I wouldn't be in a hurry to get rid of Fuente. I think he seems like a solid football coach. He's no Nick Saban, Dabo Swinney, or even Frank Beamer. He's a good coach. He took the dumpster fire that was Memphis and won 11 games in a season there. They beat Ole Miss when they were ranked #2. That doesn't happen by accident. The guy knows how to coach.

However, he's not a GREAT coach. He is, in my opinion, just a good football coach.

I still wouldn't be in a rush to get rid of him because, to be frank, we're just a good (not great) football program. There are several reasons for that.

#1: We don't have the resources to go hire an elite coach. We don't have the resources because we don't have the rabid fan base that Clemson, Oklahoma, Ohio State, LSU, Bama, Florida, Tennessee, etc. have. Sure, we like to jump up and down to Enter Sandman and claim our fanbase is as good as any in the country -- but we don't have as many boosters and donors as many programs do. We simply don't generate the revenue. We can't attract and retain an elite coach.

#2: We don't have the access to talent that we had before. Like it or not, the Commonwealth isn't a great HS football state anymore. For awhile there, Beamer and his guys (Cavanaugh, Stinespring, etc.) could mine the state for a lot of good talent. This was back before every good player was a known commodity because of social media. Nowadays, if there's an elite talent in the Commonwealth, all the big boys are on him quick. The secret has been out since about 1999 and we can't get five of the top 10 like we did before. Add to that that the state simply isn't as talent rich and we have to look elsewhere -- that's a harder sell, IMO. Finally, because we don't have the same kind of budget (back to the donors), our facilities aren't going to compare with the elite programs.

#3: The quality of our program and the perceived ceiling of the program were SEVERELY misjudged -- which means that people's expectations for what is possible at VT are just way off. VT dominated the ACC because of a perfect storm. UVA sucked for over a decade and the big boy programs hadn't totally invaded the state and dominated recruiting yet. Clemson sucked. Miami was often bad. FSU was up and down to say the least. Matt Ryan might've been the only great QB VT faced in conference from 2004-2010. In other words, we racked up wins and conference titles when the conference was absolute garbage. Even prior to that, VT was in a terrible conference and really only had to square off with Miami. We had a transcendent player who fell into our laps because we didn't recruit Ronald Curry and Vick didn't want to go to Syracuse and be the next McNabb. That transcendent talent and an otherwise really good and experienced team made a magical run through a not-so-difficult schedule and made it to the MNC. For some reason, a lot of folks thought that kind of thing should just be the norm -- despite the smaller alumni base, smaller stadium, and weaker recruiting region than all the regular contenders for NCs.

In other words, we had a great season and a great team in 1999 but we were never a truly elite program. We flirted with it but didn't take advantage of the momentum the way we needed to (the way Clemson built their momentum and program into a champion). The ACC became way better and recruiting got harder.

The Golden Age of Virginia Tech football was 1996-2011. Unless we start cheating and paying players like the Auburns and Tennessees, I don't see another Golden Age coming. So go ahead have the little "let's get rid of Fuente" circle jerk. Firing coaches is really easy to do, so have at it.