Boots On The Ground

0:45 Welcome back to The Foundry Corner podcast with my partner. Brian Sigler, I'm Curtis Wilson, Brian how it goes tonight. Yeah buddy. We're back on a Wednesday night. Just watch the Hokies close out a tight one. At the end, even though the first half was pretty much all Hokies so good to close that. One out and a good Wednesday night so far, man. Good W. Hopefully get sits on the right side of Bernardi's Bracketology we were just outside. That when gets this just inside, but it's been a couple weeks we're in the off season mode every few weeks were showing up on Wednesday nights here for you guys. Last time, it was Thursday.

1:27 We're going to try to aim for Wednesday's. Most weeks, and man, we've got a show tonight, Brian. So much stuff, a press conference, some transfers, and guys, stay, and some guys leaving coaches salaries, which was eye-opening, but let's start with something real fun by Brian. If you have not seen already Hokie Nation. Go look up on BT. Twitter re T, Instagram or Facebook page? Coach pry gets involved in the traditional first, snow Flight of the Year snowball playing smooth. These snow fight between the student body and the corps of cadets, and It was, it's refreshing.

2:14 It's he was having a blast and probably. Was he making just nice. Little little snowballs. You throw at your kids to have my use? He was checking coconuts, man. I just talking coconuts. I mean, he was in the motion like, oh yeah. Oh yeah, he was like, the kids are Jackie. They show the video in his. He's walking towards it. You hear somebody say? Holy mother. I don't know if they said, holy shit or what but you could hear. Oh my God it's coach. And he gets swarmed and and then the next thing you know he's walking across to the core and what was so cool about it at first, it was they were just you can see they didn't know what it was.

3:03 And then all of a sudden that first guy noticed and then the rest of them noticed. Yep. And just exuberance from them. Yeah, it's good to see a guy that gets Virginia Tech like pry does. And I mean, I know we said this probably ad nauseam. It's been all over Twitter. Yes, this guy gets it, like, it's getting cliche this point but this guy fucking gets it. He died. That's what students do.

3:49 That's what we did. You know, when we visit a tank is undergrad, you go to PK's, you get some wings, he got his own lemon pepper, wet that he made the cheetah Wing, which I'm not a big drag guy. But I gotta say that, that that sounds pretty good those wings, you see him taking pictures out in the community like they get it. It's like, this is home, is truly a, it's no longer just a slogan. Yeah, it is like there. They're get it. Like, let's get in here, get in the community, do some fun things, go to places, people go be seen and it doesn't feel forced. I think that's the big thing. It feels authentic if it was like checking boxes like no, that would be one thing.

4:34 But I mean, this feel the feels authentic. It looks like they genuinely enjoy getting out in the community. Enjoy interacting with the folks in Blacksburg, enjoy as prided. Participating in a hokey tradition. Yep, it just, it feels different man and I mean, I know, you know, you can only win the first off season Once, but yes you later they are kicking its ass right now. They are going hard after it to win the all season and I tell you, you know, last week we also had him go hard at that press conference knocking it out of the ballpark again. Fine we got so much to unload to this thing. You got new hires, he talks about numerous members of the staff.

5:20 But let's start with this, when he was talking about how he put the staff together, he had a few things. He said, and I know the one that caught your eye and then as we look at the guys that kind of makes sense, it's that he talked about, he wanted a good blend of young guys who have high football like, use to me. I hear he says that he's saying Chris Marquis and Tyler bone and with high ceilings and then he's talking about just And guys, that can recruit. And you know, every piece of this staff, it looks that way. It looks that way, and it looks like the staff was put together with thought. It wasn't just Who were the guys? I can bring in it.

6:03 Was all right, which guys are going to work with the others which pieces are going to get us. What we need on the recruiting Trail on the football field and off the football field because that stuff is important to. And it seems like the, the mix the blend that he was able to come up with, is looking good. So far again, we're still early we got some some good early returns and obviously the enthusiasm that there Bring to the table is, is next level right now. So, yeah, you know, obviously again, we'll see what that that Trans in the future. But yeah, yeah, as you said Marv, Bowen, both the High football IQ guys. High ceiling.

6:50 And you know, you got veterans on the staff. You got Quinn. You got Glen. Yeah. Holt you got cheetah obviously. So you got guys It can recruit and get guys in the building too. So it's also funny because something he mentioned and if you just kind of go back to the DNA of what Virginia Tech is, he talked about Anita guys that did BT and sort of BT's, it's one of those cultures. Where are we just all super a lot of people always say we're, we're really blue collar program. Know there are parts of this program that are really blue collar. Guys, who worked their butts off, Sean Quinn's, and as like bread, Glenn who have worked their butts off to get somewhere.

7:33 Like this. Heck, yeah. But we're still a DB you. We still had some of the most electric running backs in the 2000s. Yep we have some swag and you kind of see, you know, we see cheetah and you see Marv and you see some of these other guys, they have that little bit of Swag that's what Blended so well for so many years where yes, we have a blue-collar worth ethic But if we get a chance to dog, you, we're going to dog you. We're going to swag you out. Yeah. And that's what it seems like. He knew like, I just don't need a bunch of blue collar guys, but I don't need a bunch of Just Swag. Guys, I gotta have a blend of it and were you shocked Bronwen? He kind of mentioned that he had friends. That wanted to, you know, come here and he basically said you don't make sense here and he Basically said he had to make tough phone calls to friends of his to say. I'm not hiring you.

8:33 Yeah, we didn't get a Core Nelson here as a result of this hiring process. I mean, I'll call it like it is, I mean, at this point, he's hiring guys, he knows he's hiring, guys, he's had, he's crossed paths with but he's not hiring a direct or even a handful of direct protégées or guys. He's worked with for many, many years consecutively. It's, this is not the the buddy buddy system, but at the same time, it's a good collection of guys, whose Personalities seem to mesh well even when they're not necessarily similar, right? Absolutely.

9:19 That's a biggie. And, you know, the other thing is kind of like, they asked him, what was he looking for in guys, right? He was talking about, he wanted people skills. He wanted to people to be able to write to the families and players. I think that's big, especially in recruiting, you've got to know the areas of the state, the areas of the region, he wanted great communicators in. He talked about harboring, the former player relationships, and it looks like, obviously would, you know? Pearson that's helping. But, you know, we saw that like, you know, if following Twitter today last few days, There, you know, JC price, even though he's a hokie goes into LC Bird and his pictures, not even with the football coach. He finds that it's a former basketball player. He knew when he went there, right? Yep.

10:13 And then some of these other guys taking pictures with who was it? That took a picture with someone that you JC, not even football player but new JC and he's the principal of the school. And you see that and it's just like you talked about people skills that's understanding. I'm you here. Where's our relationship? How can we build a relationship? Yep. And finally that commonality in areas that aren't traditional to. I mean, talk about just fostering those relationships with folks in the school. I mean, having a good relationship doesn't just start with the head coach of that team. It's it's kind of a trickle down across the board and when you've got those type of relationships that you can tap into, it's only going to make the recruiting process easier and we talked about Former players. I mean, we're going to talk about him in a little bit here when we get to him.

11:05 But you know, we already had JC and piercing on here but we got somebody else off the field. That's pretty big in terms of former player relationships as well. So that's big obviously people skills and and just the communication in general, I think is the big thing. This staff seems to understand communication both with the fan base with The players with the High School coaches, they get the importance of the communication piece and we're seeing that play out in real time in terms of just general PR and well, feeling well about the program this is as high as it's been in a while. We haven't even won any games yet like but and I know we talked about honeymoon period but This is different because we're actually seeing a difference. It's not just okay, new coach.

