🏈 Virginia vs North Carolina, L, 41-14, 4-4 (2-3 ACC). Saturday, 26 October 2024, 1200, the CW

If we end 5-7 I would like to see a parting of ways with Des but don’t think we will

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Really? what would be the reason for keeping Des for another year?

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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

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I don’t 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.

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I can respect that. I wouldn’t be surprised if the administration dragged their feet about doing it. But More than worrying about who’s coming back etc. Getting a new OC and a scheme that’s 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 that’s 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. I’d 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 you’ve got an ace of a candidate up your sleeve.

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There were decent candidates then (Elko, Cignetti, O’Brien, 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 that’s 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 we’re sleepwalking right now. Keeping Des would be a continuation of that, and I fully expect us to.

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Actually our NIL not that bad

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Well at least we aren’t Liberty today.

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Frankly I don’t think the B1G or SEC really care if we’re all that good in football. That’s not why we’re attractive them. I wouldn’t 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 they’re 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.

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What happened there?

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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.

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Yeah I would agree with this, but I think we need at least a low level of competence in football. I don’t 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 men’s and women’s 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. Women’s CBB is clearly very hot right now and ESPN is getting a steal on those tournament rights. I don’t 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 doesn’t seem capable of making the short to medium throws over the middle of the field. I’m afraid he’s too short to execute them. But maybe it’s just inexperience and he’ll be better next season.

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Losing the safeties will hurt some, but the other guys out of eligibility are pretty mediocre. Mediocre’s not bad and we need some of that on the 2 deep to raise the floor, but hopefully at worst we’re replacing mediocre with more mediocre.

Let’s 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

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Bennett, Clary, Sanker, Neville, and Fields is a pretty terrifying list of departures to me lol

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We’re 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 … that’s not good.

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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! Let’s worry about winning this weekend!

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DL is brutal to recruit the Portal for, always a ton of competition for those guys, and let’s be honest we’re 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.

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