Portal Power

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:38):
The. And welcome back to the Boundary
Corner podcast, a part of the College Huddle Network along my
partners, Brian Ziegler and Jonathan Talley.
I am Curtis Wilson and as always, we are brought to you by

(01:59):
Doctor Jeremy Counts down at theCounts Family Pharmacy, your
friendly neighborhood pharmacy, three O 1 S Main St. in
Blacksburg. Fellas, how's everybody doing
tonight? Fight a little bit of a cold,
but feeling all right man, Feeling all right.
How about you? Brian, you ain't got no cold.
You got too drunk when you went to that concert.

(02:21):
That's what happened. You got AI, got a week.
Long hangover. There you go.
Hangover I'd have been. Are you old now, man?
You can't be drinking like you did back when you was in
college. You got to take it easy.
You ain't got a lot of us. Myself, got to pace myself, boy,
no pacing. All good man, y'all good.
All good baseball. It's kinda in the swing of

(02:44):
things right now. You know, summer baseball that
is, is is kind of kicking up working with the kid to try to
get him on track to do the rightthings.
So we will talk about that another day, but everything is
good. You look good, man.
You look good. You look fresh right now.

(03:04):
Man, hey, I'm just trying to trying to see the next day man,
trying to be friends with coach Pry and not be too mad at him.
So you know, maybe somebody going to shed some light on what
how I need to feel with all this.
Hey, we got a lot to talk about man.
We had some stuff rolled out timing of game.
I got people calling asking me am I going, y'all know what I

(03:27):
want to say Curtis? Hell no, I ain't spending no
money on them. But you know what?
It's like 3. Months like 3 hours.
It's also like it's also two hours from your house.
Yeah, it's. Literally 2 hours from your
house. It's a 3 o'clock game that was
announced. That means if they make you

(03:48):
really mad, you can get in your car, be back in your own bed by
10:00 and go they're. Going to make me mad.
That's good. They always make you mad.
They don't make me mad. Even if we win, they're going to
make me mad. But I got a lot to think about,
man. I'm going to Vegas at that
month, so I'm going to Vegas at.So it's a lot to think about,
man, but we'll get into all that.
We're going to get into all that.

(04:09):
We're going to get into a lot ofdifferent stuff tonight.
So without further ado, we are going to bring the special
guests on tonight from 247 Sports as Tally has dubbed him
as we were talking before the show, he is currently as he's
shaking his head, I could see him, the mayor of Blacksburg and
247 Sports on and everybody's favorite portal got to watch

(04:32):
because he knows it all. Colby Crawford.
Colby, how are you this wonderful Wednesday?
I'm doing great man. I appreciate y'all having me on.
This is going to be a good time.I really appreciate y'all having
me. Hopefully we all drop off the
cold down here in a nondiscreet location in the Outer Banks.
So ready to toss some football? Somewhere in the Outer Banks is

(04:54):
Colby Crawford, right? Now we're in the Outer Banks.
We we hope that that that spots got Internet a little bit better
than Tally had a few months back.
I was about to say, if that Internet ain't worse than this
Alabama Internet, did you going to be straight?
This Internet was struggling fora while.
We had to change it up over here.
And he finally got it. He did change it up.

(05:15):
And now, oh, hold on, we, we arestarting Tally, our music man
Jason Kobe, COVID, the guy that plays us in plays us out.
He lives in Royal. He's a huge Titans fan and so is
Tally. So they always got something to
talk. About yeah, definitely, man.
I was going to say Jason going to have to call me and we're
going to have to get together onthis stuff, man.

(05:35):
But for the most part, man, I mean, you had to do it as a
Titans fan. I'm I'm a Cowboy fan, though.
Like I just like what he is and what he brings.
Not a Miami fan. I hated that he went and played
at Miami. But for a kid to do what he did,
go to all the different stops and continue to work, continue
to be, you know, humble for the most part, Like he just

(05:58):
continued to work until he was the number one pick in the
draft. And for what we are with what we
need, you can't pass him up. You know what I'm saying?
It's like at one point I was like, man, you got to take
Travis Hunter. I mean, that's a generation of
talent. But at the same time, it's kind
of like, look at New King. I knew.
I knew he was going to pop up. If you say Miami New King is

(06:19):
popping up, I knew he was going to pop up.
Thank you all. Thank you all for sending Cam
Ward our way. But especially after what Jade
Daniels done last year, like if you pass up on a quarterback
that's got that kind of ceiling,how dumb are you going to feel
As you already know that, you know, the quarterbacks that we

(06:40):
have aren't aren't the guy now, possibly because of the line we
had wasn't the guys either. But I mean, you pass up on
somebody like a Cam Ward with the number one pick and then he
goes somewhere else and he choseout like you're slapping
yourself in the head for a decade.
And that, that's a dude to bet on himself for three straight
years. And.

(07:02):
Made it happen, right? That that was someone because
we're going to talk about it alltonight with with Kobe with the
portal. That is someone who it's like
the portal of the white right way right.
He was an Incarnate word. Lower school went to Washington
state. Not not not your highest level
school, a solid mid level P5 school, P4 school, whatever you

(07:24):
want to call it, excelled five at the time he.
Five at the time that's. True.
All right, Peter. PAC 12.
Yeah, and then and then went to Miami, did what he did down
there, played great because he wants the reason they lost
games. He wants the reason at all
because he played his nuts off every single game.

(07:46):
It it. But to me, everybody who shits
on the portal, it's like, there's so many good stories
like that, that literally if CamWard doesn't have the portal, do
we ever know Cam Ward's name? Do we?
Does he ever become the number one pick?
Probably not. Man, you think about, Yeah,
somebody brought, I think it might have been you when I was
going on a rant, Curtis, that wetalked about.

(08:07):
Oh yeah. For all the bad stuff that
people have to say about the Porter you've been bringing to
Virginia Tech, and you look at somebody like APR, APR is a
Virginia Tech legend now, right?Yes, he is.
You know, everybody's going. He can come back to Blacksburg
whenever he wants to, and they're always going to remember
what he did in a hokey's uniform.
Same with two. You know, you would have never

(08:27):
seen these guys if it wasn't forthe portal, you know what I'm
saying? You'd never seen them in
Virginia Tech if it wasn't for the portal.
So as bad as people make it out,as bad as it is sometimes, and
it's true, much craziness kind of goes on in it, man.
It's a lot of good stories to come out of it.
So I'm here for it, man. I just love football.
And it's, and the guys we're going to talk about tonight in a

(08:48):
few minutes here. It's the same way they are.
A lot of them are elevating to astage where either a like APR,
he was down at Florida or it's an unbelievable program.
They never found the right spot for him.
Came back to tech perfect fit everything, everything fit.
He he is an unbelievable SAT guyin college, shows his motor,

(09:10):
shows his skill. Same with Tooting guys who get
goes to A&T, accelerates there, comes to tech, does back-to-back
seasons and and now we're going to talk about 10 guys in a few
minutes here, their stores, their backgrounds and how we're
feeling about those rooms. But Brian and Colby, before we
get into all that, y'all both attended the Metallica concert,

(09:35):
correct? Oh yeah.
Oh yeah. Colby, I'm I'm I'm gonna let you
go first. Bronson, see the esteemed guest
tonight and just just give me your feels of a a where'd you
sit and just in general, the feelings while watching that
concert, because y'all the videos, the production, I mean

(09:56):
tally, you've seen it. I mean unbelievable, like you
didn't look like the same place and it it looked it looked
unreal. Go ahead, Toby.
Yeah, so honestly, start the daybefore.
I was lucky enough to go throughwith some of the media and walk
through on the floor level of the whole stage apparatus, the
entire setup of the concert. And that was amazing.

(10:18):
They were going through sound tests and they actually played
like the helicopter sound that'sthe lead into one the song.
And I mean, I've been to quite afew concerts in my life and
fortunate enough to go and and some pretty large sound systems.
When that speaker played the helicopter sound and like this
aircraft sound, it sounded as ifthere was a fly over.

(10:41):
Like I almost looked up and was like, is there a fly over
actually happening right now that the ground shook beneath
you? And kind of from that moment I
knew, OK, it's really on for tomorrow and then we get to show
day. Had a couple buddies come in
town and you know, I forgot the opportunity to sit with the
media. And of course I went to go sit
in the student section to enjoy that moment.

(11:03):
And I was in the North End zone.It's been a while since I've
been in the North End zone. So that that was, I mean, I
think it has to rank as the bestlive show I've ever seen.
Just atmosphere. And honestly, coming from
someone, I'm not the biggest Metallica fan going in, I knew 5
or 6 songs, but I mean just the the setting, the entire crowd.

(11:26):
What I mean, I mean there's somefootball games where you look up
and I guess the East ends where it's allowed it to the other
visiting team and it's not all the way sold out.
When I look around, it was like your mouth is on the floor like
this place is packed out. The student section was over
packed out. It it was it was incredible and

(11:48):
it happened to be. I know for everyone it was
great, but for the students it was the last day of classes.
So they were already just psyched out of their mind.
So it, it was the best thing ever.
Like I I'm struggling to find words that could encapsulate the
way I feel. Like I'm just getting goosebumps
thinking about it but it it was so amazing.

(12:10):
Yeah. I mean, I got to echo, you know,
what what Colby said there. I mean, I've, I've seen a lot of
shows in my day and that that's in the conversation for the best
live show that I've attended. And it really goes back to just
atmosphere. It goes back to I think what
Metallica has meant to this fan base in general.

(12:30):
I think it's the energy that they brought.
Like they seem like they were ona different level knowing what
them being there meant for that for for Blacksburg, for the fans
and things like that. So I mean, it was it was
incredible. You talked about the, the one
when the, when the helicopters came in and the pyro started
shooting up and, you know, simulating the, the, the fire

(12:53):
from the, from the choppers in the, in the plains.
Man, it was, it was really, really impressive.
And like that whole run there 1 all the way through Sandman was
just like banger after banger. And you know, when they got to
master of puppets and like they,they were saying master in the
chorus, there was just like echoing, like you can feel a

(13:16):
pulse from that. It was, it was kind of crazy.
I, I really, you know, it's hard.
It's hard to put into words. We got, we got a couple guys
here that I actually saw tailgating pregame.
Shout out Jim West. You met Jim.
I I met Jim. Shout out Jim.
He was at Dan and Stevens tailgate over there with Mary

(13:37):
and Drew and Chris and all them.So nice.
Nate. Shout out all those guys all.
Right. So the the, the set list,
obviously everybody said they played, they did master Puppets.
First of all, you know, looking at I think the encore was what
one I heard one was the originalwas the beginning of the encore,

(13:59):
right? I believe that was the first
one, whatever Brian just said. It was one yeah, 1 seeking
destroy, Master of Puppets and Sandman.
We're the we're the final four there.
OK, I think whatever after one because me and my friend, I mean
a little anecdote like that one of the buddies I'm down here
with throwing it way back to whenever the civilians versus

(14:22):
cadets snowball fight was every year we've been there and that
fight has happened. We play one right before we all
go out. So I mean, we love like that
song, like you understand me, Don't get me wrong, has its
place in Blackburg, but for us specifically, one is also up
there. So when they came out with that
and they just played, I mean, honestly, banger after banger

(14:44):
after banger and then you end out blowing the lid off the
place with the Enter Sandman. I I don't know the exact order,
but after one I knew I knew every song after that and I'm
not a massive fan. So that was an incredible.
Stretch and you covered. You covered what you covered,
basically. Like all the big albums.
Yeah. Yeah.

