Virginia Tech Football News: TSL Podcast 285

and you'll see this pop up here in a second [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] fans to this week's edition of the tech sideline podcast on today's episode we're going to talk at all football today a completely football focused show we have some major movement on the coaching staff and it could impact the offense in a very big way that's all coming up next on episode 285 at the tech sideline podcast we get things going right now foreign [Music] we welcome you back in as we record on Wednesday February 22nd 2023 from the tech sideline Studio at the Virginia Tech corporate research center right here in Blacksburg Virginia we welcome you in whether you are listening on Spotify Apple podcasts or wherever you consume your podcast or if you're watching on YouTube if you do happen to be watching us on YouTube make sure that you leave a like And subscribe while you're there and also turn on that notification Bell so that you don't miss about any of our future TSL content Tech sideline today is presented by First Bank and Trust Company they're giving away one free annual TSL pass subscription each week through January and all the way up through mid-march to enter hit the link in the YouTube description or find one of their ads on the techsideline.com website be sure to enter every week and remember who you choose to bank with can make all the difference in your overall experience First Bank and Trust Company is the bank that puts you first visit www.firstbank dot com to learn more all right introductions are in order across the way is managing editor David Cunningham to my right lead analyst and columnist Chris Coleman in the fourth chair today founder and general manager will Stewart behind the scenes producing his first podcast Kyle marshak and I'm your host Giovanni heater thanks so much for being here with us uh will we don't have a winner this week am I correct we do we do all right yes I was actually just taking that note perfect this week's Twitter it's number seven out of ten it is Thomas Reed of parrot Virginia okay parrot is a small community so congratulations River Road Thomasville yes I've gone fishing down there some good spots everybody tries to go fishing on this side of the river where is it no that's in where would you where would you I don't know where I guess I'll look it up Paris uh like out Fair Lawn right yeah it's all about the you know like parrot is on the other side of the New River across from where you know where you get in a New River Junction to uh well parrots like okay yes yes I asked if it was Southwest Virginia you said no Oh I thought you said South Side so anyway just parrot is a small community by Radford okay so so parrots getting lots of Pub here on the team and uh welcome to uh Kyle producing his first uh podcast today like literally before we went live I was training him how to do it now he's produced TSL today he just hasn't done a live show yet so anyway yes Thomas Reed apparent Virginia number seven out of ten so we got three more weeks of this awesome well let's get into our first half content today I'm gonna split the show a little different today instead of making it very front loaded we're kind of gonna split it down the middle go half hour half hour is kind of our goal we'll see how well we actually stick to that but we're definitely gonna try our absolute hardest uh our first half content big breaking news in Virginia Tech football ball Brad Glenn is leaving Virginia Tech as the quarterback's coach and is taking the job as the offensive coordinator at the University of Cincinnati joining his buddy Scott Satterfield who was named the head coach after Luke fickle left Cincinnati your immediate reactions gentlemen it's pretty common to see coaches hire coaches that they're familiar with and that they've coached with in the past so it's not surprising from that standpoint I didn't see it coming per se but you're never in this business you don't really get taken by surprise by things like that um I certainly don't think Brent pry was taken uh by surprise with it uh probably some Cincinnati fans were taken by surprise with it because think about it from a from a Cincinnati perspective try to put put the shoe on uh you know put your feet in that shoe so to speak like Virginia Tech had had one of the worst offenses ever historically in s p plus this past year yeah so from a Cincinnati standpoint okay we're hiring their passing him coordinator and quarterback and quarter Corner excuse me I can't talk today quarterbacks coach from one of the worst offenses ever and now we're giving him a promotion as our offensive coordinator if Virginia Tech did that our fans would flip and I probably would too to be honest but that's not what we're really here to talk about and you got to remember too Cincinnati is what two years removed from a college football playoff right right that's insane and they're a power five down yeah they're growing in the Big 12 this year yeah um for some context Pro uh prai uh Brad Glenn was on the Appalachian State staff uh with Scott Satterfield for like five or six years uh Glenn coached wide receivers actually and Satterfield coach quarterbacks so um they they kind of go back and as I as I said uh yesterday to somebody you know if Satterfield needed a or in case Glenn needed a letter of recommendation so to speak well Stu Holt worked under Satterfield Texas running backs coach worked under Satterfield at Louisville um just last year so or two years ago I guess so um yeah I'm not I think the my first uh kind of thought was wow because fontail mines got a contract extension because he was doing so well and he had some suitors which he actually mentioned to us yesterday when we got a chance to talk to chat with him um and Brent pry rewarded him he's done such a good job with contract retention which we've talked about um he wanted to keep the staff together pry and it kind of is a little bit surprising because all of a sudden you've got somebody who you didn't think was going to leave leave all of a sudden and now you've got to figure out you know who you're replacing them with and spring practice starts in less than two weeks so you don't really have much time to waste uh from everything we understand and from what uh talking with some coaches yesterday it's going to be a quick thing should be done in the near future so um but I think that was kind of the biggest thing to me is just I don't think anybody expected anybody to leave it wasn't like oh my God he's leaving it was more so a wow he's deciding like like somebody from the staff is going and I don't think Glenn probably would have been the first person I would have said okay he's the guy that's gonna be leaving if I had if I had to guess I think there are some coaches that did other really really really good jobs last year that would probably be you know higher on my list in terms of if I was picking a staff that makes sense yeah uh it's and it's like I wouldn't necessarily have forecasted a promotion for somebody from the offensive staff this past year you're cold man that's cold but I mean it's not it's not something that like I mean it would be the first time to enter your mind statistically that was not a good offer so how does this impact the current quarterback room as well as the incoming quarterbacks and Chiron drones pop Watson et cetera you know I kind of wonder if this wasn't in the works for a while because when you go back to the drones Recruitment and and the pop Watson recruitment like it was Tyler Bowen going down to Texas on a plane to meet with Kieran drones right it wasn't the quarterbacks you're right it's Kyron uh what it wasn't the quarterbacks coach it wasn't Glenn so those guys seem more like Glenn type quarterbacks just based like if you go back and watch his offenses at Georgia state but I also know that that Bowen you know wants to run RPO and RPO is uh was a staple to a certain extent of the Joe Moorhead offense so it kind of goes back to me to like I still don't know what that offense last year was supposed to look like I don't know if Tyler Bowen knows I mean he comes from one background Glenn came from another background there's there was never any any coaching carryover between the two and then Rudolph comes from another background uh I don't know what it was supposed to look like um I don't I will say this I I I've never looking back on it I don't think Glenn and Bowen were a good mix and I think that impacted the offense uh and it impacted the performance of The Players like if the if the if you're two coaches if you're if your offensive coordinator and your quarterbacks coach passing game coordinator aren't on the same page and of course that's going to negatively affect your players of course it's going to hurt your wide receivers their performance of course it's going to hurt the performance of your quarterbacks um I think if this next quarterbacks coach if he's someone that has crossover experience with Tyler Bowen if he's someone who came up in the Joe Moorhead offensive system like Tyler Bowen did then I think it will make all of Tech's quarterbacks