Phase Two

This week we're taking a dive into where the chips fell with the shuffling of the offensive and defensive staff this off season. We also examine the roster updates for 2025, some of our early takeaways from Spring practice, and put a bow on winter sports.

Episode Transcript

(01:47):
And welcome back to the BoundaryCorner podcast.
Along with my partner, Brian Siegler, I am Curtis Wilson.
We are part of the college shuttle network.
In this episode, as always is brought to you by Doctor Jeremy
Counts down at Counts Family Pharmacy Three O 1 S Main St.,
Blacksburg, VA Counts Family Pharmacy your friendly
neighborhood pharmacy buddy. What's up, man?

(02:11):
Man, I'm tired dude. I'm just going just straight up
saying I'm tired right now. You got the grind before the
cruise you. Hit the hit before the cruise
works and doing doing a trainingat work this week man like right
up to the last second before thecruise getting everything ready
for the cruise. Birthday parties, kid, my kids

(02:34):
birthday party, neighbors kids birthday party, baseball.
I know you got stuff going on too.
Yeah, man, it's, it's been a busy week.
Been a bit busy last few weeks trying to get some, some stuff
checked off at work, trying to get some, you know, busy with
the sun's got, you know, sports going on now.

(02:57):
We're we're kind of ramping up for, you know, spring ball now.
So it's, you know, we, we've hadsome other side discussions and
stuff like that on, on that topic.
So I mean, it's been a, it's been a busy time.
Excited to finally get back together here on Air.
Air it out a little bit. Air it out back, back to the

(03:17):
back to the dynamic. Duo yeah, we are.
We are missing Tally tonight. He's got a lot going on in on
his plate too, so. Baseball kids.
Work we, we, we couldn't get a night where all of us could get
on. So we, we're like, if we don't
pull the trigger now, we're might not, might not get another
one in before before the spring game.

(03:40):
So 100. Percent.
Here we are. Yeah, Shelton on hiatus.
Hiatus. Our our buddy coach Robbie
Compton heading to Chalk Talk inless than 48 hours.
We might have to convince him tocome on when we get back.
I think so. Josh, what am I sipping on
tonight? Tonight I am sipping on Scotch.

(04:04):
You know what Scotch it is, right Ron?
In the bar downstairs. Is it the blended?
No. No, no, it's the Kirkland.
It is Costco Scotch, all right. For those who may live in South
Carolina or Maryland, go to Costco, get you a bottle, the
black Label Kirkland Scotch. My, my neighbor Andrew down the

(04:24):
street recommended it years ago.Basically it's a Johnnie Walker
Black and it's like 50 bucks fora handle.
We drink it. Brian's had it.
He knows it's good. Oh yeah.
You know we're. Hey, it's it's it's cheap, but
it's. Not cheap.
It's it's it's. Cheap for what it is.

(04:47):
There you go. It's cheap for what it is
exactly and by the way, Brian, the vodka we had last summer.
Yep, what 12 bucks for a handle and it was legitimately a hyper
in yes, we'd love for Scotts go to sponsor our show Josh.
I would, I would love that they could come right along with

(05:09):
Jeremy, you know? That's right.
I mean, you know, give me a freemembership and a hot dog anytime
I want it. Even though it's only $1.50,
I'll, I'll save that buck 50 andwe'll.
Call them, they could. They could get probably
everybody in this program, they gave us all one definitely.
We can definitely pull the trigger.
Yeah. Is there is there like a like a
Costco black card or something that I can get?

(05:31):
Exactly. Yeah, but like Brian said, we're
doing this tonight because we needed to punch it before we we
are not here next week. We likely are going to be able
to do a spring show. Literally.
We're going to be hanging out ona cruise all week together.
We're probably going to be writing the show line by line.
And the the GoPro is coming withme, so I might, I might sprinkle

(05:52):
in some some some live footage next week next.
Time we watch. I don't know if we need that.
Man depends, depends on what it's going to be and, and, and
what we say and what we do. We'll see if we'll see if it's
quality. We'll see if it's, you know, I
mean, we're not, we're not necessarily safe for work here.
But you know, it's a cruise. So I mean, she can get wild.

(06:15):
Yeah, 50 is cheap for a handle, Robbie, but let's break it down.
What are we doing tonight? Well, we had not truly talked
about the complete makeup of thestaff.
We had French on just the just acouple weeks ago to go through
kind of the new scheme, what we were expecting.
But we never had that chance to talk about what does new, new
staff look like. We talked about some of the

(06:36):
hires here and there, but what are our takes on it?
And we wanted to break into thattonight.
Then we wanted to break into obviously what came out a little
earlier this week with basicallythe new roster, the new height
weight measurements, seeing all that.
We've also seen some tapes shoutout Kobe, Andy, David put them

(06:57):
out there, some takes from what's going on inside practice.
Couple things that piqued our interest.
But we're going to unload just quite a few things tonight.
And Brian, let's let's just start over all with the staff
changes. I want to start on defense
because that's the first one we did.
Everybody knows we've hired Sam Cephas as the defensive

(07:17):
coordinator. As of right now, what is it
March 25th? March 26th. 2025 year of our
Lord, this is how the staff shakes out and stance.
Keithus does not have a positionpilot.
He is defensive coordinator. What we expect to be a walking
around defensive coordinator. Now let's go real quick and just

(07:40):
hit the rest of the staff and talk about some things.
JC Price still here, associate head coach, defensive line
coach. Derek Jones, Cheetah still at
corners. Pearson Prelude, still the
safeties coach. Sean Quinn is now the outside
linebackers coach. Xavier ADBX to the Z Call him X,

(08:01):
however you refer. He is now the inside linebacker
coach with the two new hires. Jerry Wilson, who came up from
Georgia Southern, I believe he was Georgia Southern.
I have to pull my notes on him real quick.
Who played under Sam Cifcas as adefensive lineman down at
Wofford is the edges coach. Brian Whitehead, a coach defense

(08:22):
with Steve Kiss down at Wofford is the Nichols coach.
And obviously if you look at thechart there are a plethora of
just defensive assistants layingall around.
You know JGW safeties you're looking at the vault Smith
cornerbacks, Jensen Johnson junior D line.

(08:45):
So a plethora of assistant coaches on here.
Brian, I want to ask you this first.
When everything finally came down, I think me and you've been
speculating, were you shocked that there were no additional
movement on the defensive staff?Everybody who was here, with the
exception of Chris Marv, is still here.

(09:10):
I think so if I'm, if I'm circling a spot on the field
that I'm surprised that this person still is coaching that
unit given what we know about Cephas, given what we know about
what he's bringing to a table from a role that the safeties
play in the defense. I was expecting someone

(09:34):
different at that spot. And that's not to say that
Pearson can't get it done, but Ithink a combination of, you
know, having less prior experience, not being the best
unit last year, doing something different with the safety unit
this year. I thought that was going to be a
prime time to him transition back into more of a not

(09:56):
necessarily off the field roll, but a more behind the scenes
role in this in the staff. And we didn't see it.
And and that's not to say it's something to be, you know, to
Josh's point here, something to be concerned about.
I'm interested to see, you know,Sam is going to be a walk around

(10:17):
DC, but is he going to spend a, a, a healthy majority of that
time working with the safeties? And I know he's a guy that he's
coached linebackers, he's coached safeties.
I mean, he's got the he's got the understanding, I think to,
you know, inform those position groups to to a healthy degree.

