Spring Fever

1:47 And welcome back to the Boundary Corner Podcast, a part of the College Huddle Network along with my partner, Brian Siegler and our special guest host tonight, Coach Robert Compton. I am Curtis Wilson and as always, we are brought to you by the Counts Family Pharmacy, your friendly neighborhood pharmacy three O 1 S Main St. in Blacksburg. And if you are heading down to the spring game this weekend, stop by say hello to Jeremy. If you don't want to say hello to Jeremy there after the game, go say hello to Jeremy and Brian and Pete B from 2D and Dan and you have a fourth. Is it just y'all 3? I don't know if Sam's going to be there or not, Sam. OK, I think Sam, Jesse from Suns of Saturday all going to be at Maroon Door after the game.

2:36 That should be an entertaining few hours, because I know you are. Not y'all. Can't make me chug a rail because I'm not at TOTS. You're not at Tots. That's true. That's true, yes. We'll also say this me and Brian freshly off of the Carnival Sunshine cruise out of Norfolk, VA, where we got tanned, we drank, makes drinks, we gamble, we were on crystal clear beaches. Looks like the skipper didn't get stranded anywhere this time. No he didn't. The skipper didn't get stranded anywhere this time. Skipper had a fun though. It was a good time, man, it was a good time. You can't see them back here. How many shot glasses did we get? We were there every night with dinner, took at least one shot. I think Brian, you got one extra because you took the Cinnamon Toast Crunch at.

3:22 The end I took one extra at the end of the week, but I missed Tuesday because we were late getting back from NASA. Did you roll like? Deep in the shot glasses like we used to do with Macadoos in formal. Yeah, Yeah, it was. It was at least it was 8 to 12 shots being taken every night at dinner. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, I think we had a party at 30 though. So I had the drink package too. So I was drinking all day, all night at dinner. Might as well. I had to get my money's worth. Once you spent the money, you got to go out there and make sure you're getting. Your money's worth. Occasionally Brown would just roll up to me and be like he go. He's just like I got a drink on some way. We'll say this.

4:03 We both ended plus in the casino PKS at 3:00 AM. In there. Yeah, plus in the casino. Lots of fun in the casino. Yeah, I was. I was up just over 300 I think. Curtis, you were what, 350? I was up No 240. OK. But that last night. I was up. Four grew up a. Lot I was up four and then I I didn't have a good a Good Friday night, but that's OK. Well, the the craps table finally said no Sir. Yeah. And then the blackjack table, we just kept getting well, how many times you hit 21? Like twice or three times or? No, No, no.

4:45 You hit 23 times and the dealer drew to 21. Drew to 21. Drew to 21. Reason my favorite hand at a blackjack table is like 9:00 and 4:00. I like a nine four, yeah. I kept getting like 5 and then getting like A8 or or getting a nine or a face card. Like what are you doing? Like stop dealing me these hands. Either deal me something low or deal me something high. Yeah, I kept getting, I kept getting like phase five, phase 6. Just the well it will all depends on how many. Well we will say this ACE or or phase five. Phase 6 is OK with a big table. Yeah. Because with the big table, there's a lot of info out there and you can say, you know what, there is a bunch of face out there.

5:31 The odds aren't good. So good. Me, Curtis, and one other random dude between us. That was it. And we kept getting bad hands by the way. Got to tell the cool story real quick. So we, we are in the store on the ship, the liquor store, you know where you. I where the $75 Jack Daniels was. The $75, three liter Jack Daniels, 3 liters. I've never seen anything that big in my life. I didn't get that. I got enough whiskey downstairs. That's the that's the part of the story I missed. I just thought it was a regular bottle of Jack for 75. Three liters a different story. Completely. It's a great deal. Yeah. But you got to carry it all the way back to your car.

6:14 I got 2 bottles of rum. They had Bacardi liters for 15 bucks. I couldn't do it. But anyway, so we're sitting there, me and I'm a neighbor, Andrew. Brian, I think this was the day you were in Nassau, Can't remember. But you weren't there. So anyway, I just bought mine. I just asked a couple questions about something and this lady comes behind us notice she's got a Virginia Tech thing on and I just kind of mentioned I'm Virginia Tech fan and she's doing her stuff and we convinced her effectively to instead of she, she got the Woodward's reserve. My neighbor Andrew huge into whiskey told her there's a double oak over there for $10 more go get it. It's a better taste in one and so on.

6:55 And so and we start chatting with her and, and he mentions offhand, you know, my buddy Curtis here does a, a, a podcast for Genentech football. She stops and she cocks her head towards me and said, then you must know my son. I was like, well, who was that? Fontell mines mines Mama. And I said, not only do I know your son, who he is, I have interviewed your son on my podcast before and he is a super nice guy. She was very nice. I got a picture with her. I'll I'll have that up. It was, it was funny though. Small world. The the just the fact that she's wearing Virginia Tech stuff is awesome considering where he went to school.

7:37 True. Well, I, I think, I think his Mama knows who who pays the bills. Yeah. Brian, anything you want to share from the excursion? Oh man, riding the golf carts up and down Bimini was pretty awesome. Got to check out a guy harvesting some some conch right out right out the the water there and then, you know, even it from a shack that you know is held up by ply board. And there was some some really good and really, really interesting folks that we met there.

8:20 So I was just just excited to kind of take all that in, experienced that and yeah man it was a good time. And like like like I said, I took advantage of the drink package on the boat so y'all know I was feeling good most of the time. Yeah, he was feeling good most of the time. Never got like shit faced I was. I was just like, I just had a steady buzz most of the day. Yeah, I don't know for sure, but I've always been told that you can drink a lot more and not feel nearly as it's true. Drop dead drunk. It's true on a cruise then you can anywhere else because of the boat.

9:00 You feel half drunk when you're sober. You do. It's not a lie. So it is true. Like there were a couple days I had, I don't know, I had 3-4 drinks in a tight period and like I didn't feel it. Like I didn't feel it although Monday. Oh yeah, Monday the shift was rocking baby and they it was raining sideways in the morning and then in the afternoon the the water got choppy and one time she like listed to the left and like held for a a little bit. I was. Like, oh, all right, this isn't bobbing and weaving. This is just bobbing. We just. Holding the line right there I was in my room, I.

9:41 Felt like I was in the Smooth Criminal music video. I've been, I've been Western North Carolina right now long enough and I probably could have managed that. I feel like one leg's getting shorter than the other already standing on the heel. I'd have been good to go there. We go, well, just so you know, it's out of Norfolk now, man, and they're doing Bahamas and Brian, I looked up, they're doing an Eastern Caribbean where you can go to Turk Grand Turks, come back by half, Boone Bay, the Super nice little island on the western part of the Bahamas. And then the celebration key. Whale next time. Both of y'all's first cruises. Both. Yeah. OK. I've always heard stories that once you go always, you're going to go forever.

10:26 Well, you're. Already planning the next? One, I mean, it's, well, I mean for price per person and what you get and where you go, it's unbeatable. I mean, and Brian got the drink package and clearly he was having the time of his life with a bunch of mixers and beers and anything you want. Yeah, I was out there like if if it was on the menu, I'm like, all right, give it to me some some of the like rare rums that they had in a couple of bars there, like made some African rum, they had some Caribbean rum, they had some. Give it to him. Yeah, yeah, whatever it is. So you know, you get a it's rum, you get, you get you get a two finger for like 18 bucks or anything under 20 bucks is in the drink package.

11:10 So. It's true. Well, as much fun as that was and again looking potentially going again, although we'll like we messaged you in November, you should just. Come with us. You should just came with us, we'd have a fun week Spring. Break didn't. My spring break is next week. Yeah. Well, maybe we'll look at, maybe we'll look at the summertime. There we go. There's Lavar. School places on my spring break next week. Let me think this week there in the Caribbean, you probably could find a room and go to the Bahamas probably for like $1000, yeah. I'm going to Windmill Bakery and I'm just as happy about that as I would for those of you that know.

11:56 You know if. You know, you know, and if you where we're from, you definitely know. But anyways, we got a spring game to unload. Riley went down to Blacksburg for a few days. Can't tell the whole story, He can get in trouble, but go, go. Got some insight, got some thoughts on things. So we're going to talk about that. Then we're going to do a little spring game preview, kind of look at each position and what we're feeling on each position. Talk about a few players here and there. But Robbie, I want to start with you. Obviously you went down for the coaches clinic where you got to mingle with all the coaches, the new coaches, the old coaches, see some practice, see some things, learn some things. And I want to start because I know we know you're a defensive guy and I know you spend a ton of time with the defense inside those seminars and those trainings.

12:43 Give me your impression of Sam Cephas because he is the biggest unknown in this group more than anybody else. But what is your biggest impression of him just as a person, as a coach? He he's a he's he's a very as a person, as a coach. The man is a teacher. And I know he's he said it in in several of his things that I've watched since he's taking the job there at Virginia Tech. Trying to follow him, trying to figure out, you know, looking at his old stuff where he's been watching some film and stuff from Wofford, watching some stuff with the Cardinals, which are two totally different, well, not totally different looks, but so much more involved with the Cardinals, obviously with a group of pros compared to, to Wofford.

13:37 But you can tell he's a teacher. And he, he said it itself, it's a coach is, is an educator to start with. And he makes things so simple to the individuals in the room that he's teaching his stuff to by giving things in chunks and pieces, He calls them buckets. And, and it's, it's simple education stuff that I use everyday, you know, taking little pieces, building scaffolding, taking things, you know, here things, you know, here, building pieces on to it. So it all comes together in one piece.

