C.R.E.A.M.

In this episode we take a deep dive into the BOV athletics department budget proposal and the implications it has for the program, the athletic director, and Virginia Tech's place in the college football landscape. We also briefly recap the Wofford victory and make our Big Screeners picks of the week.

Episode Transcript

(00:56):
But Brian, we've got to know theenemy.
Let's tell the truth about Saturday.
A win. A win.
Again, what is that? Wait, what is that?
We had had one since on Thanksgiving weekend last year.
You know, Hokies take care of the Wofford Terriers by a final

(01:18):
score of 38 to 6. What went well?
We won, Brian. We we got to win.
There's there's a nice little one in the the left hand column
there. Yeah, I mean that, that that's
really it. And I think, you know, we went
out there and I don't think we looked great, but I, I think we,

(01:43):
we, we. Never looked?
Go ahead. What were you going to say?
One play that looked great, Kumari Copeland, is set to look.
Great. Oh yeah, right.
Oh yeah. I mean, Kumari Copeland is is
showing that he is the the real deal.
He is legit. He is the guy we thought he is.
He's not just a weight room warrior.

(02:04):
He is going out there and makingsome noise on that defensive
line and making plays in general.
So I'm excited about that. I think I think the, you know,
the defensive line is definitelybeen the overall stand out,
especially I think the interior,which is probably what we were a
little little more concerned about.
But they've they've fleshed out and they've they've looked

(02:26):
really good really for the duration.
I think, you know, we've got some question marks elsewhere on
the defense, but those guys haveshown out, showed up and, you
know, I'm excited to see if we can take some of that
consistency and a little bit of that positive.
You know, it, it was, it wasn't a a pretty win, but it wasn't an

(02:50):
ugly win. It was just, it was just a win.
But if we can take some of that momentum into the NC State game,
it's true, 'cause you get a little confidence with the win.
There, there's always confidencebrewing.
I'll tell you the other thing that I felt like went well and
into that a confidence perspective was how many people
played on offense. 8 different ball carriers, 11 players with

(03:12):
receptions. Now don't look at the the couple
of them, don't look next to it. They're next to the name for the
yards. Couple of them got negative or
very little. But to me it's that shift to
basically say we're not going tostick with something.
We mentioned the loyalty piece. If we think you can play, we'll
go out and play. And this was a game to do that,

(03:34):
right? Well, it's a game you have to do
that. And I, I was hoping that we were
going to be able to get to some of these guys earlier, you know,
particular at the quarterback position.
But we didn't. And ultimately, but we, we did
get a lot of guys involved in the backfield in the wide
receiver position. Yeah.

(03:55):
So we, we got to empty the chesta little bit.
We probably didn't get to empty the chest as quick as we would
have liked, but again, a wins a win.
And I think there are some positives to take away from this
game. You know, I think there's
positives from a fan base perspective.
You know, I, I was happy to see,as much as I was concerned about

(04:20):
it, I was still happy to see folks show up for that game, for
the for the stadium to look mostly filled.
I know it wasn't a sell out, butyou know, there wasn't an
embarrassment in the stands likeI think a lot of people were
expecting. And I think some of that is the
fact that there was movement after ODA.

(04:41):
So there there was stills like, OK, well, you're, you're, you're
doing something. You're, you're, you're, you're
getting the ball rolling on whatwe need to do and where we need
to go with this. We'll come out of here.
We're we're we're going to stickwith you and, and see this thing
through. So, yeah, I, I, I, I, I don't
really have a, a lot of done a ton of, of, of what went well,

(05:04):
but I think enough went well where you maybe get a little bit
of confidence going in the NC State.
I think that's important. Yeah, because you know what went
well, there's always what went bad and a we did not cover and
because, you know, great teams cover.
But I think the struggle with meand again, the way I watched
this game, had a birthday party going on, had baseball going on.

(05:27):
I'm I'm listening in in the car,I'm following my game.
I get back home, I watch a little bit of it here.
I come back, I watch some condensed version, I watch some
other version. I was all over watching this
game made my head spin. But what pissed me off and this
is where I get so frustrated andit seems like it's a lot with
this team is we get inside the 10 and we and we stalk if we had

(05:47):
not stalled the first drive of the game where we go for it,
which I'm fine with going for it.
That's fine. Points off the board.
There's more stalls later in thegame when I think John kicked
what like a it was like a 20 yard field goal something.
Like that? Yeah, 20 yard field goals being

(06:07):
you were inside and that's just,that's just frustrating because
it's like this is a FCS team. You should be able to push it
into the end zone. Yeah, and I think, you know,
you, you talk about the stall drives and that's, it's not just
something that reared its head in this game.
That's been a problem for this team all year.

(06:33):
It it, it's, it's been a problemfor a few years.
And when we look back, I mean, we, we talked about, you know,
for all of Tyler Bowen's faults,the, the one thing he wasn't
afraid to do was he, he understood that we weren't a
good red zone team And he'd, he'd dial up some funky shit to
get us in the end zone when we got in the red, red area and,

(06:55):
and the scoring area, it didn't always work.
It was very boom or bust. But at least he wasn't afraid
to, to dial it up and see what happens because we have been
very poor at completing drives. And it's not just the short
yardage stuff. It's really everything like
once, once the area to work withgets condensed, we do not do a

(07:16):
good job of just imposing our will offensively.
Mentality talked about that lastweek too Toughness, man, I know
this one I wish Tally was here but he's not I know Tally texted
you me. You kind of agreed with it.
There were times, though, still we look sloppy.
We looked undisciplined on both sides of the ball and I don't

(07:39):
think that's something that's just going to change.
I think that's something we haveto live with this year.
This year, yeah, absolutely. You know, I think there are,
there are things you can do to improve as the year goes along,
but it's going to be kind of incremental.
It's not going to be night and day.

(08:01):
You're not going to all of a sudden wake up and Oh, well,
we're no longer sloppy and undisciplined.
Like there's, there's going to be, you know, incremental steps
as you can take throughout the year, whether it's better,
better practice habits, you know, whether there's something
new implemented during practice that, you know, puts an emphasis
on, you know, certain types of, you know, whether it's

(08:22):
penalties, whether it's false starts, things like that.
Yeah. Speaking for myself, I mean all
false starts. Are they they shouldn't.
They shouldn't happen, man. It it it Paul starts to be your
all mental. It's all mental.
And if you if you aren't able tohandle the mentality at this
point in time, I don't know whatto do with you.

