• 1:50:39
  A lot of these guys are going to be, can you block and can you
• 1:50:44
  stay within the framework of what we're trying to do
• 1:50:46
  offensively because that that's what a depth title is going to
• 1:50:49
  going to primarily be doing. You know, when I look at that, I
• 1:50:53
  feel like Harrison is the guy that can do both of those things
• 1:50:56
  pretty well. And he's the guy that probably
• 1:50:59
  isn't going to see a ton of time, but he's probably going to
• 1:51:01
  be 4th or 5th on the depth chart there just because of what
• 1:51:05
  Wimbush brings to the table from a, you know, route running
• 1:51:09
  perspective, pass catching perspective.
• 1:51:13
  But it's nice to have a reliable guy that deep on your depth
• 1:51:17
  chart that can block well and still do things within the
• 1:51:19
  framework of the offense consistently for you.
• 1:51:21
  How? About you tally.
• 1:51:24
  Yeah, kind of the same, man. I mean, you're going to go with
• 1:51:26
  what everybody's talking about here at the Harrison.
• 1:51:29
  It's like when you look at the tight end, I think kind of, I
• 1:51:33
  don't know all the specifics, but probably one of the reason
• 1:51:36
  why Daquan right left is because you got so many miles to feed on
• 1:51:43
  the offense. You know, you got a game
• 1:51:45
  breaking running back, you got a game breaking quarterback that's
• 1:51:48
  running the balls. You got all of these wide
• 1:51:51
  receivers that have to get touches because they're going to
• 1:51:53
  be, they're going to be getting open, you know, just can't cover
• 1:51:56
  everybody. You need a tight end to be like
• 1:52:00
  you need a tight end to beat Nick Gallo this year.
• 1:52:03
  You know what I'm saying? You need a tidy end to go in and
• 1:52:05
  do his job and not expect a lot of praise.
• 1:52:08
  You know, not no disrespect to Wright because I love what
• 1:52:11
  Wright brought to the offense but you're you're tight end is
• 1:52:15
  just going to have to take the lay UPS like Harrison did.
• 1:52:18
  You know 2 yard touchdown, just get open sit down and take it.
• 1:52:23
  You may not get a lot of targets because of all of the other
• 1:52:27
  things that we got on offense and you just got to be in there
• 1:52:30
  to help block. You got to be in there to run
• 1:52:33
  somebody off to so Jay Lane can come across the middle and catch
• 1:52:36
  that slant. So I think all of those guys in
• 1:52:40
  the tight end room just got to work to be strong, to get
• 1:52:44
  stronger this summer, to get healthy this summer.
• 1:52:47
  Because, I mean, they're going to be a big part of the offense,
• 1:52:49
  even if you don't see their name in the stat book.
• 1:52:53
  Yep, it's it's tough to shot not shy away from the Harrison, but
• 1:52:57
  Zeke Wimbush did catch 4 passes, which is big.
• 1:53:01
  He shot 4 passes for 23 yards. And then me and Brian were
• 1:53:05
  talking a little earlier today and he said he was impressed
• 1:53:07
  with what Saint Germain did blocking wise.
• 1:53:10
  So I think after those first two, you could say they all had
• 1:53:13
  MVPS because each are improving certain aspects of their game,
• 1:53:17
  Each are going to be important come the season, especially to
• 1:53:21
  y'all's point, Gallo and Benji do not have the best injury
• 1:53:25
  history at all. These aren't clean guys.
• 1:53:28
  They are good players. One on the field.
• 1:53:30
  They need to stay on the field. Now you tell me they stay on the
• 1:53:33
  field. I'm very happy with three
• 1:53:35
  through 5 because they all bring some element to the tape.
• 1:53:38
  All right, We've got a couple more rooms to hit.
• 1:53:41
  Yeah, we're going long, by the way.
• 1:53:42
  We're going long because I did not expect us to spend 40
• 1:53:45
  minutes on basketball. But obviously there was a lot of
• 1:53:48
  emotion from this, from this room about that.
• 1:53:52
  All right, Mike McDaniel, facial Tooting.
• 1:53:56
  Clear #1 running back. I think he played.
• 1:53:58
  I think he ran the ball three times and maybe played eight
• 1:54:01
  snaps total Saturday. But give me your depth chart.
• 1:54:05
  Give me two through 5 after Tooting because obviously there
• 1:54:09
  are some points to be raised after what we saw Saturday.
• 1:54:14
  I really liked what I saw out of PJ Prelo.
• 1:54:17
  But I'm going to be honest, like he's a walk on running back.
• 1:54:22
  Like we've all we've seen a million walk on running backs at
• 1:54:24
  Virginia Tech. We're really excited when they
• 1:54:26
  get in the game in the fourth quarter.
• 1:54:27
  We're like, man, why doesn't he play more?
