We Got One

1:48 And welcome back to the Boundary Corner podcast, a part of the College Huddle Network along my partners, Brian Siegler, Jonathan Talley and Shelton Moss. I am Curtis Wilson and as always, we are brought to you by Doctor Jeremy Counts down at the Counts Family pharmacy, your friendly neighborhood pharmacy located at three O 1 S Main St. in Blacksburg. Boys, the band is all back together one last time for a little while, potentially because Shelton's about to get into hell season for his. It's busy season. Busy season, hell season, however you want to say it. But it's good we got one last episode before he takes off. Maybe he'll sneak in from time to time. And luckily before he left, we got one. We got one, man.

2:37 We got one. It only took seven weeks, but we got one. 47 days that it that the official count. 47 days. 46 days until we got one, so obviously we'll be talking about the DC hiring. Got a few other things to hit on tonight. Talk a little bit about the schedule, but how's everybody been? How have you been? We hadn't talked to you since before Christmas. How's everything been in your life? It's been good, man. I've just, you know, enjoyed my break and, you know, kind of getting back into the work right now. So like I said, I'll be busy pretty soon. But yeah, just been, you know, I wasn't really super plugged into the, to the DC, you know, coordinator search.

3:19 I just, you know, it got to a point where I was like, you know what, whoever they hire, they're going to hire. I'm not going to sit around, you know, twiddle my thumbs and read every single message board rants about how this, you know, the entire administration's a failure and we need to fire the entire staff and it's a lame duck staff and all that stuff. So I think they end up with a pretty solid hire as we'll discuss hopefully in this podcast. You want to know who did sit around and look at every message board rant? Me. You know who did put in a thumbs? Me like a dummy. Been mad as hell. Tally was bought in. Trying to figure it out, trying to read crumbs. It was a whole different cookie.

3:59 I'm just saying. Tally figured at some point he was pot committed. He might as well stick with it. To the end, it's. Kind of, it's kind of like when you, it's kind of like when you watch like a bad movie series. I go back to like Twilight. I don't know if y'all ever watch Twilight. Like I watched the first one and I felt like I could not turn away, you know what I'm saying? Not in a good way. It was like this is so bad. Was it the shiny skin? It was just a whole bunch of stupid shit, you know what I'm saying? Like the one guy's a werewolf and then the other guy's a vampire, and he's watching his girlfriend lay with this guy to keep her warm. I don't know man, there was a lot going on. Hey, we just need Tally to like, give quick summaries of movies, man.

4:44 Just like that's an entire series unto itself. Yeah, I watch a whole bunch of stupid movies, man. I'm telling you, I watch a lot of stupid movies. But one movie that is not stupid that I did watch again last night. It's been a thieves great movie. I had to refresh myself on Been a Thief so I can go or get ready to watch #2 that they just came out with. So I hope they do that justice. That's what I'm interested in. Good deal. Good deal, Brian. Everything been good with you man? Busy, good rocking and rolling, man. It's a I, I was getting a little frustrated with the process of the, of the DC higher. I think that was probably my biggest complaint of the whole thing was feeling like we did.

5:31 We didn't get a whole lot of information throughout the process. And then when we finally got some leaks there at the end, they were all bullshit. So I think that kind of left a bad taste in, in everybody's mouths and kind of set us up for, you know, being a little bit underwhelmed initially until we learn more. And yeah, the the the more digging I've done, the the better I feel about this guy. Do we have two Matty BS in the chat or is it the same Matty B on a different platform? Whoa, whoa, hang on, hang on. I think it's same Matty B on a different platform, but I cannot confirm. I think it's the same if that's Matty B, is it the same Matty B this that's got, but it's a different Matty?

6:14 Yeah, it's got to be two. That's the same Matty. That's the same Maddie. It's. The same Maddie, same Maddie B. Different platform. Maddie, come to Atlanta. Come to Atlanta. Come to Atlanta, he's going to both of them. He's going to. Both of them eat wings. I'm. Telling them strip club. Eat wings. Nobody knows strip club now. I already told all the good wings. That's where a lot of good wings are. There's some other stuff in the strip club that you might not want to get involved in. Go listen to the Go listen to the the space the other day. I don't want to get us cancelled on here, but I'm just saying. Have you seen Hangover when they went to Bangkok in Atlanta? Just letting y'all know. There you go. How about this guys?

6:57 There you go. You watch you watch us on the big screen. But let's let's get into it and and I know people are putting out there who they thought it was. We won't we won't talk about that later, but let's do tonight. Let's talk about Sam Pronounce. Let's see how I do this. Let's see how many times I screw up Sam's name between now and the beginning of the season. It's not going to be the first night. Sam Cifkis nailed it. Nailed it. The first one for one. One for one, it ain't going to be like that for long. You all know that. Let's get a little background on him first of where he comes from. First of all, the guy's 33 years old. That is insanely young. So go to his background. He was a Division Three player defensive back, got hurt at University of Wisconsin lacrosse.

7:43 Then he became a student assistant coach 2011 to 2013. So tells you right there, student assistant, you ain't getting paid anything. It's AD three level. Brian can tell you about the conditions at the D3 level. Exactly, exactly. Pomp and circumstance. Now, now, now, the way they do D3 up there in in Wisconsin, a little bit different than Virginia, a little. Bit but still D3 from there and also during that time he actually got to do like an internship at Air Force strengthening conditioning coaching during the summer with the football team back in 2013 before he rejoined as a student assistant. 2014 he goes down to FIU quality control coach. 2015 he's Aga at Wisconsin. Couple big points here.

8:26 That was under Dave Aranda. If anybody knows college football the last two decades, Dave Aranda has been one of the better defensive coordinators in college football. He was now the head coach of Baylor 2015 and probably made the point today, and it's true. 2015 Wisconsin had the top defense in the country statistically. So say that what you will. From there he goes down to D2, University of Wisconsin Platteville as a defensive coordinator. Shelton's going to share some info on that in a little while here. From there, 2018 to 2020, he was in the Southern Conference, which Shelton knows all about. Shelton's got some other info on that as well. He loves the soap on, so he's got info on him there. He was a defensive coordinator.

9:06 First of all, I'm going to say something about this we can get into in a while. This guy at the age of 26, 26th, was the defensive coordinator in the FCS. 26 years old, OK, Doesn't matter what level it is. That's insane. He was there from 2018 to 2020. Defensive coordinator at Wofford. We'll get the data on that. Went to the Vikings in 2021 to 2022. His first year there. He was defensive quality control coach and then he became the assistance linebacker coach. We've got some info on that as well. And obviously, the last two years he has begin making his hay over at the Arizona Cardinals as the full time linebacker coach, as the head man in that room.

9:53 So let's talk about that background. Shelton, you got a lot to unload, so I want you to hold tight. Brian Talley feelings on just reading through the stuff and all that. Chris Lester, what's going on? Tally, I'll let you lead you. You got a lot off your chest last night. I'm going to let you kind of piggyback on that. Man, I my, my problem is that I ain't going to say problem, but I guess it's a good thing is that I talk to people before I talk or listen to people before I talk. So I get a little bit more information. And on the surface, it definitely pissed me off, mainly because of the process more than the person because I don't I don't I knew nothing about him. The main thing, and I think a lot of people were just like, who, who is this?

10:44 You know, it wasn't all he's going to suck or this is a bad hire. Some people's going to say that no matter who it was. I do know if Bateman, if, if we would have went after Bateman and got Bateman, that their fans were going to be happy. And some of our fans had already set their set their tweets up to to file off about how it was a horrible hire. So, yeah, the process was a little bit clumbersome to me, in my opinion. But I do feel like what you may talk a little bit later. I just feel like certain things what's going to happen, You know, this is prize for season or going into his fourth season, by all accounts, he's probably on the hot seat.

11:28 He should be. You got to win games in football. I think he does a great job at some things. Off season. He's been doing a great job portal, He's been doing a great job. He hadn't really messed with the portal. We probably talked about a little later too, some of the Senior Bowl stuff that we've seen, which has been been great for us. But I just don't feel like it was going to be the people that names were thrown out, weren't going to attach their jobs to a coach that they don't know who's going to be here. They don't know where this program is going. You know what I'm saying? Everybody, look, I think the world loves Virginia Tech as far as they want us to be good. Because when Virginia teams like Virginia Tech's good, college football's better. But when you start throwing out those big defensive coordinator names, it's like, come on, man.

