Week Twelve

0:25 Music. Then welcome back to the Boundary Corner Podcast, a part of the College Huddle Network along with my partner Brian Siegler and our special guest host tonight, Coach Robbie Compton. This episode is brought to you by Doctor Jeremy Counts down at the Counts Family Pharmacy, your friendly neighborhood pharmacy, Three O 1 S Main St. in Blacksburg.

1:09 That's right, it's only three people. Coach Robbie has joined us tonight as we have two guys who are officially out on the disabled list. Shelton is sick. He's under the weather. Tally has obligations all week for basketball. Literally. Tally is going to be in the gym when he gets off work to 10:00 every night this week. Godspeed, Tally. I know you love it. I know you love you, son. We missed you this week. Brian's got something to say again because I'm going to call it next week. Brian, if I don't hear from this person, I will. We put the. Meeting on the next one. I, I mean, we're going to have to. Maybe I'll win. All right, all right, so if you're out there listening Jonathan Harris 8975 on YouTube, we need you to reach out to us and let us know how will we can send this to you.

2:02 We want to get this to you. You want fair and square, but we got to get this out to you. So please make sure that you are listening either here or on some sort of streaming service so you know where to contact us. Hit us up here. I can hit us up on on X boundary corner, Instagram, Boundary Corner, Vt send us an e-mail admin@boundarycornervt.com. Just let us know how we can get this out to you. We would love to get it out to you soon as possible. Yes, because the holidays are coming up and me and Brian will be traveling back and forth amongst locations whether it be Halifax, the beach or just doing things with our kiddos.

2:48 And I ain't going to wait much longer. We're not going to confiscate it for our own use, where we'll be handed down every three months to. He said he's not going to be as nice as Jeremy and wait a month and a half to get the PlayStation. And a half. I don't know how all that went, but Robbie, my friend it, well, it's not been a while. We literally talk every day pretty much via text, sometimes a phone call. But how you doing brother? Hanging in there, man, winding down around the football season trying to get, you know, equipment inventories done, things like that. Wife wife's still working with her team. They're starting their playoff run this week. So we're, we're as much as I'd like to just get into watching college football, there's still plenty of, of high school football to go around around here. So we're we're rolling on through it. There we go man.

3:45 So. Curtis is going to have this meeting problem again this week. Oh, freaking night. Brian took the microphone, told me this one was better. And this one's. You know what it it is better. I never had these issues with with it with it on my end here though, so maybe this is Bruiser air. Real quick, Robbie, I don't know if you mentioned it while I was trying to get plugged back in, but your wife's school still involved second round of playoffs first. Round here in the first round, normally here in North Carolina it'd be the second week, but with all the hurricane and everything and pushed everything back a week so. Acted up a week. They had a makeup week this past Friday night and then playoffs start this coming Friday. So lot of lot of very interesting matchups.

4:27 A lot of people are going to have to do some, we're travelling to get away, get around some Rd. closures and things like that so could be interesting. Yeah. All right. I mean that that area of the state still, still a little torn up there with the roads there. So it's definitely going to be interesting and just glad they were able to kind of keep that thing going and. There there was one team that my wife was projected to that her team was projected to play. At one point they were from down next to Cherokee and they were going to have to take either a trip into northern Georgia, over to South Carolina and up through Charlotte to get here or to go into Tennessee up and back to 81 down 77 to it was going to turn a four hour trip and do about a 6 1/2.

5:17 They managed to move the move the parents around a little bit so they wouldn't have to travel quite as much, but they didn't change a whole lot for that for that team so. Yeah, they're, they're kind of isolated there right now, pretty much more or. Less I would guess, yeah, yeah, Interstate 40 and and 20 say the 26 or 24, I think it's 26 out that way is it's kind of cut off you, you really can't go from our area here over to Tennessee without going north or South to go around. Yeah. It's quite a recovery, recoveries working, but it's still a work in progress. A lot, a lot to do out there.

6:00 So, so you said they was having to go into like northern Georgia and go through Chattanooga? Lord, that was one way they could have gone around. But if they'd have went down in northern Georgia, they'd have come around through like up through Greenville, almost to Clemson, back to 77 and come back. OK. Yeah, because Charlotte. OK, so they were trying to go towards more center of the state then? Yeah. So we're right off of 77, between 77 and Interstate 40 really got you kind of where we sit. All righty. Well, again for that part of North Carolina, not too, too far from where Robbie coaches and lives nowadays.

6:40 Still again, many prayers. It's still, I believe you had it on the bottom last week, Brian. I'm not sure if you have it back on the bottom this week for definitely a good cause. Take a look at that. But Robbie's here to talk ball with us. Really, Robbie, you told me yesterday you have pretty much watched almost every game except Miami, clearly your coach on Friday night. And Thursday night is kind of, oh, Friday night is kind of tough. Can't watch that game. So but we're going to break it down. We're going to do, we always do something that Robbie basically turned us on to the idea last year of, and that is we've got to talk about the game first before we get into the season stuff because Robbie's got some very, very interesting opinions.

7:21 I'm not going to say harsh. Some of them are harsh, some of them aren't on the season in general. But we do have to tell the truth Tuesday about what happened at Clemson or against Clemson last week as the Hokies fall 2414 to go to 5:00 and 5:00 and it's the middle of November and the Hokies are five and five again. This is just like last year, almost. Hokies held A7 nothing halftime lead before effectively getting 4. Clemson puts up 24 straight points in the second-half. And when you look at a game like this, it's really kind of weird. But there were some things that went well and I'm going to say this, Kate Klubnik had a run for his life the majority of that game with the amount of pressure, the front 4, some of the blitz schemes that were picking or that Chris Marv sent.

8:13 And it was a good thing. You know, Hokies force 4 sacks had like an 8% havoc rate, which is a pretty good rate. But let me ask both of y'all, you know, what else did y'all see not only from the defensive side, but other parts that you felt like went well on Tuesday? I'll start with Brian. Yeah, I mean, I think the big thing is the the pressure that that Marv was dialing up. They constantly kept club Nick uncomfortable in the pocket. I think that was the big thing that we saw. Didn't give him a lot of time to to be able to sit back there and and calculate where he wanted to go with the football. A lot of times the plays that he was making were escaping the pocket, throwing down field, shaking a tackle here to there. So, you know, he wasn't exactly getting the the cleanest of looks for most of the the the afternoon there. So, you know, hats off tomorrow and a little bit of a bounce back performance from a, you know, calling standpoint after kind of what we saw in Syracuse.

9:13 I think overall just a, you know a big bounce back week for that unit overall. I mean, what about you? I, I would say that that the pressure and that was one of the big emphasis is going into this season was, was trying to get more pressure, even though APR had been the pressure man last year, but they wanted to build more pressure all the way across the front. And I feel like they've really done that. And I mean, anybody can argue with me if they want to feel like the defensive line is a is a shining point of this team right now. I mean, they're, they're going out week in week out producing, doing the things that they're pretty good at doing.

9:54 They, you know, they need a little bit of backup behind them. They're they're secondary is set up for that pressure. A lot of man coverage and a lot of things like that. And it, it, it's tough to do. So I mean, I, I applaud them for for working at that and continuing to try to get that pressure. I'm pretty sure APR is leading the country in sacks right now, right? He is that he's got 13 sacks. He is tied for first with Mike Green from Marshall. So leading it and the and the unit itself has 31, which is top 15. They're I think they're on pace to I think they got 36 last year, which was like top 20.

10:35 They're on pace I think this year. I'd have to go back and confirm my numbers on that. But what what else went well? I mean, they're, they're obviously this thing was pretty much a game until the early part of the fourth quarter. So it was one of those things. But what else did y'all see, Robbie? I'll go to you. Nick. What else did you see watching that game Saturday? Like they're doing this good. I mean, I, I thought they for, for what they're dealing with in some of the positions and things like that, with some injuries and being kind of beat up and some, some lackluster things in places. In my opinion, I thought they played well defensively overall. I thought they'd come down. They had a few coverage mistakes here and there. One they, you know, and that's, that's the joys of, of playing the, the man defense and, and stuff like that. Your coverage when you think something's going it only takes one man to kind of not even stop just kind of ease up a bit to take a look at what's going on and things get away from you quickly.

11:39 And I mean I I thought defensively played pretty well they scored the first touchdown on special teams, which is something that Virginia Tech's always had you know in their back pocket. Is that that Bieber ball special teams. It was good to see some of that kind of kind of rear its head and. And show some good things. I was, yeah, I was pleasantly surprised with that. A lot of things went fairly well, special teams wise that it seems to be. It seems to have been an issue in the in earlier games at times here and there. But I thought that was a good thing too. And just to see people see some places continuing to try to put things together and continuing to try to find the the best things that they have and continuing to try to push forward.

12:31 Brian, what else? What else? What about you? What else went well for in your eyes as you were watching the game Saturday afternoon? And I'm going to soon watch a little bit of the replay on Sunday morning. Yeah, I mean, you know, looking at the special teams unit in general, I think they did had a pretty good outing there. I mean, you, you, you open the game off with a pretty good kick return, you know, get yourself, you know, across the 30th, you know, almost across 35 there, you know, really good start to the game there. You had the, you know, the block that got returned for a touchdown to get, you know, first points of the game. You end up going into halftime with that being the only score in the first half. I mean, it's kind of a weird, weird game to watch offensively because, you know, we didn't really do a whole lot, but we were doing a whole lot well, especially when it came time to get off the field.

13:19 So I'd say, you know, we look at those money downs from a defensive perspective. We did a really good job of capitalizing on situations where we're able to get them in in late downs and be able to get off the field, whether it's, you know, interception, whether it's a turnover on downs. Obviously we already talked about the block field goals. So we had a lot of opportunities out there and we were taking advantage of them on those, those money downs in the first half. Yeah, give. First of all, give special teams big kudos on that, not only with the solid return again, Thomas Williams, one of the young names that we're starting to see a little bit more and more every week. The block, it was younger guys.

14:04 Burgos got in through that, got in through the left side, which we've seen Clemson give up multiple block kicks. So got in, got his hand up and then quit and reddish again in the right spot, being coached to do the right thing. This is the area you need to be in on a block kick, getting it and then having the knowethal to effectively know get outside. He did not try to because you see some guys probably you've probably seen this ton in high school football guy gets a block kick and just like just starts running and it's like where you where you running to like you run into where everybody is. You could see if he waited, he hesitated and he kind of set up a couple blocks and he got on the outside and ran it all the way back. Peter Moore, I don't want to.

14:47 Peter Moore kept this game closer than it was because Peter Moore on more than one occasion got them and booted them deeper than they should have been. And, and and and that kept us in the game because it forced them to take longer and longer drives. So yeah. The the. Yeah, and yeah, 20 yards to try to get to where the ball's going to land. I mean that big. It is big. The other piece that I'll say is the run defense. It 167 is what we gave up. But if I told anybody sitting here last week probably would have texted Robbie and saying Phil Mahaffa averaging well over six yards, we kept him under 5.

