Breaking Down Virginia Tech's 2020 Football Schedule: Tech Sideline Podcast Episode 111

[Music] [Music] you are looking live at the tech sideline podcast sent in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center and it all starts in three two hello tech fans and welcome in to episode 111 of the tech sideline podcast originating from TSL high tech studios in the Virginia Tech corporate Research Center whether you're watching live on Facebook whether you're watching archived on youtube listening on soundcloud Apple podcast wherever and however you consume the tech sideline podcast we're so glad that you could join us today as we record at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday January 22nd a lot to talk about today a lot has already happened today on this Wednesday morning as the 2020 Virginia Tech football schedule has been announced less than an hour ago as we record this edition of the text sideline podcast we'll get the full breakdown from our podcast team talking about the toughest stretches for Virginia Tech home games away games the whole nine yards coming up here on the tech sideline podcast also happening today on Wednesday at eight o'clock p.m. tonight Virginia Tech hosts UNC and the Hokies our seven point favorites we'll talk about Virginia Tech at North Carolina in just a little bit well also talk about Landers nollie and an interesting quote that was put out by the Roanoke Times yesterday and Mark Furman we'll talk about Landers Nally and his future at Virginia Tech in a little bit and as I asked for those that were on the message boards on Tuesday night asks for your questions we will get to those on Facebook live and the ones that were done before the show all coming up on episode 111 of the tech sideline podcast again we've got our normal crew here today we've got the best producer in the land behind the scenes Malcolm Stewart he's taking your questions be sure to drop those now on Facebook live on the podcast set we've got our managing editor Chris Coleman we've got our general manager and founder wil Stewart and I'm your podcast host Evan Hughes again so glad that everybody could join us today a reminder that this week in every week the tech sideline podcast is presented by the Fisher law firm Virginia's trusted DUI and traffic defense firm dedicated to defending individuals charged with traffic related offenses from their office in Blacksburg they are able to serve the entire Commonwealth of Virginia whether you were charged with driving under the influence or speeding the Fisher law firm realizes that each case is important to the client to date the firm the firm is defendant more than 30,000 people charged with moving violations a free consultation call anytime day or evening toll-free at 1-866-376-8255 in their in their - but let's start first with actually going over the text get wife or break it down here and that was a tease I kind of wanted to get your initial thoughts on it real quick we'll do that in just a minute one thing I'm gonna get in the habit of start doing a little bit earlier though is talking about what's on textile ENCOM in different ways to file TS cells we get going on the podcast a reminder to follow tech sideline on social media on Facebook Instagram and Twitter all at Tech sideline I will be pushing on all of our content there's always textile ENCOM there a couple of great articles right now Chris I'll let you talk about that quickly you've got an article about the quadrant one victories and the uniqueness of Tyrese Radford what for what should those look forward to in that article well right now well as of yesterday afternoon Virginia Tech had three quadrant one wins because Clemson is up to number 75 and Syracuse is up to number 70 by losing to Syracuse on Saturday for Ginny Tech gave themselves an extra quadrant one win because that bump Syracuse up into the top 75 Virginia Tech has a road win over Syracuse so that now counts as a quadrant one win instead of a quadrant to one they have to stay in the top 75 for it to be there as far as Tyrese Trafford to goes he's number one in the country and Ken Palmer always offensive rating it's an offensive efficiency metric I think Radford is 14th in the country and two-point fill goal percentage and he's the only player and every player ahead of him is six five or taller PJ horn is actually ninth on that list too which is also impressed from sitter and he's going up against guys anywhere from three to six inch tall or six inches taller than him every single night and Radford is number three in the country and turnover rate so when you shoot a high percentage and you don't turn the ball over that equals a high offensive efficiency rating and I think believe it's he's the he's ranks number one in the country since 2008 out of all players with a usage rate of 15 or higher and don't ask me what usage yeah we don't know what that means these are advanced metrics but all we know is best in the country since 2008 which is so that's how you in offensive efficiency yeah usage rate of 15 or right that's so that article is up on tech sideline right now and then we'll I want to get I just teased this as well and a Corey Van Dyke has been putting out a couple of really good baseball articles right now he's got a part 3 of his analytics preview right now and looks like he did a deep dive into that that's available right now as well yeah and that's a free article and when we talk about resources and the money schools were throwing at things these days it's actually a good example is Wake Forest baseball program and I forget the exact title but they actually hired a PhD to analyze like pitching mechanics in what they call their pitching lab at Wake Forest for Wake Forest baseball so Wake Forest baseball has something like that can you imagine what some of these huge football programs with endless budgets have that we don't even know about that that we can't even imagine and they're not real public about it they list all their staff but they don't really say what they do yeah again that's all in tech sideline comm right now I'm gonna reminder annual price eighty-four ninety nine monthly price eight forty nine student price $29.99 is a great time to become a part of the TSM family indeed we picked up a lot of subscribers this fall it's been a really good year so we're really pleased with the whole podcast and and all the different ways that we reach people and how it all works together awesome again that's what's going on on Tech's sideline comm right now the articles that are there right now and that is how you join the TSL family okay now let's dive right in it gave you guys a little bit of a tease which you were talking about and looking at again this morning at nine o'clock on Packer and Durham at the ACC football schedules announced that included Virginia Tech schedule and now we know what every date holds for the Hokies will I want to start with you we knew about Penn State of course as the market one of the marquee home games and the non-conference late but when you look at the conference late what's the number one thing that jumps out at you the conference slate let's see you know there's not really a number one thing I'm sitting here looking at it the fact that it's the return of Thursday Night Football October 22nd against Boston College and that that's kind of it seems to me like every time Tech plays on Thursday its Georgia Tech or Boston College so and it's funny the the the conversation around Thursday Night Football has really changed over the years and a lot of that has to do with the NFL and just the way Thursday Night Football itself has changed we talked on a recent podcast about when Jonathan Fisher was on about 1994 and that was Tech's first appearance on Thursday Night Football they played I think Tech was ranked 12th in the country and they played West Virginia smoked him like thirty four to six and got a lot of coverage out of it it was really cool back then and and as you know you know tech kind of built their part of the way they built their brand was playing Thursday Night Football and back then they and who was the crew Chris it was Tirico Fowler no no no Tirico Corso and Herbstreit it was I didn't ninety I don't I don't remember details about 94 stuff like that well I don't know if they were working it back then but when it hit it's when it really hit its stride oh yeah I guess yeah yeah I remember that that Georgia Tech comeback game in 2004 I think that was a Thursday night game with with Tirico doing play-by-play so it was Tirico and not Fowler yes therefore a lot for a long time as Mike Tirico and the analysts were Kirk Herbstreit when Kirk was first getting started out and Leigh course right but they would do with that Thursday night game then on Friday they would fly to wherever they're going for game day yeah I think that came later and I know overlapped for a while herbie wasn't as big a name back then and I believe for Corso this was pre stroke you know when he was um I was never really big on Corso in the booth you know but they did make a good broadcast team and Tirico is fantastic you know one of the best so it so it was a it was a real showcase you know and then the NFL added a Thursday night game and at first it was only on the NFL Network like the first eight weeks of the season and then did then didn't they add recently like there's games on Thursday night on ESPN or NBC or Thursday Night Football like football for the NFL I believe it's on Fox now it's kind of in a rotate it was on NBC at one point then Fox got the rights to it I think at one point CBS had it's kind of an hot potato over the last couple of years of who's had it but I will say about you know college football and that there's night football one thing ESPN did in terms of the broadcast team it's kind of been a shuffle in the last couple years who's doing it they have Adam Amin this past year doing it who's a rising star in terms of the play-by-play industry with Pat McAfee who talking about identifying with the younger crowd I used to have his own podcast punter for the cold is interesting I used to work for barstool sports he's a really funny outgoing guy that I think a lot of the younger generation enjoys in the Matt Hasselbeck so it was a I think ESPN put a lot of effort into the broad cast team this year to try and bring some energy to it this past year so I'm curious to see if the three of them will continue this coming year so you know it's just kind of lost some of its luster yeah I don't think this is gonna be a well attended game oh