Week Zero

0:23 Music. And welcome back to the Boundary Corner podcast along with my partners, Brian Siegler and Jonathan Talley. I'm Curtis Wilson and this episode is brought to you by Doctor Jeremy Counts down at the Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg, your friendly neighborhood pharmacy Three O 1 S Main St., Blacksburg, VA fellas. What is going on, man?

1:12 We back. We back. We getting we entering closer and closer. We we back, we back to do this every week. So that's how you know, we're we're about to punch it because when we go in every week, you know, we got content coming in, you know, we got games about to happen. You know that things are about to get real for the Hokies. Yeah, I agree. I mean, you just ready, man? I mean, I think we got some football, you know, this weekend and I got some high school games to go to, some middle school games to go to. So it it it's wide open, man. It's wide open. And and that's what you want. Best time of year? It's 100% on that tally, man.

1:55 It's it's games going everywhere. You driving by schools now, you seeing the kids out there practicing. We get more and more news from every single pundit in the college football world. We're seeing more interviews, Andy Better, David Cunningham, all the guys that take sideline and the writers down in Roanoke at practice, seeing the stuff every day. It's it's tough to hold down because it is officially week zero. We got game, like you said, Tally, we got games this weekend that, that one Saturday afternoon. I'm, I'm hoping I know Brian's not going to be at home. I'm going to try to get in front of the TV and watch that game because I want to see what Georgia Tech looks like and, you know, and SMU later that night.

2:41 Like, because although we don't play SMU this year, they're members of the ACC. They're going to be playing teams we are playing right. Yeah, and they, and, and those are two teams that people are kind of high on, or three teams, you know, Georgia Tech, some people got Georgia Tech as a pretty good team. Maybe one of our losses, you know, again, some people and Florida State's always good in the ACC as long as they're here, you know, till they leave, I guess. And then like you said, SMU, man, a lot of people are talking about SMU is a is a dark horse team this year. So it'll be good. Good week zero man, Great week 0. Yeah, I mean, it's it's one of those you got, you got some good matchups like you got to see, all right, so you got Georgia Tech, Are they a team on the rise?

3:27 It's Florida State. Have they retooled the way everybody thinks they have? And and like you said, some of some of those unknown anomalies from an ACC conversation as far as SMUI mean, it's not a, it's not a matchup that's going to I think test them, but it is their kind of intro into being AACC conference team. We get to see them a little bit. And I'm looking forward to that team in particular seeing how they kind of move forward once they get into conference. Play 100% and we are actually at the end of the telecast tonight. We are going to pick those. It is our big screeners games of the week. We only got 2 to pick from so we didn't have to scurry up and down the the lineup card to decide what we're going to do later this evening.

4:08 Also, we are going to go through the schedule and we are going to make our predictions of the Hokies season record. We're going to break it down. If you didn't join us last year, we're going to break it down four games at a time and kind of get to the end there kind of a little bit knowing the enemy, how we're feeling about the Hokies playing them. And then we're going to look at the position groups earlier tonight and it's sort of something if you if this, if you're new here, this is the first time because I'm looking up in the left corner. We got a lot more people watching than we normally have. We appreciate everybody out there. Every Tuesday of the season of the season, after the Hoagies have played, we do tell the truth Tuesday. And basically we recap the game.

4:51 We ask what went well, what went bad, did anything happen we want ready for and what can we do better moving forward. We're going to do that every week. This week we're kind of telling the truth of how we are feeling towards each position group on the Hokie stock up, stock down or we feeling level. So that's what we got in store tonight. But fellas, I want to kick it off because out of nowhere recruiting pick back up out of the out of nowhere for me. Maybe I ain't been paying attention, but when you land a top ten player in the state of North Carolina, a top 247 player in Snoop Peterkin, 62172 out of Mount Tabor, a wide receiver in Winston Salem like that, that's in some ripples. Because Tally, I know you followed. Everybody was saying he was going to NC State. Oh yeah, I mean, I didn't pay attention to him because I thought he was going to NC State. What?

5:46 Then you got to realize, man, you got funtail minds on your team. You're never out of it. So never out of it. And another thing I didn't know the kid played basketball as well. Yeah, yeah. So that's that's our second dual sport athlete in this class. That's pretty cool. So Micah Matthews and now Snick Peterton and I mean, this is one that I think we made some good, good progress late in the process because we, it looked like, like y'all said he was NC State bound. And all of a sudden, you know, so a couple of visits happened. There's some whizzing. It's like, hey, hey, you know, the Hokies are in play here.

6:26 The Hokies are in play here. Next thing you know, you know, we we get that commitment and and that's big man, because I mean that that's again, Fontell going out there and pretty much getting getting the guys that he wants. Any anybody that he gets gets really deep into the recruiting process with. He seems to be able to pull in. And I mean that's a credit to him. It it honestly at this point, I mean, you know, I, I hope it doesn't have to happen, but you know, you got to make him if if you can do it, the highest paid non coordinator assistant in the country. It's like the $1,000,000. Man, he's pretty. He's pretty close to earning it.

7:07 He's earning it on the field, He's earning it in recruiting, so. 100% How do you argue with that? I don't know. I know this happened Saturday and we're busy. Tally's got his son playing football. We're getting ready. We we've sent our kids back to school here. Did y'all get to see any tape yet on him? On. Peter can snook. Just go look at the first clip on any of them. I mean, I mean, it's been a, I've, I've looked at a couple of things, but from the one I've seen, I think it was just huddle tape. Go look at the first clip. He's running a kickback, he's running a punt back and it's stiff on one guy. Get to the end, get to the sideline and outrun everybody at 621-701-8170.

7:55 And he played basketball. It's Trey Turner, you know what I'm saying? Same kind of body style kind of kind of speed from what I've seen and then you get into a couple of other clips it's like he's running away from people what I and I didn't watch a whole bunch I'm not going to lie, but again, it don't take you 2 hours to look at somebody and see if they can play ball there you. Go. First clip, running a punt back. Second clip, somebody threw him a fade and he caught it over his outside shoulder. Dove. Third clip, another diving catch, this 40 yards. 4th clip, runs the kickoff back. That's enough. What else do I need to see? And Fontell wants you so.

8:36 And this is this is another kid that seems to be football first in, in terms of like, you know, you got basketball, you got football, but he seems to be a football first guy. You love to see that and I'm excited for him man, because I think he is the kind of Trey Turner that do it all type receiver, kind of do a little bit of everything for you. And I think we kind of, we had another cycle where you got kind of a traditional slot guy, you got kind of a red zone thread and now you kind of got this, this do it all receiver. So we're, we're again stacking bodies and, and, and getting them where they make sense in how we're trying to play, play offense and what our scheme is, is designed to do and kind of mixing up their skill sets a little bit. 100 percent, 100%.

9:21 All right, before we flip it over to the next commitment, just a shout out to everybody listening tonight. Some of our regulars in here got Thomas out here talking about the team. Chris Lester, always good to hear from you man. Our Buddy Clark down in Roanoke and Mr. Drones. So appreciate you guys as always for listening. But let's talk about the next gentleman that committed a little bit earlier this week. Luke Stewie, a six foot 295 LB athlete, classified as an athlete out of Avon Lake. OH, just a three star, little bit lower than what we've seen, but background, do a little research. His dad Michael was a wide receiver. Looked up the stats had like 700 yards played three seasons back from 94 to 97.

10:13 Obviously if y'all didn't see Dwight shouted out him the other day. So obviously he's got that and again, it's Ohio. We always, you know, me and Brian long for tally join. We always talk about it's like if you can get some from Ohio, you get some from Pennsylvania, a couple from New Jersey and then a couple from Georgia and South Carolina and North Carolina. Then you doing shit right because you going to those football States and you pulling out. Don't care where they ranked now any any how anything on this kid yet that y'all seen or read about since we landed him? So this seems to be one that outside of the legacy piece, which is I think a big part of this, and that's kind of why he was on the radar that, you know, they had him into a camp.

11:01 Apparently he really looked really good at the camp. And I think a lot of times guys that are in that kind of lower, lower three star ranking, you know, they go to a camp, they either find a good fit or, or or are able to kind of really go there and really stand out in in a particular way. That's how a lot of these guys get these offers. And I mean that that seems used to be what happened for him. Yeah, definitely. I've talked to my son about that a lot. And just, you know, sports in general, you never know what a coach is 100% looking for. You know, I mean, a lot of times they'll tell you, but every now and then it's a skill that can't be taught, whether it's high point in the ball or whether it's the way you speak, you know, whether it's the way you carry yourself and you're a leader through drills. It's it's something.

