Season Primer: Part 2

The first episode in a Boundary Corner double dip week features Hokie legend and Vicktory Life founder Dwight Vick along with friend of the show and everyone's favorite Hokie Pops Chris Lester. We're looking big picture at what the Hokies did this offseason to get better top to bottom and what still needs to happen for all of these pieces to come together into a winning season in 2025.

Episode Transcript

(00:59):
Hi, Sheldon. Let's start us off on defense,
big guy. Yeah, I got dips in here, but
just to kind of kick start the defensive discussion, obviously
last year we kind of alluded to this, but you know, the defense
had some good stats. You look at average yards per
game, points per game was all pretty solid.
They forced some turnovers, but we talked about the issues with,
you know, second-half late in games that gave up almost 100

(01:21):
points and third quarter of games last season, including 43
in the last five minutes of games.
And we saw it just, you know, wewe talked about, you know, how
much of that was strength and conditioning.
Again, we can we can debate thatall day.
But talk about the defense. You know, Sam Sicus comes in

(01:41):
first year coordinator. We talked about what, what is
most critical for the Stevens unit this season between
halftime adjustments and closinggames, talking about, you know,
coaching, you know, S&C, whatever it may be.
What, what do you think is most critical for the Stevens to kind
of get rid of those those late game woes that we kind of saw

(02:02):
last season? Again, we we know there's talent
there, but how do they fully, you know, implement that talent
for for the entirety of a 60 minute game, which they just
didn't do last season? Go ahead, Dwight.
Go ahead. Hold on.
Say that last part again. My, my, my reception.
No, no, seriously, I'm not. What was the question?

(02:23):
Because my thing. Yeah, yeah.
So, so we're just talking about what what's what's critical
between halftime adjustments on defense and and closing out
games? What what's kind of the the
secret formula Tech needs or or a way they can improve from last
season when it comes to being being efficient in the
second-half? This is a great question.
It is again another simple solution with a simple answer

(02:44):
you have for defense. You have to adjust much quicker.
I'm going to give you a great example.
In the Miami game they made, that was probably Cam Cam Ward's
worst game last season. He had, I believe, two or three
picks. He had two, but two.
He had, he had two, right? He had the one that should have
been a pick 6, but dude didn't make it all the way to the end

(03:07):
zone. But in that game, I kept saying
please put a spy on Cam Ward. We didn't have a spy on him.
So there was, you know, you knewwhat it could do.
Late in the game, they put CalebWoodson on him.
He was spying. I'm not going to put the inside
information I know out there because I know some players on

(03:27):
the team and I, I look, the truth of the matter is you have
to we have to make quicker adjustments on on defense.
There was many times I'm going to give you another one.
This was a very, very bad example of lack of adjustments
and a very bad memory. Rutgers ran the same fake.

(03:48):
Hand off roll out. The entire game and we never
adjusted. And you know what we paid for
those sins because several gamesthroughout the season teams read
that on critical situations. I'm like, can we please for love
of Blacksburg Hokeystone make anadjustment?
It is listen, everyone knows y'all all laughing.

(04:11):
It was that gun. It was the clap snap, get it,
fake it, roll out. That is a nine you on Saturday
morning Dumfries field play where you see 9 year olds
running that little. I ran a flag football said like

(04:33):
and you get it, you fake it, youdrag a guy and you and it was
like again. So Shelton, the bottom line is
quicker adjustments. Everybody talks about Oh my God,
Bud was the goat. Bud was the goat.
Yes, he was, but I remember whenTech beat North Carolina and
North Carolina when Tyra was there, big match up in ACC was,
you know, back when there was divisions, Tech went down there

(04:55):
and won 26 to 13 or 2629 and 10,something like that.
And it sold out. Crowd and mostly Tech fans and
Bud Forrest after the game said he credited Tory and Gray for
the adjustments he made with Eddie Whitley and the safety
like so he knew Carolina gave them a new wrinkle.

(05:16):
Let let me take you back to lastseason in six to eight of the
post game pressers. How many times did we hear they
did some things we didn't see ontape.
Everyone does things we don't see on tape, especially after we
see. On tape, that's everybody
saying. Again, raise your hand if you're

(05:37):
watching this and you played or you watched a game where the
players were miked up. I know this the first two
series, you you're feeling yourself.
And the coach says, hey, hey, hey, he grabs that board.
Hey, what are you seeing out there?
Tell me what they doing. What are they doing out there?
You know? So when the hell did that
happen? Because to me, the tight end
dragging Shelton, it was again and you're going against a dual

(06:02):
threat quarterback and you know it was.
It was a coordinator. Dwight didn't even want to take
direction from Bud Foster, didn't even want to help from
Bud Foster. So you got a defensive
coordinator that don't want to get help from Bud Foster.
You're not going to ask a playerwhat he sees.
He just says I know what I'm doing and everybody should be OK
with what I'm doing. That's why he gone.
I mean, we got to get, I think sometimes like coordinators can

(06:26):
get in that we do, we do mindset.
And like, like you said, Dwight,like adjustments are going to be
the most important part of more quickly adapting to what the
game plan of the other team is. Because we had a lot of a lot of
times, like you, like you pointed out, you Rutgers was a
big one. We just, we look like we weren't

(06:48):
prepared and we it's not that weweren't prepared.
It's that the coordinator has to, like you said, get them on
the sideline, talk them through this and say, Hey, what are they
doing out there? What are you seeing?
What are they coming out in what, what's the formations that
are coming out inconsistently? What are these guys doing?
How are they blocking this up? And at some point you got to,
you got to get together with theteam and make some adjustments

(07:10):
because. I'm going to say this, Brian,
I'm going to say this and I hateto be because if I'm getting mad
when I think about this guy, butI, I've been dumb and started
looking at at looking at games from last year.
You know how YouTube has the, the, what do you call them
condensed games? I went back and started looking
at them. I'm going to stop doing it
because I'm going to get mad. But listen.

(07:31):
Go watch the whole one, it'll really make you mad.
So people who play sports understand this, or even if you
watch sports, you should understand this.
Defense isn't always about defense.
Defense has some things in therethat's kind of like offense,
just because we call it defense,that's what it is.
But when you talk about attacking defense, that's not

(07:52):
sitting back waiting to see whatthe person can do.
Like if you look at a good defender like a, it's very hard
for a defender to stop a offense.
Like somebody who plays offense on Michael Jordan, it's hard for
him to stop him because he's gotthe ball.
He knows what he's doing, right?You have to be really good at

(08:13):
attacking on defense to have a good, good defense.
And I'm not saying that we had agreat defense, but it was always
like we was playing defense. We were sliding, oh, let's see
what they're going to do. You have to have a game plan.
You have to have a game plan to go attack the other team.
We didn't have anything where weattacked the other team after
halftime. We didn't have any adjustments

(08:36):
that we made to go attack. Your plan when you get people on
the heels and you didn't go and attack, what are we doing?
You're playing Syracuse and thenyou putting this guy on a
receiver that ain't caught a pass all year and he catches 2
touchdowns on you and has his his Super Bowl game.

(08:57):
Take him out, let him go to LSU,put somebody else in.
Let's see what somebody can do. I don't know man, I'm just
saying. 100 points. Listen, I found that stat, but I
found the 100 points, 100 pointsin the third quarter last year,
100. 100 points. Third quarter, that's just

(09:18):
regular season and y'all think there were a few games?
Stanford, UVA couple games. We didn't give up shit in the
third quarter. Think about that.
They were like 3-4 games. We gave up nothing.
So you're talking about giving up multiple scores in one
quarter Completely flips the game?
Yeah, I just, I just I, I, I, you know, again, I just feel

(09:42):
like, man, you know, I said thison Tally's Twitter Space post
game one time and I saw flashes of it.
The the most I saw it was the Boston College and I saw
throughout the Miami game where going into the fourth quarter
when they went to commercial, the players met in the middle of
the field and they were about tofight.