no I don't think Thursday night against ball our fans don't care about Boston College yeah they have to take two days off from work instead of one if it was a Friday game you only have to take one day off work yeah and honestly I think I all thirsty a night game against Boston College does is make people say but we only have one Saturday home game in October which is true well it don't mean that's what that's what I was used to gripe about back in the day when Tech would play to Thursday night games a year we'd fuss that there were no Saturday games during October oh and the weather is incredible right so they go October 3rd home against Georgia Tech they don't play a Saturday home game again until November 14th right against Miami I mean this is actually the case year after year there for a while Brooklyn before we get going I for those that are listening I do want to read off the schedules those they have not gonna see sorry let's backtrack a little so September 5th Tech will open up against Liberty September 12th the Markey game home against Penn State September 19th they go to Middle Tennessee State September 26th home against North Alabama October 3rd ACC play begins with a home game against Georgia Tech October 10th Virginia Tech goes to North Carolina October 22nd home against Boston College on Thursday the bye week is in between North Carolina in Boston College October thirty-first Tech's gonna play on Halloween at Louisville November 6th at Pittsburgh on a Friday night November 14th home against Miami November 21st at Duke and then November 28th Tech in Virginia will play on a Saturday no longer Black Friday this year when Tech and UVA play for the Commonwealth clash that is the 2020 schedule for Virginia Tech Chris one thing I always like to do when I see schedules I want to know what's the toughest stretch for Virginia Tech when you look at this schedule what's going to be one of the most important stretches for this tecnique three-game stretch at Louisville and Halloween at Pitt the next Friday and then back home against Miami you know the more chemo yup in the ACC is Virginia Tech in North Carolina seems like everybody has them as the top two teams in the coastal that comes on October 10th that'll be a big deal but what will decide the coastal for Virginia Tech is that three-game stretch against Louisville Pitt in Miami North Carolina you know North Carolina's last three ACC games are Pitt Boston College AHA they're in sea state games on a Friday so that's who's been huh so that's the Black Friday yeah that's all right North Carolina North Carolina hosting NC State yeah so you know I think well obviously the Virginia Tech North Carolina game is going to be very important on October 10th you know that head-to-head matchup could be critical well it's not going to decide anything but I think whoever wins that gets the inside track correct you know I didn't get settled but you know there's plenty of chances to lose though I came in at Virginia Tech beat North Carolina they could lose back-to-back road games against Louisville and Pitt and boom just like that dropped below North Carolina yeah let's see North Carolina man North Carolina plays Auburn in the Georgia Dome this year and they open the year at UCF UCF is gonna be better yeah they open it UCF North Carolina as they open at UCF on a Friday then the following Saturday they play in Atlanta so usually that Atlanta game between like SEC ACC type stuff is a kickoff game and that's not kickoff that's the second week of the season so they could be owin to j-type is they're getting they could be going to yeah how does their how their schedule sets and then we're gonna find out about their character yeah exactly well they got they got a great quarterback so yeah so that's so that's a toughest stretch let's let's review that again at Louisville at Pitt in Miami well let me ask you this let's talk about that North Carolina game because there's gonna be a lot that's made of that where the October 10th stretch show tech open they go north Alabama Georgia Tech at North Carolina what do you think about the lead-up to that game in Chapel Hill I was gonna say the only way it could be better and this is gonna sound kind of funny after what Duke did to Virginia Tech last year the only way could be better is if Virginia Tech played Duke instead of Georgia Tech that week before going to North Carolina what I'm doing is I'm looking for what's what's the weakest team Virginia Tech could play before they play North I still think it might be Georgia Tech yeah Georgia Tech but I think that's a four-year rebuild yeah I think they're on the way back but you're right to do barring something oh yeah I mean Lori barring a Mike Young type well hi Bryce undergrad transfer quarterback I don't see how they're gonna happen yeah well if they haven't they're still not gonna have an effective quarterback right so yeah you're right maybe it's a wash we'll find out if you caught the comment I made you know nobody expected Virginia Tech basketball to be any good this year what's done a phenomenal job already so you know it's not out of the room a possibility that Georgia Tech could could bounce back faster than you thought so so that's my thought on that one chris is the underrated game on this schedule at Louisville on Halloween yeah um I do feel bad for like some of us on pointed this out to me earlier today he was basically like man I was really looking forward to that Louisville game but I've got young kids we're gonna take him out for Halloween right so I can't make that road trip oh and by the way you don't have a chance to make that road trip again for what 12 years so what you told me under the current scheduling model would be 12 years right see Halloween's not big around my house yeah I don't I don't it's not a big deal to me either so holic holidays don't affect my football my number one priority over holidays everything little kids I don't have kids yeah nah Malcolm's done trick-or-treating yeah that's right he would trick-or-treating for the last time two years ago you know I look like I do I do want to talk about that that Louisville game just a little bit we totally talked a little bit about Scott Satterfield coming over from half state Louisville was too intent at disaster 2018 season I'd forget did he win coach of the year in the ACC sure he did yeah I think he did and I think yeah and it actually wasn't real close yeah I think that that was probably the personally me I don't like to put my opinion out too much but I thought that was a home run I mean with the job that he did with everything that happened the Bobby Petrino Aaron's dad and so I think Lou will they return a lot Chris yeah I'm sure they do they gotta learn how to play defense that's that's the main thing they've got enough talent on my team where they can cause plenty of teams and problems they're difficult offensive they are I'll watch the Louisville wait game this past year yeah and it was just there just like I saw Pont the whole game when I was watching it was ridiculous but uh I will say that uh for any fan interested in making that trip if you're from Southwest Virginia I did check Google flights for flights from Roanoke to Louisville yesterday and if you fly out the day before the game and fly back the day after the game I think the flights are like 250 bucks round-trip so so not a bad deal if you could book them right now I don't I don't know how much it is from Richmond or anything like that but I looked into it yeah and from Roanoke I think you said it would be Charlotte and North Philadelphia depends on what time yeah again we're breaking down the Virginia Tech football schedule that was just announced recording the tech sideline podcast presented by the Fisher law firm Wednesday January 22nd recording at 10:00 in the morning well let's talk a little bit about the non-conference like we've we've known that but as we break down the entire schedule we've talked about the ACC of course the Hokies open with Liberty for the second time and the Justin Fuente era that was actually his first game let's go to the Hokies and then Penn State on September the 12th and a trip to Middle Tennessee State afterwards your thoughts on the non-conference light and how it all shakes out I am very excited about that trip to Middle Tennessee State so tech is going to interesting places this year they're going to MTSU which is right outside of Nashville and Murfreesboro Tennessee and they're going to Louisville so these are places these are two places I've never been before I think these are two good destinations and you know when I was younger I didn't care about that stuff it was all about the game you know but when you spend 20 plus years running tech sideline and you basically have to not spend any time with your wife for three or four months at a stretch that's an opportunity for me to take the wife to Middle Tennessee State check out Nashville you know and I don't know she'll want to go to loo or not but that's a chance to go there if you've never been to Louisville to go check it out so that's that's my thought on a couple of the road venues I don't really have a whole lot to say about the Penn State game you know this is Virginia Tech has a high profile matchup in Lane Stadium pretty much every year for the last five or six years you know except for last year Ohio State at home Clemson at home Notre Dame you know and the script so far has been the same in all those you know outstanding presentation it gets put on Saturday night in a high profile you know slot outstanding presentation by ESPN of Enter Sandman stuff that goes on YouTube and looks great and then Tech goes out and loses the game you know and and this one's got some extra juice to it it's one thing to play Ohio State and play Clemson and play Notre Dame but Penn State has been coming into the state of Virginia and spanking Virginia Tech and recruiting so this has that added element to it and took snuffer played Penn State before right not that I know of you know and and getting back to my wife she's a Penn State grad so I really don't want to sit there in Lane Stadium next to my wife while Penn State beats Virginia Tech so I just you know just please win that would let's do this so we've kind of talked about the again that headlines the non-conference slate how about this now a lot can happen from now then but looking how the schedule I want to keep this in mind I'm gonna ask you this question to keep in mind how the schedule shapes out for Virginia Tech who they have to play the