14:17 And I think that's going to be huge in in allowing the guys that they have there to, to learn this defense quickly and effectively and be able to take off running when when they get there. Can I ask you this, the stuff you went through, did you feel like after sitting and hearing him explain things that you could just go out like I can do this through, I can, I can teach these elements like that. Absolutely. Like I felt like just by hearing, just by talking now I, I have a little bit more of a base knowledge than the average person would. But just the way he talked about things and put some things together, I mean, it clicked to me. I mean, I felt like I could go out and I could get a call and hear it and know exactly where I needed to be, where anybody needed to be at any time. So yeah, I mean, he very effective teacher and that's going to help a lot with, with younger guys coming in with everybody learning a new system and some things like that. It's going to help tremendously, I feel. Yeah, that's, that's exciting.

15:25 And I mean, I, you know, when you talk about the buckets and kind of breaking down those things in the small pieces, I think that's a, a big key, especially when you're learning a new system like, like the Hokies are this year. Being able to, to to make things digestible and to layer what you're implementing in a way that, you know, we, we can do almost like, you know, like a college course that you got one O 120-1301 and you just kind of build it on it as you're going along there. So, but that was that was fascinating to see and to be able to to pull things there.

16:06 As a high school coach, I feel like I run a system that's similar to some of the stuff that that Cephus does, obviously at a much, much more basic level in high school than than the complexity of some of the stuff that we know he can do by watching films from from Arizona and and things like that. But it was very easy for me to pick up the way he was, the way he was showing things, the way he was teaching things to us and just simple things. And how it could build on so much and make it be so simple for his players to understand and to pick up and to be able to run, but would look so complex to anybody outside of it that didn't know how it's built.

16:57 Yeah, let me ask this Robbie. So like a lots been made about, you know, needing a a a Buddha Baker type to for this thing to run the way you want it to. Is it is what you're seeing is are you going to need that caliber a player, not necessarily a Buddha Baker, but someone that can cover a lot of ground like that for this thing to function the way it needs to I. I think to have a guy like that is never going to hurt, but I don't. I don't necessarily know just from my experience and and with with a defense similar, you don't necessarily have to have that guy. If everybody's on the same page and everybody understands their purpose and their responsibilities and certain things that one guy can make some bits and pieces that aren't exactly perfect look incredible.

17:57 Yeah. Yeah, but I think I think you'll be able to. I think the defense as a whole, I mean in my opinion, he ran stuff similar at Wofford and didn't have a Buddha Baker type guy and was obviously from from the statistics that show at Wofford, he's very successful with it. So I think it can be done pretty well without it. It just got you. It comes down to knowing your personnel and I think he understands what he's given them and what he has and that that he'll find that good mix of what he needs to make it effective.

18:39 Is this kind of like a balance between being able to be more risky in some areas because you've got that caliber of a player versus trying to learn more to a more risk averse and sound? Yeah, I feel like standpoint, OK, I feel like it is now when you can, when you can find that kind of player, you can do some things that are maybe a little more unconventional and, and take a little bit more risk because you know, you've got some athleticism there. They can back you up and and take you out of some spots. But I think just what I know about some of the players and things like that, I think he's got a good foundation to put some things together and he's going to have people in the right spots to to figure out what he needs to do with it.

19:26 Nice. Let's look to the offense real quick. What did you notice? I know you didn't spend as much time, but obviously you had colleagues that were spending time with Montgomery, but what did they notice about him and just what were the feelings from them about how he ran his areas and how the players reacted and things like that? They're, you know, as a coach, I don't believe in putting another coach down. I think Bowens had his, had his positives, had his pluses and things that he did. But you could, to me, you could tell there was more of a optimism or confidence in the fact that Montgomery's coming in with experience.

20:18 He's put together offenses top to bottom, showed success, things like that. And you could kind of feel that almost somewhat of a relief. Not the uptightness of wandering. You know, there's always going to be skepticism. Bowen came in without a lot of experience calling plays, setting up offense, running an offense. You don't. I don't feel like you felt that with Montgomery. They, they know that he has a track record. He has a reputation, he's been a head coach. He's run offenses, he's run teams. They have that confidence in what he's going to try to do.

21:02 And it's I feel like it's probably going to be a little bit different than what we've seen the last couple of years. Again, it's early spring practice. It's, you know, first contact scrimmage is what we saw a lot going to be different from there to the next week, much less the spring game and then to the fall. But I feel, I feel like there, there's some, there's some good things there and and definitely some some good change that's going to that should give some people some optimism, not so much hype like we saw last year, but some optimism for the process is going well and going in the right direction.

21:50 So instead of like so last year we had a lot of momentum and I know we talked about this a lot, Curtis and Robbie. I know we talked about it kind of off camera a little bit. Like there was a lot of hype. You know, we kind of saw a upper trajectory in in 23 at the end of the season. You know, you had all these, you know, decent run there at the end and we're like, you OK, we probably lost two earlier in the year. We shouldn't have. There's a whole lot of optimism. You had national media buying into it. You had the fan base that I probably, you know, hyped it into oblivion. You know, this time last year we were having some very serious discussions about, you know, can this team win, you know, 10 games and things like that. And I think, I think we don't necessarily have any of that hype in this in this team, But I think there's also, I think like you said, a kind of reserved confidence of all right, well, if, if this, if this goes the way it could go, we might be on to something.

22:48 And and that's not to say we're going to go out there and win 810 games. I don't think we we're necessarily talked about wins or losses yet, But I think getting some some new blood in those coordinator rooms, I think is going to be a little bit of a shot in the arm for some of these guys. And I think packing in, especially on offense experience, not only, you know, you looking at, you know, flipping over the the offensive line room, but also what you're doing in the coordinator room there. It feels like you're taking some some of the correct steps you need to take to maximize the talent that's already on this offense. Absolutely 100. Percent. Bike I was, I was hyping the thing up after being there last year myself. Like I felt really good about what you about what I saw at the beginning of it.

23:42 I feel good about what I saw this year and things like that. But there's just a different luck plays a big part into that. I mean, you get injuries and stuff early on. You get things banged up, you get the right players banged up in the right spots and that makes a turn real quick where who immediately gets to blame for it play call in and things like that. I'm not saying that that doesn't have a part in it, but some of the other factors too that a lot of teams you don't, they're not going to blame it on those things, but it pay, it plays a lot into it. And I think just the the experience, the all of those things that they have in the in place now with a little bit of luck, I think you're going, you're going to see a, I'm not going to say, you know, I'm not predicting any number of wins or anything, but I'm saying you're going to see a difference just unfold that that should show some momentum, should show some growth. So I feel, I feel pretty confident in that part. Got you real quick.

24:56 So as you speak to the coordinators, obviously Stew Holtz now just a special teams coordinator and kind of helping out with the offense, anything with him in the new set up like? Yeah, I, I, I talked to, I talked to Coach Holt a little bit. And when I say coach Holt, I have to mean Stew or his dad, because I've had a, I've had a long running, long running relationship there with his dad, coached against him some when he was at Rocky Mountain High School. I have to go to the field. It's named after him here at * Mountain High School. So I deal a lot with with the Holts. But the the way things have kind of changed, the way they've kind of set up some things, I think it works out better for him to just be focused on his special team stuff.

25:51 He, I'm sure he misses talking to his dad, you know, he misses position coaching stuff. Any coach is going to want to coach as much as possible, but I feel like by looking at what we saw at practice and stuff, there was always something involved special team wise when other things were going on. Changing structure then change the structure. So your practice structure is huge and, and we've done some things like that, like some teams will practice, you know, offensive ones against scout and in high school, offensive ones against scout, special teams in the middle, defensive ones against scout. That's how our 2 1/2 three hour practice is set up. We've had it to where, you know, varsity's on offense, J VS on defense and then we can split the JV up some at different times and do some special team stuff with them here, special team stuff with them there.

26:49 And it looked to us, it looked to me like at practice the other day when I saw it, they're involving more things like they're doing certain group packages in different places, while some other guys that would typically be OK, we're going to go to individual stuff, they're doing a little more special team stuff. OK. So they're they're, so he's not just running around with the specialist while these these individual drills are going on. He's maybe maybe pulling a line here, pulling a line there and doing some. Some special team drill. It's not a corner full of kickers just standing around pulling Bryan. You, you play.

27:29 You played college football. You know what those kickers do over there sometimes? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. There's. Some. Crab ass. There's guys that you know, they're still getting individual times and things like that, but there's times scheduled for them to be during doing certain special teams things and stuff like that. So it was very much and then they would have whole group special team stuff at times too. So you won't see as much of that and spring game because it's more of a game type situation. But that's definitely something that I saw more at practice where they're they're putting more emphasis on special teams to make sure those things are right. Nice.

28:10 How do you see the grills where they checked everybody's numbers? There we go, your. Back's ready to go. Yeah, and we and we still got some, you know, opposite, opposite numbers here. So there's definitely potential for that to go down. Again, let me flip back to the defense real quick because we, I know we, we were kind of curious about what the, the structure of Cephus's role kind of in practice in the, in the room also kind of where Sean Quinn is kind of fitting in with, with some of the other coaches that have been brought on. What was that dynamic like? You can talk at a high level about it. I'm just trying to trying to curious how that played out in in a practice environment.