15:36 That's good team in general. We kept under 3 or under 4 basically 3.6. It's like so as much as it as much as the bad part of the defense showed the last 20 minutes of Syracuse bringing the game they brought maybe their best played game all year, forcing turnover sacks, keeping a good running team somewhat behind the stitch. Yeah, at they. At they they, they didn't exactly go out there and like shut them down, but they kept. Them they weren't 1.6 a carry, they were 3.6. But against a team like Clemson, 3.6 is good. So there's your what went well. Now first of all, the what went bad, the the the worst thing that we saw regardless Saturday prayers up for him. Gabe Williams getting injured.

16:26 Gabe Williams, a someone who was on this program when he got recruited, a great young man to talk with full of energy gets injured has to be, you know, basically put in the ambulance off. I'm not sure the reports on him yet, but again, prayers up for Gabe on that. But also the crazy thing is Robbie, you you said us. He was the one of the guys he's trying to he his leg ain't right. He's trying to get up. He. Tried to get up twice. He tried to make a play. Yeah. So craziness. So that's the really what went bad. Brian, I'm going to pitch to you on this first because it was your big thing that needed to be key. What went bad?

17:14 I mean, the the game plan was kind of shit, right? Like, so when we look at the the way we decided to attack this team, right? So they're not the best run defense overall that I mean, they're they're they're they're solid, but they're kind of middle of the pack ACC, right. Overall, they're down to defensive line starters and one linebacker starter in this game. And we decided we weren't really going to establish a running game at all, especially from the running back position. And you know, before we go any further, let's go ahead and say we we saw to out there, but Tootin was not anywhere close to 100%.

18:03 Somebody was there in Tootin's uniform. Tootin was nowhere near 100% and you know, we didn't really give him a ton of touches. The problem I had is that we didn't really give another running back any touches. We didn't give another running back touch. It it was insane. So what lane I think had one or two carries. We we let, we let Kyron run for about what, 9 or 10 times and. Then we ran 5. Yeah. And then and then you get, you know what, 2 net 3/2. Net 4 at 4:00 and me and Robbie talked about this. Brian, I think I've texted you as well. You know how many plays Tude was on the field? Well, like 50% of the offensive snaps. 30 yeah, and Coney was on the field the other 30.

19:02 Yeah, and we and we didn't throw the ball enough to not have gotten Coney involved in this offensive game plan. And if you know that you're running your your your primary weapon is injured. Your other primary weapon, at least in the running game is coming off an injury. And definitely also did not look himself either in Kyron drones. And you don't give the number 2 running back in this game at least because Thomas is out any carries. That's malpractice, man. That's malpractice. That's that's not that's that's not taking care of your players that are coming back. That's not that's not taking advantage of the weapons that you have available to you.

19:46 And I think that's the bigger problem that I have is that we saw Coney, you know, a couple weeks back-to-back, make some big plays, been very effective in the running game and you don't give him a single carry. And he was on the field 30 times. Yeah, that was the bigger issue. He's he's been effective in the past and and yeah, you recruited him for a reason. Give him that a shot. You got him on the field 50% of the plays in the game right here. Give him something. See what he can do. You know, if he's losing yards every play, I get it. But I mean, you got to find something. Well, the more irritating part about that, me and Robbie, me and you talked about yesterday, Robbie, was, it's not like you said a saying go, Brian.

20:33 It's not like Coney was all, this is the first time he's ever played. He freaking had 10 yards of carry against Syracuse. He broke a big one. And if he didn't break a big one, he was still getting roughly about 6A pop. Like you said, Brian, it's malpractice that he was not involved in that game plan, whether Malachi Thomas or not. Robbie, you said something to me yesterday. I don't you kind of back it up now because you were you were you asked. We kind of talked through it. How many how many games can I got a red shirt? Four, yeah, I can appear in four games and as long as that rule is still the same, I don't, I don't think it's changed, but they can appear in four games.

21:19 So where was the freshman? The freshman from down your way. We were talking about that, Brian, like, OK, here's your chance. Get him to play against competition. You are down running backs and you can say, well, they're not ready. I want to say you're playing right now if if you're out there struggling and we were mightily struggling on offense. I mean that depth charge depleted. Give some guys some run, man. You got your, you got your. Your two top backs are one's banged up to the point of being ineffective. The other one is not playing in this game. You have to get them involved in this game plan. Have to. Yeah, I just I mean, you're you're depleted it running back anyway. You've got, you know, one guy on the field injured. You've got another guy out hurt.

22:10 You've got another guy I I'm assuming this hurt too. And and prelude. You're muted, Curtis. PJ Kirk PJ Like broke did something bad with the bottle. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you've got several injuries, you're at home, so I mean, there's no travel, you know, there's no restriction on the number of travel. So there's no reason the kid shouldn't have been there dressed and ready to play if they needed something. Play. I mean, that that's my look on it. But the. Question is. What do you have? I've seen enough of Mason playing that I feel like he's definitely got something they can play because I mean, he is from, he is from Mount Airy down here, 40 minutes away.

22:58 The, the team my wife works with plays them. They're conference opponents. I mean, he he's legit. I mean, I don't see why I was a reason not to give him some kind of shot. Or somebody else. I mean, like, yeah, anybody on your depth chart should have gotten a carry in in this game other than drones and Tooting, but somehow nobody else in that in that backfield got a single touch. And Mason had not played a game this year. It's not ultimately played a game. If if we were going out there and we were running the football effectively, then OK, if they don't get, if they don't get carries, they don't get carries. It is what it is. But when you are that ineffective offensively for the majority of the game, like you're, you're seeing like little sparks here and there.

23:45 You have a good play here, good play there, but you can't string a damn drive together to save your ass and you don't give any of these guys touches. It's wild this. Is like the this is what we'll talk about some of the stuff later with Robbie, just more his observations on the season is so we've seen again, it's what you kind of said, Brian. It's the ebbs and flows of this team. Last week, not last week, two weeks ago the the offense puts 30 plus up. The defense just looks like shit for 20 minutes of the game this week. The defense against a very talented roster. Whether you like Dabo, hate Dabo.

24:25 He's indifferent. They have talent. Kate Public was not that high rated just for shits and giggles. He is a good collegiate quarterback. Phil Moff is a good running back. Some of their wide receivers are good players. They held that team down for the better for a whole half and kept them in check for a good part of 2nd. Half other other than another disastrous third quarter, we we, we played very, very good it. Was 14-7 after the third quarter, though. Go ahead. You're about to. He's about to. Close down with the, the, the Ethan's, the the Cadence and the caves and the and the all those guys might have been a little bit better than we thought they were. Some of them were.

25:08 Might have been a little bit better than we gave them credit for to start with. They came and played, they came and played straight up. So let me ask this because obviously that went bad. The money downs were not good. That's something he caught my eye. When you're like 2 of 15 on 3rd down, you're you're not going to win many at all. So, but the other thing that like just what went bad in general for the offense as well was the Rops because we were 16 to 37 and then there were 6 total drops, I believe. And a couple of them, nobody was, I mean, it was it was good passes by Colin, it was good passes by Kyra. And that in in a game like this, it drives you crazy because on a couple of those, if they're caught, it's momentum swings, it's flipping the field, it's potentially getting into a field goal range where things potentially change different. Anything that y'all saw where guys just was a nerves, where they take their eyes off the ball, something I can't look for?

26:22 You know, I didn't really see anything that stood out to me as far as like just just technique or, or anything like that. It's just in the in, sometimes in that crunch time, like you, you just try to pull it in, you don't pull it in. And and it wasn't necessarily one guy that we saw it from. We kind of saw it from a handful of different guys. I mean, we look at drops on the year. It's really, it's been kind of a problem throughout the year. But in this game it was definitely a a big problem just just as much in my opinion, as some of the the things we saw with with play calling, not necessarily, you know, deployment of personnel, but just play calling in general.

27:08 As much as play calling was a problem in this game, I think drops were a problem in this game because both of those kill drives pretty pretty significantly throughout this one. Yeah, I I can agree with that. The, the drop balls are going to hurt you every time because they, they give you, not only do you not gain yards out of it, but you receivers start to get a little bit of doubt in their mind about, you know, what they're doing. They start to think about or why didn't I catch that, especially as a trend that keeps going. They, they start to players start to think about things like that and you can't let that doubt kind of creep in. I, I guess is what I'm trying to get to. We, we deal with some of that sometimes with some of our high school kids.

27:56 And it's a lot easier with the high school kids to let that doubt creep in because they're obviously in, some of them are in the same level of, of what Virginia Tech has. But those things, they kind of, excuse me, unless you really get a handle on them quickly, they can snowball very quickly. And, and that's not that that turns into a bad thing. Well. That that's also really important with a team like Virginia Tech that still, you know, unfortunately still at this point still grasping for some identity and still playing up and down relative to where their confidence level is at a given moment in time.

28:38 And drops are going to kill confidence, like you said there. So when you got a team that is still very confidence dependent in terms of how the flow of the game goes, that can really hurt you. 100% All right, let's flip over this and I'm going to start off with mine and then y'all can follow up with yours. But anything that happened we were not prepared for. And one thing that I was not prepared for and it shows in the stat lines and in my eyes and maybe my eyes deceive me. Clemson only had one sack, but our pest protection held up better than I thought it would. Now I know they were missing 2 studs with Capehart and oh what's his name?

29:23 You talked about them all last week, Brian. It's not TJ Parker, the other kid. Oh Peter. Peter. But still. Clemson is a middle of the road sack team. Wish Sheldon was here. You'd probably give us where they are on pressure rate. But when I see that and there were times where Kyron had time to make the pass and you could tell a couple times he wasn't pulling the triggers and and I think and some people are going land based him, but he's coming off a foot injury and y'all both played. I know both of y'all broke your legs in high school. Brine ankle. Robbie, I remember when you broke your leg. Robbie. I do remember that. Please believe it or not, boys, I was like 25 years ago.

30:05 Take a deep breath. It was an ankle, too. It was an ankle, yeah. But tell me like land based him all you want, but it's like, well, if a guy's coming back when you you're hitting that foot, if it don't feel right, I can see where you're not going to be as confident or you're not going to pull the trigger as quick. I get that. But for me it was more the offensive line and how it held up because I did not foresee the offensive line playing like that pass protection wise on Saturday. What about y'all? Anything you were not prepared for? I was definitely not prepared to go into halftime with a a special teams touchdown being the only points on the board. Yes. And for, for good or I'll like honestly looking at the the way that first half, because I was like, this is not going to be a good situation for us because I don't see us necessarily improving significantly offensively. And despite the fact that we were up 7 nothing, they were in our our territory a pretty good amount in that first half. They just didn't come away with any points. And some of that was because of good plays on money down. She had an interception, he had a block field goal, you know, but some of that was, you know, they decided to go forward instead of taking some points and we just made some plays And you know, they left some points on the field in the first half that I felt like, you know, they they could have definitely been, you know, plus one, you know, plus 3, whatever, whatever the situation could have been there scoreboard wise. But we go in up 7 after all that

31:37 craziness in the first half. Very, very good defensive game. If you like watching defense. I mean, that's a pretty good, good half of defense because, you know, we we made some plays there. We just couldn't string drives together. They made some plays and strong drives together, but couldn't finish them. And, and and there was a whole lot of good defensive played in that first half. So really, really impressed by that on both sides of it. And like I said, did not expect to go into halftime with the just one special teams touchdown being the only points all. Right. What about you, Rod? Anything you are not prepared for sitting down? Were you at the house watching the game? Yeah, sitting, sitting here kind of, kind of by myself watching it.