better this year whoever the starter is whether it's drones whether it's Wells whether it's somebody else that quarterback will be better simply because they're their coach and then the offensive coordinator or they see things a little more eye to eye they come from similar backgrounds and things like that so I just think that the the offensive coaching staff lacked cohesiveness that this past year I think one of the biggest things probably talked about it when he first got hired right when he was hiring all his different coaches it was kind of a a pot of ideas right everybody throw your ideas into the pot and we'll we'll figure out something I think there were too many cooks in the kitchen you know there were too many different guys that were trying to do different things and that just didn't work sometimes you're in chemistry class and you mix a bunch of stuff together and it's awesome other times it blows up the classroom yeah I I think obviously we've seen like and maybe because it was more of on the defensive side of the ball it was what pry wanted but but we never really saw a lot of those I mean I would say the talent level on the defensive side of the ball was about the same maybe a little bit better than than that on the offensive side of the ball but there were times where the offense just looked completely out of whack completely out of room vanilla no creativity and I think there were too many cooks in the kitchen everybody's trying you know everybody's trying to implement their own ideas and instead of just sticking with what Tyler Bowen wants to do we understand you know he that was his first year of actually being an offensive coordinator at the power five level right he had some previous experience doing some of that here and there not much but you never no he never really got time to figure it out on his own I I think there was probably influence from all over not just Brad Glenn but fonto mind and Stu hold and everybody Joe Rudolph everybody's tossing in their ideas because everybody has been in good offense at one point they sent Glenn up to the booth with him and remember Glenn is riding down here's what I would call in this situation and kind of showing it to him and things like that and which seemed like a good idea at the time but like if they're not on the same page then is it a good idea yeah it's it's tough because Bowen I mean and this is all hypothetical but Bowen could be thinking something completely different than what Glenn is thinking but might feel obligated to you know what I mean there there's a call I don't want to say a clash but different ideas in there and that does not mix well when you know I I can just imagine if I'm working with both you and will and Will's telling me one thing and you're telling me another thing right well that never happened and what am I supposed to do right which boss do I listen to one of those my quarterbacks coaching one of them was my offensive coordinator so I think there there was probably so I think the biggest thing like you said is get somebody that Tyler Bowen's familiar with that Tyler Bowen can work with and I know Tyler Bowen kind of hand-picked this helped for high hand-picked the staff a little bit uh offensively um but I think this one will probably be more shaded towards Bowen than Prime I think it should be um I I think obviously pry had connections but uh to Brad Glenn but Bowen really didn't at least not nothing direct they both came up in different offensive systems and things like that and not that you're ever going to have a perfect coaching staff in college where everybody came up in the right system and everything like that or everybody came up in the same system but uh I do think in this particular case not being pervy like I can't go out and interview candidates and see if their philosophies match up with Tyler bones and everything that's entirely up to them set aside uh there could be guys out there who's have no whose paths have never crossed with Tyler Bowen who could be perfect for the job just simply because they have the same philosophy it just so happened that this one did not seem to work right right um but not not being able to interview any of those guys or meet them at coaching conditions my preference right now is for this next hire to not be uh Brent pry guy per se but a Tyler Bowen somebody that shits with Tyler bone right right it's it's more important that this next that the quarterbacks coach in my opinion be a fit with Bowen than a fit with pry per se if you're a fit with Bowen you're going to be a fit with by default yeah um now of course like yeah go ahead no I was just gonna say it's kind of like um not all you know not all rectangles are squares but all squares are rectangles sure things like like everybody like you are going if you fit with Bowen you're gonna fit with pride but not everybody that fits with pry is gonna fit with bone correct why and maybe he was but why wasn't Glenn considered for the offensive coordinator job coming in he was an offensive coordinator before sure that's actually a good question and I've never quite been able to wrap my head around that uh because to me like he had been an offensive coordinator before like not a dominant one but like when you go back and watch some of the Georgia State Games and I'm like I like what they're doing with the quarterbacks it seems like they're getting the most out of their talent like they had a quarterback I think it was his last year there it was a guy they recruited out of high school and as a high school senior completed like 51 or 52 percent of his passes talented guy but very raw and they they take him at Georgia State and run an offense for him where there's a lot of high percentage throws a lot of uh smoking mirrors so to speak and they got the most out of the quarterback that they could and they had a good offense because because of it so uh honestly like if you're just picking resumes he had a stronger resume than boa now you could also but he'd also been doing it for longer right correct and you you could think that maybe Bowen has a higher ceiling and that if you hire two ex-coordinators and your you know assistant coordinator position so to speak that everything's going to mix fine um but it's a fair question um and I actually wrote in my column today that I did like like on paper if if you're having an offensive coordinator draft right as opposed to like if you're playing fantasy football and you also get to draft a coaching staff instead of a uh as well as your players and things like that so like Glenn would get drafted as offensive coordinator before Bowen would simply because he's been an offensive coordinator and has halfway decent numbers uh you know on his resume so to speak so yeah I'm I'm like I said I I don't know what this uh this past Year's offense was supposed to look like I really don't um but if we get somebody from the Joe Moorhead system which is the system Tyler Bowen came in then I think next year by going back and looking at Joe Morehead offenses I think we can have a pretty darn certain idea of what the offense is supposed to look like going the next year and then we'll really be able to judge Tyler Bowen like I don't think he had a good year this past year that could be because like the staff wasn't a great fit with like him in the passing game coordinator but now if you get two guys from the same school thought maybe that makes Tyler Bowen better or or maybe he's not good we won't know that though and we have a better chance of knowing that now yeah like if if Glenn was still on this on the staff and we went through this this next season and Tech wasn't much better offensively because you're kind of asking the same question again is it Bowen or is it just the fit of the staff well now that the staff is changing if it doesn't work this year we'll know why you'll be able to see both the statistically from Tyler Bowen and from Brad Glenn they'll both be coordinating their own offense you'll be able to see which one statistically is better right and but I do think it's interesting because if we'd stuck yeah like kind of like you said if we had Virginia Tech had stuck with having Bowen and Glenn together you could say oh well it's Brad Glens Falls or it's Tyler Bowen's fault but you were never probably really able to pinpoint it and now Tyler Bowen has an opportunity I think to make it his own right if it wasn't his own before it should have been but if it wasn't his own before this is his opportunity to make craft this offense into what he wants it to be there's at this point it's not like if if Glenn was an extra cook in the kitchen he's no longer there and and it's like go make your own go make the meal the way you want it to make I want to say this you know we got to interview all the assistants yesterday and we'll talk about that in the second half of the show it's text coaches are all very good interviews like I like talking to Tyler Bowen um he's a highly intelligent man like if you just based based it off conversations just one-on-one conversations you can have with someone like he would probably be you would probably leave the conversation