28:59 It's, I think it's kind of a fluid situation right now, to be honest. I, I know each one of them has their positions and they have certain specialties. I think that they're, they're working with for certain things, but I think there's some fluidity to learning the entire defense as a process. And I, I think part of that helped a little, little cameo there by the wife. Hey. Ankle. So I think, I think part of that, I mean their positions are defined and what they are, but I think they're still trying to find that identity of matching the personnel to some of the things that they want to do, some of the things that they move around and, and just seeing how certain things fit.

29:54 I spent, I spent time with obviously in in the, the overall defensive scheme. I spent time listening to some linebacker stuff. I spent time listening to some, well, inside linebacker stuff with Coach DV and then some safety stuff with Coach Prelude. And it's it's still, I think, I think they're using the spring to sort some things out and figure out where their strengths are, what fits best for the personnel and things like that. And it'll be a little more defined when it comes to the to camp time.

30:40 So it was kind of hard to say, but that they're all very involved on teaching the the basics of what they're looking for out of the defense. And they're all, they're all working together and making sure that each of their guys with their position group knows exactly where they fit in the overall scheme of things. And I think that's kind of where it is right now. And as camp goes on and things like that, I think they'll define it a little more. They'll really figure out who's got to, who's got to work with what and who's got to teach what and things of that nature.

31:20 I know that probably doesn't give you a whole lot, but it's kind of where it is. And I. Like I said, I'm just trying to like, you know, there's there seems to be overlap with, you know, Quinn's role as outside linebackers. You got Jenny Wilson's role with edges and then you've got Whitehead with Nichols. And I feel like those three at any given moment could really be anywhere touch the other one, right? So especially in this new scheme. Well, you heard today, I don't know if you heard IBM, by the way, Isaiah Brown, Murray and and the ECU got, he was talking about how it's, it's fluid, like he's working with Whitehead and he's in Jones and a couple times he's been with Prelude.

32:03 He said that aloud and he said because he's primarily nickel, but in some cases it makes more sense to him to go with the corners. In some cases it makes him to stay with the nickel guy. In some cases it makes him to go with Prelude. So clearly that's happening in some way, shape or form. All right, let me let me close this segment out before we get into all of the, the positions you had. Definitely you had multiple speakers, but two were high profile, I mean high, high profile, Bruce Ariens, Super Bowl winning coach and you had Darrell Tapp, the current coach of your Washington team. I ain't going to take the manager because they're always the Redskins. Did you get to interact with them any? Did you get to talk with them?

32:44 Any one on ones? Anything like that? I I didn't, I didn't carry, I didn't carry a conversation with Bruce Ariens. OK. He, he had he, he had more than enough people to carry conversations with as he was, as he was very popular. You know, I, I spoke to him, I shook his hand. I, I thank him for, for just coming up to, to speak with, with all of us. He, he is as advertised voice. He, he's got a he's got a little swagger to him. He's got a aura to him, you know, and, and his thing is he, he, he love, he loves his players, he loves his, his teams, he cares about people and he cares about doing things the right way, you know, loving the guys, treating people the right way, but doing things the right way.

33:40 And part of me caring, a part of him caring about his players and caring about his people is being willing to tell them when they're not doing things the right way. And that that was a lot of what his speech and what he talked about was his exact words was his job every year is to get 90 dudes and in six weeks fire half of them. And to be honest with you, he goes to be, to have 90 folks and then six weeks later fire half of them and they still talk to you. He goes, you have to do it a certain way. And that kind of stuck.

34:20 I don't get to fire none of mine. But you know, you, you treat people a certain way. And I didn't know what I like. One of the guys, the guy that introduced him had talked, talked to us. One of the stories he told us about Coach Ariens as a as a athlete at Virginia Tech, he was the and I, I could mess this up a little bit. He was the first Virginia Tech athlete to have an African American roommate. I. Think. That's right and. It was it was, it was Tiki and Ronde's dad. Ronde Barber's dad. Yeah. He said, he said we're going to let it slide, that he's a really good friend of mine and those two boys went somewhere else. I thought that was pretty cool just to to understand the concept of where he's coming from with the with the inclusion of things and stuff like that.

35:15 So Bruce Arians was absolutely as advertised. I got to I got to talk to to coach tap a little bit more Coach Tap and I have a have a mutual player that both of us have coached and we got to talk a little bit about that. Cantavia St. He plays for the Atlanta Falcons now. He played for Coach Tapp when he was at San Francisco and Coach Tapp had great things to say about Kentavious. Kentavious has always had great things to say about Coach Tapp and it was he sucked. Coach Daryl Tapp is such a down to earth, personable guy.

35:56 Like, he took time out to have a conversation with me to ask me how Kentavious was doing, you know, things like that. Just to just to be able to interact with somebody like normal, normal people that they'd meet a player, a former player, an NFL coach, you know, somebody of that caliber. A lot of people immediately think, well, he's going to be kind of standoffish. And, you know, he's he, he's at a different level. He's not that. He's not that dude. Like he was there and talked to me for a while. His wife was at the clinic. She sat right beside me. her and I talked before, before he presented. She sat there and listened to all the other coaches talk and was taking notes because I guess she's coaching wherever they're wherever they live.

36:50 She does some coaching and she was looking for anything that she could use in in in her coaching manners. So I mean, they were, they were awesome, awesome pair to meet and we got to sit down and talk to him a little bit more. Coach Woteki and I, which is my head coach, we've been working together for a while. He coached Contagious too. Coach Tapwood would joke with us and and carry on. So it was it was pretty cool to have that kind of interaction with him. And they were both there when we got there that afternoon for the first day, they spoke, they did their things. They were there with everybody for dinner. They were that back there the next day for practice and everything.

37:35 Coach Ariens and Coach Tapp and all of them were were out there at practice talking to players, moving around. I mean, it just I've been to clinics where people speak and then they're immediately out the door and gone. But both of them have a little more buy into the thing as they but they're both been part of this team for they're, you know. All their lives. Since the 70s. Oh yeah, so, and I mean, Tap is one of the he's. One of our guys, dude. Carrier man. It was that guy. I mean, yeah, that's that's one of our, we always talk about it because we had the chance to interview him years ago. He's one of our guys. Like our era, Daryl Tap, Xavier Devi.

38:17 You got to obviously teach you some things and go over some things with you. Those two guys, it's unbelievable that you got to do that. And it's cool that to hear the story of and I'm assuming it's probably around Northern Virginia or DC where his wife is coaching whatever she's coaching. So that's pretty she. Said it was volleyball. Pretty sure she was coaching volleyball now. She's been a like a a personal trainer and run several different sports performance deals in the past. I know that from from her background and where they talked about it so, but that was cool. And then the the other speaker that they had there was was Coach Sherman, who is a head football coach at Fareham now. Wide receiver.

39:03 Coach on the wide receiver, coach at Virginia Tech. I met him years ago when I was taking a couple of our kids from Halifax to Virginia Tech for recruiting. So to hear him talk about situational stuff, things like that, I got to have another kind of connection to him as our quarterback, our first quarterback from here at North Wilkes High School as quarterback at Fareham. Now he was a starting quarterback last year at Fareham. So he's Coach Sherman starting quarterback. He was our starting quarterback here. So it was it was good to hear him. And again, he has that that Virginia Tech tie to it. And then the, the last guy that spoke on Saturday morning was the defensive coordinator for the University of Richmond, Justin Wood.

39:54 And he did a, he gave a phenomenal presentation on inside linebackers that I'm really trying to use a lot of the things that he taught to help give my linebackers some good basic knowledge and things. So I mean, All in all, the whole thing was, was for me very successful. I probably got more out of this clinic than I've gotten out of one in years. OK, in those things, so. That's great. That is awesome. Man, I know you. You know, you talk about Tap and like every time we've interacted with Tap, he's like simultaneously the most laid back guy, but like also so energetic. Yes, you can tell he's got passion about it. Yeah, I'm.

40:35 So. Fascinated about it? Was was Aryans rocking the kangle? Yes, absolutely personalized. Personally, it had. It had, what did it say, Virginia Tech class of 1974, whatever quarterback. And then on the other side, it said it had a like the Kangol with a, with a headset on it, like for a coaching thing. And it had some other things on it. It was awesome. I mean, he was decked out, dude. He had completely personalized either Jordans or Air Force Ones or Dunks. They were orange and maroon and white. Had who? And on the back they had BA on them and they were awesome. Oh, everybody was.

41:19 He was ready. He he came. He came prepared. He knew the assignment. He knew the assignment. All righty well, boys, let's turn it up here. Robbie, thanks for that little insight. And and and in the past you've given us more, but I think with what has been said behind closed doors and everything, not as much inside as previous, but I think. We're we're saying that now. With respect to with respect to their staff and allowing us to come and see those things. I saw some things that, you know, I, I think there would be great to talk about, but they're going they're going to be talked about within in time.

42:01 Got you. They're they want to, they want to keep things close and really teach things and let it be. You're going to see some stuff this week, the spring game, you're going to see some stuff more as camp goes on and things like that. It's just inevitable. But I think it's going to be seeing what he's done in the past with the Cardinals, seeing what he's done in the past at Wofford and kind of my thoughts of putting some of those things together. I think it's going to be good, especially with some of the things that I saw the other day. And it's, it's definitely going to be a, a difference in what you've you're used to seeing, but in, in a good way, I think.