32:20 Oh, I'm sure that's great. That's one of those great feelings. You get to sit and watch football game by yourself. Yeah, it's, it's kind of enjoyable. The big thing I was not prepared for was, you know, when, when you first turn it on and you and you see Tooting warming up, you see drones warming up. They're OK, they're playing. They've got to be, they've got to be ready chomping at the bit full speed, ready to go. I, I was, I wasn't expecting them to look as ineffective and as as kind of limped up as they were. I I feel like I in my mind, I kind of expected they were prepared to go considering they didn't play last week, that they were going to be ready to go. And I just even from the start with both of them, they didn't look like they were Tooting looked more like a decoy and drones looked more like a a a, a whittle captain of I got to be out there for my team.

33:25 But knowing that he's not going to be as effective as as he could be and that I wasn't prepared for just seeing both of them in the starting lineup. I was much more prepared for for a fight out of those two. And not saying that they didn't have the fight in them, but physically they they just didn't. Yeah. It's it's, it's sometimes it's, it's the it's the doing right, it's the doing right. Like you're ready for it and then you start doing it's just like it doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel right. Big shout out here from Lavar and and that stinks because a they I mean the way they were out there. I mean it was a couple times I remember I saw two to pick up a blitz and you know, and I know y'all know from like picking up a blitz on like the way he did on a hurt foot that had to hurt like a.

34:14 Mother. So there's some things we were not prepared for. So I mean, the only other thing you can say is should they have, and again, this is the second, then maybe this is the game planning Brian was talking about. If you knew they weren't completely right, should you have just said guys get right, like get right? Like you're not 100% there. But I'm sure, again, probably to your point, Robbie, they probably like no coach. This is the biggest game. I you know, if we win this game, we still might can make the 8th week. Things got to happen. We still might can make it a Charlotte coach. And it's, it's, it's, it's a coaching thing in my mind.

34:56 Like you look at had they had they won last week and all of that still on the table, having to do everything. Then I see those two guys giving everything. They got half, you know, 68% of whatever they were standing when they took the field that day. But the fact that it went down last week the way it did and coming into this, you've got to kind of look, I mean, tooting's done after this year, right? Drones effectively could be back. You've got to protect that kind of investment. Really. I mean, I, I get, I get from a coaches perspective, and you're going to put the best thing you can out there. And if you think those two at 70% are better than what you have backing them up and gives you the best opportunity, you go with it.

35:51 But at some point, you know, what are you winning out of this? If you win the game and lose both of them for the rest of the year, you know, that kind of thing. And they just, they didn't look effective. And that that was kind of the unexpected part. Well, more to that, like not identifying that earlier in the game, like you, you waited till very late to go to Schlee. You never really went to anybody else other than two. And even though you had somebody else on the field for a lot of snaps, like at some point you got to figure out I've got to generate offense and I'm, and I'm not having success with my studs for one reason or another.

36:31 You know, injuries, you know, the, the mental piece of it there. There's, there's a lot of things out there that these guys were not at 100% in this game. And you got to weigh that like, all right, they're out there. If they're not, if they're not able to play at the at that percentage, are they potentially putting themselves in a situation where they can get more seriously hurt #1 #2 if I'm not generating offense, if they are not being effective in what I'm trying to do schematically on offense, I need to do something different. Yeah. And that that was either not addressed or was addressed so late it didn't matter. Yeah, All righty, we'll move one last piece here before we flip it over and talk to some Robbie, a little bit more about this season.

37:21 We'll start with Brian on this. Brian, what is something better this team can do moving forward? Because as of right now, it's five and five. Got to win one of the next two to become bowl eligible. What some of the team can do better moving forward. Something they can do better moving forward. That's a tough one, man, because I I. Feel. Win, win. Win, win's a very good high level one. Yeah, I mean, let's let's win two more games and at least say you're better than you were last year, right. So I don't think, I think the problem that we had and the problem that we're facing with this team and. I don't know.

38:09 Brian froze. Oh man, the tally. The tally magic is coming to Brian's I. Was fully expecting that to be my problem at some point, didn't I? Oh, you got Starlink right? No, no, no, no. I'm on spectrum now. Spectrum. Yeah, we got out of there. We got out of the bottom. OK, Brian. Brian All right, Robbie, you said when anything else they can do better moving forward? Just got a got to get some consistency and and multiple facets of the game, find an identity and push through. I'm kind of, you know, I'm kind of in and out of this whole podcast thing.

38:49 I I show up every once in a while when you guys give me an opportunity. But I follow a couple of couple other different podcasts here, Virginia Tech wise and listen to some of them. One of them suggested yesterday that the urine atrocity to put be put back. And I guess that's one of the things that that's going to be helping. I don't know if y'all heard any about that, but I caught AI caught a quick piece of it on a TikTok and some some different things. And if I can remember the name right off the top of my head, I would throw it out there. But it was quite amusing to to hear them talk about that. But I don't know if that that that seems like more of a long term thing just to get ready for for the next one is take this week that that they have off kind of get healthy, find some things that they know they can really capitalize on. And and then and then go to go to Durham and, and try to put something on the field that, you know, it's fully competitive top to bottom four quarters, you know, and multiple facets of the game because Manny Diaz and that crowded Duke, they're going to they're going to they're going to be riding a little high after beating NC State and.

40:06 They're going to, they're going to push some things and, and, and try to force them into doing some things. So I really think going forward, they need to make sure that they like stay focused on getting healthy, stay focused on getting that identity and figuring out what they want to do. They got two weeks to prepare for that game. So I think that's a big thing for them. And, and just find some things that work. If if it means Tooting their drones or whoever is not available for that game, figure out who is going to be available and and find the best place that that are going to put them in the best situations and make those things work. Brian, what were you saying before you you pulled a tally and pros? Yeah, I apparently have Alabama Internet tonight. Shit, what the hell was I saying? It sounded really good.

40:55 And then you just pros. I was talking about, you know, we got to win the game when and, and I think, you know, when we look at this team, I think we're recalibrating what the expectations of this team were and what they actually are. And you know, right now what they actually are is basically a slightly different version of what we saw last year. That's talking, that's coaching, that's that's talent, that's that's a little bit of everything. And and we thought they were going to be, we thought they were going to take a progression level step plus add in a couple of new pieces that we were pretty, pretty happy about.

41:36 And I think, you know, some of those pieces have have done pretty well when we look at the defensive line, I think everyone that's played significant snaps. Has played well. Has played well and I, I don't think you have a whole lot to really complain about from that front. I think Brumfield's been OK. I think from a leadership standpoint, we've seen his play matter more than we have necessarily from, you know, high in, you know, he's not going out there and causing havoc, but he's also a guy that's pretty much where you need him to be most of the time. And sometimes that's that's better than the alternative. And, and, and we've seen that kind of kind of be be the case this year. You know, so we've had these pieces come in that we were, we were kind of excited about.

42:24 We had some spots we were a little bit worried about. And I think the the biggest thing that, you know, I think that has taken a little bit of a step back is that we thought we were going to be a little bit more explosive in the passing game. And we just have not been an exclusive passing team at any point of the season outside of a play here or there, right? We we, we will have a player to a game where we look like we could that's the team that we could have been. And but we what we haven't really put all those pieces together like we expected to this year and have those, you know, games like Syracuse last year where we just kind of, you know, blew teams out and overwhelmed them in in various ways.

43:06 Our offense has not been quite as dynamic, I think consistently dynamic as we expected to be. I think we expected this team to be more or less a slightly better version of the product we saw to close the year last year. We expected. And we reset, we hit, we hit the reset button a little bit. We could we took a we took a step back and it took us almost a month to really get back to that level. And I think in some ways it's improved. I think the running game overall is probably a little bit better than it was at any point last year. But I think, you know, you got tape on what drones can do and coaches have have went to work on taking away the things he does well and giving him some problems in the things areas that he's probably not as polished in.

43:57 And that's been a problem. And we haven't really had a great counter punch to that. So, you know, we're recalibrating those expectations and we're we're realizing that we're, we're basically kind of what we were last year maybe a little bit better and we're playing a schedule that's a little bit less forgiving. 19th toughest schedule in the country this year. I don't think we expected that out of the gates definitely. But as far as what we can do better moving forward, as we kind of wrap Tell the Truth Tuesday up, I think they've got to figure a way to play some of the young guys in meaningful situations. Not garbage, but you've got to get them out there to get the game speed in their head. Not just special teams.

44:41 I'm talking about plays all over the place. So, you know, that's where I am. Brian, you said a lot of good stuff there. We're going to continue that conversation with Robbie. I just want to give a shout out to a few people here. First of all, one of our loyal listeners, Andretti, always good to hear from you. Andretti up in Philly, blood country kind of with you, Brian. We expected to average 30, allow 17 and it's been averaged like 26 at give up like 20-3. And that's when effectively Jim's Josh is kind of right there with you too. But it's one of those things where it's five games by 31 points, it's five games by 31 points and, and I know Robbie got. To win.

45:28 Exactly. He's got to win. We talk about that all the time, the high school levels you got, you don't, you can't just win. You have to learn how to win. You have to know how to win. And when you, when you're in a lot of those tight games like that, it comes down to knowing when to really put the foot down defensively and, and, you know, cut off the airway on that thread or really drive things down. And and you know, as we always talk about, run the ball when you when the other team knows you're going to run the ball and. Just do it. And Curb song, those things, Curb song, you have to learn how to do those. And what I was talking about with the with the the funny parts of that podcast about what could have went wrong.

46:11 It was the V the Virginia Tech for Legends guys on the podcast. Oh yeah. So Grayson went on that. Grayson and Joe went on that. Race Grayson Wimbish and he's he's talking about the urinal troughs and sharing the Turkey legs and man, I laughed at that thing for I don't know how long listening to them talk about that Grayson is. Fucking hilarious. We love having Grayson. On here. Don't worry, I have a feeling you and Grayson are going to be sharing the same screen about a month or right at about 5 weeks from today. Yeah, day was. Sounds like pencil. It in on your calendar. December 20th is the tentative state of the program day. I know school schools ended for y'all on the 20th of December so you can and you don't have good Internet service so you won't go in and out like last year.

47:00 Actually, you won't have to travel to South Boston the next day, so nobody will be angry with. Me. Yeah, exactly. Trying to figure when their last day of school would be there. I think it's like the 18th, 17th, something like that. Yeah. So you will be, you will be well prepared for that. But anyway, by the way, that is going to be, we are looking right now tentative date, December 20th. It's a Friday night because I ain't stupid enough to do that thing on me work day. I will have to be hungover the next day. If my wife tells me to run errands, I can live with that. I cannot live with going to work with hangover. All right, real quick, as you all know, we are brought to you by the Count Stanley Pharmacy in Blacksburg, another person who will be joining us on that wonderful day in December, Doctor Jeremy counts. He is effectively the one that.