(10:03):
And, and to me, you know, if you, this is going to make you
uncomfortable for those watchingor when you re air this and post
this again, I'm saying this for my football heads, man.
In football, you got to go to a dog place.
I'm a teddy bear. I'm a father, man, You know, I,
I got 3 kids, you know what I'm saying?
But when I, when I played, man, it was personal.

(10:23):
Like it you got to, you got to be nasty.
I feel like when you saw Tech against Miami, when they were
mocking Miami, when Miami kept doing that thing like this and
we were talking to the sideline,I was like, this looks like a
Virginia Tech type of team. People don't remember.
But again, die hard fans do. There was controversy about us
joining the ACC in 2004 because the ACC, believe it or not,

(10:47):
despite Clemson and those guys, was a soft conference.
But G and Tech hat was known forhaving a brand where they would
come into your stadium, they would take your turf and put it
in the lunch pail. They would.
They would talk shit, grab theircrotch, talk to crash the
coaches. Beat your, beat your ass that.
Was not acceptable in the, you know, shirt and tie ACC crowd

(11:08):
because a lot of those fan baseswere very well.
We don't do that except for Clemson and Florida State, which
is why they dominated that conference for a while, for
years. So you look at Virginia Tech,
when they came in the first few years, they were 21 and one on
the road in the ACC. That's the actual stat.
Look it up. They were 21 and one on the

(11:29):
road. So they would go in, the fans
would take over your stadium, the players would take over your
field. When I watched this last year on
defense, and this is not a scheme thing.
This is not should we wear orange or Almaroon.
This is more so understanding the attitude and moxie you
should play with. I'm going to tell you another
game. You saw it for the first half,
the Clemson game, Virginia Tech's defense was in their face

(11:53):
and they will turn them over sacking them.
Clemson couldn't do anything, but to Dabo and his staff's
credit, in the second-half, theyadjusted offense also wet the
bed and didn't help the They only lost that game. 2414, Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 2414 so that means your defense gave you

(12:14):
enough to win 24 points. In today's climate of college
football, it's not a lot of points.
So you know, Curtis, just a great question.
It's a great topic, man, becauseat the end of the day, man, it's
when I look at defense, I'm not trying to go back because you
can't really hit people like youused to or targeted, but I just
feel like you can. Hit people you can hit.

(12:35):
People, you can play with the attitude, attitude, but.
Attitude. That's important.
Yeah, that that's true. I'm with you, Brian, and and and
I'm with you, Victoria. But my thing is that we were a
poor tackling football team lastyear.
We we had a lot of missed tackles and poor tackling.
You turn around and like I said,you just weren't physically
strong and somebody like there weren't times when we hit people

(12:58):
that they went backwards and youbrought that out to me say, hey,
look, watch, watch us hit this guy.
And they don't go backwards likethat.
That's the difference when you're physically stronger than
them to go but make plays like that.
And we didn't do that. So let's go back to the ones we
were talking about. You're up 20.
You're I'm in New York. My wife damn near passed out

(13:20):
walking to that, to that, to thestadium, right, because it was
such a long walk. You're up 24 to 7 right with 7
minutes and 37 seconds left in the third quarter and you let a
guy who had not had a pass all damn year have a career game on
you. Do any of y'all know who's

(13:41):
Skinner of the skin? The wide receiver of
Vanderbilt's last name was Skinner.
You know. Did any of y'all know his name
before that? Before that Saturday, right?
You know, you know when Steve Smith did his breakdown, You
know which game they showed the our game.
Our game. Game OK, give me that right.

(14:01):
You want to know the kid that Duke had a had a record quarter,
a record quarter, right? He turns around right?
Dude don't even get drafted right But guess what smoked it.
Guys listen, it got to the pointman where it the younger guys
need to be playing and like y'all said, if a guy can't turn

(14:25):
around, he's not going to make aplay or he go elsewhere and
that's fine, go wherever you gotto go.
But you turn around, you shouldn't go ahead and get folks
off the field so you can go makeplays, because those are games
you should have won. That's right, You should have
beat Syracuse. You should have.
You should have beat Baby, right?
You could have beat Duke. Man, I didn't even get a chance
to crack a beer before they threw a bomb on our ass against

(14:45):
Duke. I got to the stadium, wouldn't
go get a beer. I turned around.
We. Down 79.
Chris, let me ask you a question.
Go ahead. We were at the Duke game and
this is, this is I was actually at my son's basketball
tournament when he was prepping.We were up and I watched the
game on my phone. We were in, we were in
Connecticut or New York. We were in New York or
Connecticut, right? And here's the thing, when you

(15:09):
look at Duke, I'm asking you this question because you saw
the it's a couple of questions. Did they fear Virginia Tech and
that's AB? Did they also going to that game
believe they were going to win based off what you saw?
Listen man, if you turn around the first playoff scrimmage, you

(15:30):
go ahead and drop, throw a damn 99-A9 route to a guy.
You don't. You ain't afraid of them.
That's my point. That was.
The That was the very dude, Dwight.
We turned around, we did. We ran 5 plays.
I went to the stand, ordered a beer.
I couldn't even crack it and that dude threw A-7890 yard.
Bomb on it. So again, so again, just really

(15:52):
quickly, because I know Curtis, you got to move us on, but I'm
just saying. Well, it's about the second
game. OK, scheme to scheme.
What I'm saying is. Even in the.
Notre Dame recent era Duke Duke,Duke always went into the
Virginia Tech game is like, OK, this is going to be a tough one.
We got to tighten our chin straps.

(16:13):
I remember watching that game and I remember they were
laughing at us when they were upand I'm like, yo, we have really
hit near rock bottom when Duke and I'm not talking bad about
Duke football. I think the quarterback shot a
bird to the quarter, yeah. Yeah, dude, the dude, the dude
had, he had like 100 and the dude had damn near 200 yards in

(16:34):
the 1st and a quarter. Dude, he had three touchdowns,
200 yards. He was like, yeah, it was crazy.
They just felt that they could get vertical on those guys and
go from there. Now, I can understand love and
fell on one, but you can't fall.You're a Division One player.
You can't fall in a situation like that.
But the safety play was the safety play was minimal bad
angles. It was it was so it was so

(16:56):
egregious that some guys just didn't belong out there playing.
And because they had because youhad younger guys in the
background that you were like, Hey, we don't know we're going
to play them or we going to do this and move this guy.
Listen, I'm I'm all for everybody making as much money
as they possibly can. Just don't do it on my watch and
lose. No damn football game,
especially when I can't crack mybeer yet.

(17:17):
Stop somebody. There's no possible way.
You don't even know who that dude is.
I know Pablo Baccario play basketball.
I have no clue who that wide receiver is because his ass
didn't get drafted, but he had acareer game on our ass.
Yeah, he did. Speaking, Speaking of secondary,
I think Brian has something going with that ad about that.
Yeah. I mean, you know, we saw a lot
of turnover to secondary. Some of it's probably a good

(17:39):
thing we had two guys go out thedoor in the portal.
I know we kind of hit it around a couple of those guys both in
the tackling and getting gettingsome busted coverage, some blown
coverage there with with Mosa Mansoor, but a lot of
interception production went outthe door too.
It looks like we had 11 last year and only Dante with 1 is
coming back on that team. A lot of about the new portal

(18:01):
guys, especially in the safety room, how we feeling about these
new guys and what Cephkis can dowith some of those three safety
looks and some of those more exotic pressures that he can get
from from from those different levels in this defense.
I'll let Chris kick this off. Yeah, go ahead, Say Chris, go

(18:23):
ahead. Chris I I I love I love what you
know, I got to get a nickname for coach C kids.
I don't know Sam. I am.
I don't know what it is, but I just got to get it because the
dude loves football. But I just think you're going to
put guys on the field that can go get after the ball.
IBM he you know, he wants to gather.
Dante's got to show that what hecan be able to do and I know he
wants to improve. I think your safety player is

