Justin Fuente Fired from Virginia Tech

[Cr1028]

13 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

My man, you're saying next year we'll have a clear picture...   The picture was clear after last year.   It's 8K clear now.
You're making the argument that the TALENT is here.   Not that the coaches can get us to where we want to be.   The Reeder/Wallis/Joseph arguments that you're tossing out are actually strikes against Littrell... not things to excuse away.
And who's to say next season wouldn't have some other kind of injury bug or <xyz excuse> that you're willing to toss away?    The excuses have piled up... unfortunately, so have the losses.

For me, the Covid year is not a factor. For me that year has no significance on my thoughts for or against Littrell so I’m looking at this season with Bennett as DC as the beginning of the 2nd Littrell tenure. It got off to a rocky start but we’ve picked it uo as of late, obviously against mostly poor teams but under most coaching staffs we have fired, the players would’ve given up and lost those games. The fact that we are making strides this late in the season tells me this horse isn’t dead yet.

[BillySee58]

1 hour ago, MeanGreen4Life1998 said:

Jimbo Fisher left FSU on his own. He wasn’t fired nor about to be fired. His wife cheated on him, the boosters didn’t get along with him and the administration wouldn’t help him so he left

That’s why I said hot seat. They were 5-6 when he left and they haven’t had a winning season since then so he didn’t exactly have that program in good shape when he left. He got ahead of that situation by finding a life boat.

The larger point here is that obviously G5s aren’t going to pluck good P5 coaches away from that P5. So sometimes your best option is a guy who was fired, which isn’t a strange thing considering even P5s go with guys who were fired from a previous P5, or headed that way.

[TheReal_jayD]

39 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

If we had the original staff then I’d cede your point but that isn’t what we are dealing with. 

Harrell leaving was a bigger blow than any of us could’ve imagined. Reeder was thought to be a can’t miss by several schools and he has proven to be a failure at multiple FBS schools now. Last year we had Wallis’ unforeseen issue. This year the injury bug hit us especially bad and we had an ignorant star receiver hit his girlfriend. Despite all that, we are still pushing forward. Look at the Murphy twins, look at our quarterback and running backs, none of them have mailed it in. They haven’t given up on this head coach and I won’t either this year. Next season we will have a very clear picture whether he and Bennett need to go or stay. We will either be a young juggernaut building into a conference power, or we will recycle what happened at the start of this season. I really believe the Littrell/Bennett combo needs one more season to truly know what we have or don’t have.

1. Its year 6.

2. Its not just Reeder... There has been multiple horrible hires since the original staff.

3. Record vs FBS teams with winning records.

4. What has Seth done to pump up fan support since he got on campus?

5. Who says Fuente wouldn't be interested in keeping Bennett on as DC?

[golfingomez]

12 minutes ago, TIgreen01 said:

I think you're both right to an extent.  I'd love to see another year of Bennett, but not another year of this offense or of Seth not bringing in an adequate QB coach/developer.

In a perfect world, Seth would find that magic bean of a QB coach who didn't also have to be OC, call the plays himself and he'd somehow keep Bloesch from leaving after this year (you have to think he's gone after getting stripped of playcalling duties as OC, but who knows).  He's swung and missed repeatedly on QB coach/OC after Harrell.

In my dream/perfect world we'd hire Fuente as OC next season.  Win big with a Phil Bennett defense that is humming and an offense that can, again, complete a downfield throw with regularity.  Then Seth gets another P5 call-up after the season, takes it and we promote Fuente to HC.

I'm picking up what you are putting down here! A reverse transfer portal guy.

BRING BACK THE BEAN!

[MeanGreen4Life1998]

1 hour ago, wardly said:

What makes you say that? Does he have a previous working relationship with Wren? If Dykes moves to TCU then SMU job plus a number of P5 positions becomes available. From what I read Fuente's weakness at VT was recruiting.

