State of the Program 2023

0:29 Music. And welcome back to the Boundary Corner Podcast along with my partners Brian Siegler, Jonathan Talley, and in the building tonight. This episode is brought to you by Doctor Lord Jeremy Count at the Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg. I'm Jeremy. You are Jeremy 301. Yay, Jeremy. That's right. That's right. I said it last year.

1:10 I'll say it this year. He pays the bills, he fills your pills. He Jeremy counts. And once a year, the episode pretty good is all his tally. Jeremy, how's everybody doing tonight? Oh, man, I'm feeling good. I got a little. I got a little Hardywood Bourbon barrel GBS rolling on this side here. So Tally, we're doing good. Tally what you sipping. On man, we started off. We've already started with a little Eagle rare. That's what we started with earlier. But we going to bust open this special gift for my brother. This is a very special Hennessy Hip Hop edition. Got knobs on the cover. Oh shit.

1:51 So hey, hey. In the program. Hey, let's get going. We got to do it proper, man. We got to do it. Proper. Let's get it going. This year I've actually decided to be a little more responsible with being responsible to me is drinking a 12 or a six pack before I do this. But. Right now I'm drinking Parkway Brewing out of Roanoke. Get Bent IPA, my favorite beer ever. It is so unabashedly hip. It would make Andrew Parent blush. I love. This. Gear. It is wonderful. Stay away from the Jameson, please. Stay away from the Jameson I'm. Staying away.

2:31 From it, I'm still going black out. House I'm. Most. Here, Tally. This is what I'm doing tonight boys. Little. Old Oh, OK. Hundred 100 proof. I got some Coors Lights 2 sitting over here. The banquet beer we poured heavy the first time. First of all, 365 days ago. This was not a fucking fun episode to do. It was fun. It was. Fun. It was fun in a. Different way it wasn't. It was fun in a different way. It wasn't fun to talk about it. Was fun to do. It was fun to get. You had moonshine last year. That's how bad it was. He had moonshine. I drink an entire 5th of Evan Williams white label in three hours. That was fucking dumb. I don't know how much. I don't know how many. James.

3:11 All right, I was staying full Fran Scotch, but to this year, before we start anything, the boys look back, raise a glass, get into a bowl in a few days here. By the way, I lied to y'all. My ass is going to the bowl now. You going to the bowl? Now, Yes. Story Real quick. So. Story time. Story time. Quick story so. I couldn't go for a couple reasons. A kids have doctor's appointments. Well, the doctor screwed up. The doctor's appointment scheduled like a week early. Wife couldn't make it. She had to reschedule late. Great. Cool. Thought about going. Saw the prices. That hurts. That hurts a while. I just paid for a bunch of kids toys for Christmas.

3:52 Jeremy knew how to go to that this year. But all of a sudden my cousin who lives down in Charleston gives me a call. Hey man, what's going on? I'm like nothing. He's like, you want to go to the bowl game? He's like, of course I do. I'd love to if I could, but I'm like spending 100 bucks driving up there back. Brian can't go because he's got shit already going on that day. He's like, what if I told you I have free tickets? Say what? Come to find out one of his cousins, one of his wife's cousins is actually AAT, an athletic trainer down at two lanes. You got two free tickets. So he's like, he's driving up here. We're going to go together. I am excited to go. I've been looking at the forecast. It's going to rain like crazy. Yeah, he always goes with the secret lab chair. Y'all didn't know that.

4:36 Always with the secret lab chair. But boys, we got a fun episode tonight. We got a lot of special guests. But Jeremy, what's been going on in your life the last 12 months? I think some shit changed, right? I got a baby now. How's that? Treating you. It's been awesome, actually. Like, I wake up early anyway, so I just like wake up at like 5 or 6 and I take care of her for a little like few hours. And then I go into work and it's not so bad. I go to bed early like an old person, want to eat dinner at 5:00, but, you know, whatever. Jerry said. I got old real quick. Yeah, it's not a bad adjustment. I kind of like being old, being old. I'm grouchy enough it works.

5:20 You sleep when that baby sleep. Yep, that was you did all right. We've adapted well, Emily said. Great with her, like she's coming along, hitting all her milestones, doing most of them early. I'm happy. Fuck, I'm even happier that we're back on track. Hell yeah. Back on track and just a few days ago obviously, I mean I watched the whole thing and I'm. I know Brian was trying to watch it, tell him that you were jumping on it. But the the class of 2024, I mean big, big class, man. Big class, big class, small class, small class, big class from a standpoint of how would it be for the program. It means a lot to the program.

6:05 It means a ton to the program because of where these guys are coming from and that overall ranking the overall ranking is is in the top 30. I mean that's Brian you always talked about it's the key 88 right at 88 number world and this is like an 87.9 class right there, right there. So it's it's a lot of fun stuff and some of that is kind of bullshit. But we're we'll get to that. We're going to get to that. We going to talk about it. We're definitely going to talk. We're going to let some shit fly on that. I'm, I'm, I'm damn sure about that. So Jeremy, I know when we can't. Now we all. We all met up at Purdue by the way. The last time most four were in a room together was at the farmhouse Purdue weekend.

6:47 We were taking Jameson shots. Then we worked. We were taking Jameson like triples in glasses. I ain't going to lie, I felt a little out of place when we went to farmhouse, 'cause I ain't see no fucking black people. I think it's because all of the black people's in the back cooking, 'cause that was some fucking good food. When they brought that food out. What are? You talking about we have a robust black population in Christiansburg. Well, I didn't see no black people in farmhouse. I've seen a whole bunch of rich white people and they. That is Farmhouse. So yeah, I was a little looking around a little bit kind of, but but once we got in there and and got the drinking and that food started coming out, hell that I it was right on point.

7:32 But yeah, the the food was good we we were taking Jameson shots. I think there was some tequila mix in there at some point somehow I. Don't. Know maybe, I don't know, something got mixed in there. The only thing I remember about that weekend is the the the freaking, the the microburst that came through in South end zone and hailstones pelleting us. Yeah, we we were getting. Clipped from the side, The whole side just hanging out there and Jeremy, you think unfortunately you didn't get to go to that game. Did you make it to any games this year with, with? I didn't. Get to go to any games this year because of the baby. We had a scene where we were going to go and like my mom got a kidney stone and then dad got like fucking COVID slash flu slash whatever he did a few different times and so we did not get a chance to go to any games and so my tickets that I pay thousands of dollars.

8:24 For every year. I just gave away. Well, you're that good of a person though. You just give them away to people that will go scream their lungs out. Selling good tickets is tacky. If you get tickets as good as I get, if you sell them, it's fucking tacky. Give them to your friends, they'll appreciate. It there we go, there you go, there you go. But that, that, that's you didn't get to go to that game. But I think when we sat there after that weekend, you know it was like one in one and and you and you didn't know where you where, where we were. I remember, I think I texted the white big not long after that and I I I was not in a good place with the team mentally.

9:06 None of us were in a good place for a while. And and then she had started changing. And then she had started changing. And then what happened? But you know, we got a lot. We're going low tonight. Y'all, y'all. If you've ever not, first of all, let's just, well, can't do anything about that. But if you've never listened to this episode before, if you are the faint of heart, you probably want. To go ahead and turn it off. Right now I'm going to just go ahead and let you. Know no. What was? This thing last year that sent me the card. Oh, that was amazing. That was the best thing ever man ever. I think his name was Joseph or something. Joseph. It was Joseph. But Joseph sent you a card. First episode he ever listened to of our podcast.

9:48 It was Jeremy. When he was on with us for staying the program last year, he was like, I'm not listening to it again. I'm gonna send Jeremy a card. Author anymore. And it was just like motherfucker. I was on there doing most of the cursing. What are you talking about? But if you This is the first time you've ever listened to watch this, this, this gets sideways. Because every thought that's in our brains, not only our brains, the folks we're going to bring in. Did we let it flow tonight? Because we we went through. Ever since August, we've been focused on game game game game games, Tally, Drain and Hennessy. We're having fun. We're staying loose. And in over the last, over the course of this year, there were guys popping up in the mentions of our episodes and all of a sudden we started looking at last names and started noticing their Facebook and their Twitter and like, wait a second, I think that's and I think that's. But we they, they they we hit them up and said do y'all want to come on tonight.

10:50 And they did. So without further ado, we got our first two guests kind of walking into the bar state of the program, introducing First from Houston, TX. He is the father of #1 hiring drones. QB one. QB one hiring drones. He is an assistant coach down in Texas and I had your Kevin. I'm sorry I had your Twitter up to give your school a shout out and I'm going to do that before I pull you on because that's just who I am. He is the an assistant coach for Clearbrook Football and Clearbrook Minton's track.

11:32 He is Kevin Drones. Mr. Drones, How are you tonight, Sir? I'm good. How y'all doing? We are doing well. We We really. Appreciate. Hey, drones. What's up? We good? So you got your shirt. Oh, yes, Sir. Yes, Sir. Shirt came through today. Y'all see it QB one? Hey Kevin. Kevin looked out for me. They've been wearing these things all season and I just get to asking questions. I'm like, hey man, when you get that shirt from, he said. You know what I got you. So my guy Kevin looked out for me. I appreciate you. We appreciate you coming on. Hey, you got the family in the house?

12:13 OK. We got some more Ronnie Super Anti right there. OK. Nice. Nice. But Kevin you started popping up and I mentioned and watching weekly and hey we really appreciate that. We hope you know the our our thoughts on this stuff is we've all been long time Hokie fans and the steps we saw Kyron take this year were unbelievable. It it it it hearkened us back. I mean, I go back when in the heyday when the Hokies were running 1011 games a year, going to national championship, it it it made me think about that again. So we appreciate you joining us now. We got one more person to bring on, and just a few days ago, this young man's son committed to Virginia Tech.

13:00 This young man's son is the greatest wide receiver in VHSL history. Now I'm giving y'all some hints, right? Pretty big hints. Pretty big hints. His son attends Green Run High School. He will be enrolling early in just a few weeks. I loved Coach Pride the other day, joking with all those guys. Y'all ready for 6:00 AM workout, 6:00 AM workouts. Man, they're coming fast. But his son is healing Brody Adams and if y'all heard him, he's been on some of our spaces before, just a few days ago with Tally. Mr. Chris Lester. My God, what's up fellas? How y'all doing man? Doing good. Thank you so much for jumping on with us tonight. Like Curtis has already talked about this this is loose. We're going to keep it loose.

13:46 But we appreciate both of y'all jumping on with us. Just loving to reminisce about where we've been this year and where we're going next year. I mean that this is what this is all about and and just having some fun drinking some beers drinking some some some spirits here. So it's what we like to do before the holidays and we thank you for joining us and sharing your wisdom and and everything you got to say about this program and and and the boys that you've helped raise and and and and grow into the men that they are on the field and off the field. Well hey man, I'm, I'm excited to be on with you guys, man. Big fans of y'all, Definitely a big fan of Mr. Drones man.

14:28 You know, hadn't had a chance to tell him. But man, super excited about him, man. His family's amazing and his kid was one of of many reasons why we decided to come to Virginia Tech. I'm glad to have you all appreciate it. Amen. Glad to be here from home. Glad to be here. Thank you, man. Thank you. Glad to be here. Love hearing that and it is home. So I want to start with because you just mentioned it kind of there, Chris, about Tyron's a big reason and I am pronouncing it right. Correct, Kevin. Kyron's like Byron with the kids. What you told us that night, Kyron, Because whenever. We got the tie rod. The thing where we were saying Tyrod, it's actually Tyrod. We were like Tyrod. What? They still say Tyrod.

15:09 They still mess with Kyra's name. It's going. To continue to be but but for this podcast we got corrected quickly and we've not messed it up. But I want to hit Kevin real quick because Kevin a year ago Kyra made the decision to come to Virginia Tech in just a few short days ago the portal. It was a big portal day, but can you just He was already down at Baylor, so you had went through the high school stuff and we're going to talk about that a little while, Chris, But what was it like? Because he's been at Baylor, he's already in school and I'm sure you had a lot to you're you're his dad. I'm sure a lot was discussed. But how did that process go last year?

15:51 You know, Kern kind of chose Baylor. I tell people it was almost like a prearranged marriage because it was COVID. So he never got to visit anybody. He never got to go on campuses. He everything was FaceTime, Zoom calls, virtual visits. Even when he committed to Baylor, I had to pay for us to go to the game and we had to go in with everybody else. Like we never even met the coaches. So the first time he met Aranda in person was the day we dropped him off. And that's great. You know, two days after he signed, Fedora was gone. So it was, you know, if it had, if it worked, the best thing that happened for him was, you know, that Thursday night he got in that game against West Virginia and nobody else was really playing. So that was the best thing that happened. You know that pretty much that night I think I kind of knew. Well, we kind of already knew.

16:49 We were just hoping he can get on the field and get filmed, you know, because the one thing that was scary about the portal, you go in and you hear these horror stories and you're like, he hadn't got any films. So I don't want to go in and not have an exit plan. So, you know, once that happened, I felt better about it. It's still scary. You know that Monday morning when you officially in and you know, I remember talking to him about 11:00 and he was like and I thought I'd have more, you know, calls coming. But then he had lunch with Tebow. About an hour later, I talked to him and. His whole voice. Changed and I was like. Thank you.

17:30 You know at the time that I had two. Boys in the portal, so it. Was it was extra nervous, you know? It was, you know, I was actually. I thought that. Karen was going to meet PJ Flett for Jeremiah. So it was. I was all over the place. So, but yeah, so it was a scary feeling. But you know, Virginia Tech's the only visit he ever took, you know? Good. That would be glad we fucking glad. It was gig. They made a big impression. You know, Tebow being down there, the first day, that was huge for Kern because he didn't want to post anything. He didn't want offers because other people were offering. He wanted it to be genuine and organic.

18:12 And you know, we went there. It was big for Coach Pry and them to to have us there first, you know, because we knew some of the other ones. Kern was the elite 11 with one of the other quarterbacks that they were bringing from Penn State. And, you know, so it was huge for us and it went a long way for Kern, for them to bring him in first. And you know when he, they put #1 on him and he went to Lane Stadium for the photo shoot and they didn't realize he had been number one since Lily, and he didn't. Really be number. One. So when they did it, I was. Like, man, that brings back memory. I've got chills. And he was like, they give me #1, it's done. Yeah, I'm going to tell you a little bit from from our perspective and a fan perspective of what we was looking at while y'all was going through that. So just had went through a season three wins, didn't get to play the last game against UVA because of a tragedy of still RP to the young men there.

19:15 So we were kind of, you know, we did end the season on a high note, which was great as far as the win versus Liberty. But again, you only won three games, lost a lot of close games. This podcast, as well as a lot of fans included, knew we needed a playmaker at quarterback. Like we knew it. You know, no disrespect to any player or coaches that are on the staff or players that were on the team. I know those young men put their hearts on the line, but we knew we needed a playmaker. I'm going to go ahead and say I told them we need a black quarterback. I'm just saying that's what I said. But when I say that realistically we needed a dual threat quarterback. So when we see a offer go out to your son, to Kyron, we immediately start digging for film.

20:04 You know, high school stuff. We start digging for, you know, him playing against West Virginia. We start looking at message boards. We start. We started looking at what the fans at Baylor had to say when he was leaving because. When you get involved in, in, in, in like we are in, in football, like you just search, you ain't got nothing to do but search for stuff. So like, the Baylor fans were distraught. It was like, oh God, why is he leaving? You know, he was going to be the future, blah, blah, blah. So us as fans, this BCP podcast, we were thinking like, oh, we know we got something, but you got so many fans that are just kind of die hard, hokey fans that just going to say whatever's in front of me, that's what I want to take. Y'all can't talk bad about anybody here. Y'all can't say that we need another quarterback. We got a quarterback and I'm like, if they put this kid on the field, I'm telling y'all, y'all are going to see that he's different.

20:59 He got something different. I'm. I've seen it and he's got something. How do you know? Because I watch a lot of fucking football. That's how I know. And I've seen the film on the kid. He's got something different. He comes from a great family that knows football. He comes from an athletic family that's got college athletes all over his family. It's exactly what you want in your quarterback. So when we seen him get in the Porter and we seen him y'all kind of sneak up and take that visit to Blacksburg, when Jeremy probably heard the music playing and they started telling us about that was. Hilarious. Why? I realized what Hokey Nation was about. That was why. Oh yeah, like I didn't even know currently the picture. He took a picture of his feet at the airport and we started, I'm looking on message boards and they're going, hey, we know that there's a 655 flight going up, man.

21:50 Like I said. I don't know what Y'all was dealing with, but on our end it was going nuts, like people watching Evan Watkins the whole time. People are tracking, people are tracking lights on the kids page. They knew your wife New you. We do. People follow. We do. We follow. We follow. Listen, hulking nation is is unbeaten. We we a little rabbit. We a little rabbit. Dude, I got so many. I got so many. Messages over his clips. When the game in West Virginia, we were just breaking it down. We're just like, what was he looking at here?

22:32 Every day arguing. Mission making. We were doing this constantly. Me. Absolutely. So we we we got a lot of chats. We don't we're on Twitter a lot. I I was beating the drum of QB one the second I saw the West Virginia tape. The second I saw the West Virginia tape, I was beating that drum because because me and Brian talked about this, he's like he went in cold that game in Morgantown, which for all of us down here, Jeremy, I think, did you go there as an undergrad to a game to Morgantown? Yes, I've I've went to Morgantown. A few times. For a few for a few shows. I've never actually went to a game though, But Morgantown's Wild, It's Wild and.

23:17 Especially when. You half of the clubs you own is Vt gear. It's wild. West Virginia Looks like somebody stepped straight out of the hills Have eyes. I don't never have to fucking go to West Virginia. It's. Like hot tubs in it. It's insane. It is dirty. It is a dirty town and not New Orleans dirty. That's a fun dirty. It is a. Dirty town in a bad way. But, but Brian and Tally were like watching that, watching that game. And it was like, he's cold making these throws, he's cold. It was. It's the poise to me. It was the poise to me.

24:00 It was the poise. He would. He never looked like the moment was too big. Playing from behind, playing on the road, playing in that environment. It never was too big for him. And that was big for somebody coming in cold like that. For me, you know, when you talk about like mechanics and when you talk about like everything else, like you, those are things that you can grow into Once you're once you're a starter, once you're a player. But you can't. It's really hard to coach the poise in those types of moments and when you have that, that's something that you really it's it's it's it's it's hard to replicate and when you have that in a quarterback, that's really important. Yeah, he he's always been, you know, never too high, never too low. You know about this.

24:46 I mean we were in a playoff game his junior year year we wanted and you know, he throws 2 picks in the first half and I think everybody thought I was fixing to go in there and you know, be the be the big bad wolf. Didn't I just, I just took him to the bathroom and said, hey, you built for this moment right here, hey, take care of the ball and go win the game. And he just looked at me and was like, I got you and it was like second-half he put on his cake and I just couldn't believe it. I mean, but he's always just kind of been almost too much. Like, I remember being him being young and we had to tell him like, hey, you scored a touchdown, you got to celebrate with your teammates, like you just run off the field. Like that's what it's supposed to be in business and union.

25:26 I will say though, even kill like that is so important on offense, like defense you you want somebody with a lot of gas offense having that even kill demeanor. Is important like tie rods demeanor. That is a good way to put it. Super, even kill. But look, we don't want to. We got somebody else on here, so we want to we want to throw some stuff at you as well. Chris, a little bit different from you because you got a high school student that was able to take some visits, a lot of visits, had a lot of people knocking at your door all year. You are there in Virginia, so you kind of know what the Virginia landscape looks like as far as football, high school kids as well as the college stuff.

26:09 And you said some earlier. You say it. You know drones was a little bit of the reason why y'all looked at Virginia Tech. Ask you a little bit about y'all's journey of how y'all committed. You know what I'm saying? And and and how you felt about Virginia Tech being the the, the pick. Oh well. Listen, I I consider been listening big to Kevin all night about that situation because Kyron was a a huge part of it but for for us. But our situation was one thing that I always took when we took visits, different places. I was out, like taking notes about everything. And the one thing that I took was from a Virginia Tech favorite, Patton Narduzzi, do your homework. And I and I, and I'm going to be honest with you, Kevin, you can kind of attest to this.

