1) I've been intrigued by the lack of decommits from our 2022 football recruiting class under the current circumstances regarding our coaching uncertainty. Do you:
- A) Think they (recruits) are just waiting and seeing what happens over the next few weeks?
- B) The above, however, making contingency plans (more likely, of course) and just not announcing they are re-opening their recruitment or decommitting?
- C) Staying committed because of anticipated abnormally large losses due to usual attrition via seniors, transfers because of likely coaching changes, discontent with lack of playing time, etc. and the upcoming required roster reduction (due to Covid)? In other words, do you think with the expected higher than usual player losses they see a greater opportunity to get on the field early or a more favorable depth chart situation?
- D) All of (or a bit of all) of the above – Edde4hokies
Chris Coleman: Good question(s), and I’ve actually been a little bit surprised that there haven’t been any decommits as of yet. Some recruits pay close attention and have a good grasp of what’s going on in the program, but others don’t. They aren’t any different from regular fans from that standpoint. I still get the question from random people sometimes, “So, do you think Fuente is going to get fired?” My response each time is, “Yeah, that’s a foregone conclusion at this point.” It’s obvious to me and most people who pay close attention, but it's perhaps not so obvious to others.
I think all four of your points are accurate to a certain extent. I think if I were a committed recruit, the coach was on the hot seat and then got fired, I’d want to wait until the new head coach was announced before I made any decisions. However, I’d also have a list of schools I’d want to consider if I didn’t like the new coach, or in case he didn’t want me.
Of course, it may not be that simple. A recruit is likely to have other schools contacting him the whole time saying, “Man, you shouldn't go to VT because Fu just got fired, and you don’t know who the next head coach is going to be. We want you, but we are also recruiting other guys at your position, so if you want to get on the boat, you need to commit now.”
That’s a lot of pressure. What is the right decision? It’s hard to make an informed decision until you know who the next coach is going to be, right? Missouri snagged former VT commit Xavier Simmons with a similar strategy. Tech kept recruiting Simmons even after his decommit, and he was going to visit Tech this weekend. He committed to Tech because Fuente was his favorite coach. But now that the writing is on the wall, I’ve heard he canceled his visit and he’s going to stick with Missouri.
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Point C is an interesting one, and I would agree that there are probably some recruits who are thinking about it from that point of view. Some recruits and their parents pay close attention to things like that, and others don’t. For example, I know of a guy VT was recruiting who accepted an in-home visit from a coach from another staff during COVID despite the fact that in-home visits weren’t allowed during COVID. The recruit and his family didn’t know the rules. I’m guessing there are plenty of recruits out there who don’t have a grasp on the current scholarship situation, how schools are going to have to get back down to 85 next year, and how all the movement of players in the transfer portal is going to royally muck up the numbers this offseason.
If I had a kid who was a recruit, I’d warn him about all of that, but I have no idea what advice I’d give him. I don’t know how it’s all going to shake out. The situation makes it difficult for coaches, players, parents, and everyone involved in the recruiting process.
Tech will for sure have decommits at some point, and some players will enter the transfer portal. But guess what? That was going to happen anyway. I think changing coaches will actually help retain some players in the program. If I’m a wide receiver, there’s no way I’m sticking around with the current staff; but if I liked Virginia Tech itself, I’d be very open to sticking around with a new staff.
2) What lessons can Whit Babcock take away from hiring Fu that he can apply to hiring the next head coach? What specific interview questions would he ask this time around that he may not have asked last time? – GretnaHokie
CC: Here’s an interesting article that everyone should read. Click here.
In that article, Dan Wolken of USAToday.com talks about how the sands are shifting away from hiring high-profile offensive coaches, particularly those whose success may have been carried by one particular star quarterback. Fuente may be a good example of that. Paxton Lynch was a nothing recruit who nobody wanted, but he turned into a first round pick at Memphis. Originally, everyone thought that was because of great evaluation and superior player development under Fuente and Brad Cornelsen. Now we know better. There was as much luck involved as anything else.
Here are my favorite three paragraphs of Wolken’s article:
“For several years, it seemed like athletic directors started their candidate lists by looking at which spread offenses were putting up the most points and targeting either the coordinator or the head coach who was considered responsible for installing that system.
While scoring points is still a highly prized commodity, administrators are viewing the job through a more holistic lens and becoming more skeptical of the Red Bull-fueled offensive guru types who think they have, in the infamous words of Charlie Weis, a decided schematic advantage.