42:50 I think it'll be good for to have some change to, to see some different things and especially the way it's going to be taught and built and, and have a good foundation behind it. Yeah. I mean, this is really kind of the 1st wholesale defensive scheme change since Bud kind of, you know, changed his philosophy kind of midstream there in the late. 90s, yeah. We just say 92. Yeah. Before, what was it? The the guy from Rutgers got hired and basically said 92 when we were like, yeah, we were not 8292. All right, but let's flip, let's get to the spring game preview. Let's start talking about some of these positions. What we're expecting to see. Brian will be there.

43:32 Rob, are you driving back down or are you staying home next Saturday this. Saturday I'll be I'll be doing some family things on Saturday. No worries. Man but I don't get this one will be televised. Will it not live? I think they're going to show highlights and clips. It's not going to be a full broadcast like it was last time, so. Brian can't get too drunk and he's got to pay attention. But let's talk about quarterback room. It's really funny on the cruise Wednesday night after we had both had very good nights at this new Thursday night. No Tuesday night what night was we sat down in the at the midnight breakfast or midnight buffet.

44:13 We were eating after good nights and gambling. We said no, what? After midnight breakfast. Oh dude, they had a Baked Alaska one night for dinner. They did. They did. Take me right back to those 7 college years. Alaska in seven years. But The funny thing is, me and Brian were sitting there. Brian we're scarfing down pizza and hot dogs. We're we're eating terrible, but it was a good night. And I said, well, Brian, we we don't really need to talk about the quarterbacks. What do we need to talk about? Well, until we get back and literally Karen Drones is out. So now we must talk about the quarterbacks. And I want to ask this to both of y'all. Pop's going to get his chance with the ones get his chance in the new system.

44:55 Do y'all think it's any possibility of a Wallypip situation? Brian Siegler. If it is, we're going to call it a Wallypop, right? Anyway, jokes aside, dad jokes for days, man. Let me keep let me keep them out of here right now. I don't think so. I think mainly because I don't think that what we're looking at is Kyra going to be out for a significant amount of time. If if if you talked about this carrying over into the fall, there's there's some question marks there whether that would be the situation because a lot of times if you start the season, you ride the hot hand, you can get into that situation, right. But I don't think this is going to carry over into the fall.

45:35 So I don't think we're ever going to really get into that type of situation unless something, you know, God forbid goes, goes wrong with the recovery process, right? Yeah. So that that's really my only concern. But, you know, by all accounts, this isn't going to carry into, yeah, may not even carry in much into summer workouts, summer workouts, let alone, you know, all the way into fall camp. I kind of feel like, like we, we saw drones do some things when we were there. He participated in, in practices and stuff and we were there. I think more of this is they got he, he, I talked earlier about the luck and all of that. He had some of the worst luck of all of them. They were talking about some of the injuries and stuff he dealt with last year and all that.

46:26 I think a lot of this is we, we, we got some good work in. We got you to understand the base of a lot of things that's going on now. We need you to maintain health, what you've learned and mentally get that stuff in, take care of your body and be ready to go when we need you in camp. And I think I think that's a lot had a lot to do with it. In my opinion, he's probably got a few things he he may still need to clean up or or get checked out and get cleared with and everything you know from last season.

47:09 But I I think this is just a kind of a, a make. We do it as high school coaches. You get your older guys, you know, you really want to get your older guys in the beginning to get their knowledge, get their base, get their work in and then give the younger guys an opportunity to show what they can do to, to kind of step in and do things. And I think it's a very similar situation here. It's not taking the risks, not taking chances of him, you know, getting hurt. He's he's got a couple of years on him. You want to, you know, to maintain as much tread as you can. Yep. And see what else you got behind it, because you never know what what luck's going to bring.

47:51 Like he did last year? Yeah. I'm I'm with a bar here. Just get him healthy. I think what this does, if anything, it solidifies Pop's role as the backup. And he showed last year he could be put in situations and they could have chances and games. And I know everybody will that and that's what you want. It's a. Viable option. Exactly, if something happens weird like he needs to literally sit a week like he should have at Clemson last year, you. You like get more work with in there and then like two young guys or three really that they can really they really need to get. Who's OK? Who'd you? Who do you like? Out of those three? Who who can? Who can gain the most? Because now it's basically you got pop pop probably going to play maybe 1/4 Saturday with the ones. Then it's the next three young guys who's got the most to gain or who do you like the most out of those 3? I, I I know the.

48:49 Bias to to. There's, there's a, there's a good amount of bias on everyone in this, this camera shot. Here, But I mean physically watching him do some things there the other day, he looks good. I knew he can play. I've known his dad for years. Somebody AJ Brand. Everybody. I've watched the kid play since he was a young kid. I've seen him play different things, basketball, football. He's an athlete. And I, I definitely think it's a, it's a whole new process coming from high school into college. The fact that he's already there helps him. He get the system that he learned through high school is going to help him.

49:39 And I think he's, you're going to see some flashes of good things physically. I mean, he's well built, like standing beside drones at different times. And it was, you know, you take the jersey numbers off of them, they put their helmets on. It's kind of hard to see a difference in in them for so much. Physically, they're very, very similar. Well, I feel like I feel like when we look at them like brands very much in the drones bowl and you know, talking about another 1 Kelvin Ryan very much looks like a a a taller, slightly heavier pop Watson as far as the weight. Good possibility, yeah. And even even the bill for kid moves around and does some things.

50:27 I feel very similar to what Watson did when he first got to tattoo. He he is definitely not the the large physical specimen that that Bran and drones are. He he's on the smaller side. But I mean, he's a shifty. He's shifty quick. Don't let don't let the smaller fool you, because with the with the strength and conditioning program, it'll get him up. I mean, Oh yeah, Pop says he's at 205 now, and he says he's gained like 6 lbs since Ferg took over. So that's. I mean, oh, that interview. Oh, well, you he, he's thick.

51:10 He is now he's 511. He's 205. He is thick. Brian, me and you have said for the last three years, what's the one worry about Pop? He ain't going to be able to just take punishment after punishment. I don't feel that way anymore. I don't feel that way anymore. Noticeably bigger from last year. Who's who'd you see as far as the throwing? Like who? Who was slinging it the most out of those younger guys? All of them got that, got good opportunities to throw balls and to put and to throw. But for what I can remember, they didn't throw anything really deep.

51:54 They get a lot they get a lot of one-on-one type stuff and yoland one on ones, red zone type, one on ones, stuff like that. With quarterbacks, they were doing a lot of a lot of short yardage type stuff, you know, quick game type stuff. But I, I feel like all of them were pretty accurate. Belfort had to move a little bit more simply because he had to find windows to kind of throw through. Watson has the arm strength and the and the the mechanics to kind of get the ball where he needs to without having to move around too much where the other the other two or three kind of have a little bit more size that they don't have to move, but they can. And it's really interesting to see just how they break up the number of reps and things with this spring game to just kind of, you know, everybody's going to be looking at, yeah, drones isn't going to play.

53:04 How many is Pop going to get with the ones? Because obviously he's going to he's your first guy to go with the ones And if anybody else gets any kind of reps with the ones, which one's it going to be of those three it's. Going to be interesting to see. That which one of those 3 is trotting out there opposite of Pop with the twos that they obviously see as the the next guy there. You know, there's always going to be some speculation and one may come out there with that group and then we find out later that they felt a lot better about the other one. Yeah, you just always have, I think the interesting. Piece. It'll tell you some things depending on who gets more reps where.

53:48 I think the interesting piece if you look at all three of those guys that the freshman and I know Davi's been here a year, but if you look at their high school senior in high school, they all threw almost all threw at 2500 yards all threw well above 25 plus touchdowns all threw well below, you know, in well low interception numbers. So to me that has been the evolution of just the high school to college quarterbacks nowadays is years ago, if a if a guy got 10 attempts a game could be a good pass, but that was it because of what the offensive were were changed now where all these guys got over 200 plus attempts over 2500 yards over 25 touchdowns passes, which just shows you the change in the game, which is obviously why you've got guys who can be sophomores take over the reins of a college program and run it for two to three years because because the passing is is evolutionized.

54:45 All right, let's flip to the big one, because this is the one that I think is going to hinge. I think it hinges Brent Price future at Virginia Tech. I see offensive line. Obviously Matt Moore's in and I think straight up Brian, we've said it Thomas remack for all discussion point. He's locked. He is playing somewhere on the offensive line. Don't know where yet, but we know where he's playing. Brian, they what? Right. Huh. He's 55, right? 20 transfers from. Yeah, West. Virginia, West Virginia 55, that is him 66317. All right. But let me ask, let me pivot to you, Brian, on this.

55:27 Of the two other transfers, Lucas Austin, Kyle Luttner, who do you got? Who do you like? You're sitting here saying I got to see something from him Saturday or my confidence is going to potentially go down on the offensive line. Which of those two? Al Tuner, just because he's playing the world position, he's probably going to be the guy that's going to have to be 1 of the starters in this group, in my opinion. I I think, you know, you're looking at him probably at center and if it's not center, he's probably going to be playing one of the guard spots there. So he's the guy that you're going to need to see something from pretty early I think in this game to start having some confidence about this offensive line turning the turn to the table. Because I think I think we feel good about what what Remack can do.

56:18 You know, whether it's right or left in the in the tackle slot there looks like he is going to be slotted in at one of the tackle spots. Whether he's on the left, it's either going to be him or Johnny on one side or the other. So I think Altooner's definitely the guy that, you know, if you're going to see the rest of that line kind of flesh out, he's the guy that needs to, you got to feel confident about him, especially at that center position. All tuners, another one from West Virginia if I remember correctly. He's got experience playing all three of the interior positions right? Both guards and center. Yeah. That, that's to me as a coach, that's huge.