• 1:54:28
  And then you figure out they can't pass block or, you know,
• 1:54:32
  maybe they don't look quite as fast and athletic when you know
• 1:54:36
  they're playing against the other teams.
• 1:54:38
  Ones look like we're talking about guys who haven't been able
• 1:54:43
  to stay on the field. If Malachi Thomas is healthy,
• 1:54:47
  like I think he is the #2 to basial tooten.
• 1:54:50
  But I did like what I saw out of Jeremiah Kony coaching Staffs
• 1:54:54
  really raved about him a lot and I think Kony is going to be a
• 1:54:58
  contributor now. Is he going to necessarily be
• 1:55:00
  the contributor in 2024 that I think he could be a year from
• 1:55:04
  now? Probably not, but I I do think
• 1:55:07
  he has a chance to push for snaps with Malachi Thomas,
• 1:55:12
  especially if Malachi's banged up.
• 1:55:15
  I think if Tootin's healthy and Thomas is healthy, they're the
• 1:55:18
  clear 1-2. After that, I think Kony is your
• 1:55:23
  #3 running back just because of the way the Staffs talked about
• 1:55:26
  him. And I think PJ, like PJ Prelo,
• 1:55:29
  like it's a nice development that, you know, he was able to
• 1:55:32
  come out in spring game and play the way that he did.
• 1:55:36
  But I I think the running backroom has a clear delineation
• 1:55:40
  as long as guys are healthy. But Kony in my opinion is the
• 1:55:44
  guy who's the wild card. And you know, I I think if
• 1:55:47
  there's some injuries in front of him, I I think he could step
• 1:55:50
  in and be an effective back. And I think he does have a
• 1:55:52
  bright future if he does stick around with the program.
• 1:55:57
  Dave, what about you? Yeah, I mean I I think it's
• 1:56:00
  pretty clear cut. You know, it's two and one,
• 1:56:04
  Thomas two. And then I think Kony is
• 1:56:07
  probably the third back. I think.
• 1:56:11
  I think the staff likes Traylon Mitchell.
• 1:56:15
  I'm I'm curious to see where PJ Prelu, if he factors in at all.
• 1:56:21
  It wasn't, it wasn't like he was just going out there and beating
• 1:56:26
  up you know the third and fourth string guys.
• 1:56:28
  I mean he scored two touchdowns. Like like taking handoffs from
• 1:56:32
  Tyron drones. Like, I'm I'm interested to see
• 1:56:37
  if the Hokies can find maybe a niche role for him.
• 1:56:41
  I don't know if you need him returning kicks, obviously.
• 1:56:44
  Basial Tune has shown he's able to take stuff to the house and
• 1:56:49
  you know, catching punts and stuff.
• 1:56:51
  Jalen Lane. Tucker Holloway is still injured
• 1:56:55
  come the fall. Depending on his status, Jalen
• 1:56:58
  Lane will probably be the guy there and he's proven, but is
• 1:57:01
  there some kind of niche role you can carve out for Perelo?
• 1:57:04
  I'm not really sure. You know, I think it's him or
• 1:57:08
  Mitchell for the for that fourth spot, I'm not sure it really
• 1:57:12
  matters. But I think if if you're the
• 1:57:16
  staff you have to like, at least open your eyes and go.
• 1:57:20
  That's very interesting, the performance PJ Perelo had
• 1:57:24
  because it again, it wasn't like it'd be one thing if you racked
• 1:57:27
  up 40 yards you know and two touchdowns on you know if he if
• 1:57:34
  he's playing in garbage time in the fourth quarter.
• 1:57:36
  But he had six carries for 62 yards and a touchdown and he
• 1:57:40
  caught a pass out of the backfield.
• 1:57:43
  He had two catches for 29 yards. But you want to talk about
• 1:57:47
  all-purpose I I actually didn't run the math but he probably had
• 1:57:52
  more all-purpose yards than anybody not named Jeremiah
• 1:57:55
  Koenig. So I think, like, you have to at
• 1:57:59
  least be a little interested to see how he could help.
• 1:58:02
  But I I think Kony's the the number 3 back and if you don't
• 1:58:06
  feel you're not interested in in Prelude or you don't feel like
• 1:58:10
  he can really add something juicy, maybe.
• 1:58:14
  I think Mitchell's kind of the obvious choice.
• 1:58:17
  And then there's no point in my opinion to not retro.
• 1:58:20
  Tyler Mason though I thought, you know he showed some some
• 1:58:23
  interesting stuff. I mean, he had eight carries
• 1:58:25
  through 33 yards. He did have that fumble, but,
• 1:58:29
  but he's young and and he's got some time to learn.
• 1:58:32
  But I tell you what I was really impressed by the running backs.
• 1:58:36
  Like, it didn't matter if it was Kony.
• 1:58:37
  It didn't matter if it was Mitchell.
