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1) What ACC FB teams do the best job of exceeding their natural ceilings? Which do the worst? – pienkows
Chris Coleman: I really only see one ACC team that is exceeding its natural ceiling, and that’s Duke. You could make the argument that Clemson has done so, going to the playoffs four years in a row. But Clemson focuses on football and they are in a great recruiting area. They finally made the right coaching hire and dedicated their money to hiring good coordinators. They always had the potential, if everything fell right, and it did.
Duke, on the other hand, has done remarkably well under David Cutcliffe. When I was growing up, I considered the three worst programs in the country to be Temple, Rutgers and Duke. I knew Temple and Rutgers were awful, from the personal experiences I had. I watched the Hokies beat up on them each and every year. I knew Duke was awful because of geographic proximity.
Let’s look at Duke’s records before David Cutcliffe arrived…
1995: 3-8
1996: 0-11
1997: 2-9
1998: 4-7
1999: 3-8
2000: 0-11
2001: 0-11
2002: 2-10
2003: 4-8
2004: 2-9
2005: 1-10
2006: 0-12
2007: 1-11
Overall: 22-125 (0.15)
Cutcliffe was hired in 2008 and went to work improving the Blue Devils. They went 15-33 in his first four years (2008-2011).
Now here are Duke’s records since 2012…
2012: 6-7, Belk Bowl
2013: 10-4, Coastal Champions, Chick-fil-A Bowl
2014: 9-4, Sun Bowl
2015: 8-5, Pinstripe Bowl
2016: 4-8
2017: 7-6, Quick Lane Bowl
Overall: 44-34 (0.564)
As a kid, I never thought that kind of run would happen at Duke. I think they’ve probably reached their peak under Cutcliffe, now that Virginia Tech and Miami seem to be much better, but that doesn’t take anything away from what he has been able to accomplish.
The most underachieving team, on the whole, is UVA. Their fans can use the academic excuse all they want, but Stanford is good, Duke has been pretty solid, and on the whole Pat Fitzgerald has done a pretty darn good job at Northwestern. UVA is a good enough school with a good enough rep that they can actually play the academic card to their advantage, if they go after the right recruits.
Location is also in UVA’s favor. I love the mountain setting of Blacksburg, but UVA is close to Richmond, and a quick drive from the 757 and Northern Virginia. It’s closer to eastern Pennsylvania than Blacksburg, and not far from North Carolina either. Their location should be helping them.
The Hoos aren’t a sleeping giant or anything like that, but there’s no reason that they can’t have a solid program. They need the right leadership, and the administration has to be patient with whoever they decide is the right guy to clean up the Groh/London/Mendenhall/Littlepage mess.
2) Under Justin Fuente, what restrictions go with offers to determine if it is committable? Along that line, what precautions are in place to prevent a recruit from committing when he is not a "take" due to position spaces being filled or other reasons? I certainly believe the coaching staff is not wanting a recruit or VT to be in such an uncomfortable position. – 74hokie
CC: Here’s a picture of the official scholarship offer that was sent to Devon Hunter…
You notice that the language is pretty careful, and in particular paragraph three is very important.
“Our offer is contingent on a number of requirements. You must continue to excel in the classroom and obtain the grades and test scores required for admission to Virginia Tech. You must, of course, complete the requirements set forth by the NCAA Initial Eligibility Center and you must maintain the high standards required of you in your community, school and on the football field.”
In other words, don’t flunk out, don’t get arrested, make sure you qualify, and don’t regress on the field. Riley Simonds technically didn’t fail to maintain the high standards required of him on the football field, but other things get said in face to face meetings that don’t get put into those offer letters. By the way, the offer letter to Hunter above was the same standard offer letter that was sent to all recruits in the 2017 class.
In general, I think coaches are more honest than they are given credit for. Tech’s are, as far as I know. There haven’t been any scandals of commits having their offers pulled, except for a couple of Beamer recruits when Fuente first arrived. The key for both sides is honesty. Some offers are unconditional, such as Devon Hunter’s. He was going to have a scholarship no matter what, as long as he qualified and didn’t get in trouble. For other guys, you have to be up front and tell them “you only have an offer if we don’t get this guy or that guy,” or “you only have an offer as long as we have fewer than four offensive line commitments.”
