Latest / Boundary Corner Podcast / Portal Power

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Portal Power · Boundary Corner Podcast

• 1:38
  The. And welcome back to the Boundary
• 1:49
  Corner podcast, a part of the College Huddle Network along my
• 1:52
  partners, Brian Ziegler and Jonathan Talley.
• 1:55
  I am Curtis Wilson and as always, we are brought to you by
• 1:59
  Doctor Jeremy Counts down at the Counts Family Pharmacy, your
• 2:02
  friendly neighborhood pharmacy, three O 1 S Main St. in
• 2:07
  Blacksburg. Fellas, how's everybody doing
• 2:10
  tonight? Fight a little bit of a cold,
• 2:14
  but feeling all right man, Feeling all right.
• 2:16
  How about you? Brian, you ain't got no cold.
• 2:19
  You got too drunk when you went to that concert.
• 2:21
  That's what happened. You got AI, got a week.
• 2:24
  Long hangover. There you go.
• 2:26
  Hangover I'd have been. Are you old now, man?
• 2:28
  You can't be drinking like you did back when you was in
• 2:30
  college. You got to take it easy.
• 2:33
  You ain't got a lot of us. Myself, got to pace myself, boy,
• 2:35
  no pacing. All good man, y'all good.
• 2:40
  All good baseball. It's kinda in the swing of
• 2:44
  things right now. You know, summer baseball that
• 2:48
  is, is is kind of kicking up working with the kid to try to
• 2:53
  get him on track to do the right things.
• 2:56
  So we will talk about that another day, but everything is
• 3:00
  good. You look good, man.
• 3:02
  You look good. You look fresh right now.
• 3:04
  Man, hey, I'm just trying to trying to see the next day man,
• 3:07
  trying to be friends with coach Pry and not be too mad at him.
• 3:11
  So you know, maybe somebody going to shed some light on what
• 3:16
  how I need to feel with all this.
• 3:18
  Hey, we got a lot to talk about man.
• 3:20
  We had some stuff rolled out timing of game.
• 3:24
  I got people calling asking me am I going, y'all know what I
• 3:27
  want to say Curtis? Hell no, I ain't spending no
• 3:31
  money on them. But you know what?
• 3:34
  It's like 3. Months like 3 hours.
• 3:37
  It's also like it's also two hours from your house.
• 3:41
  Yeah, it's. Literally 2 hours from your
• 3:43
  house. It's a 3 o'clock game that was
• 3:46
  announced. That means if they make you
• 3:48
  really mad, you can get in your car, be back in your own bed by
• 3:51
  10:00 and go they're. Going to make me mad.
• 3:54
  That's good. They always make you mad.
• 3:55
  They don't make me mad. Even if we win, they're going to
• 3:57
  make me mad. But I got a lot to think about,
• 4:00
  man. I'm going to Vegas at that
• 4:01
  month, so I'm going to Vegas at. So it's a lot to think about,
• 4:06
  man, but we'll get into all that.
• 4:07
  We're going to get into all that.
• 4:09
  We're going to get into a lot of different stuff tonight.
• 4:13
  So without further ado, we are going to bring the special
• 4:16
  guests on tonight from 247 Sports as Tally has dubbed him
• 4:21
  as we were talking before the show, he is currently as he's
• 4:24
  shaking his head, I could see him, the mayor of Blacksburg and
• 4:28
  247 Sports on and everybody's favorite portal got to watch
• 4:32
  because he knows it all. Colby Crawford.
• 4:34
  Colby, how are you this wonderful Wednesday?
• 4:38
  I'm doing great man. I appreciate y'all having me on.
• 4:40
  This is going to be a good time. I really appreciate y'all having
• 4:44
  me. Hopefully we all drop off the
• 4:45
  cold down here in a nondiscreet location in the Outer Banks.
• 4:50
  So ready to toss some football? Somewhere in the Outer Banks is
• 4:54
  Colby Crawford, right? Now we're in the Outer Banks.
• 4:57
  We we hope that that that spots got Internet a little bit better
• 5:00
  than Tally had a few months back.
• 5:02
  I was about to say, if that Internet ain't worse than this
• 5:04
  Alabama Internet, did you going to be straight?
• 5:07
  This Internet was struggling for a while.
• 5:10
  We had to change it up over here.
• 5:13
  And he finally got it. He did change it up.
• 5:15
  And now, oh, hold on, we, we are starting Tally, our music man
• 5:22
  Jason Kobe, COVID, the guy that plays us in plays us out.
• 5:26
  He lives in Royal. He's a huge Titans fan and so is
• 5:28
  Tally. So they always got something to
• 5:30
  talk. About yeah, definitely, man.
• 5:31
  I was going to say Jason going to have to call me and we're
• 5:33
  going to have to get together on this stuff, man.
• 5:35
  But for the most part, man, I mean, you had to do it as a
• 5:39
  Titans fan. I'm I'm a Cowboy fan, though.
• 5:42
  Like I just like what he is and what he brings.
• 5:46
  Not a Miami fan. I hated that he went and played
• 5:48
  at Miami. But for a kid to do what he did,
• 5:51
  go to all the different stops and continue to work, continue
• 5:54
  to be, you know, humble for the most part, Like he just
• 5:58
  continued to work until he was the number one pick in the
• 6:02
  draft. And for what we are with what we
• 6:05
  need, you can't pass him up. You know what I'm saying?
• 6:08
  It's like at one point I was like, man, you got to take
• 6:11
  Travis Hunter. I mean, that's a generation of
• 6:13
  talent. But at the same time, it's kind
• 6:15
  of like, look at New King. I knew.
• 6:16
  I knew he was going to pop up. If you say Miami New King is
• 6:19
  popping up, I knew he was going to pop up.
• 6:21
  Thank you all. Thank you all for sending Cam
• 6:24
  Ward our way. But especially after what Jade
• 6:29
  Daniels done last year, like if you pass up on a quarterback
• 6:32
  that's got that kind of ceiling, how dumb are you going to feel
• 6:36
  As you already know that, you know, the quarterbacks that we
• 6:40
  have aren't aren't the guy now, possibly because of the line we
• 6:44
  had wasn't the guys either. But I mean, you pass up on
• 6:47
  somebody like a Cam Ward with the number one pick and then he
• 6:50
  goes somewhere else and he chose out like you're slapping
• 6:54
  yourself in the head for a decade.
• 6:56
  And that, that's a dude to bet on himself for three straight
• 7:00
  years. And.
• 7:02
  Made it happen, right? That that was someone because
• 7:05
  we're going to talk about it all tonight with with Kobe with the
• 7:08
  portal. That is someone who it's like
• 7:10
  the portal of the white right way right.
• 7:13
  He was an Incarnate word. Lower school went to Washington
• 7:16
  state. Not not not your highest level
• 7:19
  school, a solid mid level P5 school, P4 school, whatever you
• 7:24
  want to call it, excelled five at the time he.
• 7:27
  Five at the time that's. True.
• 7:30
  All right, Peter. PAC 12.
• 7:31
  Yeah, and then and then went to Miami, did what he did down
• 7:36
  there, played great because he wants the reason they lost
• 7:39
  games. He wants the reason at all
• 7:41
  because he played his nuts off every single game.
• 7:46
  It it. But to me, everybody who shits
• 7:48
  on the portal, it's like, there's so many good stories
• 7:52
  like that, that literally if Cam Ward doesn't have the portal, do
• 7:56
  we ever know Cam Ward's name? Do we?
• 7:58
  Does he ever become the number one pick?
• 8:00
  Probably not. Man, you think about, Yeah,
• 8:03
  somebody brought, I think it might have been you when I was
• 8:05
  going on a rant, Curtis, that we talked about.
• 8:07
  Oh yeah. For all the bad stuff that
• 8:09
  people have to say about the Porter you've been bringing to
• 8:11
  Virginia Tech, and you look at somebody like APR, APR is a
• 8:15
  Virginia Tech legend now, right? Yes, he is.
• 8:17
  You know, everybody's going. He can come back to Blacksburg
• 8:20
  whenever he wants to, and they're always going to remember
• 8:23
  what he did in a hokey's uniform.
• 8:24
  Same with two. You know, you would have never
• 8:27
  seen these guys if it wasn't for the portal, you know what I'm
• 8:30
  saying? You'd never seen them in
• 8:32
  Virginia Tech if it wasn't for the portal.
• 8:34
  So as bad as people make it out, as bad as it is sometimes, and
• 8:37
  it's true, much craziness kind of goes on in it, man.
• 8:41
  It's a lot of good stories to come out of it.
• 8:42
  So I'm here for it, man. I just love football.
• 8:45
  And it's, and the guys we're going to talk about tonight in a
• 8:48
  few minutes here. It's the same way they are.
• 8:51
  A lot of them are elevating to a stage where either a like APR,
• 8:55
  he was down at Florida or it's an unbelievable program.
• 8:59
  They never found the right spot for him.
• 9:01
  Came back to tech perfect fit everything, everything fit.
• 9:06
  He he is an unbelievable SAT guy in college, shows his motor,
• 9:10
  shows his skill. Same with Tooting guys who get
• 9:13
  goes to A&T, accelerates there, comes to tech, does back-to-back
• 9:17
  seasons and and now we're going to talk about 10 guys in a few
• 9:21
  minutes here, their stores, their backgrounds and how we're
• 9:25
  feeling about those rooms. But Brian and Colby, before we
• 9:29
  get into all that, y'all both attended the Metallica concert,
• 9:35
  correct? Oh yeah.
• 9:37
  Oh yeah. Colby, I'm I'm I'm gonna let you
• 9:40
  go first. Bronson, see the esteemed guest
• 9:43
  tonight and just just give me your feels of a a where'd you
• 9:47
  sit and just in general, the feelings while watching that
• 9:52
  concert, because y'all the videos, the production, I mean
• 9:56
  tally, you've seen it. I mean unbelievable, like you
• 9:59
  didn't look like the same place and it it looked it looked
• 10:02
  unreal. Go ahead, Toby.
• 10:04
  Yeah, so honestly, start the day before.
• 10:07
  I was lucky enough to go through with some of the media and walk
• 10:10
  through on the floor level of the whole stage apparatus, the
• 10:14
  entire setup of the concert. And that was amazing.
• 10:18
  They were going through sound tests and they actually played
• 10:21
  like the helicopter sound that's the lead into one the song.
• 10:26
  And I mean, I've been to quite a few concerts in my life and
• 10:30
  fortunate enough to go and and some pretty large sound systems.
• 10:34
  When that speaker played the helicopter sound and like this
• 10:37
  aircraft sound, it sounded as if there was a fly over.
• 10:41
  Like I almost looked up and was like, is there a fly over
• 10:44
  actually happening right now that the ground shook beneath
• 10:47
  you? And kind of from that moment I
• 10:49
  knew, OK, it's really on for tomorrow and then we get to show
• 10:52
  day. Had a couple buddies come in
• 10:55
  town and you know, I forgot the opportunity to sit with the
• 10:59
  media. And of course I went to go sit
• 11:01
  in the student section to enjoy that moment.
• 11:03
  And I was in the North End zone. It's been a while since I've
• 11:06
  been in the North End zone. So that that was, I mean, I
• 11:09
  think it has to rank as the best live show I've ever seen.
• 11:13
  Just atmosphere. And honestly, coming from
• 11:16
  someone, I'm not the biggest Metallica fan going in, I knew 5
• 11:20
  or 6 songs, but I mean just the the setting, the entire crowd.
• 11:26
  What I mean, I mean there's some football games where you look up
• 11:30
  and I guess the East ends where it's allowed it to the other
• 11:33
  visiting team and it's not all the way sold out.
• 11:36
  When I look around, it was like your mouth is on the floor like
• 11:40
  this place is packed out. The student section was over
• 11:44
  packed out. It it was it was incredible and
• 11:48
  it happened to be. I know for everyone it was
• 11:51
  great, but for the students it was the last day of classes.
• 11:53
  So they were already just psyched out of their mind.
• 11:58
  So it, it was the best thing ever.
• 11:59
  Like I I'm struggling to find words that could encapsulate the
• 12:02
  way I feel. Like I'm just getting goosebumps
• 12:04
  thinking about it but it it was so amazing.
• 12:10
  Yeah. I mean, I got to echo, you know,
• 12:11
  what what Colby said there. I mean, I've, I've seen a lot of
• 12:14
  shows in my day and that that's in the conversation for the best
• 12:18
  live show that I've attended. And it really goes back to just
• 12:22
  atmosphere. It goes back to I think what
• 12:27
  Metallica has meant to this fan base in general.
• 12:30
  I think it's the energy that they brought.
• 12:32
  Like they seem like they were on a different level knowing what
• 12:37
  them being there meant for that for for Blacksburg, for the fans
• 12:41
  and things like that. So I mean, it was it was
• 12:44
  incredible. You talked about the, the one
• 12:46
  when the, when the helicopters came in and the pyro started
• 12:49
  shooting up and, you know, simulating the, the, the fire
• 12:53
  from the, from the choppers in the, in the plains.
• 12:56
  Man, it was, it was really, really impressive.
• 13:00
  And like that whole run there 1 all the way through Sandman was
• 13:03
  just like banger after banger. And you know, when they got to
• 13:09
  master of puppets and like they, they were saying master in the
• 13:12
  chorus, there was just like echoing, like you can feel a
• 13:16
  pulse from that. It was, it was kind of crazy.
• 13:20
  I, I really, you know, it's hard.
• 13:21
  It's hard to put into words. We got, we got a couple guys
• 13:23
  here that I actually saw tailgating pregame.
• 13:27
  Shout out Jim West. You met Jim.
• 13:29
  I I met Jim. Shout out Jim.
• 13:33
  He was at Dan and Stevens tailgate over there with Mary
• 13:37
  and Drew and Chris and all them. So nice.
• 13:41
  Nate. Shout out all those guys all.
• 13:44
  Right. So the the, the set list,
• 13:47
  obviously everybody said they played, they did master Puppets.
• 13:51
  First of all, you know, looking at I think the encore was what
• 13:54
  one I heard one was the original was the beginning of the encore,
• 13:59
  right? I believe that was the first
• 14:03
  one, whatever Brian just said. It was one yeah, 1 seeking
• 14:08
  destroy, Master of Puppets and Sandman.
• 14:10
  We're the we're the final four there.
• 14:12
  OK, I think whatever after one because me and my friend, I mean
• 14:15
  a little anecdote like that one of the buddies I'm down here
• 14:17
  with throwing it way back to whenever the civilians versus
• 14:22
  cadets snowball fight was every year we've been there and that
• 14:26
  fight has happened. We play one right before we all
• 14:29
  go out. So I mean, we love like that
• 14:32
  song, like you understand me, Don't get me wrong, has its
• 14:34
  place in Blackburg, but for us specifically, one is also up
• 14:38
  there. So when they came out with that
• 14:40
  and they just played, I mean, honestly, banger after banger
• 14:44
  after banger and then you end out blowing the lid off the
• 14:47
  place with the Enter Sandman. I I don't know the exact order,
• 14:51
  but after one I knew I knew every song after that and I'm
• 14:54
  not a massive fan. So that was an incredible.
• 14:56
  Stretch and you covered. You covered what you covered,
• 15:01
  basically. Like all the big albums.
