Latest / Boundary Corner Podcast / Season Primer: Part 1

Transcript

Season Primer: Part 1 · Boundary Corner Podcast

1:40
The. And welcome back to the Boundary
1:50
Corner Podcast, a part of the College Huddle Network, along
1:53
with my partners, Brian Siegler, Jonathan Talley, Shelton Moss in
1:57
our extended family, 57 in the program #1 In Your Hearts,
2:01
Dwight Victoria, and Fresh from the 757, The Playmaker,
2:05
Christopher Lester. This episode, as always, is
2:08
brought to you by Doctor Jeremy Counts down at Counts Family
2:12
Pharmacy, your friendly neighborhood pharmacy three O 1
2:14
S Main St. in Blacksburg. And now we are also brought to
2:18
you by Moments on the Mori. Are you looking for a weekend
2:22
getaway, but you still need to make it to Blacksburg for the
2:25
game? Moments on the Mori is exactly
2:28
what you need. It is on by a proud hokey
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located just outside Lexington, so just a little over an hour's
2:34
drive from Blacksburg. If you like fishing, if you like
2:38
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2:41
when smoking a cigar or sitting in the river with a cold when
2:43
smoking a cigar, this is your place right out the back door of
2:48
this beautiful place. Check out the link in the
2:51
comments section or visit their Instagram moments on the Mori.
2:56
Listen, I'm going to say something real quick.
2:58
I got to go to this place back in the summer.
3:00
These are friends of ours, friends of me and my wife's for
3:03
a long, long time. They are Hokies.
3:07
We had a blast, kids had a blast.
3:09
So if you're looking for something to go do, like you
3:12
want to make the game, but you're looking for something to
3:15
go do, go check this place out. It's awesome.
3:19
And and. That's all I got to say about
3:21
it, but. Curtis, I like you add a little
3:26
bit of color there to, to rope in Chris to, to, to get a spot
3:30
out there. He's like cigar on the canoe.
3:33
But I'm going to tell you, man, hey you.
3:34
Know. And nothing like.
3:39
I got to go check it out. Yeah, I got to go check that
3:41
out, man, I think. No doubt.
3:43
You know, for them to be sponsoring the show now, they
3:45
need me down now so I can give a full review of exactly how it
3:50
feels to be in nature. Hey Tally, you got to, you got
3:53
to do one of these like one of the bed reviews too for every
3:56
bedroom you got to pop in the bed.
3:58
I need I do the bathroom. I do the bathroom.
3:59
I do the mattress rating, a pillow rating, rate the
4:02
bathroom. I'll rate the bathroom because
4:04
it's all about like how you feel when you sit on the throne,
4:06
because you know, as a as a listen, I know we're going to
4:10
get into the show. Sheldon.
4:12
I know you ain't got no kids yet.
4:14
Everybody else here has kids. So I'm I'm going to prep you to
4:16
something. Me and dad use the bathroom to
4:21
get away from their family. So you got to have a comfortable
4:24
toilet. I mean, legs going numb.
4:28
Proper light. Yeah, proper lighting and.
4:31
Plenty of air. And the Wi-Fi got to be right.
4:36
You got to have a good bathroom. You got to get that.
4:39
So throw a little bit of a stool in there.
4:41
Keep the legs higher. That way you don't they don't go
4:43
to. Sleep.
4:43
The moment the moment you get the moment you're in that too
4:46
long, somebody is going to be either calling that phone on the
4:50
door because it's something for you to do around that house.
4:54
So enjoy your bathroom breaks right now Sheldon, because when
4:57
you have kids or you get married or anything or even a spouse
5:01
like it's over. You got no free time.
5:04
You know he was just telling you man.
5:06
So check the bathroom out everybody if.
5:09
You haven't got any of those. What have you been doing in
5:11
there text? Oh yeah, you.
5:13
Ain't really living. Yeah.
5:15
Oh yeah. Yeah, you.
5:16
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
5:19
Yeah, Sheldon, where you stay at, man?
5:25
Where you stay at? You're on now We can't hear
5:27
Sheldon. Check 2.
5:30
There we Sheldon. Come on, Sheldon.
5:32
Oh no. No, Curtis.
5:35
Curtis, you don't cursed him. You don't cursed him.
5:37
You don't curse shit. Damn.
5:40
Man. Steve Steven in the chat said.
5:44
Steven in the chat said imagine having three daughters.
5:47
I don't want to. Just go in and.
5:53
Come back out, it's a reset. Yeah, we're good.
5:55
We're good. We'll get it you.
5:57
While Sheldon's figuring out his mic.
5:59
Dwight, Chris, have y'all been? Hey, yo, go ahead.
6:05
I I've been I've, you know, when I've been out here saving the
6:08
world, you know, and then laughing a little bit.
6:11
Chris is like one of my Chris is one of my biggest fans on my
6:15
personal Instagram because I act a fool on my personal account.
6:18
I mean, I post you want to laugh you because that's my you know,
6:23
I'm a therapist by day. So like, you know, I do my
6:27
podcast as y'all know, but like I'm a family man, but like my
6:32
recipe for coping and managing all the stresses in this world,
6:36
especially someone that's a licensed mental health therapist
6:38
is humor. I just post foolishness ignorant
6:43
and I love it. It's my private account.
6:45
So yo, if you don't like Jay-Z said, if you don't like it, it
6:49
cost you nothing, pay me no mind keep it moving.
6:52
You know what I'm saying? Don't me, but I I'm looking
6:56
forward to talking tech because I purposely I think the last
7:00
time I really talked tech was during the spring game when I
7:05
don't know who jumped on and did a little live and and and it was
7:09
it was crazy because that was like the first spring game
7:12
because you got to understand something I probably have been
7:15
to. I mean, I had a streak of like
7:18
16 straight years. I did not miss a spring game.
7:20
And you know, even that year was cancelled when they had Bucky
7:23
Hodges in them. I was still up there.
7:26
It got cancelled right before the game.
7:27
So but I've been blessed, man. Got the oldest daughter, she in
7:30
college, my middle son, Zay. We move him on on Sunday.
7:36
He starts. I mean, he was down at Wingate
7:38
for the summer pool scholarship. He ended up having like 10
7:41
offers, 10G2 offers. But I'm going to tell you right
7:44
now, and I'm not, I'm not on the Lavar Ball stuff.
7:46
Like he's special. He's almost 68 now.
7:50
Like he's long strong. He did that fork union prep
7:52
year. He got that fork union weight on
7:54
him. And then my youngest daughter
7:57
just made the JV volleyball team at Gainesville High School.
8:00
So I got two out of my 3 in college.
8:03
Got it. And then my third one is at a
8:06
very competitive volleyball program at Gainesville.
8:08
She made the JV team as a sophomore.
8:11
So, and then my nephew, shout out to my nephew.
8:13
He's got 16-D1 offers. You know, he Tech, he's coming
8:18
to the Tech Vander, but remember the name.
8:20
He's a junior this year at Bethel High School.
8:22
He plays everywhere and he is, his name is Derek's sister.
8:25
He's my sister's son. And Oh yeah.
8:28
Yeah, I know he's, I know him. Yeah, he's UVA 1 Tennessee
8:34
Facetimed him the other day. I don't know if that's legal,
8:36
but whatever. Anyway, yeah.
8:41
We. Tell him call compliance.
8:43
Call compliance. He's a kid.
8:46
Y'all going to be asking me who he's going with, You know, And
8:48
he's starting to, I think it, it's really cool because if you
8:53
know, the Victoria family, including my wife, my cousin
8:57
Octavian went there and my other cousin Khalifa, Mike Marcus,
9:00
myself, my wife and my other cousin Octavia, who if I didn't
9:04
say her name, she's an attorney down in Atlanta.
9:07
So you're talking about a lot of people from our family that went
9:09
to Virginia Tech, man. So we'll see what happens with
9:11
Derek. Yeah, he's, he's, he's, he's,
9:16
he's in my book of guys to go see, you know.
9:18
Yeah, I'm telling y'all, hey, listen, when I do to my I told
9:23
you shows, I told y'all going way back, if you follow me, I
9:26
told people about Greg Stroman. I told you about Greg Dortch, I
9:29
told you about Daz Newsome. Everybody said Greg Stroman will
9:32
never play at Tech. He's too small.
9:34
He's too, too thin. I'm like y'all don't understand.
9:37
I told people about Eddie Royal when he was at Westfield
9:40
Cooking. I said we got a dog.
9:42
And like, you know, it's just one of those things man,
9:44
sometimes people have to see for themselves.
9:47
So I don't do manufactured height.
9:49
If I speak on something, look, I told y'all, y'all know this?
9:53
I said in the comments on boundary Corner, Caleb Woodson.
9:57
I told people they were like, well, he's young, he's not
10:01
ready. I'm like this is the.
10:04
Thing too, I'm going to throw this out right quick, Dwight,
10:07
just while you while you hitting on that, when you talk about
10:10
when you talk about kids that go to a high level school, a high
10:14
level D1 school, that's Virginia Tech, whether you want to
10:17
believe it or not, it is UVA. You know, that's a high level D1
10:23
school. When you have somebody that
10:25
comes out of high school and goes to these schools and they
10:28
start, that's a big accomplishment.
10:30
So when you have somebody that you know, maybe talks about a
10:33
kid and says, you know, this kid is special and then they go to
10:36
college and they start, even if the stats aren't there, they
10:39
don't make it to the next level. That's like a 1% thing.
10:43
So whenever I hear people talking about kids, I just look
10:47
at like, just say, you talked about Caleb Woodson, right?
10:50
OK, so when Caleb Woodson come in, I'm like, is he going to be
10:53
a starter? Soon as I seen him, soon as I
10:55
seen him suit up, I'm like he he's he, he should be a starter.
10:58
So you're right. Whenever I hear somebody say
11:01
something like that, and I'm just throwing that to the chat
11:04
because sometimes people are like, oh, well, this person
11:06
didn't do nothing or they didn't make a all ACC.
11:09
We don't, they don't. That is not what we talk about
11:11
like going into college and playing and getting to the next
11:13
level. Totally different thing We just
11:15
talking about when you speak in high school, moving into
11:18
college. So just want to throw that out
11:20
there. Look real quick for you.
11:22
I know Kurt and Brian got it. Y'all got to do y'all thing and
11:25
I'm looking forward to it and Shelton.
11:27
But just to add to that, I think in the microwave stage of
11:32
college football, Nili think one thing that needs to talk and I'm
11:36
big on this. I don't care if you had Alabama
11:38
or Miami, it's OK for a player and a family and even fans to be
11:43
patient. I think right now with the
11:46
transport portal, NIL, we just think development is going out
11:50
the window. And I just think you got to
11:51
understand development is still essential on the collegiate,
11:55
high school and pro, even youth football level development.
12:00
Everybody wants to rock with Cam Chancellor now.
12:03
Shout out to the GOAT. But at the same time, Cam
12:05
Chancellor developed at Virginia Tech.
12:07
They played them right. It's a lot of guys that develop.
12:11
My biggest I told you show of all time Mike Vick.
12:14
He came in tech and he'll tell you he was so glad the red shirt
12:17
that red shirt did wonders. His his his brother, who was an
12:21
icon, a national Gatorade player of the year at football and
12:25
basketball. Ron Mccurry down the street at
12:26
North Carolina. I I Davenport got hurt.
12:31
Ron didn't get a chance to red shirt and develop and you know
12:34
you and again you can say oh, he went to look and involve hating
12:37
on Carolina. That development is still one of
12:40
the things people need to understand.
12:42
A lot of players need that man. Like some of your favorite
12:45
household names that are developed so you come in and
12:48
start at AUVA or Maryland or Miami or Colorado or Oklahoma or
12:52
even a mid major Marshall. It don't matter at this level.
12:56
Just to be in the 2 deep is insane, especially with the kids
13:01
now. The kids now are insanely
13:02
athletic, right? Without question, Without
13:06
question. No live spoken.
13:09
Not one single live spoken. Yeah, go ahead, Curtis I.
13:14
Was going to say before we get into the season, we got some
13:16
other shit we got to hit on that's happened since the last
13:18
time we talked. So you got you got to update
13:21
Dwight, where are you rocking, right?
13:23
Now where are you rocking real quick, Sheldon, since you got
13:25
cut off and he's still. Oh no, we still ain't got you.
13:31
Oh man, that's my God too. I need to hear from Sheldon.
13:34
I need, I need Sheldon, man, he. Going to give me he will Curtis
13:39
we Curtis. I'm not sure what was going on,
13:43
but we had it when he came on so.
13:44
We did. We'll get it.
13:45
Right, we'll get it right. While he's figuring it out,
13:48
though, Brian, let's hit a couple of these little news and
13:50
notes before we get into the season.
13:54
Yeah. I mean, I, you know, there's a
13:57
lot of things that have kind of been going on.
14:01
The thing I wanted to talk about first is, you know, looking at
14:05
that tampering situation, NC Central, ultimately a running
14:13
back to the end of going to to UVA.
14:16
But apparently we had somebody down at the game, but possibly
14:20
there was some conversations there.
14:22
What's y'all take on this? Is this a nothing burger or is
14:24
this something to actually talk about?
14:26
Hold on, can I say something before I let our esteemed guests
14:28
and our esteemed You didn't get him as the worst piece of
14:32
tampering I've ever seen. If you didn't get the kid, it's
14:35
the worst piece of tampering I've ever seen, man to to me, to
14:41
me honestly, it's a big nothing burger because at the end of the
14:45
day, the kid was going to make a decision.
14:47
He was leaving to go somewhere. So if it was somebody from the
14:50
staff or the way the story came out, it was somebody was a
14:54
friend of somebody down there, but the kid was leaving either
14:57
way. So to try to throw us underneath
14:59
the buses, if you know, we down there hunting for guys in North
15:02
Carolina Central. Listen, we caught lightning in
15:04
the bottle with basil from A&T. You know what I'm saying?
15:07
It's not like we going to go find another, you know, HBCU
15:11
back is going to be able to come here and play with the guys we
15:14
have now going to get base shovels to be able to bridge the
15:17
gap. We've got guys that can play.
15:19
So I mean him yelling us out, you know, maybe, you know, keep
15:23
people up your sideline. But I mean, it's it's North
15:25
Carolina central, bro. It's North Carolina central
15:27
stop. So, so my thing, the thing that
15:30
gives me is I can understand if he had a problem, whatever, deal
15:34
with it. But he makes all this song and
15:36
dance and do all this extra stuff.
15:37
I'm like like Chris said he leaving, the kid was leaving
15:41
anyway, right? So he leaves and goes to another
15:44
school. So you said so this school
15:46
pissed me off. So I'm going to be a fan of this
15:48
school and they going to beat the crap out of this school.
15:50
He's still like at your school. Like I can understand if he said
15:54
well, I'm going to stay here because they tried to, you know,
15:56
tamper. I'm going to stay and finish
15:58
here. Like come on man, to me what it
16:01
sound like and I'm just keeping it real.
16:03
Somebody didn't greet somebody's pockets.
16:05
Somebody wanted something out of the deal, they didn't get it and
16:08
had a problem with. It that's a lot.
16:10
Hey, my it's a nothing burger, bro, Like it didn't make any
16:13
other. Nobody was talking about it.
16:15
First of all, no, did they? They didn't never say who the
16:17
coach was, right? No, they never said all right.
16:21
So like, you know, dude could have been in the area wanted to
16:25
check out some ball or he might have had a little Shorty a side
16:28
piece. He was going to see, you know,
16:30
this grown man business like you don't.
