In this episode we discuss the retirement of Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban, we Tell the Truth about the Hokies victory over Tulane in the Military Bowl, and breakdown the outcome of the College Football Playoff. We then look back at the moments and plays that made 2023 an incredible ride and what we're looking forward to the most in 2024.

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Boundary Corner Podcast
Transcript

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And welcome back to the Boundary Corner podcast, along with my partners, Brian Seigla, Jonathan Talley, and Shelton Moss.

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I am Curtis Wilson, and this episode is brought to you by Dr. Jeremy Counts at the Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg, your friendly neighborhood pharmacy, 301 South Main Street, Blacksburg, Virginia.

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Gentlemen, since the last time us four got together, it's been about a month.

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How's everybody doing?

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How are the holidays going?

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Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

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I didn't drink as much since the last time we talked, so I guess that gives you a little bit of a preview of how my holidays went down.

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I did not abstain from the alcohol, but I certainly did not go as hard as State of the Program.

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Tally?

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It's been a lot.

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I've had a lot going on over here, man.

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My kid broke his leg.

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basketball practice so we had to go through surgery had a rod put in and screws in his ankle and all type of stuff and you know just trying to keep him mentally strong on the on the journey that we got to take their new job just started um 2024 has been trying to me that's what it's been making so well at least it's happening at the beginning

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Yeah, man.

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I always tell... I'm very optimistic about most stuff.

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It's just hard.

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Like I said, my son broke his leg.

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It's hard to see him laying in the hospital bed, but once I could get him home and get him to doing some normal stuff and to see him being able to play his video game and stuff, I'm like, okay, you're going to be all right.

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We're going to get through it.

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That's fine.

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I'm blessed, like I said, we're all blessed, so.

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Sheldon say, new year, new him.

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That's right, got my nice fresh cut.

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God, Sheldon, how you been, man?

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I've been good.

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I got a little respite back home in Richmond over the Christmas break.

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The only thing I really did was go up to the military ball.

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It was pouring down rain the entire time.

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I was in the press box as a credentialed media member.

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However, that did not keep me from getting entirely wet because the Navy press box, their pipes were leaking water.

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So we had some spillage right next to me on the table.

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And then to make it worse, the window panes

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uh had condensation on them so you could barely see out in the second half you could barely see out of the uh out of the out of the glass um so it was not i would give that i would not give the navy press box a good yelp review i would say maybe like one one star out of ten with that being said though i got to see some friends so i i think it was a great experience

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You should have just came down in the bleachers with me, Sheldon.

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You'd have been all right.

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I could see the game.

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I was soaked, but I could see the game.

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I did enjoy the military bowl.

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We did not get to catch up, unfortunately, Sheldon.

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I tried.

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But Sheldon got up really late.

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I got up there really early.

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And then, like you said, you were going through the press box and stuff.

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But that is what it is.

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So, but –

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You know, we're back, and we've got a lot to unload, as we always do.

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We are going to talk about that bowl game.

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We're going to obviously talk about the breaking news that broke about going on four and a half hours ago, which, Tally, I don't see the barricades up or the sandbags up in the background yet, so I'm assuming nothing's went crazy down in the state of Alabama yet.

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But we're going to talk about that as well.

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But let's kick off tonight real quick.

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I told Tally he needs to get the barriers up because there's going to be riots.

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They're going to be in the streets.

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Yeah, not yet.

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Everybody's calm right now.

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You know, they think they're getting Lane Kiffin or Urban Meyer or somebody.

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I don't know who they think they're getting right now.

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So everybody's still calm.

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All righty.

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Well, before we jump on that, because I do want to talk about that a little bit, but let's jump on what just broke or what just happened, ended about 30 minutes ago.

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The Hokies won versus a ranked team in basketball.

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By more than one or two points.

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Well, technically both.

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Technically both.

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We'll hit that one in a second.

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Sheldon, I know you were really tuned in because you actually texted all of us and was like, I'll be on as soon as the basketball game's over.

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87-72, Padula career high 32.

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I tried to watch pieces of this game, but I got stuff going on.

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Based on what's happened the last few times out, pleasantly surprised for me.

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Sheldon, what about you?

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Yeah, definitely.

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I mean, they shot the lights out.

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They were 54 percent from three, 13 to 24 and 54, 54 percent overall.

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So just a kind of a lightning in a bottle offensive performance.

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Obviously, Padilla goes off.

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You got who was it?

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Tyler Nickel goes off eight for 11, five or seven from three.

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So.

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I don't know.

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I mean, three-point shooting kind of come and go each game.

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I don't know if that level of shooting is sustainable over time, but it was good to kind of see them play at least closer to their capability.

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I think this year they've had a bunch of players that have regressed from their historical norms, and so it's good to see maybe some positive regression.

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Hopefully some of those guys who played well tonight can kind of use this sort of as a launching pad to kind of get back to where they are capable of playing.

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Yeah, and, you know, what's even crazier tonight is you take a look at the stat line.

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The guy who's been, like, lighting it up all year had his – obviously his most pedestrian game of the year in Lynn Kidd from an offensive perspective.

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I mean, you know, he still went out there, you know, grabbed some boards.

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Obviously, Kidd's a big guy, a couple blocks.

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But –

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I think maybe the most impressive thing was Tyler nickel tonight because that 20, Brian, how much did you see of the game?

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I was like you, I was kind of checking in and out.

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We had some stuff going on here, you know, family, whatnot.

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So I was checking in and out, but you know what I was looking at there, it looks like,

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like like shelton was saying you know we had a little bit of reversion to the mean in a positive way um you know and then we also add in um i think you know getting a little bit more from nickel or i should say maybe more of what we expected from nickel um for most of the year tonight um yeah i think he looked like a solid contributor uh you know was shooting the ball very well i think we expected that a little bit more maybe this is a sign of things to come maybe this is just kind of a one-off i guess we'll see is

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we get further than ACC play, but I liked what I saw tonight.

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If we can get, you know, 80, 90% of that every game, I feel like we're going to be doing all right against most of the competition that we play.

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So yeah, if, if we can, we can, you know, keep most of that level together, I think we'll be all right.

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As we get further in the ACC play.

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I liked what I saw though.

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Let's see if they can keep it up.

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Cali, you catch any of it tonight?

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Yeah, I was tuned in.

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I watched probably 80 or 90% of the game.

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Tyler Nichol, he had a good game.

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He was letting it fly.

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You could tell he came out with the right mindset.

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The coaches let him play.

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He put some shots up.

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He didn't miss many, but the couple that he missed, it was like you could tell they were kind of heat check shots.

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So sometimes coaches will be like, oh, no, we got to take him out, calm him down.

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They let him keep going, and he kept playing.

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But I guess what's to be said about this game is they did all of it without Hunter Couture.

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He was a big reason why –

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The defense was pretty stout at the beginning because he can guard some different positions.

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But when he went out with that concussion, I mean, he got kicked in the head.

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As you can see, he was hurt.

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So when he went out, I was like, they're going to blow this lead because –

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What they kept doing, what Clemson kept doing was they kept getting in transition, and their big man would run the floor.

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Sean Padula would run the floor and go low and get caught on a big man.

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So they started exploiting that, and I was like, oh, yeah, it's over.

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But they just couldn't out-shoot the Hokies, man.

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They just kept shooting and kept making them.

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At one time, they was like, Clemson's shooting the ball really well.

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They're 55% from three.

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But Virginia Tech's shooting 65%.

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There you go.

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Like, what do you do, you know?

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So I think the problem that we run into basketball-wise is when we play the very athletic –

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physical teams.

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Teams like Clemson aren't the teams that really kill us most of the time, cuz they kinda match up the same.

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And it comes down to who can shoot.

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But when you get into teams like FSU play, I think that we gave that game away.

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But FSU was a very physical team.

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They're guarding you all the way down the floor, they're pushing.

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And Padula has a hard time with that because of his size.

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He's a great player, but he's just, you know, he's like 6'1", 6'0", something like that.

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And a lot of these point guards in the ACC are 6'3", 6'4", a little bit bigger frame, and they try to push him around.

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So we run into that problem, and the offense is much different when the ball isn't going through Padula's hands.

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So I'm interested to see how they handle that because nobody on the team can really handle the ball like he does.

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as efficient as he is when he's on.

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But when you get him off his point is where we run into problems.

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So interesting to see how that is because the ACC ramps up and, you know, you run into Virginia, you run into Duke, you run into these North Carolina teams, and you see what you're made of.

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But great start to, you know, starting to get into this conference play and going in and getting that win against Clemson.

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Yeah, definitely this is what's coming up, what started tonight and going through the next three games.

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There's definitely probably the toughest four-game stretch of the conference play because it's down in Miami.

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Miami's 11-3.

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Virginia, that's at – or Miami at Castle.

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Virginia at Virginia.

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Virginia's like 10-4.

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NC State's 11-3.

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Those are two away games.

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So, I mean, is it one of those things?

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Let me get your opinion on this, Sheldon, before we flip over.

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Do the next three games decide if this team potentially could make the tournament?

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Well, probably.

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I mean, because those are kind of all your quad one games.

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You got Miami, UVA, NC State.

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Yeah, so those are – I'm pretty sure those are all quad ones because quad one is top 75 on the road.

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Got one tonight.

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Yes, I got one tonight, which is huge.

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And depending on – hopefully Clemson stays in the top 30, which they are right now.

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But –

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Yeah, I mean, if they hold serve and go 2-1, I mean, they're looking really good.

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If they go 1-2, it's kind of like, eh, still on the fringe.

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If they go in 3, I think they're done.

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So I think this stretch is very much going to prove whether or not they can make a shot at the NCAA tournament.

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I was checking the numbers the other day.

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Right now we're at 9%, according to Bart Torvik, chances of making the NCAA tournament, which obviously is not great, but that doesn't include tonight's win, and we've still got a long way to go.

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So those numbers can fluctuate game by game.

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But so they I mean, yeah, they have definitely a chance, but they just they got to take advantage this week.

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Yep.

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All right.

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Now, I would say to Tally's previous point, I think a lot of whether this team is going to make the tournament is going to depend on how well Sean Padula can play, especially once we get against those bigger guards.

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He seems to have a tendency that.

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When he gets pressed like that, he either holds the ball too long or he kind of panics and we get a turnover, right?

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So he's either holding the ball, we don't give to our offense, we get a bad shot, or we get a turnover because he panics.

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So if we can cut down on turnovers, he's done a pretty good job of limiting turnovers tonight.

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If we can continue that against those bigger guard teams like Tally was talking about, I think we're going to have a good shot in those next three to kind of come out of that two and one.

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100%.

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All right.

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Now, one team that plays in Castle Coliseum on a daily basis, there is no question that they're going to be in the tournament this year.

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And we all saw it.

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But what a win against the number three ranked Wolfpack on the other day with Kittley making that buzzer beater.

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We know we lost to Iowa and LSU, but we talked on this program.

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This team still is a legitimate national championship contender.

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They had a lot of new pieces coming in, and then it started coming together.

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And I saw the end of that game.

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That's it.

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I'll put my hands up.

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I didn't get to watch the rest of it.

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But, I mean, is there much more to say about the Lady Hokies?

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Because they're a top-ten team.

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It's not even a question.

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Yeah, I mean, they got star power with the top couple of players, Georgia and Kittley.

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You got star power there, which is what the TV likes.

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And then when it comes down to coaching, I think Kenny's doing a good job of coaching them and bringing the right people in and piecing the team together after losing a couple of people from that Final Four team.

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So like you said, I mean, you know that's a –

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a deep tournament team.

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I don't know how deep they go.

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Of course, that comes down to March Madness, but the way that they're playing and the way that they persevere, I mean, they've lost to two very good teams.

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If not the top two teams, I mean, they're up there.

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So they just got to get over that hump to be able to beat those teams.

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You know, I say that and then you'll get put against a 16 seed and then be struggling.

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But you know what I'm saying?

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Like those top teams that they've lost to that.

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That's where we were kind of OK.

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Can we can we get over that hump and beat them?

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And then they play the number three team.

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You know, it is at home, but.

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He went on a buzzer beater.

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So did you get over the hump?

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Maybe.

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We won that game, so we'll see.

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I'm excited for them, though, man.

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I mean, I'm excited that they got some momentum and some good stuff going.

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I'd love to see them have a deep tournament run this year.

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Shem, what you got on them?

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Yeah, I think it was a great win.

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I thought NC State early on hit some tough shots, but Georgia was off her game in the first half, but she kept going at it, and eventually their shots started to fall for her.

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And they went on, well, I think it was a 12-0 run towards the end of the fourth quarter, and

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came up with a good win.

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So, you know, all in all, I think Vegas nailed it.

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Tech was one-point favorites, 1.5-point favorites, and they won by one.

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So credit to Vegas for that one.

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But, you know, you look at their two losses this year.

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Iowa was a close game on a neutral court that could have gone either way.

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LSU, I think, was just a really, really bad matchup.

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I mean, we just got outmatched physically completely in that game.

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Weird timing, too.

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Angel Reese coming back was a huge emotional output for LSU that night, too.

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Right.

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Yeah.

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And so, you know, yeah, I think, you know, after the LSU game, I was kind of worried if maybe like they were kind of like just a fringe top 20 team.

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But as Kenny has talked about all season long, you know, he's still trying to figure out his pieces and how they kind of fit together.

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And as you've seen throughout the course of the year, they've started to gel a little bit more.

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So I think right now, as Curtis was saying, they're definitely kind of on that cusp of the top 10.

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And I feel I feel a lot more confident about this team right now than I do, you know, three, four weeks ago.

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Brian, what you got?

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Yeah, I think they're getting together at the right time, starting to play a little bit better overall.

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I think the big thing is that you're seeing those other pieces be able to kind of bridge those gaps when Georgia may be a little off from deep or Kittley may not be hitting some of those turnarounds or post-ups.

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They can weather that storm a little bit better right now than they did in the early part of the year.

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So I think that's really big.

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You're seeing those pieces kind of gel and step into a larger role on the team.

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All righty.

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So, again, that was also the Wolfpack's first loss of the season there.

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So huge win on the basketball front.

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As we're coming on during the offseason for football, we'll be hitting on basketball and wrestling here and there.

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Wrestling got a big one against Cornell this weekend.

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I'm sure the ACC won't broadcast because, you know, it's only two top ten teams wrestling-wise.

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They don't know how to broadcast anything, so I digress.

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But let's go to the big college football news of the day before we talk about the bowl game.

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And my wife actually said this.

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Hey, before you go into football, y'all see Joe's comment right there.

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Put that up.

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Yep.

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So I called him one day.

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and was just talking to him about wrestling.

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Again, I told y'all, if you got questions about wrestling, he's the person to go to.

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He does keep up with it, and he can break it down a little bit better for people like me.