12:18 Are they really going to attach their name to a coach that is pretty much unproven as a head coach? And we don't know how long that ship's going to sail. I don't know, man. I don't, I don't think that that's what it was. I just think that most people are going to use what they can for a paycheck. You know, they're going to boost their stock. I think Brian kind of talked about, which you probably will talk a little bit more. Agents do a great job as far as like with players as well, When they hear something or if they're offered something, they're going to let everybody know that, you know, no matter how big or small it is, so they can up to the next level because it's about money, you know, it's a job. So it's about money, it's about a job. And the main thing with me, once I sit back and talk to smarter people like Shelton, I was like, well, let me look at this hire and see what I think about it.

13:11 But I did know that I was frustrated with the process. Brian, how was you feeling? Yeah, I mean, and we've talked about it a lot. The process sucked. I mean, there's, there's really no other way to to phrase it. And I think, I think the part of the process is when it drags on that long and there's so little information that's coming out, everybody creates their own narrative. And then you hire someone that was a part of nobody's narrative, right? And so immediately you get a knee jerk of, like you said, Tally, who the hell is this guy? I haven't heard anything about him by default. That's probably not good, right? That that's like the mindset immediately, right? You go, you go right to that.

13:53 If I haven't heard of him, it's probably not a good hire. And then you start digging a little bit and you look at the resume, you look at what you know, what he's done, who he's done it with. Way more play calling experience than Marv coming in. And and you can say you know, UW, Platteville and Wofford all you want to, but call and plays Apples to Apples is called and plays you. Can do it or you can't. It, it matters, it, it's experience. I like it. And then to Tally's point as well, every place this guy has went and left fans, staff, everybody involved, you're hearing nothing but good things and, and disappointment that he's moving on to, to greener pastures.

14:42 And that's, that's the kind of guy you want a guy that left it better than he found it and the guy that, you know, people are, are sad to see go. So, you know, I think initially I was like, all right, y'all know, I'm, I'm not a knee jerk guy. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm going to gather my information. But at first I was like, all right, I need to do some digging here because I don't really know what to feel because I hadn't really heard this guy's name floated out there. I hadn't, I hadn't done enough research. I hadn't seen enough information. So upon digging some more, I feel a lot better. That's not to say this isn't a risky hire, at least in terms of some of the other names that were floated out there. But I think it's it's a definite improvement from Marv. And I think the ceiling is insanely high of what his potential could be, especially we can get the right personnel in the building either this year or early next year. All right before I give it to Sheldon, you got a lot to unload.

15:40 So I, I, I want to give you the full floor in a second here and I want to give my quick take because first of all, I was like tally me and tally got down the rabbit hole. I would send messages and be like Groundhogs day, like day 43. Y'all saw me tweeted the other day, day 43, it's Groundhogs day. We ain't got a defensive coordinator yet. So there's I'm like a split personality on this. I'm two faced from from Batman because on one side I am not overly excited about like his recruiting prowess because he really has not done it at the highest of levels. And also college accolades. No knock on the Socon. And yes, calling plays is calling plays, but he has not been at the collegiate level. And you can say what was it the NFL? And it's like, well, it's a different ball game. It's professionals who are getting paid. They can get their asses cut at any time versus an NIL that you have to pay the kid regardless.

16:34 So I was like, that's not the greatest piece. But then to Bronze point, I did a little further research. Shout out Dan Pulse, Me and Dan found some good stuff. Shout out our coach Robbie Compton, who had an interview from this guy back in 2000. I think it's either 19 or 20, talking about some philosophies and stuff. But when I started listening to that, started seeing those things, the first thing I can say is this, and I said it a few minutes ago, the age at which he got to the NFL is impressive. He got to the NFL at the age of 29. I don't care what you're doing. Before he was 30 years old, he was in an NFL building. By the time he was 31, he was a linebacker's coach. That doesn't happen usually.

17:21 If that it's nepotism, it's a Brian Schottenheimer to Kyle Shanahan. Papa's in the business. I'm going to get put in regardless. You normally don't see guys in their late 20s, early 30s being put in that position that quick. Usually you got to work 10-15 years, then you start getting there. The other thing was the scheme video. Y'all want to know what he's doing? Go look at my Twitter account today. I tweeted it out there 2 videos about this scheme. This scheme excites me. It truly does. It excites me not only from all the stuff you can do with it, but I've told these three guys sitting in here before we came on and I'll say it again, I think a scheme like this favors how we can recruit. How many times do we say, well, that guy's a tweener and that's not great.

18:08 There are some things with this defense. A tweener will work better than a full blown safety or a full blown defensive tackle. You know what? We actually need a guy who's a tweener to play big in when we play four eyes or something like that. Or we need a guy who's got some twitch, but he's got to be able to do things in linebacker Kane Bronze, we'll get into that a little bit later. That's what I'm excited about. South Shelton did his research and he's got a bunch of stuff. So Shelton, I'm going to give you the floor. Go for it. Yeah, well, I was doing some digging on Mr. Sikis, looking at some some events.

18:50 That's obviously, you know, the, the traditional metrics, I think kind of speak for themselves, you know, total defense, 3rd down conversion percentage. They were fourth in the country at Platteville in 2017. And you know, yards for rush, all that stuff, you know, is pretty good. But I got some SP plus rankings, advance stats for his teams when he coached, before he coached and after he coached at his respective schools. So let's start with Platteville. So it came on as DC in 2016. And just for the record, the conference that they play in the WIAC is a really competitive conference. Like it's probably close to the SEC of D3 at that level, just with how good Wisconsin and you know, the the the Midwest is a football at the at that level.

19:30 So lots of really good teams. But the year he took over the first year, they were 19th and SU plus on defense at that level. And then next year they're 22nd he leaves 2018 they dropped to 125th. So that's a 100 spot drop in a single season directly after after he leaves. So the the head coach at Platteville was a guy named Mike Emmendorfer. So he retired in 20/21 after a pretty successful stint. Overall record was about 500 but. That 2016, the 2016 team of Platteville was the only one of two playoff appearances they've ever had in school history.

20:11 So he played a big part of that apparently. You know, Emma Dorfer really just couldn't get the defense right after that 2017 season, and he eventually retired. They just weren't winning a ton of games. So I think it speaks positively about Seekhus that he was able to, you know, create a good defense and a situation where they really hadn't been all that good, you know, either after he was there or before he was there. So that's a big plus for him and he goes to Wofford. Now Wofford, as you guys know, historically was, you know, pretty good under Mike Ayers, who's sort of like the Mike Young of their football program LED them to a bunch of conference championships. He retired in 2017. So 2018 was the first year that Esikas was ADC there. So taking over a a first year staff, obviously some transition there. You know, that was right as the portal was starting. So they retained most of their teams of players and it was a pretty good defense that he inherited. But he's still able to keep it going for the most part. 13th in FC plus first year, then 20th and then 31st in that spring altered COVID season, which was, you know, obviously very difficult on those FCS teams that had to play in that season because they had lots of opt outs and, you know, some teams decided to quit, but, you know, kind of a chaotic situation. And then so 31st in 2020, next year he leaves. They dropped to 108th.

21:26 So that's a I'm trying to jump out my head 7777 spot drop. Now, Wofford had some issues. Granted, you know, their head coach did not turn out to be good. They kind of screwed up the offense and he got fired eventually. So you know, how much of that was solely due to him? I mean, you know, we don't know exactly, but we do know that he was really good when he was there and they're really bad in both spots after he left at both schools. So I think that speaks to kind of his track record of, you know, getting the most out of the talent that he has. And a couple other things that I heard from some insider connections I had. You know, I'm very well connected in the the coaching scene these days. Not really.