• 15:04
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 15:05
  Through Black in that last four. Yeah.
• 15:09
  So you you had you had one, you had seek and destroy, you had
• 15:11
  master puppets and then you had Enter Sandman and that like
• 15:14
  that. 'D be much better now.
• 15:16
  So it's got to be ass, but obviously they intro, they did
• 15:20
  the normal entrance, that's how they got on stage, which that
• 15:22
  was pretty cool. I saw some of the videos of
• 15:24
  that, the normal playing and they're coming on in fireworks.
• 15:27
  But at the end he Master Republics goes off.
• 15:31
  Apparently they were teasing which you're like you're going
• 15:33
  to end with it. You're going to end there ain't
• 15:35
  no question you're going to end with it.
• 15:38
  But when Hetfield started the chant, like what was y'all's
• 15:43
  feels on it? Because it was just like how can
• 15:45
  they do this? Because this is a Sandman.
• 15:47
  It knows Sandman itself is a 5 minute song N concerts.
• 15:52
  It's anywhere from 5 1/2 to 8 1/2.
• 15:54
  But when they hit it, when those notes hit, just was it just
• 16:01
  chills or was it just we all just so in the moment, it was
• 16:04
  just like, it's literally like a game.
• 16:08
  You're so hyped because you went through 1520 songs.
• 16:11
  You've been there all day. This pyros have been
• 16:14
  unbelievable. Just give me that one last piece
• 16:18
  and we'll closeout the Metallica piece tonight.
• 16:21
  I mean, I think it was still chills the whole way through
• 16:23
  because I mean, me, just even my experience in just a couple
• 16:28
  short years, you know how much that song, that entrance, the
• 16:31
  reverence just around that entire place.
• 16:33
  And then you almost thought like the culmination of the entire
• 16:38
  night, like it's just really about to happen.
• 16:39
  Like you knew it was happening. But it's something really a
• 16:42
  pinch yourself moment where you're sitting there and it goes
• 16:46
  off and he he leads the let's go Hokies chat and you look and
• 16:49
  there's so many people who had who were just Metallica fans,
• 16:53
  not honestly, maybe no relation at all to Virginia Tech.
• 16:56
  And they looked at the person next to them.
• 16:58
  What do they? Oh, they said Hokies.
• 16:59
  All right, so now I'm gonna say on the next time he goes back.
• 17:02
  That was what I thought was so incredible was I was sitting
• 17:05
  next to her down the way from someone.
• 17:07
  And when he started to let's go Hokies chant, they didn't know
• 17:09
  what they were saying. And then they jumped right in
• 17:11
  with everyone else. So it was sort of that
• 17:15
  collective, I guess just experience to soak in that
• 17:18
  moment because Brian touched on it like, I don't, I'm not saying
• 17:22
  they don't go out there and play it up every night, every show,
• 17:25
  every tour date, but I think they really understood what it
• 17:28
  meant to that location specifically.
• 17:30
  And yeah, I mean, just incredible.
• 17:35
  Yeah, surreal. It it was surreal when that
• 17:37
  moment hit because I mean, guys by age since 2000 and shout out
• 17:42
  Jim for for being there for the first Sandman since 2000.
• 17:47
  There's always been like those rumors that are floating around
• 17:49
  like, oh, but but Metallica is going to play here this week or
• 17:53
  you know, they're they're going to be there for the let's go
• 17:56
  Hokies Shaylee there. There's going to be something
• 17:58
  Metallica related. There's always these rumors and
• 18:00
  then finally this comes and to have it happen in lane and to
• 18:05
  experience that. It was absolutely surreal that I
• 18:09
  mean, that's really the the best way I can describe it is it's
• 18:12
  surreal. And you know, Kobe, you talked
• 18:14
  about, you know, kind of the mix of of crowd that I mean, it was,
• 18:17
  you know, a lot of there was a lot of Metallica Hokie fans.
• 18:21
  There were some hokey fans that were there for the the
• 18:25
  experience. And then there were a lot of
• 18:26
  just fans of Metallica fans of, you know, metal and thrash metal
• 18:30
  in general. And they were just they join
• 18:33
  right in with everybody else. Man, It was it was such a good
• 18:35
  mix. I think of of all those
• 18:37
  different types of fans in that one area.
• 18:40
  That's so awesome. Well, glad y'all boys got to
• 18:42
  experience that. The videos coming out over the
• 18:47
  last seven days of an unbelievable, you know, from the
• 18:50
  concert itself. Even I think one of the cooler
• 18:52
  things again, sometimes some things that goes on at the
• 18:56
  school we just like shake our heads at.
• 18:58
  But that video that I'm assuming the football media guys did
• 19:03
  outside the stadium where you can hear it like and you can
• 19:08
  just see and it's just like that that was cool.
• 19:10
  That was because some people like to me that's like visionary
• 19:13
  type stuff. Like that's fairly cool to think
• 19:15
  about how you hear it and then you hear the notes and
• 19:18
  everything roll. So awesome.
• 19:20
  All right, let's get we've talked 20 minutes about Cam Ward
• 19:24
  in portal. We've talked 10 minutes about
• 19:27
  Metallica concert. Let's let's get into the portal
• 19:31
  itself. Colby's bread and butter here,
• 19:33
  and Colby. I said the only thing I'm here
• 19:35
  for right now. I'm kidding.
• 19:37
  No, you're here for everything, man.
• 19:38
  We've got you on for everything. In your opinions, I'm sure
• 19:40
  you've got some great ones, but let's kick this off first.
• 19:44
  Let's talk about the guys who left, the players that left.
• 19:47
  Anybody shock you of that group or?
• 19:51
  You're talking specifically in the spring.
• 19:53
  In the spring and not talking in the winter has gone by.
• 19:57
  That That's a lot of time. Specifically in the spring.
• 20:00
  When you talk spring realistically, honestly, no one
• 20:04
  was a massive shock. The one that maybe caught me a
• 20:08
  little off guard, Bob Schick, But I mean, you totally
• 20:11
  understand that as well. He's got a family, a kid, he's a
• 20:16
  long way from his home out in Utah, gets a little bit closer
• 20:19
  for going to Oklahoma State, probably worked out a deal,
• 20:24
  maybe work his way into some more guaranteed playing time.
• 20:27
  So like you think about it, there was definitely a route and
• 20:30
  it's not a big shock. But out of everyone who left, if
• 20:32
  I had to name 1 and nail down, I'd probably be Bob shit because
• 20:35
  I mean, he was still, I mean, you know how you get into the
• 20:40
  season injuries role and that room is what it is.
• 20:43
  So that I'd say probably that one out of all of them.
• 20:46
  But I like what you said there at the end, though, it's that
• 20:49
  idea that he wanted more guaranteed playing time.
• 20:52
  There's something we mentioned, you know, he was in the portal
• 20:54
  last time we got together. It was this whole you're not
• 20:58
  getting a lot of you're not getting the amount of snaps you
• 21:00
  got last year because they're guys who are better on this
• 21:03
  team. And I think you just made that
• 21:05
  point pretty good because it was a lot of guys that went.
• 21:08
  And again, we we we we always talk about pride.
• 21:13
  But The thing is we were six win team last year.
• 21:16
  Some guys had to go. Some guys were going to go
• 21:19
  because money was going to call them.
• 21:21
  Some guys were going to go because they had to go, right.
• 21:24
  So is what it is. I boys, just real quick.
• 21:29
  I think we hit it, but I want to confirm any shock to y'all
• 21:31
  anybody? I think everybody is pretty much
• 21:34
  the the portal is closed now and so many guys are actually you
• 21:38
  know at home, like Jordan McDonald's going to play for
• 21:41
  William and Mary Jayden went to UCF.
• 21:45
  You mentioned Bob shit heading out to Oklahoma State, Colby
• 21:48
  Braylon Johnson down the Wake Forest, Ken Fleming down the app
• 21:51
  state and so on. But any, any, any shot like
• 21:56
  nobody landed it like a terrible spot.
• 21:58
  Like I think everybody got homes right.
• 22:01
  Well, that. And like, I think the thing
• 22:03
  that, you know, we're starting to see in, in terms of talent
• 22:05
  leveling up and things like that, you know, a lot of those
• 22:07
  guys are guys that for one reason or another, either
• 22:11
  weren't high enough in the depth chart for what they were
• 22:14
  comfortable with from a playing time standpoint, or we had
• 22:18
  pushed them so far down that it it may it was in their best
• 22:21
  interest to look somewhere else if they wanted the playing time.
• 22:24
  And then they're landing at Oklahoma States and UCFS instead
• 22:29
  of like, you know, some of some of those other schools are
• 22:33
  taking a step down to FCS there. There wasn't as much of that.
• 22:36
  So even the guys that aren't necessarily able to make it with
• 22:41
  us are landing at pretty good spots now, which is showing that
• 22:45
  the talent level is getting raised across the board.
• 22:48
  I think the thing that we're looking at is that when you make
• 22:52
  wholesale shifts, both defensively and offensively, you
• 22:56
  know, there's going to be some guys that don't find their
• 22:58
  footing under the new, the new the new scheme.
• 23:02
  It's just not going to be a good fit for them.
• 23:05
  It may be something where they're just not going to see as
• 23:07
  much time and it could be a situation like the offensive
• 23:10
  line where you brought in more guys that are better, whether
• 23:15
  it's talent wise or fit wise, that you're just not going to
• 23:19
  get as many opportunities as you had before, even for guys like
• 23:21
  Bob Schick that were starters. 100% Well, let's talk about some
• 23:27
  of those guys and, and Kobe, I want to start.
• 23:29
  I won't start on the offense and then flip over to defense and
• 23:31
  let's start with the offensive line because we take a look at
• 23:36
  the two guys and Jaden Muskrat, who comes up from Auburn, Gavin
• 23:39
  Crawford, who comes up from West Virginia.
• 23:42
  That's clearly Monty's and Moore's guys, right?
• 23:46
  It's a guy Monty recruited at Tulsa, played for him at Auburn.
• 23:50
  Same in the thing with Gavin Crawford down at West Virginia.
• 23:54
  I mean, from, from what you've heard, how easy for those
• 23:59
  recruitments, I mean, was it just a phone call and said
• 24:02
  here's a spot? Yeah, I mean so much of the
• 24:06
  portal comes down to obviously prior relationships and but
• 24:09
  there is no short thing, especially these days you can
• 24:13
  have handshake or certain ideas of players before they go
• 24:17
  somewhere. But I mean this, there were some
• 24:21
  stories and things that happened where coming down to the the
• 24:25
  final seconds where you thought it was a done deal and and
• 24:27
  something happens. But for both of these
• 24:29
  situations, oh, actually, I'll start with Gavin Crawford.
• 24:32
  I think that one is probably a lot more straight down the line.
• 24:35
  Visited early, committed early, obviously spent a semester at
• 24:39
  West Virginia, jumped in, followed Coach Moore.
• 24:44
  That one, I think recruitment wise, pretty straight down the
• 24:46
  line, someone who I think honestly has a lot of
• 24:49
  developmental upside. I really like inside maybe now,
• 24:53
  but has has the versatility to probably move outside.
• 24:55
  I'd like to see his updated weight if he's actually at 3:30.
• 24:58
  But I mean, just based on high school film, I think that's a
• 25:01
  good take. Obviously, you got to build out
• 25:03
  that room a little bit. When you take, what, 5 high
• 25:06
  school guys over 2 cycles, there was a lot of work to be done.
• 25:09
  I think Matt Moore's done a good job flipping it.
• 25:11
  And I think this 25, I mean, excuse me, 26 class ahead will
• 25:15
  probably reflect that a little bit.
• 25:17
  That's pretty much all in Crawford recruitment wise for
• 25:19
  Muskrat, much of the same. Obviously Monty Tulsa having
• 25:23
  both. You know, a lot of, you know,
• 25:25
  Canon Montgomery's also on staff of Phillip Montgomery,
• 25:28
  Montgomery's son. I forget his official title, I
• 25:32
  think Co running backs or, or something like that.
• 25:35
  But he also had a relationship when you have both those guys on
• 25:38
  staff and he followed him from Tulsa to Auburn and now we're
• 25:42
  here to Virginia Tech. This whole portal window.
• 25:45
  We we were recovering on Vt scoop.com.
• 25:47
  They were going to go out there and find them a veteran
• 25:50
  offensive lineman. This is one with the prior
• 25:53
  relationship to your offensive coordinator.
• 25:54
  Familiar knows, the scheme knows just familiar with them.
• 25:58
  When you when you talk about coming in over the summer and
• 26:00
  fall, it's just so much being familiar.
• 26:03
  It is just so crucial. So that's really big.
• 26:06
  So they knew they were going to go out and get a veteran guy to
• 26:09
  pair Gavin Crawford's great four years of eligibility.
• 26:12
  You need depth there. But they were also really sorely
• 26:15
  looking for someone who could make an impact almost
• 26:18
  immediately on the field. So to have that relationship
• 26:20
  prior, that recruitment, I would say is pretty straightforward as
• 26:24
  well. There were some personal things
• 26:26
  that they had to work through, which was sort of the delay, but
• 26:30
  really, honestly a great job. That's probably not talking
• 26:32
  about enough by the staff on that one because those snags can
• 26:37
  sort of meander and develop and not get him in the boat.
• 26:40
  But to get him landed, it was really big.
• 26:42
  But like I said, those relationships prior were big
• 26:45
  reason why, but still really important and big to get him in
• 26:48
  the boat. Yeah, 100% And any any talk of I
• 26:53
  know you mentioned about Gavin Crawford could like starting at
• 26:57
  the inside, but you want to know that way because I'm my
• 27:00
  assumption is you think if he's a little bit bigger he might
• 27:02
  kick out. But are are are are we Pagan
• 27:06
  Muskrat it? He's going to start at tackle,
• 27:08
  one side or the other. See, that's a really great
• 27:11
  question. I like there's so much that has
• 27:14
  to be seen. I think he will play tackle.
• 27:17
  I'm not sure if he's a plug in play guy because honestly, and
• 27:20
  that's not a knock on him. I think Johnny Yarrett had a
• 27:23
  really great spring and they were working Tomas Remac out at
• 27:26
  at right tackle as well. And I think for Remac to show
• 27:31
  NFL scouts that they have the versatility to be play inside at
• 27:34
  guard, be a Big 12 Volt honorable mention.
• 27:38
  And then if you kick out this year and you have a all ACC
• 27:41
  caliber year or your solid bookend right there.
• 27:44
  I mean, he has a size. It looked like he had a good
• 27:46
  camp, but at the same time, you know what he can do on the
• 27:48
  inside. So let's say Muskrat comes in,
• 27:50
  he's a world beater in the fall and you, you like what Garrett's
• 27:53
  shown. So you have Garrett on one side,
• 27:55
  Muskrat and then you have re/max.
• 27:56
  So it's just kind of where those five fit.
• 27:59
  But I, I don't think they'll pull Muskrat inside.
• 28:02
  But either way, you have highly increased the floor of your
• 28:08
  offensive line room bringing him he he's seen a lot of college
• 28:11
  football there. There's some things you just
• 28:14
  especially in the offensive line room, I feel like I'm going to
• 28:18
  use like a college basketball reference, but I I feel like
• 28:20
  there's always that big man in the NCAA tournament.