19:45.512 --> 19:47.714
He was telling me, hey, they're missing some people.

19:48.374 --> 20:00.524
This person is hurt, or this person, they're trying to hold them out, or they were on some kind of, I don't know what it's called, but some kind of tour where they're doing an Olympic thing and blah, blah, blah.

20:00.564 --> 20:01.505
He told me that the kid

20:02.445 --> 20:05.787
Cooper Flynn, he was like, they got to bring him back and see if they can save the season.

20:06.428 --> 20:08.689
He has been balling since he's been back.

20:10.430 --> 20:17.375
I think Joe said he's number four at the 125 pounder right now.

20:17.755 --> 20:24.699
That's been kind of when you know what's going on and you get to watch something unfold like that, that's pretty cool.

20:25.119 --> 20:26.520
I just wanted to bring some attention to that.

20:26.720 --> 20:27.581
Sorry, go ahead, Curtis.

20:28.459 --> 20:29.421
Oh, no worries, man.

20:29.461 --> 20:30.082
No worries.

20:30.122 --> 20:37.414
Again, I think he had a pretty big win against Mizzou because the Mizzou, we lost the duel, but I think it was 10 matches split 5-5.

20:37.955 --> 20:39.938
Again, that's wrestling and all that weird point stuff.

20:39.958 --> 20:41.841
I know Sheldon's getting into it more and more.

20:42.432 --> 20:43.432
We got Joe out there.

20:43.452 --> 20:45.933
We got our buddy Dave Fuqua who can explain things to me.

20:46.613 --> 20:48.293
But, you know, that is what it is.

20:48.353 --> 20:50.233
But let's get to the news of the day.

20:50.573 --> 20:52.194
Tally doesn't have the barricades up yet.

20:52.254 --> 20:53.734
He might not be able to go to work tomorrow.

20:53.754 --> 20:58.575
They might be calling a moratorium down in the state of Alabama.

20:58.715 --> 20:59.695
State holiday, man.

20:59.735 --> 21:00.895
It's a state holiday.

21:01.655 --> 21:03.356
Flags at half-mast and everything.

21:03.476 --> 21:04.356
It's a morning day.

21:06.196 --> 21:08.636
But my wife actually said it a few weeks ago.

21:08.696 --> 21:11.417
She's like, Nick Saban's going to retire after these bowl games.

21:12.518 --> 21:15.739
I looked and sure as hell she nailed it.

21:16.599 --> 21:17.820
Nick Saban retires.

21:18.640 --> 21:22.341
And so the college football world is now who takes over Alabama.

21:22.361 --> 21:23.301
Why is he doing this?

21:23.721 --> 21:24.381
Why he's doing it.

21:24.401 --> 21:25.482
He's got nothing left to prove.

21:25.762 --> 21:27.022
He's 72 years old.

21:27.522 --> 21:29.403
He has a plethora of national titles.

21:29.523 --> 21:36.825
He is considered maybe the greatest coach of all time that can be decided here or there or a whole nother category.

21:37.345 --> 21:41.830
But I'm going to turn it to Tally, because Tally, did you work today in the office?

21:42.150 --> 21:44.773
And were you still in the office when the news break was at 4 o'clock?

21:44.853 --> 21:45.354
Oh, yeah.

21:45.894 --> 21:46.435
What happened?

21:46.755 --> 21:47.396
Let's hear it.

21:48.135 --> 21:49.616
Oh, yeah, I was definitely still at work.

21:49.676 --> 21:53.640
And when ESPN sends you something, you know, that's the real deal.

21:54.080 --> 21:57.783
You know, because I get people that always we screw with each other and stuff like that.

21:57.823 --> 21:59.845
But ESPN hits me with something.

21:59.865 --> 22:03.388
I'm like, oh, they're probably talking about, you know, because I'm doing training right now.

22:03.928 --> 22:08.292
And it's just all looking at the computer all day and Zoom calls and things like that.

22:08.352 --> 22:10.434
So look down at my phone just real quick.

22:10.454 --> 22:12.255
And I think and it says retiring.

22:12.836 --> 22:14.918
And I'm like, Brett Proffin to retire already.

22:15.698 --> 22:19.680
You know, so I opened it up and it says Nick Saban retiring.

22:20.100 --> 22:20.820
I'm like, wow.

22:20.920 --> 22:28.403
So I went straight to Facebook and start poking people and calling around and people's calling me and there was no more work done for the day.

22:28.963 --> 22:37.106
But in one of my friend groups, you know, 90% Alabama fans don't want to spread any false information.

22:37.166 --> 22:40.728
But somebody said that they think that his wife is sick.

22:41.610 --> 22:45.712
is one of the reasons why she got diagnosed with dementia, I think they said.

22:46.332 --> 22:47.553
Don't know how true that is.

22:48.073 --> 22:49.774
Could just be somebody trying to cope.

22:49.974 --> 22:53.916
But whatever the case is, like you said, he doesn't have anything to prove.

22:54.376 --> 22:58.658
I do screw with Alabama fans and try to piss them off.

22:58.698 --> 23:04.641
But he's one of the greatest coaches that's ever coached college football.

23:05.122 --> 23:07.583
So the 17 years that he's been at Alabama,

23:08.342 --> 23:10.445
He's been nothing short of amazing.

23:11.506 --> 23:18.196
In the last two years, he's lost three games, something like that.

23:18.216 --> 23:21.120
I mean, what else does he have to do?

23:22.081 --> 23:24.985
But it's changing too much for him, and he just got out.

23:27.222 --> 23:32.689
Yeah, I think there's no doubt that he's the best recruiting head coach of all time.

23:32.729 --> 23:33.710
I don't think that's a debate.

23:33.750 --> 23:36.214
I think he's the best team-building head coach of all time.

23:36.774 --> 23:42.942
You can argue from an X's and O's standpoint, but in terms of preparation for a game, when he's got time –

23:44.344 --> 23:46.425
I mean, it's hard to bet against Saban.

23:46.445 --> 23:58.555
I mean, the loss to Michigan is something that you just don't see very often by a Nick Saban team, even with what some would consider a talent discrepancy of this year's Alabama compared to this year's Michigan.

23:59.215 --> 24:03.259
Nick Saban just did not lose very many games where he had multiple weeks to prepare.

24:03.279 --> 24:04.600
It's true, right?

24:05.360 --> 24:05.801
Very true.

24:06.221 --> 24:07.362
Sean, what's your take on this?

24:08.680 --> 24:13.967
Well, for me, I think Nick Saban is a truly game-changing head coach.

24:14.188 --> 24:22.800
You know, you look at back in the late 2000s, you know, he really kind of started that support staff model where if you go, I mean, go look at the Alabama staff directory.

24:22.860 --> 24:24.202
They just have, you know...

24:24.782 --> 24:28.245
dozens and dozens of an army of support staffers and analytics guys.

24:28.325 --> 24:32.088
And, and that model really helped them, you know, kind of build, build the program into what they are.

24:32.448 --> 24:35.791
And I think on top of that, you know, Saban for me, it's not about the X's and O's really.

24:35.831 --> 24:46.420
It's more about the, the program management, the, the infrastructure, the culture building, that's kind of where he's kind of made his, his living and people want to work for him because they want to play for that culture.

24:46.520 --> 24:48.922
So I just think for, I think it's,

24:49.682 --> 25:02.845
He really taught me a lot about football in the modern day because he impressed upon me the importance of having infrastructure with football to to not only, you know, recruit the best players, but also maximize the talent of the players that you do have.

25:02.865 --> 25:08.567
You know, there was a time a few years ago where, you know, I thought that that Alabama was just, you know, more talented than everyone else.

25:08.607 --> 25:09.427
And that's why they won games.

25:09.467 --> 25:14.248
But really, you know, when you look at something like that, when when I was running some of my development numbers, it's.

25:14.608 --> 25:18.169
Alabama gets more out of their talent than almost any of their team.

25:18.269 --> 25:24.931
They recruit really good players, but they also maximize those players more than anyone else because that's just what Nick Saban does.

25:25.112 --> 25:32.914
So I think it's just a case study in how much the culture, the program, the administration matters for football.

25:32.954 --> 25:34.975
Obviously, you've got to have the right people in charge.

25:35.615 --> 25:38.337
But there's just so much that goes into that program.

25:38.397 --> 25:43.441
And Alabama funds and supports football in a very unique way that ultimately made Saban the perfect fit.

25:43.582 --> 25:45.383
And there's really no one that has done it better than he has.

25:46.124 --> 25:51.888
You play harder when you're playing for that Hellcat as well.

25:52.108 --> 26:01.236
By the way, Tally, is it any coincidence that Dodge cancels the charge or Nick Saban retires like three days later, man?

26:01.296 --> 26:03.277
People have been sending it to me, man.

26:03.317 --> 26:05.119
It's a lot of stuff going around down here.

26:05.563 --> 26:07.004
I don't know what to think about it, man.

26:07.284 --> 26:08.345
I'm just trying to sit back.

26:08.766 --> 26:11.808
I'm trying to keep my head on the swivel.

26:11.868 --> 26:15.531
It's like a couple of things that you don't really talk about at work here.

26:15.791 --> 26:19.875
It's like politics, religion, and Alabama and Auburn football.

26:19.915 --> 26:23.998
You can talk about any other teams, but those two, you got to keep your head on the swivel.

26:24.018 --> 26:25.259
You don't know who you're going to piss off.

26:25.299 --> 26:26.780
Shout out to Tricky Nicky.

26:29.264 --> 26:33.473
You know, you got Alabama fans yelling they're getting Lane Kiffin.

26:33.914 --> 26:35.176
Okay, that was my next question.

26:35.196 --> 26:36.599
Who do you think they're getting?

26:36.619 --> 26:37.801
You think they're getting Lane Kiffin?

26:38.463 --> 26:39.244
I don't know, man.

26:40.487 --> 26:42.329
Lane's such a wild card.

26:42.729 --> 26:43.450
I can see him.

26:44.450 --> 26:49.155
I can say the people in Tuscaloosa love Lane because I think they call him something.

26:49.175 --> 26:51.376
They call him because he's so crazy.

26:51.637 --> 26:52.477
He's got a nickname.

26:54.699 --> 26:57.161
Something like Joey Freshwater or something like that.

26:57.642 --> 26:58.983
Don't quote me, but you can look that up.

26:59.023 --> 26:59.844
He's got a nickname.

26:59.884 --> 27:05.388
I think it's Joey Freshwater, but they said he would tell the young girls at the bars that's what his name was.

27:06.209 --> 27:08.731
So, like, he just does crazy shit.

27:09.412 --> 27:11.634
And the people in Tuscaloosa, that's what it is.

27:11.754 --> 27:13.115
It's Joey Freshwater.

27:13.215 --> 27:14.937
It's Joey Freshwater.

27:15.037 --> 27:20.161
They connect with him because, I mean, he, you know, Saban had him on a leash when he was there.

27:20.462 --> 27:21.963
Like, he couldn't talk to the media.

27:22.023 --> 27:25.166
He couldn't do none of the shit that he does to be himself.

27:25.606 --> 27:29.389
So, if he does come back, he would be coming back like, okay, this is me.

27:29.850 --> 27:30.991
I'm going to do what I want to do.

27:31.231 --> 27:31.972
You know what I'm saying?

27:31.992 --> 27:32.272
Yeah.

27:32.532 --> 27:38.215
But, you know, for a while it was like Dabo was the guy to take over.

27:38.755 --> 27:45.379
But they don't want Dabo now because Dabo is – his inefficiencies is what Nick's inefficiencies is.

27:45.819 --> 27:48.741
Like, Nick, he was changing with the game.

27:48.761 --> 27:49.741
That's what made him great.

27:50.241 --> 27:55.464
But Dabo kind of refuses to do that, and he's not using the portal, and they don't want to lose.

27:55.784 --> 27:59.626
So I think Dabo's image is kind of tainted, and he's one of –

28:01.187 --> 28:01.948
He's one of theirs.

28:02.248 --> 28:06.032
So I would go against saying Dabo.

28:06.072 --> 28:12.057
I would probably say they would go hard after Lane Kiffin or Oregon's coach.

28:12.598 --> 28:14.099
All right.

28:14.119 --> 28:14.560
Dan Lane.

28:14.580 --> 28:15.801
Dan Lane, yeah.

28:16.241 --> 28:19.625
I would say those two would probably be the ones I would be looking out for.

28:20.365 --> 28:23.188
Brian, you got any difference or other people you thinking about?

28:23.576 --> 28:25.637
Dan Lanning is probably at the top of my list.

28:26.957 --> 28:27.838
I'm with Tally.

28:27.878 --> 28:28.978
I don't think it's Dabo.

28:29.538 --> 28:34.741
Dabo took until late 2023 to actually make an offer in the portal.

28:36.141 --> 28:42.004
He did not secure that offer, but he finally made an offer this year in the portal.

28:42.204 --> 28:47.586
It's amazing how someone that from a standpoint of

28:48.732 --> 28:56.297
kind of revamping what Clemson was doing from an infrastructure standpoint is not embracing the portal at this point in time.

28:56.717 --> 28:57.457
It's baffling.

28:57.517 --> 29:00.139
Like, why is that the hill he wants to die on?

29:00.699 --> 29:01.280
Good question.

29:01.500 --> 29:01.940
Good question.

29:01.960 --> 29:02.781
Sean, what about you?

29:04.361 --> 29:09.164
I think Alabama needs to hire a head coach who is forward-thinking and also very serious.

29:09.905 --> 29:12.026
Like Tally said, Lane Kiffin's kind of a wild card.

29:12.046 --> 29:13.087
You don't know what he's up to.

29:13.727 --> 29:16.289
Dabo was reluctant to embrace transfer portal at NIL.

29:17.412 --> 29:20.393
I think Dan Lanning, based on those two qualities, is the best candidate.

29:20.453 --> 29:22.995
I mean, he's done a really good job at Oregon in a short amount of time.

29:23.015 --> 29:29.658
He's been with Kirby Smart at Georgia, so he's learned from his structure as well.

29:30.238 --> 29:32.239
I think Lanning would be the best candidate, personally.

29:32.919 --> 29:35.602
Yeah, and it seems like it's going that way.

29:35.662 --> 29:42.968
He does have the highest buyout on this, but I think there's a point that should be made is money probably doesn't matter down there.

29:42.988 --> 29:47.772
This is not quite Texas-level buyouts, but this is kind of that second tier, right?

29:48.413 --> 29:49.674
It's kind of the second tier.

29:50.054 --> 29:57.201
And if you take a look at him, he was a GA at Alabama back in 2015, and then when Kirby moved over to Georgia, he followed –

29:57.801 --> 30:02.044
after two years down at Memphis under Norvell before he went over to Oregon.

30:02.084 --> 30:05.206
Again, success there in his first couple seasons.