16:32
I'm telling you, like people. I when I used to work at group
16:35
homes, I used to tell my my clients because they were high
16:38
school age. I used to be like, look, I'm Mr.
16:40
Victoria up in here. But when in this one, I was in
16:41
my 20s when I was still playing adult flag and trying to get
16:45
back in the league. I was like, Yo, when you see me
16:47
outside, I'm Victoria and they used to be like, yo, what that
16:50
mean? You don't want to find out.
16:53
And they were like, Yo, Mr. Victoria crazy.
16:54
It's not crazy. It's more so like, I got things
16:57
I'm into nothing illegal, nothing weird, you know,
17:00
nothing. Eyes wide shut with masks and
17:02
whips. I'm just saying like, I, I, I'm,
17:05
I'm doing me like don't, don't, don't think.
17:08
I don't know. I didn't care because I'm like,
17:10
bro, you breaking the cold, man? Because listen, one thing I
17:13
learned having a coat, a son recruited and a nephew who's
17:17
highly recruited and other people I've helped, even going
17:20
back to the days of Deshawn Han and Jalen Holmes, understand
17:23
this right here, bro. Just Oh my God.
17:26
These coaches are a brotherhood. So that's you know, we we owe
17:30
UVAI hate Miami, whatever. But when they all hanging out at
17:32
these coaching clinics, they drinking together, they talking
17:35
about crazy parents. You're right.
17:37
It just so like to me that was a that was a violation.
17:40
You could have text dude and be like, hey, yo, what you doing
17:43
man? I don't want to have to come at
17:44
you anyway. Nothing, nothing burger.
17:47
That's a nothing burger. Sheldon Real.
17:50
Quick, so nothing burger. Am I back yet?
17:53
Yeah. There we go.
17:54
There we go. Yeah.
17:55
Loud and clear, Loud and clear. Yeah, it's a nothing burger.
17:58
Although I will note that I'm not philosophically opposed to
18:01
cheating. So I would say even if we
18:02
weren't cheating, I don't care and we could cheat better.
18:05
I. Got I got you.
18:07
I love my song opposed to cheating.
18:09
Show tell, tell, tell Dwight real quick where you currently
18:12
are residing. Yeah.
18:14
So I'm down in the 757. I'm in, I'm in Williamsburg.
18:17
I I don't know if it's the 757 properties.
18:20
Yeah. You.
18:25
You live in good. See, Williamsburg is where we
18:27
went for the field trips when I was in middle school and high
18:29
school. And it was always awkward
18:31
because you go to Colonial Winsburg and they were like, you
18:34
know, I went to urban school, Hampton High School, and they
18:36
like over here is where the slaves slept.
18:39
I'm like, bro, but Williamsburg. Williamsburg, though, you live
18:50
in good. I do love and miss Busch Gardens
18:53
the Water Country, but I'm too old for that now.
18:55
I was, I was just at Busch Gardens yesterday, man, I took
18:58
my son for that, for the afternoon.
19:00
Never too. Old for water country bro.
19:02
You're never too. Old.
19:04
You know what I mean? You're right, you're right.
19:06
I just used to get in that wave full back in the day.
19:09
But you know, I'm team Wesley Slice.
19:11
I would get out, you know, I had no lotion.
19:12
So I was Ashley Larry after that.
19:18
We got an eyes wide shot of the Ashley Larry reference in.
19:22
The 1st 5, hey, you know I'm going to have fun, man.
19:28
Y'all my guys, we're going to have fun for the viewers.
19:31
I'm going to give y'all, I'm going to give y'all plenty of
19:33
reels. You know what I mean?
19:34
I'm going to give y'all plenty of reels.
19:36
Callie. Yes, Sir.
19:37
Speaking of the 75, we got some good news the other week.
19:41
Yeah, so ODU, yeah, ODU series is is cancelled.
19:51
Let's see here. It's got we got games that's
19:53
going to be played 2526 and 30 still in Blacksburg.
20:01
All the Norfolk games are cancelled.
20:03
Sorry, Chris. Now, this is this is my take.
20:06
This is my take first, that's because I'm talking about it,
20:09
but this is my take When you when you scheduled that.
20:15
But to me it was done. But anyway, you scheduled it.
20:18
We was at a certain position. Some people said, OK, you need
20:21
to get down there and recruit. No, just recruit better like big
20:25
schools in the state. I don't care what y'all think.
20:29
Alabama, Auburn, Oh, we ain't Alabama.
20:31
Auburn in Virginia, you're close.
20:34
Alabama and Auburn ain't going to UAB, which is a good school.
20:36
Alabama and Alabama, they're going to South Alabama.
20:40
They're not going to those schools and play.
20:42
First of all, they ain't going to play them because they ain't
20:43
got nothing to like gain from it.
20:45
But if they do play them, they're going to make them come
20:47
to them. So like where I live in
20:49
Huntsville, AL A&M, historically black school played Auburn.
20:55
They didn't come to Huntsville to play them.
20:57
They made them come to Auburn to play them.
20:58
They made them. Come that's.
21:00
Right. So things like that is just
21:02
like, even if you're not in a certain position, you need to
21:05
try to run the program like you going to get to that position.
21:08
So I didn't really like the series from the beginning.
21:12
But then when you go down there and get your ass whooped and get
21:14
your stuff stole, you can't back out then because you look like
21:17
you're running. So you got to stay and and play
21:20
a couple of games. But now it's the time.
21:23
OK, if we going to play y'all, y'all got to come see us.
21:26
You know what I'm saying? Come on down here, take your ass
21:28
whooping gone back to the house. I'm, I'm going to throw it to,
21:32
to Dwight right here because I know that that was he was knee
21:35
deep in that whole series because you got a daughter that
21:38
was going there too, right? She's a she's a rising senior
21:41
and you know, we took that L So let me speak on this.
21:44
I was probably the front runner on Twitter, or I'm going to call
21:48
it Twitter. I don't call it XI was the front
21:49
runner on there. And I I was adamant, even if we
21:53
had one that year, that we should not be going down there.
21:57
And This is why I feel like sometimes the people with shirts
22:00
and ties, it's not because I played, it's only because I know
22:03
the 757. I was there during the golden
22:06
era and I understand the dynamics recruiting.
22:09
Like for example, you know, people say we got a beach kid.
22:12
A beach kid is they have tons of talent in the beach kid and on
22:17
the beach side, the South side. But you know, Norfolk,
22:21
recruiting a Norfolk kid is completely different from
22:23
recruiting a beach kid. Same thing with a new or
22:26
Portsmouth kid, Norcom versus a kid that might be at Salem.
22:30
So playing old to you and being old to you is not going to sway
22:33
a kid. The thing you got to do when you
22:36
recruit is connect with the streets in the 757 and the eight
22:39
O 4. And the reason it's not to say
22:41
it's about being urban or hood. It's more so the demographic and
22:45
the relationships down there are with the guys like my homie Red
22:49
and all the people that ran the thoroughbreds and things like
22:52
that. The trainers, the guys that are
22:55
the youth leagues, you know, those guys in the barbershop.
22:57
That's one thing Stein Spring was a master at.
23:01
He was a household name playing old to you.
23:03
I said on Twitter. We benefited nothing.
23:07
I was adamant about cutting the ECU series even though ECU
23:11
recruited me. Loved ECU a lot.
23:14
It was a great game there when I played but when we signed I felt
23:17
like a death sentence to play them for 20 something years.
23:20
I remember just back when I used to write for Rivals and before I
23:24
went to 247 and I wrote for them and I and A fan hit me and it
23:28
was a booster. I know when a booster hits me,
23:29
my mentions, they talk completely different than a fan
23:31
and he was like Dwight, you need to understand they cut us a
23:34
serious check during the tragedy.
23:36
I said good for them, thank you. We don't owe them anything more
23:41
than just what we give them with the football piece.
23:44
And again, when ECU was very good before roughing that got
23:48
let go, it was a game that made sense because they had the
23:51
respect. I just felt like we overreacted
23:54
and when we cut ECU, we really to this day, man, and I've
23:59
talked about this on y'all y'all platform before.
24:03
One thing tech has to understand you never want to be and we have
24:07
a history of this somebody's signature win.
24:10
We will owe to you. We will owe to.
24:12
You liberty. And see nothing.
24:14
I don't want to bring up just Fuente because it's not just
24:17
him. It was Wit and even Weaver to
24:20
some degree, God rest his soul, that overreacted to these
24:23
series. And you got to know your brand.
24:25
You got to know your worth. We're trying to get back there,
24:27
but O to you, I remember walking out and that's why I said I
24:31
can't go back there because that was a fan behind me.
24:33
He was talking a little reckless and it you know, they beat us
24:36
the year we went three and eight and I he was just talking to
24:39
calling us chokeys and all that, and I turned around.
24:42
Of course, his body language shifted, but I wasn't about to
24:45
put my hands on him. I just told him, like I said,
24:49
you think we're really the Virginia Tech you grew up on?
24:52
This ain't really a signature win for y'all.
24:54
Mind you, this was the second time they beat us.
24:58
The first time really threw us off our path.
25:00
I started, got her, broke his leg and on top of we were 13th
25:05
in the country off a great win against FSU.
25:09
And that whole week I was completely anxious because I
25:13
knew the team was up for it. But that was a solid ODU team
25:18
and playing in that stadium and the way our fans travel, it just
25:22
didn't make sense. I was elated that we did that
25:26
because you got to respect your own brand.
25:28
And you know, I don't believe in I believe in helping the the in
25:32
state schools, but UVA and Tech have overreacted both.
25:36
I know this is a tech show, but UVA and Tech both overreacted.
25:40
And here's my push back. One last point.
25:41
And I remember I got a little push back on this on Twitter,
25:44
but I don't run from confrontation.
25:46
I'm like, OK, so it's all about helping the smaller in state
25:49
schools. OK well bet that get Hu and
25:52
Norfolk State and Union on Virginia State on your schedule
25:54
then get them HPC. They need the money they.
25:57
Need. To get real, they get real
25:58
quiet. When I cleared that, they got
26:00
real quick. When I see that let's get
26:02
Norfolk State now. Well, be careful now because
26:05
it's there. But my point being is if you
26:07
really want to help in state schools, help some HBC us out
26:11
Liberty. OK, yeah, I get it.
26:14
You don't need. Any money but but.
26:20
But but like you said, bring stayed up the street, you know,
26:24
put a little bread in your pocket, you know, give them a
26:26
little exposure, give them a little back down the road.
26:29
We're getting to a point where that stuff's not going to happen
26:32
anymore because it's somebody put it in the chat get WVU get
26:35
Tennessee. You got to have eyes on you and
26:38
I like what you said Dwight and I and I'll copy it and we're
26:41
going to move on to the next subject.
26:43
Those that we were there Super Bowl.
26:46
They got up so hard for those games.
26:49
Their fans got up so like it it was lose lose you you beat them
26:55
by 40. You you lose from Jesus Christ.
26:58
Go ahead, Brian. I.
26:59
Was just going to say like the other thing I got like, you
27:02
know, Dwight, you were talking about, you don't need needing to
27:04
know the, you know, the barbershop, the thoroughbreds.
27:06
Like if you're not connecting with those people and if you're
27:09
not in the high schools, it don't matter whether you're
27:12
playing one game down in Norfolk every other year.
27:14
Yep. Like that's not moving the
27:16
needle. That's not doing anything from a
27:18
recruiting standpoint, so. AOB yeah, go ahead, go ahead.
27:22
Your point. Because you, you just, you go
27:23
ahead because there's something about you say about Norfolk.
27:25
Yeah, I was just saying like at at some point, if you're not
27:28
doing all the things you need to do to close the deal on these
27:31
guys, just playing a game down there is is not changing the
27:35
trajectory of whether a player is going to come to to
27:37
Blacksburg or not. It's not.
27:40
And just to your point, I went to the Maury Highland Springs
27:46
state championship game. Maury was missing instead of
27:49
running back and somebody else. Highland Springs, that was their
27:52
5th state championship under Lauren Johnson, right.
27:55
And I remember I went and Maury, this is Maury.
27:58
They are they are arguably the best program in the state right
28:01
now. They're one of the tops, right.
28:02
And I remember going there and the eight O 4 Richmond was well
28:07
represented to the point and I'm not even it didn't matter for
28:10
me, but Highland Springs had more players there.
28:13
It was a cold day in Norfolk. Maury's down the street, but a
28:17
lot of those guys were watching on their phone around the way.
28:20
Yeah, that's what I mean about Chris and I are 757 guys when I
28:24
talk about seven cities down there, including the surrounding
28:28
areas, Williamsburg and those areas.
28:30
You, you even though you are 30 minutes apart, whatever, 30
28:35
miles apart with the tunnel and all of that in close proximity,
28:38
for a lot of people going across the water is a chore with the
28:42
tunnel. You know, like I'm, I'm this
28:45
like that's why I was like y'all, they got to start
28:47
consulting with people that actually and I'm not taking
28:50
shots at and Whitney and his staff because I I talked away.
28:55
I'm just saying at the end of the day, all these people that
28:58
get paid these salaries, I'm like, talk to somebody that
29:01
knows consult. Listen, I'm a big movie and TV
29:05
show guy, right. If you talking about like if you
29:08
own like the wire or if you trying to watch power or
29:11
something, the first thing you do when you go to a new area is
29:13
find the plugs and the connect. And you find.
29:17
You find out where you can go, who really running stuff.
29:21
We just run down there and do a thing with owe to you.
29:24
And I'm just like, bro, I'm glad we did win that last one down
29:27
there. But still them other ones
29:29
because again, Liberty, JMU and and ODU celebrate those wins.
29:35
And here's the thing about JMU. One time they beat Virginia Tech
29:39
in the history of their program, they still celebrate that.
29:41
Still talking about it. Still talk about it we.
29:43
Won the ACC that we went to the Orange Bowl, yeah.
29:48
So I'm glad, yeah. Listen, I got to throw a plug in
29:53
there right quick because we've been talking about a couple
29:55
things for my people. That's new.
29:58
Y'all shouldn't be new. If you ain't been watching.
30:00
You need to watch every week. We're going to be coming out
30:03
with some stuff that's going to be great because that's what we
30:06
do. We do have an interview.
30:09
We got an interview that's we, we got it in the in the toaster
30:12
right now. We're going to let y'all know
30:14
when it's hot and ready and we'll pop it out.
30:16
Talking about a lot of these things that these guys have been
30:19
bringing up. We got a kid, y'all may know
30:22
him, you may not. But anyway, Keelan Adams, we do
30:25
have a interview with him that we will be releasing soon.
30:30
And I'm just bringing up that he talks about, you know, even the
30:33
tunnel, going home, driving from tech to home, how the tunnel
30:38
effects his, his, his, his driving home and things like
30:41
that. So things like that are when
30:43
Dwight talks about talking to the people who actually do it
30:47
when you're recruiting a kid. And I don't want to get too deep
30:51
into it. I'm going to let Keelan do his
30:52
talking when it when it drops. But when you recruit a kid and
30:56
you have somebody who has been in that in those shoes or still
31:00
in those shoes and say, Oh yeah, yeah, I'll make that drive all
31:02
the time. Or I go this route all the time
31:05
and this is easy or this is hard.
31:09
That's recruiting. You know what I'm saying?
31:11
1 fucking game going down there and getting robbed and and
31:15
getting stuck in an elevator ain't going to help you win or
31:18
lose a kid like. We got.
31:20
We got. You've got to.
31:22
Come on man. Yeah, he said.
31:25
Dealing with that tone and everything else, like I said, if
31:28
you don't have people that are there talking to people.