22:06 I just have a buddy who who worked on a on the staff of the Southern Conference rival when Cekis was at Wofford and he was at that school. And he said that the Vikings were really sad to lose him in 2022 when he left for the Cardinals. And they even tried to increase his pay, which is a very rare for an assistant linebacker's coach, does not happen often, usually. And they fail. They just, you know, they just let guys walk. And he also reportedly had a much higher degree of involvement with their defensive operations than you would typically expect for a coach of that stature. So on the whole, lots of really good things to think about Esikas I, I think as I, the more I learn about this hire, I think the more I, I feel good about it, I'd say. Yeah, I think, I think Sheldon right there the the, the two points you're making, especially it's the fall off right? Because, you know, we we all see that from time to time. Tally and Brian have played and seen it where good coach leaves shit sometimes ain't right.

23:06 It's just not right whatever reason for whatever. So thanks for bringing that up, Shelton, about how those teams effectively fell off a Cliff defensively after he left. And to that Wofford point, I mean, I know there was a lot of offensive issues teams, but I mean, Conklin was still a defensive minded head coach. So he he should have had a good grasp of, of where to go next. And and and to see that steep of a fall off is is pretty pretty staggering. Pretty, yeah. And they and they, they really haven't recovered at all like I was looking at. I mean, even if you look at some of their numbers since 2021, they really have not fielded a good defense since that year. So he was really kind of the last, the last true good defensive guy they had. 100%. All right, so we play this year, Curtis. Wofford.

23:56 Hopefully they still bad. Hopefully still bad. Hopefully he holds them to a goose egg on that Saturday in September. All right, something I mentioned in my little rant there and and it's probably been mentioned more than a few times and me and Brian talked about a little bit this afternoon is a likely a scheme change is going to come to Blacksburg. I think everybody saw the writing on the wall with some of the guys we got from the portal. But Brian, you, you, you looked at that video, you read a few things here and there. I know. And we're not going to get into the details because I think what we're going to probably have to do in a couple weeks here is look at our defensive roster and say who's going to play where in this scheme? But Brian, what can be expected or what do you expect him to bring in and how we going to look different next year? Yeah.

24:47 I mean, you know, you're looking at most of the schemes that he's ran have been multiple typically odd fronts and there's going to be a lot of three high safety looks. So what we're looking at is going to be some version of a of a hybrid or multiple 3335 defense, but with the so-called Jack backer that for the most part is going to act like a stand up defensive end in in most of the schemes there. So it it allows us to to really be flexible, especially in a conference that has a lot of air raid and a lot of big spread concepts that we're playing against it.

25:39 It lets us match up a whole lot better. I don't think we'll get RPO to death like we did in in a handful of games with with this type of scheme. It lets you get your best 11 on your best 11 without really having to do a ton of substitutions. It lets you do a whole lot of different things from pressure coverage, manipulating the box, and it's really hard to prepare for if you're an offense just because of how much, how many different alignments and assignments they have to account for. So I'm excited and I think the thing that stood out to me when talking about this, like I, I throw a lot of stuff out there and this is going to be a lot.

26:26 But he emphasized simplifying the concepts. I'll still being hard to prepare for and thinking of it from the philosophy of if it's game prep week and I've got my players asking me about our scheme, that's a problem. If, if it's game week and they're asking me about the opponent's scheme, I've done the right thing. So I, I, I think that that's, that's the mindset that he's coming at. This is is keeping it simple while still being complex and hard to prepare for. Tally anything from Scheme. Not really man.

27:08 I've just been kind of taken in. I was kind of thinking where we would add, you know, like the the ginger freak when we got him. I can't, I don't know the kids name, but just kind of him just kind of thinking about what we would add him on the defense once we got him, seeing how productive he was there to when he's coming here. But then when you start talking about a scheme similar to what Brian's talking about and Sheldon's talking about like it makes sense that you have a linebacker defensive end hybrid, because it's like, does that guy going to put his hand in the ground? Is he going to stand up? Well, you know, this scheme kind of changes things a little bit. So I don't know, I think it, I think it, I think it's exciting, at least you know what I'm saying.

27:55 It gives us something to look forward to because what we what we seen last year was, I mean, there was some excitement there, but it wasn't exciting. So another thing, yeah. So another thing to to add on to that too, is the strength and conditioning piece. You know, we've got a new strength and conditioning coach here at Ferguson. So we've had, I think it's kind of been split, man. I just kind of read the room and see what other people have to say. Like I said, I mean, y'all know I'll talk. I do like to listen as well. And it's kind of been a split reaction. Some people say, you know, this was a lazy hire.

28:37 I ain't going to call them names, Pete. Some people say that this is a really good hire. And, you know, from inside the building, I feel like the players have really respected him and really taken to this. And it's been some change, which is a good thing. You know, it's got to be changing the way you prepare. It's got to be changing the way that you you go at game day. If you continue losing by 1 score and the conditioning piece, you know, if we're getting to end the games, we can't get people on the ground. We got to figure out exactly what we need to do strengthen conditioning wise.

29:19 It's going to help that. So I think that was a big hire. I think that was a big piece that needed to be filled, so I'm interested to see how this is going to all play out. Hold on, wait a second. Let me put this up real quick. Just. Saw I definitely read it all wrong A. Lot of people said that. When I when I looked over there I definitely read that wrong. I thought that said better than Batman. That, that might be a bridge too far, man. That might. You know, it's hard to be better than Batman. We'll we'll get back a little bit more on the first thing I want to get Shelton.

30:00 Shelton, what about you in this scheme, you know, did you get a chance to look data points or anything like that with this sort of, I don't know what you call it. It's it's just a unique scheme. Yeah. I mean, I don't really know about the intricacies of the scheme. I do know they've typically been a pretty good third down defense under him and he talked about that in the podcast that Brian referenced. They were, they were fourth in the country and 3rd down defense in 2017. And, you know, generally pretty good most seasons. But I, I do think, you know, kind of what Brian was saying about the simplicity point, like he talked about just, you know, making it as black and white as possible, Meaning, you know, you're teaching players to kind of read and react based on what they see.

30:43 So, you know, if a run goes one way, you react that way. If it goes this way, you do that just so that players aren't, you know, kind of getting their, their hands and their feet, you know, and their, and their brains tied up. I think that's, that's really good. I, I really like kind of just the stuff that you had to say about, you know, the principles that, you know, he, he operates by and just making sure that players focus on their technique. Because as we've seen, you know, it's very easy for linebackers to miss their assignments. If you're not teaching the concepts right, then players don't understand what they're supposed to do. You got to teach the concepts first, the fundamentals first, and then everything kind of filters down down through that. So it seems to me like he's got, he's got a really good grasp of how to be an effective teacher. Yeah, and something he said and I, I listen to that podcast as well.

31:26 And again, Brian mentioned it, shout out Robbie, who is on here tonight with us. He, he, he found it for us and sent it over so we could listen to it. The the one thing from that that really caught my eye, it was 2 pieces. The first one was the way he talked about every week you have ABCA hear the concept they do the most. This is the, this is what we're going to focus on. I think he said probably 60% of the time, I don't know if y'all remember, he's like, hey, this is what they do the most, This is what they run the most. Here's concept B like this. We are, we are going to know in and out because effectively Brian mentions it, Cali said it, Shelton has said it. That's their bread and butter. They're going to run this. It don't matter.

32:07 Give a damn who they play, what looks we give, they're going to run this. Then he talks about B and he says we're going to look at this in like 30% of the time. He's like, we know they run this occasionally, but we can't be heavily focused on that. But he says we still have to pay attention to it. And then and he said something like maybe 1015 * a game, they'll run these plays. The last one. He says they might run these plays one to three times a game. And I love what he said. He says this last little piece. So he's building, right? I mean, graining what they're going to do a lot. I'm going to layer the next one. And he said the last one, these ones where they won one to three times, one they might pull out on you the trick, play something slick. He's like, I look at this last, this is a Friday night walkthrough. This is the last thing I look at. And when I think philosophy and skiing, it's like a building basically saying, if we know these plays, we can stop this and this.

