The Re Return

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Alright. And welcome back to the Boundary

(01:22):
Corner Podcast, a part of the College Shuttle network along
with my partners, Brian Look, Don, the Tally, Shelton Moss and
our special guest from 247 Sports tonight.
PT scoops on Matae Sis. I am Curtis Wilson and we are,
as always, brought to you by theCounts Family Pharmacy and
Doctor Jeremy Counts down at 301S Main St. in Blacksburg.

(01:47):
Go to see him when you can. We are also brought to you by
Moments on the Maury, Moments onthe Mori on by proud Hokie
located outside of Lexington, VA.
Looking for a getaway spring, summer or fall next year?
Take a look at Moments on the Mori.
Fishing kayak and relaxing by the fire pit down by the river.
We're just hanging out on the back deck.

(02:07):
Awesome place to go. I'm going to give you a
shameless plug and tell you realquick for 247 Sports right now,
you can join 247 Sports. Get all the inside scoops, save
50% off the annual membership. OK, y'all at top now because I'm
at breath. Take a breath, Curtis.

(02:28):
Take a breath. You can, you can sip on a brew.
I think you've also got some some ultra.
There you were. You were pounding earlier.
How long Mickey all? Hey, hey, hey, how you been,
man? I'm good.
I know we were chopping it up a bit before but always excited to
be on here. We got the full crew today.
I saw the new intro that got me fired up so just excited to chat

(02:52):
with you guys. It's always just it's, it's the
best coming on here, so really looking forward to it.
Let's say we are always excited having you on here because we we
talked recruiting and we get to talk some recruiting in a very
positive light this time. But we also have some some
interesting things swirling about on the staff hires.

(03:12):
So we got a couple fun things toto chop it up with you on
tonight. 100%, 100% Mateis got the knowledge.
Cannot wait to hear what you think about the 26, about the
staff hires. Shelton, it's been a while since
you showed up. How's life, big guy?

(03:32):
Oh, it's been good, man. I'm just going to go going all
over the place. Been to DC couple times last two
weeks working with with basketball.
So yeah, man, I've been obviously plugged in.
We'll talk about the the coordinator hires certainly some
some some polarizing takes on the TLII saw a lot of that.
I think some people kind of leaning into, you know, it's a

(03:56):
let their voices be heard. But yeah, definitely, definitely
excited about positive hoking. News.
Good to hear, Tally. Are you there, Tally?
Paige and Tally. Paige and Tally Sally was having

(04:16):
desktop issues a few moments ago.
Can you hear us, Tally? You can't hear us.
I we can figure that out. We can figure getting you the
phone out. It's it's the youth freezing
that we have issues with. Can you hear me now?
All right, we're going. We're going to give him a second
Tally. Just talk whenever you need to

(04:39):
Tally. But we are going to unload a lot
tonight. We do have the staff hires.
He is moving. I can hear it.
I can hear it. We can hear you now.
All right, Can you hear us? He's back.
He's back, OK, We we can deal with that.
We can deal with it. But we are going to talk to

(05:00):
staff hires. We are going to talk to class of
26 what, what a, what a show that was last week.
But before we start with anything, it broke, I want to
say about two hours ago, roughlyabout 7:00.
And this is this is big news foranyone that is a Virginia Tech
fan. Michael Vick is going to be

(05:21):
inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame next
season. Well deserved.
A a a man who truly not only putthis team on the map, you know,
20. It's getting close 26 years ago
now, but also really changed theway college football was played
in the way the quarterback position was played.

(05:44):
So him getting his flowers is awesome.
I don't know what y'all want to say on that.
Feel free, gentlemen. It's been a long time coming.
Well deserved. Glad that it's happening as
we're kind of getting our shit back together a little bit on
the on the coaching front, especially with the way this
class got put together. I think it's just it's good

(06:04):
timing all around. Good way to kind of you know, re
re establish Virginia Tech as a national brand.
I think it's all aligning well for Virginia Tech and just it's
a great honor for him and like Isaid, well deserved it.
Like I said, long time coming I.Agree everything y'all saying is

(06:26):
true. Like you said it's a long time
coming. He overcame a lot, changed the
game of football and you can't talk about the the game of
football without. So I feel like players like that
discern Hall of Fame Dame, that's what he did.
So I'm like him, love. It because that's what he's

(06:51):
going to say nothing. I'm excited.
We we, we just barely can hear you just so you know, so you
might want to try the bugs againlike it's picking you up again.
I don't want to, I don't want tocurse it, but I know the buds
weren't working. If you do the buds, you might

(07:13):
have to go into the little app and change it.
But but tell you while he's trying to figure that out, what
about you and Shelton? You can go after him and tell
you about this induction for Mike Vick.
Yeah, I think you guys covered it pretty well.
It's obviously a huge honor. You know, he changed things for
Virginia Tech. It's, you know, he's he's the
guy that you think of when you think of Virginia Tech.

(07:33):
You still see his jerseys at allthe tailgates, you know, just an
electrifying player. And, you know, he's been a great
ambassador for Virginia Tech andjust happy that he got his
moment. I know tonight was big and
obviously got a lot of recognition on the on the
timeline there, but we'll be even bigger when he's, you know,
actually inducted. Yeah, I just, I just saw it on

(07:58):
Twitter. It's pretty good.
Obviously the NFF is a really well, well, regular
organization. I think.
I think for me, the the thing that you know, I admire the most
about Victoria is just, you know, his redemption story and
you know, how much, how much effort he's made to, you know,
redeem himself as a person and just all the good he's been
doing. Obviously coaching now, which is

(08:18):
great. So hoping you get things turned
around there, down there and in Norfolk.
But great, great story and really tremendous honor for him.
All right, Was he back? Let's see if he's back here.
Can you hear us, Tally? You can hear us.
Don't talk so I can hear you. Can you hear me?

(08:41):
It's all come together. It all works out.
All right. It's all right.
We still got you. All right, well, let's get to
it. What we talked about at the top,
the big news of the last few days.
And let's start with Sunday. So everybody's hanging out, you

(09:04):
know, probably most of us watching football.
Brian just trying to get throughhis fantasy match up because he
was in a war to make the last playoff spot and he did.
It got it. Man, I got it.
Done. I got it done man thank you. 52
yard touchdown from Saquon Barkley on the fake tush push
that solidified the win for me. Yeah, but so we're all doing

(09:27):
that and having fun, you know, dinner.
I'm sure you're doing things with your family, all of us
having meals, whatever. Watching Sunday and all of a
sudden, Pete Nacos forever at the other one.
Yeah. I'm not going to mention their
name tonight with you on the day, but Pete Nacos makes a
mention. Print Pry will be the next
defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech.

(09:49):
You are our esteemed guest, so Iwill give you the four first.
What was the first thought that popped in your mind when you
read that or when someone textedyou?
Probably you, you probably knew it an hour before it broke.
And you're just like, how do I, how do I break this down?
I mean, I can give a little backstory on just like my whole
process. Obviously we had been hearing
for a while that Brent Pryor wasgoing to be involved in some

(10:10):
way. In my mind when I read that, I
thought, OK, analyst makes sense, doesn't have to move, you
know, buy out money, however that works.
We started hearing more and moretowards the end of last week
that like it was legitimate interest in the defensive
coordinator position day by day kept materializing.

(10:31):
We heard a couple other names ofpeople that were potentially
interviewing for the position. But I would say as of I think it
was Sunday or Saturday night, once the news broke, that's kind
of when everything kind of came together and you know, we had
been talking about how do we prepare for this and what's the
reaction going to be? I think my first initial

(10:54):
reaction, it was just like, thisis super weird.
And like I've had a couple days to sit with it and I think, you
know, I'm somewhere, I'm still in the confused camp a little
bit. Like I see the I see the
benefits of it. I think when James Franklin took
over, and we've kind of seen andwe'll get it into it with the

(11:16):
next hire, but he's really trying to build this thing with
guys that he trusts. And you know, when he kind of
got ran out of Penn State, he was kind of at a moment in his
career where he had to make those big hires and kind of go
outside of his tree. And I think he's someone that,
you know, knows what he has. And Brett Pryor, I think they

(11:37):
had nine top 25 defenses together from Vanderbilt and
Penn State working together. He's someone that when the
talent level is right, he he does the job well.
And I think when you look at thedownsides to Brent Pry over his
time, it's obviously been his head coaching capabilities.

(11:58):
I think everyone knows he loves Virginia Tech.
He endorsed it for James Franklin.
We saw the emotional reaction inthe introductory press
conference. I think none of us, like we all
kind of joked like maybe maybe that they'll get the band back
together. But I think, you know, you
definitely have to swallow a lotof pride to be able to come
back. And it's definitely a weird

(12:21):
thing. I've never seen something like
this before. But I think, you know, James
Franklin had to revalidate that decision, opted in and said, I
want Brent Pry like he's the topguy if you take it from a
candidate position. And, you know, Brent Pry had to
opt in too. So I think if you have that
trust, you have the proven trackrecord.

(12:43):
He's a guy with now head coaching experience, for
whatever that's worth from his time at Virginia Tech.
So I think you can look at what he's done with James Franklin as
a defensive coordinator and say I like this.
But then the flip side is I knowpeople have been talking about
how how the defenses fared over the past couple years, the hires

(13:04):
that he's made and kind of his evaluations on defense.
I think a lot of that's circumstantial, but at the same
time, like I understand the criticisms of the hire as well.
So I'm somewhere in that confused boat.
I think ultimately I do like thehire and I think it's pretty
cool to see kind of unprecedented.

