And they are physical as hell!

wailing on this board about money and facilities and we aren't keeping up or spending enought. If we are behind Army, Navy, and Vanderbilt please someone come use one of my guns and shoot me. Yes - money and facilities are important I am not saying they are not. It is "more" important with who you populate those facilities with. Does it really take another 10-15 million to get "physical as hell!" players? No, it does not. It takes the right talent leading that effort guiding these young men. Now everyone of those who say these things might be 100% correct - we are not keeping up and falling behind. But if we were on par with Bama, aTm, you pick the school - it is about the right leaders and staff more so than the weights and buildings. We lost 3 games by a total of 14 points this year. I do not think better facilities would have fixed the factors that led to those defeats. aTm canned Jimblow and Elko cleaned house. As far as I can tell, they are spending less (he is well below the ego maniacs contract) and are a better team. Petrino and Durkin gone - new minds and thoughts in and now just outside the Top-10. Same buildings and money for Jimblow as Elko - much different result. Maybe I'm wrong. Could be off base, but I don't think so. MTH

rated recruits, but most schools can’t compete at that level with the rich football schools. At least in the current landscape, VT is going to have to find a ‘niche’ way to compete - seems to me that means finding coaching staff that are great at x and o’s and great talent evaluators- and you find guys that will play hard and tough. Even that leaves us with the problem of getting the players poached every year. So, really have to go back to building a team with perhaps not greatest overall talent—but composed of guys that play incredibly well as a TEAM. (Which is an area where Army and Navy obviously almost naturally excel).

Talent-wise. North Texas, Charlotte, Tulane, Memphis, East Carolina, Rice, Florida Atlantic, South Florida, Tulsa, UT San Antonio, Temple, and Alabama Birmingham. Half the conference is out of any bowl contention. Good for Army and Navy for being undefeated thus far. But I don’t think they could have found 12 other trashier football programs with whom to form a conference.

That)…remember the Bruce Smith firewood saga and the dozens of infractions regarding coaches trying to help poor kids and their families? Well those days are over and payroll will determine each program’s ceiling.

Beamer built the VT program from the ground up mostly by playing a unique brand of smashmouth football that allowed him to recruit mid-tier players who were tough and mean. Tech won a lot of games in the 90s by bullying its opponents. Sure, there were elite players at some positions, but by and large, Tech's success in the 90s was built on the backs of tough, physical players who had enough collective talent to compete with most teams, and the combination of toughness and talent was enough to win the majority of games for the second half of the decade. After the 1999 season, recruiting saw a significant uptick in the caliber of player interested in the program (and in the quantity of high-caliber players interested), and the program seemed to change a bit, but not necessarily in a better way. Another decade of high level play followed, but it wasn't without some glaring laid eggs in games that seemed to disprove the theory that more talent always equals better results. At times, it seemed the most talented teams were the least resilient and had the most fragile overall psyche. Coincidentally, wasn't it during the 2006 loss at BC that Kirk Herbstreit noted that VT was recruiting a different caliber of player than it had previously been able to attract, and he noticed that it had seemed to affect the team's toughness?

The hoops program with Mike Young was on it's way. I don't now all the ins and outs of our program and the players retention possibilities. But give that guy some decent horses and he can make some noise.

We will find out how flexible he can coach this season. 3 of first 8 will have Vt experience. The MY system will require dumbing down because they can’t waste an entire year learning it.

and others....I bet their fan is having the time of his life.

Remember, it’s the top-4 conference champs that get byes. Would they be ranked higher than say, a 2-loss K State or Clemson (assuming they win their respective conferences)?

for a regular season cfb game... $800+

But the AAC is a bad football conference

Not like they are squeaking these games out.

Is it possible that Army and Navy could play for the Championship on Dec. 6th, and then have to play again the next week in the annual Army-Navy game?

Date? It’d be stupid to play 2x in 2 weeks

The conference will want that championship game. But the season ender is a huge deal.