(08:46):
It's true. So.
Yeah. All right.
Last thing, you already mentioned about the backup
quarterbacks getting to play up and maybe that's just they're
trying to build Karen's confidence up because he is
going to be the guy. I think he, I think Pop and
Rangel should have got time in the 3rd and the 4th.
I think the game was well in hand but at least they played
because a lot of kids did not play.

(09:08):
Now Montgomery was straight up with it and he didn't mention
which kids which I am fine with,but he said some of the guys out
were injury concerns. Other guys they are having the
portal red shirt decisions with and it was it was big names on
here, biggest being Caleb Woodson and Quinton Reddish,
Sherrod Coble, Christian Ellis, Caleb Brown, Taki Heath, Johnny

(09:29):
Garrett, Keelan Adams, Chan's yeah, Brody Cornerstaller and
Sherrod Henderson. And and to me that's and I'll
say it's bad, but the statement that Montgomery made after was
not bad because it wasn't just they're working through some
things or some things are going on.

(09:50):
But he just straight up said he didn't tell you who.
Some people are hurt and some people were having talks with,
but it sucks in that it's it's happening.
Well, we, we know it was going to happen and like, like, you
know, as we said, we were talking with Evan just a little
while ago, like we don't know what these, what are actual

(10:10):
starting line UPS going to look like this week because of those
discussions, right? Like we know what the depth
chart is, but we don't know how many of those players are going
to be available. You know, it's, it's one of
those things that you expect with a coaching change.
What you're concerned about is that do you have enough guys

(10:32):
behind them to go out there and be competitive?
Because I think that's what we want to be the rest of the year.
We want to be competitive in these games.
We want to show that, you know, there's fight in the in this
team, that there's fight to, youknow, put the best product out
there that we can. As we work through the remaining
games on the schedule, I think the expectations for anything,

(10:55):
even even a bowl, are really outthe window at this point.
It's really about just going outthere and being competitive week
in, week out and let the chips fall where they may.
And, and, and I'll make this safe if we make a ball.
First of all, Philip Montgomery is not going to be the head
coach unless he literally wins out 9 + 1 + 13 in a row.

(11:16):
That's the only way he becomes head coach.
But if he gets the team to a bowl, there is going to be AG5
school, maybe even a lower levelP5 school, P4 school.
I think he gets a call if we make a ball, but I'm not
foreseeing that. I, I, I don't feel like that's
happening this year. Let's go real quick, Brian.
Anything that you weren't prepared for when you started

(11:39):
watching the game or I can't remember if you were watching
live. No, you were on travel so you
had to watch the recorded version and on anything when you
started seeing like. Interesting.
I I was surprised that we didn'ttake more calculated risk with
the football in the passing game.

(11:59):
There were, there were a lot of taking what we were given.
And I get that, you know, they're, they're, they're,
they're making sure that they'renot getting beat deep.
I get that. But at the same time you got to
work the intermediate area, you got to be able to push the ball
down field. I felt like there was a lot of
check downs, particularly the running backs, a lot of running
backs involved in the offense, which isn't a bad thing, but I

(12:22):
feel like there was yards on thefield that we surrendered.
Because you know, when we look at the way this offense is
running right now and it has rununder Kyron, is that there are
periods where Kyron is maybe a little too risk averse.
And then when he feels like he needs to press, he presses and

(12:46):
and does too much and takes too many risk with the football.
And we haven't really been able to find that happy medium where
those risks are calculated. Those risks are within the
framework of the offense, but they're still good plays to make
because as long as you're accurate with the football, it's
a safe throw to make as long as you put it on the right spot of

(13:11):
the receiver. Well, Speaking of that something
and this, this came from Shelton.
Shelton messaged this to us and he couldn't make the show, but
he said mention this some of thehe did make some good RPO
throws. He was accurate with the check
downs. He gave just about on most of
his check down throws. He gave everybody an opportunity

(13:33):
to get a field especially PJ Prelo a couple times.
But the question is can he do that as we get to a higher level
in as much as Evan talked about,you know, their struggles, it is
a better team in NC State. So with that, but I think
something I noticed Brian and I asked you to look at it, there

(13:54):
were a. Little bit of wrinkles.
A little bit of different formations, a little bit of
different way the wide receiverswere lined up, which we have not
seen in the first three weeks. Now, I don't know if that was
because it was Wofford or is that because the head coach is
now the offensive coordinator. But I did notice that and and I

(14:15):
don't know what that means. That could just be something
they've been working towards, right?
I mean, you used to mention there used to be plays you guys
would have and you'd you'd work on it for like a month and then
finally pull it in a game. Yeah.
I mean, you're going to have these plays that either are
you're kind of setting up for a particular defense that you see
on your schedule. It could be that.

(14:37):
It could be you want to add in some new wrinkles as you move
throughout the year because you want to give different teams
different things to see on film.You want to have a little
something up your sleeve that every team you're playing hasn't
seen. So you're usually going to have
one play or one formation, or yes, running, running the same

(14:58):
plays out of a couple different formations or with different
motion. You're going to see those things
get implemented as the season goes along just to give you a
different looks and and make sure that, you know, folks
aren't able to Telegraph what you're trying to do just because
they watch the film. So I mean, Wofford's a good,
good way to put put some of thatout there because you can kind

(15:20):
of run a test run of some of these new things without, you
know, as much pressure on you toto execute.
And so, you know, seeing some ofthose play out, OK, I think
that's that's a good thing. Obviously, now they're on their
own film. So NC State gets to watch that.
But hopefully we got a couple new things up our sleeve that

(15:43):
Montgomery's going to pull out and we can we can take advantage
of that porous defense down there in Raleigh.
Yep. So again, we will see that
Brian, let's do this because I, I don't know if Tyler's going to
jump on or not. What's your key Saturday?
Yeah, it was a good seeing Gabe out there.
It'd been about a year. That was a good I was, he took a

(16:06):
good angle, got a good chase down tackle there.
I, I, I like seeing him getting some action in there.
That was really good. Really, really, really happy for
that kid. You know, regardless of what,
you know what happens, you know,after the end of the season,
Good to see him getting out there and, you know, doing his
thing. Man keys, man keys.

