“Say, Buffy, do pass me the rosé, would you Dear? So, Chad, can you believe Kon committed to Duke. Fuck Duke!”
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Just occured to me most UVA alumni out there don’t even know who kon knueppel is. And they never will know. To them he is just another name in the wind. To me, he was everything. Until he turned out to be nothing.
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I can confirm the money has been secured. We’ll see what takes he has this basketball season before making a final decision.
Kidding kidding 
@haney
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I may be naive, but I get the sense that if buyout money being pooled is publicly being leaked, there’s one of two things:
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Someone has already been tapped as next head coach and it’s a whale
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Aside from obvious on field lack of results, something else is making the CTE relationship untenable and need to cut bait before it’s ugly
Others have said that it’s unlike our donors to shell out money with brash decision making.
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I am by no means an Elliott apologist…. I’ve been the conductor on the fire Elliott train. But after thinking about this and our situation… I have some problems with it.
A THREAD:
After gathering more information and thinking about it…. I do think it’s kind of bullshit to fire him after this year.
So we haven’t had the money to pay for a competitive staff, NIL, etc…. But we have the money to fire the HC one year after the tragedy after year 2? What a joke.
Im totally fine with it if they decide they actually want to be competitive and chip in a lot of money not only for the HC & facilities, but a competitive staff and NIL collective….
Im also totally fine with it if they decide they’re not doing that but have A LEGIT PLAN. That plan must consist of Scott Calhoun, Charles Huff, Jeff Monken, etc…. Someone with HC experience who can win with restrictions and can bring in a staff of basically all service academy, HBCU, or Ivy League guys.
You have to choose a lane if you’re firing Elliott. Especially with the optics of it being year 2, a year post tragedy, and basically not providing money at a competitive level. I have zero confidence these boosters get that. I think Carla needs to stress that, but it will likely fall upon deaf ears.
Would Elliott succeed with the resources needed to compete? Probably not. But at the same time why did we hire the Clemson OC who’s only been at Clemson to run this program if we knew we were behind the curb on everything else. That’s on Carla and the boosters. I understand the school is “trying” by putting some more money in along with rhe facilities. But it’s not enough, unless you go the service academy approach.
All in all, pick a lane and follow through on it. I have zero confidence we will do that.
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Because we weren’t prepared for a coaching search. Most attractive candidates were already committed to new programs or not interested and we were running out of time.
This is where Bronco really hurt the program.
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Carla rebuking these boosters would be the greatest thing she could accomplish. I agree with all the points you made. I don’t think CTE saves this program, but I feel confident that firing him after year 2 will be a dagger for the program. As a program Virginia has no leg to stand on firing a 2nd year coach coming off the situation CTE is and provided the resources he was.
It all feels so incredibly short sighted by a bunch of people who just realized there was a problem with the football program and want to throw some money around to make themselves feel important.
7 Likes
sits @haney down
Son you’ve had a good run and we’re all proud of what you’ve accomplished here, but part of what makes LRA special is our ability to stay on the cutting edge. And part of that means evolving and pushing boundaries. We love what you’ve done, but we need to stay ahead of the curve here and part of that means allowing for as much NIL flexibility as possible. We can’t wrap up all our cap space in one place with so many great young prospects in the pipeline. I’m sorry, but this is best for both of us. We’re going to trade you to the Boston College Forum for cash considerations and 2 first rounds and a 2nd pick.
Thanks for your contribution and we wish you the best on your future endeavors. Please give you playbook to @DFresh11 on the way out the door.
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When I got to UVa I was alway surprised how well those Joe Isuzu ads had played locally.
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Very fair. I stand by my point of needing to choose an identity for our football program. Our staff lacks an identity but so does our program as a whole.
Are we going to pony up money to compete and recruit at a high level? Or are we going to go the developmental route and try to win in CREATIVE ways while having less talent? Right now we’re sort of trying to do both, which has led to us doing neither.
1 Like
Something tells me Haneys playbook will have LOTS of added plays featuring @haney
4 Likes
I’ve been thinking about this (like everyone else), and I think Box nails the disconnect between what this leak claims is happening vs the actual history of how things have unfolded in the past. It just makes no sense.
But at least some folks say this guy has historically had some credibility. The only way I can think of for everyone to at least be kinda-sorta right is: it isn’t that a coalition of big donors has 8-figures together, yet. Its that a couple big UVA athletics donors have let it be known that they’d be game for contributing to something like this, or they’re even trying to get the ball rolling on making it happen. But its more of a “this is something we’d like to see happen” than a “this is something that has happened”.
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I think you may have it right. During the coaching search, wasn’t Ratcliffe peddling a rumor about a donor promising to fund the Master Plan if we hired Poindexter? Sounded sketchy at the time, though I guess we’ll never know for sure. I think we’ve just got some donors whose talk gets ahead of them (or maybe it’s the grapevine that does that for them)
3 Likes
My own thoughts which nobody else should feel obligated to read:
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Sometimes those close a program know when a coaching staff just isn’t going to work out. That may be the case here, and there’s an argument for cutting things off quickly rather than letting it spiral and get worse. BUT I don’t think that after what happened last season and the way Elliott has conducted himself here that it would be right or fair to let him go after this year. He should get a third year. One more year isn’t going to determine the fate of the football program. Probably (maybe the BIG is like - dang you guys suck, enjoy being conferenceless when the ACC explodes, but who knows).
