Virginia Tech 2023 Approval Ratings Analysis

Chris Coleman

Lead Analyst and Columnist

July 05, 2023 57

On June 21, we ran our summer Approval Ratings poll for the key administrators and coaches for Virginia Tech. Today, we’ll take a look at the numbers and see what they tell us.

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57 Comments

Will Stewart July 7, 2023 at 2:55 PM

Test
1. Buzzardlip July 7, 2023 at 5:43 PM
  
  Aw, come on, Will, it's Friday - it's in a no test zone!
VicDrit July 6, 2023 at 9:57 AM

I think it's important to keep the school President as they can also help set the tone in supporting athletics, especially football. No way you'll get the job of an SEC school President if you don't support football. Drop Olympic sports and add asst. football coaches.
1. Hokie67NC July 6, 2023 at 2:19 PM
  
  Should not drop wrestling— the only logical NCAA sport currently that has a true chance of National Title
win-tech July 6, 2023 at 9:48 AM

Drop President. Keep Olympic sports + add wrestling. Add football O and D coordinators.
HokieJamie July 6, 2023 at 8:50 AM

Drop sands moving forward the negative votes are all politically driveb and nothing to do with sports
VTChip July 6, 2023 at 8:37 AM

Drop Sands from the poll but keep the Olympic Sports coaches in there. Adding the coordinator s might be interesting but I don’t know if any program likes their offensive coordinator so I would expect an ugly score.
HOKIESHARK July 6, 2023 at 7:54 AM

Forget Sands + no assistants + add Robie
Hokie67 July 6, 2023 at 7:03 AM

Make it simple: 1) Take Sands (or any president) off. Most folks would only be voting based on a sliver of info - and a load of 'politics'. BTW - the Innovation Campus is all you need to know about this. 2) Leave the asst coaches off - because their results will be based purely on the outcome on the field. 3) Add wrestling to the HC list. Keep the rest. 4) Have a separate poll based on TSL contributors with a couple of poll rankings about TSL subscribers - like how to we feel about our fellow sub scribers. This is just another reason why a subscription to TSL is worth every cent.
joepugh2 July 6, 2023 at 7:02 AM

Definitely add the wrestling coach. It is on of the most successful programs over recent years. I am indifferent about assistant coaches except for knowing how well they recruit. I work with and manage data analytics professional consultants. If you want to take this all up a notch I recommend adding demographics, particularly age and geography. I find it interesting to see how these things are trending.
OKDokeyHokie July 6, 2023 at 6:32 AM

Drop Dr Sands, no to assistants, add not just Robie but all head coaches of all Tech sports.
Hokester July 6, 2023 at 12:18 AM

No need to add assistant coaches. I think most people are judging the program and not the coach when answering these polls. If they are happy with the program's direction then they are likely happy with the coach and vice versa. Including Sands is OK as he is the face of the university. I also like what someone else mentioned about using a rating scale of 1 to 10 which would give you a more nuanced feel for what people are thinking.
Smirnoff July 5, 2023 at 11:31 PM

There are non-sports reasons for Tim Sands unpopularity among some people in the Virginia Tech fan base.
bhokie July 5, 2023 at 9:54 PM

Pry is responsible for his assistant coaches. I see no value in adding them to this poll.
bhokie July 5, 2023 at 9:51 PM

Keep the poll as it is, but drop Sands and add Robbie.
Hokietech July 5, 2023 at 9:37 PM

I also like the idea of adding instead of replacing coaches on the survey. Also rating on a scale 0-10 would be an excellent idea and more telling than just approve, strongly approve, etc. I do enjoy these types of surveys.
133940Hokie July 5, 2023 at 8:40 PM

I like the poll, but I would suggest adding the wrestling coach. Keep up the great reporting, analysis, and writing.
BaliGastonia July 5, 2023 at 7:56 PM

