Friday Q&A With Chris Coleman: How Much Has Virginia Tech's Talent Improved?

0:00Weak number two for Virginia Tech and week number two for the video edition of the Friday, Q&A. We are recording in the tech solution studio and this video is brought to you by First Bank and Trust Company. I'm Robbie Ackeryley, to my right lead analyst and columnist Chris Coleman, and as always behind the scenes pressing the buttons, it's Nick Brown. Chris, it's week two for the Hokies. You ready to rock? Yeah, let's go. All right. So first question comes from Nova Hokie 95 who wrote that you wrote last week that you watched the game as a fan. So what was that experience like for you last weekend to be in the crowd? Well, I always watched the game as a fan. I think it's just a different vibe last week. You know, last season, the tailgating early in the season was fantastic because there's always, but there was like this dark cloud hanging over everything. It was like, what's going to happen with pry? What's going to happen with with Babcock? Does this kudita in the athletic department do those people know what they're doing, everything like that? There was a lot of unanswered questions and it's not really any unanswered

1:02questions right now. I mean, we don't know what the final record of this team is going to be, but all the vibes are positive and it wasn't necessarily like that in the past. You know, you could just enjoy your day and no in Virginia Tech is going to win and feeling good about the future. So it was it was a feeling that you haven't had at a game in quite a while. Both before the game during tailgating and during the game in the stadium. Now, just to follow up, how would you say the first Sam men of the Franklin era stacked up to some of the other Sam man's at the days old. It was great. It was great. You know, you almost wish that like the game had started at eight. So it could have been a little bit darker. And so those led lights could have come into effect. But I thought a TV did a great job with the presentation of inner Sandman, like following the team out from the tunnel and everything like that. And getting frank, I'm like when he turned around and was meeting every player who was running on the field, I thought that was fantastic. So a plus for presentation as well. Second question now comes from Spud who asks, it's only been one game. But now that you've seen them, how do you like the talent

2:03level of our ones and our twos? Does it feel upgraded or does it feel that the talent was there in 2025, but was under utilized? Oh, it's most definitely upgraded. You know, you can you can these guys. There's a whole bunch of candidates on this team for first guy off the bus, right? Like guys who look the part there, there's not any skinny legs in the program. Everybody's approaching in strength conditioning and nutrition seriously. It seems like they just look like a power for football team across the board. And that wasn't always the case in the past. So the talent level is definitely upgraded. There's still, you know, an experienced disadvantage at some of those positions like we've talked about. This is a roster built for 27 and 28 in my opinion. But the talent level is definitely upgraded over last year. And in most previous most recent previous seasons as well. Now that being said, what was it was last year's talent under utilized? I think whenever you have a three and nine season, you know, you can you can say yes. I think when you have a quarterback

3:03like Kyron Jones who strengths or as a runner and you hire an offensive coordinator who system requires a pocket passer who's really good at dropping back and making reads and timing and everything like that. That was never a good fit. So your best defensive lineman on last year's team. You know, I don't know that they were a great fit for that defensive scheme either. So I do think the talent of last year's team was under utilized because I think some of those players weren't particularly great fits for the scheme. Yeah, well, you just look at the scoreboard from last week Virginia Tech made it look easy. And you at home, you can manage your money with ease because Tech's timeline is presented by First Bank and Trust Company. First Bank and Trust Company's industry leading digital banking experience provides you with all of the essential tools to manage your full banking relationship from one convenient platform access digital banking through the online banking login on desktop and tablet devices or go on through the first bank and Trust Company mobile banking app. Who you choose to bank with can make all the difference. Choose First Bank and Trust

4:04Company with over 30 locations in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. All right, third question here, Chris. If slash when Andrew Lester Atlanta writes Florida State moves on from Mike Norvell, how word are you that James Franklin takes a call? You know, Florida State from the outside looking in as kind of a mess. I'm not sure if they don't have money for NIL or they're just choosing not to give it to Norvell because they don't trust him. And if they just don't give him the money, they know they can go ahead and fire him sooner rather than later. And that's kind of what NC State basketball did with Kevin Keats a couple of years ago when they wanted him out. They're just like, not you don't get any money. So you're going to have a bad year and then we can fire you because there's no other reason for that their quarterback is hashten Daniel. If they actually had available NIL money to go out and get a proven quarterback, most Daniels hasn't been a good quarterback throughout his career at either Auburn or Stanford. Now the other scenario is they actually legitimately don't have NIL money. So they didn't have any choice but to get a quarterback like him. And if they don't have NIL money, then do they

