Reach For Excellence

0:46 Welcome back to the boundary Corner podcast with my partner. Brian, Sigler, I am Curtis Wilson. Brian, how are you this fine Thursday, evening. Man, doing good doing good. How you doing over there in the West End, buddy? Hanging in there, man, and what feels like an extremely long week? We're wrapping that up tomorrow with it being Friday. You know, at some baseball tonight, starting this a little later than usual but you know, it is what it is. How about you on your side of town? Good man. Started the week with a couple of doctors appointments or kind of adjacent to that son.

1:28 Had a dentist appointment. I got my second second vaccine dose there, so started with that no side effects for me other than like a little sore arm. So I'll take It but otherwise been a good week, man. Been a real good week. Very nice to hear that man. Very nice to hear that sound like you've been adulting a lot this week. Hell yeah, try my damndest idli. Yeah, every week, it's adulting folks, stay young if you can. All right well folks got a lot to get to today. Obviously with the 420 announcement that's going to be our biggest piece tonight. But over the last few weeks there has been some other topics as well. I really appreciate all the listens on the Christina Garnett interview and I think maybe the football program and athletic department might have been listening. There are some things that were discussed that were already seen, but we'll get to that a little bit later but Brian, let's start out right before we press record. Last time we got a nice verbal commitment from Alex orgy, that's Ashley Texas.

2:40 Restore, we're 15 ranked Jewel, threat quarterback in the country. 6226 he built already. Had offers from Baylor, Michigan. Houston as well as, I mean offers from Oklahoma and TCU what you think of this Pickup Man of a quarterback second quarterback of the class. You know what, I liked it a lot. I feel like with with some of the transfer we had getting to this cycle was necessary so I'm liking that we got got to in already. I like this kid. A lot reminds me of Patterson little Kewpie there, a little bit, one more quote, but a little bit closer, in terms of, like, polished throwing motion to Hendon, then QP there. But still still raw.

3:37 So he's going to need some work, but sky's the limit in terms of his terms of his talent, because he has that good blend of size and athleticism and a strong arm. So we'll see how it's all summer. The highlights from one of the camps. He was that looks like he's doing pretty good. Slinging the ball around there. So looking forward to getting this campus and seeing what we can do with them in this system? Oh yeah. He had a very impressive Elite 11 camps. I don't Southlake Carroll. He was basically considered the best fall athletic quarterback there, which is really good. You know, whether you make the Elite 11, or you get like this, Warden tells the guy, you know, we saw some of the pictures man, he's built.

4:27 He's one of those kids if he polished in between now and the day he walks on campus, he could compete because there's no, there's no, he's 230 pounds, his legs are huge, his upper body's built. What we like to do with quarterbacks. He could definitely take it. Definitely good. Definitely good pickup. Second Devon, Fair a little different. So it's very Very interesting to see how that all shape out now, weren't down done, yet. In the state of Texas yet. Texas to DT is back everybody. Haha, yeah, that's just a VT is BAC gone but not forgotten. Go knock em dead but very interesting recruit here. Johnny Dixon, the offensive guard at a Flower Bluff and in Corpus Christi Texas, 88, 3 star, the 13th, ranked guard in the country.

5:22 So again, as you get into the offensive line, as you start getting into those teams, is where you're starting to see guys, who are four star star. He's borderline in it right now. Had offers from Oklahoma Oklahoma State, Texas A&M. And one that really caught some folks eyes out there. And I saw somebody mentioned this Arkansas, Arkansas is coached by saying Pittman Sam, Pittman was the guy who put the Georgia offensive lines together the last three or four years for took the Arkansas job. One of those things, somebody said is Sam. Pittman offered him.

6:05 You want a player like that? I agree 100% with him. Brian. Did you get a chance to peek at his State since he just committed yesterday? I haven't got to look at it bunch of his tape yet. But what I've seen from some of the folks, some of the stuff that's been posted on social media, looks like a perfect fit at guard, definitely a need position in terms of the next three years. In terms of building out the roster especially the way we've been looking at the offensive line. You still concerned about depth on that that unit over the course of the next few years. So it's nice to get a guy in there and with some of the As we're hearing about Jack's sliding down, it potentially Center that. That's some we're starting to fill in at least the interior line over the next couple of years. Potentially.

6:57 So we'll see what happens if the tackle position. And if we were able to bring in another transfer or get some you know, High 3 and low for Star guys in at that position, going forward, but getting a guy like Johnny Dixon is going to definitely help. Been playing that Texas competition. I'm not sure about the league, whether it's a high-level competition league but there's pretty much no you know, no slouches out there in Texas. So and having a guy that used to be in the in the 757 area to kind of understands the program and what it's all about. So good pickup. I will say though I'll throw a little a little criticism on the end of this year, you know, right now we're treating A guy like Johnny Dixon, this kind of like Top Flight level of the class where he really should be like the meat and potatoes of a class.

7:52 Yeah, true. I'm with you. Johnny Dixon's a damn good pick up with what he does and where he ranks, but he is not that. He should not be the Crown Jewel of the class that is no disrespect to him. So everybody jumping them down. Is it good? You got two of these commits. Are they solid players? Yeah, but this is kind of what happened last year, you're still looking for the crown jewels. You're still looking for the more Elite guys who put at the top of your class where you have guys like Johnny who are really good players. Now could Dixon an orgy, Step Up intentionally be you know, as you know, sort of the crown jewels.

8:36 Yes. They both have the build, they're both playing and leagues so they have the potential but you don't want to be thanking this early on. Guys like that. To be your crown jewels. Yeah. You know we're still talking about, you know, late, April here. We don't want to count guys that are high three stars that they're going to get a bump up to that that four-star range. And if they get the bump your they're going to be like in that Fringe area. Anyway they're just going to be on the other side of the of the of the Rope there. So that's still nothing to necessarily. Hang your hat on at the same time, they're good. Solid pickups and should be good contributors to the program going forward. But if we want to build that recruiting momentum, we're going to need to start Landing more of the four-star guys, to kind of, you know, beat our chest a little bit and show the rest of the ACC that we means of business, on the recruiting Trail.