• 28:24
  You cut on. It's like who is this guy
• 28:26
  playing for this team? But it's his fourth or fifth
• 28:27
  year in college and he's just so much more advanced just
• 28:31
  physically that that's kind of what it is with offensive
• 28:33
  lineman. Now.
• 28:34
  Every now and again you have the like I remember Francis Maui Goa
• 28:37
  at Miami, who has a true freshman look like a six year
• 28:41
  offensive lineman. But realistically most of the
• 28:44
  time to get developed in being 2223 and spent all that time in
• 28:49
  a college weight room. I think it'll be really valuable
• 28:51
  for his experience and also being I guess familiar with
• 28:55
  Monty's scheme before. So he's gone through this a lot
• 28:57
  more than even the guys who have been there for spring only
• 29:01
  because they I think Monty said after the spring game, they only
• 29:04
  got maybe 2/3 of the way through install.
• 29:07
  So I think it'll be really valuable overall to the room.
• 29:10
  Yeah, I think it's going to be big.
• 29:12
  And he talked about the install pieces and you get a guy that is
• 29:15
  familiar with the scheme coming in with a coach that while, you
• 29:20
  know, Monty and more haven't necessarily had a lot of overlap
• 29:24
  in their careers scheme wise. It's a it's a very good fit
• 29:28
  between the two, what they want to do, how they want to do it.
• 29:32
  And, and you mentioned like, you know, guys in the tournament, as
• 29:35
  soon as you said that, I like immediately went to like Cameron
• 29:38
  Krutwig from Loyola Chicago, like just this like big dude
• 29:44
  buddy, like not necessarily that that physically intimidating,
• 29:47
  but he's a man out there. But he also he has an
• 29:50
  understanding of the the mental game as well as the physical and
• 29:58
  and can take advantage of that even despite some other, you
• 30:00
  know, athletic shortcomings of his game there.
• 30:04
  And you know, you got a guy like Muskrat thing kind of has that
• 30:08
  experience, has seen it from different levels.
• 30:12
  You know, looking at Tulsa, looking at Auburn coming in,
• 30:15
  that's I think that's going to be big.
• 30:16
  You know, you're not going to he's not going to be overwhelmed
• 30:18
  by the talent that he's seen in the ACC.
• 30:22
  And I'm very interested to see whether he's going to end up at
• 30:25
  at right tackle, left tackle, you know, whatever it may be,
• 30:30
  you know, or if he's going to be more of an interior player at
• 30:32
  some point. But I feel like he's really
• 30:34
  going to be, he's going to be a tackle, whether he ends up
• 30:37
  knocking, you know, Remac or or or Johnny Garrett out of a
• 30:40
  starting spot. I feel like, you know, one of
• 30:44
  they're they're all still going to start.
• 30:45
  It's just. Yeah, they're.
• 30:46
  All what's the configuration going to be is.
• 30:49
  It going to be. Is it going to be Muskrat at
• 30:51
  left, Johnny at right, Remac inside a flip of the tackles
• 30:55
  there or is, you know, is are you just going to, you know, you
• 30:59
  know, keep keep Remac out there and then just move, you know,
• 31:03
  move one of those guys inside? So I'm I'm really interested to
• 31:05
  see how how that that shuffles going to work and how Crawford
• 31:09
  maybe enters the conversation, because I think he's still, you
• 31:12
  know, a younger guy. I think he's still got some
• 31:14
  room, room to grow. Is he going to be a guy that can
• 31:17
  really have an impact this year? Is he more of a long term
• 31:20
  solution for the inside of that offensive line?
• 31:23
  I, I think long term, I'll make a note.
• 31:26
  You want to talk about a younger guy who's been up through the
• 31:30
  program who I don't know if will make an impact this year, but
• 31:33
  just somewhat to maybe bookmark Aiden Lynch.
• 31:35
  That's a guy who I, I think could make some waves here like
• 31:40
  at the end of last year. So I guess the year he
• 31:42
  redshirted and into the spring, someone who's slowly making some
• 31:46
  moves. Now, like I said, you got a lot
• 31:48
  of older guys ahead of him, but you want to talk about a younger
• 31:50
  guy with a lot of years left of eligibility.
• 31:53
  That's someone to maybe keep an eye on that.
• 31:55
  Is what you got? Yeah.
• 31:57
  No, just what you everything that you're talking about is
• 32:00
  like what you want to be talking about.
• 32:02
  You know what I'm saying? Like you can be mad like me at
• 32:04
  everything, but when you really look at football and you really
• 32:07
  kind of see how to build a program and how to build a team,
• 32:12
  the things that y'all are talking about is what you want
• 32:14
  to be talking about. Like who's going to start here?
• 32:17
  Not for the fact of we don't have anybody, you know what I'm
• 32:21
  saying? You got pieces that Xavier
• 32:25
  Chaplin leaves. Understandable.
• 32:27
  That is a blow, right? You know what I'm saying?
• 32:30
  But you had one really good guy and then you had some mediocre
• 32:34
  guys and some really bad guys. So it was a discrepancy in the
• 32:39
  top to the bottom. Now I feel like you've got guys
• 32:42
  kind of all across the board that can fit in and you have a,
• 32:46
  like Kobe said, raised floor in that room.
• 32:49
  So if I do have to switch you out for a series of play, this
• 32:53
  guy goes down, you don't have this massive drop off when X was
• 32:58
  getting hurt and then we have to put somebody else in.
• 33:00
  If you got all these other guys that you can plug and play, or
• 33:04
  if that because I don't know everything about football, but I
• 33:07
  can look at a offensive lineman in a game and tell if he can
• 33:11
  play like I can look at a couple of plays and be like he he can
• 33:15
  do something for you. Cunningham can do something for
• 33:18
  us. The fact that he didn't see the
• 33:20
  the field last year on a bad offensive line was a tragedy.
• 33:25
  You know what I'm saying? I don't know if he was hurt or
• 33:27
  something maybe, but I'm just saying I've seen him enough to
• 33:30
  know like that kid can do something for us.
• 33:33
  Hey, this dude ain't doing right.
• 33:34
  Go in there and get him and let me let talk to him for a minute.
• 33:37
  I'm just glad to see that the offensive line coach in the
• 33:41
  offensive line room has a pulse. So I know some people was like,
• 33:45
  oh, this dude only played special teams.
• 33:47
  So fucking what? I don't care what he played.
• 33:50
  Get me all the offensive lineman and then let's figure out if
• 33:53
  they can play or not. Because when you got three
• 33:55
  offensive lineman that you know can play or you got 10 that you
• 33:58
  think can play, I take the 10 I think can play because one of
• 34:02
  those 3 is going to get hurt. So I'm just glad to see the new
• 34:05
  coach has a pulse and he's he's done a good job of flipping the
• 34:08
  room and he's done a good job of bringing some people in.
• 34:11
  And then like when you talk about, I think Kobe was talking
• 34:14
  about just like being comfortable with the coach.
• 34:18
  Most people in the chat, most people here have played some
• 34:20
  type of sport. And you know, like egos and
• 34:24
  attitudes play a big part in what you do when you're playing
• 34:28
  sports. It could be something as simple
• 34:30
  as a coach dip snuff, right, does tobacco and he yells in
• 34:33
  your face. But when you talk to your Mama,
• 34:35
  you say, well, this dude keeps spitting in my face.
• 34:38
  Don't know Mama want to hear that He's spitting in your face.
• 34:40
  Oh, we got to find a new school. Well, if you have somebody that
• 34:43
  knows that coach and knows his mannerism, he's probably going
• 34:46
  to say it. Well, coach such and such, just
• 34:48
  he's not spitting in your face. He's just yelling.
• 34:50
  That's what he does. Like, calm down before you call
• 34:52
  your mom and dad and tell that. So having somebody who's
• 34:55
  comfortable with a coach that that coach probably don't
• 34:59
  gravitate to when he really wants to get on Kobe, but he
• 35:02
  knows Brian, he'll get on Brian so Kobe can see it, you know
• 35:05
  what I'm saying? So having those guys that come
• 35:07
  in and those coaches can lean on to be like Brian, get your shit
• 35:11
  together. But Brian's doing everything
• 35:12
  right. But he's doing that so the
• 35:13
  younger guy can see him, you know what I'm saying?
• 35:15
  I think that's going to help in the long run.
• 35:17
  I'm just interested to see kind of where we go, you know, where,
• 35:21
  where, where the where the team goes.
• 35:24
  But as we know, the team goes with the trenches.
• 35:26
  So I'm definitely, you know, keeping my eye on that this
• 35:29
  summer and into the fall. Yeah.
• 35:31
  And you know, Kobe made the point like we had a couple
• 35:34
  cycles that we probably didn't take as many lineman as we
• 35:37
  should have both in the portal and high school recruiting.
• 35:42
  And so a lot of what Moore has had to do is kind of backfill
• 35:44
  that position a little bit, both from a front end talent
• 35:48
  perspective and from a depth perspective.
• 35:50
  And I think he's done a pretty good job of that so far.
• 35:53
  And yeah, I think it was it was definitely needed.
• 35:56
  I know some of that was probably related to the issues that we
• 36:01
  had with having a different offensive line coach pretty much
• 36:04
  every damn year of the prior regime.
• 36:08
  So that that didn't help, but you know, you can't let those
• 36:11
  things go by the wayside because you can get all the wide
• 36:15
  receiver talent that you want. You can get all these, you know,
• 36:18
  really good players in the secondary.
• 36:19
  You can get all those guys. But if you're not dominating the
• 36:22
  trenches, none of that matters. It doesn't matter whatsoever.
• 36:26
  And and to y'all's point, I love what y'all said, Brian and Tally
• 36:30
  about having those guys that know you and know what you can
• 36:33
  do to them. And Moore had his already with
• 36:37
  Rimac, Al Tuner and the Lucas kid.
• 36:41
  He got a fourth one. Now Monty got his right because
• 36:44
  I love that Tally because now if Monty wants to go to the
• 36:47
  offensive line and get on somebody, I don't know, Muskrat
• 36:50
  for the last six years, I coached him at Auburn, I coached
• 36:53
  him at Tulsa. You got that piece and I think
• 36:56
  we've all are. I think we're all in agreement
• 36:58
  here and y'all said it in some way, shape or fashion.
• 37:01
  I think right now, compared to last year, this room is better
• 37:05
  even without the guy, the elite guy, right Tally, and that's me.
• 37:10
  That's what Xavier Chaplin was. It's almost like we traded away.
• 37:14
  You see it in all sorts of MLB deals.
• 37:17
  We traded away the elite guy, but everything we got back, we
• 37:21
  got so much more in return, right?
• 37:22
  It's like you got Rymac, who's all Big 12, you got Muskrat, who
• 37:26
  knows the system. Altoona was a high end center
• 37:29
  coming out. It's like you don't want shit on
• 37:32
  Xavier, but it's like if you had to leave for us to get
• 37:36
  effectively a full step better at every other spot on this
• 37:40
  line. Right I.
• 37:42
  Think we can live with it. So, you know, all right, there's
• 37:46
  the offensive line group. I I can't wait till this summer
• 37:50
  when we're all texting and we're like, OK, who's the starting
• 37:54
  five of the offense? And we will probably argue about
• 37:56
  it because it's going to be arguments about it.
• 37:59
  The summer period. Let's keep that up.
• 38:02
  The summer period is long and we'll do what we can try and get
• 38:07
  some Intel, but it is long and there's not a lot to sort of
• 38:11
  tell, so that's the best time to just throw stuff at the wall and
• 38:14
  see what happens in fall camp. Exactly.
• 38:17
  All right, let's flip now to I thought this room was set.
• 38:23
  I truly did. I truly thought the wide
• 38:25
  receiver room was set. You know Aiden Green has played
• 38:29
  you. Weren't you weren't reading on
• 38:30
  Vt scoop.com then? Hey, listen, man, I probably was
• 38:33
  at a baseball game at some point in time.
• 38:37
  The the reading, reading certain things has to go out of the
• 38:40
  window when you hit the baseball field 6 out of seven days and
• 38:44
  Josh is already hitting it here. Talk about Isaiah Spencer out of
• 38:50
  Jackson State, a guy with some data and you don't talk about
• 38:54
  some data. You take a look at and play two
• 38:56
  seasons down there, 70 right at 70 catches over 800 yards, 5
• 39:02
  touchdowns. Let's go ahead and talk about
• 39:07
  where's the connection there? Who knew this kid?
• 39:11
  How did this come about? You know, Colby, because again,
• 39:15
  this was 1, I think I thought it was going to not come to
• 39:18
  fruition. I was like, I think we're set.
• 39:20
  We could probably use one, but I don't.
• 39:22
  I did not think we would get a guy who had this much
• 39:25
  production. Where you see, OK, the tapes
• 39:26
  there, the production's there. I don't care if it's at Jackson
• 39:29
  State or not. Yeah.
• 39:31
  So assistant head coach, wide receiver, coach Fontell mines
• 39:35
  kind of takes what he wants. It's sort of what it comes down
• 39:37
  to. I mean, you go out there and
• 39:39
  this is someone who is, I mean, pretty highly regarded going
• 39:44
  around in the portal getting some pretty, pretty big
• 39:46
  interest. I know Baylor was really heavy
• 39:49
  on him there at the end. I know he cancelled that visit
• 39:51
  right after he visited Virginia Tech, but you had some pretty
• 39:54
  big suitors after him. I mean, evaluators seeing the
• 39:58
  skill and really being high on him.
• 40:00
  And this was just another honestly master class by
• 40:04
  Fontelle Mines and seeing what he wanted, getting after it and
• 40:08
  getting him into the fold. So, yeah, I mean, we we can talk
• 40:12
  more about it. But yeah, just overall
• 40:14
  recruitment wise, it's just. Coach Mon's doing what he does.
• 40:18
  And I think, you know, what you got to sell now is a little bit
• 40:20
  different than what you had to sell under a bow and offense
• 40:24
  because it's it's it's still a mostly balanced attack, right?
• 40:29
  You're still going to get a pretty decent dose of the run.
• 40:32
  But because of the pace of play, you're going to run so many more
• 40:36
  plays. These wide receivers are going
• 40:37
  to have so much more opportunity to make plays in this offense.
• 40:43
  That's the selling point and that's why you're going to get a
• 40:45
  chance to pull in a guy like this in the spring window.
• 40:50
  Yeah, I'll circle back. Oh, sorry, go.
• 40:52
  Ahead, go ahead. Well, I'll circle back a little
• 40:55
  bit. I know Curtis said you thought
• 40:57
  you were good in like the room where it is, yes, 100%.
• 41:00
  But going into the portal, the spring portal at least it sort
• 41:04
  of heard obviously with Brody Adams missing the spring with
• 41:07
  the injury, they really like where he's at and I think he'll
• 41:09
  be back for fall. But just him being down, you
• 41:12
  obviously bring in Kim Seldon who's making the position
• 41:14
  switch. And I, I really think he had a
• 41:15
  great spring too. But you bring him in Donovan
• 41:18
  Green, I think a nice addition as well, but someone who's
• 41:21
  battled injury. So you really look and then
• 41:23
  behind them you have chance Wiggins, Tucker Holloway, a
• 41:27
  couple other guys. So they went into this portal.
• 41:30
  Ideally they weren't they were looking for.