(18:45):
going to be so much more improved with Quinn Reddish
being to the point of having a year full in the system and
filling comfortable with it. And you're just going to have
guys who who really attack the football.
The one thing Dorian was great at, Dorian was great at coverage
and and he got better as the year went along.
But we're picking off passes, whereas Monsoon was going to

(19:05):
gamble and and try to make playsand things of that nature.
But I just think I think your secondary play is going to just
be so much it's going to be exotic and because we're going
to get into our prediction and people haven't seen it and and
and Sam is going to throw different things at people and
we don't go against a lot of great passes this year.
So I think it's going to work toour benefit, to be honest with

(19:27):
you. I think the secondary is going
to be I think the secondary is going to it's going to have a
couple of bumps and bruises. Like we don't have a flat out
Blazers, you know, guys who can just flat out run.
But I think with the different looks they're going to give us,
it's going to give us time to get home and cause guys to make
error throws and things of that nature.
Dwight, before you jump in here,I'm going to ask, ask Chris.
I'm going to give you one name. You tell me what you think about

(19:48):
this guy, JoJo Krim. Loving, long, lean, athletic.
He's he's, he is, he is everything you want in today's
corner. He's going to be physical.
He want, he, he has a nose. He wants the football.
Like when the football's in the air, it's like, it's my
football. And that's the difference that

(20:09):
that is the difference. What I think with the
cornerback, with the cornerbackswe have now, you know our best.
Our best corner won't play a snap this year, in my opinion.
The guy who was not going to play it and I don't think, and
you know, with Josh Clark, with Josh Clark going out, I think he
was going to having a breakout year.
And you know, Josh is, Josh is just an athlete, man.
Yeah, I, I loved what I saw fromhim kind of as the season was

(20:31):
wrapping up there. So disappointed that, you know,
injury got got to him there and he we're not going to see him
this year. But Dwight, what you got on this
one? Chris Conner stole my answer.
What I was going to say, I I like, I like the schemes we're
going to be running from the secondary.
I feel like defensively, I feel like tech's going to be good
this year overall, because I think even last year they show

(20:52):
flashes. I'm I think the biggest thing
for me is who takes on that rolethat APR had.
Like, I feel like, you know, even though we won six games and
probably should have won nine last year, I feel like he's one
of those guys that showed up every week.
I mean, he was actually playing out of position because, you

(21:14):
know, looking back at, you know,not even when I played, but just
looking at like his position at Tech, he's a, he played on the
outside, but he's really a linebacker that was rushing A
passer. He's not ADN, which is why
sometimes you saw him struggle sometimes against run fits
because you know, he's he he's athletic and he got off the ball
quickly. His get off was elite, but you

(21:36):
got to be able to play in space as well as be able to stop the
run. But he's going to make himself
some good money if he if he, youknow, gets in the right
situation. But Virginia Tech right now,
back to your question B, at the end of the day, man, like I like
what we're going to. I think defensively, look,
you're going to steal someone, make me put my stuff out there

(21:58):
before I'm ready to. But I'll say this.
I feel like that is the difference in how Tech's going
to beat South Carolina. A lot of times people talk about
offense, but again this is no secret to you for but defense is
always in college football the first three weeks ahead of the
offense. Always, always.

(22:18):
I feel like that is going to be text differential if they can
win that game. I like schemes that they're
bringing this year with what they're doing.
I'd say this safety play has to be good, but they also have to
be in a situation where I said they got to be able to rush the
passer without the blitz. One thing that Buck Foster took

(22:39):
pride in when he had Jason Worlds and Darrell Tapp and all
those guys, even the Martin brothers and all them.
When any coordinator on any level, especially college and
pro, can get pressure on the passer with his front 4 now,
because what happens is now whenyou get pressure with your front

(22:59):
4, you go to the, you go to thatchalkboard and you get to your
iPad. You're like, Oh my God, we are
about to get real spooky out here and do different things,
which puts so much pressure on the offensive line.
But again, my question is who takes on that role?
APR You know, he he kind of reminded you a lot of Cornell

(23:20):
Brown, Daryl Tack, Virginia Tech, Jason Worldwam.
Virginia Tech has a pass rusher.Even going back in the days,
even though Bruce Smith played in the wide tackle 6, he played
deep as a tackle. When they have the edge rusher,
they are so elite on defense. But, but let's play this real
quick. Real quick, everybody's like
temperature expectations. You don't get APR 16 half sacks

(23:41):
last year, but you got JC Price in that room.
You got JC Price in that room. First of all, your boy, yes,
yes. Take a look at some of the
portal guys we brought in. Take a look at the Hitman kid
from South Florida. And Dwight, I don't know if you
got a chance yet. You seen the James Youngman
interview we did a couple weeks ago?
Yeah, I did. I did.

(24:02):
You tell me that kid ain't a dogthat's gonna go RIP somebody's
head off. This is my feeling.
And I'm looking and you look at the pieces.
APR was great. People's was great.
But you had Gilliam, who startedgrowing up last year.
Do y'all think this unit, it might not be an APR?
Oh, my God. He is the best defensive end in
the country. Yeah.

(24:24):
I think this unit as it's built,you start looking at Copeland,
Gilliam, Ace and Stevens, who look good.
Come. On law.
Come on. But this unit just produced
overall better. Maybe not as many what you said
about APR. He struggled at times when he
got rain at. Yeah.
So ho ho to answer your question, that's why I said what

(24:44):
I say. I feel like defense defensively,
that's going to be your story ina few weeks against South
Carolina down in Atlanta. Because the reason why I'm
saying that is because of JC Price and his scheme.
And here's the thing, when I saywho's going to the next APR, I'm
saying more so because I always feel like a pass rusher and tech
defense leads the way and then you can feed off that.

(25:05):
That's why I named some of the guys that, you know, like I said
with Cornell and those guys. But even though Fuga was a fan
favorite, that's my brother. He's from up here in Northern
Virginia. Fuga, you know, he would run
stop, but he didn't get that pass rush up the middle a lot.
So I feel like the guys you justnamed is Washington Porter,

(25:25):
first of all, JC Price track record with him, even going back
to when he coached at JMU and other schools at Marshall, he
has always given teams in Tech, including Virginia Tech fix that
three time, that three overtime game against Marshall, the
defensive line coach was and Marshall was JC Price.

(25:46):
So I feel very good. I, I don't know, I'm maybe I'm a
little bit overconfident, which is rare for me, but I, I like
our defensive scheme and what he'll be able to do with the D
line. I just feel like, again, the
bigger question is linebacker play with Lawrence.
What's the kid that's been thereforever?
He's real long, the 65 linebacker, is he still?
Here you talking about you talking about Burgos.

(26:08):
Yeah, no, no, Lawson. Yeah.
He's gone. So again, who are who are the I
don't have the roster for who the linebacker?
I was. Going to say so yeah, that's the
next, next, next point that we was going to anyway.
So great Segway, Dwight mainly talking about who's running the

(26:28):
the linebacker room. You know, you got X running out
of linebacker room now there yougo.
You talk about Caleb Woodson, Jaden Keller coming back.
So we kind of know what those guys are.
Also, Spencer's going to be there, picked up a couple guys
out of the portal. So kind of what do we feel that
room is going to look like with the new pieces and and the

(26:52):
pieces that we know that are already there.
So Chris, now you could kind of.Hey, hold on.
Before Chris, before Chris answered that, can you just say
it one more time because it sounds so good to my ears.
You said who's? Who's the legend The the legend
The the. X-Men Xavier DB.
Yeah, boy, Chris, I just want him.

