Sponsored by The Fisher Law Firm: Virginia's DUI and Traffic Defense Firm! We serve the Blacksburg, Fairfax, Richmond areas as well as the rest of Virginia. For a free consultation call us any time, day or evening at 800.680.7031 or email us at [email protected].
1) Which player on O and D will we miss the most next year, and who do we have to replace them? - HokieFanDC
Chris Coleman: I'm glad you asked this question, because I was thinking about it earlier this week. To me, the biggest losses will be Ryan Malleck on offense and Corey Marshall on defense.
The Hokies don't lose much on offense. The only seniors who play extensive snaps are Ryan Malleck, Wade Hansen and Michael Brewer. Yosuah Nijman will be better than Hansen next year, so I don't think he'll be a huge loss. Brewer has the potential to be a loss, depending on what kind of passing game the next coach runs and how well that passing game marries the strengths of whoever the starting quarterback is next year. That's a big "what if" so I'm going with the easy answer: Ryan Malleck.
Malleck is projected as a possible late round pick in the NFL Draft. He's a solid receiver, but he's a very good edge blocker in the running game. The Hokies also use him in pass protection at times. You probably haven't noticed that because he hasn't given up any sacks. If you don't notice a pass protector, that's a good thing.
I like Kalvin Cline and Bucky Hodges, but I don't see either one of them being able to do the things Malleck has been able to do for the offense. They add more athleticism than Malleck, but they aren't the solid, traditional tight end that Malleck is. That's why he's my answer for the offense.
I'm tempted to go with Kendall Fuller on defense, but he's barely played this year, plus there's a chance (albeit probably a small one) that he returns next season. I really like Corey Marshall at defensive tackle. I think he's had a great year when he's been healthy. He also has a great attitude, and he brings great toughness to the defensive line. He's the guy I'll miss most from the defense. A close second would be Luther Maddy.
2) Of the rumored coaching candidates, which 2 or 3 are the strongest based on the potential number/quality of recruits that could come along with him, flipping from their current school to VT? - wansapana
CC: Well, Justin Fuente would be the weakest. His class at Memphis doesn't feature very many players who have Power 5 offers.
3-star QB Keon Howard, Mississippi: Louisville, Ole Miss, Mississippi State
3-star DB Tyrez Lindsey, Alabama: Mississippi State, UNC
Nobody else in their class has any Power 5 offers, and it's only an 11-man class (so far) to begin with.
Well over half of Tom Herman's 18-man class at Houston have multiple Power 5 offers, and that includes three 4-star recruits. The man is one heck of a recruiter. However, 16 of those guys are from Texas, one is from Iowa, and another is from Louisiana. The distance between Virginia Tech and those states makes it unlikely that any of them would follow Herman to Blacksburg.
Dan Mullen has an 18-man class so far, but most are from Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. Again, distance makes it unlikely that any of those guys would follow him to Virginia Tech.
Larry Fedora would be the best choice when it comes to flipping recruits from this region, but he's not a candidate. If the Hokies hire Fuente, Herman or Mullen, they would have to focus on flipping recruits from as north as Pennsylvania and as far south as Florida, and they'd be recruiting guys who they haven't been recruiting prior to their arrival at Virginia Tech.
Tech will add a few more guys to this class, whoever the next head coach is. But this class is going to be ranked in the 40s no matter who the next head coach is. It's currently #51 by Rivals and #46 by 247.
For what it's worth, I listed Fuente, Herman and Mullen because I don't think anyone else can get involved in the search at this stage. I'll explain in a separate section at the end of the article.
3) What role will Frank have in the athletic department and VT as a retired former head coach? - sideline guy
CC: Not much of one, in all honesty. I've heard that Frank might not attend Tech games next year. If that's accurate, then it's for two reasons...
1: He doesn't want to put any extra pressure on the next head coach. He also probably doesn't want to sit around in a suite watching VT games and getting asked by big donors "would you have done the same thing as the new coach in that situation?" That would get old very fast.
2: Retirement represents a chance for him and Cheryl to travel to Shane Beamer's games and spend time with their grandchildren.
Whit has Frank's phone number. If he needs him for anything, he'll call him. Frank will probably play some golf with some big donors, and he could make some appearances at some Hokie Club events. But he's not going to be closely involved with the program or athletic department anymore.