27:01 I could not understand how any person does this by themselves. I don't care if you're a single father, single mother. I don't know how you do this because I'll be totally honest with you, without my wife, we probably have been somewhere totally different because she had the ability to vet people. And I'm just a big football nut, so I'm going into places, right? I'm looking at the helmets, the gloves, the kid. The kid is like, hey, I just want to be here for the pictures. And I'm like, I but she really vetted people and watch them. So Narjoozi told me, you know, hey, do my homework. And so I did my homework. So when we came up to Virginia Tech in June of 22 I I was just I'm be honest with you, I had. I didn't want anything to do with Virginia Tech. Quick background story.

27:46 Sean Mitchell is the was the all time leading passer for touchdown completions and yards in the state of Virginia. That's my nephew and Beamer had gave him a scholarship offer. He was going to Virginia Tech and I was hyped about it. Fuentes came in, pulled his offer. Now he ended up going to William and Mary, went play ball one of Connecticut, got, got his masters and he's doing great. But I hated the fact that he was 511. One is too short and he didn't get, he didn't get the offer, so I wasn't really feeling Virginia Tech. So but when we went up there, I wasn't man. I was like man, bump this. I'm just going over here just to go up, if it makes you feel. Better We weren't really feeling Fuente either. We're.

28:30 In agreement with that. But I think the one thing that we always did, like when you talk about West Virginia, there were visits that we took that we got out the car, we were praying and say, hey man, we just up here just to make sure that they see us get the pictures and people know who we are and that's what we did. But from the moment we stepped on campus at Virginia Tech, man, it was, it was just, it was crazy because I was like I told Keelan this. I said, man, listen, you can go anywhere and play in the country, but if you come up here and play well, you'll be a legend. And I told him that the very first time I can. I said you will be an absolute legend. Here they are dying for kids like you and you'll go do it. But I think our process was, you know, we went a lot of places. We saw a lot of.

29:19 Different facilities. We would grade everything and we would come back and look at it. I mean, we were committed to Ohio State at one time. We was committed to West Virginia one time. We was committed. I mean, like to ourselves, we were going to be like, yeah, I'm going here, yo, I'm going here, yo, I'm going here. And I I can tell the story, you know now. There was never a point where I felt pressure from this staff for him to come. Like the when we were going three and eight, I was sitting and watching the game and I wanted to see pride crack. That's what I wanted to see. I wanted to see how he would act if there was a tight game. They blew it and who he was going to throw underneath the bus. And if y'all follow me on Twitter, I'd say that all the time.

30:03 And he never cracked. He never blew up on his team. He would. And everybody said, oh, he's a salesman. He says I got to be better. I'm learning. I'm understanding it. So through that whole year, I was like something different with this, with that dude right there. So when we went to other places, went to Penn State, they made us feel like we should be honored that Penn State wanted us. And we didn't feel that. We didn't feel that. I ended up meeting Chance Wiggins up there, though. That was a good thing I got. I got a chance to meet him, meet his mom and things of that nature. When we went to Alabama, we were going to take Alabama's visit. I don't care what nobody said. We were taking that visit.

30:44 Now. We would never ever going to Alabama, but we were taking that visit because we wanted to see how the sausage was made and I wanted the front of them. Yeah, I wanted the son of my friends to say I had a picture with Nick Saban. I'm going to be totally. Honest. Dude, I was talking. I was talking. Cold trash to my homies. I was like, yo, I got a picture with Tricky Nick. I'm the man it was. Funny to me. We, we were going to go to Florida State. Just couldn't work the details of that. Tennessee was super duper arrogant. They were like, hey, well, you know, if you don't come out here, tell us 10 hours away, you know we won't commit the offer. And Sheila was like, I'll drive to Ohio, I'll go to Ohio State, But Tennessee ain't Ohio State. So me and him, our bond grew closer going to Ohio State because we went up one night at night through the mountains. We had to take the Turnpike.

31:37 I've never been so happy to see small towns in my life going through the mountains of of Virginia, getting up to Ohio State. He would you know, he was he loved Ohio State. But by doing our homework, we're able to you know break that down so we would turn around. It was in. We came back up in March and I think we took one summer visit and I met Kyron. So I. Meet Kyron. Right. And he's just standing in the weight room on the wall with Ollie Jennings and he's just standing there like nothing's going on. He's just so cool, so laid back. And I said it's something about that kid right there. There's just something different about him. And Key was like, what you mean?

32:20 I said. Because he's not over the top. His demeeter is low. He had his work bag. He had already Him and Ali had already worked out. And I said I like that kid. I like that kid a lot, he said. And you know, Keelan's a football player and Kevin, you know how that is. Football players just look at football players like, OK, he's a football player. Got to your player. I don't know who he is, but me, I did all the things Y'all did. I wouldn't watch this Elite 11 tape. I watched this West Virginia tape. I was like, yo, that dude right there might be the truth. And you know, everybody's looking for that next guy, you know. And because of the history of Virginia Tech and things of that nature, So I was like, yeah, he kind of reminded me of coming in. Coming to Castle was really, really good. So but his demeanor is what got me. And man, the process was easy, man. When we got, we did our four, we had four official visits. I I was always honest with everybody. I told them ahead of time if I was coming, if I was coming. Our first visit was Pittsburgh.

33:19 I called him. I said we ain't going to Pitt. Narduzzi was really mean to people that I saw and I and I told them early, hey, we're not, we put you on the list, but we're not coming. Ohio State, we had kind of looked at the numbers. You know, three of the top #1 wide receivers in the country had gone up there. They had the number four. They had a lot of guys. And I I never shield away from competition. But I understood this one part. He's a Virginia player. If he goes to Ohio, even though he was from even though he was born in Ohio and he lived in Ohio, he was an Ohio Prada. So they're just going to say, hey, this is the number one recruit, #1 wide receiver out of Virginia, that's great.

34:03 They got a guy up there right now, Noah Rogers, he's the number one guy out of the 23 class or 22/20/22 or 23 class from North Carolina. He went to Ohio State and he can't get on the field. So I told Key, I said, listen, the goal is if you want to go to the league, you got to be able to get on the field A. Lot of kids that come out of Virginia right now. Yeah, absolutely. And. They get it. Oh yeah, that was. Well that was that. That's, that's another crazy story because that was the first offer he got was from UNC. And we were kind of like, yeah, UNC, UNC. And then we got there and wide receiver coach never called me. I kind of said OK we're we're not going to deal with them. But we we're from there. Because Kevin, I don't know if you caught this.

34:44 If they don't call and talk to me, I don't really feel that they're interested in me. If the recruiting assistant or somebody like that, they call, OK. But if I don't talk to the OC or the head coach or the wide receiver coach, they're not really that interested in us. So why do you say that? Because. When Karen left Baylor, they they wanted to have a meeting with us. So I'm thinking we're going to have a meeting with all of us and. It. Turned out it. Was I never. I never once talked to the OC and never talked to the head coach and. It. Was just the quarterback coach calling me and I'm like, I've been talking to you. I'm I'm done with you. We've already moved on from this you. Know on the.

35:27 Field, you know, on the OC didn't reach out. So I was like, I'm done, you know, I talked to. Her. Random. So I was like, I'm good and I want to, I want to say something right quick. Why? Why? Something that Chris said earlier that I talk about in some spaces, and I know these two guys can talk about as well. I I wasn't recruited on the level that their kids have been recruited. But when you go through recruiting stuff, like I came from a single mom home, you know, and my mom didn't know a lot of stuff. She didn't, she didn't know about visits, She didn't know who to talk to. So it was like, OK, this coach is going to be the one that's going to help you. Like if you don't have the people that's showing you the right stuff in in schools know that. They know when they have somebody that's vulnerable. Like when you have a a father that's a football fan or a father that's a football coach, You know what I'm saying? These, these sometimes the schools get intimidated to recruit the kids because they don't want to. They just want that kid.

36:25 But we can mow with him and do what he want. We don't care about his family, his mom and things like that. We don't want that input. We just want to take them and do what we want with them. So when you talk about having that family around, when I talked about how our coaches recruit, like recruiting is a it's a long game, man. You got to know who cut the kids hair. You got to know the father, You got to know the uncle. You got to know where they get the sandwiches from in their family. Because you don't know who is going to have the influence on that kid or who is going to be the one that's going to talk to that kid that's going to make that kid open his eyes to the school. So for you, that's what he did. Yeah. Yeah. He was like. I got to know like. If something's going on and like we can't keep a hold of him, like and like he's getting to college and doing whatever, I need to know.

37:14 Like, he's got a good relationship with his mom. Like, I need to know, hey, does this kid, like, does he have a lot of connections to like, his family, his friends, everything else? And that's a lot of things that they looked at. And family relationships are huge in these situations. And I think that's overlooked a lot of times. Definitely, Chris, you were. Talking about vetting. They didn't even realize it until I told them. After Karen got there, I talked to him and hook experience. Because I wanted to know the good. End of that. So I wanted to know if and they had nothing bad to say and I'm like this kid just transferred from there and they didn't have anything negative to say. Well, they should went to Virginia Tech. And got in the.

38:02 Situation had to leave. He's at Illinois. I talked. To his parents. That had nothing to say bad. So it was like, you know, even the people that had to leave didn't have. Anything. Negative to say so everything that I so that's what you know, people don't realize. Like I reached out to a little bit of everybody because, again, just like the Baylor situation, Karen wanted to go to Auburn. They don't go to Auburn. And the day he was ready to commit, I was like, Karen, they're hot and cold on. Miles on every. Other year, yes and I, yeah. And there you go. We know Chad's not going to be there because. If he was going to be there, then Chandler wouldn't went to Oklahoma, right?

38:45 He's not going to be there. So are you really ready to go to Auburn? You've never been, you've never played a game since you were three where nobody was there. And I have to be real with you as a dad. Because if I don't. Tell you I. Don't want you to walk out the locker room the first time and we're not there. Nobody's there. And then you feel some kind of way and you're that far away and. It's a Kim. That's why he went to Baylor, because it was in state and it was he was 17 years old, leaving in January and. He just wasn't ready. But at this time, when he got in the portal, now he's 19, he's been in college two years and it was a business decision. He was just trying to get on the field. He wanted a true competition, not a sales pitch, just a true competition. Are you going to really let me compete for the job that's also talking about that? Go ahead, Curtis.

39:29 Awesome to hear. What I want to do Kevin, Chris, y'all met him a lawyer earlier. We're going to bring some other folks on because I know they have some questions and want to talk to you all about some stuff and we got other stuff we're going to talk about this season. So Brian, let's bring them on. Let's start with our coaching buddy from down at North Wilkesboro High School, long time friend of BCP podcast coach Robbie Compton. Hi, everybody. There he is. There he is. We also have one. Of the Co. Host. Of two deep. PB. Coming back again? What's? Up, fellas. How you doing? Oh man. What's going on, man? You. Mentioned a little. Bit earlier. We got Dan from the Terrells, from the Terra Dome, my dude.

40:11 My buddy, my hey, what's up? What's good? Baby, how we living? What's all going on? We're all living, I. Wanted to bring y'all on 'cause I know mid-day I got, I got a coach in my left corner here, so Kevin, Coach Robbie, coach Robbie, Kevin. I know y'all go y'all probably going. Robbie's been there for some. Of his players, Pete and Dan have their pods, awesome pods and I know they've got questions. But let me ask this from both of y'all and and kind of in general because we some of y'all got in to meet some of these coaches. Robbie, Dan, Jeremy have. Let's talk about Tyler Bowman because Kevin, that is your son's OC. Chris, that's going to be your son's OC in this upcoming season.

40:53 And one of the big stories was, and you said it day one when Kyron went into the portal, he was there and every everybody knows about that. All, all of us fans on those boards. We were like, wait a SEC. Bowen's in a plane going down to Waco today. Shit, he wants that kid. Bad. Bad. What? Let's talk. About Tyler Bowen and the relationship, because obviously he's got to have a relationship with both of y'all and I know Robbie got to meet him back at a coach clinic last year. Dan, you've met him before. What's Tyler? Come. Off as to y'all meeting him, not only the football player but the human being. And I'll let you go ahead and start Kevin, just really. Genuine.

41:35 You know, open, open relationship. You know, I it's funny, 'cause it was two kids in the portal and I know me and Tally were going back and forth. Kids were going in the portal. If I had a relationship with them, I was shooting it too. Boeing. It was like, hey, if y'all want in on these guys or y'all, if I can help in any kind of way, let me know. And you know, it was that openness that I haven't had with other coaches. And like I said, I got, I got two kids that are in two different schools in their second school apiece and I didn't have that relationship with those guys. But I feel comfortable and it's no threat. I'm never going to be, you know, I'm a coach, so I always tell them the last thing I want is I'm never going to be that parent to hover over and do all of that. Your decisions are your decisions. Everything's going to work yourself out like it should. You know in the end.

42:25 As long as you keep doing your work, everything else will work yourself out. But Boeing? The whole off, that whole staff. I'll tell you, Coach Pry. Everybody. 'S open book and when I say make you feel at home and like family, like you don't have, don't hesitate to call them and they actually mean it. It's not just something they say like. And that's across the board that's defense. You know, my friend brother is Marv. So I get there and talk to him. I mean, I'm around those guys all the time, you know, because I'm at every game. So in being able to see and talk and and I was so happy for them this season, you know, seeing how level they were, you could see them getting better and wasn't showing up on wins early.

43:05 But you can see it happening. It's just it's got to just take its course. And then when that pit game happened, you can kind of see it turn. They just needed some, they needed some confirmation of what they were doing with work and it kind of worked and you know you have some slip UPS but that happens. But now you see the momentum with everybody coming back. We got a great recruiting class coming in and I think everybody is turning for the better and everybody's kind of seeing it. I mean even talking to, you know, you talk to parents in our, in our, you know, we have our own parking lot and all that stuff and you know you go out there, this is the most. Optimistic the fan base has been since 2012. After the sugar. Bowl I mean, we could, we can say the ACC Championship game in 2016, but honestly, whenever we were there and we lost, I was just kind of like we were probably going to lose. It feels like we.

43:59 Are legitimately building a program and it's just like we are like striking out and maybe doing it feels like it was back in the day whenever I first came here in O 4 what we were. That's what it's feeling like right now. It's the trajectory. Everything feels like we're heading on the upper path right now and I think that's. Something. That we haven't really experienced in a while and I mean let me let me throw this at you Chris because I know with with the 757 connection for the longest time we have had struggles recruiting that especially after in the 2000s where that was our bread and butter. I did for a for a decade it was.

44:40 Dry. It was dry. Yeah, so. I mean, talk about that a little bit. I mean, it was. You, you said it best. I mean, you know, like, I'm not originally from here. I mean, I'm from Charlotte. I'm from North Carolina. So the Navy brought me here. But from 1999 to 2006, man, listen, man, this was every time you turned around, it was Virginia. Take something, Virginia, take this, that and the third. So like I said on Twitter, a lot of time it's like a time machine, the 23 class and those guys brought us back to the beginning or the heyday or we aren't quite there yet, but we're just so excited about Virginia Tech football.

45:21 But going back to what you were saying man with with Tebow, I mean this this staff is a staff of men and and Kevin I think you can follow me on this. You know you feel good when you talk to them that you going to get a straight answer from them. You're not going to get no song and dance. You're not going to get no him in and hard. They're going to shoot it to you straight. And so that's what I love about Tebow and and I love the progression that he's taking because you got to remember he loses his quarterback coach in the in the in, you know in the middle of the summer and he's saying hey, I'm going to be the quarterback coach and the OC. So now I got two different guys quarterbacking. I got a pocket passer and I got a dual threat guy. And for him to turn around in midstream, to turn around and said, OK, this pocket passer thing ain't working. Let me work to to my other quarterback's strengths and to flip his offense to be able to do that. Because the one thing Tebow will say to you more than anything else, Kevin, he says that I'm going to get you to rock. That was every time he texts me.

46:24 It's like, let me get you to rock. So I just called. Hey, you going to get me to rock? And he's going to get the ball into his Playmakers hands, but he needed a guy to be able to do that. So you know when I was going on Twitter and seeing folks, I was like, hey, listen, if Grant Wells works out well this year because he's got better weapons because dude, he had one guy who turned around the year after quit football. He had another wide receiver man who was a a hard working guy And a big part of why we liked it there, because when we first time we met Daquan Lofton, he was in there working. He was in there working out trying to get better, trying to do his thing. But he was limited, you know, and we all saw that, you know, I'm not not no knock against him. He was limited. So you give Grant Wells premier pieces. You know Ollie Jennings, Jana Lane, who killed Miami, who's a, who's a blazer, You get a Avatar and Taquan Felton, you know what I'm saying?

47:17 I mean a flat out monster. You can't help but get better. I play basketball, so I knew I was better if I had guys who could shoot on the wing. So I understood that. So you get those pieces of place. If he works, it works out. But. If something happens. That the other guy gets in. It was going to work out anyway, man. People excoriated me on Twitter like, oh man, you don't know nothing. You don't know this. I'm like, I'm just trying to be positive about either direction. But for Tebow to turn around and take his offense second game of the season, flip it, and within two games give you the monster that's going to score at minimum 30 points if it's in their favor. I I you can't.

47:57 You can't do nothing but get that guy. Your hats off to that guy. I know, I know. I was actually on the programs and I was full on, just like for a while I was really upset with the way things were going and then everything turned around. I mean, it is full on at this point. It is full on Trust I. Mean. Like you got I get a. Lot of. Go ahead, Go ahead, Chris. I was going to say I get a. Lot of I get a lot of interaction on Twitter. I think the most interaction that I've ever got on Twitter on any post that I've post was I posted a picture of Kyron and said this should have been my QB one and they they ate me up. It was.

48:43 It may have had like 500 likes, but it was so many people in there. I was getting so many messages and I kept telling people I was like, I watched too much football to argue with y'all this kid. That's. The piece though, That's the piece, if you weren't just saying, Nah, let me, let me go real quick. Let me go real quick. Let me go real quick. This podcast. After the spring. Game said it Howard Jones should be cute. We said it. It's Robert. Rules if you ain't never been in a fraternity meeting, Kevin, you know what I'm talking about. Listen, man, I. Mean we got, we got to be, we said listen, we got to be real, we got to be real talking. People were saying, did you see him in the spring game?

49:26 You know, did you see Kyle? I said he and we said fuck yeah. We did. That's why we're saying this, he. Got a he got a non contact jersey on, I said. There's not. 1. Player on that defense that's going to tackle him. I said, did you say he looked like Cam Newton? Like he he's just his physical stature. If you watch a football player, I said he is not going down with with somebody grabbing him, like grabbing his jersey. It's very it's not very often that that kid is going to go down. So that's the conversations that we was having and when he got in, oh, go ahead. I was just saying like when people were doing all of that and I was listening to, you know, I listen to everything and. And.

50:07 My boy Chris Coleman was was eating him up, you know, and the spring game and I was just going to you can't simulate what he does in a practice or spring game because you're going to have a quick whistle. What you think is a tackle in a tackle, what you think is a sack and a sack. What he, unless you know him and you've watched him play, you don't know. I remember Karen calling me and saying he and Marv got into it because they called him short on 1/3 down and he said he looked at Marvin was like, you know, your guy's not tackling. I love that but. That's and. I was like, they can't mimic that. So when you know, mimic it.

50:51 When? If you go. Name it If you I knew he's a gamer. He's a gamer. It's a lot like whenever Hindon came in and Hindon just came into the games and he was dominating. That's what it reminds me of, but I got. I got to bring, I got to bring Pete in right here because I want Pete to talk just a little bit because he's been super on with so much stuff that he said this year, even though he put a ugly picture out drinking beer out of a mannequin's ass or something like that. He's been. He's been super on with. So much stuff to be said. With the comparison of the team and he said something about Kyron, maybe the last time he was on, when he said it's not so much that the team just changed when Karen got in. But they believed in him.

51:43 The team believed that he could lead him to a win like Pete. I'm going to let you talk a little bit about what you said and what you said this year. Yeah, well. What I said on the podcast a couple weeks ago, and we talked about that, is just that when players believe they can win, they will just play better. And I think there was part of the team, and we saw it in the Purdue game. We saw it a little bit in the ODU game that there was a little bit of a lack of juice and and we saw it Once the pit game started and the offense looked a little bit different, it's like, oh, OK, these guys actually believe they have a chance to win. And I think Kyron was a huge part of that. And I actually wanted to one, I'm glad Fedora never got a hold of your son there, Kevin, because we're not. I'm not a huge fan of Larry Fedora, but that's. But that's a different topic.

52:31 And I'm glad he's at Virginia Tech. But the pit game, I think one of you guys said it, it was validation. You trusted the process throughout. But leading it up into the season and this is something I think the guys wanted to do, was a state of the program in a retrospective. Kyron didn't win the starting job, and that was because you can't simulate his strengths in practice, just as you said. And so even if he is a gamer, he's a gamer. That's fine. He is a gamer. But the other fact of the matter is he's also just he was also just better. He was better. He wasn't able to exhibit it in practice and a lot of people said that was because he didn't have the experience. He could throw the ball as well as as Grant Wells.