(13:24):
But ultimately it's a guy he trusts the most.
And you know, James Franklin is willing to take that bet all.
Right, Sally, you're holding laughs with like Ellis.
Tell them go next. So your thoughts, you thought
here you go in the film statistics about being trained
here and stuff. When it broke, what was your

(13:47):
first? Yeah, so when it first broke, I
had to check that the the Twitter account wasn't a troll
because that's actually what I thought.
Like I had to verify multiple times that this was a legitimate
account. We need that because I just had
no idea that this was even beingconsidered a possibility.
I was pretty shocked. I I I thought it was a little
bit weird, not necessarily bad, but just a little weird that he

(14:09):
would bring a guy who you know, who who things didn't end very
well as as head coach. The team apparently kind of quit
on him. But you know, that being said,
he's does have very good defensecoordinator chops.
I think when you look at it froma statistical standpoint,
obviously he put together a lot of good defense state.
I would say in general, I think prize a coach that is that is
going to put a product on the field that is equal to his

(14:33):
talent level. I think he generally performed
pretty up to, you know, up to par with the talent that he had.
He didn't necessarily over perform, but he also didn't
underperform either. So whatever talent that Franklin
can assemble around him is probably, you know, going to be
reflected on the field. So in that sense, I'd say, you
know, if they recruit well, I expect him to put a good defense
on the field because I trust prize defensive instincts for
the most part. But, you know, his time at BT,

(14:55):
you know, they had a decent yearin 2022 with a not great roster,
but there were also some developmental issues.
Linebacker, they couldn't figurethat out.
You know, the defense kind of underperformed in 2024.
Now this fell apart this year. Again, I know that's not saying
it's all prize fault, but he is,you know, a defensive on head
coach and he does have to take, you know, some degree of
responsibility for that. So I think on balance, it's

(15:19):
interesting, unconventional, intriguing.
I don't know exactly what words describe it.
I'm not by any means pushing thepanic button.
I just thought it was not the route they were going to go.
So I'm still trying to kind of process all that.
Tally, can you just say check 1-2, can I hear you check?

(15:39):
1-2 you all. Right.
We can hear you. I'm going to let Brian go and
then we'll get you back in, OK? Just make sure you're still
hearing us, Brian. Still freezing?
You're still freezing, but I canhear you.
I can deal with you freezing as long as I can hear you.
There we go. There we go.
Brian. Your take?
I thought it was weird, but a kind of a good weird, mainly

(16:06):
because I think it's, it's a, it's a low risk higher overall.
I I think with, with Brent Pry, you know what you're getting
the, the resume is there. We've seen what his output
output can look like, especiallyif you can get top 25 talent
around him. And on that defense, he's going

(16:27):
to put up consistent defenses. There's a reason that he was
elevated to a point where the Virginia Tech job was on the
table for him, and that's because he performed well at
Penn State in the defensive coordinator role and he had a
personality that some thought would would would be a really

(16:47):
good asset as a head coach. So you still get all of that
without the areas of deficiency that we have seen from Brent
Pride, which is building a coaching staff, you know,
getting things going from a fullroster standpoint, especially
when you look at position groupslike online.

(17:09):
I know Sheldon, you mentioned linebacker as well.
You know, a couple other position groups that struggled
and obviously the the game day and game management struggles
that we saw during his tenure there.
A lot of those things go away moving back into the defensive
coordinator role. The the weird thing is that you
fired a guy three months ago andnow he's back in your building

(17:30):
in a prominent role with your program.
And obviously I would, I would assume that Franklin probably
had some degree of conversationswith this this roster before
pulling the trigger on this. So that that's my hope.
That's my understanding at this point.

(17:53):
And it sounds like there was enough folks on board where it
made sense to to to move forwardthat at least with the guys that
Franklin's looking to retain on this current roster.
Yep, we lost Tally. So I'm going to, I'm going to
get my $0.02 before I let him gooff it.
It, it felt weird for like for me, it felt weird for about 30
minutes. But then I I started thinking,

(18:16):
but wait a second. If James Franklin had taken
Florida State or went anywhere else in this cycle, people would
be lauding the move. Look at him.
He went right back out, got Brent Pride, got a really good
defensive coordinator, really good recruiter.
Guy's not a head coach. Guy's not a head coach at all.
And and as I sat there, it became less and less weird

(18:39):
because if we think about a Brent Price feelings towards
Virginia Tech, watching the Cal game, that videotape of him
watching his guys down in the Charlotte bar play that game, he
was openly cheering for him, openly happy that they won that
game. A lot of coaches can't do that.
I think Brett Pry understands what he is as a person now.

(19:00):
He knows what he is a person. I am a defensive coordinator.
I'm not a head coach. This is what I'm meant to do.
I love this place. We all know he loves Virginia
Tech. He felt like it was.
It gave him the shot to where hewound up today.
And to me, it's just like if he goes anywhere else, it's not
weird. It's only weird here if he feels

(19:22):
it weird. And I have a feeling.
James Franklin maybe what took to Sunday Matei for everything
to come down is he probably asked every single player on
that roster who's going to probably stay if he comes back,
are you OK with it? And I think if that had went
sideways, I don't think he's thehigher to be a decoordinator
right now. But that's the way I feel.

(19:43):
Brian Shelton Matei Feel Tally How do you feel about your boy,
you know, getting hired as. Do y'all?
Can y'all hear me? First of all, Yep.
Can you not hear me at all? Hang on, I can hear you.
The audio is a little. Yeah, you're a little little
little. Clown muffled.

(20:04):
Muffled. Yep.
So I've been, I think Brett Pry is messing up my my bra.
Yeah, you're good now. I think that's what's going on.
Brett is messing me up, but I mean, I don't know, man.
The initial like I was on vacation when I heard it, so I

(20:27):
don't know how that came through.
That was the only thing that came through.
Brett Pryor, defensive coordinator, while I'm trying to
enjoy my cruise and I'll live it.
I was like, what the what are wedoing?
You know, just honestly, it's like, think about you getting
fired from your job, right? You get fired.

(20:48):
You don't just get fired like you get fired bad.
Brian, get the fuck out. You're out of here, buddy.
You haven't done a good job. Get out.
You know, just take what you cangrab in this little box and have
a nice life. And then you walk back in the
building. That's a Friday.
You get to walk back in the building Monday and see the same

(21:10):
people that told you to take that box and get out.
It's just weird. It's crazy.
It's crazy, man. Like I, that was my initial
reaction. It's kind of like going through
a bad divorce and then your mom or dad says she's still a part
of this family and she's coming to all the family functions.

(21:33):
You know what? I'm saying you said that to me
and I cracked up. I cracked up when you said that.
But, you know, Culverheads have prevailed and thought about it a
little bit and talked to some people and I'm like, OK, I get
it. I understand he wants people
around that he trusts, you know,they're going to raise the
talent in the in the program. So we've seen what they can do

(21:54):
when they do have talent. So a lot of times that that's
what matters. You know, we had some talent,
but talent will be elevated. I do think Brett Pratt can call
defense, and I think Curtis put it best.
If he went somewhere else and all of this happened, nobody
would have batted an eye. You know, if he would have got
the job at Florida State and then he brings Brett Pryor on as

(22:17):
his defensive coordinator, people would probably have been
over the moon. OK, yeah, he did good.
But just he or him getting him getting fired and then rehired
in three weeks or however three months, it was just a shock.
So I'm interested to see what happens.

(22:38):
It's going to be Sally went out there and got the the Internet,
Sally just so he can follow up on on these coaching hires.
And then he saw Brentavious Pride come across his screen and
I think. This is the first day I got it.
Like the third day, you know, I got to like a thoroughly and the
first thing that I see it pops up if somebody puts that and I'm

(22:58):
like, like Shelton said, I'm like, this has got to be a joke.
Like somebody's this is a fake account.
This is a fake account. Look, when when Franklin got
hired, you know, there were there were some people were
like, go ahead and get Brent, bring Brent back right now.
And like I was like, you know what, I can I can see it happen.
But like, my first instinct was like, maybe defensive analyst,

(23:21):
somebody comes in, kills it two years, maybe Brent's that second
DC higher under Franklin at Virginia Tech.
I didn't think we'd see it out the gate.
So that's where it's different for me.
And it's it's certainly a uniquesituation.
But like, to Curtis's point, youknow, I think the his time at DC

(23:43):
at other stops speaks for itself.
Yeah. I don't think we're like, you
know, at least on the defense side of the ball.
We're not, we're not, we're not banking on a risky hire here.
I mean, this is a guy that, you know, for all intents and
purposes, when he's had some good players around him, he's
he's done well. So as long as Franklin and, and
the rest of the staff can get, you know, top 30, top 25, top 20

(24:06):
classes coming into Virginia Tech every year, I don't think
we're going to have a problem ondefense.
Not at all. Also, just to quickly kind of
put a bow on it, you know, like James Franklin and Brent Pryor
have known each other for 30 years now.
There's probably no one else in the industry that James Franklin
trusts more. And like, I think Sheldon made a
good point too, that when Brent Pryor was calling the defense in

(24:28):
2022, like it was a top 45 defense, the talent wasn't all
there. I think kind of the
inefficiencies of Brent Pryor asa head coach where like he
didn't have all the resource. Like I'm not going to put it all
in the resources, but like he didn't have necessarily the top
end resources or was a good enough head coach to bring the

(24:51):
type of talent needed to bolsterthat defense or the offense or,
you know, the program in generalor bring in the right hires.
Like, that's his downside. You know, James Franklin and
Brent Prye, great friends, theirfamilies are great friends.
Like if this works out, the ideal vision, like Brent Prye is
not leaving probably for anotherhead coaching opportunity.

(25:13):
Like he's. Going to say.
Exactly. And like he did get interest,
Arkansas reached out. They wanted to give him the job.
Mississippi State was looking athim before Arnett.
Brent Prye is still very well regarded even elsewhere, right?
And, you know, I think the downside, like worst case
scenario it would be, it's almost unimaginable.

(25:34):
But like, if James Franklin had to fire Brent Prye again, you
know, or probably gets fired again from Virginia Tech, I
think that would be insanely awkward.
But other than that, like you can see the upside with this
move. All right.
So I want to get into now what broke earlier today, but I need
y'all to read the chat before westart.

(25:55):
Matan, we'll kick it to you first read the chat, but then
I'm going to kick it to you because we're going to talk
about what just broke about two minutes ago.
Tahal, the COOC tight end coach,former Penn State offensive
lineman, is basically announced.Pete Damel comes out today.
He is going to be the next offensive coordinator at
Virginia Tech. He will call plays.

(26:16):
Matei, I need you. We've been looking at what he's
coached, but you give me the lens of recruiting because a lot
of Penn State fans are like crap.
They frickin stole how And now who do they have in the DMV?
Yeah, I mean, how's a great recruiter?