57:01 To have a guy that can play multiple positions like that, it is awesome. Especially as young as the, I mean, just a red shirt freshman. But he had some, you know, he saw some action, yeah, you know, last year and was was pretty successful in, in, in kind of limited, limited action there. And you're definitely a guy that I think Matt Moore thought a whole lot of yeah, before he got, you know, before he got injured last year. 100% All right, what? What about the current guys? Don't let's take the transfers out. What guys? Guys that they have returning that played some significant time all. Right, So significant time last year. You have the following and I'll pivot to Ganam, Bob Shit, Brody Meadows, Johnny Garrett are the four that had significant snaps. Montavious Cunningham had some snaps, not as many. So you have five guys with significant experience. What which one of those guys to you, Robbie, you feel like that guy's got to pop Saturday, that guy. I want to see something.

58:10 So again, it starts alleviating like it's going to be like it was at times last year. Like Brian was talking about before, you've got, you've got alter, they're coming in, he's got it. He's got to fill one of those three spots. Then you've got a guy that played a lot in, in shit who could step into the guard spot that could help. I mean, he, he's got game experience, how fast he picks up what they're doing. I think, I think it could fit in there. I think by the end of last year they were they had Cunningham playing some guard stuff. He he would have now experience at guard and tackle which makes him a little more valuable in a lot of things. And then was in Meadows and.

59:04 Garrett Garrett in Ganon, he. Was going to have to take that other tackle spot if we think Reback is the is one of the tackles. So I mean, I would, I would say Meadows and Garrett and and Cunningham and Schick have to fill in the remaining guard and tackle spot there somewhere. And if Altuner goes to to center, then you may be needing 2 guards there. So I mean, I think it's AI think it's a decent crowd to be able to kind of work with and and put things in. I know in in the bowl game and towards the end of last year was it got Nina.

59:55 Yeah. He got a, he got a good bit of playing time towards the end and, and things like that. I'm, I think he's back. I mean, they've got, they've got some options there of guys that have some experience in multiple positions. Which is Brian and I both know was huge on the offensive line. You got a guy that you know can play multiple positions. It makes you feel a lot better about things. Yeah. I mean, you feel like you can offensive line, you're at some point you're going to have one or two injuries pop up throughout the year where you're going to have to lean on one or two guys. And if you got guys that can play multiple positions, you can keep your best five out there remaining without having to to shuffle too much, whether that's having a frontline guy slide from a guard to a tackle or whether that's a guy that's playing a reserve role that can plug in at guard or tackle, depending on who goes down.

1:00:51 And really, you know, center being the the biggest wild card there because you know, you, you generally get only going to have two to three guys on your roster that you feel really comfortable with snapping the football. And so that's usually where you're going to be the tightest. Another thing to look at which you really have, we really haven't had a lot to talk about in the last couple years with offensive line is there's there's a young guy or two there that have have come in, you know, recruit wise that I I think just by seeing him by him, I would say walking by me, but kind of towering over and the clip and everything that he walked by when he walked by me.

1:01:32 The The star kid is a large piece of human being that's. A big boy. That is a big boy. Yeah. And you know, development, I think obviously as we've seen with the guys that came over from West Virginia, they're younger players that have already developed into something that we like and that we think can play. I feel good about how more can develop younger guys that are there and and be able to recruit some guys that he can develop into into into well-rounded players for his system. So we got that too and I'm I'm excited about cause called Garnet.

1:02:15 That boy was big, yeah. Yeah, listen, y'all mentioned all the names and who we're going to see and whatnot. What I just want to see is I want the interior to be good because I think there's been too many years. The last, it feels like the last 15 years where third and two there was a struggle to get 2 yards. I want the best interior. And if it's altooner at center, I kind of sit here and hope because you know, you see the way Brody Meadows plays, he plays all out, he goes through the whistle, he drives guys away. And I, and I'm hoping he and Cunningham can win those two spots because I feel like looking at them that they are the most physical presence on the inside.

1:03:01 And I think that would help the short yardage that it feels like we just could not gain unless it's like Kyron drones or Logan Thomas 32 guys, just stick your head in there and just run straight ahead because that's all we got. We don't have any concept to actually block and get positive yards on short yards place. Yeah, and I'm interested to see if if Gannon takes a step this year because I mean, he started last year, was injured pretty early and didn't really get a chance to kind of really show what he could do. You know, the fact that he kind of was a new face on the line, kind of won that spot, kept kept shick off the field for a little bit there that that tells you that he's he, you know, they showed a little bit of confidence in him last year.

1:03:44 I'm hoping that that carries over and you know, he's he gets healthy and takes some big steps this year. It's true. And look at the West Virginia kid that Matt Moore did try to get. Yeah, so I did. Try to get. I think he's a guy that would be, you know, in a in a good line there and then, you know, centre, like I've already talked about Altuner, but you know, Robbie, you brought up Neda and then we also have Tommy Ricard in there that, you know, you know, could be fighting for that spot there. So we got, you have three guys that you know, you don't necessarily feel good about. You got one guy that you you're hoping is going to be the truth and you got a couple other guys you're like, all right, if they can, they can develop a little bit. Maybe those those guys could be in the mix as well. It'll be another one of those situations just like we talked about at quarterback.

1:04:33 It's just seeing who that first group is and how they work together and then seeing what their thought process is of who comes in next or who goes in with that second group. And just, you know, trying to piece it together and, and see do do they have a group that they they take out with the ones to protect when they know they have to and then they have a group with the twos? Or do they have a group that they go out first and then they start pulling one guy and putting another guy in to see how that group works together. Just this thought process on that will give you in my mind, will give you more of an idea of, OK, these are the guys and these are the guys he's developing and then we can use or if, hey, we're going to find the Best Buy.

1:05:22 It might be taking this guy out, putting this guy in or moving this guy over here and putting one in here, that kind of thing. I think that's going to be a telling story of what you're seeing, too. Yeah, Robbie and you, you know, from experience, man, there's, there's the best 5 talent and then there's the best 5 as a unit. And those are two different things. Sometimes. Always. Is. Always is. All right, let's flip over. Let's go to the outside and to the other two. Two of the skill positions. Brian. Oh, no, yeah, Brian. Skill position wise, wide receiver, tight ends, who are you focused on the most? Like you're going to be sitting in lane and obviously you don't look at quarterback, but I know Brian Lee, he'll he'll watch quarterback, he'll focus line, then he'll look on the outside. So when you focusing on the outside, who you focusing on? We just talked about receiver group in general. I'm I'm looking at.

1:06:15 Cam receiver. Tight end receiver, Yeah. I'm looking at, I'm looking at Cam Seldon. I want to see that running back in a wide receiver frame, hopefully channelling as much Jalen Lane as we can so we can keep that that train moving. But that's the that's the type of slot receiver that I like is a basically a running back that is lining up wide. The guy that has those running back instincts that when they get the ball in their hands, they have that mentality though, they're going to run by your run over here and sometimes in equal measure. How? About you Robbie, what are you focusing on with that group? Physically, from being there, from being there, watching practice and things.

1:06:58 Physically, Selden, which it was #9. Yeah. Physically, he he has a presence it kind of thinking back a few years, I I go back to a game against South Carolina and and a gentleman who I'm sorry, Curtis, but is now a commander. Best for all parties. Devo Samuel, he kind of gives me that vibe a little bit. OK, I'm going to make a move. You bite on the move, I'm going to get yards after the catch. If you don't bite on the move and stand my ground, I'm going to get yards after the catch.

1:07:39 You know, Do you want to take this shot or not? That's up to you. I feel like watching him physically, that's the kind of player he's going to be, which I'm in love with. He he he's definitely one to see after the after the bowl game and then watching him run at things at practice the other day. Aiden Green, if he if he gets space and gets he can break out. There ain't many of them catching him, bud. It's not a lot. I'm gonna flip it. Before that, boys quit. He is.

1:08:21 I'm going to flip it on y'all the where I'm most interested. I'm going to be focused on with the highlights and probably talk to Brian about it. I want to see what they do with the Titans, especially Benji Gosnell. Benji Gosnell was the second leader and receiver on this team last year. If you look at Philip Montgomery's history, the most I saw was with Baylor and the Robert Griffin back when he won the Heisman. They had a guy 20 and I got 15. That's not a lot. Now today, Brent Davis comes out and says they're really focused on being physical, get the blocking concepts down. That's what I'm paying attention to. Because you go back to what they recruited at Baylor.

1:09:01 They never had that. They never had someone like Benji who could catch the ball. Who did ask him physicality does. He shifted in a way where it says, well, I've got one of these guys now, does he shift it and say I want him to block? Good. But I've got Nell, an extra potential weapon on the in line because we know Benji can go in line. He can go, you know he not I'm not going to say he's going to be in the backfield any, but he can do a variety of things. He'll be in the. Backfield some. He can be, but he will. That's OK. Write it down for Brian Siegler I. My thought is I think Gosnell is a could be a very integral part in what they try to do with some with the run game and not as a not as a back carrying things. He had some experience before and in that H back type role that what we call what we call what some people call a yo technique that offset tight end, you know inside between the guard and tackle sniffer.