12:02 There's hope we're actually seeing tangible differences happen already in this process. New coach. There's always hope with the new coach, that's any organization. That's anything like that. We both went through that with our NFL teams last few years, but again, it's, there's a change. We see the presence. We see things, do you and done differently. We see that this is a change. This is a culture change. Change for the better. This is a culture change back to what Virginia Tech does best. And that thing is something else that really impressed me that during this interview, he talked about the coaches, obviously, that was easy, but him given specific. Shout out to filigrana Hazel and Gault, just like he specified and made sure that they were mentioned. And that tells you a lot about his leadership skills, because those guys are behind the scenes, we like, Ali will never see them in front of a microphone getting interviewed by the Press because of the jobs they do, but they sure in that presser to specifically mention them and that says a lot about his leadership skills and laughing. Yeah.

13:13 I mean the most we might ever see them is like one of those quick cut videos that get dropped on the the Twitter timeline from the football account. Something something like, quickly running through this or that. Or like they did with, with, he'll guard doing some of the strength, and conditioning discussions before, the workouts that you might see, God, doing something like that, but you're not going to see these guys front and center, you know, week to week, month to month, it's going to be kind of very one off at best. And again, God's probably the leader on that just because of the strength and conditioning aspect of his job. Absolutely. All right, Brian. Well, let's turn to it. We've got some new hires to discuss and Finally we get to discuss officially yeah, collarbone named offensive coordinator and tight ends Coach Bo. And if you guys haven't done your research on and he played at Maryland, 2007 to 2009 he was an offensive lineman I think Brian's immediately excited and oh Lyman is now the o.c. but allow me to make the best overseas book it but essentially after he you know got out he immediately started coaching you missy Distant down at Maryland.

14:28 Then a g a moved over to Towson as a as a tight ends coach, then up to Penn State, then he kind of got his season and I think probably what we can expect. He went to Fordham. Joe moorhead's, a head coach. He was the old line coach there in 15 with Moorhead. Moorhead goes to Penn State. After that he takes over OC duties explosive. Offense, coach Chase Edmunds into being a fourth-round pick from Fordham. If you don't know where Fordham is, it's in New York City, they don't have a lot of NFL players in this day and age. If you know your history, the seven blocks of granite were at Fordham.

15:14 Read on that. Then some mornings. Yep the Bronx and then oh well coach at Maryland then tighten coaching of recruiting coordinator Penn State for a few years. Then he get the cosita like we talked about other Penn State and then finally, you know, he was down in Jacksonville this year, as a tight ends coach, you know, whatever happened at Penn State is what happened? But Brian. What else do you feel? What else? You know, hearing from private, really got you excited because I like that resume. Tell me the guy wants to be a football coach and is invested in it. Yeah, he wants to be a coach and just circling back to what prize said, very high Q guy, you know, call the call, the Cotton Bowl. When they dropped over 50 points, they did familiar with the offensive style.

16:02 That Pride likes to run very knowledgeable, the game recruiting in the DMV, in Virginia area, while he was at Penn State. Yeah. Go to force. Seven and look up. This guy can recruit now. Delete, recruiter. So he clearly has a game there. And, you know, the one thing that was interesting to me that he talked about, was the whole Jacksonville situation. Yep. Jag's wouldn't give him a real release. My assumption is that he was higher on the pecking order. Once Urban was out in terms of the offense and his role in it, so they probably didn't want to let him out of that. Were some of the couple other guys.

16:43 It and it was like two weeks later but they got a release from their deal while you know. Yeah. Boneheads to stay on to the end there but he was able to work with the GM down there. So he could vet all the offensive staff as they were moving along in the process there. So that was important. And it was important for us to know that because you don't want just to assume that prize hiring, all these guys that are, you know, working under Bowen. Very heavily and he didn't have a say in the process. So knowing that he was in on that had those conversations with the coaches and got to have those conversations with pride before the higher was made?

17:26 I think that's important. Yeah, well first of all, the GM of the Jags is Trent baalke before me, 49ers GM, who ran, horrible out of town. After basically, that guy came in and put us in the Super Bowl and put us winning four consecutive year. So I think he Jerk. First of all, Curtis is salty. I don't like Trent baalke do he doesn't know how to draft players, either. He dropped a lot of torn ACL, guys. In a lot of guys, way too early in my opinion, but that being said, I think it's what Brian said. Because with Jacksonville Darrell Bevell d.o.c., he became the head coach and shot. Brian Schottenheimer became the o.c. So, I have a feeling where he was in the pecking order, he probably became like the pass game coordinator or the Run game coordinator in that.

18:13 Situation. He was, he was working right under Schottenheimer. He was working pretty up there, which is, which is a good thing because that tells you that guys like Darrell Bevell Brian, Schottenheimer long tenured NFL, coaches had a lot of confidence in that guy and talk about you hurting Vetti, vetted every single person on the staff. This is his staff and this is kind of how broke I said, it's his step. He vetted All These Guys, these are his guys. This isn't like Brent said, hire this guy. And as far as the offense goes here style, he's the style. I want to run kept digging around. We're going to run the ball.

18:53 It's not even a question about it. How how we run it? And we run it with. But I look back at the Fordham stats from 2016 and basically it was a 3-2 to run the pass and that's kind of more heads deal to always will run them past the passing game though, it's not completely. Forgotten about. I can't wait for Brian to get into looking at some of these schemes of what we can expect, obviously being a tight ends coach. I think we're going to get some, I mean, he coached just seki, he coached Fair Booth, he's coached quite a few number of tight ends who are in the league in at the top end. So you know really love this about him. It was one of those names when you heard it, you read it immediately.

19:43 Liked it. But Brian, let's flip to the next position because two weeks ago, we were here in light brown. We were here in Tony Washington, who work, and this will, this was out in public, this wasn't behind pay walls, this wasn't somebody dming us saying, hey, this is what we're hearing, these were public acknowledgements. And then all of a sudden It comes down or hiring somebody Virginia connections. And then literally literally fontelle Minds is named the wide receiver coach on tell Minds plated UVA back from 2007 to 2008, usually 2000. 22 2006. So obviously from some of their better years in the early 2000s and then he spent three years with the Bears in the pros and with him not long after getting out of the pros again, right to coaching didn't waste any time, start it out here at Hermitage high school, then move down a challenge down in North Carolina coaching receivers and tight ends. Then back to Richmond working at U of r with wide receivers and tight ends from 13.

21:02 From 12 to 14, receiving 12 to 16 then moves over to JM you for a couple good years there. Mike Houston years travel with goes down to ECU after that receivers, and tight ends. And then ODU last year he's a UVA grad. You know, some people will hate it. Some people will love it. When people just love the rub salt in the wounds of UVA fans basically saying this is one of your own and he'd rather coach here and that's fun, although detectives that hated you got it.

21:42 Like, listen, Just has a good coach just has a good recruiter, but what more did Coach Pratt talk about with fontelle are obviously a lot of Virginia ties of also he has a big closeness with a lot of former Hokies between guys that played in the 804 guys. He played against when he was at UVA and obviously you played against some damn good hockey teams when he was at UVA, there looks like he was one of the, I guess, probably the first full class that grow. Recruited during that transition there. So, but I mean I noticed numerous numerous former Hokies talking this guy up and that I think that speaks a lot to his ability and, you know, he's worked with wide receiver, most of his career. So he's definitely a season coach on that front. So we're getting a pretty seasoned coach, despite his age. And we're getting a guy that can recruit the hell out of Virginia, and I think that's a good One-two, punch right there. Yeah the recruiting thing is big and you're hearing more stories about him.