(27:13):
I wanted the fans to hit that again because that's going to
be, it's going to be just like when I said JC and everybody's
like JC, like all right. And then now they we love you
JC. Yeah, I'm just going to pick you
back on. So with Xavier DB being there, I
just think that just is the pedigree and the ability for him

(27:36):
to coach. He is a young coach, but I think
he's an excellent coach. But I think what's going to
happen with this where's we would just go piggyback off the
defensive line when we knew it was going to be 16 from APR and
then you're going to get 4 to 5 with the pressure with people's
upfront. I think next year it comes, you
don't know where it's coming from because I think I think
Junk is going to do it. Ben Bill's really good.

(27:57):
I think there's I think the the surprise guy of the year is
going to be Kamari Copeland. I do not think they have any
idea how to block him. And that kid is crazy.
So you got Gillum, you got him. You got any laws with the
transition? So I think it's going to be
able. You win football games by
defending. What A&B gap block, A&B gap, run

(28:17):
through A&B gap. That's how you win football
games. So if you can't, if you turn
around and you can get pressure up front on all of these mobile
quarterbacks, you got sellers, Pavia King.
If you can make him worry about it coming in his lap, then you
can rally and get to that and get get to them.
So I believe that's going to be fine.
I think your linebacker room is going to be outstanding.

(28:38):
I think you're going to be able to turn around and kind of
unleash Burgos a certain kind ofway.
I think with Spencer, when you have when you got Spencer,
you've got the Santiago kid, yougot short kid, but Caleb Woodson
is the key to this defense. I think Caleb Woodson is going
to have a breakout season in themiddle of that defense.

(28:59):
His smarts, his his football IQ,everything that they pour into
him. The dude is built like a brick
shit house. Excuse my French, but that's the
kid is the kid is cut up like dope money and I think he's just
going to have a great year in inthis in this in this defense.
And I'll just add I've been driving the bandwagon.
I got rims on my bandwagon. I got XM radio over there.

(29:22):
I got I got a couple of things in the glove compartment the the
the bandwagon I've been driving for Kayla Woodson is this to me.
I remember Talley said this on the Twitter space.
He did after a win. And and you know, we all text
and stuff and he was just like AO Vic.
He epitomizes what you talk about the Virginia Tech brand of

(29:44):
deep. He he arrives with the ball with
bad intentions. And there was some growing
things here because he had to learn.
People don't realize he had to learn the whole new position.
And he's a tech loyal player because I can say this because
I'm close to the family. He had a lot of financial
options. He could have left.
He has some some nice financial package presented to him.

(30:06):
He wants to be at Tech and I think, and this is something
these are one of these things where we all know because we
we're media and we cover the game and we played it.
And I'm not saying fans that youknow, because they don't have
that don't know, but there's certain things, you know, that's
not going to be reported until the 30 for 30 or later on.
And what I'm referring to in a positive way is Xavier D BS

(30:30):
impact on Caleb is going to be insane because X is young enough
and he and and real recognize real kids, young men and young
women, you know, sports recognize when you're being
coached by somebody that gets it.
You know, I I love coaches that can interview with Xavier.
DVI interviewed his old coach, coach Sexton for my victory life

(30:53):
podcast and he talked about theyhad to kind of control him in
practice. He's one of those guys you see
and he's smiling. He's a class act.
And then you see him and I, I miss watching him and, and Vince
Hall play together. And I feel like you're going to
see some of those bad intentions.
You know, again, that's why I'm,I'm standing on business with

(31:14):
this pick. When it comes to our defense.
I think the difference for us this year early in the season is
going to be our defense. Special teams is always
important, but I think that defense, the linebackers, the D
line, the scheme we're running is going to fit more of the
personnel we have versus the previous game.
Yeah, I'm, I'm with you, Dwight.I think, you know, you talked
about a little bit earlier, but I think Caleb Woodson is going
to be that tone setter of that defense.

(31:38):
And you saw with with X and having somebody that played that
role for Virginia Tech went on to do bigger things in the NFL
and now is back here. And I think that's going to be
big dividends in that linebackerroom, especially for Caleb
Woodson, because I again, I think he's going to be the tone
setter. And you know, you talk about X

(32:00):
being, you know, smile and everything, but like every good
football player has a switch. And when you get on that field
and you flip that switch and youbecome a different person.
Well, and be just just to your point and I remember somebody
was like, well, you know, you know, Victoria man, you know,
pride can't hire everybody that used to be at tech.
I said, listen to me, I'm not saying you have to hire

(32:22):
everybody that played at tech. What I'm telling you is it's OK
when Duke does it. Duke's entire staff, basketball
is all Duke guys. All of them all.
Of them. UNCUNC, all UNC guys, Miami
football, mostly Miami guys. I'm saying you're not in a bad
situation when JC Price, PearsonPrelo and Xavier EB are on your

(32:48):
staff. These guys get it and they're
young enough where they can relate to the players and they
can teach it. And it's like JC Price has the
coaching pedigree at DB, you know, and everybody made a big
bill deal about pride not reallyknowing who Xavier DB was.
I don't care about that. I was kind of surprised.
But you know, sometimes coaches answer questions not thinking

(33:10):
about how fans are going to react.
But that's not his job to. I think you got to read the
room, but you also got to understand, man, those guys get
asked a lot of questions. He might not know Xavier DB the
way we do. I just feel like, first of all,
I'm going to say this shit. He's recruiting my nephew.
My nephew loves the guy. My nephew loves him like Xavier,
DB. He just understands how to

(33:32):
relate to players, but he also knows how to play the position.
And you talk about, again, we talk, always talk about DBU with
Virginia Tech. It will never really get the
consideration to be mentioned with the Penn State's, but
Virginia Tech's linebacker play for decades was elite.
That was also a position that was also a position that led the

(33:54):
way when it came to good to great defenses.
There was the three-year span when Tech was ranked number one,
number one, and #2 in the nationoverall in defense.
Look at the linebackers they had.
Absolutely, Absolutely. I don't know why people always
feel like they got to reinvent the wheel on something.

(34:14):
Like if your school is good at something, just fall into it.
Like I feel like Virginia Tech is always going to be a school
that should have a dual threat quarterback.
I don't want to say your quarterback has to run every
play, but I'm just saying Virginia Tech, unless you got
Trevor Lawrence that wants to goto Virginia.
Tech, I said if a gun could run.Like who?

(34:37):
Yeah, but I'm just saying like, go do the stuff that has made
you be successful. Like why are we trying to
reinvent the wheel and go get 510 linebackers?
Like you got to go get a linebacker that looks like AACC,
Virginia Tech linebacker, you know what I'm saying?
Like we go so far away from thatand it's like I can understand

(35:00):
if we was maybe in like California.
No disrespect to them. I know they eat salads and stuff
over there. Y'all in Virginia?
You in Virginia, you should be able to open the door and find a
lineman, somebody who can block a linebacker, somebody who like
pushed. California got some Samoan
linebackers there, so they. Understanding why are we going
to, why are we going to Germany to get a a tackle in?

(35:25):
Virginia. Like.
I mean, I'm in Virginia a handful of times.
Ohh. Forgot about that when somebody.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no.
Well Hans was in Virginia though.
He came to. He's talking about the kid that
they literally was playing in Germany about 6-7 years ago.
Came to Virginia when he was like 13.

(35:46):
Oh, OK. OK, OK, OK.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know what you're.
Saying, man, I know what you're talking about, Canada and
Georgia, I'm in Canada and Yugoslavia for when you are in
Virginia. Like, I've came to Virginia
plenty of times and if somebody's bigger than me and
they 16 years old, I probably would see if they can block
somebody. Hey, but look to your point

(36:08):
though, you know, and This is why I said this before and this
is one thing I'm in the DMV, Northern Virginia, DC, Maryland,
but I still go home. I'm a 757 guy.
I'm Ava guy eight O 4. And I've said this in many
Twitter spaces and even on different platforms like this
you mentioned in your backyard. You look at the kid.
Damn my man, I'm getting forgetting names, but the kid
that played the LC Byrd wanted to stay title with him.