(16:27):
You're going to have to score points.
This this isn't going to be a team that's going to go out
there and you know, like a SouthCarolina and, and put up, you
know, a, a, a low 20 number. I think this team is going to
hit 30 against our defense. So we're going to put up some
points. All right, I'm, I'm kind of with
you on that. I, I, I don't think we can

(16:47):
completely stop Hollywood's mothers.
It's limit to big ones though, you know, they're really good,
10 to 20. If you tell me the biggest 1 he
got all night was in that range,I feel better about our chances.
Especially you start getting into the 20 to 30 to 30 to 40,
more than 40s. Those are just killer.

(17:08):
So that's my thing. Limit the big plays.
Unfortunately, unless they told you, they did not tell me what
they thought. So I'm going to leave Shelton
and Tally's predictions off board.
I'll go with mine first. I do think we compete better in
this game, but with the way the offense is played for most of

(17:30):
this season and the way NC State's offense has played most
of the season, I just can't see us keeping up.
I think they either they jump onus early.
I think it's a we, we lose back 12, I say 3523.
And it all depends on the mentality of this team.
Could we stand there and trade blows until the fourth quarter

(17:53):
and then maybe they get a couplelate scores?
Yeah. Could they just jump out on us
early out of OODU? Yeah.
But I I, I cannot see a win in this game.
Yeah, I don't see a win either. I'm in the same ballpark as you.
Give me give me 3627. I think I think we'll we'll

(18:14):
we'll score some points. I don't think that's a very good
defense. I don't think they're
significantly better than even what we saw with with Wofford
based on obviously talent is there talent is much better.
But I think Wofford is a more sound defense and and definitely
we're playing not to not to get beat on the big plays against

(18:37):
us, whereas I think we'll be able to hit some big plays on NC
State with that inconsistency. We'll just have to see if we can
have enough compared to what they'll be able to get on our
end. 100% All right, Well, Brian, let's get to some of the
news and notes before we jump into big screeners here.
And it all started Saturday morning.
I don't know how you heard it orwhen you heard it, but we got

(19:02):
some of the news we kind of beenexpecting.
And to Virginia Tech's luck, it was on college game day and
that's where Pete Thamel basically said there was an 50
million coming down for VirginiaTechs in the athletic funds.
It's stuff we had felt is going to be coming down based on the

(19:23):
WIT meeting back in August and everything transpiring.
But then lo and behold, few dayslater, everything shout out,
Doug Bowman, Andy Bitter, Colby,everybody who was getting that
stuff. And I know you've got it up
here, Brian, but you heard it Saturday, you see it a few days
later. You know the BOV means a week

(19:44):
from yesterday. What was just your feelings just
looking at all that information?I mean, you love seeing the
commitment. I'm, I'm hoping that we're able
to see all of this through, but seeing the commitment and seeing
the. We are dedicating and and
focusing on reaching 200 + 1,000,000 over the next 4 fiscal

(20:08):
years. You know, starting with fiscal
year 27 will be above 200 million, getting to 190 in
fiscal year 26. This is a big deal.
It, it puts you in a very competitive space, not only in
the ACC, but looking at a national product.

(20:28):
It, it puts you to very competitive space in that, in
that front as well. In, in a space we really haven't
been for a very long time, 15 years, 15 years.
And really in terms of being this competitive, you know,
probably going back to when Beamer had flirtations with UNC

(20:48):
and the, you know, the allocations that he got as a
result of that is probably the last time we would be this
competitive nationally on a financial front.
So that's exciting. As we said earlier, I think
we've got the money now where wecan go out and get get a coach

(21:09):
both from a financial commitmentand from a structural commitment
that you won't turn us down likewe had a bunch in the last, last
go round. So yeah, I'm excited about this.
I think, you know, when you lookat the numbers and you look at
kind of where things are are heading, it's the exciting time

(21:30):
and you know, Speaking of exciting times.
Speaking of. Jonathan Tally.
What's going on, brother? Oh my God, you're rubbing his
head. What is going on?
What you what you learn tonight.Nothing yet.
I didn't learn a damn thing. Oh.
My God. I didn't learn nothing is is we

(21:51):
do we got a coach yet or we got a.
Bruce Arians went on McAfee though, so you know.
Yeah, I'm saying a little bit about that.
We. Just talking about the money
right now, talent, that's what we didn't got to.
We didn't talk about the money and how much.
Basically Brown was just going, how excited he was about we're

(22:11):
finally being for real about this.
I know Jim you put in there, Jimsaid.
It should have been done five years ago.
I agreed at least, but. You know what, what did you feel
when you start seeing the numbers and it's like
190,000,000 / 200 million knowing when you start getting
into that, you're up there in the upper echelon of the ACC and

(22:34):
probably top 25. In Investor 25, yeah.
I know it's just like, you know,when you first start hearing
about it because you know, I mean, I ain't saying we
insiders, but we may hear about some stuff a little bit more
than it's put out or before it'sput out.
So when you start hearing about it, it's not like you doubt the
people that's talking with you. But at the same time, it's like,

(22:57):
I've been down this road so manytimes with Virginia Tech.
I don't believe it until it's like pen on paper.
You know what I'm saying? I see some concrete and then
once you start seeing some things really start getting into
motion. It's like what, where is it
being like, what, what are we waiting for?
Why we been, we should have beendoing this like we just never

(23:18):
capitalized on our moments. You know what I'm saying?
Never capitalized on our moments.
So don't want to seem ungrateful, but it's like, thank
you for finally doing something.And I, I said, even when Frank
left, because I, I was in the, you know, the maybe the
majority, excuse me, minority when Frank was here, just like,
man, we got to get a new coach. We got to go a new route.

(23:40):
We got to try something, then Forinte came, then probably
came. And it's like whenever a legend
leaves, sometimes it takes a while to get that, to get it
right. You know what I'm saying?
I'm thinking with how bad thingsare being and how we are still
perceived, they finally said, OK, if this is going to work, if

(24:00):
we're going to capitalize on thegames, we got to put some money
into this and we got to take it serious.
So I don't want to hear about nocoordinator hires.
I don't want to hear about no secondary.
Like we got to swing for the fence and you know, maybe get a
triple. We can't hit no single or no
double though. We got to got to at least get a
triple with it so. Well, hold on.