33:01 And I mentioned this to you at the last possible second. This is ingrained. This is ingrained. If they try to pull one of these slick plays, I just mentioned it to you less than 12 hours ago, it's probably going to be something you remember versus trying to tell you something to remember from the bread and butter, which should already be in ways. And I like the way this and it talks about, it's a common way that they break down the high school. It's simplifying things. Let the guys play right, simplify, make it easy. Let them go out there and play. Let's talk about this real quick. Go ahead.

33:41 Inside linebacker? No. Big nickel? Probably. Who you talking about? Oh, this right here. Yeah, yeah. OK, you so you're talking about some of that. He's, he's essentially going to be one of those, one of those box safeties. The, the, the, the big nickel here. In my opinion, I think you need to, when you look at inside linebackers, I think you're going to be looking probably at Woodson at this point, Bass probably playing the other spot there. And then we, you know, we talked about Jonkum probably sliding in there at the Jack backer.

34:26 It's going to be interesting to see where the other spots in the in the safety room shake out. But yeah, I, I peg Caleb Spencer for being a big nickel in this in this scheme. Well, that, that's some me and me and Brian. Actually I, I talked to him at lunchtime today. We were both doing our power walks and like, that's what we've got to figure out. And probably in a few weeks, probably through conversation. If we can get sheltered in here, great. If we can't, yes, probably not. That's what happens. I had to get some laundry done today and unfortunately I didn't throw them out of the picture.

35:06 My wife is going to be horrified when she sees this. So everybody remember if I'm in trouble in the next few weeks, but that's him. Going to be on your ass tomorrow. She is. She really is. She's like 295 people saw your laundry I'm going to be getting. It more than that by the time it's all said and done, a whole lot more than that. But but either way, that's what we've got to look at as we get into the next few weeks is once he's in and once we also know who the other coaches is because it was said today and I'm going to get to the other piece that was said today as well. We're not quite done yet. We're not done with the shuffle.

35:50 I know y'all all heard it and you know what I think is going to happen and y'all come back. I, I, I, I do believe that there is going to be a new safety coach. I do not think Pearson Fraley will leave the program, but again, he was in a player personnel role before they got put in a pinch. Pearson's a loyal guy. But I think we're going to have a safety coach hopefully by the end of this week. But, you know, maybe like 46 days from now, spring ball starting. I, I, I think that's the most obvious move. I think the other thing you got to look at is. Who's on the road? Who's on the road, who's actually coaching linebackers day-to-day?

36:34 Because we know that it sounds like Sam's not going to have his own room. He's obviously going to have a heavy influence in the linebacker room, but I don't. Obviously, he's not going to be assigned as the position coach to that room. Is, is, is Quinn sliding in? Is ADB taking over? Are we bringing in two guys on defense? What's this going to look like? We still have a little over what, $800,000 potentially to play around with it sounds like. More because what you got to think of Brian is if Prelo leaves, takes a less role in a cut. Yeah, I think he's making three and a quarter. So reality is you have about 1.2, maybe more. I guess it depends on where that gets allocated, but yeah, I mean I will.

37:21 Use all the money. Yeah, Yeah, you got it, you need it. Go ahead and spend it. So that that brings him to the question, you know is, is this going to be AI guess? I guess the question is going to be, do you still look at a John Scott junior and does he just work with outside linebackers? He's coached outside linebackers in the past. He's been primarily with defensive ends. I don't know.

38:04 I I'm very intrigued to see what the other staff moves are going to be, even though I do think safety is probably the the one that we we're definitely going to get in this move. Tally Sheldon. Any feels on that? Yeah, I can't think about no more coaching moves. I just got to sit back and let them, let them do what they do. I can't even rack my brain about it. I just need them to make some good decisions and put put something good together so we can win. I need, I need to go to Atlanta and win. So. He needs to go to Atlanta and y'all remember that? Y'all remember that? Let's go back to the what you brought up before because it was not announced the last time we were here.

38:45 But with FUR taking over the strength and conditioning program, I know some people were like, oh, well, that's just an inside move. And it's really not because Dege had his own philosophy on how to train and it was not from the school that FUR came from. So it is a different mentality. And Brian, which one of y'all said something was either Tally or Brian that mentioned some couple weeks ago about you can have your own philosophies and you can work with someone in that field, but you still have your own philosophies of how doing things. True.

39:30 Was it you tally? Would you be? I don't know, I think, I think we just kind of brought it up. I can't remember who exactly brought it up, but yeah, no, I I agree. And sometimes like, I mean, there's ideas that I have, but if my boss don't bring them up, I can't just go in and implement them. You know what I'm saying? Like there's a pecking order. So I'm sure that it was things for him to, and I'm sure they had to do some interviewing, you know what I'm saying? Like there was some he didn't just say, OK, we're going to give you the job. Like I'm sure it was other people that they reached out to and interviewed and things like that. And they pretty much looked at, you know what, what do we need and who can be the one to help us get there as quickly as possible.

40:22 And sometimes it's just love, and sometimes it's just the person who's willing to put in the most time. You know, and just get as deep into the job as they can before it's done. And somebody who's been there and understands what the culture needs to get back to. Sometimes it's because, again, we weren't far off on a lot of stuff, you know, not making excuses, but it's like if, if we can shore up those small things, the big things will happen on on Saturday nights and Sundays and Tuesdays or Thursdays, whatever nights they got us playing now. But yeah, I think I'm just from, from what I've heard and I, I'm again, I'm just a fan.

41:08 He's came in and he's done some things that no other strength and conditioning culture has been doing. You know what I'm saying? Walking in, saying this ain't play time, Turn the radio off, let's get the lifting. We going to get stronger. We going to be serious about this. You know, little stuff like that sometimes is what a team needs, you know, to find those leaders. Sometimes you got to push people too close to the breaking point to figure out who's going to grab the people up and bring them along as well. And I think that's what we kind of missed last year, you know, some leaders on the field and some people that were able to finish. So I'm hoping that that's what Ferg brings to to the team as a whole. Bron.

41:56 Yeah. I think just in general, like, like Tally's point there. Yeah, I think with Ferguson's toughness and the the he's been exposed to kind of two or three different ways of doing the job at this point. And I think he understands that one of those we saw a lot of success, especially with the way we prepared athletes for the field. And I think so he I think we're looking at more of a, a Gentry model. I feel like that that is what he's going to lean on when it comes to strength and conditioning with a little bit of modernization, right? It's it's still going to have some more more modern concepts, but I think at some point you still got to get back to the bread and butter of what made this program great and what what we saw success at.

42:54 You know, I think he's going to give us that. I think I think the big thing is going to be the the conditioning piece, because this team definitely looked like they faded in fourth quarters pretty consistently, both on both sides of the ball, but particularly on defense. Yeah, I, I, I don't think we're going to be in a situation where that's going to be a problem with the Jarrett Ferguson in that position. And I'll say this too, just because it's been so long since I've really been into like a locker room where I had to do some stuff. You know, I'm old man. I don't, I don't care about doing that stuff. But going through the stuff with my son and watching what is said about their strength and conditioning coaches and how they feel about their coaches and things like that, it's a big deal.

43:41 Because like his basketball team has a strength and conditioning coach and it's like everybody looks to him. Even during the game when things go a little bit awry, they like they look to Coach B to settle things down or to, is it OK for me to get amped up? You know what I'm saying? Just because they're with him so much and he's with them during those grueling times that the players kind of look at him as a, you know, a go to figure, you know, because he's not the head coach, but he's the strength and conditioning coach sets the tone. So a lot of times he's and he's at every game. He's, you know, he doesn't have any kids on the team. It's his job is just to to to coach them in the weight room. But he's at every basketball game and he's constantly talking to players and he's constantly telling them things that can help them get better from a strength and conditioning point. So sometimes it's not XS and OS that he's saying about the actual sport.

44:43 He's talking to them about what he coaches them in. So if somebody's invested like that on the sidelines, like I think Fergie is, I think that it's definitely going to going to help a lot. So again, I think Chris put up something, said it's different than that. I mean, Chris has a a son on the team. So I'm sure he can attest a little bit better than we can of what goes on in there. But not just Chris, you know what I'm saying? That's other players and parents that I've talked to that have raved about some things that Fergus done. So I just want to get to a third quarter or fourth quarter and get the quarterback on the ground. Good play call, be strong enough, be disciplined enough to get the quarterback from Miami on the ground and let's go win the game.

