I went through this exercise last week too and didnāt feel too bad about it. WR Fields is probably gone to the draft too.
We have ready replacements for our offensive losses, and the OL will be almost fully intact, so Iām hopeful on that side.
On defense the safeties will be big losses, but Minter and Hardy seem promising. McDonald has gotten good experience filling in at LB. The DL loses a lot, but theyāve been below average, the replacements canāt be much worse. We donāt have the depth on the roster to replace our CB losses.
Issue is Des is still the OC and Elliottās not going to find an upgrade given that if he stays for 2025, heās on a very hot seat.
Lack of talent really shows up on defense. Coaches can scheme around talent weaknesses on offense, but itās much harder to do that on defense. Canāt magically hide slow defenders.
Anyway, I think Elliott gets that 4th year even if we lose 7 in a row to end the season. It probably means heās a dead man walking in 2025 with little he can do to save his job, but the buyout drops from 4 mil after year 3 to 2 mil after year 4 and I doubt the athletic department has the resources and money to hire coaches in the 2 revenue programs 4 months apart.
That may be the most important piece in all of this. A Sophieās Choice. Do you save the basketball program and bring in a coach to save tour highest profile program. Or do you swing for the fences and attempt to resurrect a DOA football program?
Theyāre happening 3-4 months apart. The football hire would happen Nov-Dec, with the hoops decision happening March-April. Thereās no reason Carla and the team of administrators and donors canāt use the next 45 days to go all-in on finding an A+ football hire and then worry about basketball starting after New Years.
Everything you say makes sense. But it does not take into account the context of the athletic program and itās long history even pre-Carla in how they handle business. Because of that I donāt see them wanting to take on 2 searches in one year and to @4547Lambeth if they do I suspect the chances of nailing both are slim and the chances of botching both are moderate to elevated.
Thereās no reason they canāt do what you say, Iām just skeptical of any organization trying to take on 2 high profile ad hoc projects in a short period of time in addition to their usual annual cycle of tasks. I like Carla and think sheās done a good job overall, so this isnāt me hating on her for everything like some people here do. Iām just not that optimistic we get both hires right if we have to make them basically in the same semester. And also donor fatigue if you need the money for football first, then basketball since football will be more expensive.
Do basketball first. Kick the can down the road for football, save some buyout money. Got VT at home next year, so use the Hokie ticket sales cash to fund the new coach.
My preference would be a sitting G5 coach with a demonstrated record of winning despite not having the most resources or best facilities in his conference. A guy who has worked at a few places so he has a big network of people he can tap to hire a staff from.
Iād avoid a P4 assistant whoād have to learn on the job and who has always had all the recruiting and resource advantages.
I wouldnāt even mind a retread. I wouldnāt be mad with Al Golden.
I donāt remember all their names offhand, but Iād at least kick the tires on the coaches from Tulane, Louisiana, Memphis, UNLV, Washington State, Western Kentucky. G5 pool might be shallow this year.
One thing you have to keep in mind, and something I lose track of fairly often, is how likely are some of these guys to leave their preferred region of the country. Guys like Bennett and Bronco who go cross country for new jobs tend to happen from time to time but arenāt really the norm in terms of how these hires typically go. You typically go with a guy who knows the area and is willing to come back to said area if heās not already located near here.
Sumrall is waiting on an SEC job, or more specifically Kentucky. Desormeaux has never coached outside of the state of Louisiana and played at ULL. Dickert is a midwest/west coast guy. Odom seemed like a Missouri lifer until they canned him.
Silverfield is interesting because he went to college and was an assistant coach at Hampden-Sydney, so he does have some familiarity with the central VA region. Golden obviously has a bunch of ties here being a former GA under Welsh and DC under Groh. Tyson Helton has coached offense in a bunch of different places but from what I remember WKU fans arenāt crazy about his in-game Xās and Oās acumen, seems to be all scheme.
Doesnāt mean any of these guys would be disqualified, thereās plenty of reasons why someone like Dickert might want to get away from Washington State given their impending jump down from being a high major program. But it is something to keep in mind.
Well said. I agree that we ideally want someone familiar with our natural recruiting area, mainly Georgia to Pennsylvania, but I think good assistants can help with that.
One more thing I thought of for why Iād rather kick the can down the road one more year is that the House settlement rules might be in effect next year, so we could evaluate a guy on how he handles roster limits instead of scholarship limits for that first year before hiring him.
Silverfield was the guy I was eyeing cause of the HSC connection, but the last 2 Memphis coaches who got bigger jobs were Fuente and Norvell. I donāt know if people view that as a negative.
Optimistic take: If UVA somehow pulls off an upset over one of the 3 ranked teams and then beats the Hokies at Lane Stadium, is there then discussion of extending Elliot past his final year of the contract?
