2024 Spring Game Pregame Show

0:27 Music. Welcome. To the Spring Game Pregame Show presented by Suns of Saturday. I'm your host BB. Some of you guys might know me from Twitter. Some of you guys might know me from the 2D podcast. But if you don't know me, you might know some of my friends up here. I've got a great group of guys to help me preview the spring game, and we brought a bunch of the independent media types together to do this. And so directly to my right is Pat Finn, one of the founders of Sun Saturday.

1:12 Pat, thank. You for being here. Good morning. What should I say? Good afternoon, Hokey Nation. Next to him we got Sam. Jesse, my partner on 2D. Thanks for being here, but he ran 3.2 this morning. Give Sam a round of. Applause. He's a runner. He's a track store. Thank you. And then next to him, we got someone texting. It's Dan from Tales of the Terror Dome. He's locked in and ready. I'm ready. I've been ready. Born, ready. Terror, Dan. And then finally in the last chair, we've got Brian from the Boundary Corner podcast. Brian. What is up, everybody? How are we feeling today? Feeling good? We're feeling good. And you know what, Brian was the first one I reached out to last year. I wanted to do this partnership and quickly hopped in the boat.

1:53 We got Sons on board and the whole thing is now in its second year. And so I'm pumped about this. And just to kick things off, Judy, we like to talk about what we're drinking. So Brian, what are you drinking down there? What's that looks? I've got a classic tuts rail here, ladies and gentlemen. It is delicious. I will be feeling it a little bit later, but that's OK. What you got going on? Man, when you come to tots, man, you gotta do a ice cold Miller latte. It's like a it's like that McDonald's poker Sprite, man, it just hit different here. I don't know what it is. What you got? Sierra Nevada. He's a little thing IPA, one of the classics. It's a good one to get started.

2:34 Yes, I'm having the same thing and I see this is familiar. It's a little PBR time. It's game day in Blacksbury. You gotta have your PBR. I got my USA Coach Price shirt on. It matches my PBR very nice. Only football stadium in America. Hashtag has blue ribbon. So if you are watching on YouTube, go ahead and just click the like on the video. That would help us out tremendously. And if you want to comment, please do. I don't see any comments. It's also really hard to see with the son of my eyes. But if we see some comments coming, we will ask the questions to the felt. Let's start with just Spring Jam. Spring Jam was last night. It was a blast. Did you guys have fun? Did Billy Ray have fun last night? I think you might have a little.

3:16 Fun Billy Ray in the audience. Can we get a? Can we get a wave in the audience? There he is. He was. He was on one. But it was so good to see some of the former players. Tie Rod was out, Coach Foster, JC Price. The list goes on. Al Clark, I I asked for a ticket. I didn't recognize him at 1st and I felt like a jerk. There was so many so many cool people out last night, so that was a blast. Thank you to the Suns for putting on Spring Jam. If you ever down here in the future, you didn't make it down. You gotta come to Spring Jam next year. Because it's it's a, it's a must go to event. Maybe we should talk about some of the players. So let's do quarterback, everyone. We saw Kevin Jones last night, Kyron's dad. Kevin was a blast. He was having. Awesome dude.

3:56 Kevin was living his best life last night. That guy rocks. Album shit. He has been on the Boundary Corner podcast once or twice, just chatting it up with us. Seems like he likes it here. I think there was a little bit of a rumor mill going around that our quarterback might have been getting offers elsewhere. Do we all feel comfortable in in Kyron being here next year? There was never a more collective side in Hockey Nation than when Kyron asked for a sectional on Twitter. That was that was incredible, that. Low key perfect. You don't. You don't move a sectional. Not to LSU. He's moving in. Hey man, I feel pretty confident. You know, last year we sat here and I said Ollie Jennings ain't come here to play with Grant Wells. Well, I know for a fact all the receivers came here to play with Kyron Jones.

4:42 So we good, man. I feel, I feel great about it. I think he's locked in. And the hype train's getting pretty out of control. The hype train. Is getting a little out of control. Did you see someone put that he was the number one returning quarterback? In the ACC over DJU. That was kind of a quick bait account maybe, but still it's out. It's out there. I mean, technically he was the only one that returned to the ACC from the ACC, right? So well as far as like Cam and and DJ, right? Alright, well, QB two then we're gonna see hopefully a lot of those two guys. We got Wiki, we got Pop. Do you guys think saw Pop last year kind of go off a little bit in the spring game. Couple cool plays, everyone de facto this is the next guy after you know maybe if it's Wells doesn't work out maybe it's Pop instead of drones. Well drones proved to be the man is Pop for sure #2 because we've been hearing a lot about Wiki doing well in practice. And Dan, I'll ask you what do you, what do you think? Well, I think Price said it was going 5050. It was kind of leaning wiki and now it's kind of leaning pop. But I feel like pops athleticism and he is like speed and ability to run the ball.

5:47 Probably gonna set him apart in that race. Yeah, what do you? Think. Sam, I mean, they're bringing in Kelden Ryan, who's shooting up recruiting boards out of Texas, Texas to BT. And then they also have Dobby Belford, who is a bit of a social media guy with the, you know, his dad, whole Brazil football thing. So I think it's interesting this year. It's gonna be interesting next year, too, because you talked about drones. This is a NFL springboard year for him, and if you look at the upcoming NFLQD class, he has a good year. He's going as he should, so you're going to have a quarterback. Vacancy next year. That's true. Pat, Are you you? I mean, do you think it's pop? I think it's pop. So I've, I've heard that pop has filled out a little bit as well.

6:27 I know last season was not very, you look very skinny out there, obviously being a being a young guy. But another year in the program, another spring in the program to be good to see him out in pads today. So let's talk about the guys that will be protecting our quarterback this year, which is was a bit of an issue beginning last year. We talked about it a lot on the show when we're at Sharky's doing the spring game pregame show throughout the year though that online continue to improve. But the project starters for this year haven't changed. We're still seeing some of the same names that had issues. How are you feeling about right guard and right tackle, Ryan? Because those are the two spots that are not not locked in.