(36:31):
He was a linebacker at Virginia Tech.
They always joked about how, like, yes, how he never looked
apart until game day and he was an animal or one of my favorite.
I always butchered his name. So I called him little Palomalu
Munawaka Tikatuku from Salem with all the hair, right?
Yeah. But like, again, it's a guy.
He looked like a wild animal when he played, but he set the

(36:53):
tone. Those kind of linebackers, all
the two quality 2 elite linebackers that really didn't
check the boxes with all that athleticism at the same time
they were able to play that position.
You know what I'm seeing as far as just being able to really
make that imprint in that mic position, that linebacker
position Virginia Tech has always had when their defense

(37:16):
was great, good and great, greatcorner play, safety play.
But yeah, I see the name things wrong.
Like at the end of the day, man,like, yeah, yeah.
So I mean, the linebacker play to me and DB and those guys,
like I, I said, I always felt like man, prior you got to have
your staff, you got to get your guys and and you got to get

(37:39):
guys, not your boys, but people that really understand Virginia
Tech football. This is why again, you look at
guys like I mentioned Duke and Carolina and programs like them.
I'm not even mocking them right now.
I'm just saying like those dudes.
I mean, say what you want about Shire.
I noticed in the Duke basketball, I'm talking about
like Final Fours understand whatit means to be a hokey or a Blue

(38:01):
Devil or like we laugh because Iknow I can have fun with this
dude. And the people talking about
back when the coke was pure and all that.
But when I watched Michael Irvin, when I watched Michael
Irvin when he when they were playing, when they played Cal,
that Cal and that game got close.
He was on the ground humping theground and begging the defense
to get a stop and sweating like TD Jakes.

(38:24):
And I was like, Hey, look, hey, I can relate to Irving because
y'all don't see me when I'm in this house watching tech, right?
That is my only team. So to me, my daughter's
recording me and she's the better not ever released those
record. When I am, I am, I am when I
when I watched Tech, I watched the games all the time and two

(38:47):
Fast 1 fan where I'm like, that's a catch and I'm yelling.
And then I watched them again asa media guy that covers the game
and watches and I take notes andlook at stuff and trends and
things. But I'm more Michael Urban when
it comes. And there's a lot of guys like
me that played in that university to understand what it
means to be a hokey and how the defense should be and how the

(39:09):
offensive line should go. JC, what happened?
This is my school. I love my school.
You know, he was emotional. People don't understand that,
but I think they did after they saw that.
Like, that guy was able to salvage the season and get us to
a bowl game, but he understands how to coach, too.
So I just feel like, yeah, like the defense is going to lead the

(39:30):
way this year. Defense leading the way.
All right. Well, we get to the end 2 hours
37 minutes later. Wow.
Not I'm not shocked. Ain't nobody in this room
shocked, no doubt. No doubt.
But it's only one thing that matters because we talked about
players, we talked about frustrations with last year, we
talked about changes, what we can do better.

(39:50):
One thing that matters, it's wins and it's losses.
And I'm old. Shelton was nice enough for he
had a dip off. He gave his prediction, Shelton
saying 7 and 5, four and four and eight.
So. Dwight Chris, y'all play rock
paper scissors, but wins and losses got to make a prediction
if you're allowed. You want to go first.

(40:16):
No, you go first because I, I got my answer, but I, I have my
answer early, but go ahead because I'm, I'm looking at the
schedule right now. Go ahead, Chris.
I'm looking at the schedule again.
The schedule, the schedule I look at like this, I'm going to
give it to you like this. South Carolina, you win.
OK, You beat Bandy, right? You beat ODU.
You beat Wofford. You beat Wake Forest.

(40:36):
OK, You beat Georgia Tech. OK, you turn around after
Georgia Tech, you play Cal. You come back and play Cal,
right, You play Cal. I beat Cal.
The first game that I that I'm not confident in is Louisville
because I think Louisville has got a, a monster of a football

(40:58):
team. I think you beat Louisville.
You make new memories when you beat Miami in your building,
right? You go down to Florida State,
right? Because I don't think they're
that good this year. And if Castellanos is still
playing, you beat Florida State and you beat Virginia.
You're 11 and one right? Everybody shut their ass up,

(41:21):
right and you get a chance to goplay Clemson in Charlotte.
I'm going to just tell you how confident I am on that.
I already got my room book for Charlotte already.
That's how confident I'm on thatnow.
Now I'll put you like this so y'all understand how I mean
about this. I only want to drink bourbon and
smoke cigars. All right, that's my prediction.

(41:44):
I'm going to go back down to Charlotte again and we might
lose the Clemson, but we're going to give him a fair fight.
The reason I feel that way and Iknow all Chris's just pie in the
sky and we got to go prove it. We do.
But the first six weeks of the season, they have not seen what
Steve Kiss is going to throw at him.
They have no clue what we they they're going to throw at them.

(42:06):
And then that gives us time to jail and be who we are.
I'm not I'm not afraid of South Carolina at all.
I've been saying that they are returning that that football
team that was so great last yearthat won nine games.
You got 9 new starters. Dylan Stewart is an absolute
animal, but I got to block him. Them other cats that they got,

(42:27):
we some of them cats came from the 757.
I watched them play and they went great here.
They just went down to down to South Carolina and got an offer
because another kid was down there that I sit down there on a
plane ticket and then all everybody saw and they thought
they were great. So I don't, I think South
Carolina's room on defense, I think we're going to have enough
offense to beat them. I think you go back and you shut

(42:48):
Pavy up and you go and beat him.I just believe you can go 11 and
one with this, with this, with this schedule.
The only game that I am not confident we can win out
outright is Louisville. Everybody else, let's line it
up. So that's a great, that's great.
I I, you know, that's, that's good.
That's, that's good energy. I'll say this.

(43:09):
I thought about this question long and hard because I'm doing
another segment. I'm doing more of a segment on
Thursday. It's a radio show.
Do you know about that? With our shout out to our guy
Rick Watson. Yeah, But like at the end of the
day, Virginia Tech, I said this last year when everybody said,
Oh my God, Virginia Tech now we got Miami coming up.
I said they'll probably beat Miami.

(43:29):
And everybody was like, yo, whatdo you smoke?
I said because Virginia Tech in the new era will show up because
they recognize the name. It's the inferior for the teams.
So number, number. And then, you know, bigger than
that, take the emotional aspect out of it.
I've been around this game a long time.
No disrespect to anybody. Sons of Saturday and all these
other podcasts, you know, Tree of Life, all these other teams

(43:52):
and podcasts that keep popping up.
I am the OG of this. I've been around this.
I helped build this program. I've connected to football
alumni and kept them connected, You know, kind of been like the
unofficial ambassador voice of the Hokies for a long time.
So one thing I'm excited about is the fact that Virginia Tech's
opening the season against a a very good, recognizable

(44:15):
opponent, Beamer always said andother coaches said you always
prepare better when you're playing the team with the name.
I I remember being dejected whenwe lost the Sugar Bowl against
Michigan because I felt like that could have been a great
win. Was that a great Virginia Tech
team that was 11 win team that lost twice at Clemson, but

(44:35):
beating Shoelace in Michigan, that would have been a great win
for the brand. We fell short a false start on
the 1 yard line. You never know.
You know, you win that game withLogan Thomas and David Wilson
and company, South Carolina. I really feel like as much as I
love Shane Beamer, he's a close friend of mine.
I love him. This is a big game for him.