22:51 That he's basically been recruiting Virginia his whole career, it makes sense. Between U of r, j mu and ECU in the way it looks. He's going to have who certain territories very crucial to this state, but it just seems like he's younger, has he experienced? I know, a lot of people are likely coach tight, Tins. And he was a tight in the majority of his game has been at wide receiver since he became a coach. Yeah, and, you know, it, it was just nice to see a lot of the former Hokies that again, our era and I say of our era when we were younger like congratulating happy, you know, joking with them a little bit. Like, you know, you got to the right side and it's one of these things to that.

23:43 Let's think here. Where I can put this. He seems like he's going to be a culture fit because he you know he seems one of those blue-collar guys, right? Play tight end. Went to Hermitage and has worked his way up here. Didn't didn't like come out and immediately get a couple jobs and then he's, in D1, literally had to work his way up to D1. Yeah, and it's that whole thing we talking about blue, collar or flash. It seems like there's a lot of blue collar and him and I think a lot of us can pay dividends because it seems like this guy people like him. He's been recruiting coordinator at several different places. Yeah, I'm looking forward to see what he can do. I like, what I've already seen on the road, he was with Coach prize this week.

24:35 They were down in the Oscar Smith down at a bunch of other schools in the 757 this week so far where they hit up today. Here it is. I have to go back and look, I'll Western Branch. Western Branch has some variation day as a big one down there. It's a big receiver down there that. Yeah, just I think he's going to be a good fit and again, I'm sure he's going to get some grief here. There between some of the 0 key players that are on the staff, but I think he's going to be a solid addition for Brian.

25:17 Not done yet. Let's start getting to the support staff. And let's talk about this one for. We talk about this big one Brian, Chris hired, as the senior offensive analyst, if you didn't know, because it probably wasn't talked about or even spoken to with people. He was hired last year as just an offensive analyst for the old staff and he hangs around Chris. Native a Blacksburg brother coaches at Radford dad's a legendary coach. You know here hampden-sydney graduate Brian. Yeah I did a coached with pride down at Louisiana Lafayette with bustle back in the day.

26:00 They both with Gaz together in 95, you know, or part of a UMass staff. That one the FCS back in the late 1990s was under Pelini up at Youngstown. State is, is 0 C. So he has a good track record. He does not have a lot of big known stops, but it seems like he's He's a very respected offensive mind. Yeah, it seems that way, you know, they gave him the senior analyst title there. And I think the thing that I like the most that when he was talking about Chris and he's like, yeah, he's a senior offensive analyst, but we might have him on the defensive side of the ball. And the more I got to think about is like, okay, this this kind of makes sense because As a defensive coach, sometimes you get a little bit into the weeds. It's nice to have a offensive minded person on your side of the ball and your practice feel that can say, hey If you do this, you know, we can counter with this. It's going to be pretty easy to take advantage of that scheme or that call, you know, whatever it may be having somebody that has that.

27:08 Type of History has that relationship and can make those kind of calls on the defensive side. See things through the offenses eyes that's going to be big for them. I think and that's the type of role I kind of envisioned when Pride was talking about, you know, you might see him on the defensive side of the ball. All as an offensive analyst. So, looking forward to see what Chris can do. Obviously, he was there last year, so let's see if he can keep it moving. Yeah. And again, guy probably was connections around the, you know, the local area there as far as recruiting goes, I know they can't touch it but never hurts to have somebody that's in somebody else's ear.

27:48 All right, Brian, this one was big. And we got notified by this and we kind of got tea leaves that it was a if you like if you watched in the 2000 you're going to love it. Well, first of all, that makes your head go 1,000 miles an hour because there were so many great players in the 2000's. And then we finally got when that it was going to be Xavier adibi, hires a defensive analyst, Ron's talked about it. And I cannot remember Brian on our Mount Rushmore. Yes. No, I can't remember that far back. I'm getting too old for this shit.

28:30 I want to say he made it. I can't remember though, either way he will. He belongs there for sure Brian's favorite line, but he's definitely in the discussion, no doubt. No. But anyway, if you don't know, if you're younger Hokies fan, Xavier didin was the prototypical perfect hacker. Perfect, All-American, two-time all-sec selection, two-time ACC Champion. Fourth-round draft, pick of Houston played several years was inducted into the Hall of Fame this past season and Having that guy back. This is culture is one thing that's that's huge but he's been building his resume up for a few years here.

29:15 Now you know he started at Arkansas as an analyst and then worked his way into d 2 and basically had his defense at Texas A&M Commerce. Giving up under 215 yards, a game under 13 points. A game was one of the finalists for like what is it coordinator of the year? R4d to them in a short period of time as basically exploded on the scene and luckily he's ours. Yeah, I mean, he was always really high IQ for a linebacker especially somebody that wasn't playing Mike. And I mean, he really did did a little bit of everything. You know, when we think about some of those big plays from a DB, we a lot of times, it says interceptions, it wasn't necessarily big hits.

30:05 I mean, we, Those two but yeah some really key interceptions a couple going back for scores Zell really yeah pick six to the house, all my side of the field, there you go, good that day, but I still can and they always came in those opportune times 2, right? So yeah, having a guy that has that type of awareness has done the things that he's done in his short career as a coach, obviously, the NFL experience, mostly with the Texans, and, you know, just some of the things that Pride was talking about with the conversations he had with Bud Foster about him and obviously probably saying, you know, he knew who, who would he be was, you know, word is he was using some of the adibi, tape, when coaching areas at Penn State so, so it's great to have a guy like that back in the building and it's that whole thing of, as you know, we've heard about the alumni I called and stuff, but as you start bringing back in, don't get me wrong.

31:10 Having guys like jgw and having Keyshawn and having Jack and them, yes, they did. Love to see, Vince Hall back to Robbie, but it would be great to see that. So But having him back it just says a lot. It understand it tells you promised as the culture but it's also one of those things as you look forward as quick as he's rose up. And I know he was an analyst, he was a D2 and now he's here. You know, if Chris Moore of is what we think he can be, you're going to have to have somebody in. Why not bring somebody in like you know Xavier? Yeah, because you know, no one will love this place more than him.

31:59 Exactly exactly. And I think we're going to see some dividends from that pretty quick. So I'm looking forward to seeing what he does. He will type of role. He's going to have, is that defensive analyst? Yep. All right so we already mentioned it earlier but coach did give the white Galt as he calls them D. Big shout out talking about the offseason program. That's going to be starting pretty soon here. I don't think it started this week. I think it starts next week. I might be wrong, you know, but discussing him, basically, a DG is a pretty young guy, but obviously, he worked with his dad for so long at, you know, between Vanderbilt and Penn State. And, you know, He was just sitting there talking about, like deej is a real culture driver when I hear that.

32:46 That tells me whatever problems to get done all season. Why's he knows that deej is going to put that into effect. Yeah. Yeah, the culture driver piece was big for me. He said as like-minded as anybody on the staff, he get thinking his pride, he gets the vision. I'm going to say right now No more Beachbody shit that's cooked. And I mean you know, when he talked about the the training process, you talked about the adversity that people go through in that and that really kind of tells you a lot about the character, the player, what they could handle, what they can handle, whether they're ready for ready for a leadership role, whether they lead, by example, whether they're more vocal I think him talking about that really gets that.

33:42 He understands that that helped how important that relationship is especially early in a new regime here because you get a lay of the land. That's really going to be your first line of defense to kind of give you that lay of the land. Absolutely. The only thing he talked about, was he really trust the white in those adverse situations, and he talked about how this is how you recognize, who your leaders are earlier if you kind of go back when he Talks about, he knows Prime. He knows his vision. That's the guy you want, because if the guy knows your vision, your very like-minded, you're going to, he's going to be going in there saying, that's going to be a captain.