(10:42):
But that's definitely the probably the most interesting
position because I think it's the one we expected to see
movement in. And when you look at a guy like
Jerry Wilson, who is coming in to coach edges, played edge, but
also was a primarily a, a safeties coach during his his
coaching tenure. I think that's where we saw is

(11:04):
he, is he the guy or is he goingto be kind of another guy in
that room? And, and ultimately that's
that's not where it went. It's really interesting because
The thing is a lot of people aresaying, well, you feel perceived
because it's not his staff, but then you start looking around
and well, AI don't think he would have let JC Price go.

(11:27):
I'm I'm just going to be for real.
In my opinion, there are three guys he would not have let go on
the staff. JC Price is one of them,
Xavier's one of them, and Quinn's one of them.
If you had told me Cheetah was let go or Pearson moved to a
different role, I would not havebeen shot.
But I kind of sit here back and think about it.
We're at a day and age where this can be done.

(11:51):
Because let's think about it. We now can do unlimited coaches,
right? You have unlimited amount of
coaches. So if you're going to be
transitioning, why go ahead and RIP everything out when likely
what you could do is make it a one to two year transition?
Think. Think about that.
What's up Will? What's going on, Will?

(12:12):
But think about that, Brian. You're trying to make everything
smooth. Guys like Bam trying to learn
the team if you get everybody inplace.
And again, X being with the linebackers last year, getting
to know the players quicker, getting to know their
attributes, getting to know their weaknesses, their
strengths. He's not relying on all new

(12:32):
eyes, even in the safeties room,right, even the corner room.
So I think that's why this was done.
I'm going to have a question in a little while concerning
recruiting. Let's see is edge not really
outside linebacker now? And well, that's the question,

(12:55):
Robbie that we're going to probably be asking up to the
spring game is like, for example, is there going to be a
could there be, Brian, you go back to what we talked about
with French and just kind of looking at it yourself, could
edges be guys playing the five tech not playing outside that

(13:15):
and that's more outside linebacker responsibility if we
go to a three man front. I mean, I know we're going to
get to it, but the stuff we've we've seen, I'm I'm seeing a
whole lot of kind of 24 fronts, 2 down, 4 linebacker.

(13:36):
You know, you got you got an edge.
It's that that stand up that's really almost like a you play in
a lot of ways, like a three man front outside linebacker.
It's it's going to be interesting to see, I mean,
Prize said. It's going to be a multiple
defense. I expect to be a multiple
defense. You know, you've got you got a

(13:59):
lot of positional, I think fluidity there because you're
going to have guys that are playing the edge that are going
to you kind of be lining up in different positions depending on
what the what the front call is,whether it's more of a, you
know, odd front for in those nickel packages.

(14:20):
But I think remains to be seen and how that impacts, you know,
who's coming off the field more than likely a defensive lineman
in that case, But you know, maybe not.
We'll, I guess we'll see as as things progress and we start to
get some more tape on what. Yeah.
What what, what defense is therein alignment in outside of base,

(14:44):
which seems to be a a 245 alignment if from everything
we've seen so far. Yeah.
The other thing, and I don't know if this was a shot, but.
I, I I. I think it's a big vote of
confidence that Xavier is moved to an inside linebacker role.
That is his position. That is the position he played

(15:06):
in College in the NFL as the position he's coached.
I, I, I think in a lot of peoplesay, well, that could be pride
pushing it. I do believe that if Seekest did
not believe he could coach position, I think he would have
said he needs to say assistant and we would have seen Quinn
move over. I, I think that might have been
my biggest shock was he is the inside linebacker coach.

(15:29):
He is going to be coaching. Woodson is going to be Woodson
Keller platter ball and I know I'm missing a couple guys names
right now at the top of my head,but he is going to be those
primary guys coaches and I like that because it's it's basically
two guys and sometimes one if wego to a three high look.
Yeah, let me ask this. So we got and I mean, I know I

(15:50):
think the even in in the new like meeting rooms, like they've
got the positions on there, but now we got these like different
position groups, right. So we got Quinn is outside
linebacker, X is inside linebacker.
Are they running a linebacker media session together?

(16:10):
Are they splitting that up? I'm, I'm trying to think about
when, when you're having a, a film session with your group,
are we looking at, at, at splitting that out into a
smaller group? Or are we looking at Quinn and X
are going to be in that room pretty much running the
linebacker group as a combination.

(16:32):
They've got these titles attached to them, but they for
for better or worse, are the linebacker and Co linebacker or
assistant linebacker coach or whatever the hell you want to
call it here. Those two are the are coaching
the linebackers and then you know, you've got jury with
edges. I'm guessing he's going to be in

(16:54):
there with JC, but maybe not. Is he going to be in there with
Quinn and XII? Think that's that's where my
head goes when I'm looking at this.
Like I think it's pretty safe tosay, you know, you're going to
put Whitehead in there with withPearson.

(17:16):
I think there's a there's a goodamount of overlap there in terms
of what you're looking at on tape.
Obviously, you know, Nichols going to have some, you know,
some cornerback responsibilitiesas well and you know, a lot, a
lot of coverage related aspects,but it's, it's really going to
be like having an extra safety and and that's really where you
know, where where it makes sensefor me.
But I, I'm interested from a just, you know, schematically

(17:40):
how this is going to be handled because I'm not sure exactly
what I feel like the roles have been defined well here, but I
just don't know because because of how much positional
flexibility there is. I, I, I'm not sure exactly how,
how they're planning on, you know, dividing up those, those

(18:03):
smaller group off the field coaching sessions.
Well, yeah, because like you said, edges could be in the loud
JC, but or could outside linebacker edges in defensive
line be all in the same room together?
And if Zach's going to have his group together and then you're
going to have Quinn and Jerry Wilson, you know, with their

(18:23):
groups together. And is it going to be a mix and
match depending on what the the specific install is for that
week? Exactly.
But then think about this. You go to this.
Whatever it is. Well, you go to the three high
safety look, and I know you're going to you, you, you correct
me on this, but there are times the a certain position, the

(18:44):
certain safety that is the closer to the box and you and
you seen the alignment. It's almost like they're an
outside linebacker, right? They're almost playing that the
old star position, the old whip position.
Could they be going in the linebacker room doing cross
training because of where they're aligned?
It's like they're not really doing safety stuff.

(19:05):
It's they're doing, it's the combination of doing linebacker
and safety responsibility, right?
Are they going to go in there? Could we have rooms overlapping
a ton? Yeah.
And I mean, we had some of that in the system last year, but I
think the the lines have been blurred a lot more, not only

(19:25):
with the way they're handling the staff, the way that we have
recruited, especially in the portal this last year as well.
There's a lot of a lot of position fluidity.
I know, you know, Coach Prize always preached having
positional fluidity and being able to play at multiple

(19:45):
positions and, and things of that nature.
And I think it, it's not so muchthat this guy can be this and
this. I think we we have a lot of guys
that it works in our favor for them to be kind of hybrids
because there's certain positions that at least if not
historically, certainly recentlythat we've had trouble

(20:07):
recruiting. Yes.
And I think this gives us a little bit of an advantage from
that standpoint because we can bring in highly rated tweeners
all fucking day. Yes, we can.
We've struggled at bringing in the true Mike.
We, we, we've struggled at bringing in that true nose that

(20:29):
can be dominant. Yeah.
We've struggled at bringing in aa safety that can really bring
the damn hammer. Yeah.
While still being able to cover and, and this gives us, you
know, some of that flexibility Ithink to to kind of fit fill in
those gaps a little bit. So that that is kind of what got

(20:55):
to happen. And I mean, we're going to talk
about that in a few minutes, butlet's get back to what you were
mentioning in a few minutes ago from the alignments videos we've
seen. And again, these are short
clips. It's not everything.
And it's what effectively the coaching staff wants the media
and the public to see in your head right now what we're going

