The Justin Fuente Situation And TSL’s Content Plans

(Ivan Morozov)

As is common knowledge for Virginia Tech fans by now, there is plenty of smoke surrounding the rumors of Justin Fuente and the open Baylor head coaching job.  The discussion was kicked off last night when Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports first Tweeted the news…

The news was quickly confirmed by Will Stewart, and Andy Bitter chimed in this morning after confirming it with a pair of sources. 

Earlier this afternoon, Dan Wolken of USA Today had this to say…

That’s all we know at this point.  If you’re a TSL Pass subscriber, you can read two pieces of inside info from Will Stewart on our message boards, here and here.

The ongoing situation will alter TechSideline.com’s short-term content plans in a couple of ways.  First of all, any Jason Stamm interviews with potential football recruits will be put on hold until the Fuente situation is resolved.  Second, we have our thoughts on any potential Fuente departure, but we want to see how the situation plays out before totally committing ourselves to a column about things that may or may not happen.

As of right now, we are planning on the following content for the remainder of the week…

1: True Freshman Report, Defense (Thursday)
2: TSL Podcast (Thursday)
3: A weekly column on the Virginia Tech men’s basketball team (Friday)
4: The Fisher Law Firm Friday Q&A (Friday)

Those are our tentative plans.  However, any impending announcement with Justin Fuente would certainly impact those plans those plans in a major way (with our luck, something will get announced during the middle of the filming of the Podcast tomorrow).

Any announcement, or non-announcement, will bring many questions and many discussion points.  However, we want to wait until we know exactly what happens before going all-in on any heavy opinions.  We’ll continue to hang out on the message boards and communicate with TSL Pass subscribers about anything we hear.  Thanks for reading!

62 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. Anyone remember Frank Beamer verbally accepted the UNC job in November 2000 and then had a change of heart and turned the job down the next week. He got a raise and his assistants got more money and better contracts. Va Tech continued to thrive.

  2. Good riddance. Fuente is no more than a transition coach between Frank and our next HOF’er.

  3. Clear something up for me Will. You said that “something has been going” for 3 or 4 days?? That dates back to Sunday or Monday. And yet, Fu hires Ryan Smith on Tuesday…. What kind of person does that??

  4. Hard to believe Baylor is interested in the product Fuente delivers. But I hope they offer because he is no longer welcome here.

  5. kinda of over this junk. It’s your job not to lose a time and to tune fans and twitter.

    Why would a different school or town be any different if it was a top 10 destination (blue chip) school…read Baylor?

    1. let’s try this again:

      kinda of over this junk. It’s your job not to lose a team and to tune out fans and twitter.

      Why would a different school or town be any different if it was *not* a top 10 destination (blue chip) school…read Baylor?

  6. Reality Check – He is gone. Mama Fu wants close to home it just won’t be OK but close enough.

  7. Would he take his new hires with him? dont think he would leave his new hires out to dry. If he does leave we know where his loyalty lies! We shall see.

    1. Agreed. Just hired a new staff, luring them away from other jobs (one just announced yesterday) and then he would immediately leave them high and dry? Can’t believe someone (Fuente) would do that. If I were an assistant coach just lured away I would sue.

    1. Ok. But Biden says he only wants to be president for 4 years. I dont mean pro or anti Biden. Im talking about an older candidate saying its “only” for whatever. It generates uncertainty in dealmaking. But I like the one year Bud somehow, PRESUMING theres no candidates on the market to come here. Put I presume Whit has a list as long as your arm. I presume coaches have agents who communicate with Whit month in month out every year. I presume coaches have feelers. We may need to find one of them Instead of Bud. And SI says Bud’s got health concerns.

  8. Not losing sleep over Fu to Baylor. If he leaves then it’s OK with me. I think VT can do better. We want someone who is “all in at VT.” A good parking lot neighbor in Lot 1 told me earlier in the year he had met Fu at an Atlanta VT event. Stated he was a “Dud” with no personality. I’ve never met him but what Tech needs are coaches like Frank Beamer and Mike Young (personalities). These coaches can communicate with the fans at any level. You can only imagine how much this is needed for recruiting purposes. Life will go on regardless of what happens. I tend to agree with those saying what happens to him if he decides not to take the Baylor job? Don’t think the VT supporters are going to embrace him with a welcome back party to the burg!!!

  9. Just a fyi, the upcoming football schedule has been released by the ACC during this week for the last 2 years. Just to add to your workload if it happens this week this year.

  10. I lived in Waco for 3 years, 1977 to 1980. It was a nice town then. I’m sure it’s grown by leaps and bounds since then. I ended up living in 11 different towns in TX, including Austin, El paso, Lubbock and Amarillo. I can think of a lot of places I lived that I liked less than Waco. Never was a big fan of Baylor. Hope Fuente stays put and finishes what he started in Blacksburg. All this moving around with coaches/staff and the transfer portal is driving me nuts. Can’t anyone stay put for more than 3-4 years?

  11. Please remember AD. Majority of fans, ESPN and most local media stated Fuente had lost the team and needed to go. It was not just some fans. Sometimes we reap what we sow.

    1. Tech doesn’t want Petrino! Guy is a loser with no morals. I would rather lose than have him as our coach.

      1. Put Meyer and Knight in that list. Not that they are candidates due to age. I mean “that” guy.
        I don’t want Leach. Not that any of them want us. Im just saying I want more than a guy with wins. I want good character.