11:46 So it's no telling like what they seen. But from what I've seen, I think he plays both sides of the ball. Send him on some defense as well. Ball skills are pretty good that that wide receiver room is packed, man. Like if you want to get on the field over there, you're going to have to do some work. So I ain't saying that he can't, but I'm just saying with him being able to play offense and defense, I mean, that helps him out to find a place on the field, you know, and, and again, like Brian said, him being a legacy probably is a big piece to that, which is good. I like to see stuff like that because the worst thing can happen is that somebody loves tech and they played at tech. They have a kid, he goes somewhere else and then he ends up turning into Steph Curry.

12:36 You just, I'd rather be on the sidelines than be in the Olympics. And then we'd be saying, hey, we should have. So if somebody is, you know that that's that's part of that's part of recruiting, that's part of building the culture. So y'all keep doing what you're doing. They'll get Lauren Johnson's other son to next. The legacy too there. We go. Yeah, 100%. And looking at him tally, you're right, he does play both sides. He's playing a lot of inside slot receiver, but playing like a free. Looking at the tape here and it's on my left screen, he's playing free and he's playing strong. So he's playing inside the box and outside the box. And one of them was a pick.

13:16 He he went straight over top of the guy and just took the ball from him. I mean, you know, so is what it is. So again, two more recruit pickups there. Hokies currently 36th rank in the country at like 87.8. That creeping back to that 88 again, even with the 83. And I know some people like recruit rings don't mean Jack shit. Well, I think we can all tell you look who's makes the play offs, look who's always winning 910 games. And when we were winning nine and 10 games, those recruiting rankings were a little bit higher than everybody thought. So it does matter. All right, fellas, kind of the two-part of why we are here tonight.

13:57 Let us talk about the hokey position groups and if that stock is up, if that stock is down or if it's like this. And by all means, if you're out there listening tonight and you feel like you got an opinion up or down, throw it in the chat of how you feeling. We'll definitely throw it in there. So I am going to start, got to do this, right. I'm going to start with Brian Talley because when I get to the last one, I got to leave with him first. That's why. No, that's fine with me. You still watching? I'm. I'm watching, I'm watching the chat, man. I'm watching the chat I need. I need to chat to help me out tonight. Need to chat to help him out. Need to help all us out. All right, but we're going to start. Where else will we start? It is going to be the quarterback room. And so Mr. Brian Siegler, quarterback room stock up, stock down same.

14:46 I mean, it's stock up, man. It's stock way up there. There's there's three things that are playing a factor here. Number one, you're starting the season with the correct quarterback. Unlike last year. With the correct quarterback and you're starting the season with a quarterback that has started games for you in this system. So that that's that's number one. Number two, you now have a backup that regardless of who wins the job, a backup that I think is a better fit for what we're doing already with Kyron drones compared to what Grant Wells offered last year. So whether whether that next man up is pop, whether that next man up is Colin Schlee, we'll we'll know soon as far as who's winning that backup job.

15:32 But whoever that is is going to be a better slot in fit than what we had last year. And then #3 is just depth. I feel like, you know, we have a lot better situation from a depth perspective than we had last year because of a lot of what I said in two. But now you've got three guys that have had some experience in this system playing in some games. Colin obviously started a couple games elsewhere. So you got a guy with with that type of experience coming in. You got pop with a little more experience. It's just top to bottom a a better quarterback room than what we started with last year. Tally what? About you Oh yeah no that definitely kind of like Brian said I mean we had so many unknowns last year. It's going to be probably going to be a lot of UPS. But like I said we had so many unknowns last year like going into the season and it's like well we hope what we hope it's like this year it's like this is happening. You know what I'm saying like this is going to happen. So again, I mean, you y'all know everybody watching knows man. But I will say something, you know, me and Chris, shout out to Chris Lester, great guy, man.

16:46 He's a good friend to me. We we talk a lot about sports, but family as well. And he said something that was pretty profound to me when we got to talking about Grant Wells, he said and and and I was one of the people who was Grant's a great kid. I just didn't think he had the skill to get us to the next level, you know, and that was no knock on him. But Chris, again, me and him were talking and he said something like I said, it was pretty profound. He said all of these guys that are on the roster committed after watching Grant Wells play, after watching that team beat, you know, go set three games and, and three and seven, whatever we were three and whatever 8. 3:00 and 3:00 and 8:00.

17:32 Yeah. After going three and eight, Grant was the quarterback. You know, all of these guys that came in, Kyron came in, Allie Jennings came in because they knew that this offense could go to another level. So Grant Wells didn't really hinder anything. He was a, and I don't want to say he was a stepping stone, but he took the chance to come to Virginia Tech to go through those games. And we were competitive. We played a lot of games that he played in with some kids that you know what, what else were they would have started in Power 5. Still no. And we were competitive in those games.

18:13 And so it at least gave us a a backbone to show recruits, Hey, if you come in, we can get to that next level. You know, so Tebow could go talk to Kyron drone so Tebow can go talk to Quan Felton and say, Hey, this is kind of what it looks like. But you know, this X's and O's, we need the Jimmy's and Joe's, you know what I mean? So I got to give I got to give him a little bit of credit on that. I thought that was a a different perspective that I hadn't thought of. That was pretty good. And then, like I said, back to what we're talking about now, you know, Karen steps in and he does what he does last year and his stocks, you know, up tremendous. And then they go in, they get a, a, a veteran backup to go along with the young guys that we have in the stable as well. So just kind of bring some balance after your starter. When we get up on those games, when we go and beat these teams 42 to seven, like we know it's going to happen. You can get our starters out and you can get some back up, some work and they can go in.

19:19 They continue to get their reps and work on their craft as well. So stock up on that room. All right, I'm with y'all stock up on this one as well. And and and a lot of what Brian and Tally both said a lot of that's intermingling. But I also think this and I always think this perspective, there's three quarterbacks powering's getting one reps the backup, whoever that is is going to get some a little bit of one Rep. They're going to work with twos primarily, but it's whoever the third quarterback is, is running practice wild more. So if that is Pop Watson, that is unbelievable for him, right? Pop go out there, run the offense, get those reps Don't matter who you're playing with, you're going to get live reps because you're the practice squad guy and that's awesome. If Pop wins the job and he's the backup, wonderful, Love it. But then to what Tally just said, now you're putting a veteran on practice squad.

20:10 He's probably going to know exactly what to do in every situation, which is going to be getting us better prepared for the season. So that soccer room is way up. You got Dobby belt for it. Who, you know, came on campus, you see some other young guys in the recruiting class. So I'm not even talking this season, just in general that is through the roof. All right, Tally, I'm going to go. And the quarterbacks got to turn around and hand the ball off. So I'm going to hand the ball off to you. The running backroom, what we feeling like there right now? Stock up. Stock down. You know, you know what I'm going to say stock up as well on this. You know, we got some people that come back from last year.

20:50 I like Bryce Duke. I hated to see him leave, but I can understand. But I like what I seen from Prelude in the in the Spring game. I know spring games don't matter and all this, but I'm just saying if we can use the plays that I've seen him run, I don't know if it's him, I think he can do it. But the plays that I've seen him run with, you know, using the running backside of the backfield and doing some different things like that, I'd I'd like to see that. So I'd say the running back room to stock up and then we we can keep Malachi healthy. You know, we've seen him flash a lot at over the last two years, but then, you know, injury hit.

21:31 So we're going to go stock up. Brian Siegler, you know I'm going to go stock up too. I, I like what I've seen from, from Coney. I, I think you're going to get a, a tutor that you 100% know how to use the offense. I feel like the start of the season we were kind of working him in kind of seeing what he did best, where, where, where, what plays were going to be the home runs for him. I think as we got into that later in the season, we really utilized him a lot better. So I think I think you're going to see a a better utilized Tootin.

22:13 I think Malachi seems to be at at his most healthy that I've seen him in the last two years heading into this season. I think that's a key element to to what we're looking at here. And like I said, Coney, Coney has has shown me something. I think he's going to be a really good compliment to that 1-2 punch and we'll see if some of the other guys like Prelo get in there. You know, we'll we'll see if if they make some some hay as well. So I'm very interested to see what what goes on with that room pass those kind of first two or three guys, but I definitely think stock up this year all. Right. I'm with y'all, I don't my percentage, it's a very small up, very small up based on what TuneIn Thomas did and what kind of Prelude did in the spring.