The more to rate the better.
HtownHokie July 5, 2023 at 6:35 PM

our opinions are so varied and for varied reasons, it looks like you need to do a "poll" on what to do your polls on. 1500+/- responded to your "it only take s few minutes" Prez, AD, major sports coaches polls. so far - 6:30pm Wednesday, 05 July - your responses on about whom who to poll only number 30 ! down a smidge from 1500. that small a sampling leaves a lot of unexpressed opinions still out there. Go Hokies!
reconhokie July 5, 2023 at 6:22 PM

Is there a TSL cost involved? How hard is it to just release the rest of the football coaches poll now, and then next year, break out all football coaches separately? Separate them by a few weeks next year, and you’ve got more content to discuss over the summer.
1. HtownHokie July 5, 2023 at 6:37 PM
  
  agree and agree.
grosehokie July 5, 2023 at 5:59 PM

I agree that the school president has so many responsibilities, his support of athletics being less important than the overall health and success of VT. I suspect his ambitious approach to growing attendance before the infrastructure is in place to handle it is reason for his lower numbers, at for those of us who have children enrolled. I’d like to see a poll of how many folks do care about Olympic sports. They are a fantastic diversion from an under-performing football team. I think the women’s softball and basketball team are extremely fun to watch. I may be in the minority, but doubt it’s as insignificant as the loudest voices would like us to believe. If anything, they’ve kept me as a TSL subscriber despite losing interest in football.
1. hokiesteve01 July 5, 2023 at 6:06 PM
  
  Reality is that he also likely gets some disapproval due to perceived role of university presidents in creating woke culture on college campuses. Not my view but there are a significant number of people who believe this. Take him off or limit the question more to why he has done specifically to support athletics although this is a hard thing to gauge accurately.
  1. Bass`n Hokie July 5, 2023 at 8:36 PM
    
    Yep, I gave him a negative rating because I think he's too woke. For me that's way more important than sports.
    1. WestEndHokie39 July 5, 2023 at 10:16 PM
      
      Same here. He has weakened VT’s commitment to free speech.
knapnhokie July 5, 2023 at 5:57 PM

like the survey monkey idea keep olympic sports ditch sands vote.
hokieZ71 July 5, 2023 at 5:45 PM

Data is good. Add and football Coordinators (including recruiting coordinator) and add Robie. Take off Sands only. I voted Neutral on Scezf solely because of the Super Regional. Outside that it would have been Disapprove. I’d like to see what his rating does when we get a year or two out from that. I want to see what Whit there as well, given the investment in the stadium and field there.
1. vtgriff09 July 5, 2023 at 7:27 PM
  
  Negative on Scezf? Guessing you are very negative on Pry and Young then. Vt baseball is better than ever. We were ranked top 2 in the nation just last yr. $$ thrown towards basball pales in comparison to Bball and FB, scholarships not close, we have zero history of success, and recruiting has never been better. What else is a guy to do? FB is in one of the worst p5 conferences, still stinks. BBall in ACC has been rated 6th best conference multiple yrs in a row..we are barely average (after being rather good). Yet baseball is in a top 2 conference (between ACC and SEC) and we have been very good. Give the guy a break..if anyone outside of Women's hoops and softball should be high, it should.be baseball. We know that.guy.can coach..yet we saw that disaster in FB last yr..one of the worst teams in the nation.
  1. Bugle76 July 6, 2023 at 7:01 AM
    
    Agree. Tech baseball at its zenith. Has never been better. Tech now relevant. Next thing you know fans will start shouting for Fuente’s hea…..no wait
ANDYISGOLD July 5, 2023 at 5:24 PM

Take Sands off and put oc and DC on.
132941Hokie July 5, 2023 at 5:08 PM

Remove President and add coordinators and strength and conditioning coach.
1. Southpaw July 5, 2023 at 8:19 PM
  
  Amen. Someone knows something… How shiny is The Cup? PS - I downvote VT presidents post Dr. Torgy every chance I get because there are no Holsteins on campus anymore. There was a plan for a small robotic dairy near Southgate. By my calculations on postgame traffic, all those roundabouts really paid off. As my grandmother used to say, “Remember your raisin’.”
Hokie E63 July 5, 2023 at 5:00 PM