week before and all that in mind ranked the top three toughest games for Virginia Tech on the schedule in 2020 Penn State's number one yeah we're agree with a at you right off top my head at UNC is number two don't agree with that and then after that I would say I would say at Louisville yeah your candidates are at Louisville at Pitt in Miami at home you you could say Miami at home because all right if that quarterback grad transfer seriously yeah if he plays well for Miami there to be a different team if they have a good quarter by my pict up a Houston transfer grad grad transfer a quarterback easier he's legit and they also picked up Quincy Roche you know so you know that that's that's one of those deals I don't I don't want to be over emphatic about this but that one player could literally be the difference in the game sure and he picked Miami and it's easy to see why well first of all he already had a pre-existing relationship with DES cause Diaz was temple's head coach for like a month yeah I think their strength conditioning coach was also temple strengthen conditioning coach but the main thing and let's jump in here and say these players get really close to these strength and conditioning Rises don't just sit there and go yeah whatever they spend more time there there's a there's a it may be may be a truth but there's a saying out there that the players spend more time with the strength and conditioning coach than they do with any of the coach actor accurate statement yeah a very accurate statement in my opinion and he picked Miami because it's fairly simple the other defensive end for Miami had 15 and a half sacks this past year so you can't double-team either one of them right you come to Virginia Tech and the other defensive end had one sack last year right like let's say Roche had come to Tech and started it right defensive end garbetts on the other side and you know if you'd use a double-team Roche the whole time and in Virginia Tech gosh have they haven't really shown you know Chris tell me whether you agree or disagree with this they haven't really flashed a lot of past wishing ability from the linebacker position either they don't have a free Catholic outside linebacker you know that they can pair out there with it they they did rank like probably the top 30 in sacks this years they had to come from somewhere yeah Temari Connor five and a half sacks I think like the team there's not one like dynamic pass rusher on the team but you look at a guy like Allen Tisdale who's is is physically more impressive than most of the guys Tech played at linebacker he's not necessarily a better player we haven't seen enough oh he's the most athletic yeah sure this I agree it's a hard sell when you start talking about the guys or around you on the offense right and I don't mean I don't say that to denigrate Virginia Tech's defensive players but like Chris said a guy and the other sides got 15 sacks for Miami and he's coming back from yeah yeah I think Miami all of a sudden when we from we how do we delve down that path oh we're talking about the three toughest games so yeah Miami could easily be on that list yeah because but Miami could also go five and a seven right I've developed the opinion that that Miami games just a crapshoot yeah because because they just their mode their in-game motivation in any particular game just can vary goes all over the place I'm very from week to week from quarter to quarter that team can absolutely laid well look at what they did last year they got down 28 nothing there Virginia Tech is really pointing it's Louisiana Tech on the ball you know 14 awesome and you know the the Oracle that came out about when they lost to Florida International and how the team ignored or major members of the team ignored curfew the night before yeah and all went out and everybody there everybody gets one strike for a drug test at Miami and how they took advantage of that but that before the Florida international game I mean come on man now first of all why don't you have your team together at a hotel the night before a football game doing bed checks right stuff like that so I don't know enough about mine yeah me but they could be they could be second or third on this list they could be seventh or eighth that's right I don't know Miami was the game that Virginia Tech started turning it around does the best season yeah who would have thought that heading into the season two more questions and will I know we kind of talked about this off air but I feel like every year the game that always kind of sneaks up on people and you don't really realize how big it can be is when Pittsburgh in Virginia Tech play Hokies at Pittsburgh on a Friday night November 6 and you were saying that Pittsburgh they could be fired up to play the Hokies on that kind of stage what do you think that game means for tech well it comes it's six days after another Road game so that's that's the toughest hope that Louisville isn't noon because of Louisville happen to be like a night game Virginia Tech would end up losing all of Sunday on a short week yeah so so that is the toughest set up in the schedule well it won't it be in the toughest game you know we don't know we'll see I'm not really up to speed on pit and well that I gotta I gotta be able to pass the football Kenny Pickett's still coming up in senior cuz she's gone forever but they're so one-dimensional and you know Virginia Tech was a great defense this past year but they made the step that if you you didn't have a big time running quarterback and then you couldn't throw the football if all you can do is hand the ball off to your running backs Virginia Tech is gonna crush you as most teams should so pits offense just not good we remember last year Pitt was a passing team they were wonder you're right it was one dimensional the other way around the year before that it was they could only run it and they couldn't bash it Yeah right so Pitts you've got to be able to do but generally speaking unless you're a mobile quarterback like you know Kentucky you've got to be able to do more than one thing well to beat the tech defense I don't know anything about the personnel Pitts has coming back but their offensive line has to be better because it was bad this past year and they don't have a great running back either yeah it's just I just I don't like there there are two places that don't like to go I don't like to go to Pitt Virginia Tech typically doesn't doesn't play well up there so I'm gonna put that down as my third toughest game okay that's for that reason he I set up how about thoughts on tech playing at Duke before UVA how that schedule worked out for that good with Duke I'd have to have no factual evidence to back this up they strike me as a team the past few years that has been better early in the season than late I mean they got on a bad streak this year late in the season and didn't go to a bowl and remember the season before that it was I think I guess the last game of the season when Wake Forest beat him by like 50 at Duke it was late in the season for sure yeah saw that they just strike me his team that has gotten worse that the season has gone on the last couple of years doesn't mean they're 2020 team will be the same way but I'm okay with it if it just feels so odd to say this considering Duke won the game 45 to 10 this past year but Virginia Tech's better than Duke and I'm fine with I feel good about that game coming against Virginia I'm glad Virginia plays pit the week before you can't you can't make any schedule excuses this year because Virginia's four games before they play Virginia Tech is Miami Louisville at Duke home against Pitt so there's no liberty in there there's no bye week in there Wow yeah so I thought all things are even as far as schedule goes heading into that tech UVA game that's a sweet another Tech UVA game are you sad it's not on Black Friday more are you happy for it to go to a Saturday I am sad from the standpoint that I always wanted to see Tech at home on a Friday call it the Black Friday game and wear black uniforms yeah so you're not gonna get that chance this year let's see as a home game I don't think I care if it's on Friday or Saturday as a road game last year I did not like traveling the day after the day after Thanksgiving I think it's a home game on extra preferred to be on Friday because then there will be some good games on Saturday and you can watch all of them yeah rivalry games yeah yeah that's good point I guess someone does a home game the the other team has only a six day break and usually and then there's do you think it gives the chance of if they keep it Saturday on both sides it does give the students I'm not gonna say it's huge difference than one day but you know students coming back on a Saturday compared to a Friday Thanksgiving it could hold your student attendance yeah that's doesn't hurt yeah good point so so again that's that's the look at the schedule right now and we we have had some people comment I put out on the boards last night some questions in advance we're gonna get to those a little bit later those on Facebook live but a lot of people are wanting to know predictions on the season it's early but you look at this schedule so before we do that let's run down and we can do this quickly yeah what who every ACC team plays before they play Virginia Tech go Boston College before they play that Thursday night game plays at home against Louisville now they have a 12 day break so it's it's it's not the Saturday before traveling to Tech Duke is at Georgia Tech excuse me George Duke host Virginia and Virginia Tech in the last two weeks of the season Georgia Tech is at UNC before traveling to Virginia Tech so I kind of like that set up and there are three teams that play Florida State the week before they play Virginia Tech interesting Louisville hosts Florida State and Virginia Tech back-to-back weeks Miami hosts Florida State then travels to Virginia Tech I kind of like that and Pitt travels to Florida State and then hosts Virginia Tech the following Friday so at least Pitt is traveling also the the week before they play Virginia Tech so they'll have a travel day in there same way that Virginia Tech will have one on the way down there let's see North Cohen is at Virginia before they host Virginia Tech I like that and Virginia's as Chris detailed Miami Louisville at Duke Pitt and then at Virginia Tech so I think from that standpoint you know last year you Chris might remember the details more accurate than me last year a lot of teams had opened by weeks