45:29 I want to be able to do that. I want to see the players do that all. Right, Shelton? Anything on Berg? Anything like that? I mean nothing specifically really. I would just say, you know, in my experience, you know, straining, initiating coach, like every other coach, it all starts with relationships. You have to show that you you care about the players as people to get the most out of them. And so I think that, you know, the bond that you have with them is the foundation for everything else that you can accomplish. So it's not just about, you know, what's what's my workout or what's my routine like you got to show that you care about them to get the most out of them. And that's, you know, obviously the most most important thing you got to, you know, find the balancing part between, you know, tough love, but also, you know, holding them accountable and, you know, showing appreciation for the same time.

46:14 There's always a a balancing act there between not being too soft, but nothing too hard either. You know, what I I've read about, you know, the some of those SEC coaches under, under Nick Saban, the job that they did, you know, being, you know, so, so widely respected in the program. Just, you know, how much time that the athletes spend with those strength coaches is really critical. I mean, it's it's a critical part of the part of the program. So again, I can't speak to, you know, Farragut and his specific traits, but hopefully they can get someone in there. They're really just, you know, again, can you know, just hold them accountable. Yeah, you, you just said it and Brian put it up there with the, Robbie says the guys do spend a, a ton of time with the strengthening conditioning coach because it's, as we know, winter workouts start soon. They're with them more than anybody here. They're within their summer workouts. They're with them in the in the locker room getting treatments and all that stuff.

47:02 So with that staff more and more. But I think going back to the Ferguson mentality, AI think a couple people have said if a guy don't look like Jerry Ferguson in your strengths in the conditioning room, then that ain't your strengths and conditioning coach. Because you look at him, he is a big SOB. He played mean, he played hard. He was a, he was the last of one of the full backs way back in the day in the early 2000s. But I also think Brian, you mentioned he's been through several strength and conditioning coaches. So obviously it's picking up extra things. But the thing that made getting gentrified was it was what Tally has mentioned it was. We got late deep in the games and guys still had the energy level to get to quarterback on the ground to make that run. I'll always go back, go back 2009, close your eyes, go back to Alabama.

48:00 When Brian, when Ryan Williams broke that big one like that was late third quarter and he exploded away from basically an NFL defense. Why? Because to tallies point, to Brian's point, to Shelton's point, he was conditioned, he was ready to explode like that late third quarter, not the early part of the game, late third quarter. So there, that is right there. All right, you mentioned Brian a few minutes ago. It's kind of a talking point. It looks like he's going to be ADC only. That will all to me. That's all going to fall out in the next few weeks with additional hires in the reshuffling of the staff. So we'll probably talk a little bit more about that at a later time, but I want to let's just be straight up on this and I don't know how many other people will talk about it, but I do want to talk about it. What option was saying, because I'll give pry credit and he didn't say it, but he said, hey, we had a guy catching in the national championship game that we had interest from. We know he want one.

49:08 Was he 2? Was he 3? Was he 4? Was he one? What do y'all think? What do you think? I'll I'll pitch it back to you first. Where do you think he was? I mean, based on what I'm reading, I would say anywhere from 3:00 to 5:00. I mean, I know they went in Knowles. I know you know, they're looking at Bateman. And it seemed like Bateman was a guy for a little bit of time. I don't know where. I mean, look, Price in his press conference today, they initially had a list of about 20 candidates. So they kind of they're down to 10. And that's when they started doing the very Thor research. They started doing those, you know, 4 hour interviews with all those candidates. So out of the pool of 10, I'd say he's probably top five, but I I don't know where exactly in that pecking order he was specifically. Tally Brown Y'all got a feeling on this? No, I kind of, I kind of go with, Shelton said. I was thinking he probably was in that, you know, three to five range somewhere around there just because like I said, of course, I mean the big names is probably out there when some people say no, some people say banks. And again, I don't know these people. I just I mean, I know the defense when I watch football, but I don't know these people until people start telling me their names.

50:17 Derek just put in the chat that Seth Wallace from Iowa, I don't know him, you know what I'm saying? I know I was defense, but I don't know none of these people. So I just know kind of what I've heard of people. And I feel like once we talked about it, once we looked at things, there's no way that Bateman was the choice on when, when did he announce this month? Yesterday. Yesterday. So there's no way that Bateman was the choice on Sunday night and then we hired Sam Monday. It just don't, it can't be, it don't make sense. Like when you're doing all the research and then you know, how did you get the stuff in place that quickly?

50:59 I don't know. I just don't think that I think it was a little bit more thorough than us as fans know it. Just when you're not right, you probably get a little bit upset because you want to be the one to break the news or know a little bit more or just want to be in the know. Just wanted it to happen. So again, it is a very wait and see type hire. Some people thought that I probably would be a little upset on him, which I'm not. I mean, again, everybody kind of knows how I feel. I haven't heard this. I think it all goes back to the head coach. I don't think that, yes, you do have to make some good coaching hires, but I think that if Pry elevates his game this offseason as a coach, then the team will be fine.

51:43 I think that we get some of those games that we lose if the head coach elevates his game, so that's kind of how I feel. I can agree with that. I think, you know, looking at options, I'd say 3 or 4. I don't think it's probably lower than that. I don't know where the Bateman smoke came from, if that was just a play by Bateman's agent to get some some smoke out there to help with everything that's going on with the A&M situation. I I don't know. But to Tally's point, I don't think it was Bateman Sunday night and then Sam Monday afternoon.

52:23 So whether we think there was some other guys in that mix. I mean, I know Derek said, you know, Seth Wallace, we obviously think Jim Knowles at this point. You know, we heard we heard banks early that kind of, you know, if we talk about, you know, Allen was really the the the the first movement that kind of started the trickle down effect with everything else. So yeah, I mean, these like blue blood or borderline blue blood programs shuffling defensive coordinators in what I, you know, I think a lot of people felt were pretty comfortable positions. You know, you usually don't have a national championship defensive coordinator going to a in conference rival just for some more money.

53:11 So that's that's an interesting look. But it apparently, you know, Knowles was going to be the fall guy after Michigan or so the the the story is going and all of a sudden they're going to run and the rest is history. So he ends up getting a a bigger payday instead of, you know, getting shown the door. So that's interesting And and I'm sure that played some of the roles in in kind of what we were dealing with there. But you know, again, I'm not disappointed that with the higher that we have, I think it's one of those where, you know, you see the potential maybe in other areas. When you look at Knowles defense, it's a it's a base for two, but they play a lot of that three high safety. There's there's a lot of lot of different, you know, similar schemes, even though, you know, the the base alignment is a little different, right.

54:01 So I mean, it's, it's we, we definitely had a very intentional hiring process for this defensive coordinator with what we wanted to do from a personnel standpoint. So I like that. That that's the truth. And and I'm with Shelton, I want to probably put it 4:00 to 5:00 because I do think, I mean, the rumors are flying out there that Ryan Day was going to axe Jim Knowles, even though that defense was really good this year. Apparently they had butted heads on shit. And you heard Knowles that if they had lost to Tennessee, the Knowles thing was going to be done. Maybe, maybe not, you don't know, but it's early in the process. And then you hear Banks.

54:45 I personally, everybody says we had Banks. Like, no, we didn't tally you with me on this. Me and Tally talked about it. Banks came here because he knew they can offer me blah, blah, blah. And I'm going to go back to Tennessee and say they just offered me blah, blah, blah. Where do you go off me? And what did he get? Oh, wow, he got a $2.1 million brand new contract. I wonder how that happened. It's a game people just because you think somebody's coming, they playing games out there with the money, the Seth Wallace, the Tom Allen, but I think he was somewhere 4th to 5th. Again, I think pride his head has this envision of doing the three high safety look because we probably can recruit better to it.

