....this program has been regressing for a while. The Michael Vick effect wore off long ago. We did everything we could with that lifetime of a player and run to the National Championship. We have evened out. Beamer's last years were very mediocre-if he hadn't retired it would have turned ugly. He would have probably have had to be run out like Bobby Bowden. Beamer started to recruit after a few years. I feel Deshazo was his first major get. It seems like in the 80s that UVA seemed to get everyone in the state they just about wanted. Frank turned that around and for a long time we owned the state. Times changed. All of the older recruiters who signed the top players were now too old and didn't use social media. The new rage was younger recruiters. Also after Vick I think the rest of the country even though they knew about VA they really started to focus more on VA. Now just about all of our state's top players go out of state. In this day in time I don't think VT or UVA would get Terry Kirby, Chris Slade, Bryan Randall, Victor Harris or Xavier Adibi. Man times have changed. The stadium can't be expanded any more and it doesn't need to be because if you notice every game has empty seats including Notre Dame and UVA. The Merryman Center was outdated when they laid the first brick. Our weight room is smaller than many high schools. We play in a basketball conference. We have a relatively young football tradition. Fuente nor Bud are doing anything wrong. If Settle, Adonis Jordan and Mook Reynolds were on this team we might go 8-4. What level can Fuente take us to? This year is just a tough year-he hasn't lost the team. Injuries, attrition and youth are going to probably end the bowl streak. Fuente is coaching for next year and the year after. He has the vision for that because he has job security and it isn't his bowl streak. He is going to take his lumps and we will be better next year and very good in two years. If Fuente can average 8-4 he is a good coach. This is Virginia Tech-look at the athletic budget, look at the facilities, look at what we get from donors and keep in mind we are in an area where there is an extreme level of competition for the recruits and Virginia high school football players have little to no loyalty to the state programs now like they used to. This isn't going to change except for an occasional 10-2 that gets everyone excited. We are what we are unless we up our enrollment to 50,000 and build a fast train to Blacksburg from NOVA and Hampton Roads. I have always thought that if Virginia Tech were in the Richmond suburbs and had gotten into a conference long ago what we could be.