53:11 We had seen Grant Wells plays. Because you don't light up your teammates in practice. Yeah, you don't. You don't. Do you don't? Do what Kyron did to that Purdue linebacker as he was running towards the boundary and literally said Mr. Drones, if you were there, that if I'm going out out of bounds, I'm going through this guy, I'm going through. And. And I remember Tally sitting next to me at that game and he said holy shit, like he just like he looked at that kid and said fuck you, I'm going to go through you and I'm going to get out of bounds to stop the clock. Now I'm going to, I'm going to pick some real quick Robbie. Robbie got to see Kyron at spring and we talked to Robbie and Robbie I I can't remember what you said back then but it was just like he's a hoss and the ball said.

53:56 Coming out of his hand. Being there like like. I said. I've I've. I've. Been involved. In Virginia. Tech football in some way for all three coaching staff that we all know. I've been. Coaching high school. Ball since 2:00. 1005 and I've had kids recruited by Beamer in this crowd, by Puente, in this crowd and and now with Coach Pratt and I mean. Karen seemed to fit a lot more of. What they were used to doing and when I watched them in practice, you could just see their composure, the way the ball came out of his hand. The way he was getting to. Receivers. It was different than what Wells was doing.

54:37 And and I told. I told Brian and Curtis right afterwards, I was like it's just a matter of time. You know, they're they're giving, they're giving Wells the benefit of the doubt and and he was a great kid. You could tell there that Wells was a leader, like he talked to the guys in a way that they listen. But you could just see the pure athletic ability and the things that that that that Kyron. Was going. To bring in and. It was just a matter. Of time until until Coach Bowens could get everything worked out and knew. That. That was going to kick in to what they needed and. Well, can I ask? Kevin, a tough question based off what you're saying, Robert, is just that you saw the bad offense last year with Grant Wells.

55:24 It was one of the worst P5 offenses in the modern era. It really was. If you go through the numbers, the SP plus whatever, it was terrible. You come to this season, the first few weeks of the year, we have a quarterback. He gets hurt, we put in Kyron, whatever. First four games. Again, it looks bad. It can't move the ball. There's no consistency. All the numbers in advanced way look terrible. Did you ever waver, either as a parent or did you ever see Kyron Waver in the process with Coach Tebow? No the. You know, even in the Rutgers game I I talked to, I can't remember where I was, who I was talking to. But even in the Rutgers game, the first half looked like his first half starting. You know, let's be honest, he hadn't played in two years, 2 1/2 since his senior year.

56:11 So it looked like that. But then he started getting comfortable in the second-half and you could tell when he started the Marshall game, I went, I was actually, I went to the Florida State, Clemson game. So I'm watching. On TV, on my phone. And he started off good. But you know, they and I knew Tebow as a coach. I know Tebow's still working. It out he's got. Two different quarterbacks. So now he's got to try to figure the offense out in a short period of time so you could see them getting better. They put up more points. They were in the game, had a chance right there at the end and then we go into. The Pit Game. The Big Pit game was. When Pratt told.

56:54 Him. Because Karen, at that time, is still looking over his shoulder. He doesn't. Know if Grant's. Back, he doesn't know if the job is so now. He's out there trying. To be perfect. So, and I'm saying like, you can't, you just got to go beat you. Well, credit to that staff and that's the talk Tebow and him had with it. Like just relax and go beat you. You're going to. Because that's. They knew you. Know, they tell. You. They knew you. Know when Pratt said that. He apologized to him after the game. Pride told him. This team is going to we're going to win games, we're going to win games behind you. We're going to win next week because of you, because of that or designation. That's why he apologized because that or designation on the starting QB he. Apologized.

57:36 Because he felt. Like we're losing. He's like, how am I going to get a job? And we're we're we've lost two games since I've been starting and the pit game was kind of when he, you know, he was different once the hotel. But when he kind of unleashed and did those celebrations and all that stuff, that was really like 2 1/2 years of pent up. I hadn't been able to play because that's not really him. He hadn't done all of that. But he was just being cutting loose. Like, OK, if I'm going to get, I'm going to get loose. I'm not. I'm not. He was loose then. Because he was loose. Like when he when you talk about that, like he had gotten to a point where he knew he wasn't looking over his shoulder anymore so he could just go out there and play football again. Yeah. And then that that that's. Amazing to see because I mean we saw as as the year progressed just that comfort and the leadership really come out and on they have. I tell you that group because they're close that all of them like you know it's the line, it's it's base Shoal, it's felt in his lane, it's Ali, it's you know. Osnell.

58:33 He he was so happy when Gosnell got his first touchdown, you know, it was, it was like that was on his mind. Like Gosnell hadn't scored since he's been in college. Like we got to get him in the inside. It was you. Know he they're just they have a junior like APR all those guys defensively like it's it's. A. They have a great ball and. That is what you want, and it kind of. Reminds. Me and, you know, I remember when, you know, carrying them with the Baylor, they were coming off that horrible season and then all of them ran it back. It was the same thing like all them. Dudes, came Petri. And all them dudes came back. And then they ended up winning the Sugar Bowl and Oklahoma State in the Big 12.

59:17 But it's kind of this kind of reminds a lot of older guys coming back. They they kind of all join forces and like it's. Still. Special again, you got older. Guys going back with a really solid youth. I think. That's the big thing and I'm actually, well, we'll kick it over to Dan here a little bit because Dan hadn't hadn't got a chance to jump in here. I I want Dan to talk a little bit of like Dan's talked to a lot of the coaches. He talked to a lot of the players. So Dan, tell me a little bit about some of those conversations that you've had with some of those coaches over the over the time and how that kind of relates to what what we're talking about here with kind of the the team kind of taking that next step once Kyron drones took over quarterback?

1:00:01 Well I remember spring game panel pre spring game panel. Pete asked. Who's going to be QB? One? And I said Ali Jennings didn't come to Virginia Tech to catch passes from Grant Wells. He did. Say that. I said I remember how I was there. I was next. To it and. People label me as like. Grant Wells fanboy #1. Just cuz I never shit on the kid. That's not really what I do. Like, if you're play bad, I'll say it, but I'm never going to like be like, oh, this kid fucking sucks. Like, you know. But after I saw that one series from Kyron in the Purdue game, I tweeted we can't ever go back. He's the one and he's been the one the whole time. And I think like everybody was like, Tebow sucks. We got to get rid of Tebow.

1:00:51 He's not the answer to this offense is crap. But then like come the Purdue game, or not Purdue but the Pittsburgh game. We saw like the shit open up and like we started seeing all this stuff. And Kyron, he doesn't get shook ever. Like he's just the same dude. And I feel like the whole team was like our leader. I feel like Grant got in his head a lot, whereas Kyron doesn't, no matter what good or bad, like his dad was saying like he's always been even kill. But it was kind of crazy. Like everybody took on this mentality. Like, yo, like, this dude believes nonstop, 100% no matter what.

1:01:32 We believe nonstop no matter what. And it showed because we took on the identity of we're going to beat your ass for four quarters. Like, regardless of, you know, we lost a couple. But at the same time, it was like we played physical. We hadn't seen physical hokey ball forever. And not only do we have the skill players to run it up, but it was just like a dominant between Basil Kiren and Malachi. Like, they were just like putting defenses in the dirt. And eventually we were able to break a couple, you know, and it all came to fruition at AUVA when we just ran them out of their own building. And I had talked to the coaches before the season and they were kind of just like we just met. We need to make a bowl.

1:02:13 Like, let's just make a bowl and then recruiting. It'll take off. And when we. Were like one and three where I was leaving the Marshall game. I was a little dead inside. I was like, what the hell is going like? What are we going to do? And then it was just like, I don't know what happened, but it just changed. And we, a light came on and we just never looked back. I mean, we took our lumps because at the same time, we're still trying to rebuild the roster, right? But we beat the shit out of bad teams. And that's what you need. That's what you're supposed. That's what good teams do. So good teams do. And. So, and now everybody's coming back, bro. Come on, run it. Run it. Back 100% and and Dan that game is we played good enough to win that game Mr. Drones. Kevin you said a little while ago it was the pit game and and there's been questions amongst his fan base, podcast community, Twitter community, When are you going to know? Like when are you going to know or pack? And it was a part of that pit game. It felt it because we we get the lead and the next thing you know the sack fumble happens And it was like, I know I think Tally I felt like you and this is 3 months, this is 6434 months ago now.

1:03:24 Tally texted me oh shit, not again. And then the next drive they went out there and it was just it was just like this. They they mentioned the NC State game. We went out there. We drove down the field. It won't a problem but I'm going to flip to something real quick because it felt like the Pit game but I want to talk about 2024. Let's get Chris back in here for a little while. Chris and and Kevin too, 'cause obviously your son's obviously had some interactions and we've all been watching, but once. Keelan. Committed. And he was in the. Boat. And he was like, this is where I'm going to be. Who did he connect with in the class and who did you get to meet, whether it be parents, players, where it's like that? Kids going to be a. Dog when he gets down to tech.

1:04:09 See what? Like y'all? Like somebody just asked me today, like, who are you affiliated to? I've been like floating in meeting everybody, just real, real low key. Like I met, you know, Kevin's wife. She was like, hey, can I use that picture for this? I'm like, yeah, no problem. And then I just introduced myself. I like being able to just to float in and meet people and just be a guy. But for for I guess guess for us was we we connected with like I said I met Chance Wiggins at Penn State at his at his junior day. Gabe Williams is is really, really huge. By going into these spaces and going into the listen to your podcast, I met y'all.

1:04:51 So I was able to meet you know Don VI, met Dan by listening to his podcast. So it's kind of like meeting the the guys and meeting the kids because to them I'm just a parent, but to kind of just watch them progress and stuff because I'm a huge fan of damn near every kid on here, You know, I love Emmett Law's story. You know, I'm a big fan of. I'm a big fan of Quinton Reddish because he's from Charlotte, because like I say, Seven O 4 dudes of Bill Devon, he's going to be a dumb. He's going to be a dumb. Yeah, he's going to be. Make sure he don't get parted. In anybody because he like to hit somebody. He going, he going to knock people out. Josh Clark, I met his dad because he, he coached the TC Williams. So you know I'm a big, you know, remember the Titans guy and you know movie guy.

1:05:34 So I met his dad, met him. So I met a lot of these kids, you know, the lineman I, you know, I introduced myself to them. So it's kind of like I've been able to meet all of them. So for them to get these sixteen kids, I mean even with. Kamari Copeland. When they got here you know the other day for for their visit I made sure I introduced myself to them and talk to them and you know so I'm I'm kind of really into this class but I I always give reverence and honor to the 23 class because they got in the boat when this was going nowhere Dude let me let me let me explain something y'all man. When that when we went one and three. Y'all y'all reference back to the pit game that he changed for KD1.

1:06:18 For me, he changed at the Florida State game I'm watching at home and I see the look on his face after losing that game. Kevin, I know you probably saw it too. He was pissed. He was mad, 'cause he felt I can compete with these guys. And I said I told my wife right there, and then I said, oh snap, that dude, He's the guy. I said we will not be the same. That dude is different. Like I saw him. And like you said Dan, when I met him the first time he was out, he just finished throwing with Ollie. You're right. He never came. He never came. Virginia Tech to play with Grant Wills. He came for Kyron. Drones. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, right.

1:06:58 Right. Well, we know we. Know we went, we followed Aaron. Cove. Absolutely. The mentality. Of the players, matches, the mentality of the coaches. I'm going to share a text right now and it's not inside information at all, so I can share it. I texted Cheetah after ODU and I was like, locked them down on Saturday. Relax. I was like lock them down on Saturday, Coach, I was like love that for Dory and Cheetahs look good, he said. They played well, but we still have work to do. I took this job to be elite, not just OK, we're still a work in progress. And I was like, see, that's what I'm talking about. I mean it. It's. Great. So everybody's. Bought in, Everybody's bought in. So it was like so because me and coach mines and I hate with y'all I call.

1:07:44 I talk to fontel every day. I mean Fontel's like my like my brother no but no no, it I mean he got a relationship with the kid but and I got like 5 names for Keela, like I call them the phenom Neo. I call them all kinds of different names but me and Fontel talk every day and I ended up really interacting with the bad boys the whole time. So when they went one and three and I, I was hitting those guys every day, like yo stay in the process. You know, when Ali went down, you know, I really talked to those guys a lot. But I just watched them change after that Florida State game because they felt like they could compete with those guys, but they felt like they can compete and they were pissed that they didn't play better.

1:08:25 The only time I felt like to me personally, I don't know about y'all. The only time I felt like they kind of packed it in and I asked them personally, Kevin, I I went and asked. I said and then did y'all, did y'all, did y'all ask, packing in against Louisville and I was talking to one of my favorite coaches there, Xavier, Debbie. He said, Man, they saw them get off the bus and physically they didn't think they were ready to play with them and you could see the way that they played. So this is still a very, very young team, but they're A-Team, they're a young team. But there are kids that are like growing into this thing and every every phase of this football team is learning and growing together. So that's why everybody coming back like you said Kevin is to the point is buying because they like a now we got our leader now we spent time with each other, now we believe in each other. Now let's go take the next step and take this. So me personally as a dad and and and dropping my kid off, you know as the absolute that's wide receiver to come out of Hampton Roads since Portcy Harbor.

1:09:27 You know. Yeah, you know what I'm saying, You know. I've been, I've been drinking. So, you know, you know what I'm talking We all been drinking. We all been drinking. That's the thing. Let me I'm going to hit that. Hold on. I'm talking that talk. Now I'm going to hit everybody up. Because I I got a feeling Chris's guy in this class is chance because of it's the wide receiver room. It's you got the Penn State trips, Let me hit y'all 1 by 1. This is Kevin. You're going to go last because you're on the team and it's tough to follow recruiting and keep up with you kid. Brian Favorite player in this class? Man, I'm excited. To see Tyler Mason, to be honest, like he has went out there and torched that crew at that level in North Carolina, like video game numbers.

1:10:09 If we if we can, if that can translate at all against that step up in competition, it's going to be filthy. Riley, I'm going to go to you next because Tyler's in your neck of the woods. Tyler and Mr. Dandy a couple times and there are. Some people, they call him Mr. Dandy because of the things it does. That's just get the head straight, those those. Two are going to be. Impressive to watch. It ain't no doubt. But. These receivers, they. Got coming in with this 24 class. I mean, you got a lot of receivers coming back. But you got some. Kids. Coming in that are going to push every aspect of them and I know coach minds from.

1:10:52 From his time. At ECU when I was there in Greenville, and I mean, he's going to get the absolute best out of everybody. So I'm really. I'm really excited to see some of those receivers coming in there. And just one thing I. Wanted. To add, Chris, you're talking about how you talk to those guys, receivers, the coaches, the things like that, but we're talking about the state of the program. That tells you right. There where the program is now compared to where it was before, because as a coach that was having since recruited to try to go to Virginia now and I couldn't, I couldn't hardly get some of them on the phone occasionally. And now they've got kids that are there that are talking to parents of other people. They can help them and motivate things. That tells you where the program is right now, and and and what's changed and why things are improved, that is. What that pro that?

1:11:47 State of the program is different now than it was just three. Years ago. Cheers for that, right? Cheers. To wrap PB, you look at this class 2024 Who's your guy? It's hard not to look. At Gabe Williams because one of his just his rating and and his tape is so impressive. But two because of our linebacker play this past season and this is not a disrespect to any of the current guys on the roster. There's a lot of athletic linebackers on this roster that may not have a full grasp of the defense yet. But someone like Gabe could come in and be a game changer and he, with the way he's seem to be loving all Virginia Tech and and recruiting other guys to come to Virginia Tech, I'm rooting for the kid, I really AM.

1:12:35 And so it's an easy answer because he's the top recruit in the class, but I think it's a very important position going forward. Not that any of the other ones aren't, but I did want to. But we we kind of been loving all both of the the kids of these two men that are on the show. And I asked kDa tough question. I kind of have a tough question for for Chris before we get to Dan's maybe favorite player in the class. It's just that we see the four guys coming back in the wide receiver room, the bad boys, they're all back. That's exciting. Some of them know their targets are going down for next year because it's simply not enough footballs to go around. Keelan coming in now he's the new guy and he he he might have more talent than all of them, but he's still the new guy and he's the young guy.

1:13:23 That is he. Going to be OK with that kind of competition and coming in and and maybe not getting on the field as much as he would at some other schools. Hey man, I'll tell you all this so y'all can totally understand it. I I I. Am so excited that all four of those guys are coming back because you got to understand, I know what his ultimate goal is and so it's different between being a high school kid and being a college athlete because you go from being and coach. You know what? Both coaches y'all know this.

1:14:04 You go from 100% of the people playing to 7% of the people that you know playing. These are you go from being my best friend Rod Clay said to me this years ago. You go from being the man to being one of the men. And so you get to get 15 years of college experience inside of that room from Ollie Jennings to get Daquan Felton, Jalen Lane and Steven Gosnell, All four of those guys going through that first six months of being away from home on the college campus, going through all that, as well as the practices and everything else to come along with it, he going to need that. So for me, I'm going to be totally honest with you.

1:14:46 I told him point, we talked about it one day and I was like, hey, how do you feel about it? He said my chance is going to come. He said, I love the fact that they're coming back. I love the fact that I get to sit in that room and I get to learn how to be a college athlete. So I said what do we do? He said we we were special on special teams. We make sure every Rep we Rep like it's a game time Rep and then we we get our opportunities. We get opportunities. And I'm set, man, I'm, I'm totally set. So if he comes on the scene this year and he gets the kind of time on the field that Aiden Green got, but he's able to play in the X and he's playing, playing at the X outside and playing inside of the slot, then I know he's going to get his touches.

1:15:27 Because I know he going to get on somebody's child who's, you know, who's really not a football player. He's really an accountant, but he's on a football scholarship, going pro and something. Other than sports. So I know he's going to get that. Then he's got a Heisman candidate quarterback for a while. You. Know and then he gets the point that he's going to get the opportunity to work inside of that. So I'm I'm totally excited man. I I you know I saw somebody say on Twitter earlier today and we drinking you know about who UVA got and I was like I saw that kid when he was in high school but I knew he played at private school so I know what private school and and and if I know what rich he he played in Richmond so you got Hermitage you got Highland Springs you got all those other schools you could have went to.

1:16:18 Yeah but he went and played. With the. Yeah, he went and played in a private school. So I said OK, he ain't played against nobody. And then he goes down to North Carolina and he don't get on the field. Nope, there's something. Wrong with. That so I so you know that but that's neither here nor there but going back to what you said I think it's the best thing for him as well as chance and I also think what ends up happening those guys that are there they got to get they it he what mines is done is pushed to any of them. You gotta, you gotta reach to the level, he said. He always says that the standard has been raised. The stand the. The, you know, Navy guy, the tide raises all bones. There you go, baby. So the.

1:16:58 There you. Go. So yeah, Tide has been raised. Quan Felton is going to raise the tide because he's a he's a can't go back All Star. He can't come back to church on the Portsmouth and do nothing because he don't want to go work in the shipyard, right. He ain't trying. He ain't trying to do none of that. He trying to go pro. So Ali Jennings noticed his last chance for him to get seen and get good tape. So the the tide is raised. Stephen Gosnell knew, knows who he is. Jay Lane could have went went to the pros this year he came back. So my kids used to get a master's class in how to be a college athlete, and I was hoping you. Would answer that question exactly like that And so I'm so I'm so happy because that's basically what I was thinking is that the veteran leadership and to learn from Steven Gosnell his story from this past offseason and fontel minds saying is the best offseason he's seen out of any athlete like that is a great kid to be in the room with your son and and learn from.

1:17:59 Yeah, my, my, my. Going into the season, the guy who I was loving all morning, I told mines. I said man, I love Tucker Holloway. I love Tucker Holloway. To to life, man. If you watch Tucker Holloway practice, man, he he's a go getter, man. He he's gonna go get it and do what he has to do. But you know, but Tuck. Yeah, yeah, I mean y'all we looking as a punt return guy, but Tucker Holloway works as hard as anybody else out there. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right, let me pitch you. Down. I'm gonna go down. Let's talk Dan. Dan now don't suck up, Dan. Who's your favorite player? This year in this class. Well, if you. Would have asked. Me four days ago I would have been like Keeling or Chance, because those are the two I'm closest with as far as the recruits go. But any man, or any kid that will take a train five hours. Why'd you take my duel, man?

