2023 Season Predictions

0:00 Before we kick off tonight's episode, we wanted to send our sincerest thoughts, prayers, and condolences to Caleb Farley and his family, Hokie Nation. Please join us in lifting up Caleb in the coming days as he processes this tragedy.

1:01 And welcome back to the Boundary Corner Podcast along with my partners Brian Siegler, Jonathan Talley, and Shelton Moss. I am Curtis Wilson in this episode is brought to you by Doctor Jeremy Counts at the Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg. Your friendly neighborhood pharmacy located at Three O 1 S Main St. in Blacksburg. Place again, I said last week. I'll say it again. I cannot wait to get there just a few weeks from now. How's everybody doing tonight, boys? Rocking and rolling, man. Rocking and rolling. It's another Tuesday and we're back. Live football's here. Football. Time to go week 0. And wait. Week 0, we've got games on Saturday. Whether you think they're worth watching, I think it's of everyone's own discretion, but there are games on Saturday. And as usual, we sit two weeks out from roughly 2 weeks out from the Hokies kicking off, and tonight we are going to have our big season preview episode.

2:01 We're going to be looking at our predictions, We're going to be taking a look at all the games. We're going to be also breaking down what we feel like are three key players for the year. And then we've got to address something right boys? We got to address the article that came out last Friday from Andrea Adelson at ESPN. Been a quiet offseason in Blacksburg until that happened. You know, last week I had mentioned something there. There hadn't been any articles of the Turkey bacon persuasion. And sure is shit. Yeah. Couple days later, this thing hits the feed. I'm like, well, there we are. That's the way it goes, man. But Brian, before we get into all that, we got a couple other things we're going to uncover. And tonight we are going to be joined by a special guest.

2:44 Our friend Grayson Wimbush is now joining us tonight. And he's got a little something he wants to bring to the forefront. Grayson, how you doing this evening, man? I'm doing great. Curtis, how you doing? Thank you for having me again. It's great to be back pretty much a week later. I mean, it's always good to have you man your takes, you know, just talking with you before we got in here, It's always fun talking it really honest to God is. But we know you've got something very near and dear to your heart that we're gonna, we're gonna shoot right out the gate. So go ahead and tell us what you got. Yeah, absolutely. So I do. I do want to take this time to tell y'all I I started this offseason a campaign. It's called Rowdy for Robbie.

3:25 It goes to benefit the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation started by Kim Jones and her husband after their son Jordan passed away from testicular cancer. My buddy Robbie Armbrister die hard as of a hokey as you could possibly get. And and just he passed away last September. As a result of testicular cancer. And so I I started this to raise awareness, to raise education. The TCAF, they funnel money into areas where they educate men at the college level about the illness. And this fall in Lot 1, we're going to be selling these wristbands. Where's my camera? It's over there that says Rowdy for Robbie and they're going to be 7 bucks.

4:08 But I made a little video kind of explaining all of this. So Brian, hit it Whenever you're ready, man. Thank you. Hey friends, family, hokey fans. My name is Grayson Windish and around this time of year I would normally be putting out a Virginia Tech football hype trailer, but instead I decided this year. I want to take this time to tell you about my very good friend Robbie Armbrister. My family met Robbie Armbrister in the fall of 2015 in Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, VA, in Section 10 as a part of the 2015 reseeding for the year. And upon seeing him for the first time, we were immediately drawn to and amused by this very rowdy, rambunctious hokey yelling at the ref from missing a pass interference call as the season went on. He would always be the only one standing up the entire time in Section 10.

5:02 Mind you, this is a section where there's a lot of old alumni who love to sit down for the entirety of these football games, but he was never afraid to tell someone telling him to sit down hey, when I'm in Lane Stadium. I'm standing up to cheer on my team. I don't know about you, but that's how I roll. Robbie always held the attitude that despite a 21 point deficit, the Hokies would find a way to pick up the pieces, come back and leave Lane Stadium with a win. As time went on and more football seasons past, my brothers, my mother and father and I always look forward to seeing Robbie at football games. We became friends on social media. We always shook each other's hands prior to kick off, talk to each other about the thoughts of the day's football contest, and got ready to cheer on Virginia Tech through the wins and losses.

5:50 Robbie would turn around and yell, we're going to do it when this boys, we're going to do it. Whether or not that actually happened, Robbie always believed that the 12th man could pull the Hokies to a victory. One of my favorite memories of Robbie was watching him lose his voice in real time at the six overtime UNC game in 2019. Shoulder to shoulder, we watched as Quincy Patterson rushed for the game-winning two point conversion. And I, like many other hokey fans, will never, ever forget that evening as long as I live, whether it was the Tar Heels in North Carolina, the Miami Hurricanes, or somewhere in between.

6:30 Robbie Armbrister became a staple piece in my family's game day experience and I always looked forward to seeing my friend whenever I would come home to Blacksburg from Los Angeles. In March of 2022, I found out that Robbie was diagnosed with testicular cancer. When I learned this, I immediately thought to myself, if there's one person I know who would smile in the face of his illness, it would be my friend Robbie. I was confident as ever that he would fight with the courage and the same positive attitude that he was always known and loved for. In September of last year, I traveled home to Blacksburg from LA to watch Virginia Tech take on the Boston College Eagles, and as I walked up the ramp into Section 10A, familiar face stopped me as I started the trick up to my seats. It was Robbie and as one can imagine, I was ecstatic to see him.

7:26 I was able to give him a big hug and tell him how much he meant to my family and I. And little did I know that this moment would be the last moment I would ever see Robbie in the same place that our friendship started. Less than three weeks later, on September 27th, 2022, Robbie Armbrister passed away at the age of 31 due to complications from testicular cancer over the last month. I've had the honor and the privilege to get to know Robbie's parents along with some of his closest friends, and talk to them about how much their son and their friend meant to my family and so many others. With the blessing of Robbie's family, I've decided to start Rowdy for Robbie, a campaign to raise awareness for testicular cancer.

8:14 This fall. These wristbands will be for sale in Lot 1. On several home game days throughout the season, they're going to be $7.00 cash for Venmo in honor of Robbie's favorite football player to play at Virginia Tech, Michael Vick, and all the proceeds will go to the Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation in an effort to educate young men at the collegiate level about the illness. More details will be released on exactly where they're going to be able to be purchased in the coming weeks. So with this in mind, I do want to take this time to turn it over to Robbie's father, Gary Armbrister. Was going to tell you a little bit more about Robbie's Memorial Fund. Thank you, Grayson, and thanks for sponsoring the Rowdy for Robbie campaign benefiting testicular cancer awareness.

9:01 Our son Robbie became a hokey at a very young age. He was influenced by his granddad, armbrister, me and aunt, 2 uncles, his brother and a first cousin who all attended Virginia Tech. On the Hokie Inner Sandman and Let's Go Hokie Scales, Robbie ranked near the top. Anyone seeing and hearing Robbie knew he was a true Hokie 1. Characteristic prevalent and almost every story was his ability to communicate with absolutely everyone he encountered. Robbie never met a stranger, only made new friends who instantly became part of our family. He wanted to know everyone's story, and in each story he found some commonality that bound that person to him and to his family.

9:59 Robbie exemplified the quote, Never looked down on someone unless you're helping them up. Through all his pursuits, Robbie was a free spirit, uninhibited and carefree, yet intentional and bringing people together. Through his joyful personality, infectious smile and endearing laugh in memory of Robbie's giving and caring spirit and to carry on his legacy, my wife Lisa, Robbie's brother Wes, and I founded the Robbie Armbrister Memorial Family Services Fund last fall following his passing.

10:39 Robbie's Memorial Fund is a component fund of the Community Foundation of the New River Valley. Based in Christiansburg, VA, the primary purpose of Robbie's Fund is to support children, youth, young adults and young families with children under the age of 25 that are in crisis or need a hand up and are located principally in the Virginia counties of Henry and Width, the two counties where Robbie spent most of his short life and where he called home. For more information about how you can give to the Robbie Armbrister Memorial Fund, please visit www.cfnrv.org or please visit www.celebraterobbie.love. We hope you will consider a generous donation to Robbie's fund and also.

11:44 Don't forget to buy you Rowdy for Robbie wristband and let's go Hokies back to you Grayson. And thanks again for all you're doing. Thank you for that, Gary. It goes without saying that my friend Robbie Armbrister truly embodied in every way what it meant to be in Virginia Tech. Hokie. He was humble in defeat and he was rowdy as ever in victory. And while he is, no. Longer with us here on Earth. His spirit lives on in every single Virginia Tech fan across Hokie Nation, so with the 2023 football season upon us, I plan on honoring my friend this year, and always by joining the fight against testicular cancer and always being rowdy for Robbie Go Hokies.

13:06 Grayson, what a great tribute, definitely, to Robbie there. Sorry man, that that that that makes you just think a lot more about everything in your life, so. Great tribute. I love what you're doing in this. And let's educate us a little bit more. I put the CFN rv.org website in all the comments here, so if you folks want to take a look at that while you're listening, please do so. But we're in Lot 1. Can we go buy these things when we all head down this year? Yes. So the exact spot number we're going to drop next week, but it's it's right now we're we're trying to find a time slot.

13:51 I am not coming home for any Virginia Tech football game this season, so I will not physically be there. I wish I could be, but I cannot. So it's going to be my parents and then Mr. And Missus Armbrister, they're going to be there hanging out. There's going to be a Venmo tab with Rowdy for Robbie on it. And so we get we've got an account set up and then we're also going to take, we're going to accept cash as well. And literally every single dime of this, like I said, is going to TCAF. Testicular Cancer Awareness Foundation in an effort to educate men at the college level about testicular cancer, how how to properly check themselves. I know when I was in college, being a young man like you kind of get the feeling every now and again that you're invincible and you just don't take these things maybe as seriously as you should.

14:41 And I kind of wish back then even someone had told me about this and or educated me on it. But I, Robbie, was the man, y'all would have loved him, had a smile that could brighten up any room. And I just know that I know that he's going to love this. So shout into a great friend and a great hokey. Yeah, just just seeing the photos and him and everybody talk about it sounds like he had a huge personality, fun to be around and and and brought his own juice everywhere he went. Oh yeah. I mean, like, I'll just never, ever forget. Watching that six overtime game and every time the overtimes would switch back and forth, just hands on his head, like can't believe we're doing this right now.