34:22 Yep, that guy's not the captain but he's the dog on the fence. He also no one guys that you can push to get more out of them and guys that you need to kind of bring along. Yep. You know what a little with a little more thought, right? Some guys Thrive off getting pushed getting. Getting that get in their face and, and some guys need a little bit more mental, right? Need a little bit with some guys, Minds can't handle that the physical pushy and they can be superior athletes and then he great players and great individuals. But you have to do a little bit mean. I'm sure that's going to be related and I think that's why I keep hearing. I keep thinking like minded like minded I'm sure there's going to be times where you're probably going to hear. I'm sure probably uses it.

35:09 This is what deej made you do and this is the same thing. I'm going to make you do. And if you have that sort of connection, essentially there's no change right from season or anything. It's all one level. This is how we're doing it. When coach has done with us, we're going to Deez Nuts, Deez, just like coach. No, there's no, like, this guy's really hard on us. Coaches. Softer arms or Coaches soft tones. And this guy tries to kill us. You, don't you keep to me? You can't have that in the sport football. It's got to be same level type stuff, man. And it looks like that's why these retired. And he's a young guy, and hopefully DG's around here for a long time, and we can get DJ five. Instead of gentrified, I Braun.

36:01 When you heard that Pride did not reach out to Joe Rudolph. Joe Rudolph reached out to pry. What was your first thought? Damn, that's a that's a big mood energy right there because You know, we thought that this was something that Pride kind of went out on a limb for, but it sounds like Rudolph was looking for a changed. Had a had a connection with somebody else here. Virginia Tech got it. Got in touch with prai said, hey looking for a change, looking for a little bit closer to family and proud, laid out his vision, talked about what he wants to get from an offensive line and you know the next thing you know, we got Joe Rudolph as Their offensive line coach. Yeah, and we talked about it, two weeks ago, it got us a static and, you know, he mentioned really specifically how Joe was from the Pittsburgh area djoko. Keep it and listen to it is about a five, five and a half hour drive to take.

37:05 So if you have a lot of family there, a lot easier from going there down at Blacksburg there to Madison. So, I wonder if that's a one of the big driving forces, but what got me jacked in when Price said, here's my vision of the offensive line and what he does is what I want to do. Braun. We know how there was constant offensive lines have been for years? We've talked about it before and when you hear that again and it starts the the the the everything starts turning inside. Like we're going to go try to literally slam it down people's throats. Yeah. And yeah, that's in the other piece. Is the recruiting piece is he is always recruited the western part of Pennsylvania, or the eastern part of Ohio. And those are areas that really, in the last five years, we've neglected, yeah, pulled some good players, out of those areas.

38:04 So, love hearing that, we're going to get back into that football, Rich area the country. Yeah, I mean, you know we always talk about Penn State coming down in Virginia and eating our lunch, they've been eating our lunch in their own backyard to where we used to go with, with some degree of frequency that we really don't know, really tap into anymore. So getting a guy that really can has relationships with with coaches and families. There can really tap into those. I think that's going to be big for us, you know, aside from the on the field stuff which I think is probably in terms of on the field. This is probably the best. Just hire. I think of the staff in terms of what we can get from the all the feel product.

38:46 So, absolutely. Alright. Next call, Brian in this was, I don't know if this was a shocker lady. It was to some of us but he talked about Sean Quinn. He talked about Sean Quinn being that first call. Was what what do you think this? What do you think? He just saw Quinn's. Why do you think Sean Combs the first call? Because he doesn't have the greatest resume. Why he seems like his personality really kind of fits the vision of what prize trying to do. And I think he gets the, you know, we talked about the swag and then the blue collar mentality, kind of a hybrid, you know, I think he kind of understood understands that, right? He's a guy that's had to grind.

39:34 He's also a guy that's had to coach players that, you know, we're probably bringing some from different areas, so, I think that it wasn't just the the blue-collar mentality. I think he's bringing a little bit of everything there, but he's a guy that had to grind for a lot of years. He's a guy that probably got passed over for a couple opportunities throughout the way and I think price also a good opportunity to get a guy that really align with his vision on the staff and it really. He's been crushing it since he's been here. I mean, we see him on Twitter, dude for a 49 year old coach. He is on Twitter and really engaging with the fan base engaging with the folks that he's visiting on the, on the recruiting Trail.

40:19 Oh yeah, I mean outside of cheetah, he's tweeting more than anybody else and found a great burger joint while visiting up a note of this week and literally every coach he'd come in contact with, he's made sure to put them on Twitter and thanking them and dip and then not just saying, thank you for letting me be here. Everything is a little snippet, you know, one of the coaches. I'm Mentioned. Hey good, thank you for having me at this school coach and yada yada. Hey, it was great. Talking, the defense for you. He's making sure he's like that little Personal Touch on every single tweet for each coach and, you know, I mean maybe that was it maybe in Brent prize, mine, Sean Quinn should have been a division.

41:02 One football coach ten years ago you said pasta I see him as a glue guy he's not going to stand out but he's the glue guy. The guy that can bring everybody together because you know He grinded for years. He took, you know, he coaching the HBCU down surveillance State. Yeah, and took them from literally, the one of the worst teams in the country to win a conference. So if somebody says, well, we can't do this bullshit, I went to the worst and we won. Let's get this together. All right, Braun. Lets flip on this talk about recruiting we talked about Quentin and his tweets while he's been recruiting. He said it out, right?

41:45 First week exclusive for the state of Virginia outside of a trip to Georgia. Although we did see Brad the wind down there, doing some other work. I don't know if that's holding on the Daquan or potentially other guys, but it looks like pretty much every coach is in VA this week. Yeah, everybody's patrolling Virginia seems like, except for maybe Brad Glenn. Looks to be making a trip back down to Georgia. They made a trip, I think. Week to visit right as well. They were at his high school down in Perry. And what they've done in Virginia is pretty impressive because we've seen you JC in the 804, we've seen minds and cheetah out. In the 757, we've seen Pearson and Marv and Quinn up in Nova. You know, we've seen heck more, I'm proud and 757. Well Marv was out in the valley today. Yeah, well gesture, I mean in few holds down and with Ville. That's every section of the state, every section of the state's get we're going to see Holton the in our stomping grounds, by the end of the week, man. I definitely think he's taking the 58 Corridor until he gets to about South Hill and then he's probably going to cut back but it's just awesome to see that and it's also to see the interactions and it's also sting and we've already talked about, they get it, get it on social

43:16 media, get it like this is where we're going and you see them going to not only to the Name brand school. Yeah, you know JC was an LLC burdell seabirds won numerous state titles the last few years Prime them an Oscar Smith. Gz. I'm blanking here. Cheetah was a tedious. Yeah, I mean she's old school. He's old school. He was at Hampton, you know? They were decreed today. I mean, if we can just find two players from Deep Creek of the caliber of Hall.

43:57 And tap, we be great. Yeah, I mean, It's all you need is you seeing them also go to schools that don't produce as much talent. And this shows you strategy because get in there early because every school at some point puts together or puts out a big-time Talent. Yeah. Yeah. This isn't going to be any more of a highlight, a handful of schools that we've had success at and then Hammer that And then hope we make some inroads with some of the top top. 10 recruits at the state and land maybe one or two.

44:40 This is going to be canvassing the entire State Building those relationships. And when you finally get, you know, one or two guys, start coming up through there, you got that relationship in place. You can have those those those discussions right off the bat and kind of get in first with these with these kids. And I think that's a that's important. You know, I think we definitely neglected the boots on the ground, got mentality under the last staff. In terms of sitting guys into the schools consistently and not just when there's a top-five player at that school. Yep. And that's what you can do because you don't have the relationships and this is a relationship business alright?