22:59 Because after, after the first two guys, it is the unknown. We don't know what Coney's going to exactly be like on game day. Can PJ Prolu take some of those, You know, those gimmicks, slash, you know, trick plays that they kind of ran with him? Can they get that into a game element? If they can, it's going to be higher than I, you know, higher than where I am right now. But it's just a little bit up. It's not like the quarterback room, even though I like the guys behind them, it's just it doesn't have that dynamic where you just feel like, man, this room's really, you know, this room's really unbelievable. One through 123, it's just like one's really, really good. Two, it's healthy. OK, Three, if they run the right place for them.

23:42 So just a little bit up. All right, we got to chime in real quick, not on this room, but Chris Lester wanted to say something way, way up, way up for the quarterback room. I don't disagree, Chris. I don't agree at all. Like stocks is like through the roof. All right, Brian Siegler, I'm giving you like the easiest one, the easiest one, the easiest one. This is the easiest one. I'm I'm timing how long it's going to take us wide receiving room. Way up, Way up. I mean, there's really no other way to to, to phrase it, man. I mean, you, you, you throw Ollie Jennings back into a mix of very effective receiving corps that you had last year. You got Aiden Green coming on and then you got guys like Brody and Chan's coming in as as freshmen looking to make a little bit of noise as well.

24:41 You know, you throw in a chance Fitzgerald here or there and see if he's taking another step in development and maybe either one or two other guys that we don't even know anything about yet. You know, Tucker Holloway, if he gets healthy through the season, you know, he makes, you know, some sort of impact on this group. So I. Mean keep naming them. We left out, we left out Steven Gosnell, we left out Aiden Green. I mean there's names on top of names on top of names and then you got them stacked up enough where you got, you know, senior leadership, then you got guys right behind them. Then you got the young freshman coming in that are able to watch the older guys. Like it is amazing that Fontell has has built that room. The coaching staff in general.

25:24 But if y'all new here, if you're new to Virginia Tech and Hokie nation, like we ain't used to that many athletes being in that that wide receiver. Now we've had some good wide receivers come through here. Don't not don't. I'm not saying that, but when you look up and down that roster and you look at, you know, when you get to college, the stars go away. So we ain't just thinking about the stars right now. We're thinking about what we've seen proven on the field. And then the guys that have come in, the freshmen that have come in, we see them going against good defensive players in spring, in fall practice and they look like they belong there. So that is way stock up. Just I mean, just two seasons ago, we were talking about this being arguably the worst wide receiver core in power Five, right?

26:15 And and that's no disrespect to the guys that were here that were part of that. It just the decimated roster that we had at the end of the Fuente era, especially at the skill position group was crazy. And in two, two to three, 2 1/2 cycles, really, you went from that to arguably the best wide receiver core in the ACC, especially when we talk about depth. Yeah. I mean, it is crazy. It is crazy. All right, we got we got multiple people chiming in on this. Before I get my opinion, let me throw this up here. We got Kevin. Yeah, To the moon, The bad boys out there. Yeah. Way up. Way up, way up. Low country living Absolutely.

26:57 All the way up and and I'm with y'all, this is one of those things where you buy a stock at like $3, you forget about it and you walk around like a year later and it's like worth 800 and you're like, whoa, what happened? This thing was not worth that. And and tell you said list them Felton Jennings, Lane Gosnell, Aiden Green, Chance Fitzgerald, Brody Chance. What about XTB? You saw him a couple times last year break. We couldn't even get that deep. Didn't even think about that name. It's crazy and. You've got guys like Takahi that we've heard about doing good things before. He got back, got his name.

27:38 He was, he was last year. He got hurt like he was ahead of some of the other guys and he got hurt like that room was super deep, man. And what that creates when you got that going on is competition. You can't just go to practice and chill. You got to go to practice and you got to you got to go to work because the next guy is trying to get on the field. So you can see that you can see the competition, man. You can see everybody wants it like it is. It's crazy. All righty, all right, tally, back to you on this one. Back to you on this one and tight end room, your room that you played in up, down level.

28:24 Yeah, we're going to get to that. Let me see what Miss. Miss Sarah he is talking about. Miss Sarah, welcome to the show. We got to correct you, because if you're talking about Malik Washington, he did not come from Virginia Tech. He came from another place that has Virginia in it, the University of Virginia. So he's a great player, but he didn't come from here. And we don't like them. We like him. Oh he don't like them? I didn't see that comment and wanted to say that but we don't. What tidying room? Tidying room up down level. Yeah, so y'all can beat me up. I'm going to go down, man. I got to go down. And the reason I'm going to go down is because we lost. We lost, right? You know, like he left.

29:08 Now, I'll say this, I think that because some people say, well, we get, you know, we get Gallo back and we seen Biggie, they were going to be here regardless. Like they're here so you could interchange them, you could take right out and put them in if we're going to run the ball because they are better blocking backs than he was. But at the same time, it was like he was a defense, like he was a mismatch, you know what I'm saying? Like him being on the field, he was a mismatch. So I think we have the wide receivers that can take those catches, which is great, but we're just talking about that tidy in room when you lose a tidy in. That was, I think he was third on the team in receptions last year. No matter how you slice it, yeah, no matter how you slice it, go back and watch the tape.

29:55 He was he did what he was supposed to do in the past game. So no disrespect to the guys. I like. I like what I'm seeing out of Saint Germain. I like what I'm seeing out of Benji. I think Benji's probably the most athletic out of the tight ends. Gallo's going to bring some senior leadership, so that's good. He's been there nine years. I just hope, you know, he's healthy and everything. You know, he he's he's able to go out the way he wants to go out. But I'm going to go stock down on that just because of that reason, because he left. Ron. It's stock down, but it's it's just a little bit. And what it's, it's, it's mostly to do with what Tally said. I mean, you got to replace a lot of production from a receiving standpoint with Daquan Wright moving on to Ole Miss.

30:41 So that that's a big one. Everybody that listens to this podcast, they they know how I felt about Daquan Wright. So we don't need to rehash all that. They know that I knew he was a dude. So there's no way that you lose that off your team and there's not some degree of drop off there. Now, what I think is going to happen is that there's going to be some replacing of that production, but it's going to be by committee. You're going to see more guys get involved in the offense in more specialized ways instead of having a guy like right, that could do pretty much everything in the passing game. So you get Gallo back little more of the the short intermediate stuff.

31:23 A guy like Zeke Wimbish can do those deep crossers, those seams. So we, you know, you kind of end up, you know, replacing him in terms of role with a a few other guys, but in terms of just having the one guy that can go out there and just be a mismatched nightmare, you don't really have that anymore in the passing game. But I think overall blocking the levels going to raise up a little bit. That's why I said it's only going to be a little bit of a difference, but I definitely think it's a small step back in that that position group. Yeah, 100% on that. It is stock down. When you lose a guy tally stat loud with 28 receptions, 366 yards, 13.1 per reception. That's a huge thing to lose.

32:06 Now Benji Gosnell had his flashes last year, had some good plays and we're getting Gallo back. But it's Gallo off of me. And like you said, he ain't no spring chicken, right? Gallo's an older guy. Gallo did have over 600 yards just two years ago. So it's definitely there. But it's down because I because Wright was so dynamic like in in as far as you say. Well, well, he won the best blocker. You know what if you threw that man on the field with the big three right now? I mean you put you twisting up defenses because against a nickel corner or against a smaller cornerback right could block you go out there against the linebackers asked him to do a hardship off the IT won't gonna be there, but it is stock down unfortunately for that room. All righty Brian, we're back to you and obviously clearly there's only one group left.

33:01 I also wanted to start with you because I needed to hear Tally's second point of view after. Him, I'm I'm going to be calm, be calm. You know, I want you to be calm. But Brian, what you've read, what you've heard, where is this offensive line at right now? I'm going to say that the stock is up. It's not a resounding up, but I, I think we're in a much better position than we were even at the end of last year for several reasons. Number one, you bring in a guy like Cunningham that at worst is going to be a very good depth piece for this unit, right? And then you got two other guys in Brody Meadows and Lathe Ganem that seem to be coming on in fall camp after post spring.

33:48 They're pushing some of the guys on that starting line for some playing time. So now you're talking about eight guys, you know, with maybe a 9th, you know, slipped in there in terms of depth. Whereas last year I think we were more like maybe six at times 7, but mostly 6 for most of that year. So you get a little bit of wiggle room if, if there is a guy or two that go down this year and that I think that is where the improvement is the most is having a little bit of wiggle room with this offensive line. If there is an injury here or there, not feeling like it's the end of the world.

