World News – CA – Small Potatoes

As with almost everyone else in orbit of Virginia Tech football, I was preparing for the Hokies to move on from Justin Fuente this week. I had a fun column planned about the coaching search and what parameters are needed to correct the course back into the ACC Coastal competition (at least).

And like everyone else, I was surprised when it became known on Monday night that we were all wrong. The entire sports department works as usual and Fuente keeps his job:

Justin Fuente is likely to return to Virginia Tech next season, industry insider @Stadium announced. The school announced a football-themed press conference Tuesday – Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy), Jan.. December 2020

If this was indeed Whit Babcock’s decision (we’ll come back to it), I damn well respect him for it. Do you know how hard it is to look out the window to see an angry mob madly calling heads, looking them in the face and telling them no? It is the decision of someone who has accepted the difficulty of leadership, which is a pretty neglected burden.

But wooooo buddy Babcock drove a lot of people crazy. I feel like we in the message board community see our little world of intense fandom rather than the general opinion of tens of thousands of people who follow tech football. It’s not and it’s not particularly close. There are plenty of hokies online (and even some on this good website) who don’t mind Whit’s decision to stick with Fuente a bit. Many of them see the decision similar to Dave Bane’s decision to drive with Frank Beamer when things get tough.

But when Babcock took the podium to « discuss anything related to the Virginia Tech football program, » he enraged over 400-500 angry Twitter accounts.

#Hokies AD Whit Babcock begs fans not to « rip it off » which means they will be negative about the football program if they want a change of coach. But also notes: « Most of those who threaten to withdraw their money do not donate that much. « – Mike Barber (@RTD_MikeBarber) 15. December 2020

If you’re trying to avoid negativity in 2021, I’d recommend not reading the answers there. But let’s just say people haven’t responded well to that quote right now. Looking back with the right perspective, a little time to relax the tension and read his latest quote from the press conference, Whit got a raw deal:

« If you can be involved, please do so. We hurt when you draw your support. You really hurt all 22 sports, scholarships, all of that. If you can participate, we need you now more than ever. We have 20. 000 donors who are working their way up. Those who publicly threaten don’t usually give that much, but we know some of you feel like you can’t invest in us. It is a gift, we will receive it when you are ready to give it.

This is nowhere near as bad as it turned out to be, and he said almost the opposite of what was conveyed to the masses online. But that’s not Mike Barber’s fault, he’s a reporter trying to quickly transcribe relevant information from a press conference that wasn’t fully available to the public. Fans were always online and constantly updating their feeds to get updates from the collective beat as it was the only way to stay up to date.

Virginia Tech’s sports division announced a press conference, and speculation ensued. It was announced that Fuente would be retained and speculation increased. And by the time the actual press conference hit, after weeks of rumors, fans were desperate for real information, not gossip from the message board. Real insight straight from the source.

And instead of making this press conference live for the public, the Hokie Brass treated it like any old Tuesday afternoon forum. They adjourn the meeting and basically find their feeds like this:

Social media is not the place to be for a thousand-word transcription that provides a mostly eloquent, insightful glimpse into the state of Hokie athletics. It reacts in the moment as soon as something is new. It is a momentary medium. But instead of understanding that they may not have played this right, they accuse reporters of trying to cover it.

David. It’s only Mike Barber who is Mike Barber. Stir it up. These two quotations are combined and taken out of context. Is there another member of our media too? Just listen to the whole thing and then make up your mind, okay? Many Thanks! – Whit Babcock (@WhitBabcock) 15. December 2020

This is not a platform to beat up Whit Babcock. The man is only human, I would probably have said something similar and he did great things with his Mea Culpa fundraiser for the Hokie Club the next day. He seems like a really real person who loves Virginia Tech and tries his best.

But what this brings to light is a problem that has lurked in the corners of hokie athletics for nearly a decade. Virginia Tech as a whole (from administrators to coaches to fans) has not proven to be a modern, successful Power Five football program.

As I prepped for my column about Fuentes replacements, I focused on a single box that I would check out if I did the search: Power Five Experience. Last winter, it was confusing to hear how much Fuentes’ flirtation with Baylor Tech opened his eyes. Of course you need more money, of course you need more recruiting staff and dazzling graphics and football-oriented facilities. That’s the norm, and every year if you don’t find out, you’re pushing your football program behind you more and more.

The ideal time for this mindset to take over the football program should have been the transition from beamer to fuente. Frank had been at tech for so long that it was hard to see what really needed modernization. But fresh eyes and diverse experiences can work wonders when renovating. Take the basketball team as an example. When he got hired, Buzz Williams brought all his damn team to Blacksburg, from assistants to secretaries. It rubbed some people the wrong way, but it also got hokie tires into the 21st century. Century.