30:05.346 --> 30:09.269
I mean, I think 20-5 or something ridiculous like that.

30:09.289 --> 30:11.030
22-5, excuse me.

30:11.090 --> 30:12.370
I missed a couple wins there.

30:13.571 --> 30:15.052
But it's always that piece.

30:15.112 --> 30:17.294
Do you want to be the guy after the guy?

30:17.854 --> 30:18.895
No, you don't.

30:19.195 --> 30:19.575
You don't.

30:19.935 --> 30:20.876
You fucking don't.

30:21.296 --> 30:23.798
Can you tell me who was the coach after Darryl Brown?

30:23.818 --> 30:24.158
Not in Tuscaloosa.

30:26.472 --> 30:50.022
know he probably wasn't fucking good and they probably hated his guts because if you go to Tuscaloosa this next year and you lose two games they gonna be on your ass his names was everybody was saying they was Dion fans at the beginning of this season I said fucking get Dion down there y'all wanted him so bad you was buying Colorado shit

30:50.976 --> 30:51.897
That ain't going to happen.

30:52.517 --> 30:53.417
You know that can't happen.

30:53.517 --> 30:53.998
You know why?

30:54.018 --> 30:54.278
No.

30:54.298 --> 30:55.719
I know why.

30:56.139 --> 31:00.901
The brothers can't transfer, and Travis Hunter can't transfer again because they get the one-time done.

31:01.702 --> 31:04.764
We don't know that because there's a moratorium on that right now.

31:04.884 --> 31:05.204
No, no, no.

31:05.244 --> 31:06.284
The moratorium's over.

31:06.384 --> 31:06.965
It's 14 days.

31:07.065 --> 31:07.765
It ended already.

31:08.125 --> 31:09.186
Okay, okay.

31:09.206 --> 31:14.289
But here's the sneaky piece, and we all are like in Lanning, and we say Lane's a wild card.

31:15.229 --> 31:17.951
Y'all know when class officially starts at Ole Miss?

31:19.642 --> 31:19.902
Yeah.

31:20.442 --> 31:21.382
January 22nd.

31:22.262 --> 31:27.743
That means none of those players that he got in the portal have enrolled at all.

31:28.564 --> 31:30.364
And that's going to also be a huge story.

31:30.424 --> 31:39.805
So hopefully by two weeks from now when we're back together, either interviewing somebody or talking about some stuff, we get to find out more and we know who the coach is.

31:40.066 --> 31:40.606
Oh, yeah.

31:40.646 --> 31:42.966
I think they're going to get somebody in pretty quick.

31:43.486 --> 31:43.926
They have to.

31:43.966 --> 31:48.187
Because they don't want to – they've already got a couple of kids that's

31:49.192 --> 31:50.172
They lost out, too.

31:50.192 --> 31:54.333
Because, I mean, there's been some speculation about Nick leaving or him getting old.

31:54.374 --> 32:01.095
So you had a couple of kids that flipped to Auburn, which was crazy, which I understand because I like Hugh Freeze.

32:01.616 --> 32:05.417
But you had a couple of high-level wide receivers that were Alabama commits.

32:06.137 --> 32:09.098
One was a Texas A&M commit, and one was an Alabama commit.

32:09.898 --> 32:12.559
And they flipped to Auburn.

32:13.139 --> 32:15.620
And then you had another kid who was a 25 kid.

32:17.683 --> 32:25.947
all of them from the state of Alabama, 25-kid Ryan Williams from a school here called Saryland that was committed to Alabama.

32:25.987 --> 32:30.229
He reclassified for the 24-year, and he just decommitted.

32:30.389 --> 32:35.292
So Nick Saban retiring is a big domino, man.

32:35.752 --> 32:39.874
And like you said, I mean, if you have somebody like Elaine Kiffin that goes –

32:40.414 --> 32:42.435
And then those kids start transferring.

32:42.475 --> 32:44.957
And then these kids from Alabama start transferring out.

32:45.337 --> 32:49.439
Then you got to bring somebody back into this next school that a coach leaves from.

32:50.060 --> 32:52.141
I just hope it all works out in Virginia Tech's favor.

32:54.422 --> 32:56.463
Just get me nine, 10 wins next year, man.

32:56.523 --> 32:57.524
Let's just keep going up.

32:58.064 --> 32:58.986
Let's keep it rolling.

32:59.066 --> 33:03.213
Well, let's talk some Virginia Tech football and let's tell the truth Tuesday Bowl edition.

33:03.253 --> 33:04.536
Yes, it has been two weeks.

33:05.157 --> 33:06.219
It feels like forever.

33:06.259 --> 33:08.423
I feel like I've watched 100 games since then.

33:08.523 --> 33:10.627
But let's talk about that bowl victory.

33:11.581 --> 33:18.703
Virginia Tech beats the number 21-ranked Tulane Green Wave 41-21.

33:19.083 --> 33:21.303
Excuse me, 41-17.

33:21.343 --> 33:25.264
It actually was – excuse me, 41-20, and we'll get the score right eventually here.

33:26.504 --> 33:27.204
That was there.

33:27.465 --> 33:28.205
Math is a fish.

33:28.585 --> 33:29.745
Yeah, it is, man.

33:29.825 --> 33:30.145
It is.

33:30.245 --> 33:30.845
It is, boys.

33:31.225 --> 33:33.706
But let's talk about that game and –

33:34.727 --> 33:38.772
What we always do, I don't think we're going to be as in-depth because there's nothing after this, right?

33:39.233 --> 33:40.334
But let's talk about it.

33:40.715 --> 33:46.782
Sheldon, in your eyes, what went well in the press box, waving the condensation off the screen?

33:47.363 --> 33:48.785
What went well that Wednesday afternoon?

33:49.901 --> 33:51.482
I think drones ran the ball very well.

33:51.682 --> 33:54.163
You know, they were able to to open some holes on the O-line.

33:54.203 --> 33:59.225
And I know the O-line has received much criticism this year, but, you know, they were really kind of moving some guys around.

33:59.265 --> 34:03.687
I mean, it wasn't just like drones kind of scrambling for his life or going around the tackles like they actually went.

34:03.707 --> 34:09.670
You know, they went up, you know, towards the A and B gaps in between the tackles and got some had some a lot of success for some of those runs.

34:09.770 --> 34:11.951
So I thought I thought that went pretty well.

34:13.485 --> 34:17.187
I thought they kind of hit some big run plays with Tootin going outside.

34:17.207 --> 34:19.348
Defense was pretty solid.

34:19.388 --> 34:21.449
They gave up some drives.

34:21.489 --> 34:27.352
They gave up some yards, but they were fortunate that Tulane fumbled a few footballs and got on top of those.

34:27.412 --> 34:33.635
So I think the rain, the conditions kind of made it a little bit hard to judge, as you guys could certainly see on TV if you were not there.

34:33.695 --> 34:36.857
It was just as, if not more, wet than you think it was.

34:37.617 --> 34:47.669
But, yeah, I mean, they just kind of, you know, brought out the road gritter offensive line, and they just – it was a field day, man.

34:47.689 --> 34:48.950
They were just running the ball all over the place.

34:49.771 --> 34:50.532
Brian, what about you?

34:50.552 --> 34:54.237
What went well in your eyes as you were watching it there at the house?

34:55.734 --> 34:58.275
Yeah, I think just the team intensity.

34:58.335 --> 35:00.215
I feel like they stuck with it the whole time.

35:00.295 --> 35:02.596
They looked like they were on a mission to win that game.

35:03.216 --> 35:09.958
They didn't let those sudden changes with the fumbles, with the weather causing some of those problems get them off track.

35:10.298 --> 35:11.338
They were able to answer.

35:11.358 --> 35:14.819
And eventually the talent...

35:15.899 --> 35:37.727
took over at the end of the game that's when you saw that defense wearing out for two lane that's when we were able to as long as we were able to hold on to the football we were able to finish drives put up points and put them in a bad spot so i think the team intensity was was the most impressive thing for me tally what about you well i know you i know your dad was around when your son was getting hurt and everything

35:38.607 --> 35:39.868
Or was it before?

35:40.048 --> 35:40.849
Was it after?

35:40.889 --> 35:41.670
No, it was before.

35:41.730 --> 35:42.991
Yeah, it was before.

35:43.091 --> 35:45.413
All right, so not as stressful on your mind.

35:46.594 --> 35:48.295
What went well in your eyes as you were watching it?

35:48.856 --> 35:53.199
Well, even before the game is what went well.

35:53.239 --> 35:57.783
Like the whole team being there, everybody showing up and being prepared to play.

35:58.304 --> 35:59.144
You know what I'm saying?

35:59.184 --> 36:05.610
Like I think it said we had 21 of 22 starters that was in the bowl game.

36:06.104 --> 36:07.425
You know, that's huge.

36:08.105 --> 36:15.710
I don't know many teams that were out there in a meaningless bowl game that had that many players show up ready to play.

36:16.251 --> 36:19.513
So, you know, having all of our guys there that was ready to compete.

36:20.373 --> 36:26.818
We had some of our recruits that are coming in that's enrolling early, practicing at the bowl practice like that's what.

36:27.659 --> 36:30.480
getting to a bowl does for a team like Virginia Tech.

36:30.961 --> 36:31.541
You know what I'm saying?

36:31.581 --> 36:33.482
Some people's like, oh, it's just six and six.

36:33.562 --> 36:34.903
And you know what that means?

36:34.923 --> 36:42.066
Well, for a program that's trying to, you know, find its footing, that's a big thing to be able to sell to a recruit.

36:42.146 --> 36:53.552
Hey, you can come and get your, you know, get some reps in with some great college players, some all ACC players, some, you know, think about Chaz Wiggins going and

36:54.505 --> 36:57.227
working out with the team for the bowl prep.

36:57.668 --> 37:03.732
Then he goes and plays in the All-American Bowl and shows out.

37:03.752 --> 37:04.613
He does show out.

37:04.993 --> 37:12.139
Builds up his stock because I'm sure that when he's practicing against the likes of Dorian Strong and Montserrat Delane and

37:13.500 --> 37:18.183
Dante Lovett and Braylon Johnson is different than who he's been playing in high school.

37:18.883 --> 37:24.626
So when he just went to the bowl game and was working out against those kids, it's like, okay, this is business as usual.

37:24.686 --> 37:25.366
Everybody's good.

37:25.386 --> 37:29.028
So that's what I think went good, just having the whole team there.

37:30.309 --> 37:36.652
And I'll go back to what Sheldon said when he said, you know, we had people moving people and running the ball.

37:36.692 --> 37:37.113
It was like –

37:37.972 --> 37:40.034
I text y'all and was like, what are we doing?

37:40.234 --> 37:41.355
Just run the ball.

37:41.715 --> 37:42.736
They cannot stop.

37:43.317 --> 37:45.219
They can't stop us running the ball.

37:45.779 --> 37:51.965
Like, we kept trying to throw it, and Kyron's, you know, his release is a little different.

37:52.185 --> 37:55.868
It's kind of long at the bottom, and he kept losing it at the bottom and things like that.

37:55.888 --> 37:56.209
It's like...

37:56.889 --> 37:57.830
You don't even got to do that.

37:57.930 --> 37:58.471
Just run it.

37:58.551 --> 38:01.534
They're not going to be able to stop you because of the wet weather.

38:01.634 --> 38:08.101
And like Shub said, our offensive line actually looked like they wanted to be mean and push some people around, and we did.

38:08.161 --> 38:10.523
So those things was good to see.

38:11.104 --> 38:13.106
Yeah, 100%, especially that run game.

38:13.126 --> 38:17.110
You know, 362 yards on the ground on 50 runs, two and over 100.

38:20.049 --> 38:21.229
Drone's over 100.

38:22.850 --> 38:25.310
I love to see – I'm a third down preacher.

38:25.330 --> 38:28.951
I know Shelton's against it because he believes first and second's more important.

38:29.031 --> 38:29.411
That's right.

38:29.891 --> 38:38.734
But when you get to third down and you go nine of 16 over 50% on third and fourth downs, obviously with a – they had 25 total first downs.

38:39.034 --> 38:43.415
So 16 before they had to get to third down, they converted on.

38:43.935 --> 38:45.155
And then nine more.

38:45.895 --> 38:47.656
You're going to win a lot of games doing that.

38:47.716 --> 38:48.116
You just –

38:50.004 --> 38:53.527
But the other thing I got to say, we know Daquan Wright in the portal.

38:53.707 --> 38:55.249
I don't know where he's landed yet.

38:55.569 --> 38:57.250
I had not had a chance to look at that.

38:57.811 --> 38:58.612
But to see St.

38:58.652 --> 39:03.897
Germain and Benji Gosnell play out there, both make a couple touchdown grabs.

39:04.517 --> 39:04.697
St.

39:04.737 --> 39:06.859
Germain could have had two, but he dropped one.

39:07.380 --> 39:09.122
It was lovely seeing that.

39:09.142 --> 39:09.802
Yeah.

39:11.223 --> 39:12.804
It was just to have a bowl win.

39:12.884 --> 39:14.785
The place, I know, Sheldon, you were there.

39:15.526 --> 39:16.206
It was loud.

39:16.766 --> 39:19.948
It was probably 85-15 Hokies.

39:20.888 --> 39:23.690
The tailgates were packed as soon as they opened.

39:24.350 --> 39:26.711
Apparently the Port-A-Johns were a few and far between.

39:26.731 --> 39:27.512
Oh, they were terrible.

39:27.852 --> 39:29.853
There was not enough Port-A-Johns there at all.

39:29.933 --> 39:30.473
Shout out.

39:31.234 --> 39:35.356
Met Matt Neal at the game near the Port-A-Johns.

39:35.396 --> 39:36.136
It was pretty funny.

39:36.657 --> 39:36.797
But –

39:39.464 --> 39:40.447
It was like Tally said.

39:40.507 --> 39:41.490
It was everything.

39:41.711 --> 39:42.333
It was everything.

39:42.534 --> 39:45.684
It was not only the game, but the post, the pre, and the fans themselves.

39:46.826 --> 39:48.066
Not everything was perfect, though.

39:48.306 --> 39:51.207
We did fumble the ball quite a few times, which I didn't like to see.

39:52.127 --> 39:58.008
But also considering the circumstances, Sheldon, it's not a shock because we fumbled.

39:58.208 --> 39:59.109
Tulane fumbled.

39:59.609 --> 40:01.529
We got on more of theirs than they did of ours.

40:01.869 --> 40:13.171
And, I mean, it's to be expected in a game like that, especially starting about late second quarter through the early part of the fourth quarter.

40:13.952 --> 40:14.732
It was pouring.

40:15.892 --> 40:16.012
Mm-hmm.