before they played Virginia Tech yeah I think it's a pretty good setup I think I there's nothing egregious on the schedule that makes me say oh my gosh this is unfair you know you can talk about the at Louisville and then six days later at Pitt but I if I ran Boston College so I'm calm I'm sure I couldn't it pick their schedule and come up with something that I don't like either I for example Louisville Louisville is in-state rival is Kentucky right well the ACC sending them the Notre Dame the week before they play Kentucky I mean that that stinks for Louisville I'd be mad about that so everybody's got something on their schedule that I'm sure that they can be upset about to a certain extent but I think all the way around Texas Tech's schedule is pretty fair and and who the other teams play before they play I think it's a pair of schedule I really do by the way I see two other ACC teams are playing Liberty this year NC State's playing Liberty the week before they play North Carolina so Liberty's that team everybody apparently wants to play the week before their Liberty has a gnudi on FBS school they're trying to play as many sure teams all right guys so let's do it well I'm glad you did that because it does give a lot of perspective to see what other teams are gonna have to do before they play Virginia Tech now I'll say this I would be mad about this if I was in Georgia Tech fan what this is a bad schedule or they open the season on Thursday night again against Clemson for the second year in a row so you they're gonna start out Owen one and aren't Gordon or Webb you see a fine but then for the next five games are on the road all ACC opponents well yeah now even is 10 and then at the end of the season Notre Dame Miami in Georgia in the season that that is awful United don't I mean you see that's gonna be a top 25 team UCF North Carolina Virginia Tech Virginia at Pitt Notre Dame Miami Georgia on the schedule that is a brutal schedule you're right Wow now that's a good point by the way one game to look out for to open up what I'm looking at right now is a game two on the opening weekend of college football how about Florida State in West Virginia Mike Norvell and four States not better and I owe that games in Atlanta Georgia so the ACC that's back-to-back weeks the ACC has a neutral site non-conference game in in the city of Atlanta let's see looks like the opening weekend is NC State at Louisville on a Thursday North Carolina plays at UCF on that Friday obviously Georgia Tech Clemson on that Thursday Boston College Syracuse on that Friday pretty sure that'll be a Friday game from now until the end these class Virginia and Georgia that Monday so you've got ACC games from Thursday through Monday that opening week with the exception of Sunday a UVA Georgia on that Monday to close out that'll be that'll be interesting and that is in Atlanta also yeah a lot of games in oil yeah all right all right ill it's so let's do it so our early i don't know how you guys want to attack this however way you guys want to but a lot of people wanted to see record or wins and losses the whole of you guys want to go down the list and give what you think winter lost now not having any idea necessarily what's coming back for some of the other teams about you know Tennessee State or any other if you guys want you guys want to go down the list and go what you think right now here ah yes chances yeah so open up against Liberty again they lose a lot from last year's team and they did win a bowl game but a game I'm sure you guys go through well with Liberty can't beat Virginia Tech but Virginia Tech can beat Virginia Tech so there's a Virginia Tech just avoids turnovers and plays half way smart football game they'll win to mark that one down as a win yep Penn State lost Oh till you prove otherwise I agree but we're do the law of averages for do to win one of those games right oh no no that's it people hate it when you use the phrase law of every the last of her law of averages was Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day doesn't matter if you were right or not the emotional types get bent and the analytical types tell you using the phrase incorrectly I am it and that phrase is verboten yeah okay okay Tech is due to win a game like there you guys nonetheless you know there's a long track record of I mean generally teams with the most talent when and Penn State has the most talent right at Middle Tennessee State like we talked about that'll be it yes they're by the way I should know their conference USA I believe correct another Sun Belt let's conference that okay so all right North Alabama who I know absolutely nothing about I don't have another mascot I believe they're the Panthers I believe you're right or Jaguars I think it was some sort of cat our decision there long ago you know some some I'm gonna look that up alright so how about we talk about this UNC game for a little bit now whether you got a do Georgia Tech well that's your second but think about this like if Virginia Tech beats Penn State I think they're gonna be five and OH going into the North Carolina right right five and oh and probably ranked in the top 10 quite frankly if you beat Penn State yeah and and that would have some extra juice if techid won the ball game Tech horotec would be a ranked team going into the season if they'd won their bold I still might be I saw a precision Pole with them xx where Athlon has them for season 20 and I think that's the level-headed thing to do because Bowl games are bowl games yeah they're glass shoots yeah absolutely real quick quick time outs in North Alabama is the only school in the country to have a living mascot on campus that's not true sure LSU has one on campus they have a tiger you can go by and see here's the first University of masala beer with that wait a minute this is that this is roar Lions calm this is there yeah I'll read you the first move Mike the tiger and I'll read you the first amendment the University of North Alabama boasts the only live lion mascots my bad oh the only lifeline in the country living on a college campus Leo the 3rd for jock has the only poultry mascot poultry mascot the two lines live in a twelve thousand seven hundred sixty foot square foot so there's to detect probably has like scores of turkeys well Valley turkeys only live like two years so you got to replace those things sorry I didn't mean to jump at you guys go through Georgia Tech I was looking at yeah that that should be a win that's all whether we forward one now more than 100 five enough so you're either four and one or five and over heading in that north all right here we go at UNC toss-up yeah absolutely a 50/50 game absolutely fifteen busy it's just North Carolina has got a great quarterback that guy's top-notch I also they haven't had a good defense in over ten years now at North Carolina and that defense in 2009 was a Butch Davis defense that they recruited air quotes right great so until they start playing defense you've got to consider that game a crapshoot like even if they have a great quarterback you can out score right yeah all right so that's UNC at a toss-up let's keep going down Boston College on a Thursday no AJ Dillon they do have a AJ Brown coming back who played well against tech secondary last year a quarterback do you think so he is coming back I believe I believe here the same agent already ready thought already hit the portal oh yeah you got hurt sorry no not age um that's not his name wrong I apologize you're a Jay Dylan declared for the draft Anthony Brown look up Anthony but I thought he declared for well not declared but I thought he hit the portal I could be wrong let's say Anthony Brown will explore options playing elsewhere after the redshirt junior entered his name Monday and the NCAA transfer poor levels on December 9th so good I've haven't heard anything since then or have we I don't know I didn't look like at any rate I just I don't know I felt like tech that's a game tech would've won last year and they have a new coach coming in as well there's a lot of unknown there because they have a new coach but that's a game textured went at home right at Louisville slightly favored tech in that one but I agree with that I wouldn't call it a toss-up right tech is better defensively in Louisville Louisville got such a great passing attack and everything but Virginia Tech's got the best cornerback combination in the whole country and Caleb for Farley and Jermaine Waller and then Louisville unless their defense dramatically improves I mean Virginia Tech's gonna be able to score points in that game I think their prevailing opinion is that Louisville is very well coached offensively I didn't watch him a lot you know but I know that even in there was one game and I don't remember who it was against they said they were outmatched and they started out really well and then about a quarter and a half into a coaching staff for the other team caught up to him and that was the end of that I did probably opening game of the year against Notre Dame they started out with an early lead and then probably Kentucky well no Kentucky they got blasted from a get cuts from which was kind of weird though I think that was the only game that happened to him and but anyway that that one's a bit of a bit of a toss-up but favoring tech at Pittsburgh on the Friday night November 6th I think on paper Tech has a personnel matchup advantage in that game and that Pitt is one-dimensional offensively based on what we know if this past season that doesn't mean things won't change or can't change between now and then Nevin can you look up the history between Tecton what went when tech when when Pitt scored you know thirty six against tech back in 2016 at Pitt yeah they were team that year that could run the ball and throw the ball they were a balanced offense um 2018 Virginia Tech's defense was just so bad you don't kind of discount that but they're gonna have Pitts gonna have to get a running game back at all right so Malcolm see the full games list page the the link over to the right underneath the Pitt logo click that and I want to see if Virginia Tech has one in Pittsburgh 2016 yeah 2016 once I was fluent I specially remember such a huge deal three receivers over a hundred yards yeah but that's that's the only Road win at Pitt since dating back to dating back to 99 dating back to their old stadium right right so hot Hines build has been an awful place almost if Virginia Tech can win in the Carrier Dome in basketball they can go into Pitt in football but I mean like