1:10:10 You know your kick out blocker, your your split zone player. Split zone? Yep. That's he has experience doing that. The coach that he played for his senior year in high school before he hurt his knee, he played some stuff like that. He knows that position. It's about him buying in to, hey, understanding you can be exceptional for us by maybe catching 15 balls and certain things and being this monster that we have doing this kick out, running this power, doing these things and may not be the, you know, 40 or 50 catch, Gronkowski, Kelsey type of thing.

1:10:52 We know he can do that. We know he can be that guy, but will he buy into? Maybe I can do that later? As long as I can show I can do this, it makes myself even more versatile going out. Yeah, and he's shown that what he can do. So I mean, I think if, if he can develop his tool kit where he can show he's, he's both, he's like, he's that true well-rounded tight end that you can count on to block in the running game, but you can also line up in the slot and have a mismatch and be able to take advantage of that. Absolutely. As a coach, when you see a kid out there working his butt off, doing the things you asked him to do and he's balled into doing the things that we've asked him to make this team better.

1:11:36 A coach starts to get to, you know what I need, I need to, I need to give him something for the work that he's done. And maybe that's where it goes from 15 or 20 catches to 30, because he's shown his willingness to do everything else the right way. Like Bruce Arias talked about, you have to reward the people that are doing things the right way. You have to show them that you care about that stuff. Got you. How? He earns some of that stuff. Let me ask both you all this, because the one thing is with the Montgomery and Bryant and y'all, we talked about it earlier about, you know, the concepts and what you're going to see. And people have been searching Montgomery's offenses all the time.

1:12:18 Do you pay attention to route concepts at a game like this or is it it's it's too vanilla. They're going to be doing a lot of basic stuff Or is it pay attention So you know, you see who's running because the one thing he likes to run flats, he likes to run drags, he likes to run stuff. Who's running those routes? Is it worth paying attention to? Or is it? Don't. Don't buy too much into it. Personally, I would say you look at the routes more than. The players running the routes got you. And the fact that you're going to the the game, you simplify the game to the point where you have a route tree. There's certain routes that every team's going to run. They're going to run the verticals, they're going to run the slants, they're going to run the post or they're going to run, you know, the digs, the ends, the outs, those kind of, it's in every route tree, no matter whether you go from from peewee football to the NFL.

1:13:18 And it's how they, it's how they use those things in spacing and, and what they're doing with certain things, in my opinion, yeah. It's, it's, it's it really in looking at it at a in a micro level, what are the combinations of the routes, not necessarily what's in the tree. And I mean, looking at that, like, I think, I think also you can look at and pay attention to maybe what you don't see. And I know Robbie, we talked about this a little bit too, like I don't think we're going to see as much behind the line of scrimmage stuff. So I think that's something to look, look for and pay attention and and make sure that you don't see that because I don't think you're going to see as much of that in this offense as we saw an entire Tyler Bowen offense.

1:14:01 This style of offense plays into, you know it all. It's always going to have a check down. There's going to be closer to the line of scrimmage. Yeah, you're going to have some screen game stuff, but it's it's not going to be I don't feel like you're going to personal opinion, knowing the off the offense as it is, you're not going to see as many of the pop screens to the single receiver and saying, hey, you got a one-on-one match up, beat him, you know, on the move and get four or five yards. I feel like this offense pushes more to get to four or five yards and catch the ball and then see what you can get afterwards. I think that's the basis of this offense more. It is for us.

1:14:54 Our style offense is very similar to what Montgomery runs or has run in the past and I feel like we throw a lot of what we look at as quick game. We want to get routes in the five to seven yard range and then everything you get after that as a plus, but we're going to get that you're. Going to get you're setting yourself up for success if you get 5 and it's second and five that you can do anything on the field you want and it's still not a if. If if you don't hit on 2nd down, thirds is still not that far away. Let's go to run. Oh, let me say something real quick.

1:15:34 We talked about Benji's catch numbers with Bowen compared to what we might see with Montgomery. I, I will say this, you know, a lot of the catches that Benji Benji flagged last year and, and, and just any tight end in, in, in that Tyler Bowen system, So many of those were those behind the line of scrimmage catches, those at the line of scrimmage catches. I, I think when you do have the tight end involved in the passing game, they're going to be more effective routes for, for the tight end, meaning that it's not going to be having to rely on motion to kind of get some, some separation, those quick catches and having to let them turn up and, and hopefully break a tackle to kind of get some action in the passing game. It's going to be a little bit more deliberate with how they use them in the passing game.

1:16:30 Gotcha, gotcha. All right, go to running backroom. Stewart's not here. We've been told guys are banged up. I mean, PJ Prelude not playing Coney was hurt. Tyler Mason Overton's hurt. I mean, do we just take just grain of salt with that room? I. Feel like it's going to be interesting to see and, and I would tell you to watch this group of running backs that's going to get an opportunity to play OK 'cause they've got something. Because in my opinion, you lost the running back Room 0. Got you.

1:17:16 Oh yeah. When you lose Tooting and you lose Thomas, you had you had other guys that filled in, but each one of them filled in in their own way. Tony Prelude Mason, who played more in the bowl game then then I really expected to see. But then you add the Stewart. Can you add the Hawkins kid from was it in Oklahoma? Somewhere out in Oklahoma. He's from Oklahoma, I think it's Missouri. Some D2IN. Missouri, yeah. Look, he was, he impressed me a little bit at practice the the path level and the way he runs the ball like he's a physical, like he runs like he hates the ground he's running on. Like, I mean, he, he won hard and physical. And I think that's interesting to see. Mason showed us that he can do some things in that spring game. I mean, in that bowl game coming into the spring game, he he looks to be bigger, he looks to be more physical. And it'll be interesting to to think about how when Tooting went out last year, it was Malachi Thomas. And then we got to hope some other guys can can take a couple carries and help us to now it

1:18:50 seems almost like I feel like there's there could be 5 or 6 at some point that you could say, hey, we can put in and give 5 or 10 carriers to and be good. So we we could be going from the lead back to having a running back back committee. Yes and yeah, I, I think. You're still going to see when when he gets here, Stewart kind of being the lead back, but that I think there's going to be there's going to be that 2A2B2, probably 2C behind him. I think you got AI think you got a crowd there. They're going to, they're going to have a little bit to say about, hey, if he thinks he's going to come in and beat the lead back, we want a little input on this thing on. There we go.

1:19:39 And they're going to show it. That's going to make him better too. That's going to make the whole team better, so. 100% I'm, I'm, I'm, I feel good about that. If there, there are a lot of question marks of just how that's going to work, but I'm optimistic with with what I've seen and what's there. All right, all right, let's flip over. Let's talk a little bit on the defense and let's obviously start with the safety room. I mean, it's it feels loaded between the guys who were here last year, the transfers that came in understanding see if the system being 3 high. But is there anybody, Brian will start with you, Is there anybody to you that has to pass your eye test on Saturday? Anybody that's got to pass the eye test? I'm interested to see what Tyson Flowers looks like. OK.

1:20:38 Because he, I think he's the guy that was the most inconsistent in the tape that I looked at. But when he looked good, he looked real good. But he was very inconsistent. If, if he's a guy that can come in and show that, you know, he's probably leveled some of that out a little bit. I think that'll go a long way just because we got we got a handful of guys, you know, between Cash coming in, you got obviously Reddish kind of being the, as weird as it sounds, elder statesman in the room from an experience standpoint it yeah, with this team, with this team, yeah. It's it's going to be interesting to see how these new guys work in there. But Tyson flowers to me just because I saw some inconsistencies and if he can iron some of that out, that would that would be huge for this room. I think Isaiah Cash is going to be a player. How much and how we deploy him is going to be what I want to see just within see because it's overall system. And I keep I keep looking back at my my roster card thing, man you.

1:21:46 Need to give us that. No, tell me on. Saturdays I look at, I try to figure out the number because for me out there I was seeing numbers and numbers were the what what clicked to me. So I'm trying to figure out who's who. But while you figure I'm going to tell you, for me, I want to see how Quinn Reddish does in the system. He showed so much as a true freshman last year, putting into a role being put in when when Lil Strowman got hurt, he was forced to play. He was not supposed to play last year and he looked good at times. He laid licks. I want to see how a system that is designed to be to to make safeties the stars, because to me that's what it does, right?

1:22:32 We keep saying Buddha Baker, we keep seeing other things where it's like the safeties are really high level of this. How can a kid who played like that now get put into a system? Where is he lining up? Because we know it could be 3 highs. He is he still playing a strong? Is there another position that, you know, I would say like a Rover, but a lot of people said a Rover strong. But to me Rover was always that movable piece in the chess game, right? It can kind of go anywhere and do different things. Is he playing that or is he back at free? That's what I'm interested in. What about you? Rob I mean, it'll be like, I know with their system and I, I, I play a system that's somewhat similar to this. We run more of a AA3334 kind of hybrid. Look, there's times where we can look like we have 3 safeties. There's time.

1:23:30 And technically the, the, that 3334 hybrid system is considered one of the the three safety defenses. There's a lot of times that I line up on the field and you have to know what you're looking at to see 3 safeties. I mean, that's just the way we do it. And my thought with kind of looking at the way they have things laid out where you have safeties, you have nickels, you have edges, you have, you know, outside linebacker, those kinds of the way they've kind of named things. I feel like you're going to see something very similar to what I'm thinking that we do and that sometimes, OK, you may see 3 safeties or you may see two safeties and a nickel.