(44:58):
And sometimes that emotional factor, even though he can
downplay, it's hard. It's hard, It's a big game.
And more importantly, how many times has everybody pick one
team to run through another team?
Absolutely. Georgia Tech upsets Florida
State in Dublin, Oregon or Alabama.
When we used to open up with Alabama, it felt like every in
the Chick-fil-A kickoff, Virginia Tech was leading or up

(45:20):
or you know, it was a close game.
I don't really think Tech is going to be overpowered by South
Carolina #1 because it's the first game.
It's it's when you want to play a team.
When I look. When I look at Virginia Tech
right now and the schedule, and I'm not saying I don't and I
never liked this statement. The schedule is favorable and

(45:43):
you got a lot of win. No, it's not a fuck.
I'm not saying like I don't believe in favorable because
some of them are easy getting todo the tough ones.
I I feel like when I look at theschedule, they're they're solid
teams to questionable teams in Louisville and Georgia Tech.
Everyone has athletes, everybody's on scholarship, but
I see a lot of games that Tech has the opportunity to win.

(46:07):
Here's the thing, South Carolina, they come out and win
the game. I see momentum where they can
win 9 plus games. I really feel that way because a
win like that can jump start youinto a lot of confidence.
Not because South Carolina are world biggest because of the SEC
brand. The fact that wins always help
you get confident. And I also think too, though, if

(46:30):
they come out and they're flat and they have a game like you
saw when they played Tennessee in that game, that was the
largest crowd ever watched a football game.
I thought the moment was too big.
They had five turnovers that game.
That was Fuente's first year. And.
Wet the bed and I felt like thatwas a game where they were
overwhelmed by the moment. Now that team had a lot of

(46:50):
talent and that team had the Edmonds brothers and Greg
Strowman and Ricky Wall able to still do something where they
won the Coastal and they went onto have a great win against
Arkansas. That's yet to be seen.
So right now I feel like Tech's going to be in the mix and win 8
plus games. I feel like if they struggle and

(47:13):
they and they get under, they come out underwhelming.
This is a 7 to 6 win team because if you if you start the
season off, you know my my for the record, my wins total is 8.
But I'm just the disclaimer. If you start the season off and
you lose that game against SouthCarolina and it's closed and

(47:35):
they pull away and win 27 to 17,then it's like, OK, do you have
enough leadership in the locker room to overcome that?
Like Virginia Tech did in O4 when they lost to USC or in 95
when they lost O and two to start.
I'm naming teams that recover orBoise State when they they won
eleven wins. I don't know who the leaders are

(47:56):
every year when I do these pre game shows on podcast, he would
talk about we got this guy, the measurables this players this
and we got this higher. I am always so God takes my last
breath going to talk about leadership because from whether
it's the NFL high school pro, even in media podcast and if
your team is your leaders are good, the showings going to be

(48:18):
good. I'm hoping KD drones takes with
a more of a leadership position.I feel like Virginia Tech can
win eight games, ODU, Vanderbilt, I think UV is going
to be better, but I still think they got a little bit of a, you
know, a challenge with the culture down there trying to
figure it out, you know, but I feel like there's games that
tech can win. You owe Miami one, but I feel

(48:40):
like I but I feel like with those games, they'll get up.
Curtis. I feel like those games tech
always get up. I just feel like right now Tech,
if I just say is the 8 win team because I feel like last point,
I'm going to shut up. That pride understands.
Coaches know what's being whispered.
They know that you, it's not about being scared and on a hot

(49:03):
seat. It's understand that you know,
you need to really seize this moment.
You need to lock in and block out all the noise.
And I feel like Tech can really make something happen.
They're recruiting well and the energy is good, but you a game,
a win against South Carolina at 3:30 when everyone's watching,
with everyone watching and the whispers around Virginia Tech,

(49:27):
you win that game. And I know I'm not trying to
make it like a national championship.
It really changes your perception within seconds.
It's true within seconds. Every Tech win for all the
coaches, including Fuente. When they upset my Florida State
at that time or when they won games, when they when, when

(49:47):
Fuente was there and they beat Miami on Thursday night and they
sacked that quarterback from Miami nine times like that, it
changes perception. He does.
Within seconds, within seconds, because of the age of social
media, you beat South Carolina Sunday afternoon, 330 ain't shit
going on. You win that game and all of a
sudden, wow, what a win by the Hokies.

(50:09):
Could they be back and all of a sudden and you lose that game,
You can still go to a good bowl because I still think I'm going
to go to a bowl. But I just feel like you miss an
opportunity. You, you, you have to take them.
You, you got it. You got to take away the stigma
of not being beaten up a Power 14A, Power 4 conference team.

(50:30):
You, you beat the stigma of a, of a close game and you just go
out and outplay somebody. That's, that's what we missing.
That's what that's making memories.
That's the stuff that y'all usedto do, bro, I, I was a Carolina
fan, dude. I used to watch that dude #7
right? Get wicked.
I was like, I don't even know what Virginia Tech was, but you,

(50:53):
that guy, go out there and just go win football games or damn,
they win football game. We've had so many close call.
I've learned so many close call losses here in the last two
years. It made my stomach turn.
You go and beat South Carolina. One quick point about my my
cousin and what he did. He was surrounded in both years,

(51:14):
especially that first year, by Corey Moore, Carl Bradley and
Engelberger and Company and Jamelle Smith.
Andre. The reason why, the reason why I
brought up the fact that I'm theOG of this shit and I'm not
taking shots to anybody else on any of the podcast is because I
helped build the program and I know I know what it takes when

(51:34):
it comes to, you know, getting your team in position to make a
run. I've been there for the hard
times. I've covered the program as a
columnist. I've been in the locker room.
I know those players. I know what it takes.
And again, I feel like Virginia Tech desperately needs to win
this game because I'm going to tell you something.
I know this will be true and I have not talked to Shane, but I

(51:55):
know this will be true regardless of who they lost.
Shane is going to take this gamepersonal and he's going to
unleash every opportunity fake field and if they get up he's
going to run it up because he was never even called to even
interview for the job. Hey, I got no, I got Hey,
listen, I got no problem with with with little dude wanting to

(52:19):
wind it up. I understand that.
I ain't never liked the fact in in that situation with him is
that he talks so down and dirty about this program and I didn't
know anything about him not getting the opportunity.
I'm sorry. Well, I mean.
You know, the thing the thing about is I was recruited by Tom
O'Brien when he was at UVS. He's a coordinator.
He talked down on the program and he went to Boston College

(52:43):
and he continued. I know for you that's a personal
matter. Shane love, listen, listen,
listen, listen. I know this this might do.
He got victory life here. Shane loves Shane loves Virginia
Tech, but right now he ain't supposed to.
And listen, I still take it personal.
You got to understand. So they whether whether he might
have gotten called, but I text him, he said I haven't heard

(53:03):
anything. Brendan Hill and Kevin Jones or
Deandra Hall. I think it was Brendan Hill and
Kevin Jones did a video, might have been Diazo and Brennan Hill
about why Tech should be hired. Now I'm going to tell you about
the energy Shane brings. The AD got Shane brought back in
because the players at South Carolina, former players, alumni
had a Zoom meeting with the AD to say you better hire Shane.

(53:27):
So when he coached, when Frank, his dad had to throw surgery,
the energy around that program on that Music City Ball, when
Cincinnati was a nine win team and we were six and six, Tech
came out and bought Greg Stromanstole the show.
But my point being, Shane had that energy.
What I'm saying is this shit right here, what I'm doing, you

(53:48):
know, you can't be doing this. You got to throw that pin down
and you're going to have to do some fake filled whatever it
takes to win that game. It's got to be.
Personal you got to get a signature.
You got to get a signature win. Remember I said there's two?
Remember, I said this, There's two things he needs as a head
coach, a Mount Rushmore recruit and signature witness.

(54:10):
And because all this, hey, man, gosh darn it, we're going to a
bowl game again. Those boys fought hard.
Don't know about this is for thefirst time I've been I've been
around this program blowing anybody covering that in.
The podcast. Nobody.
Sons, dads of Saturday, nobody has been around this program as
long as me. And I'm telling you right now,

(54:31):
when it comes to Virginia Tech football, you got to seize the
moment. We, this has been the lowest
amount of energy around this program going into a season in
the history since 28. And one, there is no momentum
and energy. None.
Nobody was talking about Tech this year.
We're not even at like, hey, watch out for the Hokies.

