Latest / Boundary Corner Podcast / Alpha Dogs 2023

Transcript

Alpha Dogs 2023 · Boundary Corner Podcast

0:45
Welcome back to the boundary Corner podcast with my partner.
0:50
Brian, Sigler, I am Curtis Wilson and this episode is
0:55
presented by dr. Lourdes Jeremy counts at the
0:59
Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg, if you love this
1:02
podcast, the Hokies the town of Plattsburgh, make sure you are
1:06
supporting Main Street, Pharmacy.
1:08
Whenever you make your way to town, Whether you need
1:11
prescriptions a tube of toothpaste or just want to stop
1:14
to say, hello, let Jeremy, his team, take care of you, the
1:18
money you spend at Main Street. Pharmacy goes towards the things
1:21
you love and support. So next time, you're in
1:23
Blacksburg head down to 301, South Main Street, and tell them
1:26
Curtis and Brian sent you buddy. We are back after a three-week
1:31
iatest. I swear did not take me three
1:34
weeks to work off that hangover. You sure, I swear half.
1:40
Happy New Year. First of all, man.
1:43
Yeah. Eight, you know what, you do?
1:46
You go out with a bang every year, right?
1:49
Yeah, that goes know, definitely, that was definitely
1:51
a bank. You go out, we go out with a
1:53
bang every year with that episode.
1:55
It's a lot of fun, you get to unload a lot of grievances.
1:58
You get to say things. Normally we not say things, we
2:02
may not do but, you know, shout out.
2:05
Tally and Jeremy for coming on. It was a blast, if you have
2:10
Listen to that episode, please. Please do go back and listen to
2:18
that because it was an entertaining, two hours if you
2:22
watch to live, which a lot of people did, like, Levar joined
2:25
us in here that night. It was a lot of fun, man.
2:31
Now, one brief caveat before we get going tonight.
2:34
I buddy, Robbie company was going to join us, is not able to
2:39
Wifey a little under the weather.
2:40
Whether he's having to do some doctrinal her tonight.
2:46
Yeah. Yeah we got the word about two
2:49
hours ago. We were like hey you know, we're
2:52
flexible. It is what it is.
2:54
We got something that's coming down the pike, where Robbie's
2:57
going to be able to join us at another time.
2:59
We'll probably Loop in some of the afca stuff.
3:02
Yeah, that we were going to chat with him about tonight when he
3:05
comes on then. So looking forward to that.
3:08
But we still got a nice little episode playing for you guys
3:10
tonight. We always, we always do.
3:12
We always do Prime, I noticed you got a few new things.
3:15
In the background there, got the got rid of that clock, messy.
3:19
I got rid of the clock, got a little little VT emblem.
3:23
There's so changing it up a little bit.
3:26
Yeah, courtesy of the in-laws. So, shout-out in-laws for the
3:31
Christmas gift, shout-out in-laws, very nice, the litho
3:36
finally got hung, hey, what? The graph of Lane Stadium
3:40
finally got hung, where did you shift the other stuff behind
3:42
there. All right.
3:43
So, well, first of all, All the Virginia Tech map of Virginia is
3:49
now directly behind me. The guitar painting is now over
3:54
here, over next to the guitar, the gulf is over there.
4:02
You know, my wife's already been criticizing me out the way.
4:05
I put everything up and she's like, it doesn't look right.
4:08
Okay, I think what's gonna happen.
4:10
I'm gonna take a nap one afternoon.
4:12
And she's going to come in here, rearranged everything and I'm
4:14
probably won't care. Either way.
4:15
But yeah. But we do have a lot of, we have
4:19
some things to unload tonight. I'm kind of a big Topic at the
4:23
end of the evening. We're going to be discussing is
4:25
through new Alpha Dogs, for the hope you.
4:27
We have a lot of guys, a lot of 5th and 6th.
4:30
Year seniors leaving the program after this season, and there's
4:34
quite a few holes to fill. And, you know, we're going to
4:38
talk about that after the break. But Brian, let's go ahead and
4:42
hit it off of the bat here, and let's talk about the Her portal
4:45
because there's been some action with the Hokies over the past
4:50
roughly week here, and it's not all good news.
4:52
Let's start with the bad news because, you know, I'm going to
4:55
be real. It came down Thursday night,
5:00
Darian. Varner had decommitted from the
5:01
Hokies and committed to the Wisconsin.
5:06
Badgers, I'm still kind of pissed about this one.
5:10
I don't know about you. It sounds like the staff was a
5:13
little heated as well based on everything that was made public
5:17
on the timeline. And from the words of well, at
5:20
least a quote, from, from Varner himself.
5:23
And I mean, I get it, the situation, definitely, you know,
5:28
you commit. And we're almost three weeks
5:31
down the road silently lick. Yeah, literally about literally
5:35
about to enroll. And all of a sudden, you know,
5:40
some new information comes down, And the flip happens and you
5:44
know you hate to see it. The only thing I'll say is that
5:51
You know, we talked about this when when we were talking about
5:55
Varner's, you know, he was kind of a tweener.
5:57
You didn't mess, it did that impact, kind of what we were
6:01
looking at for him and did what we were looking at for him
6:04
impact, whether he was still kind of had his eyes out for
6:08
other opportunities. It's very true.
6:10
And you mentioned the tweener that you.
6:14
If you didn't say it on here, you said it to me in private
6:16
that he's going to play, he's going to play the five, but he's
6:20
going to Play some three, you said that, you know, he's gonna
6:23
play five but you the technique, you know, end over the tackle
6:28
and he's going to play some three.
6:30
And the funny thing is with that, why don't want to play on
6:33
the inside, he's going to, you know, Wisconsin with fickle and
6:36
then less physical changes his dynamic because always been a
6:40
three-man front guy, he's been at since he got the Cincinnati,
6:44
he's been that forever that 335 stack and he's guaranteed to
6:49
play in. In, but it's a spectively the
6:52
same in, you know, you know what, I don't want to get into
6:56
it because again, it more, irritates me because of the
7:01
timing. If the kid was not 100%
7:03
committed, especially the Signing Day stuff, where
7:06
essentially they had to release him because he had signed Right,
7:12
that's that's whatever. That's what we usually they do
7:14
not put, if someone does not sign they do not put their name,
7:17
they do not go through the ceremony with them just because
7:20
at Pomp and Circumstance and to my back's out or something
7:23
happens, not a good and it's nebulous with the portal because
7:28
the portal, nothing is in ink essentially, until you enroll.
7:33
Yeah. So the so the rules are
7:35
different. But I think how it was treated,
7:37
it was treated as, you know, that that official, Type
7:41
notation, obviously it ended up not being so efficient, but it's
7:44
but it's but it's screwed us even more.
7:45
Now, what screwed us even more? Because now we were either
7:50
slowing, our search or putting are putting our search on hold
7:55
for another defensive lineman because we thought we were set.
7:57
Now, we're kind of having to ramp that back up a little more
8:01
last minute. After, you know, some of the
8:04
Pickens have already been picked through.
8:06
So that's unfortunate side effect of losing Guy like
8:11
Verner, who we were both, you know, I think pretty high on.
8:14
Like I said, I think I thought he was at least going to be a
8:17
guy that production-wise could have came in and potentially
8:23
replace a lot of what garbage was doing.
8:25
And we toss that with paint with having pain back him, being able
8:28
to replace a lot of what what Griffin did it would be.
8:31
Almost like you really didn't have any drop-off potentially,
8:35
at least from what you had last year that isn't necessarily
8:37
moving us forward in the direction.
8:39
We want to go, but it's at least.
8:41
Just kind of stopping any sort of bleeding.
8:43
We have on that defensive end position well, but now we still
8:46
got a staunch it a little bit, right?
8:48
Yeah, we got a staunch. Oh, we gotta find someone and
8:51
likely you're having to find. You've gotta.
8:54
It's now going to have to be sped up to a point.
8:58
What do we now? We are.
8:59
Yeah, 110 days until it's over because it started the 6:30 we
9:04
get 10 days, 10 days transfer Portal, 1 is closed.