1:18:52 Why do you take my guy, man? If you take a train. If you take a. Train 5 hours to go to school to make the best possible future for yourself. You were built different. And Emmett Laws. He's not the tallest dude people knock his height but that dude like dog. Give me Emmett Laws. I'm excited about that kid Such. A such a. Position of need to like the combination of those two factors. I think is going to be really big for him because that's a position where we need some depth and he seems really hungry and he's been a player. So I think I think he's going to have a big opportunity.

1:19:33 Chris, I'm going to go back to you real quick, man. And I mentioned chance, but I'm, I want you to look at just the just the overall structure of this class. And as you look at all these gentlemen coming in and obviously you intermingled with, you know, the parents, the kids, the families, was there anyone else that stood out to you? Obviously, you know, I know Chance stood out to you a lot. Was there anybody else that stood out to you when you when they committed or when you met them like and that is a that's a good kid. That kid looks physically built. Anybody. Kamari Copeland. OK, Kamari. Kamari Copeland. Kamari Copeland's path to getting here, of wanting to play ball at this level and doing the role that he did to get there.

1:20:22 You know, he he's my guy. I root for him more. I root for him like crazy because he knew what he wanted to be able to do. The look on his face, man. When he got on campus, when I saw him Saturday, it was like he was in absolute heaven. He didn't want to go anywhere else, you know, He knew this is where he wanted to get to. So Kamari Copeland, man, is the kid. Like, I love them all. I'm being honest with you. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Every last one of them, from Mr. Dancy to to Tyler Mason. I mean, I love them all. I know all of them. My wife's like, who that? Oh, that's Aiden Lynch. Yeah.

1:21:02 You know, Yeah, you know, I know him. That's the. 672. 90 kid from Jersey, Honey. Yeah, Jersey. The the couple of kids that, you know, the guys from Ohio, she's like, oh they're from Ohio, but, but Kamari Copeland is my guy. To come from where he came from, to go through what he went through and for him to get a chance to fulfill his dream, you know, to a man, you know, and I mean I have I wasn't as blessed as much talent as maybe some of you other guys. But to a man, that's my guy. I I root for Kumari Copeland like crazy, Kevin. What about you, man? Did you get a chance to interact with any of these guys or did you know, obviously? The quarterback room. Did did did you get to? Did Kev? Did Kyra have any interactions with Davi this year or yeah, through?

1:21:45 Kern. You know he, You know he was. He. Was big on meeting Montavius. He was actually we we FaceTime. When he was when Peoples was there with an APR, he was actually an APRAPR. Lives right under underneath him. In the apartment. Downstairs. But he he was in AP Rs talking to peoples about trying to get him to come. And so I kind. Of. Knew the back story and you know the Sam Brumfield and you know those are the, you know, honestly I I was big in the portal because I wanted to reach out and help. You know, like I told you know, Tebow was like do you mind reaching out to parents once we zero in on people you know and tell them about your stuff.

1:22:29 I was like I had no problems just send them my way. So I was big in the portal. Not so much the high school. Now, Chris, of course I know that. Oh man. I'm the absolute work. I will drive your kid all way. To black. I'd ask Chris. Just tell. Just tell me what? The refillable gas card number is and we'll we'll get you set up kind of Go ahead. No, I was just saying. I was pumped with the the portal pickups we got. I thought, you know, we we addressed the needs that we needed.

1:23:13 You know, Sam Brumfield's is with that experience and and what he brings and he goes anywhere. Like, you know, the last Middle Tennessee State guy we got, it's going to be great. And you know, Peebles is huge with that experience and you put him on the line with APR and and the way Colt Nelson played a game. Just like the cold. Coldplay, Colt Nelson played at the end of those last couple of games. You know, I'm a defensive Burgos game. Burgos games. Burgos. Stepped up corners coming. Back. And you know I hate canteen left. I'm still holding out hope. Privately, I'm still holding out hope that you know. And he come back.

1:23:53 Run it back. Let's Let's get everybody but Peebles and Sam. Brumfield and hey, don't don't do that. Don't do that. Don't say get everybody, but I know you know who I'm talking about. You know we talking. About you You watch this show Enough. You know what I'm talking about, You know? Yeah, I know. I. Know hey. I'm going to talk to. My boss man because Jeremy pays some of our bills Over here, Jeremy recruiting class portal Who are you excited to see? You drained, Elizabeth. Excited to see. I'm excited that. We're actually bringing some offensive lineman in. I hate. This shit talker offensive line. I hate to do it. Because I appreciate everything the offensive line does all the time, but we are a few years removed from the vice squad that was so good and does not get enough appreciation.

1:24:42 In a lot of ways, I'm. Glad we're. Bringing in some offensive lineman, because that's what we need. We have to win the battle with trenches because we have the skill positions already. We've got them, yeah. You're right. Win the battle with the. Trenches. And guess what? We've got a championship. And Kyron runs. Enough. We don't need them getting hit in the backfield too, you know what I'm saying? So let's let's protect our we bring these kids on and. We actually have them go. We've got the skill positions, we got the playmakers. We can actually do this. We can have an actual playoff run if we do it right. And I'm glad we're filling those positions because guess what? We're spending the money to do it. We're going to do it right.

1:25:26 Next year is a very big year for us. We have to do. We are 90 minutes. In this is normally the the the part of no return Here we got. To fire everything off, right? Here. So. Drinks. He's a lot. More. Hold on the first thing. Jeremy said immediately. This hold on, Robbie. The first thing Jeremy was talking about is we are on the trajectory back to where we were. That means Jeremy. Doesn't have to drink as much as we used to because it used to be a lot of drinking because it was like, yeah, our asses has followed this team for 20 years. Like, what the fuck is this?

1:26:12 Hey, Curtis, remember the first state of the program where it was just me, you and Jeremy? Oh God, no. After Fuente was supposed to be. Fired, but wasn't 2020. Oh my God. It. Was bad as last year. Tally I was so. Mad mad you. Were drunk all Jameson. Because that was like. COVID year. Yeah, it was. And also I'm. In healthcare, I was dealing with fucking COVID year and then COVID year and then it. Was us. Hiring. It's. Us three, we all got no. We had a press conference to say we were keeping him on the day the buyout dropped. That's what that's actually what we did first, first.

1:26:53 Retainment. Cop. Press conference. Ever. Oh God. So. By the way, I still to this day, if you look at Whip Babcock's face, Whip Babcock was ready to fire. He looks like he had a gun to his head, man. Somebody had a gun to his head to go out to that press conference. His body I'm gonna chase. Him real quick. Hold on y'all look the fuck down. God damn like being a Sergeant on in a God damn 30 run Tally. Tally. Kurt, I'm gonna come after you, man. Tally. Hey. Recruiting class. Portal class Who's your favorite? Oh, oh wait, Kevin mixing. It up there, baby. Shake it up. Did we already did? Pete already give him. I never said Gabe. I said. Gabe, you were. You were me.

1:27:34 And you were left, yeah. You didn't say Gabe. Yeah, I forgot about. That so? I don't know, man. I guess it's so much good stuff that goes into this recruiting class. The people that we got coming in, like, I like a lot a guy like Chaz Wiggins, because he reminds me that body size reminds me kind of what Quan gives us. We didn't have a lot of big body receivers for a long time. So to see us get a receiver or see us get somebody that's going to feel the place of somebody who's leaving, that's good. But if I had to just pick one person out of this class, I guess I would probably go with Gerald Johnson, just the the defensive lineman. I mean, if you watch his, if you watch his tape, man, like he's nasty, He's nasty and like.

1:28:22 When you look at somebody. Like APR? Yeah. When you look at somebody like APR, we watched him come out of high school and we always miss on those type kids. You know like you see somebody that has that potential and we miss on them and they go to Florida or they go to we see them pop up at Wake Forest or we see them pop up at Pitt. We don't get those type kids where you know I know I think it was between US and UVA for him and he and he and UVA has got some nice lineman in the last couple of years that I think you know turned out to be decent defensive lineman. So to see him choose the Hokies and and stick with it, like I'm excited for him to put some more weight on. I'm excited for him to get in there and mix it up, number 75. Seven, all of these kids.

1:29:05 Man, I was about to say. That beach, I was about to say that the. Two top recruits. In this class are in the. 757 we have not said. That in a long and Kamari's number we. Are he's 7572? Yeah. He's sure, yeah. He's like come. On in high school. Yeah, I'm glad, Kamari. Came too, because we how many times we heard that Virginia Tech was my dream school. And then we were like, oh shit. And that's what. Everything said and. I. Mean I I always said the same damn thing. I mean, I always back in the fold now, but I always said the same damn thing at the gate. This is what I'll. Say though, no, you good. This is what I'll say. Like, because I've said that we've had Matteo on our show a couple of times and I always say the same thing. And him.

1:29:48 I always fuck with him. Like those ratings, number one, don't mean shit once they get on campus. You know what I'm saying? The ratings don't mean shit. Once they. Get on campus. You know what I'm saying? So offers tape different things that they do in high school is what somebody like probably this panel looks at. You know, you look at a kid like Keaton Adams, if he would have chose Ohio State or Alabama, there's no way his rating. There's no way his. Rating is where it's at, so you know what I'm saying. I used to take I. Used to pay so much attention to like the stars or where our class is and things like that. But once you start looking at these kids, body of work, when you start like, again, I'm not just trying to beat the drum that we're right. But we was fucking right.

1:30:35 Go back and look at Kyra drones in high school. Go back and look at him in high school and he played in Texas against some of the best high school kids that are. And you going to tell me that this kid didn't have something special? I don't care. I don't know what his rating was. I don't care what his rating was. I'm just telling you when you start evaluating these kids or looking at these kids as a fan, you have to look at the body of work. You go look at what Chaz Wiggins. Chaz Wiggins is a monster. If you go look at what he's doing at the wide receiver position he is doing some shit that other wide receivers can't do because he's 63 and and and and damn near 210 lbs like he's a big body receiver. So the the rating system fucks me up a lot of times and I, you know, I know the only reason I brought that up because we say the highest rated player we got or this is the IT don't even matter because all of them should have been higher than they were because they started there. And then when they commit to a certain school, because they don't have enough fans, they fucking drop the rating. So guess what?

1:31:35 247. Fuck. Y'all Jeremy, Jeremy, Jeremy, Jeremy, you know. What Karen reminds me of. He reminds me of what we wanted Demetrius Davis to be, and we ended up. Being way. Better. Well, he's way bigger. Yeah, way bigger. But. He ain't just. Like Demetrius, Davis was like 5-10. He was like. He was like the kid back to the day whenever he did. Can be like. I would say this, yeah. You talking about I? Wish I loved. It's. Just like, so much better than we even hoped. So I'll say. This. I hope somebody loves everyone on this panel the way Brad Cronnelson loved the 510 quarterback because.

1:32:22 He loved the five. 10 quarterback with a limited arm talent, man. So I want to I want to make a point because Tyler was bringing it up and we I'm going to man, y'all know, y'all Kevin, Chris, this is what I got to do. I deal with all these guys, bring them to fuck in and we will talk about. Something this is. Why Curtis is here, man and. Tonight I'm on Bourbons. So. Here's the deal, right? Let's talk about it because we're going to talk about this. Let's talk about the star system, because I don't like that shit. Because hey, go look at Kyron. When he came over, Kyron was a four-star quarterback. Kyron produced in Hyrum on a. State Title. He wasn't long at. He was not that long at Baylor. It's not like he was there for three years and rode the bench, rode the bench, rode the bench he went to.

1:33:05 He had a game in West Virginia where he played good cold. I think what irritated. A lot of us this year, Chris, your son unfortunately took the unfortunately took the brunt of it. So did Gabe Williams. For a while there, these guys were elite players, top 300 guys. They committed to Tech in just a few days later. Tally's texting me. Fucking shit, Brody. Just went down like from a 92 to an 80. 9. Gabe went down from a fucking 93 to a This is the shit that we all need to talk about. And I'm going to pitch it. I'm going to. I want to start with my two coaches. Kevin. Robbie because y'all have to deal with it. Kevin.

1:33:48 Robbie. Kevin, your son did it. Robbie, you've had two kids who have went to the highest level of football. Then they went to the NFL. And if they go to the wrong place. Oh, son, you're going. To get you going, you won't get dropped. Are there anything they're? Doing other than what we think of of is you didn't commute to Georgia or Alabama or Texas, so we going to drop your ass? Yeah, that's. That's. Exactly what it is like. End of the. Day go you. Go to the. Place that's going to prepare you the best to do what your ultimate goal is it. Doesn't matter.

1:34:29 Where the school is or what you know, it doesn't have to be the top school. Nobody says you have to go to Alabama to to be in the NFL. You don't have to go to Georgia to be in the NFL. At some point you just got to get on the field, but you got to be ready to to produce once you get on the field it. Doesn't matter where that. Is. You just want an. Opportunity. And you? Know kind of like you know like my thing was when when both boys got in there, you know Jeremiah was looking to increase the level of competition from UTEP to prepare himself for the NFL. He was further along in his career than Kyron was. Kyron was just looking for an opportunity to get on the field and prove that he could play. You know they were in they had different passions going into the portal and they were looking for different things. You know Kyron just happened to find a a home and and. A.

1:35:20 And A and a great coaching staff and fan base that was best for him. Jeremiah found the whole line coach that was best for him. You know his thing. He had never played for a black hole line coach, OK? You. Know so. It was. And it ain't many of them at that level that's crazy. He had never. So. You know, and that's why he went there like he he could have went other places he went, he went to Ohio State and Miami and Oregon, all that stuff. But he chose the coach, not the the program. You know what? I'm saying and it. Just so happened it was. Crazy. They both ended up in the ACC because we didn't think that like you know when they both in the border, we're thinking it's going to be somewhere around here, UA to Oklahoma State somewhere like that. And then we get a random call from Virginia Tech and it was like and I grew up watching Virginia Tech. You know, I was watching the night the the lightning hit course of the Star 2. 1000.

1:36:22 I don't know what. A humpty is but God is one of them. When we were in. That indoor. Facility. When it stormed, that's all I was thinking about. I was like, damn, it's happening again. Hey Sigler, we. Didn't we didn't walk enough around in the indoor facility to find Kevin that night? No, we didn't. We found Kenny indoor likes that night. We didn't find Kevin. We did find Kenny, man. We we we found Kevin. I interviewed Brian. Steinspring and he was talking about that night or whatever and he said that Mike Vick was internal. Mike Vick was in the tunnel. He's getting hyped and and Steinie was like, hey man, like it's going to be a massive delay like there's lightning out there. Like you got to chill. And he was like, don't matter, can't it can't, it can't hit me like. He's like the lightning angle, he said. Lightning angle hit me.

1:37:05 Can't catch me, baby. When? When it comes to those. Ratings and stuff man. I I've been through it with with kids and and they. Focus. I've had some of them focus so much on it, you know. We've tried to tell them. That. The best thing I can think of to look at it is like when you're taking. AP. Classes compared to regular classes. It's weighted. So when? Certain people. Make you certain offers and you go to. Certain. Places the. Weight of. That offer carries more in that rating then. Unfortunately. Then what they put on the field and show? And I I don't. Like that part of it, the whole thing with the stars and things like that.

1:37:50 Look at what the kids doing on the field. Look at how the kids practicing. Look at how the kids for you that's going to tell you the story of what you're going to get when he gets on the field. Not that number that I mean I I've. Seen kids? I had, you know, I coached kids a day. They were, too. Small. They were. Not. Fast enough, they were. Ratings weren't high. Enough to go to these schools that they. Wanted to go to or. They thought they could go to. Two of them right now in the. NFL Both of them have played in. Super Bowls. So tell me that that kid didn't measure up to. What you thought? Because of some number on that. No. I I don't. I mean that That's 20 years of high school experience and see if. They. Some of them get those numbers and it never pans out. I had one that.

1:38:33 Went to Virginia. Tech years ago. Numbers through the roof. He couldn't. Listen to what? Anybody would tell it coach, Coach Foster, that's why. I've. Ever brought? In. So tempted to work. With. He goes and I seem. Attempted because it's not going to last and it didn't, so I mean sorry, Coach Kev told. That story on me, man, He told that story about your guy on me, Robbie, I remember. Hey Chris. But let me ask you how that affects though. Does is someone like actually? Both of. Y'all because you know. Chris. Keelan coming out this year and then Kevin just coming out. Kevin Cowan coming out just a few years ago.

1:39:15 Do they watch it? Do they care about it? Because the honest truth is I'm going to sit here. Keelan Adams was a 94, I hate to say that number, And now he's an 89 somehow. What changed with Keelan Adams? He's playing the same competition. He's burning them the same fucking way. He's breaking state records left and right. Fucking records. He's a fucking Allstate for his third year, and because he want to go Virginia Tech and not Alabama or not Georgia or not Texas or not Florida, we got to lower him down because he ain't that good. He ain't that good. That kid just fucking broke records. Go back to all of the guys who have played wide receiver in this state. There's a. Lot of them. There's a lot of good ones. Does he look at it or does he say screw them? I'm going to show them on the field. OK, so I'm going to tell you his. Progression go for it.

1:40:06 When they first came out. When they first came out with his the class and he was the number 11th ranked player in the country country. In the country. And for a minute he was like, I'm not getting the offers. I don't know what to do. And that really bothered him. Then he got before he took his first high school snap. He got nine offers before he took his first high school snap. Then he was like. OK, I got these nine offers. Then he turned around and he did the only thing that ever knocked Keeling down. And I always blame my whenever he has something that goes left and I'm not there, Kevin.

1:40:47 I blame me because I feel, as his father is my responsibility to protect him. I was working. My wife took him to Baltimore, to a Under Armour camp and he ran the 40, right? And I wasn't there to not have him run the 40 because the 40 is a test that you really only need to take one time. You run it one time and that's all you ever have to do is you never have to run it again. So he ran the 40. His time was atrocious and they ranked him as he was slow. He wasn't this but if you look at any of his tape, any of his huddle tape, Keeneland has never been walked down in the in the years I've watched him play ever. No one's ever caught him from behind ever. So and and really be honest with you, he's faster now than he was last year.

1:41:34 He's just more explosive than he was last year. So when Keelan went to that camp and Under Armour knocked him and hit him for that 40 because they were like, oh, if you run this 40, you can go to this All American game. He'd be in the ninth grade. He's like, I just want to go to All American game. He didn't know if he just kept playing. He was going to get the opportunity to go to the All American game. So he turned around, they knocked him down, they they raided him and he wasn't this, that and the other. And then he kept working his way back up. So there was nothing he ever did wrong. He doesn't do a lot of social media stuff. He doesn't, he doesn't like doing interviews. I have to fight him to get him to do interviews, to make so people will talk to him. You got him.

1:42:14 I've been trying. To get him to go on everybody's stuff so they can get to know him. So yeah, yeah, Dan, Dan, Dan Dan's the guy. And but it was just to the point with him. He got to the point he says I don't care about the rankings because I'm already committed and I'm going to college and I'm, I'm good with the fact the only thing he was pissed about is when he took his star. Excuse me. So I'm the one that gets pissed about the star situation because to me, if he didn't do anything egregious off the field like this, I'm stupid. Which he doesn't do. Then what he's done on the field has been nothing but stellar.

1:42:54 You know, he, you know, you know, he's, he's been an excellent ball player on the field. I always say this, like this. He caught more passes than Percy Harmons. Percy Harmons was the first guy I looked at when I came here to Virginia Beach. I saw him catch a bubble screen, make a step and go away from him. I said, oh, that's what the NFL speed looks like. I said OK. That's what I. Said So. I said OK if he can pass him and get the yards and the touchdowns. Everything else is, is, is, you know, through the room. Right. So what? What I've always learned here, and I don't know, Kevin, if you feel like what happens down there in Texas, the 757 hates their own, OK? And we taping this so they'll be able to say it. The 757 hates their own. And I say that because all the great players that have ever come out of here, they don't come back. They don't.

1:43:43 Come back? To do do stuff in the area. They love Iverson, but the other guys they they, you know, Xavier DB is right there in Virginia Tech. There shouldn't be a player that comes out of Phoebus that shouldn't go to Virginia Tech because Xavier DB is an absolute stud. But because this area hates their own players, they don't come back. That's crazy. So I. Mean. Think about it. Y'all don't understand. Alonzo Mourning. If y'all didn't know he's from Chesapeake. You thought he was from Miami, right? D'Angelo Hall. I haven't seen him here in Ever, right. Dre Blige just came here to rape the area when he was playing. Rape is the appropriate. Word rape the area. Rape the area when he went to.