(15:05):
Through Black in that last four.Yeah.
So you you had you had one, you had seek and destroy, you had
master puppets and then you had Enter Sandman and that like
that. 'D be much better now.
So it's got to be ass, but obviously they intro, they did
the normal entrance, that's how they got on stage, which that
was pretty cool. I saw some of the videos of
that, the normal playing and they're coming on in fireworks.

(15:27):
But at the end he Master Republics goes off.
Apparently they were teasing which you're like you're going
to end with it. You're going to end there ain't
no question you're going to end with it.
But when Hetfield started the chant, like what was y'all's
feels on it? Because it was just like how can
they do this? Because this is a Sandman.
It knows Sandman itself is a 5 minute song N concerts.

(15:52):
It's anywhere from 5 1/2 to 8 1/2.
But when they hit it, when thosenotes hit, just was it just
chills or was it just we all just so in the moment, it was
just like, it's literally like agame.
You're so hyped because you wentthrough 1520 songs.
You've been there all day. This pyros have been

(16:14):
unbelievable. Just give me that one last piece
and we'll closeout the Metallicapiece tonight.
I mean, I think it was still chills the whole way through
because I mean, me, just even myexperience in just a couple
short years, you know how much that song, that entrance, the
reverence just around that entire place.
And then you almost thought likethe culmination of the entire

(16:38):
night, like it's just really about to happen.
Like you knew it was happening. But it's something really a
pinch yourself moment where you're sitting there and it goes
off and he he leads the let's goHokies chat and you look and
there's so many people who had who were just Metallica fans,
not honestly, maybe no relation at all to Virginia Tech.
And they looked at the person next to them.

(16:58):
What do they? Oh, they said Hokies.
All right, so now I'm gonna say on the next time he goes back.
That was what I thought was so incredible was I was sitting
next to her down the way from someone.
And when he started to let's go Hokies chant, they didn't know
what they were saying. And then they jumped right in
with everyone else. So it was sort of that
collective, I guess just experience to soak in that
moment because Brian touched on it like, I don't, I'm not saying

(17:22):
they don't go out there and playit up every night, every show,
every tour date, but I think they really understood what it
meant to that location specifically.
And yeah, I mean, just incredible.
Yeah, surreal. It it was surreal when that
moment hit because I mean, guys by age since 2000 and shout out
Jim for for being there for the first Sandman since 2000.

(17:47):
There's always been like those rumors that are floating around
like, oh, but but Metallica is going to play here this week or
you know, they're they're going to be there for the let's go
Hokies Shaylee there. There's going to be something
Metallica related. There's always these rumors and
then finally this comes and to have it happen in lane and to
experience that. It was absolutely surreal that I

(18:09):
mean, that's really the the bestway I can describe it is it's
surreal. And you know, Kobe, you talked
about, you know, kind of the mixof of crowd that I mean, it was,
you know, a lot of there was a lot of Metallica Hokie fans.
There were some hokey fans that were there for the the
experience. And then there were a lot of
just fans of Metallica fans of, you know, metal and thrash metal

(18:30):
in general. And they were just they join
right in with everybody else. Man, It was it was such a good
mix. I think of of all those
different types of fans in that one area.
That's so awesome. Well, glad y'all boys got to
experience that. The videos coming out over the
last seven days of an unbelievable, you know, from the
concert itself. Even I think one of the cooler

(18:52):
things again, sometimes some things that goes on at the
school we just like shake our heads at.
But that video that I'm assumingthe football media guys did
outside the stadium where you can hear it like and you can
just see and it's just like thatthat was cool.
That was because some people like to me that's like visionary

(19:13):
type stuff. Like that's fairly cool to think
about how you hear it and then you hear the notes and
everything roll. So awesome.
All right, let's get we've talked 20 minutes about Cam Ward
in portal. We've talked 10 minutes about
Metallica concert. Let's let's get into the portal
itself. Colby's bread and butter here,
and Colby. I said the only thing I'm here

(19:35):
for right now. I'm kidding.
No, you're here for everything, man.
We've got you on for everything.In your opinions, I'm sure
you've got some great ones, but let's kick this off first.
Let's talk about the guys who left, the players that left.
Anybody shock you of that group or?
You're talking specifically in the spring.
In the spring and not talking inthe winter has gone by.

(19:57):
That That's a lot of time. Specifically in the spring.
When you talk spring realistically, honestly, no one
was a massive shock. The one that maybe caught me a
little off guard, Bob Schick, But I mean, you totally
understand that as well. He's got a family, a kid, he's a
long way from his home out in Utah, gets a little bit closer

(20:19):
for going to Oklahoma State, probably worked out a deal,
maybe work his way into some more guaranteed playing time.
So like you think about it, there was definitely a route and
it's not a big shock. But out of everyone who left, if
I had to name 1 and nail down, I'd probably be Bob shit because
I mean, he was still, I mean, you know how you get into the

(20:40):
season injuries role and that room is what it is.
So that I'd say probably that one out of all of them.
But I like what you said there at the end, though, it's that
idea that he wanted more guaranteed playing time.
There's something we mentioned, you know, he was in the portal
last time we got together. It was this whole you're not
getting a lot of you're not getting the amount of snaps you
got last year because they're guys who are better on this

(21:03):
team. And I think you just made that
point pretty good because it wasa lot of guys that went.
And again, we we we we always talk about pride.
But The thing is we were six winteam last year.
Some guys had to go. Some guys were going to go
because money was going to call them.
Some guys were going to go because they had to go, right.

(21:24):
So is what it is. I boys, just real quick.
I think we hit it, but I want toconfirm any shock to y'all
anybody? I think everybody is pretty much
the the portal is closed now andso many guys are actually you
know at home, like Jordan McDonald's going to play for
William and Mary Jayden went to UCF.

(21:45):
You mentioned Bob shit heading out to Oklahoma State, Colby
Braylon Johnson down the Wake Forest, Ken Fleming down the app
state and so on. But any, any, any shot like
nobody landed it like a terriblespot.
Like I think everybody got homesright.
Well, that. And like, I think the thing
that, you know, we're starting to see in, in terms of talent

(22:05):
leveling up and things like that, you know, a lot of those
guys are guys that for one reason or another, either
weren't high enough in the depthchart for what they were
comfortable with from a playing time standpoint, or we had
pushed them so far down that it it may it was in their best
interest to look somewhere else if they wanted the playing time.
And then they're landing at Oklahoma States and UCFS instead

(22:29):
of like, you know, some of some of those other schools are
taking a step down to FCS there.There wasn't as much of that.
So even the guys that aren't necessarily able to make it with
us are landing at pretty good spots now, which is showing that
the talent level is getting raised across the board.
I think the thing that we're looking at is that when you make

(22:52):
wholesale shifts, both defensively and offensively, you
know, there's going to be some guys that don't find their
footing under the new, the new the new scheme.
It's just not going to be a goodfit for them.
It may be something where they're just not going to see as
much time and it could be a situation like the offensive
line where you brought in more guys that are better, whether

(23:15):
it's talent wise or fit wise, that you're just not going to
get as many opportunities as youhad before, even for guys like
Bob Schick that were starters. 100% Well, let's talk about some
of those guys and, and Kobe, I want to start.
I won't start on the offense andthen flip over to defense and
let's start with the offensive line because we take a look at

(23:36):
the two guys and Jaden Muskrat, who comes up from Auburn, Gavin
Crawford, who comes up from WestVirginia.
That's clearly Monty's and Moore's guys, right?
It's a guy Monty recruited at Tulsa, played for him at Auburn.
Same in the thing with Gavin Crawford down at West Virginia.
I mean, from, from what you've heard, how easy for those

(23:59):
recruitments, I mean, was it just a phone call and said
here's a spot? Yeah, I mean so much of the
portal comes down to obviously prior relationships and but
there is no short thing, especially these days you can
have handshake or certain ideas of players before they go
somewhere. But I mean this, there were some

(24:21):
stories and things that happenedwhere coming down to the the
final seconds where you thought it was a done deal and and
something happens. But for both of these
situations, oh, actually, I'll start with Gavin Crawford.
I think that one is probably a lot more straight down the line.
Visited early, committed early, obviously spent a semester at
West Virginia, jumped in, followed Coach Moore.

(24:44):
That one, I think recruitment wise, pretty straight down the
line, someone who I think honestly has a lot of
developmental upside. I really like inside maybe now,
but has has the versatility to probably move outside.
I'd like to see his updated weight if he's actually at 3:30.
But I mean, just based on high school film, I think that's a
good take. Obviously, you got to build out
that room a little bit. When you take, what, 5 high

(25:06):
school guys over 2 cycles, therewas a lot of work to be done.
I think Matt Moore's done a goodjob flipping it.
And I think this 25, I mean, excuse me, 26 class ahead will
probably reflect that a little bit.
That's pretty much all in Crawford recruitment wise for
Muskrat, much of the same. Obviously Monty Tulsa having
both. You know, a lot of, you know,
Canon Montgomery's also on staffof Phillip Montgomery,

(25:28):
Montgomery's son. I forget his official title, I
think Co running backs or, or something like that.
But he also had a relationship when you have both those guys on
staff and he followed him from Tulsa to Auburn and now we're
here to Virginia Tech. This whole portal window.
We we were recovering on Vt scoop.com.
They were going to go out there and find them a veteran

(25:50):
offensive lineman. This is one with the prior
relationship to your offensive coordinator.
Familiar knows, the scheme knowsjust familiar with them.
When you when you talk about coming in over the summer and
fall, it's just so much being familiar.
It is just so crucial. So that's really big.
So they knew they were going to go out and get a veteran guy to
pair Gavin Crawford's great fouryears of eligibility.

(26:12):
You need depth there. But they were also really sorely
looking for someone who could make an impact almost
immediately on the field. So to have that relationship
prior, that recruitment, I wouldsay is pretty straightforward as
well. There were some personal things
that they had to work through, which was sort of the delay, but
really, honestly a great job. That's probably not talking

(26:32):
about enough by the staff on that one because those snags can
sort of meander and develop and not get him in the boat.
But to get him landed, it was really big.
But like I said, those relationships prior were big
reason why, but still really important and big to get him in
the boat. Yeah, 100% And any any talk of I

(26:53):
know you mentioned about Gavin Crawford could like starting at
the inside, but you want to knowthat way because I'm my
assumption is you think if he's a little bit bigger he might
kick out. But are are are are we Pagan
Muskrat it? He's going to start at tackle,
one side or the other. See, that's a really great
question. I like there's so much that has

(27:14):
to be seen. I think he will play tackle.
I'm not sure if he's a plug in play guy because honestly, and
that's not a knock on him. I think Johnny Yarrett had a
really great spring and they were working Tomas Remac out at
at right tackle as well. And I think for Remac to show
NFL scouts that they have the versatility to be play inside at
guard, be a Big 12 Volt honorable mention.