40:17.259 --> 40:38.989
yeah i think the thing you know the thing that with the with the turnovers there um you know we ended up winning the battle uh overall they got us on one that hurt hurt more just because it was a scoop and score so you know that probably balances out on the whole um you know they got they got the score we got a couple more uh you know turnovers there that put us in good good situations so

40:40.329 --> 40:41.930
I think the fumbles were bad.

40:41.950 --> 40:43.030
They were to be expected.

40:43.070 --> 40:48.732
I think some of the drops were also to be expected, but I felt like we never could really get into rhythm in the passing game.

40:49.092 --> 41:02.297
They were a little more successful on that front than we were, but I think overall our defense kind of did a better job of playing them balanced and keeping them off kilter a little bit, whereas we were able to kind of lean on our run game and kind of keep the drives moving. 100%.

41:05.501 --> 41:09.685
Anything else, Tally Sheldon, went bad that y'all just did not like to see?

41:10.926 --> 41:12.147
Steven Gosnell getting hurt.

41:12.688 --> 41:13.529
Yeah.

41:13.569 --> 41:14.289
That's pretty bad.

41:14.730 --> 41:16.612
Any report come out on him yet?

41:18.553 --> 41:19.114
I don't think so.

41:19.174 --> 41:21.036
I've heard that he could be back.

41:21.676 --> 41:26.981
I heard he was on mid-spring, but, again, that's nothing official.

41:27.182 --> 41:30.325
I don't know what the official injury is.

41:31.092 --> 41:32.513
Joe, did you hear anything on Steven?

41:32.593 --> 41:36.835
I've heard late spring, early summer is kind of the window that we're looking at.

41:37.615 --> 41:37.835
Hey.

41:38.395 --> 41:40.956
Chance and Brody are already on campus.

41:41.737 --> 41:42.677
Give them some reps, baby.

41:42.837 --> 41:44.438
Give them some reps.

41:44.758 --> 41:52.661
The other thing that I'll say, and it's still – we're going to talk about maybe a potential fix of this later, was we didn't have bad run fits, but we had some, eh, run fits.

41:52.721 --> 41:53.802
And I know they're running backs.

41:54.226 --> 41:56.187
Makai Hughes is a good running back.

41:56.927 --> 42:00.249
But a couple times we just – and I know the weather's weird.

42:00.889 --> 42:06.151
It's just like I had like those flashbacks to those early season games when the fits were really bad.

42:06.191 --> 42:07.832
Like, oh, no, here we go again.

42:08.392 --> 42:10.093
Luckily they were meh, not bad.

42:11.494 --> 42:12.134
Let's go to this.

42:12.875 --> 42:16.336
I'm going to skip anything you have word prepared for because it's a bowl game.

42:16.396 --> 42:17.597
All sorts of crazy shit happens.

42:18.437 --> 42:20.518
But think about this going into 2024.

42:20.598 --> 42:22.279
And, Sheldon, I'll let you lead this, man.

42:23.524 --> 42:26.146
What can we do better going into 2024?

42:26.826 --> 42:29.709
Just high level based off what we saw on this game.

42:29.729 --> 42:33.852
I mean, I think linebacker play is the biggest thing.

42:34.392 --> 42:43.178
You know, I was talking to this with a coach in front of me, and I think, you know, probably obviously went on and got the Mike linebacker from MTSU.

42:44.099 --> 42:49.203
And I think the reason for that was because he just – he wants players at that position that have the instincts.

42:49.323 --> 42:50.424
I think this year we just –

42:51.044 --> 42:53.524
didn't really have the necessary instincts at that position.

42:53.564 --> 42:58.785
If you look at small details like how they take their first step and how they react to the flow of the ball.

42:59.145 --> 43:03.786
Obviously, if you play, you know that being a linebacker is all about reading keys.

43:04.226 --> 43:08.327
So you read certain keys based on how the guards and the centers are moving in certain ways.

43:09.227 --> 43:14.068
And we just didn't get enough good play from those guys this season.

43:14.128 --> 43:19.189
So I would presume they're probably done with portal as far as linebackers go.

43:19.989 --> 43:24.732
But I just think they got to really shore that unit up because it's obviously a very critical position.

43:25.332 --> 43:29.955
And so if you figure you can get the D-line straight, which they have, you've got two lockdown corners.

43:30.495 --> 43:33.336
Hopefully the safeties are a little bit better with the experience you got coming back.

43:33.897 --> 43:36.838
I mean, the linebacker is kind of that one missing piece for the defense.

43:36.898 --> 43:39.500
So, I mean, you just got to get that figured out.

43:39.520 --> 43:41.041
All right, linebacker play.

43:41.081 --> 43:41.921
Tally, what about you?

43:43.022 --> 43:48.425
Yeah, similar to what, I mean, having some – I don't know the last time that Virginia Tech had –

43:49.246 --> 43:52.968
this many people come back or any people come back.

43:54.128 --> 43:57.670
It seems like every year that we had people eligible to leave, they leave.

43:58.970 --> 44:09.054
Whether it be going to the league, going all the way back to the tie rod years, people leaving and going to the NFL and things like that.

44:09.815 --> 44:13.316
Having all those guys come back was awesome.

44:13.976 --> 44:17.098
Just get us prepared to go into 2024, but

44:18.277 --> 44:29.963
you know, to kind of piggyback on what Shelton said, that one group that has you kind of worried is, well, not even just the group, just the middle period, you know, the middle of the line.

44:30.503 --> 44:31.703
They went out and addressed that.

44:32.404 --> 44:36.506
The middle of the linebacker corps, they went out and addressed that.

44:36.966 --> 44:38.847
You know, I think that, you know, I don't –

44:40.083 --> 44:45.406
I'm still a little skeptical about safety because I know we have some pieces that we can use there.

44:45.967 --> 44:48.929
But I don't quite know who's going to be there.

44:49.029 --> 44:50.890
Is Sherman going to be healthy?

44:51.410 --> 44:55.753
You know, I don't know what he's done to himself and who they're going to put by him.

44:55.793 --> 44:56.814
I know we got some young people.

44:57.294 --> 45:02.277
But going out and getting Brumfield made me feel a lot better.

45:02.677 --> 45:03.378
I can say that.

45:03.458 --> 45:08.281
So I'm excited about – because, I mean, in the skill positions we got –

45:09.771 --> 45:11.253
You load it.

45:11.513 --> 45:12.294
You know what I'm saying?

45:12.875 --> 45:16.078
Like you got a lot of options there that you can play with.

45:16.138 --> 45:22.364
So I guess the only thing that could have went better if we had Peyton Wilson or something.

45:22.384 --> 45:22.905
There you go.

45:23.005 --> 45:25.287
That would have been nice, right?

45:25.327 --> 45:26.569
That would have been nice.

45:28.050 --> 45:28.531
All righty.

45:29.472 --> 45:29.792
Brian?

45:31.803 --> 45:34.105
I mean, the offensive line podcast, right?

45:35.226 --> 45:36.366
Let's get better on the O-line.

45:36.767 --> 45:41.590
And I think we finished the season a lot better than we started it overall.

45:42.631 --> 45:43.771
We saw some run lanes open.

45:43.811 --> 45:46.653
Some of that was a product of drones just being the starter.

45:47.154 --> 45:55.119
Some of that was a product of Bowen playing to drones' strength and the strength of the other skilled players in the offense.

45:55.639 --> 45:58.441
But some of that was improved offensive line play over the course of the season.

45:59.594 --> 46:03.658
But it was still inconsistent, especially when we play those higher caliber teams.

46:03.678 --> 46:10.485
We need to be able to win or at least stalemate in the trenches against a Louisville, against a Florida State, against an NC State.

46:10.926 --> 46:14.489
We didn't do that great down the stretch against those caliber teams.

46:15.350 --> 46:16.912
So I'd like to see that improve in 2024.

46:16.952 --> 46:17.172
I think...

46:19.794 --> 46:21.115
We got a guy in there.

46:21.236 --> 46:25.719
I'd like to see one more at least between now and the start of fall camp.

46:25.839 --> 46:28.742
I'd like to see at least one more.

46:28.782 --> 46:30.163
Don't bring nobody in.

46:30.583 --> 46:34.767
Don't bring no fucking Frady in there.

46:35.107 --> 46:36.468
He might be good.

46:36.568 --> 46:41.412
If he couldn't get in this year, he ain't getting in next year.

46:41.953 --> 46:43.815
Can I say something?

46:43.875 --> 46:47.357
Actually, all four of us have mentioned this during some way.

46:48.118 --> 46:53.342
What I want to see better moving forward is the games where we annihilated people.

46:54.063 --> 46:54.763
Tulane, we won by 21.

46:55.364 --> 46:55.944
Syracuse.

46:56.544 --> 47:00.788
I want the coaches to bring that mentality to every single game.

47:01.228 --> 47:06.032
We talked about it, like the FSU and Louisville and the NC State games.

47:06.492 --> 47:09.734
We were kind of like, oh, wait, wait, wait.

47:11.482 --> 47:12.202
We don't need that.

47:13.223 --> 47:17.064
Yeah, we went in with that shell shock mode.

47:17.304 --> 47:18.084
Shell shock mode.

47:18.885 --> 47:22.906
And I think maybe they've now experienced it, right?

47:23.686 --> 47:28.508
Experience is one thing that you cannot teach, is going through those experiences.

47:29.108 --> 47:34.910
And one thing Brent Pryor said to us on this program, I am constantly evaluating myself.

47:35.250 --> 47:37.951
I'm constantly evaluating what we do while we do it.

47:38.731 --> 47:40.892
And there were some changes, obviously, this offseason.

47:42.381 --> 47:43.822
before leading up to the fall break.

47:44.562 --> 47:45.562
We got to a bowl game.

47:46.883 --> 47:54.746
I think this is a coaching staff that will look at that, and for those big games, I think there is going to be a different mentality, and that's what I want to see better.

47:55.406 --> 47:58.427
I want to say, too, just that, you know, that brought you saying that.

47:58.467 --> 47:59.567
I thought about something.

47:59.587 --> 48:11.232
I talked to Don V earlier on the phone, and he said something that I thought was pretty cool, pretty profound for his analysis and what he thinks.

48:12.045 --> 48:13.946
Okay, we play Clemson next year, right?

48:15.027 --> 48:16.528
Like, Clemson is us.

48:17.688 --> 48:19.369
I don't want a special jersey.

48:19.469 --> 48:22.531
I don't want them to be telling me Michael Vick's in the audience.

48:23.092 --> 48:24.592
I don't want them to put on anything.

48:24.652 --> 48:33.298
We need to go out there, and I think the way Don put it was, go out there in white pants and a maroon jersey at 3.30 and just go beat them.

48:33.938 --> 48:35.399
Like, they are us.

48:35.479 --> 48:36.139
They are the same.

48:36.659 --> 48:38.541
Like, if there is a talent...

48:39.696 --> 48:43.278
you know, talent level discrepancy is they're not going to be very far.

48:43.358 --> 48:46.620
Like they're not going to be that much ahead of us next year when we play them.

48:47.320 --> 48:49.562
We just got to go into those games and just go play.

48:50.082 --> 48:57.146
Like when Duke went and played a lot of teams, just business, like when Elko had Duke going and playing teams and it was just,

48:58.083 --> 48:59.324
They just went and played.

48:59.504 --> 49:01.366
Like, they didn't have to get up for it.

49:01.466 --> 49:04.830
It wasn't a special production or anything like that.

49:04.930 --> 49:07.572
Like, we just got to go play, no matter who it is.

49:08.033 --> 49:19.924
You know, I feel like on some of those games, like FSU or, you know, Louisville or whoever the teams might be, it's like, oh, you know, they're this and we got to get this and they've been doing this.

49:19.964 --> 49:21.646
And it's like we're trying to –

49:22.619 --> 49:26.570
play this underdog role when we're the same teams.

49:27.311 --> 49:30.039
These aren't teams that's been stomping us for the last

49:30.851 --> 49:32.212
however many years, you know.

49:32.812 --> 49:38.754
Clemson's been beating us in the last couple of years that we've played them, but it's like now that's not the same Clemson.

49:39.014 --> 49:39.514
Nope, not at all.

49:39.534 --> 49:40.114
You know what I'm saying?

49:40.154 --> 49:47.317
So we just got to go play, and I hope they – like you said, that next year we got to go with that business mindset.

49:47.577 --> 49:54.900
You got to go and just go play the teams and go beat them because we're going to be as good as just about everybody that we play.

49:55.720 --> 49:56.281
You know what I'm saying?

49:56.301 --> 50:00.022
We're going to be better than everybody, but we're going to be close as far as talent goes.

50:00.694 --> 50:01.314
Yep.

50:01.334 --> 50:02.775
Talent's no longer here to here.

50:02.856 --> 50:05.878
It's kind of like here to here even with the top teams in the ACC.

50:06.178 --> 50:06.398
Right.

50:06.518 --> 50:10.781
And then you look at certain positions, you can say we're more talented than them there.

50:10.921 --> 50:11.161
Right.

50:11.241 --> 50:12.282
We're more talented than them.

50:12.302 --> 50:15.945
All right, real quick, let's talk about the CFP International Championship.

50:15.985 --> 50:19.367
Michigan beats Washington on Monday night.

50:20.168 --> 50:21.809
Some people were crapping on the game.

50:22.149 --> 50:22.790
To me, it was a –

50:23.690 --> 50:31.640
If you like new age football, you didn't like it because it was low score and people were hitting shit out of each other, tackling, drop passes.

50:32.481 --> 50:34.364
But let's go back to January 1st.

50:35.145 --> 50:39.470
Was that not like the best set of New Year's games maybe in a decade?

50:40.051 --> 50:40.732
I mean –

50:42.341 --> 50:50.970
I took off January 2nd, and I'm taking January 2nd off probably for the next 10 years because I know my ass is going to be up until midnight watching the end of the Sugar Bowl.

50:51.030 --> 51:02.182
But, you know, of the three games we saw, and I know Monday's a little bit different, but what was your favorite, Shelton, just to watch analytically, aesthetically?

51:02.222 --> 51:03.844
What was your favorite game to watch of these three?

51:04.935 --> 51:11.180
Of these three, I would say, well, definitely Washington, mainly because I just love watching Michael Penix throw the football.

51:12.241 --> 51:16.465
I mean, just has a beautiful ball, so composed in the pocket.

51:18.066 --> 51:22.630
And I was kind of rooting for Washington also, just because they're sort of like, you know, the kind of the scrappy underdog.

51:22.670 --> 51:28.075
And I love Kalen Boer's story of coming up from the, you know, the ranks of the NAIA or wherever he was and,

51:28.615 --> 51:32.896
you know, going 67-3 at Sioux Falls and coming to Fresno State and then kind of just working his way up the chain.

51:32.956 --> 51:34.156
So I love stories like that.