I said Tech has a personnel advantage but it's Pitt on the road instead of acid you can have each other out yeah that's kind of a toss-up to me all right Miami at home again tall I mean you might as well just like rule the day roll the dice go out on the street ask a random person that doesn't know anything about sports at all I mean they have just as good a chance picking that game as we do especially right now but I think I'm gonna land on tech side on that one let me ask you something are you more nervous about the Pitt or Miami game right now Pitt Miami I don't know it's my it doesn't make any sense Tech [ __ ] of one of Miami this past year they were coming off a thirty five point loss and they were playing on on the road this year they got Miami at home and everybody knows Miami has cultural issues and things like that but they're still gonna have more talent and like I do was get it get it together for three hours side to play a game right I don't know I I will say that like if I was starting a football team from scratch and and you showed me the team's I was playing I'd be like yeah okay I'd rather play pit just just from a pure talent standpoint my both concerned me but for different reasons all right how about at Duke November 21st the final Road game of the year that's gonna be a win again it yeah it just doesn't make any sense to say oh that's definitely gonna be a win when you've just lost to him forty five to ten but and we don't know we don't know where you're either team will be mentally at this point but I think I think Duke under David Cutcliffe his you know that they've steadily you've seen you've seen peak you've seen if he cut cliff a nuke right there's there's only so many times you can ah cliff is a great coach I don't want anybody to take the way I say this wrong there's only so many times you can get lucky on the recruiting trail well Wake Forest and Jim Grobe they got lucky once what exactly they rode that one class into the ACC title game osa over 606 and it was three-star recruits to star in three-star recruits who happen to be like first-round pick like that linebacker and they had all found so Smith this is everyone at being the number one pick he was a fourth overall pick on a draft bus Seattle I think and then Cutcliffe you know they get our Jameson crowd or undersized three-star recruit that nobody really wants and just like that he's in the NFL and then Daniel Jones was a walk-on and then a first-round pick right eventually unless you unless you're able to start beating out major schools for blue chip recruits you can only go to that two star three star well so many times when it comes to finding elite players right I think they're out of NFL receivers and out of NFL quarterbacks down there and James didn't crowded the star receiver of the New York Jets that was there yeah yes so that is I think you guys bring a great points about Duke there and then cozier just yes or no Commonwealth cup right now and your opinions are coming back to Blacksburg yes I think so yeah it's you have to you have to favor attack right now SEC returns almost everybody UVA lost like I said Bryce Perkins head that had to have a once in sixteen year performance against Tech for them to win that game and he yeah I mean 20 percent chance on boss or 20 percent accurate rate on balls 20 or more yards downfield and he put it in there perfectly so this is shaking out to like an almost like a nine and three prediction yeah yeah I think I think we had we put down Penn State as a loss and then what do we have Carolina toss-up you said we had like three toss ups yeah so so let's say if two out of the three toss ups go your way then you're ten into if one out of three toss ups go your way you're nine and three and one this is last thing I'll ask them we got to move on because it is 10 51 and we're rolling through here we got to talk basketball you look at the last couple of years there has been a game that nobody saw coming Syracuse in the Carrier Dome in 2016 Old Dominion at 17 Duke this year is there a game on that schedule we can see coming that you cannot see is there one way more like I mean I know that's but you know to me I mean there's been a there's been a lot of games where just you don't see it coming and it happens okay I would say either Thursday night against Boston College or at Duke because those are the a like a Georgia Tech I'd literally don't see calm I don't see how they can possibly Virginia Tech I'm gonna agree with you on this terms in that rebuild oh I agree last year alright I didn't see forty five to ten coming but I picked Duke to beat Virginia Tech in my game preview so that the is Pharma from a win-loss standpoint that that game did not surprise me at all 45:10 surprised me I would be shocked if Georgia Tech beat Virginia Tech in Lane Stadium this year based on what I know right now so I would say more likely either Boston College or Duke Boston College is one of those teams are going to come in and we're on the ball and run the ball and if Virginia Tech goes out there and a couple of turnovers that cost himself scoring opportunity BC is gonna see more of the ball and they're gonna run more clock and they'll keep the game close into the fourth quarter and get you frustrated and then Duke being a road game between Miami and Virginia I would say for me it would be not losing at Louisville but getting blown out at Louisville that that was mmm it's not that I don't see that coming clearly I'm thinking about it but that would really disappoint me and and surprise isn't the right word but really disappoint okay there we go there's been a great break down though you said you're looking at as we just did about nine and three like you guys are just saying I'm stealing ten and two well I wouldn't say stealing ten and through the ceiling yeah that's the thing is the ceiling for this team 1101 yeah I mean if like if everything goes right this team's not talented enough to go unbeaten I mean my gosh the other teams we play would have to have a rash of injuries or something like that we'd have to have every perfect bounce in every conceivable way to go unbeaten but if we got a UH if we had a good season as far as lucky breaks go and no key injuries and things like that but 11 1 as possible but that's a you know pretty much everything lines up properly I think yeah and knowing what we know about guys coming back for Virginia Tech at this point in time I thin and you know not knowing about injuries injuries can always throw things off but I think eight and four is probably the floor probably I mean now we don't even know who the backup quarterbacks gonna be at this point and and you saw how limited the offense was like without Hindon hooker man against Notre Dame but but I think with with Burmeister and hooker both on the roster at quarterback I would hope uh I would hope that Burmeister would be able to execute the passing game at a higher level than Quincy well Quincy you know then last year white run out not to be fair to Quincy he's going into his third year in the program and a lot of guys take a big step that year so we'll say should be an interesting spring you know I think it's a great way to end the conversation can we talk about the football schedule for last 50 minutes you go to tech sidelines calm right now and look at the article Chris just put out about the schedule that has been at ESL pass article later today about it yeah if you want to if you want to give it an over/under I'd say the over/under that makes me pause is nine and a half something like that ya think - alright we've got more to talk about here on the tech sideline podcast when we come back for jigna tech is tonight a must-win game against North Carolina will ask will and Chris plus we'll get to your questions all coming up on the tech sideline podcast presented by the Fisher Law Firm welcome back to the tech sideline podcast presented by the Fisher law firm so glad you could join us for episode 111 again we've got our normal crew here today as we record on Wednesday January 22nd Malcolm Stewart our producer is taking your questions on Facebook live we'll get to those shortly on the podcast set will Stuart Chris Coleman I'm Evan Hughes transition from the gridiron to the basketball floor Virginia Tech tonight hosting North Carolina who is eight and nine one in five in ACC play and the Hokies are really bad okay seven point favorites will mm-hmm it's tonight a must-win for Virginia Tech for my emotional well-being it is Mike Mike Young has with his coaching job this year and with what the players have done I'm trying to find the right phrasing here they've they've kept tech fans oh I don't want to say emotionally engaged they've just kept him on a high he's kept him with a high all year long the only time I got a little down was when they when they lost to Dayton and BYU boom boom blow outs two games two days after beating Michigan but they just beaten Michigan State and since then it's been a good steady production string of wins there's never been a and I always tell people look at college basketball in in groups of three the games and groups of three kind of parse it out that way because college football is is is 12 games college basketball is 30 31 32 33 whatever kind of evaluate each group of three games as as like you evaluate if football game which means you don't want to lose two out of three and and again I'm just I'm not talking about n-c-double-a chances here or anything like that I'm just talking about your mindset you know so I came into these two games I think I said this on the last podcast I came into these two games one e-tec to win one of the two Syracuse and UNC at home a really at least one of the two when putting a wouldn't both of them may be great so I really for my emotional well-being in the momentum of the program I don't want to lose this one after losing the Syracuse one because then you dropped a 500 in the ACC right yeah and I I don't know what quadrant that would be another number that's a bad home loss right it's a quadrant 3 probably a home loss yeah I mean North Carolina is like on 28 minute you mind repeating that one more time again North Carolina is what in the net 120 or 130 something last in the ACS next-to-last yeah down there with waste and not to mention you know B C's won two games in the ACC yeah but their net ranking though okay I'm talking about record right in the state and tech plays at BC on Saturday so if you're able to pick up a win against North Carolina tonight and knock off BC Saturday sure you put you had