• 41:32
  I know they hosted Christian Fitzpatrick, the guy from
• 41:35
  Marshall that we got one handed catch on Montour to Lane.
• 41:37
  People remember from last year in Lane, but that was maybe what
• 41:41
  we were hearing initially, a big body, true vertical threat
• 41:44
  because I think Brian was just talking about the vertical
• 41:47
  aspect of Monty's offense. Someone who can really push down
• 41:50
  the field that that big, maybe prototypical NFL receiver.
• 41:54
  You think about that NFL like X body type or 64 bigger guy and
• 41:59
  really push down the field. But when this is a player maybe
• 42:02
  6-2 out of 215, maybe maybe a little smaller, but but someone
• 42:07
  who is still just as a talent, you can't not take.
• 42:11
  I think that's why they went and backfield here at wide receiver.
• 42:14
  Now, that's not to say the younger guys that they've
• 42:16
  brought in, like Keelan Chan's, Micah Matthews, Snoke, Peter
• 42:21
  Kim, but I mean, Snoke's a guy who he hasn't even stepped on
• 42:23
  campus yet. Mike, it was splitting time.
• 42:25
  So like, they really like these guys.
• 42:26
  You just want to bring them along a little bit.
• 42:28
  So this is a guy who's ready to sort of just bridge that gap a
• 42:32
  little bit. No, Yeah, exactly, exactly what
• 42:36
  I was going to kind of go with. It is what Kobe said.
• 42:39
  It's because the one thing you can't account for is injuries,
• 42:42
  you know what I'm saying? And you got to you bring a wide
• 42:45
  receiver in that was has been injured.
• 42:47
  You know what I'm saying? You got a wide receiver that
• 42:49
  you're kind of start counting on this injured.
• 42:54
  Injuries are going to happen. You know, you look at Ally
• 42:57
  Jennings went down last year. Then where you go from there?
• 43:00
  You kind of if you can get talent, you get talent.
• 43:03
  Same as I said with the offensive line room, it's like,
• 43:05
  give me 10 and let's see who goes.
• 43:07
  I understand it and you never know somebody wants to leave.
• 43:10
  You know you don't you don't know what's going to happen in
• 43:12
  today's football. So when you have an opportunity
• 43:15
  to go grab somebody that does like you said, have some data
• 43:18
  does I think somebody put 0 drops I mean, you go you got 0
• 43:24
  drops in in two years yeah, we'll take it.
• 43:27
  You know, let's, let's, let's see what you can do.
• 43:30
  Let's put you in the in the in an orange uniform because that's
• 43:33
  where we win. And let's see what let's see
• 43:36
  what you can do because we've kind of seen what happens when
• 43:40
  you have to rely on younger guys.
• 43:42
  You like Tucker Holloway, which is like one of my favorite
• 43:46
  people to watch, but he's coming off of an injury, you know what
• 43:49
  I'm saying? What kind of production does he
• 43:51
  have? You know, is he going to be
• 43:52
  primarily on kick return? Is he a punt return?
• 43:56
  Is he going to be kind of back to him all his old self?
• 43:59
  You get these young guys in, are they going to play like you got
• 44:02
  this kid here who kind of has a body of work.
• 44:06
  So you got the opportunity to get him.
• 44:09
  Let's grab him. So I was excited for it.
• 44:11
  I don't know how I, I haven't been on Twitter much lately,
• 44:13
  man. So I don't know kind of how
• 44:16
  people perceived it. But when I seen it, I've seen
• 44:19
  the kid a little bit, you know, just from kind of watching
• 44:23
  sports. I've kind of seen him pop up on
• 44:25
  some highlights and of course seen some of his, some of his
• 44:29
  tape and things like that. And I'm like, I think that was a
• 44:31
  pretty good get. And the more I dug into it, like
• 44:33
  I like it. I'm not gassing it because I'm
• 44:36
  not gassing nothing like we can get Tom Brady in the building
• 44:39
  now. I'm still going to be whatever,
• 44:42
  but I'm just saying I do like that it looked, it looked nice.
• 44:46
  Yeah. And you know, when we think
• 44:47
  about like true deep threats in this offense, you know, we got a
• 44:52
  we got a couple guys that are probably you haven't seen enough
• 44:56
  of to feel like you can rely on thinking of of chance Wiggins.
• 44:59
  In this case, you got a returning from injury Tucker
• 45:03
  Holloway and you don't really have you're much else as far as
• 45:07
  true deep threats. And so you get a guy like this
• 45:10
  that has that in his in his toolbox, that's only going to
• 45:15
  help consistency within the wide receiver room and consistency
• 45:19
  from the offense and being able to attack downfield.
• 45:21
  Yeah. So yeah, I kind of and y'all
• 45:23
  kind of hit it in every way. I kind of said this was almost
• 45:25
  like a safety blanket pick up because not necessarily the
• 45:29
  skill level of those young guys, but it's the it's the no
• 45:32
  production there, right? Or very small production
• 45:35
  numbers. And sometimes you just want that
• 45:38
  guy that, you know, we've seen his like Tally said, I've seen
• 45:41
  him play. I've seen his highlights.
• 45:43
  He's out there on the field, not saying Chan's and Brody.
• 45:47
  Excuse me, Keelan. Y'all can get in trouble with
• 45:51
  Miss Lester. You better get it.
• 45:52
  Calling him Brody. Yeah, I don't do that.
• 45:55
  He's Keelan. OK.
• 45:57
  Keelan Adams. All right, I'm I'm gonna end up
• 46:02
  beating her one day. She's like, thank you for
• 46:04
  calling. But but I think that's out
• 46:06
  there. I think that's why that
• 46:07
  happened. It was just like we need one
• 46:09
  more production piece, because even if these young guys blow up
• 46:12
  to y'all's point where one piece away from somebody going down
• 46:15
  and be in the same damn place we were last year.
• 46:18
  And you know, by the way, shout out Fontell, I told the boys
• 46:23
  this, I'll tell you this, Kobe, I ran into Fontelle on Friday,
• 46:26
  Trader Joe's here in Richmond, just walking there he is
• 46:29
  standing didn't some shopping done said he was up to see his
• 46:32
  Mama for for the day. Shout out Coach Miles, good
• 46:36
  talking with you a couple minutes there.
• 46:37
  But I like it because now you look at that room and you're
• 46:40
  like, you got proven guys. You got these skilled, these
• 46:44
  young, skillful guys. Let's see if we can roll
• 46:47
  something, but you know, try not to gas it.
• 46:49
  I'm going to gas a little more in Tally.
• 46:52
  Let's hit one last. Well, actually there's two
• 46:54
  because I want to talk about the long snapper in a second here
• 46:57
  because it's an incredible story.
• 46:59
  I can't remember if you wrote it or Amber wrote it, Colby, but I
• 47:02
  just want to talk about him. But let's talk about Garrett
• 47:04
  Rangel, quarterback coming out of Oklahoma State.
• 47:11
  Where did this come from? Was it some?
• 47:13
  Was it something already with Monty?
• 47:14
  Did? Did somebody else have a
• 47:16
  relationship with him? Because he'd been there backup
• 47:19
  for a couple years, had played in several games.
• 47:21
  So it wasn't like it was just, oh, I'm sitting on the bench and
• 47:24
  I don't want to do that because he ain't starting here right
• 47:26
  away. Yeah.
• 47:28
  No. Then when you talk about
• 47:30
  initially with this recruitment there, there were murmurs about
• 47:33
  maybe looking to bring in another quarterback with the
• 47:38
  presumption. I mean, pretty much all spring,
• 47:39
  it was sort of writing on the wall that Davi Belfort was going
• 47:42
  to be transferring and looking elsewhere this spring.
• 47:46
  So then you look behind Kyron and Pop and you got two kids who
• 47:51
  just went to their Proms. You know what I'm saying?
• 47:52
  I mean, these guys are 1718 years old.
• 47:55
  They're, that's what I think about like when I'm standing out
• 47:58
  there for spring practice and I look around at all the early
• 48:00
  enrollees and these, I mean, essentially high school players
• 48:05
  are playing against fifth year guys.
• 48:06
  It really is crazy to think about.
• 48:07
  So when you sort of think about that situation, think about how
• 48:10
  many times Pop had to play last year and he went into the year
• 48:13
  as quarterback #3 so this year, instead of sitting on Pop, who
• 48:17
  redshirted, had a lot, he early enrolled and redshirted and then
• 48:22
  necked last year. So this year, if you're in that
• 48:24
  situation, you're playing Kelvin Ryan or AJ Brand, who a year ago
• 48:28
  that time were playing high school football.
• 48:30
  So I think that was just the big situation.
• 48:34
  Coach Montgomery bringing a new offensive coordinator.
• 48:36
  He obviously hasn't recruited a quarterback to the school yet.
• 48:39
  This is someone you're familiar with, felt comfortable with and
• 48:43
  was looking for a new spot as well.
• 48:45
  So it kind of just worked out really organically and well.
• 48:48
  And this is someone I think Coach Montgomery really likes,
• 48:50
  obviously, to bring in here, but somebody has a relationship with
• 48:53
  and I think someone who you think can throw the ball around
• 48:55
  the yard a little bit. So that's something in fall camp
• 48:58
  to watch. Sure.
• 49:00
  I mean, I might contribute to some crazy fall storylines.
• 49:03
  And we post enough clips of this guy spinning in the fall.
• 49:08
  Yeah. And and it's a guy that you
• 49:09
  know, has, it's not a one year rental either.
• 49:12
  It's a guy that has a, you know, couple couple years of
• 49:14
  eligibility. So it's going to be, I think a
• 49:17
  good thing to both short term and long term push pop.
• 49:22
  But also, you know, looking in the in the short term, you're
• 49:26
  looking at, you know, that emergency quarterback situation
• 49:30
  where, you know, we got to to quarterback three last year,
• 49:33
  even though we, you know, we, we had a couple injuries here and
• 49:35
  there and all of a sudden you're playing your, your third string
• 49:37
  quarterback. So not having to play a guy that
• 49:40
  was just fresh out of high school and really honestly, up
• 49:44
  until this point should still be in high school.
• 49:47
  You're both of those kids, you know, under normal tracks.
• 49:49
  So you didn't really want to get yourself into that situation
• 49:53
  where you're, you know, a true, true freshman getting out there,
• 49:55
  significant minutes, especially breaking into a new offense and
• 49:59
  all those things. So you love having a guy that's
• 50:01
  at least seen some some live snaps at the college level has
• 50:06
  already been in a system for a little bit, kind of understands
• 50:09
  what being a quarterback at this level is all about.
• 50:13
  So that that's going to be important.
• 50:15
  And I think that's going to be good for us from a debt
• 50:17
  perspective heading into the fall.
• 50:21
  Anything tally on this? Not really man.
• 50:24
  It kind of hit everything. It it you can hit on that
• 50:27
  situation. It's just like, I guess the only
• 50:29
  thing I'll say is I've seen the video of Kelvin Ryan and I think
• 50:33
  it was Jeff Overton and AJ Brand doing that.
• 50:38
  I think it was break the ice. Is that what it's called?
• 50:40
  Yeah. So I've seen that on.
• 50:42
  Yeah, I've seen that on Instagram.
• 50:43
  And Kelvin Ryan does not look like he was just that prom.
• 50:47
  He looks like a strong ass man. I know when I was in 12th grade
• 50:52
  or even a freshman in college, I did not have facial hair like
• 50:55
  that. I wasn't that big.
• 50:57
  So it looked grown man. But again, now I, I think that
• 51:05
  at this point you just can't be desperate.
• 51:07
  You know what I'm saying? Like we can't get into games and
• 51:09
  be, I mean, you could be desperate at the beginning to
• 51:11
  that's not the right word. You don't want to be desperate.
• 51:14
  You want to be prepared, but you want to be able to do what it
• 51:18
  takes to win. So if you have to mix some
• 51:20
  things up to win, sure. You don't want to get in the
• 51:22
  game and go, we can't run the ball because we don't have a, we
• 51:25
  don't have a running back that we trust or we, we, we can't do
• 51:29
  this because we don't have a quarterback.
• 51:30
  So bringing in another quarterback, you, you got to do
• 51:33
  it. You know what I'm saying?
• 51:34
  And you can't play scared ball. You can't go well, we don't want
• 51:37
  to make our starting quarterback mad because bringing this other
• 51:40
  guy in is going to cut man. Can't do that.
• 51:44
  Injuries happen, there is a transport portal.
• 51:47
  You know, I know that there's always talks of you know I'm
• 51:50
  here till the end and you just never know what's going to
• 51:53
  happen nowadays. So great.
• 51:55
  I mean great pick up to go pick up somebody who has played.
• 51:59
  What I love to see when we bring somebody in is somebody has some
• 52:03
  kind of you got some kind of experience.
• 52:06
  You know what I'm saying? You're able to get into a game
• 52:10
  and look like you've been there even with like college league
• 52:12
  last year, right. You know, when we brought him
• 52:15
  in, it was kind of a shock that we brought him in.
• 52:17
  To me, that's thinking like why they bring this dude in.
• 52:20
  But in the long term scheme of things, I mean, when he got on
• 52:24
  the field, he looked like he knew what he was doing, you know
• 52:27
  what I'm saying? So it was a much different
• 52:29
  quarterback than somebody who's just fresh out of high school to
• 52:32
  have somebody with some college experience and kind of knows the
• 52:35
  speed of the game. So picking up the quarterback
• 52:38
  and bringing them in, you know, especially with Kyron kind of
• 52:40
  being on ice right now, you know, praying that all of his,
• 52:44
  his his recovery is great when he comes back and he comes back,
• 52:47
  you know, better than he was last year just because we didn't
• 52:50
  get to see the full potential of what he was because of injuries.
• 52:53
  So, yeah, I, I, I just love competition, man.
• 52:57
  Like I tell my kid all the time, you know, if you don't like
• 53:01
  competition, don't play sports. If you just want somebody to put
• 53:04
  you there because you're supposed to be there, you don't
• 53:07
  need to play. So I say bring when pride was on
• 53:10
  this show. What do you say, Curtis?
• 53:12
  I'm bringing in somebody to take your spot.
• 53:13
  Yes, all right. And he said that the first time
• 53:15
  we ever talked to him. Bring somebody in to take your
• 53:18
  job. You got to, you got to live by
• 53:20
  that, especially when you're 1616.
• 53:22
  You. Know what I'm saying?
• 53:24
  Like you got to, you got to, you got to, you got to have that
• 53:27
  mentality, so. And I love it, Brian, you
• 53:30
  mentioned and I think we'll, we'll wrap this one up with
• 53:32
  this. You said it perfectly.
• 53:35
  Pop now cannot get comfortable. Pop has got to push himself as
• 53:40
  hard as he did last year to keep up with Schlee.
• 53:42
  Because it's like, you know what, you got the experience
• 53:45
  last year. You, we know you can get on the
• 53:46
  field and play. But we also don't want to be in
• 53:49
  that situation where last year we had to throw Pop in the game
• 53:54
  for the first time and he did OK.
• 53:56
  And it was great to see that that really all that preparation
• 53:59
  got him ready. But we're sitting back here.
• 54:01
  Do we want to put AJ or Kelvin in that situation if something
• 54:05
  screwed up happens because you know, that's that's the luck of
• 54:08
  the hokey. Sun's liable screwed up.