34:31 But in terms of of front end, we, we've got to hope that they actually take a step talent wise because I don't think we're going to see a whole lot of new faces on the line. Jonathan Talley. Oh, it's on me. It's on you. Well, I'm going to actually say stock up a little bit, you know, because as Curtis put it, if you buy stock at $3, sometimes it's got to go up, you know what I'm saying? It might go up to three O 5. So I will say, I mean from last year, you go back and you look at the early games, Tootin was getting hit 3-4 times in the backfield. You know what I'm saying it he couldn't do nothing. He couldn't.

35:23 We we couldn't get no rushing yards. I think at one time we might have like 20 rushing yards one game and then maybe against Purdue and then Karen breaks a run and had more rushing yards in that run than we did in the whole game or something. It's crazy stats for what we were doing. But again, the offense changes a little bit. People get a little bit more comfortable. We don't, I mean, we didn't lose nobody. So it ain't like we had a stud that we lost and we're like, OK, well, we just got to replace him. So you got pretty much everybody back. So at least you got some more experience, you know what I'm saying? You got some experience and you got some people behind you that if you don't get your ass in gear, you going to come out.

36:05 You got, you ain't just stuck in there, you know, you're seeing different people get in there. And then like even with Cunningham, people's like, is he going to start? You know, I, I seen him, he can play. I seen him in the spring game. I again, you can watch somebody play. If you watch offensive line and you watch the feet, you can tell if somebody can move their feet or not. I mean, it ain't that easy. But I mean, if you watch it enough, you can say, OK, yeah, he can move a little bit for that size he can play. So if he's not 100% the starter and he's having to push somebody, that means that it's some good competition going on. That means somebody don't want to lose their spot. So I'm OK with that. So I would say up slightly until I see a game, but we will be in Nashville here shortly and I will be looking at it close up and personal.

36:57 So we'll we'll figure out how the stock is after I leave that. But right now, we're going to say stock up a little bit. Absolutely. So a couple things before I speak. Here's a few people chiming in big up from Thomas. We got bigger, stronger, more experience. It is more experience. Chris let's you got two things to say, Coach foot for president and a little bit more about coach truck. That's a big piece right there. And I'm with Tally. I'm stocked up a little bit. I'm stocked up a little bit because when we kind of got the right stuff going, we looked better. We were by no means like that elite top 25 line where, you know what, if you beat us, we're just going to have a bad day. It was that we were maybe average to maybe slightly above average.

37:46 And now from the reports we're getting, you know, David Cunningham was with us last week feeling like it could be eight. That report that came out at the end of last week about basically there was a day where it was get what Leif Ganem little more at center, big more back at right guard. So now again, it's that depth. It's but it's been we tally, we joke about that nickel, but for what this team was last year, if it's just a marginal increase of being a little bit better in the offensive line, we saw what happened when this thing got going right. If it's just marginally better, that's a long way. That's a long way from where it was at the beginning of this year last year or this line last year. All right, let's flip it over to the defensive side of the ball now and let's start with the defensive ends. Brian, where are you feeling up, down. Same.

38:45 I got a feeling the ankles say down because shit I just I don't think he can say down. I'm, I'm not going to say down. I, I, I, I'm going to say up. I'm going to say it's a marginal up. What I think we, we know we're going to get with APR right? We, we know, we, we've seen him. We, we, we saw what he can do last year. We know we're getting, I think the big thing is that I think having a full offseason with kind of understanding who our personnel is, I think you're going to see big jumps from Nelson and Burgos and that's where we're going to see that stock go a little bit higher. And I think you got guys like McRae and and Jordan McDonald still kind of working in there as well that give you a little bit of added depth behind those big those first three. So I, I think the stock's up.

39:33 I don't think it's up significantly, but I think it's a, you know, it's going to be a a nice little steady uptick there. Let me ask Tally, Tally, let me ask you this before I flip it over. How much more can it go up defensive end wise when the defensive ends deal what they did last year on a national stage with Saxon tackle for loss? Well, it's, it's kind of hard to, it's kind of hard to put it in the words what it is. But the main thing is, and it's for me, I'm going to just go ahead and put the line together because it's so hard. We have somebody who is. I'll say either stock has to be up or stock is the same, which is fine. But when you have somebody who has a great year like APR did and people say, well, you know what you get with him? Well, you really don't because he could take a step forward, which would be awesome, or he could be right where he was last year because people are doubling them. And then people are doing different things to make sure that they're game planning for him. And then somebody else, you got other people on the line that's going to step up and they going to take, they can take those tackle for loss, they can take those sacks. So even if his sack numbers dip just a little bit, just because he's there, somebody else is going to eat just because he's there.

40:48 A linebacker may not get somebody to that second level because they are saying you guys don't leave him, stay on him and let that linebacker, we going to try to make the linebacker miss with our running back. You know, we going to put them one-on-one or something and then the linebacker goes and makes the tackle. I know that's a lot at one time, but I'm just saying APR is exactly what he needs to be. He is a distraction for a offensive coordinator before he even steps on the field. I promise you, everybody on that offense is looking for 52. You damn right they are. So that I got to say stock up just because of what he's done and how he's made it and because he's getting in people's heads.

41:30 But like I said, don't be alarmed if it's a couple of games and you don't see a sack or a multi game sack form. We got to look at that as a whole because of him being there makes that line so hard to block. All right, well, let me do this because you said you wanted to roll them into it. I'll, I'll talk about both sides at the end. What about the defensive tackle room, man? I mean, you got Fuga coming back and you mentioned just a second ago, people's going to be everybody's looking for 52. Well then there's going to be somebody that pulls up the tape and says y'all realize #16 that mother is a damn all ACCD tackle.

42:11 We need to lock them too. Where are you the tackle room? Is that up? I mean, it's got to be up because again, I think that the kids last year, young men last year did a great job. You know, like we have fell Darius on here, nobody. Well, we had a couple people that felt like if he took a step forward, it was going to be a big year for him and that defensive line. And when he got his opportunity, he went in and he did what he had to do, like he shine, but it was more of a collective unit thing that they did. You know, people, not people's pilot was in, Kendrick's was in, Fuga was helping Federus was in doing his thing. Like you just said.

42:56 The same with APR. They're going to have to look at 16 and say what are we going to do about him in the middle? You know what I'm saying? Like, are we going to chip him? Are we going to have to send a full back at him? Are we going to not be able to run a not be able to run a screen because he's fast enough to get to the line back to get to the quarterback if we let him through? Like it's a lot of planning that goes along with having those players. And I don't think that we are aware of we have stars on the team now, you know what I'm saying? And I don't just mean just the, oh man, we got good players like you got nationally ranked players on your team that people are going to game plan for.

43:37 Like if I was the other defensive end, Keyshawn Burgos, Cole Nelson had a pretty good year last year. Whoever's on that other side, I, they better be licking their chops, man, because they're going to be looking to that other side and worried about him. And it's Showtime to eat on that side. So I, it, it should be fun, man. I I got to say stock up on the whole line, but for those reasons. Got it. Sigla D Tackle. Man, so you know, you got Fuka coming back, got an extra year here. He's he's probably going to be a captain, whether he's a guy that has that or designation like we were talking about on the preview panel or whatever.

44:19 He's going to be in the steady rotation for this group. But then he bring in three key transfers. Amneus Peebles, you got Kamari Copeland from JUCO, you got Kelvin Gilliam coming in. You also got some of the other guys that are already on your roster taking another step. You got Malachi Madison, you got Gerard Johnson. You're throwing in a a youngster like Emmett Laws in the end of this group. This room is way, way up in my opinion, and I think it's because of that depth piece that we're talking about. I think last year we had three to four guys that we could rely on consistently. They were steady eddies that you do what you can get out from them. I think Aeneas Peebles raises the ceiling of this unit and I think all the other guys they brought in raised the potential level for this unit.

45:07 Plus you have the added depth of having being able to go really 6 deep at this group instead of four or five deep. Yep, that's the big piece right there. And real quick. Got it. Just a couple folks chiming in. The defensive ends up Burgos expecting a big year. Low country. Yeah, the me it for the defensive ends. It's slightly up. I wish CJ McRae was healthy. I wish we knew right now that that leg was completely healthy where he could play. I would feel even better about that room. Defensive tackle to what Brian just said, that room went from being where it was really three cog pieces to where you feel like is it 4, is it 5?

45:51 Is it six that can actually play and to to what Chris is saying it right here, because the honest truth is, and I know JC Price, we talked to him. Y'all, I got a feeling there's going to be times JC is going to stick people's and go stick APR on the same side and say put everybody over there. Give me one on ones with some of these young guys and make them pay. Because the 2nd it's it's not if it's not the if it's when they it's when that D line makes them pay pops the quarterback causes a fumble, massive tackle for loss. They have to sit there and say, well, if these guys are going to eat all day. Can we consistently continually chip and continually send the full back and keep the tight end in or we eventually going to have to just we don't have to play it straight up and then that's what we want, right? That's a decision.