15:22 Can't believe we're doing this right now. It's like, but he would look back up to my family is like we're. Still here? Still here? But, and then, like I said in the video, you know, when I got to see him last year at Boston College, I'm just, I'm glad I was able to have that interaction. I didn't even think he was in town, but but I. Love is folks is folks are great people. They'll be at a few games this fall and our goal is to get his picture in the Rowdy for Robbie Banner on the Jumbotron at Lane Stadium for a game. We are actively working on that. So if anyone has anyone who might be able to help with that, I'm working to pull some strings. But if anyone knows anyone see if we can make that happen? Sounds awesome.

16:08 Awesome. I'm sure there is someone out there between all the people you have made friends with over all these years. Grayson, that it will happen and Grayson will. I'll ask this before we go to the next thing. Please send us text, DM, whatever, just letting us know where it's going to be week to week. We will make sure every week we will say where that is. I really hope they're at the Purdue game because all four of these guys will walk there. We will find it. We will. I know author of my 7:00. Books. Oh yeah. Absolutely. And yeah, that was like 7. He loved Michael Vick. That was his favorite player, but he was also a nasty soccer player and he wore 7. I found this out from his dad as well. So some MV7 inspiration there.

16:55 A man after my own heart. Shout out to Michael Vick. Again, look for that out at Wayne Stadium in Lot 1 rowdy for Robbie Grayson. You're staying with us tonight because you're going to preview just like we are. But before we actually get to, we'll go to the article. But, Mr. Siegel, I'm going to give you the floor. Man. Some news was broken this week that I know you have to discuss about your former head coach down in the city. Yeah, I wanted to say a big, big time. Congratulations to my former head coach at Hampden City, Marty Marty Favret. He announced this week that he will be retiring at the end of the 2023 season. You know this.

17:36 This is a big, big announcement that he has been there since 1999. Five ODAC championships in that time, six division, three football championship playoff appearances and 18 of the 23 seasons he's coached so far. He's had a 500 or better record. During my time there, we lost three games. This guy is a legend at Hampden, Sydney. It's it's not really any sort of question about the the all time GOAT in terms of football head coaches at hand and Sydney Marty Favret stands alone and just want to say congratulations and we'll we'll definitely be thinking about you this year and I can I know right now you know thinking about you know practice today he definitely said run it again probably at least 10 times and he probably said we look like a fucking clown show another five or six.

18:31 So I'm I'm excited to see what the, what the outcome is going to be for this team in this final season. But Congrats Coach and thank you for everything. Very well said, very well, said Siegel. And something that Y'all ever want to pick Siegel's brain when we're down in Blacksburg on football in general concepts they were running 20 years ago for at the D3 level. As things that have leaked into D1 level games, I can remember going watching it and I remember that wasn't what I was seeing on. My screen when I went back to Longwood. Like, what is this 15 years later? It's a commonality place to see some of the stuff y'all were doing back then and and and coming from a like a power eye formation you know just straight run and some some deep shots in high school and then going to a pretty innovative offense in college was was a big step and but I mean I loved every second of it and you know it it took the ODAC 15 to 20 years to catch up to what Marty was doing back in 99 and 2000 So that that that that tells you a whole lot right there. You said Hampton Sydney, right?

19:38 Yeah, yeah. It's all all male College it is, yeah. Well, hell, he didn't have much to get you motivated and go win, you know, go win. We'll let you go talk to the girls. We need to get you down there on the weekend and you'll you'll see a little bit of a whole situation. Longwood College. That's where all the girls are. They come in from everywhere long. When they bust them in from islands, they bust them in from sweet bride, they bust them in from everywhere. Man, we went to College in the early 1900s. You know, it wasn't no, no, Tinder and Twitter and all that. It was like you are here to play football and if you win, we may let you look at a woman. I will say when I first got there, we were still doing 3 days, man. So it was a it was a full day of football.

20:20 It was a full day of football. That's awesome though, man. Congratulations to your coach on successful career. I'm sure he's touched a lot of lot of young men and. He's he's going to get there with his grand grandkids now and get to spend a lot more time with them going forward. Awesome. All right. Congrats to him. Well, let's flip it, boys. Let's start talking some hokey ball. We got a lot of things to cover tonight. But before we start anything off, we've got to talk about the article dropped last Friday, 7:00 AM sharp by Andrea Adelson at ESPN. And I'm going to just open the floor. What shocked? Y'all what didn't? Let me lead off here. I wasn't, I wasn't shocked by a lot of what I saw.

21:03 I'll tell you what I was shocked about. I think some of the details of kind of the bigger parts of the story. So like hearing about some of the the air conditioning situations that were going on with players that they were getting on campus, hearing some of the. Details of the internal kerfuffles between John Belin and Justin Fuente. Some of some of the little the little angles here and there and that that's what shocked me. Some of the little details, the big picture of what the article said and kind of what was going on. I wasn't really that shocked because I mean we we, we've talked about it before in various different venues of of. You know it's not just a on the field problem. There's a lot going on off the field from an administrative standpoint, from an organizational standpoint that that we need to improve, that's getting held back in some ways. I think we kind of have a good idea of of where that may may lie at this point.

22:12 So that that's my take. Like I said, I'm not super shocked, but definitely it's it's good to kind of, you know. Color in some of the some of the gaps there for sure. I want to tell you the one thing I was like, I I we had heard so many of these stories. The only thing that kind of shocked me was the whole thing about the equipment. Like they needed to basically a coaches to buy them gloves. I'm assuming there were some padding, there were some other things. And it's like it's a Division One football program. That shit should not be happening. Clearly now things have been self corrected, things are going in the right direction, but for the longest time Tally is before you joined us.

22:52 We said mom and pop. We were running shit like a mom and pop. And now clearly things have really shifted really in the last probably three years more than anything. But that's the one thing that did shock me. Tally, what do you think? You're kind of the same like you say it is. You want to be big time football, but you're running it like a like a mom and pop. I mean, you can't do that. You know, talking about redoing a locker room and keeping the same weights, weights, way the same, you know, having stuff like that come out. It's funny to me because I'm a goofball, but it's just like people with money know how to keep their money. I guess you know what I'm saying? But you got to spend money.

23:38 You got to spend money to to to make money, essentially. So. Grayson Well, I'm saying Grayson's got that in his tagline there. I just thought that was so funny. Well, yeah, we'll we can talk about that later, I guess. But remember last week, gentlemen, on on the preview panel I gave our offseason. An A -. I think it got bumped down. Plus with this with this article, I, you know, here's my thing, I don't think anything like this article surprises me anymore. But in case maybe the only thing that does, it's just timing of it. Like you know everything was going so great and then all of a sudden it's bomb like just the article comes out of nowhere. So I try and not waste.

24:28 Too much headspace thinking about it, you know? Or the former regime, especially. They're gone. We've torn them up down sideways across the board and Coach Prize the guy now. So I hope you should be focused on that. There you go. Show them what you got. Yeah, a few things to say about this. First of all, I was not shocked at anything the article, mainly because I had talked to a lot of people that confirmed pretty much everything that was said in there, to reiterate the point about BT being run like a mom and pop show. A few things. We were the last program in America, the last Power 5 football program to have a huddle account for perspective. That is like a baseball team not having a radar gun to evaluate pitchers in 2019.

25:08 In 2019, we had two full time recruiting staffers. By some metrics, our support staff was the worst in the Power of Five, even worse than UVA before the dining hall was open. The nutrition center in 2021, I believe. Our players are mainly fed to fast food catering after practice, so that included Jimmy John's Subs, Domino's Pizza. I know someone who had to go buy Klu Herbert Cookout every single week because he was not getting enough food. So that kind of contextualizes, you know, what we were dealing with back during the The 20 Ten's. Obviously Fuente failed for a variety of reasons, which we have discussed ad nauseam, but I do think this article is very important in contextualizing, you know, why Virginia Tech struggled. And the lack of emphasis on those sort of insular functions that go into having a successful Power 5 football program. As far as why the article was released this week, Andrea Adelson said in a tweet that she spent twenty months writing it because she wanted to interview as many people as possible and be as thorough as possible.

26:05 In my opinion, that's good journalism. I know that the timing is a little bit awkward, but I can understand from her perspective why she felt the need to make sure that everything was properly vetted. And and as accurate as possible. So that's that. Obviously we've moved on. I think we're a much better spot now, but I do think it was a very necessary article so people could see the truth about what the Virginia Technical Program was dealing with. Yeah, great. Great point, Sheldon. Thank you for bringing all that up. And obviously Shelton being down there plugged in even more so to the situation. You know, the other things that came out was the stuff about John Belin, who's currently part of the administrative staff. Nothing really shot me there either because it's when a guy has been in a position that long, you can see struggles like that happen. You can see a new coach coming in and you know, I'm, I'm going to do it this way.

26:56 I want to do it this way. And there's going to be butting of heads. Anyone that ever has worked in a corporate structure or in any sort of management or with any sort of thing like that that happened. I guarantee you all five of us in in our different career path has seen that happen. So there were some bombshells. And you know the one thing that I that that still catch me and I've got the article up here, I'm looking at it, It was they always would ask how Frank would want to do things, but they never asked it how Justin want to do things. And I feel like that is something that I don't think happens anymore because I got a feeling in that building right now, hey, we're about to do this with the logo. West Coast, probably think about it. Y'all better go down to that office and tell him what you're about to do, because I don't think that shit flies anymore.

27:41 Yeah, that was hard to be. Always hard to be the man after the man. Yeah, it's hard to be the man after the man. And I'll say this, I think I came in and he not only brought in guys that could help him on the recruiting front to build that that recruiting roster up, but the other thing he did he he put guys like Mike Hazel and Mike Villagrana between him and some of the administration. So he's got guys that are that are sounding boards on various. Football related topics that he trusts that trust him that are a buffer between him and and and maybe in this case of John Berlin to to kind of keep the program running in the direction that I think he wants to steer it.

28:28 That's kind of the thing that I think didn't happen is that, you know, we know that Berlin was very trusted when Frank was coaching and. We know that he got put in a position very close to Justin Fuente during the transition, and it seems like everything that Beamer did was the 100% right way. And if it wasn't that, there was going to be some sandbagging. And you know that that makes that makes your job all the harder. And you know when when we look at that, it's like.