45:25 The other cool part was kind of Brent Pride, pulling out what his vision of essentially, the big recruiting footprint. The six hour radius around Blacksburg and that encompasses, North Carolina, South Carolina, the DMV, obviously, Pennsylvania. Central in the East Tennessee, along with all of these Lee Virginia. That's I think that's what we feel. We got to do but what it did it did it shock? You wear what he said when he talked about opportunities elsewhere. Yeah, so I think the opportunities elsewhere is definitely going to be some of our traditional stomping grounds with Delray Beach Jacksonville.

46:11 I think those are going to be areas that we still tap into, you're going to get I mean if you talk about six hour radius you're talking about the Greater Atlanta area to pretty much right on the edge on it. That's like six and a half, right? Yeah, right. Yeah. Roundup. It's six hours and 20. It's not over the six and a half. Mark, we were going around back down to six. We're good. Let's, let's rate Atlanta here. But I mean, we've done well in Georgia. Obviously, we got a coach in Georgia, you know, finishing out the recruitment down there with right and some others. So, I think George is still in play. I think parts of Florida are still in play, but like, he said in his previous comments, I mean, we're we talked about Where we're going to aim.

47:03 We're not crossing the Mississippi, unless there's already an established relationship with a family or a player or a coach in those areas. So, you don't have a reason that ties you back to the state of Virginia or to Virginia Tech. We're not just throwing darts across the Mississippi, his words, not mine, Vicki, Dortch across the Mississippi. So why like Kim saying it? Like that is if there is a kid. For example, dad. As a BT Alum and it's an upcoming recruit, we're going to go talk to that kid. Yep. Why dad went here? Mom went here or you know it could be one of those things where, you know, you kind of think a deep. He's been coaching out of Texas.

47:47 If, if Xavier adibi, has a great relationship with a school down there and says this kid likes it, he liked me. Let's go after. Yep. What we're not going to see is we're not going to see our resources poured into that if you're going to be specific. So if we get a kid from Colorado, don't be shocked if you get it. Get from California, don't be shocked. But read why what's the reason why we went out and got those kids, there's going to be a very specific and targeted reason for going after these players. I'd say probably the only exception, maybe a transfer portal, add true just because depending on, you know, one or two years of Eligibility, it might be worth a gamble on on going after a bigger time player.

48:32 For that one or two years. Right? But if we're talking about high school recruits. Yeah, I think we're sticking with that radius outside of again. Maybe dipping down into Georgia and Florida. Yeah, consistent basis. But the whole thing with the Georgia and Florida stuff is a lot of those schools have connections to Tech. Yeah, well, I mean, we talk about the all those Jacksonville, the Jacksonville schools edel raid. I mean, yeah. Atlantic and all those places down there and there are numerous ones, they have an alumni. So it's one of those things where It's like call up David Clowney. Hey, finally like this kid. There you go. There's your connection. David Cline is on my mother can need to go talk to the kid. The other piece that I don't think this is shocking thing. This is just a day and age where in is, he talked about two things.

49:19 He talked about the six hour radius is because that's a drive-in. Yeah, six hours anywhere you leave it. You know. You want to go see somebody for a weekend. You leave at 3:00 in the afternoon, you there? But before the middle of the night, you have multiple days to spend and get back to your home. And he talked about how important that was, especially for these young men to be able to have, and he made sure, he mention this, their parents, their coaches, their uncle's their family, their handlers, their trainers, to be able to come, see him during those tough times, that it's having a tough time in the all season.

49:59 And you know let's say it's one of these kids who you know from Columbia South Carolina or Charleston getting the car were there in a day. Talk to him, get him straight come back. It's like Charlotte. Charlotte Area kids, you're talking about a less than the three hour drive. So I mean Richmond, three Beach for in and out, even the kids, he talked about, you know, cultivating those re cultivating those relationship up in Pennsylvania, with Harrisburg pits, Philly, Jersey, four, and a half, five and a half hour drives. Yeah. Easy in Easy roads in to Blacksburg and it's like it's like again, he understands the relationship piece that what you have it, where you can put people who this kid is comfortable around and they can get here. When we need them to, it's going to make that kids experience. A hell of a lot better.

50:47 Absolutely, absolutely man. Alright, so the next thing he mentioned and again he had already shout it out. You've already shout-out. Needs he talked about how might Villa Grana was kind of put in charge of the fighting up, Virginia. As we mentioned, we've seen where the guys were and he went in their private. Have this conversation which is I love this because prize their boss, you tell the boss, whatever he wants to hear, right? He took the look Grana in and just kind of asked him. Where do you have the best relationship? and you know, I think that's why we're seeing where we're seeing certain guys at because, you know, Coach Compton hitting us up here.

51:33 Huge things to have the players having their people present. Yeah. Massive. Because I'm but you know, he basically was trying to find the lagrange's goal of that meeting was find Connections in cinnamon there and I think that's big because it when you look at how the state's been divided up, you're seeing you guys that have had success in those areas before you're seeing mines down in the beach, you know? Got cheated on the peninsula. You got Bowing in the DMV you got you guys are really getting put where they kind of have a footprint. You got JC in the 804. He's had some solid success recruiting guys in the 804 and JC probably in terms of knowing the lay of the land, probably as good or better of anybody on the staff. So he can kind of fill in the gaps where some, we're some, maybe some other guys are not quite as strong. So That's why you have a guy like Jayceon staff aside from the Virginia Tech connections, aside from how good he is on the field.

52:41 Yeah. It's true. So the way the state was divided up and then you know the the last piece you know on this sort of high school recruiting and we've already mentioned it with the photos and powder. It seems like there's conversations it's not just what coach by said we don't want to walk in and just give a handshake and a smile on the picture and we want to get to know Everybody at the school. So I mentioned earlier JC was in LC Birds building talking with an old basketball player that he went to school with you. You they were talking to principles. It's like, if you get to know where these kids are from, it's it's more likely going to help you out in the long run, you know, it's, you know, have a hokey in the building and you're recruiting a kid, it'll help with another Hokies Talking Tool.

53:36 Absolutely. And you know I don't think this is going to necessarily you know win us all the battles but at the same time it strategically puts us in as good a position as we can be in from Jump Street and then after that, you let the chips fall where they may. But I think the days of us not being in on a kid, early enough are gone not having the relationships with the coaches or the handlers to move forward with that or Own gone. And I think the days of us giving up on a guy, just because a big dog jumps in to the party are gone. I think we've got some.

54:18 I think we got some guys on the staff. Who go to the nail with the big boys, it's hard. As they can and I love to see that now. Let's not, let's not do this. Brent prowls very upfront, talking about the transfer portal that he views it on equal footing. you know, with high school recruiting nowadays and, you know, I tend to agree with him because there's a, we talked about it earlier this month Grand. There's thousand kids in the pool know some of those kids allows kids can play. Probably a really good game of football, but they just need the opportunity.

55:02 Yeah, I mean you're not going to find, you know, you're not going to feel your roster out that way but you know the transfer portal is going to be your your whole filler. Your immediate impact player on occasion. And that's what he's seems like he's going to use it. As obviously talked about, you know, he was happy with kind of the progress. We've made on that front too. Kind of close out. The start of the spring semester. You've got four already end you know, possibly two more. You're coming through. So that's really big. And I think we're only going to see more of that as we get into spring workouts, we get into spring practice, we're going to start seeing a little bit more, probably attrition from the current roster.

55:45 Your start seeing some more movement in the transfer portal as we close out spring and then get into summer workouts. So look for that. He said he expected another wave after Spring ball. So you know buckle up for some more portal chaos guys because it's going to To be coming? Yep, because you mentioned he talked about, you know, talked about having you know the winter workouts and spring. We're going to eat some people out. You going to eat some people like no, this isn't what I want to do. I'd rather go elsewhere. And, you know, we've already got four in You know, two y, two, quarterbacks two wide receivers are there potentially more coming, we hope so because we know we're talking about in a few minutes here. There's the holes.

