this notion that we should always beat Duke and Wake. We beat them more than we lose to them. But on any given Saturday, stuff happens.

Waiting until we lose to a team like that and then saying “How could we possibly lose to a team like that?!?” is, IMO, missing the forest for the trees.

First of all, the stronger argument to make isn’t about us losing a game to Duke or Wake but essentially being on par with those teams in the conference over the past couple of years. Whining about a single game is silly, IMO. There is a lot of parity and that means variance within results.

I never said you don’t have a right to whine if you don’t write big checks. My point was that whiners should recognize their whining for what it is — completely unhelpful. It changes absolutely nothing. It improves absolutely nothing.

In fact, most of the whiners are in complete denial regarding the financial realities of the program. They want to fire Fuente but have no explanation for where the money for the buyout should come from or how to budget and pay for a coaching upgrade.

They just stomp their feet and demand more and better—with no real idea what it takes to get more and better.

With regard to being a top 20-25 program, my question is this: What does VT have that puts us in 85th percentile of FBS? ACC membership? Some success 15 years ago?

Why is VT entitled to a top 25 program? What makes us better than NCSU, UNC, Miami, FSU, BC, Pitt, Tennessee, Auburn, Florida, Texas A&M, LSU, Clemson, Bama, Cincy, OU, Oklahoma State, Iowa, Wisconsin, Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Ohio State, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, Arizona State, Texas, Arizona, USC, UCLA, Baylor, South Carolina, Utah, Stanford?

That’s 35 programs that I’d argue have close to what we have or better. They either have better recruiting territories, more revenue, etc.

I think VT fans cling to the past. I’m not saying we can’t rise again to be an upper echelon ACC program — but all those other programs are trying to ascend as well. They all have resources too.

So peaks and valleys, ebbs and flows — they happen and we do not have the inherent advantages others have. So I don’t expect and demand for us to be Top 25 every year.

Recruiting is a concern, to be sure. I hope the new staff can turn that around. If so, we have a chance to be a 9-3 kind of program — 20-25 kind of program.

But lots of others are just as well positioned as we are (if not better). JMO.
[Post edited by Pride_and_Joy at 10/27/2020 2:54PM]