1) How quickly will the Cassell project be triggered? And will they have to play elsewhere for a season? – vtox1
Chris Coleman: This will be a short answer because the answer is very simple. How quickly the Cassell project is triggered will depend on how quickly the donations roll in. That’s the reason for the John Dooley hire as Whit Babcock’s “special assistant”. There are donations to be had from some big donors, and these specific big donors that I’m talking about are more likely to give with Dooley leading the charge than anybody else. For others, it doesn’t matter, but there are some specific folks who would rather deal with Dooley.
Here are Whit Babcock’s comments on the timetable from back in April…
“The timetable on that will go as quickly as the funding will come in. We believe we have some people that are interested in that. It will take gifts of all levels. It will go a whole lot faster with the success of this campaign. We wanted to share it broadly and let people see what it would look like and start to get this thing going. I would be very disappointed if it’s not done in four to five years at the very latest.”
It sounds like Babcock wants to get things started within the next couple of years, and Dooley was brought in to help speed things alone. So if you happen to have an extra seven or eight figures laying around, I’m sure those two guys would appreciate a call from you.
Virginia Tech hopes to avoid playing somewhere else during the renovation. I suppose Roanoke would be the most likely spot. Whit had a quick quote on that as well…
“Ideally not,” Babcock said when asked whether Tech would have to move home games during construction. “We have met with our designers about possibly phasing it in. We would like to keep our team here in play.”
That’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to avoid playing elsewhere, but it’s something they hope to avoid.
2) Which swing or fence game would you actually favor VT to sneak up on a pretty fair to middling 2021 opponent and actually win? Is there anyone in this category that you feel we match up with better than most expect? Conversely, Fuente has really been bitten by the upset bug of late; can you foresee any (potential) 2021 trap games where anything and everything can and recently has happened indeed? – bourbonstreet
CC: I’ll tackle the question about trap games first. I was asked that exact same question on the radio earlier this week, and my answer is that when you are coming off a 5-6 season there is no such thing as a trap game. If you’re basically a .500 team over the course of the last three years, and somebody sneaks up on you, then you don’t have the right mentality.
Here’s how Pro Football Focus says about trap games…
“A trap game is defined in a variety of ways, but it essentially boils down to a high-ranked team playing in a game that everyone expects them to win against a far lesser opponent (not necessarily a losing team).”
That’s pretty much the way I see it. Tech isn’t projected to be a high-ranked team this year, so unless they get off to a hot start and become one, then it’s hard to see any true trap games right now.
Bill Connelly does S&P+, a numbers-based metric that predicts wins and losses. Here’s how he breaks Tech’s season down as of now…
Likely wins: Richmond (98%), Middle Tennessee (94%), Duke (91%), Syracuse (88%)
Relative toss-ups: at Boston College (63%), Pitt (62%), at Virginia (58%), at Georgia Tech (55%), Notre Dame (47%), at WVU (42%)
Likely losses: North Carolina (32%), at Miami (21%)