(21:18):
to see not only spring game, butabout six months from now.
If I actually take that back five months from now, because
it's basically April, are we looking at A24 front?
Yeah, I mean it, I think that's going to be your base package is
going to be a 24. Where could could you tell in

(21:43):
that one clip? I think Colby had it.
Where are the defensive lineman?What techniques are they?
From what you could see, and I know it was that weird side
angle, but what technique were they at?
I mean, it looked like a three and probably, probably A1 or
A2I, more than likely A2I. I'd have to look at the clip

(22:11):
again to confirm. But I don't think a ton is going
to change at least in the base alignment from what we were
doing last year On the inside. I think, I think everything is
going to get interesting is how are those, how are those 22

(22:34):
edges are going? How are they going to be
deployed? And then when you, when you
switch up the the front to an odd front, what does that look
like? Curtis, are you talking because

(23:00):
you're on mute? I'm running my mouth like crazy
over here. What I was going to say is what
I was saying is with the interior defensive line, you
know, we've always had that one attacking, usually quick twitch.
That's the neatest people's lastyear acting upfield.
Do you think we see a differencethis year or do you think it's

(23:21):
more of we're going to see the same with there may be times
where it's not attacking becausefrom what French told us, from
what we've seen, is that defensive line is to eat up
blockers to stop guys getting tothe second level so the
linebackers and safeties can pounce.
I'm interested to see what it's going to look like, you know,

(23:45):
based based on what he was saying in the tape he watched
and, and on most of the tape he was watching was odd front as
the base. So we're we're kind of in
uncharted territory where I don't know if it's going to be
kind of a blend of kind of what Seifkis has done in other spots

(24:06):
and what JC and others on this line have taught historically
and kind of a a blend of that. Or if there's going to be, yeah,
very much Seifka's footprint across the whole thing out the
gate here. From what Seifkas has said it,
it sounds like he's going to be very adaptable not only to the

(24:28):
strengths of the roster, but also the strengths of the staff.
Yes, he he did say that with theDamon down with the Roanoke
time. So the only thing we can do is
we can now sit and watch. Obviously, you know, having
someone going to these clinics, you know, we'll be definitely
picking his brain and then, you know, we're we're right around

(24:50):
the corner from the spring game and seeing it in person.
So it will be interesting. Right.
Let's look to the offensive sideof the ball.
We're going, we're going. We're going to touch on that
here in a little bit, Josh. Yeah, we will be touching on
that when it comes to looking atsome gains.
But let's talk about the offense.
Obviously Philip Montgomery offensive coordinator currently
as of today March 26th, not titled with a specific specific

(25:17):
room. Matt Moore obviously offensive
line fine tale minds the assistant head coach, wide
receivers. Brooks still the running back.
Brian Crist is now the Co quarterback coach.
I think it was the assistant quarterback coach.
Brent Davis getting moved to tight end.
Stu Holt, now officially the special teams coordinator as an
offensive assistant. Again, boatload of assistants,

(25:41):
including Montgomery's son Cannon, who's going to be an
assistant running backs coach. And let's talk about the staff
for a second. First, I think this is what we
expected. Probably.
Maybe even if Tyler Bowen had stayed.

(26:04):
Yeah, I think this this is kind of where things were moving
regardless of who the ultimate offensive coordinator was going
to be. I think you've set yourself up
in a better spot with Montgomerybecause So I'll say two things
here. When you look at Chris title,

(26:25):
he's still Co quarterback coach.So while Phillip Montgomery does
not have a official position attached to his name, he is the
de facto quarterback coach here.Because, I mean, otherwise you
would call Chris the quarterbackcoach just like they called X

(26:46):
the inside linebacker coach or, you know what, whatever.
On the other side of the ball, he would have been given some
sort of full, full range of thattitle.
Yes. So that's denoting that
Montgomery is if, if not going to be exclusively in the
quarterback room, is going to beprimarily in the quarterback
room. Yeah, 100% on that.

(27:08):
And what what about the Stu Holtmove do you like now, huh?
We I mean I was calling for it all last.
Year, so we we call it last year, but they did it.
Yeah, they did. It they did it.
They did it and now effectively Virginia Tech in some essence
has a pseudo NFL model. Yeah.

(27:30):
And I think, you know, when you look at, when you look at
Montgomery's scheme, Brent Davisat tight end makes a lot of
sense here because there's not going to be a ton of tight end
usage in the passing game. It's going to be a lot more
blocking focused. So Chris, Chris having that
title, I think is going to be I think a good thing for the tight

(27:53):
end production standpoint from Aat least from a run game
perspective. And I think that's that's, you
know, potentially good news for wide receivers as well, because
there's going to be more opportunities for them to get
involved in the passing game. All right.
No, let me flip to that. What do you think this offense

(28:14):
is going to look like right now?Like is this going to be I?
I don't think this is full Baylor 2011.
Let's just go with that. But where do you think it's
landing? Because and everybody keeps
screaming Auburn, Auburn, Auburn.
But as Tally told us, he won't run in his offense at all.

(28:34):
Yeah. I mean, I think it's going to be
a version of what we saw at Baylor.
I think it's going to be there'sgoing to be some tweaks to that.
I think the thing that stood outto me and I mean it was
reflected some at least let let let's talk about this.
When we when we talk about Auburn, I don't think I think
that the fingerprints of I thinkthe fingerprints were not his on

(29:05):
the offense from a scheme standpoint.
But when we look at the pace of play and I think he's talked
about this, he's like, you know,I know that sometimes you got to
have a first and a second gear. You can't go, you know, you
can't be in fourth and 5th the whole game.
Sometimes you got to have you got to be in first and second.

(29:27):
You got to throttle it down. You got to be able to understand
the situation of the game and, and react to that.
And if you look at the splits onthe number of plays at Auburn,
he's still above, way above the NFL average, but it was his
lowest, you know, per play average of his career.

(29:50):
I think that is indicative of probably what we're going to see
here. Again, you're you're still
talking about someone else's fingerprints being on the
offense from a scheme standpoint.
And that probably hindered the output.
But I think from a pace of play standpoint, you can expect
something similar from Auburn's side of the coin there, but a

(30:11):
lot more from a schematic standpoint of what we saw at
Baylor. I got you, got you, got you.
Let's put this guy up here because it has done a while
Jason, since SWVA has checked in.
Hope you guys are doing well down there and I don't know, put
this up for Robbie. I do.

(30:33):
You aren't correct in that sense, but could I know God's
nails? Not your perfect split out wide
tight end, but he does have a decent set of hands, so maybe
he's still involved in other aspects.
Let me ask this, Brian, I think I mentioned this maybe six weeks
ago, but you've been watching more tape.
What excites you most about likethe concepts of what you, I

(31:01):
mean, you've, you've you've looked at Baylor, you've looked
at Tulsa. I'm not sure if you've got Josh
mentioning, talking about looking at the Birmingham UFL
stuff. But when you see this and know
some of the players we have, youknow, you got, you know, guys
like Donovan Green, Aiden Green,you've got Cam Selden coming and
we'll talk about him a little bit later as well.
He was mentioned in one of prizepressors pressors this week.