1:44:25 Carolina So those guys don't come back because those guys hate their own great players here. So for him, when they took his star, he was pissed and and low key. Yeah, low key. I'm going to be told I'm going to say this to you Also on here. I'm glad they took it, and I'm gonna tell you why. That kid. He's a different kid When he got a chip on his shoulder ready to eat, he's. An. Absolute different animal when you tell him he can't do something. So they took his star, they knocked him down. They said he wasn't this. And so he'll say, OK, if I'm that, let me prove it to you. Let me show you what I got.

1:45:08 Yeah, let me show you what I got. So he he's going to come up there now, like I said, for me and and and Kevin, you understand what I'm saying? Yeah, Number 6:00 in the morning, that's going to hit. I always say this everybody that 2:00 in the, everybody's got to have their 2:00 in the morning moment. Mine was 1988. I'm flying from Charlotte, NC to go to San Diego, CA for boot camp. I'm there. I drove off. We flew all day. I got there. I laid down at 12, o'clock 2:00 in the morning. They run down the hall with a garbage can bag and get your ass up, get your ass up and get ready. And I woke up and I was like, I don't know where I'm at and I can't get my ass home. So I got to figure it out and.

1:45:49 And. So that's what he's got to have happen. But I don't think. I think, like I said and I told y'all before, I think being in that room, excuse me, with those group of guys we'll be fine. But the star system, I'm just waiting when it's officially he's at school so I can talk trash to 24/7, all three and rivals because I hate all of them, because I think it. I think it really messes with kids psyche because they have no idea what to do, what to do, to get seen, to get ranked, to get rated and all that stuff matters, All that all. That all that. Stuff matters when they when they're like you'll see guys, you look look at their write ups, like if you look at his 24/7, Keelan's 24/7 write up, they didn't rank, they didn't compare him to a pro player.

1:46:37 They they compared him to a guy in College in fucking Penn State. Excuse me, I've been drinking. That's what it's about. Tonight. He's in Penn. He's in Penn. He's in Penn State. God damn it. And so I'm like, how you going to compare him to a guy that's in Penn State that hasn't broken out when you try to give him a comparison? You gave all the other jokers, pro guys, oh, this guy, this guy, this guy, you know, But y'all gave him a guy in college who you know, who's having a hard time figuring, you know, whether he want to stay or want to go. He can't get the boy. He got the ass quarterback, all that kind of stuff. So it kind of pissed me off. But it doesn't affect him like it affects me. He's like, I don't care. I'm going to college. I'm, I'm, I'm, I got a free ride. So, you know, yeah, I I got, I got. Well, I don't have a free ride.

1:47:24 I got a ride. I got to work. Exactly. But I got a. Great chance that. I ain't got to go to school and pay no and no and no college students and that. And that's. And that's that's his mindset. That's what we That's why I. Wanted to leave that Dwight Victoria quote up there. Curtis, throw it back on me. I'm throwing it back because I'm also messaging Dwight. See if you want to hop on with us tonight man. Man, that is my. Hey, listen, that is my guy, White as we. Do I love them so? Much man for them, just. Spending time When? You're talking to me, man. I love those cats, man. I like. Everyone of you have been very vocal on Twitter and other space like other platforms about this whole thing. I remember they dropped Keelan and Keelan hadn't had any new tape in like 7 or 8 months.

1:48:06 So I'm like, where's your? We railed on that. Shit. I mean, we railed on it. Dan railed on it. He reeled on it. 3 words. No, they dropped. Him. 3 words ball don't lie. No, dude, they dropped. No, they dropped him. They dropped him after he. They dropped him after he he broke the touchdown, right? Yeah, that was crazy. Clown. Clown Dick, baby. Yeah, yeah, I I turned around. I clicked on it and I was just scrolling. I was like, they dropped him. So you know, his Mama is like, y'all got me. His mom's real bad. She like she she goes off because she felt like they're attacking her baby. Kevin, you know how that is. You don't attack my baby. You know, no matter what, I've had some serious.

1:48:47 Talks don't mess. With Obama, man. Don't mess with Mama, Mama and girlfriend. I had some. Serious talks? And then when you look at it on the other side, the kid who we had committed for a long time, Marcella's Barnes. OK, yeah, they start writing up stuff. They had him as a three star the whole time and then they start writing up stuff about him going to Georgia and then he jumps to a four-star. I say, you son of a bitches, like what are we doing? Like y'all just making it obvious. Y'all making it obvious what it is. So come on, man. Like I've had. Yeah. I've I've had, I've had guys say, hey, listen, the reason they drive them because he went here, I said, what the fuck?

1:49:28 What does that mean? Watch the fucking tape. You know what I'm. Saying like watch the fucking tape his tape. Is what his tape? Is and you know and and it it it goes from there. So it's just to the point where when if it gets back, when it gets back, not if. But when you get back to the point that we're winning 8910 games, we're winning game, we're winning bowl games, we're being decisive. Then when kids decide to come here then coaches y'all know the narrative will change. Well, hey, I mean shoot, I'll be honest with you. There's been kids this past cycle who jumped out The Who in the portal. They're hitting me like, hey Chris, you know, hey coach, hey. And I ain't coaching nothing. Can you go, can you go call and talk to such and such and such and such to get me in?

1:50:13 And I'm telling them point blank, hey man, ain't no room. And they look at me. What you mean ain't no room, I said. There. Is no, there is no room. So we doing the state of the program. I, you know, I'm like there's a cornerback. Yeah, there's a cornerback. Yeah, Yes, I said there's a cornerback. Hey, there's no room in that room. They said, what you mean? I said, 'cause they got this guy, they got this guy, they got this guy that they got last year, you know, they got a Dante Lovett, they got a Braylon Johnson, they got, they like, God damn Chris, how you know? I said because it's what I do. I ain't got nothing else to do, you know, I'm watching it. I said no room. They're, they're. They're not. Going to bring you in and they got these over here. Who jumped in the boat when? Nobody. Else. Wanted.

1:50:58 To. Jump in the boat. Oh, hey, we said. We keep it loose, man. If they want to jump on, hey, here we are, Dwight. I messaged Dwight earlier and I say, Dwight, you going to the bowl game? He didn't get back to me because I know his son's playing. Oops. No, no, no. We own right now. His son is driving. Through the lane and dunking on kids, I was. I meant to respond. And I got tired of I I looked at the message. When you say you want to get on, I said, Damn. I never responded to your first question. Yes, I will be at the ball game. Yes, I'll be there.

1:51:40 We made nothing. That's fine. That's fine. Yeah. The white I'lbr so. Listen. I used. To write for 247 Sports Now. Before that I was I wrote for Rivals, so I wrote for Rivals on Hokey Haven. I had a a column called Victoria's Viewpoints and it was when Brian Moore ran Hokey Haven and he left and 247 popped off. I joined 247 with CCY. Evan and some other guys had a great time and because I did stuff, I used to do football camps back then and that's why I got the behind the scenes stuff for how it works. And I used to get into it with those guys.

1:52:21 Not Evan, not Evan Watkins. But like, for example, this guy I heard you fist. Thought Evan Watkins in a parking lot. That's what I heard. What? Nah. Nah, Evan, I said. I. Heard you fist, thought Evan Watkins in the parking. No, no, no, no, no. No. Jeremy. Evan's my God. Evan's my God. But like I just got into it. A few guys for other sites and I would say y'all y'all are so biased. Like for example, one year. I don't know if y'all remember this. Oscar Smith had Josh Wett. JC Coleman. Yes, Sir. Andrew Brown. Andrew Brown. They. Had another guy that. Went, he went to Tech.

1:53:01 He's a four-star receiver, right. He ended up not playing long. They played Centerville in the state championship at UVA. Centerville smoked them right the whole year. Centerville was the Mornington State for most of the year and I got into it with my guy that runs the the, the the Cavs corner. Brad and I said why did y'all not cover any Northern Virginia, especially Centerville? I said what kind of he's like, well, we just couldn't get up there. I said y'all y'all kill me, but y'all can't get to certain schools but y'all have y'all find a way. We're getting a a lot of coverage to schools that are going to give y'all a lot of bump. So for example I have nothing against Oscar Smith. Oscar Smith, One of the best programs in state year in a year out, they going to give you. They will give you buzz, though, but they're going to give you a buzz.

1:53:45 Because they had Andrew Brown, Josh Sweat, JC Coleman, Jason Coleman, Shout to my brother. But like if if you're going to be in this business, be fair, be non bias. That's I'm a 757 guy, but I'm not biased against the 8O47-O3 or even Southwest Virginia. That's my own thing. And so, Dwight. You're you're you're saying basically that in some ways the way these rankings work, and for one thing, having only five stars seems a little inappropriate. It like it seems you're a three or a four that there's variation exactly. But that's besides the point. They base a lot of this off the committable offers. It's not just offers, it's committable offers. So that way when you accept that offer from Georgia or whatever it may be, they'll bump you.

1:54:33 So they're basing their ratings off of other people's work. And so if you, if you want to do that, that's fine to base it off someone else's work. But you got to be upfront about that, that we're transparent. We're moving these kids up and down because of where they're getting offers that we know are committable and they're doing it. But that's not what they say. They say this is our ranking, and when they get more NFL draft picks right out of their top 247, they take credit. But you're basing those rankings off of the committable offers, which means you're using the coaches evaluations for a school like, but also at that point. But go ahead. Go ahead, Jeremy. It's a little. Too personal? Yes, it and it's. Subjective to to every school and their needs and the way they evaluate.

1:55:17 For Virginia Tech, it's going to be about whether we hit with Pry and his staff. If we believe that their evaluations are correct, we're in a position where none of our guys, because of the way this system works, it's always going. To be. More challenging for us to get the 8 four stars, the 9, four stars in a class, because unfortunately Keelan Adams is going to commit and he's going to drop and this guy's going to commit and he's going to drop. Sure. So. Here's the thing. And. This is my issue and I hate saying this, but I'm I'll always keep it honest, especially when I jump on this joint with y'all. The issue I have. Just because I play football does not mean I know everything and I know how to evaluate talent. Doesn't mean I can coach.

1:55:59 You guys have just as much as insight that I do. However, my issue is some of those guys, many of those guys that are covering these these these little websites and and these different like recruiting sites, they don't have the insight or wherewithal to understand how you should evaluate. So for example a couple years ago I I was doing the Kyle Bailey Show before he started covering the Panthers and the Hornets and he used to have the show in in Blacksburg and I I. Jumped on with. Kyle, Kyle. Kyle's my one of my closest friends. I jumped on with Kyle and I talked about a lineman, a tech guy who I like. Based on the film. I immediately got a text. I'm not going to say the guy's name but he worked for Rivals and he was like really Victoria really he has offers from Bowling Green, JMU blah blah blah and I said but yet y'all hype. Another guy who is a four-star who I seen get work every time I saw him play in the camp and and and the thing about this is that y'all looking at he got big 10 off us. I said if you look at the where he plays in the Midwest he's playing against lineman the size of my 13 year old daughter. He's not really against dogs.

1:57:08 So. When he gets to cut and. Showing up. I was right again. My point being some of these guys, many of these guys get these jobs because they're fanboys. They don't know how to evaluate. And this is what I think and this. I'm going to stand on this right quick. That's what I think Brendan Hill was trying to say, but I think he's so outspoken. Some fans, tech fans, got mad. I know what you're. About to say I'm saying tech. Does not need five and four stars, he said. Many of these guys are labeled 5 and four stars. Aren't the dogs Y'all think they are. They're not. They're not. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I'm a trust a guy. Like when? When B Hill. Said stars don't matter. It wasn't that stars. Don't matter, you.

1:57:51 You don't need to get the best players on campus. It's that you need to look beyond just what the stars say, and you especially. Need to look beyond what the folks say when you're at Virginia Tech. Like I I go ahead Dan, I feel like a lot. Of these there's that watching because I'm he's a Texas kid. For an example, Cam Ward. His high school was very run dominant I believe. So he didn't have the numbers. He ended up at Incarn Ward. This man is nasty preaching wing team. Go. Ahead preaching. He preaching. Damn. That's current kid. That's right. Yeah. Cam Ward is Karen. 'S cousin. They ran the wing T Yeah, no shit.

1:58:32 Who sent all? Black people over. There. Full circle, full circle. Where's? He. Going. Where's Cam Ward going to end up? Is it going to be FSU? Is it going to be Miami? It's. Going to be somebody we. Play. I need him out of the AC. I need him out of the ACC, so. You know why you want him? The ACC It's going. To be. December next year, Charlotte, all this truth right here ain't going to be there because we're going to stay in Robbie's house for the night, drive down for 90 minutes. Now we we we going to be, we going to be in the stands next to each other talking about this. That's what we fucking adult.

1:59:18 You damn. But I I'll give but but yeah. I'll, I'll give Y'all. Go ahead. Go ahead. I'll be quiet. Go ahead, Chris. Go ahead, Chris. No, no. But what y'all? Was saying about and and what and Dwight was saying about what they what they say. Is that the only reason? He never got his fifth star beforehand and and I had one of the writers from 2470 says. Well, he doesn't run track. And Keith was like, why do I need to run track? No one has ever caught me from Watch the Tape. Yeah. My tape, he said. My tape stands alone that that, that, that. I've never been walked down from behind. And I work on explosiveness all the time to get bigger, faster and stronger. People don't talk about. Game speed versus like raw speed.

2:00:00 Don't run track. People don't talk about that. Enough game speed is a different animal. It is but. But also I mean Kevin can also understand listen man them dudes, those dudes and Dwight back in the day they didn't had this. I mean that that kid, he looks at me, he gets pissed at me when I'm like, yo, this your schedule for the week? And he looking at me like, yo, hey man, I got I don't want to go to. Training three times. This week, man, I don't want to go. Do this. I I physically hurt. You know Kevin you you got Karen in the back of the car. He's just laying in the back of the car like somebody. It is, it's. Funny and and we talked to her. We do these character talks and each coach.

2:00:41 Has a. Person you know you have respect me you got to talk about. So this is right after Karen. 'S senior year to. Spring and I I'm coming out of basketball and they're like, hey, you got to talk today like 5 minutes. I'm going to go talk to the team. I don't know what to talk about. So I was like, look, I think a lot of you kids are so hype on getting recruited and not the work that goes into it. Like you want the pictures, you want the the notoriety, but you don't understand what goes behind it. And I said I can just tell you from my house that year, that was the COVID year, so. We lose to Katie.

2:01:25 Which is one of the premier programs in Houston, in Texas. So we lose the KD on a Saturday afternoon. Karen's already graduated. He's headed to Baylor. He's one of the lead 11 finals, top 11 in the country. And. Sunday. Morning. I wake up to the ring on my phone and he's leaving on this first workout. I I don't know the. Last time I had to tell Karen to work out. Like he's going to. Go do that on his own, like, like. When he went to. When he went off to school at 17, the first thing I was like, look, I don't worry about you on the field. I don't worry about you working out. All that is what you do when I told him at 17 was you got to fall in love with the film and the process of learning the position because you've gotten away with some stuff in high school.

2:02:24 Now you got to learn how to take it and learn the classroom part of the offensive, the quarterback being a quarterback. I don't worry about the other stuff. That stuff will take care of itself. So I want. These. Kids and I I'm a recruiting coordinator and I try to tell these kids like don't get caught up in going to take these photos and these pictures and do all this stuff and what these write ups say I. And I you. Know y'all probably see me on Twitter. I just say, hey, chop wood, yeah. OK. Yeah, I mean, if you get down chop wood. Like, we're not even worried about it. Go to work. Head down, chop wood let's. Put put the. Do what you do. If you do what you do ours, We go to Elite. 11 and that's the COVID year.

2:03:07 So we had to do like a video, like it wasn't a camp. So we had to video him running a 40. We had to take pictures of his hands and all that stuff and he gets the call that. He made it so. We go to Tennessee. And that. Year. The. The. Family. Could stay in the room with the kid. Well, I got a hotel in. A different hotel. I got a room in a different hotel because I want him to focus on the competition. I have. AI have a conversation, It's funny, Y'all, said Demetrius. Dave, I have a conversation with his dad and his dad's like, oh, I say, hey, we, you know, we're going to go back to our hotels and he was like, you're not staying with him. I was like, no, he's like, he's like I said now I want him to focus on his competition. I don't want him, you know, us having the. TV.

2:03:54 On or, you know fighting with his sister or whatever. And he's like, they already know that the 11 or you can tell your kid whatever you want to tell. At the end of that first. Day the list comes out, Karen's like dad. They got, they got me #5, I said. All them fucked up. Right, right. Right. Right. Listen, man. I want to say. I want to say something right quick. Y'all. So when you when you hear stories like that of of men being involved with their kids, I don't know how many people are involved like with sports, if you're just fans, you have to listen that stuff like that to understand recruiting. Because anytime I talk to Y'all about recruiting, anytime I'm on Twitter, I talk to y'all as a fan, but I also talk to y'all as a dad of a kid that is involved in sports. My son is 13.

2:04:51 He's never played football like where we are. You they, they ban football. When you're small, it's you. You play flag football until you get to a certain age. He's in 8th grade this year and he made all city as a wide receiver. He wanted to be a quarterback. He's left-handed. He's tall. He wanted to be a quarterback. They put him at wide receiver. For a kid that can't throw, he just knows how to go up and get the ball. Now I told him, and I'm just, I'm I'm saying this for a reason. I told him because everybody tells me that I'm too hard on my son because I told him, look, you you, you need to fall in love with the journey. You keep thinking about the the, the, the glory. Of it You want to talk to me?

2:05:35 About what the shoes look like that you going to wear. You want to talk to me about your your wristband? You got to fall in love with that journey to get there. And I told him, I said excuse my language. You going to get stuff just because you're my girl? I'm. 6/2. I'm 6, two ��350, you going to have a certain body because that's what your all of our families big. You going to be tall, you going to be strong, you know what I'm saying? You going to have a little bit of athleticism. You going to get that just because of your genetics, but to go to the? Go to the next level. And how to work. So when I hear these, when I hear the white talk about his son, I talk, I hear Chris, I hear Kevin. When y'all ask about recruiting, when we own these spaces or when we on Twitter and people talk about recruiting or how do we do this and man listen, when you got men that's involved with their kids, that recruiting shit is totally different because they know something that she's not going to get into. So I'm glad Kevin spoke on that and and tell you right I coached my son in football and basketball when he was elementary and middle school, aged right around the town, he got the high school, he kind of he stopped playing football. That's what was his better sport at the time. But he leans the basketball.

2:06:52 He leans the basketball he grew. 7 inches. So he's 6-7 and then he. But when he was younger, he did football, basketball on track. And being related to me, Mike and Marcus, it was, you know, football came natural. But Long story short, to Kevin's point and to your point tally about the fatherhood and the and the and the male guidance of being a dad. It's tricky. And This is why it's different. That's why I have great insight with recruiting. So, for example, my son plays basketball, so most of us in our family are football players. So Isaiah is killing it on the court. So the last two years he's heard from American JMU, Mount Saint Mary's, Boston College, a slew of HBCUS, some D2 S He's heard from a ton of schools. And because I've been through the process, he has a good head on his shoulders.

2:07:44 He's humble, but he's got a lot of dog in him. He's got a lot of confidence, but it's hard because of social media where he sees a guy where last year against Largo Cam Ward, who's one of the best players in the DMV, Isaiah fouled him out in overtime and got MVP of the game. This was on NBC Regional, so all of East Coast he got MVP. Then he also had other games where he dropped 20. They lost in the States right? That summer he played the last two years on DC Premier, which is the Under Armour circuit. With that being said, he was getting contacted by Georgia Southern, tons of schools, but for every school that reached out, then after a month they would disappear. They would take somebody out the portal.

2:08:25 The portal and the nil, which I'm in favor of, has really hurt kids high school. Like if my if my son had played before the portal, he would have 15 offers by now. Now here's the here's the catch. You have to be involved because his mother and I, we're on him and we keep him locked in. He's got the right mindset because since he was seven years old, he's been around DeAngelo Hall, Tyrod Taylor, Michael Vick, the Sean Jackson, Roddy White he's going to take. So he. Understands it's a he he loves the game. I don't have to wake him up to get shots up. He he watches film He he knows it's a grind. He'll understand when the lights are on. So for example, the other night, Tuesday night, they played South Lakes with the top two teams in Division Six and he had 17-7 assists, 6 boys, 2 steals, 2 blocks against Jordan Scott. Jordan Scott had 28.