(27:38):
And then if you kick out this year and you have a all ACC
caliber year or your solid bookend right there.
I mean, he has a size. It looked like he had a good
camp, but at the same time, you know what he can do on the
inside. So let's say Muskrat comes in,
he's a world beater in the fall and you, you like what Garrett's
shown. So you have Garrett on one side,
Muskrat and then you have re/max.
So it's just kind of where thosefive fit.

(27:59):
But I, I don't think they'll pull Muskrat inside.
But either way, you have highly increased the floor of your
offensive line room bringing himhe he's seen a lot of college
football there. There's some things you just
especially in the offensive lineroom, I feel like I'm going to
use like a college basketball reference, but I I feel like

(28:20):
there's always that big man in the NCAA tournament.
You cut on. It's like who is this guy
playing for this team? But it's his fourth or fifth
year in college and he's just somuch more advanced just
physically that that's kind of what it is with offensive
lineman. Now.
Every now and again you have thelike I remember Francis Maui Goa
at Miami, who has a true freshman look like a six year

(28:41):
offensive lineman. But realistically most of the
time to get developed in being 2223 and spent all that time in
a college weight room. I think it'll be really valuable
for his experience and also being I guess familiar with
Monty's scheme before. So he's gone through this a lot
more than even the guys who havebeen there for spring only
because they I think Monty said after the spring game, they only

(29:04):
got maybe 2/3 of the way throughinstall.
So I think it'll be really valuable overall to the room.
Yeah, I think it's going to be big.
And he talked about the install pieces and you get a guy that is
familiar with the scheme coming in with a coach that while, you
know, Monty and more haven't necessarily had a lot of overlap
in their careers scheme wise. It's a it's a very good fit

(29:28):
between the two, what they want to do, how they want to do it.
And, and you mentioned like, youknow, guys in the tournament, as
soon as you said that, I like immediately went to like Cameron
Krutwig from Loyola Chicago, like just this like big dude
buddy, like not necessarily thatthat physically intimidating,
but he's a man out there. But he also he has an

(29:50):
understanding of the the mental game as well as the physical and
and can take advantage of that even despite some other, you
know, athletic shortcomings of his game there.
And you know, you got a guy likeMuskrat thing kind of has that
experience, has seen it from different levels.

(30:12):
You know, looking at Tulsa, looking at Auburn coming in,
that's I think that's going to be big.
You know, you're not going to he's not going to be overwhelmed
by the talent that he's seen in the ACC.
And I'm very interested to see whether he's going to end up at
at right tackle, left tackle, you know, whatever it may be,
you know, or if he's going to bemore of an interior player at

(30:32):
some point. But I feel like he's really
going to be, he's going to be a tackle, whether he ends up
knocking, you know, Remac or or or Johnny Garrett out of a
starting spot. I feel like, you know, one of
they're they're all still going to start.
It's just. Yeah, they're.
All what's the configuration going to be is.
It going to be. Is it going to be Muskrat at
left, Johnny at right, Remac inside a flip of the tackles

(30:55):
there or is, you know, is are you just going to, you know, you
know, keep keep Remac out there and then just move, you know,
move one of those guys inside? So I'm I'm really interested to
see how how that that shuffles going to work and how Crawford
maybe enters the conversation, because I think he's still, you
know, a younger guy. I think he's still got some
room, room to grow. Is he going to be a guy that can

(31:17):
really have an impact this year?Is he more of a long term
solution for the inside of that offensive line?
I, I think long term, I'll make a note.
You want to talk about a youngerguy who's been up through the
program who I don't know if willmake an impact this year, but
just somewhat to maybe bookmark Aiden Lynch.
That's a guy who I, I think could make some waves here like

(31:40):
at the end of last year. So I guess the year he
redshirted and into the spring, someone who's slowly making some
moves. Now, like I said, you got a lot
of older guys ahead of him, but you want to talk about a younger
guy with a lot of years left of eligibility.
That's someone to maybe keep an eye on that.
Is what you got? Yeah.
No, just what you everything that you're talking about is
like what you want to be talkingabout.

(32:02):
You know what I'm saying? Like you can be mad like me at
everything, but when you really look at football and you really
kind of see how to build a program and how to build a team,
the things that y'all are talking about is what you want
to be talking about. Like who's going to start here?
Not for the fact of we don't have anybody, you know what I'm
saying? You got pieces that Xavier

(32:25):
Chaplin leaves. Understandable.
That is a blow, right? You know what I'm saying?
But you had one really good guy and then you had some mediocre
guys and some really bad guys. So it was a discrepancy in the
top to the bottom. Now I feel like you've got guys
kind of all across the board that can fit in and you have a,

(32:46):
like Kobe said, raised floor in that room.
So if I do have to switch you out for a series of play, this
guy goes down, you don't have this massive drop off when X was
getting hurt and then we have toput somebody else in.
If you got all these other guys that you can plug and play, or
if that because I don't know everything about football, but I

(33:07):
can look at a offensive lineman in a game and tell if he can
play like I can look at a coupleof plays and be like he he can
do something for you. Cunningham can do something for
us. The fact that he didn't see the
the field last year on a bad offensive line was a tragedy.
You know what I'm saying? I don't know if he was hurt or
something maybe, but I'm just saying I've seen him enough to

(33:30):
know like that kid can do something for us.
Hey, this dude ain't doing right.
Go in there and get him and let me let talk to him for a minute.
I'm just glad to see that the offensive line coach in the
offensive line room has a pulse.So I know some people was like,
oh, this dude only played special teams.
So fucking what? I don't care what he played.

(33:50):
Get me all the offensive linemanand then let's figure out if
they can play or not. Because when you got three
offensive lineman that you know can play or you got 10 that you
think can play, I take the 10 I think can play because one of
those 3 is going to get hurt. So I'm just glad to see the new
coach has a pulse and he's he's done a good job of flipping the
room and he's done a good job ofbringing some people in.

(34:11):
And then like when you talk about, I think Kobe was talking
about just like being comfortable with the coach.
Most people in the chat, most people here have played some
type of sport. And you know, like egos and
attitudes play a big part in what you do when you're playing
sports. It could be something as simple
as a coach dip snuff, right, does tobacco and he yells in

(34:33):
your face. But when you talk to your Mama,
you say, well, this dude keeps spitting in my face.
Don't know Mama want to hear that He's spitting in your face.
Oh, we got to find a new school.Well, if you have somebody that
knows that coach and knows his mannerism, he's probably going
to say it. Well, coach such and such, just
he's not spitting in your face. He's just yelling.
That's what he does. Like, calm down before you call
your mom and dad and tell that. So having somebody who's

(34:55):
comfortable with a coach that that coach probably don't
gravitate to when he really wants to get on Kobe, but he
knows Brian, he'll get on Brian so Kobe can see it, you know
what I'm saying? So having those guys that come
in and those coaches can lean onto be like Brian, get your shit
together. But Brian's doing everything
right. But he's doing that so the
younger guy can see him, you know what I'm saying?
I think that's going to help in the long run.

(35:17):
I'm just interested to see kind of where we go, you know, where,
where, where the where the team goes.
But as we know, the team goes with the trenches.
So I'm definitely, you know, keeping my eye on that this
summer and into the fall. Yeah.
And you know, Kobe made the point like we had a couple
cycles that we probably didn't take as many lineman as we
should have both in the portal and high school recruiting.

(35:42):
And so a lot of what Moore has had to do is kind of backfill
that position a little bit, bothfrom a front end talent
perspective and from a depth perspective.
And I think he's done a pretty good job of that so far.
And yeah, I think it was it was definitely needed.
I know some of that was probablyrelated to the issues that we
had with having a different offensive line coach pretty much

(36:04):
every damn year of the prior regime.
So that that didn't help, but you know, you can't let those
things go by the wayside becauseyou can get all the wide
receiver talent that you want. You can get all these, you know,
really good players in the secondary.
You can get all those guys. But if you're not dominating the
trenches, none of that matters. It doesn't matter whatsoever.

(36:26):
And and to y'all's point, I lovewhat y'all said, Brian and Tally
about having those guys that know you and know what you can
do to them. And Moore had his already with
Rimac, Al Tuner and the Lucas kid.
He got a fourth one. Now Monty got his right because
I love that Tally because now ifMonty wants to go to the

(36:47):
offensive line and get on somebody, I don't know, Muskrat
for the last six years, I coached him at Auburn, I coached
him at Tulsa. You got that piece and I think
we've all are. I think we're all in agreement
here and y'all said it in some way, shape or fashion.
I think right now, compared to last year, this room is better
even without the guy, the elite guy, right Tally, and that's me.

(37:10):
That's what Xavier Chaplin was. It's almost like we traded away.
You see it in all sorts of MLB deals.
We traded away the elite guy, but everything we got back, we
got so much more in return, right?
It's like you got Rymac, who's all Big 12, you got Muskrat, who
knows the system. Altoona was a high end center
coming out. It's like you don't want shit on

(37:32):
Xavier, but it's like if you hadto leave for us to get
effectively a full step better at every other spot on this
line. Right I.
Think we can live with it. So, you know, all right, there's
the offensive line group. I I can't wait till this summer
when we're all texting and we'relike, OK, who's the starting

(37:54):
five of the offense? And we will probably argue about
it because it's going to be arguments about it.
The summer period. Let's keep that up.
The summer period is long and we'll do what we can try and get
some Intel, but it is long and there's not a lot to sort of
tell, so that's the best time tojust throw stuff at the wall and

(38:14):
see what happens in fall camp. Exactly.
All right, let's flip now to I thought this room was set.
I truly did. I truly thought the wide
receiver room was set. You know Aiden Green has played
you. Weren't you weren't reading on
Vt scoop.com then? Hey, listen, man, I probably was
at a baseball game at some pointin time.

(38:37):
The the reading, reading certainthings has to go out of the
window when you hit the baseballfield 6 out of seven days and
Josh is already hitting it here.Talk about Isaiah Spencer out of
Jackson State, a guy with some data and you don't talk about
some data. You take a look at and play two
seasons down there, 70 right at 70 catches over 800 yards, 5

(39:02):
touchdowns. Let's go ahead and talk about
where's the connection there? Who knew this kid?
How did this come about? You know, Colby, because again,
this was 1, I think I thought itwas going to not come to
fruition. I was like, I think we're set.
We could probably use one, but Idon't.

(39:22):
I did not think we would get a guy who had this much
production. Where you see, OK, the tapes
there, the production's there. I don't care if it's at Jackson
State or not. Yeah.
So assistant head coach, wide receiver, coach Fontell mines
kind of takes what he wants. It's sort of what it comes down
to. I mean, you go out there and
this is someone who is, I mean, pretty highly regarded going

(39:44):
around in the portal getting some pretty, pretty big
interest. I know Baylor was really heavy
on him there at the end. I know he cancelled that visit
right after he visited Virginia Tech, but you had some pretty
big suitors after him. I mean, evaluators seeing the
skill and really being high on him.
And this was just another honestly master class by

(40:04):
Fontelle Mines and seeing what he wanted, getting after it and
getting him into the fold. So, yeah, I mean, we we can talk
more about it. But yeah, just overall
recruitment wise, it's just. Coach Mon's doing what he does.
And I think, you know, what you got to sell now is a little bit
different than what you had to sell under a bow and offense
because it's it's it's still a mostly balanced attack, right?