(31:26):
What excites you most? About Like when you see that and
you start picking like, man, that, that's this, that's this.
You start connecting all the dots.
What excites you most? I mean honestly, you just
mentioned his name. Cam Selden excites me and I
think looking at what what he could be in this offense excites

(31:48):
me. Having that gadget style player
got in the slot that much like Jay Lane plays it like a running
back because I mean, Selden was a fucking running back and and
Lane had that mentality of a running back mentality from the
slot receiver position. And this is this is a scheme

(32:08):
that I think is going to get theslot a lot more involved than I
think we saw last year. When we look back to, to kind of
2023 compared to 2024, you know,we saw Jay Lane line up outside
a whole lot more in 2023 and that's where he made his hay.
And I think some of the, just the scheme and the, and the, and

(32:32):
the calls kind of limited, you know what we were looking at.
So I think Lane's production waslimited.
I think in Monty's system, the the slot receiver is going to
have a big opportunity to eat and do a lot of things in space
and and have that running back mentality, but still less of

(32:52):
that stuff that is behind the line of scrimmage, which we saw
a ton of in Tyler Bowen system. So you're not going to see the
jet sweeps, you're not going to see those as many screens to the
slot, but you will see the ball quickly in the slots, hands
three to five yards, 3 to 8 yards down, down field and let
him do what he does best. Perfect, Brian.

(33:14):
And again, we look more forward to just seeing the tape as we
start getting it. All right, let's kind of get
ready to close this segment out and and all y'all listening out
there putting on the comments inthe chat.
We appreciate that as always. So you tell me because the way
it looks, we've got an NFL stylesystem, coordinators likely not

(33:35):
going to recruit Brett Pry and which 10 assistants are you
putting on the road? And if y'all want to put in the
chat your 10, go for it. So, Brian, I'll give you the
floor first. All right, so you got Pry, you
got JC, you got Cheetah. I think Quinn, obviously, he's
the road dog man. He's the road dog breaking

(33:57):
bread, hokey style. He's got it.
He's got to be on the road and you know that.
Then it comes down to are you sending Pearson, you send an XI
think I think I'm sending X on the on the off, on the defensive
side of the ball, you know, flipping it over to offense,

(34:18):
obviously Fontelle, Matt Moore, Elijah Brooks.
And so it kind of comes down to.You you you only name 4 on
defense Brian you technically get.
Plus pry plus pry. No, no, no, Pratt, you get.
It's 11 total. 11 total. 11 total.

(34:42):
Yeah. Yeah, it makes yeah.
Do I want to send Gimme Wilson? OK.
And other side of the ball, I think that that makes it pretty
easy. I mean Fontelle, Matt, Elijah,

(35:02):
Crist and and and Brent. All right, I am on board with
you completely on the offense. I think Stew Holt will get to
just hang out, scheme special teams up all week, help out
Montgomery as the assistant defense.
I'm one different. I think Prelude's going to stay
one more year because I think it's going to be the transition

(35:24):
year. And again, prize always talking
about let's build the relationship.
I don't think they'll just pull Pearson off for this class,
maybe not even next class, but they're going to start working
in maybe Wilson, maybe Wyatt. I don't know their backgrounds
well enough. I know the ages.

(35:45):
Wilson is a significantly younger guy, so that usually
always transitions to you feel like more relatability to the
players on the road. But I think Pearson's going to
stay there this year. And The funny thing is that
question has not been asked, andI thought someone would have

(36:05):
asked it at least once. We hired Monty.
Now, by all means, could Montgomery be a road recruiter?
Yeah, he could. And they leave Brian, Chris at
home. But I think the focus this year
is we've got to get the scheme right.
We've got to get the players right on campus.
Why not keep your coordinators off the road during the

(36:26):
weekdays? Not worrying about the
recruiting trail, just focusing on that.
So. And I know that that's been a
model that a lot of big schools have kind of moved towards is
kind of moving away from a full time recruiting coordinator and
more to I'm the scheme guru. I'm the closer because I'm the
guy that can best illustrate howplayers will fit into a scheme

(36:53):
and where they could shine, where you can highlight their
talents, things of that nature. But that's not necessarily the
guy that you need in the living room.
That's a guy that, you know, once you get a guy, he's on
campus, you know, he, he, you know, you go see him at a camp,
you know, whatever it may be, you can kind of close the deal
there. But I'm excited about to just to

(37:16):
see how. And, and I'm with you, Curtis,
because I'm, I'm, I'm shocked that the question hadn't been
asked yet because I feel like that's a, a big piece of the
puzzle that, you know, we just don't know yet.
And I mean, and it took a while for the staff to shake out.
So I don't know if it's something that's going to come
in due time or, or what. But again, I'm shocked it hasn't

(37:38):
really been a question that was at the forefront of folks mind
when they were talking to Pride.Yeah, and again, I think some
people look at it just so much, like right on top of what are
they going to do while they're here?
And it's like, well, there's a bigger game and I don't know,
high school is not what it was, you know, even five years ago
with the portal. But you still, even with the

(37:58):
portal visits, there is still a chance to go in home or go to
other schools. Effectively, if you're not one
of the staff members that are been assigned to the road
recruiting, the only place you can recruit is an on campus in
Blacksburg. You cannot recruit elsewhere.
So throw this up here, Robbie, right, kind of in line with us,

(38:22):
with me, I should say. But it's going to be interesting
to see how that goes and and do you, do you like to structure
overall it seems like you do. Yeah, I mean, there, there's,
there's a little bit of nebulousthere between like Quinn and
Wilson as far as and, and maybe even Whitehead as far as who's

(38:42):
coaching what like, you know, and, and we've kind of talked
about that a little bit already tonight.
But I think from an overall structure standpoint, I think, I
think it's a good staff. I think they, they tweaked what
they needed to tweak. I, I, I'm the only thing I'm,
you know, concerned about, I think is going to be do we have

(39:04):
the guys on staff now that can get the safeties where they need
to be in those three high looks?Yep, 100% right.
So there that is kind of taking a we have been 10,000 feet kind
of getting more on what this staff looks like for this
upcoming season. Again, so many things to shake

(39:26):
out between now and August and that first came down in Atlanta.
So it is going to be interestingto see.
So let's keep moving and let's get to the roster updates where
I mean, it's it's that time of year, right, Brian, height,
weight, height, weight. Look, what's the New Jersey
numbers whose body looks different when you see them in
pictures? So we're going to go through
that. We're going to do it just a

(39:46):
little bit different and we're going to kind of go through the
guys who were here before and we're going to then talk about
the transfers in general coming in and kind of what they're
looking like. But Brian, let's talk about the
guys who were here before. Let's start with the cornerback
room. As you kind of look through the
big list there of the guys returning, who jumps off the

(40:09):
page to you. Seeing Dante Lovett hit that two
bill Mark definitely had jumped out at me pretty quick.
Yeah, he was 190 last year. So a full 10 LB gain.
And what do you think that just says about his body type now and
what you saw in the field and now him within extra pounds?

(40:31):
I mean, I think it's identifying, you know, a
weakness that may he may have had in addressing that.
I think, you know, he's a guy that I think needed a little bit
of extra, extra muscle, especially in those, you know,
press situations. I think he's going to be asked
to do a little bit more tacklingand seek this system versus MARV

(40:57):
system. So I think there it's a
combination of those things. Knowing he had to get his body
right for that, and knowing thatjust from a pure coverage
standpoint, yeah, he he could probably use a little bit more
strength, you know, handling guys up front.
Yeah, it's true. Then again, he was 190 last
year. You know who jumped out of me?
Besides, I love it. Who's that?

(41:18):
Thomas Williams went from 180 to190 or 189, but again, 10 lbs
up, he saw significant action last year out there.
So I, I like the look of that. Josh Clark, I'd I'd like to see
him get a little bit more. 185 is not bad.