29:10 We got to move, we got to move past Beamer. We still got to respect our legacy, but we've got to move past. Well, Beamer did it this way. So that's the right way to do it. Like there's got to be some sort of cut off there, and I think that didn't happen especially during that transition. Sheldon, I get your mute off, so I have a feeling you want to say something here. Yeah, nothing too much. I mean, like I said, you know? Blinn's been there for a long time. Obviously, you know, I haven't met the guys. I'm not going to make any of your personal comments, but he does have a very fierce loyalty to Beamer. Obviously, you know, he's been with him forever. And so I think he was more of the mindset that, well, this is the way we've done in the past and it worked. But obviously that's that's not that works anymore. And look, the rally is, if you are not investing and and trying to keep up with the times, you are falling behind. And that's just what happened to Virginia Tech in the twenty 10s. It happens.

30:02 It doesn't mean that everyone in the administration is dumb or terrible and or an idiot. It's just the nature of life. You fall behind, other teams catch up and now we have to play catch up right now. So it's just a circle of life. I think like I said, BT's in a much better spot, so we can acknowledge that there has been some progress made to. Shelton's point and again, I love what Shelton said. In the sense of I mean. It's not my place to come on to this podcast and and bash anyone that I've never met or speak on things behind the walls of Merriman that I I don't know about. John Belen's been around the program four years, ever since I was probably three years old or whenever he he jumped on board. I think in the case of John Belen, you you. Have to evolve with the game, and he's had so many roles within the athletic department where it doesn't seem like maybe there's been an effort made even a little bit to do that. So maybe that's where the frustration come. Well, not Maybe that's where the frustration comes from, from a lot of Virginia Tech fans and you don't. I don't want to word this the wrong way, but you can't have stains on a program that is trying to grow. And is trying to better itself.

31:24 So when people, people need a fall guy, always someone to point the finger and say it's that one person's fault and you know, you could point the finger at him, but I don't. I don't think that'd be fair. But. Yeah, you know, the game is evolving and we got to keep up. So however that happens, it's just got to happen a. 100%, And that's the thing. And you just said it like passing out the blame. It's a little bit on everyone. It's a little bit on everyone. You can't say it's all him, it's all him. It's all them, it's all them. Everyone had a little bit to do with it. And I think what's happening, Shelton, you've made it and you and Shelton keeps going back to it. Shelton's looking forward. It looks like the corrections are being made. That's the more important part because if this article was coming out and some of the things that we know that are going on right now like the nutrition center being built, like the dorms being built, like the changes to obviously the support staff.

32:21 Then it would be a bigger issue, right? About the new weights. Go ahead, Grayson. Here's my honest question to whit Babcock I I hope he's listening. Why would you spend hundreds of $1,000,000 hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade facilities at large and not finish the job with the weights? Like, how much are those weights collectively? They can't be over. $100,000, could they in that ballpark roughly. It's like if you're spending that much money, just finish it, take it all the way.

33:03 That's that's all I have to say. And the quote is just funny just hearing the fact that the WIT said that weights way the same. He's not wrong, but. He's not wrong, but. But come on. Come on, he kind of wrong. Yeah, he's. I just got it wrong. I mean, if y'all want me to go into it, I don't look like I lifted. Let it. Let it go. Let it ride, man. Let it ride. Tell us what you got. So people who lift weights, free weights, most of the time they're going to, they're going to take hits, drop, fall chips are going to happen. So in a sense over, I mean we worked with rubber weights as well.

33:43 You know, people would cut them, do different things. So old weights, if it's a £25 weight and it's been there for 25 years, it's it may not be 20-5 pounds anymore, 22. And 1/2 it may be 22 1/2 which is different. So weight don't weigh the same. I will, I will piggy back on that real quick. I'll let you finish tally. But like, I mean, when we used to lift, we that we do, you know, risk strengthening stuff and you know, we have to, you know, grab plates and we have a clock on us and we'd have to hold the plates for, you know, however, however long. You'd always find the ones that were newer because you could get your fingertips underneath them bitches a lot better than the ones that were older that it worn down a little bit.

34:27 They were a little slicker, They might slip out your hands, you know, in the middle of that clock and then you got to have to do some up downs or you know a couple extra gassers or something like that. So you got to find the weights that are that are new. Yeah man, it is, it is. It's crazy. But I mean for me, just the last to to finish off the, to talk about the, the, the article, it wasn't. I mean I guess I'll talk a lot or I listen a lot. So I've talked to a lot of people and like Shelton said, I mean it's a lot of this stuff that was already kind of known. Yeah, it was like the timing of it kind of threw me off a little bit because it's like I'm getting ready for the game. I'm ready to see some football and then you see something like that.

35:09 But it's like most of the stuff in there it it had already been said and it had already been known so. Yep. I like what we got here. Dwight saying just a heads up not hearsay. Even Bud admitted when these changes were warranted and the program had gotten stale. And I'm going to leave it at this y'all and and I said it before and I think we all be. It's a lot of blame to go around how far we fell behind and for years like 2004 when we were the third highest salary in the country. It's time to get back there. So. Let's drop that where it is right there, because now we get to talk about the upcoming season, the 2023 hokey football season, and we're going to do a little something different tonight.

35:50 All five of us have picked on each side of the ball 3 gentlemen that we feel are going to be key players for the year of 2023. So what we're going to do is we're going to start on the defensive side of the ball. We're going to go through each room if we have a player that we feel, we're going to name who they are. And we're going to discuss why we feel, in our own personal opinion, it is that way. So we're going to start on defense and we're going to start in the linebacker room. And the name that appeared more than one time was Kalai Lawson Tally, you put him as one of yours. Why'd you put him, man? Hey, look at him, You know what I'm saying? Y'all seen pictures of him.

36:33 Oh, we've seen them, we've seen them. And he got into. The fridge list, I mean, let him get off the bus first. We need to one of the knocks that I've always had for Virginia Tech, you know, going and watch them play. I would go to Atlanta and watch us play Georgia Tech, which is, you know, a team that's very similar to us. Now we might not want to admit it, but they are. We were always so much smaller than everybody that I wouldn't watch us play. You know, sometimes we have some heart and we play hard, but like just physically Jermaine Edmonds was, he looks totally different than anybody else on the field. I get it. He is a freak too. But you know, we only have a couple of players that that looked apart.

37:13 So I think that we're getting back to actually having a Power five looking football team, which I'm very glad about. But Lawson's just one of those guys where he looks the part and he's also athletic enough where he can do some things different at that linebacker position. He can, he can cover. We seen him make the tip pass interception last year. Not only that, returning for a touchdown. You know, we got to see some stuff like that out of our linebacker room to to just have us competing. So that's why why I'm thinking him. I think he's going to have a good year this year. Sheldon, you were another one that texted me, Kalai Lawson. Why is he on your radar as one of the key players?

37:56 Yeah, like Todd said, he's just a physical freak. It kind of reminds me, I know it's a different position, but Divine Diablo back a few years ago at safety, people always say, man, that dude is a specimen. I would say the same about about K Lawson. Long, athletic, long arms. I mean, that's exactly what you want. I know. You know, for him, obviously he's got a lot of work to do. The greats last season where you know less a lot to be desired. But he's still learning. I think for for me, he's got the highest ceiling by far in this linebacker, this linebacker room because his physical attributes. So I'm really excited to see how he develops. Yep. And I this was one of mine as well. Folks on was Kalala, Lawson and I kind of look back. Tally mentioned that Georgia Tech game, really the last three games of the season, because the first half of the season he wasn't playing much. He was getting spots here and there, doing some special teams. But in the last three games of the season, 16 total tackles. 3 tackles for loss, a sack and interception, A fumble recovery. You do the math in three games and do that over the course of four.

38:55 So right at 70 tackles, I'm not going to say the other pieces are going to come, but it was that maturation where Brent Prime, Chris Mark felt comfortable enough to basically start playing him significantly more at will. And when he got that and he started putting the results out on the field. Now, Mr. Siegler. You did not say Mr. Lawson, but you did have somebody in the linebacker room and something else you want to tell the folks out there tonight. Yeah, I mean, while while we got your little captive audience here, you know we're giving 3 on each side of the ball. If y'all want to throw three in there, let us know. We'll try to get those on there and talk about them a little bit, especially if we got one on there that may be a little different than what we're talking about. But the guy I'm going with is Jaden Keller because we've got a big hole there at Mike linebacker. You know both.

39:44 Both of the linebackers that saw the most significant time are no longer with program in 2023. Jaden Keller has a big, big opportunity to really step in there because his athleticism is significantly higher than anything we saw at the Mike linebacker position last year. If he can get the mental part and that translates and he can step into that role and be the guy that is the quarterback of the defense. That's going to significantly change the trajectory of the linebacker room, just like if Lawson takes that next step and becomes that freak that everyone's talked about. If Keller can be that solid role in the solid role in the middle of that defense, but also elevate the athleticism at that Mike linebacker position, that's going to be a big boost for that defense. Alrighty.

40:37 So there are some of one of our three now. Y'all didn't hear. Grayson. Grayson didn't have anybody in the linebacker room. And I think you're going to see why in the next room because we're moving over to the defensive line. And the big vote getter here was Antoine Powell Ryland. Brian, I'll let you lead off on this one, man. I know he just asked you to talk, but he was one of your. He was your second of three. Yeah, I'll talk a little bit more. This guy has already flashed. We've already seen the highlight tapes coming from ball camp of him putting spin moves on guys him, you know a little bit of a bull rush, little bit of a little speed rush. I mean he's he's got some different moves there already in his skill set and he's a big guy coming in.

41:22 He's already ready to to kind of play against the the ACC competition. He fared well against SEC competition you you would think that was that's going to translate pretty good for him especially in a full time role hand in the dirt most of the time. I'm looking forward to see what he can do because it feels like this could be the first kind of big pass rusher that we've seen in a while where we can maybe get to double digit sacks with with one individual. So I think we we said last week at Kenneth Cannon was the last one to to hit that 10 mark. So it would be nice to see that 10 mark hit by by Powell Ryland this year if he can kind of get up to speed, because definitely a freak for sure all. Right tally, this was your #2.

42:06 You know, one reason I guess to start just off the field. Him being a guy that you know, Tech missed being a Virginia guy. Tech missed him at first. He goes to Florida, you know, possibly because of the last regime, possibly because of recruit, maybe because of where the program was at the time. Doesn't really matter. Shows how important the transfer portal is. You got to keep those relationships open. Because we double back and we get him when he leaves Florida, Now he's coming back home and you know his family's will be able to come to more games because it's closer to home for him. Then you also have him just on the field making plays. I think he had like 30 tacos last year in a limited role, 3 sacks.