9:28 Absolutely, absolutely. Let's turn real quick and probably in a few weeks here. Guys, were probably going to go a little bit more in-depth into spring practice. Again, things have been going on in our lives that kind of prevented us from keeping a good heart. Grass, what was going on over the next few weeks? We'll start getting into that but one piece of news that came out. Very disheartening, was Chiang, Rai stores ACL and you feel for the guy played of the Villanova wanted to ascend to take that. Step Up in competition, you get more eyes on him. Potentially, as you put good numbers up at Villanova go to Virginia Tech, he won playing ACC type schedule and I put up numbers may be at looked at in the NFL came in so late last year and kind of started flashing at the end of the season.

10:18 But it just stinks because you saw what he did in that UVA game as a stick mover and you want a guy like that? You want a guy that it's make easy terms, where the quarterback, you know, What do you think bro? Yeah, I think he did a really good job of that later in the season, getting some separation from the the corners and the secondary that he was going up against having a guy like that. Just even if it's coming in to give tray a few series off here, they're working in the slot. If he needs to give you some of the other guys, a break there, if he could just got it, I've gotten some some extra reps there.

11:01 I think he would have This a lot. But you know, that's where that's where the stinks here, man. Because, you know, he definitely could have been a high-level contributor at a position where we don't have a whole lot of experience death. You know, I feel like we got a good number of wide receivers in general, but we don't have very many guys at this point, that you can count on like that. We know we can count on because we've seen them do it and we're getting less by the day and That's getting a little scary that you know, beyond the first three or four guys who we who were going to count on. So that's concerning and Chang are going down with that injury definitely makes that even more of a dicey situation.

11:47 So hopefully we can either get a guy in the portal to Shore that up a little bit or some of the other guys step up this fall. Absolutely 100% more people have got to step up and you know it's one of those places. We have a lot of bodies there who can go out and provide that help it'll be very interesting to see. All right, Brian, let's let's one last piece. We hit a little bit with Christina. The shortfalls of the athletic department. in the football program to put on paid only do a spring game, you don't want to bring people to the city, the town of Blacksburg complaining, you're trying to be safe, you're trying to get it over with Now, that the spring is one thing we should have at least had a spring production.

12:43 Do you some sort of something stream somewhere should have happened? Whether that's a practice that had cameras, whether that was an actual scrimmage where they just stream on the ACC Network or on hokey Sports, whatever was there needed to be something especially if you. Do you regret to announce this fucking Reach For Excellence? Campaign like masses, what? What better? I mean you talked about it that you were originally planning to roll out of spring game last year, get some Buzz behind the program going into this, offseason going to this little stretch where there's not a lot of news, get some Buzz.

13:27 So people open their wallets even more freely than they did based on the announcement. Like it's so easy and the thing that stinks for me is that you had like that's that's all fanbase stuff, right? So most Over to my right now was engaging fans and stuff like that but there's so much that could have been done like getting recruits to look at this. That really could have helped on the trail and not let so it's not just a donor thing, it's not just a fan thing. This could have really helped on the recruiting Trail as well saying. This is what we're doing. I mean UCF had like the hashtag jerseys that they had out there. Florida state did something. I mean there's there were so many unique ways of having some sort of spring even if you didn't have.

14:13 Have people in the stadium at the tailgate, you know, while it's in the stands and shit like that. Like there's so many other way to generate buzz and donations and recruiting that could have been used that weren't I just see it as an opportunity, I don't really care that I couldn't come to the game. It's a missed opportunity to do all those other things. Well, it's, again, it's where whip your bullshit and back in December. We're going to make more access you made. No access. You may know accent, like we got a repackaged version of the hard hat series with more actual practice live footage. But again, we're still not in Christine talked about it and we talked about a little bit the we're not getting the reciprocal stuff.

15:01 We're not getting the back-and-forth. We're getting very. Here is the stuff you requested and we're either take it or we don't there's not that let me get you involved in the program feel like you're a part of it. It's what she said. It doesn't feel like a fan is running. It feels like a corporation. Here's what you get. Here is what you get here in this. Like, screw that we wanted to see a game. And some of those like will recruit one look at it. Well, if you package it right, they will. If you package it, where you're talking to players where you know what they should have done smart went super silent on it, recorded it talked to like the players on the sideline and say hey hey two nights from now.

15:47 Check out a SEC network, our stuff dropping, I say some things on. There are current guys talking to recruit our coaches saying things to recruit again. Everybody is been on it and you know what, I think it's partially Just for one day, didn't want to have a spring game in in this was his easy way out. He could say, in the presser on this having people here have been here for five years. None of them have ever been recorded. You had to be in person. We showed up back in 16, it was a great time, great atmosphere. So again, if you're with Babcock, And this is the person that's going to continue to be in charge, he just lay the hammer and say you're going to do this shit.

16:30 What if I don't want to then you can get your ass out of the fucking program. See you. I'm at some point, just got to take the little victories that you can have. That are really, they're simple on your and, you know, people will say, oh well, it costs money to put on the spring game. Again, whether it does or not, whether it does or not, You could still have recorded a practice, you can still have recorded some sort of scrimmage, that wasn't broadcast on the ACC Network where you have to bring in officials where you have to bring in media Crews and shit like that. You know that they pay officials to come in for every scrimmage. So what's the fucking difference? Our history history, it's not the money, it's not the money loser that like the, the naysayers were claiming it was that the I'll leave it at that.

