If we end 5-7 I would like to see a parting of ways with Des but donât think we will
Really? what would be the reason for keeping Des for another year?
The DL and secondary take a big hit next year⌠need player development and some more portal gets.
OL seems like it should be steady other than Stevens. Trell and Greene should be good at WR. I assume we lose Fields as well.
Seems like fewer holes but big ones that usually cost a lot in the portal
I donât have a good reason, but nothing about our athletic administration around football gives me the indication they have any urgency about our situation whatsoever.
Call it continuity for the young QB and improvement year over year and they probably keep him.
I can respect that. I wouldnât be surprised if the administration dragged their feet about doing it. But More than worrying about whoâs coming back etc. Getting a new OC and a scheme thatâs better fits the players is essential for taking the necessary next step.
Three years ago no one quality really wanted the job, it was seen as fairly dead end as far as P5 jobs go. Kind of the opposite of the hoops position, the two decades of sustained losing has a brand thatâs near-impossible to recruit to when stacked against our peers (the likes of VT, Pitt, NC State, Maryland, etc). Our facilities situation obviously improved with the opening of the ops center, but our NIL is probably still behind the curve, our academics are still a hurdle, and being in the ACC is more and more a drag on the program profile. Iâd characterize UVA as probably a bottom-20% job in P5, which makes firing your coach and going looking for a new one a very risky gamble unless you know going into it youâve got an ace of a candidate up your sleeve.
There were decent candidates then (Elko, Cignetti, OâBrien, Sean Lewis, and Chadwell all would have probably taken the job), and there will be decent candidates again! These guys all have egos and think they are the piece missing that can fix us. I think we somewhat clearly chose the wrong guy, but thatâs not really what I was getting at.
Where is the urgency around improving this football team in preparation for the conference realignment merry-go-round starting back up again? It just seems like weâre sleepwalking right now. Keeping Des would be a continuation of that, and I fully expect us to.
Actually our NIL not that bad
Well at least we arenât Liberty today.
Frankly I donât think the B1G or SEC really care if weâre all that good in football. Thatâs not why weâre attractive them. I wouldnât be surprised if being bad is part of the appeal, because it gives them someone to beat up on in between the grind of playing Top 25 teams every other week.
Like, now that Vanderbilt is good all of a sudden, maybe the SEC needs a new cupcake?
If football were that important, VT (who is pretty mid, but at least has the resourcing and brand power) would be higher up on realignment wish lists than they are.
Otherwise theyâre after us for our geographic footprint, package deal with UNC, academics, and Olympic / non-revenue profile.
Nailing the Bennett replacement will be much more impactful to our conference realignment prospects than getting football right, I think.
What happened there?
Lost to Kennesaw State on the road last night. First FBS win for Kennesaw St ever. They were ranked 134 out of 134 going into the game.
Yeah I would agree with this, but I think we need at least a low level of competence in football. I donât think 3 wins will cut it, and on the other side, bowl eligibility puts us in a great spot. I was talking to an Arkansas fan the other day and he was all for letting us in, I think there are several SEC fanbases that would love to have a couple more wins on the schedule.
Basketball is clearly our moneymaker and we absolutely do need to nail that hire. A lot of the smart college football people I follow have said a couple of things to the effect of thinking football money is at or past its peak (in value relative to other sports at least), and that menâs and womenâs basketball (and baseball eventually) are the next gold rushes for college athletics. It is just a matter of figuring out how to package them for sale to the networks. Womenâs CBB is clearly very hot right now and ESPN is getting a steal on those tournament rights. I donât have a ton of faith in the NCAA to capitalize on it, but I think the conferences will do well enough. Yormark at the Big 12 seems to be thinking progressively on this, and at the very least I think other commissioners would follow if he hits on something good.
Kind of worried about next season. We lose a ton on defense. I think we are going to need to be able to score a lot next season to compensate. My fear with that is Colandrea doesnât seem capable of making the short to medium throws over the middle of the field. Iâm afraid heâs too short to execute them. But maybe itâs just inexperience and heâll be better next season.
Losing the safeties will hurt some, but the other guys out of eligibility are pretty mediocre. Mediocreâs not bad and we need some of that on the 2 deep to raise the floor, but hopefully at worst weâre replacing mediocre with more mediocre.
Letâs see, Bennett, Carter, Butler and Smiley off the DL. LB James Jackson. Safeties Clary and Sanker. CBs Shine and Smith. And Thomas?
Offense loses WRs Fields and Tyree, TEs Neville and Wood and C Stevens.
And P Sparks is done too.
Edit: Forgot RB Pace
Bennett, Clary, Sanker, Neville, and Fields is a pretty terrifying list of departures to me lol
Weâre at the point where going from 3 wins in a season to 5 wins is a big deal. You gotta start somewhere right? But if we stay at 5 wins in 2025 ⌠thatâs not good.
I mean that looks pretty tough to overcome to me. Best WR, best TE, possibly best OL, pretty much entire secondary, 2nd best LB, best DL and couple others (Butler and Carter) who have a lot of experience. I actually feel worse about it now lol
Transfer portal will be crucial for us! We will be fine! Letâs worry about winning this weekend!
DL is brutal to recruit the Portal for, always a ton of competition for those guys, and letâs be honest weâre not that competitive at that stage. We largely get Portal leftovers, and you almost never see P5-ready DLs coming out of FCS or smaller G5s (all usually too small) where we usually mine for transfer talent at DB and skill positions.