31:31
We had one kid that was a big he end up going to school up north
31:37
and I think I talked to that kid like 7 or 8 times, right?
31:41
And he told me every time he's like, listen, if you know, if
31:43
y'all were in the big 10, I would have went.
31:45
But he came and some went and met his trainer over in Norfolk.
31:49
But he was a kid that was, you know, went to war and y'all go
31:52
decipher through all that. So it's to the point man, kids
31:55
got to make a conscious decision to it's a it is a definite, hey,
32:00
when am I leaving to go through the tunnel because I know I got
32:02
to get over here. If I'm going to train tonight at
32:04
7:00, I can't leave from over there at 6:00 because from 3:30
32:08
to about 5530 you sitting in traffic.
32:11
Right. No doubt.
32:12
And and and that's and that's life.
32:14
And you have to deal with that. If I'm going to tech, I'm like,
32:17
I what am I leaving? If I want to get there by 4?
32:19
I got to leave out of here by 9:00.
32:21
My wife fusses with me on a regular basis.
32:23
I was like, hey, babe, let's get across the tunnel before we get
32:26
something to eat. Now I want to eat on this side
32:28
and then we always get damn caught.
32:30
She listened tonight. So I wanted to know it's your
32:33
fault when we late going up the tech because you want to eat on
32:36
this side. We don't cross the water.
32:38
Just a lot. We don't support what he's
32:40
saying. And look, look and check this
32:47
out. Here's another little nugget.
32:48
Last year, ODU believe, I believe they signed 28 players
32:54
out at a high school in the portal.
32:55
None were from the 757, not one number. #2 #2.
33:02
Being a certified 757 ambassador that I am right?
33:07
Check this out. The way our area operates, you
33:11
got to have credibility. Even though OD U's had some
33:14
great moments. My daughter goes there.
33:15
I know some guys on the football team.
33:17
I respect them. Chris Malone, former tech guy
33:21
coach there, Stein spring coach there.
33:24
I I love the basketball program. I love the school.
33:28
But here's the thing, guys in the 757 when they made a
33:32
decision to recruit based off that matchup, nobody around the
33:36
way is going to be like, oh, yo, I seen y'all be old to you.
33:39
That's not the same that you got to understand how again, the
33:43
demographic and the way the culture in our area in the 757
33:46
works. Everything's about big matchups.
33:49
Like it's it's not it's not about like, OK, it's cool,
33:54
because it's not like you go down there and you do enter the
33:57
Sandman. It's not like you go down there
34:00
and then on top of it his. Work is.
34:04
You had you don't at the time when you went down there that
34:07
one year, you were 13th in the country.
34:09
But even in that year you were fresh off of FSU with, but you
34:12
didn't have any household names. You had talent.
34:17
You had, you know, all Trayvon Hill, but you didn't have we are
34:21
big on household names. Everyone is not just tech fans.
34:25
So, for example, Kyra on drones go down there.
34:28
Oh yeah, I'm going to see drones.
34:30
I'm going to see KD because KD is must see TV Tooting.
34:34
Those guys are how again, I don't.
34:36
It's saying this like nobody that was on the previous teams.
34:39
You going down there with a transfer of quarterback that's
34:41
the size of a toddler or muppet babies?
34:44
That's not going to work, man. Hello man.
34:48
Hello. Hello.
34:49
Hello, Dwight Curtis. Curtis, what you got for me,
34:53
man? Because Dwight finna get
34:54
started. Yeah, Do I download the clip
34:59
tonight? Let's go.
35:00
I'm just saying go ahead Kurt, I'm just y'all, y'all know me.
35:04
Look at the end of the day, I'm just saying man, like I'm just
35:07
speaking on what I know. If we were talking electrical
35:10
engineering, I'll be on mute. I'll mute myself.
35:12
I can't talk. I can't hear you, Curtis.
35:18
Mute Curtis Sheldon, take it for.
35:27
Sean, what you got? Oh, he's gone well, all right.
35:29
Well, I think that was good discourse.
35:32
We're talking about just some news and notes from around the
35:34
the Hokies here in the ACC as well.
35:37
Injury reports. ACC recently announced that
35:39
they're going to require teams to release injury reports in
35:42
football, basketball, both basketballs and baseball as
35:46
well. That had been talked a little
35:48
bit for a while now, at least for all conference games.
35:53
So obviously we know why this is happening, mostly because of
35:57
sports betting, because of how many, how much money people have
36:00
in the line here. And I saw it was it was funny.
36:03
I saw someone on Twitter joke that Brett probably would
36:05
probably just list every single person on the roster as
36:07
questionable. OK, some some ambiguous, some
36:11
ambiguous injury timelines as of late and some questionable
36:15
personnel decisions with regards to some injured injured.
36:18
Players. Last year.
36:21
So I think it's I mean, I think it's fine.
36:23
I I'm not a sports betting person, but I can understand
36:26
from that perspective why it can be frustrating when you don't
36:29
you know, when when certain people have inside information
36:31
that other people don't have why that can lead to some problems.
36:34
So I think it's I think it's good.
36:35
Well, for me, I mean, go ahead. OK, I can be hurt.
36:38
No, go ahead, Chris. No, no, I'm going to go ahead.
36:41
Go. We listen.
36:42
Well, I mean, it gets to, I like what you said.
36:44
It's almost perfect. It's like those injury
36:46
timelines. So us as fans who aren't Privy
36:49
to everything, you know, sometimes we are, sometimes we
36:52
ain't. I don't know is what it is.
36:54
If you keep putting somebody questionable in 2-3 weeks, they
36:58
ain't like they ain't questionable.
37:00
They're out. They're fucking hurt.
37:02
So you can't, you can't put that facade anymore, especially
37:05
because the way Tech plays this year, after week four, week 5,
37:10
we have nothing but conference games from the 1st of October to
37:13
the end of the season. So there is going to be no
37:16
facade. If somebody's hurt and they keep
37:18
saying questionable, questionable, questionable, like
37:20
they're not questionable, they're out.
37:21
They're fucked up. Yeah, yeah.
37:25
Hey, Brett. Brett played that game last
37:27
year, man, was it? Was it?
37:31
He was Syracuse. Syracuse.
37:32
He played it perfect though, you know what I'm saying now when
37:35
you talk about cheating, when you talk about cheating, like
37:38
I'm a cheater, I like to cheat when it comes to sports now,
37:42
like if I can cheat and get away with it, I'm good.
37:44
So if you can work that, if you can work that system the way he
37:47
did to kind of be have some people off to Oh yeah, yeah,
37:50
just warm up and act like we can go, hey, you got to finish the
37:54
game and then it looks right though, you know what I'm
37:56
saying? If.
37:57
You. Finish the game and it looks
37:58
right, then I'm good. But like, yeah, they're going to
38:01
put they're going to put an end to that man.
38:02
Because when you start to get into the NIL stuff and you got
38:05
people that you know, probably have some things tied to it and
38:09
you know, this person is is is marketing this team and they're
38:13
expecting to see their logo here on this game and then it doesn't
38:17
happen. That's where you start to when
38:19
money gets involved, some stuff get real, so.
38:23
Definitely, I mean, we we saw that last year when money got
38:25
involved, a lot of folks that, you know, couldn't should have
38:28
been playing, didn't play because the money was on the
38:30
line. So I mean, you know, it, it is
38:34
that that's, that's that's how it ends up happening.
38:36
So this is just the next step with that, with them putting out
38:38
the engine reports. But it's going to be to the
38:40
point, Hey, if a guy they're going to make everybody.
38:43
So if you're going to play on Wednesday, then they'll monitor
38:46
it out and look at it. But at the end of the day, man,
38:48
you got to get wins that that the move that they made with
38:51
Syracuse was masterful. It was out there.
38:54
Yeah, everybody stayed quiet. I was so proud of that
38:57
situation. And it is what it is, man.
39:00
They're going to have, they're going to have to make people put
39:01
it out there. Yeah.
39:04
Definitely will. One more thing before we get
39:06
into the season, and this is for the future and it's about money.
39:10
And you know, Dwight, you're an alumni.
39:14
Sheldon, you're an alumni. Chris, your son will be an
39:16
alumni in the near future. Y'all seen it get posted about
39:20
with going to the board of visitors Friday this week and
39:25
basically saying we are behind, we need money.
39:30
Y'all think he's going to get what he needs to get?
39:34
So go ahead. So I'll.
39:36
I'll, I'll you, you were harping on this a little earlier, so.
39:38
Yeah. Well, he's, he's definitely not
39:40
going to get all of what he's going to get.
39:41
I think he probably, you know, wants to lay out everything he
39:44
wants to get. And hopefully you can kind of,
39:45
you know, meet somewhere in the middle.
39:47
But it was really a pitch to sort of tell the board of
39:49
visitors, OK, this is what the plan needs to be.
39:51
This is the funding we need to have and we need to think about
39:55
all of the different avenues we can go about to secure that that
39:58
funding. So I certainly have my
40:01
criticisms of how things have been managed in the past.
40:03
I think, you know, we saw the the Reach for Excellence
40:05
campaign that started in 2019 was like an 8 year plan.
40:08
It seems like it doesn't really exist anymore.
40:11
You know, they had the football enhancement fund that, you know,
40:13
kind of beat up the coaching salaries a few years ago when
40:15
when pride came in. But you know, we're still kind
40:18
of the spot where we're constantly trying to play catch
40:21
up. So I don't know.
40:22
I mean, I think there's a lot of complexities, you know, becomes
40:25
like the real high, the high level.
40:27
You know, funding mechanisms and just like the internal politics
40:30
of these administrations. So I try not to kind of, you
40:32
know, delve into it too much, but I will say it's it's good
40:37
that BT is being proactive and trying to find new solutions.
40:40
But I just think that in the current environments without any
40:44
sort of like fundamental restructuring of certain
40:46
organizational sort of organizations like the Hokie
40:49
Club, I think they're they're they're, you know, fighting a
40:52
losing battle so. No, I, I with you, Shelton, You
40:58
know what I'm saying? Kind of what you're saying.
41:00
Maybe some stuff there that you do get.
41:02
But I mean, it's about wins though.
41:06
It's about winning programs. It's about winning sports.
41:09
If you can go, if you attack from a place of power, sure, you
41:14
make it. Get what you want.
41:15
You know, I ain't going to say you're going to get all that,
41:17
but you got to put some stuff together, win the games you're
41:21
supposed to win and sneak some. You're not in any sport.
41:25
Then you can start talking about adding stuff and building and
41:28
all that because most people, they just get tired of you.
41:31
You know, they want you going anyway.
41:32
So when you're going to ask them for stuff and you've been not
41:36
handling it the way you're supposed to, you know, it is
41:39
what it is. Quick question though, that was
41:41
in the chat. Put that up that Marlowe posted
41:44
when she's talking about the the reports that says is the reports
41:48
just stating that they're injured or will it be detailed?
41:52
Yeah, I think it's my understanding is it's it's
41:55
follows the kind of NFL model of probable questionable and outs.
42:00
That's my. That's my.
42:01
Understanding, right, Yeah, yeah, kind of like an but go
42:08
right. But going back to what you said
42:09
about the money, you know, watching ACC media day for for
42:13
to sit there and listen to Dabo say I made this decision 17
42:19
years ago to do the IPTY thing they do down there at Clemson
42:23
and things of that nature and kind of piggyback.
42:26
And we're talking to Dwight and with John and with Tally.
42:29
I I'll be wanting to call them all kinds.
42:31
Jonathan J big yard, you turned around, you missed you missed
42:35
that window to get that coffer built up a certain kind of way.
42:39
If you missed that window by just saying, hey, get $10 to the
42:43
hokey, you know this, whatever month, you know, I don't have to
42:46
give, I give, my wife gives every month.
42:49
And it's just to the point of saying, yeah, you did that when
42:52
you were in your heyday. You wouldn't have had this
42:54
problem with talking about we had money for this, that and the
42:56
third. It's great that they had a plan
42:59
for it, but they kind of missed that window.
43:01
So now we're to the point of now where everybody's throwing money
43:03
into it and now we playing catch up.
43:05
So it's going to take a minute for us to do it.
43:06
But winning helps people open, open people, people's wallet up
43:10
a lot quicker if you win. I I feel like, and I'm old
43:16
school on some stuff, new school on other other topics.
43:19
I feel like it's a simple formula.
43:21
If you know, if you the guy, you know, I'm a movie guy.
43:25
So you like you like the movie casino when you know he kept
43:29
having to go back when Nikki was acting up and Robert De Niro had
43:34
to go back and talk to the people like I need this.
43:36
I need that like they would like yo make us money.
43:40
You better make sure these gambling.
43:42
You know, because Robert De Niro's rolling casino, if you
43:44
haven't seen it, he went there to make the mafia money, right
43:48
with Bamcock Robert De Niro. He got when you go to the board
43:52
of county supervisors and all of that, you got to bring money
43:55
because when I say bring money, I'm I'm talking about to wins
44:00
equal revenue. You know what I'm saying, Like
44:03
if, if I, I agree with Chris's sentiments, you know, the, the
44:07
whole notion of we missed the window, but you can circle back
44:11
on this. The thing about is, is that
44:14
football drives the bus. Women's basketball is great.
44:17
Men's basketball at times is hit or miss.
44:19
I like Mike Young, but football drives the bus.
44:22
Track and field has been elite. They got win conference
44:24
championships, golf. For decades.
44:28
Tech fans mocked UVA for celebrating soccer and lacrosse
44:32
right when they were going 5:00 and 7:00 and 4:00.
44:37
I've always said you don't want to become that school.
44:40
Six and seven is not the standard.
44:42
So like if I say, if Chris say, hey, Victoria, we need you to
44:46
put in for this money, this Cash App, give us this money.
44:49
Eventually we're like, yo, Chris, when I'm going to send
44:51
the results on my investment, right?
44:53
Absolutely. And you want some a.
44:55
Lot of things, especially in this economy right now, you got
45:01
to be very mindful. Now I know a lot of tech fans
45:04
and Golden Hokies and Platinum Hokies, they'll donate, they'll
45:07
give money. I've been, I did the the Buff
45:11
Foster joint last year up here in Northern Virginia, the lunch
45:15
pail fundraiser. And they had me there because
45:17
they were like, you know, whatever storyteller, the way I
45:20
tell stories about tech and just who I am.
45:22
I was honored to be there. And it was a they donated to Bud
45:26
Foster. I wasn't enjoying like I'm
45:28
looking at my wallet. I like I got to make sure I got
45:30
enough gas to get home. They wasn't enjoying who you
45:35
know, they were just auction off jerseys and lunch bells and they
45:38
throwing money and these are good people.
45:40
I'm at the table with them. They were asking for the arm
45:43
people and my thoughts, me and bud go way back.
45:45
Obviously they'll give money if they believe in it, but I just
45:49
feel like right now, man, like the product right now, you we
45:54
really would benefit from a major run right now just to get
45:58
the morale and energy up. Because the one thing, the one
46:02
entity that hasn't disappointed yet despite the turnover and
46:06
mishaps are the fans. They continue to show up.
46:12
Right, right. That's why this season is always
46:17
important. Yeah, definitely, definitely
46:21
brings us to why we here today. Just to talk a little bit about
46:26
the season preview, what we're going to be dealing with.
46:30
You know, big, big season for Brett Pryor, big season for him.
46:35
Probably most important season he's had since he's been here at
46:39
Virginia Tech. A lot of moves have been made
46:42
this offseason, thank the Lord Jesus, thank you.
46:46
I'm glad you got rid of that stupid ass offensive line coach.
46:51
Thank you. I can go on and on, but I'm just
46:55
saying a lot of things have been changed up, moved around.