17:21 I'm not saying you wouldn't be in the red. I just simply think regardless of what that red is and knowing, it's not that much. It would have been worth it to get it on. Either the network on hokey, Sports scrimmage, practice, whatever the fuck you want to do to be it is a chance to get free exposure to your program in. The best light possible and you don't do it. That is a failure of the leadership of the program and the athletic department in my humble opinion. Boom. All right, let's jump off that because we could go on for days. All right, real quick.

18:02 Our nice package defensive line feature with Coach wheelchair on it Morel Pollard Mario Kendricks I loved it. I think they did a good job. I like the kind of the realness of the discussion and kind of letting the players say what they want to say. And then I feel like coach tearling kind of wrapped in a bow. Well, and kind of related it back to stuff. You see on the field. I thought it was informative. I liked his energy that he brought to the d-line practice sessions and I liked how guys were holding each other accountable on the practice field as well. I thought that was. That was a good representation. So overall, no complaints on that. I just feel like we need more or something different to go along with that. If that was in conjunction with more, like fan friendly events and things like that, perfect no complaints. But that is being the, the deepest dive of impact that fans are getting and not getting that reciprocal thing that that that's where it kind of kind of hurts for me. So that's really.

19:09 My only complaint is that this is the most, we get, not the content itself, it's the most. We get the content itself is solid, the content itself should be again. That's a nice little package to have every few weeks. But there's more. Yeah and won't more. We're not satisfied with little packages because little package is just like, okay great. I got to know a little bit more about Barrio see him on the field here that's cool. I want more, let's move on braund obviously the announcement the reach for excellent announcement that came with 420, a 400 million-dollar in flux.

19:55 Into the athletic department, know it. But let's comment on something real quick. Before we get into it, they definitely put that in the morning on purpose. Because if they put in the afternoon, everyone was going to be fucking baked. I mean, Tommy, how's it work? For a while? Inside circles like something's bigs coming, it's going to change the landscape of the whole you know, the football Department significantly, the athletic department.

20:35 Really big and it's things that since we started this podcast, we've called for in their hands out on, you know, Twitter. I don't social media, you know, questions being asked by the media and kind of all finally came to fruition. And we're going to kind of hit it in piece by piece goes. We're going to start with comments from whipped machine. Me Tim sayings then wit, look at the castle renovation and then get into the football stuff. Let's just go ahead. Look Start with the sayings. He said it working set. It only Athletics are important. Were you shocked?

21:15 I wasn't shocked that he thought it. I'm shocked. He said it out loud because anybody that looks at any data piece about Virginia Tech knows that Athletics have driven a lot of the economic Goodwill. In the community and in the school, if you don't see that you're fucking blind, it was nice. That he said it, he did point out that like some of the efforts with this started with the boundless impact campus-wide fundraising campaign, that began. I guess they were discussing it as far as four years back, they launched it in Earnest and early 2019.

21:59 And this was kind of supposed to be built off from that and then announced at the spring game. 20/20. And then obviously covid happened and things shut down in mid-march. And apparently everything got put on hold, which was probably the right move, but I think in the interim, we didn't realize how much Goodwill the program in general, would lose in the interim. And I think that kind of put put put, put the impetus on them to get this out as sooner as soon as able and get this ball rolling. And I mean they've talked about some of the things that were part of this.

22:41 We're starting to be put in place without a formal announcement last year like some of the additional recruiting positions, but it was good to hear Sans acknowledge that and it was good to hear what we had to say after that, it's very true, the biggest piece of it that you know 400 million but the university itself is going to be increasing its money to help. Help move for jigna Tech into the operating. Having the operating money of the top third of the programs in the ACC and you start moving top third of the ACC, you're essentially moving into the top 25 in the country. And that's the, that's the big piece. We're going to get into a little bit because wit gave the number and I don't think me and you were shot because I think we looked last year at some of the numbers. And it was like, we need to be higher because we looked at other peoples.

23:33 But to have Tim Sands, kind of a kind of say it, you know, say it that it's important. All the sports are important. All the sports are doing well. He kind of even, you know, kind of having kind of gloss over like football that have the best butt. We're we're football now needs to become the cash cow that it is so but on sayings you got the Amazon, you got it rolling. Now you're dumping money to what is the most visual? Aspect of your University while program in the basketball program.

24:15 Now, let's jump over to wit. So many different places where you want to go on this? Brian. So, anything I'd say, let's start with the goal for the, the football budget, and the total operating budget for the athletic department. So, we're talking about, looks like a over 25 million dollar increase in the operating annual operating budget over the next, what four years that's playing. Yeah, and the goal for the football budget is for a 30 million increase over various elements of their budget in that same time frame. So that's not necessarily operation. So if you're doing the math, obviously 25 million, increase, 30 million increase.

25:04 Something's a job in there. The 30 million is spread over various elements of the budget operations being one of them. So some part of that 30 million chunk is in the 25 million. That's going, that's the goal for the, the total athletic department, but they emphasize that football is important. They are going to invest in it going forward. Um, but the other big thing we that we talked about was you're bringing it to the level of bringing everything with leg department, but football in particular to the level of the peers in the conference and I think that's something that we had been harping on a lot is that, you know, we're in the 40s on most of these things, in terms of the financial investment lower on some ends higher on others.

25:51 But average somewhere in the mid to high 40s in these These things. And we need to be at least at that, top 25 level and hopefully overachieve, you know, based on the, the financial input that we're putting in there, and can take the next step and compete for ACC championships again. And he did say it compete for national titles. Absolutely. Well, he compared budget-wise, ACC of the top dogs or where you are with Clemson Florida State and he did mention Notre Dame Louisville and he's assuming Miami, they are on operating budget of 130 million dollars. This brings us up to 125 and where we were wants eight to ten in this sort of category or now probably going to be positioned probably right at five. Yeah.