42:53 It's been a long time since we've had a just a defensive end that offices had to prepare for, you know? And when I say prepare for, you got to run some double teams. You got to put a tight end in the box. You got to have a running back back there. Like when you have a defensive end, it can create havoc and do some things like that. It frees other people up, it frees your linebackers up, it frees your other defensive end up. So we need the person on the other side to to to step up. But it all starts with what he can do and I think that with him, you know, coming in and having a bigger role for us. I think he's going to have a good year and it's going to, you know, like I said, free up a lot of things for us as well as that DB row, Alright, Grayson.

43:38 This was this was your first to three? Yup. I'm Mr. APR. I think, I think he's going to have a great year. Tally 6 three £242 product of Indian River High School. Many Hokies remember Devin Hunter actually went to Indian River High School in Portsmouth, VA. Used to be at Florida and everything that I've seen, all the tape I've seen from practice, the the small amount that does exist on a PRI mean, it's really hard to not get excited about this kid. He's he's only a junior at Virginia Tech, so he's got a couple years of eligibility left. And I'm just, I'm just ready to have playmakers at a lot. Of positions on our defense and we got them. We got a lot of young guys, which is very, very exciting as well.

44:29 So really, really fired up about APR. Welcome to Blacksburg. Let's do some damage. Welcome to Blacksburg Indian River. You mentioned you mentioned Devin. They don't forget Brandon Orr High school as well way back in the day. All right, let me flip over to Shelton. Cuz Shelton, we staying on the defensive line, but you are moving inside for your next guy. Yes, that's right. So I went with Mario Kendricks into your lineman. You know I just felt like he was really productive most of the last season pulling the stats so he so he had he had 24 total QB pressures and I think you know when you look at the defensive line this year in the ACC, Kobe Turner is gone can't see from Pittsburgh is gone.

45:15 I think he has a chance to be a top five, 6-7 pass pressure in the in the conference. And he's a big, you know, run stuffing type of guy. I think he's going to be a pretty big part of this this D line you throw pal in there as well. I mean, I'm expecting, I'm expecting pretty big things. Big things from Mario Kendricks. I'm one of the higher grader PFS last year. I think you've mentioned that a few times. I'm Shelton to us. All right, Grayson, I'm gonna flip back to you and give you a four because you are staying on the interior and you got a pretty. Big name that, Yeah, you wonder what you're going to see from. Well, there's not a lot of, I guess numbers on this young man, but Gunner Givens, I am ecstatic to see him contribute to this defense this season. Gunner Givens 6, five 287 pounds, Product of Lord Bata Tot High School down there in Roanoke Salem. The the surrounding areas.

46:14 No. Gunner had a lot of hype coming into Blacksburg four-star kid and you know he was that was a big deal when he committed to Virginia Tech stayed home. So I'm just I want to see what he can do that's that's pretty much it. I just want to see what he can do. There's not a lot on him, so how much, how much will he contribute early on and then in into the season? Yeah, if anything, with the interior line, at least one of the two younger guys like Gunner need to at least start getting reps because it is going to be Kendricks obviously gone next year with Pollard. All right, I got one in this room. This is my second of three, and I'm going to go on the other side of the defensive line and I'm going to go Cole Nelson.

46:59 Cole Nelson, obviously three star out of Georgia, You know, 6-3, about £248. He's gained some weight since he's been here. We saw him play last year and the reason I'm putting him last year. 5 1/2 tackles for Laws, 24 tackles in general, 2 sacks. But whoever is on the opposite end of a PR has to make the other team pay. And whether it's him, and I put Cole because I saw Cole on tape last year do some good things. I know we're hearing Burgos. But whoever on that end, they have to make the other team pay because once you start making that other team pay, there is nowhere else you can do. You're not going to take the tally. Tell me, Brian, tell me, are you going to really take the tight end chipping off the left side?

47:47 Yeah. I mean, you can't Max protect. You can't Max protect every every pass play. You're not, you're not chipping with a tight end and chipping with a running back. You you're eventually going to have to figure something else out. So. That's why I say cold, because I think we've seen the most. And then it goes back to Shelton's point, too, with Kendrick and and Grayson, your guy gunner, if outside pressure is happening, everything's going to open up. Everything's going to open up for this defense. When you talk about, when you talk about what we're talking about with defensive lineman, it takes us to our next, you know, our next, our next group. You know, even if you're not getting sex, even if you're not getting home, if you're there with your hands up or you're causing pressure on the quarterback, guess who that helps. That helps your defense, that helps your secondary. So go ahead.

48:35 I know we're going to that next. Yeah, we're going to secondary next. We want it to be difficult today. And Sheldon, we're going to let you kick this one off with because believe it or not, y'all somehow 5 hokey fans have five different names for the secondary. We won't be difficult, but it also says how good the secondary room is. Sheldon, who's your guy? Yes, my guy is Dorian Strong. I chose Dorian because I feel like he's almost kind of a diamond in the rough. He was a guy that came in freshman year, 2020, the COVID year, had a really good season, all things considered regress a little bit in 2021. Obviously the last year was injured for the majority of the year. He did play well while he was playing, but it's like you know, whenever you have a guy come in and play well as a freshman's, kind of like, OK, this guy's a star was during. He just hasn't really had that opportunity to show it because of his injuries and regression.

49:24 I really think he has a chance for breakout year. He's also playing opposite Mansard Lane, who is obviously a stud, as we have previously noted. For Genetex, coverage was fantastic last year I believe they finished 11th best nationally and passing success rate allowed and that was largely because of the cornerbacks. So you put mentor Delaine in there with Count the Jenkins I think during strong is going to have a bounce back year. I think it's kind of a really, really good season that. Sounds good, Callie. You you stayed at corner man. Yeah, well, you know, I I wanted to pick Dorian Strong, but I can't get past his his jersey number at 44. It's still killing me. I could never pick a a person with that. Dory. Hey man, you need a different number. I think it's single digits.

50:08 You need to get a single digit number or something. But anyway so for me it was Canteen because I mean I've just of course we're all hype about the season so you're picking up every you know bit that you can. You're picking up every video that you can and I've seen Canteen Flash. You had to pick in the you had to pick in the spring game. And then I'm hearing other players talk about his leadership. I'm hearing him say he's the first guy in, last guy out. I mean, what you have in a young defensive backroom like we have, we know we have some studs coming up. We know Delaine is going to be a stud, but he's still a younger guy.

50:49 Canteen coming in and having that mentality of I'm here to work and people seeing that as soon as he got there just has me excited for him. Because he has the ability. We've seen him on the field, you know, at his last school. But him having that mentality is more of what's got me excited about him, of just being there to work. But you know it's going to be competition with all those good defensive backs in there. And again, I think he's going to make some plays on the field as well. That sounds like a plan, so let me let me just do this real quick here. Poor and strong freshman allamerican. Here canteen freshman Allamerican Grayson, Can you hit the trifecta for me?

51:31 Mansoor Delaine. It's it's written in the stars. I mean, Speaking of single digit numbers, God, he got out of that 23. I mean just he joins a long line of studs at Virginia Tech to wear #4. David Wilson, Eddie Royal, D'Angelo Hall, Dax Hollifield. Andre Kendricks. I mean, who else? Who am I missing? Eddie Royal? Did I say that already? Yeah. Yeah, either way. But Delaine is. We know this kid's A baller. 38 tackles, 17 solo in 2020, two, 1 1/2 tackles for loss. I mean, what What can you not say about Delaine? Just had a breakout freshman season. He was a highlight in a.

52:19 Season full of no offense, kind of low lights, you win. Three games is a hard first season, but we knew it was coming. So I think this kid, bare minimum All ACC. Just an absolute stud. Really, really excited to see him flourish in his second year out. And he did all of that with no offseason and stuff, right? Like, he didn't. He didn't enroll early or anything like that. He just came in and started playing. True freshman. True freshman. Nothing. So that's crazy. I seen him on a seeing him on a maybe media day or something like that and his arms look jacked like he looks like he's been in the weight room and those weights probably weighed the same as well. Those weights were the new weights that. OK.

53:06 They were the new. So they weigh a little bit more, but they've got. The right amount. All right, Sigla, me and you, we we're moving to the back end because I said we all had five different ones. Sigla, who's your guy on the back end, man, I went a little sideways on this one, but I got, I got some reasons here, so I went Jalen Jones, he's switching sides of the ball. We have a good we got, we got some, we got some good frontline safeties on that side of the ball. But with a lot of experience you got, you know, the guy somebody, I think Curtis is going to talk about next stepping into a big role there. But I feel like we're going to need one or two more guys to round out that room.

53:47 Jalen Jones coming along and and we we've heard some things you know from the coaches, from the players talking him up, what he's done so far in fall camp, what he did kind of towards the end of spring there with that position switch. If he can step into a big role where he's a, he's a solid rotational safety for this team, that's going to pay dividends because we're going to need that type of depth on the back end to hold up. Because one of the big things we saw last year, it wasn't just that our front end talent wasn't where it needed to be. It was that our depth in the secondary would show its head in the late 3rd and early fourth quarter and games that we were hanging around in all of a sudden became blowouts. Games that we were had the lead in would suddenly go the other direction.

54:30 Having guys that can step in and play those key depth positions in the secondary is going to be big for this, this team and I feel like Jalen Jones is going to be a part of that. Yeah, it's got to be somebody else on the back end. Because you mentioned Jalen, he's probably looking at probably playing a strong safety position. I went with the free safety and and I went with the legacy and Jalen Stroman last year he was pressed in the duty to play free safety and effectively we could not find a nickel and we're forced to move Jamari back down to play nickel. He stepped in 43 tackles, 2 fast deflections, 2 force fumbles. As a red shirt freshman, he only played four games his first year and then I think if everybody can go back to it, go back to the spring game and the interception he made on drones, we talked about that play. We've talked about it numerous times. Special players make that play, special players make that play. And I think with the legacy of how Big Brother played here, I think he's going to be something. I think we better hold on because it might be one of those things.

55:31 He could have that type of all ACC season. Where he ain't here next year. Yeah, don't forget. Yeah, don't forget. Dwight has stabbed him. That's the white guy from the beginning. Dwight said he don't. Dwight said he don't miss often. So because I've known him, I don't think he's missed on the guy he's told me about. So he's not going, he's not going to put you on a pedestal if he doesn't know you the real deal. Well, that's the truth. All right, so tailor the tape here. We got Tally with Kalai Lawson APR and Derek Canteen. We got Sheldon with Kalai Lawson, Mario Kendricks and Dorian Strong. Brian's got Jaden Keller, APR and Jalen Jones. Our buddy Grayson here.