7:08 I think they're they're still guys battling. Yeah, not locked in. It's gonna be interesting to see how. Montagus coming in comes. Along that's the one I'm most interested in. I would like to see maybe one more guy coming through the portal. That would make me feel a little bit more comfortable at the situation. I'm obviously shaking Parker head up, head up and down moments, but yeah, we saw with drones came in, you had a little bit of tweaks to the scheme. I think that help open up some things with the office I was doing kind of lean more to their straights. So we'll see if that's something that we can build on this year. But I'm hoping that Montagas Cunningham or maybe even Brody Meadows takes another step and can kind of elite slide into one of those spots on the right side of the line. I have been optimistic on Brody, especially since we saw him play really well in the spring game last year and he was very young though still.

7:54 And what do you think on break guard? Because there's so many guys battling and we started out Cunningham at right guard rather than tackle, which he played all of his snaps last year, tackle. Yeah. I would just say like offensive line, the last two spring games, it's been just terrible. It's been really. But one of the teams? Especially, yeah. And so I think this year you're gonna see like, that's gonna be the biggest improvement that you're gonna see is, oh, we have 10-11 guys who can actually block this year, and that's gonna make the whole that makes practice better, that makes spring game better, makes the whole team better. So I'm excited to see maybe not as much just positionally, I'm excited to see the whole unit kind of work together and just perform better because last two years it was rough, it was rough. It was rough, but crook being here for a second year, we saw the improvement.

8:40 How, how big do you think that is, Brian? Just from the having played the position like 2 years under the same coach, will that make a substantial difference? I mean, cotton newly is always important, I mean from a scheme perspective, from an expectation perspective. So I think you're going to see more progression from those guys as as it goes along and I'm interested to see what the young guys are gonna bring to the table as well. We got guys like right now I'm very interested to see what our second team. Centers have a backup. Center I don't really know what that's gonna look like. Something. I'm interested to see what that's gonna look. Like, let's move to something a little bit more fun, a little bit more Talked about is been our wide receivers, 'cause we brought back all of them. It was actually shocking when we saw that announcement. It wasn't one or two guys. It wasn't just Alex Jennings.

9:22 It was all four of our main guys will be back this year. But there's also guys pushing those guys from coming up from the whether it's from high school or just on the roster. Already an XTB type, Sky, Heath, Keelan Adams has been doing great in practice. Which guy? Outside of Jennings, Felton, Lane and Gosnell, what other receiver will break out this year? Aiden Green. That's your guy. That Aiden Green dude, he was a Mont. Like, he got a lot of cardio last year. There's a lot of reps when he was running routes, but I think like this year it might mean if if it is looks the way in the game is it looks in practice, he's going to put up some, put some things up. Athletic greens get him the NIL deal. Now that's.

10:05 Not that. Do you have a breakout? Go outside at Eden Green. Is there anyone else that you think is going to be potentially like feeding out of Steven Gosnell for catches? You you know Keelan, Brody Adams, I think he's going by Brody, he's he's some roster now. Yes. So Brody Adams, he's special. He has BHSL records and wide receiver. I I'm really excited to see him because again, like quarterback, it's about preparing for next year when they're gonna have a mass exodus in that room who's gonna come and step up. And I think he's one of the guys where if you watch his film in high school, you watch how he progressed. He's special.

10:47 He's really special. We have an embarrassment of riches at the wide receiver position, which is something I I mean, I've been following this team a long time. I think Trey said 2018 might have been competing with it. I said this is the best receiving course since 2016, probably when we had Ford Cam and Bucky and Bucky was basically a wide out. And Devin Wilson. And CJ Carroll But yeah it it's great fun tell minds like I don't know how much longer he's going to be a Tech because that guy is just doing so much work and we keep giving raises and he's an assistant coach or assistant head coach now but he has done amazing things with that wide receiver. Let's talk about defense quickly before we kind of close out this segment and move on to to some other guys coming up here who is going to be the guy opposite of APRI.

11:31 Know last year we saw a lot of Cold Nelson and he was a guy that talked about being better against the run. Burgos has been getting a lot of love. Is that the guy that you think puts up either the highest or second highest sack numbers on the team? Man, I I'd like to see Burgos put up those numbers. I also look out for CJ McRae. I'm kind of, I think he's going to turn a corner this year. He's a guy that's moved from safety, the linebacker and out to to defensive end. I think he's a guy that could really put put the pieces together and I think he matches APR skill set a little bit more in terms of getting. Up in the past, there's a comment on from YouTube, Brian Chug that rail if you think we win more than two games this year.

12:20 Yeah. There are there are 400 people watching, Brian. Chug that rail. Strap in. Oh, let's go it a good day. The Wi-Fi. Toss is actually working, which is good. We are cooking but closing out the thoughts on. D line closing out thoughts on D line. Burgos has a bit of the pop. Nelson has been more consistent, right has said that for last couple years but that's a that's a position to that defensive tackle. You're rotating guys every other drive you need three or four guys out there. It's not a just two starters so good that they have solid players. Yeah, I mean, yo, first of all, shut up, Pat, for mixing in the water.

13:06 You know, it's about time, man. This defensive line, JC, great coach, I don't care. Anybody said I love JC I think he's, he's done well. And you know, we got dudes running, we got tackles running over 21 miles an hour, Copeland putting up bending bars in the weight room. Like, dude, we like, yeah, I'm excited for the DS. We again we talked about the the riches, that wide receiver. I don't remember our D line having the names having guys that they're excited about here and the coaches talked about since the four guys we had in like 2015 when it was Daddy and Marshall and Maddie and all those guys. But had I have a question for you because you've been looking pretty up here but you know we got we got to get some commentary out of here. This is a tough one, right?