4) This might be a better question for when we know who exactly, but how do you see the current offensive roster projecting into a new system? How does our current OL fit into a spread offense? Is it easier for skill players to adjust? How much easier is a spread to install? - BlackwaterHokie
CC: Well, let's assume that the next offense will be a spread offense. What are we running now? Mostly spread formations. We aren't lining up in I-formations anymore. You'll see the Pistol some, but we rarely see Michael Brewer under center, and we generally have 3-4 receivers (including Malleck and Hodges) split out wide in some fashion. Tech is basically running a spread offense right now, albeit not very well.
This will be an easier transition than some past transitions that we've seen, most notably RichRod at West Virginia and Michigan. Both of those schools were I-formation, downhill running teams with statues for quarterbacks when RichRod took over. He won three games in his first season at both schools as a result. They didn't have any personnel that was used to running that offense.
It will be different at Tech. Everybody runs at least a little bit of spread these days. It would be hard to find a football player who has not been introduced to at least some spread concepts, whether it be at the high school level or college level. The transition will be easier than it was for RichRod at his first two jobs.
The biggest concerns are quarterback and offensive line. I expect the passing game will be simplified, but Tech's quarterbacks will still have to learn new cadences, new schemes, new route concepts, etc. Though Brenden Motley has more experience than Dwayne Lawson, they'll both be starting from square one next spring.
As far as the offensive line goes, I don't worry about Wyatt Teller or Yosuah Nijman. Teller is one of the most gifted offensive linemen in America. He can play in any offense. I expect Nijman can too, once he spends the offseason in the weight room getting stronger, quicker, and filling out his huge frame.
Eric Gallo isn't a mauler on inside runs, but he's got good feet and he can can move from side to side. I don't think he'll have any trouble adapting, though we don't know what kind of blocking schemes the Hokies will run. I'm less sure about Augie Conte and Jonathan McLaughlin.
I'm very confident that Travon McMillian will easily make the adjustment. Trey Edmunds has always been better on downhill plays (at least he was pre-injury), so I'm not sure about him. Marshawn Williams is an "up the gut guy." But we don't even know whether he and Shai McKenzie will be 100% ever again. Personally, I think we could see DeShawn McClease make a push up the depth chart. He seems like an ideal tailback for a spread/read option scheme.
5)What are the positives and negatives new coach will inherit? - DoubleD's
CC: From a positive standpoint, he'll inherit a nearly intact starting lineup on the offensive side of the ball. Travon McMillian, Isaiah Ford, Cam Phillips, Bucky Hodges, Wyatt Teller, Yosuah Nijman, Eric Gallo, Augie Conte, Jonathan McLaughlin and Sam Rogers will all be back, or at least they are all eligible to be back.
That's a good start. All of those guys will be a year older. He won't have to break in a bunch of offensive players who have never played college football before. He'll also inherit a very good kicker in Joey Slye. If the offensive talent is a good match for the system, and the Hokies get good quarterback play, we could potentially see some major strides next year.
Defensively, he'll have a very experienced secondary. Even if Kendall Fuller doesn't return, his injury in 2015 allowed the Hokies to get a bunch of young players a lot of reps. Considering the youth we put on the field in the secondary this year, I don't have a lot of complaints with that group. I'm still not sure what I'd do with Stroman, but guys like Mook Reynolds and Adonis Alexander have a lot of talent, and Terrell Edmunds has come on over the last few games. Chuck Clark has a ton of experience as well.
Defensively, the Hokies will have unproven linebackers and only one known quantity at defensive end. They also lose both starting defensive tackles. That's one of the negatives. The other negative is overall team depth. The backup receivers will be true freshmen most likely, and the offensive line could lack depth as well. If one of those quarterbacks transfers, then we run the risk of true freshman Josh Jackson being the backup next year, assuming he even enrolls. Penn State is making a late push for him, though I still think the Hokies will get him.
I can't completely answer the question without knowing whether or not Bud Foster will be back. I'm inclined to believe that he will be back at this point in time. If he is back, obviously that would be one of the positives that the next coach will inherit.
The new coach will have some good players to work with, but he'll lack talented depth. He'll have to rebuild that depth over 2-3 successive recruiting classes. It won't be an overnight process. He can have a lot of success early if the Hokies can avoid the injury bug, which they haven't been able to do over the last few years.