2:09:21 However, Jordan Scott has an offer from Maryland and 15 other Power Five schools including Michigan State and Florida State. My son, that dunk you saw in the lanes when he crossed them up, he dunked on it after that game. By the time. Midnight came around. He had gained 30 new followers between D1 and D2 Schools, Maryland, Coastal Carolina, a bunch of mid majors, some some Big 10 schools. And at the end of the day, the reason why the head coach from South Lakes that we beat sent out a blast to these college coaches. Y'all need to get on Isaiah vet. Now here's the catch. Here's the catch. A lot of people hit him up, called him. So they're going to offer him, we're going to be by your school.

2:10:06 They had practice day, nobody showed up. Now it's the holidays. They may be there in January. But The thing is, you have to have a father or you have to have somebody that has the rationale in their ear. Because Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, friends, trainers, podcasters, they're always evaluating these kids and saying what they think. And the kids have to have somebody in their household in their ear constantly. Or you going to have what you see with these kids going to UNC going here going here going here going here and then by the time they they don't they don't have no career. You know what I'm saying? And and I just wanted to I know I didn't want to make it about me and my son.

2:10:47 But Tally. Tally no that's for her. That's good. Tally man. That's why we got you here. Your your. Your kitties. Nice. And I'm a basketball. Guy, you're kitties. Can I say something while? We talking about I'm not a father but also so I know Dwight that that tech that tech they called on your on your kid for pulling up on Loren was weak but it. Was it? Was we It? Was we but. What I was going to say was I only played through high school. I wasn't a world beater or nothing. My dad and I, we have a great relationship now. From age 6 to 26 we were not so good.

2:11:27 I saw him like 4 * a year family reunion. Me and you were right, right in the same boat, so he would always give me. Money. When he saw me, he got Oh yeah, here's 100, here's 150. I'd be like, that's cool. But like you never came to a game. Ever. All I ever wanted was my dad to come to a game never came and my mom was there all the time. But the one thing that stuck in my head was dad was never there. But so I appreciate all you men on here that have kids and you're actively involved in their sporting lives and Dan is preaching. Right now because. Because I don't know, I don't know if y'all know, but Siegler had a very similar similar experience. My dad was definitely involved, but not not someone that I saw very often.

2:12:14 He lived in Richmond. I I grew up in Halifax County. I saw I saw my dad at a game once or twice a year. So shout out to Chris. Shout out to Kevin for being there. Shout out to Tally for being the dad that he is. Shout out to Curtis for being the dad that he is. We'd be, We'd be. Nas down here, you know what I'm saying? I'm saying there's a lot of love here and I just want to know the basketball that are doing right now everybody's crazy. I'm. I'm. Going to switch gears here in a minute, but I did want to say this just about like I said, talking about my son. My son has never played travel basketball.

2:12:55 He's been a a baseball player, tall, left-hander, that play, that, that play. Hey. You know what man, it's crazy because like I said, my son man like he was, he was doing his thing in baseball like rec league stuff and a couple of parents is like he's too good to play with these kids. Y'all got he need to go and get some work and baseball is a lot of money. You know it is a lot of money that we've had to pay. But if that's going to get him to the next level and we can get him a college, get him into college without paying for it, that's what I'm searching for. But I I say that for a reason.

2:13:39 He's a baseball kid but he's he plays every sport now and this year in basketball you know he's he's he's staying out a little bit. He's always been a little bit chunk he's staying out a little bit. You know, he's got taller. He's about 6 foot now and he plays every position on, yeah, he's playing every position on the court. And Huntsville, where we live, is a big basketball city. There's a lot of basketball players that's come from here and a lot of these kids start getting ranked. In the 7th grade. Like we got 8th graders and 7th graders. We've got 7th graders and 8th graders that's ranked and Duncan and and they try that that dads are positioning to move up to varsity all type of stuff. So we played we played a school here that one day and my son, my son's school that he goes to, there's not a basketball school. You know the the main reason is the high school that they go to. The middle schools are broke up into about four different middle schools.

2:14:35 So they got a couple of athletes at every middle school, blah, blah, blah. So the team that my son is on is not very good. And I told him before that game, I said, listen, I always send him some little devotional and he used to get mad at me because he would think that I'm, I'm trying to coach him. I'm trying to make him do something. But now he craves it. He said, hey man, you didn't send me. He said you didn't send me nothing. You ain't send me nothing. You got to send me something. So he's playing the school. They got two kids that are ranked in in the state on that team. One little boy, he he's very good. He can already dunk. He can do a lot of stuff with the ball. And I told my son, I said, let me tell you something. I said you can go play this, these kids and you going to lose. They got 20 people on their team and y'all got six.

2:15:18 You're going to lose, I said. But you as a person can't lose. Go bust, they. Ass, I said. I said you should be looking at that little boy and whatever he scored, you should score. I said Don't listen to your coach. If he tell you to pass the ball and that little boy score, you fucking score. I said you bust his ass all game. That's what I want you to do. And that little boy scored, I think 13, he scored 13 and you may have had six rebounds. My son had 15 and 10 and they coaches came to me after the game and said, man, you got a dog on your hands. I said y'all been paying for this. This is what we do. This is what we built. I bring all that up to say the players that we're getting into this program are built like that. They got men that's behind them. That's showing them that's what we need and that's the kind of players you want.

2:16:04 But I want to switch gears a little bit because we've been talking about rankings and players in the class for a little bit. I just want to go ahead. Do I let y'all get get to that? And I can't wait to hear that. I just want to add one last point. What coach Kevin was talking about, why his son Kyron and then other players like that, I think the average fan doesn't realize I'm not talking about even back in the 90s when I play. I'm talking about in general. And I don't think the average fan, parent or even player in high school, whether it be football or basketball, really understands the grind of playing and being a collegiate athlete. Now I don't think like I see all that stuff on Twitter and I don't think fans understand what what what Kevin meant about being in love with the game. Like y'all know who my cousin is right? And he everything came natural to him. But when he fell in love with the game, even though he was lights out in Atlanta, you saw what he did in Philly being a more complete quarterback because he began to fall in love with the game and plus God gave him a second chance. I see a lot of guys I don't judge kids jumping the portal because sometimes it's about being close to home. You got a family member sick or you in the position coach don't vibe or they just got too many guys at your position. I don't have a problem with it, but I do think there's something to be said about what Tally and Kevin said about like, I sent my son stuff.

2:17:29 I said, hey man, you need to pray. Make sure you talk to God. Thank God for that great game. Make sure you stay humble. I don't mind you talking trash, but but stay locked in, you know, thank this person. Go talk to your coach. Like, be humble. But because when I got the text and this is going to sound funny, I joke about it. But I'm being dead serious. I'm from Newport News in Hampton, VA, so I knew I experienced a lot of childhood trauma. So for me it was like, I'm a graduate tech with some degrees and I'm going to leave here with no charges and no children, all right? But let me say this.

2:18:09 Let me see, but let me say this it. Was I? It was not easy all the time at Tech. People don't realize this. I may sit on your show, Curtis, but I almost transferred from Tech my red sophomore year and I'm playing. I'm in the rotation. But I felt I should be starting. You know why I felt I should be starting? Because I was good. But the people back home in Newport News and Hampton kept saying, man dawg, man, you should be starting, bro, they tripping. And I almost, my dumb ass, almost transferred to Hampton University because everybody was doing it. Now here's the point to Tally 1996. This is tally. And Kevin's point, I call home.

2:18:51 My dad's a pastor 50 something years. Been preaching. He says to me, he said, the hell are you talking about? You coming back home to go to Hampton. You had Tech. You, you're lettering. You're playing against Rutgers and Boston College and Syracuse. You're playing, you going, you got two years left. What do you, why you want to come home? And again, that's the part about having if it's not a dad or father figure. And I think sometimes these kids miss out because I'm telling you right now, that's why I love Signing Day. But some of these kids are going to get here at Tech or Maryland or Norfolk State or Boston College or Syracuse, whatever, and they're like, damn, I got to get up at what time I got up at what time I got. And I don't think people understand like, it is a business.

2:19:37 It's a business in high school now. So I just. Put my texts. On that man you know and and and. And like you, man. Y'all y'all have killed it. I can't add nothing to it, man. I I just wanted to tell y'all through this whole process, you know the guys I've reached out, I've talked to, you know, I don't, I don't reach out to you like telling me and you just connected and and stuff, man. I just appreciate y'all man because I know through this whole process, you know, I've been able to kind of reach out to guys and say hey, I know I'm doing the right thing. You know it it was just like like 3-4 months was like 3 months ago. Me, me, me and Keelan was sitting here. I was like, hey man, you know, I've been watching you, man. And like, you're really, really good. And that dude jumped up off the couch, man, and hugged me and said bring it in, big fella, bring it in, he said. I've been working my ass off just to hear you say that. And it kind of threw me because.

2:20:35 I. Was like. I was like you out here busting everybody ass out here. I I think, he said. It don't matter what they think. It matter what you think. So I know Jim. He just left off here because you know, and probably the baby walk open needed some milk and his wife was probably about to be exactly. He got a. Less than A1. Year old, he he is grinding every day, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, I'm going to be honest with you, man. I'm. I'm a father of five and I say this to every, every guy. If you got parents, you got children. You having Adam enjoy the ride because this thing's afflicted. This thing is absolute every day, man. I am reminded of that, like I got a 10 year old and every day I'm like, how the hell do I have a 10 year old this? Thing is a flicker my.

2:21:23 My daughter, my daughter, graduated from, from, from, yeah, from Community College the other night. And I was like, God Dang, man, I remember I was, you know, when when she had that first, you know, milk, milk, hind and pass out on me, you know what I'm saying as a baby, man. And and it is, you know, this thing is a flicker bed and I'm about to drop this kid off in two weeks, man. And I'm, you know, my wife's like, don't cry. I say I'm trying not to, but I'm going to end up crying. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. It happens. More than nobody. Nobody on this show is going to judge you. For that, because you guys don't have that. Hey, listen, y'all. Just go and get ready. I'm crying. Don't even get it out. Absolutely the. Guy's on I'm. Going to cry. I have on this show.

2:22:03 I got three kids, Tally got two, Siegler got one over there. We will ever judge you for anything like that. And it's it's one of those things, man, you can joke me on the side. Though oh, I'll joke, I mean. We'll plan on you, but we'll still do it too. Don't worry, we'll find you Elaine's. Hey. If I'm, If I'm. Being honest, here's a great car. Go ahead. Hey, Brian. Put. Up put up the the, the quote that I think Coach Lewis put up. I want you to do you see? What do you see? It says don't listen to the coach shaking my head. Yeah, put that up because I'm going to go on a rant for a minute, then I'm on. I'm going to ask Pete a question. OK. So when I was talking about my son, you have to understand when I say my son, that's my son, that's my son. I feed him.

2:22:51 I know what he can do. I know what he can't do. Some of these coaches that are in middle, We're not talking, we're not talking about college. Yeah, we're not talking about college. We're not talking about coaches that are are raising men. We're talking about a social science teacher that is getting paid an extra couple of dollars to coach a basketball team after school. And if you're coaching in Virginia? You know what I'm talking about because you're getting maybe 1500 stipend to to coach that sport. Come on, man, if. That yeah. When you say, when you say don't tell, don't tell your son not to listen to the coach. I don't tell him not to listen to his coaches in that setting in that game that we're talking about. Yes, I told my son don't listen to him when he tells you y'all need to hold a ball and only there's no shot clock. We just going to hold the ball and try to beat them when you already down 20 points?

2:23:45 No Sir, son, when you get the ball you go score. Don't listen to him because he don't know what he's talking about right now. So yes, I did tell him that. But we going to switch gears a little bit and I want to ask a question. We'll start with Pete right here. We'll start with Pete. Well, I'll start with myself then I'm going to throw it to peak because we are talking straight of the program. What's one of the plays from this year, either good or bad, that kind of gave you, you know, either a great feeling or a bad feeling about where our team was going? And I'll tell you mine the play that I. Kind of looked at this. Year and kind of summed up how I feel about this team and I said all right we we we in the right direction. Are we playing Pitt?

2:24:29 And Kyron hits that first touchdown pass, I think the Felton and he starts walking down the field. And from what we've heard from what we've heard of Kyron, he he don't celebrate much. He don't talk a lot of trash. He was talking shit to every pit player. That. He had, and I know he was. I know he was telling them, keep your fucking eyes out of that backfield because you got to worry about this arm too. I know that's what he's saying on the way down that field. That was if I had to sum up this year one play, it would be that play and not just the play because it's a great play, but afterwards, like I said, he hit the bow and arrow, then he's going down the field and he's talking shit and and and what's crazy to me is I'm thinking, but he got to play against them the whole game. This is at the beginning of the game, he. Got to play.

2:25:20 Against the lineman at the beginning of the game and he talking shit all the way. Give me what you got. Give me what you got, I'm. Looking at his body language and I said I know he looking at that lineman and then looking at them, them cornerbacks and telling them you better keep your fucking eyes out of that backfield because hey, we going to add this bitch out on y'all. So that was my play from this year that I had had to bring up. Pete, what you got for me? If you remember the. Beginning of the Syracuse game, there was for one, we were after them all game on defense. And there was a play where APR kind of did a spin move, got to the quarterback. I think it was the first play of the game. It was the 2nd. Play. It was the 2nd play of the game.

2:26:00 Second play of the game. And that play, I don't think he got credit for the sack he might have on an intentional grounding, but it was it was a tone center and I remember thinking like the defense has been struggling this year, even against Pitt. How well we played and had the the play you were just talking about Offensively, we were good. We gave up some plays in that pick game. The Syracuse game was pure domination. And that play just right off the bat to set that tone with that spin mode, spin move, I was like, I was blown away. I was there and I saw it from where I was sitting and I was like, oh, this could be a different kind of night and it ended up being a different kind of night. So that's the play I think back to. That's why Brian. Decided to buy in poker that night in the basement. He wound up that night it.

2:26:45 Really. Was it? Was one of those nights like, all right, I I will see how this plays out. I'm not sure if I will play tonight and then that happened. I'm like, all right, I'm in deal. Me in, bitches. Let's go. All right. We're going to go to band, man. What play you got? What's your play for the? Year that just set it off, I'm going to give you. A2 Parter The part that I knew it was going to be different was the last drive of the Purdue game. Even though we lost, Kyron came in. You knew he had the vision, he's making plays. It was very clear quarterback one was #1 Kyron Jones the then Fast forward UVA game.

2:27:28 Anthony Calandra talking all that shit during the week. Remember 2019 bowl game. Lynn Bowden junior talked all that shit. Took our lunch money, Took our lunch money come UVA game. Anthony Calandra talking about all they going to be talking about this. Well yeah, they were talking about this, buddy. 55 Reasons Why You should Shut the fuck up. Like, you know, Like, you know. Like they? Took that personally. APRAPR was getting personal fouls like Kyron, Drones was running it up like special tootin train was full steam ahead. Like we took that personally and we said Nah, we're Virginia Tech, you're not going to talk about us like that. And that's when I knew Virginia Tech was back. Or on the way to be back all.

2:28:09 Right, Robbie, what you got? Robbie Rowdy Rowdy What? You got? This year, I don't know if I have. Virginia Tech. I don't know if I'd go. To. One play more than I remember, a particular kick return where they take back and score and then. Afterwards. They're talking to the young man about, you know, about how he did something so amazing and returning that. Oh no, we lost. Oh. Even bus football, man. Don't even bus. Is he?

2:28:50 Oh man, come on. Man, there you. Go the minute. That young. Man, the minute that young man turns around and says OK, there you go. There was 10 other. People on that field that made that thing work. That was when I knew it was different. That was that play that I knew. I didn't know it immediately, but you find out afterwards, that's where you know everything's going, right? That's where things have changed. There we go. Eleven guys. Playing for, playing for something else. That's what it's all about, Dwight. This year, man. Playing. Play that. Said. I mean, we went six and six. It ain't great. Nah.

2:29:31 But where? We were. And where we built back up to and where we are in recruiting, it's trajectory right I, I've and three. Last. Eight Game, I say. The Colts. That's right, five. And three last eight. That's right, last 8. Game. I think for me, I've been saying this for years, Virginia Tech and most college football, it's it's a combination of things. And the first thing I would say when drones became the starter, I felt like early on, and I understand why Pride was doing it, because there's seasons when you sometimes need your backup quarterback or even games where somebody's helmet comes off cramping, whatever or, you know a shoulder injury or something. So I wasn't like like dismissed Wells. But when I I kept saying and Don V and Tally's Twitter space is that when pride names Drones are starter and it becomes his team. Watch how he takes off and I.

2:30:21 Feel. Like if you look at UVA and other programs in the ACC, when you look at how long UVA has really been trying to rebuild and get back to the Marcus Hagen's or Aaron Brooks days, you think about those two names I just named, right? That's how long I would even throw and grow. The one thing I told my boy Mon hawk and some of my UVA guys is y'all have not really had a quarterback to build around. And after we lost Gerard Evans, I kept saying, yeah, we got nice quarterbacks, we need a quarterback and finally we have drones. Who my cousin and I think he is special. I've told him that I've special. Now here's the other thing I noticed to to Tally's question. The culture and the mindset at home is very reminiscent of what tech used to be.

2:31:11 No more did you see at home where we were winning 20 to 17 and then we get a late field going, We hold on with a defensive stand. Pride was running it up on people. They were throwing the ball 20 when they were up 2128 points. They were doing onside kicks, fake punts, trick plays. And I felt like there was a culture and a mindset, you know, that showed that OK, they're really trying to build something. And then finally, the last point I think to tell this thing is the fact that yeah, kids are leaving, but those kids should be leaving. The kids all coming back. The coach is starting to take shape where like Clemson, I said this on my part this week. Like Clemson, when they ran the ACC for years, Dabble was a master at keeping some of his future pros and even kids. That could have left the graduation to come back for one or two more years where you saw Tuten. Tuten.

2:32:07 And everybody and and Ali and all those guys are coming back. So now you starting to see guys that want to be in Blacksburg, which means they're having fun and they feel like there's something that they can run it back with. So the coaches there, the quarterbacks there again. I said this when I did the broadcast. I did the ESPN3 broadcast in 2013 and we have Motley at quarterback and we had the white kid Mark. Now what's his name? The 1. Grant, not Grant. The other one, Michael Brewer. Michael Brewer and I thought Brewer was good but I felt like we needed a dual threat quarterback. I just feel like, other than drunken Miller, Will Ferrell. And we we. Do better with.

2:32:48 With dual threats we do better with dual. Look at the history of Virginia Tech if you want to do. If you want to do the history historically, Virginia Tech will hit the game with dual threat quarterbacks 93. Yeah, Maurice. De Chazo. Chazo. Alcar, Maurice and Marcus Marisa, Yeah, the one thing that got me on the recruiting visit. And. You know, I'm not saying it because you know for Ray stuff, but no, I don't know another school that when you. Go in the. Quarterback room. That's got 3 black quarterbacks on the wall, man. Don't, don't.

2:33:28 When I walked in, I was like. They got Vic, Randall and Taylor and. You know. Me and Me and B Ray. Got a close connection so you know ran yeah yeah and I'm telling let me I'm gonna put the other child I'm gonna bring it in. I'm gonna got to wrangle all y'all in cause y'all 'cause. Chris, Kevin, Y'all hold on between. I'm gonna tell you between that and. Beamer sending us a video. And. Their. Goal.

2:34:10 On our visit. We're on at 5:00 AM and we're going and it's funny, 'cause I know y'all probably don't know the inside joke. I don't know. We get a deer going to Roanoke. Oh, job, yeah. That don't surprise me. But that don't surprise me. Yeah, so we get a. Deer on the exit but. When? They got in the car, They're like, hey, you got a video. What Y'all have seen and Frank Beamer sent a video and my wife's like, who is that? I was like, because I'm from Texas. You're like, hey, it's like RC Slocum. It's like that's like, you know Bobby Bowden, that's up there for you. That's huge. Yeah, he he sent a video, you know, and and Dwight and Dwight. Could wax some poetic about what was what was what, what happened right there. So we'll we'll let Blake ride after you finish. Hey, that video.