1:24:21 But is he going to be is that Nicola linebacker? Is that Nicola safety? Is that Nicola extra corner? Is it, you know, that's a that's kind of an NFL type deal. And knowing that he comes from an NFL background last year, I I feel like that kind of thing is a possibility. So that will be saying that these guys are safeties. It's possible to see one of them at the time. I think it could be possible to see three of them. It just, it's going to be, it goes back to that.

1:25:02 How does your personnel match up against things that you're going to see? And it might be fluid week to week, depending on what it is. But the I I definitely feel good about the the safety group that's there with with Reddish and cash, I feel like was. You said you saw Ellis out there some too, right #4 Ellis? What about Sherrod Koval? Did you see a lot of Sherrod out there? Tyson Flowers, 17. What about 7?

1:25:43 Did you see Koval who came from Clemson? I did not see him, but that's that's not to say that he wasn't there. I just I didn't for some reason something didn't focus in on that. I feel like, OK, I, I was going to say I remember seeing #3 which is Caleb Spencer, but he was a safety before, am I right? Safety before, linebacker now. Yeah, he's playing Star a lot last year. Yeah, played outside a lot last year, so hold your thoughts. On him and that, that's the thing, like with the way I run, with the way we run things, I know you're going to, you could get some confusion to say, hey, that kids played safety. He could, he should, he's safety, but they say he's a linebacker.

1:26:40 Some things are going to, I think some things are going to kind of mix in there. So it's hard to say, but got you the the Johnson kids still there too, right Springs? Yep, he's still there as well, just a sophomore, just a sophomore. All right, I'm going to flip it to the defensive side of the room with your doppelganger over there and JC Price ton of production loss. I know you always talk to him but but but this room lost a ton of production inside and out. You know, APR likely going to be first four round pick people's picking up steam to maybe get to the fourth round. What concerns can't remember who had pitched to first last time pitched to Robbie this time.

1:27:32 What concerns you more inside or outside or because it's changing? It doesn't. We don't know yet. I think that position has the biggest question marks to me, just because I don't know what their plan is. I think they have guys there that can be very successful in many different ways. OK, Laws and Copeland and Priester Burgos, you know, to us, those guys are the are the defensive line group that we're used to. But this system could be a little different in how they they interchange some of those guys. And that's going to be cool to see kind of how they move things around.

1:28:31 Would they ask them to do, you know, as, as a guy that runs a lot of a lot of three man front on the defensive front, you always have to go to the question of are we asking these guys to to gap or we asking these guys to play a gap and the linebacker feel, you know, behind it, things like that. So being able to see how they position guys up front, whether it's Gilliam or Laws or or Copeland or Burgos and, and all of those different pieces, how they kind of move things around and what they what they ask those guys to do.

1:29:19 I think once they get that set and we'll, we may see a lot more of that just from the spring game Saturday of what more of their plan is, I'd feel more comfortable in saying, OK, now I feel good about this group of guys, but it's just, I know there's dudes there. It's just what are they asking them to do? And I have 100% faith in the fact that whatever they ask them to do, the JC Price is going to get the best out of them that he can get and that they're going to produce. So that that's kind of where I stand with that. We can name all the guys off all day. What are they going to ask them to do and how are they going to going to step into those roles?

1:30:04 I think is the biggest thing. Brian. Yeah, I kind of have a similar, similar take on this. I feel like between what we did in the portal, what we kind of already had coming back, I feel good about the guys we have. I'm interested to see how they're going to be deployed and what they're going to be asked to do and if those things are going to meld with their skill set. And I mean, it sounds like Cephus's whole whole deal is deploying the the personnel that he has in the best way possible to get the most out of them. So I'm confident from that standpoint at least, you know, from what I've heard so far.

1:30:47 But you know, anytime you're shifting philosophies on defense, there's always going to be a little bit of growing pain there. And to Robbie's point, I think figuring out where the guys fit within what Cepkus wants to do, Cepkus kind of getting an understanding of what these guys do best and how he can best deploy them, that that's going to be the, the, the big thing. Because, you know, to Robbie's point, I think I think JC is going to get these guys, he's going to get these guys where they need to be. I think they just need to figure out, you know, who fits best where and what the best rotation is going to be in terms of guys getting matched with first line, second line, things like that.

1:31:31 Because I think there's going to be, you know, obviously throughout a game, you're going to have a guy or two kind of rotate in or out. But it it's really good if you can kind of have that first line that works the best together and kind of that second line that are very complementary from a skill set standpoint as much as you can looking at the front. And, and I tell you today I listen to the Jonquim interview. By the way, if y'all have not seen that interview, go go listen to it a we're going to try everything we've. Yeah, we got to get him on here. Holy shit, that kids charismatic, well spoken kid that feels like he talked about anything but how he talked about going to the defensive room and how he he praised JC. He's like Coach Price telling me exactly what to do, how to do it.

1:32:17 And then I do it and and it and it's so easy. To Brodie's point, I think JC is going to get the room right. It's just finding the right combos, what works right. Because you know, we talk, you know the thing about C because it's the alignment. We've seen him do everything in different places. We saw the videos, 2 DTS that look like a one tech, a three tech, 2 guys standing up at the ends. Are we going to see more than that Saturday? Are we going to see 3 lines? Are we going to see one down lineman, you know, over at a 0 technique somewhere at a four? Like I'm interested to see that Saturday because I want to see it where he's leveraging guys like Jerrod Johnson, who's, you know, 63280 and like hand Chuck to play the four eye techniques. And then he's putting ends on the outside of their shoulders to say, OK, how are you going to defend this? These guys are quick twitch guys that are going to get inside your guards, but I'm going to be sending 2 edges to. What are you going to do about it? I think a lot of that comes from his experience with NFL guys. I think there's going to be packages of certain things depending on what you know, he's he's going to scheme up some things.

1:33:27 OK, this offense wants to do this and take advantage of this. But we can take advantage of what they're trying to do right here. You know, you may see smaller groups of D lineman to really put rush press on from like a A3 technique inside rather than it all being edge pressure. You know, you may have God laws and Priester and and and Gilliam in together up front, just filling holes there. There's so many options with the the groups of people that they have and just right there talking about jungle being in the room with JC Price and all that.

1:34:12 If I'm not mistaken, didn't he he come from he's transfer in? Wasn't he an inside backer? Inside linebacker. Inside. Linebacker. Yeah, and we're, we're here talking about him being in the room with JC Price. Oh, I mean. It's going to be interesting to see how they deploy these guys because I mean, you got so many different, different opportunities that that you can, you can do and you know, talk about from a front standpoint of being multiple. I'm just I'm interested if we how many non nickel package fronts we see in the spring game or whether it's going to be, if it's not nickel, it's going to be a just a base kind of kind of 245 look, you know, which is what we expect I think at this point. Yeah.

1:34:58 At this point, you're. Right. I know for us when we go to our nickel packages more for us when you go to a nickel package, the the stand up outside backer or whatever, Yep, kind of becomes tag kind of attached to our three front line. So it almost makes it a four front line. But I mean, what is that something they will do with the nickel or does an inside backer come out for them as a nickel and do they play the nickel as a as that third safety in the three safety type system or is he another corner? You know, it just it all depends on I think a lot of this all depend on match up stuff and what he decides, you know, where he wants to pull things from and it's that it's back to that prostyle of the of deal there, you know, got you. Well, you talked about backers there. Obviously.

1:36:00 I think everybody feels really good about Caleb Woodson, how his development last year, how he came on, how good he played at the end of the season. So you feel like he's going to be on the field at all time. He may never come off the field. He may never come off the field. The honest God truth. But you know that the other pieces, that room, we all felt good. We saw some development with Gabe Williams. He has that injury, all the unfortunate stuff that happened after that. And then they moved Caleb Spencer over and we still got Keller there. Is this the Keller breakout year where he. Finally, don't say it, Curtis. Blasphemy. Well, I mean, I mean, he did lead the team in tackles last year, believe it or not.

1:36:41 He led the team in tackles with 83. It's, it's going to be one of those things that's kind of like you said, it, it gets kind of, it gets kind of fluid in that situation too. We we all feel like Caleb Woodson is going to be on the field. All the time. It doesn't matter. He's stepped up, he's proven that that he could play in there and do that. But we know he's got the athletic ability and, and everything to to help coverage wise. He's a good interior backer, but we know he's good in coverage because he's played in a coverage position in the past. That to me, that's a hell of a feeling because there's a when I've coached linebackers, one of the worst feelings in the world is looking at my linebackers and go, God damn, I hope the, I hope the secondary can cover everything because I don't have a linebacker that's going to cover anything. Once once he figured out how to cover that split zone RPO, he started looking good.

1:37:46 He got he got burned a bunch of times in one game on that, but once he figured that out, couldn't do it anymore. I mean, I I've had here here in North Wilkesboro, I've had inside linebacker that I could count on making 8090 a hundred tackles a year. But if I had if, if the running back around the damn wheel out the backfield, that bitch was going to be wide open. Good. Night. I mean, I love the kid to death. He won't he tell you right now I can say, hey, what are we going? What are we going to do if they hand the ball? Oh, we're going to tackle the coach. What happens if he runs that wheel?

1:38:27 He's probably going to score. Coach, here we go. Let me ask this, Robbie, did you see much of Cameron Fleming out there in the in the practice that you observed? Give me a number. 9 number 99. 9 I do not recall seeing a lot of him, but I can't I, I'm not going to say that he wasn't there because of other things that I was probably looking at. Yeah, I wanted to, I personally wanted to see Clatterball out there to see what he could do and, and where he, you know, where he's fascinated with, with that kind of with that linebacker style with that kid. And it, it goes back to the thing I talked about it, whether he can be a big, tough physical inside backer and still cover and play out and things like that. So I get more focused on things like that because I know those are the players that I have.