Take Sands off- no one knows how he is doing- there are no easy parameters like wins and losses. And leave the Olympic sports coaches on, since there is a scoreboard for them. But do not include the assistant coaches- again, no one truly knows how they are doing and what the dynamics are on the coaching staff. Pry should be judged on the performance of his assistants, by Whit. If we were polled a lot of mischief could be created.
VAHokie89 July 5, 2023 at 4:32 PM

Take sands off. Why replace coaches? Just add coaches. It is just webpage space and people will answer. Give their recruiting and position reaponsibilites as well
1. RonSwansonsAlterEgo July 5, 2023 at 5:51 PM
  
  Very much this. We can respond to 10 or 15 names. Not like it takes more than a few minutes.
cookie61 July 5, 2023 at 4:23 PM

Take out the president. Only add OC , DC and Special teams. As some people have said, most fans on TSL don't know enough about the Olympic Spor't's coachs unless they are having an outstanding year. So I would leave them out also.
vtox1 July 5, 2023 at 4:16 PM

no sense in doing olympic sports agree with adding assistants FB and MBB. May want to keep Sands on list just to monitor in case a controversy that would change his arises. Might be interesting to have folks rate strengths weakness of Athletic, FB, MBB program ie. Gameday X/Os, Player Development, Coaching game week prep, S&C, Nutrition, Recruiting - HS, Portal, Offense, Defense, Special Teams, Sports Physcology, Trainer staff, Sports Med staff, Sports science staff, Facilities, etc.
nchokie55 July 5, 2023 at 4:02 PM

If you want to conduct a Football staff poll that would be fine. I believe leaving the top two administrators in the poll is a good idea too. I continue to be interested in the poll numbers for the other head coaches on staff at Tech, I suppose my opinion of each of these "Olympic" coaches is influnced by the coverage/opinion their team receives on this site.
Skipper64 July 5, 2023 at 3:53 PM

Please keep sands on the poll. Am interested in it’s outcome in the future.
TECH337 July 5, 2023 at 3:40 PM

I would skip President Sands from consideration due to several reasons. One, Whit probably initiated overtures for those ideas. Charlie Phlegar, Senior VP for Advancement, probably provided support for those athletic endeavors plus looking for funding along with Ken Miller, Senior VP Finance. And Sands does not embark on new ventures without the support and approval of the BOV. Thus, it would be hard to grade Sands on those group efforts. As for assistant coaches, I would suggest the OC, DC, and Special Teams coach. I would also suggest a poll on the best recruiter on the football staff. As for the Olympic sports, I would try a poll for all of them as a one-time occurrence just to see what people think on the overall health of the athletic program. By the way, does Whit ever deliver a "State of the Union" type report about the athletic program?
RTFC July 5, 2023 at 3:38 PM

Agreed. President is not really same as coaches. I'd add football assistants - but wouldn't get rid of Olympic coaches, interesting info as well.
WestyHokie July 5, 2023 at 3:28 PM

This must be polling a select group, I assume. I read TSL regularly and am on at least a couple of boards, and I started the poll and quickly stopped because I don’t know enough to rate any of those folks except maybe Sands. Pry has had one year. I don’t know enough about other VT teams to know why they did well or not. Injuries? Transfers? Bad luck? No idea. Those that do know more are likely long-time locals ot big-time donors? They know way more than me, and I imagine, most of us. In fact, that is what I would like to see… a demographic poll of TSL members/posters. Where we live, age, when we graduated from VT, what we donate, how often we post, what we care about, etc. All I know for sure is that we skew old!
MBHokie90 July 5, 2023 at 3:15 PM