thinking he's our best offensive and he knows what he's talking about right right uh but you know so there's more to it than that so like I don't like I said I don't think he had a good year but I also think there could be reasons for that outside of him his control outside of you know the talent level but we've talked about that Talent level wasn't great but also so many of the returning players who would play well in 2021 did not play well in 2022 so that's more of a coaching issue but is the coaching issue because the coaches weren't good enough or because they just weren't a fit together and we will find out now uh I like Tyler Bowen a lot I would very much prefer it if he works out as the offensive coordinator but you know what like I think we'll find out after this season grand scheme of things I think initial reaction when I saw this I was like ah geez like this feels like a blow now that we're talking about it a little more is this maybe a good thing for the program you can look at this as well I don't know if we'll know until the end of the season yeah because it because it could be a I mean imagine this imagine the offense actually looks pretty good this year right then I think people will be like oh okay not bad especially like a bright Glenn's having success too it's like you know everybody found their true path right if the offense is not good you people are going to know where exactly to direct their criticism Tyler bone actually joked about that yesterday he's like you know I know I'm gonna get all the hate kind of along those lines and and I think again we will know I think it's too early too early to tell whether or not it's good or bad but what I will say is like I said just before Tyler Bowen now kind of has complete control of this thing I haven't had a complete chance to wrap my head around it because it was yesterday was kind of a roll with Whirlwind day we had a uh media launching at noon or they're about student alley performance center that was that was a great point we're gonna talk definitely if you're being recruited by Virginia Tech you should sign with the Hokies just because of that place um nothing else matters except the meals in there they're amazing but uh anyway uh and then at five o'clock you know we had interviews with all the football coaches and then last night there was a basketball game so I haven't really had a chance to completely wrap my head around it I consider it the change to be a no lose situation I've been secretly hoping for some change since the end of last year and I'm not normally one I don't believe in change for change's sake and I also don't believe in giving coaches a short leash but I also think that there was an issue with the Virginia Tech offense this past year and the issue either was Tyler Bowen or it was that the staff was not the right fit together so by changing up the staff a little bit we're about to find out which one of those things it was this past year so we're going to be in a better position to go forward at the end of the 2023 season now that this change has happened we should be able to whether it's positive or negative correct correct we should know after the season exactly what we need to do with the offensive coordinator you know uh like is Boeing the guy or is he not is it has it been Bowen's fault or was the staff just just the wrong mix I think people just want some uh closure there as far as okay what's gonna happen like like nobody nobody wants to go into this long cycle of some people like the offensive coordinator somebody don't some people don't uh we can't quite tell whether he's good or whether he's not good he brings a lot of starters back next year so let's give him one more year nope like you if you get into that cycle long enough next thing you know you've had a mediocre offensive coordinator for eight years and you've never made any progress well isn't he on a big contract though fairly he's a three-year contractor of the finances to buy him out necessarily well you could but it's not ideal um but you could after this coming season right um but but I don't I don't want to get to that point but I also don't want to get drug into this long road of mediocrity either like if he's not good I want to know it as soon as possible and you so you can and I think we're we'll know it after this year will let's hear from you let's see if you got anything to chime in from the fourth chair on this no no I think that these guys uh cover things pretty well as far as that stuff goes what I wanted to pimp is uh we did a interview with Whit Babcock uh recorded it last Thursday he came in sat down right there where David is and I talked to him for an hour and five minutes so it's a pretty long interview and we covered about 12 different topics you know we wound up grouping it later in the 12 different topics and uh 65 minutes and 15 of those 65 minutes were spent on football scheduling so uh what we're doing on Tech's island is we're publishing this in three parts and we've got the transcript of the interview so you can read what he said and then we have embedded videos so if you're not quite sure what his inflection was or what he meant by something you can hit the video and and watch and listen to him actually say the things that he is saying so it's a pretty good presentation it's a subscriber only feature and I say it all the time um you know we got the podcast and everything but really our bread and butter that's kept us going for 25 plus years is the subscription content that we run on the website so I encourage people to subscribe check out this interview part one yesterday part two will go out later today and then part three will be tomorrow and if you want to sign up for a monthly subscription first month is free and student subscriptions are free so that's the sales job I did want to drill down a little bit into football scheduling everybody's always all right I rate because Tech is playing Liberty and ODU and in particular they're traveling to Liberty and ODU you know every once in a while and and unfortunately two of those fell in the same year last year so we got it when you're three and eight who else do you want to play right I mean if we can't play those two teams then we might even we shouldn't play anybody anybody with says the same sort of things during the interview but um I did a little bit of research and in 2006 Tech had four out of conference home games and three of them were buy games where you pay a team to come to your place play one game and then they go away three of the games that you were buy games those one-off games and Tech paid a total of 2.2 million dollars for those so they were an average of 700 000 a piece which is fairly expensive um these days uh Kent State is last year got paid 5.2 a total of 5.2 million dollars to go to three different places I don't remember what they were Georgia Georgia one of them was George Georgia was like 1.9 million one of them was out west but so they did three buy games for an average of 1.7 million so Kent State who came to Virginia Tech in 2006 is now traveling those places for double to Triple the price that it used to be back then back then so uh this is why you wind up with the liberty and ODU situations uh so let's talk about let's talk about Liberty in particular Virginia Tech's played Liberty I think four times since 2016. they're going to take a break from them but from 2027 through 2030 Tech is going to play Liberty four times first three in Lane stadium and the fourth one will be at Liberty Virginia Tech is paying 500 000 for each of those home games so Virginia Tech's getting three home games for the same 1.5 million dollar price tag the trade-off is they have to go on the road and when they go on the road to an ODU or a liberty Whit says Tech gets paid about a quarter of a million dollars which basically pays their expenses yeah um so that's why you see this sort of thing happening it always comes down to the money if Virginia Tech could pay the Kent states of the world to come in and you know do a one-off game for one and a half million they do it that's what the SEC and Big Ten teams are and when Tech did that in 2006 that was right after ACC expansion at that point the TV contracts were so much in the acc's favor that the per School payout was higher in the ACC than any other league Virginia Tech was making more off its TV deal then than Georgia is than Georgia was back then yeah right so Virginia Tech could win a bidding war back then for the for games like that now they can't so you have to play you have to schedule smarter you have to schedule smart and be financially smart right and and that's it was really good just reading it I edited the transcript with will but yeah and so we cover a lot of topics there's a lot of good stuff there I do remember the ACC shortly after the 2000 2003-2004 expansion pounding their chest and saying our per team payout was the biggest of any conference and it was somewhere in the neighborhood of like 31 million dollars well that was approaching 20 years ago and it hasn't really increased all that much right and the then the SEC and Big Ten have just shot past