(24:22):
You joining us later. I just got to put this in here
just for you, for my man Andretti.
Oh Lord, we don't. You know what a people people
been talking about saving. I just seen his name pop up
everywhere. You got to understand though,
man, like he had the job, he wasat Alabama.
Why would he just go back to college football to coach?

(24:44):
Like he's done everything. He is the greatest.
So even if he, I mean, he has towin a championship wherever he
goes, you know, I don't know if Nick wants to do it.
I think he left because of NIL, you know, So I don't think that
he wants to have to deal with that, and I don't blame him.
So you got to go with the new way when you got to find

(25:04):
somebody who is going to be ableto coach #1 but it's going to be
able to, you know, get the most out of Blacksburg, too.
Yep. A. 100% you know the one thing I
I watched it, I didn't watch thewhole Bruce Arians interview,
but I watched that clip that haspopped up seemingly 100 million
times in the last day and Bruce talking about we're getting the

(25:27):
general manager, then we're going to find the coach.
Well, that's first of all, finally that's the right way to
do it. We got the person who's going to
be running the the money side ofit has got to be the person who
hires because they've got to be able to work hand in hand.
But also this, I think the way we're setting it up, you

(25:47):
mentioned coach. I think it's going to take a lot
of that pressure off of a head coach to be, oh, you got to be
the NIO guy. You got to know how much money
they're going to get. You got to know their value.
You got to do all this shit and having that.
I don't think we're going to getNick Saban.
I'll say that right now. Few weeks from now, we'll let

(26:08):
y'all come on and y'all speak topeople.
We'll keep a tally of how many y'all think savings coming.
But I think that might be one ofthe biggest sell points if we
set this up right. Listen, are you going to have to
go shake hands, kiss babies, allthat stuff?
Are you going to have to go intohigh schools and meet kids and
make sure they're OK and meet families?
Absolutely. That's your job as a head coach.
Are you going to have to go overthe top with that shit that that

(26:31):
you've had to do for the last 40years of college football?
Right. In this era, maybe not in this
era, if you got the structure right.
Listen, you you're going to haveto close some deals, you're
going to have to shake some hands.
But your primary job is going togo go coach, go coach this team
to the best possible athletes. Yeah.

(26:55):
Yeah. And I mean, in the new age, talk
about money or talk about this like it, it really doesn't take
as long as it used to to build ateam, you know what I'm saying?
Or just again, I talked about Florida State and then what they
did, you know, a couple of yearsago.
And I was like, we, we ain't Florida State.

(27:16):
But like the similar trajectory could have been, OK, they lose
this and they did this and then all of a sudden, boom, they get
these guys in, they have a greatyear.
Florida State's going to be one of those teams, you know what
I'm saying? It's kind of a who did we get in
the portal? Because recruiting don't even
matter no more. Like high school recruiting

(27:36):
don't even matter no more because it it's so I mean it, it
still does matter. I don't want to say that, but
not as much because when a coachcomes in, it's like it don't
really matter what his high school recruiting class is.
He can go out and get 40 playersand field A-Team to be, you
know, go from 2:00 and 11:00 Florida State last year to

(27:57):
undefeated and top ten this year.
You know what I'm saying? Like you can, you can do that.
Somebody just put it in the in the chat.
Look at Texas Tech, they droppedso much money and it don't work
that way all the time. But like Virginia Tech, if you
go get the athletes and you havesomebody that we had somebody
that wasn't coaching them and westill was close to winning

(28:18):
games, you know what I'm saying?Like if you can go get the
talent and where we play, it'll be a easier path than some of
the other places, you know, the,the SEC schools, you know, the
the Big 10 schools, things like that.
So I'm just excited that they are at least looking at it like

(28:40):
this is the cash cow. We got it to protect it.
So they're. Looking at it as a business now,
it is. You have to.
It is no It effectively is no longer an athletic program for a
school. It is a multi $1,000,000
business statement about the school, the region and the state
in general. Says a lot because I think they
know and I think this is probably politicians.

(29:03):
I mean, you got Aaron Rouse doing stuff.
You got Younkin who's a big sports fan up here.
They understand right now the two biggest universities in
state of Virginia sports wise, they're not in the two big
conferences. And what does that do?
They were like, oh, that's nothing.
It's like it's billions of dollars.
It's revenue, it's eyes on your state.

(29:25):
It it's a whole different ball game now.
And I'm not saying we're going to get into Big 10 or the SEC,
but if you're seeing this kind of stuff done and the school
saying we're willing to fund money, our donors are willing to
give money. And if the state's willing to
back support, go ahead, go ahead.
No, People look at things like, you know, wins and losses, you
know, schools and things like that.

(29:46):
But if you really like get down to the nuts and bolts of like
how the workings of the of the communities go a place like
freaking Blacksburg, Tuscaloosa,you know what I'm saying?
Tuscaloosa ain't got nothing there.
You know, Auburn, Auburn ain't got nothing there.
Like for real, if that school isnot having games and people

(30:09):
coming in for game day, people staying in hotels, people
renting cars, people Airbnb and people going to restaurants.
Like when Blacksburg is when when Virginia Tech's not good,
Blacksburg is going to take a hit.
You may still have some stuff coming through there, but it's
going to take a hit when you're when Blacksburg is jumping, when

(30:30):
Virginia Tech is at least competitive like that, you stand
to make a lot of money in that area.
And then that helps not just Blacksburg, but the surrounding
areas because I've been to, I'vebeen to plenty of games and I
stayed in Bristol before, I've stayed in Christiansburg, I've
stayed in Withville, I've stayedin places around Blacksburg

(30:51):
because I couldn't get the Blacksburg.
So it it, it's a bigger thing than just a football team
winning and losing games. So the people that's up top now
I start looking at things going,well, how much money are we do?
How much money did we lose because we're doing this and how
much money can? Yeah, how much?
Did finally did somebody finallysay you've lost $300 million?