9:09
And you're trying to find my Assumption was born was the
9:13
older guy, a couple years of Eligibility left and probably
9:16
looking for a younger guys. Well you're still having to do
9:19
that search and you know it is what it is.
9:23
All right, one more piece. If folks didn't see it, I don't
9:26
think this comes as a shot, maybe it's a shock of what he
9:29
did but not him leaving, offensive interior, offensive,
9:34
linemen game, Millet Eck leaves the program and for the
9:38
Instagram page was he was signing With a I guess a
9:42
semi-pro team in Germany. I mean yeah it's good for him.
9:49
Yeah I'm good for him. He's up he's still able to play
9:52
football getting some scratch from it.
9:58
You know, had really made his way up the depth chart kind of
10:02
would float and double deep one step back depending on, you
10:07
know, every time we got a new crop or recruits in he'd start.
10:11
So at the we're kind of too deep and then be 3D by the end of the
10:14
year kind of did that a couple of years back to back.
10:17
And then we kind of I think he kind of saw the writing on the
10:21
wall. I'm not going to play any
10:22
meaningful snaps here. Let's go.
10:24
Do what I want to do. Get some time.
10:26
Get some get some Going forward and go back home.
10:30
Yeah. Besides go back home and get
10:32
some coin for it and you know, best of luck to him and whatever
10:36
he does. But you know that again that
10:38
helps that keeps getting that number towards you know what it
10:42
needs to be to get the full class in plus the additional
10:48
portal commits and there were two this week not one but two it
10:54
was kind of being said left and right that we were going to be
10:57
Getting to didn't know what to. I don't think I ever heard of
11:03
name being mentioned from anybody.
11:06
And if I missed it, I missed it. But the first one Brian.
11:08
Let's talk about this in on three transfer portal rankings.
11:15
He is the 24 ranked wide receiver.
11:18
He is from Middle Tennessee. Someone, we played back in 2021
11:23
and you know, five foot eight, hundred seventy five pound.
11:27
Jalen Lane, coolest. Part about Jalen is the way on
11:32
three ranked in, he was a guy who was just barely a 3-star
11:36
coming out. And now he's borderline for
11:39
start in the transfer portal with on three.
11:43
And, you know, you looked at some of his tape.
11:46
What are you seeing from him? Where's he going to play, you
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know, where can he play? Where do you think you're going
11:51
to play? I think it what we're trying to
11:53
do and just based on his skill set his frame he's going to slot
11:59
in at the slot. I think he's definitely going to
12:02
pair well with Felton with Jennings in the slot for this
12:09
team. Especially as we're moving
12:11
towards a little bit more of that Moorhead RPO going into
12:15
this season with drones pulling the trigger.
12:17
I'm really excited about this group of wideouts because we
12:21
went into the office. These I'm like alright so with
12:26
Caleb in the portal we're looking at Lofton with 22
12:29
receptions as are our big returning wideout this year and
12:33
now we've completely flipped that room over and it's going to
12:37
be big. And I think the question that it
12:39
also brings is that with these three guys coming in.
12:42
Are we about to see some wide receiver attrition?
12:45
Is that going to happen at the back end of window?
12:49
One? Or we going to wait and see how
12:51
they play through the Spring and the ones that are ready to jump
12:54
will do. So in that second window, what
12:57
are your thoughts man? Well, my thoughts on that is I
13:00
think there has to be louder attrition now and in this is
13:04
more for those guys than it is for the team.
13:07
If you want to sit there and try to go through spring, I mean it
13:11
easily could be guaranteed that you're not given a scholarship
13:14
after Springs done. You know, and you're going to
13:17
have the the Lesser time in the portal, but let's look at that
13:20
room real quick. You know, God, I feel like this
13:26
room is getting worse than the wide receiver room, 14, total
13:31
wideouts 14. It's a we debated this earlier.
13:38
So he's referring, like, comparing you to the running
13:41
back room under flinte. There's like nine.
13:44
The, I one point he was 11. Okay.
13:47
Okay wait, so that's not as bad I guess.
13:51
So at one point, he was eleven, now we got 14, wideouts,
13:56
incoming, incoming, incoming freshmen, with the for you guys.
13:59
Yeah, so I sit here and say, all right, I think me and you agreed
14:05
earlier, it's somewhere between two or four lie.
14:09
Who do you think the two or four, or who do?
14:11
I mean, you sit here tonight, if you say these, two guys are
14:14
going probably just because I'd say there's potential for Lofton
14:20
if he's ready to be, take another step for maybe a
14:24
different type of squad. I'd say there's potential for
14:31
Jalen Jones, potentially Christian Moss those those three
14:37
guys played a A big role somewhat of a big role at
14:41
various parts of the season for us last year.
14:45
Jones a little bit less. So it was more like a spot but
14:49
Lofton and Moss, obviously Moss early in the year and then then
14:52
Loft and kind of up and down as the year went along, are they
14:57
looking to to move on because we've got a fresh batch of
15:01
wideouts coming into of which have multiple years of
15:05
Eligibility remaining, it's true.
15:07
I don't know, I don't know, it depends on it.
15:09
They're if they're settled in their role if they want to fight
15:13
to get some more snaps out there, in the games, against
15:17
these guys who seem to be the until we see other tape, the
15:23
starting starting three slot x, and x and z.
15:28
Yeah. So I mean I think we got those
15:31
three are the guys unless somebody that was on the roster,
15:35
take some big steps from last year.
15:36
So do they take the spring? NG to see if they make those
15:40
steps and can push those guys or do.
15:41
They go ahead and try to find their future home.
15:44
Now while there are more slots open and that's why Eileen say
15:49
they need to go and get in there.
15:51
And if you ask me, I think if I think the only two guys who I
15:55
would want to stay in should stay or probably Lofton and
15:59
Gosnell and I say that because we've already seen with Boeing
16:03
and fontelle, is they will rotate.
16:05
It's not like these with Felton Jennings.
16:09
And now Lane coming in it's not like they're going to be coming
16:12
in and they're going to get all the snaps.
16:16
We saw him last year being willing to rotate people in but
16:20
where I get more concerned is, this is, this is just me
16:24
thinking right now. I think guys like Jalen Jones
16:28
dalen, right? Bradshaw I think Christian Moss
16:34
less because we kept seeing Christian Moss, we kept seeing,
16:37
we heard his name, mentioned a lot more than the other guys.
16:41
I mean, I think it's one of those things you pick up and
16:43
find a home, because if you sit here and at the end of spring,
16:48
guys, like Aiden, green chance, Fitzgerald, and Baylor come in
16:52
and absolutely fall. You're going to have about a 15
16:56
day window where she is now. If you put yourself in the
16:59
portal with the roughly 10 days left, you're guaranteed your
17:03
scholarship for the spring and you can start marketing
17:08
yourselves and figure out where you're going to be going next.
17:11
Whether it is G5. F CS D to giucose in places like
17:16
that. So I'll say, two things against
17:21
that. So number one, Bradshaw number
17:23
one on Bradshaw, I think Bradshaw's are starting slot
17:26
receiver in 2025. Okay, so I don't think he is a
17:33
guy that is going to transfer because I think whether Lofton
17:37
stays are not, we've we've seen what Lofton can do.
17:42
And I'm not sure if it, like I said, unless we see some
17:45
significant Improvement and fluidity within the system in
17:50
this spring, I think he's getting leapfrogged by a guy
17:54
like Bradshaw in depth chart by the end of next year.
17:57
Well, I mean, but see, I was more, I'm looking at 2023 and if
18:02
you tell me, can you depend on Bradshaw or any of those guys
18:05
for 2023 Lofton, didn't blow it up but at least you know, Lofton
18:09
can play at the Level and you do need some depth and that's
18:15
what's got to be figured out in the spring.
18:17
And we're going to be getting into that, in these upcoming
18:18
months, which is going to be a lot of fun.
18:20
Let's flip to the other commits, Brian, another really good
18:25
player, and that's going to be Derek canteen out of Georgia.