26:42 Anywhere between four and six depending on one year depending on on various things. Yeah, you out. Raise one year, you go higher. But the point that he made was we had been down there, you talked about in the 40s, we're talking about in the bottom half of the ACC Finance wise and still overachieving still during the latter years of Frank, when, you know, having gone to the Sugar Bowl, winning 10 games, Early part of the winter are the ten, winning the nine win Seasons doing that on a low-end budget. And we do get the basketball program and how it's done. You know, with Buzz. Now, Mike on a lower-end budget.

27:25 That's damn impressive. He's damned impressive takes. Look at 16 and 17 and look at what buzz and Mike Young's done with basketball and said, we were competing like that and we didn't have near the amount of funds. That's insane. You know, go do that to Clemson. I have a feeling one compete that well, but, you know, another thing that he said, Brian and me and you kind of And kind of talked about it a little bit. Was what essentially saying his goal is for Virginia Tech to become The role model program. If we wrap up our pants and we said here, and we were talking, what are the role model programs or programs top football and basketball, do your Olympic sports are some of the best. First one that popped in my head was Florida. And the first one that popped into my head was Michigan. And you think about those programs, those are very good in football, but they're very good in basketball. But baseball programs have made the College World Series in the last five years.

28:39 Each have Olympic and other sports Florida volleyball. Huge go. Michigan has some of their Olympic sports. This big top to bottom, they're competing in everything and believe it or not. You think about the way we are right now, less football. That's the way the Hokies are looking basketball. Rank this year. May the tournament baseball ranked. Well on its way to making the NCAA Baseball. Tournament Wrestling top 10 program won the ACC, Jules what for all Americans at. Indoor track and field men's championship, softball shrink soccer's. Making that you want to talk about building it the Lesser programs, are they?

29:28 And I know something mean you talked about Brian that maybe people don't agree with what with did, but maybe the goal was I've got to fix this. Get the baby ready, get football and basketball, ready? Because now with the renewed interest in those non-revenue Sports, there's going to be some big donor. You talk about it, Brian. There's going to be some big donor at lausanne or maybe they ran it Tech and they wouldn't have a significantly successful career that says, well, how much money does indoor track need this year? 200,000 dollar, operating budget rights. Check he go. That's what what gets to do when you look at the foot.

30:09 Ball money. You don't need to write a check for indoor track. Somebody's covered it already. It definitely gives him more flexibility with the budget to put more money back into football. If other sports are more self-sufficient and we're not talking, we're not talking about the non revs, all of a sudden being 100%, you know, liquid with with their operating budget. Like, they're still going to need The money that's coming from football operations, to fund, various aspects of their sport but the less that has to be pulled from the revenue that football generates and put into these non-revenue. Sports, the more, the revenue that football generates gets to stay in football.

31:00 And that's a good thing for long-term. And that's a good thing, especially when done in conjunction with these budget increases with these incentives and goals for the program, before we move into those five pillars for the football program. The, let's talk a little bit about the castle renovation plan. What do you think of it buddy? It looks awesome. I mean, it really does. It is, you know, it's taking a piece of architecture that was built, late 1960s, early 1970s, it's keeping the architectural Integrity, they're bringing it into the 21st century.

31:45 You know, we talked about it's not going to be one complete overhaul because he really wants to the team to stay there. I think that's very smart. I think, you know, trying to move it down to Salem Civic Center or over to the Roanoke Civic Center. While you're doing this, don't do that. You've got a buzz going with Mike yelling right now. Yep. Keep the heat not only the fans engaged to being on campus. Keep the students engaged to being on campus. Now that keep that home court advantage in place to, because people do not like to play in Castle. No, they don't. They don't, it is that I've never been in Castle. Goal will be to go probably in the next few years during the renovations.

32:32 But again, those buildings the way they're built, it's just like think about using the free throws about the way it's set up. It's an awkward free. Throw shot to the student section. They show that behind picture in here, like me. That is the depth perception with the fans kind of Cohen up down. Very weird tough place to play now. Brian, we talked about the four year phase. Me and Brian. What? Babcock, if you're listening. We want to tell you how this phase needs to be done. All right. He's won. He's won. Completely redo the boxes.

33:13 Nothing else in Phase 1, micron. Redo the boxes that was my first thought. Like I said, I don't know to what degree, any sort of exterior modifications going to be need for needed for this, but getting the boxes in there does a big thing which is you get more money for those seats, which thin then be put back into the budget for the further Renovations that are needed to be completing this phase. So if You get the boxes done, then things start paying for themselves, a little bit more. Oh yeah. And you're also keeping donors who are writing the biggest checks, happy, you're giving them a new home.

33:57 Take their clientele into you have potentially other big money donors to come in and say, hey, yeah, I'm giving someone. So and this is my box. What do you think of it? I want one. Hope you're gonna have to pay more money bing bing bing bing. The second piece of it that we discussed would be. Like, for me it's like school will change the Aesthetics on the inside next. And why say the Aesthetics the new scoreboard, the new walkways you're seeing and not the seating per se is because bring people in there and show them this all the new stuff that's happening. Probably new concessions, the new scoreboard, the new visual stimulation because it have someone who is looking at purchasing season tickets in the future. You're selling them at selling them about this is this is awesome.

34:59 Atmosphere is great, this looks good. What do you say? I agree with that because as much as the seat, I put my ass in his important, some of that other stuff is more important in the short term. I feel like because most people going to put their ass in whatever they enjoy, whether whether it's uncomfortable or not, whether it's tighter than they like whatever. The problem with the physical seat itself, baby. If the Other stuff going around them stimulates them the way they want to. They're going to more or less be happy. For less be having an experience upgrade without the physical seat upgrade wall without the fit because if you were to take someone who is interested in basketball and the boxes are done in the seats are done great. Just looks like an old stadium.

35:50 It's not that in potentially purchase taken. Third of already said it. It's the seat then deceit because you've kept a big money, happy you've got something that interest people that brings them in the building. Now, I'll make them comfortable. And then lastly Brian me and you our prior conversation couple days ago, then you do the outside work but the outside be the last piece. Again Aesthetics are nice. Aesthetics may help a little bit with recruiting and just general feel of campus, but the people that are going that are paying money to go to these games.