the AC you know expansion was brilliant short term for the ACC and Swafford always deserves credit but it also poked the bear or in this case Bears right like the ACC the SEC in Big Ten were kind of asleep at the time and the acc's like okay we're gonna steal a march on them and we're going to start winning this battle and then they woke up and said isn't that funny the cute little ACC with all their wake forests and Dukes think they're gonna mess with us in football I guess we actually have to get serious now and fight back they did here we are it's funny the things that change College athletics like uh Nick Saban changed college football with a statue model the Big Ten changed College athletics by launching a network and yeah and you know these are things that didn't the SEC network didn't exist back then the Big Ten Network didn't even exist back then I think it was a brainchild at that point in time very interesting all right everything out of the fourth chair I think so for now uh uh he uh we also did talk about the ACC scheduling model and why did the Miami Virginia Tech rivalry goal win so that's on there as well and he he talked uh I like wit and wit likes us he likes Tech sideline he's a tough interview because he he speaks very imprecisely I'm a numbers guy and it's really hard to pin him down the numbers like those numbers I just gave you I had to kind of pin him down you know but he he made a joke in in the in the interview of if I need to know I don't remember what we're talking about it was ACC Network Revenue he said he said if I need to know the exact number I can just walk down the hall and ask somebody you know and and so from that standpoint he can be a difficult interview but uh he did talk about um the ACC scheduling model and that's in the piece that's going up today and that and that wasn't I mean you guys covered a ton of other topics too and we are known for our podcasting these days people come up to us and castle on Lane I'm like hey love the podcast but our pay content our written content is actually way better than our podcasting ability to be honest and this is a feature that we're kind of combining it is a podcast that is and it's a it's a pay podcast with with a written feature as well with a transcript which is pay also yeah so you won't see it on our our podcast feeds and you won't see it publicly available on YouTube so I'll real quick run down the topics the apparel contract the famous Nike contract which is getting renewed uh this at the end of June uh fundraising facilities nil Brent prize first year football scheduling and this year's football ticket sales the idea of hosting the NIT for the men and the women's NCAA tournament in the same week we talked about that talked about Hokie softball and wit's plans for the stadium and why doesn't he charge for softball he did not care about the Press Box he did not I was sad about that part uh we talk a little bit about the good coaches he's got the NCAA woes and then we talk about the ACC Network so a lot of good stuff awesome all right well Chris and David had the opportunity to sit down and interview a whole bunch of the Virginia Tech football coaches yesterday they got some great insights stick around that's coming up next after the break [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] welcome back hokey Nation episode 285 of the tech sideline podcast presented by First Bank and Trust Company the TSL podcast is also presented by The Hokey way they support Virginia Tech our athletes and our community at the Hokey way we work to support Virginia Tech student athletes and our community which was just read twice together we create a win for all learn more about our mission and how to get involved go to thehokeyway.org to learn more apologies I'm not sure how I typed that twice but regardless let's go ahead and get into our second half content you guys had the opportunity to sit down and talk to a whole bunch of the football coaches in fact all of them uh besides Brad Glenn Derek Jones and obviously coach pry um I'm gonna let you guys kind of take the reins on this one first and foremost what was overall that experience like before we go coach by coach always enjoy talking to text coaches that they're uh yeah it's more than like that can have conversations with you while answering your questions and things like that they're an ex excellent group to interview so that that was so it was basically like the same setting as it was last year shortly after they all got hired yeah I thought it was good um it's always night we don't mean we don't they they try to make assistance available throughout the year but that's kind of like one at a time this is a good opportunity to kind of get everybody in the same room and kind of catch up with them especially during the winter before they get into spring wall because maybe not necessarily you Chris but I'm going to be at practice you know multiple times over the next month or two ahead of the spring game and it's good I I this is I guess it's a little bit of a slight at defuente era but like we never really got to talk to assistants so it's nice that we have the opportunity and that they are making in an objective to let us have access to the assistant coaches and then they're all nice to talk to I mean like Sean Quinn's hilarious and asked us how the first thing he asked us was how the food was and let's do another performance center he already knows how well he'll go oh yes you know um so I'm gonna let you guys pick are we going offense first or defense first offense the offensive coaches in general set more now Derek Jones was not there so there were fewer defensive coaches there's more to talk about with the offensive coaches I think so you want to go defense first let's go defense and we can close with the off yeah get it out of the way real quick sounds good Mr Price JC price I mean so one of the big things so I've got a I've got a list of notes for you those of you watching live um so I'm gonna go first and then like Chris go off the dome for those that don't know and I apologize for interrupting as well I should say their title he's the associate head coach in the defensive line coach um what is Jeanette's first name James uh uh because one of the first thing he mentioned was Jeanette and how the reason why Tech got Jeannette was because Jeanette's father played at East Carolina I believe right under Mike Gentry was a strong conditioning coach at East Carolina before he came to second I had forgotten that that's where my Gentry was before he came to Virginia Tech Virginia Tech for so long yeah so so to fill in for people who don't know uh James Jeanette is a uh defensive yeah right and JC said the first you know they he and uh and Jeanette's dad just started chatting about the uh the uh Gentry days yeah um JC kind of was as Chris and I were talking about it wasn't like he said anything groundbreaking yeah he's he's got a he's got pretty much the same room he had last year right norel Paul or Mario Kendricks came back and I thought that was interesting I asked him what excites you about having them back and he said after a three and eight season not everybody would have chosen to come back it kind of shows about what we are about what Virginia Tech is about what this program is about and he specifically said they had opportunities elsewhere he did so they didn't know they never entered the transfer portal and they had opportunities elsewhere which kind of lets you know where college football recruiting is I was gonna say that shows you know they're not supposed to they're being talked to so so yes they were able to be talked back into coming talked into coming back to Virginia Tech off a three and eight season they got one year left you know they want to win so uh good job by the coaches on convincing them to say not that they necessarily needed a lot of convincing I don't know enough about what was going on through either guy's head but yes you're right that was a telling comment I thought yeah um he mentioned the felderius Payne is he's not sure where he's gonna be he's gonna be a flex guy dndtackle um uh he mentioned Lamar law had a toe injury which is why he he didn't do it as close to playing last year yeah that's what JC said and he talked a lot about the young guys and just he said he likes his room kind of where it's at right now um there's a lot of depth at tackle and Jay it's funny every time you talk to JC JC usually says defensive line you know defensive line is most demanding position in football um and that you can never have too many defensive linemen and uh I thought overall he's probably got maybe the most returnees out of any maybe defensive back as the most experience but JC's got a good group come veteran group coming back that he knows so I don't think there was anything not a whole lot go to read yeah how about Pearson Prelude the safeties coach for Virginia let's see what I wrote down from Pierce and Prelude he talked about um a lot of the a lot of the new guys and one of the things he he mentioned was How uh last year Virginia Tech could only do so much Tech was limited a little bit in and the staff