re: VT Coaching Search / Rumors

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What's the deal with Fuente? He was excellent at Memphis, yet based not just on W/L record but all of the transfers out of the program it sounds like VT is a train wreck. Actually it sounds a hell of a lot like Norvell at FSU, too. What is Memphis doing to these guys

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Fuente and Norvell aren’t the same. Fuente was in the right place at the right time for Memphis. I live here and the program was bottom 5 in FBS when Larry Porter finished his hack job. However, while he was a good coach who found diamond in the rough players and built a program, he was not a good recruiter by even AAC standards.

Look at what happened at VA Tech. He got them to an ACC Title game with the players that were there, but he didn’t up his game in recruiting. His teams got steadily worse, as did his recruiting classes. He was another in a long line of G5 guys who weren’t good enough to be successful P5 head coaches.

The jury is still out on Norvell. He CAN recruit. He pulled some 3 stars to Memphis that SEC programs had as their backup plans. He had Memphis recruiting far above what anyone has ever accomplished there. And he’s also a good coach. I’m not sure if he’s great, but I think he’s better than Fuente after watching both. I don’t know if he could have resurrected the Memphis program the way Fuente did, but I think Norvell helped them take a next step that Fuente never would have.

Norvell inherited a disaster at FSU. I don’t know if he’s capable of turning it around, but I wouldn’t count him out yet.

VT AD said Fuente is staying

Hours later two of VTs starting offensive lineman both former four star recruits put their name in the transfer portal