36:31 I think care more about what's happening inside the walls than what's happening outside. Absolutely. And I think what's currently going on with the basketball program. you know that kyiv testing the waters, but you still feel like even if he doesn't come back Top 25, top 30 team tournament team if Keith comes back but like adding storm Murphy and potentially and the kid out of use. USF, if Keith comes back. I think we're ranked like 12 to open the season. I'd say, somewhere in that range and somewhere in the 10 to 15, for sure.

37:13 That's kind of what I was begging their so that's going to be big for that program and that's going to, you know, it'll be, it'll be interesting to see how that team reacts with those type of expectations but on them because that's something that you've over your essentially been a year early year, 1 and year 2 under Mike young. Let's see with these expectations how the team reacts and what they do because I think the sky's the Limit in terms of what they can achieve, they just got to go and do it and make sure they come together and play the play. The type of basketball that they need to at a consistent level because consistency has probably been the one thing that has dog. The team, the last two years is that, you know, they'll have, you know, three three, good games play really, really well up to competition.

38:03 And then have a game where they play down to some lesser competition, or have a game where they just and for whatever reason, the ball just won't go in the damn hoop and shrimp and they lose a game that they on paper should have one and if we can get those games minimized or eliminated then that's going to be really big for that program. Is that means, then you're looking at You go 500 against those top tier opponents or 500 or better against those top tier opponents and you're looking at a higher rank in the ACC tournament. You looking at a higher rank going into the NCAA tournament and then you can make a try to make a run depending on how those matchups lineup. And true, again, great things for the basketball program. Great thing for the athletic department in general. But as we've already mentioned before, this is a massive boost to the football program.

39:02 Probably something that should have been done quite a few years ago. You're getting the resources they need. Football which stimulate the local economy up to 100 million dollars? A year, getting things that need to get back to the level of the expectations. That assist fans, you know, going on, 20, 25 years expected to be and what we're going to go through. Now guys, is we're going to break down the five sections that were specifically discussed with the dollar amounts and kind of, not only how we think is going to help but little Maybe our visions of what we hope they do. Brian, let's start with the number one. We talked about getting to recruit Sara Lee. Let's talk about recruiting recruit staff, man. That's the big one.

39:54 That's the one they LED off with, and that's the one that, you know, they did the whole silent roll out a little bit starting last year with some of the new positions looks like they're looking to grow that even further as I heard something about them currently Looking to fill eight positions on that across that staff going into 2021, that's going to be big because recruiting is definitely the area. I think that we have fallen the most short in terms of the controllable aspects or at least the Quasi controllable aspects that really have Money plays a role, but not as much of a role, but getting positions. Like this can highlight the areas that we've done. Well, in, in the recruiting Trail and minimize some of those negative aspects that we've seen over the few years. So, getting those hires is going to be big and seeing how that grows.

40:53 And like I said, the Highlight they made was full-time staff versus volunteers and that's really big for those on campus visits, that's really big. We're staying in contact with these recruits on a more regular basis and I'm looking forward to seeing that pay some dividends whether it's with this coach or the next coach. I feel like this is going to be the biggest impact for the school. Well, you know, it can be it, absolutely is and they're talking about, it's five million dollars over six years, you know? And that's the X additional. There's already a small budget there. You probably might guess it's Really going to make the budget a million dollars a year, maybe a little over maybe slightly under. But anyway, getting to the level of a top-25 program and it's the position you talk about the pain positions versus volunteers and don't get me wrong, this is no knock on the volunteer, but when it's your job to do this and get to put it on a resume or you're trying to work your way out of this, in the history of collegiate.

42:04 It potentially professional football. Having a paying job is very important. Having something you put on your resume, saying what you did is super important. So, you know, again, we're getting we need to be now This was announced y'all know me and Brian's creative aspirations kind of went crazy. And we were going back and forth. Like how would we set this up? If this was Brian and Curtis is brainchild, how would we set this up? And I told Brian, the one piece I want. Is I want essentially a relationship staff, client manager staff. He's a recruit manager staff and these people are not necessarily worried about the game though.

42:57 They worried about every other aspect of that kid's life, they're worried about how they're doing in school, you want to get to know the parents, the siblings, the aunts, the uncles, the trainer's where they, you know, what are their interests? What do they like to eat? What's going to be their major? I want a division like that. So when a four-star recruit out of the beach is coming up for a visit, there's someone who knows that kid's life in and out and can give Cliff Notes versions to Heather, his primary coaching recruiter. He's you want the person that's assigned to that recruit when they walk off the bus on Saturday? Telling them man.

43:41 Y'all kick the shit out of Bayside like yeah. Like you want them to know what's important to them. Know what buttons to press and understand that, which aspects of the recruiting process are important to them and who in their sphere of influence is important to them and key to their decision-making process solutely. Now, Brian, you've obviously had another side you want. Yeah, I want I want, I want guys that are dedicated to looking at the, the game tape, the football stuff.

44:23 The the stuff I like the sitting in front of a video screen for four hours and hours and then Pat filtering that information and passing it on the coaches. So they can better evaluate the talent that's coming in. In watching as much Camp tape as you can watching as much your game tape in Season watching anything, you can get your hands on practice tape from the high school, practice tape from the seven-on-seven like anything that you can grab and watch and see the intricacies of a recruits game. So that not only is the coach able to say, yeah this guy's a scheme fit or this guy's a skill fit but also know so they can start getting Their minds turning. Once I get this guy in, what can I do with him? Because I know his skills that I understand his skills at a deep level setting them up for a good experience. Once they're on campus, once they're in practice, once they're in the weight room, once they're in the conditioning room, all of that stuff is important. It's true and like in Brian mentioned this you but like, the way I see this is you're going to have. Obviously you're going to have your lower level. Like to me group managers you're recruiting analyst your game analyst to me, you would have a director, you setting the big vision and then to like

45:56 co-directors or operations managers for each side. And they're going to do partially, do the rolls, but they're also setting the expectations. It's a hierarchy, it has to be. And I don't think having just one primary director of recruiting give everybody their Direction. I don't think that's the way to go. We'll see. LeBron, let's move on obviously, recruiting important. I'm interested to see the number of recruiting positions that we can count a year from now on the website. Mark that it's go back and do it. But Brian, what it? What a deal, wu-tang's and song.