55:26 And he laid out some guys where, hey, they're running something similar that might fit this. I can recruit to this and I can land one of these five or six guys. Yep, put yeah, put gems up there. Yeah, banks definitely used us as leverage 100%. So yeah, I mean, again, I don't think this was off the radar completely to us. It was because we know names. Right, that's we were looking conventional we were looking. Conventional. That's a great way to say it. Brown, we were looking conventional. All right, let's roll on and let's talk about the portal because y'all, we weren't done Tally. We went through like 19 guys last time we thought we were done with the portal Shelton, I won't bring you in on this combo. I know recruiting you don't follow anymore but. For the sake of my mental health, yes. He's got to take a break.

56:19 On some part of. That let's talk about this. Let's talk about the two guys we got. I want to start with Ben Bell, the Texas State transfer, one of the higher recruited transfers that we got out of it. It looked like he was going to go to Ole Miss, but for somehow, some reason, some way, some shape from form, we pull him out. We got the ginger gang. Now all the redheads. He looks like Andrew Parent. I don't care what Andrew Parent tries to say. That might be his kid from an illegitimate relationship. He he was busting that one out early, then you.

57:00 Damn right. And that is what it is. But any thoughts on this guy? I mean, he was pretty highly thought of at the beginning of the season. The Red Sea. The Red Sea. All right, if if they can get 30 sacks combined, we'll call them the Red Sea. But y'all, Brian Talley, whoever wants to go first, what do y'all do? Y'all look at Bell. What do y'all see from him? What do you like? Bill's just got a motor man. He's got a great motor. I don't think he didn't play much in this season. So looking looking last season because I know I think he didn't play so he could red shirt. So because he knew he wanted to get out. But again, high level player does have some production graded out really well in most people who watching him play.

57:53 So I'm interested to see what he brings. Just bring some toughness too. You know what I'm saying? Anytime, like anytime you got a white dude with red hair that's playing on the defensive line or close around the line, then he's probably going to be good. So being Bill is if you go watch his tape, you can watch just a little bit of what he does and he's going to fly off the tape just of his motor and how he how he he's trying to get to the ball. Like he's not trying to take a double team just to to free somebody else up. He's trying to beat it. He's trying to get to the ball. So I'm excited to see what he can bring to the defense. He's he's got that those, those crazy eyes that you like to see in a defensive lineman, like when they when they kind of that, that, that almost like the shark eyes, like when they smell blood in the water.

58:42 Like he's he's got those type of eyes in intensity about him when he plays. I'm excited. I think it's good skill set. I think it matches. It would have been, it would have been good in what we were doing. It's going to I think be great in what we're moving to. So I'm really excited. And tell you made the point about like, what did he do? He he only played four games this year in four games, 1313 tackles, 6 for loss, 3 1/2 of those were sacks. Also forced to fumble in four games. And this is something we're going to see.

59:23 There's going to be guys who were down at G5 that know I can get money somewhere else. I might not make it in the league, but I can make 6 figures for one year. What? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a good one tally. That was a good one. Jumping Guy in 2023 was an absolute monster. 57 tackles, 10 sacks, 16 tackles are lost. A forced fumble. Like in play the crazy eyes 100%. All right, let's flip to the other guy that we got here coming out of Coastal Carolina with Braden Bennett.

1:00:04 Braden's old. I feel, I think Brain's, I think Brain's a COVID guy, so he's been here a while. But anything you'll see like locks, all statistics and stuff like that because it's a good late pick up. 622262215 that that's enough as a running back, right? We I'll take it production. I think he had about 900 yards this past year and that's what we need, the last thing we need. And I know a lot of people were asking questions and again, I know that y'all watch the game. Nobody in the chat. Maybe I'm just talking to some people on Twitter that don't watch the games. But again, I know that all of us watch the games. You never want to be in a position where you cannot run the ball at all.

1:00:57 When we played against Clemson, we we would, we didn't even attempt to run the ball. You just can't win. One reason was our running back was hurt, then RB, one was hurt, then RB2 was hurt, and then we had a young guy that I think fumble that the coaches were scared. So you got to be able to run the ball, man. And that's part of the reasons why the defense was put in bad positions is because we couldn't finish certain drives. It's what I get so pissed about with the offense going back to last year. But anyway, great pick up to have AI think what James said in here like a third down back, you know, and I think that I have to go look at the stats, but I think he was good at catching the ball out of the backfield as well. So you do want, I mean, you're bringing in two guys that have been there who's already had some production, who's played at a high level in Stewart and in in Bennett. And you want to be able to get them in games and let's see who gets hot.

1:02:00 Because it's a slippery slope when you're dealing with stuff like the portal and recruiting and bringing people in. But then you go and look at Ohio State who had a beast of a running back in Trayvon Henderson. And then they go get a beast of a running back from Ole Miss and Junkman, like 1 running back just can't do it. You got to be able to have options and you got to account for injury. So I'm excited that they did go out and get him. I I don't understand, like I was thinking when we got him, like what, why like not why did we get it, but like why is he still there for us? You know, I thought that would have been a little bit, but you just it's part of recruiting, man.

1:02:43 And it's still it's still players that want to play for Virginia Tech. You just got to find them and you got to have something to to draw them in and want to come here and I'm trying to read while I'm talking and Josh just put up some good, he said. Bennett had 25 catches for 188 yards and two touchdowns. Thank you. At at six two, you know, 220, you know that that's that's what we want. And then also, you know, I know we've already talked about seldom coming in, who's played some running back, but probably going to be more of like a slot widely with some kind of like a Debo Samuel Samuel setup. But you can never have too much production. So I'm I'm all about it. I think Sheldon had something that he wanted to throw in. Sheldon, what you got, buddy?

1:03:31 Yeah. So my understanding is Terry on Stewart isn't quite as well-rounded as facial tune was in terms of just, you know, pass blocking and pass catching. So I think what they wanted to do adding Bennett was get, you know, just just add some more bodies there and kind of have it be more of a bike committee approach, you know, because Bennett's got some decent numbers, not necessarily, you know, eye popping, but, you know, he's a pretty solid, you know, explosive guy. But they just want some more, some more options there for for their third down, you know, personnel selection in particular. Brian, anything on Braden Bennett as we wrap up the portal section here? Yeah, I think to to Sheldon's point, you know, getting that insurance policy and having a guy that you can trust on 3rd downs is always going to be important, whether you're using that person out of a backfield or whether you're you're keeping them in there to block.

1:04:21 Having someone that you can count on the rely on on 3rd down is so important when it comes to pass protection. So that's going to be a big point. And I think that's where you'll see Bennett shine with that size, the ability to to to pass block, but still being a productive receiver out of the backfield. All righty, let's roll on just a few more notes before we look at the schedule for a few minutes here. Jordan Bass love it. Have mercy. Now, in some cases, some people are saying this is good. You need some stupid ones and crazy ones out there because you got to balance everybody. Can't be a choirboy football, but it was it was report. I think it was on January 5th because I went back and looked into some record.

1:05:15 There was a DUI by the by Virginia Tech police on that day. Then just a few weeks later pops out. But Lord have mercy, could you have waited like this summer? Could you have waited till summer? He should have waited till just after the spring game like 420 right? No, he needed to go ahead and get it out of his system. Now, from my from my understanding, he's hurt anyway. So I think Bass is going to be real limited in the spring. Not that doesn't. I ain't saying that that makes a difference that he should go and get in trouble. But I don't think this is I mean, he wasn't going to be able to do much in the spring anyway. So sometimes you got to, you know, you got to start a a villain art, you got to have a villain origin story. So if this is what it takes for you to get serious, you know, you just transferred you coming back home and then you go and you get in trouble.

1:06:18 So now you know it's serious. You know, these kids all want to get NIL. They want to be able to take care of the families and get money. But there is stipulation that comes along with that. There's some, you know, some some grown upness that comes along with having a job. This is treated as a job now because you're getting paid. So I'm not saying that I'm glad it happened, but if it's going to happen, I think now's the time so we can get on track to spin it into something positive. And again I'm going. To say this hold on so firkin work his ass and a little bit of extra for the stupidity. And then I'll say this, I don't smoke.