18:30
Southern another guy that if you take a look at, you know, when
18:35
you know, he came out underrated guy, you know, basically,
18:42
mid-70s, you know, so 2 Star, and now getting ready to, he is
18:48
one of the top 50 Corners in the portal and he commits, you know,
18:53
five-foot-ten 175 pounds and You know, you look at his stat line
19:03
that I didn't get to talk about Jane Lane stat lines, which you
19:06
want to go. See some go look at the Miami
19:08
staff line, he torched them a few times but his his true
19:12
freshman year back in covid year six pics.
19:17
That's insane. Yep.
19:20
Coming out as a freshman in obviously want some Honors that
19:23
year, but what's the tape talking about canteen?
19:27
And, you know, little bit of regression, you know, 2021
19:31
injured. Little bit of regression this
19:33
year but still playing at a good level down at Georgia Southern,
19:36
but what's the tape telling you? Yeah.
19:38
So look at, let's talk about a couple things.
19:40
So when we talk about the tape, I see him as a very prototypical
19:46
nickel Corner that has Flexibility to play outside.
19:49
Okay. So I think that would be the
19:51
type of role that he would have for us this year.
19:54
When we look at the production, Greg Robb, see, great numbers in
19:57
2020. When you look at kind of the
20:02
various metrics that are out there, not as many pics last
20:06
year, little bit better when he was called on to rush.
20:10
The passer got more opportunities to do that as
20:12
well. The only thing that would
20:14
concern me is that his tackle Lling, got significantly worse
20:20
in 2022 compared to 2020 when he really kind of was killing it.
20:25
Whether that I think the big thing is as to his success for
20:29
us is going to be whether that kind of regresses, at least to
20:31
the mean, for us this year, if it does.
20:34
And I think we're okay. I mean it wasn't egregious fall
20:37
off, but it was certainly something to that kind of turns
20:40
your eye, and if he can clean any of that up at all, even if
20:44
he doesn't get back to the levels, he was at in 2020.
20:47
I I think we'll be fine. All right.
20:52
Do you feel comfortable with the three-man rotation?
20:55
And when I say three-man rotation, do you feel
20:56
comfortable with Dorian? Strong coming off the field and
20:59
it being only him and mental Yeah, I think so.
21:04
You look at the combination of those three, kind of being the
21:07
three primary corners and then you'll probably work in cam
21:10
Johnson and one or two other guys in a, in some sort of
21:14
occasional rotation rate, but the big three are going to be
21:18
strong delaying, and then canteen in my mind, based on
21:22
what we're doing so far. Unless, let somebody takes a big
21:25
step in jumps one of those guys, this offseason, which I don't
21:29
foresee happening, but we'll see.
21:32
I feel pretty color. I feel more comfortable with
21:35
those three going into the season.
21:37
Then I felt last year with the three we had, and we had a
21:40
veteran group last year. We had guys that have played a
21:43
lot of snaps but we just didn't have what, what I would have
21:47
perceived at the time as being a true Alpha, starting the season.
21:51
Yeah. And I think we're starting to
21:53
see see those guys kind of emerge in that room a little
21:56
bit. So I think there's going to be
21:57
something to talk about there. Yeah.
22:00
And as far as it goes with just a stat line, From canteen.
22:03
I mean the guy still had 2:12 flexions as a corner.
22:08
So so he may not gotten the ball as many times he still had a
22:12
quite a few pass deflections. So we'll see.
22:16
Again, I think that room is now pretty solid.
22:19
What we again? You said it.
22:21
There may no be no one from the current roster that can take
22:24
that big step. But I just think we want to see
22:26
good gains from guys like cam Johnson to be able to supplement
22:32
the Three starters in that case. All right, let's take our mind
22:36
off football unfortunately for a few minutes guys, cover your
22:42
eyes guys, let's talk a little bit about who's Brian, you know,
22:46
Hokies currently on a four-game losing streak that goes back to
22:50
the bcam that unfortunately kicked off the state of the
22:55
program addresses are Jeremy decided to black out because of
22:58
that game. Yeah, exactly.
23:01
That's the only reason, nothing. Else.
23:03
But you know, we're talking pressure, we're talking about
23:06
losses now to Wake Forest by two points to Clemson by three
23:11
points and the loss. The Comeback comes up short,
23:14
versions NC State by four points and this team, which was rolling
23:19
going into December, is now absolutely reeling and tough
23:26
trip tomorrow night to the Carrier Dome.
23:30
But you know, No, just those games I mean I didn't get to see
23:34
any of the State game. I was I was out with my
23:38
wonderful wife, enjoying this Unbelievable Burger at Red Sox
23:44
here in Richmond. That was really damn good when
23:47
he went and as we leave, I look at the phone and you and Robbie
23:52
and Jason and blow me up about a game like with the but yeah that
23:58
one wasn't it wasn't pretty to watch it really wasn't.
24:01
It wasn't pretty to watch. And we've I mean, we've kind of
24:04
seen that I think, you know, we're struggling to put
24:10
consistent offense out there which is not something I thought
24:13
we'd be talking about. We knew that the defense is
24:16
probably going to take a hit this year.
24:17
We thought that the offense was going to be good enough to
24:19
compensate, but we're a team right now that needs three-point
24:26
shooting to win and we're not hitting threes at the clip we
24:30
need to You know, when we look at the percentage were shooting
24:37
threes, it's just it's much poorer than last year.
24:40
On a team that in theory should be hitting more because there
24:44
are more Shooters on the floor. There are significantly better
24:48
Shooters on the floor. I mean, you know, we're under
24:52
35% now from three and if you and if I, if let's go back, what
24:57
I say about five weeks ago, Like we can't live like that we were
25:02
going to lose games because of that.
25:05
And here in beholds, you know, we're losing games and we showed
25:09
earlier in the year that we could grind out wins even when
25:13
we weren't hitting, but you take a guy that plays defense, like
25:16
Couture off the floor. Yep.
25:18
And that's the difference between grinding out, a narrow
25:21
win, and the losing streak. There were all right now.
25:25
And again. So you know, you look at it and
25:27
say, okay, well, some of this is fixable some of this is fix you,
25:30
you Couture back, you get rice back who is a has a hair-trigger
25:34
at the three-point line. We'll see if he can be a boost
25:37
to this team but I think the big thing that getting Couture and
25:41
getting rice back that's going to do, it's going to give you
25:44
some more lineup flexibility to where if one or two guys are
25:49
cold. There's there's a little more
25:51
flexibility to rotate guys. In that can maybe kind of give
25:54
the team a spark when the offense just quite isn't quite
25:57
clicking. Like, it needs to because right
26:00
now with Without rice and without Couture, there's really
26:02
no one to kind of bring in from an offensive standpoint already.
26:06
That start mean no disrespect to you know, kid or Collins but the
26:11
offensive standpoint they're good bodies on defense catchy
26:15
few points you out there that are potiki I've done that all
26:17
year but you know let's talk about Rodney and one of his
26:21
better games you know this last outing but it was still you
26:25
know, not until it's not going to be easy.
26:29
You're not gonna get that from him.
26:30
Every night exactly. I mean again we've been talking
26:34
about them coming off the bench and what it's been even given
26:36
about 1415. Somebody will get close to 10
26:39
the others or you know, drop in a couple points here there.
26:43
But let's go back to Rodney rice real quick because Monday press
26:46
conference. Might young says he has been
26:48
given the okay to play Wednesday, which we found out,
26:53
you know, in the press conference after the loss.
26:56
Right? Yep.
26:57
You're not being cleared, which I Think, you know, I understand
27:03
why you don't say that leading up because you know why let
27:10
teams prepare for your different way if you're not doing that.
27:14
But and he had to know that this announcement that he is cleared
27:18
was coming soon when he divulge the information that he hasn't
27:22
been cleared. Yeah so he had to know that he
27:25
was maybe at most one game away from getting that clearance.
27:30
And I get, you know, Mike young Mind Games.
27:33
I get that. But you know, at the same time I
27:38
think from a fan perspective, it was kind of frustrating to watch
27:41
a guy, warm-up dress and then sit warm up dressed like rinse
27:48
and repeat for for you know what?