46:43 And we've said all these names and haven't really even talked about Curtis Perry yet and, and how he, you know, he might be a situational piece in this group. Situational 3 tech situational big end. So again, it's it's it's up. I ain't putting it at the wide receiver level of up, but it's up. All right, Brian, let's flip back. Linebacker room, linebacker room. And did you get a chance to see some of those interviews last weekend? Which ones? The what? Lawson. And with all those guys, it seems like everybody, with the exception of Brumfield, is all over the damn place. Yeah, it looks like they're they're they're definitely cross training that Will and star position pretty heavily. You know, you got Brumfield that's kind of locked in. It sounds like he's going to be kind of that guy. Mike.

47:38 You got guys playing star, guys playing Will. You got Kelly at star. You got, you know, Caleb Spencer playing a couple spots. You got Caleb Woodson playing a couple spots. I mean, I think outside of Keanta Jenkins and Sam Brumfield, everybody else is all over the place. You know, Keanta is going to probably be that, that first guy at * and then Brumfield there at Mike. And we'll see who lines up at Will and we'll see how much they interchange that position. And we'll see how much they move guys from from start of Will and back. And I just love the depth that we've created because I mean, you got guys like Gabe Williams in the mix here. You got even Jade McDonald still in the mix there, Jaden Keller still getting his perennial fall, can't mention of of being in the mix.

48:31 So it's going to be interesting to see kind of where the chips fall with with those, those two positions. I think we're we're pretty solid. Brumfield, Mike Keonta, the first guy up at star. How those rotations work after that is anybody's guess. So up, it's still up. Yes, still up because of the depth. Tally. I'll say up off of 1 clip, I've seen Keonta Jenkins try to take somebody's head off the other day on like a jet sweep or something. I don't know why he's doing that to his own players in practice, but if I see, I seen that. So I mean, I got to say up. But now, you know, realistically, I mean, who did you lose?

49:16 You didn't lose nobody. You brought some people in to help and you got some more experience. And again, you brought some people in with some experience. You brought in Brumfield, you brought in, like you said, Caleb Spencer Woodson's a year older. Keanu Jenkins is the veteran in the room. Like I didn't even mention Lawson, You know what I'm saying? Jaden Keller. Somebody's got to have, somebody's got to step up. And again, it goes back to your defensive line. It's a team sport. If you can keep those big offensive lineman from getting to that second level, getting out there and and and mashing on your on your linebackers and then they just need to run and stop the ball and come downhill and fill holes, that is going to make your that's going to make that room better.

50:06 So it's an overall thing. But just as that room, I say that the backers up as well all. Right, Thomas agrees with you with saying the backers are up. Chris laying a bold prediction. Hokies going to increase Chris. They do that. They do 50 Chris. That means they will increase one sack per game from last year, One additional sack. And I know some people say, well, that doesn't sound like a lot. One additional sack again. Yeah, that's a lot. Opt in as a shit ton. As a lot. As a lot I think. Half the snack would be a respectable #1 sack is a big jump, but I think they could. Yeah, that I think the potential is there and I think, you know, we we've talked about it.

50:50 I think you had nauseam at this point with what it means to have a guy like Brumfield that is a veteran Mike, that knows how to be the quarterback of the defense, because that was not some, that was not an asset the linebacker corps had at the start of last season and. And that's why for me, that room is a significant step up because of Brumfield, because it's having that guy that knows where everyone needs to go, where everyone needs to line up, how everything needs to get done. And it's not, it's not like he doesn't have he has the experience. He has in game experience. He's played against some good teams. It's one of those things I, I think I said to both of y'all last year, it might have been a state of the program.

51:31 I don't know if I was that drunk at night when I said how much better the linebacker group played from year one to year two. And I said, you imagine if you had Dax, it might where a guy who knew how to line up everybody who knew exactly where to go, even though he might not be quick enough to get there every time, but he's putting everybody in the right spots. And that's essentially why what it is with Sam Brumfield coming in. Right. All right, Tally, give me some safety room thoughts. Up, down. Safety room, I'm still, I mean, again, I want to go up on everything, but I got to go Safety room. I'm gonna probably go about even on that right now just because I need to know if if Stroman is going to get kicked out of games. I need I need to know if he going to be in there or not. You know, shout out to Strohman.

52:22 Strohman is a is a dog man. He's a headhunter. But we need him on the field. You know, we need him on the field and we know we got some players back there, but we also need to know what do we have back there? You know, we know we got we've heard a lot about Reddish. He's a freshman. He's coming in. We heard about, you know, some different people back there in the backside, but I'm going to go about even just because we again, I, we didn't lose anybody. We, we got the, we got the, the group, the boys are back in town. We just need everybody to be healthy and everybody to stay in the game and not. We don't need no targeting. That's right, look who joined us here. Look who's back.

53:04 Where you been, Andretti? Andretti, man. Wait, what? The game came out, That's what it was. We didn't play he. Just came coming up for air from the NC double. A You ain't even, you ain't even played him yet. I got to find I got to get with him. I ain't played him yet either. Oh man, Brian, where are you on this room? So. I'm I'm right now I'm gonna hold. I'm gonna hold at at steady. I'm I'm hold it the same here for this, but I think it has potential to go up. So when I'm, when I'm looking at this group, you know, Jalen Stroman, he's he, he, he's a dog. But like Tally said, you know, we we've seen situations, whether it's injuries or whether it's targeted and keep him off the field a little bit more than we would like.

53:50 Last year in general, injuries and targeting kept our safeties off the field more than we wanted. It was already a thin group last year, especially with the with the youth. Outside of those first two, I think we're in a little bit better situation started this year. We really have three guys with some significant experience at this point looking at Stroman, looking at Jones, looking at most Phillips at this point. They played a lot of significant snaps last year looking for most to, you know, take a take AI think a pretty good step from year one to year two. I think the big question is going to be is does what does that rest of that safety room give us this year? You know, does you know Quinn radish step in there? Does Cam Fleming take a step?

54:36 Are we looking at Dev, Devin, Alvis doing anything? So I think those three are going to be the big question Marks and how much are we going to get from them and how much are we're going to ask to get from them, whether it be because of injuries or targeting or anything else? Because I think the first three there, I think we feel, if not super great about. We definitely feel comfortable putting them out there for significant snaps. All right, I am going to be slightly down on this room and it's not for the three guys that y'all talked about in Stroman, in most Phillips and in Jones. I think I'm more disappointed that we haven't heard names. We've only heard Reddish's name a little bit, but it's more of Devin Alvis has been here a couple years now, Fleming and Noah Jenkins and a lot of those guys have been here a few years now and we're not hearing them come up. And usually with safeties, usually about the second season, guys can start making names for themselves, right? And that worries me a little bit. That worries me a little bit.

55:36 That's why I'm slightly down because if I had heard one of those names that we didn't hear last year and we heard this year like in camp, but we saw something, you know, in spring ball that Brian Talley or myself, like it called our eye, that will make me feel better. So I'm slightly down now. Is there potential to go up? Because I'm going to be straight up with you. Yes. Brent Pryor, he loves to talk to us fans, he loves talk to the media. He he's great on the mic. He lets people come in and watch practices multiple times a week, right? We know they're getting about 20 minutes segment, which is a lot of time, y'all. But the question is if he got the ace in the hole and it's one of these safeties, ain't nobody talking about that Vanderbilt game going force a fumble, get a pick and then we're going to be like, look, coach, coach being slick.

56:26 Coach didn't want to talk about him because he knew he had a fourth safety in that room. That's where I'm interested, Brian. You get another easy one. You get another easy one. Brian, I get, I get a layup. You'll be a layup. Well, we got to have a layup to end this segment here how we feeling about corners? Up you got another year development for Lane. You got arguably the best cornerback in the ACC and Dorian Strong coming back in. Here you got another year development for Blake, Braylon Johnson, Dante Lovett. I'm really excited to see them grow into a bigger role in that cornerback room. And then you got guys like Penex Williams. You got Joshua Clark as a true freshman coming in there and making some noise.

57:14 I haven't even named a couple other guys. So I mean, I think this room, yeah, I got love it earlier. I got love it in. There. Yeah, but I think, I think this, this, this room is deep right now. I think we can go about 6 deep and feel pretty confident, but I don't think we'll need to ever get that deep in the bag as long as we can stay healthy. Tally, tally. You got to go up, man. You got to go up and we going to go all the way back. I know y'all might be tired of me saying it, but I'm going to say it again until y'all get it in your heads out there in the chat. When your defensive line is better, it makes your whole defense better.