six and three and that feels a lot better than being far for after the UNC yeah no doubt about the I don't think there's any such thing as a must-win on January 22nd or whatever it is when you're talking about 32 32 game basketball season the only must wins in basketball or tournament basketball games right you've got there's poor Ginny tech loses tonight there's plenty of time to make up I heard Malcolm out put the put the net up their buttocks fusses at us when we talk about the net on this graphic click the graph not that I can see it but you know well that is a great graphic and this is from yesterday this is just rewarding games from last night and I have not have no idea what happened in games last night yeah when were there ACC games last night there should have been uh gosh why can I not remember Wake Forest and Clemson played last night if I remember correctly and that was a battle but Clemson one lump sum walk and I don't remember after that okay well it's good that Clemson won because they were 75th in the net as of yesterday so theoretically they should be up a couple spots now and since Virginia Tech picked up a road win over Clemson you want them to stay in the top 75 yeah you don't want them to stay in the top 75 because a top 75 when in the net on the road is a quality one way so today is the 22nd correct and this graphic that we're showing on both the television screen is through 121 so includes games of last night okay and what and Clemson has dropped to 76 what after running were Syracuse 70th still yes 70 okay so as of today Tech has to quadrant one wins so by losing the Syracuse Virginia Tech gained a quadrant 1 win yeah because they beat Syracuse on the road earlier and net but then by beating Virginia Tech on Saturday Sarah Hughes jumped into the top 75 so Virginia Tech got themselves a second quadrant one win yes Clemson is now cute and now watch North Carolina the future opponents are not shown okay okay I think there were 120 as of yesterday but though it's it's not it's not a must-win game but there aren't that many opportunities for quadrant one wins for Virginia Tech this year it's the gift and curse of a down year in the ACC the gift being that a freshman Layton team actually has a chance to compete and the curse being that they're you're not gonna have that many opportunities for quadrant one wins so you don't want to lose at home the North Carolina it's not a must-win because you never know what's gonna happen after this but it would be damaging not only did the tournament resume but also to morale a little bit if you lose it in my opinion yeah that's why for the short term it doesn't mean anything for the long term of the program and everything like that North Carolina eight and nine overall one in five and ACC play of course the story their season was cooling with any one of the top freshmen in the country sideline with an injury of course they came back tonight they say he's not he was averaging 19 points per game six rebounds a game and nearly four assists per game and 33 minutes now garrison Brooks has stepped up in production 14 points per game nine rebounds a game he's foot tent and then Armando baked khat out of Richmond Virginia ten points four games almost eight rebounds there bit so what do you expect from Virginia Tech defensively to match up against Brooks and Baker I don't know what I expect defensively I don't know much about X's and O's basketball but I I know that if they do fortune attack does well on the defensive class they stand a really good chance of winning the game now if you give UNC a lot of second chance opportunities with their size on the inside they can really hurt tech but if Virginia Tech is good on the defensive glass you know I think they're gonna win the game Virginia Tech turns the ball over so little that I don't see Carolina getting run outs not in any sort of quantity anyway so they're not going to have that in their in their holster yeah I agree without having studied them yet we're gonna do our preview later in a day and not really knowing anything about him just UNC historically is is a taller ranger team than Virginia Tech and that's where the trouble could come to me tonight's game is more mental than anything else I think it's pretty well established that North Carolina is not very good and they're not very good because they're not as talented as they normally are and they've had some key injuries yeah but they're also not very but good because they never lose and they don't know how to handle losing now that they're losing know that's have Roe Williams might not know to handle it how to handle it the last time this Carolina team had a losing record before right now was back after the first game of the 2004-2005 season we lost to Santa Clara and they were Owen one they won the national championship that year so this is a bunch of guys that they don't know how I'm not sure they know how to handle losing and from a from a facing adversity standpoint I'm not sure Roy Williams knows how to coach him or I don't think he knows what to say to him he tried that he tried to challenge them by saying all this team's not very talented hoping that would tick him off and it didn't they got worse and then he said oh this is the least athletic team I've ever had thinking that would fire him up it didn't they got worse so I don't think they can handle his criticisms up there I think he's intending them to fire up the team so to speak but it's I think and maybe it's had the opposite if he doesn't have a lot of experience in that area around at all alright so real quick cuz we had to Landers nollie and some stuff news that came about on Tuesday yesterday real quick yes or no tech win tonight against North Carolina yes barring a bad shooting net from Virginia Tech we've talked about that that night where they might go out there and nobody's hitting I think barring a really bad shooting night I think Tech one it's just scary to think that and the Carolinas got a win at some point right right don't say those words they'll not just say words they're crisp but they're due all right so we've got two wins on the set here from will and Chris barring a bad shooting right yeah okay all right so now let's transition to some news that came about on Tuesday afternoon for those who did not see a mark Berman of the Roanoke Times did an article on Landers nollie and Tyreese radford and kind of just their time at Virginia Tech and was a really good read you know go to the end of the article this is what we're gonna focus on was that Landers Knollys dad was quoted in this Roanoke Times DICOM article Malcolm the best producing land has already put that article up on our screen for those watching it's at the end right there highlight that Malcolm there we go so I'll read a couple of paragraphs leading into it now he's been named named the ACC freshman of the week five times but unlike some other freshmen Nally was not included last weekend ESPN's latest mocked two-round 2020 NBA draft quote Landers is a pro at the rate he's going he won't be back next year close quote that's from Landers Knollys father Chris what should we make of that quote well he didn't say NBA he said prep and these days you can make six figures or seven figures if you're really really good playing professional basketball overseas it's not just the ESPN mock draft leave that up there for an it's it's I I generally use NBA Draft net I think it's what I use because it's got like 70 or 80 mock drafts from all over the place and it a virgin mall together not what so when their average mock draft he's not listed as being drafted all in the first two rounds so hardly anybody thinks he would get drafted if he came out after this year so let's let's read the next two paragraphs nolle said he won't think about the draft until after the season quote if I've thought about that then I wouldn't be thinking about the season how we're doing proving people wrong unquote he said he being nalli so good quote a really good answer he turned it right back around on this season in this tape about that girl right there quote a lot of things that I still got to show you all close quote from nalli so he's saying the right things if he were to leave Virginia Tech after this year that this would not be a real surprise you know yeah it's one of those like he shouldn't do it unless he thinks that going overseas for a year will help better prepare him for the NBA than staying in college for a year or maybe or you know maybe even if and even if you don't make the NBA you just go right back to Europe or wherever and make your 500 grand or whatever I mean that's that's a pretty nice way to live I think but we've just gotten some of the back-channel stuff we've gotten just indicates that that he's a he's a shooting star he won't be here very long and now that said when I watch him on the court he does he seems to really enjoy playing for Virginia Tech yeah he plays hard and and everything like that and I don't think he's a selfish player some people went after him after missing that last shot against said yeah he just panicked and made a bad decision yeah but but I you know I I see him passing the ball you know he had seven assists that game he has a lot of assists he's a pretty good passer I think but but I think that he gets along gets along well with his teammates and he seems to be enjoying himself on the court I don't think that's it yeah so yeah so but but that being said it would not shock me if he did not play basketball for Virginia Tech next year for whatever reason and of course we are sitting on a larger landscape too that a lot of players out of high school now are going overseas me you got lamellar ball who's projected to be the number one overall pick and the upcoming NBA Draft playing professionally in Australia right now you've had a manual mudiay play over season and get drafted it you know there's a and then a opens that whole can of worms about the one and done and some of these foreign some of these foreign teams are smart too I think there was a New Zealand team that signed a guy who was like a top ten prospect coming out of high school last year they slide them through a two-year contract so if anybody am in in the NBA Draft sim that NBA team basically has to purchase the Concord or Pam I prefer that New Zealand gyms that does that News New Zealand zine will get a check for like a million bucks which is huge for them right for from the NBA team so so that's a good business decision for somebody like that and you think about it man 18 years old