(31:14):
You lost. Exactly.
You lost. All this money.
You've had a down program, so you've had, you know, and then
it made all the stadiums fooled up.
But still, are those people traveling?
Are they bringing, you know whatI'm saying?
Is it overly full? Are we really booking up just
because you say you got this many people in the stadium?
Are you booking up hotels? There's restaurants being

(31:35):
booked, there's people getting mad and leaving, going home.
It's more to it than just that. So I tell you what, whatever
that I think, it's the Hard Rockthat's in Bristol when if we
winning, I'm going in there spending money.
If we losing, I don't spend nothing.
I want to go to the casino and spend money when we're doing
good. I'm I'm I'm excited, but you

(31:56):
know, when you're not it, it just changes the trajectory of
what people are going to do. So I think the people up top
finally kind of understand that or they understood it because
they was making money. But when it starts hitting their
pockets, they like, hold on for a minute.
Let's let's figure out what's going on.
So. There you go, Brian.
Anything else you want to add before we jump to the next piece
here? With Yeah, yeah.

(32:17):
So I'll, I'll just talk about a little bit.
So I mean one of the things thatwe talked about was kind of the
funding breakdown. You know, there's going to be
institutional support, there's going to be student fee
increases. We got bridge funding, which
means we are taking out some loans and then we got
philanthropy which is always been a part of athletics fund

(32:41):
rating, right. So we we talked about and what
it sounds like is that when we talk about the philanthropy part
of it, it sounds like year one that fiscal year 26 already has
been either collected or is already aligned and, and and
spoken for. Obviously we don't need to

(33:05):
restructure some of the things in Hokie Club to make sure that
we're hitting those marks for 27through 29 to keep that funding
allocation rising. And then we look at student
fees. I know people hate student fees,
but at this point, everybody, every, everybody's got student
fees. I mean, it sucks, it's a
necessary evil, but it it's one of those things that it looks

(33:27):
like, you know, you go from. Yeah, really you're, you're not
really pulling any revenue from 2.
Fees right now lowest, still thelowest even after the
additional. Funding, yeah.
So you're still, you're still putting yourself in a pretty
good position relative to your competition in terms of not, not
crippling your students. I mean, nobody, nobody likes
you're giving 18 to 22 year oldsadditional debt.

(33:50):
I mean, I get it. But at the end of the day, if
you want to be competitive, that's going to be part of it.
Yeah. It's just where, it's just where
we are. You know the other thing, Brian,
you were talking about the philanthropy and a lot of people
are questioning, well, how are you going to do that?
A lot of people, a lot of people, well, people are asking.

(34:12):
If you go on the Twitter timeline, there are a lot of
people asking how's this? Say the name you'd.
Say the name. You know who it is.
You want to say the name Charlie?
I ain't saying no name I. Ain't saying a name, but these
people saying things and here's the thing, when you have a
vision and a plan like this and you see that Lance reliable,
that's donors. Well, how do we know this money

(34:32):
is going to come in? Well, AI got a feeling when they
gut the Hokie Club and about I'mgoing to say about a month, give
it a month. They're going to gut Hokie Club
and get whole new bunch of people working that that's one
way. But my second is there are some
big donors. There are some big people who
give a shit about sports and give a lot of money.
I've got a feeling that the discussions have been with them.

(34:56):
All right, let's say it's 30. I can't remember the exact
numbers, if you remember the exact numbers for 2728 or 29 for
land to be laid on me, but I gota feeling that they've discussed
with them. We are going to try to get as
much as we can from everyone forthis.
If we can't, will you, y'all know who I'm talking about?
Some of those people who are really rich have a lot of money.

(35:18):
Can you backfill if we're short?And I got a feeling a lot of
those folks have said, yeah, if you're going to do all this
other stuff, if you're going to give us more money here, if
you're going to raise student fees to give more money, if
you're going to do this to give more money, you know what?
We're willing to make that investment.
Yeah, but I'll say this, this iswhere the the GM and coach hire

(35:39):
become very important. 100%. Because you, you have to have #1
the structure out the gate for them to be confident to make the
initial investment #2 at some point in fiscal year 28 and 29.
If you're not winning fucking games that extra at the end that
hey, I'll fill in the gap, that might be a little harder to get

(36:03):
if you're not seeing the return on that investment.
That means people got to get fired again.
It's going to be a brutal cycle of it.
It's going to be a brutal cycle.I'm just saying that's why the
GM and the coach hire are right.You got to get that right.
You got to get the right people in the gate.
You got to get the right playersin here and you got to win games
in about by by year three, or atleast you got to be seeing that

(36:24):
upward trajectory that we never really saw under Brent Pratt.
You got to see it. You got to see return on
investment and then the money will keep coming in.
If you are seeing results, the money will come in a whole lot
easier than seeing the same shithappen despite having 50 million
more in the coffers. Andrea, you got to decide who

(36:46):
you want you want IRV or you want you want statement.
He said. Both of them.
Both of them. He, he, he ain't got to worry
about it. They don't have, they don't have
somebody in a hokey jacket for him.
Artist knows who it is. Y'all know my opinion.
I I stated it early and I'll siton that and again give it a
couple of weeks we're going to let y'all come on here and give
you all's opinions on it all right let's flip real quick

(37:10):
announced earlier this week the ACC officially is going to a
nine game schedule with an odd number of teams.
I don't know how they're going to figure that out.
That ain't my job. Some.
Teams are going to be playing eight every year and then going,
you know, we already have the weird shit that happened with NC
State and Virginia this year. I mean, we're going to have.
Yeah. Probably more of that I would

(37:32):
imagine is is going to be some of what happens.
Yeah, I don't know. And and then, well, on top of
that, you get 9 and either you're going to play one more
power 14 or if you're doing the 8, you get 2 more Power four
teams. So for is it next year, are we
losing JMU or we drop an ODU because they're going to give
the new coach BMI as an offeringof sacrifice?

(37:55):
Just real quick, who's going byebye?
I don't know man, I feel like itdepends on who the coach is
because it depending on who the coach is.
I mean they may want to get rid of VMI.
OK. And so play ODU and JMU.
Yeah, I mean, because if you getrid of ODU, it might seem like

(38:17):
you're ducking them. They don't whoop your ass all
these years. So depending on who the coach
is, if they come in and they have ties to the program,
they'll be like, yeah, we want to play them again.
I mean, at this point, ODUI meanthat it's it's their Super Bowl
every year, so and and they've done damn near 500 in it.