56:13 We got a PR Gunner, Givens and Mansoor Delaine. And I'm rolling with Kalai Lawson, Cole Nelson and Jalen Stroman real quick. Don't go into any detail on it. Who's the one player from the defensive side of the ball that you left off? Go Shelton. One player. Delaine. Delaine Grayson. Can we can we say repeats? I mean, or does it matter? No, no. Who's your Who was your fourth guy who was right there but you didn't? Put them in. Definitely Lawson. Yeah, all. Right Tally. I'd say Pollard. Pollard. OK.

56:54 That's a different one, Brian Lawson. I think. I think the linebackers are going to be the the thing that makes the difference this year. I think the the D line's going to step up. That's going to help the secondary. The difference is going to be in the linebacker room. If they can make significant jumps, we're going to be a good team. Yeah. And I'm with you on that. My mind on the cutting room floor was Keller. Like it was Keller because like what Brian made. Because if Keller takes a step, I'm, I'm just, I'm reliving 2007 again, baby. That's all an Xavier TV if those two guys pop. All right, let's flip over to the offensive side of the room here. And again, we're going to do the same way. We'll start out here with the wide receiver room and someone who got two votes, Jalen Lane and Brian, you were one of the first ones.

57:41 Why you think Jalen? I think Jalen, I mean, we said it on the panel last week. He was he was kind of my, my, my, my big guy to keep an eye on and he remains that for me because you know, I feel like Ollie Jennings is going to cook outside. But looking at last year's offense, what was missing significantly was short and intermediate passes, especially between the numbers and between the hashes. If we can work the the the middle of the field a whole lot better this year, that's going to open things up for everybody else. Jalen Lane has game breaking type speed, but he's also quick. He can move kind of inside those numbers with the with those different route trees that you're going to run for the slot position. So I'm looking forward to see what he can do and take advantage of the interior some of these defenses that we didn't really exploit much last year all. Right, Shelton, You've also got him on here and I know you probably went data diving for what you found out from him. Why is Jalen one of your top guys for the offensive side? Yeah, it was actually more of a hunch. I feel like we kind of know we're getting in Jennings, but I feel like Lane Lane was almost like an X Factor. You know just looking at some of the stats Pastor writing when targeted really really good overall grades really really good.

58:58 He's also a very good in yards after the catch which we saw in that touchdown against Miami he had. So I think he's got some breakaway speed and and yeah I think also smaller but certainly important thing very good hands grade on PFF so he's not drop a lot of passes to which. We made discuss was a very, very big problem for Virginia Tech last year. Why receivers dropping passes. I think they were Tech was maybe fifth worst power five in a drop rate. So yeah that's that's got to change. But I think, I think Lynn's got some pretty steady hands. All righty, Well, we'll keep. We're going to stay in the Wilder swimming room. We got a couple more players and tally, you've got one of those players. Who is your first offensive key player? Mr. Quan felt, man.

59:45 It's kind of like what Sheldon said. I mean, when you think about an X Factor, you know, I don't like to compare players a lot of times because I feel like it said it's a month to be something that they probably aren't there themselves. But I feel like just how I felt about Hazelton, Damon Hazelton, when he came in, he came from a lower school, you know, it wasn't a lot of stuff out there on him that I really paid attention to. I've looked at a lot of highlights about Allie Jennings, which we all kind of know of him looked at a lot of highlights of Jalen Lane. But you don't find a lot of highlights about Felton on that. You know, I've seen some, but there's not a whole bunch of them out there on him.

1:00:25 He came from a smaller school, but he just has that look to him, man. He looks like he is just, you know, kind of kind of different. It looks like he's he's prepared to to do some things. And I mean he's he's six, five, 205 pounds, £210. I seen him catch a ball in the spring game and whoever came downhill and popped him laid a good liquor on him and he fell forward 5 yards. I mean if you can get a wide receiver that catches the ball for five yards and falls falls forward for five yards, that's 10 yards. So we do need those possession type receivers and I think that Caleb Smith last year would have been great in the road that I think Felton should be in this year. But we had him being missed everything at why I received because we had nobody else to stretch the field or catch the ball.

1:01:17 So Felton is my guy man. Go watch if y'all haven't go watch him, go watch him. Probably the one of the only times you'll see him speak to the media and he looks like he is crazy as can be, which is in a good way, not in the bad way. Like he has no nonsense. It's like that man don't want to smile, he just want to play, he. Just wants to play Grayson. You also picked one in the wide receiver room and who's your guy? Yes, Mr. Alex Jennings, probably one of the most hyped ACC receivers going into the 2023 football season, transferred from Old Dominion University, who, ironically, we open the season against In Lane Stadium, 8:00 PM Eastern. But who's counting?

1:01:59 He was all Sunbelt first team. He led the Monarchs last season with 54 receptions for 959 yards and 9 touchdowns. He's a hell of a receiver and it will be very interesting to see how he fits into Coach Bowen's scheme. But I can't. I cannot wait to see this kid in Virginia Tech uniform, and I hope he scores the first touchdown against all poetic justice. It would be poetic, Justin, a kid who probably should have been recruited here a long time ago, finally makes his way home. And like you said, the thing about all three of the guys Y'all mentioned, they all did it elsewhere.

1:02:41 Even Felton down at Norfolk State in his first season last year had like 600 yards. Obviously Lane and Jennings, like you just mentioned, Grayson all Sunbelt. He's already a part of a lot of all teams for this year. All right, let's hit to the running backroom, because popular selection. Sheldon, take it away. We have Beshaw Tootin, the running back transfer from FCS North Carolina AMT. I think people might be sleeping on him. I think that he has a couple of really good qualities. First of all, he's got great breakaway speed. His breakaway numbers at the s s level were really good and he's really hard to tackle. Yards after contact numbers also very good.

1:03:23 I know that some people might say, well it's just FCS, but those those qualities, being able to generate your in touch of contact actually translate really well the next level. So I wouldn't have too much concern about that. I think he is a bona fide Power Five talent and I'm really excited to see him in this offense because Tech struggled with many things last year offensively, but chief among them was lack of explosive plays from the running backs. Tally, he's on. He's one of your guys too, man. Yeah, well, I think what a lot of people forget is that when we did get him, we stole him from Boston College. He was supposed to be going to Boston College, I believe, and supposed to be on campus. And somehow he winds up with at Virginia Tech. If anything, if you don't know anything about Boston College, go look at their running backs.

1:04:07 They recruit certain types of running backs and if they wanted him, I want him. And then after seeing him now and seeing a little bit of tape of him, looks like he can catch the ball out of the backfield. Like Shelton said, he's got some good breakaway speed. He breaks tackles. I mean, he just looks like a complete running back. And I think that that's going to be good for us to have, you know, some different types of backs instead of having 14 backs that all maybe done one thing. I think now we have 3 to 4 running backs that kind of all feed off each other. You know, one's good at catching one's more of a power back, once more of a blocking back. So I feel like our running back room has come a long way and I'm going to be excited to watch them this year. Mr. Siegler, one of yours as well. Yeah, I'll round it out here and Chadley said it the all around back.

1:05:01 I think we really haven't had one of those, you know, since Herbert stepped away and. You know, Tuten may be a little bit better in the passing game than Herbert was while during his time in Blacksburg. Don't think he's quite the the home run specimen that that Herbert was or or turned out to be once he was on campus in Blacksburg. But I like the the the variety of things he does well. So when we talk about being able to break tackles, being able to have it have some breakaway speed to to finish out those long runs to to turn those long runs into touchdowns. That's not something we've seen the last couple years, so I'm excited to have that attribute back in the backfield again and especially with him kind of being 1A1B in the backfield there with Thomas, I feel like that's a really good 1-2 punch.

1:05:48 They they both compliment each other well, but also when one comes off, you're not necessarily missing a huge. Piece of a running back skill set. Either they they more or less have similar attributes. I think with Tutin B, you're probably a little bit better in terms of catching out of the backfield. Yep, and and and next the truth about Tutin being the better catcher out of the backfield. But my guy here was Malachi Thomas. And it was more for the reason of Malachi has been pretty much banged up in his career at numerous points in time, but when he's on the field. He makes an impact. The three games he played last year, he only played three games. Y'all 237 yards from scrimmage, 2 touchdowns.

1:06:30 He was right under 5 yards to carry. His freshman year he was right at 5 yards to carry with only really 95 plays. So like you just mentioned, it's having the 1A and 1B and now Tudin is the starter, which I'm going to presume that's the case. When you take him off, you have someone thing about it. We're going to put Malachi on the field. Go back to the ore and Humes days or came off, Humes came in, you know, you were still going to get production, right? It wasn't a falloff. It wasn't a falloff. And I don't feel like we've had that. I mean, I feel like it's been 12 years. Seriously, I feel like we haven't had where we can take one guy off and immediately say this guy's going to continue to produce. So I think it's very important Malachite Thomas produces and hopefully stays healthy having a partner like Basheel Tootin. All righty, let's move over to the offensive line. And Shelton, me and you agreed on the next guy, and that's going to be Parker Clements.

1:07:27 What you got on him? Yeah, so Parker was a guy that really kind of fell off a Cliff last year again, like Kane Moore, a very good freshman season in 2021, but imploded last year. We didn't know it at the time, but he was recovering from offseason searchers. That was, you know, I mean part of it as well as you're not being exactly the right. Fit for the scheme, but for me, the recent Joe Parker was mainly because I think he is the biggest bounce back candidate on the team. Just because if we know his potential, which we saw in 21 as a freshman, the fact that now he is a junior, he's fully healthy. You know, he's had, he's, you know, had a full offseason in this offense. I think he's going to make a huge piece of rebuilding this offensive line.

1:08:08 And obviously claim that you know the right tackle position, that's the spot we obviously you need, you need your big guys to to perform. So I'm looking forward to see him have it bounce back here. Yeah. And and and like I said, I'm with you on this one. And it was because of that because what we saw in his red shirt freshman year, we saw really good things. And then what happened last year, I mean we criticized on this program, but when you come to find out, he basically could not lift his right arm up. It was right arm right to block. It's like, well, obvious. Obviously if you're an offensive line and you don't have the full use of your arm, you're going to be significantly worse. And just the way you know his interview looks like he is one of the better leaders on the offensive line. He looks solid in the spring game and that's what we want. We need a steady Eddy over right tackle to make some moves to to, you know, open some holes up.