13:52 So this year we might see Dorian Strong play a little bit more nickel. He's got kind of a body type for that. I think that Price hinted at it a little bit, maybe even set it out right. If he's playing inside and you got Mansoor on the outside, who's the other corner? Who's the other starting corner? Cause Canteen is no longer here. You gonna put me on the spot? I wouldn't You on this spot. Come on now, who? Can help me? Out Dante Love it. Dante love it. Dante. Love. It OK, that's what I'm thinking as well. Or is Braylon Johnson, he's still playing CB, right? I mean like he's hasn't moved to safety. So that would be an option as well, those two young guys. But I think we got a lot riding on love it. I know everyone's talking about our TV core like, oh, we're solid. We're solid. But these days in college football, you do end up playing a lot of men.

14:34 You're going to need to rely on Dante Love on the outside. Am I correct? Right. That seems where it's. At Absolutely, absolutely. And I mean, don't sleep on Braylon Johnson either, so. Braylon is a his pedigree speaks for itself. That's right. That's right. Is online still the number one concern in terms of position groups going into this year? Is there anything else that concerns you? I think, I think the level up the the online play. Needs to level up as well. If we're gonna meet what we think we could potentially be, the online needs to take another. Step I I'm concerned about linebacker I I even though Ron Belt comes in they've been saying all the right things he's coming up a level in terms of going from AG5 to AP5 there's no more P5 but you know what I mean are you are you guys feel cause like Kelly Lawson wasn't at in spring like it's it's a concern for me about we tackled so Portland lineback in court times. Played Alabama.

15:28 He played Missouri, two of the best rushing offenses in the country last year. Played really well in both those games. I am worried a little bit about linebacker though. I think Caleb Woodson is a guy who could show out today. And his parents were. Great. He's a guy who could show out today and take that step up. But I think for me it's the linebacker plus safety filling the rug gaps. That is the number one concern on the defense, yeah. And I honestly think it might be more concerned than the offensive line because the offensive line improves. So we talked about they actually graded out above average by the end of the. Season, which is Wild. It's the first 3-4 games were really. Yeah, So I think that's it's teams cannot hand the ball off and run for 50. Yards right up the middle every single day cannot. Sam breaking it down.

16:16 Alright, that's going to do it for segment #1. We're going to be back with a couple more guys. I think we got Billy Ray coming up. We got treadmill horse of Twitter fame. We got drift coming up next and I'm driving again, so I'll be back. All right, 5 minute break, we'll be back on YouTube. Hang with us. So would you say it's a road soda? Dan, there's a comment here. Dan, better start hitting that beer or it's going to get no. It's. Not going to. We got a lot of people watching on YouTube and we appreciate everyone out there. This is segment #2, and this is going to be more of our preview of the game. Little bit of season preview, a little bit of a game preview, and the rosters were actually released in advance. That is not something we've had the last couple weeks. We got them on Thursday.

17:05 First of all, orange and maroon are the team colors. We're getting color rush fellows, which that's what the NFL started doing on Thursday nights. But it's nice to see both of our colors out there. I assume the quarterbacks will be in white, yes. Can't. Can't touch them. Did you guys get a chance to peek at those rosters? Yeah, yeah, yeah, What? You know, I see Kyron's on the maroon team. We've got a bunch of really different, like Malachi's on the maroon team. We've got Aiden Green, Keelan Felton, XTB 2, both Moore brothers. Like, I was first going to the offensive line. I was going to D lines when you were looking. At that. What what team do you think has the advantage going into the spring game? It's it's miraculous whichever.

17:49 1 Kyron's. On Yeah, that's that's. I had the same thought. Kyron might only play a couple drives, but they'll put up some points early and I think that'll be enough to ride it. Out. Yeah, that was the concern for me is that if Kyron goes in and only plays two drives, well then we have whiskey and if you think pops #2 then that might give Orange the advantage. Drift. I think you put something out on Twitter saying you thought Orange had the. Edge. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think the offensive line is better on Mirage. I think the defensive line is better Orange. So I think it kind of evens out, but I think we're going to get more POP versus Wiki today than we are going to get POP versus Kyron and so. Going orange. OK, I like if. That's the reason. But you know the. Wind, you know, it's a little bit of it will play a factor. Billy, did you get a chance to look at those those two Merlin orange rosters over there?

18:37 I. Got to be honest with you, I have. I have not had a chance to look at the rosters. Do you think it matters? Much. Look, I I'm on the record on the spring game. It is an awesome opportunity to get to know the players. I love what they do when they have the entire team come out and you're introducing everybody, all the new freshmen, where they're from and have the entire state and get to know them. If you're coming here to Blacksburg to learn about the football team for next year, probably not going to learn a whole lot. That has kind of been my spring game, my spring game mantra. I do think that it's going to be interesting to see some of the younger guys, especially at the quarterback position on the defensive line and the offensive line play. But we're pretty sure what the team is going to look like, especially at our skill positions going into next year. So I view the.

19:21 Spring game as an opportunity. To hang out with with friends and have a good time and we did that and check, check, check, we. Did that last night. We're doing it right now. And I actually didn't give Drift a proper introduction because he's from the BT4 Alpod does. I think I heard someone say lovers, but that's for life or legends. Which one of legends? Legends. You know the the history on the legends. It comes from Don Deep Fridays and. That's right, there's. Some, yeah, there's some. There's some culture there. So it's a great. It's a great. It's a. Great. Don started Don Deep Fridays as a culture podcast. Quickly got more listeners talking about tech every single episode you talked to, Charlemagne talked about. Basically everything and you know, shout out man he.