47:00
Great. How y'all feeling about this
47:03
season and which move do y'all think Kind of was the best move
47:07
in each of y'all's opinion. I'm going to start with Shelton.
47:11
Well, I would say, I mean, I think they needed a change of
47:16
DC, even though it was kind of weird because some of the some
47:20
of the stats were good, but it was kind of weird because you
47:22
had like a bunch of wins against backup quarterbacks, you know
47:26
who, who weren't that good. And there's some issues with
47:28
linebackers development. So I think that was more of like
47:32
a, a qualitative assessment from Pride rather than a quantitative
47:35
1. I think you just felt like it
47:36
wasn't we didn't have enough consistency of the linebacker
47:39
position, which was more specialty or supposed specialty.
47:43
So I like Steve Kiss. I really think though, in terms
47:46
of what was the biggest upgrade, I think it was probably
47:49
offensive line getting getting that more.
47:52
I think they've they've really botched that that room over the
47:54
past couple years with how just how poorly they recruited it and
47:57
the the development. You know, we talked a lot about,
48:00
you know, how much the old line kind of Hanford, the rest of the
48:02
offense, Chiron getting injured, you know, not being able to, you
48:06
know, having to rely on tune all the time.
48:07
Tune gets injured. So there were a lot of missteps
48:12
there as as tally alluded to. So I'm really excited and and
48:15
and Matt Moore is a very well reputable coach.
48:17
Obviously the job he did at West Virginia bring in some transfers
48:20
to a really talented remack all tuner, a couple other guys.
48:24
So I'm I'm really excited about about that room.
48:27
I just hope that probably can be here long enough to sort of see
48:29
the fruition of that work come together.
48:31
So if I had to vote for one, I would say Matt Moore probably
48:33
met met the biggest one. I'm really excited about him.
48:36
Chris, what you got from me? Listen man, all that sounds
48:40
great, but the biggest addition man was the guy who was already
48:44
in the building. Don't take my.
48:46
Answer. I got it.
48:47
I'm getting it. Strength and conditioning was
48:51
everything. We saw so many times in the
48:54
third quarter they wilted because they were not strong
48:59
enough. You had games that you should
49:01
have won last year when you watch Cam Ward Daggum since we
49:07
movie buffs, right? You remember when Sunshine
49:10
flipped, flipped the linebacker after after after my man got
49:14
hurt. That's what Cam Ward did to
49:16
Burgos and Spencer on 1/4 down play and you win and you beat
49:21
Miami, you get your signature win.
49:23
And it changed the whole complexion.
49:25
But strength and conditioning was everything.
49:28
Guys were in there not getting healthy.
49:30
People were getting hurt, not coming back.
49:33
Stroman left here. Strowman turned around and got
49:36
hurt the year before he got back, and he did.
49:40
He played one game in Vanderbilt and never got back on the field.
49:44
That is all strength and condition.
49:46
And so getting Jared Ferguson, giving him the job, my guy, my
49:51
dude. And hey, you know, they look
49:54
bigger, they look stronger, they look faster.
49:56
My kid looking like, you know, I got to get a baseball bat on him
50:00
and stuff like that. I'm just saying this, that's the
50:02
biggest thing, to be able to be strong down in the third and
50:06
fourth quarter. And that makes the difference.
50:08
We lost so many games because we were winded and not strong
50:12
enough to win. All right, so so I'm going I'm
50:16
going to throw this Dwight. I know he he jumped on you.
50:18
I knew he was going to do that. I knew.
50:20
But. But, but, but you know the
50:24
record, for the record, in your Twitter Spaces post game, I said
50:27
this after Game 2, because after the Vanderbilt game, I said
50:31
that. I said, you know, when you're up
50:32
2720, I don't care if you're on the road or a neutral site or
50:36
even at home, you finish that game.
50:38
Vanderbilt, you came back and you're up 7-8.
50:40
And I know it was, it was unbearably hot.
50:43
But you don't lose that game. A tech defense that had
50:47
experienced it doesn't lead that.
50:49
But I mean, Chris took my answer.
50:50
But I mean, yeah, go ahead, No. No, no, no, no.
50:55
So when I was going to when I was going to throw to you,
50:57
Dwight, just because I knew that was your answer to to kind of
51:00
feed off that because you've been in those locker rooms,
51:02
you've played and a lot of people ask the question because
51:06
they don't know. Some people will say, well, what
51:08
strength and conditioning have to do or what is a strength and
51:10
conditioning coach have to do with injuries or you know, when
51:15
somebody's injury and getting back, that's the that should be
51:18
the doctor that handles that. So.
51:20
Can you speak about that a little bit?
51:22
Well, I mean, I just, I just think, you know, when I remember
51:26
my guy Drift on Twitter, he said, oh, I didn't know anybody
51:30
was calling for that. Then like 100 people tagged me
51:32
and he was like, oh, I never saw you tweeting about him being
51:36
fired. I'm like, yo dude, no
51:37
disrespect, but that's what I ain't calling for.
51:39
Nobody. I always laugh when people do
51:41
that, call people be fired. I see everybody that I rock with
51:43
on Twitter. He needs to be.
51:45
They ain't listening to you. You got 77.5 followers.
51:48
They're not listening to you. You're not.
51:50
They're not listening .5. Yeah, I was.
51:54
I was yelling. I'd definitely be yelling for
51:56
folks to get fired. No, I get it that that's, that's
51:58
the one. But for me, I'm always going to
52:00
be logical about. I just put it out there because
52:02
I know people hear me and see what I what I post when it comes
52:07
to strength and conditioning. If you watch the ACC media day,
52:11
when Eddie Royal asked drunk drones about it and the transfer
52:15
from Wake, they both put their head down.
52:18
It's like, yo Jared, man, JD. And when he got the job, you saw
52:22
all the guys from those 2000 teams, you know all the guys
52:26
that played during the early ACC years in 2004 and those years.
52:31
Talk about what Jarrett meant to them, the Jr.
52:33
Collins and all those guys, right?
52:35
I don't think fans understand. Even if you played, when it gets
52:39
to the Power 4, the D2, the D3, or even mid major level, your
52:44
strength and conditioning is the foundation of your program.
52:48
Two things have to be in play, your recovery and also your
52:53
endurance, which includes mental toughness.
52:57
They were not. They were not conditioning
53:00
during the season. I know this.
53:01
To me, they were not conditioning offseason.
53:06
The stream coach encouraged them, not Jared.
53:08
The other one that he replaced encouraged them to work out with
53:12
other people. You know what I'm saying?
53:15
So, like, you got to understand the offseason program, when the
53:18
dead period happens, coaches can't talk to players.
53:22
They can't even be in the room. Does it happen?
53:25
Yeah. But most of the time you talk to
53:27
anybody that's played, you might see your position coach, they're
53:30
out recruiting, coaching clinics, golf, vacationing.
53:34
That means who has the players during the offseason, the
53:38
strength and conditioning. So.
53:41
This means like again, I'm I know I'm the OG, I'm old, but
53:44
here's the thing, I'm still relevant.
53:46
That means running stadium steps with a weighted vest on flip
53:50
driving tires, pushing pickup trucks.
53:53
This is what Jared brings to the table.
53:55
He's a, he's a Mike Gentry disciple with the modern day
53:58
approach. And what I'm saying, he knows
54:01
what he's doing. It's not just an exercise
54:04
science degree you got out of a box of Cheerios.
54:06
This is a guy that has been UNC. Still look like he can play.
54:12
Yeah, man, just stop, man. He was a great warrior.
54:16
But from brother I, I, I Chris, I don't, I don't.
54:20
I didn't mean any harm. I was playing with him when he
54:22
took my answer because I said this to him.
54:24
We talk after games, meet him and.
54:26
Talent. And I talked to Chris Coleman
54:28
from Texas Online and I kept saying we don't know how to
54:34
finish. I said they got to learn how to
54:36
win. But finishing is like, I
54:38
remember, I hate to bring up ODU, that law.
54:40
I say ODU but I remember and I was at 3 and 18, but I remember
54:45
my son looked at me and said we're going to lose this game.
54:47
We had 4 dropped interceptions and he was like we're not making
54:52
game-winning plays. Now you say, well, Victoria,
54:54
what does that have to do with strength and conditioning,
54:56
mental toughness, fatigue, and I quote, makes cowards.
55:01
Of us, all of us all that's a Jimmy.
55:03
John's quote tired and you're playing a solid Syracuse, you
55:08
know, and this is how I know this works.
55:10
Every game. Last year we were up, Syracuse,
55:13
Clemson, we were dominating. I begin to get a little turn in
55:17
my stomach because in my mind I'm like, man, hopefully we can
55:21
hold on because we're not we're not going to we're not going to
55:24
hold up. We don't hold up.
55:26
You know, here's another example.
55:27
Go back and check the tape. I know Shell, you're great at
55:30
this. Check the tape.
55:32
Look how many times in those games, in conference games where
55:35
you went 2-3 of them, you're going to a better bowl, more
55:38
money, more exposure. Look at the times it was third
55:41
and one, third and two, fourth and one, and we just get the
55:45
pile just moves. I'm like, man.
55:48
We are soft. Or you playing Miami and you're
55:50
trying to win and you go for a fake field goal, Yeah.
55:54
Run it down their throat. So again, I didn't mean to be
55:56
long with on an answer, but I'm very about it because it's not
56:00
just about, you know, because somebody said, well, that guy
56:03
last year he had that squat record.
56:05
I said, listen, man, anybody that's played high school ball,
56:08
college or even pro knows it's a lot of guys right now.
56:11
I'm a member of lifetime Athletic here in Gainesville.
56:13
I see guys in there like and I'll be looking and they'd be
56:16
doing all that stuff making noise.
56:18
I'll be looking at them. I'm like, you know what?
56:20
I would run through him on 4th and one pause, but I would
56:23
destroy. It.
56:26
I can hear you. Go ahead, Chris.
56:27
Go ahead. Go ahead, go ahead.
56:30
No, because it's got it's got to be functional and movable
56:33
weight, which is great because Kamari Copeland is a is a
56:36
workout warrior, loves the gym, does all those different things.
56:39
But it's just the the attitude around the whole gym and around
56:44
the program with those guys that they're they're cohesive to
56:47
working together, cheer for each other and they fight they asses
56:50
off to get to the weekend. And that's what Ferg makes them
56:54
understand that. I love the fact that that the
56:56
old guy had like attacked the day.
56:58
But when we're attacking in the day and nobody's coming back,
57:02
nobody's coming back from injury.
57:03
Guys are getting soft tissue injuries and they don't come
57:06
back and we are not finishing games.
57:09
Vanderbilt, we got tired. Syracuse, we got tired every
57:13
time we turn around in the game. We lost six games and the only
57:17
game that we were out of the game totally, what we didn't
57:20
think we would win was the bowl game.
57:22
All the rest of them we could have won.
57:23
You win three of those daggum games.
57:25
We ain't even. It's a totally different vibe
57:27
around there. Me and Dwight probably would
57:29
have talked every day. Dwight didn't want to talk to me
57:31
because Dwight was like, I ain't trying to get none of that.
57:33
We've got to win. Curtis Mute.
57:37
You mute on me, I'll jump in. Together, I want to say while
57:41
you get your sound together, Shelton's point about Matt and
57:45
the old line coach, that is probably my 1A answer.
57:49
I will say this, and everyone knows I advocated for Todd
57:53
Washington and it wasn't just because of our brotherhood and
57:56
the fact that I thought he was qualified.
57:58
I just felt like, and I've tweeted this every year when you
58:01
had Alabama and Georgia playing for the national championship or
58:04
the the College Football Playoff, I kept saying on
58:06
Twitter, I kept saying on my pods and different things with
58:09
my guy. Danny notes.
58:11
Look at the direct correlation between the very good football
58:15
programs. We tend to look at the sexy
58:18
positions, the receivers and the running backs and the five
58:21
stars. It's the Los, the line of
58:23
scrimmage. If you look, not just the SEC
58:25
looking even in the ACC, the old line and D line play have to be
58:30
critical. I thought both coordinators that
58:33
would let go, Boeing and Marv show flashes.
58:36
I just felt like the inexperience did us in and I
58:41
felt like, you know, with the old line thing, it reminded me
58:45
when Wyatt Teller was here, when it was like, yo, what are we
58:47
doing? I kept, you know, hearing from
58:49
the people in the program. Well, you know, he's he's young.
58:52
The other guy him has tenure. I said Wyatt Teller is a Cyborg
58:56
put. Him on the What do we?
58:59
And then they finally put and look, he's an all pro, you know.
59:04
So we got to start and I know we got to, we're going to tap into
59:07
that, but we got to start really getting into putting guys in
59:10
position that we know can help us quicker with the sense of
59:13
urgency. And if a guy's going to leave
59:16
because he got bench so he's not performing, let him go.
59:19
I'll, I'll chime in with this real quick before we kick off to
59:24
the next question. I think in general we talk about
59:28
what's the best move, just making moves in general.
59:31
Knowing 6 and 7, seven and six is not the standard at Virginia
59:37
Tech. That is the first thing that
59:39
people can fucking hate. Brent Pratt.
59:41
I hate him. He's stupid.
59:42
I won't fire. At least he had the balls to
59:46
fire a kid that he coached. He fired to fire other people to
59:53
make quick moves. And believe it or not, I don't
59:56
think we've had this much experience at a coordinated
1:00:00
position in a long ass time. So Sheldon, you kick it off from
1:00:04
there because we do have a new offensive coordinator who
1:00:06
actually got a decent freaking background.
1:00:09
Yep, that's right. Talking to offense here, Phil
1:00:12
Montgomery comes in as OC. He was head coach at Tulsa and
1:00:15
doubled as the OC there as well. He had a pretty good track
1:00:18
record of turning out quarterbacks, although it was
1:00:20
more so in the early 20s. Twenty twins, obviously with RG3
1:00:23
and a couple more when he was at Tulsa, but obviously Kyron
1:00:28
Drones progressed last season. We talked before about how the
1:00:32
Hokies were not as efficient in the short horizontal passing
1:00:35
games Team starts really take that away and there was their
1:00:38
bread and butter during the 2023 season.
1:00:40
Then you had injuries, you know, off the line did not do a ton of
1:00:44
favors. All that combined to make for a
1:00:46
not great season statistically for Kyron, even though, you
1:00:49
know, he was obviously running a lot and you know, kind of got
1:00:51
worn down as a as a scene progress.
1:00:53
So I'll, I'll throw this to Dwight because I'm interested to
1:00:56
get his opinion here to start. What, what elements, what
1:01:00
element of his game play does Kyron kind of need to recapture
1:01:03
from that 2023 season to get back to the form that we kind of
1:01:06
know he can he can be at? That's a great question.
1:01:09
I'm a, I'm a, I'm a KD fan. I said last year he should have
1:01:14
been start. I mean, the year before that he
1:01:16
should have been started because I felt like he gave us a
1:01:19
different dynamic. Virginia Tech was ahead of the
1:01:21
curve and their program when it came to dual threat mobile
1:01:25
quarterbacks, long before it became fashionable, long before
1:01:27
Mike got there. When you go back to the days of
1:01:29
Maurice, you say, so this is not to minimize my God, Will Ferrell
1:01:33
and Jim Drunkenmiller and even Brewer, their ability to win
1:01:37
games and what they did from the pocket.
1:01:39
But I felt like Virginia Tech was head of the game.