Limited in what the staff taught the players because they were trying to implement the system and now everybody's on a different level like the starting Baseline is higher because all of the the guys who were young last year everybody has another year in the system um he mentioned we talked about a bunch of different guys um Jalen Jones he mentioned uh switching to safety um he played some in high school played Safety TJ in Richmond um and uh he I mean I don't think it was anything specific mostly he just really really liked the way he was going to fit back there Jalen Jones um and mentioned Jalen strowman uh we talked most Phillips a little bit Derek canteen and uh he likes what canteen can bring the flexibility he can bring and Sean Quinn mentioned him playing a little bit of Nickelback too yeah and you know and I think I guess the main toke we take away I mean everybody talked to him about the young players or they tried to and he was like yeah we don't know who's going to be a corner who's going to be safety yeah we recruit defensive backs at Virginia Tech and then see where they where they fit after they get here yeah so I was pretty short and pretty generic yeah not not a whole lot he talked a little bit about Liberty last year and just it just what it meant kind of to to the program and not not a whole lot from Prelude but some good individual stuff on on some of the younger guys you sounded excited to talk about Sean Quinn the Sam linebacker Nichols coach so it's here he's Sean is great um he taught he talked a lot about one of the one of the things I thought was really interesting is is she's got a different perspective since he's had he was a former head coach and I asked Sean Quinn about if he noticed at all you know Brent pry and will will has mentioned this I think to wit actually the Brent pry on uh the podcast he did with Mike burnup and Bill Roth level seven podcast from Prime mentioned that he wasn't didn't do a good of a job as a head coach as he should have because he was spending so much time calling plays in that shirt and that kind of stuff so I asked Sean Quinn could you tell did you give him any advice and and um his response was I I think one of the things that pry had to figure out and slowly develop and realize was that he you are the temperature the thermostat in the room right every time you walk into a room you decide how how everybody else is gonna kind of what kind of day are we going to have yes that's the best that's a great way to put it but he did say one of the really great things was that that pry listens and that somebody suggests something to him and he kind of takes it and figures out how he can adjust as a result and it's not just in one ear out the other or anything like that um but I thought Sean Quinn's perspective was pretty good oh that sounds like me I set the tone for the room I listen to people I take the world comes in cuss and we know it's going to be a long day you want to mention what he said about Kelly Lawson um honestly said Kelly Lawson's going to play in the NFL that's essentially what he's which I mean I I agree with you I just look at the guy so we had our uh we had our he keeps just I mean he keeps getting bigger as you would expect with his frame and I think you know he played really well at the end of last year and he would have started playing well earlier than that if he hadn't been injured in the preseason and if he had actually played linebacker during his red shirt here I thought what he did at the end of last year considered a lack of experience in linebacker was incredible um we saw and the fact that he dealt with an injury right right so we saw him in the sapc yesterday he just keeps getting bigger and bigger uh he and the McDonald twins in my opinion are all have the opportunity to be NFL players usually they they not that everybody that looks like an NFL player is going to look is going to be an NFL player like Tech has had a few guys who looked the part in the past but they were nowhere close to it but those three guys I think their work ethics are really really high and I think their heads are in the right spot and I think in each one of those specific positions they're well coached so uh I'm I'm very high very high on all three of those guys um one of the things I love so much about Sean Quinn is his uh just the way he Compares stuff right he mentioned Aretha he's like if you're gonna play for Aretha Franklin you have to play the blues I think that's what he said something like that um but he also one of the other things one of the other important things that he mentioned was he said that he thinks the the positivity from the Liberty win carried over into the winter into the spring a little bit into the spring I think a lot of the guy the way he explained it was a lot of the guys attack it only won two games and that can be mentally tough right you're putting in all the work and you're not winning everybody says trust the process but then when you don't win at some point you stop trusting that process don't you and and he said that for everybody to kind of see hard work paying off to get that win turned out to be the last game of the season Then They carried in into the spring everybody's a lot more fired up everybody's kind of ready to go it's he said it's been a good winner well uh obviously we talked about the fact that uh Derek Jones was unavailable you said he might be recruiting who knows where he was recruiting but he was not in attendance unfortunately that is cheetah so I was kind of bummed to not be able to hear from him also shout out to Kyle he gave us a text for the 10 minute Mark moments ago so uh we're moving at a good Pace here gentlemen uh last but not least on the defensive side your defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Chris Marv this will probably be his first season actually calling the plays and truly being the defensive coordinator Brent pry has talked about how that was a mistake he made a year ago a little bit in some ways um and you saw Chris Marv call all the plays in The Liberty game and uh now we're probably gonna go into the First full season of that yeah he mentioned one of the things he mentioned was you're seeing everybody kind of the same thing as Sean Quinn and he was before Quinn but he said every all the guys after Liberty got to see the fruits of the labor payoff and it's kind of motivated motivated them to be better talked about Dax a little bit and how it's gonna be you know you can't just replace Dax Dax how I feel it's not easy to replace um and he mentioned in terms of Mike he wants everybody to have a primary secondary position that goes for all the linebackers and he didn't really give any specifics on where they're going to practice a lot of guys just kind of said that there are a lot of there's a lot of flexibility but he wants to kind of narrow it down be a little bit better than last year I believe you asked the question in terms of guys playing different positions you know that they had to play like at one point last year uh which McDonald is it that's the linebacker it's Jaden right at some point last year he played all three linebacker positions and that that's too much on a young player especially a young player who was a strong safety is a senior in high school right that that that's a lot that's easier on an older player so it's all about striking the right balance you do want people to have a secondary position but you don't want to practice them so much at their secondary position like you want them to be as good as possible with their primary position because they're probably not going to have to be have to play their secondary position so from that standpoint any time spent practicing their secondary position takes away from how much better they get at their primary position so it's always a balancing act there ultimately the older players get the less of an issue it is when a guy is really young I think it's more ideal for him to spend more time at one spot as opposed to having his head spinning playing so many different spots yeah the other thing Marv said was he wants guys to stand up and stand out right he he doesn't he he wants to obviously it's open competition but he wants people to say take advantage of it and say look I am going to make the most of it and I am going to show that I am going to be the start of this business no coach wants to pick their own starter at their respective position you want them they want it to be obvious they want to be obviously the starter is they want the play that player to basically be so much better now you're one of good depth too don't get me wrong but you want to look up at the end of the day and say yeah that guy is awesome that you know you don't even have to work for it you know who started gonna be I love watching Chris marf coach he's so fired up you know he's an energetic guy ever everybody's got their lists of guys they'd like to play for and I go back you know having talked to all of text assistants over the last 20 plus years now like Marv would be on my list if one of those guys I would like to play for because I think he's a good coach and yeah good