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I don’t think it’s necessarily true that money is always better spent on NIL than getting a new coach, particularly at somewhere like UVA. UVA will never be super competitive with NIL in football, so what we likely need is a coach who can make us competitive through scheme with less talent. If anything, coaching is probably much more important here than the bigger time schools that can buy talent. Yes we need more to NIL, but we’re not going to succeed with a bad coach and mediocre NIL. We can be competitive with a good coach and mediocre NIL.
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This schedule was unfortunately basically designed to murder support for a UVA football coach. Getting embarrassed on national TV to start the year, losing to JMU at home, getting demolished by Maryland, losing to our former QB at NCST, and looking totally mediocre for most of the William & Mary game… I mean, it’s bad. If any schedule was going to incite the few boosters who care about UVA football, it was this one. It’s hard to see how this staff can recover from that and repair that relationship unless they really turn it around (beating VT could go a long way).
All that’s to say, I think it’s wrong putting this out in the public domain and doing it now, but I’m not shocked it’s happening. These boosters should just get their money together, huddle up with Carla to game plan scenarios, then sit on their money for one more year to see how it goes. Then we have time to come up with an alternative if one is needed, the money can go further with a lower buyout, maybe we can give some to NIL, etc. But doing this right now feels a little much.
7 Likes
I was good with the hire of TE. Duke wanted him too and we won that battle so they “settled” for Mike Elko (those fuckers have all the luck). Seemed like a very good fit. Much of his staff appeared to be geared to recruiting. I knew it would be tough for a couple years and I was very vocal before the season about the stupid scheduling, but I thought Elliott would get some reasonable traction in recruiting. He hasn’t.
Generally, my rule is that a football staff deserves 4 years and if they’re getting traction with recruiting then 5 at a minimum. The current coach at FSU, for example, was about to be run out of town after his first couple seasons but now owns the town. That being said, I have little hope that TE can turn this around because he’s just not getting anywhere with recruiting.
Firing TE after this season is not something that should be done without making certain all ducks are in a row for success. If you don’t have a helluva good coach lined up already, don’t do it. If you don’t have the $$$ ready to make changes structurally and facility-wise necessary for success, don’t do it. If you don’t have major commitments to be highly competitive with NIL, don’t do it. If you aren’t willing to let go of the fantasy that UVA can be Harvard 5 days a week and Georgia on Saturday, don’t bother.
Firing TE after two years without a top notch replacement ready would destroy any chance at hiring a decent future coach. UVA is a graveyard for coaching careers as it is, at least guys want a reasonable period to try and turn things around if they want to take the chance at UVA.
Oh, and not least in the hierarchy, you’d better have a plan to get some butts in the stands. I don’t care if you pay people to attend, do it.
10 Likes
Nailed it. I’m in full agreement. I don’t think CTE is the man to turn this program around but firing him after 2 years, these last 2 years especially speaks more about UVA and the toxify of the program than it does about CTE.
The next coach is not going to be some tenured pro with years of experience it’s going to be someone who is up and coming and looking for a shot at the P5. No self respecting coach is going to jump on that grenade knowing they are going to get mid to low level pay and get a short leash due to an antsy fanbase. There’s essentially 0 upside. What you end up with is a fly by night coach who will take any opportunity to bolster themselves. That’s not a position UVa can afford to be in.
5 Likes
I’d add, fix the effing scheduling so that you schedule 4 certain wins in non con for the next 4 seasons. Once you have built a respectable roster, then you can start adding some better programs to the non con schedule, but right now you need wins above all else.
6 Likes
How much money did T. Boone Pickens pump into Oklahoma State football? And what to do they have to show for it? It’s still a shitty school with a program that’s won one conference championship since 1980.
I don’t know what this group of UVA alums thinks it would be accomplishing, but running off a coach after two seasons is not going to improve things in any meaningful way. It’s a drop in the leaky bucket that UVA would need to fill to become a regular top 25 team and ACC contender. Unless they’re ready to write MANY more checks over the next decade (and we’re literally talking hundreds of millions of dollars) they should just give Tony some time.
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Nailed. Look around at schools that went that route and look at their results. A&M pumped a ton of money in Jimbo and have essentially the same record as Strong, Gundy at Okie St. everyone Auburn has hired in the last decade. Miami is feeling it.
Allowing a group of donors to come in and control the fate of the program is essentially mob rule by the richest. That’s a recipe for disaster.
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A few counterpoints, @MaineWahoo , if I may…
You acknowledge NIL isn’t going to be how we win. We’re not going to be Miami straight out buying top teams. But you also acknowledge there needs to be a baseline in NIL levels, and that we’re not even there today, at some basic entry-level P5 point.
So what quality coach wants to come to UVA if he doesn’t think we’re going to be able to get the kind of players (either as transfers or out of high school), and then retain them, he thinks he’ll need to win, either right away or long term?
What about this? Buyout drops $2mm next year. Pocket next year’s buyout money. Take the extra $2mm and use it on NIL this winter, both to make some splash finds in the transfer market and maybe more importantly to retain our current roster building blocks.
Then, a year from now, if we do go looking for a new coach, the preferred candidates better see UVA as willing to support him and his roster, and we’re more attractive to both head coaching and coordinator targets. Plus it also gets donors in more of an NIL mindset long term.
Otherwise we just spend all the raised cash on the coaching buyout now, get a third-tier replacement because that’s all that will settle for UVA, and that guy goes 3-9 anyways and the donors all say “hey, can’t afford NIL, too tapped from the buyout” and we’re back in this boat 4 years later.
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