27:51
Almost a month now. Gets a little tedious I think
27:57
I'm going crazy, let me crazy. Yeah and then you know, it
28:01
mattered I think a little bit less before the Couture injury,
28:04
but I think everyone was hoping for a lift when we found out
28:09
Couture is going to be out for at least a handful of games and,
28:12
you know, seeing a guy that, you know, was dressing and warming
28:16
up and then, you know, playing was a scratchy, it was a little
28:20
bit frustrating and then when the loss is start coming along
28:23
with that, that I think everybody was getting a little
28:26
little frustrated with the situation.
28:28
So now it's nice to kind of be able to move past that element
28:31
of it and we can focus on. Alright, so what could Rodney
28:34
rights do for us? And we will get to find out that
28:37
pretty soon. We will get to find out on
28:41
again, tomorrow night at seven o'clock on the SEC network.
28:46
So, it's actually on the ACC Network.
28:48
Actually on the ACC network, not are restless for, Actually go
28:55
Frank on that just because it's so annoying.
28:58
All right, let's flip real quick.
29:00
Just talk about the ladies real quick which they're going
29:02
through some ups and downs after that.
29:03
Notre Dame game, you know, they get upset at Clemson.
29:06
They beat ranked UNC handle. UVA without kitley UVA.
29:10
Who'd only had one loss up to that point, then they get Kelly
29:13
back and they go down and lose to Miami.
29:17
And you know, Louisville coming up Thursday, they're still
29:21
ranked probably still safely in the tournament.
29:24
The yeah, they've been playing but God what is it about January
29:28
and Hokies basketball, where it's just like it's a way or
29:32
it's a freaking roller coaster of Yeah, I mean and you know
29:38
these are these are the Clemson, especially was a game that they
29:41
should have taken care of. Let me, let me put this thanks
29:44
Clark. Oh no, why is it say ACC Network
29:49
on the Hokies Sports Page? Could they put, could they make
29:52
that change? Just so I can be, I think I
29:55
think it's all the blackout rules and stuff like technically
29:59
if you're certain places they carry on the ACC network but
30:04
well no, no, no. It says it right here.
30:05
It's in Make it a smaller smaller print, appreciate it,
30:09
Clark for that. But, you know, can the ladies
30:12
get back on track of what they were doing earlier this season
30:15
over the next few weeks? You know, they Louisville, and
30:18
then you're looking at Pitt, you're looking at Wake Forest,
30:22
dude, Virginia. Again, it's not like until they
30:25
get to Wake Forest, excuse me until you to stay.
30:27
It's not like they're going through a gauntlet of big teams.
30:33
Yeah, and it's going to be interesting to see how they kind
30:37
of move forward here. I think that just talent-wise
30:41
they're going to circle the wagons here.
30:44
Should But it's been a frustrating start to January so
30:50
far ten days in well, frustrated.
30:53
And more is, you know, we look at wrestling which was, you
30:57
know, get some coverage again. I thought that would be on the
31:01
SEC network on Friday night versus Cornell.
31:04
It's essentially a top-10 wrestling match up with, you
31:07
know, two programs at send players to, you know, the
31:11
Nationals instead that's a thirty four Thirty and this is
31:16
on ACC extra us where whoever does the programming for a like,
31:21
hire me, give me seven figures. I can get you figured out real
31:25
quick because they're a bunch of idiots.
31:27
Yeah, I'm, I'll do it for six. You'll do it for 600 country.
31:32
I love your country. I just hired me as a consultant
31:35
but, you know, they go out west and have a couple good matches
31:40
at Stanford, who has a couple good couple good guys looking
31:45
but they beat them. They handle another smaller
31:47
school out there, then they come back for the Cornell and and I
31:51
know there's some younger guys on it.
31:53
I couldn't tell you everything about rustling, I'd shout out my
31:55
fraternity Brother. David Fuqua, who pays probably
31:57
more attention to it and could tell more, maybe.
32:00
We'll have him on one day but it was a rough loss, but they
32:03
backed it up. Couple days later by wiping the
32:06
floor with American and Mason and I just don't know enough
32:09
about wrestling. Honestly.
32:12
I know someone's that was a jjz. Who was it?
32:16
That said, they were at the match and one of the matches.
32:19
It seemed our guy was wiping the floor with the other guy won
32:22
like, three two. Yeah, I think that those JJ.
32:26
Okay. I wasn't able to watch so
32:30
unfortunate. I don't have a lot of insight on
32:32
to kind of what was going down. I saw Sam with the big that had
32:37
a big one W there so that was that was great for him, but
32:42
definitely uneven for, you know, From top to bottom.
32:47
So hopefully I mean that we can see them move on from that
32:50
they've already done a good job with that so far.
32:51
So I think they'll keep the train to move in here.
32:55
I mean still ranked still going to send some guys to Nationals.
32:58
You got to at the end of the month which will be on the SEC
33:01
network and that's NC State pit two of the other powers in
33:06
wrestling. Again, that will be on acc
33:09
Network. I don't know how that one did,
33:11
but this one didn't. But you know what do I know?
33:13
All right, just a couple more notes before we hit the The
33:16
break here. Brian.
33:18
I don't know if you read this or you know about the man, but
33:22
Charlie breaker was announced that he is going to be
33:25
succeeding. Mark Emirate as the NCAA
33:29
president thoughts? No.
33:37
Because it's the NCAA and we'll see if a leadership change,
33:43
knock some sense into that organization, but I do See it
33:46
happening. This is still an organization
33:50
that is nothing but a reactionary money machine and
33:56
has zero interest in actually governing the sport of football,
34:00
specifically, they're pretty awful across the board, but in
34:06
terms of the the moneymakers for them, they are awful at
34:10
governing. The sport and I foresee a time
34:14
when they're going to be made obsolete.
34:15
Eat. All right.
34:16
Well, I think the move for Baker's just Baker is a good
34:19
politician and it is a good policy maker.
34:23
I mean, I say he's a good politician.
34:25
He's a republican that wanted in Massachusetts, the governorship
34:29
not once but twice, which is pretty damn impressive in my
34:32
opinion. But the question is, has there
34:36
been so much damage done by Emirates regime?
34:39
Even if you take a strong person to come in there and maybe
34:42
straighten things out, like they're not going to be able to
34:44
do it. Because they're so far behind, I
34:49
would hope not. I would hope there is a chance
34:51
and someone new comes in and can straighten it out.
34:54
But I much like you, I'm holding my breath until I actually see
34:58
something done. You know, just you just can't
35:03
foresee it. I need to see a full flip of a
35:06
lot of things before I get any anywhere on board with what
35:11
they're trying to do. All right?
35:13
There's Prime statement. All right.
35:15
One last piece Prine. Let's see your feelings on this.
35:19
There has been a committee out there.
35:23
The NCAA transformation committee, that is recommending
35:27
that March Madness, expand, the 90 teams Boo.
35:32
No, God. Who might mean?
35:38
It's just like are you bleeping kidding me?
35:41
Like 64 was perfect. And then you put 6868, says,
35:47
they say it's fine. I've got, I've got no big qualms
35:52
with it. I think we've seen a couple kind
35:54
of come out of that those early, early rounds, and make a little
35:59
noise. So, I mean, there's, there's
36:00
some legitimacy legitimacy, put behind it at this point, but you
36:05
can thirty two more teams on. Yeah, that's the thing.
36:07
It's like, if you said, ok, well, we go from 68 to 72, I'll
36:14
have a discussion about But I mean adding 30.
36:19
No, no. Well, this is the logistical
36:22
point, right? Like, when are you gonna do
36:24
this, like a you to literally going to like announce teams?
36:26
Hey, you're in the play in tournament.
36:29
You're going to go here on Monday and then you're going to
36:32
play a game every day this week. I think it's done.
36:36
I think the tournament is what it is, but clearly you can tell
36:40
us an organization trying to make more money while ruining
36:44
one. The more perfect products out
36:46
there. So if it goes to 90, it's just,
36:51
it's like, you gotta stop it somewhere.
36:54
You gotta stop in somewhere and you're at this, really good.
36:59
Number that keeps so many people not working on Thursday and
37:04
Friday. The first weekend in March stop,
37:09
stop, don't do it, don't do it. All right.
37:12
Y'all before guys, we get into some more top.