47:43 Kicked that thing tradition like. In none other. The question is will the baby make an appearance this year like last year, which will be interesting. Cal Stanley Pharmacy your family neighborhood pharmacy three O 1 S Main St. in Blacksburg while we continue talking with Coach Robbie Compton here. I had long time buddy Robbie again. Robbie has pretty much got to watch every game this year, which he is very proud of because being a high school football coach, sometimes it gets tough. And we bringing Robbie's opinion on because a, Robbie has obviously been on Virginia Tech numerous times, he said in coach meeting rooms. And we wanted to ask just Robbie some questions, not only from his perspective of knowing the staff, but just from his perspective of going to like AFCA clinics, going to other coaching clinics, getting to know these guys. We've got some things we want to unload on him and he kind of wants to unload too because he's had to hold this in for 10 games other than texting us occasionally being blowing off. But we got a few things we're going to ask him, and I'm going to let Brian kick that off.

48:49 Yeah, man. And you know, we've got to get like Nuggets here there throughout these 10 games, you know, and I think, I think sometimes, you know, as a, as a coach, you kind of understand I've got to, I've got to see a little bit more before I actually make this assessment. I got to see a little bit more before I actually make this assessment. So at the start of the year, the criticism was like, it's there, but it's getting better. It's there. But I, I, I see something. And then as it goes on, you know what? This is a trend, guys, we got it. We got to, we got to start talking about this a little bit more. So I'm going to start here. Why do you feel? This team has an offensive identity issue. There's from watching the things that I see, there doesn't seem to be enough consistency and trust and, and what they're trying to do.

49:53 We know they can run the ball, especially when healthy. I know when you get injuries, it's kind of stacked up and it hurts. It hurts tremendously. But we, we, we talked about the, the returning receiver group. They're coming. And it almost feels like it didn't. They haven't been used quite as effectively, quite pushing the boundaries with some of those receivers like the the game against Clemson, while you always want to have your one and two backs in there with Thomas and and and Tooting. But you got these guys, you recruited these guys, you saw something in them that you would trust. Why are they not getting the opportunity? Why are we not continuing to put, if we're going to be in build an identity on running the ball and running RP OS off of that run and attacking those things? Why aren't we, you know, why aren't they pushing those things?

50:54 Why are they continuing to do that? It almost feels like they're they're kind of holding back and and not committing to anything particular. And I don't, I don't, I just kind of don't understand why. Now, if there's been injuries since the beginning of the season that they've been fighting, then maybe that answers the question. But you know, I the, the biggest issue is it doesn't look like there's been a commitment to working certain things. And I, I, I worry about that. Can I ask you this, Robbie and me and you hit on this? Me and Robbie had about a hour long conversation yesterday and that happens with me, him, Ryan sometime with Jason too probably. Better in stay holiday.

51:37 Yeah, he'd have to work. I was sitting here working, doing some things in the background. But I want to ask you this, go back to those first few games and when you when you and you said it to me yesterday when you didn't see the pocket roll a lot those first couple games. Yeah. And and I'm sure you go back last year like that shit worked because because you talked about a couple times from a defensive perspective with who Kyron Drones is, you roll that pocket, Whoever that's linebacker is on that side of the ball is in a fucking mind because if you choose to go attack him, he is a good enough and and Shelton has showed this. He's a good enough intermediate passer. He's probably going to complete the ball to what's behind you. If you don't attack him, he's going to go angle to sideline. He's going to get four to six yards. When you see that where it's like it's a bread and butter play.

52:25 You rolled the pocket, you got some positive almost every fucking time. And you don't see a person call that. And I know it's been, oh, it's been scouted more, but still, if that linebacker stays home, it's still four to six yards, right? Every time. When you see that out of the playbook, what does it say to you as a coach? Like, what does that say to you? Like why isn't that there? In my question, in my mind, it immediately questions why isn't it? And like I said, is it because he's Karen hadn't been as effective doing those things? Is it because he's dealing with some kind of injury since the beginning of the season that is not going to allow him to do that as much?

53:10 I mean, I, I know these coaches, they don't have to answer to us, you know, but like, you kind of wonder exactly why, you know, as a fan, you're going to look at it and go, this was so effective before. Why isn't it? Why aren't you doing it now? And there has to be a reason behind it. And that's part of what I wondered. I mean, it has drums been beat up since spring ball or since fall camp that that's causing some of these issues? Is there they just don't trust decision making? Do they not trust the is some trust been lost in the receivers and and with the drops and things? What's the reason behind not doing those things? We can't see that our biggest question. Well, and and and but I'll let you chat and you're saying and but that's the whole piece is we don't understand. It's if he's it will a if he's injured, then why are you still plowing him into the line?

54:15 If he's still injured? That is the first thing is he is he still injured? But then it's it's I'm going to put up with Josh said here because I like what he said right there. I mean, obviously he's a little. Yeah, he's somewhat, but at the beginning of seasoning team it's like that he doesn't know what he's trying to do himself. He's like, well maybe I need to do this and I need to do that versus, you know, there's always bread and butter plays. I mean, y'all, y'all know who I'm a fan of with the Niners? We all we all have our teams right Right now for for each three of us. Robbie gets to be happy this year because his Washington boys are rolling.

54:57 Brian, your team still fighting still not out of it. But for example, go go go to all three of us bread and butter. San Francisco plays outside zone if ain't shit else working outside zone. Robbie, you starting to see stuff with Daniels this year where it's like there's the bread and butter right there. If they run that play, it's going to be positive. Brian with you. It's probably a little inside trap with Quentin Nelson and Frickin Taylor following them up in the hole. It should be. But it we sit here and it's there's no bread and butter in the bread and butter that we saw so much last year. Some of the RPO's? Have we thrown an RPO slant any this year? It's I've seen a few. It's been mixed in there, but it it not to the frequency that it. Was last.

55:42 Year, all right. Sorry. I'd say just RPO in general has been a lot less frequently deployed in the offense this year for one reason or another. I think we've seen we've, we've, we've seen some of the, the zone read elements that we saw, you know, towards the back half of the last year. I think the thing that changed the most is that, you know, when it comes to the drop backs, I mean, it's it's very much pocket focused or at least primarily pocket focused. And whether that's an emphasis by Bowen to try to, you know, round out Kyron's skill set, whether that's just an emphasis of the offense to give them more whole field reads or more dynamic reads from the quarterback position. And instead of cutting the field in half like you kind of do with the rollouts.

56:37 I don't know what the what the the thought process is, but at some point you got to understand who your personnel is and what they do well and if. You're not. If you're not leaning on those things, you're doing a disservice to that personnel. Yeah, but that's kind of a that's a little bit of a old way of thinking right now. You know, I got to get I got to Polish him up in the pocket, things like that, get him ready for the NFL game, that kind of thing. The NFL games evolving to to what he's good at. It's evolving to those kinds of things. So why why sit there and try to focus so much on the polished pocket passing when so many of the NFL teams are working towards not using as much of that? I mean, of course you still got some that are going to use it. I mean, it is what it is.

57:24 But you know, you've you've got them. Lamar Jackson's Jayden Daniels, the you know, the Anthony Richardson when he can not be tired enough to play. And I'm honestly say the minute he tapped his own helmet and took yourself out of the game, I dropped him for my fantasy team. He was behind my Holmes anyway. But I mean that just those kinds of things. I mean showcase what he's got. I mean, if he, if he can play in the pocket and do those things, he'll show it when they need him to. He can work on those things. But you can't. You can't let that be the detriment of the team that's trying to Polish that one player for something like that.

58:08 And I would hope that's not what they're doing, but. I would not either. You can't take the biggest strength of what Karen Drone was last year and try to put that in a box. Yeah, because it wasn't that. It wasn't that and so. You know, I think also like it's it's the confidence piece of it too, because you know, I'll throw the comment up here. Where is it here? Who's Oh yeah. So let's talk about this right. So let's talk about this. If y'all haven't noticed, and we've got now almost two whole years, you know, pushing that at least of of watching Kyron play football.

58:48 When Kyron is a comfortable and confident player, that spills over into the type of output we have week to week. You're able to get him comfortable and feel like he's in the right flow of the game early on. He is a lot more efficient as a passer when he doesn't get into the flow of the game early on. It is very, it's roller coaster it, it's very much play dependent, it's very much scheme dependent. It's not necessarily he's going out there and just crisp, crisp, crisp. But when he is feeling it, when he is confident, you get a whole lot more of that. And I don't think we've done a good enough job early in games getting Kyron comfortable in the offense where he plays with that peak confidence level that he needs to be his best. Yeah.

59:48 Got you. All right. I'm all I'm all flip away from the offense because we can my line that. But Robbie, you are a defensive coordinator. You've coached defense mostly all of your 20, not 20. Is it 20? Years 2021 years high school football. Yeah, and. We owe holy shit. Hey deep breath Robbie, you've coached high school football 20 years, but in in your opinion, let's go to the defense because the defense is regressed as well. If y'all want to know defensive and offensive regressions, these teams both finished around the 50 mark last year in total offense total. I always look total offense, total defense, not point score. Because, you know, take a look at the Boston College game, they were within a touchdown and had like 7 yards of offense and they were within a touchdown.

1:00:30 To me, the total offense, total defense says I am consistently moving the ball or I'm consistently not letting the ball be moved. We're 83rd and 80. You take some of the luck out of. Exactly. You take the weird bounces. I always look at that. You can't win a game with 500 yards offense in three points. It's fair, but if you. Have it. Depends on what you want. It depends on what you want to assess. And I get that and but I think both of those are valid points depending on what you want to assess. But if you want to assess can you consistently move the ball and can you consistently stop teams that are moving the ball, looking at yards is more important than points. Can I ask a question Robin? If you find 503, I want to see it. I will watch that game beginning to end because that will be the most impressive fuck up when somebody got inside the 15 yard line.

1:01:16 First, Steelers won a whole lot of football games in the late 90s, early 2000s around there, with Jerome Bettis running for 25 yards and three touchdowns and winning games 21 to 14. Exactly. It's crazy. It can be done, but let me ask this. Let's go defense as the defensive coordinator. Look through the lens, what has been the most disappointing unit this year? It obviously ain't the defensive line, so we can already take that one out because you already said that they're probably the best unit of the whole team. Yes, I have to say, I think it's the linebackers. I really do like you. You had a you had a height guy coming in from in the inside backer position coming with Brumfield. And while I think he he's he's done fairly well, it hasn't been it hasn't they haven't stood out at anything. You know, they had their issues of, of making reads and filling where they were supposed to against Vanderbilt in the first game.

1:02:26 They've done better against downhill running teams, you know, coming in filling gaps, but they're they're very athletic, very quick players, but I don't see a legitimate hole filling monster linebacker that's going to play hash to hash. I I just don't feel like they have that play. And we may be spoiled for years of of Hollyfield and. Vince all all. Through this one, because my wife worked with the Matua Puaka. You know, you don't have that kind of just downright nasty linebacker.