20:03 He's here somewhere, right? He's off on Chicken Hill right now. Yeah, I'm just a random guy from like Michigan. I love Tech. This is great for me. Someone. Told me last night. You had a a parent that went to tech briefly or something. No, that's not true. That's not true. There's a lot of rumors going around. The the real answer is my parents lived in Roanoke. Crow was born, so they encouraged it. I didn't know that. They did? Oh OK. When? When I got. It takes away from the randomness. It it, Yeah. Don't tell people that. But if. You lean into that, just you pick it. I got from. Cincinnati, who loves the. Host. I mean, my parents are immigrants, so they don't have teams, you know, they just kind of, they don't really watch that much for us. So I picked it for really. Well, we got great colors and we got a great fan base.

20:43 So we're well, you know, love to have you. And let's get back to some questions, 'cause this one's actually a good one, 'cause we remember two years ago, Caleb Smith went off in the spring game and it foreshadowed a great season. Last year we saw Grant Wells play well in the spring game and it foreshadowed the same thing we saw the previous season, which was it was pretty mid, right? So who is going to win the Caleb Smith Award today for a great standout performance that actually foreshadows a great season? I'll ask you first. So you mentioned wide receiver and Caleb Smith, I'm going wide receiver with this and Aiden Green, I know you talked about him on the previous segment. I just think he's a guy who's primed to have that breakout.

21:25 Like, I remember the year that Caleb Farley had that huge spring game played wide receiver, and it's he. He had gotten a lot of hype in the offseason and then everyone was waiting to see what he would do and he blew out that wide receiver in that spring game, which was awesome. He didn't end up playing wide receiver after that. He would. Have been a great one. He would have been great. He kept that there, absolutely. And by the way, drift kind of looks. Like Caleb Barley. He kind of does, so it gets throwing me off. I'm going to get a #3 jersey. We. Got to get off that jersey. All right, I'll win costume. Does anyone else have a pick for a standout that's going to have a great season? Go ahead, Bill. I'm. Going to go with Harrison, St. Germain, I think, yeah, I think there's a lot of talent in the tight end room.

22:07 I think he's a young guy. Tucker Tucker always said some awesome things about him. Jalen Lane is said some awesome things about him and. Just continues to work. Continues. To work and I. Think he's going to have a lot of opportunity. Played really well against Tulane, so I'm excited to see his game grow and learn something there in the in the spring what? Do you got Sam can? I piggyback off of that. Sure, sure, We're not talking enough about how good this tiger is. Even losing Take Home Right's oldness, like God's now four-star recruited out of high school, has done nothing but. Perform when he's there. Nick Gallo has done nothing but do his job since he's been here. He's coming back. Anderson St. Germain reserved guy last year, popped off later in the season doing great.

22:48 And then you know it's. Didn't he had a touchdown in the bowl game? Had a touchdown in the bowl game. Yeah. So I we're we don't talk enough about how important the tight end position is to this offense and how well they've done setting that position up for the. Future Jerry, Jerry, What's your pick? I'm going Dante Lovett. So we talked about him in the previous segment, I think losing Canteen. Canteen played a lot last year and I think Dante Lovett's going to take those snaps this year and I think we're going to see a a good performance. From him today, he started to emerge later in the season, had some really nice one off plays here and then with more snaps, who knows what he could do now This one's we're going to be a little careful here because I don't want to. I don't want to disparage any of these players, but who's going to win the Grant Wells Award for someone who has a great game today but maybe doesn't follow it up in the season? I mean, this is a crazy place and this is what we're going for.

23:44 We're starting to I'm, I'm going to go, I'm going to go with the weather, 'cause I actually feel like it's rather than. Shout out and I know this. Guy's got related. Here's the player I think is going to play well and then not play well in the fall. So I'm going to go with the weather. I think we're going to have a great weather day today and maybe the weather won't hang up so well in the fall. Oh. Not pretty. So I'll say Mike, I would think he's going to stand out and use people's. He was a freak in high school, but Tech didn't pursue him because he was too small. He hit the weight room at Duke, got really good. He's a special, like, he's a quick twitch. Ricky Walker S defensive tackle, really excited for him. And I think the player who's going to be like, wow, he's killing it and not going to do it as much in the fall is actually Aiden Green because he's probably wide receiver 4, wide receiver five.

24:35 We don't pass the ball and his. Parents are right there. He's great. He's great. It's. Not it's not throw the ball enough for wide. Receiver four or five My, my. It's. Just there's not enough numbers. That's what I'm saying. It's like my guy would be Jeremiah Kony for the exact same reasons. He could be great. We have two really good running backs in front of him, so we're going to see some of these young guys play really well. But then, because of the depth chart, they might have to wait another year to really. Blow up Today is a tryout for 2020. I look at it the same way I think. Dilling with Dilling, Whitney's my guy. He's going to get a lot of opportunities to throw. The ball today, I think he's probably going to look good, but like, I don't think we're going to hear it from him again in 2024. Well, we're hoping not right, 'cause if everything goes right, it's healthy and we're good.

25:20 I think that's what I'm expecting, yeah. Everyone's crossing themselves, yeah, but I would also put like Jeremiah County. I think he's going to get a lot of carries today. Tyler Mason's going to get a lot of carries today, so. Excited to see Mason. Yeah, we'll we'll see a lot of these guys. But honestly, like again, this is a tryout for 2025. I think they're going to get a chance to shine today, but we might not hear their names again for the rest of the year. All right, we tiptoed around that one. That was like Louis CK telling a joke on SNL. But now we'll move on reference. That's good. What could we see today that says you? Know how this goes with me. As long as the sun, as in as if the sun is in the sky and the grass is green, as far as I'm concerned, we will find a way to win 10 games.