1:01:42
Because if you look at the NFL right now, everything is RPO
1:01:45
action with the step of the kid at the Chargers and a few other
1:01:49
players, everything they've adjusted and brought RPO to the
1:01:52
NFL so much that they've talked about how long you can hold the
1:01:56
ball with his own read because it's too much of an unfair and
1:01:59
advantage. I felt like the drones we saw
1:02:01
that first year, yes, they had more tape on him last year, but
1:02:05
I felt like he was healthy, but I also felt like he was in
1:02:08
control. I said in Dom V or Talley's
1:02:11
live, I said once Pride gives him the keys to the car, that
1:02:15
first year he took over, you're going to see him excel.
1:02:18
And Pride kept, you know, saying, well, you know, we need
1:02:21
everybody all hands on deck. And I said he's got to give him
1:02:24
the key. I don't know.
1:02:25
I know KD, but I don't know him personally like that.
1:02:29
I know football players and I know the mindset.
1:02:31
And once he got to the keys to the car, you saw him take off.
1:02:35
They won seven games and they finished the season with a
1:02:37
strong note. 2 to him were a great combination.
1:02:40
I felt last year we went away from the game plan like so for
1:02:45
example, I think Brady's the goat and I the push back to me
1:02:49
when people say Tom Brady's not the goat because of the system.
1:02:52
I always say name a offense and any level of football that
1:02:55
doesn't have a system. When I played for when I when I
1:03:00
played for Ricky Bussell and Stein Spring and those guys that
1:03:06
coached at Tech, we had a system.
1:03:08
I feel like last year, the Vanderbilt game, I remember that
1:03:11
game. I'm like, why are we coming out
1:03:15
in four and five wise empty sets, throwing the ball, run the
1:03:19
ball. When you a healthy running game
1:03:22
as a quarterback's best friend. What I look for to do this year
1:03:26
is to play free. Don't think about the draft.
1:03:29
You saw flashes of it where he looked like himself against
1:03:32
Miami. He played great again because
1:03:34
the running game with Pearson, Prelo's son.
1:03:37
And two were. Helping him also think in order
1:03:41
to help him, please, for the love of God, can we please start
1:03:45
using tight ends again, Not just in the RPO, but down the scene.
1:03:49
We never attacked, not consistently the middle of the
1:03:52
field. I'm like, stop putting him and
1:03:55
throwing 9 routes to these receivers when you're not making
1:03:58
the safety read the field. I feel like, you know, people
1:04:02
talk about, oh, the pushback was drones can't see the field.
1:04:06
I feel like his tackle didn't make him feel comfortable and
1:04:09
they never even took him out the game.
1:04:12
I played old line about the quarterback feeling
1:04:15
uncomfortable. He's got to feel protected from
1:04:18
his blind side and up the middle.
1:04:21
He never looked like we ever addressed blitz pickup even off
1:04:25
of bye weeks. I'm like how do you not know
1:04:28
exotic blitzes and how to read different fronts?
1:04:32
But they weren't exactly. They weren't exotic, Dwight.
1:04:34
You know some of them were. Some of them were.
1:04:36
I know what you're saying. Yeah, the majority of the time
1:04:40
is that he get the ball and he turned around and by the time he
1:04:43
look up, somebody's on on his ass.
1:04:46
You know, So what I'm talking about is like zone blister.
1:04:48
So when the DN, the defensive tackle drops and the linebackers
1:04:52
come up and the gaps, you know, understanding gap integrity from
1:04:56
the offensive line perspective. So the answer to put a ball on
1:04:59
Shelton's question, man, I I really need drones to be able to
1:05:03
have a healthy running game and see the field and play his game
1:05:07
and and just get out of bounds slide more.
1:05:10
I think when you have a quarterback that's dynamic like
1:05:13
him, you see it with Lamar. You saw with my cousin got with
1:05:17
morning way and Andy Reid when he got to Philly.
1:05:20
They allow yes you can talk about Deshawn Jackson and
1:05:23
Macklin, but I felt like having a shady McCoy and quarterback
1:05:27
RPO friendly plays really helped him.
1:05:31
What makes Mahomes great No one know for those watching and
1:05:34
that's going to see this. I'm not saying drones is
1:05:36
Mahomes, I'm saying Mahomes when Kelsey was injured and they took
1:05:40
away Tariq Hill when he left, you saw him struggle a bit and
1:05:44
he did not have a great season last year.
1:05:46
So drones is still a dynamic quarterback and he's healthy,
1:05:51
but I feel like even without 2 and you got to have run game and
1:05:54
that means whoever the number one running back going into the
1:05:57
season. I said this as well the Georgia
1:05:59
Tech game when drones got injured that Hanford him.
1:06:02
I said in week two, stop running drones.
1:06:06
I'm excuse me, stop running drones so much and stop relying
1:06:09
on one running back like you don't have other running back.
1:06:12
And and they did. They left.
1:06:13
We were up 21 to 10 or something like that.
1:06:16
And 21/3. 21 three and it's like take two now.
1:06:20
So it's you, you can run. I don't I I feel like sometimes
1:06:24
Shelton and everyone else when coaches OCS get a mobile dynamic
1:06:29
quarterback, they don't really know how to use them.
1:06:32
And design runs are cool, but not so much to the point where
1:06:37
the old line up front in the middle is not getting a push.
1:06:39
So then all that stuff falls on drones.
1:06:41
So people talk about the backward pass against Rutgers or
1:06:45
the tip interception that he threw when they were coming back
1:06:48
to drive. I think all of that stuff comes
1:06:51
down to continuity and confidence.
1:06:53
I feel like his confidence, he he was, I felt like last year I
1:06:59
saw him pressing a lot because he didn't feel comfortable in
1:07:01
the offense. And I no disrespect to Tyler
1:07:05
Bourne, I know him personally. Disrespect to him?
1:07:06
Yes. Respect.
1:07:09
He can't. He can't.
1:07:11
He can't be 1/4. That was a lazy promotion.
1:07:15
He can't be a quarterback coach. And, and, and, and the thing
1:07:18
about this is that I never played quarterback.
1:07:20
When I talked to Let me Think, Mike Tyrod, guys that I'm close
1:07:25
to, they talk about the quarterback coach, like Marcus
1:07:30
Vick when he was there, they had to do from NC State of the guy,
1:07:35
Michael Caine. He loved, He loved Michael
1:07:38
Caine. He talked about him glowingly
1:07:40
because he said he taught him so much and that's what we need.
1:07:44
So I feel like Shelton kind of touched on it like Drones has
1:07:47
got to be him and he's just got to understand you're going to
1:07:50
have a shot to play in the league regardless because you
1:07:52
have the measurables and the skill set.
1:07:54
But the offensive coordinator has to help him.
1:07:59
Look back to my cousins Heisman year.
1:08:01
There was no Heisman campaign. He finished third in the Heisman
1:08:05
and a lot of times he would only pass the ball in the game 1617
1:08:09
times and then he had screens slants 9 route. 9.
1:08:16
Play action roll outs to Ricky Hall and Andre Davis and and
1:08:20
guess what go back. I know that was 1999 so
1:08:23
everybody calm down. I'm saying tight ends Slopkowski
1:08:27
and Browning win were a major part of the game plan.
1:08:30
Jim Druckenmiller had Brian Jennings, Tyrod Taylor.
1:08:35
I'm not Tyrod somebody. Brian Randall had Jeff King and
1:08:39
Marcus Thicke had Jeff King who is drones tight end last year.
1:08:44
Benji Gosnell and his brother Stephen Gosnell, who's.
1:08:47
Playing, but Benji Gosnell was not utilized.
1:08:50
What did I? What did I tell?
1:08:51
You Benji Gosnell was used on screens.
1:08:53
Benji Gosnell was not used, as you said, Dwight right up the
1:08:56
seam making the safeties have to think safeties instead of
1:09:01
instead of working against Benji, we're jumping all of that
1:09:04
short and intermediate stuff. That's that Sheldon was talking
1:09:08
about earlier and that blew that up.
1:09:10
You got safeties playing at or behind the line of scrimmage,
1:09:14
making plays because we're dumping the ball off to a tight
1:09:16
end or throwing something short to a running back and not using
1:09:20
the whole field to our advantage.
1:09:22
And the way that makes. Sense and the way that gives the
1:09:25
quarterback some confidence. And I think that's the big thing
1:09:27
for me is that, you know, Dwight, you touched on it like
1:09:30
confidence was the big thing. And when we look back at 23 when
1:09:34
we saw Kyron playing with confidence, that's the Kyron
1:09:37
that we know and that's the Kyron that can go out there and
1:09:39
take over games. And I think between a
1:09:42
combination of offensive line problems, injuries, and just not
1:09:48
utilizing the tools of the offense in a way that makes
1:09:51
sense it it put Kyron behind an 8 ball.
1:09:54
And like you said, Dwight, he started pressing.
1:09:56
Sometimes when you have an ability, when you are a a highly
1:09:59
able, talented quarterback and things aren't quite going the
1:10:04
way you want to, you end up do trying to do too much.
1:10:06
And I feel like there was a lot of moments last year where he
1:10:08
was trying to do too much because he wasn't getting the
1:10:10
help and support that he needed. Yeah.
1:10:13
You're right. I see the message.
1:10:14
OK, you're right. O Kane came later it.
1:10:17
Was Rogers. But either way, you're getting
1:10:19
my drift. And this one final point to you
1:10:21
what you're saying BI told this to to Chris because he's got a
1:10:25
son on the team. I'm not surprised I'm up here in
1:10:28
the DMV. I'm not surprised Lane is
1:10:30
killing it in Washington right now.
1:10:31
I know it's early. You know why?
1:10:33
Because when I talk about versatility and coaching and
1:10:36
game planning, I said Lane was our most consistent, my favorite
1:10:40
and most reliable wide receiver. We only used him one way in our
1:10:46
office. We never used him.
1:10:48
You never saw him and if you did, he still didn't get a touch
1:10:51
like he should. Daquan Felton was only used on
1:10:54
straight 9 routes, so you never really made the offense versus
1:10:59
versatile. And I kept saying, I said, oh,
1:11:01
Virginia Tech didn't realize everybody in ACC how y'all came
1:11:05
on strong last year, they're going to watch tape.
1:11:07
I don't think the average fan realizes even with teams that
1:11:11
don't make bowl games or even if you make a bowl game, there's a
1:11:15
for the quality Staffs to really elite Staffs.
1:11:17
There's a group of coaches that are game planning for next year.
1:11:21
That's it. That's it.
1:11:23
So it's like they just, they think, oh, how do they know?
1:11:27
We didn't do anything. We went to that Vanderbilt game
1:11:30
like Vanderbilt didn't watch film.
1:11:31
They watch nothing watch anything that we did last year.
1:11:36
Oh, what a difference a year, a year tape make.
1:11:38
So my biggest thing is that you didn't have an identity.
1:11:42
See, this is the beautiful thing about coach pride and most
1:11:44
people. He'll he he'll say something if
1:11:47
you listen and he'll tell you exactly how he feels.
1:11:50
He said in it with his if the ACC media day, we had to
1:11:54
recreate the wheel every week. We had no identity of what the
1:11:59
offense was going to be from week to week.
1:12:02
We were great from the 20 to the 20 and then we scored more
1:12:06
touchdowns on reverses, trick plays and screens like that
1:12:10
inside the red zone. Nothing.
1:12:12
That was a staple play that you could go and win.
1:12:15
You couldn't beat Miami. When you turn around and got
1:12:18
that great play by by Spencer up the sideline, you need it.
1:12:22
You need to make a point right there.
1:12:23
I'm getting 10 yards no matter what and you didn't have 4
1:12:27
plays. You can say I'm going to run
1:12:28
these 4 plays and stick and get this first down and put Miami,
1:12:32
Miami away. You scored in Miami, Miami fold
1:12:35
and you beat them in their building.
1:12:37
So the biggest thing is having a guy like Coach Montgomery who
1:12:41
has had a track record, you go back and look at we always want
1:12:44
to go back to RG3. We'll go back and look at he he
1:12:47
put, he's always had 1000 yard receiver, a couple of guys that
1:12:51
got 67800 yards and 1000 yard running back.
1:12:55
So they're going to spread it out, get the ball in people's
1:12:58
hands and can make plays and go from there.
1:13:01
The offensive line is going to be amazing because the one thing
1:13:04
Kyrie need more than anything else, it's time.
1:13:08
It's not it's that he don't need a lot.
1:13:09
He just need time. There were times where we would
1:13:12
see Bayshaw and him getting met with the defensive end or the
1:13:16
defensive tackle in the backfield baseball baseball game
1:13:20
that led the country or was Thompson ACC for broken tackles
1:13:24
because he was always fighting the guy all right when he
1:13:26
getting the ball. So having time, having
1:13:29
experienced OC, this probably the best OC they've had.
1:13:35
I put this in a wire Ricky bottle.
1:13:36
This is the Ricky. Bottle.
1:13:39
No shot on time, Spring. Let's slow, let's slow down.
1:13:44
Let's see what he do first. Experience.
1:13:46
Experience. We all see it.
1:13:48
Let me see. What?
1:13:49
He do, at least. At least be proven to know what
1:13:52
he's doing now you know he was down in your neck of the woods,
1:13:55
Dally, Wood, Auburn, but you already had an egomaniac and
1:13:57
Freeze. That's.
1:13:59
Right. So Freeze wanted to call plays
1:14:01
anyway. So I just believe Coach Monty
1:14:04
comes with a system. He's going to get the very best.
1:14:06
He's going to highlight what Tyron does great right and then
1:14:10
enhance the things that he doesn't do well.
1:14:12
But I can tell you this right now, y'all can go look at all
1:14:15
the tape you want to last. Jay Lane didn't run a slant all
1:14:18
year. No, he didn't.
1:14:19
He didn't run a slant all year. That's.
1:14:24
What do you run 437 at the at the Commonwealth he ran a 437
1:14:28
and he never ran a nine. Never ran.
1:14:30
Never ran a nine last year. But you turned around and like I
1:14:33
said, you had no identity. You had no offensive identity.
1:14:37
You were if baseball breaks one or, you know, we get inside the
1:14:42
20, we're going to run reverse with a green.
1:14:44
We're going we're going to run a double reverse.
1:14:45
We're going to throw double reverse Philly special throw
1:14:48
over the top the counter. We going to do some some janky
1:14:51
stuff to score touchdowns. But we never turned around and
1:14:54
just, hey, we got patented plays to you people.
1:14:56
You bet you guys never scored his touchdown win against Miami.
1:14:59
Why? Because you went right up the.
1:15:01
Scene. Right up the scene.
1:15:03
Yeah, that's what you like. You y'all said his name a few
1:15:06
times, so let's talk about him and what's going to happen since
1:15:10
we lost him. Basil Tune, two seasons at Tech
1:15:12
definitely stamped himself up there in the upper echelon.
1:15:16
Over 2000 yards, single game record 266 against BCI.
1:15:21
Watched that out here in the backyard that night, but he's
1:15:26
gone. Yeah.
1:15:28
You don't just replace that guy. You never just replaced that
1:15:31
guy. But you know, you had what Tyler
1:15:34
Mason showed. We had what Jeremiah showed
1:15:38
against Syracuse, and for some reason the fucking next week you
1:15:41
couldn't read him one time. Sorry, that's gonna stick on me.
1:15:47
I mean. He went nine for 96 and he
1:15:49
didn't get one carry against Clemson, but.
1:15:51
Nope. Of the young guys on the roster
1:15:53
of the portal guys, because you see some of those guys running
1:15:56
play, they have skill sets. Chris Lester, Who's your
1:16:00
favorite player to fill some of that void?
1:16:04
For me, I I like the Benny kid a lot.