(41:39):
But again, as we talked before we join tonight.
And Brian, how much weight did you lose during the season, give
or take? Usually about 8 to 10 lbs so.
That's one reason when you look about where a guy's starting
from, why is it important? Well, in in your and you're not
losing just weight, you're losing muscle because of how

(42:03):
hard you're working, how hard you're playing, how much you're
practicing. So I wish I would have seen Josh
Clark up to 190, but that is what it is.
I will say this, I don't know ifthis jumped out at me, but it
was just kind of like Deloach, Deloach give in the words of
Tally, get that man some food, get him steak, get him some

(42:26):
chicken, give him give him anything you can get some weight
on DeMar Jamario Deloach becauseI mean, he has talent in.
Yeah. 165 you ain't you ain't playing much.
Yeah. I mean, I think he's going to
need, he's going to need to see about another 10 lbs before you
start working him into the rotation there.

(42:48):
He needs at least be up there inin in Christian Williams range
there. I know it probably is it isn't
much difference with with Williams there at six one versus
Deloach at 5-10. But as far as frame is
concerned. But yeah, you'd like to see him
at least be up there in that one175 range before you start

(43:11):
trying to work him in pretty, pretty heavily there.
And I mean, looking at this, this unit, I mean, we went from
a very senior and junior laden unit to, you know, a lot, a lot,
a lot of red shirts, sophomores,freshmen, a couple juniors, you

(43:32):
know, no, no senior leadership in that room.
I think that's going to be, that's going to be a big, a big
role that I think Dante Lovett is going to have to step into as
being the leader of that unit from a both a experience
standpoint and just a, a, a seniority standpoint as well.
Yeah, 100%. So there's the cornerback room.

(43:53):
I, this is always the fun room. There are two fun rooms to do
when you're doing 3 technically,because I consider linebacker.
But let's look at defensive lineroom.
Brian, let's let's go down there.
And you know, this came out a few days ago.
You looked at it, you digested it, but of the guys on the
defensive line, whether inside or out, when you started

(44:14):
looking, where did you go? Whoa, whoa.
You know, I mean, I went a couple different places.
Emmett Laws is the one that jumped out to me in the most.
Thank you. And you know, I, I, I, I feel,

(44:37):
you know, we've, we've had two position groups.
I've got 2 Damatha kids in my list.
I'm, I'm not, I'm not just like,you know, going after all the
Damatha kids here. But hey, sometimes in the
brakes. No doubt man, he he came in like
280 last year. He was too.
It's more impressive that when he ended high school when he was

(44:58):
like 260-5270 and he's damn near295 now.
A he eats and I think I saw one of the videos from it.
It ain't all fat. Oh no.
It ain't all fat. So that was really good to see
with him. I'm I'm, I'm going to stay

(45:19):
inside. Christian Evans coming in six to
290 already as a true freshman, as a he should be, in the words
of Tally, he should be going to his senior prom and he is
practicing on a football field at Virginia Tech.
And he's got a chip. Because if you all remember, we
kept talking about it, remember he, he basically won the Under

(45:42):
Armour games up in Maryland, didnot get any love from anybody.
And he comes in as an absolute unit already.
I I don't know if he'll play this year, but he ain't far from
it. Let's talk about a couple other
guys real quick too, Curtis. Let's start with James Jankum.

(46:03):
So two things came out of this. Everybody hates his number and
he is firmly in the defensive line group, meaning, you know,
he's likely going to be playing edge in this system, right.
So I think we've learned, we've learned those two things from
from this roster is seeing his number, hating it and

(46:23):
understanding he's going to be that edge position and not not
that not some sort of linebackerrole that he played at his
previous stop. So.
No, no, no, definitely, definitely edge with that.
Speaking of edges, I I love seeing burgers put on good
weight. I love seeing Abby put on the
good weight because they're going to need it this year.

(46:45):
Ace and Stevens as well. Let's talk about your boy,
Jasari Priester. So, you know, everybody
questioned why did they go get this kid from down at Hampton?
And it was like, because there were rumors, what, 65 to 6-8?

(47:06):
Basically nobody had him over 300 lbs.
It was like, oh he's like 27280.And I first thought we heard,
you know, that's OK he's young, get him in the weight room. 6 to
high 312 lbs. That's a big boy.
That is a that that may be maybemaybe height wise to weight

(47:30):
wise. I'm trying to go back and I'm
going to look at the mole ones here that might be one of the
bigger and and y'all out there that can shake my memory.
That might be one of the biggest.
He might be one. It's.

(47:51):
Certainly the tallest to girth ratio defensive lineman we've
had. Ever.
Now, And, and it's funny, like you see him at that weight, you
got a guy like Andrew Hanchuck coming over playing offensive
line, same height and 30 lbs lighter.
That's that's, that's to be, that's wild.

(48:11):
And I mean, it sounds like the guy can move pretty well too.
I don't know if he's still moving at 312, like he was
moving at, you know, the two 8290 range that they had him at
coming over. But yeah, I mean, that's that's
about 20 lbs heavier than I was expecting him to come in at so.

(48:32):
So it's, it's kind of wild and I'm, I'm like, I'm, I'm trying
to go to the archives here. And I mean, we'll, we'll take
the grain of salt that, you know, these are the official
heights and weights. I'm, I'm sure this is not a
1000% accurate height and weight.
Listen, but I mean, this, this is what's being put out there.
This is what's being put in the program.

(48:53):
So. All right, you know who it was.
Who's that? Settle was pretty close to that.
Settle's like 63, like 3-15 and we know what Tim did.
Tim was for the three years he was here, he was unbelievable.
But that is a lot of man. And if we're talking about we
need A1 or A0, if he can get theright leverage you, you might

(49:17):
have your nose to go true with the true three man front.
Let's hit a couple other guys here on the defensive line 1 and
I don't know if I'm underwhelmed, but Arias Nash
under 280 lbs. I know he's a three tech.

(49:37):
I know that's not his game, but did you want to see a little
more from him or do you feel like you know what that he
played that at D2. He played against Alabama at
that with Mercer. He he cut through those guys or
is or do you feel like he's got his role?
He's not. He doesn't need to gain weight.
This is his role. So I, I, I want to see how we're

(50:00):
deploying him, you know, is, is he going to be a frontline
player in every formation that we have?
If he if he's going to be that four eye and kind of move, you
know, potentially a little bit wider when we go into an odd
front, then you know, I think that's going to be plenty

(50:23):
sufficient in most cases. Yeah, there might be a couple a
couple teams that are, you know,power run focus that might have
a little something to say about that.
But for most, most of our rosteris is more spread oriented and
and less smashed mouth. I don't think he's going to have

(50:46):
a problem playing the four eye at that.
Got it, got it. All right, Anybody else on the
defensive line, I mean, you got bail like 61235, but I mean
we've seen undersized defensive lineman and edge guys before.
So that's not a like. Yeah, that's still not, that's
still not super undersized. Obviously John comes probably a

(51:08):
little bit a little bit heavier there.
He's at 258 playing it, you know, a little bit taller there.
But I think those probably are going to be your, your, your two
primary edge guys with. Stevens Abbey and Burgos.
Exactly. Those guys are going to be
mixing in there. I'm sure.
I'm sure Burgos is going to get kind of that first, you know,

(51:30):
first run along with with Bell and Jonka as far as like who's
going to be first guys out thereand then the other guys are
going to going to kind of be fighting for the for the second
unit. 100% So again, again, I think overall in a good spot,
defensive line was there is nothing like jumping up that

(51:51):
scares me. That says, OK, we are
significantly undersized here. This is going to be a problem
for power run teams. So we'll roll on linebacker
room. Linebacker room is always a
weird one. We're skipping kickers.
You mean go kickers? Let's see.
No, I don't. Kallo lost a pound.

(52:13):
All right. There.
We go He went from 200 to 199. He had a he had a goal, got more
toned. That's right, That's right.
It was cut season. Yeah, linebacker room, obviously
the way it's looking, Woodson, Keller's probably going to be
given the jobs. Woodson up a little bit from
last year, Keller about the same.