(40:29):
You're still going to get a pretty decent dose of the run.
But because of the pace of play,you're going to run so many more
plays. These wide receivers are going
to have so much more opportunityto make plays in this offense.
That's the selling point and that's why you're going to get a
chance to pull in a guy like this in the spring window.

(40:50):
Yeah, I'll circle back. Oh, sorry, go.
Ahead, go ahead. Well, I'll circle back a little
bit. I know Curtis said you thought
you were good in like the room where it is, yes, 100%.
But going into the portal, the spring portal at least it sort
of heard obviously with Brody Adams missing the spring with
the injury, they really like where he's at and I think he'll
be back for fall. But just him being down, you

(41:12):
obviously bring in Kim Seldon who's making the position
switch. And I, I really think he had a
great spring too. But you bring him in Donovan
Green, I think a nice addition as well, but someone who's
battled injury. So you really look and then
behind them you have chance Wiggins, Tucker Holloway, a
couple other guys. So they went into this portal.
Ideally they weren't they were looking for.
I know they hosted Christian Fitzpatrick, the guy from

(41:35):
Marshall that we got one handed catch on Montour to Lane.
People remember from last year in Lane, but that was maybe what
we were hearing initially, a bigbody, true vertical threat
because I think Brian was just talking about the vertical
aspect of Monty's offense. Someone who can really push down
the field that that big, maybe prototypical NFL receiver.
You think about that NFL like X body type or 64 bigger guy and

(41:59):
really push down the field. But when this is a player maybe
6-2 out of 215, maybe maybe a little smaller, but but someone
who is still just as a talent, you can't not take.
I think that's why they went andbackfield here at wide receiver.
Now, that's not to say the younger guys that they've
brought in, like Keelan Chan's, Micah Matthews, Snoke, Peter

(42:21):
Kim, but I mean, Snoke's a guy who he hasn't even stepped on
campus yet. Mike, it was splitting time.
So like, they really like these guys.
You just want to bring them along a little bit.
So this is a guy who's ready to sort of just bridge that gap a
little bit. No, Yeah, exactly, exactly what
I was going to kind of go with. It is what Kobe said.
It's because the one thing you can't account for is injuries,

(42:42):
you know what I'm saying? And you got to you bring a wide
receiver in that was has been injured.
You know what I'm saying? You got a wide receiver that
you're kind of start counting onthis injured.
Injuries are going to happen. You know, you look at Ally
Jennings went down last year. Then where you go from there?
You kind of if you can get talent, you get talent.

(43:03):
Same as I said with the offensive line room, it's like,
give me 10 and let's see who goes.
I understand it and you never know somebody wants to leave.
You know you don't you don't know what's going to happen in
today's football. So when you have an opportunity
to go grab somebody that does like you said, have some data
does I think somebody put 0 drops I mean, you go you got 0

(43:24):
drops in in two years yeah, we'll take it.
You know, let's, let's, let's see what you can do.
Let's put you in the in the in an orange uniform because that's
where we win. And let's see what let's see
what you can do because we've kind of seen what happens when
you have to rely on younger guys.
You like Tucker Holloway, which is like one of my favorite

(43:46):
people to watch, but he's comingoff of an injury, you know what
I'm saying? What kind of production does he
have? You know, is he going to be
primarily on kick return? Is he a punt return?
Is he going to be kind of back to him all his old self?
You get these young guys in, arethey going to play like you got
this kid here who kind of has a body of work.

(44:06):
So you got the opportunity to get him.
Let's grab him. So I was excited for it.
I don't know how I, I haven't been on Twitter much lately,
man. So I don't know kind of how
people perceived it. But when I seen it, I've seen
the kid a little bit, you know, just from kind of watching
sports. I've kind of seen him pop up on
some highlights and of course seen some of his, some of his

(44:29):
tape and things like that. And I'm like, I think that was a
pretty good get. And the more I dug into it, like
I like it. I'm not gassing it because I'm
not gassing nothing like we can get Tom Brady in the building
now. I'm still going to be whatever,
but I'm just saying I do like that it looked, it looked nice.
Yeah. And you know, when we think
about like true deep threats in this offense, you know, we got a

(44:52):
we got a couple guys that are probably you haven't seen enough
of to feel like you can rely on thinking of of chance Wiggins.
In this case, you got a returning from injury Tucker
Holloway and you don't really have you're much else as far as
true deep threats. And so you get a guy like this
that has that in his in his toolbox, that's only going to

(45:15):
help consistency within the widereceiver room and consistency
from the offense and being able to attack downfield.
Yeah. So yeah, I kind of and y'all
kind of hit it in every way. I kind of said this was almost
like a safety blanket pick up because not necessarily the
skill level of those young guys,but it's the it's the no
production there, right? Or very small production
numbers. And sometimes you just want that

(45:38):
guy that, you know, we've seen his like Tally said, I've seen
him play. I've seen his highlights.
He's out there on the field, notsaying Chan's and Brody.
Excuse me, Keelan. Y'all can get in trouble with
Miss Lester. You better get it.
Calling him Brody. Yeah, I don't do that.
He's Keelan. OK.
Keelan Adams. All right, I'm I'm gonna end up

(46:02):
beating her one day. She's like, thank you for
calling. But but I think that's out
there. I think that's why that
happened. It was just like we need one
more production piece, because even if these young guys blow up
to y'all's point where one pieceaway from somebody going down
and be in the same damn place wewere last year.
And you know, by the way, shout out Fontell, I told the boys

(46:23):
this, I'll tell you this, Kobe, I ran into Fontelle on Friday,
Trader Joe's here in Richmond, just walking there he is
standing didn't some shopping done said he was up to see his
Mama for for the day. Shout out Coach Miles, good
talking with you a couple minutes there.
But I like it because now you look at that room and you're
like, you got proven guys. You got these skilled, these

(46:44):
young, skillful guys. Let's see if we can roll
something, but you know, try notto gas it.
I'm going to gas a little more in Tally.
Let's hit one last. Well, actually there's two
because I want to talk about thelong snapper in a second here
because it's an incredible story.
I can't remember if you wrote itor Amber wrote it, Colby, but I
just want to talk about him. But let's talk about Garrett

(47:04):
Rangel, quarterback coming out of Oklahoma State.
Where did this come from? Was it some?
Was it something already with Monty?
Did? Did somebody else have a
relationship with him? Because he'd been there backup
for a couple years, had played in several games.
So it wasn't like it was just, oh, I'm sitting on the bench and
I don't want to do that because he ain't starting here right

(47:26):
away. Yeah.
No. Then when you talk about
initially with this recruitment there, there were murmurs about
maybe looking to bring in another quarterback with the
presumption. I mean, pretty much all spring,
it was sort of writing on the wall that Davi Belfort was going
to be transferring and looking elsewhere this spring.
So then you look behind Kyron and Pop and you got two kids who

(47:51):
just went to their Proms. You know what I'm saying?
I mean, these guys are 1718 years old.
They're, that's what I think about like when I'm standing out
there for spring practice and I look around at all the early
enrollees and these, I mean, essentially high school players
are playing against fifth year guys.
It really is crazy to think about.
So when you sort of think about that situation, think about how
many times Pop had to play last year and he went into the year

(48:13):
as quarterback #3 so this year, instead of sitting on Pop, who
redshirted, had a lot, he early enrolled and redshirted and then
necked last year. So this year, if you're in that
situation, you're playing KelvinRyan or AJ Brand, who a year ago
that time were playing high school football.
So I think that was just the bigsituation.

(48:34):
Coach Montgomery bringing a new offensive coordinator.
He obviously hasn't recruited a quarterback to the school yet.
This is someone you're familiar with, felt comfortable with and
was looking for a new spot as well.
So it kind of just worked out really organically and well.
And this is someone I think Coach Montgomery really likes,
obviously, to bring in here, butsomebody has a relationship with
and I think someone who you think can throw the ball around

(48:55):
the yard a little bit. So that's something in fall camp
to watch. Sure.
I mean, I might contribute to some crazy fall storylines.
And we post enough clips of thisguy spinning in the fall.
Yeah. And and it's a guy that you
know, has, it's not a one year rental either.
It's a guy that has a, you know,couple couple years of
eligibility. So it's going to be, I think a

(49:17):
good thing to both short term and long term push pop.
But also, you know, looking in the in the short term, you're
looking at, you know, that emergency quarterback situation
where, you know, we got to to quarterback three last year,
even though we, you know, we, wehad a couple injuries here and
there and all of a sudden you'replaying your, your third string

(49:37):
quarterback. So not having to play a guy that
was just fresh out of high school and really honestly, up
until this point should still bein high school.
You're both of those kids, you know, under normal tracks.
So you didn't really want to getyourself into that situation
where you're, you know, a true, true freshman getting out there,
significant minutes, especially breaking into a new offense and

(49:59):
all those things. So you love having a guy that's
at least seen some some live snaps at the college level has
already been in a system for a little bit, kind of understands
what being a quarterback at thislevel is all about.
So that that's going to be important.
And I think that's going to be good for us from a debt
perspective heading into the fall.

(50:21):
Anything tally on this? Not really man.
It kind of hit everything. It it you can hit on that
situation. It's just like, I guess the only
thing I'll say is I've seen the video of Kelvin Ryan and I think
it was Jeff Overton and AJ Branddoing that.
I think it was break the ice. Is that what it's called?
Yeah. So I've seen that on.

(50:42):
Yeah, I've seen that on Instagram.
And Kelvin Ryan does not look like he was just that prom.
He looks like a strong ass man. I know when I was in 12th grade
or even a freshman in college, Idid not have facial hair like
that. I wasn't that big.
So it looked grown man. But again, now I, I think that

(51:05):
at this point you just can't be desperate.
You know what I'm saying? Like we can't get into games and
be, I mean, you could be desperate at the beginning to
that's not the right word. You don't want to be desperate.
You want to be prepared, but youwant to be able to do what it
takes to win. So if you have to mix some
things up to win, sure. You don't want to get in the
game and go, we can't run the ball because we don't have a, we

(51:25):
don't have a running back that we trust or we, we, we can't do
this because we don't have a quarterback.
So bringing in another quarterback, you, you got to do
it. You know what I'm saying?
And you can't play scared ball. You can't go well, we don't want
to make our starting quarterbackmad because bringing this other
guy in is going to cut man. Can't do that.
Injuries happen, there is a transport portal.

(51:47):
You know, I know that there's always talks of you know I'm
here till the end and you just never know what's going to
happen nowadays. So great.
I mean great pick up to go pick up somebody who has played.
What I love to see when we bringsomebody in is somebody has some
kind of you got some kind of experience.
You know what I'm saying? You're able to get into a game

(52:10):
and look like you've been there even with like college league
last year, right. You know, when we brought him
in, it was kind of a shock that we brought him in.
To me, that's thinking like why they bring this dude in.
But in the long term scheme of things, I mean, when he got on
the field, he looked like he knew what he was doing, you know
what I'm saying? So it was a much different
quarterback than somebody who's just fresh out of high school to

(52:32):
have somebody with some college experience and kind of knows the
speed of the game. So picking up the quarterback
and bringing them in, you know, especially with Kyron kind of
being on ice right now, you know, praying that all of his,
his his recovery is great when he comes back and he comes back,
you know, better than he was last year just because we didn't
get to see the full potential ofwhat he was because of injuries.