51:34.736 --> 51:41.097
But, yeah, I mean, Michigan was – I thought they were the best team in the country the whole season, regardless of signs stealing or not.

51:41.757 --> 51:43.278
And that turned out to be the case.

51:43.698 --> 51:47.879
They just had no – nobody had an answer for their defense or their running game, really.

51:49.259 --> 51:51.259
Tally, what was your favorite game of these three?

51:52.639 --> 51:54.900
I mean, it was a couple – the Alabama – the Alabama –

51:56.331 --> 51:57.693
Michigan game was pretty good.

51:57.713 --> 52:00.356
I enjoyed watching that game.

52:00.396 --> 52:02.558
But, like, I don't know.

52:02.578 --> 52:03.980
Just the whole thing, I guess.

52:04.000 --> 52:08.225
You know, just watching all of the games was pretty entertaining.

52:09.867 --> 52:14.232
I wanted to be a rebel and protest, not watch any of them.

52:14.582 --> 52:16.604
Because I don't give a shit how good the games are.

52:17.124 --> 52:20.526
I wanted Florida State to be in there just because I thought that was the right thing to do.

52:21.207 --> 52:23.349
But, I mean, it was some good games.

52:23.389 --> 52:27.732
But I was thinking the whole time I was watching them, Georgia's better than these teams that are playing.

52:28.212 --> 52:30.714
Still think Georgia would have beat a lot of the teams that was in there.

52:31.034 --> 52:31.735
I mean, I don't know.

52:31.755 --> 52:32.976
They probably wouldn't have beat Michigan.

52:33.376 --> 52:34.497
That would be a good game.

52:34.517 --> 52:36.799
But I feel like they could have beat the other three teams.

52:37.827 --> 52:38.067
Ron?

52:39.087 --> 52:46.289
You know, I think looking at the games on January 1st were interesting because I feel like you got kind of a contrast in styles.

52:46.329 --> 52:52.431
You had a very more modern offense, offensive performance with Texas and Washington.

52:52.451 --> 52:55.892
Definitely a battle in the trenches with Bama and Michigan.

52:57.132 --> 53:04.655
Michigan just was so impressive because they won in the trenches on both sides of the ball in every game they played in the college football playoff.

53:05.055 --> 53:07.156
And it wasn't close, really, in any of them.

53:07.876 --> 53:15.579
That was the first team I've seen go against Bama and be that decidedly better in the trenches against an Alabama team.

53:15.599 --> 53:17.180
It's true.

53:17.360 --> 53:21.862
It really shouldn't have been as close as it was with how well they were playing in the trenches.

53:22.611 --> 53:36.825
It's 100% true, and that's why that was my favorite game because it was – you talked about it being – the second game was the modern-day game, and it was, but that – the Rose Bowl, to me, that setting, the sunset, and it was a war.

53:37.722 --> 53:41.663
It was an absolute war where Sugar Bowl's a little different.

53:42.283 --> 53:43.944
Texas kind of fought back.

53:44.044 --> 53:49.785
But it's something about two teams just literally locking horns, battling, hitting.

53:49.865 --> 53:52.246
It's like everybody – there's an answer, there's an answer.

53:52.866 --> 54:02.329
And then right at the end – and I know everybody's giving the Alabama OC shit about that play call about it was an RPO and he should have thrown it.

54:03.169 --> 54:07.891
Number five pushed 65 into Jalen Monroe's leg.

54:08.632 --> 54:10.153
That's why that play didn't fucking work.

54:10.593 --> 54:13.254
So, Shelton, you said it all year.

54:13.794 --> 54:15.435
Brian, Tally, y'all played in them.

54:15.675 --> 54:18.217
The trenches cost Alabama that game.

54:18.577 --> 54:22.619
Because when five pushed 65 into Monroe's leg, he wasn't going to be able to make the pass.

54:22.919 --> 54:27.161
And when he hit his leg, he wasn't going to be able to cut and get to the outside where he had a chance to score.

54:27.802 --> 54:28.842
And that was a beautiful game.

54:29.823 --> 54:30.223
All righty.

54:31.926 --> 54:34.028
Well, boys, we've already went 54 minutes.

54:34.068 --> 54:40.155
I thought we were going to go on an hour total tonight, but that don't happen with us because we love the Hokies and we love college football.

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56:05.320 --> 56:06.401
Now back to the episode.

56:07.702 --> 56:09.043
And we are back.

56:09.484 --> 56:17.671
And to kick off the second half of our episode, because he was unable to join us on State of the Program this year, we are going to give Shelton the floor.

56:17.711 --> 56:19.573
He's got some things he wants to talk about.

56:20.213 --> 56:25.558
And y'all, if you did not read Shelton's article on the key play just a few weeks, please go and read that article.

56:25.658 --> 56:30.282
That is one of the best pieces of work considering Virginia Tech football concerning football.

56:30.342 --> 56:31.624
the way the staff's going.

56:31.744 --> 56:33.686
Sheldon, you did a hell of a job with that, man.

56:34.026 --> 56:36.049
I'm glad you waited to the end of the season.

56:36.209 --> 56:38.592
I'm really glad you waited to the end of the season on that.

56:38.992 --> 56:43.237
But you've got some stuff you want to talk about, about where we are as far as the program goes.

56:43.257 --> 56:44.038
So the floor is yours.

56:44.847 --> 56:49.250
Yes, well, it was certainly the tale of two seasons, the 2023 Hokies, Jekyll and Hyde.

56:49.770 --> 56:56.515
What a turnaround from where they were after that Marshall loss, talking about, you know, 80-something in SP+, and, you know, they moved up.

56:56.575 --> 56:58.776
They were one of the most improved teams by the end of the season.

56:58.856 --> 57:04.720
So, you know, I had a few graphics and tweets I wanted to share, if we could get those up kind of as we go along.

57:05.380 --> 57:11.924
The first one, so I tweeted this after the regular season and Power 5 teams that won conference games by three possessions.

57:12.925 --> 57:14.866
Seven ranked teams plus Virginia Tech.

57:14.966 --> 57:18.428
I think Texas was in there too now, but they also had an extra game.

57:18.468 --> 57:19.429
So some context there.

57:20.449 --> 57:26.833
But it was a really, it was just, it was weird how tech was in this company of such elite teams that finished the year ranked.

57:27.393 --> 57:37.099
And if we could go to a graphic one, which is the conference margin of victory, which is also very impressive tech beat up on their conferences by a lot as well, as we'll see in a second here.

57:37.119 --> 57:37.839
Yeah.

57:39.000 --> 57:41.101
I think I can pull it up there.

57:41.121 --> 57:41.281
Yep.

57:41.721 --> 57:42.181
So we got there.

57:42.501 --> 57:49.703
So largest margin of victory in conference games this year, Tech was right around 8.3, which was pretty good.

57:49.743 --> 57:56.545
So the one thing, again, with every single team on this list besides Tech, what they have in common, they all finished a year ranked.

57:56.685 --> 58:05.148
And even if you go past Tech, some of the teams below that, like NC State and Oregon State, they're in the top 25 for most of the year.

58:05.168 --> 58:05.208
So

58:05.888 --> 58:10.750
Basically, you've got, you know, these 20 or so teams that are all, you know, ranked or spent most of the year ranked.

58:11.230 --> 58:12.270
And then Virginia Tech.

58:12.811 --> 58:20.113
It is sort of like such a crazy outlier how well they performed in conference compared to, you know, the non-conference portion of the season.

58:20.714 --> 58:32.118
And obviously there was a huge delta between, you know, what they did against teams that they should have beaten, so to speak, versus teams that they, you know, were not expected to beat like NC State and Louisville.

58:32.558 --> 58:33.879
So I think for me, you know, my...

58:35.319 --> 58:41.729
My lasting memory of this team would just be how polarizing, I guess, they were, for lack of a better term.

58:42.270 --> 58:50.562
I felt like when they played, you know, subpar teams like Boston College or UVA, that was when their skilled players really kind of were able to shine and sort of, you know,

58:51.383 --> 58:52.644
exert their talent, so to speak.

58:53.324 --> 59:02.731
But when they played, obviously, much, you know, mature experience in talented teams like Louisville, Florida State, I think that was where you saw the opposite line problems really start to kind of rear their ugly head.

59:03.091 --> 59:06.613
But as Brian talked about, you know, the O-line did get better throughout the course of the season.

59:07.374 --> 59:16.039
And once you, you know, you take those talented skill guys, combine them with an O-line that's, you know, improving, a quarterback that's also improving, it made for a really good recipe.

59:16.880 --> 59:18.941
And if we go to the final graphic here, graphic two...

59:20.302 --> 59:22.924
which is a year two improvement for power five head coaches.

59:22.964 --> 59:29.049
So this was another article I did for the key play where I looked at coaching hires of the power five over the past 10 years or so.

59:29.850 --> 59:40.138
And in doing this, I found that Brent Prye comparing year one to year two was the fifth most improved coach in year two for any power five team.

59:40.558 --> 59:41.919
And you look at some of the names on this list.

59:42.260 --> 59:44.442
Lance Leopold's done a fantastic job at Kansas.

59:44.882 --> 59:46.763
Kirby Smart name speaks for itself.

59:47.844 --> 59:49.526
Jonathan Smith, he was great at Oregon State.

59:50.527 --> 59:53.570
David Randa, Steve Sarkisian, Mike Leach, all very good coaches.

59:54.291 --> 59:58.535
So, you know, there's some there's some misses in there, but I think that's a really good company to be in.

59:58.615 --> 01:00:04.422
And that's what should give tech fans the most amount of confidence for what this program is capable of going forward.

01:00:05.383 --> 01:00:10.348
I really enjoyed doing the research on that piece because it sort of shed a light on lots of.

01:00:11.429 --> 01:00:30.434
um maybe dispelling some myths about coaching hires and kind of you know how you sort of evaluate progress and where to sort of use that barometer so what i found was that year one for a head coach a new head coach in power five was not really predictive of how well their hire was going to turn out but year two was extremely predictive so when we talk about

01:00:30.834 --> 01:00:39.061
you know, new hires and rebuilding and, you know, how are they doing year one, year two, you know, you look at Mike Elko at Duke or Deion Sanders at Colorado, really it's year two.

01:00:39.101 --> 01:00:40.102
That's kind of like the make or break.

01:00:40.182 --> 01:00:42.624
If you're not successful in year two, it's not going to work out.

01:00:43.164 --> 01:00:45.426
If you are, you know, you need to be at least steadily improving.

01:00:45.446 --> 01:00:47.848
And I think year three is where most coaches would say, okay,

01:00:48.849 --> 01:00:50.610
that's where you kind of need to get the ball rolling.

01:00:50.891 --> 01:00:55.214
And I think tech has a really prime opportunity to do that this this next season.

01:00:55.754 --> 01:01:01.078
So as Curtis talked about, you know, in my last piece, it was called Why Culture Matters that I wrote for the key play.

01:01:01.738 --> 01:01:04.761
And my biggest takeaway was that I think I think

01:01:05.521 --> 01:01:09.524
When you look at this team, it's clear that players want to play for Brent Prye.

01:01:09.584 --> 01:01:11.024
We didn't have barely any opt-outs.

01:01:11.085 --> 01:01:12.665
Most of them were pretty unconsequential.

01:01:13.226 --> 01:01:14.086
Guys wanted to come back.

01:01:14.106 --> 01:01:15.107
They're coming back next year.

01:01:15.127 --> 01:01:17.408
And obviously, NIL money is a huge part of that.

01:01:17.448 --> 01:01:18.629
I'm not denying that at all.

01:01:19.150 --> 01:01:21.151
But it's a really good culture.

01:01:21.191 --> 01:01:23.832
And I think culture is so important when we talk about it.

01:01:23.852 --> 01:01:24.933
It's kind of like a buzzword.

01:01:25.513 --> 01:01:29.236
But when you really get down to it, it's the foundation for your program.

01:01:29.556 --> 01:01:30.577
If you don't have a good culture –

01:01:31.357 --> 01:01:32.498
You're not going to win football games.

01:01:32.518 --> 01:01:39.104
To me, things like scheme, X's and O's, those are all a byproduct of good culture and getting players bought in.

01:01:39.124 --> 01:01:40.906
And I've asked coaches this before.

01:01:41.406 --> 01:01:44.309
If you don't have buy-in from your players, nothing you say is going to work.

01:01:44.730 --> 01:01:49.814
It comes from buy-in, from leadership, from communication, and all those things really tie into...

01:01:51.696 --> 01:01:52.016
culture.

01:01:52.496 --> 01:01:56.018
And I think Brent probably has done a fantastic job of selling the foundation for this program.

01:01:56.639 --> 01:01:58.400
And I think there are some pretty good things ahead.

01:01:58.440 --> 01:02:01.161
Now tech obviously has high expectations.

01:02:01.261 --> 01:02:03.602
When you start winning games, you're going to raise the expectation level.

01:02:03.963 --> 01:02:07.805
It's really, really hard to, you know, to win nine, 10, 11 games with power five level.

01:02:07.825 --> 01:02:09.245
So we're going to see if they can get there.

01:02:09.566 --> 01:02:17.710
But I do think all the signs based on the, the trajectory of the program, the numbers, the eye test, all points to the fact that this is a really, really good thing that Virginia tech has going.

01:02:17.730 --> 01:02:19.051
Yeah.

01:02:20.609 --> 01:02:22.210
Beautiful, beautiful, Shelton, beautiful.

01:02:22.890 --> 01:02:29.632
And you talk about the returning players because – and I've got it outlined here because we had finally the last domino that fell.

01:02:30.813 --> 01:02:31.453
You're right.

01:02:31.513 --> 01:02:32.653
There are guys who could have left.

01:02:32.694 --> 01:02:35.815
There are guys who could have went their chances in the draft.

01:02:35.935 --> 01:02:37.375
All four of the wide receivers could have.

01:02:37.815 --> 01:02:38.876
They honestly could have.

01:02:39.036 --> 01:02:39.656
All four of them.

01:02:39.756 --> 01:02:42.037
Even Ollie with his – the small one.

01:02:42.497 --> 01:02:44.358
Nick Gallo, who would be a six-year guy.

01:02:45.506 --> 01:02:49.007
could maybe try the NFL or maybe just try life.

01:02:49.348 --> 01:02:50.748
Think about all that coming back.

01:02:50.788 --> 01:02:51.448
Look at that list.

01:02:51.488 --> 01:02:53.069
I know I've got it there out for y'all.

01:02:53.929 --> 01:02:55.210
Look how many guys that is.

01:02:56.751 --> 01:02:57.151
Six.

01:02:57.231 --> 01:02:58.071
That's ten.

01:02:59.132 --> 01:02:59.792
Ten starters.

01:02:59.812 --> 01:03:09.456
How many people can sit here and say every single one of these guys, nine of the ten who made significant contributions this year are back?