(26:39):
Obviously tight end galore. Coached a bunch of great tight
ends at Penn State. I think Friar Moose was the
earliest one. Obviously Tyler Warren had his
big season. You know, he has guys like Luke
Reynolds, Andrew Olesh, 4*5* guys, DMV guy through and

(26:59):
through. I think the interesting thing
was that they were always going to target him.
Maybe even we'll see what happens with the transfer portal
in terms of Penn State tight ends.
But that's obviously a big part of what Virginia Tech's offense
is going to look like in the future.
And, you know, in targeting him,it was interesting that, you
know, with his name had come up.It was something that we thought

(27:21):
maybe would be a tight end roll,but ultimately, I think in order
to get him to Virginia Tech needed that upgraded title.
I think I understand the Tyler Bowen comparisons like I pointed
them out today, but I think there's a lot of respect there
from James Franklin. And again, it's kind of the same
thing with pride that this is someone who James Franklin has

(27:44):
worked with for five years. Like really trust him.
He's a quick mover. He came in as an analyst.
He's a former Penn State offensive lineman, quickly
worked his way up to tight ends coach and then Co offensive
coordinator. I know they do that quite a bit
at Penn State. And ironically, it's always like
a tight end coach that has the Co C title.

(28:04):
But he's just another one that, you know, really well regarded
by the players, really proven recruiter.
Obviously, we don't know what that looks like as a play
caller. That's the one kind of I think
where everyone's head was at today in terms of, you know,
they thought they were that Virginia Tech was going to get a
bigger name. But, you know, they did

(28:26):
interview some other offensive coordinators.
One went to Ole Miss today. I think that timing kind of
speaks for itself, but James Franklin once again kind of made
the call that after having extremely long interviews with a
lot of candidates, this is goingto be our guy.

(28:47):
Shelton, any feels on this? Yeah.
I mean, I think it's I would have preferred someone with a
little more extensive play calling experience not to, you
know, down play him. I know he was a cozy for a
couple years. I don't think he was a play
caller though. Somebody please Fact Check me if
I'm wrong about that. Had a couple years at Western

(29:09):
Illinois as a cozy as well. I know he's a good coach by all
accounts, a very good recruiter.So I don't want to, you know,
down play that part of it. I just, I felt like with the
budget that Tech had, I would have expected more, you know,
kind of big time hotshot OC hire.
But, you know, we'll see how it works out.
I mean, I, I, I feel like, you know, coordinator hire is really

(29:31):
tough to judge because sometimes, you know, I was
looking at looking at Siginetti's guys today, you
know, they both came with them from GMUI mean they didn't
really have any powerful experience when they came there
and only, you know, maybe two orthree years of, of, you know,
coordinator experience in general.
So, you know, there's not like one specific mode that you have
to have in order to be successful as a coordinator.
So I try to keep that in mind. But yeah, I mean, it's just kind

(29:53):
of a, you know, again, kind of like probably a little bit maybe
slightly more unconventional higher.
But you know, I'm not going to write off a guy before he's he's
coached a game of football at BT, So we'll see.
Brian Siegler. A lot of thoughts on this.
I'll put you in the middle. Yeah, a lot, a lot of thoughts
on this when I saw it come through, you know, I started

(30:17):
doing some digging, doing some doing some research because how
was the name that had come up early like Patel alluded to, but
we weren't exactly sure to what capacity that role was going to
be. You know, now we found out, you
know, OC play caller, whether ornot, you know, there's a Co OC
down the line that's going to beattached at the hip with with

(30:39):
how that remains to be seen. But as the rest of this staff
shapes up, you know, it's it's it's easy to out the gate make
the comparisons to Tyler Bowen, you know, COC Titans coach at
Penn State, call plays at AFCS school for one year had a couple

(30:59):
games where you call plays at Penn State, you know, in the
last couple years, but but wasn't a full time play caller.
So very similar resume. But when we look at the
circumstance of the higher, the circumstance of this higher is a
lot different. And when I look at the
circumstance, this isn't a firsttime full time offensive

(31:22):
coordinator play caller going into a first time head coach
situation in Blacksburg like it was with Tyler Bowen and Brent
Pry. This is a very established head
coach in James Franklin and offensive minded head coach in
James Franklin. So I think when you look at this

(31:45):
situation, it's it's definitely a better situation for a first
time play caller to come into relative to what Tyler Bone was
stepping into with Brent Pry in Blacksburg.
That being said, by all accounts, this was the guy that
Franklin was ready to hire two years ago before they put AK in

(32:07):
that role. It sounds like there was push
from the AD that they wanted a big time name, big time, all the
all that stuff. And they ended up with AK
instead of, of of hiring and andpromoting howl at that point.
So that speaks to where James Franklin's head was, you know,
just two years ago. So yeah, that that's a lot to

(32:29):
unpack and unwrap there. And then you look at the
recruiting pedigree, this guy inthe DMV area, and I think that
speaks for itself. And then just the developments
he's been able to do with his position group.
We'll see how much of of a hand he has on an individual position
group as things kind of, you know, flesh out with the rest of
the staff. But parallels to Tyler Bowen

(32:52):
aside, and you're not going out there and breaking the bank on a
more established play caller. Yeah, I think there's there's a
lot to like about this. But if I think there's there's
we're still a kind of in wait and see mode to see what the
quarterbacks coach looks like inparticular.
And then kind of the way the rest of the staff on offense

(33:14):
shapes up to to kind of help outthis first time play caller in
Blacksburg. You had a chat telling you what
the quarterbacks coach looked like.
Well, I know, I know. We we going to talk about that.
Because yeah, I was just lookingaway for a little bit.
Just had a the news broke. On here but tally how do you
feel about how in general about you know what you've read of him

(33:37):
and I know you text and talk to people.
Yeah, so, well, I talked to you that because I was, I was out
driving first day back at work. So I had to come with Curtis
because I got a new route. So I was up in Tennessee driving
and in the country couldn't see nothing and got a camera in my
car. So I really can't be looking at
my phone anyway. So I was like, Curtis, tell me

(33:57):
what's going on because I can't see it.
So Curtis broke down kind of howhe felt and I'm looking at
things. And then after I get home, I do
a little bit of research. And I was like, you know what
that is research matters. It don't matter.
So I had to go back and think about some of the stuff that the
coaches say. A lot of times it is coach
speak. But if you go back and you

(34:18):
listen to James Franklin in his interviews, he says I've had
really good players that it don't matter what the play call
is, they're just good. Like I had Sequan Barkley in the
backfield and he just went and made plays.
So when I started thinking aboutthat, I'm like, OK, he's going

(34:39):
to get people around him that hetrusts because he's been at Penn
State for 12 years, 11 years. And then they go out and get
this kick ass ADR or DC, right? Who is it?
What's his name? Nose.
So they're going to get Nose last year.
We get fired this year. So I know in his mind, I don't

(34:59):
know what their relationship is,You know, I don't know what was
said, You know, behind the scenes and stuff.
You got to win games, of course,you got to beat certain people.
But he's been coaching the same for all these years.
Then you go get this new guy in and all of a sudden everything
goes to hell in 1/2 basket, right?
So when you do that and you pay somebody $3,000,000 or

(35:22):
$2,000,000 or however much moneythey're getting paid, they're
probably going to have a relationship with that AD and
go, hey, I don't like his philosophy or he wants me to do
this and I don't want to do it. So I just really feel like James
Franklin said, I just want to get guys around me that I trust
and I want to go get players that are talented enough to beat
the players across the field from him.

(35:45):
He's got the opportunity to do that because what you don't
spend on coaches, you're going to spend it on NIL.
You got to go get a quarterback like it didn't matter.
It didn't matter what we did when Bowen was here, but when he
had the ball off to Tooting, good things was going to happen,
right? That's true.
That's true. We just got him hurt, you know,

(36:07):
we just got him hurt. We didn't need him hurt.
But I just think they're going to focus more on, I think
they're going to focus real heavy on getting the Jimmy
Jimmies and Jones in. All right, I'm last to go here
and I've been pretty positive. I'm a pretty positive person as
most people know me. I I do not like this hire.

(36:28):
I do not like this hire. And, and y'all are putting some
good points. He's a good recruiter.
Tally's putting it up, but we'regoing to just have really good
plays and we just call a simple inside zone run.
They're going to go 75 yards fora touchdown.
We ain't got to worry about goodplay calls.
But I worry he's only called plays one time.
He's caught a few here and there.

(36:49):
He does not have the experience.He is 34 years old.
He is 34 years old and now we'reputting him in charge of our
offense over the last 15 years. I'm stealing this from somebody,
from my neighbor. The last 15 years, even in our
bad years, we have not had to worry about defense.

(37:09):
Even in our bad years, Brent Pryne 2021, that was like a 52nd
ranked defense. What, literally backs in a bunch
of guys. We probably wouldn't have been
on many other rosters. We're turning it over to him.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope a year from now y'all
make fun of me and say look how wrong you were, look how wrong
you were. I'm worried about this hire and

(37:32):
now I'm even more worried about it because of what just broke 10
minutes ago now, and that is Danny O'Brien is going to be the
quarterback coach. Danny O'Brien's been a
quarterback coach for two years at Penn State.
Two years. Yes, he did analyst work and he
did assistant quarterback work. Yay.
Apparently Trace Mcsorley's coming.
Yay. The only person right now in the

(37:54):
room that's still left that has play calling experience is Matt
Moore. Matt Moore called a Troy.
He called his first year at WestVirginia.
That is the only other guy who has play calling experience on
this offense this half. And we don't know if he's going
to get fired or not. So, Mattel.
You know who does have have playcalling experience?
But Jimmy Franklin ain't called freaking plays in almost a

(38:16):
decade and a half, Brian. Have, have, Are you sure about
that? Because I've seen something safe
folks say that I, I don't even know who's been calling plays at
Penn State, but I'm, I'm just throwing it out there.
So he is a he's, he's still a offensive minded head coach.
You got to this. This is and, and, and more.
This is more. This is a better situation than

(38:39):
a Marvin Pratt situation becausehe is also not a first time head
coach bringing somebody along like a Chris Marv.
And you know who else played quarterback?
Curtis, James Franklin. That's true.
All right, Matei. Matei was feverishly,
feverishly. Let's see.