somebody in Ostrom maybe not Australia cuz I'm scared of all those poisonous animals and stuff they have not Mexican like some team in Italy or France and were like man we pay you 500 grand to come over and play basketball for a year okay instead of going to college and either make you go to class for a semester to stay eligible for the NCAA tournament but you have no intention of staying in college for four years you know well just go to France yeah that sounds better to me yeah maybe I'll stay there - I don't know interesting discussion again that was an article in running times I've calmed that mark Berman did on Tyrese Radford and Landers nolley okay so I put on the message boards yesterday I wanted to get some questions before the podcast and Malcolm's gonna take some from Facebook live so I'm gonna read two or three and then turn it over to Malcolm for our questions part of the tech sideline podcast and then we'll wrap things up so how many minutes are we at right now Malcolm or an hour ten hmm rolling by I'm actually gonna have Malcolm cut this one up after we'll do the full podcast video but I think also can you have him slice it in the schedule discussion basketball discussion and Q&A awesome okay so let's start this first question I thought this was a good one this is from tr3 and T so Trent with a three in the middle for the e where do you all see the Virginia Tech football program in the next four to six years I think that will be determined in the next 12 to 18 months when or if they come up with some sort of a master plan for facilities or something honestly I mean the strength of your program is the long term view of your program is it determined necessarily by your current head coach or anything like that it's determined by the foundation of your program by the fan support the infrastructure things like that like Justin Fuente may or may not be Virginia Tech's coach six years from now but it's the other decisions that are made right now that will determine the long-term trajectory in my opinion yeah he was asking how many years four to six I think for the next couple of years they'll be competitive for a coastal crown the way things are trending down at North Carolina they're gonna have a really good quarterback for three more years so two more years yeah was he a true freshman this past year I need to declare after his junior says they're gonna have a really good quarterback for the next two years they had a really good recruiting class this year and I don't see any reason for that to stop so unless Virginia Tech ups its recruiting game I think the the talents gonna start leaning towards North Carolina and Miami's always Miami you know so I think competing for coastal crowns once you get more than a couple years out is gonna be problematic unless they're recruiting at Virginia Tech gets better okay so that's kind of where I'd be on two years I don't really know yeah Jason H writes about recruiting in Virginia Penn State seems to own the state of Virginia the last several years when it comes to recruiting what happened where did it go wrong and how does Virginia Tech win it back where do we start now let's try to our concise three thousand world I've done it plenty of times oh my gosh it's just a factor of so many things well they've always recruited to my thinking they've always recruited Richmond well yeah they had that goes way back but part of it is that and I think in Chris cuz maybe back this up with numbers I think there's more talent coming out of Northern Virginia now there is then there's there's more highly rated recruits coming out of there and then there is Northern Virginia is probably just as close to Happy Valley it's a pretty much equidistant right and and a lot of those Northern Virginia kids they're not actually from Virginia anyway but like their their parents just moved to DC for a job right maybe they're from Allentown Pennsylvania for all I know originally right so so that's part of it's a part of what's going on so if it's a part of the issue here is there's two areas of the state in Northern Virginia where there's a lot of people who aren't native Virginians and the 757 because of the Navy base and the military presence it's a lot of people there that aren't necessarily native Virginians either so it's its concern it's an interesting state it's not like Texas you know not to say if I don't have any bases and things like that down there but you know if you're from Texas you're from Texas yeah and in general in Virginia the trend has gotten away from you know there were some storied high school rivalries in the past Hampton phoebus you know some of us now the peninsula just doesn't produce any time anymore I mean Bruton High School where Brian Randall went they couldn't even field a complete team play a full schedule a couple years ago and you remember the the East West High School all-star game used to be a big deal so there was this emotional investment in your high school program and the state as a whole that I don't really see Nelson I also think that's play plus you know James Franklin's a great recruiter yeah great salesman you know one of the things he says that that sells to to large portions of recruits is I want to be the first african-american to win a national championship you know when you go into an african-american home and you say that that resonates they connect with that you know no question and some of it is where I think Virginia Tech was marshalling all their resources back in the heyday of Virginia Tech recruiting in the third highest paid coaching staff in the country the newest football facility in the country just about in the Merriman center support of this is Virginia Tech dropping off but a lot of it as other schools who always had more resources they just weren't using them they weren't focused they weren't focused in Virginia right now they're using them right and there's nothing Tech can do about it from that end so there's things Virginia Tech can do better but a lot of this issue is other programs finally getting their stuff together yeah right so there's nothing you can do about that care of it great question I knew that would get a really good answer and it's got a lot of layers to it as you guys just talked to us last one for me and I'll turn over to Malcolm are you hokey brights hypothetically if Kari Blackshear had remained at Virginia Tech where would the basketball team beat Team B NIT lock NC double-a tournament lock ACC championship tender question yes all that question winning yeah yeah me too but I thought it was a good one and it's been breaking my heart lately thinking about how good this team would be well I'm thinking about it thinking about all their losses or he wouldn't have made them beat Dayton or st. Joe's you mean be like why you he why ya think about old Atlantic ten days I guess but I don't he wouldn't have made the difference in those games Tex lost at Duke by 14 but at the same time that was a single-digit game for most of the cons it so maybe makes the difference maybe he doesn't wouldn't make the difference in a 26 point loss to UVA most likely coulda made the difference it gets Syracuse yeah and we and we don't know how many close losses or close wins or all that or coming but uh III think he might be the difference between NIT and NCAA tournament by the end of I think we're really not salute lee right and I actually think Virginia Tech would be on an NCAA track if they had carry black sugar well the thing is they're still on track like they're still in the bracketology right now would continue to be right right right right now you're looking at you know the season ended tomorrow all I think a lot of people would say 10 to 12 seed or something like that and you know maybe it's a eight seed with black share which would actually be worse right yeah but but not I don't care about seeding this year man if it comes down to it on Selection Sunday I'll care about it but to me just if you make the tournament it's a win win if you do any anything once you get there it's just a bonus right no but but yeah yeah I got I got I got I think he would have helped us win at least one more game to this point when the Syracuse game now I'm not sure even with Blackshear and a tournament setting if they could climb the Louisville or Florida State Mountain yes particularly Florida State Court States just a problem for Virginia today oh they're always really tall they have a lot of really tall play there's their defense is apparently fierce this year so yeah we'll find that out so I wouldn't say ACC champions but I don't think and who knows about that Duke game out Coach K went small on that game yeah - stop text cuts I don't know if you can go small I don't think you can put a six seven Center out there against Blackshear right I don't think you can have Alex White play in the five line detect instead of not four and three in the ACC could be six and one could be right real quick there's real clout wasn't spent like 30 seconds on this because it just crossed my mind when I read this question last night do you ever think about last year's team and if things that worked out with Chris Clark and if Virginia Tech had Landers not only what it could have been hurt with Justin Robinson healthy absolutely with Justin Robert is healthy yeah third everything I mean yeah that's a team that could have won the next shooters they could have wanted anyway even with even without Chris Clark I mean they made the sweet 16 yeah I mean I sat in a room with Coach K in December and he said that's a team that could have won the national championship last year yeah there were five teams in the ACC that could have want it and Virginia Tech was one of them yeah yeah I think about that Chester your question yeah I think about all the time it's hard not to think about it man these little windows open up yeah it's it's rare when the windows come open and so when it doesn't happen you always think about the what-ifs michael vick 1999 what if what if michael vick didn't turn the wrong way on the option on the first drive of the game what if Bobby Bowden has suspended Peter Warrick yeah that's funny I get comedy here on the park is a long wait to turn it over to Malcolm Stewart I'm sure we've got some questions Malcolm what's going on by all right let's get started with James Copeland asks should we have gone to the SEC when we had an offer to have more money in better facilities or was staying in the ACC better to compete for championships yeah there's two ways to look at that it depends on how you