(52:34):
But to me, let's look. So fast, my friend.
What's that? I like Woodson blocked in there.
We'll we'll see about Keller. Hey, where is it?
Hold on, wait a second. There was a good one in the chat
a little while ago. Got to find it.
Got to find it. That's a good one, Josh.

(53:01):
That's a good one. Well, let's be realistic.
I don't think they're going to be putting Jordan Bay with what?
What happened? He's obviously, he's obviously
in the doghouse right now, But Jordan Bass, I mean, dude, he's
205. I don't think he can play him at

(53:22):
the linebacker position this year.
Now, luckily, he's a true junior, so you have a red shirt
to burn. So that's the question is do do
you, do you end up throwing a red shirt on him?
Is a guy like Caleb Spencer going to work in there?
Yeah. There, there's talk of him
moving to Mike. There's talk of him, you know,

(53:44):
kind of playing both of the linebacker positions there.
It you know, it sounds like he'smoving fully away from. *.
A star safety type role. This is going to very much be a
linebacker position for him. So I'm curious to see how that
shakes out. Obviously we know Gabe Williams
working back from injury. You know, numbers there don't

(54:09):
shock me too much because he wasn't able to do anything this
offseason. No, not, no chance to gain.
So Clatterbaugh coming in at 62243 is, is is nice and what
you like to see? Well, as long as it ain't fat,
but you know 243, you can trim 10 lbs of that.
Nice. Brian, you, you said something
else. McDonald Brothers man.

(54:31):
Tough to believe, right? Yeah, we got the McDonnell
brothers are now red shirt juniors, sorry, red shirt
seniors. And it seems like like just so
when we when we started this, this whole this whole shebang,
you know, they they that was their that was their class, that
that was their recruiting class coming out.
So it's kind of it's wild that in in the ride so far, we've,

(54:58):
you know, we, we've lived through the McDonald cycle and
we're, we're about to, you know,fully cycle through the McDonald
twins. So shout out to them, shout out
to them. Not really seeing the field that
much last year. I don't know.
You know, that was a, that was abig shift from from 23 to 24
with, you know, them kind of being very, very heavy in the

(55:19):
rotation, you know, especially, you know, looking at which one
is it. Jayden.
Jayden's a linebacker. Jayden.
Yeah. Jayden.
Jayden had the heavy rotation atlinebacker, yeah.
So it was funny seeing him kind of really fall out of favor in

(55:42):
that. Rotation, yeah.
So, you know, linebacker room, some good games.
I mean, I think over the last few years we had not seen
anything. Nobody deficient.
And I mean, I think with Jordan Bass right now with everything
going on, hold on, you can't saythat Josh until he plays depends

(56:02):
on what he is. And you know what, there were
times the last two years defensewould have been a hell of a lot
better with a Dax type who wouldhave been getting to the right
spot, would have prevented a lotof big ass touchdowns.
Even if it would have been maybea second late, at least
something would have happened. I always say that.

(56:25):
All right, Brian, anything on the long snappers as we move
down here? No.
OK, the big one offensive line, I know.
You know, again, do you take them with a grain of salt?
Yes. But you know, when they put
somebody like Brody at 67332, I don't think he's 285 at all.

(56:52):
And just looking at some pictures, he ain't 285.
What? So what are the what are the
gains for Brody? What was he last year?
Brody Gaines would have been. Got to find the name.
Got to find the name. Only 5 lbs.

(57:12):
He was 327 last year. OK, All right.
So I mean progress. Progress getting bigger, getting
stronger, hopefully. I like, I like seeing Tomas
Remat come in at 66317. I, I think if not initially,
maybe eventually he's going to be, you know, your, your, your,

(57:35):
your left tackle. Yeah, he could, he could end up
slide into guard. He played guard a lot at West
Virginia. He's a swing guy that can play
both positions. You know, when I when I look at
the tape, I like Johnny Garrett a whole lot more right tackle
than I do left tackle. Oh, 100%.

(57:55):
So if, if that's, if that's whatwe're operating under, then I'm
hoping that Remack can pull out a yeah, a, a starting role there
at left tackle, but. Well, that's that's.
Good. You know, in in you're looking
at this group. I still feel better even losing

(58:17):
2 guys that we thought would would be starters on this.
I still feel better about with what we got in the portal,
better about this unit overall than I felt about last.
Year's unit 100%. We did lose.
There's not a glaring hole. The The glaring hole is not

(58:38):
there anymore. We know who the glaring hole is.
We don't need to say his name. The glaring hole is not there
anymore. No.
But the question is can someone fill that glaring hole and not
become the glaring hole? And I think overall would just
again with the majority of theseguys would not.

(58:58):
I'm sure we're saying glaring, not glory, glaring coal.
Who put glory? I said.
Glare, I said. Glory.
All right. But I think overall, you just
look at the the room in general,it's it's built.
It's you're not sitting out here.
Again. There were just, I felt like for
years it was just like, we are so fucking undersized.

(59:20):
Yeah, this isn't even funny. But I don't feel that way
anymore. And I think when we come back in
a couple weeks, Brian, definitely we want to hammer
what we think the best and the most optimal line is going to
be. Yeah, Staller, it's huge.
Now, how quick can he take a step?

(59:42):
Because physical wise, he is a monster with decent feet, right?
Brian Carter Staller had decent feet.
He's not. He's not tripping over himself
yet, but I. Mean so he looked a lot.
So thinking about big guys that are coming out, he looked a
whole lot better than Brody did coming out.
Yeah, yeah, and there was a reason he was a little bit

(01:00:04):
higher rated. All righty, let's go to the
quarterback room because you youlike you, you texted me this
like right off the bat. You like look at that, Curtis,
and I'm like pulling it up. What was it, Brian?
What did you text me that day? I.
Mean we got we we got pop over 2bills.
At 5:11. At 2:00. 11-2 Bills, baby.

(01:00:28):
You know, if if the concern is about his his frame, he's
starting to fill that out a little bit.
He is doing what we said he needed to do.
He had to do that. He had to fill out.
He could not stick in that 185 to 190 range with how any of
these offenses are going to go in with what he has to do.

(01:00:50):
And, and you love seeing it because it tells you from my
aspect is he knew it. He knew he needed to get gains.
He needed to get strong in the weight room.
You need to put on those pounds and he did it, which to me says
there's that work ethic there. He wants it.
He effectively is the backup quarterback.
There is no if ands or buts about it.

(01:01:11):
So we'll see how it goes. We'll see how he looks in
spring. Other than the quarterback room,
I think brand coming in really big, really big.
I I if you get to go to the spring game, see if you can get
12 and 18 near each other and try to snap a picture of it.
Brian between OK, here's base guys being classified as

(01:01:33):
6211951210 probably be a little difference up in here.
Yeah. And I mean, you know, when when
we talked about it, we were comparing Ryan and Brand.
I mean, we kind of said, OK, well, Ryan is definitely like a
bigger, taller pop coming out, right.

(01:01:53):
Yeah, like that. That's kind of just looking at
the way they played, looking at everything a little bit more
polished, maybe throwing the ball than than Pop was initially
coming out. But you know, very similar style
and, and overall frame. If not, you know, looking at the
the the weight itself. But yeah, Ajaj is a big dude

(01:02:18):
coming in 62210. I mean, you can see him very
much in the same mold of of Kyron as far as how if, if, if
he fills out some more being in that 220-5230, you know, Kyron
up at at 2:35 on his own right there.
So you can see him definitely filling out to that level as he
kind of progresses through his career.

