The Hokie Haven MAILBAG!
Subscribers on our premium message board, The Gobbler. had questions, Hokie Haven Publisher Tim Sullivan has answers.
Not a HokieHaven.com subscriber? Join today for access to all our premium content and message board community. Already INSIDE? Join the conversation on The Gobbler!
ashcroft: I watch a lot of Div. 1 football each week. Good defensive teams play their position quite well by not over pursuing. Time and again, our guys appear to be coached differently, and it appears this is why we continue to have losing records.
It's a fair observation, but I don't know if I'd say that the Hokies' coaches are trying to reinvent the wheel - and that's what is causing the problems. Realistically, players want to pursue the ball above all else because that's what your instincts teach you to do. Most of them probably have the freedom to do that at every level until college because they're good enough athletes that they can consistently find success with it.
So the question is more about why the staff can't coach that out of the players in the way that others in bigtime college football seem to manage to. The answer is many-fold and can be pretty complex, but it boils down to a lack of experience.
This staff (as every staff does) arrived with its own terminology and well-tuned coaching points. Nailing both the broad and fine strokes takes time, and it can take more than two years - even if you'd say it shouldn't take that long. Add in that the returning guys on the roster have simply cycled through too many linebackers coaches: Alan Tisdale has been around long enough to have two years under Bud Foster(!), but since then it's been Tracy Claeys (quite possibly the worst defensive position coach ever to don an Orange and Maroon polo in the post-1995 era), Jack Tyler (solid, but inexperienced), a version of Chris Marve that was mostly a linebackers coach while headman Brent Pry called the defense, and now a version of Marve who's a true DC/LBs coach. There's been a lot of flux, and those guys have had to deal with the effects of it, even though they don't deserve it.
Compounding that is a true lack of experience: outside of Tisdale, snaps have gone to:
• A redshirt sophomore who played DE in high school and WR during his true freshman year (Keli Lawson)
• A redshirt sophomore who was an RB/S in high school (Jaden Keller)
• A true freshman (Caleb Woodson)
• A senior who was a starting safety for his first two years (Keonta Jenkins)
• A redshirt sophomore who is healthy enough to even practice full-go for the first time since midway through his senior year of high school ball
• A redshirt sophomore who initially signed as a preferred walk-on, though he got a scholarship before enrolling (Jayden McDonald)
• A true freshman walk-on (George Ballance)
You can - and I will - argue that the staff should do a better job preparing guys at this level to execute the fundamentals of the position (and to be clear, I think the other two levels of the D have been mostly-fine in this regard, aside from Jaylen Jones who didn't move to safety from WR until this year). But at the same time, the sheer volume of inexperience and dealing with the realities of replacing a coaching staff that wasn't even close to finding success... well, that's your reason, even if it doesn't excuse underperformance.
nosmada: What is different between the Fuente and Pry eras? They feel the same so far!
I actually pointed out my take on the matter after the Marshall game on Saturday, and got a surprising amount of grief in the responses. I still stand by the big-picture assessment:
You don't see a lot of complaining about jet sweeps now, do you? There's a realization setting in among the fanbase that those sorts of "constraint plays" may not get a ton of yardage, but they prevent the opposing defense from overcommitting to you bread-and-butter (lest that constraint play actually break big). The reality is that Fuente and his staff could definitely coach, at least on offense - he was mostly indifferent to the defense, and the Foster replacements could never really find success-by-committee under Justin Hamilton.
But the problem with Fuente is that he had an off-putting personality that fans and high school coaches around the region (and media folks on the national scene) really didn't care for. He was totally unwilling to lean into Virginia Tech's strong reputation on home turf, ultimately eroding that reputation because of what people saw as an aloof attitude (I would contend he wasn't aloof, just an awkward guy, but that's beside the point at this stage). And he gave individuals non-coaching responsibilities that they were not qualified for, proved incapable of executing, and ultimately sunk the ship. That was most obvious on the recruiting trail, where a pay bump for running backs coach Adam Lechtenberg to be the recruiting coordinator (a job he neither had the organizational nor personality chops to execute) was basically unacceptable. Hiring non-coaching staffer individuals just to recruit the state of Texas, where the Hokies were realistically not going to get many returns, while diminishing the program's standing among in-state players and coaches (which would have been much more valuable with the same amount of resources consumed - this should have been obvious!) was definitely unacceptable. And the personnel staffing proof is in the pudding when you look at player retention, class balance, and more.