1:06:58 It's weed, man, You know what I'm saying? It's weed. Nobody's ever nobody, nobody's ever got high and drove a car 100 miles an hour. You probably got high and drove a car 10 miles an hour. I'm just saying you're probably going under the speed limit instead of over it. So I'd rather you be smoking and driving than drinking and driving. Don't do neither one of them if it's any kids out there, but I'm just saying them Georgia players was getting behind the wheel of cars and they was getting all kinds of stuff from here and they were still playing. So let's just go ahead and let's get past this and and let's not let's not get in trouble no more everybody else. Let's let's let's keep it straight. Yeah, there we go.

1:07:41 I real quick. It was announced spring game April 12th IMTBD tally. Haven't even thought about it yet. I don't know. Hopefully, hopefully I can make it. It's always fun to go to the spring name. My wife likes to go. We usually stay in Bristol, go to the casino a little bit, then drive up. So I don't know man. I'm going to try to, I'm going to try to. I'm going to try my best. Even better, Tal, it's a 3. It's a late pick this year so that gives you time to go gamble off Friday night, get a little nap, wake up by 9, be in town by 11 and you still can tailgate and everything. Shelton, I don't know what the schedule looks like or is there a potential you could be there the 12th or is it a no go? There's potential.

1:08:29 OK, OK. There's potentially potential. There's potentially potential, Brian. I'm there. I'm already booked. I'm I booked before the announcement came out so. Was April 12th? Is that what you said, April? 12th. Yeah. OK. We might be able to slide through that. We'll, we'll be coming back from the cruise. I'll have a week at work and then I'll head down to head down to Blacksburg baby. You'll hey you go Brian, you will have a week to convince my wife to let me go that weekend. Yeah, I'm. I'm going to be the pitch man. I'm. Going to be the pitch man all the. Way or you going to put Andrew you. Going to call Andrew, be like go go go pitch to Kim.

1:09:12 Y'all going to be in that? Y'all going to be in that tiny room four weeks she going to be itching for you to get out of her hair I promise you. Cruise rooms. We got. Hold on. Real quick, get out. We got some friends of ours going that I kid you, they've got a teenage daughter and a son that's a little bit younger than me and Brian's kids. They just wouldn't get 2 separate rooms. Mom and dad, daddy, dad, dad and son staying in one Mom and dog staying in. I'll tell you, man, we went the last year we went on a cruise. It was my son's first cruise and we got 2 rooms, but my daughter and her friend went in one room and then my son stayed in the room with me and my wife and we'd never seen it. We'd never seen it. I wish he was that way while he was at home.

1:09:54 He would get up, he would wake himself up and he would be out of the room at like 6:30 in the morning. He was going and eating lunch with people. I mean eating breakfast with, with little girls and their families. And I would just get random pictures of people, like snapping pictures and be like, Hey, did you know he was over here? He was going and playing basketball early in the mornings. And then he'd be like, Hey, how like, you know, stay out. We going, we all going to get pizza because they'll have on the cruise we was on. The big thing was pizza late at night, so. That's what we. Heard too. They were all yeah, they were all out eating pizza at 2:00 in the morning until they. So we never seen him, you know, not saying that you still don't need no space, but for for me, I was like, I kind of like this. He's here, but he ain't here, so I'm gonna let him do a thing. There we go, all righty.

1:10:41 So as always, we are brought to you by the Count Family Pharmacy, Friendly Neighborhood Pharmacy, 301 S Main St. in Blacksburg. Go check Jeremy out, check Jeremy's podcast Blacksburg on the Rock with Paul Van Wagner, formerly of ESPN Blacksburg. But Tally, you hit me up today and told me a little something because if y'all did not see ESPN put out just a little earlier today the top 100 games of 2024 college football edition, Tally was teasing me and asking. So Tally, I'm going to put this on you. How many games did the Hokies have in the top 100 this year? I just looked at the one, they may have one more, but I know they had one and it was at 7 and it was the Miami game, the Miami Virginia Tech game.

1:11:32 And I just thought, I wonder what Curtis, when I first seen that, I said, I wonder what Curtis thinks about us losing this game and them cheating us and it turning up to be the number 7 best game of the year. So Curtis, you was my first thought when I seen that. That was your first thought, because you know you're going to make me mad about that. It was my first thought it. It it it yeah, there we go. We got ho that's the honest to God truth. But it was a great game, That game on that Friday night AI think the numbers were like 4 million. It was like one of the highest rated Friday night games ever. 4 million's a ton of people for a Friday night game and it was a great game. But whatever you want to say.

1:12:17 I was pissed about the iPhones because we did get screwed calmer bit them in the ass against Syracuse later in the year if they deserved it, but it should have happened to us. But it was truly a great game. I mean from beginning to end, you know, it had all the drama, it had stops, it had go ahead scores, it had comeback and then the crazy shit at the end. It's some I don't know is if it's, you know, maybe it should have been top five, but I'd have to go through everything. Sheldon, do you Sheldon, I feel like you have that, don't you? Did we have any the the you had? And I think David Hale wrote it the top 100 games of the year. Let me find it because I think.

1:13:01 We're no, I don't have it linked. You don't have it linked. Let me try to find it because I think someone said that the Syracuse game is on there. It might have been on that, too. I know, I know. The first thing that caught my eye was the Miami game. And what I remember about the Miami game is that this is even though we lost, this is what Virginia Tech looks like. Like we looked like a football team that was poised to take the next step. You know what I'm saying? Now you win that game, you definitely feel better about taking the next step. But just the from the way that we, you know, came out and was chirping at their players.

1:13:48 I mean, it's the NFL players over there. We we chirping back at them. They're chirping. And it was a true rivalry. You know what I'm saying? Like even I told people when they said when they took the Miami game away, I was like, that's the that's the real rivalry. Like Miami was the first team I've seen Virginia Tech play against in person. And it's, it's electric, man. Like, not that the fans don't like each other, but they like, that's a real game where they really, they respect each other, but they want to beat each other, you know? Like it was Miami fans there that we talked to and it was just like they wanted to win. And it's always like that, you know, we talked about UVA. Yeah, it's a rivalry. But is it, is it really a rivalry? You know what I'm saying?

1:14:32 It's like when you push the special kid down out of his wheelchair so many times, like come on, man, like are you going to keep doing that? Are you all right with that? Or you or you really, you know, you're going to you're going to stand up to somebody, just punch it back. You actually in a in a in a 12 round bout. That's what I like to see. But I would have really liked for us to win that game. I feel like if we catch that ball, that game goes a little bit. Higher, we did catch that ball. We did catch that ball. I don't know man. You like David Cole? We caught that ball, too. I don't even want to think about it, but. He he knows what to get me going about. Yeah.

1:15:12 I'll just say this year, I'm hoping that we end up on the top 100 games and we're coming on we we coming on, on, on the on the top end of it. Now I will tell you this, Curtis, I'll bring you this. It says the Vandy game was on that too. So the number one game of the season was Vandy versus Alabama. No. That's what they that's what they put, that's what. ESPN put I like Bill Collier stupid the game of the year. I like Bill. Collier, that's stupid. What's who? Georgia Tech, Georgia. I think that was probably like four. Yeah, I. Think that that should have been one. That game was unreal.

1:15:52 I think I know the Vandy Alabama game was higher. That was 5. That was five, OK. And then the the scataboo coming out party in the playoffs was like 2. Yeah. So which that was a that was a freaking good game, man. Oh, that was three. OK, Yeah, that was 22. Was Bama Georgia one back in September? I don't even remember that game. That's. That was an iconic. Game, whatever, I get it. Vandy Vandy Vandy Bama was one I don't agree with that the the whole Bama Georgia game. The only thing that made that game like, hey, Bama went up early.

1:16:40 Georgia gets all the way back. It was the Ryan Williams touchdown. Like, that was an iconic play. When they hit that touchdown on the sideline, it was just like, they should have lost. They should have lost the Orange Bowl. Orange Bowl. Orange Bowl. Wait a SEC. Orange Bowl was Penn State, Notre Dame, right? Yeah. Orange Bowl. Oh, yeah. There you go. Ohio State, Oregon. That was a great game. Yeah, the Orange Bowl was a me and Brian, we watched that playing poker. I lost some money that night because I was about halfway focused on it. That was a good like that was like the classic old school thing. It was back. It was forth that he knew he knew what to do to rile me up and the the Texas, Arizona State game, they they were just I sat here almost all day. Yeah, that was a that was a great game, man, that. Was a great game.