57:54 Start in the trenches when that defensive line can get on that quarterback and make him throw that ball just a split second faster than he really wants to. Dorian Strong will go get it. Monsieur Delano, go get it. You got again, like you said, Braylon Johnson back there, Dante Lovett, those guys heard a lot about Christian Williams. Christian Williams was hurt last year, you know, so he's back. Joshua Clark, we've seen him on a couple of flashes. I mean, a lot of these kids that these coaches that went out and got, man, they're coming in ready to play body size wise, like most of the time from the Virginia Tech. We're kind of used to. We were thinking, you know, man, we're going to have a couple of years of development, you know, get the get the weight up.

58:38 No man, they coming in ready to play. Look at most Phillips last year. Back to what you said, Curtis, when you said who's going to be the one that flashes, man, you never know nowadays, like with the, with the, how they've been recruiting and how these kids come in, everybody has trainers, Everybody comes in, you know, knowing what they need to do and have their body ready and man, they're ready to get out there and play. So all it takes is like you said, one play, Hey, this is your shot. I need you to go in and do your job. Boom, you going in and get a pick, you go in and get a a, a fumble, you know, cause a fumble. You know, the next thing you know you're in the rotation. So I'm excited to see that. But stock definitely up on that DB room. Yeah, 100% the stock is up on the DV room. I mean, obviously you mentioned Brian best corner in the ACC and Dorian strong and probably, I mean it is you can make Just Cause the best duo in the ACC with him and Mansoor. I definitely think they are a top 20 duo in the country. I think they're a top 20 duo in the country straight up. But I think it's also because we saw Lovett play last year and we saw Braylon play and it's like these guys are holding up. They're true freshmen.

59:59 Their bodies are already ready. And then to add on top of that. We heard the name Christian Williams that came out of coach's mouth a couple days ago. Hadn't heard that name, so he clearly did something there. And then Joshua Clark. And we saw Joshua Clark on field of spring ball. We saw that like, OK, this kid can play. And Curtis And Curtis. Guess what? What? Tell me somebody. No, no, you didn't miss nobody, but we didn't even mention. Look who they're going against in practice every day. Iron sharpen and iron, baby. Look who they going against in practice every day you got to go against that wide receiving room. You better be getting better or you going to have to transfer to Blue Valley State or whatever the place is north of state. I don't know.

1:00:44 You have to go somewhere to play If you playing against them and they make you look silly and you ain't getting no better every day. So I mean, when you going against top wide receivers in NFL caliber players, that's that's what you want. So. 100% All right, well our UVA fan is asking here, do we have game by game predictions before the season starts? Well, guess what? That is coming up after the break with our sponsor from Main Street Pharmacy. I can probably save you a lot of money and I can take a lot better care of you. That's pretty much it. My name is Jeremy Counts and I'm a pharmacist. I own and operate Main Street Pharmacy here in downtown Blacksburg.

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1:02:06 What motivates me, I get to take care of people and limit Blacksburg. That's all neat. All righty, we are back and now it is time that we made our season predictions. By the way, I got I got to call Thomas out here. Thomas 15 and no, don't work no more bro. You got to be 16 and no to win the national championship, 15 and no don't get you there anymore because you got to win the ACC. Then you got to win your first playoff game, your second playoff game, then the national finals. So 15 and O don't work. I'll let you edit that to 16. But let's let's get it going here. We did this last year. We're taking it four games at a time from the beginning all the way to the end.

1:02:49 Let's just go ahead and throw this out. Sheldon could not be here tonight. He's doing some traveling. Couldn't jump it on. So for these four four games, Shelton Moss, our esteemed colleague is saying 4 and up, four and up. All right, I'm going to leave this segment off because I'm going to let y'all have the last two segments. I am agreeing with Shelton. I do think we are going to go four and O in the first four games. I think the 1st 3 opponents, I don't think there is much to say about that, right? You know, you look at who you're playing, you feel we are significantly better on them. We would have to play literally the worst fucking game of the season to lose to those teams. Now the Rutgers game is going to be a game though. But they've made the mistake of getting rid of the running quarterback and they have the unfortunate pleasure of Planet Lane Stadium now.

1:03:47 OK, I'm going to answer Grayson's questions real quick here. The one that worries me the most of the first four is Rutgers straight up. So that's where I am 4 no after gate. And that's why I'm going to let Tally go next. So Cali. So I will say y'all making me do this? I don't want you to even do this this year. You know what I'm saying? I don't even. You going to call and pick nothing. I don't want to pick nothing, I just want to go pay attention. But if I got to do it because Curtis has got saw contraption back here is tied to my toe, that's going to blow my toe off. If I don't make a the selection, I'll say four no on that first four games.

1:04:41 I will say to Grayson's question, he said what games were what game worries me the most out of the first four. I'm probably going to say ODU. I'm not that worried about Vandy for whatever. I just that going to ODU thing kind of kind of blows me a little bit, you know what I'm saying? So I ain't going to say we're going to lose, but it kind of worries me a little bit going down that elevators getting messed up and stealing stuff and all that kind of crazy stuff happening. Like motions may run high and then that Ruckus game, I think Ruckus just lost their starting linebacker or something like that. Oh, they did. Yeah, they just lost somebody. Yeah, they just lost it.

1:05:23 I think it's that starting middle linebacker they just lost. But if I am worried about the Rutgers game, like Curtis said, being at home helps all that. Rutgers is going to be a very physical game. So that'll take me into the next 4 when we talk about them. I think the Rutgers game gives us a little bit of headache going to the next game. I think we win that game, but I think it's going to give us a headache going to the next games. SO4 and O in the first four. Four and O Bron Siegler first four and then answer Mr. Winbusher's question here. Hey, hey, we're a, we're a clean sweep here, man. We're a clean sweep. I got four and O out the gate. The Rutgers game is definitely the one that worries me the most.

1:06:09 It it's actually worrying me less than it did before. They named their starting quarterback the information about their linebacker, but that's a team that is very well coached. They while they don't necessarily have the best roster, they don't have a whole lot of glaring holes in their roster. So it's a, it's a team that is going to give you 4 quarters of football every time you play them. And that, that's where you, you know, you hope you don't have one of those first or second quarters where you kind of sleepwalk and all of a sudden you're down 10 and you're playing from behind against the physical team.

1:06:50 That's what you don't want. But I think we still come out on top in that game. And, and to Tally's point, I think that game definitely plays a factor in, in our October, but I don't, I, I, I do still think we come out on top in that one. All right, we are now going to flip it to October. I know I got some people out here putting this up. Russia's going to be stiff. I agree. Now we got the middle four and this is the late September through October. I'm going to go to Walmart 1st. Sheldon says we're going to go 5 million in this stretch with losses to Miami and to Georgia Tech. So he's bookending losses at the late September and late October tally. Because you already kind of let it in there, man. Yeah, I'm, I'm going to go to, I'm going to go two and two as well.

1:07:40 I don't even, I'm not going to pick though, because I don't know what games to pick on them. But I'm going to say we'll go 500 on that just because of the travel time that we'll be going through. And then coming off those first four games, you know, Rutgers being a very physical game, you don't never want to think about injuries, but it's football. What happens? Do we have any of that? I think we're going to go down and beat Miami, though. I'll say that you can pick whatever other two losses you want. I think that we're going to have a vendetta that game. I think we're going to go beat Miami. And I may change some stuff later on, but right now I'm going to say I'm going to say 2:00 and 2:00. You're you're picking that you're picking that like struggle game against Rutgers, revenge game against Miami and then maybe that let down overlook game against Stanford in that West Coast travel.

1:08:34 I don't see it but. Robbie got in his head. Robbie got in his head last week talking about the damn bye week shit. Robbie got in your head, didn't he? Fuck Robbie man, why don't you do that to? Me. You. Know Robbie. You know you did. That's it. I OK, Brian, go ahead. Tally's at 2:00 and 2:00 in the middle 4. I'm at 2:00 and 2:00 as well. I'm getting there basically the same way Sheldon got there. I could talk myself in the three and one here. So just just to Full disclosure, I could talk myself in the three and one. If we weren't playing Miami, at Miami, coming off of Rutgers, I would give us a good shot in that game. I think just those factors that play there. And I think to, to Tally's point, if we, if we beat Rutgers and beat Miami, that Stanford game would be a, a, a prime let down game.