use that extra money and those extra resources all right I know South Carolina has better facilities and more money but overly that's not one of the many more games is it just based on tougher competition yeah they got to play Florida and Georgia and the rest of the SEC a hundred thousand seat stadium and 100 plus million got on over where Tennessee is in revenue now probably 140 150 or more yeah hasn't helped them any they stink yeah joining the SEC hasn't helped Missouri it doesn't seem like by the way I watched Missouri play a basketball game last night a Texas A&M they they they were hosting Texas A&M not that this is relevant a lot of empty seats in Missouri Scala see yeah and that's a historically good basketball plan so I don't know I don't know if the Hokies would be where they are in basketball they would have more money I don't know if that more money would equal more wins the ball streak would have ended last year for sure if not well the ball streak would have been dipped before and one of those except when a detect may have recruited better if they were in the SEC and it became 'roger they may have so there's no way to know if you think there's a five to ten percent chance of Virginia Tech winning the ACC as long as Clemson stays where Clemson is right now then there's there's even less of a chance in the SEC because there's three Clemson's in the SEC right yeah there's Alabama and LSU in one division and there's Georgia and the other division you probably won't even make you you don't even have a chance much of a chance to win your division if you're in the SEC East take at least has a chance to win their division in the ACC so there's a lot of different ways to look at it and I think as time goes by I don't think we could fully answer the question yet like what if ten years from now the college football landscape is totally different like I'm not even sure we'll have conferences for football long term I don't see the point like if you can you can have a super league of like the top 20 programs or something like that yeah it's it's hard to say yeah it's just so hard loaded question yeah it really is some things would be a good one but some things would be better and something wasn't beep something right yeah I think it kind of depends on your preference as a fan I know it'd be more exciting weekend weekend you wouldn't well I wouldn't les you were getting drilled week in and week out I'd get old pretty fast yeah what and that there were there some years where tech would have would be getting drilled yeah it's just I think it as far as it is to stay consistent in the in the ACC I think it'd be even harder to do it in the SEC I think there was a window when Georgia and Florida were both somewhat down where Virginia Tech could have really been a successful SEC East program but now that Georgia has righted the ship and Florida finally has a good coach that window was closed yeah yeah good question John Hutchins just chimed in and wants me to ask how boots got that nickname I have no idea I don't either uh-uh I think I've been around him when somebody asked him that question but I don't think I retained his answer here in my head that's a good question uh well ask it on the boards asking about Tyrese Radford his nickname is boots we don't know mm-hmm Clarke rueland in your opinion which games would you make the effect games next season white orange maroon white and orange maroon my gosh well you can't do y it against Penn Stadium would be white right please don't do orange against Penn State yeah I would why is that no just because I don't like orange uniforms no track record where do orange against North Alabama somebody like that you know cuz I don't like orange either I might do I don't like you need to have anything for Penn State right right just yeah Penn State is Penn State maybe we're all maroon but it doesn't have to be meruna about the Thursday game you do something you could you I know they've worn orange against Virginia against Georgia Tech before so you can't wear orange against Virginia that's not allowed or my Georgia Tech maybe is the wideout game or something like that I would say North Alabama white out Georgia Tech orange Miami maroon that's that's fair I'm you buying that yeah NBC just BC thanks Clark thanks for that great car you've got there too that you've donated to the podcast I moved it back down where Clark could see it yeah stick it in beer yeah mark designs oh god this is gnome so I don't have anything to do with clerk though but Clark is all over the say yes go how about we do one more Malcolm sure Eric Fisher how was Radford so lightly recruited by everyone that's a good question I have no idea yeah widely recruited by lightly we're gonna do mean non recruited did you read Berman's entire article because it may be in there III know this like if you go to his two for seven recruiting profile not only is he not listed with any offers he's not even listed with any interest from any team right like not even Virginia Tech like when he showed up at last year's Media Day everybody assumed he was a walk-on because he's the only student athlete that I can ever remember in the history of Virginia Tech athletics who was not actually introduced in some kind of press release when he signed or when it enrolled so I don't know I know I think I wasn't around when he said this but he said like when he told her Barbour I think maybe that when he got to Tech he could only he couldn't do like a form pushup which I found that hard but I find that hard to believe but at the same time I think he'd lend Louisiana and rebounding like a 6-1 guard or something like that so I have no idea how in the heck he ended up at a Virginia Tech he must not have been been on the AAU circuit but that must be it I mean somebody would have seen him only AAU circuit right well these days I think a lot of people are really focused on three-point shooting he can't shoot we don't even know what position he played in high school for all I know he might have been like his team's power forward or something yeah with a small lineup or something and just didn't handle ball very much so I don't know but I'm glad and I'm happen I think I'm more comfortable with him left as a man of mystery yeah yeah thirsty dude you know appreciate tyrese Radford in the moment without trying to figure him out he is what he is it's awesome yep there you go alright it is almost four ninety minutes again what and it feels like it's it's flown by yeah great questions as always and a lot of them today we're really good and the questions I feel like where there's layers to it are always a really good question so so we are looking to get Tony Robi on the podcast correct yeah it's confirmed so coach Robi will be on next Wednesday and 10:00 in the morning looking forward to having coach on next Wednesday that'll be after the UNC dual tech number three in the country right now now we tried to get Tony today or tomorrow before ACC duals started but we got bumped by a Packard or they they called him up what yesterday I believe so yeah but I mean that's gonna be great that he's any old Packard yeah okay fantastic yeah he was on this morning so that's that's why I wasn't able to be here where was it tomorrow tomorrow I think it's gonna be tomorrow yeah well if I ever meet mark Packer I'll have to give him a hard time about that but yes next ones it'll be great to talk to him he's always great well we appreciate coach coming on and always being so open and giving up his time during uh you know season the busy season for him yep so we will be back Monday Monday at 9:30 should be normal time for a podcast should be so let me throw one more thing in there about wrestling if you go to tech sideline and look around the site you will see a link to order tickets for the Moss Arts Center meet duel meet against Duke which I believe is February 8th which I believe is a Saturday and that's gonna be a blowout for ya yeah last time I checked they were about a hundred two hundred and ten tickets left so it might be forty five to ten Virginia Tech this time around there you go it's only ten dollars a ticket so this is not an expensive ticket and it's a really cool way to watch wrestling I went either last year or the year before really enjoyed it yeah hashtag get Chris Coleman's who I'm all startsnow or start that traffic okay I think you'd enjoy it I really do so all right well great show today again textile ENCOM we've got great content up right now great article about the quadrant wins Tyreese Radford the schedule for giatec baseball freshmen report I think I saw a couple days ago still on there or those defensive true freshmen I'm going to write up TSL pass article on the schedule this afternoon what's today the 22nd witness that Wednesday okay off the top of my head I don't know what we'll do tomorrow Friday Q&A on Friday yeah I mean it's it's mid-january you think there's not as much to talk about but there still is yeah oh by the way yesterday was first day of classes so you should be expecting transfer portal news yes very very soon we've heard five names yeah man I'll just leave it at that I'm sure it all become public maybe well none of them particularly surprising or if you've been listening to us all year yeah or just thinking about things yourself nothing nothing shocking there yeah so there you have it and we'll be we'll talk Tech basketball Monday for sure that'll be off of I mean a little but the UNC game will be passed but well the Boston College game to look at tech plays at BC on Saturday home game for a visa BT as he always talks about going home and playing in front of his family and friends and I'm sure we'll have some football news something will happen in the next couple days just saying don't know what but I'm sure will be something talk about some that'll happen yeah that's all alliance but there's something that could come up so alright well that'll do it for today's episode text online podcast reminder if you're watching on youtube be sure to LIKE and subscribe we appreciate it as always be sure to follow us on social media we're on Facebook Twitter and Instagram all at Tech sideline be sure to give us a follow and that'll do it for days podcast for our best print the best producer on land Malcolm Stewart behind the scenes on the podcast said our managing editor Chris Coleman our general manager and founder will Stewart I'm Evan Hughes podcast so saying so long thanks so much for listening this has been the tech sideline podcast presented by the Fisher law firm [Music] [Music]