(52:53):
So, yeah, I, I, I just love competition, man.
Like I tell my kid all the time,you know, if you don't like
competition, don't play sports. If you just want somebody to put
you there because you're supposed to be there, you don't
need to play. So I say bring when pride was on
this show. What do you say, Curtis?
I'm bringing in somebody to takeyour spot.

(53:13):
Yes, all right. And he said that the first time
we ever talked to him. Bring somebody in to take your
job. You got to, you got to live by
that, especially when you're 1616.
You. Know what I'm saying?
Like you got to, you got to, yougot to, you got to have that
mentality, so. And I love it, Brian, you
mentioned and I think we'll, we'll wrap this one up with
this. You said it perfectly.

(53:35):
Pop now cannot get comfortable. Pop has got to push himself as
hard as he did last year to keepup with Schlee.
Because it's like, you know what, you got the experience
last year. You, we know you can get on the
field and play. But we also don't want to be in
that situation where last year we had to throw Pop in the game
for the first time and he did OK.

(53:56):
And it was great to see that that really all that preparation
got him ready. But we're sitting back here.
Do we want to put AJ or Kelvin in that situation if something
screwed up happens because you know, that's that's the luck of
the hokey. Sun's liable screwed up.
Instead you get to, I'm not saying keep them on ice, but you
get them. Ron, you said it, their
developmental path. You guys are not going to play

(54:18):
this year. We now have 3 quarterbacks.
Cavern started a bunch of games,Pop started some games he's got
on the field. And you know, Garrett Rangel has
played in 13 games, thrown almost 200 passes in three
seasons. That's a lot of passes.
So I think we're at a good spot there.
All right, real quick, Colby, I don't want to go into the

(54:40):
everything about him any long snapper, but if for those who
didn't get a read on it, just give us a little bit because you
wrote an article back in April about Drew Dole and I, I read it
a couple days ago and I didn't have his name on here at 1st and
then I threw it on here because what a story right for this guy.
Yeah, I don't, I don't have it up right now.

(55:01):
Like I said, I'm in the Outer Banks.
But I mean, just a quick synopsis of him.
Obviously long snapper, maybe not the most glamorous pick up
of the transfer portal, but if ever remembers how a bad
exchange snap can go, you know I'm not going to go much
further. But you know it's from the place
where I'm from where it happened.
So anyways but. Yeah, so.

(55:22):
Long snapper, very important anyways.
But look, going back to Drew Doyle, what an incredible story.
Someone who went and served in the the US Navy and then went to
Iowa State as a walk on after hefinished his service.
I believe four years. I don't want to misquote it.
OK Yeah. I believe he served four years
then went to Iowa State to continue his education.

(55:43):
Walked onto the football team and now to go enter the transfer
portal coming to Virginia Tech. Obviously such a massive
emphasis on the core cadets. I think just a really incredible
story to have someone go and continue their educational and
playing career, which is really amazing.
So I, I think obviously I don't think you could have hurt for

(56:06):
that leadership to have in the locker room.
I don't think there is any I, I can't relate personally, but
obviously a football locker roomhas a great brotherhood, but I
would imagine that the US Navy has an incredible brotherhood.
So anytime you can bring a leader like that into the locker
room, I think that's a great ad.100% in In reading the story
here four years. You you, you remember the story

(56:26):
you wrote? Well, Colby, just a few weeks
ago, four years in the Navy, walked on, got got a preferred
walk on spot once he came on. So he was basically borderline
about to be on a scholarship. But Tally, you're going to love
this. He's a combat medic.
We got somebody on the sideline now that can work on these guys
when we get hurt. But hopefully we don't get hurt.

(56:46):
But yeah, we don't hurt. Hopefully that's, I mean that's,
that's good that we can do. That I feel like half the show
we've been talking about, but injuries happen.
But injuries happen you. Know.
The whole crazy way. Because like, I feel like, you
know, either those injury bugs hit you so hard, it's just so
debilitating or it's like it kind of just flutters around you
a little bit there. There's never like a middle

(57:07):
ground where you're like comfortable.
It's either it, it, it stays away or it like just completely
runs right there debilitate you.It's.
Right in your face, constant andyou're like, he's hurt.
We hurt again. Jeezy, I let's flip over to the
defensive side of the ball and obviously the defensive line was
the standout room for that side.And each guy probably has their

(57:29):
own story and how they arrived. But for you kind of looking
through on Kobe and kind of thinking back as you're, you
know, reading what's going on with them, seeing where they're
coming from, what kind of stood out for you on each of these
guys, you got Cody Hussman, Elijah Fall and Emmanuel
Hickman. Yeah, I'll go down the list and
just kicking it back to what Tally said earlier.

(57:51):
It's all, I mean, it's all aboutthe trenches.
When you build out any football team, you got to start in the
trenches. Obviously new offensive
coordinator try to get his line straight.
New defensive coordinator wants to get his front look straight.
So coming in, you mentioned CodyHeisman, the kid from North
Dakota State Super that that wasa guy initially in the portal
they set their eyes on targeted and they're really, really,

(58:13):
really high on now, don't get mewrong.
Kamari Copeland and Kelvin Gilliam, I think you can pencil
in maybe almost in Sharpie now. I think those two guys with the
spring and what they've done on the field here, obviously for
Gilliam and the way they've LED themselves in the locker room,
in the classroom, outside of thefield, I think those two guys
you can maybe pencil in a starters.
There's going to be a lot of rotations, odd fronts, different

(58:35):
fronts. This is a guy who's going to
factor in a lot. I think Cody Heisman, someone
who's going to make a big impact, someone they set out for
her to get and to land. I think they love his body type,
what he brings. He was all MVFCI believe is the
conference what it's called OK, and someone who I think is going
to factor in pretty heavily. Then you go down L my gosh, I'm

(58:58):
going to mess up his name. I'm so sorry.
L had fall, I believe is how yousay it, but this is someone I I
talked, I talked to and before the visit he was excited after
the visit said it went well. And then it was it sort of
seemed like one of those deals where maybe he was going to
fizzle out just because he was going to go on another visit or
something. And then I'm at the golf course,

(59:19):
I'm on the putting green, I get a notification he committed.
So I it was just one of those things where there were smoke
around it, but it seemed like something I was going to drag
out and then just all of a sudden he was in the boat.
So I believe he has two years ofeligibility left coming from
Georgia Southern, someone with multiple years just you got it
like it's the trenches. It's hard to find these guys who
are walking around 290, two, 95 lbs.

(59:42):
So you just got to load up there.
And then Emanuel Hickman, you want to talk about maybe the
someone who didn't surprise me leaving someone who surprised me
coming in. This was the one true that
caught me way off guard. I was monitoring Michael Short,
which happened I believe 1015 minutes right after this.
But I just got my Qdoba Bowl from Turner's Hall.
If anyone's familiar with Virginia Tech campus, I'm coming

(01:00:03):
back. It's a beautiful day.
I'm sitting on my patio and all of a sudden I see Emmanuel
Hickman and I had to scramble and and catch myself up with
this. But this is someone.
I believe with one year left, he's played a ton of college
football. I think started at East Carolina
then went down to USF, Didn't play last year.
But someone like I said, the body type, what he can bring.

(01:00:24):
I think he'll also factor on thefield with A11 year left.
And when you bring in all these guys, I think from the fans for
just everything, he can get discouraging when you hear so
much about Emmett Laws, Gerard Johnson, even James Jeanette,
just guys specifically those guys.

(01:00:46):
But Andrew Hanchuk, just guys like that who you've recruited
and been in the program and looklike they're making strides and
are making strides. And it's instantly well, are
these guys not doing the right things?
Well, no. It's just in the way college
football is now. You kind of just you have to
continue like like you guys mentioned when pride was on
here, I'm bringing in someone totake your spot.
And it's not that you guys are doing anything wrong.

(01:01:08):
It's just every single day the man next to you is going to be
competing and, and wanting to take what's yours.
So I, I, I'm still think and spring wise, Emmett and Gerard
Johnson specifically, even Christian Evans, early enrollee
Christian Evans, I thought had areally great spring.
So overall, I think the defensive line room's in a great
place, but that doesn't mean take your foot off the gas.

(01:01:28):
And because with how many frontsand substitutions I think
they're going to be running, I think you're going to want as
many of those bodies as you can.Yeah, that difference of line
being, no, that difference of line has has quietly been, I
don't even want to say quietly, but they've been doing some
work, man. When you start to think about
all of the portal ads that they had, and I know people be

(01:01:52):
jumping on JC, man, I always like JC, but people jumping on
JC saying he couldn't recruit orhe spent too much time at
Sharky's the way I don't know whatever the place is that he
likes to go Drake. But I'm like, man, when you
start to look at the names and look at the production that they
brought in the people we ain't even seeing like what's the kid
named the the redhead kid being Bill.
No, you think about Bill and. John and John.

(01:02:17):
Creek and these three guys like the people that you already have
there, it's like you have to have we keep saying you have to
have a lot of different pieces that can fit that puzzle and I
feel like they're they're they're trying to get there, not
desperation, but I feel like theheat is on.

(01:02:38):
I feel like prize the coach and the coaching staff.
I do think this is the best coaching staff he's had since
he's been here. I'll say that.
So I'm going to be mad sometimesI've been calm because Kobe's
here. I got that right in front of my
boy. But I do feel like this is the
best coaching staff that he's had while he's been here.
But I do feel like there is a sense of urgency with what I've

(01:02:59):
seen them doing as far as the additions that they're bringing
and the production that they're bringing.
It's not like, well, we can develop this person and this,
but like they're trying to do something to generate some
production and wins now, you know what I'm saying?
So what Kobe said when you're thinking about some of the young
guys like, man, if I don't get it done this year, shoot, I

(01:03:22):
might not be here to coach you. I got to make something happen.
Now we at least got to have the trajectory going the right way
so I can get these fans off my back.
So I think that they are, I think that they are, you know
what I'm saying, kind of moving in the right direction.
I, I was hesitant to say it, butI'm going to be I, I do think
they're moving in the right direction, man, and I'm excited.

(01:03:45):
I'm excited to see like what what we have, which route the
the schemes go and and the players as well.
Yeah, I I think tally your your concern is that is this too
little too late? Not that these aren't good
moves. It's is that is it?
Is it too little too late? And you know, I'm gonna I'll say

(01:04:06):
this, you know, talking about Cody Heisman When I when I when
I see and hear 64283, I'm like, that's going to be a an odd man
front DN right there. That that that's, that's like
prototypical size when you go odd front.
So that's what I expect him to, to kind of slot in as I don't
think he's necessarily going to be that that front frontline guy

(01:04:27):
on a on an even front, but he's probably going to be one of the
guys coming in when we go with with some of those odd front
looks. So excited to see what he can do
in in that capacity. The other two I feel like are
definitely going to be be those interior guys, you know, 295
plus in both cases, you know, 6364, these guys are going to

(01:04:49):
still be shooting gaps, but they're also going to be
occupying blockers at the same time.
And I'm excited that we're getting more bodies in there
because when we talk about offensive line is all about your
best five and then having some depth.
Defensive line is all about how many bodies can you send out
there. Keep those bodies fresh.