• 54:09
  Instead you get to, I'm not saying keep them on ice, but you
• 54:13
  get them. Ron, you said it, their
• 54:14
  developmental path. You guys are not going to play
• 54:18
  this year. We now have 3 quarterbacks.
• 54:21
  Cavern started a bunch of games, Pop started some games he's got
• 54:24
  on the field. And you know, Garrett Rangel has
• 54:29
  played in 13 games, thrown almost 200 passes in three
• 54:31
  seasons. That's a lot of passes.
• 54:33
  So I think we're at a good spot there.
• 54:35
  All right, real quick, Colby, I don't want to go into the
• 54:40
  everything about him any long snapper, but if for those who
• 54:43
  didn't get a read on it, just give us a little bit because you
• 54:47
  wrote an article back in April about Drew Dole and I, I read it
• 54:52
  a couple days ago and I didn't have his name on here at 1st and
• 54:55
  then I threw it on here because what a story right for this guy.
• 54:59
  Yeah, I don't, I don't have it up right now.
• 55:01
  Like I said, I'm in the Outer Banks.
• 55:02
  But I mean, just a quick synopsis of him.
• 55:05
  Obviously long snapper, maybe not the most glamorous pick up
• 55:08
  of the transfer portal, but if ever remembers how a bad
• 55:12
  exchange snap can go, you know I'm not going to go much
• 55:16
  further. But you know it's from the place
• 55:18
  where I'm from where it happened.
• 55:19
  So anyways but. Yeah, so.
• 55:22
  Long snapper, very important anyways.
• 55:24
  But look, going back to Drew Doyle, what an incredible story.
• 55:27
  Someone who went and served in the the US Navy and then went to
• 55:31
  Iowa State as a walk on after he finished his service.
• 55:35
  I believe four years. I don't want to misquote it.
• 55:37
  OK Yeah. I believe he served four years
• 55:40
  then went to Iowa State to continue his education.
• 55:43
  Walked onto the football team and now to go enter the transfer
• 55:49
  portal coming to Virginia Tech. Obviously such a massive
• 55:53
  emphasis on the core cadets. I think just a really incredible
• 55:56
  story to have someone go and continue their educational and
• 56:00
  playing career, which is really amazing.
• 56:02
  So I, I think obviously I don't think you could have hurt for
• 56:06
  that leadership to have in the locker room.
• 56:07
  I don't think there is any I, I can't relate personally, but
• 56:11
  obviously a football locker room has a great brotherhood, but I
• 56:13
  would imagine that the US Navy has an incredible brotherhood.
• 56:16
  So anytime you can bring a leader like that into the locker
• 56:19
  room, I think that's a great ad. 100% in In reading the story
• 56:23
  here four years. You you, you remember the story
• 56:26
  you wrote? Well, Colby, just a few weeks
• 56:28
  ago, four years in the Navy, walked on, got got a preferred
• 56:32
  walk on spot once he came on. So he was basically borderline
• 56:35
  about to be on a scholarship. But Tally, you're going to love
• 56:37
  this. He's a combat medic.
• 56:40
  We got somebody on the sideline now that can work on these guys
• 56:42
  when we get hurt. But hopefully we don't get hurt.
• 56:46
  But yeah, we don't hurt. Hopefully that's, I mean that's,
• 56:48
  that's good that we can do. That I feel like half the show
• 56:51
  we've been talking about, but injuries happen.
• 56:53
  But injuries happen you. Know.
• 56:56
  The whole crazy way. Because like, I feel like, you
• 56:58
  know, either those injury bugs hit you so hard, it's just so
• 57:02
  debilitating or it's like it kind of just flutters around you
• 57:05
  a little bit there. There's never like a middle
• 57:07
  ground where you're like comfortable.
• 57:09
  It's either it, it, it stays away or it like just completely
• 57:13
  runs right there debilitate you. It's.
• 57:15
  Right in your face, constant and you're like, he's hurt.
• 57:18
  We hurt again. Jeezy, I let's flip over to the
• 57:21
  defensive side of the ball and obviously the defensive line was
• 57:25
  the standout room for that side. And each guy probably has their
• 57:29
  own story and how they arrived. But for you kind of looking
• 57:33
  through on Kobe and kind of thinking back as you're, you
• 57:36
  know, reading what's going on with them, seeing where they're
• 57:39
  coming from, what kind of stood out for you on each of these
• 57:42
  guys, you got Cody Hussman, Elijah Fall and Emmanuel
• 57:46
  Hickman. Yeah, I'll go down the list and
• 57:49
  just kicking it back to what Tally said earlier.
• 57:51
  It's all, I mean, it's all about the trenches.
• 57:53
  When you build out any football team, you got to start in the
• 57:56
  trenches. Obviously new offensive
• 57:57
  coordinator try to get his line straight.
• 57:59
  New defensive coordinator wants to get his front look straight.
• 58:02
  So coming in, you mentioned Cody Heisman, the kid from North
• 58:05
  Dakota State Super that that was a guy initially in the portal
• 58:09
  they set their eyes on targeted and they're really, really,
• 58:13
  really high on now, don't get me wrong.
• 58:15
  Kamari Copeland and Kelvin Gilliam, I think you can pencil
• 58:18
  in maybe almost in Sharpie now. I think those two guys with the
• 58:21
  spring and what they've done on the field here, obviously for
• 58:24
  Gilliam and the way they've LED themselves in the locker room,
• 58:28
  in the classroom, outside of the field, I think those two guys
• 58:31
  you can maybe pencil in a starters.
• 58:33
  There's going to be a lot of rotations, odd fronts, different
• 58:35
  fronts. This is a guy who's going to
• 58:37
  factor in a lot. I think Cody Heisman, someone
• 58:39
  who's going to make a big impact, someone they set out for
• 58:42
  her to get and to land. I think they love his body type,
• 58:45
  what he brings. He was all MVFCI believe is the
• 58:49
  conference what it's called OK, and someone who I think is going
• 58:55
  to factor in pretty heavily. Then you go down L my gosh, I'm
• 58:58
  going to mess up his name. I'm so sorry.
• 59:00
  L had fall, I believe is how you say it, but this is someone I I
• 59:05
  talked, I talked to and before the visit he was excited after
• 59:10
  the visit said it went well. And then it was it sort of
• 59:12
  seemed like one of those deals where maybe he was going to
• 59:15
  fizzle out just because he was going to go on another visit or
• 59:18
  something. And then I'm at the golf course,
• 59:19
  I'm on the putting green, I get a notification he committed.
• 59:22
  So I it was just one of those things where there were smoke
• 59:25
  around it, but it seemed like something I was going to drag
• 59:27
  out and then just all of a sudden he was in the boat.
• 59:28
  So I believe he has two years of eligibility left coming from
• 59:32
  Georgia Southern, someone with multiple years just you got it
• 59:37
  like it's the trenches. It's hard to find these guys who
• 59:39
  are walking around 290, two, 95 lbs.
• 59:42
  So you just got to load up there.
• 59:43
  And then Emanuel Hickman, you want to talk about maybe the
• 59:46
  someone who didn't surprise me leaving someone who surprised me
• 59:49
  coming in. This was the one true that
• 59:51
  caught me way off guard. I was monitoring Michael Short,
• 59:55
  which happened I believe 1015 minutes right after this.
• 59:57
  But I just got my Qdoba Bowl from Turner's Hall.
• 1:00:00
  If anyone's familiar with Virginia Tech campus, I'm coming
• 1:00:03
  back. It's a beautiful day.
• 1:00:04
  I'm sitting on my patio and all of a sudden I see Emmanuel
• 1:00:08
  Hickman and I had to scramble and and catch myself up with
• 1:00:12
  this. But this is someone.
• 1:00:14
  I believe with one year left, he's played a ton of college
• 1:00:16
  football. I think started at East Carolina
• 1:00:18
  then went down to USF, Didn't play last year.
• 1:00:21
  But someone like I said, the body type, what he can bring.
• 1:00:24
  I think he'll also factor on the field with A11 year left.
• 1:00:29
  And when you bring in all these guys, I think from the fans for
• 1:00:33
  just everything, he can get discouraging when you hear so
• 1:00:36
  much about Emmett Laws, Gerard Johnson, even James Jeanette,
• 1:00:43
  just guys specifically those guys.
• 1:00:46
  But Andrew Hanchuk, just guys like that who you've recruited
• 1:00:49
  and been in the program and look like they're making strides and
• 1:00:51
  are making strides. And it's instantly well, are
• 1:00:54
  these guys not doing the right things?
• 1:00:55
  Well, no. It's just in the way college
• 1:00:57
  football is now. You kind of just you have to
• 1:01:00
  continue like like you guys mentioned when pride was on
• 1:01:03
  here, I'm bringing in someone to take your spot.
• 1:01:05
  And it's not that you guys are doing anything wrong.
• 1:01:08
  It's just every single day the man next to you is going to be
• 1:01:11
  competing and, and wanting to take what's yours.
• 1:01:13
  So I, I, I'm still think and spring wise, Emmett and Gerard
• 1:01:18
  Johnson specifically, even Christian Evans, early enrollee
• 1:01:21
  Christian Evans, I thought had a really great spring.
• 1:01:23
  So overall, I think the defensive line room's in a great
• 1:01:25
  place, but that doesn't mean take your foot off the gas.
• 1:01:28
  And because with how many fronts and substitutions I think
• 1:01:32
  they're going to be running, I think you're going to want as
• 1:01:34
  many of those bodies as you can. Yeah, that difference of line
• 1:01:39
  being, no, that difference of line has has quietly been, I
• 1:01:43
  don't even want to say quietly, but they've been doing some
• 1:01:45
  work, man. When you start to think about
• 1:01:47
  all of the portal ads that they had, and I know people be
• 1:01:52
  jumping on JC, man, I always like JC, but people jumping on
• 1:01:55
  JC saying he couldn't recruit or he spent too much time at
• 1:01:59
  Sharky's the way I don't know whatever the place is that he
• 1:02:02
  likes to go Drake. But I'm like, man, when you
• 1:02:04
  start to look at the names and look at the production that they
• 1:02:07
  brought in the people we ain't even seeing like what's the kid
• 1:02:10
  named the the redhead kid being Bill.
• 1:02:12
  No, you think about Bill and. John and John.
• 1:02:17
  Creek and these three guys like the people that you already have
• 1:02:21
  there, it's like you have to have we keep saying you have to
• 1:02:26
  have a lot of different pieces that can fit that puzzle and I
• 1:02:31
  feel like they're they're they're trying to get there, not
• 1:02:35
  desperation, but I feel like the heat is on.
• 1:02:38
  I feel like prize the coach and the coaching staff.
• 1:02:41
  I do think this is the best coaching staff he's had since
• 1:02:43
  he's been here. I'll say that.
• 1:02:45
  So I'm going to be mad sometimes I've been calm because Kobe's
• 1:02:47
  here. I got that right in front of my
• 1:02:49
  boy. But I do feel like this is the
• 1:02:52
  best coaching staff that he's had while he's been here.
• 1:02:55
  But I do feel like there is a sense of urgency with what I've
• 1:02:59
  seen them doing as far as the additions that they're bringing
• 1:03:05
  and the production that they're bringing.
• 1:03:07
  It's not like, well, we can develop this person and this,
• 1:03:09
  but like they're trying to do something to generate some
• 1:03:13
  production and wins now, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:03:15
  So what Kobe said when you're thinking about some of the young
• 1:03:19
  guys like, man, if I don't get it done this year, shoot, I
• 1:03:22
  might not be here to coach you. I got to make something happen.
• 1:03:24
  Now we at least got to have the trajectory going the right way
• 1:03:28
  so I can get these fans off my back.
• 1:03:31
  So I think that they are, I think that they are, you know
• 1:03:35
  what I'm saying, kind of moving in the right direction.
• 1:03:39
  I, I was hesitant to say it, but I'm going to be I, I do think
• 1:03:42
  they're moving in the right direction, man, and I'm excited.
• 1:03:45
  I'm excited to see like what what we have, which route the
• 1:03:51
  the schemes go and and the players as well.
• 1:03:55
  Yeah, I I think tally your your concern is that is this too
• 1:03:58
  little too late? Not that these aren't good
• 1:04:01
  moves. It's is that is it?
• 1:04:03
  Is it too little too late? And you know, I'm gonna I'll say
• 1:04:06
  this, you know, talking about Cody Heisman When I when I when
• 1:04:08
  I see and hear 64283, I'm like, that's going to be a an odd man
• 1:04:13
  front DN right there. That that that's, that's like
• 1:04:16
  prototypical size when you go odd front.
• 1:04:19
  So that's what I expect him to, to kind of slot in as I don't
• 1:04:23
  think he's necessarily going to be that that front frontline guy
• 1:04:27
  on a on an even front, but he's probably going to be one of the
• 1:04:30
  guys coming in when we go with with some of those odd front
• 1:04:33
  looks. So excited to see what he can do
• 1:04:35
  in in that capacity. The other two I feel like are
• 1:04:38
  definitely going to be be those interior guys, you know, 295
• 1:04:43
  plus in both cases, you know, 6364, these guys are going to
• 1:04:49
  still be shooting gaps, but they're also going to be
• 1:04:52
  occupying blockers at the same time.
• 1:04:55
  And I'm excited that we're getting more bodies in there
• 1:04:57
  because when we talk about offensive line is all about your
• 1:05:01
  best five and then having some depth.
• 1:05:03
  Defensive line is all about how many bodies can you send out
• 1:05:07
  there. Keep those bodies fresh.
• 1:05:09
  You need to be at least 2 deep, if not 3 deep in every position
• 1:05:14
  on the defensive line to feel like you're in a good place.
• 1:05:17
  And so the more bodies we get in in that capacity, the better.
• 1:05:20
  My question about the what's his name Cody Heisman or Cody who's
• 1:05:24
  man or whatever his name. My question is I have not looked
• 1:05:27
  at him at all like does he have long hair?
• 1:05:30
  Is his hair long? No.
• 1:05:32
  His hair is not long. He's got to grow his hair out
• 1:05:35
  because any white boy that plays on a defensive line at Virginia
• 1:05:38
  Tech with long hair, like they usually do a good job when you
• 1:05:42
  go back to like Jerrod Hewitt or even like Vinny Mohoda or
• 1:05:46
  something. Not saying they got to be a
• 1:05:48
  superstar, but they just made plays.
• 1:05:50
  He's got to have some hair hanging out of his helmet and I
• 1:05:54
  think he's going to be alright. No disrespect to Cody, but he
• 1:05:57
  looks like a white kid from Iowa.
• 1:05:59
  Yeah, we got to. We got to grow that hell, man,
• 1:06:01
  it gets cold. Blacksburg.
• 1:06:02
  We got to grow the. Hell, let's, let's, let's make
• 1:06:05
  sure we clip this section. We'll make this the real and put
• 1:06:07
  it out there on Instagram so Cody sees it and by by August
• 1:06:12
  Colby of Texas be like it's to his back already.
• 1:06:15
  It's grown out. It's grown out.
• 1:06:17
  He listened to you. Got to.
• 1:06:18
  Be I need shoulder length by the end of August.
• 1:06:21
  Got to be defensive line sometimes that don't work out.