2:34:57 I'm telling between that and and it was just the the welcoming that you know and and we we hit it off with Ali's mom and you know just everybody like Felton, like I I sit in the stands and I got an NFHS account just to watch Jalen Lane's dad on his playoff run to win the state championship. You know. And I'm texting him and then we meet him and Hatterby's. Family, you know? I'm sitting in. Front of Felton's dad I can tell you this students dad about knocked me over. We end up hitting the kid at Boston College that was sitting in. Front of. Us standing in front of us is me and and T Rex and she, he bumps me like look at it and I go like 3 trying to catch myself and it was crazy. But I mean that's just the it's the fan like you know going to those games and it's just where the program is right now and I and I hadn't been around for 20 plus years. But you know, it's it's it's different from where we were at Baylor and it's just it's it's even though it's hard for me, it's hard for our family because you know, I I play on Friday night, we want to win everybody.

2:36:14 Wants to win. Everybody wants to win every damn week. I get home at 12:00. I'm at the airport at 3:30 in the morning. And I'm planning to. Charlie and got to drive 2 1/2 hours to Blacksburg. Hard for you, man. Hard for you? You know, But it makes it work. Then I'm on the first thing smoking Sunday out of there, 'cause I gotta get back Sunday. I love that. I love that man. All right. I I love the dedication from you, from y'all. I mean that. That's what I have so much respect for Chris and Kevin both. I mean what y'all bring to the table from us just from being a dad? Like that. Matters. And. I. Appreciate that. And just from being. A friend. Yeah, all. Right caller. Caller this year. What was that moment?

2:36:59 I started it off. You've been drinking too much. Had a had? A Curtis. Damn. Curtis. Curtis. It's my turn. All right, you talk, man. Go ahead. Run your mouth. By the way, that's how much. There you go. Granddaddy baby. You getting? It in to the side. And everything I I said. It Hey, we got Donnie, man. We got Donnie in here, man. Oh yeah, no, I. Know the White's in here. All right, this is what I'll say. It's either the drive or the plate. After the fumble return, Kyron unfortunately gets popped. He he loses the ball. It goes back instead of withering, instead of faltering, instead of running the ball and being safe and all that bullshit 53 yard touchdown pass Kyron to Jalen at the pit game extends the lead back to 14. Them motherfuckers ain't coming.

2:37:58 I love drunk Curtis, man. You ain't. Drunk enough right now. I am no. Because that play, Curtis Curtis said. I didn't drink enough evidence. Ziegler tally that play happened. We fumble the ball. What are y'all texting me? Ah, fuck, we thought it was. Coming down, we thought it was we did we all? Thought Pete. Pete, you're right. You're right. We thought. We thought, Oh my God, it's gonna happen. We're like, all right, so we're so used to like being conditioned to like the bad turning into the worst, right. We're we're so conditioned to that it. Didn't. We was losing Lane I. Couldn't. Text anybody. It came. It came old school.

2:38:39 It came old school at Tech when something bad happened. Something better happened. Kyron went into that situation with Jay Lane, went into it. 53 yard touchdown pass. We on a 14. Nor do you know what the fuck to do. He didn't because he knew his offense couldn't score. Yeah, they got, they got a. Lucky shot on that play before Arduchi's a clown. Dick, Yeah. All right, all. Right. All right, hold on. We we got to get tuned because we have not. Are we going to talk shit about Dardisi? We're going to have like a 30 minute. Yeah, because Chris should be here or whatever And be quiet. Hold on. Hold on. Hold. On. Hold on, hold on. Take my moment. We have. Take my moment. We have Kevin this year, Chris, yo play this year.

2:39:24 You now you got to stay at Kevin. You got to stay with Kevin. No, he doesn't. Do us Kevin League. Kevin ends because Kevin's got a guy on the team. It was 3. Plays for me it was it was 3. It's 3 plays for me. First pass Kyrie gets in against Purdue, hits, hits Daquan right up the scene bow. I was like I was. Like, oh shit. I was like, oh snap, hey, can I say something? Like quick, can I say something like quick just on that, hey, when he went, went, yeah, when he got in, when he got in and he did that. I started texting people and said y'all motherfuckers told me he couldn't pass the ball. Y'all told me this motherfucker couldn't. Throw you son of a bitches, That's what I said that. Go ahead, Chris, it's.

2:40:11 It's it's 3 plays. That one was number one. Second play is the look on his face when he lost to Florida State because he was 38, hot. I knew he was a super duper. He was competitive as hell. I said, oh, I love him. And here's the last one, the North Carolina State game. When the second-half they? Let him let loose of the ball. I was like, hey, we ain't going no damn where else. There is no place else in the country I'm going because they going to let this dude cut it loose. So it may have been like for us it was the wins, but it's the way I watched him progress as a quarterback. And so that was the thing for me to watch QB One be that guy. Step, step, step. I know I'm like when I saw him, when I saw him last Saturday. I asked him what he was going.

2:40:58 To go do for the offseason. And he told me he's going to go work with Cam, Cam, Ward and Shadora. I was like, oh shit. I was like, I was like, yeah, hey, hey, dude, I was so hyped. I was like, you know, because I'm. I said, I said, Chris, you on there with me because a lot of times after the games win or lost me and you were together. I said Yep, once it becomes this team, Virginia Tech would do themselves a huge favor if they build and brand around him. I'm telling you, I don't. I don't miss. I called Eddie Royal. I still got the. I still got the text. My phone, the white said. The White said they still haven't endorsed him. QB One for real, he said.

2:41:42 This kid is just out there playing, he said. When they start really endorsing him, he's a star. And The thing is. Even if his dad. Wasn't here. I've been saying, I've been saying all year when he took over because of the way the game is played now with the Rpos, the mobility he has, plus the fact is is he is my son is a fan. He said, Yo, my dude is so cool and calm and collective, but yet he can run up on it and push a defensive tackle from Wake Forest. He can get in. He has the marketability where tech. Now it's not just about back when I played it was Beamer, Ball, lunch, bell. Now you have to now you have to mark it because if you market and brand a player, you're going to get more views, more kids will be like, yo, I want to do this.

2:42:30 Case in point, they're people now that were babies, that were kids that still talk about the impact Tyrod and Mike Vick had on Virginia Tech. Mike ain't played in. Years. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, so 2 decades. If you do this right. With drones he can be that guy. I I I know I was on the island and I wasn't anti wells on some like oh I hate. It was more so like he fit. And I remember Billy from Suns this Saturday was like well, I don't think much will change if he becomes a quarterback. I said yes it will because he will open up running lanes. That's what he would do because the linebackers have to honor him on his own. They have to honor. They have to honor him on his own and that's why. He became the guy.

2:43:16 Billy. Billy catching strays. No matter. I'm sorry. I'm sorry if you talked about. It on this program we talked about all this program No 3. Up top talked. About it, hey. Kevin, I'm. Going to be for. Real. Can we stop for one moment? QV, one's dad. Kevin, when was it? What play? Whether you were in this stadium at Lane or, you know, I don't know if you made it to Rutgers or Marshall. When was it? When you saw your son make a play one way or the other and said this is it, He's not losing this job. He is here. I'm going to. A couple of things go ahead, so I'll go back to the pit day, so me and my daughter go and we go see him before the game. And.

2:44:05 It's it's it's Kern. Like, I see. Oh, he's back. Like this is him. Shadow Creek, 2020 Shadow. Creek, this is high school Kern, like, they've cut him loose for real because he's like, I feel good going to go up here, rest, whatever. And he stepped off that bus. And when when that hokey walk and he stepped off the bus and he had those white Prada sunglasses on and I looked at my daughter and I said, Oh yeah. Yeah, he was on one. And then he was on one. He did the celebration. I was like, oh, he really feeling himself. Then he did the Jordan thing and I was like, oh, he really feeling himself today. They had to let him get comfortable, yeah. So. My plays. Would be the back-to-back spikes.

2:44:47 They show spike that he didn't get penalized on, and in current spike which they had to penalize since then they hit the referee. Oh. It would be. Those. Two. And the other moment was when they went to Boston College. They took care of business like they did because I felt like the team needed that. They need to understand we can go on the road and be the team like it should be. Because I before that, all I heard about was Castellanos and how it was. Yeah, he was that dude. They went there. As a team and put a beat down on Boston College and I had a great time. This is my Cheers cup right here.

2:45:27 I went to Cheers and had a ball. Oh yeah, I saw that. I saw that picture dog. I saw this. I had. I went to. Cheers and had a ball at night. Had the best crab boil I've had, but I I plan to do another one when I get to Maryland Christmas Eve, so I'll be there. I do like a good. Yeah, Bill Gates are by. The way I'll be there. But yeah, that's my. That's my. Three months, that's your three months you got. To come out with me in Annapolis. I'll be there. Hey, hit. Me up, Curtis going to be there too, Curtis. Is going to get me I. Am I? Kevin, I'm driving in that morning, so I'll hit you up. Dwight, I'm going to hit you up. Yeah. Dan, when are you going to be in?

2:46:09 I'll. I'll. Get on Tuesday. Afternoon, I'm going to. Be in Wednesday. Morning. Listen, this. As always, the state of the program is one of our funnest episodes. All of y'all. We we lost Jeremy, unfortunately. You know what? Shout out. The Jeremy. Shout out the Jeremy I. Love Jeremy? I don't. Know Jeremy pays. The bills here around these parts, so hold on. We always got. To show Jeremy tell, I got. To show you something. Oh, there it is, I still think. I still think mine look better. I still. Got to say mine. Look better, my wife wanted.

2:46:49 Me to show you all. These. So this is this the bold prep. This is what we're doing with shit, yeah. Oh, hey, Kevin. Just. Flex it on us right now, Kevin. Flex it on man. Kevin said I got everything. Here, man. Let's do this, yeah. I gotta say, so I I hit, I hit you up, whatever I need to do. Listen, we we do this every year. The state of the program means a lot. And what the state of the program says for us is where we are. A year ago, this one a fun episode. We were three and 8/3.

2:47:37 And. Eight. It kicked us in the God damn fucking nuts. And it was just like in our lifetime between me. Ziegler, Tally, Jeremy's drunk ass ain't here. We've never seen three wins as a program. We've never seen that because we go back to nine. We go back to the mid 90s where it was Sugar bowls, Gator bowls, Peach bowls, Orange bowls, all the good stuff. And we sit here and. We're like, what? What is this? What happened? And then this year happened, and we saw it. Transform. We saw a transformation, Robbie telling us that drones, kids is different.

2:48:21 Fan. Interviewing Pete, talking. About it. Tally talking, I mean all. Of us looking at film, man, like all of us talking about film, like we're like when. We look at this. Team, it's different. It's different with this kid at the starting quarterback. And then it happened. Real ball watchers, no. And then we. Absolutely Dan's. Dan's right. And then? Week 3, it happens. And then those two weeks of like confirmation, it's like moving around, moving around, hit hits. And then fiving through. The rest of the season. Hey fellas, I I. Don't mean to cut across, but I I really want you to. It really happened before then. Because you know us as men, you know, it's hard for us to admit when we're not, when we're wrong. So when Pry comes out and says, you know what, I need to be a better head coach, hey, I need to turn this over to Mars, you know, and let them take their bumps and bruises along the way to get to that point.

2:49:20 That's what really changed it, the getting getting talent. Because I cannot tell you the number of times he called my house and said, listen, don't don't give up on us If we can sneak, if we can sneak you in and put a unknown name on you and let you go run down the field, kids will do it, 'cause we ain't Got Talent, we ain't got the talent. But for him to understand I need to learn this and I got to get better at that. This coaching staff understood they needed to get certain people and for them to go on the portal. I mean we we watch it every day. Shout out to Kobe, man who who put the the Twitter feed up about the portal. Yeah, respect to Kobe. Kobe has been crushed. Yeah.

2:50:02 He out there? Doing God's work, they shot out for 30 people. They going to end up getting maybe four. I know they got two more guys coming in already. Oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we know. Yeah, Yeah. We talked about it. We're not breaking news here, but we talked about it. Yeah, Yeah, we talked about it, but the. The thing about it is that they they go out and target certain cats. Because I'm going to be honest with you, before they shot a, you know, shot a offer to a kid out and from Baylor, I ain't know who Kyron Jones was. I ain't had no clue. Who he was. But they. But they do their research and they dig it out. So, man, shout out to this coaching staff, changing this thing, man.

2:50:43 And it's never the guy who follows the legend. That's great. It's the guy that follows, the guy that follows the legend that is. Am I right? Yeah. I said. I said at the end of the day, I might have been again when the Twitter space with you. I said one thing Pride will need to do, and Beamer had his and other coaches across the country had this. I said he's got to get his Mount Rushmore recruit. I. Said that, he said. I said he could be. The the first of the Mount Rushmore. Because for Beamer it was Mike. It was Cornell Brown. Maurice Cesajo.

2:51:25 It was Austin. Kevin. Jones, You know, you look at that. Yeah, so you. Look at Kyron Jones. He could be the first of the Mount Rushmore. We talked about that on this. Program man we talked about. Who's going to be the? Corey Moore of this fucking pry regime and look. Right. Tell you how important it is Syracuse. I'm I'm going back to my original point Syracuse missed on my cousin Donna May now always says how did he who got I said I got him. Donna McNabb, I beat you twice, right. So here's the thing. Syracuse never recovered from that. They never recovered. They got, they got Troy, they had a guy named Troy Nunes. And then after that they went through a a shit load of quarterbacks.

2:52:09 They never recovered from not getting Mike. Look at UVA. Look at the schools who never really gotten that guy. Greg has been very fortunate. Gerard Evans. And then, you know we went through some some tough years and then you get Kyle. Ron. It was up and down. You got a hit? You got a hit and we hit on Mike, we hit on Brian Randall, we hit on tie rod and listen, tie rod was a five star, but you still got a hit on him and and and and we did. And it's funny when we're talking about what when we'll know we're back. That is a very difficult question. Some people think we might have already seen that moment, maybe at the UVA game or earlier in the year. But do you remember back in the 90s And they're trying to define pornography, right? And it's a very hard thing to define. You know it when you see it, you. Know it when?

2:52:53 You see it and I think when we are back we will all know it when we see it. And we might. And some of us might have already seen it in that 55 point performance, but I think it's still to come and and we will know when we see it, I'm be honest. With you I I think. I think I think the the the Noah see it point and I'm going to just call it as it is Clemson come to town we whip Clemson ass that's what. It's going to be for hey. Can I talk my? Shit for a second, talk for shit. Talk for shit day. You got you with me, coach. You with me, coach. So last year you last year we were. Three and eight, right?

2:53:33 Yeah, I've been joking. No, no, two years. Ago, we had three names, 60 starts, Yeah, yeah, I've been. I've been joking recently that I love Pride. Before it was cool. Yeah, that's. Fair. I There were a few of us that. Were never we never wavered? And we went three and. Eight. And then there was a game last year that that 2023 class put out a video, said Hope, help us on the way we're coming. Everybody was like, what the fuck? This is some bullshit. Everybody's like 85, like, you know what I'm saying? But a lot of everybody said it was Dicky. Everybody said it was Dicky Dick. A lot of these dudes, you know, like they, they made an impact this year. And then you bring in a guy like Karen who ends up being him. And now we have a quarterback that everybody between from the coaching staff to the fan base is absolutely united behind for the first time since what Tyrod and Logan. So the the future for me and we, we just plugged a lot of gaps with Peoples Copeland, maybe a couple more. We got Bromfield coming in to play the mic. Like, for us to not be very, very excited for the future would be crazy.

2:54:38 Like, I'm ready. I'm ready. The opium inject me, baby. Like, let's go. Hey, yo, real quick. You got to. Wrap up but look. Shout out to the fans because I'm going to tell y'all something. After the Military Bowl, I sat with my family was twenty of us. I sat in that rainstorm. I was soaked. We had a chance to win the game. We call it time out. We on the we on the 2 inch, we on the 2 inch yard line. Ryan Willis goes on the center, which I'm happy about. We fumble the ball. This is after we got a turnover. Cincinnati was a 10 or 11 win team that year. Ten wins team right we we we if we go and score we go up two scores and we win that game. After that game I vowed I would never go back to a tech game until something changed with the coach. I had not I had not been to Blacksburg. I I I stopped going to the spring game. He said this on our program You.

2:55:28 You called the spring game, Dwight. That was your thing. I called. It but I I I was mad. It wasn't about alumni and how we were treated. I was mad because if you ever build something or you're part of something that's bigger than yourself, it is emotional for me. So I'm not that guy. Like I look at these guys now that's playing Caleb. What's all these young guys? I'm happy. I was happy when Dwayne Brown and Anthony Davis was killing and why I tell her it's not about me, it's about the program. So I was to the point where it wasn't my feelings was hurt my my love for what I helped build was hurt. Like my was. It was it. Show Show me what? I'm used to, yeah, so like. And then I kept seeing guys on Twitter, Not the new guys there now, but they'll stick with us. And then the next day, I know they they leaving the program and I'm talking to guys and that's when Don V gave me the scoop on what was going on.

2:56:19 So Hokey Nation, though they have never wavered, they keep coming back. They're a big reason why our brand is still reputable because they keep showing up at 11:30 kickoffs Thursday night. Now you're giving them a product watch. And for those going watch how crazy the Military Bowl going to look this next week. Yeah, we're selling. Out, We're selling out all. Those games after a three win season, yeah, and all those six sell. Out and. Think about Blacksburg and how hard it is to get to. And I always say this to my friends like, we don't get down there that much because it's hard to get to. But when you get there, it is special. And you have to, you have to, you have to earn your way to get, you got to sit on 81 all the way down to get there.

2:57:05 But once you get there, it's special. And that creates. A different kind of environment that only the people that go know about. And I'm with Dwight. You can, you know it when you see it, when you make it, but you can also know it when you see it when it stinks. And I think a lot of us knew something was fishy. And fortunately we're not there anymore and it feels good to be on the other side. I sat in that rainstorm too, Dwight. Man, listen, the Kentucky game, I was like, yo, I'm not even one of them guys. I'm not going to lie to y'all. I don't do all, Dwight said. The. Kentucky game. That's oh man, you know, like, yo, for real. We should that game should have been can't shipping the all out brawl dog because I know how we had the game back in the day. Now what?

2:57:48 Killed me. Was OK, We lose the game with complete control, then your boy come to the podium. They were like sorry about the loss, coach, he said. Nobody died. What are y'all talking? About like oh. Really. Also. There should have been a fucking axe Absolute scrap on the sideline after that. Lynn Balin. Shit. That. Should have escalated to uncontrollable levels. There should have been. There should have been offensive lineman and defensive lineman breaking Lynn Balin. I would. I would have broke somebody's fucking arm off. No, no. No seagull. Just. Be. Now let him downside. Get in your face. You would have fucking destroyed him.

2:58:28 Yeah, that was. The shit back then, it is not nailed because we have turned a we have turned a corner in the program of the culture. We're back where we were. It sounds funny, right? We're back to where we were in the terms of the. Chemistry. Not. Maybe not all the way with the time. Right. No, I'm going to I'm. Going. To say something, Dwight. Dwight said something. Yeah, Dwight said something to me, man. I guess it may have been last year at the OR this year at the beginning of the season, he said. I think everybody was kind of arguing about who was going to coach what or what quarterback coach we were going to get or what coach was going to bring in.

2:59:09 And Dwight was like, it don't matter what coach we bring in. I mean, you got your head coach. We got to get talent. We need talent. That's what we need. It don't matter. Who? It don't matter who's coaching the kids if you don't have talent. So for I mean great kids from last year, last year's team, but when you go into this off? Like Pete said, I'm. Not saying that we're back, but going into this next season, we're going to bring some camera crews in because we got star power. Like if you look at Aly Jennings, if you look at Aly Jennings and that game that he played, how many people he had at that game, like the ACC Network was eating that up.

2:59:53 Because he has talent. But they like look how many people he's got here and he's a good talker. And then when you see Kyrie, he get on, he get on and he starts out, you got to have some of that. You going to have some kids on the All ACC? Watch list before the game. You going to have some kids maybe on the all America we had some all American. Dorian Strong was all American like you got, you got fresh. You got fresh recruits? Yeah, you got high. Profile recruits coming in, you've got something that a camera crew is going to want to come in and talk about and going to want to film, and it's just not going to be manufactured hype. It's going to be actual hype. What we do with it, we'll see. But I remember when they used to go cover David Wilson and say, hey, look at his car.

3:00:35 He had the old school car. I remember on, on, on the, on ESPN. And they will follow. Him around and talk about what he was doing. We had the year. Like A2? 1001 camera or some shit, but that was like fucking you got. Yeah, you got to think, man, like next year we have stars that people are going to want to know about. They don't want to know about Kyron drones. They're going to want to know about Bayshaw, too. They're going to want to know about Quanfeld. They're going to want to know about Allie Jennings. They're going to want to know about at least those owning APL they want. To know about White shot the Curtis they want. To know about White.