(01:05:09):
You need to be at least 2 deep, if not 3 deep in every position
on the defensive line to feel like you're in a good place.
And so the more bodies we get inin that capacity, the better.
My question about the what's hisname Cody Heisman or Cody who's
man or whatever his name. My question is I have not looked
at him at all like does he have long hair?

(01:05:30):
Is his hair long? No.
His hair is not long. He's got to grow his hair out
because any white boy that playson a defensive line at Virginia
Tech with long hair, like they usually do a good job when you
go back to like Jerrod Hewitt oreven like Vinny Mohoda or
something. Not saying they got to be a
superstar, but they just made plays.

(01:05:50):
He's got to have some hair hanging out of his helmet and I
think he's going to be alright. No disrespect to Cody, but he
looks like a white kid from Iowa.
Yeah, we got to. We got to grow that hell, man,
it gets cold. Blacksburg.
We got to grow the. Hell, let's, let's, let's make
sure we clip this section. We'll make this the real and put
it out there on Instagram so Cody sees it and by by August

(01:06:12):
Colby of Texas be like it's to his back already.
It's grown out. It's grown out.
He listened to you. Got to.
Be I need shoulder length by theend of August.
Got to be defensive line sometimes that don't work out.
You know what I'm saying? Even the wild though when that
hair hanging out like man, they make some plays so they.
Bad they bad. And those vote for Ben Bell

(01:06:35):
then? Oh man, that kid got a handful
air. So does Yonkum.
Yeah, and he's already kind of proven it down in Texas State.
Like we got to have 10 sacks a couple years ago.
Like you know what he's doing. I say this and and I wanted to
y'all kind of hit on it in variations, but I think the
other reason this was done because you mentioned y'all

(01:06:55):
mentioned Jerrod Johnson, Emanuel Laws and they're taking
steps, they're looking good. But when the average college
football offense snaps the ball 75 * a game, that's about the
average, right? That's not the low end.
That's not the high end because you got some teams running 90
plays, you got some are slowing it down.
I think these guys are brought in more so to say, not that we

(01:07:17):
don't trust you, but you aren't there to take 25 snaps a game.
By the time you get to 15, you're.
Going to keep rotating. You got to keep rotating.
But in this case with having these guys who have experience,
you probably know they're they're they're game shaped
ready. You got Copeland, you got
Gilliam already. We slipped these guys in.
Now we can introduce laws in Gerard in 8 to 12 snaps a game

(01:07:42):
we ain't. Killing them and see they kind.
Of. Yeah, And they kind of did a
little bit of that last year waslike, what's the kid's name?
He looked really good last year.Aisen Stevens.
Aisen Stevens, Right. So you got all these.
You got all these people that wedepended on and the names we
were hearing. Like nobody talked about Aisen
Stevens at the beginning of the year.
Then he pops in the game and you're like, who the hell is

(01:08:02):
that? Why does he look bigger than all
the rest of them? And what is?
And he goes in and he does not like jumping off the page as far
as stats goes, but he does a good job.
You know what I'm saying? You can do that when you have
depth, like that's a football team.
Like you said, you're running all these plays and then you're
able to interject some of these guys in or you know that this

(01:08:24):
kid has some upside like an Emmett Laws because Emmett Laws
is a smaller guy to be playing defensive line, right?
But you don't need more tally. He's 295 now, dude.
He ain't small no more. Right.
I'm thinking height wise though,so yeah, no, size watch is not
where he's supposed to be, but you know what I'm saying?
You think like he's a young guy,but you know, he's got some

(01:08:45):
talent, but you don't want to force him to play, you know what
I'm saying? When you think about it, in the
past we had somebody maybe like a Josh Fuga.
Josh Fuga should have gave you 15 snaps a game, maybe 20 snaps
a game. But then when you start to get
into the 30 snaps a game with a player like that, it kind of
looks like it he he falls off orhe's out of place or something

(01:09:06):
like that. So bringing in that extra help
and bringing in that extra depth, man, I think it's going
to bode well for us. And I'm interested to see, like
I said, kind of what Cephas does.
I hope I got his name right. He looks like to me like young
enough where he can do some innovative stuff, you know, not

(01:09:28):
just old school. We going to do this.
This is the only thing that works sometimes you got to
change to your players, and he looks like a guy that can do
that. Kind of doing a little bit of
research on him. He seems like a guy that'll do
that as well. Is why I feel like we're
bringing in some different guys with some different skill sets.
So another thing that I'm excited about, yeah.
Yeah, I mean, he seems like a guy that's going to do a couple

(01:09:52):
things. He's going to keep things as
simple as they need to be while still being confusing and
complex when looking at it from an offensive standpoint.
But at at the same time is goingto not only adapt to take away
the strength of what the offenseis doing to it, but also adapt

(01:10:15):
to the strengths of the personnel that he has.
And that's what kind of being multiple and having these
different ways to align and assign in the defense are
important. Hey, I got to break something
up. What?
Jim put put that, put that comment that Jim Gilmore put up.
You see it? No, no, not not Jim West.

(01:10:36):
Jim James Gilmore. I'm sorry.
James Gilmore. Yeah, put that up.
You should have just looked at him and said why?
That's what you should have said.
Why, man, Why didn't you help the offensive line when you was
here? You went to coach offensive
line. Why didn't you help?
Why? That's all I'm going to say
about that. Go ahead, Curtis.

(01:10:56):
All right, let's let's jump overto the linebacker room because,
because trust, if the tally was on that flight, tally would have
Oh. I'm asking.
I got to ask. You got to ask him, hey, what's
going on? Let's go to the linebacker room
because obviously a room that, you know, they moved Cam Fleming
there, they were home, a couple other guys, maybe McDonald would

(01:11:18):
take one more step. Nobody popped.
So right then you're sitting there with Gabe Williams injury.
It's literally Caleb Jayden and Caleb Spencer and maybe George
balance on short yard situationsbased on what we saw in the
spring game. That's not a lot of depth.

(01:11:39):
So these guys have played somewhat.
So do you think the selling point was probably these guys
you're going to play, we're going to rotate, you ain't going
to be sitting on the bench getting or just special team
snaps you're going to play. Do you think that was a selling
point to both Short and Santiago?
Yeah, I mean, 100% that comes into it when you when you look

(01:12:00):
at that linebacker room overall,the talent is hired, but you
look at a Gabe Williams, someonewho's obviously injury in that
Clemson game, tragic, but some of you're probably not going to
be counting on this fall. You look at like, why was his
name slipped me Jordan Bass, someone who you bring in talent
level, you know the the measure rules, but he's still two O 6,

(01:12:23):
maybe 210 now, like coming off an injury.
It's you don't know if it's going to happen this fall.
You'd love to have him in the room, but just you got to think
about like Tal, he's saying you don't know if you're going to
make it. You like you got to play this
fall. So and then you talk about
obviously Caleb Woodson, Jaden Keller, Caleb Spencer and then
George balance there you have the two clatter ball went

(01:12:45):
through early enrollee. You have no chambers coming in
this summer. So you got bodies in that room.
But you got to talk about live reps and Michael Short.
He's only two years of eligibility, maybe only one year
playing. I believe he had 23 tackles last
year, mid 70s PFF grade. But he was a special teams
captain for UNC. He did like he played so many
special team snaps. He did all the little things,

(01:13:08):
didn't maybe rotate in as much at linebacker, but this is
someone they are really high on.Michael Short I think could
factor pretty heavily in and that's not to take away from
Caleb Spencer. I think Caleb Spencer, honestly,
body wise, everything wise maybewill surprise people most this
fall, but I think you had to go out and obviously mess with that
linebacker and Michael Short, I think someone who can do it on

(01:13:31):
both phases of special teams anddefense.
And I think the measurable 6-3, maybe 622252 thirty.
I mean, that is what you want. Antoine Santiago still kind of
in that same ballpark where he'snot a 510 backer sitting around
202 ten. These are big linebackers on the
inside, not afraid of contact. They can move well, which is

(01:13:54):
what I think you're looking for.So Santiago I think is a little
bit more, I believe the quote was that we had an article or
from someone his best balls ahead of him, maybe more
projected upside, but you got tobring that into the room.
But when you mentioned where it was and what's available to have
someone who can go run and hit and strike and someone who can
eat up field and be meshed and still has a couple years left, I

(01:14:18):
think you got to take him. And then Michael Short, I think
is someone who they believe could factor in potentially
immediately depending how camp goes.
So I think really great pickups,something you had to do when you
look at that room. So we're really valuable gets
here late in the spring, honestly.
Yeah, definitely both. Like you said, size wise is
about 6323246364. That's much different than a

(01:14:44):
510, even 6 foot backer. You know what I'm saying?
No disrespect to Brumfield. I think Brumfield's a great guy.
But playing in the ACC when he came here from where he came
from was much different than what he's seen, you know?
And you can kind of see that when he came up to make tackles,
could be in the right place, maybe a little light because the

(01:15:06):
running backs that you're hitting, the lineman that you're
taking on, it takes a toll on you.
So you got to have a little bit more mass, I guess, to be as
much crap as people talk about the ACC, it's still a pretty big
Football Conference. So getting those linebackers in,
like Kobe said, with the size that is at least the standard,

(01:15:28):
I'm guessing because they're both about the same size.
So I'm guessing when they're looking at a a A linebacker,
they're probably saying we want them to be about 6-3 and about
2:30. Yeah, look at Woodson.
Look at Woodson. We go through spring and like
when even when I'm in spring, it's all about the people who

(01:15:49):
haven't popped. Maybe I didn't like even give
the flowers to Caleb Woodson. That guy threw hunger drills.
What he did to his body is someone because he played a lot
last year and he played I think overall really well last year.
Someone who maybe didn't get hisflowers through springs is
almost expected the standard someone who's going to be there.
But I think this is someone who is really going to step up and,
and lead this defense this year.So I, I think when you look at

(01:16:10):
Woodson, that is honestly the prototypical running mate they
want to have. And I think they found two guys
who they can mesh and build intothat.
And Caleb Spencer, I know a lot of people haven't seen him since
last year was playing that star position carrying a little less
weight. He has done an incredible job
with Coach Ferg in the weight room.
He looks, I mean, very similar. I think by fall camp he he could

(01:16:31):
really make a push there. I got to I got to go take a look
at him because I mean, he jumpedoff a tape a lot of times when
he was in and then he just kind of fell off.
Like we didn't see him anymore, you know, later in the spring,
later in the season and stuff. So I don't know what happened,
but I remember watching him and was like, Dang, man, he can move
and you know, he could hit just he did a lot of stuff good from

(01:16:54):
what I remember. But I also remember we just
didn't see him anymore, maybe missed a couple tackles.
And then I don't know if he getsin the doghouse with the
coaching staff, whatever the case is, but to hear you, you
know, boots on the ground talk about what he looks like, what
his body looks like, he's takingit serious.
That's energetic to me. You know what I'm saying?
To make me think like, OK, if he's hitting the weight room and

(01:17:18):
he's taking it serious like this, he's ready to take that
next step. You got to have guys like that.
Because I remember looking at Caleb Woodson.
Like, I mean, most people should, but I remember looking
at Caleb Woodson. I think it was at the spring
game when they were introducing the new freshman and I was like,
Curtis, that dude's going to be good, man.
Like he just came out of high school.
He looked like that. Like, how do you come out of

(01:17:40):
high school looking like that, man?
You know what I'm saying? And my Mama didn't have enough
money to feed me to, for me to look like that, you know what
I'm saying? And I didn't have the mind to go
to the weight room to look like that.
But a lot of these guys kind of man, they, they, that's what
they do now. And that Caleb Woodson build,
like you say, it is probably about what a Virginia Tech

(01:18:02):
linebacker should look like, what a linebacker in general.
OK, 100% real quick, people might be saying undersized
linebackers. This isn't going to work.
This is every linebacker that was on Arizona swab last year.
622-3861, 228-622-2056 Foot, 225-622-2963 236-1246 Guess

(01:18:28):
what? The linebackers we currently
have literally fit that mold. Like that is NFL guys.
That's not that's not other college guys.
That's NFL players that Sam Cepheus coached in that defense
last year. Ron, what you got?
Well, I think this this thing and I'll let I'll let Kobe jump

(01:18:49):
in on James's comment here in just a second.
But you know, you were you were comparing those sizes.
But when we talk about this typeof defense and being multiple
and being having some flexibility and some position
fluidity, you're not going to have those like prototypical 3-4
inside linebackers like your RayLewis's and stuff like that.