26:09 Next. Year. That's basically ever, ever. That's basically Evergreen. Every. Single. Year. I think every time I see this. Year. No, I feel. I feel really, really good about this team and I think this spring game specifically again, we kind of know what the roster is going to look like, give or take. You have another another Portal window coming up and figuring out the offense line situation. But. In terms of. Excitement around the program and excitement around the roster specifically. There's always been excitement around the program, but excitement about the roster and how many talented individuals we have in different rooms. I don't remember it being like this. You know, I I don't remember people breaking down the spring game. No matter what I think about it, people are so excited about this upcoming year. They've been talking about it for months. Since the since the bowl game.

26:55 Since. The Since the bowl game ended, so yes, it has to be one of the more anticipated. What What was the last season with this was anticipation. Seriously. Anticipation. Anticipation for success. Not anticipation for I can't wait. I think before 2015 when we were playing Ohio State game one, there was a lot of excitement because we had beaten them the previous year and hey, maybe we'll do it again. We would have done that, but that was. There's a lot of excitement leading up into that year. But this roster is so much better than that. Roster I think the tie rod years when we. Knew that team. Was the best one of, if not the best in the ACC Five. Since then, we haven't had a roster that is this well put.

27:36 Together. Yeah. To me it's you got to go back all the way to like after 2011 after we were in the Sugar Bowl. I think there we still have the expectations of like ten wins and huge seasons. I don't think I've seen this. Type of high up since a lot. It's been a long time. It's hard to replay when you go back 1220, elevens, 13 years ago. I mean, it's hard to remember what you thought. I remember buying my tickets to the Boise. State game at FedEx. And I was so juiced up for that year. I I was like going to the Gobbler country or whatever the heck sites that were out there. There wasn't much. Not like today. All the content that's out there for Regina Tech football, I would check every day for a new Regina Tech article because I was so excited for the Boise State game and that was a tragic end. But that's the level of excitement I'm starting to feel towards this season.

28:22 I wanted to get 1A commentary from Drifter or Sam on the What could you see today that makes you feel more optimistic about the upcoming series? I liked Billy's offensive line situation that. That was a nice. Situation. It's a good word for it. I think last year the offensive line looked pretty poor in the spring game and reflected in the season at times and so I don't know, I'd like to see that improve today. I want. To see him block, it's gotta it's gotta be. Better. And we did. Probably a. Whole lot of transfers, so it's gotta be just. Improvement, I don't know. Just development. Improvement. I think on that note I I I think that the overall way that we improved our offensive line last year was a lot of schematical changes.

29:02 I know Coach Holmes did a great job on our end of breaking down what Coach Crooks was doing, but I I think they did a fantastic job of basically Tech kind of reinvent itself two or three times last year when you make the quarterback switch and then when you really refine what he's able to do and then you make more switches on what he feels comfortable and what he's best at. So I really think we've talked about that ad nausea and how much credit is deserved there. But you think about some of the other stuff that's going on in the spring game, not just players that have popped off and maybe haven't played as much. I mean, we literally had Caleb Farley had a one handed catch as a wide receiver in the spring game. Like crazy stuff. You see some. Wild. Things right. You see some wild things. So. We'll let.

29:44 Sam, get in on this, Yeah. Yeah, I the line of scrimmage, like, if it looks competitive, that'd be good to me because that means we know, like we know what Fuka can do. We know what Pedis can do. We've seen them in ACC play. If this offensive line can step up and block those guys, or if those guys can make plays against a bunch of rude offensive line, I think we'll feel good. If iron sharpens Iron Man, if that's even then you feel. Good. I I agree with that because I do think the D lines much improved. So if they can actually hold up a block to just point to your point it it could be we could be in for a promising year and I'm excited about having our coach here for second year. We're going to do a couple of props couple of over unders before we move on to segment 3.

30:27 Sam put these together, they're incredibly detailed. I'm going to get to as many as we can here but I want to let's start with just the game total over under points. I think last year Treadmill said always take the under in the spring game. Sam has set the line at 42 1/2 total game game points. What are you thinking of checking? Well, I think. Sam's doing an awesome job setting these lines, by the way, so call out. 'Cause that is love. That's a love tone. Yeah, I'm still taking the under. I'll always take the under. So under 42 1/2. Nice. What do you got, Sam? You said it AM. I going to bet on my own, Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's highly illegal. You're like the kid from LSU. Get in there. I'll I'll say over, but slightly. I think you're gonna see, I think you're gonna see Pop and Wiki look like young quarterbacks against a good defensive secondary.

31:20 I think our defensive secondary is deep enough that they can. Hang with these miners Drift you got over under what you got in 42 1/2. Kinda goes the over. You know, yeah. Let's get some excitement going. Yeah. Bill, you going over under? I'm gonna go under and I think spring games, if the if my memory serves me. Correctly, it's just. There's not going to be a tremendous difference. I feel like we have a really balanced football team this year. So you're not going to see exactly. And then also when you get to like the end of the third and inch of the fourth quarter, you have a lot of guys who aren't getting a lot of live scrimmage time that are then participating in the scratch. There's just not going to be a ton of scoring that goes on at the end of the football game, so. I'll go on there. All right, this one's the following first TD in the spring game.

32:03 Sam. Sam did this like. He's got the plus here. Man. Like best odds 2 + 2, two 57. Jennings is +400, Felton 525, drones 525 lane 525 and then other +1000. You taking the field here or are you taking one of those top guys? Go ahead. So for me, you gotta go with the odds on favorite. Here. You gotta go with two, two. First touchdown, 2 the ball and he's gonna get an early touchdown. OK, I only read your tweet. The. First time you figured out and I thought it was silly. And now the more I think about it, if there was ever a time to be like, hey, look, we're just gonna go ahead and do this. On the first play of the. Spring game to get people fired up.

