hokiehill1117

run the starters back out if a drive got going.

the starter next year... ** Edited by hokiehill1117 at 7/31/2026, 9:08:41 AM

red zone, rushing touchdowns should improve immediately.

move. Moreso in the context of this season but it was a matchup akin to ODU/Liberty in that it does nothing for you in the national landscape if you win but will grab too much attention if you lose.

picking up what he was putting down for the sake of taking shots and/or click bait. The point I got was that we have accomplished a lot in the offseason and it's all good vibes, but none of that means squat if we don't leverage that momentum and win some games. I understand the way he said it, you could interpret it to be Franklin saying, we had a better offseason than Miami, Clemson, UNC, etc., and maybe he has the kind of hubris to say something like that, but I don't think that was the point. I know we do the same crap with other coaches - so we would probably be dragging Elliott or Belichick for saying the same thing, but it's kind of silly. I also get a kick out of PSU's obsession with every newsbyte that mentions him, but we still have fans on the basketball board that will chirp every time Buzz gets a little pub.

season. Hopefully they will all be better than they were last season, but I'm also hopeful/expecting that improvements in our overall talent level means we have other/better options in a few of those spots.

and I think a lot of us look at those teams and expect to be behind them this season. It's harder to get the context not seeing the teams making up the other 27 expected to finish ahead of us. I suspect the difference between the 25th to 33rd ranked teams is relatively slim.

with a program that was adequately resourced on a consistent basis.

handle either success or failure. If we have early success, are we able to use the positive feelings associated with that to drive a desire for more success? If we have unexpected failure early in the season, does that motivate the team and lead to success or deflate the excitement and snowball into more failure? VT football will also have to handle a lot more media noise than we have in recent history, though the new staff has more experience in that regard.

the story. How did he look out there?

of Arby's for lunch and the hot wrap cart on the corner (Simon's Cafe, I think). That hot wrap cart was one of the biggest casualties of COVID, IMO.

no shortage of meat on that thing. Definitely helped my waistline when Arby's left the lobby of my old office building.

to resources, giving CMY an opportunity to make tournament before hanging it up. Couple that with some initiatives around facilities, providing a future to sell and the next hire can be a great one.

road ahead of him. I fully believe MY could do a lot better with just an incremental push in resources but I also recognize he is closer to the end of his career than he is the middle. The last couple of seasons, he has just looked tired. Maybe getting a bump in NIL and some additional resources would put more spring in his step, but the story is more or less written for next season already.

Personally, as someone that hoped our new AD wouldn't be purely focused on whatever Franklin wanted to accomplish, I think White checks a lot of boxes. I want to see VT MBB and WBB get more resources and support and not be run over by the excitement (and hopefully success) of football. To me, it is encouraging that some of White's biggest successes at FAU were centered around men's basketball. Hopefully that translates to VT.

retention bonus? set whatever number will get the deal done over a 2-year period but have 60%+ come in year 2 or after the transfer period between years 1 and 2. The market doesn't allow that, but it would be nice.

produces more results" immediately after pointing our that when football received money taken from basketball, they only won 6 games... that is the issue - VT fans continue to show up for terrible football. If we are going to generate a ton of revenue with bad football, what is the point in continuing to throw money at it? Football has historically demonstrated that more money does not equate to more wins, so why dump money into it? Meanwhile, in 2024 men's basketball attendance tanked. On top of that, the amount of money that would make meaningful impact on basketball is peanuts, relative to the overall budget and also miniscule relative to the amount VT football wants to just win 3 games. No one arguing for MBB to get more revenue wants football to be underfunded. The increase in department funding SHOULD allow both programs to be funded at a level that results in being competitive with our peers but only one of those things is happening. MBB doesn't have to lose for FB to be successful and it is asinine to think so.

basketball in order to make football better - and it wasn't more wins or success for football and fans showed up anyway. Meanwhile, the funds taken from basketball resulted in a losing record and fewer fans engaged with basketball. Now, football has had some meaningful changes that provide hope that providing them with more resources won't be wasted as it was 2 years ago. At the same time, if the athletic department budget is getting a massive increase, it makes 0 sense for basketball funding to decrease or even stay flat, which is what has happened from last season to now. Basketball is being hung out to dry, which is a really terrible approach to take when you only have 2 1/2 revenue generating sports to begin with.

NIL + revenue share, making the tournament should be an annual expectation and I think 22 wins most seasons would get us there. Ideally, we are at least making it through round 1 with that kind of money, with the occasional 2-4 game run. If we get to spending $15-20MM, expectations inflate to not only making the tournament each year, but being very disappointed at not making the elite 8 consistently, with the expectation that we should be in the final 4. The point I was making is that the average VT fan would be ok with us spending $8-10MM, if it meant we made the tournament every year.

and what you would consider an acceptable return, as far was W/L and postseason success? ** Edited by hokiehill1117 at 5/5/2026, 1:29:57 PM

the issue there was Pry being too hands off with Marve and not directly involved. But you mentioned his LB recruiting success at PSU which makes me curious how many of their star LB's were guys he was the primary on, vs. tagging along or supporting as the position coach. Did they land a few studs that made him look like an LB whisperer, similar to Fuente, the QB whisperer that actually wasn't?

tournament and maybe wins a game, most VT fans will be happy. But if we spend $5-10MM and decline an NIT bid, something doesn't add up. I don't really care to see VT spending $15-20MM, even if that is what the top 5-10% of teams are spending. But if we could just strive to be above average, 90% of VT fans would be thrilled.