(38:39):
So you can't really fault them for wanting to play that game.
And at this point, again, we talked about it before the
season started. It's like we finally won enough
where we could push out on goingto Norfolk, yeah, but now we
went and got our ass kicked thisyear, so it's going to be a

(38:59):
whole lot harder to push out of the series all together when you
just got your ass kicked at yourown place so.
True. It's it's, it's going to be
interesting to see how that series shakes out.
It's. Going to be good for the I guess
the GM to figure out. Yeah, yeah, GM is going to have
some things to think about and talk about and weigh some, some

(39:23):
options and and decide whether, you know, saving face and
playing this thing out and you're actually getting some
wins in it is is worth the tradeoff of not getting a, you know,
higher level, you know, P4 competition.
If Bema comes in, he's going to want to play LDU.
If somebody said Signetti, he comes in, he's going to play JM.

(39:48):
Whoever the JMU coach is, now that people have been throwing
his name out, probably going to play JMU.
Hey, I want Signetti too but I don't know how feasible that is
at this point. He's at a spot where he's
getting Big 10 money with. You know, he's hitting, he's
he's exceeding his expectations by big margin early on.

(40:13):
And I know once you, once you set expectations, things shift.
But right now he can. He can stay at at Indiana and
win eight games every year and punch up every one or two years
for 1/2 decade or a decade and then ride off into the sunset.
100%. I know we ain't going to talk
about coaches too much, but I dowant to say this because I don't

(40:34):
have no opinion on it and I knowwe haven't said nothing.
Somebody put the name out, Pat Fitzgerald, and I didn't even
think about it. He got all the.
Shit cleared up. I didn't.
I didn't think about what he done.
I didn't think about all the stuff that he went through
afterwards. I'm going to say I'm going to
ask Curtis, because I know you know about this.

(40:57):
What do you think about Pat Fitzgerald?
All right, well, first of all, he got exonerated of all the
shit. So first of all, we mentioned.
No car wash. There was no car wash, Dickens.
No car wash Dickens on his watch, right?
Like I said, I ain't really did a whole bunch of studying on it.
So he wasn't the one. He wasn't the one it was.

(41:19):
Not him. He got exonerated.
It was going on, but he did not know about it.
And he? He had no noodle play going on.
Curtis, is that what you're? Saying play going on, I'm
thinking guy like Fitzgerald, ifhe becomes the coach, you're not
upset because you know, you lookat his track record at

(41:40):
Northwestern and I mean winning 10 games 123 times, winning nine
games like 3 times in his careerthere and they don't give shit
about it. He also mentality wise,
undersized linebacker. I mean, he fits.

(42:01):
He fits what you want that he puts blue collar mentality.
If we, if you, if you told me Thanksgiving Day, tally me, we
all sitting around watching the game and you call, take Curtis,
Brian, call me now. I just heard something and you

(42:21):
told me it was him. I wouldn't be upset.
Right, Brian, what you got to say?
I'm fine with Pat. You know, we could do better.
I I think we could do better. I think we could do a whole lot
worse too. And I told y'all, I told y'all I
wasn't going to get y'all in. No coaching talk.
So I'm not trying to go that route just yet.

(42:44):
But I do want to just start because I know people.
I think I'd have Dan Mullen a little bit ahead of Pat, but I
was just about to say behind him.
Yeah. What we got to understand is,
yeah, that's going to be some extra money, but we're still in
a certain position. There are some coaches that are
out of the league that we're notgoing to get.
There's some coaches that are beneath where we are that we

(43:04):
don't need to look at getting. Just my opinion.
But when you start thinking of somebody said Fitzgerald, I was
like, but then I started thinking, I was like, that's
probably about the coach range that we'll go, you know what I'm
saying, or somebody like a damn Mullen.
And then you have so many peopleto say all these coaches can't
or he didn't do this. He you got to go look at some

(43:26):
stuff for yourself because when you start looking at somebody
like a, a Dan Mullen, he didn't have a great time at Florida.
He didn't recruit bad like people say it but didn't.
Have a great hold on. No, no, no.
That's where the bullshit comes in with Dan Mullen in Florida.
So everybody keeps saying he didn't have a good record before
and I, I will no put Jason's up real quick so I can say this.

(43:47):
My see I I didn't even want to start talking because I knew
names. Were going to come up.
That's it. I'm I'm going to end us on with
Dan Mullen talking. We going we going to keep moving
because again, I want to have a night where we have this
conversation for two hours. But Dan Mullen at Florida, ten
wins, 10. What?

(44:07):
Oh Jesus Christ, Jim, ten wins his first year, eleven wins his
second year. COVID year, he went 8:00 and
4:00. He went 5 and 6 to 2021 and got
fired. He went to the Peach Bowl, the
Orange Bowl, and the Cotton Bowland squashed it.
Three years and he got fired. People didn't like him in
Florida because you know what hewanted?
He was probably an asshole to somebody and they were like,

(44:28):
well, fuck you, we'll fire you. Where have they been since 2022?
So two more things to hit. Spring portal is gone.
Spring portal's gone. It's going to be one time a
year. That time is not set.
I think it's going to land like February 1.

(44:49):
So let me ask this question. And I mean, I know we had talked
about this before. You triggered me, Jason.
You triggered. Me how?
How is How is that landing in terms of transferring in for
spring ball with the window being after?

(45:12):
Drop dates for right, spring semester, right?
That's that's going to be crazy,right?
Like what do you do? Because I mean, I know that the,
the original talk was like backing up, backing up the
window, expanding the window, but but keeping it, you know,

(45:33):
within the spring semester, but before the start of the spring
semester. I, I just don't know what that's
going to look like. No idea and you maybe some
people with more knowledge than I do you have have have better
ideas of what that's going to look like, but.
Because you can't have it pushed.
You can't push it. I mean, it's not going to be
there. And then if you don't get them
in, then they can't participate.So you're behind.