1:16:07
I like the Benny kid a lot only because it's experience.
1:16:11
But I think the offense is just going to be a little bit
1:16:13
different because I think what's going to end up happening, it's
1:16:16
going to be just get get the ball in space to people.
1:16:20
So I don't think it's going to be so much traditional that we
1:16:23
got like 2. We get like 16 carries.
1:16:26
If you look at most of the time it's 16 to 24 carries.
1:16:30
I think if you you mix a combination because talking to
1:16:34
some of the coaches, they understand that you don't change
1:16:37
a pro from a pro, but the depth you have from prelo to Bennett
1:16:42
to Terry on you got what they call him bully.
1:16:48
I, you know, Terry on Stewart and then you turn around, you
1:16:52
got the Hawkins kid. And then I just kind of want to
1:16:55
see what Coney, what Coney and Mason have in this.
1:16:58
I think to do what I expect us to do this year, you're going to
1:17:01
have to it's going to be spread across the board.
1:17:03
I know coach process, I'm going with three out the gate, but for
1:17:07
you to do what you got to do this year, you probably going to
1:17:09
have to run all five of those cats because that was the
1:17:11
problem last year. You walked into games where this
1:17:15
guy was nicked up. He had an ankle down.
1:17:17
This other kid, we don't want to play him yet because he's a red
1:17:19
shirt. This guy, you know, he made one
1:17:21
fumble and then the OC decides not to play him no damn more.
1:17:24
It's it's just goofy stuff like that that you're not going to
1:17:27
have happen this year now that you got a more experience OC.
1:17:31
About you, Dwight. You've been watching some of
1:17:33
these guys kind of figuring out. I didn't I'm disappointed I
1:17:36
didn't get to the spring game to see that because that's usually
1:17:39
kind of like I I I remember damn, I'm getting old.
1:17:43
The kid that blood Foster, I talked to him after the game.
1:17:47
They switched to him from he got hurt, but he had three picks
1:17:52
against Florida State. His mom passed away the
1:17:56
cornerback. He got drafted by the Tennessee
1:17:59
to who? Harley.
1:18:00
Caleb Farley. Caleb Farley So I remember that
1:18:03
spring game and Caleb Farley was that receiver and I said, good
1:18:07
Lord, he's got to see the field. But then I talked to Bud and
1:18:10
they were going to move in the corner.
1:18:11
But the thing about it is I, I remember and I'm again, I'm not
1:18:15
a prophet, but I, I know what I know when I speak on what I know
1:18:18
when I see what I see and I call it out there.
1:18:22
I remember the two spring games to go.
1:18:25
I saw Pier Little Pillow because I played with Pierce and I said
1:18:28
I was on the sidelines. I said that kid is a baller.
1:18:32
And then he had the 77 yard touchdown run against Miami.
1:18:36
And he was the phantom, Phantom hold, yeah.
1:18:39
But even then, that's what I mean by the courage to play
1:18:42
people. Malachi Thomas had that rush
1:18:44
rushing record and that flash that freshman year, but he was
1:18:49
never fully healthy. And at that moment you got to
1:18:51
give in the season even before the Miami game Tooting
1:18:55
breathers. So I'm big on Pierce and pray
1:18:58
little son little pillow. I know people don't like calling
1:19:00
little pillow, but I'm I'm just saying like he just to me is a
1:19:05
player that is a tech running back, a Mike emo type guy that
1:19:10
people look at Cedric humans and Mike emo Thunder and lightning.
1:19:13
They you know, we know about Kevin Jones and Lee Suggs.
1:19:16
But I feel like again, when I said to start the show, how we
1:19:19
try to Fast forward the process and we get impatient.
1:19:23
We we don't realize that a lot of the guys that have been in
1:19:27
the Tech 4 threshold that the household names don't always
1:19:30
start that way. Corey Moore did not come in tech
1:19:32
as a household name. Can chances only had one offer
1:19:36
and it wasn't a real commendable offer.
1:19:37
He was a Hooper down in Maury. He played football and
1:19:40
basketball and at the time he was a better basketball player.
1:19:43
So a lot of guys, Mike Emo and Cedric Humes, who I mentioned
1:19:47
were both blue collar guys. There was not a lot of build up,
1:19:51
but that the 1-2 punch of them really worked well.
1:19:54
I feel like Pillow's the guy that can be part of a 1-2 punch.
1:19:57
I'm I'm really big on him getting a healthy amount of
1:20:01
carriage because he has the burst and vision and he's not on
1:20:05
anybody's scouting report. You know, I mean, you know,
1:20:09
Tooting to me, you look at his career in those two years, him
1:20:12
and the other kid, Khalil Herbert.
1:20:15
What they did as transfers and how dynamic they were, they
1:20:20
really carried a lot of the load on the offense of production.
1:20:23
But we fumble the bag on how we use both of them.
1:20:27
I'm not talking about what they did on the field as players.
1:20:30
I'm saying there's a level of gamemanship and scheme you have
1:20:35
to do when you have certain players that are once in a
1:20:38
lifetime or just really elite type players.
1:20:41
I think the bass, the backfield will be a backfield by
1:20:44
committee, but I think the OCR knows that.
1:20:47
But you can win games. That was Tom's Tech won nine
1:20:50
games when Kevin Jones got hurt and Keith Brunell and guys like
1:20:54
that came in and we're all serviceable.
1:20:56
Keith Brunell had a great game and Big East play against some
1:20:59
tough opponents. We knew he wasn't going to be
1:21:02
taking Kevin Jones spot, but you had, you know, again, I'm not
1:21:07
trying to make it back like back in the day, just to keep it
1:21:09
relevant. I just feel like Kilo, you know,
1:21:15
can really, really help us because I just felt like that
1:21:18
run against Miami, I still remember it and I remember I was
1:21:22
looking at my TV like they called it back.
1:21:24
But I was like, that run. He was running away from Miami
1:21:29
players. Let me let me throw this out
1:21:34
right quick for y'all. I know Sheldon probably, yeah,
1:21:37
got this in the back of his head.
1:21:39
I have to look up stuff. I can't remember stats like
1:21:41
Shelton. You go back and look at the at
1:21:44
the Vanderbilt game last year, that'll make you sick.
1:21:47
I watched it. Can anybody guess how many
1:21:50
carries we talked about? Because this question started
1:21:53
with Tooten. Can anybody remember how many
1:21:55
carries Tooten had? 14. 9 Tooten had 9 carries but
1:22:02
34 yards. Byron had 16 carries for 19.
1:22:06
Balls got you. Yep.
1:22:08
That was really the only two people who carried the ball.
1:22:11
Then you had Malachi Thomas had one carry.
1:22:15
You can't win games like that against teams.
1:22:18
So just to kind of tie both of these topics that we've had
1:22:22
together, when you talk about The OC and you talk about the
1:22:27
production that you're going to have to replace it don't even
1:22:29
matter what the about production if you ain't using what you got.
1:22:34
And I kept saying when I was talking to somebody, I was
1:22:36
sitting beside our, our buddy Greg and his family.
1:22:40
And, and Greg's real. He, he's really knowledgeable in
1:22:42
football. He kept saying, why are we
1:22:45
scared to run the ball? What are we do?
1:22:49
Why are we scared to even try to run the ball?
1:22:52
And it was so many games where it looked like we was throwing
1:22:54
stuff against the wall and and seeing when stuff.
1:22:57
Oh, a bunch of games of that. Don't talk to me.
1:22:59
About Tooting. I seen Tooting one time look at
1:23:02
the sidelines and pound his chest and tell them to give me
1:23:05
the ball. Yep.
1:23:07
But then now as Virginia Tech fans or even coaches, you think
1:23:10
that's probably one of the best running backs that we've seen at
1:23:13
Virginia Tech in the last 20 years?
1:23:15
And he's looking to the sideline telling his OC to give me the
1:23:19
ball. And people was mad at me because
1:23:21
I said if you're going to fight ADC, fight AOC.
1:23:23
Oh, no, he had a good offense. Now JT Oh yeah, that guy was
1:23:27
pretty good and you're just man, get that motherfucker out of
1:23:30
here. He wasn't doing nothing.
1:23:31
What are y'all talking about? I'll.
1:23:33
Put you like this. Man, talking about get this dude
1:23:36
out of here and get somebody in here who knows what they're
1:23:38
doing. You just told me Jay Lane, who
1:23:40
was one of the fastest receivers that we've had, didn't run no
1:23:43
slants last year. I just told you that in one of
1:23:46
the biggest games even it was Vanderbilt, but it was the SEC
1:23:49
opponent and it was the first game of the year with all these
1:23:52
with all this hype, you get your dynamic running back who's one
1:23:56
of the best that we've seen in 20 years, 9 carries in the first
1:24:01
game of the year yeah. But to your point, to your
1:24:04
point, JT too, like Jerry, I I was amazed I.
1:24:09
Was I'm a I'm a big lane fan. He's the type of receiver
1:24:13
that'll get in the league and have a breakout rookie season
1:24:15
and get a contract. And you're like, damn.
1:24:17
And you look at his tech highlights and then so like, so
1:24:21
here's the thing. He was such a good athlete.
1:24:24
We used him at running back when the depth of running back was
1:24:26
he, he was in the backfield going in motion.
1:24:29
They used him on a few jet sweeps.
1:24:30
That's the he just was a dynamic athlete.
1:24:34
But I remember that about too that that game Vanderbilt, I
1:24:37
just felt like we came in there and we were sleepwalking and
1:24:41
there was no energy. And I just didn't understand it
1:24:44
because all the hype around it and I look at last year as one
1:24:50
of the most embarrassing seasons in tech history.
1:24:52
It's very reminiscent of the 2003 team.
1:24:55
The 2003 team in Virginia Tech history was arguably the most
1:24:59
talented team in tech history. That is Ernest Wilford, Ryan
1:25:03
Randall, Marcus Vick. This is a team that snapped
1:25:06
Miami's 35 game-winning streak. They won that Texas A&M when
1:25:09
they had not lost a non conference game at 12 years.
1:25:13
Yet they lost a Boston College at home, they had Kevin Jones,
1:25:17
they lost they lost games in conference, they barely beat
1:25:21
temple and they beat temple by 1.
1:25:24
I believe in Philly, that team underachieved that had Jake
1:25:28
Grove, arguably the best inner in the in in history of tech,
1:25:31
along with all American. I can go on and on right This
1:25:35
last year, I remember somebody said on one of y'all lives,
1:25:38
y'all did tally where they were like, Oh well, just because you
1:25:41
weren't returned 21 of 22 seniors doesn't mean how talent
1:25:45
they are. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
1:25:47
It's not about them being extremely talented and elite.
1:25:50
It's more so they should have been more familiar with the
1:25:53
system. There was no sense of urgency in
1:25:55
games. It was predictable.
1:25:57
We didn't seize the moment. The fake field goal against
1:26:01
Miami showed no confidence when drones and that offense were
1:26:05
from the beginning of that game, we saw the team that Tech was
1:26:08
supposed to be. So for me, I know we haven't
1:26:10
gotten there yet. When I look at this year,
1:26:13
whoever the best players are on offense and defense, you got to
1:26:16
put them on the field. You got to especially.
1:26:20
I know y'all have. But.
1:26:23
Especially listen, I I don't always subscribe to the hot seat
1:26:28
notion, but I really feel like tech as a program is that is in
1:26:33
the crossroads right now because you're teetering on irrelevancy
1:26:37
and you need to win eight or more games by any means
1:26:41
necessary. This is this is the year it's
1:26:43
got to happen. Because if it doesn't happen
1:26:44
this year, even even if you get a stay of execution from a
1:26:48
firing standpoint for this regime, you're putting yourself
1:26:51
in behind the 8 ball heading into next year where it's it's a
1:26:55
it's a make or break. And I feel like this year is
1:26:57
really just as much of A make or break because like you said,
1:27:01
Dwight, we're falling behind. I think, you know, when we look
1:27:04
at what pride did this offseason with with the shuffling, I think
1:27:08
the most important thing, the most important position that we
1:27:12
needed to shuffle is that that offensive line spot.
1:27:14
We got Matt Moore in there now. He was kind of brought in to
1:27:18
kind of fix a lot of what kind of went sideways between the
1:27:24
Rudolph, you know? When?
1:27:27
You. Were getting.
1:27:28
Out there. Then you had Crook coming in
1:27:29
late. You know, we, we, we heard
1:27:31
about, you know, zooming into practices and stuff like that.
1:27:34
I mean. What all?
1:27:36
Sorts all sorts of crazy. Stuff that was out there on the
1:27:39
street that was. That was on the street that was.
1:27:43
Brian, imagine his face. Imagine mass face when he took
1:27:46
because you know, you get a new job, you go through the files,
1:27:49
but as a football coach, you go through the tape.
1:27:51
Imagine his face when he looked at them taking false steps and
1:27:55
letting guys run right through the middle and getting pushed
1:27:58
back when your lineman sacking his own quarter.
1:28:00
But imagine his face. I mean, for real.
1:28:03
Like, imagine because I, I'm hearing you talk.
1:28:05
I'm like, he had to be with his, you know, they call it the
1:28:07
clicker with the thing doing like this.
1:28:09
Like, yeah, he probably did. He probably.
1:28:11
Was like what am I looking at? What am I looking?
1:28:14
At He probably did. He probably was like Kilmer from
1:28:16
Varsity Blues. Jesus Christ.
1:28:19
And like, so like when I was looking at the at the tape
1:28:22
myself, I'm like, we got we got to do something.
1:28:25
But like the team, the offensive line didn't look cohesive.
1:28:29
We had guys that Reliabilities, we can name names.
1:28:32
We cannot name names, but we know who we're talking about.
1:28:34
We got we had we had guys that were Reliabilities on that
1:28:36
offensive line. That was trained.
1:28:38
In the game that stayed in the game, but now we got Matt Moore
1:28:41
in, he brought some of his own as as our man brought his new.
1:28:47
He's like. He brought, he brought his.
1:28:48
New he brought in some of his own guys.
1:28:51
So, you know, we got we got a little bit something coming in
1:28:53
here, you know, can this new mix of talent with a little bit
1:28:58
better coaching at the OC standpoint, what what's kind of
1:29:02
the ceiling y'all think for this room relative to what we've seen
1:29:05
the last couple years? Last couple years or just last
1:29:08
couple years? Yeah, just last.
1:29:10
Couple years overall, so last last year was an absolute F.
1:29:13
So let's go ahead and get this out.
1:29:15
Since we talking, it was only one guy that I wanted to have
1:29:17
come back. Xavier Chaplin was the only kid
1:29:20
I wanted to come back. The rest of them, hey man, they
1:29:23
can go and do whatever they wanted to do.
1:29:25
There was alleged that somebody wanted to be paid the highest
1:29:27
just paid center in in the ACC or in the country.
1:29:31
I'm glad he's down there where he's at.
1:29:33
He about to get his ass ran through because he was God
1:29:35
awful. You go watch the tape.
1:29:37
I watched him get Pop Watson sacked 8 times, Pop Watson watch
1:29:43
Pop Watson get sacked 8 times. I watched my backup quarterback
1:29:46
get a damn concussion because he was terrible.
1:29:49
His brother didn't want to thank the program when he left.
1:29:51
Great, no problem. Carry your ass.
1:29:53
You turned around your head got you had Bob Shake.
1:29:56
He's a great Family Guy. Yeah, Beautiful kid.
1:29:59
Glad. I'm glad.
1:30:00
Whatever he's doing, he goes and does.
1:30:03
So if he's at Enterprise, Lowe's, Home Depot, I don't give
1:30:07
a damn. Don't ever get on a football
1:30:09
field again. And to turn around and no, I
1:30:14
don't think he is, but. Yeah, he is.