01:03:12.153 --> 01:03:12.733
It's a big deal.

01:03:13.173 --> 01:03:13.813
It's a big deal.

01:03:13.893 --> 01:03:16.034
And it's to your point, Sheldon, with that culture.

01:03:16.954 --> 01:03:21.815
And, again, you talk about how many times do we see the guys go in the portal?

01:03:22.115 --> 01:03:29.357
Sheldon, I know you mentioned, I think, in the article, if not you made some tweets about it, there's a guy going into the portal, but he's going to come back and play this game.

01:03:29.817 --> 01:03:32.878
And it's not only them, that person, wanting to come back and play.

01:03:32.918 --> 01:03:37.319
It's Brent Prye allowing it because there are so many coaches that do not allow it.

01:03:38.139 --> 01:03:40.280
And it just speaks to who he is as a coach.

01:03:40.380 --> 01:03:40.920
And, I mean –

01:03:42.458 --> 01:03:48.923
Like you said, I mean, next year it's, you know, we're going to have to be tempering expectations about seven months from now.

01:03:49.344 --> 01:03:49.564
Yeah.

01:03:49.604 --> 01:03:50.425
Seven months from now.

01:03:50.765 --> 01:03:50.965
Yeah.

01:03:51.025 --> 01:03:56.890
I mean, we had two players that had consequential production that are not going to be back next year.

01:03:56.910 --> 01:03:59.512
You got Derek Canteen, you got Daquan Wright.

01:03:59.532 --> 01:03:59.913
That's it.

01:04:01.334 --> 01:04:02.295
Everybody else is back.

01:04:04.222 --> 01:04:08.585
And then the additions in the portal and the lack of subtractions.

01:04:08.625 --> 01:04:12.988
I mean, we had Hunter McClain and Jack Holyfield who were basically – Hunter really didn't see the field.

01:04:13.028 --> 01:04:15.290
Jack was a backup offensive lineman, got snaps.

01:04:16.691 --> 01:04:18.292
You mentioned the two biggest ones.

01:04:18.952 --> 01:04:22.895
And then we talked about the middle linebacker, Brumfield, coming over in the portal.

01:04:22.915 --> 01:04:24.716
We didn't have a chance to break down his tape.

01:04:26.137 --> 01:04:30.861
But him coming in to solidify that room and then Kelvin Gillum with Peoples –

01:04:32.205 --> 01:04:34.626
This staff, and maybe it's not the staff.

01:04:34.646 --> 01:04:36.787
Maybe we need to get some credits to the analysts too, right?

01:04:36.807 --> 01:04:50.915
Because there are guys who are sitting in that room every day, and it's going to be their job to figure out who may be coming into portal, who fits what we do, who have we recruited before, where are the relationships.

01:04:52.250 --> 01:04:56.474
Give some credit to Villagrana as well and those guys behind the scenes.

01:04:56.534 --> 01:05:01.940
They are setting our portal acquisition game up for success.

01:05:02.400 --> 01:05:05.784
Whether we close the deal or not, that's on the coaching staff.

01:05:05.804 --> 01:05:06.865
That's on the other pieces.

01:05:06.985 --> 01:05:14.012
But when we look at what Colby put together for those offers that went out, there was a clear plan.

01:05:15.173 --> 01:05:22.339
It was hitting the notes that we wanted to hit, both from a player location standpoint, from a player position standpoint.

01:05:23.260 --> 01:05:28.564
They were hitting the ground running, and they had a plan, and they executed the plan.

01:05:29.164 --> 01:05:35.889
And we got more, I think, more than we expected to, especially on the defensive line side of it in the trenches.

01:05:35.949 --> 01:05:40.133
I think, as we said earlier, could still use a little bit of help on the offensive side.

01:05:40.813 --> 01:05:43.895
But we plugged the holes that absolutely needed to be plugged.

01:05:44.996 --> 01:05:51.079
And I think that's where you want to be sitting when you come out of that first round of the transfer portal is like, okay, we got these holes here.

01:05:51.099 --> 01:05:52.360
All right, let's plug them.

01:05:52.680 --> 01:05:58.503
Let's make sure that we're at least maintaining the status quo, if not improving on those positions.

01:05:58.543 --> 01:05:59.403
And I think we did that.

01:06:01.444 --> 01:06:02.845
Tally, I know you got something to say.

01:06:03.826 --> 01:06:14.291
Well, no, it's just, you know, even the last show we did, when we had, you know, the father of a couple of players and recruits on the show, and they talk about, you know,

01:06:14.571 --> 01:06:26.697
you know, how it works in the transfer portal, how it works during recruiting, you know, how the coaches are, you know, it, the going back to Shelton's point, the culture that they built

01:06:27.498 --> 01:06:49.208
is one that people are interested in in in getting to you know you talked about chris talk about chris brody's dad um him talking about you know why he was there on the big uh transfer portal weekend and how they treated those transfer kids that came in and rolled the red carpet out for him you know

01:06:50.481 --> 01:06:52.121
It's okay to get people on campus.

01:06:52.161 --> 01:06:53.722
We've got a lot of players on campus.

01:06:54.322 --> 01:06:58.143
Hell, I think it was three or four of them that was in that national championship game.

01:06:58.783 --> 01:07:02.364
But to get them to come and play for you, you know, that's big.

01:07:02.424 --> 01:07:09.805
So, like you said, they had a clear path that they wanted to go and do.

01:07:10.345 --> 01:07:15.046
They had a plan that they wanted to execute, and they seemed like they went out there and did it.

01:07:15.686 --> 01:07:17.967
And the culture that they're creating is making people –

01:07:18.894 --> 01:07:20.516
Look at Virginia Tech.

01:07:21.438 --> 01:07:27.907
I don't know I'm not in the room, but looking at how some things panned out, I mean, we had to turn some good players away.

01:07:28.367 --> 01:07:29.649
We just don't have room for them.

01:07:30.430 --> 01:07:35.653
So, I mean, that's a good problem to have to be like, sorry, we don't got room.

01:07:36.414 --> 01:07:38.375
And that feeds back to the culture, right?

01:07:38.415 --> 01:07:48.702
Because you don't have room because you had guys that could have left or could have did something else that have bought in that you want to keep that core together, right?

01:07:48.802 --> 01:07:50.183
They work well together.

01:07:50.203 --> 01:07:52.004
They fully bought in.

01:07:53.125 --> 01:07:57.688
You know, you want to make sure that you're trimming the fat as it were, but you also want to make sure that you're not –

01:07:58.348 --> 01:08:03.332
kicking guys to the curb that are an integral part of the culture that you've established, right?

01:08:04.013 --> 01:08:08.396
So I think that's another big part is that we're building upon that year to year.

01:08:09.757 --> 01:08:17.824
Just because guys are out there in the portal, just because they've shown that potential, you want to make sure that you've got the right guys and the right pieces together that maintain that culture

01:08:18.484 --> 01:08:42.263
push the scheme that you were trying to establish but also those pieces that work together well um you know from an individual ability standpoint too and i think we're starting to see all that kind of come together in jail um as we kind of move through the end of 2023 season uh these guys are working together really well and i think keeping that culture moving is just as important as the pieces that we added to kind of complement that

01:08:43.234 --> 01:08:48.229
Yeah, and we talk about the culture and they're building something and it's continuously being built and it's

01:08:49.612 --> 01:08:57.515
you take a look and you heard the people's and I got to, I listened to the people's interview that Matei and Evan and them did with him, Andrew Alex as well.

01:08:58.236 --> 01:09:00.136
I also listened to the Montavious Cunningham interview.

01:09:00.296 --> 01:09:02.377
Montavious Cunningham cracks me up.

01:09:02.437 --> 01:09:05.338
Tally, I feel like you need to interview him.

01:09:05.839 --> 01:09:07.059
We might just get you a one-on-one.

01:09:07.279 --> 01:09:08.260
Let's do it.

01:09:08.600 --> 01:09:14.122
He reminds me of Sergio Render so much hearing him talk at both from that South Georgia.

01:09:16.023 --> 01:09:16.763
And you know,

01:09:17.972 --> 01:09:23.994
But we're in a day and age of college football that X's and O's will always matter.

01:09:24.214 --> 01:09:25.454
You've got to have people that can do that.

01:09:25.554 --> 01:09:29.136
But we're in a place now where relationships matter probably more than ever.

01:09:29.536 --> 01:09:32.257
Like you talk about there are guys we couldn't let in this year.

01:09:32.757 --> 01:09:45.361
You want to make a bet, this staff, whoever was that lead primary recruiter in Brent Pryor, I guarantee you they're watching them, and I guarantee you if they see them make a good play, they get a text or send them an email or a DM to say, hey, you played good today, man.

01:09:46.061 --> 01:09:50.104
keeping that relationship going that maybe in two years, hey, we need that kid.

01:09:50.144 --> 01:09:51.425
I know he wants to be here.

01:09:51.905 --> 01:09:53.146
We can get him out of the portal.

01:09:53.726 --> 01:09:58.830
And I think these type guys, like this whole staff, has that.

01:09:59.210 --> 01:10:02.232
They have those personalities where they're not afraid.

01:10:02.272 --> 01:10:09.297
And we heard about it from Kevin Drones that legitimately Tyler Bowen got in a plane and flew to Waco.

01:10:10.137 --> 01:10:12.900
and was literally the first person there for Conrad.

01:10:13.140 --> 01:10:18.346
A guy who had started one game of his collegiate career, who was a redshirt freshman, did that.

01:10:19.447 --> 01:10:19.947
Says a lot.

01:10:21.289 --> 01:10:21.729
All righty.

01:10:21.889 --> 01:10:22.890
Anything else on this?

01:10:23.151 --> 01:10:25.813
Sheldon, portal stuff, guys returning.

01:10:25.853 --> 01:10:29.157
Anything else you want to hit before we kind of get ready to wrap this up?

01:10:31.414 --> 01:10:31.754
Yeah, man.

01:10:31.774 --> 01:10:33.777
I mean, look, like I said, the bar has been raised.

01:10:33.977 --> 01:10:36.379
So right now we're all feeling high.

01:10:36.399 --> 01:10:38.622
We're riding the highs after finishing six and three.

01:10:39.423 --> 01:10:46.931
But, you know, in order to get to the next level, it has to take sustained recruiting and, you know, just sustained really good coaching.

01:10:47.131 --> 01:10:52.237
And I think with Tech Schedule, they're set up really well to win bare minimum eight games next year, maybe nine.

01:10:52.897 --> 01:10:53.918
I'm not I'm not at 10 yet.

01:10:53.998 --> 01:10:56.960
But look, it's just it's just it's really, really hard to win.

01:10:57.040 --> 01:10:59.062
And that's that's something I stress over and over again.

01:10:59.162 --> 01:11:02.604
So I'm really excited for this team for for the future of the program.

01:11:03.145 --> 01:11:07.808
But in order to get to that to that level that we all wanted to get to, you know, it's going to require a lot of hard work.

01:11:07.848 --> 01:11:10.650
But I think the staff is is the right the right staff for the job.

01:11:12.381 --> 01:11:12.861
All right.

01:11:13.121 --> 01:11:16.043
Well, let's turn to some fun moments today, boys.

01:11:16.603 --> 01:11:23.786
Brian popped it out there a few days ago that we were going to pull some of our favorite plays from the year, and we have just that one.

01:11:24.326 --> 01:11:29.208
And, Brian, I think now I'm being on record of talking about it like three times now.

01:11:29.468 --> 01:11:29.868
At least.

01:11:30.268 --> 01:11:31.529
At least.

01:11:32.009 --> 01:11:38.452
But still, because of the importance of this play, it's the pit game, it's the touchdown, it's after the fumble, they're within one.

01:11:39.292 --> 01:11:49.578
And like I said to Kevin when we were all together, and Kevin, I hope you heard me say it the other night, Sheldon, when that fumble happened with Drones and they scored, it was like, ah, shit, we're about to lose the pit.

01:11:50.018 --> 01:11:51.519
In some way, we're going to lose this game.

01:11:52.039 --> 01:11:52.960
But that didn't happen.

01:11:53.280 --> 01:11:54.141
This is what happened.

01:11:55.381 --> 01:12:01.945
Woods matched up against him, corner blitz, and Drones got it free to Jalen Lane with running room.

01:12:02.305 --> 01:12:04.887
Take it off for the end zone and a score.

01:12:05.894 --> 01:12:06.815
And we never look back.

01:12:06.835 --> 01:12:08.096
That's my favorite play of the year.

01:12:28.928 --> 01:12:32.329
And there's some more on here I like, but that's my favorite play.

01:12:32.349 --> 01:12:36.770
And when I look back at it every time, it's actually, you see a couple things.

01:12:36.790 --> 01:12:46.952
But the thing that I see the most is that a quarterback understanding what his receiver is going to do and a receiver understanding where he is in the field and where the other pieces are in the field.

01:12:46.992 --> 01:12:48.232
Because he's settled down.

01:12:50.553 --> 01:12:55.434
Before he got to the ref, he didn't run himself into where the referee was to get that throw.

01:12:56.154 --> 01:12:57.234
Kyron put it right on him.

01:12:58.228 --> 01:12:59.208
Nothing but daylight, baby.

01:12:59.789 --> 01:13:00.769
Nothing but daylight.

01:13:01.450 --> 01:13:01.890
All righty.

01:13:02.770 --> 01:13:06.152
That was a play where I realized how fast Jalen Lane was.

01:13:07.953 --> 01:13:11.034
Watching live, man, you don't have an appreciation for how fast that dude is.

01:13:11.094 --> 01:13:12.415
He is so freaking quick.

01:13:13.195 --> 01:13:13.775
Real quick.

01:13:13.795 --> 01:13:14.276
All right.

01:13:14.416 --> 01:13:15.656
What do y'all want to pull up next?

01:13:15.676 --> 01:13:18.337
What are some of y'all's favorite plays from this season?

01:13:18.397 --> 01:13:19.978
I got one I want to save for last.

01:13:20.779 --> 01:13:22.119
He's saving one for last.

01:13:22.239 --> 01:13:25.441
Yeah, so if we're talking about a –

01:13:26.795 --> 01:13:29.777
A moment that happened on the hill, we're saving that one for last.

01:13:29.797 --> 01:13:31.418
That is going to be last, so go ahead.

01:13:31.439 --> 01:13:34.301
All right, Sheldon, Tally, y'all look through them here.

01:13:34.341 --> 01:13:37.303
Which one was some of y'all's favorite for the year?

01:13:38.851 --> 01:13:47.499
I guess one of my favorites was the Tootin' touchdown against FSU.

01:13:47.519 --> 01:13:48.640
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:13:48.660 --> 01:13:49.521
They jumped over somebody.