(45:58):
It's like, when do you when doesthat portal work?
I don't know. And and then I mean.
This year National championship is January 19th, January 20th.
Yeah. It's going to be DAF national
championship game. Through mid February, no.
No that like or the 21st last day you can go into port will be

(46:21):
like the 21st. OK.
Something like that. They basically give that week
because most schools, your ad drops probably going to be
around the last of January. And again, there's going to be
no perfect solution. It's going to be pissed off
people. And you know, maybe they start
looking at incremental rules that you know what, you can take

(46:42):
a six hour online course class and be enrolled in the school
and come here and play football.Got to think like that.
One last piece before we get to big screeners.
The Wisconsin Virginia Tech gamehas been moved from Lane Stadium
to Charlotte. Talley is extremely happy
because he cuts his drive time significantly from from us.

(47:06):
I'll take that. A lot more hotels than
Charlotte. Too, how old will we be in in
whenever that game's played? Fifty I'll.
Be I'll be I'll just turn 48. Hey man, we might be.
We might be flying to them then,Curtis Cars.
Cars might be flying by then. Or might.

(47:26):
Be flying a long way away, dawg.But it's in Charlotte and
apparently the money's good. I was joking with Brian earlier.
You know, I hate neutral site games, I really do.
But if you're telling me you getan extra seven 8,000,000 bucks
for playing there, man that is agood payment for a defensive and

(47:46):
offensive lineman. Sign me up for a couple of them.
Exactly. Screw it.
Yeah, all. Right tally real quick before we
flip over to big screeners. Your prediction for the game in
your key for the Hokies with theNC State game.
You missed a really good Evan was nailing it tonight from the
podcast. I might have to go back and go

(48:08):
back and listen to it. I'm going to say, man, just
because of where we are, probably say, you know,
somewhere about 3521, somewhere around that range, North
Carolina State, just because I don't think we have enough.
I don't know who's playing. I don't know who's going to sit
out. I don't know who's ready to
transfer and I don't know what our office is going to do.

(48:29):
So 3521 somewhere around there. I know that defense ain't good.
That's the only reason I'm saying we scored 21.
So I think we, you know, scored some.
But you know, I don't know that we stopped themselves.
Keys for us is going to be for me.
It's just where we are. I mean, just getting better, get

(48:51):
better then we've been in the losses.
If it's going to be a loss, makeit getting better, getting more
disciplined. We were still undisciplined last
game. So get a little bit more
disciplined and then you know, moving to the next games and try
to steal a couple of these gamesbecause we still can win some
games. I mean, you don't, you just

(49:12):
can't win one game, you know what I'm saying?
You got to find some games on the schedule and win them, you
know, no matter who's walking out there because a lot of these
kids are getting paid. A lot of these kids are getting
trying to get film. You know, a lot of these kids,
it's that last who are on. So it's still a lot to play for
for those young men and coaches too.
Everybody's auditioning. So if you don't audition, put a
good audition up, you know what I'm saying?

(49:33):
So steal some games, man, go steal some games.
I don't really think it's a key or my key is just to be more
disciplined. But I just feel like we got
nothing to lose. The coach is gone, you know the
players are looking for what they want to be and what they
want to do and you know who's coming in.
It's a lot riding on that to what nucleus we look like we

(49:56):
have next year. So and go create a name for
yourself. If you get the opportunity to
get in and make a big play, go do it.
Go do it. Awesome.
All righty, Brian went. I didn't even notice your tag
tonight. All right, Brian, let's talk

(50:17):
about it because I mentioned this earlier in in the chat.
I can't remember if you saw it. This is one of the best sports
weekends of the year. So first of all, I love golf.
Ryder Cups this weekend, Ryder Cups, the best of been in golf
bar none, USA versus Europe. Usually there's there's going to

(50:38):
be people getting each other's grills.
It's the one time you get close to your fist fight on a golf
course. Secondly, MLB is coming down to
the wire. There's like 3 to 4 races still
going on that will be decided Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
NF LS going on. We all love it as Ken Ward

(50:59):
treating you tally. Don't answer that because you
don't throw things at me. He ain't doing bad.
Though Daniel Jones season oh. God.
Y'all been fixed Daniel Jones upthere in Indy's crazy.
But then we still, when you started, when y'all started
looking through to sleep this weekend, was it just like Jeezy

(51:20):
Peasy? Like it's just good.
We only picked four games and that's probably five more we
could have picked easily out there this weekend.
Yeah. And it's like, it's one of those
weeks where it's like, there's not a ton of like top 25 versus
top 25, but there's like a dozenreally good matchups, even if
it's not those, you know, marquee games.

(51:40):
Yeah, and you got some big marquees too.
So Brian, you got to screen up. Me and Brian have had some O and
four weeks to kick their ass. Tally rally back last week, two
games under 500. Bet with Sheldon you won't lose
money. So where are we going?
Hey, Hey, Nate, I'm leading it off.
It is going to be 330. I'll be getting back in from

(52:02):
baseball to watch LSU, Ole Miss and got Ole Miss getting.
Hold on, Brian, I think you got this one messed up with the
line. Hold on.
It's all right. It's all right.
The Ole Miss was getting 1 1/2. Yeah, Ole Miss is giving 1 1/2

(52:23):
I. Thought giving 1 1/2 excuse me
hang. On.
It's all right. That's why I'm pulling up here.
The Ole Miss is giving Ole Miss -1 1/2.
Yeah, it's that Ole Miss Lane Kiffin's just waiting for Billy
Napier to get fired because everybody know Lane wants to.
Florida job, bigger budget, better state to recruit from,

(52:45):
lot more expectations. But for me, I think LSU is just
a morale rounded team. Only Lane 1 1/2.
I think they went by a touchdown.
Shelton took LSU. Shelton took LSU talent.
Old piss baby. Oh, piss.

(53:06):
I'm all right with LSU as well. I think.
I think they're going to get this thing done.
I was, I was, I liked it with the the plus 3 1/2.
So at least the the the the -1 1/2 for sure.
But it's better now, like definitely, definitely LSU, All
right, Tally taking a point and a half.
We are laying it. I Who's next?