(38:59):
Matei is like. He's like, hang on, we're
breaking some fucking news here.What's the background on Danny
because I don't have much on himother than I know he coached at
Penn State, Matei and I'm sure that's what you probably, you
probably had a note card alreadyon and know how well you're
prepared. Not not super well, if I'm being
candid. I know Trace Mcsorley was the

(39:22):
name that was mentioned there. Didn't quite know what they were
going to do. Obviously knew O'Brien could be
the quarterbacks coach that justbroke like 20 minutes ago, Matt
Zeditz from CBS Sports. But I think the connection
there's, he played at Maryland. I kind of vaguely remember him
playing there under James Franklin.

(39:44):
The relationship goes back to, like, 2009, I believe.
He was a, like a, you know, kindof like the same thing, you
know, starts off as an analyst, quickly works his way up,
becomes the quarterback's coach.I think 20 was it last year was
his first full year. Yeah, last year.

(40:06):
But Like was working with Sean Clifford in 2023.
I think, you know, we kind of see it with the last two hires.
And I think to your point about like James Franklin being
offensive minded, I think the next step in that is that like
he's not, it's clear, like it's been clear, but he's not

(40:27):
outsourcing these jobs to peoplethat he doesn't have a trusting
relationship with or like he's not just paying off the biggest
names on the board. I think, you know, I tried to
hammer that point home that like, these candidates are being
compared against those outsourcing candidates, and he's
once again choosing his own guys.

(40:48):
And I think, you know, there's ego involved with all of this.
And I think it, you know, whether it's good or bad, we'll
we'll end up finding out. But I think James Franklin wants
his own guys and to do it his way and really trust that, you
know, these guys that have come up with me and will place their
trust in me, like we'll all do it together.

(41:09):
So I agree with your points thatlike if the talent is there,
they're able to do it. But like it's very clear that
he's going to do it his way and he's seen a lot of success in
the past doing it that way. And I think if you can somehow
translate that PSU model, like we see what the last two hires,
these are guys that start off asanalysts were promoted

(41:29):
internally. That's kind of his MO.
Like that's the way he prefers to do it, like bringing on guys,
teach them from the ground up. And a lot of them have been
successful. Some of them have moved on to
other jobs. It's it seems to be that's how
this staff is going to continue to shake out.
Maybe a couple big names here and there, but otherwise I
think, you know, it's going to be his guys.

(41:53):
What you mean a couple big nameshere?
Wait a minute mate. OK.
Laying it out here, Shelton, anything on this?
I mean, it looks like you're reading too, so.
Yeah, I was doing some dig on his background.
Obviously you mentioned offensive end of this for a
couple years, three years and then one is Aga and then the

(42:13):
past 2 is quarterbacks coach. So a little bit of a thin
resume. It just mainly just one program.
It gives a little bit of pause. But I, I saw I was thinking
about this, you know, I don't think like, you know, at this
point in, in Virginia Tech's, but you know, where, where they
are as a program. You know, the money we're
putting in, the coaching staff that, you know, we, we'd like to
have, you know, we expect to compete for playoff spots.

(42:35):
You know, we want to be a program like Utah or BYU or
Vanderbilt that, you know, develops talent and has good
coaching and, you know, can at least kind of punch by the
weight class to try to compete for a playoff spot once every
couple years. You know, So from that
standpoint, like, you know, 8 to9 wins might be OK.
But like, you know, the questionwe have to ask ourselves is
like, is this staff, the staff that's going to lead us to, you

(42:57):
know, competing for playoff spots?
And, you know, right now I'm a little bit iffy on it just
because of getting lack of, you know, experience in certain,
certain spots. You know, doesn't mean to be
bad, but it's like, you know, again, like what I was talking
about with the budget we have, like, you know, we were kind of
expecting a home run higher. And I think, you know, right now
it's like, OK, maybe we get a double, you know, try to stretch

(43:18):
into a triple, but it doesn't, it doesn't seem like a home run.
So that's kind of just, you know, the, the thoughts I've
been having. It's like, you know, where the
goals, you know, the goal, the goals are are, you know,
increased here. So, you know, we want, we want
coaches that can can match thoseexpectations.
Yeah. I mean, we, when we look at it,

(43:40):
we don't really have a lot on O'Brien from a recruiting
standpoint. It's a very limited sample size.
So this is probably the first hire that you can't really say
point to and say this guy is a super plus recruiter because we
we probably don't have enough data on him at this point to
really say that one way or the other.

(44:04):
You know, we we know that the caliber of players that were
comfortable playing for him thatwere originally committed to
Penn State and have since been one of them committed to
Virginia Tech now. And the other one what went to
Auburn, went to somewhere else, went back to Penn State,
whatever, whatever, whatever hishis path there was.

(44:30):
Yeah. That was another player that
that at one point was also comfortable playing and being
coached by Danny O'Brien. So, you know, limited sample
size on what he's doing from therecruiting standpoint.
So we don't really know what that looks like.
I'm interested to see if Trace Mcsorley's coming over as like a

(44:53):
Co quarterbacks coach, assistantquarterbacks coach, what that
role looks like for him. And you know, we're still, we're
still got a couple other spots that we got to fill here and,
and kind of figure out who on the current staff is being
retained on the offensive side. If anybody.
You know, I think we've got somesome general ideas on that at

(45:15):
this point, but we haven't heardanything official and really
none of these, you know, outsideof the national publications, we
haven't really seen any officialannouncements on this.
So we're, we're still kind of waiting on the official details,
titles, roles, all that fun stuff as far as what, what,
what, what these guys are going to be doing within the, within

(45:35):
the team other than these, you know, high level official roles
that, that we have with OC and DC and quarterbacks coach.
So I'm, I don't feel better about the how higher with the
Danny O'Brien higher. I, I don't necessarily feel
worse about it. I feel about the same as I felt

(45:57):
when when the howl higher came across.
If we had brought in somebody like Decker from ODU in that
role and he was a Co OC, I thinkI'd feel even better about the
howl higher. This kind of just kind of keeps
me in a, you know, slightly above lukewarm feeling on the

(46:19):
howl higher and very much TBD onDanny O'Brien.
I know you kind of let me. Throw this out.
Let me throw this out right quick.
And Curtis, I'm going to let youdivvy it up if you want to.
Can you hear me pretty good? Yeah, you're good.
You're coming through pretty good.
So James Franklin got a, what are we #24 are we 24 or 2524 top

(46:44):
25 class? He got a top 25 class by
himself. By himself.
All right, so we're we can sit here and divvy up all of what we
think about the coach and we know we got to play games and
all that. I I'm not saying that that
doesn't matter, But if James Franklin did all of this by
itself and these guys that have been working with him have been

(47:07):
developing talent are coming in and then thinking about some of
the names that we've heard on defense.
What do you think the the ceiling is for recruiting?
I didn't even talk about coaching yet.
What do you think the ceiling isfor recruiting on the coaches
that he's bringing in if he got a top 25 class in two weeks by

(47:30):
himself? Mate, sis, that is your wheel
buddy. Where is the ceiling?
It's it's tough to, it's tough to answer because obviously like
top 25 is the expectation. I think one of the best parts
about James Franklin as a coach is bringing in talent and you

(47:52):
look at the resources that he's paired with and was able to get
from Virginia Tech. Like I, you know, my personal
expectations are like right around that top 20 mark.
I think it's, I remember probably being on this podcast a
couple years ago talking about Brett Pry and I'm like, you
know, Top 40, like maybe that's the goal.

(48:12):
And all of a sudden now you're shifting to top 20.
But I think like you obviously have so many blue bloods out
there. And I know like it's, it's a
constant arms race, like more and more programs.
Utah just did something today with private equity.
I'm blanking on the name, but someone just got like a massive
donation. Michigan State got like 400

(48:34):
million. Like it's just a constant arms
race of these programs that are gonna try to keep building it
up. I think the benefit to James
Franklin is he's already been inthis area.
He has those relationships and guys like are never like he's
going to be able to kind of unlock that tier where you can
still get that elite caliber player without having to pay an

(48:57):
arm and a leg over the competition.
Like those relationships still matter at the end of the day.
So with the blue bloods, like that's usually the top fifteens.
I think you can see some years where maybe the talent is a
little richer and Virginia Tech moves up.
But overall expectation I would say is, you know right around
that 20 mark all. Right.

(49:19):
Do you want to add anything elseabout the QB coach before we
start pushing along here? I don't know that, man.
I'm just glad we got a quarterback coach.
I'm just glad they're not letting offensive line or tight
end coach, coach the quarterbacks.
At least put something in there.This doesn't make it to the
quarterbacks. This is what's sold talent.
Wait a second. He played quarterback in

(49:40):
college? Yeah.
He played quarterback in the Canadian Football League.
Yeah. I think it said he threw 3
touchdowns and 10 picks so we don't need him to play all.
Right before we get into the class of 2026, there is really
one reason why Danny O'Brien left Finn State.

(50:01):
He did not want to coach Peyton Thousand because he got rid of
him once and then he tried to get back on board with him.
So really, Danny O'Brien just said, I ain't messing with that
kid. I'm out of here.
I'm going down to Tech because that class that James Franklin
pulled in last week, I'm going to start the questions off Brian
Shelton, get them loaded. But what I want to put it is,

(50:23):
you know, Brian Dawn said something and mate, you've been
doing this a while with 247. Have you ever seen anything like
what happened in that two week span in your in, in like not
just tech, other place or placesthat were 50 to like 20?
Have you ever seen anything likethe way this class flipped from
1:24 to 24 in two weeks? No, not at all.

(50:45):
And like I think we all knew when James Franklin was going to
be hired, like he was going to raid the commitment list of Penn
State. I didn't know how successfully
he was going to be able to do that, obviously working with a
two week window, but I've never seen it elsewhere where a team
has moved up that much. Conversely, I've never seen,
like, the Penn State slide is probably the biggest slide I've

(51:06):
ever seen landing with two guys in their class.
But, you know, I was kind of joking around with some of the
people like Brian Doan and Evan Colby.
I was just saying, like, the dopamine we were getting from,
you know, just writing up the articles, having them ready to
go, like hearing another one wascoming.