3:01:18 Chocolate Chocolate. Yeah. So I go back to my to my original statement. You know, like kind of what Pete's saying. We'll know when we see it, but we're going to have all the tools to get there because you're going to see a lot of media covering these kids. I got prediction, but I'm waiting till September. Go ahead. I'm not going to say it now. I I feel it in my OK, OK, I feel it. And I let. I don't miss. I don't miss when I make these predictions. I think he, I think he texted me before. I'm not going to text him today before he's not going to make it public. But he does what he's talking about. Hold on. Wait, A. Second. Hold on. Wait a second, we. Know Dwight will be back on in April or excuse me, August of next year to make all his predictions. When we go March, April, it's always a Dwight episode. Look man, we always have Dwight on in March, April every year. I'm not like I said.

3:02:10 His dad could be in Afghanistan right now. I'm not saying it because he's on this joint, right? I'm telling you I know what I see, bro. I don't miss. I told everybody about Strowman. Nobody, believe me. I told people about David Wilson and Eddie Royal before he got there. I don't. I I told people about my cousin, the guy that writes for the collegiate times in 1998. I said it's an article I'll I'll post it. I I think I did before. I said he will change the program. He'll take us to the national championship. He'll he'll be up for the Heisman. I said all the things he has read and the guy told me after I walked away, he said, Yo, I thought you was on that shit. He said he. Told you if it wasn't Ronald Curry, it didn't matter.

3:02:55 If it wasn't Ronald Curry, it didn't matter. I said when I. Know something? I'm telling y'all. Watch what drones do, Michael. Michael Vick was running scout team and blood, Foster said in a in a coaches meeting. He said Frank. Either we are the worst tackling team in the nation or that kid is special and frank. Said and Frank. And. Frank said. We are a great tackling team and that kid is Special 1998. Was a great tackling team and that wraps up this episode. 3 hours, 6 minutes. Chris.

3:03:39 Kevin, Charlie, PB, Dan, Dwight, Jeremy, Robbie, everybody that joined us tonight, it wrapped his side out to my. Kiki crew, go ahead. They've been in. They've been in the chat room all day. They. Killing me I've been seeing. Them everybody that you. Bringing along for the ride, I appreciate that. They gonna ride, ride or die with me wherever I go. So I told y'all all black people are kid aren't part of the Drones family. Going to the game. Love that. No. Doubt. You ain't black. I gotta find the white.

3:04:24 I gotta find big drink the damn military Bowl. I need a Kevin drone. Episode come. On listen. Damn. This is. What? This is like Aaron got. Sick the week he was supposed to do y'all show. And he was. So locked in on trying to get to the bowl that he said he was going to reach back out after they finished. But. He he still wants to do y'all show. Listen we'll we'll. We'll say both, Katie. 'S what? What? What? What? Let's do in in February when he's a month into hardcore training. But listen, it's just been three hours, 7 minutes it's been.

3:05:05 Also, this is what this episode so much more to say. We have been. I've been trying to recruit. Pete, I've been trying to Pete the BCP. So hey, I'm just telling Pete. Was dropping. Some Buy your monologue. I love P, Man. You would be those. Of these fucking can I can I say one more thing before? We sign off real quick. Yeah, you went when? Clemson's When? Clemson's dynasty started right It started with a with a quarterback in Taj Boyd, and it started with a wide a wide receiver in a Virginia. Quarterback and we got 2. Fathers, here we got, we got a quarterback's father, we got a wide receiver's father, and you know what else all fell into place after that? The Lions came together and everything. That's where things start.

3:05:55 They start on the outside and they come to the inside and that's what we got coming back for next year. And I tell y'all this, man, I can. See I can. See it building already and I'm just pumped and I'm so happy to be here he's. Trying to hold it because see, he keeps on saying, hey, when we know it, when we see it, we know it. This. Motherfucker, it's happening. I understand he. Said what he's saying. Is it's happening right now. That's what he's saying. It's not just the beers. Not. Just the beers. Hey if you new to this. Program. I want you to go back. I want you to plug all of our shit. We've had Pry on. Pry is a very candid coach. He's going to tell you the truth. He's going to be real with you. We've talked.

3:06:36 We've had the right on before the season. I've fought. I'm talking about plenty of motherfuckers on Twitter talking about what this team was going to do. I said we going to get to a motherfucker bowl game. I'm telling you, I don't care what I got, We get to a bowl game and guess what? Sally said. We get. To a bowl in spring. We last year fucking. Bowl game. Everybody was looking at me crazy. We. Let's go back to the the episode before the season. Yeah, let's check the tape. Let's of the three hundreds said it. PB. Said we're going to get to a bowl. We, a lot of us said we're going to a bowl. We got to a bowl this year. I didn't see it. Dan said it if you would have. Told me a year from. Now we here. I didn't believe it, but we got here. We got here.

3:07:20 We're in. Annapolis we. Should maybe be somewhere else, but let's not get into all that 'cause I love drunker. I'm over the feeling good. In my favor, are you about? To go get. Another I love drunker from feeling good. Oh. Hey, hey, hey. Chris, Brian and Robbie have dealt with drunk Curtis, I guarantee you. More than a few times. You know what? We we've been here. We've done that. We bought the T-shirt, man. We we took man. Has to fucking be man. Opens a second model. We ain't making for about. Three hours I get. No, no, it's over with.

3:08:03 It's over with. I'm telling you, man. Hey, this is this what I this what I want to say to this. What I want to say to I don't. I don't know who's already making preparations. I know Chris is. I don't know who else is but Nashville next year. I need everybody to be there. I see. I see. I see in the. In the comments, y'all already saying it's going to be the Kick it crew. We can name it whatever y'all want to. I'll tell you it's two hours a work from my house. Somebody don't got nowhere to stay. Give me a call. You can come stay with me, 'cause I need us to. I'll put. My head down where you live. I'll put my head down where you live. Hey, it's too much. Fucking country music.

3:08:43 In Nashville, I need us sitting down playing some rap music. I need us sitting there slapping the screw. Come on, man. Come on. Man, yeah, man. I hear you Kevin. I'm. Still tipping all. Way to Nashville next year. I need us to be up in. I need us somebody's ass. You locked in everybody. In this. Room tonight. Everybody on this. Whole everybody on this Whole. Yeah, we'll be there. Screaming and. Louder and. Proud and we say let's go. OK. Yes, Sir. God. Damn it, I'm gonna be a motion picture. Listen.

3:09:27 This. Was. Awesome Tonight, State of the state of the program is good. The state of the program right now feels great because if you feel the energy coming from this room right now, we feel it. Caring the quarterback. Hey, Kevin. Kevin who is Who is was that callus knows Who is that? That's my boy. So OK, I got to meet him. You've been rolling deep, man. I love that you've been. I got comments in there. I love it old time. So, Mario. Mario and Andrew Callus. They go with me. To the Florida State Clemson Act. We fly I'm. Up all night, we fly to Atlanta. They don't have any rental.

3:10:07 Cars, It's the week after the big flood in Atlanta. No rental cars. So I I. Have. I'm I'm off the ship. So I missed the Old Dominion game because I get on the plane, planes, on the tarmac and. We we 3. 4 hours delayed. I'm like, I'm not missing kickoff. I'll just go back home. I've already missed the Hokie walk. I still got to get to Charlotte, drive 2 1/2 hours. I'm going to miss everything, leave me off the plane. So all of that has happened. We get to Atlanta and then this happens. So I'm like, I'm from the missing. So both games are kicked off. So we go to a bar like I'm outside, Callas tells me. We we get over to the bar, we go to the sports bar and I got both games.

3:10:52 I got the Florida State game on. I got the Marshall game on current scores right away. So people in there going crazy. Hey, high five, my boy pulls up. Mario pulls up in a truck. He's like meet me outside. I'll be damned. We ain't come out of this way and we ain't watching no gaming goddamn bar. So we drive all the way to Clemson. We get to Clemson at the end of the fourth quarter. I'm. Literally there. Just for the overtime? I get to see my. Son going on the bus. I've watched the game on my damn phone, Currents game on the phone as I'm trying to get in the stadium. Wow. See the end of the game. They win. Get on the bus, we drive back to Atlanta, go to the cigar bar, have a great time, miss our flight. The next morning we had two good retires. Got to get another flight.

3:11:45 Those my ride or die dudes. That's the kicky crew. I love that, I told. Them I'm going to. Be able to have a good time so they. Like. Are we drunk with y'all We need to be on the show We drunk with no. Doubt we? Drinking. So they've been drinking. With us the whole time. Good. Well, the kicking. Crew. Is formally invited to the tailgate at the at the military boat. So and they will be. They they will be in the building slide. Well, y'all make. Y'all make sure y'all pull a little lookout for your boy. I'll be, I'll be. I don't know how I'm gonna work that day. I'm just. I'm just Chris. Chris, it's. On Wednesday, Chris, nobody's going to. Take that back. Take it back. Take it back. Chris the other day was on tally space, sleeping. Shit.

3:12:30 Bitten. True. Oh my God, Chris. Holy shit. You weren't fucking testifying, man. Listen, man. I I I it's just to me to me and and I I know y'all y'all are in it but that went went that was just such a big time for us and and guys going what we're trying to do and the direction we're trying to grow in and and I I just I get mad when I see so many kids in so many different situations. You know, like I said, that big thing when and I love Drake, Brock as a guy, as a man. But when he came and raped, raped my state in 2022, I, I, I, I'll say, I'll say this personally.

3:13:11 I was talking to my wife the other day and Teon Holloway came to me. He played with Keelan and Green Run and he wanted to decommit from North Carolina. And. He said to me, I don't know if I should go. And I was like, well, why don't you want to go? He's like, well, I don't know if I'm being able to fit there now. Unbeknownst to anybody else. He was hurt, He had a bad shoulder. So he took that year to get his shoulder right and be able to play. So now he, he took that year, got his body right, learn some different things and now he's going to Louisville. And that's fine for me because I want him to go and get done with need to get done. But I told him at that point, don't decommit. I said if you decommit now and they find out you're hurt, you're going to drop down, you're not going to get the same training table as going to the next thing.

3:13:56 And so I think like coach, like Kevin does you, you take pride in, try to make sure these kids make the right decisions. But when you know on on the back end that certain things are a certain kind of way, it pisses you off. So I'll just stay here right now and then put it it's tape, this recording. I'm always going to have a certain kind of feeling about Chris Cole not staying and going to Virginia Tech. I'm always going to feel like because I know the guy who helped helped put that put that together. It always pisses me off because he did that I. I will. I will. Say that, and if anybody ever want to know the back story to it, I take I take pride.

3:14:37 Yeah, I take pride in any, any family that ask me anything about this recruiting thing. I will tell them exactly what they need to do. But I think, Kevin, I know you probably have it too, like people, and you got two kids. Shout out to Kevin 'cause he's got he got a set, he got 2IN. The portal too? Yeah, two in the. Yeah, two in the portal. He got a daughter in college. Too, yeah. Your daughter in college, about to be in college. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We got, we got some. We got some things I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got some stuff, Right. We're just trying to get the. Zero on the fee receipt. There you go. I I think. I think what ends up happening in Kevin contested is people will look at you and say, oh, your kid is at this point because of this, that and the third.

3:15:24 And a lot of times nobody gives you any guidance in this. You're walk. You're like blind in this, so people will tell you certain stuff and it's not true. And then when you get your kids to a certain point, they just think, oh, they just gave this all to you. Now nobody gave us shit. Let it ride, Kevin. Kevin, Can I say something real quick? I've been Kevin, to have two kids at the collegiate football level. Man, kid. Come on, man. That's the level of. College sports. That is impressive, man. Bow to you because three kids, three Division One. Athlete 3 Division. Ridiculous. Oh my God. Ridiculous. Insane 2 at. Football.

3:16:05 That are doing things at programs. Yeah. I mean football in general. Having two at football in general is ridiculous. Have another one. Ridiculous. Having another one. They're doing great stuff. You my wife. Is up there. Saying his Mama? Exactly. Yeah. No respect to her. She's right. No, don't. Just respect you, Kevin said. She's right. She's right now. Is she? Right, that's right. Dad. Dad can, We didn't say. Y'all this is like. And I and I want to put this out there because I know parents are out there watching. Like this? Nil stuff. We took we had a crash course in January. Baylor didn't do it.

3:16:46 And UTEP didn't do it. We didn't know what it was. All we knew was what we Googled or. What we had seen on. Twitter, or what we had seen on Internet in that first conversation threw us off. Like, I'm glad we wasn't on Zoom, because we're. Ready. Yeah. I didn't get that. Oh, they don't. Understand. Because if we didn't, we don't know what it is. And I want these kids to understand. I tell all our kids, you know, I'm in the Eastern area. And I tell these kids, I mean, you know, I still close to those Shadow Creek guys. I went to one of their signings yesterday. The other day, one of my D lineman signed with University Houston and I'm like, hey, when it comes to this, nil you?

3:17:30 Need to. Understand. You need to think. About taxes. Don't. Think about just the number. Don't take all the long hanging fruit that just want to pay you for a deal, because every deal is not a good deal for your brand. So. Do some. Homework behind it and have a budget. That's the that's. So funny, you said. I was just thinking. About the tax thing today like that. Is the tax. It's a huge thing. I had to go talk. I I called my tax. Lady when Karen committed to Virginia Tech. Texas don't have state. Tax, yeah, ain't got no state tax. Virginia got state tax. I was. Like show no. Duty show no due. Yeah, on my.

3:18:11 Account. Hey, can you do you handle? Yeah. Tell me what this? Tell me what this impacts us at. Oh. My God, can you? Like and and then she had to give us some guidance on, OK, you got to do this, this and this. But these, I know a lot of kids don't have that in their head like I have Karen. Like look, you got to think about this before you purchase this, understand the needs versus wants. Doing. That and making them accountable. Like, OK, if you want this, yes, you earn some. Stuff. I'm going to. Make you pay it. Back. You want it earlier, then you got to pay it back just because you're on a budget.

3:18:55 So if you want it early. Yeah, we can. We can pay for it. But then you're. Going to pay for. The next couple there's going to. Be some something on the back end. You got to pay it back. So I need you to understand at 19 and 20. How? Money works. And. And and. Get and talk to a financial planner. I was on the phone yesterday with Goldman and Sachs. You got to have a financial. Planner like I need you to understand how money works and I don't. I don't want you to squander. The opportunities that. You have? When I left him at Virginia Tech and I told both of them because Jeremiah turned down more money to go to Miami than get Florida State, and I said look, I said hey. You chose this.

3:19:42 I said, And God has blessed you with opportunity, and he's paved. The. Way for you to only think about schooling football. Don't squander. It away the best thing, Karen. Karen got MVP at the team banquet or whatever. But when he sent me. His, his. I say report card. Old school. They don't do report card. Right, right, right, right. Right. Text me the report. Card doesn't mean they were laughing, 'cause I was, I had to like I had a moment, 'cause he, he had four point O to get all a yeah. Yeah, and I'm like. Dude, that's better than the MVP. Yeah, it is crazy because. You went to a. Whole new state you went on the. East. Coast, you. Played. You went through all that stuff and you went 15 hours and got a four point O You made exactly And you know, you know what's playing the team is dude. Kevin Well, Kevin, Kevin, he made the deal. No, we we we going, we going to celebrate that shit. No.

3:20:34 Everybody clap that up. So. Hey, you know. What's crazy? Too academic, All Big 12. And when he left, I said understand like that doesn't change you. I just expect you to be all academic ACC. It doesn't matter. Like make it happen. So he's laughing, you know, 'cause that's how he is. He's like, he said you told me to make all academic ACC. I just went over and made Dean's list for you. I'm like that's. What? She goes in the. Corner now to. Your bow. You know what's crazy too? If you go look at Sam Brumfield when they was talking to him when he was committing, they was asking him, you know, what made you think Virginia Tech? And he kept saying I'm thinking about life after football. And I think he was a fourth one of those kids, too. You know what I'm saying?

3:21:23 When you Yeah, that's crazy. When you have leaders in your program that think about stuff like that, it it does matter on the field, but stuff like that matters as well. So when you get high level character kids like that, your program's going in the right direction. So that's awesome, man. That's awesome to hear. I didn't even know that, man. Yeah. That's amazing. That's dope, that. Is so dope. Hey. Mama Jeremiah graduated I. Got to put him. Out there, too, Jeremiah graduated Florida State last. Yeah, he did. I saw that. Yeah, he. Did shout out. Jeremiah. Yeah, I told Kyrie that when I saw him, I said, yo man, shout out to your brother, Bradley. He looked at me. He was like, hey, you all over the place. I say, dude, that's huge.

3:22:07 Don't think he's big. Hey, he was getting. A lot of he was getting a lot of, a lot of in season shout outs too, so I appreciate that he was he. Was I appreciate. Jeremiah was getting a lot of fucking accolades and that was amazing. I love that, Yeah. We got, we got, we got to get. We got to give Mama drones or flowers so she don't jump on me. So 2 for two, man Virginia Tech fans. Love, love themselves and softballs. So we're we're in on that.

3:22:49 We are. Hey. Man. That's that's right. I'm. I'm gonna say something. Yep, I'm wasting. Curtis. No shit. Welcome. Go ahead, Curtis. Go ahead, drunk Curtis. Hey hey y'all. Y'all trying to get on my ass out like. Kyle, let's laugh. Let's. Laugh 'cause this time last year, Curtis, I was like 1/5 of Evan White label into this plastered. He was yeah, I was done. I was done. I was done. I had a great time. Tonight. We have went three hours, 25 minutes, yeah. Nobody. 'S going to listen to this whole thing, you know? What they will, it's so. Crazy, I'm telling you that, believe it or not.

3:23:30 We have a like. Kevin said we. Going to chop in the screw, 50 people that. Have not turned off tonight. That's. Dope man. That's. Fine, we got. 50 heads that have been hanging with us the whole time. That's different. That's. Different. We got last year and we. Went. We went less than this. Yep. I'm feeling good, Chris. You have dealt two of those tequilas down since I've been here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If we go, if we go again, I might have to finish this bottle. Kevin Feeling. Good on the. I'm good. Hey, Kevin. Flex. It a little bit. I like that. I like Kevin. Flex it, Kevin, Brian, let me see what you done.

3:24:12 How much damage. I put away all the Donnies, man. I put away all the Donnies. Some six teams tally, tally. Let me see what you've done. I don't for. A minute here. Did too bad. Man, my boy has been talking about Tally. They've been killing. Tally been killing. The God damn, I finished a little bit. Of that, Yeah, man, Robbie. Roddy, I'm having a good time. Robert. He's always flexing on the new beard man. He is the he with the beers is like, fucking whatever. This is Brian.

3:24:54 You were doing the. Hardywood, right, I've been. Rolling the. Hardywood I've got the Hardywood and Son of the Universe I've been I've been repping Richmond hard. Yeah, this is. The Hardywood Christmas morning. So I had to do the Christmas. I love Christmas. Morning, man. Christmas. Morning is good shit, I've got the the bourbon. GBS. And then I've got the sin of the universe. Donnie. Dude, those are some good. Ones and old Granddad. You're drinking old Granddad. Curtis. I thought I heard Curtis is bringing old. Granddad man, follow me. Back on Twitter, I'll. Highlight that old granddad. That old granddad that turned him into my granddaddy. Listen. Yeah, we. Know. Gee, we see you, Kevin.

3:25:34 Yes, Sir, I. Appreciate y'all joining us. PBI. Appreciate you. Thank you. For having us thank you for. Having us appreciate y'all. Joining us. Robbie. Hey, I love you, man. Second behind me in my wedding. Look, I love. All y'all and it can't be understated how important Keelan Adams and Kyron Jones are. This program they are. God sends to the Hokie Nation, and they are not. Take that for granted. We're not. That wraps up this episode of the Boundary Corner Podcast with myself, Curtis Wilson, Brian Siegler, Jonathan Calley, Robbie Compton, Kevin Drones, Chris Lester, PB Dan from the Terra Don't. Don't.

3:26:25 We. We swan baby. We swan. I need one of. Them. Oh. Baby. We leave me a tear. Donkey shirt. Hydraulic money. Shop Check out my. Brother Jason Long. Jason Long, music.com We appreciate you all for joining. It's been over 50. We just did. Below 50. Damn y'all, why y'all got to go below 50? We have been. They know we're going to get. Off they're trying to go. They're like. Y'all all drunk as shit. We can't. They are correct. Appreciate everybody joining us tonight. Jeremy and Dwight, who had a hop off as always, let's go oh.

3:27:08 Dee. The.