Yeah it appears Fuentes left the cupboard pretty bare. That doesn't mean another coach wouldn't have fared better. We might be sitting in the same place, Fuentes or no Fuentes. I say that because we're playing in about the least compelling conference division at the FBS level. Our marquee out of conference games always get cancelled (Wisky, Penn State...). And Blacksburg isn't exactly a snazzy destination for the urban, hip youth we seek to recruit to the team. I attended VT from '93 to '98. It was fun to watch the rise. It's been painful to watch the decline. However, CFB is so different. TV contracts and money drive everything. In the world of NIL, to get top recruits, you need to be able to pass along top $$$ to them through NIL. I don't begrudge them that either. The CFB world is driven by the performance of the teams and top players - we don't tune in to watch slow, small guys have pillow fights. If we want VT to recover to where we have been in the past, honestly, we need out of the ACC Coastal and into a conference and division that can offer better games and coverage. That way we can offer recruits the viewership and ratings that will get better NIL deals. That means B1G or SEC. B1G already has the DC market presence with Maryland. SEC doesn't have a team with a strong presence there, and VT's popularity there is our biggest selling point right now. Couple it with a game each season at Fedex for VT against another SEC team so SEC teams are actually playing there once a season. Maybe even another non-VT SEC game there each year. Come up with a bowl-game like name for it something - the SEC President's Cup or something. Overall, VT needs a change in order to offer more than we currently do now to attract the recruits we need to compete at the level we all want to. Miami, UNC, Wake, Pitt, UVA - they're never going to command the viewership and ratings needed for NIL deals at the top level of today's CFB world. Pay the ACC Exit Fee, bite the bullet and get it over with, or be willing to accept VT Football being permanently down a few ladder rungs from where Beamer got it to in the past.