5:06have 51 million to buy him out. So we don't know that he's getting fired. Let's say that he is fired from the outside looking in they can floor the athletic department Florida State seems like a mess. And Franklin's done a lot of work here in the 10 11 months he's been here. So could he listen? I mean, sure, but you've done so much work to start the rebuild here over the last year. You don't see coaches walk away from major programs after a year. You see them walk away from made from like, you know, JmU to UCLA like Bob Chesney after a couple of years. You don't see like people moving from power four to power four after just one year. So I mean, is it possible sure, but at the same time you can't go through your life as a fan fan worried all the time. And if you if you don't, if you have a coach that nobody else wants to hire, you're probably not going to

6:07do very well and you're going to be worried about something else. You're going to be worried about oh, we're going to have the money to fire our coach, right? Because he's not good enough. The other thing is like he he still carries the stigma a little bit of being a fired coach. And a lot of times you don't see power four schools hire fired coaches like it's almost like you have to swallow your pride to do it. And Virginia Tech did that. And I think it was, you know, it's a great fit. Florida State, would they lower themselves to do that? I don't know that they would. So it's it's not something I'm particularly worried about personally. All right. Well, last one, your Chris, sons of Saturday made this post earlier this week. If you're just listening, there's now a graphic that says you only get $15 to spend on your dream Virginia Tech offense. So Chris, I and a lot of fans were curious. What would your answer to this be? Oh, yeah. I figured out my answer in less than a minute. All right. My number one pick, well, not my number one number one pick per se. But the first thing I saw is Cam Phillips available

7:07at $1. He's the all time leading receiver in Virginia Tech history for $1. And he can play on the inside, play on the slot. I'm taking Cam Phillips. The other receiver I'm taking is on the same line. Well, I know they split up the White receivers into two lines, but, you know, whatever. I'm taking a $2 receiver. Antonio Freeman, who in my opinion is the best receiver in Virginia Tech history. Had a long NFL career was once the highest paid White receiver in the NFL. Honestly, he should probably be a four or five dollar player, probably a five dollar player to see him for $2 right there shows me that whoever made that list does not go back to the 1990s and never actually watched him play football. So, uh, yeah, I've got $3 spent between the two wide receivers, which leaves me a lot of money to spend. There's not a lot of great tied in on the depth there partially because, you know, Bucky Hodges was, and even really a tight end to begin with, I'm taking $5 tied in Jeff King, because I think there's such a big drop off between him and the

8:10other guys on that list. So that leaves me, oh, what have I spent? I've spent $8 so far. So I've got $7 left. So I'm taking Michael Vick, $5 quarterback. He's a game changer, obviously, the freakiest, most freakish athlete in Virginia Tech history, which leaves me with $2 left. And I'm taking Ryan Williams, who honestly, you know, you could make an argument for Kevin Jones, Lee Suggs, and I think Ryan Williams to be $5 running backs and to be able to get Ryan Williams at $2, I think is an incredible value. So those are my five picks, been in exactly $15. So the Dream Offence for Chris Coleman, it's Vick Williams, Phillips, Freeman, and King. Yeah, I really wish I could have found a way to get Andre Davis in there because he was so fast. Like he's the fastest, probably the fastest straight ahead speed in Virginia Tech history. When he went to the NFL, there was one game with the Browns when he had two kickoff returns for a touchdown in one game. Like so he was elite speed by NFL standards, not just college standards,

9:13but since I've got a salary cap, I can't pick him. I mean, you can just sell King and maybe pick up a third receiver. You're allowed to do that. I know the rules of the year for three wide receivers. Yeah, you go through that. Exactly. Yeah. All right. Well, with that, we thank you guys for this week's suggestions and drop any future questions you have down in the comments section below. As always, be sure to check out the actual Friday Q&A article on techsideline.com. Plus check out the tech sideline podcast as episode 503 came out just a couple of days ago. Follow us on socials at techsideline and hey, if you enjoyed today's video, drop a like, and maybe even consider subscribing. It is free and we are so close to 13,000 for our producer, Nick Brown, the one and only Chris Coleman. I'm Robbie Ackery, saying so long from the tech solution studio and we'll see you next Friday.