(54:52):
I don't mean to go too long, Curtis, I'm sorry, but I'm just
telling you this is important. Not just to me, but there are a
lot of people who feel the way Ido who have spent a lot of money
and time, who kept buying into the hype and buying T-shirts and
flights and tickets when shit was delinquent in the payment
section of their bills. And they still drove to cities

(55:15):
and things like that. You can play with people as
like, hey, you going to Atlanta?I'm like, no, I'm not number
one. I can't afford it right now.
I could if I wanted to, but liketo me, I'm I'm going to be
watching the game like this. I can y'all.
I'm going to be just like this. Better stop man.
Better stop bro. No, I'm.
Chris, make him on, Make him unfold the arms, is what he's

(55:37):
saying. Maybe.
Unfold the. Arms take him unfold.
Chris, Chris, you can't. You can't listen.
I know. I was texting Tally and I saw
the fans on TV. Tally called.
We talked that Monday, He said. Virginia Tech fans had taken
over Tennessee. It was so many I, I know, but I,

(55:58):
I know, but I'm telling you, I wasn't right.
And then what happened? We wet the bed up 2720 all the
talk, all the commercials, all the You can no longer do that
for you can't do. That you can't.
You got to win you. Got to win, That's the most
important. Thing when we look at this

(56:18):
schedule, so we look at we look at the schedule we we already
know right out the gate we need to get a signature win.
But what I want to see too and what we haven't done in the
Brent Pryor and what we haven't done really recently is have a
good run throughout of conference and through
September, right. We we have played below average
football for the majority of September during the Pryor

(56:40):
regime. Absolutely.
I don't I don't think that's an understatement.
I thought we have not played very well out of conference.
Even when we got wins, they weren't pretty wins.
They weren't good wins. Even against teams that you, you
know, you call them easy wins. You know, out of conference, you
know, the Marshalls, the ODUS, whatever, they weren't all
pretty wins. We got to go out there and we
got to set the tone against South Carolina, get that

(57:02):
signature win, but we got to keep that run going through the
through September. I want to get the NC State of
September 27th with a 0 in that loss column.
Absolutely. That's what we need to do.
And then start ACC playoffs strong with the win there.
If you get through September andyou don't have a blemish on that
record, that's when you start thinking, all right, well, baby,
maybe this is the Virginia Tech that we want them to be.

(57:25):
This is the Virginia Tech we haven't seen in a while, but
that's what I want to see. Go ahead.
Go ahead, Tyler, Go ahead. Just just as simple as it can
get. If you win that first game, you
win 8. If you lose that first game,
you're going to win six. That's where I met with
Virginia. That's tally right there.
That's kind of what I said, right?
Well. I think, but I think what you

(57:48):
said also too, Dwight, is if youget that signature you bring to
the national spotlight people are talking about, your
confidence grows, expectation grows, you feel good about
yourself going into the and. You get ranked Bill and you get
ranked. Now that they'll keep us out,
Listen, listen. Preseason polls are bullshit

(58:09):
because there's eleven teams from the SEC currently getting
ranked. There ain't 11 good.
Teams in that welcome conference, I hate it, you know,
and I'm not, I'm not going to debate you on that.
I'm just saying like you get into position to be ranked if
you followed up with Vanderbilt,win, followed up against.
That no, that's, that's right. No.
That's that's real. You go to it.
You go to it you. Can put a number.

(58:31):
Because again, when's the last time we've been ranked?
I mean, listen, listen, listen. I'm, I'm, I'm, I remember, I
remember when one of my favoritemovies called.
It was then said when he played the boxer.
What about? The hurricane.
Hurricane, Yeah. So, so remember, remember the
scene? It was a final appeal.

(58:52):
And his two lawyers are outside the window and he's sitting
there like this. Denzel won the goat of acting.
Yes, Sir. So he took the jailhouse phone
and he said he banged on that joint.
He banged on he. Said that's right, banged, he
said. Look.
He said look, we do it and I'm and I'm done.
If it doesn't work out, I'm going to live and die here.
But I'm paraphrasing the scene, right?

(59:13):
That's right, yeah. Hey man, Chris, you were a
Carolina fan. You came in when you saw my cuss
set the world on fire when you have been in my position.
I'm Denzel behind the phone man.We ain't got no more.
Time, bro, I don't know listen, so I know tech will go on long
after I'm here. What I'm saying to you is this
program means way more than whatpeople realize to me.

(59:35):
Like I got 2° from there. I met my wife there, my family,
everyone's going there. On top of it, I recruited 2 of
my cousins there. More importantly, the bowl
games, all different things we helped build there.
For me, I spoke there. I was a keynote speaker on the
9/11 Memorial Day. I was a speaker there, right?
Article written about me. I was the Virginia Tech

(59:58):
ambassador when Fuente was there.
I did a football alumni panel. I covered the game with Kyle
Bailey. Pregame show.
I've driven a Tech at 4:00 in the morning to do a pregame show
and watch them blow a blow a lead again or lose to East
Carolina. So I have given my life.
I'm not knocking the newcomers, but to me, I'm Denzel with the

(01:00:19):
phone. I'm hitting this, this, this
jailhouse phone. And I'm like, hey man.
I'm tired. I'm tired of being irrelevant.
I am tired of like, we didn't execute and we have to make
better plays. I can't because way.
Forest has surpassed us, Duke has surpassed us, Marshall has

(01:00:40):
surpassed us. We are not supposed to be in
this position. This is unacceptable.
It's I'm sorry, it's I don't want to hear about in our money
and budget, Ricky Leblu listed the thing.
We got money now Ricky's my boy.I'm just saying I'm not mocking
Ricky. I'm saying like we got money and

(01:01:02):
I know what wits talking about. I'm talking about stop it man,
like yo stop playing with people's emotions man.
Y'all you didn't understand whatthis program and living up here,
my dad and my father-in-law are Redskins fans, Commanders fans.
I was one when I was a kid, there was a guy that was crying
when they clinched the playoffs,when they beat Atlanta and he
was in the stands crying. I was looking, I wasn't at the

(01:01:24):
game, but I remember I saw it onon TikTok and he turned to his
boy. He was like, and he just started
rubbing his boy. He was like, I know if you've
been a Commanders fan like my friend, you're talking about
decades of irrelevance. Your only Super Bowl win was to
beat the Cowboys or play the Eagles close.
I don't want Tech to become thatwhen beating UVA is people

(01:01:47):
online. That is disgusting to me.
I do not want that. I used to wake up on forget when
I play. I used to wake up on Sundays
back when the paper came out, even with the social media stuff
and say OK, oh they lost, they lost.
We should be 18 tomorrow, we should be 17.

(01:02:08):
We oh snap we might be #9 now I'm like damn dawg, we are three
and five. Can we even get to a bowl at
this point? Yeah, well, I think what what?
Dwight, you've again, you've been through every a season of

(01:02:28):
your life up at tech me. You know, Chris, you got a kid
there. Now you're seeing a season of
his life and then us three up here and and the fourth he gone.
He he got to get his beauty sleep.
So that's for sure someone's gotto get to bed.
But for 30 years of our life, 30years, right?

(01:02:49):
A lot of that 30 years, it was good times.
It was ten wins. It was Orange bowls, it was
Sugar bowls. It was top notch players.
It was doing what you just talked about.
We're going to be #5 this week, we're 6 and up USC.
The rest fucked us. We got screwed by them.
We want to get back to relevancy.