• 1:06:26
  You know what I'm saying? Even the wild though when that
• 1:06:29
  hair hanging out like man, they make some plays so they.
• 1:06:32
  Bad they bad. And those vote for Ben Bell
• 1:06:35
  then? Oh man, that kid got a handful
• 1:06:38
  air. So does Yonkum.
• 1:06:41
  Yeah, and he's already kind of proven it down in Texas State.
• 1:06:43
  Like we got to have 10 sacks a couple years ago.
• 1:06:46
  Like you know what he's doing. I say this and and I wanted to
• 1:06:50
  y'all kind of hit on it in variations, but I think the
• 1:06:53
  other reason this was done because you mentioned y'all
• 1:06:55
  mentioned Jerrod Johnson, Emanuel Laws and they're taking
• 1:06:57
  steps, they're looking good. But when the average college
• 1:07:01
  football offense snaps the ball 75 * a game, that's about the
• 1:07:06
  average, right? That's not the low end.
• 1:07:08
  That's not the high end because you got some teams running 90
• 1:07:10
  plays, you got some are slowing it down.
• 1:07:13
  I think these guys are brought in more so to say, not that we
• 1:07:17
  don't trust you, but you aren't there to take 25 snaps a game.
• 1:07:23
  By the time you get to 15, you're.
• 1:07:25
  Going to keep rotating. You got to keep rotating.
• 1:07:28
  But in this case with having these guys who have experience,
• 1:07:30
  you probably know they're they're they're game shaped
• 1:07:32
  ready. You got Copeland, you got
• 1:07:34
  Gilliam already. We slipped these guys in.
• 1:07:37
  Now we can introduce laws in Gerard in 8 to 12 snaps a game
• 1:07:42
  we ain't. Killing them and see they kind.
• 1:07:44
  Of. Yeah, And they kind of did a
• 1:07:45
  little bit of that last year was like, what's the kid's name?
• 1:07:48
  He looked really good last year. Aisen Stevens.
• 1:07:51
  Aisen Stevens, Right. So you got all these.
• 1:07:54
  You got all these people that we depended on and the names we
• 1:07:56
  were hearing. Like nobody talked about Aisen
• 1:07:58
  Stevens at the beginning of the year.
• 1:08:00
  Then he pops in the game and you're like, who the hell is
• 1:08:02
  that? Why does he look bigger than all
• 1:08:04
  the rest of them? And what is?
• 1:08:05
  And he goes in and he does not like jumping off the page as far
• 1:08:11
  as stats goes, but he does a good job.
• 1:08:13
  You know what I'm saying? You can do that when you have
• 1:08:15
  depth, like that's a football team.
• 1:08:17
  Like you said, you're running all these plays and then you're
• 1:08:20
  able to interject some of these guys in or you know that this
• 1:08:24
  kid has some upside like an Emmett Laws because Emmett Laws
• 1:08:27
  is a smaller guy to be playing defensive line, right?
• 1:08:30
  But you don't need more tally. He's 295 now, dude.
• 1:08:34
  He ain't small no more. Right.
• 1:08:36
  I'm thinking height wise though, so yeah, no, size watch is not
• 1:08:39
  where he's supposed to be, but you know what I'm saying?
• 1:08:42
  You think like he's a young guy, but you know, he's got some
• 1:08:45
  talent, but you don't want to force him to play, you know what
• 1:08:49
  I'm saying? When you think about it, in the
• 1:08:50
  past we had somebody maybe like a Josh Fuga.
• 1:08:54
  Josh Fuga should have gave you 15 snaps a game, maybe 20 snaps
• 1:08:58
  a game. But then when you start to get
• 1:09:00
  into the 30 snaps a game with a player like that, it kind of
• 1:09:03
  looks like it he he falls off or he's out of place or something
• 1:09:06
  like that. So bringing in that extra help
• 1:09:09
  and bringing in that extra depth, man, I think it's going
• 1:09:11
  to bode well for us. And I'm interested to see, like
• 1:09:14
  I said, kind of what Cephas does.
• 1:09:16
  I hope I got his name right. He looks like to me like young
• 1:09:23
  enough where he can do some innovative stuff, you know, not
• 1:09:28
  just old school. We going to do this.
• 1:09:31
  This is the only thing that works sometimes you got to
• 1:09:33
  change to your players, and he looks like a guy that can do
• 1:09:36
  that. Kind of doing a little bit of
• 1:09:37
  research on him. He seems like a guy that'll do
• 1:09:39
  that as well. Is why I feel like we're
• 1:09:41
  bringing in some different guys with some different skill sets.
• 1:09:44
  So another thing that I'm excited about, yeah.
• 1:09:48
  Yeah, I mean, he seems like a guy that's going to do a couple
• 1:09:52
  things. He's going to keep things as
• 1:09:55
  simple as they need to be while still being confusing and
• 1:09:59
  complex when looking at it from an offensive standpoint.
• 1:10:03
  But at at the same time is going to not only adapt to take away
• 1:10:10
  the strength of what the offense is doing to it, but also adapt
• 1:10:15
  to the strengths of the personnel that he has.
• 1:10:17
  And that's what kind of being multiple and having these
• 1:10:22
  different ways to align and assign in the defense are
• 1:10:26
  important. Hey, I got to break something
• 1:10:29
  up. What?
• 1:10:30
  Jim put put that, put that comment that Jim Gilmore put up.
• 1:10:34
  You see it? No, no, not not Jim West.
• 1:10:36
  Jim James Gilmore. I'm sorry.
• 1:10:38
  James Gilmore. Yeah, put that up.
• 1:10:42
  You should have just looked at him and said why?
• 1:10:44
  That's what you should have said.
• 1:10:45
  Why, man, Why didn't you help the offensive line when you was
• 1:10:48
  here? You went to coach offensive
• 1:10:50
  line. Why didn't you help?
• 1:10:52
  Why? That's all I'm going to say
• 1:10:53
  about that. Go ahead, Curtis.
• 1:10:56
  All right, let's let's jump over to the linebacker room because,
• 1:11:02
  because trust, if the tally was on that flight, tally would have
• 1:11:05
  Oh. I'm asking.
• 1:11:06
  I got to ask. You got to ask him, hey, what's
• 1:11:09
  going on? Let's go to the linebacker room
• 1:11:11
  because obviously a room that, you know, they moved Cam Fleming
• 1:11:16
  there, they were home, a couple other guys, maybe McDonald would
• 1:11:18
  take one more step. Nobody popped.
• 1:11:21
  So right then you're sitting there with Gabe Williams injury.
• 1:11:24
  It's literally Caleb Jayden and Caleb Spencer and maybe George
• 1:11:33
  balance on short yard situations based on what we saw in the
• 1:11:36
  spring game. That's not a lot of depth.
• 1:11:39
  So these guys have played somewhat.
• 1:11:43
  So do you think the selling point was probably these guys
• 1:11:47
  you're going to play, we're going to rotate, you ain't going
• 1:11:50
  to be sitting on the bench getting or just special team
• 1:11:52
  snaps you're going to play. Do you think that was a selling
• 1:11:55
  point to both Short and Santiago?
• 1:11:58
  Yeah, I mean, 100% that comes into it when you when you look
• 1:12:00
  at that linebacker room overall, the talent is hired, but you
• 1:12:04
  look at a Gabe Williams, someone who's obviously injury in that
• 1:12:08
  Clemson game, tragic, but some of you're probably not going to
• 1:12:11
  be counting on this fall. You look at like, why was his
• 1:12:15
  name slipped me Jordan Bass, someone who you bring in talent
• 1:12:18
  level, you know the the measure rules, but he's still two O 6,
• 1:12:23
  maybe 210 now, like coming off an injury.
• 1:12:26
  It's you don't know if it's going to happen this fall.
• 1:12:28
  You'd love to have him in the room, but just you got to think
• 1:12:32
  about like Tal, he's saying you don't know if you're going to
• 1:12:34
  make it. You like you got to play this
• 1:12:36
  fall. So and then you talk about
• 1:12:39
  obviously Caleb Woodson, Jaden Keller, Caleb Spencer and then
• 1:12:42
  George balance there you have the two clatter ball went
• 1:12:45
  through early enrollee. You have no chambers coming in
• 1:12:49
  this summer. So you got bodies in that room.
• 1:12:51
  But you got to talk about live reps and Michael Short.
• 1:12:54
  He's only two years of eligibility, maybe only one year
• 1:12:57
  playing. I believe he had 23 tackles last
• 1:12:59
  year, mid 70s PFF grade. But he was a special teams
• 1:13:02
  captain for UNC. He did like he played so many
• 1:13:05
  special team snaps. He did all the little things,
• 1:13:08
  didn't maybe rotate in as much at linebacker, but this is
• 1:13:11
  someone they are really high on. Michael Short I think could
• 1:13:14
  factor pretty heavily in and that's not to take away from
• 1:13:16
  Caleb Spencer. I think Caleb Spencer, honestly,
• 1:13:20
  body wise, everything wise maybe will surprise people most this
• 1:13:23
  fall, but I think you had to go out and obviously mess with that
• 1:13:27
  linebacker and Michael Short, I think someone who can do it on
• 1:13:31
  both phases of special teams and defense.
• 1:13:34
  And I think the measurable 6-3, maybe 622252 thirty.
• 1:13:40
  I mean, that is what you want. Antoine Santiago still kind of
• 1:13:42
  in that same ballpark where he's not a 510 backer sitting around
• 1:13:46
  202 ten. These are big linebackers on the
• 1:13:50
  inside, not afraid of contact. They can move well, which is
• 1:13:54
  what I think you're looking for. So Santiago I think is a little
• 1:13:58
  bit more, I believe the quote was that we had an article or
• 1:14:01
  from someone his best balls ahead of him, maybe more
• 1:14:04
  projected upside, but you got to bring that into the room.
• 1:14:07
  But when you mentioned where it was and what's available to have
• 1:14:09
  someone who can go run and hit and strike and someone who can
• 1:14:13
  eat up field and be meshed and still has a couple years left, I
• 1:14:18
  think you got to take him. And then Michael Short, I think
• 1:14:20
  is someone who they believe could factor in potentially
• 1:14:25
  immediately depending how camp goes.
• 1:14:26
  So I think really great pickups, something you had to do when you
• 1:14:29
  look at that room. So we're really valuable gets
• 1:14:32
  here late in the spring, honestly.
• 1:14:34
  Yeah, definitely both. Like you said, size wise is
• 1:14:37
  about 6323246364. That's much different than a
• 1:14:44
  510, even 6 foot backer. You know what I'm saying?
• 1:14:48
  No disrespect to Brumfield. I think Brumfield's a great guy.
• 1:14:51
  But playing in the ACC when he came here from where he came
• 1:14:55
  from was much different than what he's seen, you know?
• 1:14:59
  And you can kind of see that when he came up to make tackles,
• 1:15:02
  could be in the right place, maybe a little light because the
• 1:15:06
  running backs that you're hitting, the lineman that you're
• 1:15:08
  taking on, it takes a toll on you.
• 1:15:09
  So you got to have a little bit more mass, I guess, to be as
• 1:15:14
  much crap as people talk about the ACC, it's still a pretty big
• 1:15:18
  Football Conference. So getting those linebackers in,
• 1:15:23
  like Kobe said, with the size that is at least the standard,
• 1:15:28
  I'm guessing because they're both about the same size.
• 1:15:31
  So I'm guessing when they're looking at a a A linebacker,
• 1:15:35
  they're probably saying we want them to be about 6-3 and about
• 1:15:38
  2:30. Yeah, look at Woodson.
• 1:15:42
  Look at Woodson. We go through spring and like
• 1:15:47
  when even when I'm in spring, it's all about the people who
• 1:15:49
  haven't popped. Maybe I didn't like even give
• 1:15:51
  the flowers to Caleb Woodson. That guy threw hunger drills.
• 1:15:53
  What he did to his body is someone because he played a lot
• 1:15:56
  last year and he played I think overall really well last year.
• 1:15:59
  Someone who maybe didn't get his flowers through springs is
• 1:16:01
  almost expected the standard someone who's going to be there.
• 1:16:04
  But I think this is someone who is really going to step up and,
• 1:16:07
  and lead this defense this year. So I, I think when you look at
• 1:16:10
  Woodson, that is honestly the prototypical running mate they
• 1:16:13
  want to have. And I think they found two guys
• 1:16:15
  who they can mesh and build into that.
• 1:16:17
  And Caleb Spencer, I know a lot of people haven't seen him since
• 1:16:19
  last year was playing that star position carrying a little less
• 1:16:22
  weight. He has done an incredible job
• 1:16:25
  with Coach Ferg in the weight room.
• 1:16:26
  He looks, I mean, very similar. I think by fall camp he he could
• 1:16:31
  really make a push there. I got to I got to go take a look
• 1:16:34
  at him because I mean, he jumped off a tape a lot of times when
• 1:16:39
  he was in and then he just kind of fell off.
• 1:16:40
  Like we didn't see him anymore, you know, later in the spring,
• 1:16:43
  later in the season and stuff. So I don't know what happened,
• 1:16:46
  but I remember watching him and was like, Dang, man, he can move
• 1:16:50
  and you know, he could hit just he did a lot of stuff good from
• 1:16:54
  what I remember. But I also remember we just
• 1:16:57
  didn't see him anymore, maybe missed a couple tackles.
• 1:16:59
  And then I don't know if he gets in the doghouse with the
• 1:17:02
  coaching staff, whatever the case is, but to hear you, you
• 1:17:06
  know, boots on the ground talk about what he looks like, what
• 1:17:08
  his body looks like, he's taking it serious.
• 1:17:11
  That's energetic to me. You know what I'm saying?
• 1:17:14
  To make me think like, OK, if he's hitting the weight room and
• 1:17:18
  he's taking it serious like this, he's ready to take that
• 1:17:20
  next step. You got to have guys like that.
• 1:17:23
  Because I remember looking at Caleb Woodson.
• 1:17:25
  Like, I mean, most people should, but I remember looking
• 1:17:28
  at Caleb Woodson. I think it was at the spring
• 1:17:29
  game when they were introducing the new freshman and I was like,
• 1:17:34
  Curtis, that dude's going to be good, man.
• 1:17:35
  Like he just came out of high school.
• 1:17:37
  He looked like that. Like, how do you come out of
• 1:17:40
  high school looking like that, man?
• 1:17:41
  You know what I'm saying? And my Mama didn't have enough
• 1:17:43
  money to feed me to, for me to look like that, you know what
• 1:17:47
  I'm saying? And I didn't have the mind to go
• 1:17:49
  to the weight room to look like that.
• 1:17:50
  But a lot of these guys kind of man, they, they, that's what
• 1:17:53
  they do now. And that Caleb Woodson build,
• 1:17:57
  like you say, it is probably about what a Virginia Tech
• 1:18:02
  linebacker should look like, what a linebacker in general.
• 1:18:06
  OK, 100% real quick, people might be saying undersized
• 1:18:10
  linebackers. This isn't going to work.
• 1:18:12
  This is every linebacker that was on Arizona swab last year.
• 1:18:16
  622-3861, 228-622-2056 Foot, 225-622-2963 236-1246 Guess
• 1:18:28
  what? The linebackers we currently
• 1:18:30
  have literally fit that mold. Like that is NFL guys.