46:38 Say Cash rules, everything around me. Dolla, dolla bills. Y'all the assistant coaching staff Cool. Is going to be in the course of a six-year span going up over 10 million dollars. And some people will say, well, who gives you shit, you know, there's other people that can pay them. Well, here's the thing. About coaches, sometimes get comfortable, like all of us. if you have a shooting star who is killing it, not only on the recruiting Trail, but potentially also as a positional coach Where it felt like the last five or six years, you know, I always felt like, you know, there's certain times people leave, you got this kind of money and strokes check. Give raises when they're needed.

47:34 If you need to move on from a guy, you can afford to bring in a top-flight candidate to fill the role. You can finally play. Pay your offensive and defensive coordinators top-level money. You can because you can feel comfortable going to a million dollars for a coordinator. If you've got the flexibility to still be above 250 for pretty much every position coach and, you know, average in the 100 range per position coach. And that's what this budget is going to afford, and that's going to be huge. That's going to be very huge. And that that to me other than the recruiting is, you know. They said there's not a hierarchy here. I absolutely believe top to bottom. This is the where they want to focus first. If the money's there they I think they're going to increment all aspects of this in terms of their rollout, whether its facilities, which you haven't gotten to yet the other aspects. But but you know, if you're putting chips in a bucket, they're putting two or three chips in the first two or three buckets, when they're putting one or two in the last two that's just all the way I'm seeing it. You damn right.

48:45 Um and you know think about the assistant pool and think of it those out there. Think of it this way. We've been on record saying, we don't feel great about this upcoming season, just don't hope for wrong, but we hope we're wrong. We hope we are proved wrong at the end of the year. But now with this type of assistant, coaches budget, when you go out and pay, we're clearly paying top dollar for their head coach. Yep, I can highest paid in the ACC. I think he is a top 20. Paid head coach at have to go. Look if not, he's borderline in it. I want to save 16. But I could be wrong with that but I think it's top 20 so he's not getting Global money.

49:30 We know we can pay what it means is if we do have that bad season and we do have to terminate the current head coach. When you go out and go look for that next head, coach, your lane to say. Whatever you want for your assistant coaches, we're going to be able to get it done and with the recruiting staff, however, you want this built-in looking, we're going to be able to get it done. And you're talking about opening up candidacy of maybe. We'll here's the three or four guys were looking at to say. Listen, we can look at a lot of different potential head coaches and they can look at the absolute pipe dollar assistance.

50:21 I Braun the other one, the pillar number three which isn't trailing too far behind if the first two guys. Three drops. Three coins in the bucket. This one's probably getting too, but the football, operation staff. Which Brian kind of sits there and says, where was this 20 years ago? When I graduated college? But if you're talking again, it's 5 million, I'm sure there's a small budget there.

51:13 Again, you're talking about it getting upper close to a million dollars a year. It's going to be big and I know we talked about it a little bit on our quick hit. But you know what these essentially are. He's like you got quality control on on the lower end that's usually going to be the younger guys that you're bringing in and then you've got the offensive and defensive and special teams analyst roles that are usually for the more veteran, either former coaches or guys that have been in those systems for a long time, that have seen how the good programs Work have seen things top to bottom and can can kind of catch those blind spots that coaches, may be missing whether it's at practice or whether it's things going on behind the scenes.

52:00 So I think all of that is important having those more youthful, guys, learning the ropes. But also making sure that if things are running the way they need to from a quality standpoint and then also the analyst making sure that Everything's going smooth from a practice perspective from a coach's prep perspective. I know that Jerry kill. Did a lot of that when he was here we need like two or three of those guys. On each side of the ball, not just one or two in the whole program and this type of budget you can do that.

52:41 Yeah. I mean you're talking about when you getting close to probably probably close to them. In and you don't, let's get a couple guys on each side of the ball and maybe one other analysts to either cover special teams or just kind of be a catch-all. Yeah. You could probably have five big big guys probably making anywhere I'd say 90 thousand two hundred fifty thousand two based on their resume and then you talk about the what you saw at the Quality Control guys guys who are fresh who are trying to get their first start in the business and giving them a reasonable salary and to come To your program. You know, I'm interested to see what both through this, and the recruiting will do to the ga rolls because now our they're still going to be GA rolls or is it more? I think they'll be GA roles but they're not going to be essentially quasi, assistant coaches anymore. I mean, so many of those roles have become. All right.

53:42 Well if you're a ga you're almost like assistant position Coach in training, that's more or less what it's been. And I think that's going to turn into more of a traditional GA roll, kind of prepping you for your first step into either. The quality control role or a position coach role. Whatever comes available based on your skill set and what you? What you bring to the table. Yep. All right, the fourth pillar was essentially Player Development at two million. Something that sounded really emphasized. It caught my ear was essentially getting these guys prepared for Life After Football.

54:26 Life After College and and I think it's I think it's such a good thing when you think about it because Brian you were an athlete in college even though it was D3, you guys had mandatory study. Hall's, you had to keep certain gpas you had. I'm pretty sure you had some tutors if you need it. You have people on you all the time, the say we're going to take that guy, you know who I mean? He's busting his ass, you know, getting up at 4:30 probably, you know, going training knows. Here's what he's got to be his meals, taking them out of that element and just put him into the real world.