Williams brought his own graphic designer and turned the social media accounts into borderline artwork. He got more private jets for recruiting and quickly signed people from all over the country. He may have won a lot of games, but the most important thing Buzz did was put in place the infrastructure for continued success. It’s part of the reason Mike Young can hire someone to do this:

Isn’t that just excellent? Punctual, smart, funny. It’s a 10 out of 10 and why more and more fans are drawn to the basketball team. They engage their fans while they are already scrolling.

Justin Fuente was a lot of things that came in 2016. He was considered an excellent offensive spirit, as a « cultural companion » and as a border crosser for what he did in Memphis. But one thing he never had was the experience of Power Five at every level of coaching. He went from six years at Illinois State (FCS) to four years at TCU (all in the mountainside) to four years at Memphis (AAC). .

Fuente was used to doing more with less and kept trying to do the same when he started his run in Blacksburg. However, these questions go well beyond funding. Again and again, Fuente hit his toes when he had problems with people, the soft skills of communicating with almost everyone.

I see him as much like a brilliant engineer or mathematician. Like someone who can solve equations with deadly skill (I know I oversimplify but go with me), Fuente believes in the gospel of football. The undeniable black and white numbers don’t rely on the idea that you can always plan your path to success. He’s good at it and has built his entire career on his ability to do it. But at some point in your career you need to be able to do more than solve a problem on a blackboard. You need to meet people and form teams and demonstrate the ability to lead through adversity. And at some point it doesn’t matter how good you are in your basic skills. The halls at NASA and Lockheed Martin are full of people who are really good at their jobs but can’t get promoted because they can’t handle soft skills. And when they are enabled to use them, they often fail.

« Justin has values, » Babcock said on Tuesday. « He is a good man. It’s very private. It is very family oriented and is often misunderstood. « 

He’s not wrong. And I can empathize that not everyone is comfortable becoming the face of the program and being super famous for a small, vocal sect of people. But he got the job, and sometimes the demands of a role push a person out of their comfort zone.

Justin Fuente is not a bad person at all. But he’s pretty darn bad at almost anything a modern top 25 power five program needs from his head coach off the field. You need someone who can build and maintain hundreds of relationships at once. Someone who can make donors feel special in the morning on the golf course can play FaceTime with a 16-year-old in the afternoon and fly in to chat with a high school coach in the evening.

It’s unfair – and I can empathize with it again – but it’s reality. It’s not Memphis. It’s not a Mountain West program. It is a place with real yet achievable expectations. But over the years, Fuente faces the same problems and they just keep getting bigger. Recruitment has dropped. Transfers continue their mass exodus from Blacksburg. Recent alumni routinely torch the program on Twitter – and regardless of how many of their complaints are real against sour grapes, it looks awful. Big name alums oscillate between distance and hostility. And to top it off, Fuentes’s most common explanation for failure has been to variations of « The players did not run ». .

That’s not how a successful soccer team works at any level, but it is specifically not the way that one of the 30 best programs in the country does business.

And the problems go beyond Fuente. While Babcock should be commended for his urge to get an inflow of donor funds into the program, one has to wonder why it took so long in the first place (both the Hokie Club organization and the donors themselves). And it really doesn’t matter who made the decision to keep Fuente. If it was Whit, Tim Sands, or anyone else, it’s an admission that 19-18 over three years is acceptable in Blacksburg.

Do you think this would be the case with Clemson? Ohio State? Alabama? Shit forget the big dogs, would that be acceptable in Louisville? NC status? Literally somewhere in the SEC?

No matter who’s in charge, no matter who runs the soccer program, the biggest problem Virginia Tech athletics faces is making sure they’re ready, with some of the best programs in the country on and off the field to compete.

Another excellent article, Brian. This was a good read with my first cup of coffee this morning.

Brian – excellent writing and perspective (as always!). My problem with this whole process is that I didn’t see what is needed: a plan!

Fu has to change places. He could be a great behind closed door guy (you know the doors he keeps closed and doesn’t let fans in). I understand that is not his personality. But it’s his job. He has to develop a public figure (if he doesn’t want to, he has to become a coordinator again or find another career). It will help with recruiting, team building, fan engagement, and donor support. How are we going to do that? Hire a PR agent? Psychologist? Communication « director »? Appoint a coach to be the face of the program? . . . see, no plan.