(51:28):
It was just like, it was unbeatable.
And obviously it happened in a short period of time.
But these are relationships thatspend, you know, years and
years. So, yeah, James Franklin was
able to do it. I'm sure, you know, there's some
whispers that, you know, maybe this guy's going to be your
position coach. I think that's starting to come

(51:48):
to fruition now. But ultimately, I mean it, I, I
thought they would definitely have a chance to push for a, you
know, top 3530 class. But to land in the top 25 I
think is insanely respectable and impressive.

(52:11):
Whoever will stand. Yeah, I mean, seeing, seeing the
climb was, I mean, it was kind of unprecedented, like going
from like moving up 100 spots inthe rankings.
I, I don't know if that's ever been done.
I mean, mate, you can, you can Fact Check me on that.
But that was a a climb that I was not expecting when when

(52:31):
Franklin took over, I was like, if this, if this class ends up
top 50, I'll I'll feel OK, I'll feel like, all right.
Well, he salvage he salvage the class after, you know, losing
the coach, losing a couple your your your top flight pieces in
the class. You know, you, you maybe could
bring a, a Tommy Wilder back in.You get a couple guys from Penn

(52:53):
State that are in the four-star caliber and then you kind of
fill out the rest of the roster with some, with some, you know,
decent caliber three star guys. And yeah, then we see what
Franklin was able to throw together in a two week time
frame and it's it's really impressive because it gives us a
really good starting point. It got us a whole lot of

(53:15):
national press, which is coming at a very good time.
That's one thing that we're seeing with Franklin is that
when when Franklin does something, the the national
publications get a hold of it pretty quick.
So as long as we can keep the ship moving in the right
direction, that's going to be a big benefit for the brand of

(53:35):
Virginia Tech. Yeah, I think for me, the, the
most impressive thing for Franklin is just how much work
he's put into making this class happen.
Because you know, that type of that type of shit we've seen
with this recruiting class is the product of countless hours
of hard work, you know, making calls, talking to kids, you
know, convincing them that this is a place that, you know, they,
they, they want to spend the next, you know, years of their

(53:56):
career, even though they don't know the entire coaching staff,
you know, mapping, mapping out, you know, who you want to
target, Just just all the work that goes into it.
I know we don't want to throw his predecessor under the bus
too much because, you know, we, we obviously all love him.
He's going to be our DC soon. But he unfortunately did not do
that stuff when he got hired here.
And I think it was a main contributing factor to, you
know, how poor his first season was because you just, you just

(54:18):
got to have a plan. You get hired.
I think, you know, he's just so relentless as recruiter.
Franklin. Franklin that is so just, you
know, credit to him for all the work he's done because that is
all that is all effort on his part.
So I think it's, I think it's great to see.
I think also just his ability tohave two weekends was so crucial
because like whenever we're talking to recruits, whenever
I'm talking to you guys, it's always the atmosphere is great

(54:42):
and we love Lane Stadium and allof that is great.
And you're able to pair that with, you know, not only a home
weekend, but then the last weekend of the year, which you
know, having Franklin in Blacksburg while the team is out
in Charlottesville. Those were two crucial weekends
to get guys to come on campus. I think there's, you know, a lot

(55:03):
of lessons in this. But like 1 is that he was able
to get all those guys to come because they could have gone to,
they could have gone elsewhere. Some of them did visit over the
two weeks, other places. But you know, able to keep that
conversation open, able to get them to campus, explain to them
what the situation is. And then you're all of a sudden

(55:23):
you're able to see, OK, this could be my home pair.
The atmosphere for the guys thatwere there for the first
official weekend with the relentless nature of Franklin
and saying you can help build this place up.
And, you know, those were crucial, crucial weekends in
order to make this all happen. Yeah, no.
And I was going to say just to, you know, kind of go along with

(55:46):
what Matea is saying and also let Matea kind of giving this
kudos because I know they do a lot of work and look at a lot of
fam and interview a lot of, you know, kids that's getting ready
to go to college and things likethat.
It you have to be able to coach.I do understand that.
But talking to some of the parents, parents and players are

(56:07):
really, really impressed with James Franklin, like him just in
the room. He's going to get in the room
with some of those kids. And there's no such thing as a
can't miss prospect because thatthings happen.
But when you look at somebody like, I don't know, Trevor
Lawrence, right? We kind of knew what Trevor
Lawrence was going to be going to Clemson.

(56:29):
We kind of knew what they expect, right?
So Virginia Tech hadn't had verymany opportunities to get in the
room with a player of that caliber.
I think James Franklin gets you in those rooms, at least to be
able to talk to those parents again.
You know, that trying to divergetoo much information and stuff
that I'm not supposed to talk about.

(56:49):
But we had a kid that was committed elsewhere, had been
committed elsewhere a long time and recommitted elsewhere.
And next thing you know, he's sending his stuff into Virginia
Tech. It's all because of Franklin.
It's all because of talking to his parents, saying things like,

(57:10):
I'm sorry, we didn't. I don't know how we missed this.
You know, this evaluation wasn't, I'm sorry we didn't get
it, but what can we do now? We're at this place.
What do we do now? We want you here.
And this is going to Virginia Tech.
Matei Tally brought it up and I want you to just hit on it real

(57:31):
quick. What did go on with I got his
name here? Hold on with Ty.
He's committed though. He has signed the line.
We knew he flipped, but what happened with that?
Because that seemed like a 180 in less than 20 hours.
Sorry, I cut out a little bit, you said Tyrell Grant.

(57:53):
Tyrell Grant flipped. I mean, like Tally said, Tally
was trying to be nice. I mean.
Yeah. I mean, he signed.
So he clearly wanted to come to Virginia Tech, but what
happened? Because that was like, boom.
Keep in mind too, like he was committed to Syracuse, visited
officially to Virginia Tech, so the interest was already there.

(58:14):
I know he put out a tweet that Ithink a lot of people are
referencing that says like 1000%or 10,000% committed to
Syracuse. That was kind of prompted by
Syracuse for him to put that out.
I think the entire time he was kind of thinking, OK, I want to
make this happen. How do I make this happen?
What's the right way of doing it?
And I just think with the timingof everything, that being I

(58:39):
believe it was Tuesday night of last week and then he announced
on signing day, I want to say like it was, he was already
trending that way. And I think some other events
LED up to it off. We can talk about Matt Sieg if
we want to, but they were reallytargeting him as a safety.

(59:00):
And I think, you know, once theykind of work things out, there's
multiple components to it. It was just like everything was
in alignment. And I think he saw it as, OK,
this is a can't miss opportunity.
I got to make the switch all. Right.
I mean that was one that we kindof we saw and we were like, OK,

(59:22):
that was a little bit of a surprise coming coming down from
us. But it sounds like, you know
there was a little bit of that in the works for a little bit
longer than I think some of us knew there.
The thing I want to talk about with this class that this is
this has got to be, I mean, someof it was already being
addressed before frankly got here, but this is Franklin.
I think seeing what this currentroster is and where the biggest

(59:46):
hole in the roster is, 6 tacklesin this class.
Talk a little bit about that andkind of some of these guys that
may have already been on Virginia Tech's radar.
Obviously Tommy Water was was committed at one point, then
came back. And then maybe some of these
guys that Franklin was able to to to sway in our direction as

(01:00:07):
things started to wrap up there.Yeah, and I think, you know,
Thomas Wilder coming, coming back was huge.
Obviously had to win that again.He really liked Maryland.
Like I thought for a while he was going to go to UMD, but he
always loved Virginia Tech was, you know, I think James Franklin
was kind of dicing on the cake there to bring him back.

(01:00:27):
Obviously getting a lot of theseguys to visit was big Benjamin
Azuka, He would he came in obviously Penn State flip ace
Hamilton flipped to Michigan. They're kind of targeting like
an interior guy and Azuka like I'm extremely high on him.
I think if he I keep saying likeif he were 6566, this would be

(01:00:50):
like absolute national prospect.He's already highly rated, like
high three star on the verge of a four-star, but you know, 63315
inside guy can play guard, maybeeven center.
We'll see how everything shakes out there.
Obviously, Kyle Altuner if he comes back, Marlon Bright up in
New Jersey. I know he played in Class B

(01:01:12):
competition, but he's just someone that has the body, has
the athletic ability. State champion in in New Jersey,
played some other impressive schools out of state as well.
Again, Penn State flip, Maddox Cochran, he was like, I think he

(01:01:32):
was big too, Not only like anytime you're talking about
Wisconsin and offensive line category, like give me that guy.
And he was someone that I think on the day that James Franklin
was hired, he decommitted, whatever that means.
But he was someone that was targeted, obviously, like

(01:01:54):
another tackle guy in state guy getting Tyrell Simpson to
reaffirm massive, massive body. Like, I know he's listed at 6-7.
He might be 6-8. And I think just like with all
of these guys, it's just like their size and ability feels

(01:02:16):
different than previous classes.And I feel like I've come on
here and probably talked about, oh, Virginia Tech has signed
like 2 commitments this cycle. They can project either way.
It's like a lot of these guys are tackles.
And I think James Franklin was talking about in the press
conference, not that you want tojump too far ahead and say

(01:02:36):
Virginia Tech's going to the semifinals, but he was like, if
you're playing 16 games, you're going to need that depth on the
offensive line. And they absolutely crushed it.
Not only were they able to get the RE affirmations, Thomas
Wilder back in, get the flip of Cochran, they're able to bring
all the Penn State guys with them.
And I just think it goes to showlike that was the major area of

(01:03:00):
need and they got some really talented players to come along.
Yeah, it's, it's like we lately we've been used to having, you
know, maybe making a, a splash with one of those caliber
players and then like, you know,no knock on Buddy, but a whole
lot of Buddy wagged them kind ofin the back and they're kind of
filling out the rest of that class.