55:07 That to me. I can see that as a culture shock. Absolutely it absolutely man for sure. And and if you're talking about getting these guys prep for life, after it's such a good thing and I'm sure it's going to be so much more about it in. You're already here in the name, Sam Stewart a lot, I know she doing stuff with alumni, I'm not sure if she's going to be involved with this directly, I'd have to look up her title. But what's your, what's your biggest? Take on this brand. Yeah, sofu called it out directly and mention Sam Stewart by name. Apparently, she's been absolutely killing it since getting to Blacksburg, so that's awesome.

55:48 And he emphasized that as being. Probably the thing he wants to grow the most, in terms of the impact on the players, and he kind of described it as like, not academics and not Athletics, but everything in between that these student athletes deal with As being both players while they're at the University and then kind of what happens in that life after realm. So getting that develop, I think is going to be really, really great. And I think that's, you know, quality of life for players is important and that that stuff like that can keep players from entering the transfer portal, because not everything is just about playing time and not everything is just about, oh, well, I'm far from home, like, sometimes it's other stuff. Times.

56:37 It's those little things that may not may be falling through the cracks. And this is I think the overall thing here with with, with point three and four, is that a lot of this is taking away the blind spots. I feel like the quality and the analysts take away the blind spots for the coaches. And I think this also fills in some of the blind spots of the coaches have, in terms of how the players feel, how the players are. Are doing outside of the classroom and outside of the locker room and outside of the stadium. And I think that'll that'll help things going forward for that player quality of life. Absolutely.

57:20 And to me, the first four pillars, you got my blind spot with coaches. What this is doing for the coaches, obviously, is giving them more money. The other three are giving them, your job is to coach football. Is your job to be involved in the players. Like? Hell, yeah. But can you see every single aspect of their life before they get here or while they're here? No, you can't. They're filling in that Gap. So, the coaches can go out and coach, and know, and having this Player Development type stuff. Hey listen, he's had some rough classes lately and keep that in my mind if I see him unfocused. Yeah, I mean, the best coach in the world. Kill me that guy 285 players all the time. Nope, the more support you can have in that area, the better. It's true.

58:15 Very true. And again what that helps them is I'd say this produce, not worrying less about that more time in the film room, more time, prepping. More time for jet sweeps. The short side of the field. Ordinal, 14, quarterback, power on Third, and 20, because those are like those plays. Now, if I see them after everything of this is implementing the next year and we still have the current coaching staff. It's like, well, at least you thought more about it this time, more about it. In the next few years.

59:19 Whether it be the stadium itself, Beamer born, they're going to need upgrades simple as that. And To go ahead and say, well, we're going to keep eight million over here. In case, we need it right now who's to say that this type fundraising effort, Doesn't generate more money than it needs. You know, then they well we do need some to update that but we got an extra 3 million so we can go ahead and move this over to the recruiting and the assistant coaches into the analytical budget into the Player. Development budget to get more people to help those guys out. So, what I think it's good that they're putting in here because Now, it's not.

1:00:07 Completely on. The big donors to come through for some of these projects you can incrementally build up each year, so you're saying, all right, well, we're increasing a little bit here, that's earmarked for facilities. And then as you're getting there, obviously facilities are not something that Happened right all the time, right? It's not the building is ongoing, but the fundraising needs to be ongoing for whenever we're ready to put those capital projects into motion. And I think this helps towards that. We're if we see we're falling behind in an area we can actually move on it instead of having to say, all right. Well let's save another few years and hopefully a big donor will come through and we might be able to do this in five years that five years becomes Maybe Two or three years now because you plan for it a little bit better, you've taken that into account as you're going along.

1:01:05 Then. It's very true and you know, and that's kind of the way this to me is set up is they're looking to the Future. They're not, they're changing in a way the way they look at fundraising for the Apple apartment, and it's going to go back to the way, the Hokie Club has grown in the last five or six years and that's still part of it. The Hokey drive for 25 is still a big part of this initiative. But by saying this, I think what it's saying to people, this is how we're investing your money in. This is our goal, we're no longer trying to do what, what did we're not trying to be contenders. We are trying to be Champions and that was a in. You kind of heard him with Force. Like the expectations are no longer we're not in, it's almost any we're not fucking around in any sporting. We expect to be good.

1:02:07 We expect to be competing. The expectation is to be eating for that conference title in every sport. Every year we're not going to have a down Year, we're not going to have a program that's out of competition. We're going to be there every year and I mean I think that that's a great vision and I like that and I like that we're approaching this from, we're going to set the standard We're going to set the standard of what a good program looks like in the ACC. And that's a big step forward for this because I feel like it's kind of been the way it's been before, it's kind of been like the difference between Like stepping up or doing box jumps like so instead of gradually will like B flat for several years then were like oh we got to catch up and then flat fold over use.

1:03:03 Oh we got to catch up a little bit. We're not doing that anymore. There's a climb now and there's there's an Aiming point and I feel like that having that aiming point for the program is going to be good. Regardless of who's the coach in a couple years we're setting up whoever Is leading these individual teams for Success. It's very good man. I'm crying made. You put your Peter Griffin hat on because there was something done during the presentation, just go ahead and even gentlemen, Ron Ziegler. Why why we cut the Q&A, why we got the live feed for the Q&A? You already got the laugh feet set up. It's already there.

1:03:56 Just leave it on and we listen and we hear it in real time. And you know what, you're not shortchanging the journalists there because I'll here and I'll still go out there and read what my name is Oleg. Writes about it or what David teal writes about, I'm still going to do that. Well, it's not stopping me from digesting their content. It's not stopping me from enjoying what you're putting out. There. I will, we watch the Q&A. We jumped on together, and watched it. And we also read everything that was written about it. Whether on Twitter or in local wild occasions about the Reach For Excellence campaign.