These! I want to support the program and I know we were behind the curve in terms of funding and The Onlines when Whit / Fu took over. I’ve tried increasing my donation every year and planned to run into Bronze Hokie last year to get a few tickets before other expenses came up, but I don’t really know where I stand for my 2021 donation. The Hokie Club has been modestly upgraded, the FB social media is ok at best, the recruitment is absent in terms of staff or ranking, and all of this is made worse by the fact that the program has no personality at all. We need an identity and the fans need to see some of this great plan or I will continue to feel like I’m just throwing my money to the wind based on how this transition has gone so far.

edit – Sorry, I have no idea how to control the size of embedded images. If there is any way please let me know.

« I have a PLAN. You just have to have a little goddamn faith whit. i just need. More. MONEY. « – Justin van der Linde

Thank you. I knew there had to be something that could be added to this shortcut, but I couldn’t figure it out. I’m going to take Morgan Freeman out of Big Head mode now.

Fuente doesn’t change because changes are difficult. Nobody at VT is going to force him to change because nobody thinks something is wrong.

Thanks Brian. . . Best overview I’ve seen here. Staying JF was the right call, but he has some big areas of growth. . . like all of us.

I think this highlights the main problem with the Fuente program and its communication. At this point, the X and O won’t change, but the soccer team would do wonders to get a « hype man » onto the bar. We need someone who can sell the program to both recruits and current players. Not everyone has such personal skills, but in an organization you can’t leave that as a glaring hole forever.

I can’t help but think back to a couple of years ago when all these players entered the portal and we got the now infamous SI article. So my #sauce was second hand (a former player) who knew someone in the room when they had this meeting and he told me that the players were telling Fuente rather tense that they didn’t think he cared about them. and that Fuente was shocked and very surprised when they told him that. Of course I think he cares a lot about them, but as an introvert he doesn’t seem to care and the players who have a great relationship with him probably had to put more work into building that relationship with him.

And while I very much hope it comes out of its shell and fixes those communication issues (especially with the players, not to mention fans / donors), I don’t really get my hopes up, it’s just hard about your personality like that change, and maybe he never really got honored as CEO of a P5 program. Hell, most of us aren’t fit for this job, I know I’m not.

That makes sense. From things I’ve seen, heard, and read, skills like showing appreciation and letting people know they did well are not something most people take for granted. It is something that is taught in leadership and management classes and in books about relationship development. The trick is, if you don’t, you don’t realize that it’s a tool that is missing from your interrelation toolbox, so people generally do the same thing. I’m more extroverted, but I had to be taught that it was a thing and I have to do and say things on purpose to let people know.

Whit lost me this week. Yes he is human, has done a lot of good for the VT brand and probably does a better job than most of the others, etc.. . I’m not sure what or who would make me want to donate again at this point. It’s going to be a long, hard road for all aspects of VT football for some time.

Great article. Really touched on a number of things that I agree with. Fu was never a P5 coach, has no idea what it takes to be successful at this level. Money and support staff help, but it is by no means the root of his problem. You could give him a Clemson baton, we’d still be mediocre. Also, don’t give Whit too much credit for taking the less traveled road or for being thoughtful in what he says. Even days later, I still think Tuesday’s press process was an absolute disaster. It was defensive, dishonest in several ways, and reeked of ego. It hurt to see (yeah i saw it). Its main job is to make football successful and profitable and it fails.

I don’t care how much money you bring in. If you don’t have the right mindset, you will never compete.

That’s the difference between Virginia Tech in the 90s and Virginia Tech today. In the 1990s, every part of our administration was focused on trying to make a name for itself in football. We saw an opportunity to argue and we chose to do it. And you know what? It paid off.

I can’t say the same thing right now. And I honestly don’t think it’s all up to Sands, I think it started before that. I’m really looking at the fiasco where the indoor practice facility is going to be set up and the eventual cave we made so as not to disrupt the Woods Stadium. I understand these trees were old, but there is limited valuable space, the land is owned by Virginia Tech and owned as they please. The groups that resisted the plans had little influence and we gave in. That was the first time we really saw that the university as a whole wasn’t fully recognized as a big boy program, as there was no way that controversy would have stopped plans in Clemson, Ohio State, Alabama or Alabama, even someone like Hell UNC or Kentucky.

We are not a big boy program. We’ll never be because, frankly, we saw what it took and we resisted it. We had our opportunity and missed it because we feel more comfortable as a small, low-pressure country town that is simply happy to sit at the table with the elites like UVa and UNC.

And the decision to hold on to the current regime was the final nail in that coffin that was driven into it. We are content with this. And the real problem lies with anyone who thinks differently.