In general, unless there is very poor communication between both sides, recruits know whether or not they are a take for each school. That doesn’t mean they won’t pretend that they are a take for all the schools when they release their top 10, or final five, or whatever. But they know, if there is good communication between both parties. Being honest and up front is the key.
Sometimes that does happen, though. Houshun Gaines committed to Florida once. As it turned out, some guy on Twitter pretending to be a Florida coach was playing a game with him. Sometimes that happens. But for the most part, the recruits know their options.
3) Does the new redshirt rule mean that more true freshmen will dress out for games, or at least home games? Will we see a fuller bench on the VT sidelines? – PadrosWindup
CC: I don’t think so, at least not early in the season. When the Hokies choose to play a true freshman, they go into the game with a plan for how they are going to use him. I don’t think Justin Fuente and his staff will dress anybody unless they have a plan for them to play, or unless they are very thin at a position and feel like they need to dress a particular player in case of an emergency.
As always, the one exception is quarterback. True freshmen quarterbacks should dress, and they should have a headset on so they can learn how the starting quarterback communicates with the coaches and his teammates during the game. The whole process is very beneficial to the development of a young quarterback. It’s very likely that Quincy Patterson will redshirt this year, but we’ll see him on the sideline with a headset on, signaling in plays to Josh Jackson.
It’s possible that later in the season we could see a few more freshmen on the sideline. Let’s say that the Hokies are beating UVA 50-0 early in the fourth quarter, and there are true freshmen on the team who have not played yet. At that point, there is no harm in giving a few reps to Cole Beck, Tre Turner, or perhaps even Quincy Patterson.
If I’m Fuente, I’d use that as an incentive. If you stay mentally engaged on the scout team all year, you show steady progress as a player, and your grades are in order, then you get to dress for the last game of the season. That’s no guarantee that you will get in the game, but if it gets out of hand, then it’s possible. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep an 18 year old engaged if they don’t feel like they are involved, and that’s one way the new redshirt rule could be beneficial.
4) Tyrone Nix appeared to be on a downward trend/slide career wise. Why was he sliding, and why do you think he's a good pick for the open position (presuming that you DO think he is)? – Late 80s Hokie
CC: One big argument some folks have about Tyrone Nix is that, as defensive coordinator at Middle Tennessee State, his defense was not good. That’s true. There’s no way around that fact. However, Tech isn’t hiring him to be defensive coordinator. They are hiring him to coach the safeties. Brian Mitchell used to be defensive coordinator at East Carolina, and his defenses were horrible. Guess what? Tech still got great cornerback play last year from Greg Stroman and Brandon Facyson. In fact, Stroman improved by leaps and bounds as a player the last two years under Mitchell.
It’s rare that I have a source on another staff, but I do in this case, so there are a few things I’ve learned about Nix from his time at Middle Tennessee State…
1: Nix wasn’t allowed to hire his own assistants at Middle Tennessee State. The other defensive coaches on the staff weren’t good, and Nix found himself doing a lot of the little things that the other coaches would normally be taking care of, rather than actually coordinating the defense. Contrast that with Bud Foster, who has his best friend coaching the defensive linemen, and who personally approved hires like Whammy Ward, Torrian Gray, Brian Mitchell, and yes, Tyrone Nix. More on the Foster-Nix relationship later.
2: The other complaint is about his recruiting stills, I assume because his name isn’t listed next to a lot of guys in the 247 database. Nix wasn’t used in an off-campus recruiting role very much. Instead, he was an on-campus closing type of recruiter, and he was good at that part of the deal. He was coordinating the defense, and he was spending a lot of time doing the work of his defensive assistants, so naturally there wasn’t much time for recruiting.
3: His players really liked him. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but if your players like you, that probably means you are a pretty solid recruiter.