56:32 We feel like need to be filled and it's going to be interesting to see how they fill them. Now, the other piece that he talked about, was you cover crew. He basically that seems like he's for that. He specifically mentioned Lackawanna, do code seems like like a wanted to be T. Let's go ahead and get them going. Looks like the transfer portal, the Juco, these are guys who have been, they're older, they're more probably physically developed in high school kids and to me it's something we have not taken advantage of as much. I know Brianna Marie in a more are no or two, but it's like these are on previously. Yeah, to Dorado ever forget him.

57:16 Ha ha ha. But it's like there's the opportunity with these guys, the same way and if these guys are true coming in as Juniors. Well, if they don't have the football sharks yet, right? But they have the physical body. You have three years with them. They can rush for you. Yeah. You have you have a lot more opportunity. You know, you talked about, you know, you got the high school kids for four to five. You get the Juco kids for 2, to 3, 3 to 4, 4 to get the the portal kids, usually 4122. So, and in the portal sometimes even More obviously. Now with the one-time transfer rule, you're getting some some true freshman coming in some redshirt freshman, some you know, Redshirt sophomore.

57:56 So you're getting you know, three sometimes three to four years, even with those transfers. So it's going to be really interesting to see what I think. The Juco area is something that probably has been underutilized historically by Virginia Tech. I think, you know, you don't want to see a ton of players coming coming that route every But you know, I think there's probably an opportunity for one maybe two excited Winkle that's a handful of cycle. Somewhere between 225 okay and at position not necessarily need but positions either the depth where it's like we're going to go look at this offensive lineman from this Juco, he's six foot four, he's already 310 pounds.

58:41 We don't need to worry about him. Getting the weight room and gain weight. What we need to figure out real quick is can we teach him technique and get him on the field? Not this year. But next year? Where you swing guard? He's a swing tackle, whatever. Yeah and no it's like give these guys a chance cause some of these guys go there because they don't have the grades and then they work themselves into good saying give the guy's a chance. Sure, Brian. We're gonna hit this real quick. We don't have the spring game yet, but basically cry said we're pretty close. Do you imagine we get something at the latest next weekend, next weekend. Yeah, I could be wrong, but I think we get something by the end of the month. So, So you just need to gain date. It's it all out.

59:28 So we need painted ship. I don't even care. What spring practice starts yet. I will in like a week, but just give me the game date. Please put it on a good date where you want to know. We want to put it on the calendar because we will be there. We are trying to be there. You can guarantee I ain't guaranteeing it, I got three. All right, um, last piece is Braun was last two pieces. Let's look first of all, you've mentioned before, we're not a mom-and-pop anymore. Stewart, Carter director of football equipment comes in out of Penn State Cami Nation. Looks like she's gonna be hired. And some sort of recruiting on campus role.

1:00:09 He OG of the weight room is back, Jarrett Ferguson looking Like, he's going to be hired as one of the assistant strength conditions coach. And then, one sort of interesting piece Shayne Graham was offered a position by coach pry. Looks like Shane's going to take some time to step away from coaching, but you know, it's like that. Support staff, just keeps getting bigger. Yeah. And Shane talked about, you know, he said one of the upsides of that he's not on this staff but the fact he's not on any other staff is that he can, you know, let his hokey flag fly A lot more freely now, right. He can get up to games. He can you know, actively root for the Holyoke.

1:00:51 He's on. Yeah, Twitter, a little bit stronger than he has a recent years. So I think that's that's something in his comfort zone. I wish him well, in whatever. The next venture is for him, and look forward to maybe catching him up at a game. Sometime this fall. But yeah, I mean the moves were making off the field is definitely, you know, that signal that we're not mom-and-pop anymore. We're running this thing like a business because it is it's a big Dollar business at that. We're sit the last piece here before we go to break because we're an hour and we're still in the presser. Does it shock you that someone like Brent Pride leans on his dad?

1:01:36 Or someone like James Franklin for trusting, a lot of the decision-making. Not because, when he talks about how he built his staff, and how he plans to recruit Virginia, he's talking about communication and relationships. So, obviously, if that's important to you the person and the people that you're to lean on is going to be your Mentor in the sport and your father. So, I mean, it doesn't surprise me that he's reaching out to those. Those people in his Circle and leaning on them when it comes to some of those bigger decisions. Nope. Not at all. And I think it's pretty cool. He, he mentioned that what? Every wide receiver coach interviewed, he talked with his dad about, I'm assuming his dad as the background and wider scooter and they say he sat in on some of the interviews. So could you imagine like doing the zoom? And the hell is that?

1:02:30 It's Dad. Wide receivers for 40 years like, oh, hey, that's cool. Also new here. Alright, brown one last piece. If you have not seen folks, the salaries of these guys, I'm going to, I'm going to pass out or specify, go to Tech Sidelines, and look at David Cunningham's article on this. It is from the 14th. So just a few days ago, lazy. It all out. Five point two, five million by point two million run paying coordinators. Both over 800,000 lowest-paid positional coach at 275. Basically right at two and a half million for each side of the ball.

1:03:20 Yep, Big Bowl pick. Take boy moves and you know I like kind of how things are structured. I know we had talked a little bit about you know some folks were shocked at that bar of hit up at 8:25 for a first-time coordinator and I'm telling you and I've set it on here, we talked about it before, the starting price for a coordinator at power 5 is now eight hundred thousand dollars. Yep. That's the starting price. So, I mean, we're just above that at 8:25 Bowens, just just a little higher than that at 8:50. And, and that again, that's the going rate for for big-time coordinators.

1:04:02 Now, we could go and get another Braddock or Nelson and we can pay them, five hundred thousand dollars. But we don't want to go back to that, do we? Nope. I don't think we ever want that. Yeah, so I'm good with the way everything is structured here, you know, you got the running game coordinator and passing game coordinator making a little bit more. You got defensive recruiting coordinator Derek Jones making a little bit more position wise as is JC price as associate head coach. But you know, structure top to bottom, I really like the way way the salary set up.

1:04:42 It gives us a little more flexibility for some of those off the field roles and analysts roles. Some of those are still coming down the pike. So look for maybe a couple more hires in that capacity in the coming weeks. Yeah, there is. And again they talked about, you know, old staff was 3.5 million, we're over 5 million. Now we're basically what second highest in the They were trying to again. The what is it? The you always say the boats rise ships, you know, high tide raises All Ships or some shit. You go that and this is what it is.

1:05:22 This is your High Tide football and if you're paying those guys, the expectation is we're going to make more money there, we're going to be in bigger game, going to get bigger contracts, and that's, that's kind of what it is. Again, go check out David's article on textile on very, worth your time. Now Brian, before we get Get into some more topics tonight. We are going to take a quick pause for a message from our digital Partners 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 on-site, SEO and social media. No commitment to buy anything. You can get your free report by visiting.

1:06:04 Grassroots digital studio.com forward slash free Dash website Dash report now. Back to the episode. All right. So Brian, let's look. Next let's talk about the portal real quick because obviously there's been some movement there and in the last few days, since the last time we talked, we picked up to Pretty One really big commitment and then one kind of makes sense commitment. Let's start with Jacob, Lew wide receiver out of Temple. 6-foot 185, back in 2019. Absolutely blew up 95. Ian's 1067. Excuse me, thousand 67 yards over 11 has tapered off in the last few years but you know, kind of seeing what he had to work with it Temple.