appealing to someone for more funding and it doesn't seem like Whit is the one to make that happen.

chance of being on the NCAA tournament bubble? I doubt it. If I were MY, I would be making my case directly to the board or speaking with some of the top donors directly regardless of what Whit or anyone else from the athletic dept has to say about it. Maybe speak publicly or through the media about the lack of funding so it gets out there in a more public way.

value. How many of you were buying Cooper Flag jerseys just because of his NIL? What is comical is when college athletes actually do end up in commercials and they have to wear the team jersey and say their name just so the audience knows who they are. Generally, their NIL only has value to the fans of the team they're playing for. At the end of the day, the payment was always about paying for their talent. The brand doesn't mean squat until they reach a certain level.

about those conversations, then the guys that sign will be players very few even realized we were speaking to. The basketball portal is hard to watch on the daily. The "VT is talking to...." information does help trying to frame what we are looking for, as far as positions, but as soon as you start studying a guy in depth, we will sign someone else for the same spot.

conference, not the top 10%. We don't need to outspend Duke & UNC, or even UVA to have what I think most VT fans would be happy with. But we do need to be competitive with FSU, NCSt, Clemson, Cal, Stanford, etc. We basically need a lower-level Michigan model to pull together really strong role players from other teams and match them with an established core. I don't know how that shakes out to a $ total but it's probably 2x the $5MM number, if that's an accurate figure.

his game all year to flex. If UNC is willing to pay him nearly $4MM to play there, the indication is VT fans hating on his game have been incorrect about what we had with Neo. The $4MM offer is an attempt by UNC to compete with his prospects in the NBA draft, as it is competitive with what Neo might get on an NBA contract in late round 1/early round 2.

someone mistaking that for an attitude issue. I just assumed, maybe incorrectly as well, that Europeans may be more expressive by nature. Hope it works out for him in the draft - I'd rather VT not have to play against him next season.

all hands on deck from the coaching staff? I'm curious who is mining these names, establishing fit potential and that sort of thing?

international student's ability to get a student visa? If so, then I agree there is an issue with that system, and the solution is just to exempt athletes from counting against those numbers. If not, Neo getting paid to play basketball as an international student isn't impacting anyone.

very muted based on a lot of the conversation around how limited our budget is going to be this season. I was bummed over Gurdak, mainly because that feels like a player we would have tried to keep. I know we would probably have kept all of the others, but so far, they can all be replaced with cheaper players that provide a similar impact. Even CG doesn't seem athletic enough as a big to really compliment the system CMY wants to run.

when Kenny Brooks left for Kentucky. I get these guys don't have the VT fandom that we do - but the same is true for a lot of guys that stick around and play 3-4 years. The player & fan/"civilian" alumni experience are very different. But saying "thanks" to the fans on the way out is not a bad move, and doing otherwise has a tendency to draw ire.

recruiting natural, instinctive LB's and seemingly target athletes that we hope can play the position. I hoped his scope being limited to defense and this position would be part of the fix with this problem. I suppose it is too early to tell, until he gets to signing recruits as the DC/LB coach.

specifically the reason for the transfer, I would hope that the majority of the time, the coach has already spoken with the player and is not surprised at the reasoning behind leaving.

the pecking order, it is still a top tier job and I imagine they will land a great coach - unless the mess it up. Given their football situation, that is entirely possible.

Gurdak or Schutt turned down and use it to get someone that will be an improvement. Maybe we get lucky and pull a few diamonds in the rough, but I would not bet money on it.

priority and I suspect it was. The fact that we couldn't make it work with CG is a pretty clear indication that we are not adequately funding VTMBB to compete in the ACC or be an NCAA tournament-caliber team.

lower level D1 programs and they are probably looking at D2 and D3 programs. With the number of kids that enter the portal each season, I don't imagine too many rosters are safe year over year. The ones that are probably spend more than our annual budget on retention alone.

vertical. I agree, his inability to jump is a limiting factor but if folks are using that to get comfortable with the idea that him leaving VT is a good thing, it's a major stretch. Vertical or no, we wanted CG to come back.

hinges on increased fan/alumni support. How do they expect that to happen when none of the fans/alumni have a clue what the strategy is? There are 2 assumptions to draw. 1. We have a strategy, but are really bad at communicating what it is in a form that inspires support - or - 2. We don't have a strategy. With the number of positions posted with "strategy" in the title or job responsibilities, I'm going with 2. What I want to know now, is who is responsible for these decisions impacting basketball and why?

what the objective of our MBB program is supposed to be? Declining an NIT bid, to me, is a statement that nothing less than an NCAA tournament berth is acceptable. The natural next step is to fund the program at a level that indicates we are serious about that. I would seem, based on the reaction from (NIL collectives, athletic department admin, donors???), it would seem the signal received was that investing in MBB for one season isn't going to get us to the NCAA tournament and paid players are too disinterested to play in the NIT, so what's the point in funding it for a Mike Young swan song. Something clearly occurred between the widely reported rumors that VTMBB was set to get a boost in funding and the more recent rumors that the reported increase is looking more like a decrease in spending. I have no idea, but it appears that something was the NIT decision. I'm not sure if that decision angered donors, the AD or both, but it's like this approach is some kind of retribution. What I don't get, is if Mike Young was honestly considering retirement during the season, why would he stay now just to suffer through this? and why are we supposed to continue to care about the program, when it seems like VT brass does not?

guy that will probably have to be fired to leave the school.