1:17:32 I enjoy probably watching that game more than any other game this year, you know, besides Virginia Tech games, which I didn't enjoy watching some of them. But anyway, that was I, I, like you said New Year's, sitting around watching that with my brother-in-law. And that was that was just a that's what you want, man. That's what you want. That's what you expect A playoff game to feel like, You know what I'm saying? Like that was just a great game. So I'm looking forward to it. For all the people who say it, the playoffs was nothing when you see something like that and y'all got lucky too. Y'all got lucky because in the national championship they did make it a little bit closer than it should have been.

1:18:12 So I couldn't come in here and really go off like I wanted to because so many people was talking about, you know, how it was just so messed up. And I was like, it's always been A1 sided national championship game for like the last seven years. You know, it's eight years, however long we got to go back. So essentially it was the same this year. They was about to get boat raced and then they calmed it down. Because somebody it was it was it was it was entertaining because you knew at the end there like if a house. Well, first of all, let's talk about this play this this is a Virginia Tech podcast. But again, I love college football. We all do. How the hell he put the hat on back with you? How the hell on 3rd and nine do you play Jeremiah Smith off 9 yards with third and nine?

1:18:58 That boy is going to get the ball. I don't give a shit where he is. He was getting the ball that play and you play off man, against him and when he did that little hitch, he was dead. I sit here and I say, could you at least have played press? What if he beats press? At least you tried. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I think that was a head scratching move too. So I don't know. Curtis was texting me about that. I was like, what was so pissed about? He was hot man. See shit. And it's just like, how is Al Golden getting paid $1.8 million a year and it's the biggest play to you.

1:19:38 You stop them, you get the ball and you had a chance to tie this football game. You already screwed up once at the from the 10. We're going to kick a field goal, we're going to be down to scores. Still talk about game management. And then it's like against that kid. Anybody else fine. Anybody else they beat you, fine. That kid? No. That kid is elite. And you let him do that? All righty. Where were we? Schedule. Schedule, schedule. The the full schedule release has happened and that's what we'll kind of close it down here with the night 2 trips to Atlanta.

1:20:19 Everybody, just so you know your tally, we be there both times. Look for him, for those who want to get you. Meet him. Go there, meet him. He'll take him. Take. Six weeks apart, baby. I'll be there about 3 hours from my house. I got to go all. Righty, so look real quick over the schedule. I got it out there for y'all. What did I tell y'all last week about the schedule? I texted all three of y'all wherever what Florida State's our furthest trip this year, whatever week we play that I told y'all we're getting Miami right after it. They going to screw us in that way to make air travel. So they they did as my prediction to make sure Miami was after it.

1:21:00 But anything on here y'all like you dislike you wish was different? I, I wish that we were at FSU on the open date and they had the open day between FSU and Miami. Everything else I'd be fine with. All right, I don't really like NN is going to be kind of a not the best month other than UVA. It would be great stop. Could be great, could be great, but I'm saying if, if, if we're trying to, if the goal is to spread out the difficult contest, we put a lot of them, at least from a talent perspective, at least from a talent perspective in November.

1:21:54 Sheldon, anything you like, you hate. I wish the kickoff game was in Charlotte, but that's more of a personal complaint. I think we you. Don't want to. You don't want to come to Atlanta, man. Charlotte's my city. Like that's, you know, it's just, it's my city, so. I got to get to Charlotte, man. I've heard some good stuff about Charlotte. I've never been so I I need to go. Maybe one December we can just go there. You got to get to the clip. Yeah, I think that's what I'm waiting on. We got to get to the we got to get to the spot so I can so I can go to Charlotte. Can y'all make that happen for me, Pry? If you watch it please can you get to can you get to Charlotte so I can experience what Charlotte is. My boy Sheldon is telling me how great of a city it is. He tells me I can get all kind of food there. I'm fat, I like to eat and y'all are hindering me going and eating good food because you won't get to Charlotte. Please get to Charlotte please.

1:22:50 That's all. There's one, there's one restaurant there that had the best cornbread I've ever tasted in my entire life. I don't know if you're a cornbread guy, but. I'm black. We love cornbread. You got it. You've got to try it, man. What's the place called? Sheldon? Do you know I'll? I'll talk to my friend and I'll I'll get the, I'll get the name. So there you go, Coach Pratt. You have to get us to Charlotte. So. We can go to the cornbread. Sally needs cornbread it. Was a, it was a, it was a transcend transcendental experience, like cornbread. That's great. Yeah, I know we got 7 home games. We do. That's a lot of home games. Maybe we may get the one this year. Maybe maybe we can actually, you know, take advantage of that. I hope so.

1:23:34 You know, let's try 7 home games. I know every team is different, every year is different. But looking at that back half of the schedule, you know, you go Louisville at home, then you go Florida State, then you go Miami, then you go Virginia. It's like really, I get it. It's a, it's a for me not to sound like a Homer, I'll just say I'm more worried about our team than I do those teams. Florida State fucking won two games this year. I think I'm not too much worried about what Florida State has going on. Maybe, maybe they come back next year and they go to the playoffs.

1:24:16 I don't know. Miami had a a very, very good quarterback this year and we took them to the brink of the end of the game. So Carson Beck. He's ugly. He ain't worth. $4 million. I don't know how he's going to play, but nobody ugly. They get. What is that? Does that sound right? Yes, I'm like, oh, you're talking about that place. A good place as as Pinky and Merits. It sound like it's good. I don't even know what it I don't know if that's the same place, but it sounds good. You're looking at I want to eat that. I'll close it down. We get a traditional Thursday with Cal great or Thursday or Friday. I'm sure when it comes out it's Friday, everybody will bitch and complain about it being on a Friday. But like, overall, it's it's like fairly balanced up until the last month of the season.

1:25:13 Like, like, you know, you go through, it's like, well, Georgia Tech should probably be a tough game. NC State should probably be rebuilding the beginning with South Carolina and Vanderbilt. But like you asked me to key in on a date, I think what happens October 11th down back in Atlanta tells the story of the team middle of the season. Like I think that's the that's like the that's the pivot game, I think. And if it's a year to if if good things happen there, we're sitting here having good conversation. If not, we're talking about some new coaches, potentially more people being fired. So there we go. All right, anything that has happened in the last hour and 25 minutes, gentlemen, y'all want to share? I don't see anything else out here, man. I think we're good.

1:26:00 All right. I did confirm it is Merch Soul Food in Charlotte. So thank you, Rob, for bringing that up. I totally forgot the name of the restaurant. So we'll have to get, we'll have to get Tally there sometime. We're gonna get Tally to merch because we're gonna go to Charlotte this year. One way show get. The merch baby. Get the merch. All right. With that, that wraps up this episode of the Boundary Corner podcast, brought to you by Counts Family Pharmacy in Blacksburg. I am Curtis Wilson. I'm Brian Siegler. Joe Katelli. And I'm Sean Moss. We are part of the College Shuttle Network. Visit our website boundarycornerbt.com to listen to all of our episodes. Check the merchandise shop out while you're there. Follow us everywhere. Y'all know where we are?

1:26:42 Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, subscribe on YouTube, also favorite podcasts or somebody asked me today are y'all just on Spotify And like no, we're on all of them. So whatever you like to listen to, we can get you. If it's one we're not on, let us know. I'll get us on there. Absolutely. If it is one we are not on, please let us know because that really is going to bother Brian for a while. If if he's missed a podcast source that we have, we could be on. He will definitely get it on there. As always, our buddy Jason Long, he plays us in. He plays us out every week.

1:27:25 Chest his website jasonlongmusic.com out for all his latest stuff. Man got called back into emergency wrestling coaches over the last few weeks. So I don't think he's had a chance to listen in, but check out his Spotify, his YouTube pages. As always, we appreciate all y'all out there listening. Y'all have been very entertaining in the chat tonight and as always we appreciate y'all and let's go. Hokey.