37:15
Alex tonight, we are going to take a quick pause from our
37:18
digital partners because we take a quick break.
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forward slash free Dash website, Dash report.
37:40
Now back to the episode All right, Brian.
37:43
So first note, let's hit this real quick because this was
37:46
awesome. Awesome, awesome to see
37:48
released. Yesterday, Corey Moore is
37:54
officially a College Football Hall of Famer.
37:58
It's about damn time. We had talked about this when he
38:03
was on the ballot. Was it August when they kind of
38:06
release the final ballot? And it was like, we went over
38:08
his accolades like you cannot keep him out.
38:12
What he did in 98 and 99 two-time Big East Player of the
38:15
Year, Lombardi Lombardi Award winner.
38:18
Nagurski also, what has been surfacing and I know Clark, put
38:23
it out there. Maybe as much as you love
38:27
marshawn's, I put Cory's one as far as best interviews with the
38:32
Press of all. I mean, yes, 1A and 1B, and if
38:35
you put them in either order, I'll sign off on it.
38:40
All-time great like big like metaphorical and literal middle
38:46
finger to the media as we're going to accept rain, really
38:50
accept, Randy, Randy. We're getting at The Love Ranch.
38:55
I mean the man who coined the Chariot on phrasing 99 versus
38:57
Clemson that game Crazy Eyes just a just a barbarian on the
39:03
field literally try. And I love how he was like
39:06
already in intense mode for That interview.
39:10
Like he had the same eyes as he as he did when he when he when
39:14
he when he talked to said, Welcome to the Terrordome baby.
39:17
Same I say Mas, but it's it's great that he gets there and,
39:23
you know, another hokey in the hall Hall of Fame, which is
39:26
awesome. I'm Brian.
39:28
Let's flip and let's talk a little bit about the games over
39:32
the last few weeks that we did not talk about.
39:36
Was that not the best? Semifinals for a New Year's Eve
39:42
man, having drinks, eat some good food.
39:48
I mean you couldn't ask for more of those two games.
39:51
Yeah I mean they gave us everything we could have wanted
39:54
there were scoring. There was good.
39:55
Good plays on defense. It was it was the exact balance
40:01
between scoring and defense. I think it in terms of creating
40:07
a good college football game, everything kind of came down to
40:10
the end and bowed. I mean, that's exactly what you
40:13
want. It is man, you know let's talk
40:15
about the last game first. Yeah.
40:18
State Georgia game. I mean, It showed you that you
40:24
know, it wasn't a lead slug Fest.
40:26
Yeah, I'll say this. I think you're more of an
40:29
Harrison jr. Does not get knocked out of that
40:31
game. I don't think they stop them.
40:35
I think that last field goal to touchdown and I think they drive
40:38
it again, that's my opinion that um yeah.
40:42
And I mean you had Kirby Smart with the most important time out
40:45
in Georgia. Football history on the fake
40:47
punt. Oh my God.
40:49
And I said, I think they never I showed it.
40:53
I think they gave it to him. I don't think he got, therefore,
40:56
they sent that ball because that whistle went off.
41:00
Almost simultaneously. It was very close.
41:04
I mean, very close. Super close.
41:06
And again, that's a pretty big change, but, you know, they hang
41:09
on to win. And we'll talk about what
41:11
happened last night in a minute, but the first game, This is
41:15
where that whole getting prepared.
41:18
Can always help a team with lesser talent because TCU is
41:22
lesser talented, the Michigan up and down the roster.
41:25
But you saw they had that perfect game plan especially
41:29
defensively, they had JJ's out, route pegged like in basically
41:38
the defensive coordinator basically said you see that run,
41:41
just go run to run through it. Because they didn't get one.
41:45
They got to on the exact same route and Michigan was too slow,
41:50
to kind of pivot off of that or make or cause some counters off
41:53
of that to kind of keep them on edge.
41:56
They were too slow to do it and that end up, bite him in the
42:00
ass. I mean, you know, they, they
42:02
kind of put things together late, but not laying lot of the
42:07
damage has already been done and TC.
42:09
You did a good job of capitalizing on every mistake.
42:11
Michigan made every mistake. Take what multiple Toronto the
42:16
to pick sixes the fumble at the goal line.
42:20
Michigan, finally get Carmen aback them into orders, 11 years
42:24
later. They deserved it.
42:27
It would have been in New Orleans and even sweeter just,
42:30
you know. But you know you mentioned is we
42:34
were talking through this, you know, text changes stuff was
42:37
basically TCU played the A-Plus game.
42:40
They played their perfect game offensively and defensively.
42:44
And even offensively with some turnovers.
42:46
And as you can play the B game in, in that case, even with that
42:50
Talent disparity, taking advantage, playing your games.
42:54
They won. Now, let's flip the last night.
43:00
That was not an. That was an A-Plus game by
43:03
Georgia. Yeah.
43:06
Georgia had the perfect game plan and they were Hydra and
43:09
I'll tell I'll say this too. There is no one that is selling
43:15
the the under hype better than Kirby.
43:18
Smart. Oh my God, because how many of
43:22
those players say they thought we were going to be a 7 or 7 win
43:25
team? This year, 8 Wednesday, which
43:26
has no one I said that. But but, I mean, they had him,
43:32
he had been but believing that they had been written off as any
43:35
sort of contender for the college football playoff and it,
43:41
I mean, it showed they, they played especially last night
43:46
like it was the last game they never play.
43:48
They did they play K plus and then TCU borderline brought an F
43:53
game. There was no creativity, they
43:56
didn't pivot off anything. They look, you said it earlier.
44:02
The book shell-shocked. Yeah, you know game.
44:06
They look shook like right out the gate.
44:09
They did look like they they almost got punched in the mouth.
44:13
They knew what they had come to the table with wasn't going to
44:16
work and they just kind of look lost and I thought there was
44:22
going to be a little something when they got, they have the
44:25
busted coverage, got them the big play, got down there, got
44:30
the touchdown, I was like all right we got maybe a game here
44:33
and then Georgia, right down the field.
44:36
Yeah, another touchdown. And then, you know, what's it
44:40
from there? Twenty Eight straight points
44:44
before half 20 a straight after that after that touchdown.
44:50
And you can, you can tell they were pressing.
44:51
I mean, you know, you went from from 31 to 38 because you're
44:55
pressing so hard to score because, you know, you got to
44:58
get something so terrible that I have to feel to feel like any
45:02
sort of momentum and then you kind of it goes the other way
45:05
and they get the other touchdown to close out the half.
45:08
So it was just a comedy of errors, and a comedy of just
45:14
really not looking like a team that knew what to do once, once
45:20
their game plan was kind of in the trash.
45:22
Yeah. And you know, the other pieces,
45:23
this is where you talk about Talent.
45:26
This is, this is the game. You saw that the Talon disparity
45:29
was on display, but it was also the the time to prepare This was
45:36
a normal game week. There were less is more less
45:39
important, they finished playing Saturday night, they probably
45:43
flew back home Sunday, probably rested Sunday started normal
45:47
prep on Monday and with something like that when you
45:50
have that big Italian disparity, you can't find the little
45:54
niches. You can't find, you know, let's
45:57
let's fake something. Let's do this, let's do this.
45:59
They went in there and like they essentially tried to stand up
46:04
and fight. Georgia versus As you know,
46:05
let's get tricky like, unload the bag, you can't do that, you
46:10
can't do that with the talent, disparity, it sucked even more,
46:13
that their best running back, you know, gets hurt in Michigan.
46:17
The Michigan game at the Fiesta Bowl, he's out, but I think what
46:22
we saw between views games, the USC, Tulane game and other games
46:28
is it's going to be the reason 12 works.
46:32
Right. Yeah, it's going to be the
46:33
reason 12 works because your Elite teams are going to be
46:36
waiting up here. And there could be no non-elite
46:40
conference Champion team but with them having three to four
46:43
weeks to prepare for whomever, right?