(01:02:40):
Yep, 100 percent, 100%. All right, let's go down to
running backs, a room that is absolutely banged up right now.
We know Overton's out for the spring.
We know the kid from Bowling Green won't be down until
summer. I think actually, I think that's
as silly as it sounds like I'm OK with that because the his

(01:03:00):
style and how he ran last year. Like I don't think he needs
spring. Just just get him into fall camp
and then turn him loose during the season.
But. Well, the thing that sucks is
not getting him in the I think the the weight program with the
team is the bigger loss than necessarily the spring practice.
True, but I mean, let me let me do a little something here.

(01:03:22):
Let let me let me pivot back that in a second.
But take a look there, Brian, and just look at the running
backroom. I mean, does anything worry you?
Like it seems like everybody's at a good weight.
You got Coney, Mason, Bennett, Hawkins along with the kid from

(01:03:42):
Bowling Green coming out. Does anything anything stand out
to you? I wasn't expecting to see
Hawkins at 2:19. Yeah, 10 LB gain from where he
was at D2 last year. Yeah.
So I, I think that's, you know, that bodes well for his

(01:04:03):
transition to this level, you know, playing at 511, still
being more of a, you know, pass catching threat than I think
we'll see from Terry and Stewartwhen he comes in.
So I'm excited to see what he's doing.
He's apparently probably going to get a a decent amount of run
in the in the spring I would imagine with everyone banged up.

(01:04:27):
Well, well, Coney, well, you know, you heard the thing about
Coney being out there grinding through and I'm assuming if he's
practiced what he's practicing, I'm assuming Nick's for Coney,
but he will be important. By the way, Stewart 5 down to 20
last year Bowling Green. So I, I think, I think again, I

(01:04:48):
think he's fine. I mean, you know, why isn't he
here? I think the, the story is he's
got a class, he's got a complete.
But again, I nothing has jumped out.
And I think we've said that a couple times, right?
And we've got a couple more rooms just to kind of overall
look at. But nothing jumps out as saying,

(01:05:11):
are we significantly worse than where we were last year.
And in some areas like offensiveline, probably better than we
were last year. Linebacker room with the
emergence of Caleb Woodson, probably a little bit better
than we were last year. So.
I mean, looking at offensive line, like we don't have anyone

(01:05:33):
that I think is as good as chaplain, but I think no, in
aggregate we're a lot better. The the the worst current and
offensive lineman that's going to get playing time is better
than what we had last year. Yep.
Robbie hit up about Mason. I was going to mention that
before we rolled on, but Tyler Mason from down in Mount Airy,

(01:05:55):
NC, both up 200, came in at 198.So he is down with that kind of
the level. Like OK, you can play a full
season if we need you. Your body is ready for it.
Safety room I think is going to be, we can look at them.
I think literally, Brian, if we look at everybody that's in the

(01:06:15):
safety room, their heights, weights, it's all fine, fine.
Safety is going to be more interesting to probably talk
about in a couple weeks where we're going to try to throw
darts at where people are going to play.
And then when we actually see the game, because as you look
through that, I mean, you know, shortest guy's 511, lightest

(01:06:37):
guy's 185 at safeties, heaviest guys two O 5.
And the guy that's 185 is kind of a guy that played a lot of
nickel in corner. So makes sense, right?
Yeah. Again, I think that room, once
we see probably Brian, as you'resitting live at Lane, you know,

(01:07:01):
writing your numbers out, figuring out where Koval is,
where's Flowers is, where's Ellis, where's Cash, that's kind
of going to be the interesting piece because of those four guys
that came in. Flowers does have one year of
eligibility left. Is that going to go as a, is
that going to be a deterrent factor of who plays where?

(01:07:24):
We don't know. We feel very confident about
Reddish. We'll talk about that in a few
weeks. Tight end room?
Yeah, Yep, they're there. Everybody stayed healthy.
Everybody stayed healthy. You know, we're not really

(01:07:45):
adding anyone to the room in theory.
So this room kind of is mostly stagnant.
You know, I think you feel really good about Benji.
You feel pretty good about HSG and Zeke.

(01:08:05):
I think everybody else is a big question mark and I don't think
they need to be anything more than that this year.
I think that's going to be the guys that you're leaning on in
this offense this year. 100% Allright, last position group here
before we wrap up the night. That's the wide receiver group.
And and let's just you talked about what he can be used in

(01:08:26):
man, if he ain't built like DevoSamuel was when he was down in
South Carolina. Give me some.
Give me some stats on Cam Selden.
Brian, All right, Cam Selden. Let's find Cam Selden.
He is 6/1, 2:11, 61211. Again, we talked about the

(01:08:49):
running back bills. We just kind of came from that
area and you and you hear that and you're like, all right,
yeah. That that that's a running back
and that's a wide receiver that's going to be playing like
a running back. And I'm interested to see see
him in action because he's the guy that I think excited me the
most. Even though he's a guy that I

(01:09:09):
think there's still a lot of question marks on because of the
position change that you know, it's it's going to it's going to
be it's going to be interesting to see how we deploy him.
Is he going to be a guy that's going to do some stuff out of
the backfield occasionally? Probably.
But I think he's really going tobe that guy that you want to get

(01:09:30):
the ball in their hands in that you know that like I said
earlier, that 3 to 8 yard range and just let them be a be a guy
in space. Well, first of all, Devo Samuel
senior year 6 foot 210. That's, and if you look at him
it the, the build is there. I think Brian, what excites me
about Selden so much again and looking at some of Montgomery's

(01:09:53):
game film, it's those 3 yard drags, it's those flat routes.
Because his build you're if, if you were going to say, you know,
we're going to put a corner backon him, it will have to be your
best tackling corner. It will have to be your most
physical corner, but there are going to be some corners, in my

(01:10:16):
opinion, that are not going to tackle him.
I just believe that they're not going to be able to tackle him.
And then it becomes there's yournightmare mismatch.
You know what, we're going to throw the safety on.
We're going to put a linebacker on.
And OK, we know he was where he came out in high school.
He was an athlete. He was an elite athlete.
It's why he got so highly recruited.

(01:10:38):
It's why he got there because hedoes have that explosion.
It just it just pops. And if they deploy him right,
especially having Donovan Green,you know, kind of that elder
statesman who is kind of the route technician.
And then the way Aiden Green is explained with his explosion.
If not, not even counting some of the other guys on here like

(01:10:59):
Chan's, you know, Brooke Keelan.Excuse me?
Don't get in trouble with anybody.
Keelan Adams. Yeah, I ain't crazy.
There is a chance I meet his Mama one day.
I don't want to get popped up. That's right.
That's right. You got, you got to keep it,
right. Yeah.
And and it's going to be I'm I'mexcited to see what how Keelan
and Chan's work into this rotation.

(01:11:22):
I mean, obviously know Aiden is kind of the established guy
here. From a just experience with this
group perspective, we know Donovan Green is bringing
probably the most overall experience to the room, you
know, new, new due to this team.But we we have kind of the law
firm of Green and green out there.

(01:11:44):
Wide receiver. I'm going to be I'm I'm going to
have to make a poster or something like that at some
point when we when we go to a game this year for that one.
I'm I'm interested. I I think that this wide
receiver room, I think I think this is we're we're kind of
looking at the same thing that we were talking about in the

(01:12:06):
offensive line room. You know, once everybody gets
healthy is that, you know, in aggregate, I think this wide
receiver room could be better than the group we had last year,
even if you don't have the highest of highs that you had
with the Jalen Lane. Yeah, so.

(01:12:29):
It's a it's interesting. I think overall from that game
perspective, nothing stands out.You don't feel like we're
undersized anywhere. You don't feel like we're going
to give up physicality anywhere.So not only shout out to what's
going on with Ferg, but also with the prior staff getting us

(01:12:52):
back on track. So again, these Galt who went to
Marshall, he may not have had everything locked down, but as
far as getting guys to optimal weights, getting them to optimal
strength, I think he got us there.
I think it's the other piece, the.
Conditioning piece was where things kind of fell off the.