1:03:11 Well, you got to act sometimes. But is it to you Robbie too in this case, even though if they weren't the nasty feel like that you kind of me and you were kind of talk about it too. Is they're at this stage at this stage, it's three years. They're they're a lot of times they're making plays because of athleticism, not because of, I don't want to say been taught, but effectively been taught to read the keys know exactly where to go. Is that why maybe even more disappointed because it's not like, OK, it's the first time you're trying to teach the kids to do it. Yeah, I feel like the place that they are making is because of their athleticism, not because of the scheme and the the things that they're trying to do. And that's what that bothers me more than anything. OK, I don't know that the that the scheme is is there for what we're going to run against.

1:04:07 In some ways they're they're very athletic and I think that makes up for a lot of things. But that athleticism will take you out of position at times too. You can over pursue things, you can overrun things. We saw a lot of that early in the year, linebackers overrunning things, getting caught in washes, things cutting back behind them. Vanderbilt took full advantage of a lot of those things in the first game. And I mean, those kind of things hurt. And I think, I think having that linebacker that kind of consistently knows the schematics and, and reads and keys and not just relying on his athletic ability.

1:04:51 I mean, bottom line there, we've had some really good linebackers that weren't the most athletic, fastest sideline to sideline tight linebackers and they've been very effective. So I mean that that's a big thing I'll look at. Yeah, I agree with you. And I mean, when we look at, you know, you talk, you talk about the discipline piece of it, you know, we had a whole game looking at the Rutgers game where they just ran that RPO over and over and over and over and we just didn't have an answer for it.

1:05:31 So I mean it, it's been kind of one of those very inconsistent performances from that group overall. I mean, I think Woodson is for still being a young player is he's a freshman, He's the most talented. He's a red shirt freshman in. That group, he's he's showing himself to have that capability and I don't know if he's he has the capability to to play inside. But yeah, I think I think he's getting to a point where he's going to be the future at that position for this unit. But we outside of that, we've got guys that they can be disruptive, but they're not consistent. And I think that's. We're not disciplined.

1:06:13 Exactly. And it's not always just discipline, but it's, it's the consistency the of play from, from these guys. And it sometimes it ebbs and flows in terms of effort. Sometimes it ebbs and flows of turn in terms of techniques. Sometimes it ebbs and flows in terms of discipline There. It's so it's, it's, it's something different every week. And that's why it's hard to really get a gauge on what to fix or what you think needs to be fixed because you're getting kind of different information week to week. And that's, that's a reflection of coaching because it's showing that you're not, you're, you're chasing an answer instead of going out there and breaking it down to the nuts and bolts and building up that foundation that you need to. You're chasing the adjustment rather than having a game plan and a definite set idea.

1:07:11 You're like. You keep throwing the bubble gum on the leak. Yeah, and now you got this one handled. Now you got another one over here. So you chewing another damn piece of bubble gum and throwing it on that leak? You just got to get some damn flex seal man. Like that? Like that I, I think just with the linebackers, I think that still it's that piece, that Brian Utah, it's consistency, it's a we'll got. I'm going to put what Josh put up here just a second ago. College linebackers will still overrun plays. Yes. They will still shoot the wrong gap, but the question is if it's four out of every 10 times versus one or two out of every 10 times, Because if it's four, you don't get burned. And to me, that's where we are.

1:08:03 We're at like it's four times out of 10, not 2 or one time out of 10. It's that it's what Brian just said. It's consistency. We understand it's going to happen. It's the Rutgers game when you know the play they are running. First of all, as a coach, I'm sure you have grabbed people by the mask and say stay with your man. I don't care what they are doing, stay with your man. I haven't done that this week, season here the last week, but. Well played. Stay with your. But what if he's running this way? I don't care. But Mr. Young, there's got a point. I mean, that's kind of what I was talking about with some of these linebackers.

1:08:47 You know, they're so caught up in the fact that the, you know, the weak side backer can catch the guy running the damn stretch on the strong side and running down. But the minute that quarterback pulls it while he's trying to chase that down and comes back to where you just were, that athletic ability, that speed is negated because you're not making reads. You're not taking responsibilities for what's there. You're too busy worrying about being the athlete and I, and that's either not being taught or it's a part where there's too much freedom being given to make that decision.

1:09:31 Yeah, Robbie, talk a little bit about the kind of free flow linebacker techniques that they're being taught and how that can kind of get you into these problems. Like I looked at some of it when when we were there at the thing and it's it's more of a of a reading certain key game in, game out. They're going to have different keys, different teams are going to give you different things. They're reading those keys and looking at those things. But it's almost as though the linebackers aren't necessarily specifically gap responsible. And it's just following those keys and reading the keys and attacking.

1:10:16 And what's happening is they're seeing these keys and people are starting to throw false keys at them. So they're they're doing certain things. That's where those RPO's and the the the zone reads and the things like that really hurt you. When you start looking at a certain key and it's flowing, they start using that key against you. Yeah. And I feel like I saw. It with we had we had some double pullers in Clemson. Yes. And and they chased the pulls and the and club Dick was going going to the left and had a wide open fucking alley. And that, that's part of that whole thing. You know, you come back and it always comes back to, you know, if you're going to if you're going to flow that way, then you have to have a spy on the guy.

1:11:00 They can they can come out to back to hurt you exactly whether it be that quarterback or whether it be a a counter back or something like that. You have where your. Spy helps. That's where your your backside edge setter is going to be like. There's going to be guys that you're going to need to have that backside contain responsibility if you're going to flow that heavy to wherever those keys take you. To to me at the high school level, when we're going to, when we're going to flow that heavy with our linebackers and we're going to we're going to fight to this particular key. Then I use a lot more zone coverage behind it because I have other guys as DBS and safeties or somebody that can come down and help if that's the case. Well, it's really hard to to follow those keys so hard when you're going to lock things up in man looks you, you have less people because they're going to be responsible for one person. You don't have that security back in. They're not looking at the backfield. Yeah.

1:12:03 Like if you, if you've ever tried to run a defense, if you've ever tried to run against an option offense and play man, it's it's of a gun because they're going to line up a receiver and just running straight down the field. DB has to go with him. And now you don't have an, you don't have extra protection on that age. Everybody has to be exactly right. And I think part of that is kind of what they're running into as well with a lot of the man schemes and stuff that they run and things. Not saying that there are bad things, but you lose some of that extra that added protection. Like I like to set up a lot of my defensive stuff to where I almost have a bonus guy in most situations. So a guy that's not necessarily locked on the anything in particular.

1:12:49 And I try to put him to a place where I know it's going to benefit me more than anything else. And so I play a lot of zone coverage. Now I get I have to understand where my holes are when I do that and where we're vulnerable, but I mean, I make my linebackers completely gap responsible. Now, whether they are gap responsible, but you know, given a gap responsibility because I don't have those crazy athletic linebackers like they're dealing with got you. And we still get caught up in in flow of stuff even when we're gap responsible. So I mean, it's, it is what it is, but I like something needs to be adjusted there in some way. If if you're going to keep free flowing that quickly in the front, you better have some protection backside for it. Let me ask you this question and this is, you know, some, some for me, some for some for people listening and watching here. The benefits, I think I think we understand that, you know, one of the benefits of free flow is that you can be a little bit more disruptive with your linebackers, right? Yes.

1:14:02 But what are some of the other benefits of of being less explicitly gap responsible and having a little bit more of a free flow with your linebackers? Is it like for example is is it better adjustment when there's like motion pre snap? Possibly a good possibility. Like there's benefits and and there's pros and cons to each one, to any of them, obviously. But like you have to understand what the group as a whole is going to be able to provide. And I know they get to, they get to pick their guys to fit into what they want to do, where I kind of have to fit what I'm going to do with the guys that I have. Yeah.

1:14:57 And the crazy thing is with a staff is, you know, is relatively new as this crowd is, they may not have all guys that they can fit into their scheme that they have to kind of adapt the scheme to the players that they do have. Because believe it or not, even it being in the third year, there's some positions out there that these guys are coaching that they didn't recruit any of those players. It's. True. Definitely not from high school. Definitely not from high school. But the, the, the free flowing thing, it allows you to kind of to flex more and move more. It allows the front to be able to move around with motions and changing sides of the strength and things like that, because then they don't have to shift to find their new gap and things like that.

1:15:51 It also allows you sometimes to get more people to the point of contact as long as they're reading the keys properly. It's when you read the keys improperly and there's no one on the backside and the next thing you know it's sometimes. It's not necessary. Sometimes you read the key exactly the way you you're supposed to, but the key was put there for a reason. Is to take mind off of another area so that they can go back in it. That that's the whole point of his own right. It's a false key. You said it earlier, it's a false key. Back when Brian and I were playing, the way to do that was called a counter. You know, you, you get the lineman to step one way, you step this way and then you pull 2 back to the other side, you bring him back. OK, that was the counter.

1:16:36 Oh, now you got the zone where you send the guy and you pull a guy out there in front of him and then you bring this H back in and lead up here and have your quarterback follow it on the backside. So when you get that free flowing linebacker chasing the pool there, there's nobody there. There's one guy left over there. He's a, you know, the backside backer or the safety coming down or something and then he's getting ISO from that H back and the quarterbacks pulling around behind it and. Then and then once they think they figure that out, you mix them some split zone and and and fuck with them a little bit more with with their gaps. All right, let's move on. Robbie got a few more things I want to hit with you here. I want to talk about game management next, because that is a point of contention amongst the hokey community right now.

1:17:23 I'm going to ask you this first so we can we we know where you stand. You're part of a high school staff, yes. Are you, do you have any responsibilities of game management from your role? Yes, which is so we all know. Well, I am the defensive coordinator and I, I have, I have pretty much free range to, to operate as I need to on the defensive side, you know, as far as making the decisions of what to do when and, and when to blitz. And you know, I have that kind of autonomy for those things. The head coach that I work for, we've been coaching together for Jesus 1617 years, something like that. We there's a lot of times in football games, the two of us know what each other are thinking. He knows when I'm going to blitz certain things. He knows when I'm going to attack certain things. I know when he's going to run certain plays on offense. And it's just kind of a, you know, we have, we have that work.

1:18:31 We're on that same page. And the good part is we ain't game situations Defensively. I get a little hard headed and things at times there. There's been times where I was talking about having the ability to call a time out. There's times he calls a time out while we're on defense because he looks at me, he's like, hey, you need a time out. And I'm like, no, no, these guys got to figure out what the hell is going on and and nut up and fix it. And he goes, well, we're going to call a time out and you're going to tell him how to fix it. I mean those kinds of things, but there's there's a lot less thought process.

1:19:14 Well, I don't want to say it that way. I was going to say there's a lot less thought process in the game management part on defense, but there's not. I mean, you got the the object of it is tackle a man with the ball, keep him in front of the states. It comes down to true. There's a lot more game management to it on the offensive side all. Right. Do you have a responsibility on that side of the ball? I don't know that I would say I have responsibility as much as I am looked at as somebody that I can give sound advice and I know particular situations and what statistically should be the best call in certain situations.