• 1:18:35
  That's not that's not other college guys.
• 1:18:38
  That's NFL players that Sam Cepheus coached in that defense
• 1:18:43
  last year. Ron, what you got?
• 1:18:46
  Well, I think this this thing and I'll let I'll let Kobe jump
• 1:18:49
  in on James's comment here in just a second.
• 1:18:51
  But you know, you were you were comparing those sizes.
• 1:18:54
  But when we talk about this type of defense and being multiple
• 1:18:57
  and being having some flexibility and some position
• 1:19:01
  fluidity, you're not going to have those like prototypical 3-4
• 1:19:07
  inside linebackers like your Ray Lewis's and stuff like that.
• 1:19:10
  You're not going to have guys that need to be 250 but still
• 1:19:13
  run sideline to sideline. They're still going to be a
• 1:19:15
  little bit lighter. And I think that plays into how
• 1:19:18
  we can recruit because we've shown a propensity to be able to
• 1:19:21
  recruit not necessarily undersized line, but not
• 1:19:24
  necessarily linebackers that would fit, you know, hand in
• 1:19:28
  glove in the SEC. We we've always been a little
• 1:19:31
  bit more undersized than than that type of linebacker.
• 1:19:35
  And I've been as far as who were able to recruit consistently.
• 1:19:40
  And I think this kind of plays into where our bread and butter
• 1:19:43
  is from that perspective, both in the footprint where we
• 1:19:46
  recruit and just historically the guys I've been able to bring
• 1:19:49
  in. Yeah, I'll jump in.
• 1:19:52
  James, appreciate you dropping that in.
• 1:19:55
  Difference in explosiveness or energy?
• 1:19:57
  Yeah. I mean, I think overall there
• 1:19:59
  was a heightened sense of urgency, intensity, focus on
• 1:20:03
  every position group, every segment of I mean from periods 1
• 1:20:09
  to period 40, it was locked in ball security.
• 1:20:13
  You didn't have guys messing around, I mean locked in.
• 1:20:18
  And I think that was the new coordinators obviously trickling
• 1:20:21
  down to the position coaches. A lot were the same, obviously
• 1:20:24
  at Matt Moore, Coach Wilson, some other guys.
• 1:20:27
  But there was definitely heightened intensity of
• 1:20:30
  understanding what was at stake. And I think a lot of that
• 1:20:34
  trickles down from Ferg. We're not in there for hunger
• 1:20:37
  drills, but just even hearing personal accounts, secondhand
• 1:20:41
  accounts, yes, there was a different level through all of
• 1:20:45
  winter workouts and hunger drills.
• 1:20:47
  And yes, Coach Ferg, if there's one thing to hang the hat on, I
• 1:20:52
  think physically, and I think you'll see it, I think they'll
• 1:20:56
  be physically in better shape, more prepared, ready for the
• 1:20:59
  season. That is great to hear.
• 1:21:03
  Great to hear. All right.
• 1:21:04
  We got one last group to hit here and one last player to hit
• 1:21:09
  and that is Caleb Brown, the the most like to me, one of the more
• 1:21:15
  interesting players because he is coming to us via Hawaii.
• 1:21:20
  He is coming to us though via let me get the right.
• 1:21:24
  I want to make sure I pronounce this correct.
• 1:21:27
  Lithuania Springs, Georgia, which is right on the Alabama
• 1:21:31
  line because he's from Pinson, AL, but he went to Georgia for
• 1:21:35
  high school. I didn't know that.
• 1:21:38
  Yeah, yeah. Went to Georgia High School and
• 1:21:41
  I was doing some background on him.
• 1:21:42
  Did some stuff at Georgia Southern.
• 1:21:44
  Is this something that maybe Jairi Wilson had a hand in
• 1:21:47
  getting him and through the door?
• 1:21:49
  Because I look elsewhere. It's like we don't recruit that
• 1:21:52
  area that much. But he's obviously, you look at
• 1:21:55
  his stat lines and stuff. He's played some solid ball out
• 1:21:58
  in the Mountain West last few years.
• 1:22:00
  To be honest with you, Curtis, I don't know if Coach Wilson had a
• 1:22:04
  relationship here initially with him.
• 1:22:06
  I think this is just one where the portal is an open book and
• 1:22:09
  Coach Jones is being really selective with who he wants to
• 1:22:13
  bring in through high school and the college ranks.
• 1:22:15
  And we'll talk about a little bit if we go a little more large
• 1:22:17
  scale on this cornerback room. But what what they've brought
• 1:22:20
  in, I think he feels really comfortable.
• 1:22:22
  But going back to SIBO, I believe is his nickname Caleb
• 1:22:25
  Brown, someone who is going to almost be a plug and play guy.
• 1:22:29
  I, I came out with the article a couple days ago.
• 1:22:32
  Whatever top spring portal guys. I think he was either 3 or 4
• 1:22:36
  that I listed because this is someone obviously with the
• 1:22:39
  unfortunate looks like Josh Clark's going to miss the
• 1:22:41
  season. Someone who I thought was having
• 1:22:43
  a really great spring and was going to be able to factor in on
• 1:22:45
  the outside there. You kind of have to go out there
• 1:22:48
  and find you, not saying this player is similar in stature or
• 1:22:52
  size to Derek Canteen, but sort of that guy who can plug in and
• 1:22:58
  seen a lot of college football and can help those younger guys
• 1:23:00
  out. Because you're going to have
• 1:23:01
  Dante Lovett and some other guys we'll talk about here in a
• 1:23:04
  second. But this is someone who can play
• 1:23:05
  outside. Maybe it's a little on the
• 1:23:08
  lighter side. I believe listed at 160 at
• 1:23:11
  Hawaii. I don't know how accurate that
• 1:23:12
  is. We'll find out in the fall, but
• 1:23:14
  has seen a lot of college football, like you said, played
• 1:23:16
  pretty well the last couple seasons out there at Hawaii.
• 1:23:19
  So Coach Jones is being selective.
• 1:23:21
  So this is someone that fits his bill.
• 1:23:24
  He's had a decent track record in the last couple years with
• 1:23:26
  obviously bringing in Delane and what he's developed with Strong,
• 1:23:29
  so I think this is someone who's going to factor in and play a
• 1:23:32
  lot this season. Yeah, that I mean it's, it's
• 1:23:37
  exciting seeing guys come into that room.
• 1:23:39
  I think that when we were looking at kind of post spring,
• 1:23:44
  I think we get circled cornerback as being one of those
• 1:23:48
  where we we felt like we needed to get one more guy in that
• 1:23:52
  room, especially a plug and play type player that, that you feel
• 1:23:56
  comfortable with that, you know, you, you probably feel, you feel
• 1:23:58
  really good about your one. I think you feel OK about the
• 1:24:02
  guy opposite him. And then after that, it's like,
• 1:24:06
  I think we can manage for a little bit.
• 1:24:08
  I don't know if if they can hold up for for, you know, a whole
• 1:24:11
  game or multiple games, you know, back-to-back.
• 1:24:13
  We we probably need at least one more guy in there that we feel
• 1:24:15
  really confident about and, and not looking at nickel, just
• 1:24:19
  looking at the outside guys. And, and, and I think we, I
• 1:24:22
  think we kind of we got that with SIBO and I think that's
• 1:24:26
  going to be we'll, we'll see if that's going to be enough depth
• 1:24:30
  for for this crew to hold up. And you know, we can, we can
• 1:24:34
  kind of talk about that a little bit.
• 1:24:36
  How are y'all feeling about the overall depth in that room?
• 1:24:40
  And Colby, I'll let you you lead off on that.
• 1:24:42
  I was about to say I agree with you on that, but I'll I'll tell
• 1:24:45
  you what. If you want to look outside a
• 1:24:46
  nickel, you obviously have Isaiah Brown Murray from ECU
• 1:24:49
  looks like he's going to slot in there.
• 1:24:51
  You got knowledge Harrell who, if we don't even want to count
• 1:24:53
  him as a nickel, he can play outside shoot, he can maybe even
• 1:24:55
  slide back to safety with the way he's his body.
• 1:24:59
  Really, that's what I'm I'm. I don't want to do this, but I'm
• 1:25:05
  very close to not telling lies. But I'm just saying like the
• 1:25:09
  same way last year I was with. Keelan.
• 1:25:12
  As we'll say, not Brody, someone I thought really popped off and
• 1:25:17
  someone to keep note of is the same way with these true
• 1:25:19
  freshman cornerbacks. And nothing against Christian
• 1:25:22
  Williams, Thomas Williams. I think they'll have to play a
• 1:25:24
  lot this year too, just with the way injuries, rotations.
• 1:25:27
  But I'll tell you what, JoJo KREM, Jamari Deloach and
• 1:25:30
  Knowledge Harrell are three guys who already are not afraid of
• 1:25:35
  anyone, which is what you need to be a cornerback lining up
• 1:25:38
  against these guys. They're not afraid.
• 1:25:40
  And you even saw it in the spring game.
• 1:25:41
  Like these are guys who are ready to go and get after it.
• 1:25:44
  So I I think those guys are ready to play.
• 1:25:46
  Speaking on death. Yeah, when you talk about
• 1:25:49
  getting on the field early, I've said it before, like cornerback
• 1:25:53
  is probably one of the positions that stuck.
• 1:25:55
  It's not easy to do it on any level, but cornerbacks probably
• 1:25:59
  one of the easier places to get on the field early because that
• 1:26:03
  is mainly skill and and and instincts.
• 1:26:08
  You know, most lineman to come in, for a lineman to come in and
• 1:26:11
  start as a true freshman, kind of unheard of.
• 1:26:14
  Like you got to be really, really fucking good to do that.
• 1:26:17
  You know what I'm saying? Every now and then you have a
• 1:26:18
  quarterback that can come in and play early like that.
• 1:26:21
  But cornerbacks, receivers, it's just like I need you to guard
• 1:26:25
  this guy. You mirror him and some guys
• 1:26:28
  just got it. You know what I'm saying?
• 1:26:29
  Knowledge Harold has it like out of the all those guys that he
• 1:26:33
  mentioned is is good. But I'm telling you knowledge
• 1:26:36
  Harold, if he stays at Virginia Tech for three to four years,
• 1:26:41
  you'll see this guy go to the league.
• 1:26:43
  You know, I mean, he's going to go wherever he goes, barring,
• 1:26:46
  you know, injury or getting hurt or or troubled.
• 1:26:49
  I don't think I'm not speaking any of that, but I'm just saying
• 1:26:52
  wherever he decides to leave from college wise, I think we'll
• 1:26:55
  hear his name called in the draft.
• 1:26:58
  I don't want to go to where he'll go.
• 1:26:59
  I just look at his skill set, look at what he's done.
• 1:27:02
  Look at how he transitioned from high school to college.
• 1:27:06
  Another kid that's supposed to be going to prom, you know what
• 1:27:10
  I'm saying? But he's at the spring game
• 1:27:13
  guarding college wide receivers, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:27:18
  And and some other wide receivers are big and physical
• 1:27:22
  man, like Aiden Green, not a small dude.
• 1:27:24
  You know, he's he's played a lot of football.
• 1:27:27
  You know, the other, the other, the other Green brother, you
• 1:27:33
  know what I'm saying? Cam Selden, these are guys that
• 1:27:35
  are play football at a high level, you know, and you got
• 1:27:38
  these kids that are coming in. That's like I got them no
• 1:27:42
  problem. JoJo Grimm the same like.
• 1:27:44
  It's right here. They want to play, man.
• 1:27:46
  And that's the selling point that you have at Virginia Tech.
• 1:27:50
  When you're somebody like, you know, Coach Prowl or Coach
• 1:27:53
  Jones, that the one thing I can offer you is you got the
• 1:27:57
  opportunity to get on the field early, You know what I'm saying?
• 1:28:00
  Like that is what our selling point is at a school like
• 1:28:03
  Virginia Tech. And so I, I love it, man.
• 1:28:06
  I'm glad to see the kids going in and competing and hell, I, I
• 1:28:10
  want to be like, what, who is this?
• 1:28:11
  You know what I'm saying? Who, who is that jumping off the
• 1:28:13
  page? Who is this?
• 1:28:14
  So I'm interested to see what they do.
• 1:28:18
  Back to what we said, as far as, you know, bringing in SIBO,
• 1:28:22
  didn't know much about him, but all of the things that we've
• 1:28:25
  talked about, it definitely makes sense because as we've
• 1:28:28
  been saying, this whole, you know, broadcast, like you got to
• 1:28:31
  be able to have the bodies, you got to be able to plug some
• 1:28:36
  people in and see who's going to compete to get that playing
• 1:28:39
  time. So I'm, yeah, I'm definitely
• 1:28:42
  interested to see to see what we do in that and on the back end
• 1:28:47
  like that. I think something's in the water
• 1:28:49
  down there, Green Run, because I mean, they've had some guys come
• 1:28:52
  in and contribute right away. And I mean, hopefully we got
• 1:28:56
  another one in the trenches that might be coming this way as well
• 1:28:59
  sometime please, in the near future.
• 1:29:02
  But. Y'all got my hopes up.
• 1:29:05
  I mean Kobe, you really got my hopes up.
• 1:29:07
  And Tally's over here talking about knowledge because we've
• 1:29:11
  seen it, right? Knowledge.
• 1:29:13
  We've seen it. We've seen it.
• 1:29:14
  He's he's going to be good man. When we think about it, think
• 1:29:18
  about Brandon Face on years ago when he came on Kobe, you're a
• 1:29:21
  younger guy, but you were probably enough to remember face
• 1:29:23
  on. It's like he's a true freshman,
• 1:29:25
  like, And he bowled. Yeah.
• 1:29:28
  Kendall was the same way. Macho was the same way in
• 1:29:31
  Tally's 100% right. That is the position.
• 1:29:34
  Because in so many things, it's either this is your area,
• 1:29:37
  protect your zone, or you got a man in Miriam.
• 1:29:41
  Yeah, it's it's basically you got to have the mentality that
• 1:29:45
  you want it. And like knowledge.
• 1:29:47
  Harold's got he's five, 11185. He's already a college football
• 1:29:51
  size. He's ready.
• 1:29:53
  Those might be not even right. Like.
• 1:29:56
  Yeah, so. He he's he could pretty heavier
• 1:29:58
  than 185 honestly, really maybe yeah.
• 1:30:00
  So he's. Already bigger, they can even.
• 1:30:03
  Shift that guy back to safety eventually.
• 1:30:05
  Like he could play anywhere back there, Yeah.
• 1:30:08
  He's got it, man. He's I'm telling you, like we
• 1:30:11
  won't even go into rankings and stuff like that because we know
• 1:30:14
  how everybody feels about rankings and oh, he's only a
• 1:30:17
  three star. He's only four-star.
• 1:30:18
  Whatever he committed early. I'm telling you, you go put on
• 1:30:22
  the tape. You ain't even got to put on
• 1:30:23
  tape because high school don't matter.
• 1:30:25
  Go look at these people playing now.
• 1:30:28
  Look at what they're doing now. It's so many.
• 1:30:31
  Like you can follow anybody on social media and find out some
• 1:30:34
  stuff about them, their workouts, what they're doing
• 1:30:36
  when they're competing. You can go look at somebody like
• 1:30:38
  Knowledge Harold. And first of all, I've never
• 1:30:41
  seen a kid named Knowledge. He got to be famous like he got.