(01:03:21):
And then you've got, you know, he's really, you know, the lower
rated guy, but it's still a Woodbury Forest commit, which is
a place that historically Virginia Tech is not done very
well. And we're starting to make some
some headway in. So it's it's good seeing that
come along in the process as well.
I love the focus in the trencheson really on both sides.

(01:03:41):
But obviously the offensive linewas the area of need for
Virginia Tech. When we look at the biggest
problem with this last year's team, it's we were one injury on
the offensive line away from having no tackles that were
ready to play football. We were one and and.

(01:04:01):
We lost the guard and had to move the guy we were playing at
tackle into guard and we were a absolute liability right tackle
the rest of the year. And we were a miss a mishmash of
of different players across thatline other than Al Tuner, who
was probably the the most consistent player on that
offensive line all year. So getting these guys in the

(01:04:24):
building and, and obviously seeing what we can do with the
portal is going to be very important.
Yeah, I talked with these guys. I talked to, you know, some
other folks. Knowing who we're targeting in
the portal is going to be just as important in securing a
quarterback in the portal as anything else.
Because if you've looked at thisoffensive line, you know that

(01:04:44):
we're going to need some immediate help, even though
we've got some of that long termhelp coming in with this 26th
class. 1000% there. I want to take it just a couple
different ways because normally we always, it's really weird
because you've been on here before, we always talk about
who's that diamond, Who is the diamond to top the Virginia Tech

(01:05:07):
recruiting class? And this year was supposed to be
Thomas Wilder with everything that's happened.
I mean, Terry Wiggins, Messiah Thomas, Troy Hume, Davion Brown,
and even get down into Pierce Peterson.
I mean, these guys are super highly ranked guys.
And it's crazy because it's likeusually we were like one, maybe

(01:05:31):
2. It's just like it's 6.
There's six guys. And even if you start going
lower, like a Tyson Harley, I mean, these guys are studs and a
lot of them are already like physically built to get here.
So which one for you that as youstarted seeing, it's going to go

(01:05:52):
this way where you're like you're you this you can show
your fandom aside because we know you graduated from tech.
What one did you like? Like as you start seeing the
notes and you get stuff in like,I want him.
Like if we don't get anybody else, if we get this kid, I'm
going to feel. Yeah, I mean it.
It's got to be Terry Wiggins. Like, I know he's at the top,
but like, he is just such an impressive player.

(01:06:14):
And he was someone being courtedby Colorado.
UNC kind of opened things up late there.
But if you just, like, watch him, he is just so impressed.
And you look at it and it's likeVirginia Tech hasn't had as
talented of a linebacker since like, I can't even name what
like Tremaine Edmonds, you know,I know Dax was insanely highly

(01:06:37):
rated, but the things and Terry Wiggins is more of an outside
linebacker. But it's like he's just so
impressive and like every bit ofhis rating is deserving.
And, you know, to have a shot there, not only have a shot, but
I think he was even saying he did his commitment on the CBS

(01:06:57):
Sports college football show. But he was like, you know, I was
able to get down to Virginia Tech.
I was not considering them before James Franklin.
He's like, now that I've been here, like if I had been here,
like, maybe I would have considered them.
I don't know how true that is, but it was just interesting that
it's like I was kind of talking about it earlier, but just like
opening up, like James Franklin opens up the door.

(01:07:20):
And then once these guys are on campus, it's like you're able to
merge those two things that, youknow, I guess the one thing that
has been working for Virginia Tech has been the campus, the
atmosphere, the fandom. But it's now you're merging it
with a very serious head coach that's going to come after you.
And to get a guy like Terry Wiggins, I think he's just like,
he is so good. Curtis, who was your, who was

(01:07:46):
the guy that you circled and said, all right, that that's the
guy that I'm most excited about?Well, when everything started
coming down and it's probably just being old, it was Messiah
Mickens because you mean Virginia Tech fan of as long as
I've been a fan. You start hearing top rated
running back in the state of Pennsylvania, it goes to KJ

(01:08:06):
every time. And then you look at the kids,
Bill, 510 to 10. I mean, yeah, he's got to learn
the game. But running back, running back
is one of those positions where legitimately you can say he
could probably play this year ornext season without any issue.
We already saw Jeff Everson do it, do it last year.

(01:08:27):
What about Tally? What about you, all those big
guys? Which one did you like?
Man, you know what I I mean, Usually I would, I would say
Wilder just because of how I went and him being would have
been the crown jewel of the class and didn't coming back.
But for knowing what we need besides offensive line and we're

(01:08:49):
already hitting on that because Brian's talked to us a little
bit about it and the piggyback off of what the taste says.
I mean, it's the trio of linebackers that they got
because if you look at what we, if you look at what we've
struggled in as linebacker play,you know, we had Noah Chambers
out there as a true freshman this year and we were so excited
to see him make plays. He probably shouldn't have been

(01:09:12):
on the field that many plays. You know, he wasn't, he was
forced to do that, you know, because we lost the coach and
people transferred. And no knock on, no, I think he
did a great job. But I mean, when you're a
freshman and you're going against grown men and having to
play like that because we have no depth and we haven't
recruited well in that position,it's tough.

(01:09:33):
You know, and and sometimes you get your safeties hurt like you
radish, because they're having to come down and fight against
lineman and tight ends and you know, things like that instead
of being able to cover for you. So like what they said, you got
Wiggins, you got Harley and you also got Lamar.

(01:09:54):
So you got all three of those linebackers that are very, very
if you go watch the tape, they're very and and probably if
I just had to pick one, mine would probably be, I hope I'm
saying his name, right, Lamar, like it would probably be him
just because he's a Virginia kidthat was never looking at
Virginia Tech. You know what I'm saying?
Like he was, he was gone and youget James Franklin and this kid

(01:10:18):
is known very well by, you know,one, one of my good friends,
Dwight Victoria, because he goesto the kid goes to the school.
Dwight son went to high school and no disrespect to Virginia
Tech from the kid, but he just that's what wasn't a school that
he was going to. But when James Franklin comes,
he gets you in the door with those kids, you know, and that

(01:10:39):
kids 636-4220 already. Come on, man.
Like that's the kind of linebackers that we need to get
us back to where we where we need to be as far as defense.
So I've been kind of shaking my head at some of these offensive
highs. But if the defense shakes out
like I think, I think, I think some stuff will look good.

(01:11:03):
Yeah, the one that that was kindof standing out to me was, was
was Tyson Harley and a couple reasons there.
I feel like he's looking at his tape man.
He he pops off, you know, looks like he's probably going to play
more of an edge role, I would imagine at this level.

(01:11:25):
You know, we'll see if, if, if he ends up landing at one of the
linebacker spots, but I, I kind of see him being more of an edge
player and I think he'll, he's going to make some noise.
But also one of the things that when you look at Virginia Tech
recruiting, you know, I already talked about Woodbury Forest
earlier. One of the, one of the schools
in that, in that, in that Catholic triangle there in

(01:11:48):
Maryland that we've in DC area we've struggled to get in with
is Gonzaga. And this is a Gonzaga kid.
So that, that to me is, is stating that, you know, with
Franklin, there's not really, you're not locked out anymore.
And, and, and maybe this helps, you know, long term, looking at
some of the, the downstream channels, maybe we get back into

(01:12:09):
Verina in a, in a consistent way.
That's another school where we've been kind of locked out of
for a, for a good while for, forVirginia Tech recruits.
A lot of UVA kids, couple got kids going to West Virginia.
You know, there's been guys kindof jumping here and there.
So it it's nice to see us get a kid from from Gonzaga, highly

(01:12:31):
rated kid, very talented kid, somebody that's going to be able
to contribute to the defense. I think pretty early.
Because when you look at guys that are pass rushers and things
like that, that's a position where you can come in on the
defense and play pretty quick. That that that position in
cornerback. Usually you can get guys on the
field pretty quick. So I imagine we'll see a little
bit of Tyson Harley in in 26, but he'll definitely, I think

(01:12:53):
make make an impact by the time we get to 27.
Also, just quickly, not like youcould go down the rabbit hole as
much as you want, but like with these schools and opening up
doors with James Franklin, but like I don't want to mention
Wiggins too much more, but goes to Coatsville.
The number four overall recruit next year is from Coatsville.

(01:13:15):
Offensive tackle, 5 star guy, like 6A powerhouse in
Pennsylvania. A lot of good talent there.
Obviously Terry Wiggins one of them, but like you can go up and
down the list in terms of where guys are coming from.
Obviously Virginia Tech is has the green run pipeline with
three guys in this class, coupleguys from the previous class,

(01:13:36):
but a lot of schools that you'relooking at and you're like,
yeah, it's great. They got this really good
prospect for the cycle, but it'salso opening up the door for
future cycles as well. Curtis, you back with us.
I know you were. Popping them out there, I'm in
and out. I'm having issues left and
right. It's like a man Alabama or

(01:13:57):
something right now. So I don't know what's going on
with the Internet. Here we just we just talked
about about Tyson Harley a. Little bit.
Oh yeah. Oh, I heard it.
I just can't see anybody and like my screen's freezing every
time I click away from it. But mate, let's discuss this and
I want to go back to the offensive line because we I feel

(01:14:18):
like it might have been over recruited.
Do you see any of those guys potentially flipping the size of
the ball because you got guys like I'm pretty sure buddy
Wagnam and then Benjamin is Akua.
It's a Curtis pronunciation right there.
Smaller, more compact guys couldcould we some of these guys go
over to the defensive tackle room, even though we did have a

(01:14:41):
couple really good lineman come in in this class.
Yeah, I don't know. With Azuka, it's interesting
because like he's such a big athlete.
Like I believe like he was playing defensive tackle for his
high school team. I think he had a pick 6th seal
the national championship game. He's also a heavyweight
wrestler. Like he's just a very athletic

(01:15:04):
dude. But I think like the plan for
all of them is keep them on the offensive side.
I know that there was, I think, some speculation with Garrett
Witherington, the Kentucky flip,he's like 65290.
That's what he's listed as. People were wondering, will he
be flipped to the offensive side?
Like the plan for him as well islike interior defensive tackle.