01:13:50.201 --> 01:13:55.126
And, you know, even though that game was horrible, it was just seeing his athleticism.

01:13:55.146 --> 01:13:57.268
It's like, dang, this dude is something.

01:13:57.308 --> 01:13:59.270
Like, I knew he was good.

01:13:59.350 --> 01:14:00.411
I knew he was pretty good.

01:14:00.971 --> 01:14:01.512
But it's like.

01:14:02.616 --> 01:14:03.356
He's really good.

01:14:03.376 --> 01:14:04.317
You know what I'm saying?

01:14:04.337 --> 01:14:04.957
He can do some stuff.

01:14:04.977 --> 01:14:07.998
And we saw him, like, scale it up against high-level competition, right?

01:14:08.018 --> 01:14:11.999
Yeah, it was like, he's out there mixing it up.

01:14:12.679 --> 01:14:14.580
He's, you know what I'm saying, talking some junk.

01:14:15.500 --> 01:14:16.800
And he can play.

01:14:17.120 --> 01:14:19.501
So, I think he kind of took it up a notch after that, too.

01:14:20.161 --> 01:14:20.781
Yeah, let's run it.

01:14:20.841 --> 01:14:21.382
Let's run it here.

01:14:21.682 --> 01:14:22.362
Second and goal.

01:14:24.565 --> 01:14:25.426
Tootin in motion.

01:14:25.966 --> 01:14:27.788
They toss it to the wide side of the field.

01:14:27.828 --> 01:14:29.589
Tootin turning the corner.

01:14:29.849 --> 01:14:30.470
Airborne.

01:14:30.750 --> 01:14:31.571
Touchdown.

01:14:31.591 --> 01:14:34.273
Air Tootin scores it.

01:14:36.615 --> 01:14:39.097
And Virginia Tech with its first touchdown.

01:14:42.180 --> 01:14:45.943
A five-yard run by Basial Tootin.

01:14:47.742 --> 01:14:49.285
The second one of the season.

01:14:49.365 --> 01:14:53.912
You can see they got the big offensive tackle Xavier Chaplin out here on the edge.

01:14:53.932 --> 01:14:55.335
He gets the block on Cypress.

01:14:56.036 --> 01:14:57.578
And Tootin just does the rest.

01:14:57.618 --> 01:15:00.744
If you don't secure the edges down here and you let the offense...

01:15:03.217 --> 01:15:04.197
Athletic as hell, man.

01:15:04.537 --> 01:15:05.458
Yeah, man.

01:15:05.558 --> 01:15:06.378
And patience, too.

01:15:06.838 --> 01:15:08.458
I love his patience running.

01:15:08.478 --> 01:15:10.899
He showed it a lot more as we went out throughout the season.

01:15:10.959 --> 01:15:20.542
But just seeing that athleticism and, you know, combination of power and breakaway speed and then that agility to make that hurdle at the line there.

01:15:20.562 --> 01:15:24.643
All right, Brian, you got any of yours?

01:15:25.865 --> 01:15:27.026
Yeah, man.

01:15:27.687 --> 01:15:29.710
This is when I knew that we were on to something.

01:15:30.130 --> 01:15:38.541
This is when I knew, all right, if we can get this thing gelled, if we can get this thing moving, this offense is going to be something to be reckoned with.

01:15:39.402 --> 01:15:42.786
It is the drones touchdown run against Marshall.

01:15:44.108 --> 01:15:44.368
Oh, yeah.

01:15:45.305 --> 01:15:45.765
So here we go.

01:15:45.785 --> 01:15:46.466
I'm going to run it.

01:15:47.387 --> 01:15:51.330
Tyler Bowen said, Tootin's got to have a big afternoon today for us to win on the road.

01:15:51.370 --> 01:15:52.351
And there goes Drones.

01:15:53.172 --> 01:15:56.134
Right side pylon for the Virginia Tech touchdown.

01:15:56.294 --> 01:15:57.896
But it's a great job by Kyron Jones.

01:15:57.956 --> 01:16:00.137
Big, strong quarterback.

01:16:00.197 --> 01:16:01.418
Those black shoes.

01:16:01.438 --> 01:16:03.600
You got the white stripe there on the sideline.

01:16:03.961 --> 01:16:05.462
I saw green grass in between.

01:16:05.482 --> 01:16:06.583
I think it's going to be a touchdown.

01:16:08.530 --> 01:16:33.614
love that they brought up the black shoes too like the cleats man everybody complains about them black cleats so i'm glad that it made the broadcast but that that run there that's that's kind of everything that you you get from kyron drones right you had a good read you had making guys miss making guys uh you missed tackles in the backfield then you saw the speed then you saw the finish

01:16:35.239 --> 01:16:36.180
And I was like, all right.

01:16:36.260 --> 01:16:42.483
So, you know, when all three of us were sitting together, Sheldon was elsewhere on this game.

01:16:42.503 --> 01:16:52.408
But when we were sitting together against Purdue and we saw drones kind of run over a guy and as he's going out of bounds, I was like, this guy is different.

01:16:52.448 --> 01:16:56.190
But this is what showed me, all right, so it's not just the attitude.

01:16:56.230 --> 01:16:58.291
He's putting all the other skill sets together.

01:16:58.331 --> 01:17:03.694
This was something that got me really excited about what this offense could really be with drones at the helm there.

01:17:04.287 --> 01:17:05.987
100%.

01:17:04.647 --> 01:17:05.987
Brian, check out the chat.

01:17:06.167 --> 01:17:07.368
Shelton dropped his in there.

01:17:07.388 --> 01:17:08.748
See if you can get that on the screen.

01:17:08.768 --> 01:17:10.328
Shelton, we'll get back to you in just a second.

01:17:10.769 --> 01:17:17.790
But while Brian's sorting that out, I'm going to flip to the defensive side of the ball here for a second.

01:17:18.350 --> 01:17:25.712
And that Thursday night in Lane Stadium against Syracuse, A, it felt like old times.

01:17:25.792 --> 01:17:26.772
It felt good.

01:17:27.853 --> 01:17:32.814
Even though when this play happened, we were already beating them down by a bunch.

01:17:34.090 --> 01:17:39.736
But it was just beautiful to see when two defensive ends meet at the quarterback.

01:17:44.802 --> 01:17:46.263
All right, getting that one pulled in here.

01:17:46.283 --> 01:17:51.549
Schrader out of the end zone.

01:17:51.589 --> 01:17:52.771
Here comes the pressure.

01:17:53.371 --> 01:17:55.454
Schrader, safety.

01:17:59.113 --> 01:18:05.840
That is Antoine Powell-Rylan and Cole Nelson who's wearing the Frank Beamer 25 tonight.

01:18:06.340 --> 01:18:10.024
We saw Coach Beamer at halftime up here watching his Hokies.

01:18:11.085 --> 01:18:16.791
Fired up, proud to see the 25 jersey, and they have no answer for APR Antoine Powell-Rylan.

01:18:17.112 --> 01:18:19.234
The speed he brings around that edge.

01:18:22.173 --> 01:18:28.278
And it's something of what an impact he was to that defensive line this year.

01:18:29.098 --> 01:18:34.423
I mean, he made that unit significantly better, and it's no knock to any of the other guys who have been here a while.

01:18:35.083 --> 01:18:38.886
But he effectively – Sheldon, you talked about scaling it up for next year.

01:18:39.266 --> 01:18:40.928
He scaled the defensive line up this year.

01:18:41.528 --> 01:18:42.828
He made that line better.

01:18:42.908 --> 01:18:47.290
He made some of those young defensive ends better, and it was great to see that.

01:18:47.470 --> 01:18:49.490
That night was beautiful in Lane Stadium.

01:18:49.710 --> 01:18:52.351
Brian, have you been able to get the one up Shelton wants to see?

01:18:52.371 --> 01:18:53.771
Getting it pulled now.

01:18:53.851 --> 01:18:59.473
Give me just another couple seconds here if you want to hit one more, and we'll pull that one in.

01:18:59.953 --> 01:19:00.433
All righty.

01:19:00.973 --> 01:19:04.854
Listen, this is another one that I love, and I'm doing a lot of talking right now.

01:19:05.574 --> 01:19:13.536
But this is from the Wake Forest game, and this is what the RPO can be with someone like Kyron Drones running it.

01:19:14.056 --> 01:19:18.877
This is the huge 75-yard touchdown to Jalen Lane again.

01:19:18.917 --> 01:19:20.658
Again, we see how fast he is.

01:19:21.178 --> 01:19:26.739
But watch the RPO and watch the safety because that man took a step, and he paid for it with his life.

01:19:29.565 --> 01:19:32.487
Great job on the RPO finding his wide receiver and then Lane was gone.

01:20:00.057 --> 01:20:04.099
I mean, by the way, think ACC Digital Network is where we got these from.

01:20:05.019 --> 01:20:07.440
That boy thought that he was handing that ball off to Tootin.

01:20:08.501 --> 01:20:09.961
He just thought it immediately.

01:20:10.402 --> 01:20:12.523
He took three steps, and as soon as he – gone.

01:20:13.323 --> 01:20:20.066
And, again, there it is, shelving the speed of Jalen Lane because as soon as he caught it and that one guy wasn't there, it's like, that's over, that's a touchdown.

01:20:20.086 --> 01:20:20.486
That's a touchdown.

01:20:22.500 --> 01:20:24.221
Brian, you ready to pull this one up?

01:20:24.621 --> 01:20:25.141
We're good.

01:20:25.181 --> 01:20:29.023
Yeah, give me just one more second while I get this pulled into the stream.

01:20:29.143 --> 01:20:30.303
And these are just some of the plays.

01:20:30.363 --> 01:20:32.564
And I know people are shouting them out here.

01:20:32.624 --> 01:20:37.526
You've got Ali and the kick return, which we're going to see because that was like the cap to the season.

01:20:37.966 --> 01:20:43.569
But any other tallies we might not have that you can remember that just stood out to you?

01:20:44.329 --> 01:20:47.110
Again, my favorite play of the season –

01:20:47.847 --> 01:20:53.149
was the long touchdown pass to Felton against Pitt.

01:20:54.490 --> 01:21:04.893
I think it was the first touchdown of the game where you had Drones going down talking shit to everybody that he could talk shit to, getting to the end zone.

01:21:04.953 --> 01:21:10.996
That was a great play because we scored, but also it spoke to the mentality.

01:21:12.128 --> 01:21:15.269
And the character that some of our kids have, you know what I'm saying?

01:21:15.749 --> 01:21:19.230
Like, hey, we ain't going to keep being the nail.

01:21:19.250 --> 01:21:20.050
We're going to be the hammer.

01:21:20.670 --> 01:21:21.491
There you go.

01:21:21.511 --> 01:21:22.571
I think we got that one.

01:21:23.311 --> 01:21:25.051
I think we had that one in the chat.

01:21:25.432 --> 01:21:25.952
I think we did.

01:21:26.012 --> 01:21:26.292
Hold on.

01:21:26.312 --> 01:21:27.232
I'm going to add this one.

01:21:28.192 --> 01:21:29.093
Sheldon, we're going to get to your word.

01:21:29.113 --> 01:21:29.853
I think this one right here.

01:21:30.313 --> 01:21:31.713
No, this is the Syracuse one.

01:21:32.453 --> 01:21:33.454
Although it's another, I mean.

01:21:33.474 --> 01:21:38.315
And we have a drone strike in Blackburn.

01:21:39.881 --> 01:21:41.182
It was kind of like that, though.

01:21:41.582 --> 01:21:41.842
Yeah.

01:21:42.102 --> 01:21:43.523
It was a lot of them that looked similar.

01:21:43.563 --> 01:21:44.624
Just flowing by the guy.

01:21:51.880 --> 01:21:56.601
I love having a big, fast, wide receiver on the outside.

01:21:57.301 --> 01:22:06.043
I feel like that's something we really haven't had in recent years, having a guy with that type of size combined with breakaway speed once he gets moving.

01:22:06.743 --> 01:22:09.744
But the crazy thing about Felton is that he's just getting started.

01:22:09.924 --> 01:22:16.086
He's got so much that he can do and he still can put out.

01:22:16.186 --> 01:22:16.926
You know what I'm saying?

01:22:16.946 --> 01:22:17.026
Yeah.

01:22:18.382 --> 01:22:20.902
Like, the dude's a stud, man.

01:22:21.203 --> 01:22:22.483
He's raw, very raw.

01:22:23.583 --> 01:22:30.124
So I'm so happy that he was coming back, not only to help the team, but I think it'll help his draft stock as well.

01:22:30.804 --> 01:22:31.724
Thousand percent.

01:22:31.844 --> 01:22:33.605
All right, we got three more.

01:22:33.705 --> 01:22:35.525
And, Shelton, this is your play of the year.

01:22:35.585 --> 01:22:37.285
This is from the Military Bowl, right?

01:22:38.086 --> 01:22:39.206
Yes, it's from the Military Bowl.

01:22:39.246 --> 01:22:41.986
Drones touchdown pass to Benji Gosnell.

01:22:44.147 --> 01:22:45.387
Oh, yeah, that's pretty good.

01:22:45.447 --> 01:22:46.127
Fourth quarter.

01:22:49.858 --> 01:22:53.079
Yeah, this is sick, though, because no, no, no.

01:22:54.199 --> 01:22:54.419
Yep.

01:22:54.540 --> 01:22:55.680
So great.

01:22:55.840 --> 01:22:58.801
The reason I chose this was because I thought it was a fantastic play design.

01:22:58.861 --> 01:23:03.242
And, you know, I was talking about it with a coach and I kind of I kind of relay what he said here.

01:23:03.262 --> 01:23:05.103
So you got toss sprint fake.

01:23:05.383 --> 01:23:11.065
The H-back is now the primary route and it kind of plays off our split zone and split toss action that they run a lot.

01:23:11.625 --> 01:23:16.827
So he said a cool, cool detail there was the H-back wasn't the bluff man decoy in that situation.

01:23:17.268 --> 01:23:22.890
It's sort of like a cross between the H-back slash tight end leak and a sprint toss bluff.

01:23:23.030 --> 01:23:25.151
So lots of lots of technical jargon in there.

01:23:25.191 --> 01:23:33.515
But basically, you know, just just having a play with with deception with, you know, multiple or what appears to be, you know, multiple options in the play.

01:23:34.435 --> 01:23:40.759
and really good job by drones of if that wasn't, if that wasn't a real read at least, you know, selling, selling a read there.

01:23:41.279 --> 01:23:43.861
Just, I just love that design and obviously drones, you know, made the throw.

01:23:44.861 --> 01:23:45.041
Yeah.

01:23:45.081 --> 01:23:48.803
And understood where he was relative to the line of scrimmage because that was important as well.

01:23:50.224 --> 01:23:50.384
Yeah.