(53:32):
Oh, let's be Alabama and Georgia.
Boy, that's the one everybody's talking about down here.
So yeah, we're going to see who's good and who's who's not.
I guess. You know, if Alabama loses, they
go down to games or they, they, they got 2 losses for the season
and they'll be getting ready to get rid of their coach depending
on how bad they lose. But I don't think we're going to

(53:54):
see that. I think Alabama is going to take
this game, so I'll pick Bama. Upset between the edges stand.
I'm not taking Alabama. I think I think George is going
to win by at least a touchdown here.
I don't. I don't think this Alabama team
is it. I don't necessarily think that
this Georgia team is world beaters, but I think they're

(54:16):
better than where Alabama is at this point.
So give me Georgia. Yeah, I'm with you.
Alabama played one team with talent similar to theirs.
They looked lost on the field. They got smacked by the
Seminoles and just it's 3 1/2 line, that's not enough.
So I'm going to take Georgia as well.

(54:37):
And Shelton is going, he's riding with us, riding with us.
Tally on an island twice. And by the way, if Cannon Dubois
were to get fired, I would be willing to definitely let him
get high because I think that kid can coach.
That man can coach just like crazy down there where Tally
lives. A different level man, true.

(54:58):
It's a whole different beast forsure.
What's next? Oh, Shelton, not here, but this
is a sneaky good game on Friday night at 9:00.
I don't know if I can stay up and watch the end of it.
I'll try maybe TCU going to the Valley of the Sun to play the
Sun Devils. 2 1/2 point favoritehere.

(55:21):
Shelton says good devils. Sun Devils for.
Tally. For me, who did I pick on this?
Hold on one second here. For me, I took TCU.
Don't really know why. I just seen how the coach had to
look at his eyes when he beat Bill Belichick down to the

(55:42):
ground. So I said, hey, I'm going to
pick them. Yeah, I I'm with you and.
And for the same reason. He put his foot on Belichick's
throat and went for the jugular there, man.
So I think that's going to do enough to to take care of the
Sun Devils. Yeah, I'm with y'all.

(56:03):
I'm with y'all. TCU not enough.
They beat SMU, who's supposed tobe a pretty good team this year,
and they they curb stomp the TarHeels.
So that is a small line to a team I already like to win.
Give me TCU O'Brien. Oh hell, what the hell happened

(56:26):
here? OK, well, you all know what
we're doing now. Florida State.
Florida State head to Charlottesville 6 1/2 point dogs
here. As you can see, I've got Florida
State in this one I don't even like.
It's kind of funny the dialogue around can can UVA fill their

(56:49):
stadium for a a high profile game like this.
I don't know if they can and I definitely don't think they can
beat Florida State there. So I've got the Seminoles.
Same. Yeah, same.
I'll go ahead, Curtis. I'm just staying same.
Go ahead yes so for me, you know, I think Florida state's
got a good team this year. You know, I I'm not saying

(57:11):
they're going to, you know, go to the playoffs.
I don't know what happened, but I just, I'm not saying
Virginia's bad by no means. I haven't watched them enough to
know that, but I just think Florida State's on a little bit
different level. So I think they're probably
going to win this game by about two touchdowns if I had to look
at it. But I'll be watching it Friday
night. I'll I'll, I'll take a look.

(57:33):
Well, I say I'll be watching it.My kids homecoming at the high
school. So I'll be paying attention to
it. I don't know how much of it I
get to watch. I I think the thing for me is
that Virginia's got an offense, FS U's got a team.
Yeah, that's it. FSU's got a team and you know,
already played a significantly more talented team in Alabama,

(57:57):
beaten by two scores. They played nobodies and beat
the dog piss out of East Texas A&M and Kent State.
I mean, that's old school, 77, three and 6610.
That's just beating the crap outof someone.
And yes, it is. I got mayor behind me reminding
me this is the 30th anniversary of UVA beating Florida State.

(58:22):
But I just think, Tyler, just dowhat Tyler said.
Florida State's a well-rounded team.
I think Virginia's probably going to score in the 20s, but I
think Florida State's going to score in the high 30s, low 40s.
I don't think Virginia's going to stop them straight up.
So there it is. There it is.

(58:43):
Oh man, tell I'm glad you got tocome on for the last 35.
Man, I have to pop on him, make sure Andrey acted right, you
know what I'm saying? He was a little, he was a little
agitated in the last couple of weeks.
He's out. Control.
He was fired. Up.
He was fired up. One piece of news, if y'all

(59:07):
didn't see this just hit about five hours ago, everybody saw
Kevin Giltner took the Wofford job.
But the there is a Boise State assistant coach.
I had his. I had to tweet up and
everything. Somebody put it in here.
Yeah. I hate Twitter.
Sometimes you find exactly what you need and then it just goes

(59:29):
away. Trying to ask you guys.
Oh, it refreshed on me because I'm like, oh, there's a tweet
right there. Let me just hit it.
Shout out David Cunningham for the repost.
Former Boise State assistant coach David and Moats will be
named assistant coach at Virginia Tech.
Pretty big move for him. He he had been in Boise since

(59:52):
2017 in a variety of roles. Boise has made the tournament
for definitely a few years, so that role is filled.
Basketball season is starting soon, so you know, we'll see how
that goes. Anything else boys, before we
end the night? Anybody see?

(01:00:13):
We got Brett Frye. I'm ready.
To I'm ready to get AGM. Give me AGM.
If anybody sees Brett Pryor at the bar, tell him to quit
drinking beer. Don't quit drinking.
Aw, man. Tally.
And with that right there, we'llwrap up this episode of the
Boundary Corner Podcast, broughtto you by the Count Stanley
Pharmacy in Blacksburg and moments on the More in

(01:00:35):
Lexington. I am Curtis Wilson.
I'm Brian Siegler. Jonathan Tally.
We are part of the College Shuttle Network.
Visit our website, Boundary Corner, Vt to listen to all of
our episodes. While you're there, follow us
wherever you can. Follow us Twitter, Facebook,
Instagram, YouTube, any of your favorite podcast sources
including Spotify, Amazon and Apple Podcast.

(01:00:57):
As always, Jason Long, our buddydown in Roanoke plays us in,
plays us out. Check jasonlongusic.com where
you can see where he is playing live down there, along with all
the links to his Apple, Spotify,YouTube and Facebook pages.
We appreciate y'all for listening.
We're got one win. We're not going.
So for this year, let's go Hokies.

(01:01:19):
Hokies. The.