« I have a PLAN. You just have to have a little goddamn faith whit. i just need. More. MONEY. « – Justin van der Linde

This was the first time we really saw the university as a whole not being fully recognized as a big boy program, as there was no way that controversy would have stopped plans in Clemson, Ohio State. Alabama or Hell, even someone like UNC or Kentucky.

This. All elite programs are 100% aligned between the university, the sports department, the soccer coach and the fans / donors. I think we were almost 100% at one point – that point was in 2000 when Frank Beamer wanted to leave, and Weaver / Steger convinced him to stay by making him and his staff the third highest paid staff in the country.

I have different thoughts on how we got to this point, but the reality today is that the university, the sports department, the football coach and the fans / donors have different wants and expectations.

Nice article. After reading your engineer / mathematician analogy, I covered our next take. We can close this discussion. . .

Great writing. After my initial disappointment with Whit’s decision and disgust with his reaction to the fans (even the corrected quote is not the best), I am slowly returning to apathy. Hopefully I can enjoy the program again in the years to come. At this point we have to say in Whit that we trust again. . .

I can’t imagine rewarding a career anymore. And any man who is asked in this century what he has done to make his life worthwhile, I believe, can answer with a lot of pride and satisfaction:
« I served in the United States Navy »

I saw a recurring theme earlier this week when the fact that Fuente was being retained was recognized. A subject that I never thought I’d see.

I’m sorry, but nobody should ever say that. No, it’s ALWAYS worth hitting UVa in anything. It was just horrible to see them lift the trophy last year. I hate to see her happy. I hated that stupid ass gimmick. I hated ESPN, which was running the post-game events continuously on its network for the next 24 hours. No, that was gross, I never want to see it again. I never want to be the kind of program that hopes we lose to those seersucker clad brie who eat cabernet and sip on douchebags just to get an expected result.

« I have a PLAN. You just have to have a little goddamn faith whit. i just need. More. MONEY. « – Justin van der Linde

Also, these people think beating UVA changed something. What if we lost to UVA and Whit still came out and said we keep Fuente. How damn stupid they would look if they hoped to lose to them. Besides, I’m with you, I will NEVER hope to lose to them. If we went 1-11 and beat UVA, you can bet your cute ass that you could hear me say, « At least we beat UVA. « . « 

Well, if you believe in the infinite earth theory, there is one timeline where the went 11-0 and another where we went 0-11 and Fuente got fired in both. . .

I can’t imagine rewarding a career anymore. And any man who is asked in this century what he has done to make his life worthwhile, I believe, can answer with a lot of pride and satisfaction:
« I served in the United States Navy »

A coach sacked by an 11-0 team that is going to compete in the ACC Championship and the CFP means one thing:

I think it’s pretty deceptive to think Whit would fire Fuente but changed his mind based on the UVA score. He’s much more thoughtful than bizarre. That means he shouldn’t have cited Fuentes’ records against UVA and UNC as a reason for keeping it either (as if the entirety of the records didn’t matter). .

2) Can you imagine what would happen now if we lost this game and Whit had the press and still didn’t fire him? Hard to believe that this situation could be perceived worse, but I think it would have been if we had lost the little brother up the street.

I think I tend to underestimate the actual events at the Virginia Tech sports division between 1987 and 2015.

Frank Beamer took on a young program that was under NCAA sanctions because it exceeded the scholarship limits. His first two seasons would be hampered by 20 fewer scholarships.

In its first 6 seasons, Beamer was 24-40-2, this 6. Season was a miserable 2-8-1. It seemed like Beamer wasn’t the man for the job. But David Blaine gave Beamer another season while he was making some difficult staffing changes. Beamer did just that and followed suit with a 9-3 season in 1993. We all know how it went on. It was probably one of the most important decisions Virginia Tech’s sports division has ever made.

But profits and losses are only a small part of the story of the projector era at Virginia Tech. There was so much more going on in and through the sports department of this small regional university. As noted above, VT dealt with probation issues that were independent and the identity of the football program was somewhat unknown.

1. Beamer brought a vision and a plan that said we could compete with local talent at the highest level. The Commonwealth of Virginia would be the focus of recruitment. And that brought about a major cultural change with the football program.
2. It lasted 9 seasons, but after the 1995 season, Virginia Tech was put on the national map in a significant way.
3. With Beamer’s guidance and assistance from Jim Weaver, our facilities have been vastly improved.
4th. Virginia Tech joined the Big East in 1991 and the ACC in 2004. We were no longer an « orphan » football program.
5. At 16. October 1999 Virginia Tech put college game day on the map.