1:09:29 But I think with a loss to Miami, you're going to, you know, circle the wagons a little bit, get back on track, knock off Stanford before you get to buy, go out and pound the fuck out of BC. I think Georgia Tech is going to be one of those, you know, kind of weird games that we always run into. I, I was, I was looking at that game and looking at another game that kind of leads off the final four is finally like, is that going to be that one game that we lose that we maybe shouldn't? That's kind of where I'm at with those. And I kind of I, I, I went back to, to Georgia Tech on that one. So let me let me get Georgia Tech and Miami losses two and two in the second floor.

1:10:14 All right, y'all two and two, Sheldon two and two, tally two and two. I am not two and two. I am walking in here and I am saying we are going three and one in these next 4. But I am agreeing with you Brian. I think the loss is going to come to Miami because I think is that Roosters game is going to be physical. It's a short week for us now Let's see. Can I change my mind? Can we change our minds? We do weekly predictions. Hell yeah we can. Right. Because Miami's also. Based on right now information once we get more information. It's going to change after the first week we go beat the fuck out of, we're going to go beat the fuck out of it. And when people are going to say we're going to win the national championship.

1:10:56 So yeah, it's going to change. It's three and one, but because it's it's what these guys are alluding to, that Rutgers game is going to be physical. If it was a Saturday, I think I could convince myself we could go down there and beat them. But unfortunately it's Friday night, so it's a short week. It's a flip back. Why do I think we're going to win the other three? Because I think after that loss, I think it's going to be close. And I think it's going to be one of those things. They're going to be like, let's go to California, let's stomp down the smart kids, let's get our break and let's go stomp down these other two kids. Because I think BC doesn't have a shot. PC really does not have a shot. They're rebuilding. They're trying to flip their offense to a Bill O'Brien type offense, which again, I'm fine. Bill O'Brien type offenses.

1:11:40 I think we can handle that. And then Georgia Tech, they scare me, but it's something that Thomas put up. Oh yeah, Thomas, Yeah, I want. To put that on there, I don't. I'm with him. And This is why I think we beat Georgia Tech. I don't think they have the death. I don't think they have enough to handle us beginning to end. So we'd have to do what Brian said. We'd have to sleepwalk through 1/2 to lose Jordan, 1/2 a football to lose the Georgia Tech. So I am three and one, all righty. We made it to the last four games of the season and I'm going to throw it up here before I kick to Brian Shelton has us going three and one in the last four games and he is saying we are going to take an L at Clemson or to Clemson. Brian Siegler, where are you standing on this? I am also three and one with a loss to Clemson. I think we actually go and handle our business in the Dome. That's going to be a kind of a a game that sets up the next week, though.

1:12:45 I feel like that is going to be a little bit of a battle and I think we're going to come around even though it's a home game. I think we're going to give Clemson every damn thing they want, but I don't think we quite get it closed out in the end. I think we go and pound Duke pretty good. I don't think they're going to be a very good. Team pause. Pause, man, pause. You said we going to go pound Duke. That's hold on, let's do it all. Right we go, we go. Take it to do. It's pretty rough too. Ron is a three and one in the last. And and UVA is going to be UVAI mean we got them at home.

1:13:26 We saw what we did at Lane Stadium N it's only going to get uglier at Lane Stadium all. Right tally. I got two and two here. I'm going to just go ahead and tell y'all I can never pick us to win in that fucking Dome until we win. I think we got, I mean, I don't know, I ain't looking at people's rosters like that for real so far. But from what I've seen, I think we got a better setup than Syracuse because they got a brand new coach. I always give coaches kind of like project like you got to have that year where you get acclimated to the school unless you just had a dynamite takeover and you know, you just going out and beating the fuck out of people. Like I don't see Syracuse being that kind of team. But I can never pick us to go to that Dome and do what we supposed to do no matter what the record is. So that's one of my losses and then it's going to be a toss up between Duke and and Clemson, to be honest with you. For me, that's just what I had.

1:14:29 I can't pick which one. That may be a let down, but we're not losing the UVA. I'll go ahead and say that. So I said two and two QS and one of those schools would be a loss if we did it. But again, looking at the looking at the record, looking at the, the, the, the games and schedule, that's going to change real quick depending on what we do at first week and 2nd week. So all. Right, I couple things I'm going to throw before I before I make my final picks here, I'm going to just throw a couple things about numerous pieces. That's why Thomas says also they have a shitty defense. So y'all y'all what y'all picking up they? Do He's right.

1:15:11 He's not wrong. The building of Chris Lester right here is next. Chris says four and O. Yeah, Chris said eight and O88. We can say 8 and O this. Is building towards an 11 win season so if. We get to 8 and O. No matter what who we play next in those eight weeks, there's going to be some people suspended off of X or Twitter or whatever you call it. I promise you, the universe don't want to see Virginia Tech be 8 and O because some of y'all already be a little bit too wild. And I'm saying that, Jeremy, But if we get to 8 and O, I'm reporting some of y'all motherfuckers, I'm going to be acting up.

1:15:56 Oh, God, I got a couple more to hit here. Grayson, he got this. He got that. Thomas making a point. We've only played up there two times in the last 20 years or so. Actually, it's been two times in the past 20 years. All right, so I'm sitting here and y'all going to probably think I'm crazy because y'all thought I was fucking crazy last year and I'm just going to put it. Curtis, we know you're crazy. I mean. Y'all, you just had a life, you. Just had a big kind of dirty bastard like, yeah, you kind of crazy. Founders Brewery, if you want to sponsor us, we'll be The Dirty bastards over here. But I'm sitting here and I'm just freewheeling. I told y'all eight wins last year if we started the right quarterback, and I think if we had started the right quarterback last year, we would have won eight games. I don't doubt that one bit.

1:16:51 I think this year we are starting the right quarterback. We have a veteran offensive line. They may not be the best that they're growing. We have a deep wide receiver room. We have a 12 back punch. Tight end room could get better, but at least it's some veterans. At least I'm not dealing with a tight end room. That is a bunch of young guys. They've all played significant reps and the defensive side of the ball that last year in certain games, it just felt like old times. It felt like old times where we were just knocking the shit out of people, stacking at will. So as I get here to these last four games, we have not won in the Dome in 26 years, 26 years. It was 1998.

1:17:39 Dwight Dick was a senior. Al Clark was a quarterback. It's the last time we won. And if you don't recall, if y'all remember, NCAA back in the day used to have the craziest games. That was one of them, was the 98 game that we won was one of them. I think they snapped that because I think it's what Chris Lester said right here, which Chris, I saw it. These kids don't know about that Dome. It's not up here for them. And then I sit and look at the other three games or two at the back end. I think it'd be funny as hell if we got Manny Diaz fired his first year. Dude, I'd I'd laugh my ass off at Dad and UVA. We see where they are.

1:18:23 They are a mess. And then you look at Clemson and 13 years ago, we sat there right we could not do got Jack shit offensively. There are certain people in the Virginia Tech community that swears to God they had our playbook on both sides. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. That was that was the turning point of the program. It's where we've been for 13 years. We've been wanting to get back there, right? We, we, we saw a glimpse of it in 2016 and 2017. I think it's time to flip the script. They beat Clemson seven in one in conference will get us to the ACC title game.

1:19:10 Y'all just heard it. Yep do do the math. Do the math of what I just did is. That 11 and one it's. 11 and one and and I have two thoughts of the ACC title game. And I know I'm I know some people probably laughing at me in the the the comments, but here's my thought on that. One of two things is going to happen to Miami after they beat us. Either they are not going to lose a game head so big. So either they're going to be 12 and O in that game or going to be playing Florida State and they're going to be 11 and 1. So it's the latter. Because yeah, they're they're not. They're not going to be a stable and capable program for 12 games in a row.

1:19:54 So and Thomas, I'm going to completely. If you ever seen Grayson McCall play, he ain't always cracked up to be. Everybody likes NC State because of Grayson McCall. Grace McCall plays a couple a couple teams down in Coastal. He ain't that good. He's been less since Jamie Chadwell left. Hold on. Yeah, I'm at 11:00 and 1:00. Tally is at 8:00 and 4:00, bronze at 9:00 and 3:00, and Shelton is at 9:00 and 3:00. So. Write it down, but I. Like what Tally said, we're going to be changing our minds all throughout this. And if I drank too much, that's what that's what it is.

1:20:35 I mean, you got to, that's what it's about, so. I don't know, man. I'm excited though. I can say that. I can see, you know, I can see I. Don't see six and? Six, I can see Curtis's. I can see Curtis's 11:00 and 1:00. I can see 11 and one before I can see six and six, barring catastrophic. Injuries to a significant portion of the roster, right? So I mean, I'm, I'm excited, I think. That this is going to be a fun year and again, if it does happen, if it does happen, I will say I have been saying for the last couple of years I don't know everything but I know just about everything so y'all need to listen to me all right?