1:08:59 So that's why I think Barker Clements and the fact that like you just said, he is the bounce back candidate now Grayson. You're moving to the middle of the line, right? That's right. That's exactly right. I'm going Kaden Moore here. The center play in in Blacksburg. It's been inconsistent I guess you could say probably over the last 10 years we've seen a lot of snaps go really high go over the quarterbacks head. We saw it a few times last season, so. Just being able to properly snap the ball, I think it's paramount. And now Kayden, he's an upperclassman, he's he's got a lot of experience under his belt. He made eleven starts at right guard last season. It'll be interesting to to see, I guess, how he adjusts, but the the center play has to be a one in 2023. Just an instrumental part of our offense, you know, can't have any high snaps, so probably the most outside of the left tackle, the most important offensive lineman on the field. Well, that's funny.

1:10:11 You should mention left tackle because Brian. Yeah, my guy's going to be Xavier Chaplain. He's going to be. It's such a big, big role the left tackle. So him filling in being able to protect the quarterbacks blind side in this case. Being able to move some bodies on the offensive line, being able to create some holes, create some rush lanes for the running backs, You know, he's still a young guy, so having a young guy step into this role is always some, you know, there's some hesitation there, right. So he's going to be key to me because if he can step in there and take over that role and and perform well, that's going to raise the bar across the offensive line and and I think that could really be.

1:10:59 A big boom because if we can get a running game going we never really had last year, if we can get the running game going this year, then everything else the offense does is going to be a lot easier. Yeah, and again, I always go back to the Liberty game, Brian, me and you kind of watched a little bit of it, you know, after the fact to be his first collegiate game. He was playing a pretty good player at the left end there and he didn't do bad. He got beat a couple times, but it was like this doesn't look like his first collegiate game. This really looked like a guy who was coming off an injury and had some rust to knock off because there were a couple times he got a hold of people and he just manhandled them because he is a big, big guy. All right, last room of the offense and it's not the tight end room, it's the quarterback room and myself, Grayson and Tally, we all are saying Kyron Drones is one of the key players here. Tally, I'm going to let you lead it off, Grayson. Bet second on this one.

1:11:57 Go ahead, Tally. So yeah, I'll say drones, just for the fact of last year, you know, we had Wells as a starting quarterback, and no matter what happened, there was no pressure on him that he was coming out of the game. You know, nobody, you had nobody backing him up to put any pressure on him. The coaches didn't even look like they wanted to put pressure on him. So if Wells like the starter, I know we're going to announce soon. If Wells is the starter, I feel like he's probably been pushed in the offseason a little bit more than he has been in any other offseason. And also, you know, he'll have that, he'll have that person behind him. That'll be, hey, if you don't go out and perform because the knock that's been on Wells is him throwing picks on him, turning the ball over.

1:12:45 So if he turns the ball over, I mean, you got to take him out for a series at least and see what you have. Now. On the other hand, Kyron Drones may be the starter, he may be he may be who Prague goes with to start the game or start the season, and he just brings a different dynamic to the football team. He is a little bit bigger guy than Wells is. He can run a little bit better, but we haven't seen a lot of him. So all those things just make me think he's the the the guy to keep an eye on what he does is going to, you know, help us in a sense. I see Steve Bryce's question here and I think this is a great lead in for my. My take I guess on drones is how short is the Grant Wells lease for the first three games.

1:13:34 I think it's very short. I I I think if he is the starting quarterback and he goes out there against Old Dominion and can't produce and really make a statement in that game. I mean Thrones is going to be the next man up. Everything that tally just said, his gospel in the fact that, I mean Grant Wells was. There was a stark gap between him being the best guy last year and his backup, and now with that gap is very small for all we know. But you know, there's not a lot of tape that exists on drones at Baylor. He did play in five games last year, completed 14 of 23 passes for 219 passing yards, and he had one passing touchdown. There is a YouTube video of him and it shows his ability to scramble and whatnot.

1:14:25 And I will say this, if you look on Baylor message boards and the Baylor fan base, they were devastated when this kid entered the transfer portal. They were like, Oh my gosh, drones is in the portal. The sky is falling. That makes me feel great about him. So after three games, drones might be the guy for the rest of the season. There's a very good chance. Yep. The leash is definitely going to be short there, and to me what it is. You mentioned the athleticism, how you can make the throws on the run and all that stuff. Those are things that are never seen in practice. Those are things that are never going to be seen in practice. It has to be seen on the field.

1:15:07 I love what Pete Be said last week from too deep on the big panel. It's 2019 again. You have a returning starter who has a propensity to make really big errors. With the big arm. Moments with a big arm and you have the unknown backup who is athletic if if you're not live in scrimmages, and I know you can't do that because you can't risk the health of the quarterback, you have to turn them loose in game. And the question is, you made a good point there, Grayson, about ODU if he doesn't light it up, but let's say we're up 21. 24 three And he's not lighting it up. It's more Tootin and Malachi and the defense is just crushing.

1:15:50 Why not turn him loose? And then if he goes out there and absolutely performs to a much higher level, you might not even be weak. Two, we might be seeing drones start there All right so tailor the tape real quick for the offensive side of the ball. Brian went Jalen Lane. Brian went the hell Tootin. Brian went Xavier more. Shelton's on with Lane, Tooten and Parker Clements, Tally, Quan Felton, Shell, Tooten and Kyron. Drones, Grayson, Ollie Jennings, Kayden Moore the center, and Kyron Jones and myself, Kyron Drones, Parker Clements and Malik Thomas.

1:16:31 I'll do it just like I did last time. Who's you want on the cutting room floor? Brian Siegler. I-1 on the cutting room floor. You know, I got to do it. Too de Quan, right? Yes, I need you. All right. De Quan. Right. Tally. Who's yours? So I guess that's that's tough, man, because we got so much going around, but I'd probably say I don't have a certain person. But the 4th wide receiver, you know, whoever that 4th wide receiver is, you know we've heard about Aidan Green. We've heard. Gosnell of course Godsdale but the the the small kid. Turner. Bradshaw. Turner, Bradshaw. You know Tucker Holloway.

1:17:13 We've heard about all these all these wide receivers that last and in in in Lofton. You know what is he going to do. So just my we know kind of what we have in some of the wide receivers but how are those guys pushing for playing time going to come in and perform. So short answer is the the 4th wide receiver. 4th wide receiver Grayson. Bryce Duke all. Right. BDB, yeah. Sheldon. I'll go Kaden more. I think playing that that center's fight is going to be a big, big role. All right, my sort of one I left on the cutting room floor is going to be Benji Gosnell. Benji Gosnell wasn't a little tight end talent. And you know, you get Gallo, kind of the entrenched starter. You know, steady Eddie.

1:18:02 Don't do anything great. Don't do anything bad. You got right the Joker. But Gosnell has that ability. You look at Gallo and you look at Benji Gosnell size. Gosnell has the chance to be on the field every single play because he's athletic, he can block, he's big. So there in mine, Alrighty. That was the first half. Before we go to our break here from our digital partners and mainstream pharmacy, we're going to let y'all know what we're doing next. We are going to be doing season predictions, breaking it down four games at a time. So, Brian, press the break. I can probably save you a lot of money and I can take a lot better care of you. That's pretty much it. My name is Jeremy Counts and I'm a pharmacist. I want to operate Main Street Pharmacy here in downtown Blacksburg.

1:18:49 My brother's A pharmacist. I'm a pharmacist. My uncle's A pharmacist. My dad's a pharmacist. I remember he would give me M and M's to count in little pill counters. This is something I've always done, and I'm just lucky that what I know so well is something that I can do and feel good about it and get back to people. Pharmacies are your frontline defense. Pharmacy's job is to make sure you're getting optimal care for the lowest price possible. Also, we take the pressure off of emergency rooms. I'll tell people immediately when they need to go to the doctor, or I'll tell them if they just need a cream over the counter. If there's something that isn't commercially available, if it's something that's not available in a certain strength or a certain form or anything like that, we'll make it tailor made medications. Some of those options save people a lot of money. What motivates me?

1:19:30 I get to take care of people in Limit Blacksburg, I thought. Neat. As we take a quick break, we'd like to tell you about getting your free website report from our digital partner, Grassroots Digital Marketing Studio. They'll tell you how your website ranks on Google onsite, SEO and social media. No commitment to buy anything. You can get your free report by visiting grassroots digitalstudio.com/free Dash website Dash Report. Now back to the episode. All righty. So now, boys, we got to lay our money on the line here about what we think the hokey season record will be. And here's that caveat. The caveat is the new piece of jail quit and nobody majorly gets hurt.

1:20:14 Or maybe significant, numerous injuries. So let's start the first four games of the season. They're Old Dominion, Purdue, Rutgers and Marshalls Shelton out of the gate. How are we starting? It'll start two and two and go to use a win. I think Purdue is a win by the skin of our teeth. Rutgers is a loss. I feel like that's going to be weird game playing up in that stadium with not a lot of fans. Well, I know that a lot of be maroon and orange fans, that's for sure. But and then Marshall, the way think about the Marshalls game was like, we are 6040 underdogs. So it's hard for me to kind of process that. Like if we lose that game, like people think it's some shock, but like we'd be favored to lose.

1:20:58 So I don't know, but I think we'll probably just Marshall and start two and two. We'll bump in the road there. But that's how I see it. All righty. Brian, what do you see? I'm going three and one here. I'm going to take dubs to open the the the season at home. I think we're going to get a weird loss up in Piscataway, NJ to to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Their defense kind of keeps us a little bit in check there and it gets a little awkward. I think we pulled a little bit of an upset in Marshall. I think that's going to be a big statement game, as weird as that sounds. Going on the road and and and taking care of Marshall, that's a solid program out there. You're playing at their place.

1:21:40 If you if you can pull that one out that's that's a pretty solid win. So I think we pulled that one out and wrap up that first four, three and one. All right, he's going three and one tally. Yep, I got my, I got my, my schedule with my little notches on it here. You know how everybody makes those. And I've got, I've had it at 3:00 and 1:00 for a while. So all the million win Purdue a win. Rutgers are lost and Marshall will win. I don't know why everybody wants us to lose the to Rutgers. I don't know why I'm got us down to lose. I really want to go for it. No. But it's like my PTSD won't let me choose that. So that's why I'm at 3:00 and 1:00 for that first one game. All right, Grayson.