(01:15:28):
I think a lot of these guys kindof have their positions kind of
locked in for now. Sounds good, Shelton.
Anything you want to ask How you've been quiet here?
I mean anybody in person? I mean it's kind of crazy
because Shelton, if y'all don't know.
Shelton is a St. Chris alum. 2 private schools

(01:15:49):
from Richmond. Yeah.
Were. Any of those like I mean, my
father-in-law saw the Benedictine kid play the state
championship and I and I and I mentioned he's like the kids
massive to be playing at privateschool level.
But Sheldon, anything on that? Well, you mentioned St.

(01:16:10):
Chris, Mama Mater. I'd love to see if we could, if
not flip Darius Gray out of out of Richmond, maybe a couple
years later down the road in theportal we can get him back.
But yeah, it is interesting. You know, I, I I've talked a lot
about, you know, some of the issues with, you know, Virginia
high school football coaching and development.
You know, the overall rates of blue chippers being drafted in

(01:16:32):
Virginia has been pretty poor the last few years.
So I like for that to change. I don't know if Mattea has any
insights on, you know, just whatthe overall crop is in terms of
Virginia high school football talent.
Like, you know, do you think it's better than it has, better,
you know, talent wise than it has been in the past?
And you know, specifically like what sort of regions of the

(01:16:52):
state you feel like are kind of most ripe for the targeting for
Vt? Yeah, I think it's definitely
changed a lot since I first started covering recruiting.
Obviously the 757 used to be massive.
I think, you know, the power is kind of spread out there.
I think there's a lot more talent in Northern Virginia,

(01:17:13):
which when I first started wasn't the case.
Obviously, Richmond has its guys.
I think, you know, again, Richmond has been a successful
area that you kind of want to lock in on, stick with Northern
Virginia and then you know, there's going to be guys from
the 757 every single cycle. But I will say, like I think I,

(01:17:33):
I might have even said it on here, like the last couple
cycles I felt were a little weak, but I felt this one was
like significantly stronger thanthe previous ones.
Yeah, it feels like we were. This class was a lot deeper.
You saw, I think like more a lotmore 4 star guys in the in the

(01:17:54):
10, you know, top ten in this class.
And I think we've seen in the inthe last couple cycles as well.
And obviously, you know, being able to get get Tommy water at
the at the back end of that, that top ten I think was
important just just for showing that we can pull pull top ten in
this state. I think you're looking into 27.

(01:18:16):
I'm hoping we can get at least, you know, maybe two or three in
that Virginia top 10. Brian, Brian, we Got to Wilder
and Fat Rat are both in the top 10.
Yeah, yeah, He did it up at 10, didn't he?
You're. Right.
He did it up at 10. Yeah, so.
Let's get 3 next time though. There we go.
Let's. Get Let's get one top five or

(01:18:36):
two. I want to ask you this, Matei,
because on signing day, I mean, it was awesome, right?
The flips, the kids that we didn't see coming signing.
How much of A scare did James Franklin put into Michigan?
Because those 3 Virginia kids who were supposed to sign pretty
early in the day, it just kept getting pushed back and pushed

(01:18:59):
back and and pushed back to the savion hitter up in Louisa
County here, right, right. You know, northwest of Richmond.
He didn't sign until the next day.
Yeah. Was that just an all out
Franklin Bliss to saying you know what, why not?
I know the, I know a lot of people are looking into the

(01:19:19):
header news and saying Virginia Tech.
I think there was some other forces there too, some other big
time schools. I think Ohio State was in the
mix. Tennessee had been trying
forever. So I think that was a little bit
of it. Travis Johnson was very real.
James Franklin wanted him. I was telling you guys before

(01:19:41):
the show, like I think it was around like 240, five, 3:00 and
we thought, you know, basically we thought it was completed.
The announcements were going to come out, but then the Travis
Johnson news started to come out.
Certain things happened there that opened the door for
Virginia Tech to kind of get involved.

(01:20:01):
There were serious conversations.
And I think ultimately he decided to stick with what he
knew. But I think that would have
been, you mean talking about a top five guy in state?
He's very, you know, legitimate wide receiver.
Bringing another guy in like that, I think would have been a
huge message to Virginia. Just moving forward, so very

(01:20:23):
real there. And then Andre Clark as well,
another Virginia guy out of Richmond.
There's some smoke there as wellthat Virginia Tech was involved.
But I think that one was less drama than the Travis Johnson
one. Close, close. close tally.
Shelton Brown, Anything else that is, is because I know what

(01:20:48):
I'm doing. I'm literally going up and down
the recruit list and I'm going up and down some notes I've made
and it's like, go ahead. I was just going to say, are you
think, are you starting it now with the, with the, with the
higher announcement, are you starting to think who's our
quarterback going to be next year?
That's where that's where my head's out.
So he's probably got 3 text messages already.

(01:21:12):
We'll see. Is is Beau Purbulla available?
Let's let's make that phone call.
What do you live in Missouri? Who knows you?
Live in Missouri. Is on the money nowadays if you
ain't playing for the national championship or even sometimes
if you are playing for the national championship.
Depends on the money, so who knows.

(01:21:35):
You got to look at the roster. You got to look he is a now the
big thing with him is your PA kid.
He is not a Midwest kid. He is like 1617 hours from home.
And I know money's a lot, but hemade a good amount of coin this
year. I I mean, and he played good
until he got hurt. I mean, it's if, if Mattel, you

(01:22:00):
just listen, if something happens, you text us next week,
OK. So we can like be fully prepared
for it. But we we've got time and we've
talked just about every kid here.
I want to ask your opinion on this because obviously Penn
State is still, regardless what anyone says, north of

(01:22:21):
Blacksburg, north of Richmond, Penn State is still going to be
our primary rival in getting recruits.
Matt Campbell, Mountain Union guy, coached in Ohio, been out
in Iowa for years now. We've already stole a couple of

(01:22:42):
their heavy hitters in that region.
Can he? What do you think's going to
happen there? Because it's not his foray to
recruit four and five stars or get top 25 classes.
He and somebody will say we hadn't had the budget, but it's
like, but still, they're still, we didn't have the budget.
We were getting Top 40 classes. Yeah, I think it's going to be

(01:23:05):
interesting because he also brought his GM over from Iowa
State. I have a lot of respect for Matt
Campbell. Like he was someone that I felt
like was involved last search, the one before, like a, you
know, kind of a dark horse name that could make the leap to
Virginia Tech. But I've always admired him from
a distance. I think he's a great coach.

(01:23:26):
He does a lot with a little and he's basically being given like
an entire war chest to work withnow.
So it's going to be interesting.Obviously he's going to have to
make a lot of inroads there. I think we saw with the Terry
Smith retention making him the highest paid non coordinator.
I think he's getting like 2,000,000 per year over four

(01:23:48):
years or something like that, which is just insane.
And I know a lot of that is to kind of prevent the pillaging
from Virginia Tech on Penn State's roster, but I think that
will play a role in it as well. But I think, you know, it's
going to be interesting because,like, he really hasn't.
I think most of his recruiting classes were in the 50s to maybe

(01:24:10):
60s. And he's been able to really
develop guys. But he's going to have to
assemble a staff that not only has, you know, coaches that he
trusts, but recruiters that can open those doors in those areas.
And I think he talked about it and said, like, Toledo wasn't
too far from the footprint, but it's going to be a different
game going up against James Franklin.

(01:24:31):
And it'll be really interesting to see.
Like, I still think Penn State is, you know, a name brand
program, and they'll win their battles.
But I think James Franklin definitely evens up the fight a
little bit. Yeah, I think that's the big
thing that I'm I'm looking forward to is seeing how this
thing shakes out. To your point there, you know,

(01:24:51):
Matt Campbell has you know some he's shown a lot of ability to
punch above his weight class in terms of the town on his roster
very consistently. You know, sometimes 20-30 spots
higher than the talent that's onhis roster.
You know, the question is going to be, can he consistently bring

(01:25:13):
in enough talent to be competitive the way that they
want to be in this in the Mid-Atlantic?
Are they going to be able to recruit the same level that they
are from Iowa State and then bump that up and up a degree?
Because if if, if they're looking to be competitive the

(01:25:33):
way they were under Franklin, he's going to need to get those
numbers at least into the top 30, top 25.
Obviously, with the war chest athis disposal, that will be a lot
easier than it would have been at Iowa State.
But you know, they're still kindof remains to be seen what what
the full pictures going to look like for him at Penn State and

(01:25:55):
whether or not the roster at Penn State to what degree they
have loyalty to Terry Smith and how they feel about the the the
Campbell hire relative to what James Franklin can offer here in
Blacksburg. Well, the other thing too, in
that case is, well, does Franklin, does, does Matt

(01:26:16):
Campbell want them? You can say what you will about
you're right, Matei is a development guy, but there is
always going to be a guy that just they don't want, like Nope,
doesn't fit. What I like to do, I do not
want. And sometimes it's very talented
individuals. They get pushed out the also the

(01:26:36):
pieces. Say what you want to say about
the defensive side of the ball, the offense is shaping up more
and more to be pulling Penn State guys.
The defense, Yep, Brent Pryor hadn't been there in four years.
But if some of the other stuff that we're seeing comes to
fruition and I ain't, I'm not going to say people are asking

(01:26:58):
about things in the chat. When it happens, we'll talk
about it'll be a lot of fun to talk about.
But if those things come to fruition, Matei, it's it's going
to be like, I know what that head coach does.
I know his program. I like it.
I've developed, I've gotten better.
And you know what? He's put a bunch of guys in the

(01:27:19):
NFL in the last 15 years. Yeah, 100%.
I mean, that was that was a big conversation point with a lot of
the guys that ended up flipping to Virginia Tech from Penn
State. They're like we trust his
pedigree and putting guys into the league, guys of our stature,
you know, the 8 composite 4 stars and other highly rated
three stars. But I think it will be

(01:27:41):
interesting. Like one example I would give is
that like Matt Campbell was someone that recruited Ethan
Grunkmeyer, who I think was a five star quarterback.
And it's like he is able to, like he is evaluating talent to
that caliber. It's just he wasn't able to
enter those types of conversations before.
So what will it look like now that he has more things at his

(01:28:03):
disposal? So I think it's going to be
really interesting, obviously, of Jane Franklin that knows
everything there is to know about Penn State and we'll see
what those battles look like. I mean, it's been heated between
fans on the timeline on Twitter.I'm sure it's going to be heated
recruiting battles. And I'm, I'm all here for it
honestly, like it's about time that there's, you know, some

(01:28:25):
serious battles on the front. And I feel like, you know, a lot
of the guys in the past that Virginia Tech has looked at,
they've identified guys that have kind of fit their mold that
may happen to be like a fringe 4star or something of that.
But now it's like you're going up against, you know, a premier
program in the North and Penn State for, you know, top guys in

(01:28:48):
the state now. So it'll be interesting.
Tally Shelton. Anything else on this?
So I'll just throw something that will tell you right quick,
and I know it's a long way away,but this is what he does and I
don't get to talk to him much, so I'm just going to ask him.
Looking at the 2027 class of Virginia students, who does

(01:29:13):
James Franklin need to be on right now?
Who is a guy that needs to be atVirginia Tech in that 2027
class? I mean, the easiest name to
throw out is probably Chris Whitehead.
Six point. Five 230 number one player in
the state think he's I think he's a composite 5 star, but

(01:29:38):
yeah. Yeah, he I'm looking, I'm
looking at y'all stuff right now.
Composite 520th in the country. Yeah, he's, I mean, legitimate
offer list already probably has over 30 offers by this point,
but he's someone that definitelykind of moved the needle with
the James Franklin hiring, like has already been reached out to.