I could go on and on here. My point is this: the only constant in all of this was the forward thinking and ingenuity of a small town boy, Frank Beamer. So many other people played a role, and probably even led the way, but one thing is certain here: things have not stagnated for an extended period of time over the years. At least not until the end. When you look back and look at all the things that have happened, it is truly amazing. In my estimation, Virginia Tech took a bigger step between 1987 and 1999 than Clemson did between 2010 and today (this is certainly controversial). .

We certainly had the right people to lay this foundation. I’m not sure today if we have the right people to build on.

What we miss about Coach Beamer is how easy it was for us to understand him and him. Much of the connection that we don’t get from Fuente was only implicitly connected to him. It takes work to replace this, especially if you are not in the same place as the people you are trying to connect with.

I honestly think part of the problem, both with fan base and recruitment, was that Fuente underestimated how big the cultural shift would be for him if he moved here personally.

I agree. Additionally, Brian has pointed out that Fuente is a football coach. That’s it. His personality won’t allow him to be a successful P-5 soccer coach anywhere because he can’t do all of these other things. That’s okay. We all have to be who we are.

Good post. . . but it’s Dave Braine and not David Blaine. Pretty funny typo (if that is it)! I wish we had David Blaine, he’s a miracle worker in my opinion.

As someone who was young and spunky by the end of Weaver’s tenure, I definitely didn’t appreciate the place he put the football team in in the early to mid-2000s. Yes, of course, Beamer was excellent, but it has not achieved the success it has without a commitment to funding from Weaver.

At one point, tech had the highest paid group of assistants in the country! This is big football shit. They were early in so many trends that they were set up for success (then they got complacent and passed by, but that’s another story for another day. )

But I think what we are seeing are both the blessings and the curses of all these years. Beamer and Weaver did something really amazing for the institution and the sports department, but it had a cap and they had their weaknesses. We’ve waited a while, with both a new AD and a new head football coach, to help us with this next step. Unfortunately, the new regime here in 2020 doesn’t share the same kind of forward thinking.

The context for this is important. We paid through the nose for full membership in Big East from 2000-2004. Then when we entered the ACC, one of the requirements was that we upgrade Olympic sport to ACC standards. We got a better financial offer from the ACC on the first day than from the BE up to 2010, but we immediately had to put a lot of money into wrestling and the new pool in Christiansburg and baseball etc.. etc. Plug, etc.

I think the timeframe in which things really got out of hand was, for understandable reasons, towards the end of Weaver’s tenure.

At the end of Weaver’s tenure, I think we were faced with limited administrative bandwidth (for one thing, Weaver would never have let the Seth situation drag on for that long), and that too. . . really after us.

People keep saying that we had some of the highest paid assistants in the country, but that was easy before the salary skyrocketed for the past 20 years.

In 2000, Bob Stoops won a championship and became the third highest paid head coach at $ 1. 4 million. (2 million. in 2020 dollars). Five assistant coaches do more than that today. Todd « I can do the 3rd. Not defending place « Grantham almost does that. In 2000, the average HC earned less than 614 in 2020. $ 000, 103 assistant coaches earn more today.

The teams now pay more OKs and DCs than all the assistant coaches in 2000.

This is not where we were at the top and we have not adjusted for inflation. The market has collapsed and the pay is ridiculous. You can’t tell me that Bo Pelini is more valuable to LSU than Bob Stoops was the OU in 2000.

I would also like to add how early we played football on Thursday evening and how much Beamer accepted it. It was huge when it got to that because there just weren’t that many nationally televised games, and it was a great way to really raise VT’s profile nationally. Shoot, the first game I played in 95 in my freshman year, was the matchup on Thursday night before Christ (which we lost, but this season was an epic run after starting 2-0)

I had people in my replies, very much in their feelings, that Fuente allows players not to go into a bowl and thus end the bowl streak, and it seems to me that it is mainly because of how the football Alumni are responsive. The thing is, this is a decision that peer programs – the programs we have to fear in modern college football (not 1997) having players switching back and forth in 2020 – allow their players, given the miserable soccer experience to be done this year.

The bigger problem is that after reading things like Derek Smith’s reaction that you linked, that is the only connection that soccer alumni found deserted. I’m not blaming them for getting upset about this thread being cut too – but the problem has to be making them feel like part of the program again no matter what year to year you have to do to the current players to keep happy. Dwight Vick’s interview on Hokie Hangover this week was great to put that into focus.