communicator all that yeah yeah very smart came from Vanderbilt and some of the words he uses it's like that guy knows what he's talking about really he's a good Community he's an excellent Communicator I'm very much so looking forward to seeing what he's got to offer on the play calling side of things this upcoming season let's shift to the offensive side of the football now um we'll kind of go I guess bottom to top I'm gonna start with Brad Glenn oh wait too soon too soon let's start off with uh fontel mines offensive recruiting coordinator coordinator and wide receivers coach recently just got a little bit of a paycheck yeah and uh that was the first thing could you imagine that was the first thing that he was asked um and the first thing he said was loyalty was the reason why he stayed right he mentioned that he had opportunities to go out sure so so let's establish for the fans the raise was from 275 to 420. something yeah it was like a I don't remember the percentage I ran the numbers and did the math but it was a it was a good bit like he got paid but he got paid like and that helped but he'd also moved five times in five years yeah and and I was going to say that he he felt like this is where he needed to be and I asked him what made this place the right place he said the people right and it's an estate and it's three hours from from his family yeah in Richmond and it's just so much easier for him uh look Penn State could still outbut us for fontel mines if they wanted but once you get up to 425 000 as a wide receivers coach is making five hundred thousand dollars but moving to a different state you know further away from your family is it worth it you know so uh so I think I think he's very fairly compensated now and it's indicative of what he means to the program from like like we value in-state recruiting and that's probably the best recruiter they have and I think in I think in state recruiting starts in Richmond I think it's the most important part of in-state recruiting news excellent there so I think that the value he's paid compared to what college coaches make these days I think it's a fair reflection of what he means to the program yeah he said he wanted to stay in Virginia he talked about a couple different different players um some of them I think Andy bitter I believe asked him to who's kind of stood out this spring or winter and he said Tucker Holland Stephen gosnow he said both of them got a lot better and he said gosnell's transformed his body I think that's probably a positive song yeah he didn't look quick last year running out of his breaks and at one point he was 215 and I think uh mine said he's 194 or thereabouts now so that should make him quicker that sounds about right hey that's good look you got those transfers in right that's going to make those other guys kick their game up right that's that's the whole idea of that that's the whole idea of building competition so I think that's a good thing uh one of the other things I thought it was interesting is he said he's not going to pigeonhole anybody into certain positions right he didn't he didn't want anybody to say I am a slot receiver I am an outside receiver he wants everybody to kind of be able to play everything he said interesting he wants to put the three best receivers on the field and that's that ideally yes but that's certainly ideal now of of those three receivers then you're like okay who fits best way who fits best in the slot but yes you won't share three best players out there um yeah that was kind of it for Phonto Minds I asked him about the one Lofton and and he said that often hasn't really flinched and he's the only you know he he is he needs to be a starter for this group and the only person that's really standing in lofton's way of achieving that is him so uh you know it's bringing in those three transfers it's just like I said it's driving up competition I mean it's going to make everybody better no doubt about it nothing on he didn't mention Ollie Jennings at all oh we I think we I think I think oh he mentioned he mentioned Jalen Lane and that was sorry that was somebody at the top of this yes uh uh because we first started to talk about him uh when mines was at Eastern Carolina he recruited Jalen Lane right um Lane's got two years of Eligibility left and he he kind of just likes everything he brings and Derek Jones is also knows the family really well yeah so there's a lot of familiarity there with with Jayla Lane before the recruitment to Virginia Tech even began yeah huh interesting all right let's go on to Joe Rudolph Run game coordinator and offensive line coach Joe Rudolph was the last person we talked to first person we asked about he might have talked the longest too first person we asked about was Kaden Moore um who's gonna play center um what was that comparison he made about uh kind of putting the idea in his ear and then it goes it becomes his idea well he said it's like being married and you're you're trying to uh talk your your significant other into into something like you don't tell him right away this is what you you should do you kind of plant the idea and let them think it's their idea right that Kane Moore was with points I'm not Mary will any comments on that uh none whatsoever because this podcast is publicly accessible and occasionally my wife will watch them uh every idea in our house is her idea oh man I'm trying to think of oh I got one I got one Parker Clements oh yeah he had a rough year last year and played better the last three games of the season much closer to 2021 levels the last three games well as it turns out Parker Clements had a torn meniscus head surgery couldn't lift weights for the four months he says 16 weeks yeah 16 weeks four the four months before the season couldn't lift weights so so he had no built up strength when the season started now Tech lifts heavier during the season now than they used to in the past so by the time November got here he had some of that strength built back up so he played better in November so that was the issue with Parker Clements last year I wish they had told us before there was an injury so so like I could have told people the reason this BFF grade is in the 40s right so so it didn't feel like you were picking on Parker Columbus exactly so uh so but the issue last year was not Parker Clements it was the fact that Tech didn't have anybody else to put in while Clements was in was in his recovery phase basically like when he had recovered from the injury in the surgery he just had to build back up the strength from the four months that he didn't lift so now that I know that I feel so much better and we're gonna see the real Parker Clements this year I'm confident so listen man the struggle is real because I started working out with Mitch Ludwig the former Tech punter in early 2021 yeah worked out with Mitch all through 2021 through September of 2022 and then Mitch moved on he left Anytime Fitness and my Lord but completely working out for three months after Mitch left I didn't work out during football season last year I went back into the gym in January and the difference is profound if you do not lift that was just three months 12 13 weeks Clements went 16 weeks and you don't have to knock 300 pound people out of the way you don't want to move no I just got to do you know more than five push-ups so it that's that's a real thing man yeah and I thought it was really interesting because I we had not heard anything about that um one of the other guys you mentioned was Xavier chaplain about how um he it sounded like he was a little bit banged up for a lot of the year last year and then he played he finally got a chance to play in the Liberty game um Kaden Moore obviously he said they don't have a lot of tackles which is well we know that which is interesting yeah uh he mentioned lathe ganum uh and his ability to potentially he he said he kind of expects him to be maybe he has a chance of being the 2D tackle he's a four-star recruit in my book yeah I know how high you are on him uh he said Garrett and Meadows Johnny Garrett and Brody Meadows are tackles Lance Williams is a guard who can play center as well and the what do you say swing tackle is Chick yes Bob Schick I believe yeah um I think I don't know that like check has the ceiling uh of a guy like uh Johnny Garrett uh who was a high school tied in just a big framed guy um that offensive line is still in development stage with some of the young players but I feel like it's in better shape than it was at this time last year at least I hope it is yeah he mentioned there's a couple different guys it sounds like there's a lot of different at least on the interior position flexibility where there's a bunch of different guys that can play center like Caden Moore obviously is going to slide to Center so that opens up another guard spot yes so so let me jump in here to listen to the names that you were reeling off it sounds like I don't keep close track of this stuff as you guys do it sounds like most or all of the true freshman offensive linemen are already here I think uh all of them are or at least I'd have to look at all right Lance