1:22:21 What about you, man? Starting the Season 3 and 1, Old Dominion emphatic win in Lane Stadium. It better freaking be. Purdue I'm I'm going to say we're going to win that one as well. At home, I'm in the same campus. Shelton by the hair on our chinny chin chin. Rutgers. I think we're going to get a win in Jersey. Lot of lot of Hokies going to that one and then Marshall. I think it's going to be a punishment game. I think we're going to lose to Marshall. Just for the sole purpose of us traveling there, which should? Never ever have happened or been orchestrated.

1:23:04 This is what you have wrought. We will reap what we sow and like Old Dominion last year, we'll go there and lose. So yeah, don't feel great about Marshall. I don't love the optics of that whole situation at all. All right. So we got two and 2/3 and 1/3 and 1/3 and one. Me and Thomas Train are 100% together on this. We're going for and up. We're going for and up. We're going to smoke, OD you. Curtis said it. Curtis has the kool-aid in hand. No, I got the I got the maroon and orange glasses and hat on tonight. Four. And oh, and here's why OD you. I do think we smoked them.

1:23:45 They are a shitty, shitty team. We're going to so shitty that next week. I can't even really get a preview together because they are that bad. I can't find anything written. I can't find data on them. If anybody has any, please e-mail me. I think Purdue, the rebuild, especially along their defensive line, is huge. They are losing four key players not coming back. I turn over to a new style of offense and a new quarterback there. And then Rutgers. Rutgers is. I go to Brett's preview. Rutgers is below us on Brett's preview. Got to be that. And here's the thing. Everybody's scared of Marshall. They were nine and four last year, man.

1:24:26 They're doing all this big stuff. I have a question. Where's their 1500 yard rush here right now? Anybody know where he is? Khalil Levry got cut by the San Francisco 49ers just earlier this week. They don't have a 1500 yard rusher. They struggled at quarterback. They barely got 1500 yards passing last year, 10 touchdown, 6 interceptions. They do have a good defense. I think that will be the toughest of the four games, but we will come out by the hair of our chinny chin chin. So that's where I'm at. All right, let's flip to the middle part of the season. One of the rougher stretches we're talking it Florida State, Wake and Syracuse. And I'm going to let you leave this one, Brian.

1:25:08 We are going two and two in this stretch. All right, I'm I'm thinking we're taking losses to Pitt. FSU. I'm hoping that Pitt is a a dogfight battle. I don't want to be embarrassed by fucking Pitt anymore. That's like, there's nothing worse than losing in blowout fashion to the Pitt to the Pittsburgh Panthers. It's just it pisses me off. Florida State. I I want to be competitive. I want to be competitive for four quarters. They're probably one of the at least probably 8 best teams in the country. You can argue there's they're one of the four best teams in the country.

1:25:48 I want to see us put four quarters together against them and give them all they want. I think Wake has lost too much to be competitive this year. I think they're going to be a. Maybe A5 win team this year. I think they are a beatable team. I think you know, losing their quarterback, losing two of their best wide receivers. I don't think they have the juice to score enough points to beat us this year. And in Syracuse they're replacing a big time running back. They were already kind of a middling team that would lose some some head scratches, then occasionally pop up and. And be the team you don't expect. I think they're definitely right for for a loss there on Thursday night, so give me two and two tally.

1:26:30 What about you for those middle stretch of the season? Yeah, I had it right at at 2:00 and 2:00 as well. Exactly what Brian had lost the Pit, lost the Yeah, I seen Pete put that on. Lost the Pit. Lost the Florida State. Win against Wake Forest. Win against Syracuse now. I know we still got to finish this, but I'm thinking, and I got too much going on in my head because I was so close to going four and old. But if I go four and old and I start doing too much in my mind and I get too excited because I feel like if we're four and old and then we play Pitt, then we beat Pitt at home. Because every game that we play pit for the most part is a dogfight. You know, even last year it was for us to be so bad, like besides a couple of plays we were with Pitt until the fourth quarter.

1:27:20 I think it was like 39 to 29 or 31 to 29, something like that, maybe 33 to 29. So I feel like if we're four and old and we beat Pitt, I mean and we and we play Pitt, we beat them. And then you go into the Florida State game undefeated. See, I can't even tell you don't talk himself in the 12 and no, if he don't, I. Can't even wrap my head around being like that because I'm a Virginia Tech fan, so I'm going to just stay calm and say 2:00 and 2:00. You know I'm gonna say right where I'm at, but all that stuff is going in my mind and I really wish Curtis had in some of you guys over here in the comments. Fuck you. I wish you hadn't say it for it.

1:28:00 No, because you get my brain to work in and then I start staying up all night and looking at clips. But go ahead. Family going full true at Harris on us here. Yeah, that's true. Truly is. All right. Shelton, what about you in the middle portion here? Pittsburgh Last three years Virgin Tech has been outscored by. By 70 points last three games since we beat them in 2019. I want to beat them bad, but it's it's just a bad matchup. I never feel good about that game, especially if you know they're Qb's. Clicking. That's an L Florida State's an L but young team bounces back, finds a way to win against Lake Forest and takes care of business against Syracuse, Who loses? Both their top coordinators and their top RB get back to even at 4:00 and 4:00.

1:28:43 All right, Grayson's guys four and four through the first eight games. What about Grayson? Win Bush. I mean, we're kind of all on the same page here. You know, the biggest op on this schedule, The Pittsburgh Panthers. Pat and our doozy can kick all the rocks. That dude sucks. We're going to lose that game. They're probably going to kick our ass. They're just better than we are. That sucks. But it's it's also the truth. Florida State. We're going to lose. But that game I feel like is just going to be must see television. I feel like that's going to be a very the the Nielsen ratings are going to be very high. A lot of people are going to tune into that football game and for bragging rights I got some Noel friends out here in Los Angeles who I'd love to talk that shit to Wake Forest. I'm I think it was Tally who said it. They lost too much to be competitive and that game's at home.

1:29:42 So, yeah, Homecoming, so. I feel good about that. And then Syracuse, Come on, gentlemen, Thursday night, get the hell out of town. It's going to be 1999 vibes up in there. Let's beat them 62 to 0 and be crazy. Yeah, Thursday night in Blacksburg, that place lane's going to be rocking. We're leaving there with a W Alrighty. Alright, so I'm, I'm, I'm coming back to Earth now, so I'm going to take the hat off and the maroon glasses and the arms is off. Oh shit. I'm coming back to Earth. We're going two and two in this stretch. But unlike all of y'all, we are going to beat Pitt in Lane Stadium. We're going to beat Pitt. Djorkovic is one and two versus the Hokies in his career. The defense for Pat and Arduzi will regress. They will be a top 60 defense, not a top 20 defense. We will lose to Florida State.

1:30:37 I think we will be competitive, but I think that game is going to essentially do must for Wake Forest to be the first time we lose all year. We're going to come back the next week not play a good Wake team, but we know Wake is well coached regardless. You can crap on Dave Clausen all you want. He's going to have them prepared. I think we're going to come over. It's going to be a hangover game. We're going to lose that game. Then we're going to get a 10 day break. We're going to get ahead, right? And we are going to smash Syracuse. Sheldon, you said it earlier. Sean Tucker's about to be the number one running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He literally was there offense the last few years. When he went, they went. When he didn't, they lost. He's no longer on that team. So get me two and two for the middle stretch of the season heading into November. We got BC, we got Louisville, we got NC State, and we got UVA. Who we leading here?

1:31:29 Tally? You get to lead this one because you're actually traveling to one of these games. He is heading to Louisville in November. Yeah, supposed to be going to Louisville. I already got my room booked. I may not make it to the game because I'm probably going to be doing that Bourbon Trail and that will not fare too well. But anyway. So I got actually losing to Louisville got us losing to Louisville. I got us beating Boston College. I got us losing to North Carolina State and then, of course, beating Virginia. Alrighty, Grayson, you go next. What you got here? Boston College in Chestnut Hill in the cold. Don't like the optics of that.

1:32:12 I'm. I think the Eagles get us. We're going to lose that game. Louisville. I don't like that one either. I just think we're kind of, I think, the front half of the season. We're going to come out guns blazing, but in the back half we're going to realize, you know, we still are a growing team and we might gas out a little bit. So don't love the game in Louisville either. I think the the Cardinals get that one and then Brennan Armstrong, North Carolina State, the Wolfpack with him at QBI don't like that one either. I I think that the Wolfpack beats us at home and then we're going to be UVAUVA is. They're in a tough spot. I don't know what they're doing over there in Charlottesville, but coach Tony Elliott is it.

1:32:58 It looks like he's having a hard time. But I I think that that game should be an emphatic win in Charlottesville. I wish you were in Blacksburg, but obviously with the tragedy last year, very, very sad. But travel back to Charlottesville and get a big dub. There we go. Sheldon, what about you the last four of the season? I'm going two and two. I'll take actually I didn't think about this one. I don't OK I'm not going to predict the. I'm just saying to it too like I know in my brain, in my brain what this seems directable be. I think they'll definitely be UVA though and my UVA is they were worse than us last year which is kind of hard to do.

1:33:42 Their offense, their offense, it was kind of inverted from previous year where they fell off a Cliff offensively. Much better defensively though. I lose some key defensive pieces. This is a clear rebuilding team. They're starting a Monmouth transfer at QB. I think this is a this is a win for BT and I will keep that cup for at least another year, Brian. I'm going two and two down the stretch here. I I like us against Boston College, even even in the cold up there in Chestnut Hill, I don't like us in Louisville. NC State's going to be be a loss. And then we take care of business at UVA. We close it out with a with the W Tony Elliott right now has the opposite of what juices whatever the opposite of juices that that's what's going on in Charlottesville right now.

1:34:33 Yeah I mean it it's it's like he can't seem to get out of his own way. The recruiting's in the in the in the shitter you know they lost probably their all their best defenders are playing on another team this year from last year so. You know, we talked about how much of A of a of a flip that the defense did last year. I don't think you're going to see that carry over into into 2023. And you know they lost some key pieces on offense. They're bringing in a transfer quarterback from Monmouth. Apparently he's being pushed by a true freshman in fall camp. So I don't know if that is an indictment on their transfer quarterback or a, you know, a big boost to their true freshman.