Hes from Oklahoma so hes from this region of the country and can be closer to home. He coached at TCU when Dalton was there and knows recruiting in Texas. He and Baker were at Memphis together where he had alot of success

Why would another P5 school take him right now? They wont as hes not desirable at the moment. I don’t think Dykes is going to TCU but i do believe that helped poison his locker room lol

[MeanGreen4Life1998]

10 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

That’s why I said hot seat. They were 5-6 when he left and they haven’t had a winning season since then so he didn’t exactly have that program in good shape when he left. He got ahead of that situation by finding a life boat.

The larger point here is that obviously G5s aren’t going to pluck good P5 coaches away from that P5. So sometimes your best option is a guy who was fired, which isn’t a strange thing considering even P5s go with guys who were fired from a previous P5, or headed that way.

Oh my bad. I missed the hot seat part then and thought you strictly said he was fired

And yeah that’s completely normal for G5 schools to go after fired P5 HCs. Tons of that happening 

[MeanGreenTexan]

2 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

For me, the Covid year is not a factor. For me that year has no significance on my thoughts for or against Littrell so I’m looking at this season with Bennett as DC as the beginning of the 2nd Littrell tenure. It got off to a rocky start but we’ve picked it uo as of late, obviously against mostly poor teams but under most coaching staffs we have fired, the players would’ve given up and lost those games. The fact that we are making strides this late in the season tells me this horse isn’t dead yet.

The Covid year was definitely a struggle.   But just about every team played in it, just like we did.   
There were 16 G5 teams ranked at some point last year, including C-USA's Marshall.   We were awful, but we did beat some really bad teams, and Bailey Zappe's HBU.

Also, you say we're 'making strides', but would you feel the same if the SoMiss game and UAB games were flipped on the schedule?   I mean, just about everyone who was saying we were only going to win 4 or 5 this year was banking on winning 3 in a row between SoMiss - UTEP - FIU.  I don't think people thought UTEP was going to be as tough as they were, but still.   We could win this weekend 42-10 and I wouldn't be surprised.   

Now, if UTSA rolls in undefeated and ranked, and we somehow beat them?    I might be more persuadable.

[UNT Texas Hooligan]

25 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

For me, the Covid year is not a factor. For me that year has no significance on my thoughts for or against Littrell so I’m looking at this season with Bennett as DC as the beginning of the 2nd Littrell tenure. It got off to a rocky start but we’ve picked it uo as of late, obviously against mostly poor teams but under most coaching staffs we have fired, the players would’ve given up and lost those games. The fact that we are making strides this late in the season tells me this horse isn’t dead yet.

 

For me, big losses against good teams (UAB, Marshall) speak much louder volumes than close wins against bad teams (USM, Rice). 

Edited November 16, 2021 by UNT Texas Hooligan

[UNT Mean Green]

1 hour ago, MGNation92 said:

Hire Fuente and get the OC from WKU. 

 

Those with keeping Phil & Gush on defense for continuity sake would be absolutely amazing! 

[Cooke County Kid]

If SL wins out, beating an undefeated top 15 team and then wins a bowl game, he deserves to be back. PB has done a good job and this team appears to be “jelling” at a good time. I have been a proponent of hiring a new coach and Fuente would be a good hire, if FIU beats us Saturday hire him on SUNDAY!

GO MEAN GREEN!!!
WIN GAMES!!!!!!!

Edited November 16, 2021 by Cooke County Kid

[Cr1028]

17 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

The Covid year was definitely a struggle.   But just about every team played in it, just like we did.   
There were 16 G5 teams ranked at some point last year, including C-USA's Marshall.   We were awful, but we did beat some really bad teams, and Bailey Zappe's HBU.

Also, you say we're 'making strides', but would you feel the same if the SoMiss game and UAB games were flipped on the schedule?   I mean, just about everyone who was saying we were only going to win 4 or 5 this year was banking on winning 3 in a row between SoMiss - UTEP - FIU.  I don't think people thought UTEP was going to be as tough as they were, but still.   We could win this weekend 42-10 and I wouldn't be surprised.   

Now, if UTSA rolls in undefeated and ranked, and we somehow beat them?    I might be more persuadable.

I get what you’re saying. I didn’t want to give credit to the G5s that did well last year either in addition to not putting much stock in our finish. There were times when star players were ruled out hours before gametime and at other times Covid cases seemed to spike when a difficult game showed up on your schedule. Last season was a disaster all the way around, it wasn’t authentic college football to me.