1:06:56 Quarterback wise, it makes sense. But he's coming here and I don't know how this is. But / 24/7. He's rated higher than Tavian Robinson III. Can't see that. But how do you feel about Jaden blue Comin? Yeah, I mean, For the transfers. It's really hard to, I think put a gauge on that just because there's a disparity in the level of competition to a degree. There's a disparity in kind of who They matched up against the play, the play calling the play Styles. It's a little bit harder there to get a good gauge on that overall, Italian, Talent ability. But I mean, I think it's a good good, good commit for us because it definitely shows up a position that was kind of bleeding a little bit as a result of transfers, as a result of a couple guys moving on.

1:07:56 So Looking forward to see what Jaden can do. I think he immediately has some sort of role in the two deep. We'll see if he's pushing for a starting role. I think he probably will. So, you know, we'll see on that one. And then, you know, we had another one, Stephen Gosnell. Benji's little Benji's Big Brother, Benji's Big, Brother UNC transfer That's big because, you know, you're eating off a inner conference rival Rivals plate there, you know, I know he wasn't getting a whole lot of push, but it, but anytime you can, you can steal one from that school down south. It's a good day.

1:08:41 It is. And, you know, that's not a little bit bigger than blaming 62. He's to 10. So a little bit more body of a receiver. He was a three-star when he came out, he Has not gotten much playtime at all down in North Carolina and then obviously with big brother little brother coming here, it's really cool to see. It's really cool to see again, Brothers on the same team and it's going to be really interesting to see what he looks like again being that bigger body and I just kind of go back through like Jalen Jones Duane laufen and some of the guys already here he's kind of going to be the biggest body of old. All of them unless I'm missing somebody but I'm gonna say yeah. No, I mean, he's in terms of guys that got serious run.

1:09:24 I mean, he's definitely a guy that, you know, it could potentially have a role outside just because he is a bigger body, probably a little bit more of a possession. Receiver, a stick mover than I got, it's going to be a big impact in the downfield game. So you got to you got to have guys like that. I think, you know, size-wise I guess pay youths, the only one probably in the same ballpark, right? But different receiver. Yeah. Different, different type of receiver, for sure. Same body Master well, you know, definitely, it's one of those, we'll see. That's why we want to know when the spring game is because you get to go to the spring game. And you see these guys play, sometimes things just pop out at you different.

1:10:12 All right, hon to of our former quarterbacks committed in the last few weeks to play elsewhere knocks. Hey them going to head down to FCS McNeese, State and Louisiana. Anna and starting quarterback last year Braxton Burmeister goes back out, west. San Diego State to a G5. I don't think that there's any shock with the knocks Caterham one, and maybe a little shocked with Braxton. I thought he might land at a power five somewhere. But, you know, by all means, you know, San Diego State football isn't exactly wretched. So, What any thoughts on? Where they landed or did they land exactly where they should land?

1:10:52 I mean, I think not Knox. Has a good fit there, you know, good for him at Landing, their FCS McNeese State. I think that's going to be a good move for him. I think he probably can get some, get some run their Braxton, it'll be interesting to see. A lot of people were talking about, if he was going to stick with our five, you might have to change positions, you know, ends up San Diego State, Mike Have to change positions will see again it's going to depend on what the coaching staff has in store for him, but I think probably it's a pretty good fit for him being a kid out there from California. So kind of gets back a little closer to home and you know, gets an opportunity to still be a starting quarterback. Yeah, it's it again, San Diego State. This year, went to a bowl game was in the Mountain West championship game.

1:11:46 So he's Going to a good program. It's not like he's going to the low of the low, so good for him, you know. Well, Tokyo is a hokie best of luck to both those guys. All right, Brian will give you three names in order? Tell me, and we're excited about all three but your level of excitement and important to the team. This year that these guys are staying Armani. Chaplain confirms, he's returning Johnny and Jordan gets a 60-year and Drake Delia It's a six-year order. One, two, three importance. I'm going to put, and it's just by a narrow margin. Johnny Jordan at the top here because I was insanely concerned about the center position.

1:12:35 Let me go into this offseason it's me Jeff Allen we're looking at Jack hollifield or somebody transferring in so getting Johnny Jordan back for a six-year that's huge in my opinion. I'm looking forward to see him in a starting role this year. I'm looking forward to seeing him kind of being that quarterback of the defense offensive line. I mean, excuse me, I'm looking forward to that. So I think he's going to be that's probably the most important there. We're a little bit deeper at corner, but I'm going to put our money Chapman at number two. But put Chapman and number two, I like his his game he's got some things he needs to clean up. He needs to be a little bit better with his hips but I think that's something that we can work on. But I think overall I mean he is a really talented player and I think that him coming back definitely takes a little bit of sting out of losing a couple players at that position in the offseason.

1:13:42 And yeah, I think it's close but I'll put drinking three in and that's only because of the guys that we have coming in at that position with this incoming Freshman Class, A couple of which are getting a full spring heading in there so but I think Drake's going to play a big role for us in in 2022. I just think the other two were just a hair more important in terms of the positions that they're playing. Okay, I hear you and obviously you have your number one tight end already right with Gallo although we could see okay what are we going to do different under, you know ball, you're definitely going to see too tight and sets.

1:14:27 You might see through Titans, you are. But the whole thing is it's always been more than Joker. Where you see with phone. At least at Penn State, you've got to be a good of blockers. You have to be a receive. You never had a lot of Joker's up there from oof. Just second all those guys you're going to block and it's kind of drink sweetness. Hopefully I think drinks going to be used more kind of like Dalton was in this new offense, a little bit more just because he's going to be asked to block from motion. A lot more if it He's a real eating out a lot more versus being in line. I think that'll play a little bit more to his strengths and I think it'll be better for the offense.

1:15:10 All right, one last piece 2022, recruiting unit, preferred walk-on from IMG and Erica solow. The safety. I don't think it ever hurts to get anybody from that school. If they're water boys needed a scholarship. Potentially, take it, it might be the best water. Boy, you get. Just because they have that many good players coming out but you know we've seen more PWS, you know offered here and there any thoughts on this kid or just it's a preferred walk-on. Let's hope he Sam Rogers. I mean, yeah, you hope that he's able to contribute at some point down the road but, you know, anytime you can again, establish relationships like that with a school. Like, I am G.

1:16:03 I think that's important to Foster those relationships. And, you know, I like I said, I hope he does well, but like you said, I am G anytime you can get a IMG kid on your roster, take that opportunity, take the opportunity and if anything What we talked about here in the states or in the state of Virginia, it's building a relationship, getting getting the preferred walk-on kid a scholarship. It might be in two years, there's a high for star and because of that early relationship building, he comes all right, Brian. Let's switch gears a little bit for a few seconds here. And talk about the Hokies hoop struggles, obviously the last two games have been wins.

1:16:49 It all In the Irish, when the stats I'm about to give you kind of destroyed tonight, we survived the NC State blowing a 17-point lead, but it kind of falls into everything and I just got bored last week and, you know, this team is a top, 15% scoring defense and with 300 plus teams, were roughly a top, 40 scorn D. That's every game, with the exception of the Notre, Dame game. We've been holding people, right? All right, with the exception of Notre Dame, game where a bottom third scoring offense which is really tough to swallow. When we know how good of a offense in mind, Mike, young is and like tonight, Ron I told you before we got home we were shooting over 70% from two-point range.

1:17:42 The reason they were in that game is we could hit the side, broad side of a barn with a 3-point shot tonight. Yep. Couldn't hit anything. It was like 26 percent. I think was the percentages up in that kind of drives you insane especially when you have such a big lead in the only way the team can come back in is you taking lower percentage shots? Which the 3-pointer this year just has been. Yeah, it's weird because we thought coming into this year that the three-pointer was going to be the strength of the team and it absolutely is went the other direction between naheem. Going from three storm struggling from three everybody, you know, Couture, having a couple off games, it's been, you know, hit or miss you know, thankfully we've had some other things work in our favor especially our defense. But we're struggling right now on the on the from the three-point line.