The Next Coach
It's pretty obvious that Justin Fuente is one of the finalists for the Virginia Tech job. He's probably not the only one. Kyle Bailey tweeted this out yesterday...
Sources also indicate the other candidate still in play for the #Hokies is Houston HC Tom Herman.
— Kyle Bailey (@TheClubhouseKB) November 25, 2015
I know Kyle well, he has good sources, and I trust him. I've heard the same thing he has. The fact that Herman has already withdrawn from the South Carolina job, but is still talking to Whit Babcock, says that Babcock is a good salesman and the VT job is very attractive. There's probably a third candidate as well, or perhaps even a fourth, but I believe the two main guys are Justin Fuente and Tom Herman, and I'd bet money that one of those two guys is Tech's next head coach.
It's not simply a matter of Virginia Tech picking between Justin Fuente and Tom Herman. It's a much deeper process that has a lot of moving parts. I'm 100% convinced that Whit Babcock could hire Fuente early next week. However, if he would rather have Herman, he might have to wait a week. If Houston beats Navy tomorrow, the Cougars will play in the AAC Championship Game on December 5. Herman would likely want to coach that game, and that would mean another week of sitting around with no head coach.
It's basically a huge poker game right now. As I see it, there are two options...
Option 1: Go ahead and hire Fuente next week. That's the safest option. I believe there's a 99.9% chance that he would accept immediately. The Hokies would have their coach, and they'd get an earlier start in recruiting.
Option 2: Wait a week and try to land Tom Herman. Option 2 could bring the greatest reward, as I feel like Herman is the better candidate. It also brings the greatest risk, because waiting an extra week means more jobs will open up and the landscape could change dramatically.
What if Les Miles is canned and LSU hires Jimbo Fisher? Could FSU then go after Herman? Or, could they go after somebody like Larry Fedora, which in turn would open the UNC job? Or perhaps Kevin Sumlin, which would open the Texas A&M job (that's unlikely of course, but I just want to point out the potential domino effect)? Would Texas A&M then go after Herman, who has a lot of roots in Texas? You get my point. Other schools could become interested in Herman, or perhaps even Fuente as well, if Whit Babcock waits another week. The landscape could potentially look a lot different a week from now than it does today.
Herman is in a great position, and he knows it. Houston is a great job. He could turn Houston into what Boise State once was, only he'd have more talent because he's recruiting Texas. He knows he can afford to sit back and wait on the right job. He's only 40 years old. He's got all the time in the world. If you wait a week to try and get Herman, you run the risk of going up against more competition for him. In the meantime, you run the risk of possibly losing Justin Fuente, in which case Whit would have to fall back to his third candidate (assuming he couldn't get Herman).
If you want Tom Herman, you need to be pulling for him to lose to Navy tomorrow. That would knock Houston out of the AAC Championship Game. In that scenario, Whit could put the fullcourt press on Herman over the weekend. Herman could still want to wait a week to see where the dominos fall, but with Houston not having a game the next week, Whit would be better positioned to make a push and really guage his interest.
Deciding whether or not to wait a week to see what Herman does is not easy. If Whit waits, it will be because he feels like he has a legit chance to land him. However, if he judges his chances to be 50-50 or worse, then he'll likely go ahead and hire Fuente next week.
None of us know what the right decision is, because we haven't talked to either Herman or Fuente. At this point, Whit has talked to both, and probably even met with both. He's the only guy who is in the position to make an educated decision. He's a very good poker player. I wouldn't want to be at the table with him.
From the outside looking in, I'd let it play out another week if I thought there was a legit chance I could land Herman. I like Fuente, but I love Herman. He's a star, in my opinion. He's who I want going up against Dabo Swinney and Larry Fedora. Do you risk losing Fuente if you wait? Yes. But my opinion is that he'll still be hireable after next week as well, so I'd take that calculated risk. However, as I said, I'm not in the position to make an educated decision, because I haven't had conversations with either coach.
As far as Dan Mullen goes, he's throwing his name out there to a lot of schools right now. He loses a great quarterback after this season, and he knows long-term success at Mississippi State will be very difficult. It's the right time for him to get out, but I'm not sure we can afford him. As an aside, wouldn't it be nice if John Swofford would get off his butt and start up that ACC Network?
Just out of curiosity, how would you play it?
We're in the homestretch, folks. I know it can be stressful, but try to sit back and enjoy the ride.