1:19:54 All right. So, so hold on, does Dave buzz you when it's 4th and three from the 50 yard line, you're down to points middle of the third quarter? Yeah, he'll ask. And what do you think? OK, what? What? What should we do right here? What's 4th and 3:50 What's there we go I'm I'm gonna go here we go 4th and 345 yard line. You're down to points 2119 10 minutes left in the game. So you got a little bit of game left. What do you do? What what is first of all, I know there's the sheet, but you said y'all have y'all's own sheet, right? Like there's the sheet and then there's your own sheet. Statistically, statistically with 10 minutes left, you're you're in the plus 8 minute mark. Yeah, the the right idea is that you're only down to points. You don't have a field goal kicker that can kick it from the 45 yard line because that's a 5253 yard field goal. Something like.

1:20:51 That high school, we don't have that guy. Some colleges you don't have that guy. Let's just face it, because that'll give you the lead. You get a field goal. Statistically, it says you should probably punt. Try to pin them inside the 10 inside the five, which you can do in in many situations in college game and and play it out. You got to trust your defense in that situation. Make a stop there, not allow them. It's hard to run 10 minutes off of a clock. Unless you army Chelsea that drive, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. Did did that make you cringe the different first? I know. Did that make you cringe, The defensive coordinator saying that?

1:21:33 It could, yes. It's very well. Can we? Got four more? Yards, it's it's going to tell you you should go for it. I mean, you should, you should go ahead and stop it. You should punt it and and do everything you can defensively because if you could pin them inside the five, you can get pressure, especially in Virginia Techs way right now get pressure. You might can get a safety out of it. You might can get them to have to punt from in the end zone and then who knows what can happen now us at a high school level, we we crossed the 50. We're probably going for it there you. Go. And and what our thought process is, OK, we only need 3 yards, we're going to go for it.

1:22:17 So we're going to, we're going to have our 5 yard hitch routes, we're going to have our middle screen like a hot screen from the back coming out, try to drop it underneath and and get what we can. If they're blitzing, we should be able to drop it behind the blitzing backer, things like that. Well, in high school you always have that added part of, OK, my hitch is covered. My hot route, that one backer didn't blitz, he's sitting in the middle on it. OK, I can chunk it high and float it 30 yards and it's essentially a punt because 8 out of 10 high school safeties, in their mind, I'm catching an interception, I'm catching this basket.

1:23:00 He catches the ball to four or five yard line and the receiver that's going down there, his intention is not to go catch the ball for a huge ass Hail Mary touchdown. This, that guy catches it. I got to tackle him as quickly as possible, you know, get that benefit in college. Most of those DBS are going, I knock this down, that ball goes back up there in high school. These kids are going interception, interception and they're going to catch it. And some of them might fall down trying to take off running before they get their feet on the ground. I speak from experience. I mean, those situations are there's always a statistically expected way to do it and they're they people put together sheets and all of this of plus 10 minutes under 8 minutes. Oh Lord, that's awesome.

1:24:00 We don't play South Stokes anymore but I'd love to. Got me thrown all off all. Right, there's what we do. But we, we've always, when you got those sheets and you got all of those things and I mean, you could put together binders and binders of situational things, but can you look through that binder in 25 to 40 seconds that you get on the sideline to make a decision? Now you're making a decision from here and you're going with, you know, you have every coach that's ever put it together, a game plan for a week has situational things that they're expecting that could happen and that you have to be prepared to do.

1:24:41 And inevitably, every game you get into, all of those situational things that you practiced all week aren't going to come up. And the ones you didn't practice with. But Rob, you were telling me with that though, you said you feel like y'all have the index card, right? You have cards that basically you say, you say the one reason Dave comes to you every time is pretty much you got it memorized. The time out, yeah, we'll take a time out kind of thing is, is in my head, the two point conversion versus PAT is always in my mind and the punt versus go for it to an extent is in there. Have the the idea of you know what statistically is said should be done in those situations. Now do we follow those not all of them. The ones that we follow the most is probably the PAT versus 2 point.

1:25:42 I mean, if, if you're, if you can tie it with the PAT, you kick the PAT, but if the PAT is still going to leave you down by 1, go for two. Because if you, you go for 2:00 and you miss it, now you're down by two. The field goal still gets it. I mean, those, those things are just, you know, those little things. But what it comes down to, man, you can, you can look at all of those things you want to, you can cover all of those different cards and books and statistics and all of that. Bottom line is when when you make a decision, you have to stand behind it and you can make that decision and people would go, oh, he made this decision. He's got balls.

1:26:27 And when it goes right rocks. It's because you were, you were and you. But when it goes wrong, you're the dumbest son of a gun. It's ever made that decision and there was no way you could be right. So Robbie, let's let's, let's talk about one of those, then let's talk you. Watched it, I told you it's coming. Yeah. If if, if you're a coach and you if you watch the, you watch the team run out the clock with 29 seconds left and a field goal kicker that's good for 50 plus with three timeouts in their pocket. What do you say 31 points that has scored 31 points, Not that it scored three or six, that it scored 31 points. You need 40 to 45 yards to get into your your kickers field goal range and you got 29 seconds three time outs. And you, you, you take those time outs and you flush them down the toilet along with that 29 seconds to play for overtime with your, with your defense that has been consistently getting gashed the entirety of the second. Half it's AI know exactly what you talk about it it it comes down to coach Woh and I talked about it some yesterday and we because I talked to Curtis about this, then him and I talked about it a little bit yesterday.

1:27:43 It it kind of comes to a fear for us. It comes to a feel of the game, like you just said, you had moments where you were getting gashed. Where is the momentum sitting? You got to think like that. Like you go out and you, you've got 30 seconds and you got 3 timeouts, OK, And you mind it, it's plenty of time to get what you need to. OK, You, you run the ball, you gain 4-5 and the clock's running. You call that timeout, OK, you stopped the clock. You're down to, you know, 24 seconds now. Well, you're second and six. It's one of those kind of in between. Do you run the ball again using all the time out? Maybe you get another six or seven. Maybe you break a bigger run.

1:28:30 Maybe they stop you for a loss. You throw something short, intermediate, somewhere around there. You get to pick up the first down clock stops. You get up, you get on it, you throw an incomplete pass, you lost. You got 3 seconds off the clock, the clock stops. Now you're 3rd and 6th. Now in just about everybody's mind, you have to throw it. So then you throw another incomplete. The pass gets broken up by a good play, so now it's 4th down with 21 seconds left. What do you do? So I mean, it's kind of a feel for that, you know, hit if they got in that situation. What do you do with that 4th and 6th? You punt it and give them a chance with those 20 seconds. There's a good chance you're going to kick it into the end zone.

1:29:24 You know there's a chance for that. Damn, who was it years ago? Deshawn Jackson and same kind of situation come up with the Eagles and the Giants years ago. They punted 1 to Deshawn Jackson late like that and he took it all the way back to the house just because they didn't have any other option. They were trying to get in field goal range to to try to win the game. It was tied. They kicked it. Matt Dodge. The reason I know that he was from East Carolina University where I was there because people gave him hell when that happened. He kicked it to Deshawn Jackson. Deshawn Jackson took it back for the touchdown. They lost the game on on what everybody thought was a was a no brainer.

1:30:07 Yeah, you keep going. You take all three timeouts. You do this, but hell, then you sit there, you got 2 timeouts left, There's 21 seconds left. You threw 2 incomplete passes. Now you got to use the timeouts on defense. If you get that opportunity, it's another one of those situations. But let me ask this. Rob, he made a call and it was the worst call he possibly could have made because it didn't work out in his favor had he had they went into overtime, went right down the field and scored and then intercepted the first play on defense and never going to question of the call he made there at the end with the 29 seconds left. Hey, Robbie, let me ask you this though, because I think, you know, I think one of the things that was kind of been levied at this staff is that they sometimes are a little too too conservative.

1:31:01 And when I when I look at something like this, and I'm not even going to say conservative, but I say I'll, I'll say more. It feels like they're playing a lot not to lose the game instead of trying to go out there and win the game in the scenario you're saying there, you say, you know, you know, if if it works out, it's great. If it doesn't, it doesn't. I think from a fan perspective, you can live with going out in a blaze of glory a little bit more than you can sitting on it, and then take taking your nuts into the overtime knowing that your defense is gassed. And gassed. But hold on. Let me ask this, Robbie, and it goes back to what you said with what woes did to you a couple times there. First of all, Tech had the 3124 lead five and a half 5:15 left. They gassed them a couple times.

1:31:52 If you look at that drive, they gassed them quick. Should Brent Pry had stood up and went over and I'm calling the time out. Everybody get over here and what you just said listen, they have to get it in the end zone. They cannot kick a field goal. They are going to go for it on 4th down. But he continued to let it play out. And I know you tell us that just a while ago we gonna figure it out on the field, but it isn't the head coach. It's like especially and again this goes back to where he was thinking we're going to win this game on defense. I'm going to save my time. I don't need my time outs not thinking, well, what if they score? And I know you can't have that mentality and all that, I think, but you.

1:32:34 If you're saving your time outs when you're on defense, you got to fucking use them on offense. It's true. You can't take three time outs into overtime. No, you can't, but the the the way I would have seen that one, bro, you bro, you talk about running the ball, you need effectively 40 yards. Yeah, you need 40 yards, 29 seconds if you are, if you are worried about what's going to happen Slee, I'm trying. I'm pulling up the stats from that game and I can't remember, sorry. It's just what happens to me as you get old folks. Slee that game had not thrown a pick, was 16 to 24, was averaging 9 yards pass. I sit here and say with 29 seconds, the 1st place should be your big go for the big play because if your thought is, well, let's play for overtime, your first play, if you go big play, if you don't hit it, you probably waste, what, 6-7 seconds or 22 seconds left?

1:33:28 Mike, put it up here. They did have some time outs left. But if you weigh 6 of you down to 22, all right, we did hit it. We're going to run the ball or kneel the ball 3 * 2 times. Excuse me. And if they call time out, time out. Well, if you run the ball twice, it's four to five seconds, 4 to 5 seconds. They got 12 seconds. The Meadow miracle in the Meadowlands can happen. It's carrier don't it probably would have happened when I but you sit here and it's like it was basically it wasn't he. He didn't help his defense out any by not calling the time out, then getting gashed and then to Brian's point where you sat on him and you didn't do any damn thing with them. There's no consistency with that. And I think that is as a fan, it's frustrating because you sit here. It's like, oh, because when he didn't call the time out, I was walking the wooden iron when that drive happened. Oh, we didn't call the time out.

1:34:17 Sorry. We got 3 timeouts. We got 30 seconds in in in the world today. That's like having a minute and a half because you got 3 timeouts and as soon as that ball is called and you go down, not count if you go out of bounds. Yeah, not count. If you go out of bounds, the clock still stops on a. First down, it was like he, he thought it one way and then didn't do it where if he had just called the timeouts while they were driving trying to get his defense sorted. Well, first of all, if you call 3 timeouts and you just do the math, you're sitting probably over here with about a minute and a half minute, 45 seconds left. Yeah, right. And then you can say playbooks, while I don't go attack, we have no timeouts, but we need some first downs, all stops.