1:30:16
Where Oklahoma? State, Oklahoma State.
1:30:19
OK, well guess what? That quarterback going to get
1:30:21
hurt. But then you turn around and you
1:30:22
take Parker Clemens and the turn around and for them to
1:30:26
consistently take his jolly ass out there and smile and get his
1:30:31
ass beat every damn time. Hey, I got to I got to throw
1:30:34
this in too, Chris, while you're going on your tangent and I'm
1:30:37
I'm going to come back and let you finish.
1:30:39
The OC is now a offensive line coach at a.
1:30:48
That's what I'm saying. So for him to be the OC and to
1:30:51
see this offensive line be as bad as it is, and I understand
1:30:54
we didn't have depth, but to turn around and not to play
1:30:57
Johnny Garrett at right tackle and so damn near had that boy
1:31:01
break his damn foot in that records game, right?
1:31:04
It's criminal. That is criminal on so many
1:31:08
daggum levels and so everybody down common.
1:31:11
Oh, he's regrets. Man, if a moment if a joker is
1:31:14
stepping on my God damn foot and I'm getting sacked and I turn
1:31:18
around. Dude, we played against we
1:31:20
played against Marshall. The goal was to throw a nine
1:31:23
round. The first play, man, I watched
1:31:25
Mike Green come off the side and like lickety split.
1:31:28
It was in the damn backfield. Georgia Tech the same thing.
1:31:32
We weren't even supposed to be out there that damn long.
1:31:34
The goal was to get him get up but and bring in bring in comp
1:31:38
and sleeve. I can't because Park is letting
1:31:41
them blowing the damn game, playing out the gate.
1:31:43
For Tyler Bowen to turn around and go take a job as being an
1:31:47
offensive line coach when he is an excellent recruiter and not
1:31:50
bring any offensive line in here.
1:31:52
It's fucking criminal. I think, I think I'll 2nd.
1:31:56
I'll say this, you know, I knew of Tyler Bowen because he
1:32:01
coached with my my brother Tyler Washington at Jacksonville.
1:32:04
So I text him. I met Tyler Bowen back in the
1:32:06
day when he was working his way up the, the coaching ladder.
1:32:09
We we, we met at a coachings clinic in Tysons, Virginia, up
1:32:13
here in North Virginia. He he's probably going to kill
1:32:16
it at offensive line because he was the run game game
1:32:19
coordinator with Jacksonville Jaguars.
1:32:21
So he had no experience calling plays.
1:32:25
And you know, he had some moments, but true.
1:32:28
But the truth be told, he'll probably excel in that position.
1:32:30
And I think what the reason why is not just because of his
1:32:33
knowledge of the game. The one thing we haven't touched
1:32:36
on, but I touched on last year during the season is that when
1:32:42
you look at Virginia Tech in the football program with Fuente and
1:32:47
and pride the last few years, and this is on wit and and the
1:32:52
energy around the program, there's got to be
1:32:56
accountability, right? Like, so I'm a small business.
1:32:59
I own two small businesses, people that work for me.
1:33:03
I'm in meetings. I got 3 cell phone.
1:33:06
I am a very important person here in Northern Virginia and I
1:33:09
have people that work for me. So my victory light brand is
1:33:12
spread out from podcasts into commencement speeches to doing
1:33:16
appearances and also psychiatric hospitals.
1:33:20
So I've I've cornered the market in those on those realms, right.
1:33:24
If somebody which I've had to fire people because if I get a
1:33:28
call and there's multiple grievances, you have to leave my
1:33:31
group, you have to leave my agency.
1:33:32
I don't care. I had to fire a guy a handful of
1:33:35
years ago because he was falsifying hours and he he
1:33:39
actually is a coach and the DMV coaches basketball.
1:33:42
We were very good friends. He helped coach me, coach with
1:33:45
me. However, when I got that thing,
1:33:48
I pulled him in. I gave him action plan,
1:33:51
performance action plan. He didn't follow through.
1:33:54
He got fired. I said just bring, bring on
1:33:56
Monday. Bring your keys and your your
1:33:59
flash, Rob. So at the end of the day, how
1:34:02
how's that relate to Virginia Tech?
1:34:04
I feel like some of the best coaches understand the
1:34:09
importance of sense of urgency, like, for example, wasted time.
1:34:13
So the backup quarterback just answers very quickly anybody and
1:34:16
anybody in the show who was the backup quarterback to drones
1:34:19
last year. Collins, Lee.
1:34:22
When he came in the game, he came in the game in five to six
1:34:26
games and then ran a dummy motion.
1:34:28
He ran the dummy, dummy motion. You could have been using that
1:34:34
package with pop in the red zone like we did with Boone and Tyrod
1:34:39
and Logan and Tyrod. You.
1:34:41
Wasted again. That's what I mean about having
1:34:43
a sense of urgency, understanding what I'm saying is
1:34:48
I'm, I'm not an AD, but I know to me, my job is to have all the
1:34:52
programs at at premium level and pulling the people in, you know,
1:34:57
on some Friday night light shit. Like, you know, remember that
1:35:00
scene Friday Night Lights when him and his wife and the
1:35:02
daughter were coming out Walmart and then they said, Coach, we're
1:35:05
going to win it. You know, the truth of the
1:35:07
matter is I'm not seeing the fans either.
1:35:11
I'm not, I'm not I'm not proposing the fans running up on
1:35:13
pride at Kroger or at Walmart. What I'm saying is, but GN Tech
1:35:17
needs to have a sense of urgency.
1:35:19
Some of the best program years when we first went into ACC and
1:35:23
they would pick 11th, they would pick 10th or 11th to finishing
1:35:25
that conference. This is after the debacle which
1:35:28
was known as the 2003 team when they returned and they had all
1:35:30
that talent, right? They won the conference and
1:35:34
every week Beams was like, yo, we got to scrap, we got to
1:35:36
fight, We're going to have to earn everything.
1:35:39
And after that tough loss to USC, I've said this before many
1:35:42
times. He benched his starters who were
1:35:46
older and he brought in Eddie Royal, Justin Harper.
1:35:49
He brought the youth movement in.
1:35:52
Now he will say, well, Dwayne, there was no transfer Porter
1:35:55
right now. I don't care how much they're
1:35:57
making. You can make money at Coastal
1:36:00
Carolina. Now they're a deep who's giving
1:36:03
out nil money. Let them leave because to me,
1:36:08
you have to have a sense of urgency, accountability, no
1:36:11
matter what era of football, has to be at the forefront of your
1:36:14
program. I don't care if their mom's
1:36:17
going to do passive aggressive tweets.
1:36:19
Tell Shorty to kick rocks. You know what I'm saying?
1:36:22
Like, y'all can't be held hostage by a parent that is
1:36:25
going to badmouth you. Let them go.
1:36:28
And I felt like there was too much of that going on where you
1:36:32
can't. It's politics everywhere.
1:36:34
Yeah, politics is all throughout the ACC, the Big 10, but I just
1:36:38
go back to guys like saving, which is why I'm a big Jalen
1:36:41
Hurst fan. As far as his class, because he
1:36:43
benched Jalen Hurst on national TV, I see what?
1:36:46
You're saying? Beamer, Beamer.
1:36:48
People don't realize this. Tyrod Taylor's been benched.
1:36:51
That Jet, Brian Randall's been benched.
1:36:55
A lot of guys have been benched that went on to be legendary
1:36:58
players. That take.
1:36:59
I did not understand why at times there were certain players
1:37:03
who just weren't performing. You didn't take them out the
1:37:05
game just to kind of let them clear their head.
1:37:07
So I mean, you know, you were preaching earlier Chris, but I
1:37:10
just feel like there needs to be a sense of urgency of
1:37:13
accountability around the program for them to to maintain
1:37:17
and meet somewhat of expectation.
1:37:19
Because if if you're not producing, I mean, at the end of
1:37:21
the day, it's about wins and losses.
1:37:23
So. If you're not getting it done,
1:37:25
let's see if somebody else behind you can get it done.
1:37:28
And now you're getting paid to do it.
1:37:30
You're getting paid to do it. And if you suck Dwight, what you
1:37:34
just said. I know this was 20 years ago out
1:37:37
next guy because. You're not good enough.
1:37:40
But you didn't have, you didn't have the guy.
1:37:42
You didn't have the guy to say, hey, you suck and get somebody
1:37:44
else because you have such a piss for the offensive line, the
1:37:48
offensive line situation. And I stood on the table for
1:37:51
Crook till I find out he was in there doing Zoom meetings
1:37:54
because I do Zoom meetings, but I'm supposed to do them.
1:37:56
But you can't turn around and have you have to bring four to
1:38:00
five guys in every cycle, every cycle.
1:38:04
And you didn't have that. You had Rudolph.
1:38:07
He was living off dead bodies, great guy who was living off
1:38:09
dead bodies and didn't want to go get in the portal.
1:38:11
And then you turn around and crook.
1:38:13
Crook just didn't have from what we saw and from what people he
1:38:17
he wasn't able to teach or take them from from point A to point.
1:38:21
B but but Chris. Chris, the pushback I give on
1:38:25
Crooks was I was not in favor that higher because I felt like
1:38:29
if you're Virginia Tech, that's a brand lowering higher, you're
1:38:33
going below your brand. Like I'm not saying a guy from a
1:38:36
lower, but Foster came from Murray State.
1:38:39
What I'm saying is at the end of the day, you got to be in a
1:38:43
situation where like, yo, we Virginia Tech on some boss level
1:38:46
shit. Like I did it the day and I'm
1:38:48
not advocating just for Todd Washington.
1:38:50
What I'm saying is I knew from game one Crooks that the old
1:38:56
line was not prepared to play. So everybody says, hey man, you
1:39:00
got to get those four stars that are rated by guys that have
1:39:03
never played football, right? These are the guys that are
1:39:06
thinking your players, right? So we got to get no, no, no, no,
1:39:09
no. Anyone that's played offensive
1:39:11
line on any level knows it is about your head placement, pause
1:39:17
your footwork, knowing how to do different things right.
1:39:20
You have to basically be in a situation where those guys were
1:39:25
not in a position to win. They were up high.
1:39:28
When you're getting your course, your two point stands.
1:39:31
So they were taking false steps. It's about like, OK, identifying
1:39:36
the mic, who's the Sam, who's the will?
1:39:38
If I got a guy coming in my big gap, what does that mean?
1:39:42
MDM most dangerous man blocked down.
1:39:44
No boom, it comes up. That's not talent, that's
1:39:49
understanding. We won games.
1:39:52
Again, I hate doing this because that's not about Tim Schnecker
1:39:56
played at Blacksburg High School.
1:39:57
He's a he's a great guy. He was my boy.
1:40:00
He was a walk on and he had the athleticism of somebody that
1:40:05
worked at Kroger, right. But the guy knew how to snap and
1:40:10
snap, you know, and identify the mic.
1:40:12
Mike's left, Liz. That means we're sliding left.
1:40:15
The quarterbacks got the weak side defender side adjust.
1:40:19
We go in three different ways. That's not that's poor coaching
1:40:24
and that's hot. Listen, look, fuck it, I'm
1:40:26
saying. That's.
1:40:27
Hiring that's hiring people you down with right?
1:40:32
I'm a business owner. I am not hiring my boy from
1:40:35
Shell Rd. who got a pack of black and miles for sale.
1:40:39
I'm not hiring him to work my business.
1:40:42
And this is my boy I grew up with.
1:40:45
Just because you're friends with somebody, Let me tell you
1:40:48
something, man. I play for two Hall of Fame
1:40:50
coaches, Mike Smith and Frank Beema.
1:40:52
And if you look at both of them, their staff was elite.
1:40:55
But at times there were assistants.
1:40:57
We were like, damn, he could be the head coach or like Billy
1:41:00
Height was Coach Beema's conciero.
1:41:03
Like, you know, Godfather Coach Height.
1:41:06
Coach Height would say he'd be like Frank, call a time out.
1:41:09
Bean Beans would do that. I saw it.
1:41:11
So what I'm saying is who is holding the person accountable
1:41:16
or helping each other in that? Like to me when you are head
1:41:20
coach or you and that staff and you see your online getting
1:41:23
destroyed after week one, Week 2, you, you, you like hey, hey,
1:41:28
hey, hey, hey, hey coach, I need to see you Monday morning.
1:41:36
My thing is, I'm not, I'm not a Alabama fan, but I'm from
1:41:42
Alabama. I'm a football fan.
1:41:45
So if you're a football fan, everybody knows Nick Saban.
1:41:48
If you go watch Nick Saban coach a game, he like a madman on the
1:41:52
sideline. He mad everybody.
1:41:54
Whoever gets in his way, he got something to say.
1:41:57
The camera crew. The Mamas.
1:42:02
Anybody. He probably is not.
1:42:03
He let his wife the the the players, his coaches.
1:42:07
Lane Kiffin is consider what a top coach now, right?
1:42:12
Even at Alabama, he was, he was a head coach before he went
1:42:15
there. Like Nick Saban didn't care.
1:42:19
He wanted it done the right way. He wanted it done.
1:42:22
His right, right. Comparing Nick Saban to to try,
1:42:26
but with the level of intensity to try to win, that's what I
1:42:29
expect to see. So yeah, my thing is, I'm OK
1:42:32
with you. I'm not OK with you hiring your
1:42:35
boys, not at all because you got to take it serious.
1:42:38
But if you decide that that's what you want to do and you're
1:42:40
in the game, I just didn't see nobody who really wanted to be
1:42:43
like, you know what, we need to fucking win.
1:42:46
And if you ain't trying to win, you need to get the fuck out the
1:42:48
off the sidelines how you keep like you got your quarterback or
1:42:54
you got your wide receiver that gets killed.
1:42:56
And then we was just over there looking at looking at these.
1:43:01
Let me write this down. Let's stop writing stuff down
1:43:03
and start yelling at somebody. Get on somebody'd ass.
1:43:06
What are we doing? At some point, you gotta have
1:43:10
some accountability and you gotta be able to, when somebody
1:43:13
is not doing the things that they need to do and you're not
1:43:17
performing at the level you need to perform, it's got to be some
1:43:19
accountability. Somebody's got to have a
1:43:21
conversation, be like, hey, you're not getting it done, and
1:43:24
if the guys you got in there that you think are getting it
1:43:26
done, they're not getting it done.
1:43:28
Get them out. Try something different.
1:43:30
You can't just keep running out the same 5 every week and
1:43:33
getting piss poor results and expect something new.
1:43:37
That's madness at some. Point.
1:43:38
But the thing about it, you got to switch up.
1:43:40
But the thing about it is that they didn't have they didn't
1:43:43
have anybody to bring in to replace them.
1:43:46
Late, late, late gets hurt, right.
1:43:49
He was supposed to play. He gets hurt.
1:43:50
You got to play shit. Chaplin was hurt all year long,
1:43:54
especially when he gave up the ODU.
1:43:55
So you had to bring Garrett in from here.
1:43:57
So you didn't have a backup guy behind that.
1:43:59
And none of them jokers was ready.
1:44:02
Yeah, Gary, not to play a. Lot more, but Gary should have
1:44:05
been in the in the game a whole lot more last.
1:44:06
Year regardless. Sometimes you just have to make
1:44:09
the change to what Dwight said. Show county to go up.
1:44:13
Listen, your job's over. You're done.
1:44:15
Yep. Excuse me though, he makes some
1:44:18
mistakes but fuck you because you keep making the mistakes
1:44:21
over and over and over. I'm going to put.
