If thatās the case, what boxes need to be checked before Carla finds the guy? They have the updated training/locker room facilities. Couple winning seasons? Bowl games?
Totally agree. Guy was dealt a bad hand.
I remain optimistic that this will be an entertaining season, that will lead to bigger better things in the future. Whether or not that future includes Elliott, weāll see. The past few years of UVA football havenāt been that fun. Looking for that to change.
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Not being VTās whipping boy any more would go a long way to being attractive to the stronger coaching targets. As it stands now, weāre in an uphill battle in most every public HS in the state. But thatās asking too much, probably, since itās been too much to ask of every post-Welsh coach thus far.
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100% You want a big name or a quality coach to take the program to the next level you need to lay the foundation for him. The facilities are up and that helps a ton now itās time to build the coffers on the field and in the win column. Thereās a massive difference being a 6-7 win team instead of a 4-5 win team.
Thereās a reason you donāt see many fly by night football programs pop up and get hot. It can happen but for sustained success you have to have a good foundation.
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Agreed the last few years havenāt been fun. A fairly small portion of that, atleast IMO, is Elliottās fault. I kind of am with Dragon on this, Elliott is probably more set up man than actual long term solution. But just for how heās handled the situation alone I believe heās earned (will be given) more than just this upcoming season. 2 more years of bad though and weāll seeā¦
Full disclosure I wanted Matt Campbell after Bronco. Big swing they probably wouldnāt have gotten, but I can dream. With the facilities now and NIL boostedā¦ 
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I donāt think you can do this analysis without factoring two things:
- portal recruiting
- talent evaluation
Iād argue the staff has excelled on both fronts. Itās hard for anyone to question how weāve done in the portal thus far, As for evaluation, I look at guys like Colandrea, Dre Walker, Caleb Hardy, Jason Hammond, Blake Steen and I have pretty high confidence that weāll look back on that group and think āyeah they are a heck of a lot better than their 247 ratings.ā
I know people think that a ādiamond in the rough strategyā isnāt sustainable and I would agree, but I donāt think thatās what Iād call what weāre doing. We built a staff full of guys with decades of experience at programs where talent evaluation is absolutely essential. Service academies, HBCU, FCS, etc. Great recruiters at those programs arenāt the guys who are the best salesmen, theyāre the guys that can find talent. We are INCREDIBLY well networked in the Southeast to the point where we legitimately have connections the big boys donāt. Will that help us land a kid in Atlanta with dozens of SEC and ACC offers? Probably not. Will it help us find players who those schools may have ignored in pursuit of higher profile players? Absolutely.
Having said all that, in this class weāre seeing a bit of both. Weāre still getting kids from our core footprint, but weāre also winning recruitments against peers too,
I honestly donāt have a concern about talent at the moment. I think anyone that looks at this yearās roster and talks about recruiting rankings is a dummy. We have enough talent on the roster at really almost every position group to achieve the goals a program like ours wants to achieve.
My bigger question is whether the staff can translate that into wins. We saw some hope last year but the reality is if we donāt turn those close losses into wins, it will be fair to wonder whether this staff is the right one.
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Agree. This staff has earned my trust on talent evaluation especially in the portal. Iād even toss Muskett into the mix as a solid transfer pick up.
Thatās what Dragon is for. In all seriousness, I wouldnāt fully discredit the impact of continually recruiting 3s and making them 4s and 5s will translate to the occasional High 3 Low 4 showing up and committing. Recruits want to play with talent and in situations that will help them get to the next level. They may not be flashy but it adds up. Wisconsin thrived on this model for decades now.
Exactly. Had this conversation with @chavlicek15 last night. The talent is there now itās a question of will the staff put them in a position for success. I get why CTE was conservative in play calling etc in the past. The team wasnāt good and itās tough to have confidence to take big swings. Now heās got some puppy dawgs. Will he let them eat?
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My realistic hope for the short term is to not feel like we are physically outmanned when I watch us play. I go back to watching Duke play Clemson last year, I saw Duke and instantly thought geez these guys are bigger faster stronger than what weāre putting on the field. Will over skill is great and the recruiting piece takes time but until we donāt physically** look a cut below other P4 schools, we arenāt gonna win many games
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WRs, Kam Robinson, Sanker, and Dre Walker are the only guys I think are of the physical caliber needed to compete in the top half of the ACC.
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Thatās honestly my hope/aspiration overall. My friends and I talk about it all the time. It felt so great back in the Welsh and mid-Groh era going into majority of games expecting/thinking you could win. Iām not talking about doing the mental gymnastics we do currently. But like you said, you saw the other team and thought yea roll out the ball and the Hoos have a great shot to win this one. Having that feeling as you walk down the lawn on the way from the corner to Scott Stadium is a gamechanger for the fanbase morale.
If the program can recapture that feeling it will be just fine.
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Iād also like to see a lot more discipline and for them to clean it up on special teams. That stuff bothered me more than the talent gap.
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āNewā uniforms. I guess the change is that they removed spaces between stripes on the helmet, shoulder, and pants. I just wish theyād do something about the font.
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Our football unis have always been fine to me. Maybe itās the new nike template but I donāt like how the sleeve stripes randomly cut off and donāt go further around the arm.
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Folks had asked about pre-camp (which starts today) depth charts.
Justin Ferber at Rivals has been going position-by-position the last few weeks, highly recommend reading through them (best I can tell he [accidentally?] skipped tight ends, btw).
Linebacker piece linked, and in there right at the top are bookmarks to the other position group breakdowns:
https://virginia.rivals.com/news/countdown-to-camp-uva-boasts-quality-pieces-at-lb
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Preseason Polls are stupidā¦ BC got a first place vote but are 14th overall. No one really knows anything.
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Iām choosing to focus on Virginia Tech having their best team in years and being picked to finish 6th.
I firmly believe we can finish at least 14th!
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Stevie Bracey has been a good player, weāll miss his contributions for sure. I didnāt read through anything recently but I know at one point he was practicing long snapper in addition to being one of our better linebackers
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Believe we added a walk-on LS from Coastal Carolina who should fill that void, so hopefully thatās not a worry.
With that being said this is where a lack of playable depth kills us, again our 1st team squad on paper looks pretty damn good but when attrition inevitably happens then all of a sudden youāre looking very thin at multiple positions. One of my pet peeves from our fanbase is talks of how weāre āsnakebitā or have horrible luck because of injuries like this, when in reality this happens to just about every other team in the country. The difference is quality P5 teams have the depth built up to at least keep things afloat throughout the course of the season.
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Nailed it. Every program enters the season eith a few guys on IR who were supposed to be contributors. This razer think margin of error the Hoos have is why I wonāt go all in om 5+ wins.
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