Williams is here I know because I saw him in the uh he mentioned ganum uhm's here I uh the kid from Pennsylvania Bishop McDevitt um Arena uh yeah Gabriel I don't think he's not here I don't believe okay and I don't remember whether Hans Hammer I think he is here he mentioned hansham okay so I think three of the four are here that's awesome yeah that's good yeah Stu Holt he is the Special Teams coordinator assistant head coach and offense slash running backs coach uh Bayshore basil tootin baishal Bayshore like baseball pronounce it like you're from the Deep South Bayshore instead of Bayshore like it looks at shawl like you're wearing a shawl around like y'all yeah uh Bayshore uh he said he was committed to Boston College he was uh I remember when Tech offered him and I'm like oh and I watched him on some film and I'm like man that's a good offer that guy's pretty good and then he committed to Boston College and I'm like you gotta be kidding me and then I forgot about him and until out of nowhere he commits the sack at the end and stuho was kind of like yeah I kind of just kept on it and and he's like I'm coming to Tech flip from Boston College he was a class of 2021 guy so he was a true freshman in 2021 true sophomore in 2022. he was in that 2021 class that basically never got to be evaluated in person by college coaches yeah so Holt was basically like like this guy played FCS football he never should have been an FB FCS recruit and if it wasn't for kovid if coaches could actually go out and evaluate he would have been on an FBS roster yeah and he said it is and there's a lot of guys like that he's like there's a lot of guy that guys that ended up on FBS rosters it should have been FCS players and vice versa because coaches couldn't go out and evaluate during that year so you've seen a lot of player movement is is that situation corrects itself so the so this is part of the correction of that is now playing FBS football which is where he should have been from the very beginning it's interesting there's been a lot of FBS to FCS and vice versa movement through the transfer portal and that'll probably always be true but it'll be interesting to look at the stats over the years and see if that settles down more as we get further away from covert yeah uh he mentioned tune can change on a dime um I know we're going to talk about Tyler bone in a sec but Bowen said uh um he praised tunes explosiveness and said he has a powerful build and again mentioned he can change direction really well um Malachi Thomas said he's doing great he said Thomas's injury yet I don't know if we knew this Thomas's injury last year came he just got rolled up in a drill um yeah on a non-contact role yeah um what Defender did that oh gosh run laps dude um as far and then that that there wasn't a I mean he talked a little bit about the the younger running backs and Bryce Duke and Will's man crush Bryce Duke I should say and uh chance black and trying to think uh Kenji Christian you gotta mention those guys but he didn't go into a lot of detail what he did mention was punt returner and how Tech has two potential options at pump return Lane with Jaylen Lane back there uh to challenge Holloway last year at this time last year they didn't have anybody who could return punts and then Tucker took one to the house now they got two guys and it wasn't just that he took the one to the house it's like he's really good at Fair catching him and making decisions on when to fair Catch and things like that so there's a situation where Tech is will certainly be better this year from start to finish uh they have two punt returners rather than none I started the year off with none yeah yeah that's good um who started DJ Harvey started at the beginning right as the partner yeah and I don't remember if there was somebody between him and Holly I mean will cacavesis did he actually return yeah did he uh no no he was Bryce was on kickoff did and chance black did kick off yeah who uh Holt mentioned that he's still gonna be a running at running back he also mentioned PJ perela who's of course a wall special teams guy but he's he's gonna be at running back too is he that's what he meant no I thought oh no sorry he blocked a punt that's what it was yeah that's what it was sorry I did not mean that that was incorrect um I asked him about Tucker Holloway kind of what made Tucker hallway such a like burst on the scene and nowhere he said he really just didn't waste any time we were kind of looking for a guy and we figure well we're not getting much out of this let's try to see if he can change something up and he did change something up obviously Fair his first game was Thursday night under the lights on ESPN against NC State and fair caught every single which was an improvement previous guys weren't catching the ball and it was just bouncing 15 extra yards and and then wait but didn't wasn't the NC State game one where we fumbled we muffed one Jalen Holston muffed it or picked it back up after him after was that a kickoff that was a kick that was a kid that was the NC State game yes um yes that was the NC State game but then Holloway of course Georgia Tech was the next game and he returned one for a touchdown so and on top of that not even just the touchdown he also broke the record for the most return yards in a game for Virginia Tech yeah that's the and the thing is like I don't think he had any returns at all in any other game so like he's good don't get me wrong Georgia Tech's punt coverage team so fair horrible so you can't he he did a good job last year but he's still got he still got it's still not for sure that he's better than Lane once again we're talking about Tucker Holloway a lot on a podcast we are just getting a kick out of that I think we should throw Carter Hill back there and see what happens you know I think he's a valuable member of our podcast first thing I thought was interesting we talked a little bit about special teams so it's when he's too old Stu Holt was the only person that came with a list he came with like a note card and had all these notes written out he's like you didn't ask me any questions about special teams about about kickers and stuff um he touched a little bit about will Ross and Kyle who did kickoffs last year I can't remember Kyle loaded kickoffs yeah yeah he prays about uh his touchbacks well anything was interesting he said one of the reasons Peter Moore struggled was he was they never I guess she best never asked him to punt directionally that that was something he mentioned that that Peter Moore was never really asked to punt directionally he was kind of just get it out just kick it as far as you can yeah because he has such good hang time yeah interesting so so just so different he said that's one of the yeah it's a little bit different different philosophies yeah which I think is kind of one of the reasons why he said he struggled last year at times so it'll probably be John love Place kicking this year though right you'd have to think Ross is gone and they also like he took him out yes going to his fourth college now or did he graduated to just graduate I don't know the answer I don't remember I have to look at my scholarship list poor John loved the first field goal not extra point I think he did an extra point or two before that the first field goal they had him attempt was like a 54-yarder at Duke and I don't think it got to the 10-yard line we are also around speed option to him I've been joking I've been begging for a speed option all year and then we ran one with John love that's all I got that's all I got on stuh that's all I've got to all right Tyler Bowen offensive coordinator and tight ends coach feels like there's a little pressure on him nobody asked him about tight ends at all this oh I was I thought about it and then I was like I was gonna ask about guys now yeah just his in his in his recovery but guys know is probably not going to blame him who Benji yeah yeah Benji guys know yeah sorry the other guys now uh you already know what you have with Nick Gallo and Daquan rights right um excited to see right man yeah Bowen's last one yeah all right cool uh let's see well Brad's coming up but he mentioned he mentioned that it's part of the profession just the kind of the Brad Glenn situation and and guys leaving and he said he was happy for him and his family um in in terms of what somebody asked him what he was looking for in an offensive coordinator or not sorry what he was looking for in a quarterbacked coach and he mentioned he kind of want you know just a sounding board those guys are important to have and he wants somebody that can teach that that knows technique in as far as it goes with quarterbacks um which I feel like is kind of self-explanatory right um and that's but that's what Brad Glenn was for him he was a sounding board um he mentions that that they need to keep evolving and that's something that Prime mentioned offensively last year and Bowens mentioned before and they kind of keep mentioning it they need to to evolve um he said he's not pleased at all and doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out um what were your overall takeaways