1) With the transfer portal fully up and running now, how do you think it will affect the leadership structure of teams? Usually teams seem to look to their seniors for leadership and guidance, however, with rosters being more fluid, how do you think all that could play out? This past year notwithstanding (and minus Coach Fuente’s first year), I have found the recent Hokie senior classes to be almost invisible. – Eddie4hokies

Chris Coleman: Justin Fuente is on record about that 2016 senior class and how fantastic those guys were in helping the transition from the Beamer Era to the Fuente era.  Fuente loves those guys, and they are big Fuente fans as well.  When he was on the Sons of Saturday podcast last summer, they did a Q&A session, with several of those 2016 seniors sending in questions and communicating with him.  Those guys fit together like a duck and water.

You’re right, there has been a leadership void since then.  Whatever mistakes Fuente has made during his tenure, perhaps the biggest is that he’s failed to recruit enough guys who are similar in personality to that 2016 group.  You’ve got to recruit guys you can coach…guys that you know are going to buy in to your style and your philosophy.  Sam Rogers was a walk-on, but had the Hokies offered him a scholarship out of high school, he would have lowered Tech’s recruiting class ranking.  If Tech offered the 2021 version of Sam Rogers a scholarship, and he accepted, people would be angry because it would mean a lower-ranked class.  Just food for thought.

There are some guys who Fuente recruited who fit that mold, such as Dalton Keene.  Keene is back in The Burg visiting with Fu and the staff today, for example.  But generally speaking, the group that Fuente inherited was better than the groups that he created from a leadership standpoint.

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