• 1:30:46
  He's got to make it with a name like Knowledge Harold, right?
• 1:30:50
  I've. Never heard that name, so just
• 1:30:52
  looking at him, looking at the body of work that he's already
• 1:30:55
  compiled, it's like same as we thought, look at Chris, then
• 1:30:58
  hopped on here. What's up, Chris?
• 1:30:59
  He's late tonight. Man, it's been Mother's Day, all
• 1:31:03
  type of stuff going on. They don't tell him Chris.
• 1:31:06
  But when you just look at what I do, like what prize done, and I
• 1:31:11
  don't want to go off into another tangent, is that I got
• 1:31:14
  to get a man props because I'm so pissed because I hate losing.
• 1:31:17
  But I got to give him props about what he's been able to
• 1:31:20
  bring to Virginia Tech. As good as some of the things
• 1:31:23
  that we've seen dumb ass dude Foo, what we've seen Foo do as
• 1:31:28
  far as on the field, pride has brought some kids here and some
• 1:31:34
  talent that we're not used to. You know what I'm saying?
• 1:31:37
  Seeing some of the people who's committed to Virginia Tech, I'm
• 1:31:39
  like, man, we ain't seen a kid like that in a long time.
• 1:31:41
  Or you know, some people who's committed and it's like, well,
• 1:31:45
  we've seen this dude get this good after a while, some of
• 1:31:49
  these kids are coming in like JoJo Prim is ready to play.
• 1:31:53
  I'm not saying he's going to play, but if you go watch him,
• 1:31:57
  he's ready to play. He can step on the field and
• 1:31:59
  play some, play some snaps for you.
• 1:32:02
  Right now, they can't do a whole game, but you can put him on
• 1:32:05
  somebody and say, I need you to guard this guy.
• 1:32:07
  I need you to guard this area and something good may happen.
• 1:32:11
  So it's been a lot of times where we didn't have that.
• 1:32:14
  You know what I'm saying? Even if you think about Dorie,
• 1:32:15
  Dorie is an NFL guy or he's the NFL guy, but when he came in,
• 1:32:20
  nobody looked at him and was like, man, this dude's going to
• 1:32:23
  the NFL. He just developed into that,
• 1:32:25
  which is great. But some of these kids now, it's
• 1:32:28
  just like, man, they got it. So I'm I'm interested to see how
• 1:32:35
  much playing time they get. How how can we use them?
• 1:32:37
  Because I really think that, like I said earlier, I really
• 1:32:41
  think that they're in go mode and they understand like I
• 1:32:45
  cannot. We're not trying to hold shirts.
• 1:32:49
  We're not trying to win shirts some guys, but we got to win.
• 1:32:53
  We got to you can't go into these games.
• 1:32:55
  You look at prize regimen, his his resume since he's been here,
• 1:33:00
  you cannot go into this year. And I don't want to look at no
• 1:33:03
  fucking schedule. So don't nobody asked me to any
• 1:33:07
  games are going to win and lose. I'm just as bad as his as bad as
• 1:33:12
  his roster was when he first got here, we can all agree that this
• 1:33:16
  roster is better, right? Even though we these guys in the
• 1:33:19
  NFL, this roster is still better than when he got here. 100%.
• 1:33:23
  It was only losing games by touchdowns and seven points and
• 1:33:27
  six points and three points. It's like, I just want to see
• 1:33:31
  this year where he takes that step.
• 1:33:34
  Whether it's in two games or three games, you got to get a
• 1:33:37
  signature win, you got the opportunity to do that and you
• 1:33:41
  got to win the some of those close games that we keep losing.
• 1:33:43
  So come on, Pry, help me, man. I want to love you.
• 1:33:48
  I want to, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:33:50
  Help me love you. That's what I want.
• 1:33:54
  All righty, there we go. Did anybody see Jim post that
• 1:33:58
  the other day? I saw him post that.
• 1:33:59
  Yes I did. Well, you didn't.
• 1:34:02
  Did you see it? I did.
• 1:34:04
  Did you see it, Kobe? Did you see?
• 1:34:06
  It crazy. We'll we'll send that over to
• 1:34:10
  you in the message so you can laugh.
• 1:34:12
  But Kobe, thanks for the time on the portal giving the
• 1:34:17
  background. These guys letting us kind of
• 1:34:19
  shoot the breeze with you about them about seeing again what we
• 1:34:22
  feel like it's it's all these guys are layered depth in
• 1:34:26
  somewhere going to help this program.
• 1:34:28
  I will hit one more piece before we wrap it up tonight.
• 1:34:31
  I just want to get Y alls take on it.
• 1:34:32
  Ross Dellinger and it's and it's something that's been flowing
• 1:34:34
  out here probably for about 18 months now.
• 1:34:37
  A little bit more. Basically it is looking like
• 1:34:41
  more and more we are heading to 16 team playoffs.
• 1:34:45
  SEC in the Big 10, throwing the nuts on the table because
• 1:34:48
  basically they can because they're getting the most money.
• 1:34:51
  They're getting the best players currently right now getting 4
• 1:34:54
  auto bids. The ACC in the Big 12 getting to
• 1:34:57
  one G6 now and then three at larges.
• 1:35:01
  And I listen to Josh Bate, probably a lot of y'all do.
• 1:35:04
  He's one of the better voices in college football.
• 1:35:06
  And I love what he said to this because you want to talk about
• 1:35:09
  having the relevance of regular season being even bigger if this
• 1:35:13
  happens, if they're auto business, some people are pissed
• 1:35:15
  about it. You, you, you can't be too upset
• 1:35:19
  because they're leveraging their strength.
• 1:35:20
  If the ACC had it, guess what? We guess what Jim Phillips would
• 1:35:23
  be doing? He's saying I want fourteens,
• 1:35:26
  Screw y'all, we deserve 4. But that's neither here nor
• 1:35:29
  there. But that whole thing of a
• 1:35:32
  regular season champion gets an automatic bid and then everybody
• 1:35:35
  else plays in. First of all, you want to talk
• 1:35:39
  about the weekend after Thanksgiving being ungodly like
• 1:35:43
  having news games, like just to be in that mix, right?
• 1:35:47
  How much would us sit here and say if they go to this, this,
• 1:35:51
  this 16 game playoff that we didn't win the regular season,
• 1:35:55
  we're like we're third, we can get in.
• 1:35:58
  You talk about people clamoring in the last few weeks of the
• 1:36:01
  season, but what do you all think of it?
• 1:36:03
  Too much, too little. You hate it, you love it.
• 1:36:05
  Kobe, since you're the esteemed guest here, what are you
• 1:36:07
  thinking this? Well, I think you bring up a
• 1:36:10
  good point there. I mean, once they started
• 1:36:12
  expansion, they they were never going to stop expanding.
• 1:36:15
  So from 12 to 16 it it was always going to keep going on
• 1:36:18
  there. I mean, personally, I think it's
• 1:36:20
  a little crazy that we're having college players play 1617
• 1:36:23
  eighteen games and now you're seeing them play into late
• 1:36:27
  February. You're starting spring practice
• 1:36:29
  right after he's played the national championship.
• 1:36:31
  But I mean you you talk about those regular seasons.
• 1:36:34
  I don't know if you're going off.
• 1:36:35
  I didn't see the most recent Dellinger thing.
• 1:36:38
  He does incredible work covering all the the behind the scenes.
• 1:36:41
  But I know Pey and some other people have talked about making
• 1:36:44
  the regular season really matter.
• 1:36:46
  And I think that's what makes college football stand out
• 1:36:48
  against, you know, every other sport is the regular season.
• 1:36:50
  When you had the final four teams, it was well, if you lose
• 1:36:53
  1 game, you're probably out. So it really heightens that.
• 1:36:55
  But you talk about with this expansion within these
• 1:36:59
  conference standings, if you're in the Big 10, if you're in the
• 1:37:02
  ACC, there's no collective bargaining.
• 1:37:04
  So yes, for now, of course, every conference is going to
• 1:37:07
  have to lobby for themselves. But for the ACC, you have those
• 1:37:10
  top two teams in the regular season if you get that automatic
• 1:37:13
  bid. And I know he's talking about, I
• 1:37:15
  don't know, in the ACC if they only get 2 bids.
• 1:37:17
  But in the Big 10 and SEC, the three and the four team, the
• 1:37:21
  three would play the six and the four would play the five and
• 1:37:23
  like a simulated championship game weekend.
• 1:37:27
  And then those two teams would also would get in automatically
• 1:37:30
  as opposed to the whatever. But then you talk about the at
• 1:37:34
  large teams. What if the at large team was
• 1:37:36
  the three seed in the SEC and then they lose that SEC
• 1:37:39
  championship game? So I don't know.
• 1:37:42
  I think it's just going to end up being a lot more games.
• 1:37:45
  But I think it's exciting because you talk about those
• 1:37:47
  that last weekend at Thanksgiving, I think they are
• 1:37:50
  going to simulate some entertainment because there are
• 1:37:52
  going to be a lot of races that come down to the end year in and
• 1:37:55
  year out in every conference. So I think it's going to be
• 1:37:58
  exciting. Maybe I'm a little bit of a
• 1:38:01
  purist where I, you know, I thought Ford was great.
• 1:38:06
  It added a different element. It's it's just from 16.
• 1:38:10
  Where do we go in three years when the next cycles up?
• 1:38:13
  It's just it, you can't play 64, you can't put 64 two teams in a
• 1:38:18
  tournament. So there's got to, there's got
• 1:38:20
  to be a got to be a March band. Somewhere.
• 1:38:24
  I thought 12 was honestly a perfect balance of inclusivity,
• 1:38:30
  but still letting the regular season matter.
• 1:38:33
  I think moving to 16, I'm kind of torn.
• 1:38:37
  I, I thought 16 was a little too much.
• 1:38:40
  I thought 12 was kind of perfect.
• 1:38:42
  You're basically saying 10% of all of FBS.
• 1:38:49
  You're saying of that you get about 10%, maybe a little more
• 1:38:54
  of the, the P4, the P5, you know, whatever it was.
• 1:38:58
  So I like the 12. I would have preferred a
• 1:39:05
  situation where you assign the rankings not by having those
• 1:39:12
  automatic conference champions go up because the thing that
• 1:39:16
  caused the blowouts in this playoff was the seeding, not the
• 1:39:22
  teams included. You had you had some lopsided
• 1:39:26
  seating because of the way the conference championship shook
• 1:39:29
  out. And now all of a sudden you get
• 1:39:31
  these blowouts that you may not have had if the seating had been
• 1:39:34
  what it should have been, It'll have been a progressive, you
• 1:39:36
  know, a progressive tournament like you would expect a normal
• 1:39:40
  turn determined to go, especially if you had some re
• 1:39:42
  wrap re rack after the the initial round of games.
• 1:39:46
  But that's neither kernel there. What I would like to see instead
• 1:39:49
  of these 4 auto bids for the SEC in the Big 10, I'd like to see
• 1:39:54
  three auto bids with your champion and your runner up
• 1:39:59
  getting a bid and then three and four playing for the third one.
• 1:40:03
  I'd be good with three for the for them give 2A piece to the to
• 1:40:09
  the big Big 12 in the ACC. And maybe, you know, you you let
• 1:40:13
  them do the same thing where two and three play out for that
• 1:40:16
  extra spot with your regular season champion getting the
• 1:40:18
  automatic bid. I wouldn't hate that and give a
• 1:40:22
  a few more at larges there. I think that larges are going to
• 1:40:26
  be something where you don't square, peg, round hole the SEC
• 1:40:33
  in the Big 10 into half of the playoff every year because
• 1:40:38
  they're not going to always have as much of A stacked deck every
• 1:40:43
  year. 100%, there's probably going to be two to three teams
• 1:40:48
  that absolutely deserve it every year.
• 1:40:50
  I don't necessarily think that there are four teams in both of
• 1:40:54
  those conferences that are going to be in the top 16 every year.
• 1:40:58
  So that's my beef. Probably not the Big 10.
• 1:41:01
  I, I think the SEC probably, I mean, when you look last year,
• 1:41:04
  Ole Miss Carolina. But that's the point of the
• 1:41:08
  regular season right there. That game mattered more people
• 1:41:12
  said it killed the regular season.
• 1:41:14
  That game in the swamp. Just I got the point of people
• 1:41:17
  say that game mattered. That was the most important
• 1:41:20
  regular season game. It crushed on this.
• 1:41:22
  They damn near lost to Mississippi State because of it.
• 1:41:25
  They shouldn't had any reason to be almost or competing having
• 1:41:29
  Mississippi State compete with them.
• 1:41:30
  That game proved like This is why it matters, because Ole Miss
• 1:41:34
  had slipped, they couldn't slip again, and they should have beat
• 1:41:37
  Florida. They were better than Florida.
• 1:41:39
  But that one day college football rears its beautiful
• 1:41:42
  head and just says the day you lose.
• 1:41:45
  Ally. Anything on this?
• 1:41:46
  Yeah, y'all are putting too much thought and and effort into it
• 1:41:49
  in depth with it's very great. I just want to see Virginia Tech
• 1:41:53
  get. We do too.
• 1:41:55
  This is what I'm saying though. We ain't going to get there in
• 1:41:57
  the top 4812. Maybe 16, 30?
• 1:42:02
  Teams in there, we might be 30, we might be the top 30 if we can
• 1:42:07
  get there in 30. Fucking put us in at 30, baby.
• 1:42:10
  There we go. I'm ready.
• 1:42:11
  To go all right. And with that.
• 1:42:14
  Let's wrap up this episode of the Boundary Corner Podcast
• 1:42:17
  brought to you by the Counts Family Pharmacy in Blacksburg
• 1:42:20
  with our wonderful guest, Colby Crawford.
• 1:42:22
  Where can they find Jack Colby? Yeah, I mean, just head over to
• 1:42:25
  vtscoop.com and follow me on X at Colby Crawford.
• 1:42:29
  But yeah man, I really appreciate you guys having me
• 1:42:30
  on. I know I ran y'all a little bit
• 1:42:32
  late, but you all love to talk about, so I appreciate you guys.
• 1:42:35
  Oh no, you didn't. Run us late, Colby.
• 1:42:37
  This is the normal time for us. I'm Curtis Wilson.
• 1:42:40
  I'm Brian Siegler. Jonathan Talley.
• 1:42:42
  We are part of the College Hotel network because at
• 1:42:44
  boundarycornervt.com to see all of our episodes, follow us
• 1:42:49
  Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, keep pumping YouTube.
• 1:42:53
  You guys are great out there. Following us on that.
• 1:42:55
  We're on every podcast source you could possibly think of.
• 1:42:58
  As always, we had our buddy Jason Long down in Roanoke.
• 1:43:01
  He plays us in, he plays us out. He and Tally are going to start
• 1:43:05
  a Titans football podcast. I can't wait to watch that every
• 1:43:08
  week. You're.
• 1:43:10
  Going to be singing on there too.
• 1:43:12
  We appreciate. Check him out Spotify, Apple
• 1:43:15
  Music, Jason Long, music.com. We appreciate y'all for
• 1:43:20
  listening and as always, let's go.
• 1:43:22
  Hokies.