(01:19:10):
You're not going to have guys that need to be 250 but still
run sideline to sideline. They're still going to be a
little bit lighter. And I think that plays into how
we can recruit because we've shown a propensity to be able to
recruit not necessarily undersized line, but not
necessarily linebackers that would fit, you know, hand in
glove in the SEC. We we've always been a little

(01:19:31):
bit more undersized than than that type of linebacker.
And I've been as far as who wereable to recruit consistently.
And I think this kind of plays into where our bread and butter
is from that perspective, both in the footprint where we
recruit and just historically the guys I've been able to bring
in. Yeah, I'll jump in.

(01:19:52):
James, appreciate you dropping that in.
Difference in explosiveness or energy?
Yeah. I mean, I think overall there
was a heightened sense of urgency, intensity, focus on
every position group, every segment of I mean from periods 1
to period 40, it was locked in ball security.

(01:20:13):
You didn't have guys messing around, I mean locked in.
And I think that was the new coordinators obviously trickling
down to the position coaches. A lot were the same, obviously
at Matt Moore, Coach Wilson, some other guys.
But there was definitely heightened intensity of
understanding what was at stake.And I think a lot of that

(01:20:34):
trickles down from Ferg. We're not in there for hunger
drills, but just even hearing personal accounts, secondhand
accounts, yes, there was a different level through all of
winter workouts and hunger drills.
And yes, Coach Ferg, if there's one thing to hang the hat on, I
think physically, and I think you'll see it, I think they'll

(01:20:56):
be physically in better shape, more prepared, ready for the
season. That is great to hear.
Great to hear. All right.
We got one last group to hit here and one last player to hit
and that is Caleb Brown, the themost like to me, one of the more
interesting players because he is coming to us via Hawaii.

(01:21:20):
He is coming to us though via let me get the right.
I want to make sure I pronounce this correct.
Lithuania Springs, Georgia, which is right on the Alabama
line because he's from Pinson, AL, but he went to Georgia for
high school. I didn't know that.
Yeah, yeah. Went to Georgia High School and

(01:21:41):
I was doing some background on him.
Did some stuff at Georgia Southern.
Is this something that maybe Jairi Wilson had a hand in
getting him and through the door?
Because I look elsewhere. It's like we don't recruit that
area that much. But he's obviously, you look at
his stat lines and stuff. He's played some solid ball out
in the Mountain West last few years.
To be honest with you, Curtis, Idon't know if Coach Wilson had a

(01:22:04):
relationship here initially withhim.
I think this is just one where the portal is an open book and
Coach Jones is being really selective with who he wants to
bring in through high school andthe college ranks.
And we'll talk about a little bit if we go a little more large
scale on this cornerback room. But what what they've brought
in, I think he feels really comfortable.
But going back to SIBO, I believe is his nickname Caleb

(01:22:25):
Brown, someone who is going to almost be a plug and play guy.
I, I came out with the article acouple days ago.
Whatever top spring portal guys.I think he was either 3 or 4
that I listed because this is someone obviously with the
unfortunate looks like Josh Clark's going to miss the
season. Someone who I thought was having
a really great spring and was going to be able to factor in on

(01:22:45):
the outside there. You kind of have to go out there
and find you, not saying this player is similar in stature or
size to Derek Canteen, but sort of that guy who can plug in and
seen a lot of college football and can help those younger guys
out. Because you're going to have
Dante Lovett and some other guyswe'll talk about here in a
second. But this is someone who can play

(01:23:05):
outside. Maybe it's a little on the
lighter side. I believe listed at 160 at
Hawaii. I don't know how accurate that
is. We'll find out in the fall, but
has seen a lot of college football, like you said, played
pretty well the last couple seasons out there at Hawaii.
So Coach Jones is being selective.
So this is someone that fits hisbill.
He's had a decent track record in the last couple years with

(01:23:26):
obviously bringing in Delane andwhat he's developed with Strong,
so I think this is someone who'sgoing to factor in and play a
lot this season. Yeah, that I mean it's, it's
exciting seeing guys come into that room.
I think that when we were looking at kind of post spring,
I think we get circled cornerback as being one of those

(01:23:48):
where we we felt like we needed to get one more guy in that
room, especially a plug and playtype player that, that you feel
comfortable with that, you know,you, you probably feel, you feel
really good about your one. I think you feel OK about the
guy opposite him. And then after that, it's like,
I think we can manage for a little bit.
I don't know if if they can holdup for for, you know, a whole

(01:24:11):
game or multiple games, you know, back-to-back.
We we probably need at least onemore guy in there that we feel
really confident about and, and not looking at nickel, just
looking at the outside guys. And, and, and I think we, I
think we kind of we got that with SIBO and I think that's
going to be we'll, we'll see if that's going to be enough depth
for for this crew to hold up. And you know, we can, we can

(01:24:34):
kind of talk about that a littlebit.
How are y'all feeling about the overall depth in that room?
And Colby, I'll let you you leadoff on that.
I was about to say I agree with you on that, but I'll I'll tell
you what. If you want to look outside a
nickel, you obviously have Isaiah Brown Murray from ECU
looks like he's going to slot inthere.
You got knowledge Harrell who, if we don't even want to count
him as a nickel, he can play outside shoot, he can maybe even

(01:24:55):
slide back to safety with the way he's his body.
Really, that's what I'm I'm. I don't want to do this, but I'm
very close to not telling lies. But I'm just saying like the
same way last year I was with. Keelan.
As we'll say, not Brody, someoneI thought really popped off and

(01:25:17):
someone to keep note of is the same way with these true
freshman cornerbacks. And nothing against Christian
Williams, Thomas Williams. I think they'll have to play a
lot this year too, just with theway injuries, rotations.
But I'll tell you what, JoJo KREM, Jamari Deloach and
Knowledge Harrell are three guyswho already are not afraid of
anyone, which is what you need to be a cornerback lining up

(01:25:38):
against these guys. They're not afraid.
And you even saw it in the spring game.
Like these are guys who are ready to go and get after it.
So I I think those guys are ready to play.
Speaking on death. Yeah, when you talk about
getting on the field early, I'vesaid it before, like cornerback
is probably one of the positionsthat stuck.
It's not easy to do it on any level, but cornerbacks probably

(01:25:59):
one of the easier places to get on the field early because that
is mainly skill and and and instincts.
You know, most lineman to come in, for a lineman to come in and
start as a true freshman, kind of unheard of.
Like you got to be really, really fucking good to do that.
You know what I'm saying? Every now and then you have a
quarterback that can come in andplay early like that.

(01:26:21):
But cornerbacks, receivers, it'sjust like I need you to guard
this guy. You mirror him and some guys
just got it. You know what I'm saying?
Knowledge Harold has it like outof the all those guys that he
mentioned is is good. But I'm telling you knowledge
Harold, if he stays at Virginia Tech for three to four years,

(01:26:41):
you'll see this guy go to the league.
You know, I mean, he's going to go wherever he goes, barring,
you know, injury or getting hurtor or troubled.
I don't think I'm not speaking any of that, but I'm just saying
wherever he decides to leave from college wise, I think we'll
hear his name called in the draft.
I don't want to go to where he'll go.
I just look at his skill set, look at what he's done.

(01:27:02):
Look at how he transitioned fromhigh school to college.
Another kid that's supposed to be going to prom, you know what
I'm saying? But he's at the spring game
guarding college wide receivers,you know what I'm saying?
And and some other wide receivers are big and physical

(01:27:22):
man, like Aiden Green, not a small dude.
You know, he's he's played a lotof football.
You know, the other, the other, the other Green brother, you
know what I'm saying? Cam Selden, these are guys that
are play football at a high level, you know, and you got
these kids that are coming in. That's like I got them no
problem. JoJo Grimm the same like.

(01:27:44):
It's right here. They want to play, man.
And that's the selling point that you have at Virginia Tech.
When you're somebody like, you know, Coach Prowl or Coach
Jones, that the one thing I can offer you is you got the
opportunity to get on the field early, You know what I'm saying?
Like that is what our selling point is at a school like
Virginia Tech. And so I, I love it, man.

(01:28:06):
I'm glad to see the kids going in and competing and hell, I, I
want to be like, what, who is this?
You know what I'm saying? Who, who is that jumping off the
page? Who is this?
So I'm interested to see what they do.
Back to what we said, as far as,you know, bringing in SIBO,
didn't know much about him, but all of the things that we've
talked about, it definitely makes sense because as we've

(01:28:28):
been saying, this whole, you know, broadcast, like you got to
be able to have the bodies, you got to be able to plug some
people in and see who's going tocompete to get that playing
time. So I'm, yeah, I'm definitely
interested to see to see what wedo in that and on the back end
like that. I think something's in the water

(01:28:49):
down there, Green Run, because Imean, they've had some guys come
in and contribute right away. And I mean, hopefully we got
another one in the trenches thatmight be coming this way as well
sometime please, in the near future.
But. Y'all got my hopes up.
I mean Kobe, you really got my hopes up.
And Tally's over here talking about knowledge because we've

(01:29:11):
seen it, right? Knowledge.
We've seen it. We've seen it.
He's he's going to be good man. When we think about it, think
about Brandon Face on years ago when he came on Kobe, you're a
younger guy, but you were probably enough to remember face
on. It's like he's a true freshman,
like, And he bowled. Yeah.
Kendall was the same way. Macho was the same way in

(01:29:31):
Tally's 100% right. That is the position.
Because in so many things, it's either this is your area,
protect your zone, or you got a man in Miriam.
Yeah, it's it's basically you got to have the mentality that
you want it. And like knowledge.
Harold's got he's five, 11185. He's already a college football

(01:29:51):
size. He's ready.
Those might be not even right. Like.
Yeah, so. He he's he could pretty heavier
than 185 honestly, really maybe yeah.
So he's. Already bigger, they can even.
Shift that guy back to safety eventually.
Like he could play anywhere backthere, Yeah.
He's got it, man. He's I'm telling you, like we
won't even go into rankings and stuff like that because we know

(01:30:14):
how everybody feels about rankings and oh, he's only a
three star. He's only four-star.
Whatever he committed early. I'm telling you, you go put on
the tape. You ain't even got to put on
tape because high school don't matter.
Go look at these people playing now.
Look at what they're doing now. It's so many.
Like you can follow anybody on social media and find out some
stuff about them, their workouts, what they're doing

(01:30:36):
when they're competing. You can go look at somebody like
Knowledge Harold. And first of all, I've never
seen a kid named Knowledge. He got to be famous like he got.
He's got to make it with a name like Knowledge Harold, right?
I've. Never heard that name, so just
looking at him, looking at the body of work that he's already
compiled, it's like same as we thought, look at Chris, then

(01:30:58):
hopped on here. What's up, Chris?
He's late tonight. Man, it's been Mother's Day, all
type of stuff going on. They don't tell him Chris.
But when you just look at what Ido, like what prize done, and I
don't want to go off into another tangent, is that I got
to get a man props because I'm so pissed because I hate losing.
But I got to give him props about what he's been able to

(01:31:20):
bring to Virginia Tech. As good as some of the things
that we've seen dumb ass dude Foo, what we've seen Foo do as
far as on the field, pride has brought some kids here and some
talent that we're not used to. You know what I'm saying?
Seeing some of the people who's committed to Virginia Tech, I'm
like, man, we ain't seen a kid like that in a long time.