1:21:20 You lose by. You lose by a lot. You lose. By a little. You win by a little, then you win by a lot. I think this is our year that we win by a lot because last year I still feel like that was the we won by a little even though we won by a lot. But I'm saying those games were still kind of competitive. I think we just go in here and we just beat people this year and once I see us actually do that a couple of times, y'all know I'm going to get on here and. Start acting crazy. I'm going to tell you right now I'm going to get on here and start wearing masks. I told y'all I was going to get it. We did that last year though. We. We. Man, I told y'all I was going to get a tattoo. What I. Say I was going to get a tattoo if we do you did you said ACC. That's the ACC I can't remember matter of fact. Don't remember it.

1:22:08 No. Nobody even think. About it, because I ain't. I don't want to do it. I'll go back and find all the old episodes. I'll go back. And find you even remember. What I said is that state. Of the program. I can't remember. I said I'd get a. Tattoo if we do something. But whatever that is, we need to. Do it, but nobody. Remember it? So I said if we make the ACC championship game, you won't get a tattoo. Something like that, but I'm I'm. Excited, man. What did Andretti say? Oh, he said we need to put our foot on the OD. U's something. Oh, he's being nice. Is that fart box? What? What is that? What's that?

1:22:48 Supposed to be, yeah. We need to, we need to spell it out for me, Andretti. We do need to go down and do. Something crazy to. To ODU and Andretti ain't trying to get. Kicked off of YouTube Game track Kicked off of. YouTube all. Righty all right, so there's a predictions write them down do whatever. I mean we do this shit for fun y'all it's fun to sit here when we when I said this is what we going to do guys think about it. It's all first of all, that's what I meant right there. Oh, Andre. We love you, man. We love you man. Thank you for being back. Remember, we're we're we're on Tuesday nights about nine O clock.

1:23:30 Take a break from the game and come listen to us. We enjoy your stuff, man. So I real quick. So before we wrap up everything tonight, we going to do big screeners because there's two games to watch this weekend. We already talked about them at the top of the program. We going to make predictions. We want some fun graphics for you next week when we actually have games. We're picking. We're just going, we're just going to talk about it this week and our goal. We also. I hope is unveiling a new part of big screeners. We ain't going to tell y'all what that is yet, but it's going to be a lot of fun with somebody we know very well. All right, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Florida State, the current line is -10 that's down 2 1/2 points since last Friday when I looked at it.

1:24:16 Which one of y'all want to predict this one? First, take Georgia Tech. Take the money. Take. The points take the points. Take the points. I don't know if they win, but. I'd take the points that line going down for a reason. Yeah, that if that line was like 8. 8 1/2 I think I'd I'd be right on it, but you're in the full 10. That's tough to take. All righty. See, I feel. Like this is one of. Those trick games because you feel like 10 to 14 is the right number, right? By the way, Virginia Tech show you are right. It was 2000. It was Michael Vick the last time that won there.

1:24:59 So the last time we won, there were two Vicks on the team. That's a long ass time ago, right? Like 10 is that number, right? 10 is the perfect number for this game because you feel like it's going to be about 10 points. So does Georgia Tech fuck it up in the end and give like a cheap one away? I don't think they won't because I think Brent Key, if you watched him play Georgia last year, he plays them a little closer to the best 'cause he had nothing to lose in that game and he should have. He should have went for some more risk, but he didn't. I'm with y'all Georgia Tech take the points. Plus it's in Ireland.

1:25:39 All that weird time and shit, you don't know what's going to happen. Weird stadium. All right, next one, new ACC member SMU travels to Reno, NV to play to the Wolfpack of Nevada. This is a tougher one. SMU 25 1/2 points. They are laying Wolfpack that's. A lot of points, man. That's a lot of points. Like I don't care. Who it is? Why is that even a? #25 1/2. That ain't even a number. You know what cool. The only cool 25 that was was Barry. Buns. Like 25 is not a number that I want to roll with.

1:26:20 I'll take SMU in the points. You know why y'all know y'all many points Nevada averaged last year on offense. How many? Like 17 y'all know how much S? Y'all saw? SMU play, if you try to play a stick, they can score, I think. I think that's. Like a. 5614 game, if it's not I, I, I think it's an absolute blowout. SMU's got some cooking. I, I, I also think, I don't think that's a game we can gauge SMU by. Even if they blow the doors off them, it's a bagging. Now if they struggle with them, that'll tell us more than anything that first game. I think it's going to tell us about those teams a lot. So yeah, I think it's so it's hard to really gauge a a ton.

1:27:03 On the first game, but I think if you see SMU go out there and it's a really close game, like less than two scores, you can derive something from. That I think anything. I, I, I don't think they have to cover for, for you to say that SMU is, is as we expected. But I think if it is in that like 10 to 14 point range for a win or, you know, God forbid they, they go out there and, you know, lay an egg and lose, I think that'll tell us more than a blowout or just, you know, somewhere ��5 from that spread. Yeah, I think SMU probably if I had to. Look at it week 1.

1:27:43 Defenses usually are a little bit farther along than offenses. I would. Think SMU probably would win that game by about 21 points, but I would be scared to put say they're going to win by 26, you know, 4 touchdowns. I don't know. So I would, I'm taking the Wolf Pack. What about that first game? What are we going to learn? From what do y'all think we learned about those teams? Because I think that's, I would, I wish that that would have just been a stateside game because that noon kick is just brutal. Yeah, the the location I think in time kind of. Screws with the logistics because both teams are having abnormal logistics and that it's not just like standard stateside neutral site logistics.

1:28:29 Like you're, you're taking cross pond flights, you know, you're playing at a completely different time. Like you're basically playing, you know, how many was it? 8 hours behind, seven hours behind. So, yeah. So it's a, it's a completely different way of managing an away game or a neutral site game than than if it would be here. Even if you're playing, you know, out at the Rose Bowl or something. I mean, it's still a completely different scenario for them to manage. So it's going to be interesting to see who ends up doing well in that game. I don't think you can derive a whole lot from it other than kind of seeing where the holes are in each of those teams, whether it's, you know, certain position groups and things like that. I think that's where you'll kind of see the most that you can take away and, you know, move into another week and say, all right, well, we saw holes here.

1:29:25 We saw holes there. I'm just interested to see what Florida. State looks like. Like, they really have to revamp who they are. You know, they lost, not saying it can't, but we kind of seen how Novell did when he got there, how he build it up. He wasn't just like a flash in the pan coach. Like it took him a couple of years to get it to where he wanted. And then those players that he brought in, you know, some of them are in the league now. You know, the quarterback that that that he he built that program on his program on, you know, the wide receivers that he brought in things like that. And I'm not saying that he didn't bring in more good players. I don't know that roster that great to know.

1:30:06 But I will say I'm not as high on. Florida State as I was. Last year, I just feel like looking at him from what he's done in the past, he looks like a coach that he'll build up a little bit more than OK, I'm just going to retool that that. Will tell the story and I think that game will tell the story. About both those teams and how we can project them going forward. So, yeah, All right. Anything else out there? Anything breaking? Nothing. I know of nothing yet, man. Nothing yet. All right, somebody call. Funtell see if he got any more recruits. He's getting fucking two wide receivers a week so call him and see how he doing tonight.

1:30:54 I. I I ain't doing that. That man's in camp, that man. Probably still in the office right now, working right? You watch your practice. Tape for tomorrow. You're damn right. He is. All right. Well, folks. Week 0 and that waps up this. Episode. Of the Boundary Corner podcast, brought to you by Main Street Pharmacy in Blacksburg, I'm Curtis Wilson. Brian Siegler. Jonathan Talley. Visit the boundary corner. Bt.com website to. Listen to all of our episodes, check the merchandise shop, subscribe to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, all the podcast sources, all that stuff. Our buddy Jason Long down in the Roanoke Valley, he plays us in every week. He plays us out every week.

1:31:36 Check out his website, jasonlongmusic.com to check out all of his live events. I know he's got multiple things going on this week. What does he have going on this week? He'll be at the farmers market Saturday. So check him out down there. He was down at the Village Grill last week. I don't know how that well, we we did three hours. That's why I didn't get to mention it last week. Spotify, YouTube channel for Jason's Facebook pages. Check him out there. We thank you all for listening. Thanks for all the comments in the chat tonight. Really appreciate you all out there and as always, let's go, OK?