I can no longer go to all games because of life. OK this is my problem. But I also can’t watch all the games at home without jumping through the hoops because of the gimmicks of the ACC network. I know almost nothing firsthand about the players or staff because the walls for media, whether online or traditional, are 10 feet high – all I get is a bomb a year from a national writer who comes out of nowhere comes. All I can do on a regular basis is buy the merch and be asked to give more and more money all the time. Feeling that I’m not connected makes me angry, and all I did while at tech was sit in the stands. I can’t imagine how angry I would be if I had worn the uniform.

I know almost nothing firsthand about the players or staff as the media walls are 10 feet tall

I think this is a good point that I didn’t really think about. Do you remember when we all knew the story of David Wilson and the rabbit or his car? Or when the camera crew followed the team on the way back and we saw a number of players giving Eddie Royal shit about how he looked like Freddy Adu? Even though we didn’t * know * the players, there was this level of connection that people felt was broken. It’s not hard to do, and Fuente doesn’t even have to be the face of it, let people like Hamilton and Tapp do that, or even the players. Not everyone has the personality that David Wilson has, but it is wrong to stop everyone from talking to someone. Open some doors and help people think about this team.

Maybe Whit Fuente gave a copy of How to Make Friends and Influence People. « Problem solved (mostly)! The whole QB is still running on the third and long one. Is there a book for that?

Every time I read a blog or listen to a podcast about this whole situation in Babcock / Fuente, my opinion matches the latest one.

As I prepped for my column about Fuentes replacements, I focused on a single box that I would check out if I did the search: Power Five Experience. Last winter, it was confusing to hear how much Fuentes’ flirtation with Baylor Tech opened his eyes. Of course you need more money, of course you need more recruiting staff and dazzling graphics and football-oriented facilities. That’s the norm, and every year if you don’t find out, you’re pushing your football program behind you more and more.

The ideal time for this mindset to take over the football program should have been the transition from beamer to fuente. Frank had been at tech for so long that it was hard to see what really needed modernization. But fresh eyes and diverse experiences can work wonders when renovating.

Fuente was used to doing more with less and kept trying to do the same when he started his run in Blacksburg. However, these questions go well beyond funding. Again and again, Fuente hit his toes when he had problems with people, the soft skills of communicating with almost everyone.

I thought the P5 Experience piece was incredibly overrated, but you changed my mind with this piece.

We all thought this was a turnkey job in 2015/16 but it clearly isn’t (at least not anymore). . This was Whit’s blind spot in 2015, and that’s why hiring Fuente didn’t work. Due to his previous experience at WVU, Mizzou and Cincy, he had not yet been to a « modernized » football program. Fuente hadn’t, given his past, either. Resources, personnel, etc.. were a blind spot for everyone in the administration. It’s not that Fuente is upside down. He just didn’t know what he didn’t know.

Now we know. It sounds like Whit has a plan to expand the resources. I’m doubtful at best that Fuente is the right man to lead this change, but even if he is, this won’t be an overnight solution. It will take time to build these muscles. To be honest, I just hope that before Fuente is replaced, we can have enough infrastructure so that we can make sure we are attractive to top candidates.

In the Message Board community, we see our little world of intense fandom rather than the general opinion of tens of thousands of people who follow tech football. It’s not and it’s not particularly close.

In terms of the transparency of the program, I think one small positive change is to let us know who will be playing week after week. Tell us which players are injured and what is a recovery schedule. Open practice doesn’t really interest me, although small tidbits from reporters would be nice. I want to know if someone breaks their toes and goes out 3-4 weeks before they get better. I would like to know why Waller was out all year. It would be nice to know why James Mitchell didn’t play against Liberty. It offers the fan base a connection to the team. Sure, it does give the opposing teams some information, but at what cost? It’s hard to have grace or understanding as a fan base when I have no idea what’s going on behind closed doors. I don’t even think it’s fair to the players. When there is radio silence, other people will fill the void with rumors and innuendos. And there have been too many rumors about the program for too long.

So this is my small, specific suggestion to improve the engagement and transparency of the fans. Share a real injury report and tell me when you expect the players to recover. I am of the opinion that the advantage of fan engagement lies in the game plan of the opponent.