As for UAB flipping with USM, I believe it would’ve been much closer scores in both games if the timing were flipped. We would’ve lost or beaten USM by a much smaller margin and UAB would beat us today by a smaller margin than they did earlier this year. 

I would’ve loved to pick up the Zappe/OC combo that WKI got but we ended up with TXHS recruiting ties instead, I guess we will see how do  that worked out over the next couple years but it certainly looks like WKU made a better decision at this point.

I don’t think we are going to beat UTSA, I really don’t, I wish we could but this isn’t the year. We are too young and too thin. Sincere McCormick is a load and he is going to be too much for us to stop. Our offense will struggle but we will show flashes. The flashes are what I hope turns to sustained success next year with Adaway and the Georgia transfer back plus some solution at the quarterback position whatever that may be.

[Cr1028]

27 minutes ago, UNT Texas Hooligan said:

 

For me, big losses against good teams (UAB, Marshall) speak much louder volumes than close wins against bad teams (USM, Rice). 

UAB is loaded with experienced juniors and seniors on their depth chart. We are very, very, green, and even some of our freshmen went down and had to be replaced by freshmen further down the depth chart.

Those are two very good teams that beat us and they are a handful for most programs they face.

[MeanGreenTexan]

7 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

I get what you’re saying. I didn’t want to give credit to the G5s that did well last year either in addition to not putting much stock in our finish. There were times when star players were ruled out hours before gametime and at other times Covid cases seemed to spike when a difficult game showed up on your schedule. Last season was a disaster all the way around, it wasn’t authentic college football to me.

As for UAB flipping with USM, I believe it would’ve been much closer scores in both games if the timing were flipped. We would’ve lost or beaten USM by a much smaller margin and UAB would beat us today by a smaller margin than they did earlier this year. 

I would’ve loved to pick up the Zappe/OC combo that WKI got but we ended up with TXHS recruiting ties instead, I guess we will see how do  that worked out over the next couple years but it certainly looks like WKU made a better decision at this point.

I don’t think we are going to beat UTSA, I really don’t, I wish we could but this isn’t the year. We are too young and too thin. Sincere McCormick is a load and he is going to be too much for us to stop. Our offense will struggle but we will show flashes. The flashes are what I hope turns to sustained success next year with Adaway and the Georgia transfer back plus some solution at the quarterback position whatever that may be.

Eyeroll not from me.
I agree with almost all of this (not sure what you mean by the TXHSFB ties since Littrell promoted Bloesch to OC instead of hiring the HBU guy).   The talent is here to compete, especially in C-USA.
I just hope we get to see Adaway & Bush play under a new HC with a new philosophy that they buy into.   I really don't think there is going to be a long rebuild here, especially with 1 more season of C-USA play to get the new guy warmed up.

[UNTLifer]

1 hour ago, Cr1028 said:

For me, the Covid year is not a factor. For me that year has no significance on my thoughts for or against Littrell so I’m looking at this season with Bennett as DC as the beginning of the 2nd Littrell tenure. It got off to a rocky start but we’ve picked it uo as of late, obviously against mostly poor teams but under most coaching staffs we have fired, the players would’ve given up and lost those games. The fact that we are making strides this late in the season tells me this horse isn’t dead yet.

The strides we are making are on one side of the ball.

[UNT Texas Hooligan]

Just now, Cr1028 said:

UAB is loaded with experienced juniors and seniors on their depth chart. We are very, very, green, and even some of our freshmen went down and had to be replaced by freshmen further down the depth chart.

Those are two very good teams that beat us and they are a handful for most programs they face.

For sure, they are very experienced and always very solid teams. But it's arguable whether we were even competitive against them or not. UAB could have hung 60+ on us if they didn't let their foot off the gas and put in their backups in the second half. Marshall was up 49-7(!!!) midway into the 4th quarter before we got some garbage time TDs. A Marshall team with a new head coach going into this season btw. Not only did Littrell get destroyed by an experienced head coach (Clark), he also got destroyed by a first year head coach (Huff). That's not a recipe for success down the line. 