• 1:58:40
  Mitchell had two catches or 17 yards.
• 1:58:44
  Kony had one catch. I'm looking at my stats right
• 1:58:47
  now. Mason had one catch.
• 1:58:49
  Pralu had two. Like Virginia Tech and I think I
• 1:58:55
  think you'll see it a lot with with Toon and Thomas this year.
• 1:58:57
  Is Tech using a more out of the backfield especially now that
• 1:59:02
  Cameron Jones is in his second year And and you know I think
• 1:59:06
  has a better feel for it and I think that can be an X Factor
• 1:59:10
  like you guys talked about it facial Toon is a game breaker
• 1:59:13
  and if if the Hokies can get the ball in his hands out of the
• 1:59:16
  backfield. I think you're Goldman and and
• 1:59:19
  here's the thing, the only reason it would matter if we're
• 1:59:24
  who we're talking about behind Bashel 2 is if something
• 1:59:27
  unfortunate was to happen to him where he was going to miss some
• 1:59:30
  time due to injury. Because if he's if he's good,
• 1:59:34
  he's not coming off the field. That's.
• 1:59:35
  How important he is, He is. I'm going to make this point and
• 1:59:38
  and I think we can all agree to this that room has enjoyed such
• 1:59:43
  a crazy transformation because where it seemed for years we we
• 1:59:48
  don't have that guy. We don't have a good running.
• 1:59:51
  We don't have a good core running backs and next thing you
• 1:59:54
  know to every point when to to me watching it the last couple
• 1:59:58
  days chopped up every time a guy got a ball in his hand they made
• 2:00:04
  moves, they made cuts, they plowed forward.
• 2:00:06
  There was no behind Malachi Thomas on that screen catch made
• 2:00:11
  his wiggle and and found it. Shout out to the Moore brothers
• 2:00:15
  and. Montavius Cunningham getting
• 2:00:17
  absurdly a field on that too which that always makes Brian
• 2:00:21
  happy when he sees screenplays like that.
• 2:00:23
  But but it's it's what you just said.
• 2:00:27
  That one looks good. Like you see if the development
• 2:00:31
  of Mitchell and Mason in a couple years, it's like it it's
• 2:00:38
  going to become that 2000 where it seemed like well, who's
• 2:00:41
  texting you? 1000 yard running back like for
• 2:00:44
  every year from basically pretty much 95 up to 2011 like every
• 2:00:52
  year was 1000 yard rusher every year new 1000 yard rusher.
• 2:00:55
  Brian I'll let you tap it off. I don't know if Tally's going to
• 2:00:58
  be back in time, but what's yours look like?
• 2:01:00
  Yeah, I was just impressed with Coney.
• 2:01:02
  Coney's my three. I mean I I feel like there's
• 2:01:04
  potential for Coney even to press for some of Malachi's
• 2:01:07
  carries just because he's a little more change of pace a
• 2:01:10
  little more do a lot of different things than I think
• 2:01:13
  Malachi can. So I think yeah he has the
• 2:01:15
  potential to push there a little shiftier a little better with
• 2:01:20
  with with the cuts. I I think that Malachi is good
• 2:01:22
  running running NS I I don't know how much he brings us
• 2:01:27
  dynamically in those other areas that we don't get from Coney.
• 2:01:30
  So that's going to be something interesting for me to watch
• 2:01:32
  there is is is is is Malachi going to you know lose some of
• 2:01:37
  those carries to to Jeremiah Coney.
• 2:01:40
  I'm also looking at Traylon Mitchell.
• 2:01:43
  I thought, I thought he had a really good spring game.
• 2:01:45
  I hadn't heard a ton about him before that but like seeing what
• 2:01:49
  he was doing out there and and obviously PJ you know kind of
• 2:01:53
  lit it up a little bit there. So it it's going to be
• 2:01:55
  interesting to see where he mixes in with that group.
• 2:01:58
  But I feel pretty good about the the depth overall and that's
• 2:02:02
  even you know, when still thinking that the staff may even
• 2:02:05
  be looking at adding one more running back to this group
• 2:02:08
  either in this transfer portal cycle or the next 1.
• 2:02:12
  So it's going to be interesting to see what that room looks like
• 2:02:14
  this year and then going into 25 as well.
• 2:02:17
  Tally which behind Basil tune What's your what's your depth
• 2:02:21
  charter running. Yeah, I was just about to Brian
• 2:02:24
  hit on exactly what I was going to say.
• 2:02:25
  I mean, kind of like, you know, you could tell those guys are
• 2:02:28
  working, you know, after after Tootin and and Thomas, they're
• 2:02:34
  at 1:00 and 2:00. You know, you got those young
• 2:02:36
  guys and prelude this again, like Mike says, he's a walk on.
• 2:02:41
  So you don't want to take so much from the spring game and
• 2:02:45
  go, wow, everybody, you know was so great.