(01:30:00):
There's a lot of talent in the 2027 class.
We're just starting to look at it now.
But you know, with those official visits that I kind of
mentioned, and there's still some 20 sevens on campus too.
Like you have to imagine like how much of A whirlwind this all
was. Like you're trying to build out
a class, but have enough foresight to say there's some

(01:30:21):
really good players in this state and surrounding states.
Let's shoot them an invite, makethem come to the Miami game and
see what happens. And I think they're able to kind
of, as I said, like open the door a little bit.
So we'll see because, you know, it's as impressive as it was
when you have a two week Sprint and you're able to say the right
things and, you know, kind of portray the right things.

(01:30:43):
It's a lot harder when you have to do it for a full cycle.
So but you know, to even be in consideration of a guy like
Chris Whitehead in previous cycles, you know, if if you were
in there, he would probably be heading off to the SEC right
away. So guys like that, I'm looking
at I, I don't think they're going to win every battle
obviously, but to be in the conversation and see what

(01:31:04):
happens like that's what it, that's what it's about.
Good deal. All right, real quick,
everybody, because I don't know.Well, we'll all get together,
but let me ask you this mate. Did the CFP get it right?
And secondly, how's it going to change next year?

(01:31:25):
Because it's going to change next year, clearly.
First thought, yes, I they got it right.
I know there's like, I believe in my heart that Notre Dame has
the talent to play, but like theaftermath from all of that, I'm
just like, enough is enough, man.
Like it's, it's just crazy. Like the MOU yelling at the ACCI

(01:31:50):
think the the problem is the committee.
It's always been the committee. It's just like the process makes
no sense. But in terms of what what they
were supposed to do this year, Ithink they got the field right.
You know what in folk Notre Dame, man, they, they have been

(01:32:11):
teetering around stuff forever and the ACC bailed them out
during COVID, letting them jump in that they fucking stole our
spot in what was it, 2016? I can't remember what bowl it
was, but we ended up playing in the freaking Belt Bowl after
playing in the ACC championship because Notre Dame stole the
spot. So I don't want to hear nothing
about what Notre Dame talking about.

(01:32:33):
I'm just, that's just what I gotto say about it.
I like Marcus Friedman, but hey,go get your hairpin long and
chill out. Man, I, so I know I put this on
the timeline. I was all about Notre Dame being
in over Alabama. I think Bama had a awful loss

(01:32:56):
against FSU that you just cannotignore.
And then so they had the worst loss of the teams that were kind
of looking to sneak in there. And then they got absolutely
boat raced by Georgia in that SEC championship game.
So those two things for me kind of bumped them down.

(01:33:16):
I thought they should have been out.
I thought Notre Dame should be in.
I thought Miami should have beenover over Notre Dame.
Regardless. So I think they got that part.
Right. It's so hard how they got it set
up because you know that is not playing in a, in a, in a
championship game. Some of the other things, it's
almost like you don't want to make the championship because

(01:33:36):
you got a chance to go in there and look bad.
So if we even count that. Game, you know the committee
fucked themselves because they didn't anticipate the whole
Miami not playing in this championship game thing UVA
losing to Duke. They didn't anticipate that
because they they put JMU in Tulane higher and higher in the

(01:33:57):
rankings every week than these other ACC teams other than
Miami. UVA was kind of hovering right
there just above them, but they were they were one loss away
from being behind them. And I would see if they didn't
win the conference outright, they weren't going to be in any
way. And then they started, you know,
getting sneaky with where they were putting Notre Dame ahead of

(01:34:17):
Miami. They started creeping Alabama up
the ranks even though they lost a close Iron Bowl.
Like they gave them credit for losing a close Iron Bowl.
Winning bad Auburn team won the iron.
Bowl They won the Iron Bowl. That's the thing.
You said loss. If they would have lost the Iron
Bowl, they wouldn't have been inthe SEC Championship.

(01:34:38):
I'm saying that it was a close, close win.
They win. Auburn had the loss against in
the Iron Bowl. Yeah, anyway, what my my point
being they they moved them up despite it it only being a close
win in the Iron Bowl. Shelton.
They they put themselves in a bad situation where if UVA lost,
they were going to have to make some some weird decisions and

(01:35:02):
they were going to get screwed either way and they screwed
themselves because of the way they set it up.
Yeah, I think the two big thingsthat people are frustrated by is
obviously 1. Notre Dame, Miami and then two,
Alabama. Like mate was saying, it's not,
it's not, you know, putting Miami in over Notre Dame and you
could have a reasonable argumentfor either team.
Obviously, I think most people would say Miami because they

(01:35:24):
beat Notre Dame head ahead. It's the fact that the committee
decided to switch their seeds a week after both teams did not
play for absolutely zero reason.I don't know what the
justification for that would be,but they don't seem to have a
clear process to where they stick by and then Alabama not
moving down at least even one seed after getting trounced by

(01:35:45):
Georgia in the in the title game.
I saw STAT earlier a few days ago that said that Alabama was
one of I think maybe 20 something conference
championship losers that did notthat did not, they were the only
one of 20 some teams that lost aconference title game and they
did not move down a seed in the past four years.

(01:36:05):
So that is pretty suspicious andI it's not a good look for the
committee. So big picture, I think you
know, my, my basic take of the committee is like, I think it's
a massive conflict of interest. Having a playoff is essentially
being run by a television network that also owns the
rights to the conferences that are being in said playoffs.

(01:36:25):
So I think the structurally, I think we got to look at more
structural issues if you want tosolve this problem.
But it's it's a mess but. Here's the biggest thing, the
team that they have the most money in this conference, they
have the most money invested in,amazingly has the most teams in.
They effectively their product. If you did this in the business

(01:36:49):
world, you'd go to antitrust court and probably lose billions
upon billions of dollars. But it's OK in college football,
it's an antitrust suit waiting to happen because Alabama really
shouldn't be in. There are three loss team.
Everybody's like, well, they have like the best win.
They also have the worst loss ofany of the 12 teams in.
They have the single worst loss.If this was any other

(01:37:12):
conference, that team would havebeen shoved out the second they
lost on Saturday. It's a conflict of interest.
It is antitrust lawsuits that should be coming out to wazoo
from these other conferences. They just don't have the balls
to do it because there's no way.Like you just said, Shelton,
they are running this playoff committee.
They run the show. They're probably telling who
they want in on. So there we go.

(01:37:34):
Never put you. You're right, Wilson, You don't
ever put it in the committee's hands.
Matei. It's almost been an hour and 40
minutes, man, It's like old times every time you step in
here. So it's been awesome.
Brian, Shelton, Talley, anythingy'all want to hit on the team?
Anything you need to hit on before we wrap this up tonight?

(01:37:58):
I'll say one thing, just really,I know we've been going for a
long time, but I was listening back to when we were kind of
previewing this class and one name I brought up, T Ron
Richardson. I was like, that's the guy.
He's way better than a three star stick by that today.

(01:38:18):
Go back and listen to that if you're curious.
But favorite of the cycle. So I'm just going to leave that
there. Kind of put a bow on the clock.
Flip flip at the end. Flip, flip, Brian Shelton,
tally, anything to hit Mattel with as we get to DOE.
I'm all set. I'm glad the chat got to see us
react to the Danny O'Brien news in.
Real. Yeah, that was crazy.

(01:38:41):
That's why so much fun doing these.
Live well. Listen mate, as always man, it
is awesome having you join us. We'll try to get with you.
It took us a while to get with you last year but you know
things happen. Do not forget you can join Vt
Scoop 247 Sports 50% off a annual VIP membership where you

(01:39:03):
can see Matei's writing some of his scoops.
You Evan and Colby are doing awesome jobs over there, man.
You guys do awesome jobs just putting content out.
So shout out to you all on that.I but anyway, we are going to
wrap up this episode of the Boundary Corner podcast brought
to you by Counts Family Pharmacyin Blacksburg.

(01:39:25):
Brought to you by moments on themall in Lexington with our guest
Matasis. I'm Curtis Wilson.
I'm Brian Siegler. John to tell it.
I'm John Moss. Visit boundarycornerbt.com to
listen to all of our episodes. Go back and look at when he did
suck about TR on Richardson, oneof the flips from down in

(01:39:45):
Hopewell. Also follow us on Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram. Make sure you are subscribed to
our YouTube channel. We really appreciate you guys
have been really tapping the subscribe button there also all
your favorite podcasts forces. We are on all of them.
As always, we let our buddy Jason Long play us in play us
out. Check out Jason Long, music.com.
Where you can find where he is playing live, all of his music

(01:40:07):
on Apple and Spotify, his Facebook and YouTube pages.
We appreciate y'all listening. We appreciate the chat cuz you
guys are on fire tonight and as always, let's go.
OK.

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