1:35:01 I can, I can tell you from a defensive standpoint of a little bit better of what his thought process was and not taking the time out where they were getting gashed. It's because they were moving with tempo, they were moving quicker and most teams limit what they're going to do in that tempo and you have a pretty good idea going in and what they're going to do and you're trying to take advantage of it. If they call a time out, it gives them an opportunity to go to the sideline and set up two to three plays that go, OK, when they come out and line up this way, we're going to run this because it's going to take advantage of a certain thing. We're going to run this. If they line up this way, it takes advantage of a certain thing and it gives them statistically, it gives them more of an opportunity to produce a big play and gash you even more, rather than keeping them at that tempo and trying to take away the one to two things you know that they're going to do.

1:35:55 The the idea being they're seeing success in this, that's why they're going tempo. But we feel from a personnel standpoint, we at least have the right personnel on the field right now. If we can just nut up a little bit, get get some stops, it limits the the the different variety of ways that they can attack the defense. They can't. They can't necessarily take any more advantage of the personnel we have on the field right now than the other. Yard and it's a, it's a man, it's a, it's a person. Very. It's a Jimmy's and Joe's type of thing. Yeah. In in my mind, yeah. I get that. All right, so, so we're going, we're going to wrap this up because we still got big screeners do and we're going to go 2 hours tonight, but that's not a shock with us 3 Robbie real quick.

1:36:40 Hours and hours. I got to go to work tomorrow. I do too, but we discussed it last week and I want your opinion because we were talking about obviously this staff, the the staff as it's comprised right now it's 500I. I think we all will say, as fans of Virginia Tech, 500 is not acceptable. How many? And if you want to name names, you can. If you just want to write positions, you can show it. But how many staff changes do you think has to be made in this offseason? Because now it's three full years. First year we can say you had no talent. The last two years you've had some talented guys. And right now, if they go, if they go perfect, if they go perfect from here out, the combined record will be thirteen.

1:37:31 And I can't do math, 15 and 11, which again, 15 and 11 is 7 1/2 and 5 1/2 again, that that's not looking the greatest. So you tell me what is your opinion on this? If, if they can, if they win these last two games and win. The bowl game. Bowl game then it's going to be very unpopular. My thought behind it I could I could feasibly see and no real changes being made and making an emphasis in certain things finding somebody with more of that situational experience those things to to kind of bolster a very inexperienced staff when it comes to a lot of those things. All right, how many years you take away coach prize years of head coaching experience here at Virginia Tech. How many years of head coaching experience on that staff? That's Sean Quinn with two.

1:38:41 There is a total combined five years of head coaching experience. There is a total combined of offensive and. And after Quinn's two at Savannah State, what is Savannah State? Savannah State. After his two years at Savannah State, the next closest one is JC Price. With what, three games? Two games? Whatever he was in three. Three. Yeah, that's right. Three. OK, so so you win. Best case scenario you what if it's six and seven? They win one of the final 2, they get bowl eligible, losing bowl game. Then you've got to start looking at, I mean, the essentials of football, why you not scoring points and why are you giving up points? And those are going to fall to the heads of those two sides of the ball.

1:39:32 And they, you know, it's changing, changing scheme or, or figuring out what's going on or it's changing in personnel. The thing you got to worry about right now is, yeah, we've we've talked about the great recruiting classes and stuff they tried to put together. Where are those? Where are those things going to go? If these guys are, there's great recruits at the school right now that you really haven't seen anything from them. How many of those guys are going, We're not performing and I'm not playing. At what point are they going to start looking other places? What point are these recruits going to start changing their mind?

1:40:16 I mean, so you got to think about that and it's. I look at my top thing right now is if things don't pan out at the end of this game, I mean at the end of this season, what has been the thing that is hurt the most? And that's given up a lot of points at the end of games, allowing those gashing plays and allowing those points at the end. That's when you've got to be able to put that foot down and shut things down when you have a lead. And I don't think they've been very effective at that. And I think probably the first one to go would be more of in that in that situation that that's just my thought on it. But you got to start scoring some points or else, or else Bowen's got to have some question in it too. Yep, I, I, I definitely think, I mean, looking at, you know, we talked about this last week after Syracuse, we kind of did an evaluation and I think I was kind of on the on the border with, with Bowen.

1:41:29 I think I'm, I feel a lot less confident in him after what I saw against Clemson because I think on the whole I've seen progress from him this year and I felt like everything I saw at Clemson was a step back. Well, I saw progress from Games 5 to Clemson. The first four games I saw regression. I saw regression. I was, I was understanding in that there was there was maybe a process in that that got us there. But I think we're still we're still doing some of the same things that are problematic. And again when when you don't give. Your running backs or this one up? You don't give your running back to the football, that's a problem.

1:42:22 Strength and condition I would say, I would say conditioning even more so. And and I'm thinking in season conditioning. I'm not talking about what's going on in your phase one and two. I'm talking about phase three and four. How how are you conditioning them just before the start of the season and then camp and how are you conditioning them in the season? Yeah, with, with the injuries and stuff that they've dealt with you, you've got to start looking at some of those things. But like I said earlier, we're talking with with techie about this thing. You know, you can look at all this situational stuff and, and people can complain and, and have their opinions about all those situations. The head coach has to make decisions based on what he thinks is going to be best for that team. No fans ever been fired because it's true. You can make the right decision.

1:43:14 The damn head coach is when it comes down, when it comes down to this staff, OK, you can go position by position and think, OK, well, this person in this position needs to be replaced. You know, Cheetah needs to be replaced as ADB coach or, or crook needs to be replaced as an online coach or whatever. They're going to go to the coordinators because if the coordinators replaced, they might want to change all of those position coaches. And I mean, I think that's where it's going to fall. It's going to fall in that three. That's going to fall in the head coach and the two coordinators. And I don't think three years in, given Virginia Tech's track record and, and like watching coaches develop and, and things like that, Rod's not going anywhere. No, I know, I know Tally doesn't agree with me. Tally didn't like to hear it.

1:44:10 He said something about it last week. Frank Beamer didn't have a whole lot better record 3 or 4 or five years into his his run at Virginia Tech either. And you got to give them time to develop and to bring things in. And everybody talks about it's different game now with NIL and all of this and all that. You have to throw that out the window because not every team out there is going to be able to bring, you know, the $5,000,000 quarterbacks and the, you know, elite receivers and all that stuff through NIL and, and. Transport. Wars and all of that. Can I say this? Look at how much money Florida State spent. They are one in nine through the point. You still have to know how to coach football. You have to still how to know, build, build culture. You have to build cohesion.

1:44:56 People have to play together. It is a game of 11 people moving at once. I know they, I know we hate the guy collectively, but but look at what's going on at Pitt right now. Yeah. And they have, they have not even in the ballpark nil what we're working with. Nope. None. Not even. Close. Much worse facilities, much less fan support and they're they're out there getting it done so. That he can build that community base, he can build the fan base, he can build the recruit base. It's just a matter of the the product catching up with what. He's get, can we say? Experience on the field in the decision making roles is so behind where it where it could be, yeah, when everything else is probably a step above where you might want it.

1:45:49 I think Marv and I think Bowen are very smart in terms of scheme, in terms of drawing up plays, in terms of things like that. I don't think that they're very as good as we want them to be in those game day situational calls. And we know you're you're pairing that with pride that has very limited experience calling everything on game day. It's a bad situation where he can't really lean on the two guys that are most in tune at that game to say, hey, what should we do here? Hey, what, what, what do you think we should do here? They can't make that call because they haven't been in this position any longer than he has.

1:46:30 Neither one of those coordinators have tremendous amount of experience. None. You know, running programs like that? Nope. Neither. But here's the thing, Bowen. Bowen called one bowl game before he, you know, went down to Jacksonville. He was. Called the Co OC. He was pretty much, you know, running practices, not calling plays on. Or hadn't been any higher than the Co DC at at any point otherwise, right? And it's probably similar running practices and not on game day. But this is what I'll say and This is why I'm fine. If Pride chooses to make decisions, he's got to make moves because you cannot be an average team. Here we go. The amount of Joe's he's brought in, your APR, your Gilliam's.

1:47:13 Jay Lane Tootin knows people feel like he's regressed this year. But where Karen Drone is as a quarterback, look at the Joe's he sold this program to. Yeah. And I saw somebody put in about for when they being a better game manager, but guess what? When he got when the Joes went down, he went down. Yeah, cuz you've got to have players that can play. You have to or you. We're not kind of seeing the opposite right now, right you are. We're seeing the Joes are kind of carrying us when we don't have the experience in those situational places. We're not making the right calls always on, on game day.

1:47:54 The Joes are kind of keeping us, you know, floating up here. We kind of had the opposite towards the end of the Fuente area where you know the, I think from a preparation standpoint, Fuente did a very good job. I still think that Cornelson was awful in situational calls, but I think they did a very good job in the week to week preparation for an opponent. They knew schematics and then you had to manage your game. Yeah. And, and, and that's where they had a little bit of a leg up, but where they, you know, they, they didn't necessarily have the ability to bring in a culture and the ability to deploy, recruit and recruit and deploy weapons week to week. So.

1:48:36 They did not know how to recruit. Maybe we just. I don't, I don't know if that changes the ceiling necessarily of this team. I think, I think it definitely raises the potential ceiling because if, oh God, if you figure out some of those things, it's a lot easier for I think coaches to get better than it is for average players to completely level up their game. And because if you, because you have to, you still have to be a good coach to develop those players into those things. So if you've already got the talent and you are doing pretty good job of developing that talent, if you can figure out those those situational things, even if you just improve marginally, you put yourself in a better position long term because you already have talent on the field.

1:49:23 Martin and I think, I think. It's it's just. Yeah, Yeah. There you go. You already said what marginal. Probably is 20 gives us four more wins this. Year 4 more wins probably. Yeah, it's not a lie. Yeah. It's marginally get marginally better is I'll be nice three to four more wins, three to four more wins. All righty, Brian, you good? We're. Gonna close chapter, I'm good. Big Aflac policy and bring Saban in there on the defense. Where's that Amazon money? Can we get that Amazon? Money when we get the Amazon money. All righty. Well, Brian, let's flip it. We got some picks to make. Brian, you did not e-mail me who did what last week.

1:50:04 Hang on after day. After day. Shelter dominated. That's all you need to know. Yeah, I heard that. I heard that Jason did taxi. Thanks. Shelton went unbeaten last week and if he wants, can he make all of his switches to Shelton's fix this week? I would say anything I pick no opposite instead of better chance. We'll see. You won't going to be on the screen, but we're writing yours down. Let's go ahead and jump into it. I'll get it to you though all. Righty. Well, Brian, you leading the way, man, Your game. Yeah, man, it is the it's the Cox Man 11. And a half. 11 1/2.

1:50:48 That was wild to me when I looked at it. And that should be minus by the way. Well, no, no, no, no, no. They're they're laying 11 and a Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. That should be minus. That's they are -11 1/2. So is that why I was favored by 11 1/2? Cox, Cox are the favorite here. All right, so, and, and based on that, I mean, I, I, I'd that that's a that's a big fucking line. So I went with Mizzou here because while I think the cops will probably win this game, that that 11 1/2 is just crazy to me. It is crazy. I think it might be a, you know, 7 to 10 point victory there for the for the Gamecocks, but I'll take Mizzou here. Rob, we will let you go at the end until we put everything up here.