Thanks for this B, super level headed approach. I need this approach when trying to think rationally. Hopefully we can use the people and tactics to succeed, like Buzz did for the basketball roster. I absolutely love what tech basketball does to a coach older than CJF. Check out what a young, youthful, dedicated face will do for a program:

Rollin ‘in conference 1-0 like. . . 😆 »@CoachFrazierVT #StoneByStone | #Hokies 🦃 picture. Twitter. com / JLIDY5CUKF – Virginia Tech Men’s Basketball (@HokiesMBB) Jan.. December 2020

As others have said, Fuente’s greatest weakness is his inability to develop relationships. This was reflected in high numbers of players dropping out of the program, terrible recruiting classes over the past two years (especially in the state of Virginia), and a miserable relationship with fans / donors. Claiming that Fuente is « misunderstood » by Whit is a major indictment. It’s his job to get current players, potential players, and fans to understand him. That is why he failed and is likely to continue to fail as head coach. He’s probably above average from an X O standpoint, but he can’t get or keep good players playing for him. I can understand White’s argument about wanting to go back one season with all the hurdles with Covid and a new defense staff, but I have a feeling the writing is on the wall. The program is clearly on a downward trend. How easy it must be for opposing coaches to recruit against VT now. From the point of view of the schedule, stop running the damn QB that many times. I understand it’s a numbers advantage and we’ve had short term success with it. However, it is not sustainable over the course of a season. How difficult must it be for these QBs to stand in their pockets, make accurate throws, and make good decisions when they are gassed and their bodies knocked down from the ball 20 times per game.

The more I think about the situation, the more I think we Hokie fans have to accept or reject the new norm.

We were. . .
– a multi-year 9-10 winning team
– Bowl games were a given
– Championships were achievable
– There was no state competition
– a desirable target for recruits and the national media
– a program with a blue collar mark, an opponent that no other program has taken lightly

We have become
– a multi-year 5-6 winning team
– Bowl games are a claim
– Championships are something Clemson wins
– Recruiting aims to enter the top 40 nationally
– We are arguably the third or fourth best program in VA
– The brand is tough, smart, tough. The product on the field looks anything but looks, and the competition looks past us to the next game.

Since I’m a little older, I remember the Dooley era. Without a monumental change in the way the administration and coaches run the program, I would suggest we all familiarize ourselves with 6-6 and keep our fingers crossed for a bowl bid.

In spite of everything, it is weak to accept the status quo. Pulling your donations is also weak. If you find this unacceptable, contact the administration, direct your donations to help improve the areas that need improvement the most, and keep the coaching team out of tune for a better one Develop product. I live in Buckeye and I can assure you that there is no tolerance for mediocrity. Fans, media, former players, large and small donors, advertisers and former coaches expect and insist on the best. The sooner we all adjust to expect a lot more, the sooner we will leave the second Dooley era.

Justin Fuente is not a bad person at all. But he’s pretty darn bad at almost anything a modern top 25 power five program needs from his head coach off the field. You need someone who can build and maintain hundreds of relationships at once. Someone who can make donors feel special in the morning on the golf course can play FaceTime with a 16-year-old in the afternoon and fly in to chat with a high school coach in the evening.

Does anyone else think the whole « Fuente is not a CEO » is a red herring? I think the main goal of a head coach is relatively simple – to win. The rest is « little potatoes ».

I personally don’t care if Fuente isn’t the best when it comes to rubbing your elbows with Bill Goodwin and the other VT elites. I don’t care if Fuente isn’t a Mike London-level snake oil seller to 757 5-star recruits. I don’t care if some asshat 7 v. 7 Football coach doesn’t like Fuente because Virginia Tech doesn’t look at its kids,

I just want to win (and not be in the spotlight from a Baylor / Penn State perspective). If Fuente is able to introduce recruiting classes in the 1940s, that works as well as introducing top 10 classes. The problem is that Fuente doesn’t win. All of these other things do not matter in the grand scheme of things.

Sure, but Fuente can’t win without fixing at least some of these things. What causes this program to fail without the stuff you took off the board? Mostly tactical mistakes, some QB developments. From my reading these were worth about two wins a year.

So now we’re at 7 or 8 wins. Sure better than this year or 2018, but the hell with it. I want to look back and put 10-2 (7-1) or 11-1 (8-0) into the ACCCG, with those losses going against other top 15 teams at worst. (And never run UVa or any other state school. We won’t get there without recruiting relationships in talented regions and building coaches who want to send players to Virginia Tech first. We won’t get there without recruits coming to visit and seeing NFL alumni back in Blacksburg on their week off, playing up the program and getting the message across that if recruits come here, they will be king of back in 10 years the world. We’re not going to get there without the head coach kissing the rings that must be kissed in order to get millions of dollars worth of checks.

Basically wrote the same words in different forms, but you stopped like that. I just want to add that the problems are why we don’t win, not the other way around, and all of this is very important.

Great summary. No insult to French or ITRepeter. . . But I rate this as the best I’ve read on TKP.