46:47
So like Kansas state will Kansas State's going to have to play a
46:50
team they can destroy them. Well, if they have a month to
46:53
prepare to get healed and then to open up their bag of tricks,
46:56
they might pull it. I know my McDaniel, our buddy
46:59
over at SI and Buddy. The most many times poke
47:03
himself. Do you see a change in, who's
47:07
winning the national title the next 10 years now but I think
47:11
this is another short-term. Not another storm where you're
47:14
going to see less, there's big coaching changes at the places
47:17
that we see right now the the those that are rolling are going
47:21
to keep rolling 100% 100%. But again, it's that over the
47:27
time frame but also think you're going to have some Darrell has
47:32
stories. And you know, occasionally
47:35
Cinderella can win occasionally and I think I think we're going
47:39
to see a mostly I said, I said, you know, you might have a pre
47:44
Crown Champion, get knocked off in the first or second round or
47:48
something like that. And then that results in, you
47:54
know, a team that shouldn't be there at least being there.
47:57
Even if they don't win at all. They'll have these they'll be
47:59
there again, it's hope. I keep saying that I keep saying
48:04
it it's this is a sport built on hope that and if you you know
48:10
for years there was no hope. Then there was a glimmer of hope
48:13
then there's a little more of a glimmer of that was a big
48:15
glimmer of hope for everybody out there that you know aren't
48:19
your top five to seven teams. All right Brian something we
48:24
talked about earlier and kind of what we're looking at this
48:26
episode who are going to be the new Alpha Dogs for the Hokies.
48:32
You know, we look around in there, some old Alphas out of
48:35
the door. You know we look at get Silas
48:39
danji, who's Joe Rudolph told us on here, back in October, he had
48:44
really become the leader of that line that Caleb Smith who was
48:49
leading the wide receiver room. This year who has went to Notre
48:51
Dame got a guy like Taiwan Garbutt who was maybe not the
48:57
most vocal leader on the defensive line.
49:01
But he definitely Was on the field, the leader because he had
49:05
some of the best plays led, by example, took care of business.
49:09
Yeah. Left it all out there for sure.
49:11
And a couple more guys and these are obvious ones in dachshund
49:15
Shamar, right? Yep.
49:18
And those are guys a lot of those names that we've talked
49:21
about, you know, for years. I mean, Dax is really kind of
49:24
been A leader in the in his room almost since he first arrived on
49:31
campus, right? And like, he's been at least one
49:35
of the alphas in that room if not the guy.
49:40
So it's kind of its we haven't really had at least for a
49:44
linebacker respective. This big of a vacuum at the
49:48
position in a long time. Mom and similar with that which
49:53
Amari there, I think there hasn't really been n.
49:57
A guy in about two or three years that has kind of been on
49:59
that same level. So we're going to see some
50:02
interesting guys, stepping into new roles, a lot more leadership
50:06
from guys that we haven't seen leadership from.
50:09
And we're kind of assess that and see who we think those guys
50:12
might be this year who's going to step up and kind of take on
50:15
those roles as we roll into 2023.
50:18
Absolutely. So let's start and let's start
50:20
it. Obviously this is an offensive
50:22
lineman podcast. We're going to start right there
50:24
and Brian, you know? Who is the leader because it's
50:29
not like anybody was standing out completely on the offensive
50:32
line this year. So, you know, I'm going to I'm
50:34
going to kind of pivot and let you take this.
50:36
Because what are you seeing, who do you think could be the leader
50:40
of this offensive line going into 2023?
50:45
I'm thinking just right off the bat in terms of guy that's
50:48
that's done. It, Donnie pretty well.
50:50
Pretty decent level so far Caden more.
50:52
I think it's going to step into that role for the Hokies in
50:55
2023. Two-year starter now.
51:00
He's done some really good things.
51:01
I think took some steps from a leadership perspective, a little
51:05
bit this year, you will see if in an expanded capacity if that
51:10
is something that he kind of grows into heading into 2023 but
51:15
I feel like he is the guy in terms of ability and production.
51:20
He's got the Bona fides to step into that role, whether he can
51:25
handle that from a vocal standpoint.
51:27
I'm not sure about. But I think That's something
51:30
that we'll find out because I feel like he's going to be the
51:33
guy to kind of take over that for the offense of line, as we
51:36
had into 2023, spring practice. All right.
51:40
Let me ask this, you know, we saw him on the line.
51:44
He's a grinder, you know, not the most athletically, gifted
51:48
guy, but there's been sort of the buzz that Jesse handsome may
51:52
go to Center. I mean, I think, you know, that
51:55
should happen because of how brayla more played at left guard
51:58
last year but If he gets to the center position, you know, with
52:02
basically, working his way, into a starting slot, starting every
52:06
game this year at left guard, if you play center, could he be the
52:10
person that takes the reins? Well number one, is going to
52:15
depend on if that's the movie makes.
52:16
If he wins that job, I think if we don't bring anybody else in,
52:21
he's going to win that job. If he moves to Center centers a
52:25
little bit, less demanding from a physical standpoint which was
52:28
always been probably his You straight.
52:33
I don't know if he can handle some of the mental side of it,
52:36
but if he picks that up, well enough, I think that, you know,
52:40
a lot of times you do look to your Center is kind of being a
52:43
leader. He's the guy making the calls,
52:46
he's the guy kind of setting things up for the offense as a
52:50
whole. You want your Center to at least
52:53
be somebody when they bark you listen because that's going to
52:56
have to be what happens a lot. Not, whether that guy is the
53:02
true Alpha in the room or not can be, you know, debatable.
53:06
But you always want your Center to be a guy that has some some
53:10
level of vocal leadership in the room.
53:13
All right. Good deal.
53:14
And, and the way things are heading and we got 10 days, so
53:16
maybe it changes. If they go out and they find a
53:23
portal lineman that has some accolades, it has some cash a
53:29
from your experience. Can someone walk in off the
53:32
street that had not been in that room and take a leadership role?
53:38
If we're talking about by the time, fall rolls around, maybe
53:42
if we're talking about between now and spring.
53:45
Definitely not. Okay?
53:47
But if we want to have Guy that can be some sort of leader that
53:52
he definitely needs to be on campus in the next 10 days.
53:57
That's not going to be a second window thing.
54:02
If you're looking for the leadership aspect, then they
54:04
need to be on campus in the spring, got it.
54:12
So obviously let's let's take a, you know, let's hold tight and
54:15
see what happens, the next 10 days, but I'm going to go back.
54:18
I think I'm with you. I think Caden wash the guy and I
54:21
think he's got to take that role.
54:23
It was more because as you are watching the tape last year,
54:26
right? Brian.
54:27
He did. He have his mistakes?
54:29
Yes. But was he probably the most
54:30
consistent guy on the line in your opinion.
54:34
I'd say he was the most balanced in terms of being successful in
54:37
the Run game and the passing game in terms of past Pro and
54:41
and run blocking. He was the most consistent
54:45
weekend week out, he didn't necessarily have those Elite
54:50
games but he also didn't buy them out like some of the other
54:54
players did and even some of the players leadership role had a
54:56
game here where they would say they would have bottomed out.
54:58
So I would go with with Cade more as being kind of that
55:02
steady Eddie and like I said with two years of experience
55:08
starting, he's going to be kind of the Elder Statesman in terms
55:11
of career snaps heading into the season as well.
55:15
Got it. Alright so next room let's look
55:19
at wide receivers and this is one we agreed on real quick
55:23
because of a lot of different variables and that's Ali
55:26
Jennings. Even though he is a portal guy,
55:31
a he's done it right. Yep.
55:33
His two years that ODU he has been putting up numbers.
55:36
He puts up numbers on everybody, whether it's a G5 and that's the
55:40
s or the team. He's now playing for because he
55:43
lit us up last Here for over 100 yards and as we B with his
55:48
quarterback having no time, and an inability to get the ball,
55:51
even drive the ball downfield, most of the time.
55:53
So yeah, at all, but the bigger thing as me, and Brian were
55:59
going through this and going through this exercise, has its
56:02
that relationship with fontelle Minds because I think from the
56:06
guy that recruited him at several places, got him to ODU,
56:12
you know, coach them at ODU. He knows what fontelle wants and
56:18
Brian. Sometimes that can be the
56:20
biggest leader, if it's the guy who is preaching, the coach's
56:24
message the best and has the respect of everybody, that's an
56:28
easy transition. Yeah, and Jennings is definitely
56:32
that guy. It's going to be a pretty easy
56:35
transition to the locker room. He's a Virginia guy.