1:44:24
Somebody else here. What if he makes mistakes?
1:44:26
At least he's a freshman and he's got a damn excuse.
1:44:30
Nobody, nobody took because nobody knew.
1:44:33
I mean, you know, we had rivals out and and there were other
1:44:37
publications, Roanoke News, whatever.
1:44:40
Eddie Royal was a highly taught to recruit, but nobody knew how
1:44:44
dynamic Eddie Royal was going to be because against USC and early
1:44:49
on, those receivers got limited action beams went with the more
1:44:53
mature players. Richard Johnson, those guys.
1:44:56
That's back when Justin Hamilton was on offense.
1:44:59
He was a running back and play some receiver.
1:45:01
Here's the thing, after that loss, he went with the youth
1:45:05
movement and all of a sudden everybody's like, hey, yo, that
1:45:08
dude Josh Hyman going to be all right.
1:45:10
David Clowney, all these guys, Justin Harper, they were Justin
1:45:13
Harper was not a highly touted Justin Harper got a chance
1:45:17
because we couldn't break one-on-one coverage.
1:45:20
But here's let me go back to my initial point.
1:45:24
It's coaching because you don't have to have we got beat.
1:45:28
Let me just I hate to bring up memories.
1:45:31
We got beat against Rutgers one year.
1:45:34
I'm rubbing my head so I can woo sob.
1:45:36
We got beat against Rutgers one year with a quarterback that
1:45:39
couldn't pass at. All.
1:45:42
He it was like playing a kid that just had the cheat code in
1:45:46
the video game. He did not.
1:45:47
I think he did. He beat us on the fourth and
1:45:49
one. He was just running and running.
1:45:50
That guy was not a quarterback we have lost games against in
1:45:54
the last three years against inferior opponents because they
1:45:57
made the adjustments and changes we weren't willing to do.
1:46:01
And that's all I'm saying. Like you're not wrong about the
1:46:04
depth limitations in some positions.
1:46:06
What I'm saying is between the scheme and coach ability and
1:46:11
making the changes beforehand, that's where we fall short and
1:46:16
we have now. I'm hoping I say this to be
1:46:18
optimistic. This is the fan in me to me, and
1:46:22
I don't want to jump ahead in the schedule of this show.
1:46:23
But like to me, when you look at it this season and a signature
1:46:27
win that we still haven't gotten yet as a program under the
1:46:30
Prague regime, South Carolina has to be a game where you don't
1:46:35
hold back. It's like you look at like, for
1:46:37
example, somebody posted the other day, it might have been
1:46:39
the ACC Network or somebody on Twitter that West Virginia game
1:46:42
lost. We were they they threw an
1:46:45
interception late in the game and I remember watching that
1:46:47
game. This is during the Fuente era
1:46:49
and and they got down there and announcer says, well, Jim, you
1:46:52
don't want to score too quickly. I'm like, I hate when announcers
1:46:55
say that. Give me more time.
1:47:01
You ended up wasting that. You got in the red zone and the
1:47:04
LastPass was to Trey Turner, but you did a jet sweep and it was
1:47:08
like I was like just score. And it was like, you could have
1:47:11
seized that opportunity to be the very, you know, a decent
1:47:15
West Virginia team. But it's the it's the name.
1:47:17
Like if we go in that South Carolina game, you know,
1:47:20
withholding back and trying to say you want to treat that South
1:47:24
Carolina game like it's your national champions.
1:47:27
You know why? Because we have fallen to the
1:47:29
ranks of a program that needs to do that.
1:47:32
That's the. Reason it's your super.
1:47:34
Bowl, this is what I'm going to say right here.
1:47:37
I know we got to go to, I think we got to go to a break and a
1:47:40
couple other things. We got to get to Curtis, got a
1:47:43
couple things to get to. But this is what I'm going to
1:47:45
say. I'm old and country, right?
1:47:48
So my grandma used to have this like wood burning stove and
1:47:51
heater that we stood in front of before school and we all had
1:47:55
cheap clothes. We were poor, so we had cheap
1:47:57
clothes. You know what I'm saying?
1:47:58
My mom would go to Big B and get me like a new windbreaker suit.
1:48:03
So they was, you know what I'm saying?
1:48:04
You got the windbreak on the outside, but it's got the cotton
1:48:06
on the inside If you stood your ass in front of that stove.
1:48:09
It was. Not heated too long it was going
1:48:12
it was going to singe that that that suit that you had on and
1:48:15
you was going to go to school with the white part showing pry
1:48:19
your seat need to be as hot as them suits that I was having on.
1:48:23
Going to school. In 2nd and 3rd grade.
1:48:25
There you go. Hey man, honeymoon over.
1:48:28
No, it's been over. It's been over.
1:48:30
The honeymoon is over. Let me hit this real quick
1:48:32
because I want to wrap up offense.
1:48:33
Sheldon's got to get out of here a little bit.
1:48:35
So we. Have a defense.
1:48:38
He like his sleep real quick. Wide receiver, tight end room a
1:48:42
lot of people would like, you know, all that room last year
1:48:45
was great, great, great. Well, maybe, maybe not.
1:48:48
That's to there's one guy that we know, but let's be for real
1:48:52
this year, that room, the transfers brought in, the young
1:48:55
guys who showed out down at the bowl game, How are they going to
1:48:58
hit their potential? Because that room is absolutely
1:49:02
full of potential with so many different guys between Donovan
1:49:06
Green, who's like 40, Cam Selden, how do they hit their
1:49:10
potential? Because to your point, Dwight,
1:49:14
there's a lot of young bucks in that room.
1:49:17
How do we hit it? I'm, I'm going to be, you know,
1:49:21
I've talked a lot, but that's what I'm here for, to talk a lot
1:49:23
on this show. I, I just feel like, again, this
1:49:27
is a very easy answer. The wide receiver room, that's
1:49:29
one thing. Even going back to the Fuente
1:49:32
era, we've had some dogs, Tech has had a great run and we're
1:49:37
wide receivers and their roster going back to the Fuente era.
1:49:42
And even last year's group, you know at times was inconsistent,
1:49:45
but you knew you knew what they can do, especially based on the
1:49:47
previous year. Some of that was scheme, some of
1:49:50
that was effort, maybe some injuries, I don't know.
1:49:53
I think it was collective. I feel like the depth should be
1:49:57
your advantage. And I think the best thing if
1:49:59
I'm coaching that group is create competition Monday
1:50:02
through Thursday. So that means you need you need
1:50:06
a cohesiveness for drones. So he needs to know who his 5-6
1:50:10
are. However, when you create
1:50:12
competition, when, when Green caught that we thought was the
1:50:16
winning touchdown against Miami, everybody in my group chat,
1:50:19
everybody over my spot was like, yo, who is this kid?
1:50:22
Every time I watch him, he was making play Gosnell catching
1:50:26
those deep balls that dive and get.
1:50:28
I felt like those guys were kids you should have just ran with.
1:50:31
And if some of the veterans were salty because they were making
1:50:34
300,000, so be it. They still getting their paper.
1:50:38
I just feel like that kind of competition and coach needs to
1:50:41
be present when it comes to the depth you have.
1:50:43
I feel like that's a probably a strength of Virginia Tech right
1:50:47
now. Even that kid, you know, you
1:50:50
joke about the kid that is the kid from Wake Forest.
1:50:52
That's what you're talking about, Dominick.
1:50:54
Green, yeah. Dominick Green, Yeah, he's got
1:50:58
to stay healthy. But I like that kid.
1:51:00
I like his moxie. I like his attitude.
1:51:01
But he's to me. And I don't want to give you a
1:51:05
general answer, but I'm, I firmly believe this.
1:51:07
I feel like everybody on the team has something to prove.
1:51:15
I feel like nobody, we talk a lot about the coaches.
1:51:18
I feel like nobody should assume anything's a given.
1:51:22
Create, create competition. Like almost like when Kobe
1:51:26
Bryant had that unfortunate incident with that chick in
1:51:30
Colorado and all of that crazy stuff.
1:51:32
Kobe Bryant became the Mamba because he was finally, and I
1:51:36
used to say this, I was like, yo, stop trying to live up to
1:51:39
everybody's image. And he said he came back and he
1:51:42
was like F everybody. And that's when he bring to me
1:51:46
when he became he got the he got the tattoo and he he became an
1:51:51
asshole. That's when you saw it.
1:51:54
I feel like tech needs more of that, like I feel like that
1:51:57
energy. So I know that's a general
1:51:59
answer, Curtis, but I just feel like the receivers, the
1:52:02
receivers are talented to me. You know, we're deep at that
1:52:07
position, man. But I feel like if anything, I
1:52:11
told, I told this to Chris last year and he was like, yo, it was
1:52:14
it was a text. I text him.
1:52:16
And this one, I knew it resonated with him because he
1:52:18
called me. He said, yo, hold on, Dwight,
1:52:21
what you mean? I said, listen, they're not
1:52:23
running great routes. I said because we are getting
1:52:28
jammed up and getting contained by average secondaries.
1:52:32
You know what I'm saying? So that's not just scheme.
1:52:35
That's what I mean. So anyway, let Chris that shorts
1:52:39
cup of tea. I, I I I answered your question.
1:52:42
You did competition. He said, he said competition.
1:52:46
I'm going to say this and, and you know, because we're going to
1:52:49
be real, you turned around last year.
1:52:52
This is what ends up happening. Most people don't understand
1:52:55
that you have when you brought those four guys back, but you
1:52:59
really brought five guys back. Aiden Green could not.
1:53:02
Red shirt. Aiden Green had to play.
1:53:06
He burnt his shirt because Ali got hurt, right?
1:53:10
The model of this team this year is what team over who?
1:53:14
Me, me. You had guys that were thinking
1:53:18
about the league more than they were thinking about being great
1:53:22
for Virginia Tech. There we go.
1:53:24
Let's go and get it out there on the table.
1:53:26
I see. All right, that's out there,
1:53:28
right. So you turn around.
1:53:30
You had you had conflict with guys getting a hey, I'm, you
1:53:34
know, putting TikTok stuff out and then you got that out there.
1:53:38
And then let's be honest, your younger guys were probably
1:53:42
better. OK.
1:53:44
Takahi ended up having to sit right Takei, he was a is a
1:53:49
dynamic route runner, not a big, big guy, but a really good route
1:53:53
runner. You had, you had Chance
1:53:55
Fitzgerald, who was your number one recruit in the 23 class,
1:53:58
didn't give you anything, but that was on chance.
1:54:01
OK, that was on him. Then you turn around.
1:54:04
So you couldn't you couldn't take Felton off the field,
1:54:07
right? Because if you took Felton off
1:54:09
the field, you weren't going to go to Chance.
1:54:10
You were going to go to Steven Gosnell, right, Because Steven
1:54:14
Gosnell could play all over. He could play the X, the Y, Z,
1:54:17
he could play it all. So it so when we would sit back
1:54:20
and look like the younger guys are probably just as good if not
1:54:24
better, but they couldn't get on the field because you already
1:54:27
had five guys in front of them. So what ends up happening this
1:54:29
year? Angry comes back.
1:54:31
He's dynamic and he's hungry. The guy Heath is healthy and he
1:54:35
wants to get out. Then play.
1:54:36
Donovan Green is a outstanding route runner and a big guy who
1:54:41
can get out there and block and do a lot of things that Felton
1:54:44
did last year. You've got you've got Cam Selden
1:54:48
who is kind of like he he is, he's a football player, right?
1:54:53
We got to listen to being a wide receiver.
1:54:55
He's a football player. So that room is stuck is chucked
1:54:58
full with guys. You know, you got a kid, you
1:55:01
know, you know, I'll talk about my kid, but you got the kid, you
1:55:04
got chance Wiggins has got some stuff to stuff to prove.
1:55:07
So I think with your room. And then you got the Isaiah
1:55:10
Spencer kid. Like honestly, I love him
1:55:14
because he wants it so bad. That dude came from HBCU and he
1:55:19
is loving being at this next level for this high competition,
1:55:23
high competition. So I think the room, I'm going
1:55:25
to say it out loud, even though you got two guys that's in the
1:55:28
league, right, or three guys that's in the league, the room
1:55:31
is better this year. I'm going to just say I'm going
1:55:34
to point the room is better this year than it was last year.
1:55:36
You fight me, you fight me all day long.
1:55:38
I don't care. The room is better this year
1:55:41
than it was last year. You got better out.
1:55:42
It's a lot deeper. It's a lot deeper for.
1:55:44
Sure, it's better. It's better.
1:55:46
It's better. You got two.
1:55:48
You got two guys right now. Let's just be yeah, Jay Lane,
1:55:52
meet me and me and Tally talked about.
1:55:54
We thought it was going to be like 9 guys get drafted, right?
1:55:57
We was like Jay Lane, Felton, Jennings, Gosnell.
1:56:04
We had like 5 or 7 guys. Get it.
1:56:06
Listen, the two guys who go play NFL snaps this year on a high,
1:56:10
high level, Jay Lane and dadgum Steven Gosnell.
1:56:15
That's it from the wide receiver room.
1:56:17
I'm just being totally honest. Ain't no hate to it.
1:56:20
This is what it is. But those guys had, so you turn
1:56:23
around. We had a collection of talent.
1:56:25
We didn't have a we didn't have a team.
1:56:26
That's what we had last year. We had a collection of great
1:56:29
talent, but we didn't have teams on the opposite side of the
1:56:32
football. So with your piss poor offensive
1:56:34
line and folks think about going elsewhere and you got your
1:56:36
quarterback foot damn near broke.
1:56:38
That's what you end up having and you still won six games.
1:56:42
There you go. Brown, you got some for us here,
1:56:44
right? Yeah, I'm going to go ahead.
1:56:47
And we've been talking about a little bit.
1:56:49
I know that everybody maybe seen it on Twitter.
1:56:52
We got the giveaway that we're running here for for the
1:56:55
concerts. I'm going to let this run real
1:56:57
quick. We'll come back and we'll talk a
1:56:59
little defense, no doubt. Hey, Hokey Nation, it's your man
1:57:03
Brian from Bounty Corner Podcast.
1:57:05
Get ready to kick off the 2025 season in style.
1:57:09
Our good friends over at the Hokie Way are hosting the
1:57:11
Countdown to Kickoff concert featuring the always fantastic
1:57:14
band OAR. Join fellow Hokies alumni and
1:57:18
fans for an exclusive, proud event at the iconic Tabernacle
1:57:21
in Atlanta, GA. That's right, Hokie Nation is
1:57:25
taking over the Tabernacle to celebrate the start of the
1:57:29
Virginia Tech football season. Matt, tell the people more.
1:57:33
Mark your calendars. The concert's happening
1:57:35
Saturday, August 30th at 7:00 PM, the night before our opening
1:57:38
game against South Carolina. This is more than just a
1:57:41
concert, it's a chance to support a great 'cause every
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ticket you buy with further the Hoagie Ways mission of enabling
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student athletes at Virginia Tech to promote and support our
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incredible charitable partners. And before the concert, make
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sure to catch a special on location broadcast of Tech Talk
1:57:54
Live from the venue. Were Zach Mackie and Mike
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Burnaball interviewing special guests?
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And here's a special announcement.
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Boundary Corner Podcast is giving away 2 free tickets to
1:58:04
the concert. Visit
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boundarycornervt.com/concert for details on how you can enter.
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This is your official welcome to the new football season, so
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start jumping. For more details or to secure
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your tickets now, visit thehokeyway.org/concert and be
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sure to use that code Boundary Corner One word to save 10% off
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your order. See you in Atlanta and go,
1:58:29
Hokies.