(01:31:41):
Or you know, some people who's committed and it's like, well,
we've seen this dude get this good after a while, some of
these kids are coming in like JoJo Prim is ready to play.
I'm not saying he's going to play, but if you go watch him,
he's ready to play. He can step on the field and
play some, play some snaps for you.

(01:32:02):
Right now, they can't do a wholegame, but you can put him on
somebody and say, I need you to guard this guy.
I need you to guard this area and something good may happen.
So it's been a lot of times where we didn't have that.
You know what I'm saying? Even if you think about Dorie,
Dorie is an NFL guy or he's the NFL guy, but when he came in,
nobody looked at him and was like, man, this dude's going to

(01:32:23):
the NFL. He just developed into that,
which is great. But some of these kids now, it's
just like, man, they got it. So I'm I'm interested to see how
much playing time they get. How how can we use them?
Because I really think that, like I said earlier, I really
think that they're in go mode and they understand like I

(01:32:45):
cannot. We're not trying to hold shirts.
We're not trying to win shirts some guys, but we got to win.
We got to you can't go into these games.
You look at prize regimen, his his resume since he's been here,
you cannot go into this year. And I don't want to look at no
fucking schedule. So don't nobody asked me to any

(01:33:07):
games are going to win and lose.I'm just as bad as his as bad as
his roster was when he first gothere, we can all agree that this
roster is better, right? Even though we these guys in the
NFL, this roster is still betterthan when he got here. 100%.
It was only losing games by touchdowns and seven points and
six points and three points. It's like, I just want to see

(01:33:31):
this year where he takes that step.
Whether it's in two games or three games, you got to get a
signature win, you got the opportunity to do that and you
got to win the some of those close games that we keep losing.
So come on, Pry, help me, man. I want to love you.
I want to, you know what I'm saying?
Help me love you. That's what I want.

(01:33:54):
All righty, there we go. Did anybody see Jim post that
the other day? I saw him post that.
Yes I did. Well, you didn't.
Did you see it? I did.
Did you see it, Kobe? Did you see?
It crazy. We'll we'll send that over to
you in the message so you can laugh.
But Kobe, thanks for the time onthe portal giving the

(01:34:17):
background. These guys letting us kind of
shoot the breeze with you about them about seeing again what we
feel like it's it's all these guys are layered depth in
somewhere going to help this program.
I will hit one more piece beforewe wrap it up tonight.
I just want to get Y alls take on it.
Ross Dellinger and it's and it'ssomething that's been flowing
out here probably for about 18 months now.

(01:34:37):
A little bit more. Basically it is looking like
more and more we are heading to 16 team playoffs.
SEC in the Big 10, throwing the nuts on the table because
basically they can because they're getting the most money.
They're getting the best playerscurrently right now getting 4
auto bids. The ACC in the Big 12 getting to
one G6 now and then three at larges.

(01:35:01):
And I listen to Josh Bate, probably a lot of y'all do.
He's one of the better voices incollege football.
And I love what he said to this because you want to talk about
having the relevance of regular season being even bigger if this
happens, if they're auto business, some people are pissed
about it. You, you, you can't be too upset
because they're leveraging theirstrength.
If the ACC had it, guess what? We guess what Jim Phillips would

(01:35:23):
be doing? He's saying I want fourteens,
Screw y'all, we deserve 4. But that's neither here nor
there. But that whole thing of a
regular season champion gets an automatic bid and then everybody
else plays in. First of all, you want to talk
about the weekend after Thanksgiving being ungodly like
having news games, like just to be in that mix, right?

(01:35:47):
How much would us sit here and say if they go to this, this,
this 16 game playoff that we didn't win the regular season,
we're like we're third, we can get in.
You talk about people clamoring in the last few weeks of the
season, but what do you all think of it?
Too much, too little. You hate it, you love it.
Kobe, since you're the esteemed guest here, what are you
thinking this? Well, I think you bring up a

(01:36:10):
good point there. I mean, once they started
expansion, they they were never going to stop expanding.
So from 12 to 16 it it was always going to keep going on
there. I mean, personally, I think it's
a little crazy that we're havingcollege players play 1617
eighteen games and now you're seeing them play into late
February. You're starting spring practice
right after he's played the national championship.

(01:36:31):
But I mean you you talk about those regular seasons.
I don't know if you're going off.
I didn't see the most recent Dellinger thing.
He does incredible work coveringall the the behind the scenes.
But I know Pey and some other people have talked about making
the regular season really matter.
And I think that's what makes college football stand out
against, you know, every other sport is the regular season.
When you had the final four teams, it was well, if you lose

(01:36:53):
1 game, you're probably out. So it really heightens that.
But you talk about with this expansion within these
conference standings, if you're in the Big 10, if you're in the
ACC, there's no collective bargaining.
So yes, for now, of course, every conference is going to
have to lobby for themselves. But for the ACC, you have those
top two teams in the regular season if you get that automatic

(01:37:13):
bid. And I know he's talking about, I
don't know, in the ACC if they only get 2 bids.
But in the Big 10 and SEC, the three and the four team, the
three would play the six and thefour would play the five and
like a simulated championship game weekend.
And then those two teams would also would get in automatically
as opposed to the whatever. But then you talk about the at

(01:37:34):
large teams. What if the at large team was
the three seed in the SEC and then they lose that SEC
championship game? So I don't know.
I think it's just going to end up being a lot more games.
But I think it's exciting because you talk about those
that last weekend at Thanksgiving, I think they are
going to simulate some entertainment because there are
going to be a lot of races that come down to the end year in and

(01:37:55):
year out in every conference. So I think it's going to be
exciting. Maybe I'm a little bit of a
purist where I, you know, I thought Ford was great.
It added a different element. It's it's just from 16.
Where do we go in three years when the next cycles up?
It's just it, you can't play 64,you can't put 64 two teams in a

(01:38:18):
tournament. So there's got to, there's got
to be a got to be a March band. Somewhere.
I thought 12 was honestly a perfect balance of inclusivity,
but still letting the regular season matter.
I think moving to 16, I'm kind of torn.
I, I thought 16 was a little toomuch.

(01:38:40):
I thought 12 was kind of perfect.
You're basically saying 10% of all of FBS.
You're saying of that you get about 10%, maybe a little more
of the, the P4, the P5, you know, whatever it was.
So I like the 12. I would have preferred a

(01:39:05):
situation where you assign the rankings not by having those
automatic conference champions go up because the thing that
caused the blowouts in this playoff was the seeding, not the
teams included. You had you had some lopsided

(01:39:26):
seating because of the way the conference championship shook
out. And now all of a sudden you get
these blowouts that you may not have had if the seating had been
what it should have been, It'll have been a progressive, you
know, a progressive tournament like you would expect a normal
turn determined to go, especially if you had some re
wrap re rack after the the initial round of games.
But that's neither kernel there.What I would like to see instead

(01:39:49):
of these 4 auto bids for the SECin the Big 10, I'd like to see
three auto bids with your champion and your runner up
getting a bid and then three andfour playing for the third one.
I'd be good with three for the for them give 2A piece to the to
the big Big 12 in the ACC. And maybe, you know, you you let

(01:40:13):
them do the same thing where twoand three play out for that
extra spot with your regular season champion getting the
automatic bid. I wouldn't hate that and give a
a few more at larges there. I think that larges are going to
be something where you don't square, peg, round hole the SEC
in the Big 10 into half of the playoff every year because

(01:40:38):
they're not going to always haveas much of A stacked deck every
year. 100%, there's probably going to be two to three teams
that absolutely deserve it everyyear.
I don't necessarily think that there are four teams in both of
those conferences that are goingto be in the top 16 every year.

(01:40:58):
So that's my beef. Probably not the Big 10.
I, I think the SEC probably, I mean, when you look last year,
Ole Miss Carolina. But that's the point of the
regular season right there. That game mattered more people
said it killed the regular season.
That game in the swamp. Just I got the point of people
say that game mattered. That was the most important

(01:41:20):
regular season game. It crushed on this.
They damn near lost to Mississippi State because of it.
They shouldn't had any reason tobe almost or competing having
Mississippi State compete with them.
That game proved like This is why it matters, because Ole Miss
had slipped, they couldn't slip again, and they should have beat
Florida. They were better than Florida.
But that one day college football rears its beautiful

(01:41:42):
head and just says the day you lose.
Ally. Anything on this?
Yeah, y'all are putting too muchthought and and effort into it
in depth with it's very great. I just want to see Virginia Tech
get. We do too.
This is what I'm saying though. We ain't going to get there in
the top 4812. Maybe 16, 30?

(01:42:02):
Teams in there, we might be 30, we might be the top 30 if we can
get there in 30. Fucking put us in at 30, baby.
There we go. I'm ready.
To go all right. And with that.
Let's wrap up this episode of the Boundary Corner Podcast
brought to you by the Counts Family Pharmacy in Blacksburg
with our wonderful guest, Colby Crawford.
Where can they find Jack Colby? Yeah, I mean, just head over to

(01:42:25):
vtscoop.com and follow me on X at Colby Crawford.
But yeah man, I really appreciate you guys having me
on. I know I ran y'all a little bit
late, but you all love to talk about, so I appreciate you guys.
Oh no, you didn't. Run us late, Colby.
This is the normal time for us. I'm Curtis Wilson.
I'm Brian Siegler. Jonathan Talley.
We are part of the College Hotelnetwork because at
boundarycornervt.com to see all of our episodes, follow us

(01:42:49):
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, keep pumping YouTube.
You guys are great out there. Following us on that.
We're on every podcast source you could possibly think of.
As always, we had our buddy Jason Long down in Roanoke.
He plays us in, he plays us out.He and Tally are going to start
a Titans football podcast. I can't wait to watch that every
week. You're.

(01:43:10):
Going to be singing on there too.
We appreciate. Check him out Spotify, Apple
Music, Jason Long, music.com. We appreciate y'all for
listening and as always, let's go.
Hokies.

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