32:43 Yeah, I could. OK, can I can I talk about that? Real. Quick. Yeah. Wait, yeah, go for it. OK. I don't know if anyone watched. No one watched it. I'm too much of A college football nerd. No one else watched it. NC State spring game. They had their first string offense against. The. Third string defense. I I heard about it. They. Put on like 50 something points. It was pathetic looking that they put on a show for the fans. If I was Brent Fry, I would 100% rig the Sprint. There rig it for points. No, no. No, no, no. So what I do is I run a couple handoffs, maybe a swing pass. We're feeling good. But I tell every Hey, play 5 defense, We're gonna run a wide cover, two lane in the slot, goes off motion, runs a skinny post. Don't. Tackle new cleats. New cleats Guys slip all the time in new cleats you're. Like vomit really rigging this.

33:27 Thing Vomit. Everyone looks defense doesn't look bad. They're playing slip flops in the secondary. Just one play. ESPN Top Ten? Why not? I mean and then you. Oh, drones. Say great. All right goes. We're taking your home. I want to get Sam on the staff now. Yeah, we need to find a position. For him? Drift what? Do you think on 1st touchdown? Taking a Felton like that, I like where you're. I like where you're going there. I think it's going to be a bomb. Bomb Felton. And yeah. Felton is on the maroon team, so it's either going to be coming from drones. Or Wiki Felton on a hitch and go yeah. Just Bob Hitch receding all season, right? So. I've seen the script. All right. And then there's a couple more props here and then we'll cut this thing off. Which one should we go with here? Total turnovers.

34:10 That is that fun? Let's do drones, passing yards, because this is interesting. 149, 1/2 yards, That seems high to me for a guy who might only play 149. Is the over under? Are you taking? I know you're going under. Super under like because I'm like, I'm trying to think of what would have to happen for him to get to 150. One yard over 149. That's half. I mean, you'd have to put him in for three series and you basically have to bomb it on like all three series. Like I just. I just don't see. It Do you know how many yards grand wells? Had last year. I mean, he went nuts, so I think over 200. Oh wow, a lot of snaps. I I I do not think that Kyron drones going to play as much as. Grand Wells did last year.

34:56 I hope to God he does not. Would would we? Would we all be fine if drones like literally either didn't play or played like 2-2 snaps? If he was wearing pajama. Pants. Yeah, so happy. If he comes out after one drive, I'm really not that surprised, all right? I think that I mean Sam, do you want to, is there any one of these that you're really passionate about will do one more? Do something about all my. Lines. How about? How about? All right, so we got 3 defensive tackle transfers in. We honestly don't have a lot of defensive tackles playing in this game, so they're going to get a lot of run. Peebles Copeland, Gillum over Under 3 1/2 tackles were. Lost. This was actually my favorite line that we made, 'cause like I I can like see it and I actually think this line set really well, but I think that's it.

35:43 Since we're playing two hand touch with the quarterbacks in the spring made, I think they're going to hit the over. On this one. Gotcha. Yeah, I'm going over. I'm going. Over as well. That's yeah, I'm, I mean, and the sacks will be easy to come by, but I also think those guys are going to get after the running backs in the backfield. We'll we'll see. We'll see some TF. LS for sure. Bill, before we close the segment out, do you have any final commentary because you're going to be running the next segment? A couple of a couple of things I would love next year. I think it would be a fun game if you bet on who takes more streaks. Do something like that. You do like a Malachi, you just basically say which one of these? Two players do you think sees more small? So do you use more cash?

36:24 The second thing is you mentioned would anybody be upset if we don't see Tyron player, he plays two drives or whatever. I'm going to reiterate, I don't care who goes out there at all. We have a great time. Are you staying for the spring game? I'm just, I'm I'm hoping. They're going to be here. I can't put that out in the in the in the. Evening. Yeah, yeah. But yes, he's coming. I'll be there. Four quarters. But no, it's just get out of the game healthy and have a ton of fun. All right. We're going to close this segment out. You have something I do not. You're looking at me. That's all I know, good looking. It's OK. We're going to close this one out. Thank you, Drift for being up here. Billy Sam Treadmill, you guys were awesome.

37:06 Some of you guys are going to be back on the next segment. Woo standing. Sarah, if we're going to do a quick picture, if you're watching on YouTube, back in 5 minutes. Thank you. We are back for segment 3 of the Spring Game Preview. Just passed 1000 of you watching, listening. Whoa. We love that. Thank you all for hanging out with us. Pat's doing a happy dance in the back you guys can't see. But we're gonna go ahead and do some intros. We're gonna start number one with the most important medical professional in the New River Valley. So we're gonna start all the way to the right and get some intros going. Dan to my microphone.

37:47 Hey, you gonna talk to Jeremy? How y'all doing? I didn't know they're putting on loud speakers. I want all the families out there to know that you cannot come within. 1. 100 feet of Dan. Love you, Kim. You don't come hang out with me anymore. See dogs. Hey guys, how we doing about The Corner Podcast here?

38:27 Brian Siegler. I'm so happy that Jeremy's up here with me because we have Jeremy on every year for the state of the program and it's a fucking tree, so I'm so glad he's up here. With every single year I say I'm not gonna black out and dream too much. And every single year I black out and don't know how the podcast ends. And then I find out like the next day, Jeremy, you just vanished. And. Treadmill Horse and watching Brian chug that rail earlier is one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. Shout out to Brian. For the reaction was. Funny why, Thank you.

39:08 So one of the first segments we're gonna talk about, You all have this lovely sheet in front of you and we all know how this works. We stack rank coaches, we stack rank players, we stack rank compasses. And it's extremely lazy. Some guy who we quite frankly could have had AI write the article, but the article needs to be written. Shut up. So one I wanna say, where do we have coach pride here right now? Coach. Pride. 12 out of 17 coaches in the ACC, which is preposterous. But number one, I wanna say what has impressed you the most of coach pride From year one to year two, we can either go and order if you're fired.