• 2:02:48
  But you can tell that they're working.
• 2:02:49
  You can tell that, you know, Brooks is in there doing his
• 2:02:51
  thing. But I don't think that they feel
• 2:02:53
  super comfortable with a #2. Like.
• 2:02:56
  I think that they're still looking for somebody like Ramon
• 2:02:59
  Brown that can come in. That's not going to have a drop
• 2:03:03
  off if Tuton gets gassed and, you know, runs 100 yard, 100
• 2:03:08
  yard kickoff and needs to sit out a couple of series, you know
• 2:03:11
  what I'm saying? Like, Malachi has that, you
• 2:03:15
  know, he's been hurt in the past.
• 2:03:16
  He has that on him already. So, I mean, I feel like
• 2:03:19
  everything after one's kind of up for grabs.
• 2:03:21
  I mean, I like what I see from a lot of those guys.
• 2:03:24
  But you do need somebody. You need a every down.
• 2:03:27
  You need a every down back. You know, Prelu can't be a every
• 2:03:30
  down back. You know, a couple of other guys
• 2:03:32
  in there can't be a every down back.
• 2:03:34
  You need every down back kind of like 2 Nils to you know mimic
• 2:03:39
  after him because that's what the offense is going to be, you
• 2:03:42
  know, looking like it's going to need from here going forward.
• 2:03:45
  So I'm more worried about like the two spot more than I am the
• 2:03:50
  three through 5 because I just, I don't think that I don't think
• 2:03:53
  that Thomas like has that on lock.
• 2:03:56
  That's just me, I. Hear you.
• 2:03:58
  As far as it goes with PJ Prelu, it was unbelievable him and
• 2:04:04
  basically looking at the statue here, him and Coney basically
• 2:04:08
  had the exact same number of total yards.
• 2:04:10
  But I think what you can look at that and and we saw Kevin
• 2:04:13
  Concepcion last year just rip us apart in the NC State game
• 2:04:17
  similar build. Not the biggest body guys, but
• 2:04:21
  something that caught my ear from Brent Pride and David, you
• 2:04:23
  were there. Oh yeah, PJ has been working at
• 2:04:26
  running back in in the slot. It's going to be him and XTV are
• 2:04:31
  going to be gadget guys when they get on the field.
• 2:04:34
  There's going to be Bunny years going up on that defense.
• 2:04:37
  Where are those guys at? Where are those guys at?
• 2:04:39
  Oh, bring the safety down to the box.
• 2:04:41
  Whether if they actually run the play to them or it's just we're
• 2:04:44
  going to get you out of your comfort zone and you're going to
• 2:04:48
  open something else up for one of our big playmakers.
• 2:04:51
  That's what I can see him doing. All right, One last room, 2
• 2:04:54
  hours in wide receiver room. And Mike, it's going to come to
• 2:04:58
  you to close us down on this because we got a little
• 2:05:01
  curveball scratching for you. Who impressed you the most that
• 2:05:04
  did not play, did not play significant snaps in 2023?
• 2:05:12
  Does Aiden Green count as significant snaps?
• 2:05:14
  So, significant snaps for a freshman I.
• 2:05:17
  Mean. He played.
• 2:05:20
  He played more than he had to. I I really like Aiden Green.
• 2:05:26
  I I liked what he showed in the spring game.
• 2:05:29
  I think he's a smooth route runner.
• 2:05:32
  I think he's really going to play a lot this year.
• 2:05:40
  Virginia Tech's in this interesting spot where we, we
• 2:05:43
  know who the top three receivers are, right?
• 2:05:46
  It's pretty set in stone. But we also thought that going
• 2:05:50
  into the year last year, right? Like on paper, we thought it was
• 2:05:53
  gonna be felt. And then Lane and Jennings and
• 2:05:55
  Jennings got hurt in the opener and then it was just like, all
• 2:05:58
  right, that's why Aiden Green played a lot.
• 2:06:00
  It is Aiden Green could be the 4th receiver guys.
• 2:06:07
  He could be the 4th receiver And yeah I I this is a a room that
• 2:06:14
  has a ton of depth and a ton of young guys that you know haven't
• 2:06:19
  played a lot that are really coming along behind the
• 2:06:22
  veterans. And I think if you're looking at
• 2:06:25
  any room going into the 2025 season where you're like all
• 2:06:28
  right that's we got the makings of the good offense.
• 2:06:30
  It's the receiver room because there's so many really good
• 2:06:33
  young players that are backing up the proven commodities that
• 2:06:36
  Virginia Tech has. I I think Aiden Green has a
• 2:06:39
  chance later on in his career to be a number one wide receiver in
• 2:06:42
  offense. He's a stud.