1:51:34 Me, I'm with you. First of all, South Carolina has played their best two games by far of the year against Texas A&M at home. Where they rushed the field, Shout out my cousin Hodges who rushed the field down there, got some pictures of it. He and he stole. I I don't want to say he took something off the field. That's all I'm going. To say. I know that he took some of the heads as he was playing in his dad's yard. He said no, but I'm going to zoo as well. Shelton is going. Shelton's land a big number with the game cops. Tally rides with me and you our wonderful ride. Miranda also laying points. Jason riding with me.

1:52:17 You and Tally. Robbie. Yeah. South Carolina, Missouri. I think South Carolina's going to win, but I don't know if it's going to be by 11 1/2 or more. I got to go Missouri. I'm not. Robbie goes Mizzou, I am going to Madison, WI where effectively the best looking team I did get. This one right this this is a. You did get this one right. This is this is our big number week. Y'all about to figure out we got some big ass numbers to be laying on this week with these games, but I'm going to Madison, Oregon, WI, Oregon by far. If you have watched them play, they look like the most complete team.

1:53:00 They look like the best team. That's why they are the number one team in the country. But they are going to be travelling to Madison, WI, Camp Randall, one of the toughest places to play in the country. I need to see one thing, Brian, real quick before I finish up my little comment here. This is going to be a night game in Madison. So that place is going to probably be Office Rockers, which is much beers they drink up there. So for me, I think 14 1/2 is a too big a number to lay. I think Oregon's wins it. I think they're going to get a war. I think Luke Fickle effectively brings the house knowing that this is his biggest game of the year. I'm taking Wisconsin.

1:53:44 Give me the points, Brian. Yep, riding with you as well here, Wisconsin it it's it's again, it's it's Camp Randall. I think it's going to be a very, very solid atmosphere for this game. I think they're going to come to play. I I don't think they're going to win. I don't think they're really even going to win necessarily by, you know, a a a a single digit here. I think it could be double digits, but I think that hook, that hook baby, I don't like. I don't like the hook so. 4228. Exactly. I mean, you know all. Right. I think 14 1/2 is just a little too much for me.

1:54:25 What about these two guys, Shelton, Tally, Say the Ducks. Miranda rides with us. Jason, they're laying a lot of points. Robbie, what about you? I don't think Wisconsin is there yet. Oregon is. Oregon's it right now and I'll take Oregon I Oregon by 100. Oregon by 100I. Don't think, I don't think Wisconsin's ready for it. And the ducks are coming in and they're going. They're every farm I've ever been to. There's a pond and they're going to take over that pond and it's all over for them. All right, I have a 14 and a.

1:55:08 Half. All righty, here we go. I like the 4821 thought 482828. Something like that. All right, lots of points. All right, Shelton is going to the little apple where K State's still alive for the Big 12 championship. Arizona State. A surprising bounce back here for Arizona State. They were kind of absolute trash with Kenny Dillingham's baby ass. What was he 33 last year when he got hired, 33 when he got hired last year. But right now that hire is looking better and better as time goes on. There are 7 and 2, so they are effectively still in the Big 12 race as well.

1:55:49 They need some things to happen. Brian, who you going with? You know, this is interesting. You know, Curtis talked about the the big spreads in this big screeners. This is the smallest spread of any game we're picking tonight. 9. And it's damn near double digits. And this may be the one I'm really sure about. You know what? And I think K State has a little bit more to play for and for that and, and being at home, I think they're going to go out there and they're going to take care of business. Yep, and I am kind of right with you. They both actually have playful both the four and two in conference. It's a night game in the little apple. It's got to be K State.

1:56:31 I think Arizona State kind of dream season comes to an end. Yeah, Shelton is going this is his game K State. I just ran his game K State. Yeah, somebody did it. Somebody had to. Miranda taking 9. Jason with the purple. Robbie with the. All the long long blonde flowing locks are going to be running all up and down that field. Give me K state. K State. All righty.

1:57:12 I was going to, I was going to have to go in Arizona State if everybody else would pick K State. I just just to be got you off the hook got you off the hook. All righty next game UVA off a big win against Pitt goes up to Notre Dame. This is going to be a 330 kick. The line is Notre Dame laying 23 Notre Dame effectively if they went out, they are in the playoff right now. I did see a matchup y'all one of the prognosticators put and I know I didn't get a chance to watch the the the playoff tonight. So if y'all saw what happened, let me know. It was something like it was who was it? It was Alabama, Notre Dame and Notre Dame. I'm going to tell you, South Bend in the middle of December is not a warm place to play at all. Last.

1:58:09 Time I was in South Bend was in July and it wasn't extremely a warm place. But Notre Dame laying 23, this is off the onset of Army is their next game. So Brian, what do you think? I like Notre Dame very much in this game, but I don't know if I like them. 23 points worth. So I'm going to take UVA here. It's still fuck UVA, but you know, yeah. Not three points worth. Yep, I'm with you on that. I also thinking of the army game. I have a very sneaky, sneaky feeling Marcus Freeman is getting them prepared for that triple option. So a lot of very very responsibility drills this week. Might as well do it for two weeks with a team you clearly are out talented.

1:58:58 A team that couldn't put 14 points up on North Carolina's defense. Y'all figure that out But give me UVA as well. But still, fuck UVA Shelton. Shelton is riding with us here. UVA. Tally also riding with us with UVA Miranda is taking Notre Dame. Notre Dame. By 100, says her and Jason with. Miranda, Robin, and you off the hook. You don't have to. You have to. Take Notre Dame now. It wouldn't have mattered. UVA.

1:59:39 They're cross. Sabres. I got a cross for you. Notre Dame laying 20. I don't care. Robbie, Robbie said. All right, fuck, fuck Virginia all the way. Let's do it. Virginia versus Hitler. Hitler. No, no, maybe not. But. Just to everybody, if you haven't ever tuned in before. I feel just. More coming on stay in the program. I feel like I summoned my inner counts there. There you go. You did. That's a little bit of an inner counts right there. Yeah. All right, next game we are going to is going to be Utah, Colorado, Utah, coming off a heartbreaking loss to BYU, Colorado comeback win down in Lubbock, Colorado laying 10 points.

2:00:34 Ryan, let's say. You, I mean, Utah has been kind of up and down this year. Colorado is really look better than I expected, even though I think that Texas Tech game was a little bit of a comeback to Earth moment. I'm I'm going to go, I'm going to go Buffalo's here. I am against you on this. I think because of the clash of styles, I think Colorado still wins this game. I think it's probably by a touchdown, not much more than that. But give me Utah in this situation. And Shelton, I'm with you, Miranda's with me, Jason's with you, Robbie's with.

2:01:23 How many years do you sit and watch Utah at some point ruin somebody's damn day by beating them USC? More people on occasion. They've done it year in, year out. Colorado's sitting there thinking that they're they're riding the High Road and, and in the driver's seat for that, for that conference championship. Utah's going to beat them all right? Robbie's saying take the 10, put the money line on Utah, by the way, the one that really I think if you're Colorado, you're pissed about, you don't know what time this kick is on the on set on Saturday. I'm.

2:02:08 Like 1030 airtime. 10:00 Ten o'clock. 10:00 No, no, no. 10:00 their time. Noon, our time, early kick. Robbie, you might be on to something there. All righty, let's keep rolling. We finally have gotten to the end and our Music Man, where he is taking a look at the biggest game of the weekend, potentially an elimination game. Tennessee, Georgia. The Hills. Were lined with wildflowers and I was wild Wilder than they for these that run. They just died in the sun and our field was just wither and flame.

2:03:06 So all that rose feeding and freeing on the road now. So I read here now where I go when flower goes wild. Now we get home, whisper while flowers OK will grow. Hey folks, welcome back to another week of guitar licks and gambling picks. I'm Jason Long. I'm playing one of my all time favorite Dolly Parton songs, which must mean one thing. I'm looking at another Tennessee game this week. Now the Volunteers are going to travel to Athens to take on Georgia's Saturday.

2:03:49 This will probably be a College Football Playoff elimination game. And before I get to my pick, Georgia fans, let me talk to you for a second. I realize I picked against your team now three times this season. I'm not trying to pick on you. Hey, I'm a Widespread Panic fan, man. I've been trying to play Tall Boy for about a month, but Vegas is doing you all no favors. Georgia is 2 and seven against the spread. And this week. But Tennessee is getting 10 1/2 points. That seems like too much, so I'm going with the Volunteers. Plus 10 1/2 against Georgia Saturday.

2:04:56 Let's go Tennessee. See you next week. Already Tennessee. And you know what? I'm going to go ahead and just lead it off here because I'm right with Jason on this 110 and a damn half. This could have been 6 1/2 and I'd have been like, maybe that's a little too much. That's a little too much. 10 1/2 is nuts. So give me the Volunteers. Yeah, I think we all looked at this one and you see 10 1/2, it started somewhere like 14 1/2 early, early, like on Saturday night. And it has come down to it actually has come down all the way to 10.

2:05:40 Now. Watch some of the Ole Miss game. Georgia is a good team. They're not the juggernaut. Vegas keeps putting the mass and I think Tennessee is too well built on the defensive side of the ball to get blown out by more than 10 points. Tennessee, OH watch this. Sheldon's riding, Tally's riding, Randy's riding, and we know what Jason's doing. Yeah. What you going to do, Robbie? What you going to? Do can you sleep or you flip it? Against us. Oh. Oh, Jason, He's going to do everything he could not to play Rock it up.

2:06:20 I know that man. He was my roommate in college. I know him very well and looking at this thing a. Lot of tease. A Georgia favored by 10 1/2 points against Tennessee. It's in Athens, right? It is in Athens, it is going to be a night game. Everybody else pick Tennessee. I like to be different. I'm going, I'm going. I'm going to take a little route that that Jason does. I'm going to match a song to it. OK? You guys know I have a dog. My dog's name is Reba. We're going to go with a Reba McEntire song. Oh, and it's going to be the night the lights went out in Georgia.

2:07:07 There you go, there we go, Robbie says go dogs. All righty. Well, that wraps up big screeners and I don't think anything has broken. There it is, right there. Upon we look at her, she's pretty. It's always. Beautiful, man. It's always beautiful. All righty, that does wrap up this episode of the Boundary Corner podcast brought to you by the Counts Family Pharmacy in Blacksburg. I am Curtis Wilson. Brian Siegler. Robert Compton. We are part of the College Huddle network. Check out our website, Boundary Corner VP to listen to all of our episodes. Check out the merchandise shop.

2:07:48 Also, don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Subscribe to the YouTube account and your favorite podcasts including Spotify, Amazon and Apple Podcast. Real quick, Brian, say his name one more time. You need to contact us. Jonathan Harris 8975 on YouTube. We let our buddy Jason Long play us in play us out. Check out his website Jason Long Music where you can link to all of his music on Apple, Spotify, his YouTube and Facebook pages. Also, it will show you where he is playing live down in the New River Valley. We appreciate you all. We appreciate you all always out there for listening. And as always, let's go. OK.

2:09:08 The.