[UNTLifer]

8 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

UAB is loaded with experienced juniors and seniors on their depth chart. We are very, very, green, and even some of our freshmen went down and had to be replaced by freshmen further down the depth chart.

Those are two very good teams that beat us and they are a handful for most programs they face.

So the roster was mismanaged?

[Cr1028]

4 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Eyeroll not from me.
I agree with almost all of this (not sure what you mean by the TXHSFB ties since Littrell promoted Bloesch to OC instead of hiring the HBU guy).   The talent is here to compete, especially in C-USA.
I just hope we get to see Adaway & Bush play under a new HC with a new philosophy that they buy into.   I really don't think there is going to be a long rebuild here, especially with 1 more season of C-USA play to get the new guy warmed up.

TXHSFB was a reference to Blake Joseph pretending to coach quarterbacks.

[Cr1028]

6 minutes ago, UNT Texas Hooligan said:

For sure, they are very experienced and always very solid teams. But it's arguable whether we were even competitive against them or not. UAB could have hung 60+ on us if they didn't let their foot off the gas and put in their backups in the second half. Marshall was up 49-7(!!!) midway into the 4th quarter before we got some garbage time TDs. A Marshall team with a new head coach going into this season btw. Not only did Littrell get destroyed by an experienced head coach (Clark), he also got destroyed by a first year head coach (Huff). That's not a recipe for success down the line. 

You got me on Marshall. That was the most undisciplined display of what some would call football I have ever seen in my life. The penalties made me want to puke. What does it for me is the radical change from the embarrassment of that day to the discipline shown this past week against UTEP. It is staggering.

[Cr1028]

9 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

So the roster was mismanaged?

Something like that but even you could concede that we are not fielding the players we expected to at the start if fall camp, largely due to injuries.

[UNT Texas Hooligan]

6 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

You got me on Marshall. That was the most undisciplined display of what some would call football I have ever seen in my life. The penalties made me want to puke. What does it for me is the radical change from the embarrassment of that day to the discipline shown this past week against UTEP. It is staggering.

 

Sorry man. The more we unravel this onion, the worse it looks for SL. I think most people were done with him after the Marshall game. 

[TheReal_jayD]

29 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

TXHSFB was a reference to Blake Joseph pretending to coach quarterbacks.

In Year 6 of a HC tenure..... the blame should not be placed on the 1st year qb coach....

[golfingomez]

 back to the topic at hand... With all the complaining we are doing about Seth, why are we so fired up to hire a guy that went 26-23 at Memphis and 13-11 in the American?

[BillySee58]

1 hour ago, MeanGreen4Life1998 said:

Oh my bad. I missed the hot seat part then and thought you strictly said he was fired

And yeah that’s completely normal for G5 schools to go after fired P5 HCs. Tons of that happening 

All good, and yeah that’s the type of hire I expect Baker to make. And like you said, it’s very normal but there is going to be a lot of chatter on this board concerning hiring a coach who was just fired (already seeing it).

[BillySee58]

14 minutes ago, golfingomez said:

 back to the topic at hand... With all the complaining we are doing about Seth, why are we so fired up to hire a guy that went 26-23 at Memphis and 13-11 in the American?

He took over a program that had won 5 games in the three seasons before he got there and had them ranked in years 3 and 4 of his tenure there including in the top 15.

[MeanGreenTexan]

13 minutes ago, golfingomez said:

 back to the topic at hand... With all the complaining we are doing about Seth, why are we so fired up to hire a guy that went 26-23 at Memphis and 13-11 in the American?

Because he had to actually build Memphis up from nothing those first 2 years.   Norvell took over his program and kept it going.  It's not like he was about to fall off at Memphis so he bailed to VATech.
Littrell had to build, and did so rather well (only took him 1 season here instead of Fuente's 2 at Memphis).   Now, he can't get anything going except against putrid teams.  He's regressed.   We look more like a McCarney team than we do the 2017-2018 Mean Green.   And even in those 2 9-win seasons, we were never near being ranked like Fuente got his Memphis squad.