• 2:06:45
  So Aiden Green's my pick. Think he's real smooth, great
• 2:06:49
  route runner, extremely fast. He's he's got like a little
• 2:06:55
  veteran moxie to him. Like you saw that kind of last
• 2:06:58
  year as the year went on, Just kind of how he how he handled
• 2:07:01
  himself and and big time situations down the stretch of
• 2:07:04
  the season where he had to play a lot of meaningful snaps.
• 2:07:07
  I am really, really high on him if you haven't noticed.
• 2:07:10
  So yeah, Aiden Green's my pick. Basically Mike just took my
• 2:07:14
  question David and said no, I'm going to answer exactly what I
• 2:07:16
  actually think because go ahead David and you can say Aiden
• 2:07:21
  Green, any of y'all can see Aiden Green if you get.
• 2:07:23
  Somebody yeah, you know, I'll I'll be good for him.
• 2:07:26
  I I'm excited to see Xavion Turner.
• 2:07:29
  Bradshaw. Man, dude, we we saw it against
• 2:07:32
  NC State. He had that end around and was
• 2:07:36
  untouched. He has wicked speed, and if
• 2:07:41
  Virginia Tech can get him involved consistently.
• 2:07:45
  Yeah. Kind of be that maybe Kevin
• 2:07:49
  Concepcion like you mentioned, Curtis, I am so interested to
• 2:07:53
  see how that potentially changes this offense because we know the
• 2:08:01
  the receivers that are going to be out there consistently.
• 2:08:05
  We know who they're going to be and and Fontan lines have shown
• 2:08:09
  he's not afraid to rotate other receivers in.
• 2:08:12
  Every time Xavion Turner Bradshaw steps on the field.
• 2:08:16
  He has the opportunity to make something crazy happen and I
• 2:08:22
  think Aiden Green's a sure, you know he's he's got really sure
• 2:08:25
  hands it feels like he kind of like seems like he catches
• 2:08:29
  everything. We know about the three veterans
• 2:08:32
  obviously and that's not counting Steven Gosnell who's
• 2:08:37
  missed the spring due to injury. But I'm I'm very, very
• 2:08:43
  interested to watch Turner Bradshaw.
• 2:08:45
  I think he's got a lot of potential.
• 2:08:48
  I don't think anybody really has speed kind of like him.
• 2:08:53
  If he if he gets in an open field, he is super, super
• 2:08:56
  dangerous. Can Tyler Bowen get him
• 2:08:59
  consistent? Maybe, Maybe.
• 2:09:02
  Consistent's a strong word. Can Tyler Bowen get him some
• 2:09:05
  touches, like one to two touches a game, throw him a screen pass,
• 2:09:10
  throw him a pass across the middle and get him in space?
• 2:09:13
  Because if you do it, it's kind of like a, you know, I don't
• 2:09:19
  know if video game is the right word to describe it, but it's
• 2:09:21
  kind of like you get him in space and anything can happen.
• 2:09:24
  He's just kind of that unique dynamic.
• 2:09:27
  I think what you said is the key there, David.
• 2:09:29
  It's getting not necessary. I don't even think touches
• 2:09:32
  getting him on the field consistently finding spaces to
• 2:09:35
  get him on the field because again you know Brian, you've
• 2:09:40
  coached before tally having your son play and y'all both playing.
• 2:09:45
  There are certain times when certain guys gets on the field,
• 2:09:48
  those coordinators and those players, it's immediate like
• 2:09:50
  wait a second this is different. We we have to do things
• 2:09:53
  different. And then as soon as you take
• 2:09:55
  those defense out of their comfort level, that's when you
• 2:09:58
  pop them tally anybody you got on your mind in the wide
• 2:10:01
  receiver room, you'll mute. You'll mute like I am.
• 2:10:07
  A lot of zoom calls at work. Thank you.
• 2:10:10
  Sorry about that. Yeah, I was excited to see
• 2:10:13
  Chance Fitzgerald actually make a couple of plays.
• 2:10:17
  I mean, in the long, you know, long term scheme of things like
• 2:10:24
  like Mike said, Aiden Green is the guy you got to take a look
• 2:10:27
  at because, you know, I don't know what Steven Gosnell is
• 2:10:32
  going to be able to give us because I don't know what the
• 2:10:33
  extent of his injury is and when he'll come back and how he comes
• 2:10:36
  back off that injury. So potentially you're looking
• 2:10:39
  for a fourth receiver. And I mean seeing a picture of
• 2:10:43
  Aiden Green, I thought he was some skinny kid man and he's
• 2:10:47
  jacked, you know what I'm saying?
• 2:10:49
  Like he's put the work in and you know, even last year just
• 2:10:53
  him getting a lot of reps, being at that Purdue game, seeing him
• 2:10:57
  run routes, he's very smooth. You know, he was one-on-one a
• 2:11:01
  lot of times, but you know when you're the new guy, sometimes
• 2:11:04
  the quarterback doesn't look your way.