Nix has been a Broyles Award finalist twice in his career as a defensive coordinator, once at Southern Miss, and once at Ole Miss. Here is his overall resume…
1995: Southern Miss, DT coach
1996-99: Southern Miss, OLB coach
2000: Southern Miss, DB coach
2001-04: Southern Miss, Defensive Coordinator and ILB coach
2005: South Carolina, Co-Defensive Coordinator and DL coach
2006: South Carolina, Co-Defensive Coordinator and LB coach
2007: South Carolina, Co-Defensive Coordinator and ILB coach
2008-09: Ole Miss, Defensive Coordinator and LB coach
2010-11: Ole Miss, Assistant Head Coach, Defensive Coordinator and LB coach
2012-14: Middle Tennessee State, Co-Defensive Coordinator, LB coach
2015-16: Middle Tennessee State, Defensive Coordinator, LB coach
Now let’s compare that to Galen Scott’s resume before he came to Virginia Tech…
2001-05: Illinois State, LB coach
2006-07: Illinois State, Defensive Coordinator
2008: Tulsa, OLB/S coach
2009: Tulsa, CB coach
2010: Memphis, LB coach
2011-13: Memphis, Co-Defensive Coordinator and linebackers coach
2014: Memphis, Defensive Coordinator and linebackers coach
2015: Memphis, Associate Head Coach, Defensive Coordinator, linebackers coach
Scott had never coached at the Power 5 level before, and he certainly had never been a Broyles Award finalist (much less twice, I might add). Take out the names Galen Scott and Tyrone Nix, and just call them Candidate A and Candidate B ... which one would you pick, based on the resumes? Nix all day long. There’s a very good chance that Virginia Tech upgraded here.
The other question is why “nobody would hire Tyrone Nix after he was fired by Middle Tennessee State.” I think the answer is pretty simple. He was getting paid twice. He was owed his defensive coordinator buyout at Middle Tennessee State, where his salary was $300,000 in base salary, making him one of the highest-paid assistants in Conference USA. Many buyout payments are cut off when the coach lands another coaching gig. So Nix took an “analyst” position at Texas A&M for a year and got paid twice. He could afford to wait for the right job to come available, and he was making more money doing less work. I don’t blame him.
Former Virginia Tech basketball coach James Johnson did the same thing, taking a job as Director of Basketball Operations at Miami for two seasons after he was fired by Virginia Tech. He got paid twice in those two years. Once his buyout at Tech ended, he got a job as a full-time assistant at NC State.
Nix and Foster go back, for what it’s worth. They first met at a coaching clinic all the way back in 1995, they exchanged information, and they’ve stayed in touch ever since. Foster knows exactly what he’s getting with Nix. He met the guy long before Justin Fuente ever met Nix.
I’m not saying the Nix hire isn’t without flaws. Almost every hire can be questioned in some way, shape or form. On paper, though, this looks like an upgrade from Galen Scott.
5) Who are the two wide receivers most likely to lead our team in receptions this year? Who will be our top two receivers this coming season and what specifically do these guys need to do in order to emerge? Will it be Sean Savoy, who started strong but faded late, or a guy like Phil Patterson or Eric Kumah, who looked strong late in the season, or a wild-card like Damon Hazelton? – hokie4life93
CC: My money would not be on Savoy, who appears to have lost his job as the starting slot to fellow true sophomore Hezekiah Grimsley. Grimsley can play inside and outside, and he began his career as an outside receiver before taking over in the slot late last season. He first got heavy playing time against UVA and played well, and that good play carried over to the bowl game against Oklahoma State.
UVA: 5 catches, 56 yards
OKST: 5 catches, 63 yards
Grimsley looked natural catching the football, whereas Savoy seems to be good for a drop per game. Savoy has had a tough time of it, with the death of his brother, and I don’t know if that is affecting his performance or not. But for now, he’s behind Grimsley, and I didn’t see anything this spring to change that.
As far as the outside receivers go, I believe that rising redshirt-sophomore Phillip Patterson is the most talented. Ball State transfer Damon Hazelton looked like the second-best receiver on the team last August, but he was banged up a lot in the spring and seems to have fallen behind just a bit. He’s going to help Tech a lot, but I don’t know where he is on the depth chart in relation to Patterson or junior Eric Kumah.
In 2016, Tech’s top two receivers looked like this…
Isaiah Ford (outside): 79 catches
Cam Phillips (slot): 76 catches
In 2017, it looked like this…
Cam Phillips (outside): 71 catches
Sean Savoy (slot): 39 catches
Phillips was moved from the slot to the outside as a senior. In each year, Tech’s top outside receiver was the leading receiver, and the top slot receiver was No. 2. I’ll go with the same trend this year. I’m confident that Hezekiah Grimsley will be the primary slot receiver. I’m not quite sure who will be the top outside receiver, but I’m going with pure talent and picking Phillip Patterson.