(01:03:09):
And I think what you're saying, what you're saying, what you
went with your, your your monologue there on South
Carolina is why that game is so important.
It's not the Vanderbilt game last year.
If we beat Vanderbilt last year and we go seven and five, people
are just like you beat Vanderbilt, South Carolina's
13th in the country. Lenore Sellers is the biggest
fucking thing in quarterback. You mentioned Dylan Stewart, the

(01:03:29):
biggest DN they have everybody looking at them.
You go down there and you bump them off the heads turn and say,
are they back? Because I said on this program
about a year ago, when will we know we're back?
There will be a moment. There will be a moment in time.
We going to know it in the moment, probably not, but you're

(01:03:49):
going to reflect on it. And I think that's what you're
saying, because that game it is,it's going to be a massive
audience. It's going to be a massive
audience. At 3:00, the stadium is going to
be packed. If you go down there and you
pull off that win, it puts people on notice and how you
pull it off. I don't care how beat them by

(01:04:13):
30, beat them by 1. I don't care about how much you
win by. Nobody cares.
So Curtis, that goes, that goes to, yeah, I would say so it goes
to this. We've heard from a couple of
different people. What's your number?
I'm at 8. Eight wins.
I'm at eight wins this year. Yeah, I'm, I'm with Dwight.
I'm with eight wins this year. Brian.

(01:04:35):
I'm liking 8 as well. I'm right.
I'm right at 8:00. I could be talked into 9.
I could be talked into 7. Like I said, I think the the
South Carolina game is going to be the tone setter and that's
going to really kind of depend on how the rest of those chips
fall this season. But I'm going to say.
So real quick. Go ahead, go ahead, I hope.
Me, Dwight, Brian and Talia are all wrong, Chris, and you're

(01:04:57):
right. Because I'm just saying I'm just
go ahead, go. Ahead, I'm not one of the There
are a lot of people out there and we see them all the time I
don't want the team to win. I want that coach to get fired.
I don't like what we're doing Fuck those people.
Fuck you if you're one of those people you ever pull against
your team, get the. Fuck out.
Because it's bullshit. Because I remember 2021, there

(01:05:19):
were so many people. I want Fuente to lose.
Why do you? Want our team to lose?
Why do you want do it? And you love to lose.
Maybe it'll. Change things.
No, it's not. You're just going to fall deeper
and deeper into irrelevant. Deeper and deeper.
Yeah, my thing is this, man, I just believe like this and I'm
going to say this and we can getup out of here.

(01:05:41):
You have 4 guys get relieved in a position if you're better up
front, if you're better up frontof your offensive line, which I
totally believe you will be, that makes second.
That makes second and four thirdand three a lot easier.
If you have an offensive coordinator that has a plan and
an idea what he's doing and he'sand he's knowledgeable because

(01:06:02):
that was the biggest thing. We didn't have a knowledgeable,
credible experience. OC you have that now you've got
a defensive genius like big justsitting up at night thinking of
kind of daggum defenses with C kiss and he wants these guys to
understand it be simple and playfast and you got a bunch of

(01:06:23):
kids, man that don't don't have this or allure about the SEC
being because a lot of them got recruited to the Seca lot of the
SEC pissed off a bunch of them said they weren't big enough,
they wouldn't miss and they willing to go down there and
bust their ass. I'm just telling you this is a
double digit win team. I'm standing on business.

(01:06:45):
No, I'll say this, I'll give Chris props on this.
The year they went seven and sixprize second year when they went
seven and six, they had a losingrecord when Don V had his live
and Chris said they're going to a bowl after what I say today,
they're going to a bowl and everybody in that space was like

(01:07:07):
yo, you, you tripping, You don'tknow what you're talking about.
You just emotional and they got to a bowl game that year.
So I'm not going to knock Chris prediction of eleven wins.
I'm not even saying that couldn't happen.
I just need man for me and my Peace of Mind.
And I mean I as much as I love Tech as much as I bought into

(01:07:28):
what that program means. I met my wife at Virginia Tech
bro, like you got to understand something at the time I chose
Tech. I was the first recruit in 94.
I broke a streak because everybody was going to UVA,
Carolina and Penn State or otherschools.
I, I was the first person in my schools.
Well, I just interviewed coach Mike Smith and he talked about
it like because they, there was a rift between him and the

(01:07:50):
coaches and I, I broke the streak.
Then then you got Myron Newsom and a lot of guys, including
Mike and Marcus. So when I chose Tech, nobody was
going to tech from the like thatlike they like I, I brought that
energy alone. Antonio Banks and Lawrence Lewis
So for me, when tech wins like on a Sunday, especially to start

(01:08:11):
the week, if they can win that game and by 6:45 we're kneeling
and we throw the ball to the refand I see orange, maroon pom
poms and people stand up and down.
That gives me life because I don't I play fantasy, I do
parlays. I don't have no favorite NFL
team. I have no favorite NBA team.
Like so we lose. And then on top of it, when you
who I am, my phone, all my phones blow up, blowing up, blow

(01:08:36):
up. It was like, what's going on?
Fire this dude. This is and and and I have to
kind of help then de escalate the fan base because I've been
appointed and annoyed at the voice of reason, which I am.
So yeah, man, I'm glad. Yeah, I need.
Sometimes you need space to venttoo, because like watch it you,
you live it, you, you got a vent, but you also got to be the

(01:08:58):
voice of reason. So you got to kind of come at it
from both angles sometimes. You understand what I did when I
went back to 757 and I was wearing my tech gear.
It went from where where you at Vermont to like yo, I'm trying
to go there so I understand whatI did.
When I came there was an influx of Hampton High guys to include
Tyrod Taylor. I got I help bring in guys that

(01:09:21):
are household names like legendary.
They have their names engraved in plaques on walls.
I'm not trying to make this showas we wrap up about me.
What I'm saying is when I speak,it's not just emotion.
It's not just like we need the 1st 40 fans to come out and get
a free T-shirt. I don't want to do all that
manufacture bullshit. I'm talking about something I
believe that I believe in, like the Vandy laws hurt me.

(01:09:42):
Like losing, you say it hurts, it hurts like it hurts like
losing over to you and have to hit those fans behind me and
talk and talk reckless, you know?
So to me, you know, when Chris talks about 11 wins, I'm all for
it. I just need them to be.
I just need them. I need the people that make
their money. The way I talk about it on your

(01:10:02):
show, it needs to matter to themthat way because you know what
JC and those guys, they feel thesame way I do.
Thank you. This is this is what I'll say.
This is what I'll say while we close.
Them out cap. It off how I feel when you go
look at the Titanic, right? The Titanic had everything.

(01:10:23):
The Titanic had everything they needed.
They had the band playing, they had the the best boat, they had
the fancy food. All the rich people was there.
Everything was lined up. It was the captain's job to take
the the the boat from here to here safely.
That motherfucker ran. That motherfucker ran into a big

(01:10:43):
ass thing of ice and killed a whole bunch of people.
Pry. If you're going to drive this
boat, stay away from the micebergs, man.
We trying to make it. We trying to make it to the
other side safe and the other side safe is eight wins.
We happy. You keep hitting icebergs,
brother. Get your signature win this

(01:11:04):
year. Go beat somebody.
I'm tired of losing. I'm tired of seeing new King
talk about Miami and and what they doing.
We got to win this year. So I'm going to end it with
that. Curtis, what you got for me?
Let's wrap up this episode of the Boundary Corner podcast.
Crystal White thank you all for bringing the energy.
Love y'all both. Thank you, man.

(01:11:25):
Thanks for having us, man. No doubt.
As you all know, we are brought to you by Doctor Jeremy Council
at the Count Stanley Pharmacy down in Blacksburg and also
moments on the Maury in Lexington.
I'm Curtis Wilson. I'm Brian Siegler.
Jonathan Talley. We are part of the College
Huddle Network. Visit boundarycornerbt.com to
listen to all of our episodes, check out all the stuff there.

(01:11:46):
Follow us Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, all your favorite
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(01:12:06):
Yeah, pal, you told us 3 hours. As always, our buddy Jason Long,
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We appreciate y'all listening and as always, let's go.
OK. The.