• 2:11:07
  The only thing that he could have done that would have, you
• 2:11:09
  know, definitely like Wild. Everybody was come down with
• 2:11:12
  that with that that catch where Calvin just kind of threw it up
• 2:11:17
  and he he missed timed his jump. But Aiden Green's definitely who
• 2:11:22
  you really want to look at. But I was excited to see Chance
• 2:11:25
  Fitzgerald make some plays just because last year with him
• 2:11:29
  coming in, when everybody looked at his body size, you thought
• 2:11:33
  like this kids ready to play. You know, between him and Aiden
• 2:11:36
  Green coming in, most people thought Fitzgerald would be the
• 2:11:40
  one that would get the significant snaps.
• 2:11:43
  And Aiden Green just, you know, he had a little bit more mature
• 2:11:46
  mindset and he went and did what he was supposed to do to to get
• 2:11:49
  on the field. So interesting to see, man,
• 2:11:51
  because you know, you got a lot of people leaving after this
• 2:11:55
  year. So you want to see what
• 2:11:58
  receivers are going to, you know, stick it out, number one,
• 2:12:00
  but also which ones are going to step up?
• 2:12:02
  Because next year, I mean, you're going to get real young,
• 2:12:07
  real quick and you're going to need a little bit of a veteran
• 2:12:10
  leadership in that room. Brian real quick before you jump
• 2:12:14
  on your buddy you talked to all weekend.
• 2:12:17
  There he is. One one other thing, Brian has
• 2:12:19
  not told everybody, but it's cool to get your picture with
• 2:12:23
  Kyron Drones. But Brian got his picture taken
• 2:12:26
  by Kyron Drones this weekend. Him and Kevin Love that job of
• 2:12:29
  y'all, man. There he is.
• 2:12:31
  Brian let's go real quick. Let's finish it up.
• 2:12:33
  Wide receiver room Who's your? I had my eyes on the young guys,
• 2:12:38
  so I was looking out there to see what Chan's wiggle was
• 2:12:40
  doing, what Brody Adams was doing OK and I liked what I saw.
• 2:12:44
  The the moment didn't seem too big for him.
• 2:12:48
  And both of them show different types of skill sets, you know,
• 2:12:50
  we saw Brody he yeah, just a still a route technician.
• 2:12:55
  He runs routes so well and we saw him get open a few times.
• 2:12:59
  I think, you know, when we look at the stat sheet, not a lot
• 2:13:02
  shows up on the stat sheet for those two guys.
• 2:13:04
  But watching the game and then going back and watching the tape
• 2:13:08
  later, like you can see that they're, they're ready.
• 2:13:14
  They're they may not be ready to to play a significant role this
• 2:13:17
  year but they're ready to go against you know the ones and
• 2:13:21
  the twos on this defense. They're they're ready to make
• 2:13:24
  those type of plays in in limited minutes and limited
• 2:13:28
  snaps in a game in 2024. I don't necessarily know if
• 2:13:32
  we'll we'll see them you know play more than four games
• 2:13:35
  whether they redshed or not. But I I think seeing that makes
• 2:13:39
  you feel good long term to kind of you know at the tally's point
• 2:13:43
  you know you see you see Aiden stepping up you want to see
• 2:13:45
  maybe a chance Fitzgerald kind of be a two or three in there.
• 2:13:48
  I think we're seeing those two young guys already showed that
• 2:13:51
  potential pretty early on all. Right.
• 2:13:55
  So there it is with that. And just real quick from each of
• 2:14:00
  y'all, and this is Mike and David because you know, we're
• 2:14:05
  going to be talking about this stuff throughout the offseason.
• 2:14:08
  This offense ranked around I think 58 last year, which was,
• 2:14:12
  Oh my God, from 123 to 58, was an ungodly jump for one season
• 2:14:17
  by anybody Standard, I don't care who you are, but how much
• 2:14:22
  improvement do y'all feel like you have to see to get, like you
• 2:14:26
  said it earlier, a ceiling of ten wins?
• 2:14:30
  How much? How big of a step?
• 2:14:34
  I I mean, to be honest with you, like, I think we saw like the
• 2:14:40
  the jump that you just mentioned from whatever it was in 22.
• 2:14:44
  Not good, terrible, right? To essentially like a top 65
• 2:14:49
  offense last year really came in the final eight games like that.
• 2:14:55
  That's where all of this happened, right?
• 2:14:59
  You get an entire offseason to, you know, continue to
• 2:15:05
  familiarize with the new scheme. You have your quarterback.
• 2:15:10
  You have Hallie Jennings back, entire receiving room, the
• 2:15:14
  running back depth. You do have your offensive line
• 2:15:17
  back. You know, we expressed our
• 2:15:19
  concerns about tackle, but like you do have your starting
• 2:15:21
  offensive line back. That's really important.