(01:13:14):
Exactly, exactly. And and to me, you think about
Jared Ferguson playing fullback.He was the prototypical fullback
build and he had the endurance. So yeah, Brian, let's hit these
real quick. Basketball seasons effectively
over for the Hokies with the women losing earlier this week.

(01:13:35):
Men obviously didn't even make atournament portal going crazy.
And then I didn't read all going.
Legit crazy like three times theentries compared to last year.
Sane insanity and obviously the Hokies on a better footing or
NIL this year. The Whit Babcock statement that
I read from Andy Bitter just made me go.

(01:13:56):
Which one? Which one?
The the one about we didn't really anticipate the basketball
market to be like that. What did you think it was going
to be? Everybody's going to spend
$100,000 a player. They took took a shot at the at
the folks on on Twitter as well.Like are you get your news from
Twitter If you think that we stole money from basketball to

(01:14:17):
give it to football, I, I heard that places that weren't
Twitter, I'll just say that muchand we'll move along.
I don't think we stole. I think funds were allocated
differently. Because you misread the room.
Yeah, look at Jim. Jim, we had heard from you all

(01:14:38):
night. And Jim, it's a banger at the
end. 70% fire. So I mean it sounds like of of
the due allocation 75% is going to football.
Yep. So it's it's basically mirroring
the percentages that the settlement were in terms of the
yearly allocation from the the general fund.

(01:14:59):
So. Yeah, 75% to football, was it.
15% to men's basketball is it? Am I right?
That sounds right. I'd I'd have to pull it up
again. I was looking at the bidder
tweet earlier. Well, that, that's, that's over
3 million just for basketball, not counting probably some other
things, not counting house settlement stuff.

(01:15:21):
I'm assuming basketball's probably going to be what, five
and a half, 6 1/2 donate. I'm and I'm talking guys who are
going to be giving money towardsNIL specifically for foot for
basketball. Some a direct, yeah.
Direct, yeah. Direct and you should be able to
put a decent Ross together and, and if some are going to go
crazy, absolutely some are goingto go absolutely crazy and, and

(01:15:44):
that is what it is. But with $6 million to fund a
basketball team of 12, you should be able to get a couple
really good players. Just don't go after guys that
you know, could potentially be fully suspended for, you know.
Betting on games that's better vetting, please.

(01:16:06):
Better betting, please. I think we've.
Had what, three years in a row where we've had a player, a
guard, a, a, a probably startingguard that played minimal or
none for this basketball team, that's three years in a row.

(01:16:26):
And I mean, you can say what youwant to say is that the
difference between a 13 and 19 team and a 19 and 13 team?
Maybe, maybe not, I don't know. But you you never know.
One last piece before we close it up.
Wrestling finishes 11th at the nationals.
I only saw the I I never saw they never replayed it and I

(01:16:48):
never a chance to see it. But from everyone that I've seen
Twitter speaking with a couple other people, Caleb Pinson got
completely robbed because his takedown was a takedown.
And even though the brick was thrown, it should have never
been overturned to begin with. It should have been 31 and he
should be a two time national champion.

(01:17:11):
So but wrestling was younger this year.
You know, Caleb's back next year, Eddie Ventriska's back
next year, Mcdougal's back next year.
He got like a Jimmy Mullen who'sgoing to be back next year.
I'll be interested to see wrestling next year because
where they finished this year, it was supposed to be a down

(01:17:32):
year. It was, you know, you don't use
it. You don't lose a guy like
Michael Lewis and a few of the other guys from the last few
years and have a lot of young guys come on.
But I, I, I think the potential's there.
And I'm not saying national championship, I'm not crazy, but
I think to get individual national championships is the
possibility is there. And I think to get back in the

(01:17:53):
top five is definitely a possibility.
I mean, I could go through the points, but I, I do think, and
if anybody knows the exact way, I think if Caleb had won, we
probably would have been like 7th, not 11th in the final
standings just because of the difference between that for the
1st and 2nd. Quote me if I'm wrong, but

(01:18:15):
anything else you need to unloadman before we hop off here.
No, I'm glad we got that, that, that bitter stuff in there.
Well, on, on, on wit because that, that's something that I
saw pop through just before we, we, we punched it and we hadn't
really talked about really diving into that, but I'm glad
we got there because. I'm glad we got a shot in just.

(01:18:37):
Yeah. Yeah.
Because I haven't had a chance to read it all.
I've been busy as hell this afternoon.
I know you. You were sitting at a tennis
match for 3 1/2 hours. He did 3 1/2 hours.
He did. Well he did.
It was about three. It was about 3 hours.
Yeah, just sitting there, sitting there.
So it's all good supporting our kids.

(01:18:57):
All right. Anything breaking on the
Twittersphere? Not much, man.
I think, I think we're we're good and there's a lot of a lot
of discussion around the 70% below Clemson thing.
I know, I know, Jim threw that that in there that I think that
was the thing that is stood out to folks the most is that we

(01:19:19):
were that fucking far behind Clemson in NIL for basketball.
Just shows you this, this is what I'll say.
And if you can agree or disagree, there are certain
people that are in athletic departments in this era, they're

(01:19:40):
never going to be a DS. And then there are certain
people that are. And you at Virginia Tech, you've
got to find the person who understands that concept better
than anybody when the next hire is made, because in my opinion,
the next hire is probably going to be made within the next 24
months. And I think, I think it's two

(01:20:01):
fronts too, because I think you got to you got to have somebody
that is not only well attuned with what NIL is, but I think
you need to have somebody that'sa little bit more that does a
better job with engaging the alumni and the donor base.
Better than Wit in the sports that count, I think.

(01:20:26):
I think Wit does a pretty good job in in some areas, but I
think his personality doesn't always inspire confidence and I
think that can trickle down intoother areas.
Not just OK fans. Fans don't like him because he's
bristly or he, he, he doesn't not the most personal person

(01:20:50):
when you, when you have a, an interview style with him.
I think he's a lot. He seems to be more relaxed in a
conversational tone, but he doesn't do well in kind of a, if
the format is, is, is more formal.
He, his personality gets lost somewhere in the shuffle there.
And I, I think, you know, that that can turn some folks off a

(01:21:13):
lot of times too. So, yeah, there's, there's a lot
of things that I think we could point to and say, you know,
some, some of this was already endemic here at Virginia Tech
before that. And then some of that is Wit has
his fingers all over it. Yep, and you can't do that.
You cannot do that. So with that being said, let's

(01:21:36):
wrap up this episode of the Boundary Corner podcast brought
to you by Counts Family Pharmacy.
I'm Curtis Wilson. I'm Brian Siegler.
We are part of the College Huddle Network.
Visit the website boundarycornerbc.com to listen
to all of our episodes. While you're there, follow us
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, your favorite podcast

(01:21:56):
source. We are on all of them.
As always. We got our buddy Jason Long who
is currently in the wonderful city of Denver watching the
Joker play. The guy been sending us pics all
night. He was so hyped to be out there.
And he was at Red Rock Amphitheatre this morning
watching the sunrise. That was that was a gorgeous
photo since this morning. Pretty awesome man.

(01:22:17):
He plays us in he plays us out. Check his website
outjasonlawmusic.com. You can link to his lot where
he's going to be live down in the New River Valley to his
music on Apple, Spotify, his YouTube and his Facebook pages.
We really appreciate you all forlistening tonight, whether you
are here with us live on YouTubeor on our podcast.
And as always, let's go. The.