39:50 Up, I'm fired up a relationship building. Relationship building has been impeccable. We have like reestablish the 757. We got Virginia recruiting back on board. We have been really consistent in the portal with filling holes we need to with supplementing some areas of concern. And I think just the interaction with the fan base and the way Pride does that has been really impressive to me. So I mean right now, I mean, I I can't really imagine a much better scenario at this point. Even though I was a little like, I'm not sure year two was amazing. It's also. Really impressive that the relationships extend past who he's recruiting.

40:31 I mean, this staff goes on vacation together. They treat each other like they're actually friends, not just people who work together. The entire culture around that building has been so, so, so impressive and it has come from the top down. And also I really, what I really appreciate is his ability and willingness to speak freely about, hey, here's an area that we needed to get better as we did to get better in that area and hear the results of it. So this is home has been a marketing slogan here for awhile now. I feel like when I talk, when I hear from the players, parents about how prime staff treat them and I actually feel like they're they're coming through with the the this is home slogan. Everyone feels like it's family. Everybody feels like it's home. So I think he's really delivering on that promise as head coach and I think that that's something that we wanted post Fuente and I think we've got it in spades and. Brent Pride came into Virginia Tech and he turned chicken shit into chicken salad.

41:27 Bars. And just the fact like if you meet him like you know it feels the the it's refreshing how genuine he is. He's very good at the, I call it the running for mayor part, like the public relations part of the job he gets. His ability to retain 86% of the roster in the current era of college football is remarkable. And man, I'm just happy to have him. The kids call it Riz dance he's got. Yeah, like don't get me wrong, like I do on a personal level, like he was, he was an alright guy or whatever.

42:07 But there is a difference. Whenever like Fuente would come into the room, like you see him come in or like you, you rarely see him out. But if you like Cognitive or whatever, like he was, he was kind of like off on his own. Like he was a nice guy, like when you interacted with him personally, but he was kind of off on his own. Whenever I comes in the room, it's hey like going around taking his. So I'd like the mayor comment like that's pretty accurate. And he's like he's got like the personality with you know also if he were not winning or we didn't have confidence in him, we wouldn't care. It's the fact that he's continually improving and we're always seeing him not being satisfied even when a position group is not or is looking really good.

42:52 He's still trying to add, he's still trying to get better at it and that means a lot to us like that I think is the difference because I forget who said it but someone said that who's mentality a lot of times seemed like it was I'm going to beat you with what I got and prize mentality is I'm gonna make everything I have better to beat you and I appreciate that and I I appreciate what price doing and I hope it doesn't like come back to fight me in any way. But I I believe in the man at this point. You're good. In terms also have access to the program and getting to know all of the important people surrounding it and the coaches and the support staff and the players, I mean, it's just the way that the entire. Program is marketed.

43:35 Is absolutely fantastic. Yeah, like you just came in and was like, hey, I need this, I need that. And he demanded of the athletic department. And I think they've done a good job of of felt like giving him what he needs. And one thing that really stands out to me was the Boston College weekend, first home opener, his first home game here in 2022 after Tech Talk live. There's probably like 70 people there at Mclean's, and he took like at least three minutes individually with each person after it was over. And I was like, he understands. Pride gets it. Yes, pride. Gets it TM. Thank you. So we're gonna go down this list instead of saying he's better than this guy, he's better than this guy. Is there any coach on this list that?

44:17 One word comes to your mind when you see that that given coach. Bill O'Brien should be 16. Debussy when he's a charlatan. I was thinking of a nice way to say the same thing, so I appreciate it. I don't know how Dave Clawson's ahead of Brent Pride when he waxed Dave Clausson last year, but it's OK. Soon, soon enough, it will be revealed what was true and what wasn't. Why? Why is Brett Lashley ahead of this 'cause he won a in the Championship? He has more wins. On three says so or Jesse, Jesse, Simon. If G5 wins are a bitch, right? Hey, Brett. I mean, Bill O'Brien hasn't been a head coach in how long, and he's ahead of Brent.

45:00 Like, that's crazy, that one. Particularly makes no sense to. Me Bill O'Brien. He's the one that pisses me off. Like, it's it's one of these, like, stupid rankings from some rando. Like they got fried. Well, he's clearly not #12 from what he's done from the past few seasons. Whatever. Let him put this out there. We've got hop. We've got everything going on. Everyone's coming to spring game. Like, it's this huge event. It's pretty much a scrimmage. Like, we have a lot more hop than a lot of these programs. We have a lot more going for than a lot of these programs. Who cares about these stupid rankings? Like, let these, like, media people say whatever they want, like prize. Got it. We've got like everything coming through it. We've got momentum and we're going to ride it bars. Still going to ask one more question on this media list. I'm going to say a coach and a school and I want in. Or.

45:52 Out. Are you in on it or are you out on it? And #1 is Mandy Diaz every? I'm out, 'cause he's already proven he can't coach in the ACC. So I I mean, I don't really care if it's Miami or Duke. I I think we we know the, we know how it's gonna end then. OK. Out. He is a really good defensive coordinator. Out he floundered at Miami and they have 1000 times more resources and what he's gonna have to do, especially on the admission side. I mean, I think meaning he had many, he has gonna be really, really good there. And it's gonna highlight just how much of A cultural issue they have in Miami. And it's gonna be awesome. And we're gonna sit around, we're gonna throw that. At.

46:38 Him. He's he's that Jeremy counts out of left field baby. Do you hear this mini? Guy at the end. Of the table just making stuff up that we're all supposed to buy. So y'all think I have him on just for shithen. He maximizes the talent that he has and he does good with the roster that he has. So that that that's it. He's gonna, he's gonna go out there and he's gonna win you six or seven games every year, no matter who's on. Yeah, I'm in on Brent Keys, the second best Brent on the list I'm in. Honestly, don't give it to you. I don't think George is going to have the funding or anything else to do anything. And last last one year I want to ask you if you could only pick one of these three who have a really important year for their. Tenure coming up.