56:39
So I think that's easily going to resonate with a lot of the
56:41
guys in the locker room as well. And again he's a guy that is has
56:48
the Bona fides to back up what he's when he what he's saying on
56:54
the field so when he barks I think those guys are listen yeah
56:58
now the thing is with this though Ali is just a one-year
57:02
guy so with bringing the guys in like Lane and felt that in some
57:06
of the younger bucks. Take a look at you know we're
57:11
going to be kind of in the same spot again last year.
57:15
But the better part about this is you kind of get to see who
57:19
second-in-command watch. I mean, it's one of those weird
57:23
things when you hear who Ali's living with, who's around them,
57:27
a lot, when we know, we'll see it when we see David Cunningham
57:31
and some of the other guys videos, during some of the
57:34
practices, who is his Lieutenant.
57:37
Yep. Because whoever the lieutenant
57:39
is whoever's with him a lot. That's probably going to be your
57:42
dog next year. It was like, when Isaiah of Don
57:45
we knew can was going to be yep. That guy, he was just
57:48
Lieutenant. They were friends.
57:50
You could tell they, I think they live together.
57:53
Even so, you know, it's one of those things where it all made
57:58
sense. And I think that's kind of what
57:59
the book for going in the future.
58:02
All right. Defensive line because this is
58:07
where me and you had a long conversation, feel like we
58:10
talked about 25 minutes on it because I said, It was kind of
58:14
what the offensive line to. But with the offensive line
58:17
you've got sort of two groups, right?
58:19
You get your Edge and you've got your interior lineman.
58:23
And how do you decide who becomes the leader out of those?
58:27
Or is it sort of subsets? And I was talking to I said
58:32
there's probably going to be a little bit of both, right?
58:34
Yeah. So I gave the example of, you
58:38
know, if I had a guy if I play guard I need to I needed to
58:45
approach a leader about technique or concept of a play
58:51
or anything like that. I was going to probably talk to
58:53
the guy. That was ahead of me or a guy
58:56
that had been there for a while at my position whereas the
59:01
overall leader of the Union might be somebody different.
59:05
I'm gonna shout at Lee Bailey hear from him to Sydney 2003 All
59:10
American Center He was the guy that if he barked you listen,
59:17
but if I need to know something about guard play, I was going to
59:20
Chad cop. So it's kind of one of those
59:22
scenarios where depending on the circumstance Your Leader might
59:26
be, might look a little different depending on the
59:29
circumstance. But you're no.
59:30
You're going to have kind of that overarching force on that
59:32
unit and when we look at that, you know, could that be one of
59:38
the D tackles that? Played a lot of snaps at this
59:43
point, like a Pollard of fuga Kendricks could we know poller,
59:46
we know Pollard's one of the most vocal guys in that room.
59:49
Big vocal guy, big, vocal guy said, I mean, if you're looking
59:52
at overarching legal leader from a vocal standpoint, you know you
59:56
can see him emerge, if we're looking to d-ends.
59:59
I mean if Ladarius pain hasn't played any snaps for us, but
1:00:03
he's been on the roster now for for over a year or almost a year
1:00:07
at this point. So is that somebody that could
1:00:11
move, to a leadership role on the from a d and perspective, we
1:00:16
probably lost our The biggest this year and probably the
1:00:21
factor number two. Also.
1:00:23
Yeah, with Griffin's eligibility expiring as well.
1:00:27
So You know who does the DN room?
1:00:31
Look to? I mean Varner gone definitely
1:00:33
leaves some questions. I think Varner if he too came
1:00:35
in, could have potentially been a guy that could have stepped
1:00:39
into some type of role like that but you know Wisconsin has them
1:00:43
now. So we got to look to the future.
1:00:47
I don't think anybody else that you bring in in the portal
1:00:49
whether somebody gets into the next 10 days or they come in
1:00:53
after spring. I don't think anybody else at
1:00:55
this point would have the cachet to step into the locker room and
1:00:58
be that That for this unit. So we're looking at guys on the
1:01:02
roster right now. So I think probably your
1:01:03
d-tackle room is going to be leading the group, the better,
1:01:08
the best place to look for a leader for that unit.
1:01:10
This year, all right, I mean, in that makes sense.
1:01:14
And again, we had discussed actually, before Varner
1:01:17
decommitted it was, I think the way we had it written down here,
1:01:21
farmer could leave the room just because he wasn't all EAC
1:01:25
performer. He had some credentials right?
1:01:27
Yep, I've played Well, and with him stepping out, it kind of
1:01:32
leaves a void right there. So the question is, you know, on
1:01:36
that end. Is it paying?
1:01:37
Can one of the younger guys step up into your point?
1:01:41
We've got 10 days. Is there?
1:01:43
Someone they can bring in from the portal that just clicks and
1:01:48
we can hope right, can hope. All right, let's go to couple
1:01:53
more rooms, the linebacker room. I think this one is sort of that
1:01:58
twofold. All right.
1:01:59
What we talked about with the wide receiver room because I
1:02:02
think right now Ron without a shadow of a doubt, Alan Tisdale
1:02:07
is going to be the leader of that unit.
1:02:10
Now the question is, is he going to be the leader of that unit
1:02:12
from The Mike linebacker position?
1:02:16
I keep saying I think he is I think he's going to play, let me
1:02:21
no one else popped, you know? No disrespect Jason Keller
1:02:26
looked good at times but you know, he's still a couple years
1:02:28
away unless he takes a massive step this spring, but you feel
1:02:32
like Tisdale probably knows the defense?
1:02:35
He's shown some growth in the last year with everything that
1:02:38
happened with the gambling thing.
1:02:39
And then not. Why not pouting going in there.
1:02:42
Working scout team to keep himself in shape.
1:02:46
And then Carlos has a theory about what he was doing on Scout
1:02:49
team. My theories.
1:02:52
He played, Mike, my theory, is he played Michael and scouting?
1:02:57
Why wouldn't you want the most veteran guy out there being the,
1:03:01
the mic on the scout team defense?
1:03:05
Yeah, I mean I think you're probably right there.
1:03:08
I liked his Dale as far as this units leadership.
1:03:13
I think there's a lot of young potential in this unit, but
1:03:18
there is no one else that has the snap recount.
1:03:24
The experience, the cachet is Tisdale.
1:03:26
So I think he kind of stepped into that role at least four
1:03:29
2023. Now, you made the point to about
1:03:32
Tisdale is Tisdale's. Not had the Get up here, right
1:03:36
at career, Tisdale has had a freaking roller coaster of a
1:03:41
career, which you when me and you were talking, you said that
1:03:44
might be a great thing for this. Young room is the guy who has
1:03:48
had those who hasn't had the perfect time?
1:03:51
He's not he's not Captain America out there, he's not a
1:03:53
guy that's like, always been on the right track or always did
1:03:56
the right thing or this, that, and the other.
1:03:59
He's a guy that, you know, didn't always do the right
1:04:02
thing, or didn't always work as hard as you need to or things
1:04:04
like that. But now, You know, he's turned
1:04:06
it around, he's doing the right thing, he's getting it done.
1:04:09
I think he showed so much last year, especially once he was
1:04:13
cleared to play. I think that these ready to kind
1:04:15
of step into that type of role for this defense
1:04:18
abso-freakin'-lutely. Now, Brian, when you started
1:04:21
talking about this, though you mentioned the name that you
1:04:24
said, how? He looked those last three games
1:04:27
and if he takes that step this year, he's going to be barking
1:04:31
you orders for a couple years. Yeah, give me Kelly lost from
1:04:34
here. I think he could really step
1:04:37
into that kind of 1B leadership role that Lieutenant heading
1:04:42
into this year took a big step after switching positions and
1:04:49
switching sides of the bowl. Like, there was a lot of things
1:04:53
that were in flux for him. And as the season went on he
1:04:56
really kind of grew into that role and I think you know, he
1:05:00
sent you seen him, he's been vocal on the field vocal on the
1:05:03
sidelines. He plays with his heart on his
1:05:05
sleeve. Leave a lot and I think people
1:05:07
could rally around that. So you know that that's going to
1:05:10
be a guy to keep your eye on if he can kind of put all the other
1:05:13
pieces together, long term, I think we got a leader in Lawson
1:05:17
and a leader that can absolutely fall and is a freak, so awesome.