01:23:50.404 --> 01:23:50.685
Alrighty.

01:23:51.085 --> 01:23:53.506
We got one more defensive play, Brian.

01:23:53.546 --> 01:23:56.708
We didn't get to see this until much later in the evening.

01:23:56.788 --> 01:24:03.412
Cause we were at a game ourselves, but Dorian strong basically just put BC to bed real early.

01:24:04.440 --> 01:24:08.024
in that game, and two beautiful interceptions here, man.

01:24:08.064 --> 01:24:09.004
Let's get that one up.

01:24:09.365 --> 01:24:10.066
Play action.

01:24:10.086 --> 01:24:11.287
The man who's an All-American.

01:24:11.307 --> 01:24:14.550
Takes a shot over the middle, and it is picked off right away.

01:24:14.750 --> 01:24:17.072
Picked off by Virginia Tech.

01:24:18.113 --> 01:24:21.437
What a play there by Dorian Strong.

01:24:22.315 --> 01:24:25.258
Castellanos is going to take a shot down the field.

01:24:25.938 --> 01:24:28.961
Unger throws it again, and this time intercepted.

01:24:29.522 --> 01:24:33.085
Dorian Strong, his second interception of the game.

01:24:33.505 --> 01:24:39.291
Dorian Strong, a heck of a heads-up play, getting his eyes around to get another interception on the game.

01:24:40.609 --> 01:24:48.518
Yeah, he's top 50 player in the country or something like that, but he isn't an all-ACC cornerback.

01:24:48.678 --> 01:24:56.567
Multiple second-team All-Americans because of his ridiculous completion percentage numbers, but he can't be the best in the ACC.

01:24:56.647 --> 01:24:57.428
Robbie, no.

01:25:02.515 --> 01:25:02.675
No.

01:25:02.795 --> 01:25:03.555
Oh, shit, Tally.

01:25:04.215 --> 01:25:04.855
It is beautiful.

01:25:05.456 --> 01:25:07.796
The 44 Magnum, baby.

01:25:07.876 --> 01:25:11.797
It is growing on me, but get him in single digits, please.

01:25:12.277 --> 01:25:14.877
Man, if he's going to play like he played this year, hell, he can keep it.

01:25:15.217 --> 01:25:16.458
Do whatever he wants, right?

01:25:17.078 --> 01:25:17.218
Yep.

01:25:17.258 --> 01:25:17.598
All right.

01:25:18.298 --> 01:25:20.578
Well, y'all, it is ass full.

01:25:20.618 --> 01:25:21.479
We already mentioned it.

01:25:21.519 --> 01:25:24.839
And I do not think I got Bill's call on this.

01:25:25.439 --> 01:25:28.020
I should have found Bill's call, but, you know, I'm working.

01:25:28.080 --> 01:25:29.240
I'm trying to find this stuff.

01:25:30.558 --> 01:25:32.099
This was just poetic, man.

01:25:32.980 --> 01:25:35.302
This was poetic during that game.

01:25:35.562 --> 01:25:42.809
They finally get a little bit of life, and Tootin just snatches it right back and then rubs their dick in a little bit.

01:25:43.009 --> 01:25:45.131
He does what?

01:25:45.211 --> 01:25:47.473
Tootin's going to be able to return this Ganyard kick.

01:25:47.493 --> 01:25:48.133
He does what?

01:25:48.193 --> 01:25:51.656
Blocker in front of him.

01:25:53.698 --> 01:25:54.959
It's a corner!

01:25:55.219 --> 01:25:55.920
And he's gone!

01:25:58.769 --> 01:26:04.273
Basial Tootin starts celebrating at the 30-yard line.

01:26:04.293 --> 01:26:04.913
94 yards.

01:26:05.033 --> 01:26:07.735
What a day for Basial Tootin.

01:26:11.578 --> 01:26:16.362
This right here, when he gets it outside, he just runs away from five, six, seven Wahoos.

01:26:16.602 --> 01:26:17.182
Yep, he just goes.

01:26:17.222 --> 01:26:20.264
He's fourth in the ACC in all-purpose yards, averaging 111 yards per game.

01:26:28.291 --> 01:26:30.933
He is going to double that at least.

01:26:31.214 --> 01:26:31.954
Here we go.

01:26:33.155 --> 01:26:34.596
Cold beverage on a cold night.

01:26:38.980 --> 01:26:43.764
And I'm pretty positive at the beginning of that clip where you hear the pitter patter.

01:26:43.804 --> 01:26:47.688
And I think that was our coaches clapping and raising hell in the booth.

01:26:48.689 --> 01:26:50.510
If I can remember correctly.

01:26:52.192 --> 01:26:53.032
Cause they nailed it.

01:26:53.092 --> 01:26:54.714
Cause they nailed it, man.

01:26:56.335 --> 01:27:11.893
The patience, though, I mean, I think that's the thing when I look at Tootin', like, he's not quite that elite level patience that we saw with Khalil Herbert in terms of just being able to wait for it, wait for it, and then just explode through the hole.

01:27:13.342 --> 01:27:19.503
But, I mean, he's got some of that, and he's got a little bit more, I think, power combined with that breakaway speed.

01:27:19.543 --> 01:27:22.124
And we saw kind of all of that on display there, man.

01:27:22.164 --> 01:27:26.365
He had patience, accelerated outside, and then ran away from everybody.

01:27:27.845 --> 01:27:30.045
It was so many plays this year that he made.

01:27:30.286 --> 01:27:33.826
You know, some of them only went for five yards or seven yards.

01:27:34.306 --> 01:27:36.447
Well, he's going towards the sideline.

01:27:37.495 --> 01:27:40.778
And it looks like it's nothing there, and he just keeps stringing it, stringing it.

01:27:41.158 --> 01:27:43.099
And then he bends that corner.

01:27:43.600 --> 01:27:43.720
Yep.

01:27:43.900 --> 01:27:50.145
And then, you know, like in the Tulane game, he bends the corner and he scores.

01:27:50.365 --> 01:27:55.149
It's like, how does he get there, and how does he accelerate once he gets there?

01:27:55.689 --> 01:27:58.872
It's like you expect him to get caught from somewhere, but he just doesn't.

01:27:59.612 --> 01:28:01.514
And then when he gets caught sometimes –

01:28:02.785 --> 01:28:05.547
His lower half, he looks like he got tree trunks for legs.

01:28:05.967 --> 01:28:07.528
Yeah, he's like a little bowling ball, man.

01:28:07.828 --> 01:28:11.590
You ain't taking him down with a little hand tackle, and it's always beautiful to see that.

01:28:13.111 --> 01:28:19.074
Well, boys, believe it or not, we have wrapped up what is now our first season as a team.

01:28:20.512 --> 01:28:22.013
winning season when we brought y'all on.

01:28:22.053 --> 01:28:24.415
That's all we needed to do was just bring Tally and Sheldon on, Brian.

01:28:24.435 --> 01:28:25.556
We would have had some winning seasons.

01:28:25.576 --> 01:28:28.097
Man, if y'all had listened, I told you.

01:28:28.117 --> 01:28:29.979
We told you it was going to happen a long time ago.

01:28:30.159 --> 01:28:36.003
Listen, this panel, these four gentlemen right here, us, we said we were going to a bowl.

01:28:36.483 --> 01:28:37.444
Other people doubted.

01:28:37.644 --> 01:28:38.565
We did not doubt.

01:28:39.085 --> 01:28:39.685
Kept the faith.

01:28:40.326 --> 01:28:40.986
Kept the faith.

01:28:41.246 --> 01:28:46.409
But this is effectively the end of our fourth season on the Boundary Corner podcast.

01:28:46.930 --> 01:28:51.973
We will be back in a couple of weeks to start season five of the Boundary Corner podcast.

01:28:52.653 --> 01:28:54.815
Want to really appreciate this was definitely.

01:28:56.880 --> 01:29:18.759
a year where the growth not only adding two amazing people to this podcast tally and shelton you guys are awesome in what y'all do um i love chatting with y'all um got to meet everybody got to pretty much meet each other this year which was great um but we also took growth you know

01:29:19.540 --> 01:29:20.941
I see there's still people watching.

01:29:21.401 --> 01:29:22.621
We took a growth.

01:29:22.661 --> 01:29:24.642
We appreciate everybody who watches.

01:29:25.042 --> 01:29:28.644
State of the program, I think, went over 1,500 views, which is insane.

01:29:28.864 --> 01:29:40.088
Just on YouTube, we had another 2,000-plus audio listens, and we had a mountain of Twitter views and Facebook views while that was live.

01:29:40.148 --> 01:29:42.069
So, I mean, that was a monster episode.

01:29:42.789 --> 01:29:44.710
When y'all joined us preseason,

01:29:45.730 --> 01:29:48.331
For the preview panel, also monster episodes.

01:29:48.391 --> 01:29:50.991
We've had some big monsters this year.

01:29:51.451 --> 01:29:58.833
We appreciate everyone coming out, supporting us, spreading the news to folks out there.

01:29:59.013 --> 01:30:00.513
I think that's the big thing.

01:30:00.553 --> 01:30:03.574
Word of mouth has been big for our podcast.

01:30:03.614 --> 01:30:08.175
When we started, we didn't really have a whole lot of built-in network.

01:30:08.215 --> 01:30:09.835
We've grown our network both

01:30:10.815 --> 01:30:16.643
from friends in social media, friends that we talk to day-to-day at the Hokie Nations.

01:30:16.723 --> 01:30:21.969
It's been amazing, the response that we've got, and we appreciate all of that support.

01:30:23.291 --> 01:30:23.832
Definitely.

01:30:23.952 --> 01:30:25.874
It's been a fun ride, man.

01:30:26.014 --> 01:30:27.837
I was very reluctant to

01:30:28.601 --> 01:30:51.874
get into this because it's time consuming it takes some time uh that Brian and Shelton does most of that work as far as time goes behind the scenes analytics and getting stats and then Curtis has to wrangle everybody in so I just get on here and talk but it still takes a lot of time but it's very you know it's very it's something that we enjoy doing and we enjoy y'all being here um

01:30:53.155 --> 01:31:18.841
spread spread the word man like right we're not done we want we want we want to do some big things this year uh we want some some new guests we want more guests we want you know more meetups we um we want to do all of that you know we're gonna do we're gonna do it all so we appreciate everybody for uh for the last year that we've had and i'm looking forward to the next year here absolutely

01:31:20.710 --> 01:31:21.051
Can't wait.

01:31:21.371 --> 01:31:23.153
Big things ahead in 2024, I believe.

01:31:23.673 --> 01:31:24.194
Big things ahead.

01:31:24.254 --> 01:31:26.776
And I'm going to go ahead and make a plug because somebody asked about it.

01:31:26.836 --> 01:31:28.378
Ray Sean McCormick out on Facebook.

01:31:29.878 --> 01:31:30.598
Listen in March.

01:31:30.898 --> 01:31:32.839
Matej Sis, he always joins us.

01:31:32.879 --> 01:31:36.921
We're going to talk about all these players in 2025 in-state, out-of-state.

01:31:37.521 --> 01:31:45.145
So we're hoping we're going to have one or two in the boat that we kind of break down in depth and we're going to look at where we stand with the rest of that class.

01:31:45.225 --> 01:31:47.526
And usually we have Matej on a couple times.

01:31:47.546 --> 01:31:52.368
We'll have him on late February, early March, kind of get a little primer for the season, and then we'll –

01:31:53.208 --> 01:32:00.215
We'll bring him on again kind of late midsummer to kind of see where we are before we get into the meat of the season.

01:32:00.295 --> 01:32:03.118
So we'll usually have two big recruiting updates.

01:32:03.218 --> 01:32:05.220
Obviously, we're going to keep updating throughout the year.

01:32:05.301 --> 01:32:08.804
But as we go along, it's going to be a lot of fun this year.

01:32:08.844 --> 01:32:10.546
We got some new faces coming.

01:32:11.166 --> 01:32:15.188
Actually, we got one behind the scenes right now that we're bringing on this year, Jack Day.

01:32:15.649 --> 01:32:17.369
He's going to be a production assistant for us.

01:32:17.389 --> 01:32:24.293
So I think we're going to level up pretty good here from our media standpoint as we kind of move into the season five this year.

01:32:24.333 --> 01:32:26.154
So welcome aboard to Jack.

01:32:26.854 --> 01:32:30.436
And we're really looking forward to what this upcoming year is going to bring.

01:32:31.176 --> 01:32:32.217
Absolutely.

01:32:32.277 --> 01:32:34.018
Yes, Robbie, we will meet this year.

01:32:34.058 --> 01:32:36.219
If I got to come to one of your games on Friday night,

01:32:37.096 --> 01:32:38.776
We're going to make it happen.

01:32:38.976 --> 01:32:42.777
We're going to drive to North Wilkesboro so Tally can meet Robby.

01:32:42.937 --> 01:32:44.317
I'm going to make it happen this year, man.

01:32:44.357 --> 01:32:45.098
I got to meet Robby.

01:32:45.118 --> 01:32:46.138
All right.

01:32:46.618 --> 01:32:54.360
Well, boys, that does wrap up this episode of the Boundary Corner Podcast brought to you by the Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg.

01:32:54.440 --> 01:32:55.260
I'm Curtis Wilson.

01:32:56.060 --> 01:32:56.860
I'm Brian Siegler.

01:32:57.800 --> 01:32:58.800
I'm Nick Saban's uncle.

01:33:00.301 --> 01:33:01.321
And I am Sheldon Moss.

01:33:02.618 --> 01:33:06.382
Visit the website, BoundaryCornerVT.com to listen to all of our episodes.

01:33:06.422 --> 01:33:08.485
Check the merchandise shop out while you're there.

01:33:08.645 --> 01:33:09.526
Always follow us.

01:33:09.926 --> 01:33:12.209
Twitter, over 2,500 now.

01:33:12.269 --> 01:33:14.351
I took a monster game this year.

01:33:14.471 --> 01:33:15.953
Facebook, Instagram.

01:33:17.114 --> 01:33:18.956
Subscribe to our YouTube account.

01:33:20.117 --> 01:33:21.658
Any podcast source, we're on them.

01:33:21.838 --> 01:33:22.538
We're on them all.

01:33:23.979 --> 01:33:29.141
As always, Jason Long, our buddy that Tally got to meet, our music man in Roanoke.

01:33:29.602 --> 01:33:30.282
He plays us in.

01:33:30.302 --> 01:33:31.462
He plays us out every week.

01:33:31.482 --> 01:33:32.123
Check him out.

01:33:32.503 --> 01:33:34.664
Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and Facebook.

01:33:35.244 --> 01:33:36.725
We thank you for listening.

01:33:36.885 --> 01:33:38.506
And as always, let's go.

01:33:38.526 --> 01:33:40.127
Hokies!