from from talking with Bowen because because it wasn't like there were a lot of details said I think it was kind of just a lot of overarching and these are very intelligent likeable guy um coordinators are gonna speak in generalities I think yeah um Stein spring used to try to talk specifics with you in interviews and he'd go on these long rambling rants that nobody understood so everybody wants coordinators to be more honest with them but like no you don't because they're they're going to start spitting stuff that you don't even understand right so I'm I'm again I think this whole staff is very good at communicating I think Bowen's an excellent Communicator um I I don't know how much he gave away in that interview in terms of of you know what he's looking for uh we don't know if the new guy is gonna have the title passing game coordinator or not but that'll be up to pry but that's just a title in reality every quarterback's coach is going to work with the offensive coordinator on the passing game you know whether that's your title or not that's just that's just the way things work um he knows things have to get better uh we didn't ask him specifically about his relationship with Glenn I'm not this relationship I think his relationship with Glenn was fine but whether he felt like they were the right fit but it doesn't matter at this point and I wouldn't expect him to answer that yeah because Gwen's gone again exactly um he he wants he talked about the difficulties and like you feel like you're just you you need to simplify things while also presenting to the opposition that you're capable of doing a lot of things right and using formations to be disguise while also being simple making it easy for the player correct while also presenting the or at least presenting the front that you're complex to the opposition interesting he was kind of like you know so you can shift this here and do this here and move guys around so it looks really complicated but on the surface as far as the players the players may have are easy to you know understand it easily yeah so I once heard that the secret to running a good offense and I don't know if I'm just speaking outside of my neck or what is being able to run a lot of plays out of just a few formations yeah or just a few plays out of a lot of formation so uh you remember the old Syracuse offense is under Donovan McNabb in the 90s do you remember the thing about them is they were noted for how many different formations they had I think they had something like 33 different formations yeah they were good you weren't even born but everybody thought oh wow what a complex offense it's probably not it's probably just a lot of the same plays after with under different formations so like you can run the same speed option play with a tight end in the game or with a slot receiver in the game that's two different formations right right um so when you when you when you get it down to it like you probably don't reckon you probably don't realize exactly how many formations there are um so Syracuse is an example I think they did they didn't have a large number of plays but they had a lot of formations that you had to prepare for so when there's a lot of formations it's like okay as a Defender it's it's more about where do I line up that's where that can be confusing I don't have a preference on which style is right right but but that that's the subtle difference between the two sounds like my playbook in NCAA just a bunch of different formations there you go anybody got anything else before we wrap things up no I I well I thought I was gonna say I thought the media luncheon was really good yes and that's actually what I want to ask you guys about uh there was a and helped me get the word incorrect there was a what I consider to be a jaw-dropping comment made that they want to be the most media friendly football program in the country did they say that they did I think they said athletic department as a whole I love that yeah good for us quite know what to make of that that's yeah I know and I will say this well we had wet Babcock on the podcast we're gonna have Brent price by the way we got Pride next Tuesday um we got all the coaches yeah so here's an example of of that in action uh we're trying to figure out what what we could do with pry we've got pry for an hour-long podcast on Tuesday then David the very next day has a home one-on-one with you don't be telling the rest of the media you know maybe well we're live so it's there I mean it's not like they're not getting one I mean Andy said yeah they're all in town they're getting there you know yeah but but anyway that's pretty good they're they're being open right and and a lot of the stuff we talked about yesterday were little tidbits here and there about ways to simplify stuff so like instead of and for all you folks listening out there I don't know if you knew the media schedule last year but we talked to Brent pry on Tuesdays in terms of Justin Fuente we'd talk to him like Mondays we talked to Brent probably on Tuesdays and a player and that'll be on zoom and in person which is helpful for other media who are trying to cover from far away Wednesday we talked to some players on zoom in the morning and then we go to practice and after practice we talk to Brent pry literally like right outside or inside of the strengthening of the of the weight room and it will talk to him after practice and a couple players and then on Thursday we got an assistant coach on zoom and one of the things we talked about was just compressing all that but I I do think that Tech has done a good job not just with football but across all sports in terms of media access and working with us and and and being honest and you know when we reach out and say hey can we have somebody on they're not saying no sorry they're not automatically saying shooting it down right yeah they're they're trying to to work and uh and it's not like we're asking every single week hey can we have somebody and they take our feedback and within reason yeah and sometimes I apply it sometimes I don't but that's fair yeah but I think it's important to mention that I thought it was good they so they had all the media together in the student athlete performance center and fed us was really good food and um and Travis Wells who's the football um sports information director and Brad Worthen was there and they kind of just asked around for different ideas from everybody David teal and you better were there some of the local TV folks were there uh so yeah it was it was good so parents of recruits and I don't just mean I don't even hype of the Student Center I am uh uh I'm uh and I wouldn't hype up anything unless I didn't believe it was worth hiding and uh so true so just so just be registered yes right exactly red shirt and and spend all your red shirt you're in the student athlete performance center all right but now seriously parents if you got any kid being recruited by Virginia Tech for whatever Sport and you you want to take them on a visit to Tech or whatever like don't take them on a Saturday when like there's a football game and the student athlete performance center isn't really being used like yes go on a Saturday too and experience game day don't get me wrong but if you really want to get a feel for Virginia Tech and what it's like to be a student athlete at Virginia Tech visit at noon on a Wednesday and see what like the activity that's in that place like that place I've hacked it was packed and I like the interaction uh it was everything with Pat Whit described as from like a student athlete experience yeah and I remember Trey Turner Once Upon a Time saying it was neat being in the same place with athletes from other sports right right I mean Grandpa Zulily walked by me yeah yeah yeah he's got like probably like I mean I couldn't identify everybody and I went exactly paying attention but I'm sure you know they're track and field athletes and swim and dive it's it's a more close soccer lacrosse yeah it's a more close-knit Athletics Community now that that place exists I'm doing uh a project with Sean Padula and then three women's lacrosse players and they're like all friends with each other and I'm just like the outsider and like yeah I got invited to do the project but I'm like these people are clearly best BFFs you know what I mean interesting um but yeah that's all I got yeah trying to it was really good food red shirt and and then eat there three times a day and then you'll be ready and subscribe to techsideline.com yeah do that and check out TSL today Kyle and Carter uh had Chris irons on did a nice job that's where you can find your fill notice how we didn't talk basketball women's basketball softball baseball any of the other stuff going on you can find it all right there but I think that wraps things up that'll do it for today episode 285 the tech sideline podcast presented by First Bank and Trust Company and the Hokey way thanks for watching and listening don't forget to like And subscribe on YouTube and we will see you right here next time next week on the techsideline podcast take care everyone [Music] [Music] thank you