1:05:24
Well, one more room to hit Brian.
1:05:26
We're gonna look at the defensive back room.
1:05:27
We're going to look at that together, kind of like looking
1:05:30
at the defensive line room and I mean everything is on the table
1:05:35
for For the overall group leader.
1:05:37
Very, very likely to be Dorian strong.
1:05:43
Come springtime. Yep.
1:05:46
And I'll caveat that within that room you could potentially see
1:05:50
if the lane comes on more. He's still very young but I
1:05:54
think the the season that he put out last year especially how how
1:06:00
much he came on. Once he got an opportunity,
1:06:04
people are definitely going to look to him as one of those guys
1:06:07
in the locker room but I think it's strong initially just
1:06:10
because he does have Again two years under his belt as a
1:06:16
full-time starter and he's a guy that I think can really kind of
1:06:22
keep the unit together and kind of work through the things when
1:06:26
they need to work through them and to get get better as the
1:06:30
season goes along. So I'm looking at strong as
1:06:32
being that guy out, the gate especially in the spring because
1:06:37
I think he's just the guy that they're going to look to as the
1:06:40
true veteran on that unit. Yep.
1:06:42
I mean Three years playing in everything.
1:06:45
Now we mentioned it earlier tomorrow and Connor tomorrow
1:06:47
Connor effectively like Dax probably since 2019 LED his room
1:06:52
but the safety room and let's be for real.
1:06:56
I think the way it's shaping up I mean you know I likeness your
1:07:00
peoples and everything but the waves from and played last year,
1:07:03
the name, the caveat you know big bro.
1:07:08
Got a pick by the way. You see that?
1:07:10
You see? But yeah yeah.
1:07:13
Good for Greg but I think Jalen's strowman.
1:07:17
He will definitely need the safety group this year.
1:07:21
I think, I don't think there's a doubt in that.
1:07:22
I just you see him. You just like it's that feels
1:07:26
kind of like the way Greg was great.
1:07:28
Wasn't effective leader of the D-Block.
1:07:31
So I mean do you do you see anybody else potentially trying
1:07:36
to taking that from him or is, do you think that's his?
1:07:39
I think it's kind of going to be strobing and people's 18. 1B and
1:07:46
I think you might see the spring peoples have it and then Stroman
1:07:48
kind of takes it over as we get to the fall and that and that's
1:07:53
okay. That kind of stuff happens.
1:07:55
I mean, but you know, you'll see it when it happens, right?
1:08:00
Yeah. It's kind of one of those things
1:08:02
where you kind of see leaders emerge, if your eyes are open
1:08:06
and you're watching what's happening.
1:08:07
So, but I think you know that, that's something where if
1:08:12
strowman doesn't Merge out of the gate in the offseason.
1:08:15
I think you'll see him kind of take that mantle as he starts
1:08:19
making some of those big plays in the big games, and I think
1:08:22
people start turning to him as being kind of, the guy, kind of
1:08:25
the juice for that room, 100% 100%.
1:08:29
So, you know, there's some, there's some position groups we
1:08:32
didn't mention in here obviously.
1:08:34
And, you know, obviously the most standout is just
1:08:37
quarterback just because you can't call a leader that yet
1:08:40
because there is going to be a competition.
1:08:42
The competition petitions going to start in just a couple weeks
1:08:45
here with winter workouts. So we did mention that one
1:08:48
drones drones well, the account, I'm not saying you know, Gallows
1:09:03
definitely still believe the tight end room even as good as
1:09:05
Daquan, right? Played and the running back
1:09:08
room. You know.
1:09:12
To me, it's still Malachi because when Malachi played the
1:09:15
offense look significantly better last year, King has had
1:09:20
the bigger plays Malachi. Just seems to have just the, the
1:09:25
better fit for down by down. Yeah, that makes sense.
1:09:31
And I think and that actually helps King because when King can
1:09:34
be a change of pace, You're going to see him break those big
1:09:39
plays more consistently. Yeah.
1:09:42
But again, I go back to think about when Malachi came with
1:09:45
Miami, right? No, not mine.
1:09:48
Miami! I always lose.
1:09:51
Give me a moment here. This is why I keep certain pages
1:09:55
up. But I felt like when Malachi
1:09:58
came in, its like, the offense was, starting to take shape,
1:10:01
until he got hurt right Malik. I had had some big plays here
1:10:06
there that kept the offense on the field when it, otherwise
1:10:09
should have been off the field. Exactly.
1:10:13
Exactly. And I say from you, he's the guy
1:10:15
that kind of makes up for he made up for some of the
1:10:19
deficiencies that this offense had last year in spots and I
1:10:24
think that'll open up even more. Yeah.
1:10:26
And that'll open up even more with more rp0 this year, with
1:10:30
less of a focus on the ground and pound play action.
1:10:34
A little more on getting that defensive line in Conflict as to
1:10:40
whether it's run or pass. So the more we, the more we lean
1:10:44
on that, the easier it's going to be for these running backs
1:10:46
and Malachi to really kind of get into games and take over
1:10:49
games in in the reason I still say Malachi Malachi paid in
1:10:54
three games issue. He got hurt in the Gain.
1:10:58
He had almost 250 yards from scrimmage two touchdowns in
1:11:02
basically two and a half quarters.
1:11:05
And if we saw in the State game, when he went down the juice,
1:11:10
went out of the offense. Yes it did.
1:11:12
Yes, it did. Alright, we real quick just a
1:11:16
message here. Coach come to not able to make
1:11:19
it, a Nike will be on with us soon.
1:11:21
Definitely, going to talk about the AFC a conference that he
1:11:25
attended in maybe looking at some, a few other things with
1:11:28
some schematics will be guy there.
1:11:31
One other thing, Brian, not trying to be political on this
1:11:34
show, but he is a hokie is a hokie.
1:11:36
We grew up with watching him play in that safety position and
1:11:43
Ralph's got elected the Virginia state senate tonight.
1:11:45
So a big congrats to him. You know, good for him, ever
1:11:51
jigna Beach, 7th District 7th District down to beach.
1:11:54
So good for him. You know, anything else
1:11:59
breaking. Its this is not the time of
1:12:01
year, anything to break in anybody to lose.
1:12:04
I mean, it's not not a lot of breaking at least, hope he
1:12:06
related because there's nothing really.
1:12:09
Yeah, we're taking a night. We're waiting here, who are
1:12:12
waiting, but if there is nothing left.
1:12:14
Brian, let's wrap up this episode of The Foundry corner.
1:12:18
God cast brought to you by Main Street.
1:12:20
Pharmacy, in Blacksburg Virginia, I am Curtis Wilson.
1:12:24
I'm Brian Sigler, visit our website, boundary Corner VT.com
1:12:31
to listen to all of our episodes again in those who did not
1:12:35
listen to the state of the program episode, go back and
1:12:39
listen to it, you missed a banger, it went off the rails a
1:12:43
little bit at the end, but it was a banger well again, but it,
1:12:48
it was also really good points made.
1:12:52
We made it and I let Sally know that he was making good points a
1:12:56
whole lot. Yeah, there is a certain segment
1:13:00
where, you know, Braun probably forgot his own name is when you
1:13:05
hear him agreeing with Talia a lot.
1:13:07
Loudly right there, we've pinpointed it.
1:13:10
We failed in the second half of the episode.
1:13:13
He could play a drinking game just on the number of times.
1:13:16
I said, I'm right there with you tally.
1:13:19
If you took a shot, every time you did that, Wrecked.
1:13:22
You'd be as drunk as I was Levar.
1:13:25
We appreciate it, man. We appreciate all y'all hanging
1:13:28
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1:13:31
Yes, it was hilarious of our proofs.
1:13:34
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Check him out on his website. Jason In Long music.com, I'm
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1:14:13
Okey