All Hokie, All the Time. Period. Presented by

Virginia Tech Football Board

CobbCountyHokie

Joined: 10/07/1999 Posts: 1962
Likes: 1376


So I have been thinking about our current situation


It feels like it has been forever since I have posted on this board as I typically hang out over at the Conference Realignment Board. With our current situation, I spent some time over the weekend and thought about some things and I think it is time to put my humble opinion out there.

I do not have any inside information at all but I tend to believe Mark Richt when he said that he thought Bud Foster probably wanted to leave the program in the off season. My guess is that he lost his enthusiasm working for Fuente and he also saw that our defense seriously lacked talent like he had in years past and he likely went to Whit Babcock and told him that he was out.

Knowing what we now know with the exodus to the transfer portal and the Team vs. Justin turkey bacon meeting, it is my opinion that Whit likely begged Coach Foster to stay one more year and they then devised this season-long retirement scenario that was announced prior to the season. Frankly, if you packaged all of the player departures along side the player discontent for their head coach, Mr. Babcock simply could not allow Coach Foster to jump ship as the fan base would go nuclear.

The problem that I see with our team is that we do not have the talent that we had in years past. You can see that we are smaller and have less speed and talent that in past years when we had a dominating defense and a stellar running game. Our offensive line play has been a four-year nightmare under Fuente and Vance Vice and our defensive line has never recovered from the departures of Mihota, Tim Settle, and Ricky Walker. The recruiting simply has not been sufficient to sustain the level of play that we as VT fans expect.

I will likely get some responses disputing our lack of talent. In response, I will say this. I live in Georgia and I see what the SEC schools recruit and how Georgia, Clemson, Alabama and Auburn build their football team. We jump for joy when we win a 4-star recruit while the 4-star recruit is the person that rounds out their recruiting classes. We don't get the talent and we lose the best players in Virginia annually to bigger programs that come in and leave us with the good 3-star players with some 4-star players mixed in that they passed on. That is the reality. We do not have the players. It is that simple.

When you don't have the players, then you need to do some serious coaching and these coaches do not appear up to the task. The offense does not work and the play calling looks to be disjointed and without any confidence for success. Justin Fuente is an offense guy. Bud Foster is not our head coach today because we wanted an "offense" guy. Unfortunately, we could not have predicted that our "offense" guy would lack the ability to recruit at a P5 level and that he would not develop the relationship with his players that would get them to run through a wall for him. Instead, this team falls apart at the first bit of adversity and that comes from a lack of belief and leadership from the top. We are a young team and the blame for our youth can be traced to the office of the head coach as he did not manage his scholarships properly and ran off senior players that he believe to be a "cancer".

When the SI article came out, we knew that there was a problem with all of the transfer portal defections, but we had no idea how bad of a problem really existed. When I read that players wanted to tank games, I seriously thought about ending my Hokie Club donations as I work too hard for my money and I would be damned if I were to give it to a team that purposely wanted to lose. No way! As I read the SI article, it became apparent to me that we would learn with this season if it was the "cancerous" players that left the team or the current coaching staff and a head man that was clearly over his head that was the problem. After four games and with the real likelihood that we only have 2 opportunities for a win for the remainder of the season, I am pretty comfortable in laying the blame at the feet of our head coach and his staff.

Simply stated, after we get our heads likely handed to us at Miami on Saturday, I think it is time to send Coach Fuente on his way following a negotiation around how much money and when we will pay him to not coach football at Virginia Tech. It is time. This will not get better. This team has not improved one bit and continues to regress before our eyes. Other teams improve, our does not and something must be done. I suggest that Bud Foster be named acting HC until the end of the season and that Cornelson and Shibest hit the road as well as Fuente.

It is time to give this program back to those that built it. Those that were there when Virginia Tech was a national brand and competed for championships. It is time to bring coaches like Shane Beamer, Torrian Gray, JC Price and others home to rebuild from this current mess.

I know it is bad when I don't even want to watch college football because I know our team is not even remotely competitive. This breaks my heart as I really love college football but I cannot stand to see the VT program in the ruins that it current resembles.

I know that $15 million is a lot of money and we should be thankful that the ACC Network bucks will help pay off some of this regrettable contract. I have a question for those that say we cannot afford this buyout. How can we NOT afford to buyout this contract RIGHT NOW. This mess will take years to repair and we will need to start over. The economic damage to Tech football will be much greater than $15 million, if this staff stays for one more season.
[Post edited by CobbCountyHokie at 09/29/2019 11:44PM]

Posted: 09/29/2019 at 11:43PM



+26

Insert a Link

Enter the title of the link here:


Enter the full web address of the link here -- include the "http://" part:


Current Thread:

Tech Sideline is Presented By:

Our Sponsors

vm307