1:04:41 We will digest it. Don't hide it from us, especially when we see when we watch the both of us, we watch the retracts on presentation live. And then today was today, right? All right old, you know, you've been a weak man, it's been a week. Every day feels like to, but we're sitting here watching it and we pause and say, well, how the bleep did you just keep the damn thing going? You're using the same camera angles. You're not showing the press and ignore the crowd. You're literally showing this or it off shot. When someone's asking the question. You're not doing anything different. Aunt.

1:05:22 It's dumb. It's just dumb. So stop it. Stop it. There is officially now, you know, Brian, we were nice few weeks ago about, we understand if you can't live streaming but tell us what it is. And guess what? They told us when the Fuente thing was, which is great for us because at 10:00 we got to watch it or you know Twitter follow the interview. Didn't watch that one folks. Life's crazy but You've now shown us. It's really not that hard to do a live stream so you have no more excuses. You know who you are. You know who you are and much like his Twitter post, he timed the release of the live stream because it ran about 2/3 of the way from into Mike do Sollux. First question.

1:06:13 And then the live stream, Of course you did. All right, Brian, anything breaking on the Twitter sphere or in general, by the way, we will not be here next week, folks. We're going to be probably doing it every couple weeks now. But next week is the draft best of luck to all of the Hokies in The graft. Brian's Crossing his fingers that certain guy slips down the board little bit for the The officer now officially because of you know, the small back surgery that came to follow yet, I know that fingers crossed that he can slip out of the first round and since we only essentially have about 75 roster spot, who's me five roster spots for the Niners?

1:07:07 I'm really hoping that he slows far enough, we just take some capital and go up and get him. Okay, I'm while we probably could use an extra cornerback. I don't think he's the best scheme fit for the system that we have. So I'm not hoping the same thing in general. I hope he makes it in the first round just because that's good for the program and good for him obviously because that means more money which is never a bad thing especially when it comes to football players on their first contract. So, Hope that's good for him. I am hoping because the money is not that big of a difference between where he's projected and where we are. That Christian Dara saw does sink to the low 20s, and we can scoop him up there because we need a tackle, whether we end up slugging him in right there at left or doing some some switching and put him in it, right. I think he's going to be good.

1:08:08 I'd be happy with him on either side of the line there. So yeah, it's me. Very true lady. Yeah, I'm like, you know, depending on what happens at 3 You might be, you might want to drive over here. I'm going to go on the curve of your house, crying. I'll bring liquor. Hi, fap to my, I'll swear, as y'all know, I'm a 49ers fan and all I keep hearing is Mac Jones, Mac Jones. He's to fit. He's to fit and it's like this kid's.

1:08:49 Got my body. Here's my shirt off right now. You probably couldn't tell the difference. And they're talking about public. Listen. We were at 12 and we took him, I have no issue. You do not trade that much draft Capital to get at what is best a Kirk Cousins at best? At is his ceiling. His floor, restore any backup player, any backup quarterback in the league and do we need to remind, folks? Worker cousin was taken. Even if you want to argue Kirk Cousins was taken too low. He was still taking well past pick number three.

1:09:35 Other issue is With mac and this is me. I don't know what he is. A lot of people say, oh, he's a great processor, it's really easy to process when no one's at your feet. And when your guys are getting wide open, it's really easy to process. And so, he's essentially going to be playing with what this year is probably going to be four guys taken in the first two rounds to offensive actually 50. I'm sorry. I missed an extra player there. How could I? He's literally was playing with five. Sensual day, 1464 off the board. Yeah, it's insane and they were all positions that directly affected him.

1:10:20 Throughout the running back, a left tackle and an interior offensive lineman. so think of it like this, what he was doing at Bama is like, if you took If you took the Top Flight players of an NFL offense and they got to go against the scout team all the time. Or against the rookies on defense all the time. Like, you're taking these high-level players and going against guys that are either inexperience, not used to going up against this level of talent or just not quite atletic enough.

1:11:02 And that's, that's what Bama was doing against pretty much every piece of competition. And all that Jones had to do was like, oh, he's open and I'm not under selling the processing. I'm not under selling the Reeds that he was making, but I am saying that. It's a hell of a lot easier to make reads fast when guys get open. It's true and my my other word with him. He doesn't he has an average or slightly above average. Arm his athleticism. Isn't there? There's people here, are like a 47. Do he friend like or not? I've seen that kid run, man. Any 40 and at least a tenth to it.

1:11:43 This year at least certain situations. You had two tenths. But everybody keeps saying schemes He's skiing fit and I'm really hoping it's one of the other three quarterbacks because, you know, everybody's like well he could be braiding. This is sorry. Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh that out loud. Let me dig this year. How many number one receivers were on that team like true? Like any other team they have been a number one. Receiver three Mike Evans.

1:12:30 Chris Coghlan. How many upper left one tight ends that he have? That would have been starters on any other team to re-create OJ Howard. Yeah, I always forget OJ Howard. How many potential starting running backs? Did he have on the team this year? At least 23 23 by the end of the year, well, the mid great offensive lines now, A ranked Fifth and they were the fifth run best line of the league. It's where the defense ranked top 10 6.

1:13:13 He's like, Tom Brady. Do you know how tough it is? To get the amount of talent I run? You got anything else tonight? Big guy. I'm good, buddy, I'm good. We got our NFL dose in there. We had to because we're not what we might be Skyping or on Discord. Layer may be on Thursday, so you can hear me car or something. But that is going to wrap up this episode of The Boundary Corner podcast. I'm Curtis Wilson. I'm Brian Sigler. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and subscribe. Podcast on your favorite Source, including Spotify, Amazon, and apple podcast. Also, guys, visit our website under every corner. V t.com is always.

1:13:57 We let our buddy, Jason long playlist in, he plays us out, catch him on Spotify, and apple music. We thank you for listening please rate review the podcast TMS, if you have questions, something you want to talk about. And as always, let's go. Oh keys.