47:27 You can only pick one to lead your program. Pat Nardouzi, Mack Brown. Dabo's Shit. So you can only pick one of these coaches to lead your program. It's Dabo Sweeney, Mack Brown or Pat Nard we. Want him? To lead it dabo because Dabo's going to find the money. Yeah, I'm going to say Dabo too. Dabo's like the the best coach there is. Pat Dabo is the best recruiter, so he's going to get you the players. Oh man. Yeah, give me Narducci. I did not want old Charlotte and Sweeney around me, and I don't want Pat Brown stumbling up with the central trimmer trying to, like, coach my team. I don't care.

48:09 Let's go ahead and let's go ahead and get Narducci. I hate the guy, but he's a good coach. This is gonna hurt coming out of my mouth. That Narduzzi like y'all. Are crazy. I It's gotta be is. Dabo oh man, Dabo's gonna get you the talent. I mean that's. That's Dabo's gonna get you the talent, but like, I think he's not adapting to the modern college football, the atmosphere of the transfer portal. And nil and I'm. Very concerned about that program long term, that Narduzzi is going to be what he is, because he did. With offense coordinator, he ran off. Yeah, he said. Fair enough, he said.

48:49 They threw the ball too much and they had Kenny Pickett. Nobody said a word about background. Positive negative word. Recruit. That's. It. And he S. A They're not gonna adapt. And they were good in a system where they knew how to work the system and get the recruit they needed because they knew how to make the money flow Then. Now Devo can't launder money through a church. He doesn't. Have to so he. Doesn't have, he doesn't have, like, this huge competitive advantage. Bar. Taken away, he can't.

49:30 He can't actually coach. Do we alright, I I just, I'm asking a question. Do we actually believe that a lot of these other programs don't cheat in different capacities? Everybody's. I think they've always cheat, and I think the problem is, is that I don't know if Dabo has adapted to the. New type of. Cheating, I I agree with that. But Dabo gets a lot of pushback because he may may not or had some situation where he's able by players breaking news like most top 25 programs last last couple that I had here. So I actually like this one best. Lane Stadium cheer or band songs so we can hum along this one, we can submit it.

50:29 You can't say stick it in. I love the That's the one dude, one of my favorite pop songs. And they don't do it as much. Anymore was in Castle when they would do Welcome home from Coheed And Cambria.

51:11 I love that song. You want that? Yeah, no one wants that. Do you? Want it? No, I don't. Perform. You arrived in Blacksburg for the weekend. Let's say. Let's go back in time. Let's say this is drips first time. Oh shit, He's been here. He's been here, but he's been here a good amount of times. We gotta stop giving him. He has made the I'm headed down from Cincinnati or Ohio, where where? It's Cincy, right? I'm headed down from Cincy.

51:53 What is the you bring someone to check for the first time? You absolutely must go to this restaurant, this bar, or have this. You gotta go to Tots have a rail. Dude, Yeah. Exactly. Top shelf rail. You gotta have it. You gotta spend the money. You gotta get it. It's the best thing out there. Do it pregame. Like when big game Boomer was in town, I brought him here and got him top shelf rail. He loved it. Real quick on economy. How much was a rail when everybody was in school? How much is it right now? It was like 10 bucks, 10. Bucks. 9 bucks 9. Affordable. Yeah, yeah. It's so piggyback on that. It's tots and it's a rail. It's not the top shelf rail. It's just a rail. What is the top shelf rail?

52:33 Is this just like? It's just. Better. Liquor. Liquor. I. Don. You don't need an extra. Anything that's crazy, but I feel like right of passages. In Virginia Tech. Does the stable whenever people come to town? I'm trying to give them like a novel experience. You're not going to get in.

53:23 Those places, of course I'll I'll send them to Tabo. I'll send. A to and I'm going out and doing something. I'm probably going to go over to PK's because I like. Wait, that Pat. Pat, write this down. We need to put a auction up where we're auctioning off weekend with Jeremy and then go with Jeremy. All weekend, terribly. That's all. We will start the bidding. At We will pay you $20. If you've never had a slice of Benny's pizza in your life, shout out the sponsor.

54:13 I would go to Benny's to get a slice of pizza. Shut up, Dan. Anything else that we need to Anything else, Turkey? Leg question used to come out. Turkey leg of the game? Yes or no. First of all, yes or. No, I've only ever had it once in my life, which is I know it's crazy. It's just hard to eat, honestly. Like at the stadium like, and I'm not a big state of food guys, I'm a big beer guy, so it just doesn't factor in. But it is good. Like I do think it's a good, good food. I've never had one. The Turkey leg is solid. So like, I think the big question on here is like is a Turkey leg shareable, right. Like that's to me, that's the big question. Yeah, You will share a drink with someone. So you will share a Turkey?

54:58 Leg. And yeah, there's a big difference. I would go ahead and take a sip out of your. Meal a lot if you offer me your Turkey leg. I. Would be. Like nature. No, there is no way. I would. I'd like to Turkey. That's fine, yes. That but. If you will drink for my beverage, you can eat for my. Turkey.

55:54 I hope not. I'm so glad we asked. This. Question I do need. I do need to do that off the list this year. I've had pizza off the ground. I've had, you know, recent peanut butter cups I've never had. Pizza off the ground, but no Turkey. Legs no. Turkey legs? No, that's a big Turkey. Like, it's almost like a accessory. For him.

56:45 And that will do it for the Spring game free analysis. Thank you to our panelists. Thank you to our listeners, watchers and attendees. Thank you so much for taking. This awesome shot. We hope everybody has a great time. We can't wait to learn so much about the football team here in a few minutes. Thank you everybody and we will see you soon, Pete. Also, round of applause for Pete. Let's go to. The game.