• 2:15:24
  All the depth on defense too, that it's going to help the
• 2:15:28
  offense, right? Take that step forward.
• 2:15:33
  The offense just needs to continue to do what what they
• 2:15:36
  did the second-half of last year and they need to take another
• 2:15:38
  incremental step forward. Whether that's like a small step
• 2:15:42
  or a leap, you know, we'll see, right?
• 2:15:45
  A lot of guys going to improve and a lot of returning starters
• 2:15:48
  and you know, they got valuable experience.
• 2:15:52
  But in order for this to be like a 10 or 11 win team, like the
• 2:15:56
  offense doesn't have to like all of a sudden go from like 55 or
• 2:16:00
  60 to like 20th, You know, they kind of just keep doing what
• 2:16:04
  they're doing. If the defense holds up their
• 2:16:05
  end of the bargain and improves the way we think they can,
• 2:16:08
  especially against the schedule, right against the schedule of
• 2:16:11
  Virginia Tech's going to play. So I think the offense is going
• 2:16:14
  to be better, just like I think the defense is going to be
• 2:16:16
  better. I think the offense is going to
• 2:16:17
  take another step forward and be really good because an extra 4
• 2:16:20
  good games is really going to do something to your statistics.
• 2:16:23
  You know, 'cause it was a it was a bad offense.
• 2:16:26
  The first four games last year was not very good.
• 2:16:28
  So yeah, another incremental step forward.
• 2:16:31
  I think that's all you really need.
• 2:16:32
  I don't think you need to do anything crazy to get yourself
• 2:16:34
  to ten wins. Dave Yeah, I agree with that.
• 2:16:39
  And I think the biggest thing is Virginia Tech has to win the
• 2:16:43
  battle in the trenches. I I know Brian's ears probably
• 2:16:47
  perk up when he hears me say that.
• 2:16:49
  I I think back to that game at Louisville last year where
• 2:16:53
  Virginia Tech just kind of got pushed around.
• 2:16:56
  If Virginia Tech is going to, you know, win 910 games, you
• 2:17:01
  have to win the battle in the trenches.
• 2:17:03
  You've got this. I don't know if generational is
• 2:17:07
  the right word. You've got this special
• 2:17:08
  quarterback in in Kyron Drones who?
• 2:17:12
  Who is has the opportunity to do some really special things.
• 2:17:18
  Bashel Tootin is is a very, very good running back.
• 2:17:22
  You've got some awesome wide receivers your your tight end
• 2:17:26
  room is really, really solid. But the offensive line is the
• 2:17:30
  big question for me. And I think if Virginia Tech can
• 2:17:33
  shore that up, you're looking at an offense that has the
• 2:17:36
  opportunity to be very, very, very good because what the
• 2:17:41
  Hokies did last year, even when the offensive line wasn't
• 2:17:47
  necessarily grading out super well.
• 2:17:49
  And by that, I mean, I just look at the PFF grades.
• 2:17:54
  I don't think the offense was necessarily the the offensive
• 2:17:57
  line was doing anything crazy, but I think this scheme allowed
• 2:18:03
  those guys to play a little freely.
• 2:18:06
  And if you can continue to develop that Kyron Drones enters
• 2:18:10
  in Year 2 facial tuning in year two, that wide receiver room
• 2:18:15
  year two, those guys are all playing together.
• 2:18:18
  Same thing goes for a lot of those offensive lineman if you
• 2:18:21
  can supplement it and those young offensive lineman can
• 2:18:24
  continue to grow like my only question is what what kind of
• 2:18:30
  offensive line is this going to be.
• 2:18:31
  I think that kind of determines how good the this offense can
• 2:18:35
  be. But all the pieces are there.
• 2:18:37
  Everywhere else like Kyron, Drones is one of the best
• 2:18:41
  quarterbacks in the ACC. He might not get you know pre
• 2:18:45
  seasonal ACC hype because the the Carolina Meteo you know or
• 2:18:50
  or or other factions of the press you know votes for
• 2:18:55
  somebody like Cam Ward of Miami who has a lot of accolades
• 2:19:00
  obviously. But but he's a a very very great
• 2:19:06
  talent. Bashel Tootin is very, very
• 2:19:09
  good. The the pieces are there.
• 2:19:12
  It's kind of just when you get into those battles in the
• 2:19:15
  trenches with really really good teams how does it play out and
• 2:19:20
  Virginia Tech kind of got thrown around last year against
• 2:19:23
  Louisville. When it gets into some of these
• 2:19:25
  big games this year, I I think about Miami and Clemson.
• 2:19:31
  That group is going to have to play to that level, and that
• 2:19:35
  will determine Virginia Tech's success.