Even if Justin Fuente could coach, he could not run a program. We've seen Brent Pry take many, many steps to undo that damage. The Hokies' attention to - and not coincidentally, respect from - home turf is higher than at any point since 2013 or so, and the recruiting results are showing that. The player retention on the roster is at a new high - nearly all of the Transfer Portal departures this offseason were playing-time guys stepping down a level, with the exceptions of DB Armani Chatman (North Carolina) and wide receiver Kaleb Smith (Notre Dame, though he retired from football before ever lacing 'em up for the Irish). That's a step in the right direction from the previous staff, and Pry's group has also benefitted from the Portal, with more than half the offense's starters new to VT since that staff arrived.
Pry knows what it takes to build a program from a staffing, personnel retention, recruiting, and PR perspective. The issue is that we've seen a major downgrade in the on-field product, and not just because of the empty cupboard the Fuente era's personnel-retention fiasco left them with. Individual clock-management decisions haven't been an issue this year like they were last year largely because they Hokies haven't been close enough to completing any comebacks to make that stuff relevant. There have been year-over-year steps back at multiple positions' output (namely offensive line and linebacker). The off-field stuff isn't perfect, but unless the on-field coaching improves, it might need to be.
1970Hokie: Tim, do you think strength and conditioning is playing a part in our inability to finish games late or is it a lack of focus and lack of playing assignment football?
It's all of the above. When you aren't a good enough football team to roll over opposition, you need an edge anywhere you can get it, and if you don't have an edge in conditioning, that's an opportunity wasted. If you don't have an edge in focus, that's another one. If you don't have an edge in assignment football, you've set yourself up for failure. We've seen all three issues bite VT this year.
I will say that strength and conditioning seems to be the least of those three from an in-game perspective. Here's the score for and against by quarter this year:
• 1st: 9-14 VT
• 2nd: 37-51 VT
• 3rd: 21-14 VT
• 4th: 19-21 VT
It's really the first and second quarters that have been the bigger problem this year (and it looks uglier if you strip out the ODU game).
That said, the number of soft-tissue injuries the Hokies have been dealing with is problematic, and while things like Grant Wells being taken down awkwardly on a sack and Ali Jennings getting rolled up by his own teammate are unavoidable... there's a whole MASH unit joining those guys seemingly every week, and perhaps strength and conditioning could be best-implemented by doing a bit more preventive work.
Hokiejoe21: Who are some OC candidates?
I think it's too early to really know what the carousel is going to look like here, because some guys who are intriguing at this stage may prove to be duds over the course of the year, some may be unattainable on VT's budget, and some may well earn head-coaching opportunities.
Heck, it's even possible (if at this stage unlikely) that Tyler Bowen turns around the ship and fans are no longer clamoring for his firing. A couple outside-the-box candidates, though:
UNLV offensive coordinator Brennan Marion. He has an in-state pedigree (born in Hampton, coached at Howard (OK, technically not in-state) and William & Mary), a sort-of odd scheme that still fits into the philosophy of what the Hokies are doing - an option-style attack with bells and whistles to confuse defenses, and time spent in major college football, including the ACC (wide receivers coach at Pitt and Texas before getting the UNLV OC gig).
Maryland offensive coordinator Josh Gattis. An ace recruiter with an up-and-down track record on the field. He won the Broyles Award as college football's top assistant at Michigan... then left for more money at Miami, where the Canes were terrible and he got fired. Perhaps his best success came when he was on-staff with Brent Pry at Penn State. Even though Maryland will pay to keep him around, he may be worth sending a message with the pocketbook - if that's a thing Whit Babcock even believes in.
roy4582: Should Pry go or stay?
I think it's fairly simple: there hasn't been enough time to fully evaluate Pry, and there won't be by the end of this second year. If the off-field stuff was as bad as the on-field stuff, it might be a different question, but the bones are being put in place to find success (and don't forget that Pry's mentor and friend, James Franklin, has a similar reputation of being a mediocre coach but good program-builder, and if Pry can develop his knack for coaching hires, the Hokies could follow the PSU blueprint).
That said, there have to be some changes to the coaching staff if I'm going to have any faith that the on-field stuff will get better. The offense has been poorly designed in both seasons, there wasn't enough urgency to rebuilding the offensive line in the Transfer Portal, and the defense has taken a major step back this year. Individual fans can value any aspect of the staff through their own lens, but I have a hard time justifying a version of Pry that doesn't see the need to make changes, barring a major in-season turnaround.