1:39:30 Yeah. And so I do remember seeing a lot of of Caleb Spencer, as we discussed, he he's in that linebacker position now more than it is a safety, but he's another one like Woodson. We know they can play. Cover style you can play cover style you can let you you can deploy him for certain things and he gained some and he got some weight gain too up in the mid to 20s now where you feel a little bit more confident about run support she. Said you saw some some George balance out there too, right? Oh, George #41. It's we did see some balance out there #41. Nice, nice shout out George Balon. I did see, I did see him some.

1:40:16 And so that'll be again, as you said, we know Woodson's going to be there. How it unfolds around after that is what's in the guy that they say, hey, he can do this. And then we can, we can run some nickels and some stars and some other different things that we want to see and, and how the the the wheel mixes in and all of those things, just how they set things up. You know, as I've said with the mind we run that 33, if you look at it a lot of times against some spread teams that are wider.

1:40:56 I'll my defense almost looks like a three one. Yeah, I mean, because I've got I've got guys over top, especially if they go in an empty set. You know, I've got safeties over top on both sides. I've got outside backers kind of split out. They're really inside backers. They're not the outside backers because I've got the safeties helping over and things like that. And I mean, that is a very prostyle look for teams that are, I mean, so it'll be interesting to see how that unfolds and, and who they try to use in those places. For alignment there, are you kind of splitting the difference between the tackle and the slot? Yeah. Yeah.

1:41:38 So if we're going to play more than 3/4, look, then those guys are going to be more edge players and and it'll look like a help for me. Most of the time it looks like a 5/2 like that. That's because I'm playing teams that are running wing T triple option, that kind of stuff. So I mean, I, I change, I move a lot of things around based on on what I'm going to get coming at me. And I feel like Seek just kind of looks at things that way too, being AD 3 coach and, you know, working his way up through things. I, I think he kind of takes some of that same mindset that I do is, is finding those matchups matching schemes that to take advantage of weaknesses from the offense. Yeah, got you.

1:42:35 All right, let's get one last room, the cornerback room. I mean, we're outside of Dante Lovett and IBM Isaiah Brown Murray, who's going to probably play a lot of nickel on the inside. He you'd said that aloud down his interview, a lot of an experience. I mean, some some young guys got to step up right. And and even if somebody steps up, do y'all think we still got a portal shop for one more or is it or do you hope either knowledge JoJo or Deloach step up where it's like, Hey, they can play? Yeah, I mean, I feel like we're going to be leaning pretty heavy on, you know, outside of Lovett the, the, the, the 2 Williams, you know, Christian and and Thomas Williams there, I feel like they're going to be the guys that are going to kind of step in there as well.

1:43:30 It's it's one of those positions where last year you kind of it was an afterthought a little bit. He didn't really worry about it. And I feel like this year it's going to be, I think this the scheme is going to take a little bit off of what they have to do relative to what they had to do in that in that system last year. But at the same time, you still going to meet guys that can go out there and match up man to man and cover. And you're always going to need that to some degree. So it's going to be interesting to see how these guys, you know, most of them red shirt sophomores or younger kind of step in there. So yeah, to your point, Curtis, you wouldn't, it wouldn't hurt to go out and grab a guy if you found a guy that has some, some experience that you feel like could at least be in that, you know, top two, top three in the rotation. About you, Robbie.

1:44:27 Yeah, there's another reddish in the cornerback room, right? That's that's that Big Brother who is coming from Winthrop, so coming from FCS. Wingate. Wingate, Wingate Wingate still FCS, right? Yeah, local team. Yeah, and he had a good season last year. Don't. I mean they have 4 picks, 11 pass break UPS. Wingate. Wingate has been a a pretty good football program here over the last several years. So I mean. That's Charlotte area, right? Yeah, from Charlotte area, we we know there we know there's some there's some talent in the in the in the bloodstream there it.

1:45:15 Is. From. From. So I mean, there I, I don't like you said, outside of Lovett, I feel like there were multiple people that rotated different things and, and did things and they're going to try to find what fits them best. I've, I've known, I've known coach Cheetah now for, for numerous years after he was a Duke when I was in Eastern North Carolina through some things like that. And he's going to have, he's going to have those guys prepared and, and he's going to get the best out of what he can get. So I mean, I, I think they're going to be well prepared. It's just a matter of who's going to step up and take the reins of, of what they need.

1:46:06 Who's going to step in and be the guy and say, hey, you know what, this position is open and and I'm going to take it. The Joshua Clark, I know, I guess we talked about that beforehand. I guess he got hurt recently. Yeah, we don't, we don't. We don't know exactly what the extent of that is, but yeah, the word is he got banged up so. I think he, I think he he played a lot in the bowl game and did some good things right. Yeah, yeah, he looked, he looked good in the bowl game. I know he got there was a couple he got burned on when he was actually in really good position. You sometimes you just get beat like sometimes the ball's thrown, thrown where it needs to be. I like, I like the physicality he brought, he brought, he brought that kind of that that physical mindset to the cornerback possession.

1:47:02 Robbie, let me ask you this real quick. When looking at the cornerback, what, what sort of responsibilities are they going to have within the scheme of the defense relative to kind of what we've been seeing historically here at Virginia Tech and. In my knowledge of this defense the the corners play a lot of your deeper to kind of man match type roles. OK. There's different ways to unfold things in the secondary. The way we do it that I could, I could ask my corner sometimes to sit underneath more like a cover to look, your typical cover to look, but it kind of depends on who your corner is.

1:47:52 If you've got a physical corner that'll take on a a run or or really go down and pop a screen that they throw out there or or check down, then you can play more of that cover. Two types that look, if they're better in the coverage wise, maybe you look more like a cover three, you know, playing them more deep, playing them on a match on a single receiver, you know, that kind of thing. Do you do you see? Off process on it. Do you see half half fields, half field man, half fields on with some of these schemes?

1:48:33 Like what secret run? Yeah, you see a lot like pro wise, you see a lot of split coverages. For some reason, a lot of teams in the NFL now have gone to a little bit more of your traditional zone stuff and not doing as much of the split coverages. But it's especially when you hit, when you look back at like the Darrelle Revis and that kind of thing, they would go against a team that would go, you know, twins with a tight end and then a single receiver on the backside.

1:49:13 Well, you knew Revis was going to that backside. He's going to that single receiver and he's going to shut them down. You better figure out what you want to do with them three over there because this one is is locked down. And I mean, that could be a possibility. If Lovett's that guy, then maybe they tell Lovett, hey, go lock that one down. And we forced him to play half of the field. Maybe that's something he does. Maybe they have a receiver that, hey, we know we got to put air man on that receiver and then we'll take our chances with the other ones. And you know, I play a lot of when I play my split coverage, I'll put a man on a receiver and then I'll put a safety over top and maybe a linebacker inside of it.

1:49:58 So I take away inside routes. I I have help over the top, the vertical routes, that kind of thing that gets a little bit harder and you know, the higher level of football in high school. Sometimes that one guy that's out there that I'm putting three guys in charge of making sure he doesn't catch anything might be the only thing they have. You ain't going to run across the college football team that you just look at there and go. That's the only thing they have. We shut him down. They don't stand a chance. I know you know looking back at Marv like we there, there was a lot more like kind of man under looks last year.

1:50:42 You think we're going to see a lot of that go away? I don't know, like I think you have the opportunity to be able to see it, especially with the type of personnel that they could put on the field at times. OK, I think it's still an option to be able to do. But yeah, I love a man under look, a lot of times, especially against a team that I know is not going to line up and pound the ball at me that wants to throw some screens and throw some quick game like that. I'll play the man and rob it with somebody over top of it. But if you if you got a team that's going to come out there and the quarterback is a threat to to fake that take off up the middle through all of that, it's it'll bring in.

1:51:27 You know Bernie. It's going to kind of depend on that personnel again and and the scheme that you're playing against what you're trying to stop all. Right, So that kind of wraps up at it right there. What we're looking for Saturday, it's going to be new. That's it. That's all you can say. It's new. Those who will be in person like Brian, y'all are going to see it up close. Those who won't be, hopefully they do release a full tape at some point. If not, we'll go with highlights and we'll be back here next week to definitely breakdown the game itself, what we saw, what we liked, what we didn't like, who we didn't see, why when we see them and so on. But with that, I'm going to wrap up this episode of the Boundary Corner Podcast brought to you back down Stanley Pharmacy in Blacksburg. I'm Curtis Wilson.

1:52:12 I'm Brian Siegler. Robert Compton. As always, we're part of the College Shuttle Network. Visit our website boundarycornerbt.com to listen to all of our episodes. Don't forget to follow us Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, everywhere you can find your podcast sources. We are out there as always. Jason Long, our buddy plays us in play is out. Yep, SWVAI like the hat. Robbie, I meant to say that in the beginning. Check out Jason Jason Long music.com, where you can link to all of his music, Apple, Spotify, his YouTube and Facebook pages. Also his live events. And he is surely cranking up live events all over the New River Valley.

1:52:55 We appreciate y'all for listening out there. Appreciate y'all in the chat tonight. And as always, let's go. Hokies.

1:53:56 The.