• 2:19:40
  That is an absolute great point to end on David tonight because
• 2:19:44
  I I think we saw stuff sit here and say, yeah, if offensive line
• 2:19:49
  UPS the game, if Montavi's coming in and we saw a handful
• 2:19:52
  of plays in the spring game when he did that, that pull.
• 2:19:56
  I'm sure Brian's ears light up, but he cleared the way for that
• 2:19:59
  huge run. Him and the Moore brothers got
• 2:20:02
  downfield. If that levels up, I mean y'all
• 2:20:06
  know I can get and be super optimistic.
• 2:20:08
  I was optimistic last year and said eight wins.
• 2:20:10
  Y'all thought I was crazy. We'd started the right
• 2:20:12
  quarterback. I still insist we had been at
• 2:20:14
  eight wins because go ahead tally, because you got to lay it
• 2:20:17
  on them before we close it out tonight.
• 2:20:20
  Go ahead. They've been doing so good
• 2:20:22
  today, man. I ain't going to even get them.
• 2:20:23
  I'm just going to wait. I'm just going to wait.
• 2:20:26
  We're going to be back on here. We're going to discuss the
• 2:20:28
  season, We're going to be back on here in office.
• 2:20:30
  We're going to discuss the season and I'm going to be
• 2:20:33
  interested to see what everybody has to say about this year, win,
• 2:20:37
  loss, total. So I ain't going to even give it
• 2:20:40
  to my guy because they've been, they've been, they've been doing
• 2:20:42
  good tonight. I will not say I I I promise
• 2:20:45
  you. Unless you're some unforeseen
• 2:20:47
  development. I can tell you when we get
• 2:20:50
  together in August. I think I speak for David as
• 2:20:53
  well here. I don't think we'll be saying
• 2:20:55
  5:00 and 7:00. I no I I can I I I like and and
• 2:21:02
  I'm I'm somebody who's had the had the opportunity and
• 2:21:05
  privilege to go to a lot of practices this spring and and I
• 2:21:10
  feel I'm I I feel good about what Brent Pride and his staff
• 2:21:17
  are building. I think so much of so many of
• 2:21:20
  the pieces are there. When you return 86% of your
• 2:21:24
  production, you're going to be good.
• 2:21:27
  It's just, can you get those next pieces to supplement
• 2:21:31
  everything? Else.
• 2:21:32
  And I think on both sides of the ball, the Hokies have have added
• 2:21:37
  some of the right pieces. Sam Brumfield is the and
• 2:21:40
  Montavius Cunningham are two of the big ones that come to mind.
• 2:21:42
  Can those guys have impacts? I like.
• 2:21:46
  I like the trajectory. There is a good trajectory.
• 2:21:49
  I'm gonna bring 1 real quick thing before we wrap it up.
• 2:21:52
  I'm sure y'all seen this. I'm sure y'all saw it on Twitter
• 2:21:56
  and Jay Collins is to Vandy along with Tyler Nickel.
• 2:21:58
  I am sure David and Mike may have things on their Twitter
• 2:22:01
  feeds at some point tomorrow. I saw a tweet from a Vanderbilt
• 2:22:05
  fan that I've already bookmarked that said we're coming after all
• 2:22:08
  the Hokies basketball players and we're going to beat them in
• 2:22:12
  the fall as well. So go ahead and bookmark that
• 2:22:15
  tweet so we can talk a whole lot of shit come August 30.
• 2:22:18
  First, yeah, send it to me because I got to start finding
• 2:22:20
  some. I don't even think it's
• 2:22:21
  Vanderbilt football fan. They're bots.
• 2:22:28
  They're, they're bots. Just a bot.
• 2:22:30
  Dave and Mike, appreciate you guys jumping on with this
• 2:22:33
  tonight. It's been an awesome 2 1/2 hours
• 2:22:35
  less that's going to wrap up this episode of the Boundary
• 2:22:39
  Corner podcast brought to you by Main Street Pharmacy in Vexford
• 2:22:42
  with our guest David Cunningham from sideline.
• 2:22:45
  Mike McDaniel from Everything hokey Under the Sun.
• 2:22:48
  If you don't know, I'm Curtis Wilson.
• 2:22:52
  Jonathan Taylor. Ryan Siegler.
• 2:22:54
  Check out bellsrecording.com to listen to all of our episode.
• 2:22:57
  Check the merchandise shop, Follow us Twitter, Facebook,
• 2:23:01
  Instagram, subscribe to YouTube. Podcast is on all of your
• 2:23:04
  favorite sources. Check out buddy Jason Long
• 2:23:06
  website jasonlongmusic.com. He's playing his live events
• 2:23:11
  likely around the NRV this spring.
• 2:23:14
  Also links you to all his music on all available sources.
• 2:23:18
  We thank you guys for watching and listening all 648 of you
• 2:23:22
  tonight. And as always, let's go.
• 2:23:25
  OK, OK, the.