Realistically, he isn't going anywhere for another year, no matter what, so best to accept that and hope the pieces start to fall into place.
nosmada: Is there anything we can do to get better without having to wait for next year? I'm sick of waiting for next year.
The hope really has to be individual improvement from the personnel and coaches. Whether that's an offensive lineman stepping up his game, Bowen getting a healthy self-scout and figuring out why defenses are allowed to stack the box (it's because he doesn't punish them for it, aside from the first half of the Rutgers game and one drive against Marshall - just keep doing stuff to punish them when they cheat numbers, dude!), or guys down the depth chart at underachieving positions getting their shot and proving that they should've been there all along.
The recruiting process is going well, but the individual development in-season tends to take a backseat to game-planning and preparation on a week-to-week basis. Theoretically, the bye week will be a big opportunity (and there are five regular-season games after it! Even if the Hokies go winless until that point, a bowl wouldn't be out of the question with a run!), but waiting until mid-October for the team to get less frustrating... doesn't seem fun.
Shadyhill: During the off season the school/ NIL can spend millions of dollars and buy a team. That is what Colorado and USC did. Watch what happens at SMU once they are in the ACC.
Former Hokies QB Brenden Hill would tell you that this is true, but that the implied question here is insulting to the Hokies' recognized NIL collective, Triumph. Don't take my word for it, see what he has to say:
I'm with you to an extent, though. If Virginia Tech has one of the best NIL collectives in college football, it certainly doesn't seem to be paying dividends in terms of program-building, at least in comparison to other Power-5 programs (even lower-end ACC teams). Whether it should may be another question - technically inducements are an illegal use of NIL, but we live in the real world, so we know that's not the case - but realistically, the literal money needs to go where the mouth is if big claims about the effectiveness of the NIL apparatus are going to be made.
That said, talent isn't everything in college football, even if it's the most important thing - and I certainly wouldn't prop up Colorado as an example of a team that's suddenly a juggernaut because of NIL, with much more going into their build (including cutting players in a fashion that wouldn't be legal in the ACC, Big Ten, or SEC), and the team still not looking all that great unless you're ESPN and want to show off Deion Sanders more than the actual product he's put on the field.
Like it or not (there are aspects that I don't mind, and some I obviously find distasteful), the reality of modern power football is that players can transfer, and NIL is available, and if a program doesn't take advantage of that, they have nobody to blame but themselves.
TNHokie: Will we lose more recruits?
It really depends on how the season goes. There's a floor below which there's little VT would be able to do to retain everyone. If you go 1-11, guys with other options owe it to themselves to at least entertain other suitors. If we see more of a 4-8 season... who knows?
The situation with Eric Mensah was perhaps unique among VT pledges: he was pretty open about a specific other offer that he wanted, and as soon as Ohio State gave it to him, he accepted in no time. Virginia Tech was his best-available option, not his dream school.
Looking at some of the other guys, there's an important group for whom VT was and is the dream school. The Hokies just had to do enough to make that count: Emmett Laws, Keylen Adams, Chanz Wiggins, Tyler Mason, Noah Jenkins, Joshua Clarke, Deric Dandy. All are at the program they want to be at, win or lose (though again, there's a threshold below which there's too much losing).
Others picked VT over bigtime options, and as long as there's staff continuity, their lead recruiter has a strong enough relationship to retain them if the season stabilizes: Davi Belfort, Aidan Lynch, Web Davidson, Tommy Ricard, Gerard Johnson, Andrew Hanchuk.
The guys who I think you'd want to keep an eye on are those that have played well enough this season that they may end up with more bigtime options than they had at the time they picked VT: Quentin Reddish and Marcellus Barnes (and to a lesser extent Aidan Lynch, perhaps). The other would be Gabriel Williams, who has an outgoing personality and a lot of friends bound for Maryland - he even went on a game visit there already in September.
The big picture is that Mensah was the one semi-shaky guy in the class as soon as the OSU offer came, and Williams appears to be the only one now. But as the season progresses, unless things get better it's easy to commits from any of these categories jumping ship, albeit for a different combination of reasons.
----
Chat about this story and all things Hokies and Hokie recruiting on our premium message board, The Gobbler!
Follow on Twitter: @Hokie_Haven @sullivti @realtbannerman @connormardian10
Like us on Facebook, support the site by following our YouTube channel and Instagram account @Hokie_Haven.
Tips/questions/concerns? E-mail publisher Tim Sullivan here.
Not a HokieHaven.com subscriber? Join today for access to all our premium content and message board community.
---