This was posted for everyone to read to see some of TKPC’s exclusive content. If you can afford it, consider getting a membership this holiday season. We have some great offseason and hoops content planned for.

This is a great article Brian, and the answers have been a breath of insight compared to the past few days.

I (along with almost everyone here) hit F5 as fast as my fingers could fly during the whit presser, and I dropped f # * k bombs about as fast as new tweets hit the headlines. The part about the fans’ & donations was particularly cornering, and I called my wife at work to say, « Guess what the f * # k whit said ?! ». Later that evening, I had the opportunity to watch the entire presser and see that most of what was tweeted was wholly or slightly taken out of context. The whole thing, however, is a bad look from an AD who we all thought were smarter.

I think BM hit the nail on the head here. Fuente is a good football coach, but he lacks the soft skills that make a P5 coach a P5 coach. It is obvious to anyone who deals with people on a daily basis that the man just doesn’t like talking to people when you are watching the ESD presser. You put a press from CJF next to one from CMY and there is a difference between day and night. Win or lose, CMY can smoke and joke with the reporters and he has an air of lightness that surrounds him. CJF looks like he’s in the octagon looking for the door to get out. In the meantime, check out one of the really successful P5 head coaches and they have that flair, they have the boast, they have the « je ne sais quoi » that makes real leaders successful. CJF just doesn’t have it.

That doesn’t mean he can’t grow into it. I wasn’t that sociable in HS, at VT, or even when I started working in construction. For the past 5 years as I had to adapt to new leadership roles / responsibilities I have been fortunate enough to work for a company that is willing to coach and train me. Ready to show me how to adapt to different people, when I know it’s time to be aggressive and demanding, and when it’s time to slow down my role and just shoot the shit with someone, to get what i want. Much of it also required a desire to « be better » and grow personally. CJF can, but only if he wishes.

I think VT Football is in a gutter. CJF may know about football, but he doesn’t know the management side and that will keep biting his ass. Perhaps Whit can do what he promised and « be there » for Fu and teach him how to grow into shoes that he obviously can’t fill right now. If not, then we’ll be where we are for a year or two. I really hope this is Fu’s moment and that he realizes it and strives to be « the guy ». . If not, it doesn’t matter if the recruitment / facilities / staff gets better, there will be no one to lead them, someone to put the pieces together and be the HEAD coach.

All in all, regardless of the status of the VT Football program, my wife and I will continue to donate. We’ll keep playing games. We’ll keep buying WAYYYYY too much orange and maroon stuff. I would ask you to remember that you are supporting VT Football and not Fuente / Whit. Regardless of what someone says, nothing can happen without us donating or buying tickets.

We have been in the top 10 victories since 1995. . . So yes, VT can « keep up » in P5. . Regardless of the myriad of current excuses that emerge from the program. ODU and Liberty defeated VT after 10 minutes in Division 1. . So don’t tell me the « landscape » has changed so much.

1995 was twenty-five years ago. How much has changed since then? It’s ridiculous to say that college football is somehow immune to the drastic, rapid landscape changes that every other part of life has seen. The phones had cables in 1995 and I am writing this now.

Great article and take things over! The whole aspect of Buzz forcing the basketball program into modern times was particularly relevant to me. The basketball program just feels more inclusive and wants the fans to be involved, while the soccer program seems one way or another less important.

I like Fuente. I think he went through a number of unfortunate things that made it difficult for him to take into account the weaknesses mentioned outside of the field. However, I hear that he is not ready to change and I don’t think that’s exactly true. Realizing the need to change his recruiting methods over the past year, he focused on other areas across the country and received many early returns. What seemed like a big change in methods collapsed before his eyes. By the time it was found, it was too late to change course. I think he wanted a lot to change the way he focused on the state with his defensive attitudes. Unfortunately, it got massively derailed in 2020 due to covid restrictions. So he screwed up the recruiting and that’s 100% up to him. But I think he’s trying to correct the course. Unfortunately, the perception is out there now and I have little confidence that he can get in enough short term to fill in the gaps on the roster. We will have to rely on the portal again. The good news is that we succeeded there and every player is eligible right now. Hope we can hit gold and get back on track, but I’m not betting on it.

« A person is smart. Humans are stupid, panic dangerous animals and you know it. « – K

QBs of the 21st. Century unbeaten against UVA:
MV7, MV5, LT3, Braxton Burmeister, Ryan Willis, Josh Jackson, Jerod Evans, Michael Brewer, Tyrod Taylor, Sean Glennon and Grant Noel. That’s right, UVA. You couldn’t beat Grant Noel.

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