I think Techsideline should do a yearly census. Doesn't need to be anything special and you can easily do it in Survey Monkey. I'm a big fan of Hank and John Green and they do this for their Youtube/Podcast audience each year to gauge interests and help them forecast content for the next year. (Here's their most recent survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/nftr2022youtube). Having something where you can really dig into the data that could help you all define trends could be immensely beneficial in the future. For example, you can't filter the above results based on age, race, or ethnicity but in a true survey you could. You could also ask other Techsideline related questions and filter based on the answer to those. The reason doing this every year is important is you can begin to see trends over time if you ask the same question or a similar question in each survey. If you ask "how would you grade Virginia Tech's current offensive coordinator" you'll have that metric data to go back to 10 years from now when VT inevitably has a different offensive coordinator to compare. As you look to build out Techsideline and provide better content, those kinds of metrics could be invaluable to gauging the fanbase and creating new pieces of content.
VTScanlo July 5, 2023 at 3:13 PM

Definitely take Sands off. Olympic sports coaches’ ratings will usually follow how successful the program is. Probably don’t need them. If you include assistant football coaches, I think it should only be the coordinators. We don’t know enough to get more granular than that.
Big Sexxxy July 5, 2023 at 3:12 PM

Take off Sands, add every FB asst coach, add every other head coach of every sport. For those sports that not many of us follow perhaps include the coaches/team’s records the past 3-5 yrs, accomplishments (made NCAA tournament, beat #X team, finished ranked #xx, etc.).
1. steves13 July 5, 2023 at 3:45 PM
  
  I agree with everything from Big Sexxxy with an additional thought: Maybe consider adding a preseason poll for FB asst coaches so next year, we will have some semblance of a trend to compare to? Without a base...I think you are correct Chris that we might all cringe for Tyler Bowen but setting a base may help ease expectations vs. results.
jagerhokie July 5, 2023 at 3:11 PM

At my club , I’ve been the tennis director for 22 years ?…we do the same annual survey . 781 doors ( 1500 ish residents ) …all of the people who reply strongly approve, approve or neutral…they give excellent reasons for their response …the minority of residents who disapprove or strongly disapprove never include why ( just would like to hear why ) …..I wonder if its the same in this survey….I know on tech sideline members don’t hold back….constructive criticism is good but silent criticism just gets thrown out ✌️
Seikoh_04 July 5, 2023 at 3:10 PM

The polls work pretty slick, do them all.
CJRothschild July 5, 2023 at 3:07 PM

I suggest using a scale of approval - say 0 to 10 - rather than the less subtle approve/disapprove for assistant coaches. While everyone sees (or thinks they see) recruiting ability, most have little insight into technical coaching ability; and on-field results are subject to head coach's scheme/priorities/in-game decision-making.
HokieGator July 5, 2023 at 3:04 PM

Definitely take off the president. While he definitely has an impact on sports, he is usually viewed through a political lens in terms of decisions he makes for the university as a whole. Probably not a bad idea to take out the Olympic sports polls. I'd dare say that a small number of people know much about these sports unless they're doing well. Ask me about the volleyball coach and I'd have no idea who it is, much less what my opinion is of them. But if they were doing well.... Making it to the NCAA finals, then I'd know more about them. If I'd be following them closer, and of course have a positive feeling towards the coach.
Atlee Hokie July 5, 2023 at 3:02 PM

Why not a couple of polls? 1) Football centric, or possibility revenue sport centric. and 2) All non revenue sports plus men's basketball if not included in the 1st poll.
VT Ken July 5, 2023 at 2:56 PM

I suggest adding the assistant coaches, but keep men's and women's basketball head coaches. Basketball gets enough attention from the larger fan base to warrant being in the poll.
1. 1hokies1 July 5, 2023 at 5:35 PM
  
  Drop Sands off. Who cares on Olympic sports. More football. No one can get enough.
  1. Bass`n Hokie July 5, 2023 at 8:40 PM
    
    I care about many of the Olympic sports, especially wrestling
vtce2000 July 5, 2023 at 2:50 PM

Why wait until next year for the assistant coaches?
1. Dan S. July 5, 2023 at 5:27 PM
  
  Agreed, I see no reason to wait.
david42 July 5, 2023 at 2:43 PM

It would interesting, it is worth a try

Virginia Tech 2023 Approval Ratings Analysis

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