Theyâre invested, off to a solid start with the 27 class. Theyâve just been recruiting uphill for years. Losing culture, crap facilities, Bronco didnât do us any favors with local high schools, shadow of the tragedy, and sputtering NIL commitment on top of the usual academic and conference affiliation hurdles, plus Elliottâs hot seat last off-season. Plus the hot seat meant transfers had to be prioritized to win immediately. A lot of those issues are since improved and weâll hopefully see HS recruiting bump accordingly.
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Do you think Elliott and staff are safe from the hot seat for 2+ seasons or will 1 mediocre season put them back on? For our sake, I hope weâve basically wrapped up a top 25 2027 recruiting class by the end of the summer.
Looking at the 2026 schedule, I think 7-5 is reasonably likely, but could be 5-7 or 8-4. I donât see better than 8-4 though. Is 7-5 good enough (I think so, but not sure about the consensus)? What if itâs 5-7 with wins over Norfolk State, Delaware, Cal, UNC and Syracuse?
Iâm reasonably confident that weâll win 2 of the WVU, NC State and Duke games, but we could win or lose all 3. The road schedule of @SMU, @FSU, @Wake and @VT is pretty daunting. Iâm not expecting any road wins. Iâll be happy if we win 1. If we go 9-3 (6-3) next season, Iâll be beyond thrilled. But 7-5 (5-4 or 4-5) would be my bet.
Looks like Franklin just offered DeMarcus Brown. Thatâs someone you gotta hold on to in this class
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And looks like a big donor recently came through for them so they at least temporarily have funds. That said, Franklin doesnât have a great rep developing WR, right? Agree, we need to win this, but lots of time before signing and likely scarier schools will come, too, so have to handle our business again next year.
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The class rankings are so heavily influenced by class size. Sure it would be great if we ranked top 25 but if we get a bunch of highly rated guys with good offer lists while continuing to do well in the portal, thatâs what we need.
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In terms of the hot seat question, some of it depends on what kind of extension he gets and what changes (if anything) to the buyout. Itâll probably take a sub 5 win season to really start to erase the goodwill he earned this year.
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Whatâs worrisome is that Brown tweeted it out, âblessed to receive an offerâ yada yada with the VT logo added. If heâs 100% on board, he doesnât tweet about it.
And look, brilliant move by Franklin. Itâs a Roanoke kid, and if I were VT Iâd absolutely throw a giant market-altering bag at him to flip, the same month he committed to us, to just crush our momentum and upset the optics in state.
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Yea that def feels like heâs gonna flip. You donât tweet that shit if youâre staying at UVA
Iâd bet we wonât end anywhere near the top 25. But Iâd be stoked if weâre in the top third-to-half of the ACC.
5-7 next year would be a massive disappointment and make this past season look like a massive fluke. Next yearâs schedule isnât very hard. But the heat of the seat will likely depend on what we end up doing extension-wise.
If we lose Brown to Franklin and Tech Iâm going full doomer. This is sort of the exact nightmare scenarioâ finally land some higher end in-state kids on the back of a great season and have it all upended by Tech finally doing one thing right, at least in the short term.
Iâm ready for portal season to start⌠We should theoretically fare pretty well there this offseason.
Unfortunately kids do this all the time, even ones that stay committed. They love the publicity
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Itâs not even unfortunate. Theyâve worked for these offers and are proud of their accomplishments. When I was applying to schools, I still acknowledged and celebrated my fall back acceptances.
These guys just have better tools for broadcasting.
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Iâm more familiar with basketball recruiting where it seems like once I guy has committed verbally, coaches donât make new offers.
Whatâs the deal with football and flips?
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How can you project a win range next season when we donât know what our roster is? We donât have a QB1 or RB1 among likely returners, and the OL could is anywhere from tons of returning veterans to a full reboot depending on their waiver decisions. Not to mention the fluctuation in the rosters of the teams we play against. Just no objective way to look at it yet.
Just keep in mind, @ Louisville and @ Duke were assumed losses before this year and we won both. Our ceiling is all going to depend on the talent we return or add through the portal.
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Pretty sure that $20 M is to close the gap on their $210 M athletic department. But they need that every year, plus more.
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And when he committed, all the Hokie social influencers were shitting on it because he goes to North Cross, and North Cross is beneath them, even though Franklin had taken a commitment from North Cross in May (kid flipped to Carolina after Franklin was canned).
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Yeah its big for next year, but they were already playing a bit of catch up. They couldnât even afford all of the scholarships they needed to offer across the department. Itâs still only 2/3 of the $30m they need in gifts annually to cover the gap.
Theyâll end up cutting non-revenue sports by 2028.
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What does that even mean? North Cross would beat almost any team in the state.
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No clue. They think of North Cross the way some on this board felt about the Highland School when we were recruiting Ament. No history, weak schedule, etc.
But theyâve been recruiting kids away from Fleming, Salem, LB, and PH in recent years. Theyâre legit. And Gobbler fans are ridiculous.
Itâs an early guess. Not really that serious or deep. ÂŻ\_(ă)_/ÂŻ
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As I understand it, itâs related to avoiding anti-trust legislation. If they make them employees, then they are potentially a monopoly.
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