1:35:15 But. It's probably not the best optics for a team that's trying to to put something together after how much they lost. So I like I like two and two here when at BC2L's at Louisville and NC State and then a big W there to close without a UVA. All right I'm going to take the Shelton route on this boys. We're two and two. I have not went crazy again and brought the hat and brought the glasses back out. We're two and two but I'm going to predict just one of the two victories. We're going to be UVA the other three games. I think you look at those three and I like what somebody said here, Thomas, I'm going to bring you back in cuz me and you are on this. NC State does sort of play like shit when they get numbers next to their game. See 2022 when they damn near lost to us. So the other three games I can't throw a dart at right now, but I can see us getting at least one of those two games. But definitely UVA.

1:36:12 And I got a feeling UVA, it might be a bad beat down Brian. We might have to get in the car that Saturday and drive up there because there will be tickets for like Nichols. Honest to God truth. I'm down. I'll stand on the hill and yell at some people like I did back in 99. There you go. All right, let's do a quick tale of the tape. Shelton. Six and six. He has us bowling. Brian. Tally Grayson, seven and five. And yes, I am the optimistic cokie at 8:00 and 4:00 in this panel. Now I'm going to remove the caveat. Let's say some things don't go right real quick, and I'll start with this one. I think the floor for this team is five. I think ODUI think Rutgers are definites, and I can see at least getting three more wins with the remaining other teams. Who wants to go first?

1:37:03 I will say I did have 6:00 and 6:00. Just to just to be clear, yeah, that's at least what I have. I remember maybe. I know you went three and one to begin with. You're right. OK, Never mind. I'm. I'm with you, Curtis. I think the floor is five games. It kind of has to be 5 games. You have to win at least two more than you did last year. I think if we can't get wins over ODU Purdue. Rutgers, at least one, a CC team and UVA on Thanksgiving weekend. That's a problem.

1:37:43 If if you can't get that, that's that's an issue. And so, yeah, there's there's your floor, but I mean, you got to win more than three and you got to win more than four. I agree. I mean I'm, I'm same way. I think the floor is five, five games, which is crazy. Because I want to ask a question, but I'm going to wait till everybody goes here. But I'll say that the floor has to be 5 from just looking at the schedule and games. Yeah, I think you can't really come out with the, with the schedule we have, with some of the matchups that we have right out the gate. It's got, it's got to be 5. I'm with everybody else here. You know you need to at least be two and two. In those first four you need to at least win, You know, 2ACC games.

1:38:31 And you got to go ahead and and and kick the shit out of UVAI think if if you can get there. I think that that's a little bit something to to build off of that's that's kind of the the minimum baseline to build off of. If we're below that you know you're going to start hearing hearing some conversations and you know fair or unfair. It's just that's the nature of the beast, man. When you win three games and if you turn it around with you know four or fewer year 2. There's going to, there's going to be some commentary, but. I'm hoping we get 5. I hope you make a bowl, but I think 5 is the floor for this team. Sheldon 5 is definitely the floor. If you go last year, there's a stat that basically looks at like what they call post game win expectancy. So you just look at team stats.

1:39:15 How likely would they have been to win all their games? Tech was actually one of the unluckiest teams in the country last year. I think they under performed by like one 1 1/2 wins, so they really should have been like 4.5 ish. Somewhere around there now you might say OK, that's that's, you know, because of bad coaching. But you figure this year you're starting from fournaf last year. Better coaching, better players. They know the system better. It would be really, really hard for this team not to win five games. I think, especially if you know, you figure that luck hopefully improves this year. They would need some pretty atrocious luck to win four games or less, in my opinion, and that'd be a pretty disappointing season if they did. So I'll go 514. Got it. All right. Tally, you said you had something you wanted to ask each of us. Go right ahead.

1:39:58 Yeah, so just just looking at stuff, man, and getting ready for football and being an idiot. If we are five and O with two blowout wins going into playing Florida State, are we ranked? Is that a ranked matchup? I mean, and they're undefeated as well. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's we're we're ranked. If we're five and O and we beat Pitt, we're ranked because there's going to be obviously some and me some dirty fallout from other parts. So yeah, I think we'll be in the top 25 maybe at the low end. I I think they would do that like you know polls or yeah, you know, you know me and Curtis, I, I had this big, big problem with preseason polls. But I think the way preseason polls work and I think the way. When people look at matchups, if you're undefeated heading into that game, there's going to be a lot of people that will want to put us in the top 25 solely for that matchup. And that's why I asked the question. Because I'm like that has the trigger. For the narrative, it's better if we are, yes. Yeah, yeah.

1:41:11 I would actually, I do think we would be ranked. I will say though, I I take a shoot. There's a narrative that like precinct poser kind of bogus. I've actually seen some research showing that. Recent polls are actually more accurate at least in college basketball than like the in season polls. And I think it's because you know, the pollsters before the season tend to look at like, you know, they essentially they're just projecting like who the best teams will be based on, you know, returning production, you know staff from us here etcetera, etcetera. But once season starts, it becomes essentially like the popularity contest, just like when lost record and you know who's hot. So yeah, I don't think recent polls are all that bad, but yeah, definitely, if tech starts winning games, they're going to shoot up the Hurricanes, because that's kind of what the polls all about. See, I think with football it's worse because everything based on the preseason poll determines how people vote in subsequent polls.

1:42:02 And there's and. And unlike college basketball, you don't have, you know, months and months of of polls to deal with relative to the to the original. So. It probably biases the the polls a little bit more than it would in college basketball. But to your point you know when when those in season polls are taking place you're you're bringing in a lot of recency bias of of what we saw you know in in that last week's game. So that that's definitely probably pulling a lot more weight than it probably should sometimes. All right, well, we we've got some other questions we're going to throw up here and let everybody answer them. Pete, be our buddy over it. Too deep. How many wins does PRI need to win the ACC Coach of the Year?

1:42:45 Whoever wants to take that one first. 8. Eight wins and you better win the bowl too, but definitely eight wins. That's what. Listen again, I told y'all, y'all have me. My mind is nuts over here because y'all freaking let people put stuff out before the season that don't have shit to do with the season. You let them put that little thing out and everybody's thinking about how far we're behind, how we're running like a mom and pop. You're doing a great job. What you did was you got them to put that out, and then you're going to go out here and you're going to win eight or nine games and then you're going to win the coach of the year. Dude, I'm, I understand what he's doing. That's why that article came out of this. Chestnut checkers, right?

1:43:27 It's Chesnut checkers, man. Hey. What Tally just said. I was not familiar with your game, coach, bro. We'll see. I think it's got to be 9 because I think with the way FSU set up this year, I think FSU is set up to win 11 or 12 games and if he. He can win it with eight if FSU has two losses if that's. I think FSU is going to start the season 2 and two myself. Honestly, he got to lead. LSU let's let's yeah, let's Shelton finish here and then we'll throw one more on the board before we wrap up here. Yeah, it's like it depends on if. As long as Clemson doesn't win the ACC. If Clemson doesn't win the ACC, I would lead more towards 9. If they do win it, I definitely think it could do it just because you know Clemson would be expected to win the conference.

1:44:20 Obviously, if we're to say expected to win 10 games, so if you like Virginia Tech A5 win improvement, that's pretty insane. So yeah, that is pretty insane. That's a great point to make. All right, we got one more question from our bloody Clark. I think we like to have to pull the website up to do this. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna get the, I'm gonna get the easy one out of the way first. First of all, you get to choose one uniform combination for the game this season. What game? What you wearing, Tally? Go ahead. It's the orange effect. Fucking wear orange. It's it's pretty easy if you if you're playing Purdue and it's the orange effect, orange helmets. Orange jersey. Orange. Past as much orange as you can get. Put that shit on and let's go.

1:45:01 I want Orange everything Purdue. Everything, Grayson. Thursday night Syracuse game. Give me the maroon helmet with a white face mask, maroon top, white pants and white cleats. Yep, tell them. So I'm going to go. White top I'll go maroon pants, white helmets with the black stripe down the middle. And we're also gonna wear leather helmets cuz this is 1920s. I'm going 1920s throwback. How's a good one?

1:45:42 The setup was perfect there. The setup was perfect. I love it. Single. Oh man. Let me go Thursday night against Syracuse and we're we're bringing back the Nike Pro Combat Blacks Oh. My God, that's a tough. One, do we have a black alternate? It's it's from the hokey stone. Have y'all seen the pants in practice like the the? It's, it's from the hokey stone. Yeah, we still got a full set of those out there that we don't wear. Great. All right, I'm, I'm gonna go with kind of tally on this, except I'm gonna put one caveat. Purdue game, orange fans, orange jersey, white helmet, orange Vt logo inside it.

1:46:26 That's what I'm going with here, but we do need, listen, the Pro Combat uniforms, please bring them back. Literally some of the best jersey we ever had. It was such a great look. The old woman I hate the and they hate those jerseys. That's crazy. Oh yeah. So. Is it cuz they're tying it to the Boise State loss or is it just because they hate? Because they hate. The same things. They're the same people who got rid of. Stick it in. They don't like fun things, so they don't like fun things. I said what I said. All righty. Is anything breaking? We went right under two hours. But we don't have a quarterback announcement yet, but that's probably coming soon. Yeah, we probably has a press conference tomorrow. We said I thought it was Tuesday. It's moved to Wednesday.

1:47:10 Shout out David Cunningham, because David Cunningham told me that that there was going to be Wednesday this week, not Tuesday, unfortunately. I do think, how about that? Do we get the announcement tomorrow? Quarterback I feel like you got to. I feel like it's that time you know you got, you got a week you two weeks to to gain. I mean, it's time for somebody to get all the reps. I feel like you got to come out and go ahead and tell us or tell not tell us, but tell the team. I mean, they need to know more to tell the team. So we know too, because, you know, we're reporting here, Yeah, it's going to come down. Inquiring minds? All right, well boys, that is going to wrap up this episode of the Boundary Corner podcast brought to you by Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg. We appreciate our guest, Grayson Onebus joining us from the Left coast in California, I'm Curtis Wilson. I'm Brian Sigler.

1:48:02 Jonathan Talley. I am Shelton Moss. Visit our website boundarycornervt.com. Listen to all of our episodes. Also check out the merchandise shop there as well at the Boundary Corner store. While you're there, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Subscribe to our YouTube account with a bunch of y'all are watching tonight. We appreciate that big time and your favorite podcast source including Spotify, Amazon, and Apple. Podcast We let Jason Long play us in, play us out all the time. Check out his website, jasonlongmusic.com. It takes to his music on Apple, Spotify, his YouTube and Facebook pages. Check his album the covers EP out with the Midnight Rider cover, which is pretty freaking awesome. We thank you, as always for listening and let's go.

1:48:46 Okie.