        1. Knight kept his relationships with his players after they played, but I still think his reputation was bad for a school.

  12. Living in Texas since 1971 and knowing what I personally know about the snake pit called Baylor and the hypocrisy that prevails there, I will keep things civil and only state that CJF must really be unhappy with his current situation in Bburg. I will go even further and state that if he leaves VT for Bear High (as Baylor is frequently referred to here in the Lone Star state), it will be the biggest mistake he could possibly make.

      1. But, Waco does have a nice shopping mall, plenty of fast food restaurants along the I35 corridor, and is only a short leisurely 350-mile, 5 hour and 42 minute drive up I35 to Tulsa.

        1. If you make millions, isn’t it not much more of a time sink (and a negligible expense) to fly to Tulsa from Roanoke? Year over year making millions tends to allow one to not sweat plane ticket prices …

          1. I dont know what coaches do, but Id like to come home after a game and have a few beers with my friends from HS who knew me from before I was famous. And have your parents close. And coaching ties to recruiting in the region. Friends of friends coaching in HS to lubricate recruiting.

    1. Baylor has been a den of vipers for the past twenty years… basketball and football. It’s insidious in its culture. Sin on Saturday, pray on Sunday. Plus… there are some really, really big boosters/donors who pull lots of the strings.

  13. As usual you guys provide the site with a balance of content properly measured by reason and perspective. Thanks for that and the info update!

  14. So what is it? There seem to be two different viewpoints. I’ve seen you guys mention that Fu doesn’t think he’s getting what he needs, but Mike Barber talking about Whit supporting his coaches.

    BTW, press releases and coaching changes make it look like the recruiting issues were simply by getting outworked by other staffs.. Not sure what else one can say about that, but a VT offer was never an automatic acceptance, you’ve got to work on those relationships, and Grimes’ father indicated that the staff was lacking in creating those relationships.

    1. I coached Grimes step brother Aaron Glover that has the fathers last name, Daddy Glover is a different……… and since I am writing in public let’s leave it at that . I truly do not believe or ever have thought that Grimes was or is coming to Tech it has nothing to do a bout our coaches or change in coaches .
      I have watched Grimes play he has a lot of talent , but you have to Deal with Daddy Glover is not worth it !!!! there is a lot of talent out there with less Daddy Glover bs

    1. There’s no walking back here because Chris & Will have rightly not jumped to any conclusion of this being any type of done deal. I’m afraid our fans’ overreaction to speculative tweets could push Fuente past the tipping point

      I KNOW he loves this team & Blacksburg, if only our fans reciprocated

      1. Fuente isn’t going to make any decisions based on how posters on a message board or Twitter are reacting to this crap. Nothing would e dumber than for a coach – any coach – to make his / her career/family/financial decisions based on posters who are only reacting to rumors and speculation. If Fuente is considering at ALL what’s being said on TSL, Twitter, etc. he’s a not a fool,,he’a a DAMN FOOL.

        1. If his scale is 50-50 then just like all of us, He goes where he and his family get the most love.
          Social Media is more than TSL and Twitter. His kids have heard a lot of comments especially earlier in the season.

        2. You are so right. I give him more credit than that. If he goes and gets less money then maybe it was the mean ol’ fans on TSL that did it but other wise it is for the normal rea$ons

      2. CJF couldn’t care less about the fans’ opinion or “speculative tweets”… I began the day thinking that he deserves the opportunity to feel out the market… I’m closing the day with some animosity that he would preach “loyalty” to our kids while collecting his $4 million salary and shopping his wares elsewhere.

        1. Im a proponent to pay all D1 athletes. Something. Min wage, something. They aren’t professionals. Loyalty may have something to do with having the team chemistry to keep your head up when things look bad. aka Arkansas. BUT the coaching profession is a profession, and job changes are legal. Read up on what the Supreme Court said about how Curt Flood was denied his basic rights and the Baseball Exemption to Federal Law was bogus. People were exploited by Baseball because Professionals didn’t have the right to seek different employment. A coach, Fuente, anyone has the right to leave for any reason. The contracts will be the contracts, some get money when they leave, some leave money on the table, Willie Taggart didnt get a contract signed at FSU, I blame his agent, or not having an agent, who knows, and then Taggart will get the short end of the dollar after getting fired. What I am trying to say is I object to professional coaches character being questioned because they want to make a job change, and equating that with the loyalty of a player who isn’t even getting paid.

          1. D1 athletes are paid already. Scholarship/housing/medical/clothing/food….. to the tune of approximately $50k-$60k per year

  15. If it’s announced during the podcast, I think you guys reserve the right to pause the show and come back at a later point. You’re our eyes and ears.

  16. The voice of reason takes board control yet again….thanks- all of us could use a little bit of that!
    To be a Hokie, is to be able to handle adversity..I wrote that comment after the bowl game…little did I know..

  17. I posted months ago there were issues with FU and his happiness. Mama FU wants to leave.

        1. Waco is nothing but a BIG Blacksburg, and is also growing. It’s an hour north of Austin and just about every city b/w the 2 is experiencing rapid growth. The main HWY running through Waco has been under constant construction for the last 10 years, w/o a real end in site.

          Another thing to consider. No state income tax in Texas. I’d also bet real estate in Waco is on par w/ Blacksburg prices.

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