1:18:42 We got to figure out a way to Kind of shake out of that funk a little bit because I mean we know most of these guys can hit the three. Yeah, I mean, we've seen naheem do it before. We've seen storm Murphy, do it. I'll be at in a different League. You know, they definitely have the capacity to do these things 3015 to like, combine those cabinets, you can't win many games. Especially when, you know, we always a lot of people think we get destroyed on the boards tonight. We dominated. Boards in most games we're right at that razor thin. It's like a it's a differential of one and, you know, as far as like turnovers go we roughly are winning that battle every night somewhere between two and three. But I think my overall assessment, it's what these last two games where they were nail-biters. This is a good team.

1:19:39 I think we're good basketball team. I think if we got on the tournament we could be anybody or lose to anybody. We have the razor thinnest of margins. And tonight for example when you cannot hit a three especially with a 17-point lead and you keep shooting because I felt like every time I looked at the television between doing stuff around the house here, we were taking another three and missing it in several times. Like there was the there was it was not necessarily a super contested shot but kind of a probably contested shot 10 feet it in and you're giving it up for a where you are not making anything from, and that makes me lose my damn mind.

1:20:24 Oh yeah, it got better when months got really aggressive at going to the rack, whether it was himself or kind of attacking the paint and then finding a loom or somebody else. You're down under the basket for an easy layup, or an easy dunk. That's when the offense was looking, its best. It was looking, it's worse. When we were again, reliant on taking kind of open threes. Good looks, but not necessarily wide open, well somewhere, while and some work, some were wide open and I mean there were a couple that were just just missed and you know, some of the problem is that we're getting too late into the shot clock. Because storms have a little bit of trouble. Getting the ball up quick getting into the offense. So that that hurts with the shot selection, you can't necessarily throw it in the post and kind of wait for things to happen. You got to do a little bit more around the perimeter so that that's kind of hurt the shot selection side of things. But in general, we just need to make more threes. Better easy.

1:21:33 And again that we know we know they have the capacity to do it. That's why this is frustrating, you know, that's why it's frustrating because we've seen these guys make these shots in these situations before. And I think it's also frustrating, the fact that you said this last episode Mi kyung, doesn't have the quick hook for Shooters. Yeah, like too much again, the two guys tonight Murphy would probably be out there regardless but I mean, what was to, That's that's killer, and he was 3 of 15 in general. And I mean do you mean not Heinrich the he what I think months? Yeah, not bad. It's getting late, folks, I'm tired, you're good.

1:22:15 All right, couple real quick things before we call it a night. Brian cfp expanding playoff talks stalled, not a shocker and Jeffrey got punted a couple times. I was like, Probably not getting it where it's going to be ready. In two years, we're going to head down this way, at Albany 25. Yeah, 2025 is probably where we're looking at now, but Jim Phillips ACC commissioner came out and basically made a statement being the first to says, now is not the time to make this change. And I think some of us get upset. Then reading Dennis, Dodds article further basically, every ACC coach said, no, now is not the time that they're way too many.

1:23:01 The things going on with the new transfer portal with the ni L deals with so many other things going on, we don't need one more big change. I tend to disagree because those things are done. Those things are done, the NCAA completely dropped the ball on this but then I looked a little further in It seems like big-time on ni L, but you know, we have discussed that enough, we don't need to. Oh yeah, to be continued. I think the portal piece is we're going to finally see it to fruition with a normal year, how it's going to work, and we're going to, it's almost like we want to see how this works a couple years down the road because, you know, if we're getting kids in there, trying to get back out and trying to get waivers, is it even worth it?

1:23:55 But we saw the we've seen the portal in a true. Covid year than we've seen the portal in this transition year, but we haven't really seen how the portal Works in a normally in a normal year where there's not, you know, super seniors and all this shit where you got to completely clear roster and things like that. I mean it's definitely going to be Different than what it was in the past. But I think there's going to be some settling in once people get a better grasp of of the portal. Yeah, but I mean, you know, I've said it before, I've got no problem with the way the portal is set up, but like anything, when you get more freedom, you know, there's also more risk associated with exercising that freedom right, what? So, you know, when you, when you get in the portal, it might be something where you don't get the Calls you're wanting and now you're, you're kind of in no man's land. Exactly.

1:24:55 You're in purgatory. So that's that's the fear for some of these kids and so the hope is that people in their Circle or giving them good information, right? That's the most important thing. Now, the other big piece that now, it kind of made sense to why they're rejecting it. If you go ahead and expand the playoffs. Now it's currently under contract with the ESPN. If you go ahead and expand it, that means you're expanding to ESPN only control. If you're not the SEC, what do you want? If you're not the SEC, you want a little bit more coverage, agnostic situation for the college football. Playoff if there's going to be potentially eight games, leading up to the semis in the National five, in the national championship game. if you are the ACC, the Big 12, the packed the pac-10 Pac-12, g5s Big Ten even even though the Big Ten has numerous contracts you want to get everybody involved in taking these games, no more money, more exposure and essentially Don't let ESPN monopolize it because they've got the Monopoly on the bowls, he got thrown up on the bowls. I think, what, what this move I think signals is that they weren't ready to move forward

1:26:27 with the ESPN situation, especially after the SEC, realignment, and how that really kind of threw off the balance of the conference's, once they saw that, they're like, all right, let's, let's, let's approach this. A Little bit slower and let's see if we can get some things leveraged in our favor as we move forward with this before we sign off on something that we're stuck with. For a good number of years, probably five to ten years. Yeah. So it'll be interesting to see how the talks pick up. I still think we're going to wind up at 12, eventually, probably 2025, but who knows? Now, speaking of national championship games, Brian.

1:27:09 Obviously, you and I both watched it, you On that, pick them from Georgia, outright laying the points. But did that game prove to you? Brian that kind of an old-school mentality. Can still win the national championship. Or is it the reason old school mentality? One is Georgia has 26 NFL players on defense and even they can slow down, Alabama, when Alabama's missing a wide receiver. I think it's a little bit of both. I think if You don't get an injury for Alabama. It's probably at least a different game.

1:27:52 I don't know if it's necessarily still the same outcome, but I think it's a different game, but I think George has showed that in the right circumstances, you're going with that old-school mentality of Defense first controlling offense, not necessarily needing to score a ton of points but this be efficient with the football. I think that showed that that can still win but I think it was also a unique scenario because of some of the things that happen during the game. Also unique that there's guys like Jordan Davis that literally it takes two guys to block him every single time for these. That much of a man absolutely but it was great to see, Georgia win and kind of break the monotony of Alabama.

1:28:39 So you know, we are right now. What are we grind? Ten days after the national championship, right? Yeah. 360 55 days or something like that. Now, I'm way off for like, six months until seven months. Yeah, it's late and I've it math. Math is a bitch. It's just what it is. We're like, seven months until kickoff. Can't wait. Can't wait for Spring ball and the rest of this offseason run. Hi Ron, anything breaking while we've been out here? I don't see anything funny when I think we're good to kick it. All right.

1:29:21 Well that is going to wrap up this episode of The Boundary Corner podcast. I'm Curtis Wilson. I'm Brian siglo visit our website. Boundary corner be t.com to listen to all of our episodes while you're there. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube account and your favorite podcast Source including Spotify, Amazon, and apple podcast. Without our buddy, Jason Long play a sin and play us out. Catch him on Spotify, and apple music. Also, check out his YouTube channel where you can obviously see the songs that he plays for us along with some of his other songs along with some cool cover songs. That Jason does we thank you? As always for listening and as always let's go Hokies